Owen Strachan is blogging about his trip to Hong Kong. You can read it here.
I think it is especially interesting reading given that this is first trip to Hong Kong. If, like me, you don’t travel “east” much, you may find his journal especially interesting.
I grew up on a farm eight miles from a town of a thousand people. I now live in a rural community. I’m used to wide open spaces. I think I might get claustrophobic if I lived there.
But, it is amazing day when we can enjoy almost immediate access to someone traveling in Hong Kong.
If you’ve ever been around me and my work environment, you know that I work as an island in a sea of books. I spend a lot of time organizing books, reading from them, copying down quotes, and transporting them from my study at home to church or vice versa.
Generally, a book is the opposite place of where I need it. If it is at church, I need it at home, etc.
So, you might think my dream would be to own a Kindle (Amazon’s electronic reader). Then I could carry around multiple books in this electronic device. But, for myriad reasons, including the fact that I like how books smell, I have not seriously considered it. Besides, it is pretty expensive.
But, for those who are thinking of getting one, you might want to read Tim Challies review here.
And, by all means, if you get one, click through someone’s Amazon Associates link, such as the one below. The reward for referring someone to a Kindle is pretty good. $40 according to Tim.
I’ll admit going in that he links to me twice. So, I may not be entirely objective. But, I thought Gunny’s, “A Case of the Monday’s,” was particularly enjoyable today. It’s worth it to see the guy gadgets.
Graduation is just around the corner. As a pastor, that means that I will once again be sharing a letter with graduating seniors. Every year I make it a point to graduating seniors to never forget that:
Jesus Christ is the only solution. He paid the penalty for those who give their lives to him. The alternative is unthinkable (John 3:16).
Many people think they are Christians when they are not (Matthew 7:21-23). Be sure you know the proper basis for being sure of salvation.
There is a need to grow as a Christian. Otherwise, it will be very hard to make good decisions in life. You need a church home. Don’t think you can simply put church on hold for the next few years. Find a church; get involved. In the next few years, you will make decisions that affect the rest of your life. Do that amid being involved in a good church.
The Christian life is the blessed or “happy” life. Certainly it isn’t always peaches and cream. And everything doesn’t always fit together as neatly as you would like in the short run. But Psalm 1 is absolutely true. The person who walks with God is the one who will be blessed. And especially, the one who pursues a knowledge of him through his written word. Pursue the joy of Christian life. God promises that you won’t be disappointed.
And the way of the sinner is hard. Please don’t be deceived. Don’t buy the lie that you can make wrong choices and not reap the consequences. As believers you must make God honoring decisions or you will face the consequences of wrong choices. Choose to sin, choose to suffer.
When, like me, you’re neither handy nor handsome, then you must resort to getting fix-it tips off the Internet. Right now, I have this exact problem at my house and I’m considering using this approach to fixing it.
In short: you can fix a stripped screw hole with a golf tee. Read the details here.
If you are someone who is both handy and handsome (say Dan Houston), and you don’t think this is a good approach, then please tell me soon, before I actually try it.
Now, I’m serious about trying the golf tee thing. But, while we’re on the subject of being both handy and handsome (again picture Houston), let’s have a do-it-yourself lesson from Red Green.
Scot McKnight (The Jesus Creed) has an interesting thread going on Achan’s sin (Joshua 7). A mother asked Scot how she should respond to her eleven year old daughter who asked her mother, “How can it be fair that Achan’s family died because of his sin?”
24 And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them up to the Valley of Achor. 25 And Joshua said, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today.” And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. (Joshua 7:24-25, ESV).
You can read the Jesus Creed blog here. Pay special attention to comment #43. I didn’t read it until late in the game!
The bottom line is, we are not the isolated individuals that Western Culture teaches we are. While, each of us does bear individual responsibility (Ezekiel 18), if we choose to jump off a moral cliff, then we pull others over the side with us. I call this, “The Principle of the Rope.”
In his book, Corporate Responsibility and the Hebrew Bible, Joel S. Kaminsky relates this story:
Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai taught: There is a story about men who were sitting on a ship, one of them lifted up a borer and began boring a hole beneath his seat. His companions said to him: ‘What are you sitting and doing?’ He replied to them: ‘What concern is it of yours, I am drilling under my seat?’ They said to him: ‘But the water will come up and flood the ship for all of us.’ Lev. R. 4.6.
Achan drilled a giant hole in the bottom of his bottom. And, his family was all on board with him.
But, remember, the Principle of the Rope works in the positive direction as well as the negative — and the positive sense is far stronger than the negative (Romans 5:18-19). . . For just as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many were made righteous . . .
C.J. Mahaney writes a very practical article that might make the difference for your family on vacation. This one is for parents, and especially dad’s. Click here.
We have some cute children as a part of our church family at the Red Brick Church. But, we could always use one like this; her interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer is something.
Al Mohler writes a provocative column on how the digital age is changing our attention spans. College students no longer simply listen to a lecture. Instead, they instant message, shop, and read online newspapers during college classes.
We need to be aware of how we are being shaped by technology. Read Mohler’s article here.
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Posted by Chris Brauns
