“When I was 19, I decided I’d be honest and stop saying I was a Christian.” (Abraham Piper)

One of the most painful experiences for a Christian parent is when a child goes through a time of rebellion. If you are going through this as a parent right now, I pray you will find encouragement as John and Abraham Piper both share about Abraham’s season of rebellion in the September 2007 issue of Decision magazine.

John Piper:

My main memory of Abraham’s prodigal years is tears. As I knelt in prayer, I would remember the 9-year-old Abraham walking with me to 6:30 a.m. winter prayer meetings—willingly. I would take hold of Jesus’ cloak and cry: “O Jesus, please, don’t let go of him.”

He was never more than a breath away. One moment I would be rejoicing over some simple blessing, and then suddenly he was there, a heaviness, an ache. I would wonder what he was doing. And I would pour another prayer into the great censer before the throne …

All the while God was making me a broken-hearted pastor. God loves His people through the pain of His shepherds. None of our sufferings is wasted. We do not graduate from the seminary of sorrows in this life. But oh, how glad I am that this class is over, and Abraham is home. Thank You, Jesus, for not letting go.

Abraham Piper:

Looking back on my years of rejecting Christ, I offer these suggestions to help you reach out to your wayward child …

1. Point them to Christ. Your rebellious child’s real problem is not drugs or sex or cigarettes … The real problem is that your child doesn’t see Jesus clearly …
2. Pray. Only God can save your children, so keep on asking Him to display Himself to them …
3. Acknowledge that something is wrong. When your daughter rejects Jesus, don’t pretend that everything is fine …
4. Don’t expect them to be Christlike. If your son is not a Christian, he won’t act like one, and it’s hypocrisy if he does …
5. Welcome them home. Because your deepest concern is your son’s heart, not his actions, don’t create too many requirements for coming home …
6. Plead with them more than you rebuke them. … Her conscience can condemn her by itself. Your role is to stand kindly and firmly, always living in the hope that you want your child to return to.
7. Connect them to other believers. … Try to keep other Christians in their lives and trust God to connect your son or daughter with a believer who can point out your child’s folly without getting the door slammed on them.
8. Respect their friends. … Be hospitable. Her friends are someone else’s wayward children, and they need Jesus, too.
9. E-mail them. When you read something in the Bible that encourages you and helps you love Jesus more, write it up in a couple of lines and send it to your child …
10. Take them to lunch. … It may almost feel hypocritical to talk about his daily life, since what you really care about is his eternal life, but be sure to do it anyway. He needs to know you care about all of him …
11. Take an interest in their pursuits. Odds are that if your daughter is purposefully rejecting Christ, then the way she spends her time will disappoint you. Nevertheless, find the value in her interests, if possible, and encourage her …
12. Point them to Christ. … The goal is not that they will be good kids again … The goal is not for you to stop being embarrassed at your weekly Bible study … The only ultimate reason to pray for them, welcome them, plead with them, eat with them, or take an interest in their interests is so that their eyes will be opened to Jesus Christ.

Be sure to read the whole article at Decision Magazine. You may also be interested in reading Tullian Tchividjian’s comments on how his grandparents, Billy and Ruth Graham, ministered to him during his years of rebellion as a teen.

HT: CROSS-eyed

Here is a great quote from O. Hallesby on praying for your children:

See to it, night and day, that you pray for your children. Then you will leave them a great legacy of answers to prayer, which will follow them all the days of their life. Then you may calmly and with a good conscience depart from them, even though you may not leave them a great deal of material wealth. (O. Hallesby)

“Striking an ancient chord” from Haaretz:

Sounds, archaeological finds and scientific hypotheses all play major roles in an exhibition entitled “Sounds of Ancient Music,” which opened last week at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. Focusing on musical developments in ancient Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria and other cultures of the Ancient Near East, through the periods of the Kingdom of Judea, Greece and the Roman Empire, the exhibition features 137 objects – among them, rare musical instruments that have been preserved from antiquity, as well as full-sized replicas of instruments from those early eras …

Visitors to the exhibition are invited to listen to a trumpet being blown the way the researchers believe it sounded in the courtyard of the Temple. There are also earlier finds on hand – for example, a flute from the Chalcolithic period (the Copper Age, 4,300-3,300 B.C.E.), one of the oldest wind instruments discovered in all of the Near East …

Multimedia stations have been set up in the museum so as to enable visitors to virtually “play” such ancient instruments as the lyre, the flute and drums. Dozens of digital music players provide an audio guide in Hebrew and English with a highlight tour of the exhibition, peppered with the musical interludes based on the sounds of ancient instruments.

HT: BiblePlaces Blog

In light of Fred Thompson’s withdrawal from the 2008 Presidential race, something Glenn Reynolds said earlier this week sums up nicely what I had been thinking about the Thompson campaign:

“Weirdly, a lot of people are unhappy that Fred Thompson isn’t running well, but not a lot of people seem to have, you know, actually voted for, or donated to, Fred.” (Instapundit)

Ahh well, I still thought Fred was the best candidate. Now, it’s back to the drawing board! Meanwhile, Patrick Cox provides a good overview of Fred’s campaign over at Pajamas Media.

