Random Thoughts for Today

Well it's been almost a full week since my last post so I wanted to take some time to let all of you know I'm still alive and kicking! ;-)

I had a good week and there are a number of things I want to share, among them:

1) Unless you live under a rock you are probably aware that in the December 15th, 2008 edition, Newsweek magazine featured an article called "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage." This article, written by a Ms. Lisa Miller, attempted to do exactly what the title suggests, argue that there is not any religious reason for opposing gay marriage. The cover of the issue has a picture of a Bible with a rainbow colored bookmark, ironic enough since there may be some religion which can be used to show support for gay marriage, but Christianity is not the one. In addition to this, using a Bible on the cover is disingenuous for the simple reason that Ms. Miller's premise fails in it's attempt to show a biblical case for gay marriage. Well, I would have much more to say on this issue, except that Citizen magazine has done an excellent job of responding to Newsweek. In its February 2009 issue, Citizen asked a number of sound theologians to rebut the article point by point. Among the men asked to write a rebuttal was Albert Mohler. Please pick up a copy of both these articles and read them!

2) Yesterday I went to a men's breakfast at church and the speaker was the youth leader. My sons are very fond of this young man and I was very impressed by what he had to say. The topic of his talk was "What we Value: Christ." His text was from Matthew 13:44-46. I just want to share one quote from him, which I hope will give you a glimpse into his heart, as it did for me. He said, "My weakness is a serious lack of ability to please God through my works." Just so you understand, he did not mean this as in it is a weakness he wants to remedy, but that in this weakness He can turn to Christ and trust totally in Him. He understands what it means when the Bible says we are "dead in our trespasses and sins"! Ephesians 2:1

3) On a personal note, I began memorizing the book of Ephesians quite some time ago...about a decade ago to be honest! How much have I memorized? 1 1/2 chapters! Pathetic. So remember this and help keep me accountable ok? ;-) And since I know so many always respond in this manner, I want to assure you I am not wanting to memorize Scripture in a legalistic manner, or in a prideful manner. I simply want to have this book in particular in my mind because I love it so much. It's as simple as that.

Well that's it for now. I am eager to finish up a couple of books I've been wanting to review and I should have one of them done within the next few days. My reading is taking so much longer than I thought because there is SO much to read. Not only do I have the books I want to review, but I also have some books I read for work...ones that I present to teens during outreach events. And no, I don't get paid to read so all my reading has to be done during my lunch hour or at home! :-) On top of that, I try to read the newspaper every day and there are a number of blogs that I follow, among my favorites being the Pyromaniacs and the Pulpit magazine blog which has been incorporated into the Shepherd's Fellowship website. Then there are blogs from friends and family that I like to read in order to keep up with what is going on in their lives, spiritually and otherwise. There's something else I like to read...let me see,what is it? Oh yeah, my Bible! ;-) So anyhow, all that to apologize for not posting my book reviews in a more timely manner. Then, of course, I have not posted a Bible study in some time, so I will work on remedying that situation as well.

God bless for now!