Tsunami and Theodicy

A well-thought-out piece on suffering in light of the many natural disasters recently occurring around the world: Tsunami and Theodicy by David Hart.

Christians often find it hard to adopt the spiritual idiom of the New Testament — to think in terms, that is, of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, of Christ’s triumph over the principalities of this world, of the overthrow of hell. All Christians know, of course, that it is through God’s self-outpouring upon the cross that we are saved, and that we are made able by grace to participate in Christ’s suffering; but this should not obscure that other truth revealed at Easter: that the incarnate God enters “this cosmos” not simply to disclose its immanent rationality, but to break the boundaries of fallen nature asunder, and to refashion creation after its ancient beauty — wherein neither sin nor death had any place. Read more...

Britain's new procedures--cloning?

There is a brief but interesting article on a new procedure approved in Britain. I encourage you to read it here at First Things.

Pray for the Chapman family

Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday evening after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

He and his wife Mary Beth have long been supporters of international adoption, having brought three girls from China into their family. Maria was the youngest.The couple is so active in the cause that they formed an organization, Shaohannah’s Hope, to aid families wanting to adopt.

Read more details here and here.

Update: You can support the Chapman's work with adoption here.

Go see Ben Stein's "Expelled"

I knew nothing of Ben Stein or this new documentary until yesterday, and now I am telling everyone I know to go see Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. At first I said no. Not only do I not usually enjoy seeing movies, but there's the expense and I know my reaction on seeing the website was not exactly interest or enthusiasm. But when my brother and I were invited to go with my dad and the Norm Geisler, we could not pass up the opportunity!

Don't let the high-school playground aura fool you. Expelled truly is a masterfully drawn case for Intelligent Design. I was thinking--hard!--the entire two hours. Ben Stein interviews experts on both sides and the content is deep while the pace is brisk enough and spiced with plenty of humor to keep even a skeptic interested. My brother's favorite part was seeing Richard Dawkins stammer and stutter when Stein tried to nail him down on a few key points. And yet the blatant blasphemy is chilling. The reality of this battle is chilling. From a press release:

Stein, who is also a lawyer, an economist, a former presidential speechwriter, author and social commentator, is stunned by what he finds on his journey. He discovers an elitist scientific establishment that has traded in its skepticism for dogma. But even worse, along the way, Stein uncovers a long line of biologists, astronomers, chemists and philosophers who have had their reputations destroyed and their careers ruined by a scientific establishment that allows absolutely no dissent from Charles Darwin’s theory of random mutation and natural selection.

For example, Stein meets Richard Sternberg, a double PhD biologist who allowed a peer-reviewed research paper describing the evidence for intelligence in the universe to be published in the scientific journal Proceedings. Not long after publication, officials from the National Center for Science Education and the Smithsonian Institution where Sternberg was a research fellow began a coordinated smear and intimidation campaign to get the promising young scientist expelled from his position. This attack on scientific freedom was so egregious that it prompted a congressional investigation.

Unlike some other documentary films, Expelled doesn’t just talk to people representing one side of the story. The film confronts scientists such as Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, influential biologist and atheist blogger PZ Myers and Eugenie Scott, head of the National Center for Science Education. The creators of Expelled crossed the globe over a two-year period, interviewing scores of scientists, doctors, philosophers and public leaders.

Seeing it is a crash course in history, science, apologetics, and rhetoric. You may even cry; I came close. Masterful. Now if only we can get more people to see it....

Spending an evening with Dr. Geisler was not so bad either! He is the one under whom great minds like Ravi Zacharias and J.P. Moreland studied apologetics. The author of over 70 books--8 new ones coming out this year alone--it was truly an honor for me to hear his thoughts on the issues of the film as well as touching on subjects like his writing, education, and discovering he has a great sense of humor.

All in all, it was a Friday evening very well spent!

Sign petition by HSLDA for homeschooling rights

Go here to sign the petition Home School Legal Defense is compiling to protest the recent court ruling in California that a parent may only homeschool a child if that parent is a certified teacher.

