I am NOT a Hillsong basher but Ugh, I hate Hillsong videos… and some of their lyrics. I have no idea what they’re trying to market in videos like the one below.

Ok, actually it’s pretty obvious: the people in the band and all their fans are gorgeous and hip! They spend time in airports and travel the world looking cool, wearing shades and sporting The Clash t-shirts. Image is the name of the game.

(click here to view if the video does not appear in your browser)

As lyrics go this is one of those songs that could just as easily be sung to a girlfriend/boyfriend as to Jesus, existing in the ever-expanding “Jesus Is My Girlfriend” genre. This genre is defined as song or songs that “mean to appeal to an audience outside of typical listeners of CCM by replacing “Jesus” with “You” in hopes of making the Christian content of the song less obvious to non-Christian listeners.” (def’n found here)

Take out the line “I’ve got a Saviour and He’s living in me” and “What The World Will Never Take” is one of those songs:

Check this out. Read it without assuming its about Jesus:

With all I’m holding inside
With all my hopes and desires
And all the dreams that I’ve dreamt

With all I’m hoping to be
And all that the world will bring
And all that fails to compare

You say you want all of me
I wouldn’t have it any other way

I wanna know
I wanna know you today

And You’re the best thing that has happened to me
And the world will never take
The world will never take you away

No-one could ever take you away

The “live” version above strays from the recorded version and makes the message a bit clearer – lyrically at least. And don’t get me wrong, as a song and a rock video it succeeds admirably. It’s catchy, well-played, and professionally edited. I’m just not sure I want to play it as part of a worship service at church.

Draw Me Close (seen below) is even worse. Take a look:

(click here to view if the video does not appear in your browser)Again, read it without assuming its about Jesus:

Draw me close to you
Never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear you say that I’m your friend

Help me find a way to bring me back to you

Chorus:

You’re all I want, You’re all I’ve ever needed
You’re all I want,
Help me know you are near

You are my desire
No one else will do
Cause no one else
Can take your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace

Help me find a way to bring me back to you

Chorus:
You’re all I want, You’re all I’ve ever needed
You’re all I want,
Help me know you are near

What do you think? Do I have a point or am I just getting old?

(As a side note, and in the “even more obvious” department, what do you think this shot of Brooke Fraser, Hillsong United’s female member, is selling? Discussion needed? I think not… and we used to think Amy Grant in a leopard-print blazer was racy.)

When it comes to television, I’m a bit of a Luddite – and I like it that way.  We have rabbit ears, that’s it – no cable, no satellite.  There are only two shows we keep current on: 24 and LOST.

The West Wing is a show we’ve been watching recently and we just finished season two. This is a show that went seven or eight seasons and is already wrapped up.  The writing is superb and so is the acting. It stars Martin Sheen as a Democratic President and chronicles the life of a US President inside and outside the White House.

There have been a few touching moments, more than a few humorous moments, and some sad moments as well, but the finale of season two is something I’ve been thinking about for a few days now since I watched it.  I just went and grabbed the clip below off of YouTube and got a chill again as I watched it.

You have to know some of the backstory to understand this fully, but this is President Bartlett (Martin Sheen) at a low point emotionally and spiritually. He is in a cathedral for the funeral of a loved-one, he is about to announce to the American public that he has a degenerative disease, and he refers to a couple of tragic incidents from the past two years,  and because of these things he feels completely betrayed by God.

My question: is this a legitimate wrestling with God or is this blasphemy?

(I think it’s the Latin that gives me the chills…)

Let’s hear your opinions first and then I’ll post the text of this monologue and some thoughts from series creator Aaron Sorkin.

These are from the post “Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President” by John Piper:

1. Are you willing to explain why a baby’s right not to be killed is less important than a woman’s right not to be pregnant?
2. Or are you willing to explain why most cities have laws forbidding cruelty to animals, but you oppose laws forbidding cruelty to human fetuses? Are they not at least living animals?
3. Or are you willing to explain why government is unwilling to take away the so-called right to abortion on demand even though it harms the unborn child; yet government is increasingly willing to take away the right to smoke, precisely because it harms innocent non-smokers, killing 3,000 non-smokers a year from cancer and as many as 40,000 non-smokers a year from other diseases?
4. And if you say that everything hangs on whether the fetus is a human child, are you willing to go before national television in the oval office and defend your support for the “Freedom of Choice Act” by holding in your hand a 21 week old fetus and explaining why this little one does not have the fundamental, moral, and constitutional right to life? Are you willing to say to parents in this church who lost a child at that age and held him in their hands, this being in your hands is not and was not a child with any rights of its own under God or under law?

