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.
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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

A Visitation Story (Part 1 of 2)

A KINGDOM DIVIDED

I had an interesting trip on visitation recently. Jacob and I were together. We often end up car-pooling since we both go on Tuesdays and we live down the road from each other. We arrived at church to see whom we were going to go visit. We were given information about a 22-year old guy who lived in town. He had been brought to the church recently by his mother, and was trying to set up a ride to church on Sundays. His mother didn't live close by, and he couldn't drive himself because he was in a terrible automobile accident a year ago and hadn't yet gotten his license back. This was mostly all we knew; but we took off in the night, towards his house, to talk to him and find out his situation.

The young man lived fairly close to the church, in a run-down little house. We pulled into the tiny, dirt driveway. We said a prayer…hopped out, and approached the front door. As we climbed the porch steps, we were greeted from the other side of a plexiglass door by two large, barking dogs.

Jacob knocked on the door, and almost as if expecting us, a young man stepped outside and shut the door back on the barking duo inside. We introduced ourselves. He was glad to meet us, but was a little surprised, because we were not the people he was expecting; but the others would soon come.

He was a very friendly and bright young man, although his speech betrayed his recent accident. He had the enunciation of someone who had to relearn to speak. He told us he was interested in learning more about God. I used the 10 Commandments to explain the law and then the Gospel, and Jacob followed with the Roman Road. Through conversation and questioning, Jacob and I ascertained that he was indeed a Christian. He admittedly had been focusing his life on what he wanted instead of God's will; but his second chance at life had changed his perspective. God had his attention. He was one of God's sheep, but as usual when one of God's own stray, the Holy Spirit had put his life in a state of conviction and was drawing him back to Himself. We told him that we believed God was honoring his desire to seek Him by having him come by the church, and by sending us to him. Jacob related it to the story of the prodigal son, and the Father who welcomed him back with open arms.

But as you might imagine, Satan is not interested in a comeback story. With typical mercilessness, he seeks to pick off the wounded. He cannot take someone from the mighty grip of God's hand, but he can work to make him useless. It is a state to which many, if not most, Christians succumb.

Wolves in sheep's clothing had visited the young man. Vulnerable in his open-mindedness and desire to know more about God, he took from them a Book of Mormon. He had been reading it, and he had questions about it. We told him about the lie of the LDS church and of others like them…

…and that's when the Mormons rolled up.

TO BE CONTINUED

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Eph. 6:12-16

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Micah's Bday Party

I'm just going to put a few on here. Tori will put plenty on her blog shortly.
All pictures are courtesy of Jared Putnam Photos, inc.
Click thumbnail to see much larger photo.

Cult leader Rael denied residence in Switzerland

I can't believe those uppity Swiss are trying to keep this nice man out.

Birthday and Men's Ministry Kickoff

Yesterday we had Micah's second birthday party in the morning, and then that evening I had our new Men's Ministry kickoff dinner at church. Jared was here for Micah's party, and then it snowed and the roads closed in Towns Co., so he just stayed and took some pictures for me at the dinner. I'll have those up hopefully pretty soon.

Now I bet that thing can swim!

Stumpy, a four-legged duckling at Warrawee Duck Farm, Copythorne, Hampshire, England, Saturday Feb. 17, 2007. A rare mutation has left the bird with two legs behind the usual two. (AP Photo/PA, Barry Batchelor)

I ditched Haloscan

When the webpage tried to load Haloscan, it kept making my blog freeze up...so I got rid of it. So from now on, I'm using the regular blogger comments.

I pasted David and Jared's comments from the last post, so there would be some continuancy.

Only problem is now I can't check my comments at work, because the firewall keeps me from looking at blogger stuff.

I enjoyed this article

...but somehow I don't think it'll appeal to some of you. But it is pretty interesting. Hey Jared, it mentions the Minority Report....(now maybe you'll read it).

Call for "neuroethics" as brain science races ahead

Question

Are any of you having problems with my blog freezing up on your computer when Haloscan tries to load? My laptop has been.

Absent minded

The other day I went to Wal-Mart with Tori and Micah in the van. I got Micah out, and pressed the lock button on my drivers door, shut it and went in. Upon returning to the van, I saw my van as I left it. Locked, but with Micah's side sliding door wide open.

Yes.

Charlieology

Click here to take the "How well do you know Charlie?" quiz.

Brief encounter with missionary leaves lasting impression

Click here to read a good, (and short), article about a person who met one of the missionaries, who was killed in Hondorus, in the airport on the way there.

I emailed the columnist who wrote it today, and got to correspond with him a little. I told him I appreciated the article. So often, short-term missionaries are shown in a fanatical nut-job way in the media.

Rub-a-dub-dub, another baby in the tub

Jacob is at the hospital with his wife Kelly right now. They have been expecting their second child, another girl, for some time. Their daughter Jani Grace is staying with us while her mom is having her new sister. This is her and Micah during bath-time.