Still on vacation…

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While we’re in GA I have limited access to the internet (I hope to buy a laptop next week, and not have this problem in the future).  I want everyone to know we’re alive and well, and not give up on The Master’s Table as one of the blogs you read.  Hopefully this will tide you over:

The Internet Monk is in transition to being Jesusshaped.com.  In the meantime, he wants everyone to keep up with what’s going on at http://jesusshaped.wordpress.com, the temporary home during this transition phase.  Check his new stuff out there.

We’re having Ricky from Two Channel Station as a guest blogger (he just doesn’t know it yet).  I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.  If you don’t know about Two Channel Station, this will be a good introduction, and keeps with the theme of The Master’s Table quite well also.  Ricky writes:

Logic vs. Faith

How do you know that Christianity is the only way? How can you say that? Do you know for a fact that Christ did all that he supposedly did? Logically, how is that possible? Continue reading →

Christian testimony of a former homosexual

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After wrting about the gay marriage ruling in California, I got a lot of feedback in the comments.  Most statements were made by either conservative Christians that thought the decision was horrible, or by gay men that saluted California for doing the right thing.  As expected, they wanted to know what my problem was, and what gave me the right to decide gay couples couldn’t be married.  One commenter, however, was unusual.

What follows is the testimony of an individual who previously practiced the homosexual lifestyle before accepting Jesus Christ as savior.  This is the story of one who gave up a life opposed to God’s law, and by God’s grace became a believer and a follower.  Thank you A.J. for sharing. Continue reading →

Gone Fishin’

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Actually, I’m not a big fan of fishing.  But we are going to be traveling for the next couple of weeks, so blogging may be sporadic at best. 

Should Christians fight the culture war?

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This is what the ancient ruins of Corinth look like today. Special thanks to Joe for the image, who had the chance to visit this site last year.

The Apostle Paul spent most of his ministry in places like Greece and Rome, far away from the church at Jerusalem and God’s chosen people, the Hebrews. The Grecco-Roman world was populated by a pantheon of pagan gods and goddesses, whose stories of jelousy and betrayal make our soap operas look like children’s stories. It is probably safe to say most Greek adult men were bisexual (I was actually taught they all were.) A skilled craftsmen, for instance, would have had a wife and children at home, but also have been having sex with a younger apprentice who was studying the master’s trade. This was typical in the culture. The public bath houses were “meeting places” for leaders of the city and merchants to meet daily. The original Olympic games were held nude; and only men were allowed.

Paul would have been surrounded by it. There’s no way he missed the decadent and sinful way of life going on all around him. But we don’t see Paul marching through the streets of Corinth or Ephesus wearing a sandwich board sign declaring that “God hates fags,” Fred Phelps style. Continue reading →

Free will, or not free will?

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Today that is the question. We clearly read in scripture where God has ordained certain events to take place. God establishes thrones and kingdoms on the earth, to serve in certain instances, as instruments he uses to bring about his righteous judgment, or at other times to show his mighty hand. He is the Lord of history. But.. what about free will? If humanity has the will to choose for himself, how does God predestine historical events? That my friend is the right question.

Okay, I’m going to cheat. I’m not exactly going to answer these quesitons, but give you some useful information as you work it out. In Genesis chp. 50, Joseph tells his brothers “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” They had evil in their heart when they sold Joseph into slavery, but God used it to bring about his purpose and plan.

Consider this passage from Acts 2:23 “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” God’s plan of salvation called for Jesus to die as a sacrifice. The evil men of the first century, whom Peter is preaching to in Acts, carried out God’s plan in order to bring salvation.

Man does what he wants; God gets what he wants.

Let’s try something new. Below is video of this sermon being preached on Sunday, May 18th. Sorry about the sound quality. This is my first attempt at uploading digital video. (The video made me nervous; I’m normally a better public speaker than a writer.)

The Cross of Christ?

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You need to see the image for this to work.  If you’re getting this from a reader, you may want to stop in for a minute.

This is a real product.  I jokingly refer to it as i-Cross.  The question is, does this help promote the gospel message?  Does this help the believer give the cross of Christ the right place in our lives?  Or is this making the Father’s house a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer?

I read and enjoyed the prayer of Jabez.  Whatever you thought of the book, it started a whole phenomenon.  There were Jabez t-shirts, prayer journals, desk calendars, study Bibles, the list goes on.  Remember WWJD?  It had all of the above, plus children’s items like backpacks and bracelets.  Christian bookstores are supercenters for a mass of products besides books anymore.  Publishers of books and music are running a business, and are looking for products to sell.  If i-Cross sells a million units, you can bet they’ll quickly make a million more.  Is this product God honoring and Christ centered, or just more Jesus junk?  Let me know what you think.