Read the entire post and comment there or comment below.

Update

Related content: this post by Justin Taylor 

Also this post re: Roe vs. Wade

Ok, I’m done now… I told Anne Marie not to let me go out again.

Here’s the academic stack:

…and the other stack. You’ll notice I out the Bell and Pagitt books between some more solid theological works.  I tried to put them closer to MacArthur but there were sparks.

By the way, we’re going Rob Bell’s church (Mars Hill) tomorrow morning. I’ll put up a post about that sometime next week.

From a two-part interview with Darryl Dash:

How do we change in order to contextualize without changing the gospel?

That is the practical question in ministry. If you under-contextualize your ministry and message, no one’s life will be changed because they’ll be too confused about what you are saying. But if you over-contextualize your ministry and your message, no one’s life will be changed because you won’t really be confronting them and calling them to make deep change.

If this scares you and you say, “Well then let’s not even try it,” then you have to remember something: to over-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of their culture, but to under-contextualize to a new generation means you can make an idol out of the culture you come from. So there’s no avoiding it.

There’s far more to say about this subject, but I’ll just give you one bit of advice. The gospel is the key. If you don’t have a deep grasp on the gospel of grace, you will either over-contextualize because you want so desperately to be liked and popular, or you will under-contextualize because you are self-righteous and proud and so sure you are right about everything. The gospel makes you humble enough to listen and adapt to non-believers, but confident and happy enough that you don’t need their approval.

Available here.

I am way backed up on writing… I have a lot of hand written notes and some audio from the Why Everything Must Change conference and Desiring God 2008 conference.

It will all make it here eventually, but for now enjoy the DG08 audio and video.

Yes, I love Google… and it’s a much cheaper obsession then being an Apple fanboy.  And I love audio, both spoken-word and music.  So this is exciting:

 http://labs.google.com/gaudi

It looks like its not fully functional yet but this is very promising.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

I spent Friday night and all day Saturday in Oakville, Ontario at the “Why Everything Must Change” conference.  I’ll post more audio and observations in the coming days but the following was the immediate hot-spot for me.  I should mention that there were many great things about the conference and I’ll be sharing those too.

The question for the panel at the end of the conference was “What is the Good News?” Brian McLaren was the only one to answer (link to audio below):

“I think this is where it gets interesting because one of the ways that what we do becomes colonization, when we’re going to represent a religion and trying to make converts to a religion… but the good news isn’t the good news of Christianity, it’s the good news of the Kingdom of God.  And I think that Fatmire [Muslim peace activist also present at conference and sitting next to him on the panel] working for peace, is an agent for peace, and I’d much rather her be working for peace being who she is than… becoming a person in a church worrying about the list over there on that wall.  [on "the list" are things non-essentials like speaking in tongues, etc.)

So, to me there’s something we really have to grapple with about whether the border of a religion is the border of the kingdom of God.  And I think that’s a question we’d be wise to raise.  I liked what you said about there not being despair when you’re among the extremely needy people.   Wouldn’t it be interesting if we found out that God is present wherever there’s suffering because God is there bringing healing and God is really present wherever people are working against injustice because that’s the work of God, wherever people are working for peace. And then the we find that the place that God isn’t is where you have a bunch of affluent people who are self-absorbed… and that wouldn’t surprise me why they would get depressed, because, in some way, it’s not that God isn’t present but they’re snoring through the presence of God.”

So basically, is he saying that a Muslim peace activist is doing the work of the kingdom of God?  And would he really prefer that she not first find true peace in Christ? (Mark 1:15 ”The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”) 

“I’d much rather her be working for peace being who she is than… becoming a person in a church worrying about the list…” As if there are only two choices: remain a Muslim and continue to pursue a peace apart from Christ or waste your time becoming a Christian and bickering about non-essential things that make no difference to the world.