Alzeimher's: The Living Out of Love

In memory of Merritt's Grandpa, and President Ronald Reagan

who went home to Heaven after their bouts with Alzeimher's
leaving loving wives behind

• Blog: Grandpa and President Reagan
• Blog: Loving Him 'Til Death Do Us Part
• Ringing the Bells for a Generation's Heritage of Freedom
• Farmer's Wife or First Lady: The Woman Behind the Man
• Rush Limbaugh's Tribute to Reagan
• Reagan on Marriage

"We've had an extraordinary life, and I've been blessed to have been married for almost fifty years to a man I deeply love--but the other side of the coin is that it makes it harder. There are so many memories that I can no longer share, which makes it very difficult. When it comes right down to it, you're alone. Each day is different, and you get up, put one foot in front of the other, and go--and love; just love. It's hard, but even now there are moments Ronnie has given me that I wouldn't trade for anything.
Alzheimer's is a truly long, long good-bye. But it's the living out of love."
-Nancy Reagan in I Love You, Ronnie

"Whatever days are left to me, they belong to Him."
-Ronald Reagan

---

A Tribute to the Love of Ronald and Nancy Reagan

quotations from I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan
(Published by Random House, Copyright 2000)

“This is a very lonesome place when you are someplace else.”

“Just think we were married 28 minutes ago. Yes, I know the calendar says years but what does it know? Time goes by faster when you are happy and I’m the happiest man in the world.”

“When I was young I thought marriage might be this way for a while: I never knew it could go on and on, getting better and better year after year.”

“It’s amazing what that four letter word, ‘wife,’ covers when it’s applied to you. It means a companion without whom I’m never quite complete or happy. It means the most desirable woman in the world who gets more desirable every day. It means some one who can make me lonely just by leaving the room.”

“She has 2 hearts—her own and mine. I’m not complaining. I gave her mine willingly and like it right where it is.”

“I wonder how I lived at all for all the three hundred and sixty fives before I met you.”

“We are so much ‘one’ that you are as vital to me as my own heart—with one exception; you could never be replaced with a transplant.”

“If I ache, it’s because we are apart and yet that can’t be because you are inside and a part of me, so we aren’t really apart at all. Yet I ache but wouldn’t be without the ache, because that would mean being without you and that I can’t be because I love you.”

“I love you so very much I don’t even mind that life made me wait so long to find you. The waiting only made the finding sweeter.”

“Tonight I’ll probably be looking at the Moon which means I’ll be looking at you—literally and figuratively because it lays far to the South of this mountain top and that’s where you are. That takes care of the ‘literal’ part—the ‘figurative’ part requires no direction, I just see you in all the beauty there is because in you I’ve found all the beauty in my life.”

“I could offer you my heart but I’d have to get it back from you first.”

---

At a private service in California on June 11, 2004, President Reagan's children shared tributes to their father

"As years went by and I became older and found a woman I would marry, Colleen, he sent me a letter about marriage and how important it was to be faithful to the woman you love with a P.S. -- you'll never get in trouble if you say I love you at least once a day, and I'm sure he told Nancy every day I love you as I tell Colleen."
-Michael Reagan

"At the early onset of Alzheimer's Disease my father and I would tell each other we loved each other and we would give each other a hug. As the years went by and he could no longer verbalize my name, he recognized me as the man who hugged him. So when I would walk into the house, he would be there in his chair opening up his arms for that hug, hello, and the hug good-bye. It was a blessing truly brought on by God."
-Michael Reagan

"...at his last moment, when he opened his eyes, eyes that had not opened for many, many days and looked at my mother, he showed us that neither disease nor death can conquer love."
-Patti Davis

"History will record his worth as a leader. We here have long since measured his worth as a man. Honest, compassionate, graceful, brave. He was the most plainly decent man you could ever hope to meet. He used to say, a gentleman always does the kind thing. And he was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word. A gentle man. Big as he was, he never tried to make anyone feel small. Powerful as he became, he never took advantage of those who were weaker. Strength, he believed, was never more admirable than when it was applied with restraint. Shopkeeper, doorman, king or queen, it made no difference, dad treated everyone with the same unfailing courtesy."
-Ron Reagan Jr.

---

Myrna Blyth, in her column in the National Review entitled "Taking Care of Ronnie: Mrs. Reagan Gave Her Husband What He Needed":

Obviously, a woman who understood how to take care of a husband, in the best of times and the worst, is Nancy Reagan. Nobody could help but admire the valiant way she coped with her husband's long illness. The couple's great friend Michael Deaver has said: "As the years progressed, she didn't really go anywhere. She was simply there with him...Ronald Reagan was her life. From the time she met him, she'd done anything she could for him."

