THIS BLOG HAS MOVED.

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Look Yonder

Tori wrote a good short article about what is going on with the baby. So rather than me rewrite...just go to Little Sugar Mama.

Idol

Any of you watching IDOL?

Who are you liking? My favorite is Blake Lewis. But that Dolittle woman can sing for real. But I most enjoy the Blake guy. Actually I have an "its a small world" story. Sligh, the fat guy with curly hair (who by the way, I loved his fans in the crowd holding the sign that said "Bringing Chubby Back"...is a Christian and there's a guy in my small group...who, his nephew died and Sligh was his friend and came to the funeral with his band from church and played at his friend (this guy's nephew)'s funeral.

bye bye Shaub

The Falcons traded their great backup QB Matt Shaub to the Texans. I would have rather them traded Vick.

'68 Firebird

We went down to Warner Robins to visit Tori's parents this weekend. Micah's Paw Paw has pretty much finished restoring his '68 Firebird. I got to take it for a spin. ....oh yeah....it was awesome. I love this first two pictures the most. Check out Micah's "bad to the bone" expression in the first one.

Growing up

I'm sure some of you have already experienced this quite awhile ago, but it amazing to me looking at Micah get around and play now. He is not a baby anymore. He is a boy. He hops on big wheels and takes off, he climbs up on the couch and reads (or looks at) a book, he sleeps in a big boy bed. He not a baby, but a boy. Thats awesome. I suppose that is forced into perspective again, as we are about to have a baby again. How seamlessly they change from one to the other.

I am going to hear Ravi on March 25th

The marriage conference that I was supposed to be going to has been canceled. So now I am available and am going to hear Ravi speak at FBC Woodstock. If anyone out there in blog world would like to go with me or meet me there, let me know. I plan to go regardless, but I'd be nice to have some company.

March 25th (Sunday) in the evening.

Remember that Ravi thing I said I couldn't go to.....well...that still may be true....but it might turn out that I can go after all......

keep that in mind.

funny

This is at the hotel some students stayed at during the Clarity conference. Its a rather new, black mustang. ...Its hanging off the parking lot. Apparently, some hotshot tried to back up quickly or something. Pretty funny.

Clarity Conference

I drove the youth to a conference called Clarity this weekend. It was very, very good. The main speaker was Dr. David Platt. To see a vdeo, click here. (The first half is kind of a flashback, but the 2nd half gives reference to this year's conference.

According to a University of Chicago study, the average person who describe themselves as "very interested in anime" showers once every three days.

Finger-lickin' good

Today in class at work, a kid fell over in his desk and cut the tip of his finger practically to the bone. He had to get 20 stitches.

Later, another girl went out the door and threw up in the hall.

Wonderful day.

Tomb of Jesus

In case you watch the "documentary" about the tomb of Jesus, this might interest you. Jacob told me about his OT prof's blog where he is doing a rebuttal. If you wish to see it, it is here.

Emperor Michael has ruled long enough...

To help the forces of squirel good-dom, and battle Emperor Michael and his apprentice Jon Vader, the Jedi squirels have been summoned.

Here they are practicing their techniques.

J.Putnam

This guy's name IS Jared Putnam. And he does have a myspace. I just think its funny. Love the picture.

Eerie, Powerful, Time-travel Preaching

Unless you have been on another planet, you have seen and heard about two major disasters that have taken place in the Southeast. The last count I heard was that 19 people were killed in the tornadoes, and 6 college students were killed from the bus going off the overpass in Atlanta.

I found it quite amazing, because just the day before I had read something that applies to these tragedies in an ironically profound way.

I was reading about the renown C.H. Spurgeon on Wikipedia. He is considered by some to be the greatest preacher who ever lived (Jesus excluded). His nickname is "The Prince of Preachers". I came across an interesting passage while reading about him:

On the death of missionary David Livingstone, a discolored and much used copy of one of Spurgeon's printed sermons "Accidents, Not Punishments" was found among his few possessions, along with the handwritten comment at the top of the first page "Very good, D.L." He had carried it with him throughout his travels in Africa, and it was returned to Spurgeon and treasured by him (W. Y. Fullerton, Charles Haddon Spurgeon: A Biography, ch. 10).

Of course, David Livingstone is the famous missionary to Africa. And I thought, wow…one of his few physical possessions was this typed sermon by Spurgeon. So I decided I wanted to read this sermon, held in such personal regard. So I followed the link to the sermon, "Accidents, not Punishments."