Related posts:

• Thompson Bloggers Contacted By Romney Campaign
• Fred Thompson Drops out of Presidential Race
• Still Leaning Towards Fred

Wow! Within hours of Fred Thompson’s announcement that he was withdrawing his candidacy for President, I received the following email from the Mitt Romney campaign.

Ray,

Since you’ve been blogging for Senator Thompson, I wanted to reach out after your candidate’s decision today.

With Senator Thompson’s departure, I believe that Governor Romney is the only candidate capable of maintaining the unity of the conservative coalition. And I believe that only Governor Romney can stop Senator McCain in Florida and beyond.

Please let me know if I can be of assistance as our party moves forward.

Thanks,
Stephen B. Smith
Director of Online Communications
Romney for President, Inc.
www.MittRomney.com

I don’t know. For some FredHeads this may be akin to a funeral home passing out business cards at an accident scene. But whether you like Romney’s campaign or not, they are certainly well organized.

Related posts:

• A Fred Thompson Irony
• Still Leaning Towards Fred
• Mike Huckabee’s Sunday Sermon at Prestonwood
• The Cluster Approach to the GOP Nomination
• The MPR Select a Candidate Quiz
• Memo to Evangelical Leaders on Romney
• Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
• Ravi Zacharias on Electing the Next President
• Should Christians Call Mormonism a Cult?
• Rudy, John, Mitt . . . and Fred?

It’s official. Fred Thompson has withdrawn from the 2008 Presidential Race.

“Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people.” (Press Release from Fred08)

Related posts:

• A Fred Thompson Irony
• Thompson Bloggers Contacted By Romney Campaign
• Still Leaning Towards Fred

Over 46 million children have been lost to abortion in the United States since the passing of Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973. Of course, it is hard to picture a number that big. This link provides a helpful way of visualizing the number 46 million all on one page. Make sure you click on the blue dot at the very end.

HT: Mirror of Justice

Click here for more abortion related posts.

(Note: Today is the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision which invalidated state laws prohibiting or restricting abortion.)

Justin Taylor recently interviewed Scott Klusendorf, author of the upcoming book: Equipped to Engage: Pro-Life Christians in the Brave New World. During the interview, Klusendorf shared what he believes are the top 5 pro-life books available today.

1. For newcomers to the debate, Randy Alcorn’s Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Questions (Multnomah, 1992; revised 1999) is terrific. Randy’s work is a valuable reference guide for lay people, highly readable, and meticulously organized so that the reader can pick and choose those parts of the book needed for the immediate pro-abortion challenge at hand …

2. For more seasoned readers, Francis J. Beckwith’s Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion-Choice (Cambridge University Press, 2007) is absolutely stellar. Indeed, this outstanding book is a favorite of advanced pro-life apologists everywhere. The arguments presented are lucid and hard-hitting, but the style is clearly more academic than Alcorn’s book. It’s one of the finest (if not the finest) systematic defenses of the pro-life position to date …

3. The third title is Ramesh Ponnuru’s excellent book The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life (Regency, 2006). Ramesh’s strengths lie in outlining the political implications of the debates over abortion and embryo research and how those debates have been hijacked within the Democratic Party, the Federal Courts, and the Media. His survey of the cultural and political landscape is breathtaking and second to none …

4. Fourth, there is Hadley Arke’s Natural Rights and the Right to Choose (Cambridge University Press, rev. ed., 2004). Hadley’s thesis is simple: If we can arbitrarily alter the definition of “man” to suit our preferences, and if nature provides no definition of a human being that we are obliged to respect, then we remove all claim to natural rights, including the right to an abortion. That’s key, because as you know, secular liberals insist that abortion is a fundamental human right the State should not infringe upon. Arkes simply wants to know where this alleged right to an abortion comes from. In other words, is it a natural right that springs from our nature as human beings or is it a positive (legal) right granted by government? If the latter, the abortion advocate cannot really complain that she is wronged if the State does not permit her to abort … In short, the defenders of abortion cannot tell us where rights come from or why anyone should have them. By advocating an alleged right to choose, they have talked themselves out of the very natural rights upon which their own freedoms are built.

5. Finally, we shouldn’t overlook Wesley J. Smith’s A Consumer’s Guide to a Brave New World (Encounter Books, 2004). The debate over human value has moved way beyond the abortion controversy. We’re now contending with human cloning, genetic engineering, and the creation of human-animal hybrids. As I said before, the very definition of what it means to be human is up for grabs. But how many churchgoers block out time to think seriously about what makes humans valuable in the first place? That, coupled with a deafening silence from our pulpits, and it’s no wonder many believers are ill-equipped to sift through the lies and deceptions coming out of big-biotech. Smith’s book gives Christians the tools they need to think clearly on these biotech issues.

Be sure to read the whole interview for more insights from Scott Klusendorf. Justin also interviews Robert P. George on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Click here for more abortion related posts.

There is some fresh discussion on an earlier post about Christianity and Mormonism. Feel free to click on the post and join the discussion!

• Should Christians Call Mormonism a Cult?

Related post:

• Beliefnet Debate: Are Mormons Christian?