It’s quite a dichotomy to lay out, but it’s an incomplete scenario and it seems that Brian believes that Fatmire would be no further ahead with Christ as the source of her peacemaking efforts.  That bothers me.  Does it bother you?

Download audio file (2008-09-20%20WEMC%20Conference%20-%20Wrap-up%20Q%26A%20-%20What%20is%20the%20Gospel.mp3)
(You can listen to the audio here)

Tim Challies is finally putting words down on paper. The Oakville, Ontario author is better known as a prolific and widely-read blogger and chronicler of various Christian conferences than a book author. Making a successful transition from blogger to published author is, so far, a rare occurrence but one that seems natural for bloggers who think of themselves as serious writers in training.

In The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, Challies wears his influences on his sleeve, quoting Evangelical theologians and pastors like Albert Mohler, John Piper, J.I. Packer, and John MacArthur. If the aforementioned authors are familiar to you, you are almost guaranteed to find this a useful book.

Challies wisely avoids explicit prescriptions and lists of what is allowable or off-limits for Christians. Instead, he works and reworks the passages of scripture that teach the principles of discernment in an effort to show readers how to discern for themselves. This strategy is more likely to ensure both the timelessness and prolonged usefulness of this book.

In ten balanced chapters, he develops his subject well; exploring various aspects of discernment and providing practical strategies for applying what is learned. “Where evangelism is a gift that is offensive in nature, taking the battle to new regions,” he says, “discernment is a defensive gift that protects the ground that has already been taken.”

The last chapter of the book – The Practice of Discernment – is especially useful as a summary of the book and an action plan for discernment. In addition, a study guide is included at the back of the book which makes it a good resource for bible studies and small groups.

You can read Tim Challies’ blog and order his book at www.Challies.com

I’m not quite sure I like Steve Brown yet, but what a great voice. Here he interviews “post-evangelical” Michael Spencer (The Internet Monk).  I do like Spencer.  He represents my own combination of conservative theology mixed with a appreciation for Thomas Merton and  both a critical and positive view of Emerging Church ideas.

Have a listen.

CT reviews McLaren’s latest book “Everything Must Change”

From the Tim Challies archives, a post on “Excessive Reading”

Have you seen “No Country for Old Men”? What did you think?

Andy Stanley is into a series on the ten commandments.  Here is part one.

Time: “God vs. Science: Francis Collins vs. Richard Dawkins”

Newsweek: “The God Debate: Rick Warren vs. Sam Harris”

Christianity Today: “Is Christianity Good for the World? Christopher Hitchens vs. Douglas Wilson”

Here are some reviews:
“Darwin, Mind and Meaning: Review of Daniel Dennett’s Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” by Alvin Plantinga

“The Dawkins Confusion: Naturalism ad absurdum: Review of Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion” by Alvin Plantinga (Books and Culture)

“Lonely Atheists of the Global Village” by Michael Novak

Google Video has an hour-long interview of Alister McGrath conducted by Richard Dawkins. It was filmed for Dawkins’s TV documentary, “Root of All Evil?” but was left on the cutting-room floor.
The Harvard Atheist Chaplin

The Enright Files – Michael Enright interviews Dawkins and then Neuhaus

Download audio file (ideas_20070910_3193a.mp3)

Dawkins on The Hour
Download audio file (20070507_richarddawkins.mp3)

The following are all from a new podcast I discovered called Point of Inquiry

Christopher Hitchens – God is Not Great
Download audio file (POI_2007_07_06_Christopher_Hitchens.mp3)
Hemant Mehta – I sold My Soul on eBay
Download audio file (POI_2007_05_04_Hemant_Mehta.mp3)
Sam Harris – The End of Faith, The Mortal Danger of Religion, Letter to a Christian Nation
Download audio file (4-7-06.mp3)
Download audio file (4-14-06.mp3)
Download audio file (10-6-06.mp3)
Daniel Dennett – Breaking the Spell
Download audio file (3-3-06.mp3)

Dr. Francis Collins – The Language of God
Download audio file (POI_2007_08_31_Francis_Collins.mp3)

From the December 24, 2007 National Post:

I suppose it’s the greatest joke of all. Deliciously ironic as well. My Christian faith has been profoundly encouraged by those most eager to smother it. Put simply, I was helped along the road from indifference to belief by the banality of atheism. Since reaching the age of reason, I’ve had the usual old regulars thrown at me. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why doesn’t He make Himself more obvious? Why is evil committed in the name of religion? Throw in the Inquisition, the Crusades and some lies about Papal culpability during the Holocaust and you have the standard God-hating manifesto.

