Free Booklet: Soul Winning by Charles H. Spurgeon

Charles H. Spurgeon. Soul Winning.  Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, July 1^st, 2015. 16 pp.

This is an adaptation from an 1869 sermon by the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon.  Spurgeon’s message is based upon Proverbs 11:30 which in the King James says “He that winneth souls is wise.”  This booklet focuses on Christians evangelizing the lost.  Spurgeon explains the term winning as understood in different context and lays out the reason why it is wise to engage in “soul winning.”  I enjoyed reading this because it wasn’t addressed primarily towards Pastors but towards all the members of the church.  He also gave practical suggestions on reaching the lost which I appreciated very much.  Evangelism isn’t just only done on non-Sundays; he even talked about reaching people who are visiting the church in which one should talk to strangers about the sermon after the service is over.  Again very practical and spiritually motivating.  For our own church I had one of the small groups read through it together and I am currently having this as a must read for some of the guys who does evangelism with me.

You can read this booklet for free via Chapel Library in the following format:  PDF EPUB  MOBI

If you really want to get it on Amazon for your Kindle, it’s available for 99 cents by clicking HERE.

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Memorial Day and Marine Corps Body Bearers: The Last To Let You Down

I don’t know if its the fact that I’m getting older but I easily get very emotional thinking about those were killed while serving in the military or later take their own life after their entrance back into civilian life in the military.

Here’s a short video made by the Marine Corps about their Body Bearers who carry the casket of dead Marines in Arlington National Cemetery.  Sometimes these guys carry the casket up to a mile to their location.

I thought it was a very well done video.

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Review: Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot

Elisabeth Elliot. Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot.  New York, NY: HarperOne, October 21^st, 2014. 336 pp.

The author Elisabeth Elliot was the wife of the famous missionary and martyr Jim Elliot.  The author’s classic book on her husband, Through Gates of Splendor, was written in the 1950s but what makes this book different than the first one is that this is written many decades later.  This book examines more of Jim Elliot’s own writing from his letters and personal diary.  The letters examined include those written to Jim’s parents, siblings and Elisabeth before they got married.  This book gives an honest portrait of a Christian who desires to serve God and also struggles as well.  I was much encouraged reading this book although at times I felt it was somewhat prolonged in the author’s choice of what details to share to the readers.  But don’t let that distract you as the reader: this book challenged me to think about the sacrifices involved with missions and also convicting to think about how young Jim Elliot and his fellow missionaries were when they went out to try to reach the unreached Huaorani tribe which of course they were eventually killed by when they were contacting them.  Of course, the rest is history—as a result of their deaths, God used it to call more Christians to the missions field with their example and martyrdom.  I plan one day to read Through Gates of Splendor also.

Purchase: Amazon

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Evangelism: Every Christian’s Love Language

Christians, your love language should include sharing the Gospel.

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How to Read More Books When Life Gets Busy

For Christians its important to read.  To read the Bible. To read books on the Bible.  To read books that would help with Christian living.  To read books to know more about God.  Many Christians get this.  Many Christians might feel guilty.  Sometimes one’s life is also very busy.  How does one read more books when life is busy?  This post is meant to be pastoral, practical and encouraging.  I admit I haven’t arrived so if you have other ideas and advice please share.  So here’s my thoughts.

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Review: The Unsubstantial Air: American Fliers in the First World War

This evening’s recommended Weekend Reading is timely in light of Memorial Day.

Samuel Hynes. The Unsubstantial Air: American Fliers in the First World War.  New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books, October 21^st, 2014. 336 pp.

This is the story of the young Americans who flew in World War one and is written by a former US pilot of World War Two.  I think the author’s background contributed to the insight of bringing out the experiences of the young Americans who ventured into military aviation.  At that time, aviation was a new area of military combat.  The book spent considerable time capturing the romanticism of various young Americans who wanted to be combat pilots.  As those familiar with World War One know, the United States didn’t enter the war until the last year.  Even before the US entrance into the war there were already a steady stream of Americans venturing overseas to seek the experience of war or helping out the Allies with the war.  Many went over to France seeking adventure as ambulance drivers, members of the Foreign Legion, etc.  However some Americans wanted more and some of these wanted to be military pilots for the French and British.  Much of the bulk of the book focuses on these Americans.  Actually much of the book focuses on trying to be a pilot, the training and only towards the second half of the book do we read of combat and missions in the front.

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The Inerrancy of Scripture by James White in Cape Town 2016

James White recently returned from his tour overseas teaching theology and apologetics while also engaging in various debates.

Here’s a two part message from Dr. White on the Inerrancy of Scripture in Cape Town, South Africa.  This was delivered on May 6th-7th, 2016.

Enjoy!

 

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Review: Political Science by Cale Horne

Cale Horne. Political Science.  Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, May 31^st, 2016. 48 pp.

This is a booklet that is part of the Faithful Learning Series published by Presbyterian and Reformed that provides an introductory look at various academic discipline from the perspective of the Christian worldview.  The first work I read from this series was on Literature and that booklet made me reevaluate my apathy towards works of fiction and it actually increased my interests in literature from an academic and Christian point of view (not long after that I picked up Great Gatsby).  So when I found out that there’s another booklet in the series that focused on what was my major in undergraduate, I knew I had to get it and read it right away.

The author Cale Horne is a political science professor who did a good job writing this booklet for a Christian general reading audience. I appreciate how in the beginning of the book Horne states that he believes there’s a role for Christians to be concerned with political affairs but he was wise to add that this is something Christians “can do” instead of “should do.” Horne recognizes that many Christians around the world and throughout much of Church history did not have the opportunity to be concerned with politics.  I appreciate the author’s spirit in writing this as I see this as humility in his approach toward the academic discipline of Political Science.

