John Talks: John was shot in the mouth by assasins for planting churches in Brazil. In total, he was shot 3 times, once in the mouth, once in the neck and once in the arm while preaching in a Brazillian church. John was a missionary commisioned by a local (Des Moines, IA) church and had just returned to Brazil from the USA.

John should have died, but he did not. He was supposed to be in the hospital 6 monhs, but was fit to leave after 3. John is mostly paralyzed from the neck down, but is eager to continue his work. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

The prognosis: Benign. For the record, benign has several meanings, but the most familiar is, “tissue that does not have a detrimental impact on surrounding tissue.” This is often used in the context of cancer and how a tumor can be benign, meaning that unless it presses against something, it’s not causing a problem because it’s not affecting the tissue around it.

However I’m not speaking in the context of cancer, tissue or tumors. I’m talking about your faith. Actually, I’m talking about my faith. Many of us Christians have benign faith. We’re absolutely not coming into contact with nor impacting those around us. Every once in a while we may press against something, causing a little discomfort, but for the most part our faith has little impact.

This must change. If you have some good news, share it! If we are salt, then the church is the salt shaker and we need to start sprinkling our faith around town. “Hold out your candle. Run to the darkness. Go light up the world.”

It’s all [NOT] good: It’s worse to murder than to lie, right? Wrong. Romans 1:18-32 clearly says that murder, homosexuality, lieing/deceit, gossip, envy/jealously and God-hating are all on the same level, and all who do these things deserve death.

I’ve never murdered, and I’m not homosexual, but I’ve done other things on that list. Since these things are so repulsive to God, how can I get on good terms with Him? Is it possible? Yes! There is a way to get straight with God. Follow that link for a very short explanation of what the Bible says.

The Myth of Darwinism: People put way too much faith in scientific dating techniques… ““In one of the most recent cases of anomalous dating, rock paintings found in the South African bush in 1991 were analysed by Oxford University’Â’s radio carbon accelerator unit who dated them as being around 1,200 years old. This finding was significant because it meant the paintings would have been the first bushman painting found in open country. However, publicity of the find attracted the attention of Mrs Joan Ahrens, a Capetown resident, who recognised the paintings as being produced by her at art classes and later stolen from her garden by vandals. The significance of incidents such as this is that mistakes can be uncovered only in those rare cases where chance grants us some external methods of checking the dating technique.”” -– Richard Milton, The Facts of Life – —Shattering the Myth of Darwinism, Fourth Estate, London, 1992, pp. 33-34.

“For it is impossible to restore to repentance those who were once enlightened – those who have … shared in the Holy Spirit … and who then turn away from God.” Hebrews 6:4-6
I love the beginning of Hebrews; I’ve read and re-read Hebrews 1-5 but each time I come to chapter 6 and stop. This passage seems so contradictory to what I’ve learned. If a person has “shared in the Holy Spirit” and repented (the passage says “restore to repentance”) doesn’t that mean that they were saved? Or are these people who merely played the game of repentance and acted holy but never truly surrendered their life to God? Of course, this could lead to the debate of God’s elect, and can we surrender ourselves, but I don’t think this is what is being discussed here. The word “enlightened” seems to be an operative word. It occurs in the KJV, NIV, NLT and NASB (I didn’t check others) so I trust the translation. Also, KJV refers to these as “partakers of the Holy Ghost,” meaning people who have the spirit of God in them, and as people who have “tasted of the heavenly gift.” What is being discussed here? Who are people who have “fallen away” and now cannot be restored to repentance? Is the analogy of a field being burned indicative that these people will go to Hell or merely that they are now useless to the Kingdom of God?

Kendall Payne – Music: I’m not trying to write a hit and I’m not trying to write what I think everyone else wants to hear. For me, the process of writing is wrapped up in the challenge of coming before God and saying, ‘I’m here to be raw before You, and I’m here for You to change me and use me.’ I was listening to a song out of my cd-collection from a while back. Pizza hut was offering free cds through “CD-NOW” so I have a cd with “Supermodel” on it. Listening to the lyrics made me think that she was a Christian. Googling for her lyrics to that song brought me to the above interview.

I have a lot of respect for people who are willing to write the music they want to write or create the art they want to create or preach the sermons they want to preach. It often doesn’t pay the bills, in a secular sense, but when we look at it from a heavenly perspective, if we’re doing what God wants us to do we don’t have to worry about the little details. God works things out in fascinating ways. Maybe we don’t get to drive a fancy car or eat out at fancy restaurants, but we do have what we need.

My favorite quote from the song is:

Think it over once or twice
What lasts the longest in this life
Character, or rock hard thighs?

Here’s where I found the lyrics.