Yet during the White House years, the former First Lady was often criticized and laughed at for her total devotion to her man. Remember the jokes people made about Nancy's rapt and adoring look of love whenever her Ronnie spoke, no matter how many times she listened to exactly the same speech or heard exactly the same jokes. How women, especially, in those stridently feminist times, scoffed at the way she fussed over him, coddled him, and fiercely protected him from any criticism or slight.

What we were watching, of course, was a love story, the real thing, starring a woman who didn't mind being "the woman behind the man," not because he was a great man (which he was), but because she truly adored him. He, in turn, was a man who, even when he had forgotten his many glory years, was still trying to pick a rose in a neighbor's garden for his beloved "lady."

"Nancy was Ronald Reagan's emotional caretaker" Laura Schlessinger says, and all Americans owe her so much. Because of the way she cared for him, he could remain optimistic and resolute and effective as he cared for us. Unlike so many wives who are always criticizing, always asking their husbands to change, she loved him just the way the he was. That may be the most important reason he had the confidence and courage to truly change our world.

Rush Limbaugh, commenting on Blyth's column and Schlessinger's book:

"She [Nancy Reagan] didn't at all subordinate herself, and nobody ever thought that she subordinated herself... She just loved him! She just loved him and she knew who he was and let him be who he was -- and look, he never left her side. The premise of Dr. Laura's book is, if I can boil it down is, just: the happiest woman in the world is the woman who lets her husband be who he is. ...[President Reagan is]who he was because he found the right woman. Pure and simple. He's who he was because he found the right woman. So that's a great tribute to her."

---

She Misses Him

She shaves his face
She combs his hair
She helps him find his rocking chair
She cooks his meals
She wipes his mouth
And the window that he's looking out
She reads him books
She speaks his name
Oh every day is much the same
She sighs that sigh from deep within
The one that says
She misses him

She misses his gentle touch
And the way he used to make her laugh
She misses the man he was
In all of those old photographs
So strong, so kind, so sweet, so smart
The man who stole her very heart
She misses him

His children come on Saturday
There at his feet
His grandkids play
It's sad they don't know him at all
He's just the one they call grandpa
They take out his trash
They mow his lawn
Things he can't do since he's been gone
She's grateful that they're pitching in
And like everyone
She misses him

She misses his gentle touch
And the way he used to make her laugh
She misses the man he was
In all of those old photographs
So strong, so kind, so sweet, so smart
The man who stole her very heart
She misses him

And yes they're still together
After all these years
But sometimes you can almost feel
The sadness in her tears

She misses his gentle touch
And the way he used to make her laugh
She misses the man he was
In all of those old photographs
So strong, so kind, so sweet, so smart
The man who stole her very heart
She misses him

(by T. Johnson, sung by Tim Rushlow)

Pray for YWAM

How long, oh Lord? At 12:30 this morning there was a shooting at the Youth With a Mission center in Arvada Colorado. Please pray for the comfort and strength of those involved and that they would be a strong witness for the Lord. Pray that God would work in the hearts of those who hear about this and that He would be glorified.

update: Another shooting twelve hours later in Colorado Springs. I did not hear of this til very early Monday morning. One day we know that the Lord will bring justice and that evil men will be allowed to terrify no more. Until then, help us, Father.

I don't even know what to say

The shooting at a nearby mall has left at least 9 dead. It's hard not to cry seeing the familiar area and all the grief. Honestly I wouldn't ever think Omaha would be a place for this to occur.

Nurturing Intimacy in a Facebook Generation

With the conclusion of the GodBlogCon conference this past weekend, now seemed an opportune time to publish this piece I wrote back in June. There is so much that could be said on the topic and I know this barely scratches the surface...but it is an attempt to begin The Conversation.

I've been hesitant to post this--wanting to be careful that it was done thoughtfully and with care. JM Reynolds published a brief piece yesterday of which one line convinced me to go ahead. He wrote: "It is now simpler to multi-task with a virtual friend, rather than go to the bother of going to see a real friend . . . who will demand that I pay attention and not do five other things while talking to him." Our generation is in danger of forgetting the depth and quality of relationships, all in the name of instant communication, "efficiency," and networking. While the rest of the world texts, pokes, relates in thirty second intervals let's not go along with it. Let's live for something better.

