We put our house up for sale this week. Click here for some pictures.

Earlier this week I shared a quote from Kevin DeYoung’s book, Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will. Here is another good quote to ponder:

Of the five reasons for our obsession with finding God’s will, this may be the most crucial: We have too many choices. I’m convinced that previous generations did not struggle like we do trying to discover God’s will because they didn’t have as many choices. In many ways, our preoccupation with the will of God is a Western, middle-class phenomenon of the last fifty years … My hunch is that most of our obsession with knowing the will of God is due to the fact that we are overburdened with choice. (Just Do Something, p. 16)

What do you think?

Related post: Just Do Something

I know people may have some questions about our upcoming move, so I thought I would answer them here.

1. Why are you leaving your present church?

We are moving for family reasons and to be closer to family back south.

Are you leaving because of conflict in the church? No. Agawam Church is a wonderful, peaceable church family with little to no conflict. I would not want the news of my moving to reflect badly on the church in any way.

Are you leaving because you were caught in some sin? Ooh, the juicy stuff. No. Although I confess sin daily, I am not being asked to step down because of some disqualifying sin in my life.

Are you leaving because of financial reasons? No. Agawam Church of the Bible has always provided well for me and my family.

2. Where are you going?

I wish I knew! We are focusing on Florida, Georgia and Texas, but we want to remain open to wherever God might lead us.

3. When are you planning to move?

The “when” depends on a number of things, including the “where” in the list above! We are probably looking at a 3-6 month window before we can move. We need to find a new place of ministry, we need to sell our home, and we need to make sure there is a smooth transition for our church on this end.

4. Does your church know you are leaving?

Yes. This is something that I have been discussing with the church elders for some time and shared with the church family several weeks ago.

5. What kind of a church are you looking for?

I have served mostly in Baptist and independent churches. I am committed to expository preaching from God’s Word, teaching and discipleship, missions and evangelism. You can find more information about me at my Pastoral Profile page.

6. Is there anything we can do to help?

Yes. You can help me network by passing my information on to any churches you know that may be looking for a pastor. If you are a blogger, feel free to mention our move as a point of interest and post a link to my profile. Also, please email me if you know of an open church opportunity.

And you can pray.

      1) Pray for us as we seek the new place God has for us.
      2) Pray for a smooth transition for Agawam Church of the Bible.
      3) Pray for the new pastor God will be calling ACB’s way.

Thanks! We look forward to seeing where God would have us serve next.

Related posts:
    • Church Search
    • Big Change for the Fowler Family
    • Pastoral Profile

• WWJD The Movie. Nasser Entertainment will begin filming What Would Jesus Do, based on the classic novel, In his Steps, by Charles Sheldon.
• Dawn Treader Sets Sail for the Gold Coast. Pre-production for the third Narnia film should start on the Gold Coast of Australia next month. It looks like they will be using these water tank facilities for filming.
• Declining Notre Dame. Mary Ann Glendon, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, explains why she declined the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame in an open letter to the president of the university.
• Superbowl Winning Coach Tony Dungy’s New Prison Ministry. “He could have absolutely been doing anything else, but decided to spend time with us,” said inmate Traveguz Butler, 34, serving a 30-year sentence.

Kevin DeYoung has a new book out on finding God’s will called Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will. This looks like a great book, especially for high school or college-age students. Here is a sample quote:

In short, God’s will is that you and I get happy and holy in Jesus. So go marry someone, provided you’re equally yoked and you actually like being with each other. Go get a job, provided it’s not wicked. Go live somewhere in something with somebody or nobody. But put aside the passivity and the quest for complete fulfillment and the perfectionism and the preoccupation with the future, and for God’s sake start making some decisions in your life. Don’t wait for the liver-shiver. If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be in God’s will, so just go out and do something. (Just Do Something, p. 61)

On the same topic, I would also recommend the following:

• Decision Making and the Will of God, by Gary Friesen. Friesen’s book presented a new paradigm when it was first published in 1980 and influenced many of the books that followed. This one is longer and more in-depth than the others, a true classic in its field.
• Finding the Will of God, by Bruce Waltke. Waltke does a good job of explaining why some of the more popular methods of finding God’s will are closer to paganism than Biblical Christianity.
• Discovering God’s Will for Your Life, by Ray Pritchard. Pritchard’s book is practical, readable, and Biblical with lots of examples.

Do you know of other good books or resources on knowing God’s will that you would recommend?

I would appreciate your prayers for us at this time as we are looking at moving back south to be closer to family. We are now in our fifth year here at Agawam Church of the Bible. I am going to miss this church and all the wonderful people here, but it is time for us to go.

We are still looking for God’s next place for us, so if you know of any churches that are looking for pastors, please pass this information along. We are especially looking at Florida, Georgia, or along the Gulf Coast of Texas, but we want to go where God calls us and are seeking his will in this first.

I have put together a Pastoral Profile Page with materials for prospective churches: resume, ministry statement, statement of faith, theology of ministry, family profile, and sermon links. Click here to access the Pastoral Profile Page.

Once again, please pass this information on to any interested churches you may know. Thank you!