The more I dealt with all this, the more I realized that the very belief being attacked was absolutely and abundantly true. More than this, the reason it was under attack in the first place was precisely because it was true.

Continue reading…

If you’re not familiar with 20th century part-surrealist, part math-geek artist M. C. Escher, you owe it to yourself to at least read his Wikipedia entry or go to his official site here.  You may be familiar with his most famous drawing called “Drawing Hands” (seen at left).

Many other of his drawing are worth looking at but I’d like to draw your attention to one rather amazing Lego construction of one of his drawings of ‘impossible constructions’.

I will show you the original drawing and the Lego construction below. If you want to see it in more detail and read about how it was constructed, vist creator Andrew Lipson’s site here.

Thanks you to Wess Daniels for this:

“You will definitely want to download every track of the free David Bazan concert found here. There are a lot of new songs, his classic Q and A’s and just some good old fashion David Bazan. Also look around the site a bit, there all kinds treasures.”

Click here to read my review of Pedro The Lion’s Achilles Heel .

Erwin McManus – What About Sex?

CBC Radio – The Best of Ideas – Second Life and First

Mark Driscoll – The Rebel’s Guide to Joy in Death

John Piper – The Fall of Satan and the Victory of Christ

Scot McKnight – The Whole Gospel

Erwin McManus – Road to Emmaus – Walking With God

An old radio drama called “Hallucination Orbit” for your listening pleasure. A presentation of my friend Andy Doan’s “Spaceship Radio” podcast.

Greg Koukl spends two hours with Dr. Francis Beckwith discussing Beckwith’s recent reversion to Roman Catholicism. At the time of his reversion, Beckwith was president of the Evangelical Theological Society.

I’ve never quite heard Erwin McManus speak with this much passion. The sermon is titled “Prayer : Spiritual Activism”

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney interviewed by George S on The Hour

I found a new Podcast called A Christian and an Atheist (Feed, Show 1, Site)

Highlights from The Hour

PJ O’Pourke – always interesting, whether in person or on the page. Here he talks about his book about Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations

Bob Lefsetz – Lefsetz is a music industry insider who has absolutely no filter on his ideas. He has a great blog at http://www.lefsetz.com/

Tony Campolo – Crackpot or evangelist? You decide.

Foo Fighters - I wouldn’t normally put this up – I’m not a big Foo fan – but Grohl talks about Dylan

Sermons and lectures:

The Resurgence – Tim Keller – Doing Justice

The Resurgence – Tim Keller – Gospel-Centered Ministry

The Resurgence – D.A. Carson – What is the Gospel?

Mars Hill Bible Church – Ed Dobson – What Does it Mean to be Forgiving?

An email debate between theologian Douglas Wilson and atheist Christopher Hitchens.

Michael Spencer (The Internet Monk) makes a passionate defense of Thomas Merton. I certainly couldn’t have said it better myself. Spencer also recently put up a very personal post about himself and Merton.

This should be good: a book about philosophy and the TV show 24.

My Friend Ken Sheppherd posed this great photo he took of the Vietnam Memorial.

Michael Spencer again on Acts 15 and the implications for church leadership.

Scott “Dilbert” Adams just put a post up that goes well with the discussions we’re having here regarding religious and Atheist violence and the body counts of each. I imagine there will be many comments there so go join the fray.

***update – Scott Adams says he accidentally deleted his own post. The post and the comments up to that point that were deleted can be viewed here. I don’t think you can add more comments at this point. ***

The CBC program Ideas recently did a piece called “On Radical Orthodoxy” that is worth a listen.

And on the podcast Nuclearity the topic was “Without A Father” and featured Donald Miller talking about his book To Own a Dragon. I’ll be doing a series on Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz shortly so go ahead and get familiar with him.