Perhaps it is the romantic, day-dreamy, lover of all things old-fashioned in me that balks at hearing of a friend's engagement on Facebook. I do not relish the idea of learning such news from text on a computer screen instead of through the joyous tones of her own dear voice.

What happened to the days when a couple would call, write, or visit their family and friends, celebrating their engagement and upcoming marriage through many evenings of talk, food, and laughter? How old fashioned. How...satisfying. Engagement announcements on Facebook are just one example of the instantaneous, information-overloaded culture mediums such as the Internet promote.

Behold the day in which the Lord has placed us. Whether typing on a website or in a word processor, every misspelling or grammatical error is pointed out with red lines and suggested corrections. (Is spelling even taught in schools anymore? What about handwriting?) Instead of unique facial expressions, mannerisms and tones of voice, everyone is restricted to the same smiley, black and white text, and the attempt to communicate in cold silent words when 90% of communication is nonverbal.

The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it. - Edward R. Murrow

Effort is required if one desires to nurture authentic intimate relationships in our culture. It does not come about as naturally as in ages past when life centered around the family unit. We are better connected than ever before and yet…perhaps more disconnected than ever before from what really matters. What might those things be?

We are disconnected from Others.
It may be ironic that an article on the limitations and hindrances of the internet will be published online and distributed via RSS feed to thousands of readers. In this day and age one of the most powerful methods of communication is an online blog post. People often do not have or take time for full-length books. How many today would sit down to read Shakespeare or Dickens or Hugo? Is it really too hard to understand or are we just indifferent to anything requiring more effort than skimming a website?

If ever the phrase “too much information” were true, it is now. We are daily slapped with way too much information. In the 1600’s a well-read individual had worked through all of the great literary works in history. Even if I sat down and did nothing but read the "best of the best" I could not hope to finish that list before I was 100. I am reminded of the disconcerting fact once heard that one daily issue of today's New York Times contains more information than a person of the seventeenth century would be exposed to in a lifetime. Too much information.

Are we better off because we know so much? We can share articles, ideas, pictures, and videos--but do we purposefully, sacrificially share our lives with one another? Do we have better, deeper friendships because we can text, email, instant message, and poke our friends 24/7? Hardly.

While knowledgeably implementing and appreciating the good things our advanced communication systems bring, we must remain aware of the dangers. Instant communication can breed impatience and encourage relationships to remain in shallow territory. I wonder...what affect might be wrought on friends or a family who endeavored to read David Copperfield together? Or even The Voyage of the Dawn Treader? Even something as short as Ephesians would bring great blessing.

We are disconnected from Creation.
I’ll be candid. Facebook overwhelms me. The other day I clicked on my “Friends” page to see what updates my relatively small number of “friends” had made and felt my brain freeze. Too much information!

All I wanted to do was take a pen, paper, and book written before the invention of light bulbs and disappear into the woods where there was no sign or sound of anything made by human hands. So I did. Oh, what about my cell phone? Just kidding. :smile:

It felt....good. The pleasure of sitting in His creation enjoying some of the finest writing of all time beats surfing blogs hands down. I mean really, this experience is on a completely different level of classification!

Granted, one can take a laptop outside and enjoy nature while doing work online, but most of us who do not live on a farm spend too little time outdoors. Our bodies would be healthier, our minds sharper, and our hearts more at peace if even ten minutes a day were spent enjoying His creation. Just a thought...

We are disconnected from Ourselves.

My friends, my profile, my extended-info video-voice-chat mp3-player list of favorites. It’s all about me. Does anyone need to know what my favorite music or interests are? If they do not know me as a person well enough to remember or learn what I enjoy, is this the solution? Does anyone read those things anyway (I don’t)?

Let's be vigilant to not waste time updating things about ourselves and focus on improving and understanding ourselves. Digging beyond favorite movies, what have you learned and believe about bioethics, or the recent events in Pakistan, or what you studied in devotions yesterday? What do you know and believe as Truth? What are your non-negotiable convictions? How can you be actively pursuing growth intellectually, spiritually, physically? To learn this of oneself and others is to find significance.

