Back to Church Sunday

When I served in Iraq, the school @ Bethel (Meadowbrook Christian School) would send me 1000 piece bags of peppermints.  I regularly visited the soldiers in our battalion (10 companies of 110-120 soldiers each all over the base of 30000 soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines). About once a month I'd take the peppermints and go from soldier to soldier handing them out, joking and making them laugh, saying: "It's National Peppermint Day!  Peppermint lovers unite to uphold the value, the flavor and the heritage of the Peppermint".  Ridiculous as it was, it worked.  It helped the soldiers smile, take their mind off the war if only for a few minutes and helped to build relationships. Those same soldiers would come see me with their problems, prayer requests and questions.  The Bible says that Jesus was a friend of sinners.  I've not completely figured out how to do that yet, but I think conversations and relationship building go a long way.

National Back to Church Sunday is September 16th

If you click the link, you can go to the special evangelical webpage that tells you all about promotional materials and training items for a special day.  It's sponsored by Lifeway and endorsed by Elmer Towns so it is outreach based.

In the next 2 weeks, churches are trying to unite.  Is it a little silly? probably.  Could it get the attention of some unchurched people and get them into church?  maybe.  Does it help to talk about it?  Absolutely.

There is a Pastor Rap video that you can purchase to use at your church.

The Wonders of Archaeology

This is just an introduction, but I'm trying to orient as many believers that are interested in the truthfulness of Scripture as supported by geography, chronology, and archaeology.  For example.  The vast archaeological site of Babylon in Iraq, is a major object lesson of truth that coincides with the accounts of the exile of the Jews in 586.  This is where Daniel, Hanani, Mishael, and Azariah actually were.  The Bible mentions Nebuchadnezzar and places him in Babylon.  If you go to Iraq (admittedly difficult to do), you can see the vast ruins of Babylon.  Today, I found this documentary about "The Mystery of Babylon" on youtube done by the Discovery channel.  Here is the link to part two, which tells about the numbers of cuneiform texts that have been excavated as of 2010 (only 2 years ago) and how many yet to be translated, and dug up.  The point is that one of these tablets is going to talk about the Jews at some point, because they were such prolific writers.  This will only add to the truthfulness of Scripture.  Click the link:  Babylon Mystery Part Two

The simple fact is this.  There is so MUCH left over from the Biblical period (4000bc-96ac) that even 2000 years after the ascension of Christ, have yet to be processed for examination and study.  There is simply too much stuff!  I'm afraid the myth of disbelief in our culture has many convinced that everything has been discovered.  It has not. The great thing is, the more that is discovered (and the last 20 years has been monumental), each time it adds to the veracity of Scripture rather than takes away from it.

I'm reminded of what Paul said to Timothy in 64 AD as they were spreading the Gospel around the known world:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,  a worker  who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

I've wondered what would Irenaus, Augustine, Jerome, Erasmus, Luther, the Wesleys, Finney, Larkin, Ironside have done if they would have had the tools we have today.

May we be faithful in doing our best to rightly divide the word of Truth

New Bible Tools for Everyone

I'm thrilled to post this information today, because I believe that the Lord is doing amazing things through His Church.  Today I found a site that is an amazing gateway to quality resources for Christian faith. Check out the link.

As you know I'm a fan of Bible Software. Here is the latest post on it. There is Accordance for the Mac, Logos for the PC and Mac, as well as Wordsearch (pc and mac) and Biblesoft. (pc).  There is also a free software for mac and pc called e-sword.  I believe that ANY way you study the Bible is a good way.

What I'm so excited about, however, is this Tyndale site that is devoted to creating an online presence for everyone to study the Bible for free, at any level they choose. In an age when we are flooded with negative information, I want to remind that God's Church is advancing.  The fact is, you don't know what you don't know.  We have to be proactive in studying to show ourselves approved so we can answer those who have questions.  Here is what is at this site:

A new video about evidences for eyewitnesses of Jesus.
An instructional video about their software project.
Cutting edge biblical and theological research.
and more.

One more thing.  The Republicans have nominated a Mormon as their candidate for President.  I'm not writing to tell you who to vote for, but I think you need to understand that the Mormon religion is NOT Christian.  I share this in Old Testament class, because the Mormon Bible doesn't have maps, and the video illustrates the importance of geography to build our confidence in the truthfulness of the Bible.  Enough about that, here is my Mormon resource blog.  What is so interesting, is there is a scholar in the "Bible vs. Book of Mormon video" (see blog link), who is quite articulate.   Dr. Peter Williams is the warden of Tyndale house.  The videos below from the Tyndale site, feature these lectures he did in Houston.  I found them entertaining and informative.  Enjoy!

Dr. Peter Williams.

Or watch this one about the Resurrection