Gay marriage in California

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Are we really surprised?  I read online where someone called it a “Day of Shame” when the California Courts ruled a law unconstitutional that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.  I’m not sure California has any shame left. 

Remember the case a few years ago (I’m thinking ’02, maybe ’03) regarding the phrase “under God” in the Pledge?  The father in that case, offended his daughter had to say that in school, had first gone to court in Florida.  After losing there, he decided he had the best chances in California.  This guy moved his family across the country so he could be offended by the pledge in California, and sue there.  And he was right; a judge there sided with him, on the basis of First Ammendment rights, and separation of church and state.    The whole country knows California is way left, and I don’t mean geographically.

San Fransico has been a Mecca of gay and lesbians since the 1960’s.  “If you’re going to California, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair… You’re gonna’ meet some gentle people there.”  There is no single day in California more shameful than any other day. 

I’ve been hapily married for the past ten years.  My wife and I are unusual in the fact that we both grew up in happy, unbroken homes.  I believe in holy matrimony, as described by God in the Bible.  We live in a free country; if you want to have homosexual intercourse, you’re well within your rights to do so.  But don’t call it marriage.  That cheapens and degrades the marrital relationship I have with my wife.  Marriage is the first institution created by God.  Do what you wish with your gay lovers, but leave “marriage” to those of us who understand and appreciate it. 

Over AMP’ed

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Watchman 146 brings up a good point.  In response to my remarks on pizza, he says “Thank goodness I never got into the Mountain Dew thing.”  I asked if he knew about Rockstar, Monster, AMP and Full Throttle.  Kids have contests where they see how many in a row a person can slam.  For anyone that doesn’t know (and I can’t imagine who that is), energy drinks are loaded with sugar, caffeine, ginsing, gurana, B vitamins, and who knows what else now.  Drinking one is probably bad for you.  Three in three minutes could give you a heart attack, or at least a bad case of the shakes.  We’re going to start seeing teenagers admitted to the ER with massive heart failure. 

Now, to be fair, I happen to like AMP.  I’m not trying to bring down the industry.  I have had, on occasion, say… one at a time.  But as kids continue to abuse these things, big time, the industry is going to take heat, and sooner or later the FDA will probably ban energy drinks just like they did Ephedrine.  Why is there an FDA in the first place?  Because the American people have to protected from… themselves. 

Now if we’re already eating pizza, I have been known to drink 2 or 3 Mountain Dews and stay up all night playing ping pong.  But that’s another story. 

Do you love pizza?

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If you love pizza, and I mean love it so much you could never get tired of it, consider becoming a youth minister.  I’m only half kidding.  I’ve been involved in youth ministry for about 16 years, and have reached a point in my life I think I’ve had enough pizza.  My profession is working with high school age youth, and the favorite meal of teen age students, especially if it’s an informal gathering for some occasion, continues to be pizza.  In addition to what we get once a week in the cafeteria, I spring for pizza once or twice a year in BCM (Baptist Campus Ministry, formerly BSU).  We’re also involved in drama, and I drive the bus for a couple of sports teams.  At church, we’re sort of leaders for the youth leaders, who are upper level high school to mid-20’s.  So after Back-Yard-Bible Club, planning for VBS, get together with the mission team, we go for a round of pizza.  For that matter, one of our church deacons OWNS a local pizza establishment, and his daughter is one of our leaders.  There’s no escaping it.

I’m not complaining; not really.  I’m just trying to share from my experience.  If you’re crazy about pizza, find a position doing what I do.  It’s like perpetual college student diet (assuming you went to a Baptist college that didn’t allow beer).

Religion and Politics

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Remember the 2000 Presidential election? The final results of that election day took weeks to become clear because the American public was so nearly evenly split between Democratic and Republican voters. Each vote in Congress is split nearly even because the Congressional leaders we select are nearly evenly divided, and very few are willing to “cross the aisle” in favor of the other party’s legislation. The word in politics these days is polarized. There is rarely middle ground that the majority of people can agree on.

This is the exact same thing I’ve been describing in the debate between theists and atheists. Atheists are no longer content to just not believe in God, but have launched attacks against faith itself. It’s like a war is being fought between people of faith and what now amounts to the enemies of the faithful. Becky Garrison suggests that we once all just played in our own sandbox, but the “New Atheists” want to throw sand in the face of believers.

It seems on almost every issue, everyone takes one extreme position or the other. There is no such thing as common ground anymore. We want hard lines on right or wrong, with zero tolerance for shades of gray. Life is not that simple. Sometimes there are no good guys or bad guys, there’s just guys. Historically, a few people on any issue took an extreme position, and the vast majority fell somewhere in between them. A bell curve suggests the probability of this phenomenon. I don’t know exactly when this changed, but the bell has been hammered out flat, more like a coin with 2 sides and no middle.