Here is the paragraph summary of the topic of the sermon:

Spurgeon preached this message in response to two disasters that had hit very close to home. On Sunday, August 25, 1861, a nightmarish collision between two trains in the Clayton Tunnel (a 1.5-mile long tunnel between London and Brighton) had claimed 23 lives and severely injured hundreds. Barely more than two weeks later, on Monday, September 2, another train wreck in Kentish Town Fields (in North London) claimed 15 more lives.

Little did I know, how relevant this sermon could be in the next 24 hours. It is a powerful sermon. Besides speaking to the topic, the latter part of the sermon deals with death, which comes for us all. The man had a God given gift of powerful preaching, and it gave me goosebumps.

I realize that some of us don't like extensive reading…but if you want to hear the sermon that the Prince of Preachers would preach this coming Sunday, had he lived during this tragic week, I implore you to read this powerful sermon.

"ACCIDENTS, NOT PUNISHMENTS"

¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
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Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
----------------------------------------------------

At the risk of looking and sounding corny, I wanted to share this moment. I was just in the living room and I was listening to praise music. I was just fiddling around, but you know, when you are listening to a praise song you like, and you get into it for a minute. Well, I took a few moments from whatever I was doing and was having a moment of personal worship though the song. I look over at Micah, whose in his high chair, and I see him doing the same thing I am doing. I used my laptop to get a picture of us doing what we were doing ...Now I know he is just emulating my movements, but when I saw him doing this, it really touched me. He is watching me. How much I want for him to serve the Lord with all his heart, soul and mind. A big part of leading him to that comes from me. I pray that I will be the example of a servant, who loves God in Spirit and truth, that I must be for him. What a responsibility...what a privilege.

I want to be a man after God's own heart.
Now he duplicates my movements.....one day I pray he will duplicate what is in my heart.



¹

Not really sure what to post about, but...

I'm posting anyway. I've got stuff going on, just not sure how much of it is blog worthy. I went back and we talked to the guy that the Mormon situation happened with. Had a good visit with him. Our Men's Ministry Wed. morning Bible study went great again this morning. We watched a 20 min. clip from John Piper, then met in small groups. We're already starting in accountability stuff. Anyway...I'm on the phone now...so peece out for now.

Ravi @ FBC Woodstock

Ravi will be speaking at FBC Woodstock. (This is the church where Jared, David and I heard Ray Comfort.) I am planning to try to attend this. Ravi doesn't have ATL area speaking engagements often, so I want to take advantage. Here are the details:
Think about coming.


Event Details

"Nothing but Matter -- and It's a Good Thing Too: The Challenge of the New Atheism"
5:45 p.m. - 8:15 p.m.

"The New Atheism: Existential Issues" ~ Michael Ramsden
"The New Atheism: Ongoing Weaknesses" ~ Ravi Zacharias

Sunday, March 25, 2007
First Baptist Church Woodstock

Woodstock, GA

A Visitation Story (Part 2 of 2)

IF GOD BE FOR US

It turns out the young man was surprised to meet us this night, because he had a quasi-appointment with the Mormon "missionaries." (Missionaries indeed; of the Father of Lies) And a mere 15 minutes or so after we arrived…so did they. They saw us talking to the young man; Jacob having Bible in hand as he showed him a warning from the Book of Revelation against those like the Mormons who would add or take away from Scripture. They waited in the dark by their car for a couple of minutes, appearing to assess the situation. Jacob told the young man that we would stay with him during their visit, but we would not be argumentative with them.

The Spirit of God does many things. The young man had experienced His conviction. Another occupation of the Spirit is that of Teacher. As the young Christian had read the book of Mormon, the Holy Spirit had put up red flags. He felt the teaching to be erroneous. The Spirit confirmed the Bible to him, but this other book, he felt, was not of the same author. Still, for a baby Christian, exposure to deceitful doctrine and its followers can be confusing, and therefore emasculating and dangerous.

What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
2 Tim. 1:13-14

This was a spiritual battle - a battle over Truth. This young man was not left alone to fend for himself. For as Satan was sending his warriors of twisted truth, I believe God, unbeknownst to us, sent us there on that particular day, at that particular hour, as his guardians.

