Weekly Web Roundup (4/15/17)

Photo Credit:
World Bank Photo Collection

Here is a collection of items from around the web that caught my attention over this past week:

'What a total God shot!' Understand that? Then you speak Christianese by Patrick Cox (PRI.org)

"This religious dialect is spoken by increasing numbers of English-speaking Christians, especially evangelicals. And it isn't just deployed for Bible study. Everyday non-religious conversation is also sprinkled with words from the scriptures, and phrases popularized by charismatic preachers and writers. So for example, instead of "results," you might hear a Christianese speaker refer to "fruits." Instead of "thoughtful," "intentional." Christanese can also depart slightly from English grammar: "My friend spoke into my life." "I was called to move to Nicaragua." It's code, a useful way for believers to seek out like-minded people."

Who Would Jesus Abort? Confessions of a “Christian” Abortion Doctor by Russell Moore

"The biggest hurdle, though, for Parker, is to redefine life itself. Like many in the abortion movement, Parker scoffs at the possibility of fetal personhood because the child is small, “no bigger, from crown to rump, than the first two digits of my pinkie finger,” and because the child cannot live, in most cases, on his or her own outside the womb. He seems to recognize though that lack of size and lack of power won’t be persuasive on their own, so he continues to what he sees as the real problem: the idea that life is “a miracle.” Parker writes that to say that “conception, or birth, or even death is ‘miraculous’ does an injustice to God.” Life is, instead, he argues, merely “a process.” As I read this abortion doctor’s repeated inveighing against the metaphor of “miracle” for human life, I could not help but be reminded of Wendell Berry’s manifesto against scientism and materialism, which he says demotes humanity from creature to machine. The rejection of the miracle of life, Berry wrote, leaves us with the coldness of abstraction."

How Single Women Became an Unstoppable Force in Bible Translation by Kate Shellnutt (Christianity Today)

"Though women in Bible translation are well represented in the field, they remain underrepresented in leadership positions. In recent years, SIL has worked to bring more women into administrative leadership, believing that “God works through women and men of every ethnic group and age level, and calls them to be involved in leadership roles in all facets of our organizational life.” Women mostly feel free to focus on the work they were called to in the first place—getting more people access to the Bible in their own languages—but the pressure’s still there. Everyone on the mission field works hard and sacrifices much; women may notice themselves working extra hard to demonstrate their contributions."

How Isiah Thomas became the greatest Detroit Piston ever by Bill Dow (Detroit Free Press)

"And then there was Isiah Lord Thomas III, the player whose impact turned around the once floundering franchise and laid the foundation for the construction of one of the premier arenas in basketball, especially for its time. Thomas blossomed into the Pistons' fearless leader during his career, cementing a legacy befitting of his middle name. During his 13-year career, he established himself as one of the greatest “small men” in NBA history. A dangerous shooter and spectacular playmaker, he still is the franchise’s all-time leader in points (18,822), assists (9,061), steals (1,861) and minutes played (35,516). The 12-time All-Star was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and was named to the NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time team. “Simply put, Isiah Thomas was the difference maker and the key to the franchise’s success,” says Tom Wilson, the former Pistons president and CEO and right-hand man to the late club owner Bill Davidson. Wilson was the project manager of the Palace and first suggested the pioneering concourse-level suites. The arena opened in 1988. “Internally," Wilson said, "we called the Palace 'The House that Isiah Built.' "

That's My King Dr. S.M. Lockridge

In honor of the commemoration and celebration of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ that Christians around the worldwide recognize this weekend, here's a video that reminds us about the King of Kings.

What Will We Do With Jesus?

Photo Credit: Daniel Y. Go

I post the following words each year during Holy Week. This piece was written by Douglas McKelvey for the liner notes of the Jesus miniseries soundtrack in 2000 and offers one of the most insightful pictures of Jesus Christ that I've ever seen written outside of Scripture.

For those of us that consider ourselves to be followers of this Nazarene carpenter, I trust it serves as a poignant reminder as we remember the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord:

"What do we do with this Jesus? This was the question on every one's mind at the swing-point of history 2000 years ago. The Jews, the Romans, Herod, Pilate, the High Priests, even Jesus' own disciples - they all found themselves wrestling with the same perplexing question: "What do we do with this man?"

For some reason he didn't seem to fit very conveniently into anyone's agenda - personal, national, religious or otherwise. The Jews wanted a warrior king to drive the occupying Roman army out of the promised land. The Romans wanted to maintain and expand their empire over the known world. Everyone else just wanted what people everywhere have always wanted: pleasure and prosperity and to be left alone.

Jesus came along and upset all of that. He refused power. He didn't seek fame. He treated the pleasures of this life as inconsequential. He humbled himself as a servant and his selflessness alone became a walking indictment of all human agendas - base and noble alike.  It's no wonder he made people nervous. He was like a splinter in the soul. Even those who despised him couldn't ignore him. They buzzed around him constantly, angry and perplexed.

