Give Me Jesus (Fernando Ortega)

Simply beautiful…

May I Recommend… “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by T. Tripp

I’d like to take some time this week to recommend some books on parenting.  I’ll start by answering the famous question, “If you had only one book to recommend on the subject of _____________ what would it be?” Of course the blank for this post would be parenting. And, of course, the Bible is the one book I recommend for anything related to how to live on planet earth. But in addition to the Bible, the book is Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp.

Here is an excerpt…

Prayer is Amazing

I read this morning that the Space Shuttle program may be in its last days. Plans are to retire the fleet upon the completion of the International Space Station in a couple of years. Being a Floridian I am able, barring unusually dense cloud cover, to watch each space shuttle launch from the comfort of my own backyard. Every single time I witness a launch I am amazed by our modern abilities. To put men and women in space for a specific task is simply awe-inducing.

Yet when I think about it, our prayers are even more amazing. Through billions of dollars of research and probably millions, if not billions, of hours of effort and study, we are able to put people into the earth’s orbit. Even then, it is a highly risky endeavor that has resulted in loss of life. Meanwhile, for thousands of years, the prayers of God’s people have risen above and beyond the earth’s orbit to go into an entirely different dimension altogether: God’s throne room. Our prayers ascend into Heaven when we send our praises, confessions, thanksgivings, concerns, and requests up to God. Amazing!

This is stunning not just from a metaphysical perspective, but also from a theological perspective. Holy, perfect, righteous God accepts the prayers of sinful, rebellious people of dust. “What is man that you are mindful of him?” wrote the Psalmist. It is only because of God’s grace through Jesus that he hears our prayers. Amazing grace!

Think about how blessed we are that our hearts can touch heaven because of God’s great love and grace for us!

Marshmallows and Self-Control

A man without self-control
is like a city broken into and left without walls. – Prov. 25.28

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control... – Galatians 5.22-23

“The Marshmallow Test” was first administered back in the 1960s and is still being used today. I found these videos both very funny and very fascinating. Of course the spiritual applications are almost self-explanatory.

“What can a marshmallow tell you about your kids?” is the lead line for this news story about the Marshmallow Test…

Technology Changing Our World Very Rapidly

We are living in in the midst of a technological/communications/social networking revolution.

One of the main reasons I am on Facebook/Twitter and have this blog is because the future is arriving fast. Our world shrunk tremendously in the last century with the automobile, flight, satellite technology, radio, television, etc. Now we are witnessing another massive shrinking (oxymoron?).

Just consider this amazing quote from the video below…

The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful and about a hundred thousand times smaller (than the one computer at MIT in 1965)…”

Anyway, here’s the video:

Only One Race – Brown

The Singerl Twins, fraternal twins, are an example of how we are really one race.

People say that I am white or caucasian, but really I am brown, and so are you. You see, to be scientifically precise about it, there really are no “white” people or “black” people or “yellow” people, etc. We are all brown, with differing degrees and variations. Scientific truth strikes a shattering blow to racial prejudice.

To learn more about the facts, check out this fascinating article.

How Do You Motivate People?

Think you know how to motivate people? You may need to think again:

What do you think now?

Why Believe in God? (Tim Keller at Google)

Tim Keller speaking at Google headquarters:

Do You Remember? 10 Years Ago…

The first date I had with my wife was back in late August of 1994. We went to a concert that was held at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Just five years later gunshots would ring out in that same sanctuary. Watch this video…

How to Benefit from “Boring” Bible Passages

In the message this past Sunday I mentioned that one of the strengths of Prof. Horner’s Bible Reading System is that if you are in one of the long “boring” passages of the Old Testament, all you have to do is read one chapter that day; you don’t have to trudge through four to five of those chapters in one reading.

Tyler Kenney, over at the Desiring God blog, offers some helpful hints on how to benefit from the less exciting sections of Scripture:

If you’ve ever tried reading through the Old Testament, chances are at some point you’ve found yourself bored, stuck in the middle of a genealogy or list of laws and wishing you were back in Mark. And if you didn’t fall asleep, skip the chapter, or quit entirely, you at least came away wondering why these sections are in Scripture and what they mean for us today.