Although I feel compelled to share the Gospel, it was Jacob who was special for this situation. God did not send inadequate help to this young man. The Mormons had barked up the wrong tree. Not to inflate Jacob, but to show the hand of God in this man's life – God sent someone with a Master of Divinity, with a special emphasis in world religions. He has read his worn out Book of Mormon three times from cover to cover, more than most Mormons. He has taught world religions and has conversed with Mormon leaders, Muslim clerics, Buddhists, Hindus and the like. God didn't just throw this man any doctrinal guardian…he delivered Guardian Pro 2.0.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us
Eph. 3:20

Lucifer is a beautiful angel. His followers, both the willing and unwitting, maintain the same guise. Despite the heretical nature of Mormon doctrine, its disciples do not appear with horned heads and fire in their eyes. These Mormons approached us as well-meaning people, who in heartfelt sincerity were there to propagate their belief; oblivious to the posthumously fatal poison of their second "holy book."

There were three of them; a man and two younger ladies. The women had professionally made, black name tags with inscriptions similar to this:

The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints
Sister Smith

The man looked to be in his mid-thirties and was very friendly. They walked up the steps to join us on the small porch. Amid the introductions, they asked if Jacob and I were friends of the young man. They had a couple of other questions; one of which was asking the young man if he had told Jacob and I that they were coming. After fielding a few questions, Jacob again asked them their names. They ladies would refer to themselves with the title "Sister" and then their last name. Jacob asked them why they would not tell us their first name. No straight answer was given, but the young man was intrigued by their refusal. He invited all five of us into his living room.

The young man had no furniture in his living room, a byproduct of having been there all of four days. So all the visitors sat in a circle on the worn-out, formerly white carpet. Small talk ensued for the next few minutes. The young man brought out pictures of the automobile accident that he survived a year earlier. The pictures showed a red Ford truck that looked to have been through a junkyard's compaction machine. There were also pictures of him in the coma that he remained in for forty-eight days, while being given a ten percent chance of survival.

Having picked up on the fact that the two young women did not want to share their first name, he questioned them about it. One of the women said she preferred if he referred to her as Sister Jones. She asked him if it was even that important that he knew her first name. He replied that yes, it was important. After being persistently prodded by him, she finally gave in and told him her first name.

Eventually, one of the young ladies asked the young man if he had read some of the Book of Mormon, that they gave him earlier. He told them he had. She asked if he had prayed before and after he read. He said that he had. She then asked if he had any questions about what he had read. For the next few minutes, the young man expressed concerns he had over what he had read. He said the he believed what was in the Bible, and it bothered him that none of these people mentioned in the Book of Mormon were mentioned in the Bible.

Such conversation went on for about thirty to forty-five minutes. The Mormons could tell that the young man had difficulties coming to terms with their literature. Soon their attention turned to Jacob and I. The following conversation took a couple of hours. The summary of it is that with tactfulness and love, Jacob explained his experience in reading the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon says that those who read it will feel a "burning in their bosom." He did not experience that. Jacob talked about how the Book of Mormon was inconsistent with the Bible. He asked them to tell him what the crux of their religion was. He said if they only had two minutes to tell him what he needed to do to get to heaven, what would that be? They hemmed and hawed around for awhile, until Jacob made them nail it down to accepting their prophet, believing in Jesus, being baptized by someone with the authority to do so, and continuing to live and work in their faith. The bottom line of their belief was a salvation by works, and faithfulness to the Mormon prophets and their writings. Jacob told me later that Mormons typically do not know Scripture very well. Jacob (who has a photographic-like memory) took advantage of this by quoting verse, after verse, after verse of Scripture that supported doctrines they denied; these included the doctrine of Hell, debunking the idea of people existing with God before birth, the insufficiency of works and the sufficiency of Christ. Jacob was actually very gentle with them, and spoke in humility and love. Later, on the way home, Jacob told me things about Mormonism that had he wanted to, could have made the followers of the Rael cult look like rational, sensible people in comparison. Just one example, is the fact that Brigham Young, a founder of Mormonism, believed that aliens dressed like Quakers inhabit the moon. If you would like to read more about that particular point, see the website at the bottom of the article.

After a lengthy, loving, but pointed couple of hours of conversation, everyone prepared to leave. Jacob and I excused ourselves and headed home. We both agreed that the divine appointment we had just kept was probably not for the benefit of the Mormons, so much as for the young man's doctrinal protection. Looking back, I find it "just like God" to have honored and protected a young man who was seeking to right his relationship with him; and send his disciples to protect him from those that would entrap him.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
John 17:15

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
2 Thes. 3:3

http://www.nowscape.com/mormon/mormons5.htm