In their defense, his presence must have been a bit overwhelming. The story of his life on earth is more than we seem eager to contend with today, but people then had no choice but to physically rub shoulders with him. They walked the same dusty roads and breathed the same air. There wasn't any getting away from it. He kept popping up at odd moments, infuriating people with his compassion, perplexing them with his gentle wisdom, and frightening them with his unbearable love. And then there was the whole business about claiming to be the Son of God.

Truth is, Jesus was an absolute scandal. He taught that the least were the greatest, the rejected were the blessed, the wise were the foolish, the weak were the strong, and the secure were the lost. He taught that people should selflessly love, not just their friends and families - which would have been difficult enough - but strangers and enemies as well. He called on those possessed by their possessions to leave their wealth behind to follow him into a life of uncertain suffering for the one promised consolation of his love.

His words grew so appalling one afternoon that many of his followers gave it up for good and returned home, muttering that his teaching was too hard. They had had enough. Those who stayed were apparently in too deep already. Most scandalous of all was the way Jesus publicly and persistently rejected the proud, self-righteous religious leaders of the day and instead drew prostitutes, half-breeds, political revolutionaries, smelly fisherman, and turncoat tax-collectors into his circle of friends - all of whom soon and somehow found themselves, by his very acceptance, transformed from what they had always thought they were into a new existence as children of God.

It's one of the eternal ironies surrounding Jesus that those who allowed the exposure of their own weakness, shame, and guilt were the very ones who were afterward able to drink with joy from the fountains of eternal forgiveness and love, while those who fought desperately to prop up their own crumbling facades of self-righteousness were in the end reduced to a ridiculous position, raging blindly against love and their own liberation. Jesus was always hard to take that way - an insult, even - because beneath it all, it seemed that everyone needed him whether they wanted to or not, prostitutes and Pharisees alike.

And that really was the crux of the problem. His very nature exposed the heart and forced the hand of everyone around him so that in the end, after the haze and baggage burned away, it was all laid out pretty simply. You were left with only two possible ways of answering the question "What do we do with this Jesus?" You could either follow him or you could crucify him. 2000 years of science, progress and religion don't seem to have changed things for us all that much. The human heart is still the human heart. Nuclear power, psychotherapy, and satellite television notwithstanding, most of us still find ourselves - in our more honest moments - faced with the same troubling question and the same simple options that perplexed Christ's contemporaries...

"What do we do with this Jesus?" It is something to think about..."

May we each take some time in the coming days to reflect on the One who gave His life so that we could live.

Why Is Earth Day The Same As Good Friday This Year?

Photo Credit: FlyingSinger

You have probably noticed that the Christian holy day of Good Friday and Earth Day, a day devoted to care for the earth, happened to fall on the same day this year, April 22nd. You may be asking yourself if this was a ploy by environment-alists to co-opt one of the most significant days in the Christian calendar or if there was some other reason for this occurrence? As it turns out, it is mere coincidence.

As you know, Easter does not have a set day each year, such as Christmas (December 25th) or Valentine's Day (February 14th). It changes from year to year and unlike other holidays that shift each year like Thanksgiving (which always falls on the fourth Thursday of November), there is a several week period in which Easter can land. So why does the date of Easter change each year? About.com provides a simple explanation:

"At the heart of the matter lies a very simple explanation. The early church fathers wished to keep the observance of Easter in correlation to the Jewish Passover. Because the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ happened after the Passover, they wanted Easter to always be celebrated subsequent to the Passover. And, since the Jewish holiday calendar is based on solar and lunar cycles, each feast day is movable, with dates shifting from year to year. Now, from here the explanation grows more complicated.

Today in Western Christianity, Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon date of the year. I had previously, and somewhat erroneously stated, "Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the vernal (spring) equinox." This statement was true prior to 325 A.D.; however, over the course of history (beginning in 325 A.D. with the Council of Nicea), the Western Church decided to established a more standardized system for determining the date of Easter.

In actuality, the date of the Paschal Full Moon is determined from historical tables, and has no correspondence to lunar events.  As astronomers were able to approximate the dates of all the full moons in future years, the Western Christian Church used these calculations to establish a table of Ecclesiastical Full Moon dates. These dates would determine the Holy Days on the Ecclesiastical calendar.

Though modified slightly from its original form, by 1583 A.D. the table for determining the Ecclesiastical Full Moon dates was permanently established and has been used ever since to determine the date of Easter. Thus, according to the Ecclesiastical tables, the Paschal Full Moon is the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon date after March 20 (which happened to be the vernal equinox date in 325 A.D.). So, in Western Christianity, Easter is always celebrated on the Sunday immediately following the Paschal Full Moon.

The Paschal Full Moon can vary as much as two days from the date of the actual full moon, with dates ranging from March 21 to April 18. As a result, Easter dates can range from March 22 through April 25 in Western Christianity."