We are disconnected from Peace.
There are exceptions to the maze of online confusion. In my opinion, Lanier’s Books is the most beautiful, restful, soothing place one can go to online. Just clicking to the home page and letting it fill my screen can relax me when I’m stressing over HTML or work! Simple, quiet--one almost feels as if she is stepping back in time one hundred years. Even the style of writing is reminiscent of another era.

Peace and quiet are not optional luxuries. They are not simply indicators of inefficiency and repose. They are vital to our being complete as human beings. When is the last time I did not have five things needing to be done--or were trying to do five things at once? When did I just sit, without music or talking or reading and just be for a few minutes? When did I seek His peace for the day, His guidance for the next moment?

Seeking Intimacy
Despite my tongue-in-cheek criticism of the website, I'll likely keep my profile on Facebook. There is a group of YLCF readers there after all. And yes, I use an RSS reader to keep track of important websites. Of course, you obviously know that I am a die-hard blogger. None of these things are wrong in moderation. It's just that when I experienced mental meltdown a few days back from the assault of meaningless trivia, I wondered if others are fighting the same battle.

Are you? If so...what can we do about it? What will you do about it? I for one shall drink tea and read Plato during a cold November afternoon. I will pray and plead with the Lord to guide me in the way I should go. I will put down the cell phone and pick up pen and paper. I will invest in my relationships in ways that will have lasting value.

Let's not forget to nurture intimacy. Let's fight for authenticity and quality. Let's redeem the time for the days are evil.

Teaching Worldviews in Education - Part 2 of 2

I find Marxist philosophy and biology very interesting and study them often. How, then, do I justify this study in light of all that I have already stated? Well, I believe that there are good merits to studying worldviews that are in opposition to the Bible. We should study the thought processes of the world in an effort to better know how to answer its error in logic.

At the same time, though, we must be very cautious to be in the world but not of the world. I see the book Understanding The Times by David A. Noebel as a wonderful resource for studying the major worldviews of our time. While reading that book, it speaks of Humanism, Marxism, and Biblical Christianity. I like this because in such an instance, I am learning about other philosophies that are contrary to the Bible and it helps me to identify them as lies, and to refute them. This, I believe, is the proper way to study opposing ideologies. I would say that such study is important if not crucial to surviving all that the world will throw at a person in college and in any other way the devil may try to get us.

One subject of study often affected is English. In many English programs, ‘classic’ books are read. Many books that are considered ‘classics’ deal with different facets of worldview, and yet they are not read with the thinking that the author is trying to influence your worldview. We ought to be reading these books with Bibles lying open beside them. The children’s song that says “Oh be careful little eyes what you see” must include the books that we read, no matter who recommended them, or what class or subject they are for.

I am concerned that the subjects many homeshoolers study (including any kind of book on any subject) have potentially been taught (or written) from the perspective of the study of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. This is the beginning of setting ourselves up as little gods. We can easily begin feeling that we can use our minds to think and work ourselves out of any difficulty we may experience in our lives. In this case, the devil has won and we have placed God on a shelf or in a very small box. This is clearly the root concept of all worldviews that oppose Christianity. I have seen the effects that such studies have had and are having on many students my age or a little older, and quite honestly, it gives me rise for great concern. When speaking such, I am talking about my peers that I associate with, not some imaginary situation that I think is happening.

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col. 2:8).

Here’s something to think about. How many times during each worldview class session or worldview curriculum book that you read on your own or study of classical Greek writing or English class discussion of a book, etc, has the Bible been used? Greater than 5? Less than 2? Ever? In each case that the Bible was used, was it used in a positive light for compare and contrast? How do your teachers / books view those that have good knowledge of the Bible but little or no knowledge about Plato or Machiavelli? Are they admired or belittled? If you could ask God which one He would want you to memorize for your life, which one would He answer? Aristotle’s teachings on justice? Or the place where such ideas really originated, Deuteronomy? If you find yourself opposing God’s principles as you “learn to think”, who moved? You or God?

“O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called "knowledge," for by professing it some have swerved from the faith” (1 Tim. 6:20-21).