Yesterday’s message in the God’s Good Creation Series was called Knowing God through His Creation, taken from Psalm 19:1-6.

Psalm 19:1-6: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat. (NIV)

The main idea of the message was that all of creation testifies to God’s goodness and glory. Here is the outline of the message:

I. God’s creation declares his glory. (1-2)
    A. The heavens speak forth the praises of God.
    B. The heavens reveal knowledge of God to man.
    C. God’s testimony to himself in creation is unmistakable.
        1) It is continuous.
        2) It is abundant.
        3) It is universal.

II. God’s creation speaks to all people everywhere. (3-4)
    A. There is no language barrier – it is understood by all.
    B. There is no volume barrier – it is heard by all.
    C. There is no distance barrier – it is given to all.

III. The sun is an example of God’s revelation in creation. (5-6)
    A. The sun is seen by all on earth.
        1) The sun is like a groom coming out of his chamber.
        2) The sun is like a champion running his race.

    B. The sun serves all who live on earth.
        1) It provides light and heat for everyone.
        2) It testifies to a good and powerful and gracious God.

Two warnings, one reminder, one action point:
    1) Do not mistake nature for God.
    2) Do not mistake nature for Christ.
    3) Remember that the present creation is distorted by sin.
    4) Learn to know and enjoy God through his creation.

Note: To read the complete message, go to the Sermons tab at the top of the blog.

Name that tune. A song is playing on the radio, and you wish you knew what it was. Call (866) 411-SONG, wait for the beep and hold your cell phone near the music for 15 seconds. 411-SONG will identify the song and send you a text message with the artist and song name and a link to get it if you are interested. The cost? First song ID is free. Subsequent ID’s are $0.99 each.

Steve Mathewson offers pastors good advice on what to do when the Bible contradicts your idea for a sermon. “The tension between ‘what you thought going in’ and ‘what you realize after further study’ causes the truth to make an even greater impression on you than if you had understood it going into your study process. Also, this tension can make the sermon idea more ‘sticky’ for your listeners. There’s something memorable about a sermon in which the preacher says, ‘The Bible surprised me this week.’”

Jim Martin offers encouraging words to those who may be feeling insecure about life or ministry: What You Do Really Matters. “I want to believe that if my work is offered up to the Lord, then it is significant ministry. I want to always believe that God does not measure things the way we do. Rather, he is the God who is able to make much out of little. He feeds thousands with five loaves of bread and two fish. He is the God who blesses the most unassuming ministry and turns it into a powerful force for his purposes.”

Albert Mohler responds to a column in the New York Times where the writer insists that she has no need for marriage, and that her private commitment to the man she loves is sufficient. “Marriage is not primarily about what we as individuals think we want or need. It is about a central public commitment that the society needs, that couples need, that children need, and yes, that the spouses need. Marriage is a public institution, not merely a private commitment. It identifies the couple as a pair committed to lifelong marriage and thus to be respected in this commitment.”

John Piper shares about the prayer responsibility that was handed down to him when his father passed away last year. “Now that he is with Jesus, I feel the weight of being the patriarch in the Piper family … There is no great-grandfather anymore, only grandfather, and it feels like a wonderful opportunity for me to love my grandchildren and my kids. I do that mainly through daily prayer. I name before God every day all of my children and all of my grandchildren the way Job did. Scripture says that Job got up and sacrificed for his children every day, if perchance they had sinned. I pray rather to try and keep them from sinning. Nonetheless, there is a prayer cover that I feel like I owe this Piper clan which my dad once kept up.”

Justin Taylor interviews Scott Klusendorf about his upcoming book: Equipped to Engage: Pro-Life Christians in the Brave New World. “The pro-life position has more explanatory power than the abortion-choice and pro-embryonic research ones. For example, advocates of elective abortion and embryonic stem cell research cannot account for basic human equality. If humans have value only because of some acquired property like consciousness, it follows that since this acquired property comes in varying degrees, basic human rights come in varying degrees. It’s far more reasonable to argue that although humans differ immensely in their respective degrees of development, they are nonetheless equal because they share a common human nature.”

I was surprised to read that CCM will be stopping the print version of its magazine. Although I have not read CCM in decades, I grew up on this magazine, and when I was a teen it played an important part in informing my faith through Christian music and artists that I enjoyed.

The April 2008 issue of the Christian music magazine CCM will be its last, Salem Communications announced late yesterday.

“CCM Magazine readers tell us they want more information and want it faster than can be delivered in a monthly printed magazine,” Jim Cumbee, Publisher and President of Non-Broadcast Media said in a press release. “Accordingly, we will discontinue the printed version of CCM Magazine to put increased energies toward the continued growth and enhancement of our comprehensive Christian music and entertainment online network.”

In the May 2007 issue of the magazine, editor Jay Swartzendruber announced that CCM no longer stood for “Contemporary Christian Music.” The acronym, he said, stood for “Christ • Community • Music,” and the magazine would shift away from covering Christian music by its label or distribution in an effort “to raise the profile of independent and general market artists of faith.”

So, do you know of other print magazines that have moved to online only? Is this the beginning of a trend for print media in general?