Audacity of Hope

"Dear Senator Obama:

As an immigrant from Kenya, your father found new hope in America’s noble principles and vast opportunities. The same promise brought my parents here from Egypt when I was still too young to thank them. Now you have inspired my generation with your vision of a country united around the same ideals of liberty and justice, “filled with hope and possibility for all Americans.”

But do you mean it?...

Can we provide every member of the human family equal protection under the law? Your record as a legislator gives a resounding answer: No, we can’t. That is the answer the Confederacy gave the Union, the answer segregationists gave young children, the answer a complacent bus driver once gave a defiant Rosa Parks. But a different answer brought your father from Kenya so many years ago; a different answer brought my family from Egypt some years later. Now is your chance, Senator Obama, to make good on the spontaneous slogan of your campaign, to adopt the more American and more humane answer to the question of whether we can secure liberty and justice for all: Yes, we can."

The above is written by a Princeton University student Sherif Girgis of Dover, Delware. You can read the short but powerful letter here.

You know what they say...

Once you go Mac, you never go back!

A couple of days ago we got new computers at work. Guess what we got. They are terrific. My wife has threatened divorce if I don't stop talking about it. I guess I shouldn't tell her I almost kissed the sleek shiny 20" screen this morning. I had mentioned we take our Bush money and go get one. But she thought a trip to a tropical paradise would be a better use of that money. I know, I can't believe it either.

prosperity gospel

Comments??

Spurgeon Quote

I don't just like Spurgeon because he enjoyed a fine hand rolled cigar quite often. He could craft a sermon the way a sculptor chisels out a masterpiece. To be sure this was the work of the Spirit in him, and I'm thankful that the Lord saw fit to use him in such a mighty way both past and present. As people even today are being blessed and shaped through his ministry, I thought it appropriate to post this quote. A few days ago I was struggling to articulate the reason for suffering and why it is necessary and good for those who believe in Christ. So below is a quote from the Morning and Evening Readings of Spurgeon for this morning of March 4.

"If none of God’s saints were poor and tried, we should not know half so well the consolations of divine grace. When we find the wanderer who has not where to lay his head, who yet can say, “Still will I trust in the Lord;” when we see the pauper starving on bread and water, who still glories in Jesus; when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction, and yet having faith in Christ, oh! what honour it reflects on the gospel. God’s grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers. Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that all things work together for their good, and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring—that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily, or most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as he is pleased to keep them in it. This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace. There is a lighthouse out at sea: it is a calm night—I cannot tell whether the edifice is firm; the tempest must rage about it, and then I shall know whether it will stand. So with the Spirit’s work: if it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous waters, we should not know that it was true and strong; if the winds did not blow upon it, we should not know how firm and secure it was. The master-works of God are those men who stand in the midst of difficulties, stedfast, unmoveable,—
“Calm mid the bewildering cry,
Confident of victory.”
He who would glorify his God must set his account upon meeting with many trials. No man can be illustrious before the Lord unless his conflicts be many. If then, yours be a much-tried path, rejoice in it, because you will the better show forth the all-sufficient grace of God. As for his failing you, never dream of it—hate the thought. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end."

Baptist Joke

During these serious times, people of all faiths should remember these four religious truths:
1. Muslims do not recognize Jews as God's chosen people. 2. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. 3. Protestants do not recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian world. 4. Baptists do not recognize each other at Hooters.

Vintage Jesus

I am four chapters in to this book (yeah I should be farther along than that) and I must say it is great. Driscoll is incredibly gifted at teaching and declaring doctrinal truth using clear plain language that anyone can understand-even me. One of the things that makes him so popular is also one of the things that brings him so much criticism. It is his humor. Some people fall over laughing and some people absolutely despise it. Below is an example of vintage Driscoll declaring doctrinal truth laced with his unmistakable humor. Enjoy!


"Roughly two thousand years ago, Jesus was born in a dumpy, rural, hick town, not unlike those today where guys change their own oil, think pro wrestling is real, find women who chew tobacco sexy, and eat a lot of Hot Pockets with their uncle-daddy. Jesus’ mom was a poor, unwed teenage girl who was mocked for claiming she conceived via the Holy Spirit. Most people thought she concocted a crazy story to cover the “fact” she was knocking boots with some guy in the backseat of a car at the prom. Jesus was adopted by a simple carpenter named Joseph and spent the first thirty years of his life in obscurity, swinging a hammer with his dad."

Mac Users/Calvinists

First let me add a little caveat to the title of this post lest one of the Mac users I offend hunts me down and shoves their Macbook Air up somewhere it doesn't belong. Yeah its small but not that small. If I could have or knew how to use an approximate sign in the title I would have. I'm not saying that every single person can be grouped in these two categories or that these groups are characteristic of all people that could be classified in them. I'm writing in general terms. I think it is true in a general sense at least from my experience, and I thought it was somewhat humorous so I decided to share.

If you have ever talked to any number of Mac users you will ultimately find out very quickly they're a Mac user. This title is boldly worn as a badge of honor.

The same can be said of some Calvinists. If you have ever had a conversation with one of these guys then you will no doubt learn fairly quickly they are 5 pointers, also a badge of honor.

Mac users/Calvinists give the infamous "look down" after they realize you're not one of them. You know the way someone looks at you like you're 2 foot tall. They look at your feet then look up quickly most of the time with their eyebrows narrowed and eyes crossed. Sometimes you will even be lucky enough to induce a teeth suck. I love that one. It makes me feel like I've hit a chord with my brothers and sisters.

Undoubtedly the conversation moves from condescension to conversion mode. The Mac user/Calvinist tries to convert the pagans to the straight and narrow or the thin and portable.

Mac users/Calvinists unleash a vigorous barrage of indisputable artillery to defeat the enemy and win the day for their respective ideas. Then after the smoke and dust have settled, excel spreadsheets torched to a crisp are trampled under feet, and hymns like "I Have Decided To Follow Jesus" are changed to "I Never Wanted to Follow Jesus" we should all embrace in a loving hug and laugh at each other.