At the beginning of this article, I said that “I have seen this first hand in many friends and acquaintances”. Those “friends and acquaintances” are for the most part those that have been through intense worldview classes as well as many college students attending Christian colleges. It also includes some that have taken intense English classes where “classic” books were read, as well as in-depth History classes. Many of those I have seen that have taken such classes, or studied such writings, have not gone beyond the first step of relying on their reasoning ability over dependence on God. But still, that any have taken the first step causes me a great deal of uneasiness. As I said earlier, that first step is all it takes.

Here are more verses of scripture that are pertinent to this subject:

1 Samuel 2:3
Proverbs 9:10
Proverbs 2:5-6
John 15:4
1 Cor. 13:1-3
1 Cor. 13:8
Col. 2:20-3:1

I would like to recommend a very thought provoking book, No Retreats, No Reserves, No Regrets. It is written by nine different Christian authors, all very good authorities on Biblical Christianity and worldview. Each author wrote one or two chapters on different sub-points within the subject of worldview. Don’t worry though, it is only 250 pages, not 900 pages like Understanding The Times! In all my reading, that book really was the best (barring UTT itself).

Speaking directly to students: I am very concerned about how your worldview studies will mold or have molded your mind if it is not being tied back to the Bible every step of the way. I urge you to pray about and consider this very carefully.

Kristi Joy is a highschool student and lives in Virginia. She has been homeschooled since birth, and has great interest in the study of worldview, writing, politics and music performance.

Teaching Worldviews in Education - Part 1 of 2

As Christians, we are commanded:

“But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15, all quotations ESV).

In order to follow this command, we study the Bible and go to church for the purpose of getting a Biblically Christian worldview. As homeschoolers, we often end up trying to be “educated” as the world defines education to keep up with what is expected by the world. In the process of learning what the world expects us to, we often learn what the world teaches concerning philosophy and ideas about life. By this, I mean that little by little we can easily start living out some of the Humanistic, Marxist ideologies that are the pathway to destruction.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many” (Matthew 7:13).

How does this happen? First, worldviews affect all subjects. I will expound on this later. Some of the other ways that the philosophies of this world creep into a homeschoolers' education is through worldview classes, worldview curriculum and the study of classical Greek writing. These are the issues that will be addressed in this article.

When anyone studies secular philosophers/philosophies without the constant light of Scripture, they stand a very strong chance of being negatively affected. I have seen this first hand in many friends and acquaintances.

Allow me to expand on this topic. Secular philosophers such as the Greeks, Freud, Kierkegaard (a popular one on college campuses) and countless others are lauded by academia in general as the “great minds” worthy of study. I now see many Christians start their study of these “great minds” only for the purpose of “education”, or for knowledge sake. But in the end, it changes the way the student thinks about God and the Devil gains a foot hold. Solomon wrote extensively on the topic of the mind and knowledge in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, but I do not see too much studying of Solomon. Why is that? As Christians, isn’t one of our main principles that God is the beginning and end of all knowledge?

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction (Proverbs 1:7).

Then it would follow that the Bible is the place to start the study of education and knowledge. But instead, the devil uses our ability to “think” to get us to “reason” ourselves away from God’s teaching. Isn’t it interesting that many people study/worship the ability of “thinking” but do not study/worship the Creator of the thing that does the thinking, our brains? Instead, secular education is used as the guide in place of the Bible. What happens when secular education lauds Aristotle as the end all authority on justice or law? Some say, “Well, we are trying to be educated, so we need to study Aristotle to keep up with the world’s standard of better education.” Fine, study Aristotle, but not at the expense of a comparable study of Scripture. When we do study other philosophies at the expense of the Bible, we are forgetting that we are not the world and we are not supposed to live by the world’s standards as Christians. That is why we must have the scriptures open every time we study worldviews.

So how does the study of worldviews become a negative instead of a positive? Secular philosophers are constantly expounding on how wonderful the human brain is and how we can solve, fix and understand just about anything. The natural end of studying this (or anything) and not being told the flaws of such ideas and how to refute them with the Bible makes people put far too much trust in their own logic and reasoning ability. This seems rather obvious, and yet I see it happening all the time in Christian and homeschool circles. Do not underestimate the devil’s ability to get you with this deception that starts out under the name of education. And do not overestimate your ability to stand guard against this powerful trick. It is only with God’s wisdom can you learn and truly gain knowledge, which takes us back to the Bible and Solomon.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” ( 2 Peter 1:3).