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Leftists “Safe Space” Hypocrisy at Cal State Los Angeles University

Just as a warning I’m kind of passionate about this one.

Do you remember not too long ago people in an Ivy League School cussing and yelling at a professor in protest of need for safe space after students analyzing for “Micro-Agressions” (seriously, “Micro”) found that dressing up in certain costumes of ethnic and people group committed some Leftist blasphemy codes?  The contradiction doesn’t occur to them.  I think some in the Left are truly today’s Pharisees, absorbed in self-righteousness, who in the name of social justice justify go over the top in harassing those whom they don’t think is as upright as themselves.

I worry about my generation’s hypocrisy when it comes to freedom of speech when it doesn’t conform to the Leftist’s narrative.

What’s worst then Leftists immature trolls?  Leftists trolls gathering together in real time and space.

Watch this video of an event with a Conservative Speaker in Cal State Los Angeles:

 

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Apologetic Sermon Illustration #34: Army Ants’ Death Circles and Living Life without a point but going with the flow

GO TO PART 33

Point: Many in our world today are going through life without a purpose or following God’s purpose.  I thought a fitting illustration of what people are like can be gleamed from Army Ants.

Picture: Animal behaviors fascinate me.  Earlier today I read of a phenomenon known as Ant Death Circles or Death Spirals.  Here’s a description of it over at NPR:

This is a species of army ant, Labidus praedator. These ants are completely blind so they get about by sniffing trails left by the ants in front of them. They, in turn, leave chemical trails of their own. The system works smoothly when everybody’s going in a straight line in one direction…

But when the lead ants start to loop, bad things can happen (and remember we humans loop too, we can’t hold a straight course over long distances without external points of reference). If the ant-in-front loops and intersects with its old trail, the whole crowd then turns in on itself and everybody gets caught in the endless circle.

Eventually these Army Ants walking in circles would die from exhaustion.  Here’s a short video and explanation from an expert:

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Video: Scripture and the LGBT agenda by Dr James White

If you have been noticing since last year’s Supreme Court decision concerning gay marriage, the LGBT community has proceeded to go from bad to worst.  Certain quarters of that movement have been pushing their agenda to even more extremes.

Christian apologist and debater Dr. James White have recently returned from overseas teaching theology in South Africa and England.  While in South Africa Dr. White spoke on the topic of “Scripture and the LGBT agenda” at Cape Town, South Africa.  The message was given on May 7th, 2016 and can be seen on Youtube and found below:

 

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Presuppositional #Apologetic’s Links: Third Week of May 2016

These are links concerning Presuppositional apologetics gathered from May 16th-21st, 2016.

1.) Inerrancy & Apologetics — K. Scott Oliphint

2.) Classic Apologists and Their Facepalm Misuse of Scripture

3.) The sense of deity weighs him down

4.) Atheists, Secularists, and Nihilists Recently Defend Irrationality

5.) WILLIAM LANE CRAIG’S INCONSISTENT OBJECTIONS TO PRESUPPOSITIONAL ARGUMENT

6.) Unpacking Common Grace

7.) Are miracles antecedently improbable?

8.) The presupposition of God

9.) “God In Mathematics”

10.) I Don’t Apologize for my Apologetics

 

Missed the last round up?  Check out the re-blogged post from a friend

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Responding to Huff Po Religion: Did Jesus Predict Muhammad? Part 3: The 1.6 billion Muslims argument is a logical fallacy

This is part 3 of my response to a Huffington Post Religion piece titled “Did Jesus Predict Muhammad?”

Here’s the first two responses:

 Part 1: Starting already in the Wrong Direction

Part 2: Bad Exegesis

Since my time is short in light of sermon preparation this post will respond to a shorter quote from the Huff Po writer who is trying to demonstrate that Jesus predicted Muhammad.  The quote is as follows:

When we look at Islam as a world religion, and see that 1.6 billion people and growing are following in the way of Muhammad, the time has surely come to recognize him as a prophet. If Muhammad is not a prophet, who is?

Is this argument logically sound?  Here’s my response:

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Weekend Book Review: The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich

Tonight’s featured weekend book review is a historical nonfiction.

Robert K Wittman. The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich.  London, UK: William Collins, March 29^th, 2016.  416 pp.

A few years ago I read a really good book titled Hitler’s Philosophers by Yvonne Sherratt.  The book mentioned Alfred Rosenberg as one of the Nazi’s influential ideologue and so when I found this book in the library I felt I had to pick it up to know more about this Rosenberg.  The book is about the diary of Rosenberg and I was expecting it to focus mainly on the contents within Rosenberg’s diary.  To be frank I was disappointed with my expectations but I couldn’t totally dismissed the entirety of the book either because it was an interesting subject.

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Responding to Huff Po Religion: Did Jesus Predict Muhammad? Part 2: Bad Exegesis

Over at liberal Huff Po Religion there is a piece I want to respond to that’s titled “Did Jesus Predict Muhammad?”  This is part 2 of my response and earlier I wrote Part 1: Starting already in the Wrong Direction.  In this post I will start to look at the bad exegesis found in part 2 of the article “Did Jesus Predict Muhammad?”  Obviously Huff Po makes this out to be a great article.  One starts wondering if there’s great exegesis going on here.  But what I learned about Huff Posts Religion is that there’s a lot of huff and puffs, but no bites as far as exegesis or sound thinking is concerned.  For instance, half a year ago they have on their website another piece that I responded to titled “HuffPost is wrong: Islamophobia is Racism?”

While it isn’t the main focus of the writer’s core argument that Jesus predicted Muhammad, we see right off the bat that the writer’s first effort in looking at a Biblical passage results in a bad interpretation.  It’s like a sign of things to come.

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