Related posts:
    • Church Search
    • Questions and Answers about Our Upcoming Move
    • Pastoral Profile

Yesterday’s message in the Gospel of Mark series was called Everything Changes, taken from Mark 2:18-22. The main idea of the message was that when Jesus comes, everything changes. Here is a brief outline of the message:

    1) Everything changed when Jesus came (verses 18-20)
    2) The old is incompatible with the new (verses 21-22a)
    3) Your life must change to accommodate Christ (verse 22b)
        – the change that only God can bring
        – the changes you make in cooperation with God

Note: Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.

Randy Harris sums up the book of Revelation in three lines:
    1. God’s team wins.
    2. Choose your team.
    3. Don’t be stupid.

Thomas Nagel talks about his fear of religion. “I speak from experience, being strongly subject to this fear myself: I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and, naturally, hope that I’m right in my belief. It’s that I hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.” (The Last Word, pp. 130-131)

R. A. Torrey explains why we don’t always understand God’s ways. “It will solve a great many of our perplexities when we come to see that God knows more than we do … If a child of six or seven should undertake to criticize the teachings of a profound philosopher of fifty or sixty, we would not take it as an indication of the child’s wisdom but simply of the child’s foolish conceit. But it would not be as foolish as the ripest philosopher undertaking to criticize God. Man never appears more ridiculous than when he tries to tell what an infinitely wise God must do.”

Earlier reports suggested that the two-part Hobbit movie (due out in December 2011 and 2012) would present the book in the first movie and a sequel in the second. Producer Peter Jackson and director Guillermo Del Toro have now confirmed that both movies will cover just the story of The Hobbit.

“We’ve decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur,” says Del Toro.

“We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie,” adds Jackson. “The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy.”

So there you go. The second film will not, as had previously been suggested, a film that will bridge the 60-year gap between The Hobbit and the start of Fellowship Of The Ring.

Click here for more Tolkien related posts.

Related posts:
    • Peter Jackson Will Produce The Hobbit Movie(s)
    • The Hunt for Gollum Movie Trailer

Kevin DeYoung just finished up a series on high places in the church today. In the Old Testament the high places represented blind spots for the kings of Israel and Judah. DeYoung writes:

Several times in Kings and Chronicles we are told that so-and-so did what was right, except…except for the high places. This little bit of pagan influence, this little capitulation to the culture was too ingrained in their thinking to be seen. Or if it was seen, it seemed too normal to think of doing anything about it.

DeYoung highlights five areas that may be high places for the church today.

1. The lack of psalm singing in our churches
2. Worldliness in entertainment
3. The idolatry of youth
4. Our lack of church discipline
5. Prayerlessness

What do you think? Do these represent blind spots for the modern church? What other areas might be high places for the church today?

Related post: The Sin of Prayerlessness Series

A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, by Paul Miller looks like a great new book on prayer. Here are some recommendations for the book:

“Paul Miller refuses to separate the spiritual life from the rest of our daily living. In A Praying Life, he shows the difference that constant communication with Christ makes in the everyday experiences of life, especially the life of the family. Reading this book will help you make prayer a more important part of your own life story by integrating prayer into the daily routines of life.”
 - Dr. Philip Ryken, Senior Minister, Tenth Presbyterian Church

“A Praying Life is a deeply moving testimony to God’s power in prayer. Paul Miller shares his life and biblical wisdom to instill in us, his readers, a “heart that becomes a factory of prayer” – that is, a passion to speak to God honestly and in a way that will change our life and the lives of others for whom we pray.”
 - Tremper Longman III, Professor of Biblical Studies, Westmont College

“Honest, realistic, mature, wise, deep. Warmly recommended.”
 - J.I. Packer, Professor of Theology, Regent College

“Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work.” Paul Miller’s superb book calls us back to this ‘greater work,’ reminding us of the joy we find in our Lord’s presence and equipping us with practical insight on how to recapture the intimacy and power of a praying life”
 - Ken Sande, President, Peacemaker Ministries

“This is as fine a book on prayer that you will ever read, but it is so much more. It is the story of our struggle to actually live like we believe our Heavenly Father really does love us. If we did, nothing could keep us from being committed to the day-by-day hard work of prayer. Paul exegetes our struggle in a way that is convicting, insight giving, and encouraging. This is a book on prayer that actually makes you want to pray!”
 - Paul David Tripp, President, Paul Tripp Ministries

Related post: The Sin of Prayerlessness Series

Today we are continuing our series of posts on the ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research (ESCR). One of the arguments raised in favor of using leftover embryos in fertility clinics for research is that they are going to die anyway. So why not put them to good use saving lives? Scott Klusendorff in his interview with Crossway Publishers offers the following interesting thought experiment to help us see what is wrong with this argument.

There are moral considerations that call into question “they’re going to die anyway” argument. Suppose you oversee a Cambodian orphanage with 200 toddlers that are abandoned. The facility cannot care for them any longer. Water levels are critically low and food supplies are exhausted. It’s only a matter of time before starvation and disease set in. A scientist has offered to take the toddlers off your hands and use them for grisly medical research designed to cure cancer. He confronts you with the hard facts: Many of these children will die soon and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it, so why let all those organs go to waste? Nonetheless, you refuse. You could never, even for a moment, consider turning the kids over to the scientist on grounds that “these kids are going to die anyway so let’s put them to good use.” True, given your impoverished circumstances, you are powerless to save them, but you would never be complicit in actively killing vulnerable human beings, which is what ESCR does.

Related posts:
    • Scott Klusendorf on Embryonic Stem Cell Research
    • Alternatives to Embyronic Stem Cell Research