The negative effects lead even farther. When a person believes that he can “just use reason” and figure out life’s situations, Satan will always be sure to plant a thought like, “Why do I need authorities?”. This is the sort of thought that leads us down hill and farther away from Christian beliefs. Think of all the authorities that are over us. Parents, teachers, and adults in general. Other authorities are the government, when you get a job your boss, and oh, what was that other one? Oh right, God. One of the famous quotes of the humanistic movement is from the Humanist Manifesto II (1973):

“…we can discover no divine purpose or providence for the human species. While there is much that we do not know, humans are responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.”

Save ourselves with what? Well, their answer is our “great intellect” that can figure out how to “save” ourselves from whatever it is that is hurting us. Save ourselves from what? Well, their answer is from dogmatic ideologies which stands as a code for Christianity!

...to be continued

- by Kristi Joy

Intelligently aware

This piece by John Mark Reynolds is not only timely as regards Pakistan, but timely for me in that lately I've been especially disgusted by the topics and coverage given by the general media--even the more conservative Fox News. Should we not have a Biblically-informed perspective through which we discern what information should be shared and what should not?

Instead of the sensational and shocking, what about making the public aware of things more important and of relevance and value beyond today or this week? If some gross crime needs to be communicated, let's show discretion in details.

Pakistan and the Old Media is a good read.

Tonight I turned on the “news” and it was awash in the trivial.

While the major media fiddle, Pakistan is burning.

If things go badly there, then much of the good accomplished in the War could be lost.

While Pakistan burns, the “big three” report on the excellent violin concert by major political personality Nero.

The present government of Pakistan is tyrannical, but all the other options are worse. Long term support for a dictator undercuts our moral position in the region (such as it is), but idealism may lead to a nuclear armed terrorist state in the short term.

Another beautiful story of life

Twins who did not want to be separated...

Submitted by Lara S.

$317.25 or $1.23?

A Japanese family of 4 spends over $300 a week on food, most of which is prepackaged. A family in Chad? $1.23--and not a plastic package in sight. Of course the United States weighed in at even a more exorbitant rate: nearly $350 for one week of groceries in North Carolina but another family in California spent less than $150. Interesting.

Check out this fascinating photo essay on What the World Eats. Not only a great sociology lesson, the contrast between Western civilization and the rest of the world is surprising.

HT: Josh Harris

About as current as they come...

Both my dad and youngest brother spent many hours the last few months with their noses buried in thick books.

I finally realized the significance of the books. Once Dad told me the story of Joel Rosenburg's life and writing I raced to my laptop to research it for myself. Very, very intriguing.

Mortimer Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report writes on Russia's president Vladimir Putin in the February 27th, 2007 issue. Putin's animosity towards the West being of significant concern in and of itself, it is even more interesting that Rosenburg wrote about the rise of a new Russian dictator in his book--last year.

[Joel] is also the founder and president of the Joshua Fund, a nonprofit charitable and educational organization that provides humanitarian relief for victims of war and terrorism in Israel and the Muslim world

The first page of his first novel-The Last Jihad-puts you inside the cockpit of a hijacked jet, coming in on a kamikaze attack into an American city, which leads to a war with Saddam Hussein over weapons of mass destruction. Yet it was written before 9/11, long before the actual war with Iraq....

His second thriller-The Last Days-opens with the death of Yasser Arafat and a U.S. diplomatic convoy ambushed in Gaza. Six days before The Last Days was published in hardcover, a U.S. diplomatic convoy was ambushed in Gaza. Thirteen months later, Yasser Arafat died...

The Ezekiel Option centers on a Russian dictator who forms a military alliance with the leaders of Iran who are feverishly pursuing nuclear weapons and threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. On the very day it was published in June 2005, Iran elected a new leader who vowed to accelerate the country's nuclear program and later vowed to "wipe Israel off the map." Six months after the book was published, Moscow signed a $1 billion arms deal with Tehran. (bio)...

To appreciate Rosenburg's unsurpassed understanding and insight into world events current and future, you'll have to check out his blog and read through the prologues to his books. His latest, Epicenter, is non-fiction answering the questions and explaining what is really going on in the Middle East. As a former aide to Israel's prime minister, he is uniquely stationed to observe events as they unfold.

