John Piper’s Response to President Obama on Abortion

Donald Miller to Give DNC Benediction

Christianity Today has posted an article online informing readers that popular author Donald Miller will be giving the benediction at the Democratic National Convention next week in Denver.  The interview with Miller can be read here.  Below is a quote from the interview….and I must say, it appears Blue Like Jazz isn’t just the title of his book but it is also the color of his party affiliation.

Where do you stand on issues like abortion and gay marriage?
The issue of abortion is a very sensitive one and it’s an important issue. I look at from a perspective of, what’s the best that we can do. As we elect a Republican House and Senate, and as we elect Republican leadership in the executive branch, we see very little changes on that issue. We’re electing someone who agrees with us on abortion, being sort of a tragedy in our country, and yet can’t get anything done. It’s kind of like saying, I want a pilot on my plane who feels this way about abortion, but he can’t fly the plane. The executive branch doesn’t have that much power, it has some power, but it doesn’t have much power. You look at the reality of that and say, what can I do to defend the sanctity of all human life, including the living, and the marginalized and the oppressed and the poor? What can we do to better social conditions so that less women are put in situations where they feel like they need to have an abortion. What does looking at the issue holistically look like. I hope the Democrats will listen to those of us who lean toward pro-life and those changes can be made.

In terms of gay marriage, I see it as a constitutional issue. Until we become a theocracy, I think that judges should look at it from a constitutional issue. Whether I think homosexuality’s wrong, personally? America is not God’s country. It’s not considered a Christian nation anymore. You have to look at everybody, not just Christians and say, what are the rights of these people based on this constitution. That’s another difficult issue as well. I get a bit frustrated when the evangelical position is reduced to two issues. So many other issues are not a concern to us. What happened was, in my opinion, the Christian positions has been reduced in order to manipulate us. If we give them these two issues, we can do whatever we want.

Quote of the Week

Here is the quote of the week for July 28.

“The characteristic response we are to make to God as he comes to us clothed in his promises, clothed with the gospel, is faith.  In the context of the New Testament’s vision of what church is to be, this faith most appropriately takes the form of confession.  To each other we confess and testiffy to the greatness of God.  We do this by the very activity of making God’s Word the centre of our activities – by reading it, preaching it, making it the basis of exhortation, and even setting it to music in hymns and praise.  The Spirit uses all this, we are assured, to build us up in Christ.”

Robert Doyle

Time Management

Douglas Wilson has written a brief post on time management.

Click here.

Quote of the Week

Here is the quote of the week for June 30.

“The best news in all the world to the ungodly, who grieve under the cloud of darkness and guilt, is the news that God, by faith alone, counts them as righteous because of Christ.  This is the rock where we stand when the dark clouds gather and the floods lick at our feet: justification is by grace alone (not mixed with our merit), through faith alone (not mixed with our works) on the basis of Christ alone (not mingling his righteousness with ours), to the glory of God alone (not ours).”

John Piper

Salvation now Sold in a Bottle

MIAMI — The instructions are simple: Read the Prayer … Drink the Water … Believe in God! Believe in Yourself! Spiritual Water, the faith-inspired venture of two Sunrise, Fla., businessmen, offers its drinkers clearer focus, positive thinking and connection to a higher power.  Below is a quote from the article.

 

“You drink it, and you just feel like you are in church,” says Cecilia Joseph, a Sunrise real estate agent who liked Spiritual Water so much she became a distributor. “The pictures are so beautiful. You look at them and read the prayer, and it just feels good.”

It seems that the creators of this “spiritual drink” have mistaken the words of Jesus, just as the Samaritan at the well did in John chaper 4.  Salvation is by grace through faith.  There is no short cut or substitute.  Are you trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and hope of eternal life?  He is our only hope, not some bottled water.

 

Jesus – Made in America

My friend Matt Hall has posted a great review of the new Stephen Nichols book titled Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Purtians to “The Passion of the Christ”.  Below is a quote form the review.

 

 

 

 

One suspects that evangelicals of every stripe will find something that makes them squeamish. But then again, perhaps that’s just what Nichols is going for here. If American evangelicals are to recover any cultural capital and religious credibility, they will likely have to dispense with their penchant for sentimentalized caricatures of Jesus and mass-marketed religion.