Joel's books
Last Jihad
Last Days
Ezekiel Option
Copper Scroll
Epicenter

Christian, Homeschool graduate among Virginia Tech victims

"On her MySpace page, Lauren McCain listed "the love of my life" as Jesus Christ. Her family said the 20-year-old international studies major became a Christian some time ago...She was home-schooled and had worked at a department store for about a year to save money for college" (US and World News).

As has been true of other infamous tragedies such as Columbine, among the Virginia Tech students who were killed on April 16 was a young lady named Lauren McCain. Several articles giving clear testimony to her faith in Christ have appeared in the 30 hours since her death was confirmed on Tuesday.

"'I can only imagine … how wonderful heaven will be,'" Lauren is quoted as writing in a friend's birthday card. Her family is pointing to the Lord for their sufficiency as well: "Friends and family members read Bible verses, remembered McCain and prayed for the man who police say killed her and the others. 'We grieve over our great loss, and yet find peace in the reality that God is worthy of our trust and we are sustained in our sorrow by that truth'" (Daily Press).

Read more at Pilot Online and sign the guestbook for Lauren's parents.

Update: Thanks to JoAnna for information about another Christian young lady among the victims: Rachel Hill, 18. You can read about her here at the Times Dispatch. This quote is especially poignant:

"Rachael had a wonderful, close, loving relationship with her parents," School Superintendent Clay Fogler wrote in a letter to the church community yesterday. "Any parent would have counted it a privilege to have called her their daughter." Now, when he reads the C.S. Lewis quotation that Hill chose to appear under her yearbook photo, he sees it as almost prophetic: "God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain."

You can see pictures here, which shows something we need to remember: these are girls just like us...whose lives were completed in God's timing. It challenges me to live each day as if it were my last. We are not promised tomorrow.

- Thanks to Rachel Kondro for providing links about Lauren

Life and Death

Today the Kansas City Star published a brilliantly Christian testimony of a family choosing life for their precious baby...who lived for thirty-five minutes. You can read Zeke's Gift here and here.

Today we witnessed the worst campus shooting in American history.

Today our God sits on His throne.

Why dost Thou stand afar off, O Lord? Why dost Thou hide Thyself in times of trouble? In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised...

Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Thy hand. Do not forget the afflicted...The Lord is King forever and ever; O Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble; Thou wilt strengthen their heart, Thou wilt incline Thine ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed...

That man who is of the earth may cause terror no more.

Quotes from St. Elmo

“I think, sir, that the noble and true woman of this continent earnestly believe that the day which invests them with the elective franchise would be the blackest in the annals of humanity, would ring the death-knell of modern civilization, of national prosperity, social morality, and domestic happiness! and would consign the race to a night of degradation and horror infinitely more appalling than a return to primeval barbarianism.”

-St. Elmo, by Augusta J. Evans

“The German idea of death is to me peculiarly comforting and touching, ‘Heimgang’—going home. Ah, sir! humanity ought to be homesick; and in thinking of that mansion beyond the star-paved pathway of the sky, whither Jesus has gone to prepare our places, we children of earth should, like the Swiss, never lose our home-sickness. Our bodies are of the dust—dusty, and bent dustward; but our souls floated down from the sardonyx walls of the Everlasting City, and brought with them a yearning maladie du pays, which should help them to struggle back. Sometimes I am tempted to believe that the joys of this world are the true lotos, devouring which, mankind glory in exile and forget the Heimgang. Oh! indeed, ‘here we have no continuing city, but seek one to come.’ Heimgang! Thank God! going home for ever!”

-St. Elmo, by Augusta J. Evans

Ethics of organ donation

Disturbing article on harvesting organs from "almost dead" patients is here. Just as we debate and seek to define the beginning of life, so the end of life is in revision. To be honest, I think that the centuries before our medical advances might have us beat when it comes to ethics here.

Not for younger readers.

Life is a miracle

As a follow-up to my post yesterday about the 21 week old baby who survived and is now going home from the hospital, read the post on Boundless webzine's blog on Amillia and the many babies her age who are aborted. Note: Not for younger readers.

A similar thought had crossed my mind while I was writing yesterday; how many babies of 20, 22, 24 weeks are aborted? How can anyone see the plain facts of what those abortions entail and maintain that the fetus is not an actual human being?