So, yes, it is not just your imagination that Easter was rather late for 2011. It is. This now brings our discussion to Earth Day and why it is on the same day as Good Friday this year. Since Easter is a movable date, this also means that Good Friday (recognized as the Friday immediately preceding Easter Sunday) is also movable.

However, Earth Day is recognized on a fixed date, April 22nd.  Created in 1970 by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day is celebrated by like-minded individuals that seek to demonstrate care and concern for the planet on which we live.  Since Good Friday fell later this year than usual, it just happened to coincide with Earth Day.  Sorry folks but there's no major conspiracy here to take away a Christian holy day.

What is interesting about this confluence of events is that there is a substantial portion of the evangelical Christian community that snubs its nose at any and all kinds of concern for the environment. I recall once sitting in a Bible study where one of the members asserted that our children should not be watching Barney because he advocates the "environment and stuff." I never did quite understand that argument. I don't want my kids watching Barney because those songs get stuck in my head, not because the friendly dinosaur encourages recycling.

On the other hand, there is a significant number of non-religious types that lift the earth and the environment up as diety and seem much more concerned about trees than actual human life. The Apostle Paul addressed this inclination to worship the created rather than the Creator in the first chapter of the book of Romans:

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."

Photo Credit: Onilad

As a Bible-believing evangelical Christian, I do not feel that I need to make a decision today on whether I should recognize either Good Friday or Earth Day. I can acknowledge both. On one hand, I celebrate the wonder of God's creation and seek to be a good steward of the earth He has entrusted to us. But today I also recognize the One who created the earth and the galaxies of the universe. Jesus Christ, who lived, died, was buried and rose from the dead, is the One who made it all happen anyway:

"The Son [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." ~ Colossians 1:15-20

I care about the earth but I care much more about the One who died for my sin.  So today when you recycle that newspaper or minimize pollution by walking instead of driving, don't forget to thank the One who gave you the eyes to read and the legs to walk.  But, most importantly, thank Him for his sacrifice on the Cross so that our sins could be forgiven.  A saved tree is nice but a saved soul is even better.

How Did Bunnies & Eggs Get Associated With Christ's Resurrection?

Photo Credit: StSaling

A Seattle-area school has drawn fire from Christians due to reports that school officials required a student to refer to Easter eggs as "spring spheres." Though some people question the validity of these reports, stories like this are used as evidence by many Christians to point to the bias that exists against us when attempting to celebrate the important holidays of our faith.

While I am a big advocate that all Americans should have the freedom to express their beliefs, I do wonder if many of the Christians that are angry about the situation in Seattle could explain what exactly colored eggs have to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Like many other holidays celebrated within the United States, Easter is a combination of Christian practices, pagan celebrations and other rituals of non-Christian traditions. While I don't personally have a problem with taking part in the more mainstream activities of Christian holidays, it is fitting for us to remember the true meaning behind the celebration.

Pastor Mark Driscoll does a good job of providing a brief but helpful explanation of the origins of Easter here and comments on how bunnies and eggs came to be associated with this important Christian holiday.  After providing some insight upon the origins of the holiday, he shares some deeper reflections:

"Easter is still celebrated as a major holiday all around the globe, but the truth of Jesus' gory crucifixion and glorious resurrection is often obscured by the garish cartoon bunny in the stores and the gaudy displays of springtime fashion among the religious. Traditions of cute bunnies, marshmallowy creatures, colored eggs, and little girls in pink dresses are harmless enough, but at the same time we must not let anything obstruct our view of the earth-shattering reality represented by Easter. There's nothing cute or cuddly about the fact that we killed God. When we were his enemies, he came to us, suffered in our place through the horror that was Good Friday, and rose from his grave on Easter Sunday so that we will one day rise from ours. The curse is broken, and we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus because we know we will one day experience it (1 Cor. 15:20-23). Let's be joyful, let's never shrink from speaking about Jesus' death and resurrection, and let's never trivialize it."

If I'm to expend my energy defending an aspect of Easter, it won't be about bunnies or eggs. It will be, though, about the veracity of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. If you'd like to explore some of the historical evidence for the resurrection of Christ, please check out this article from Dr. William Lane Craig.  Candy and eggs and an imaginary bunny don't get me all that excited, but the Son of God conquering sin and death sure does.

My Redeemer Lives

I woke up yesterday with the song "Redeemer" by Nicole C Mullen running through my head. It offers a glorious picture of the Messiah who gave His life for yours and mine. The importance of the resurrection of Christ is particularly significant to me this Easter season in light of the challenges that life has thrown my way in recent months. But I realize some of the difficulties and disappointments that I have face pale in comparison to what many others are going through.

I had the chance to visit my good friend, Chris Restuccia, this morning. Chris is courageously fighting cancer, which is now in Stage 4, and has had some complications recently. He's lost a lot of weight and is in the hospital once again in order to get a feeding tube inserted so that he can get the nutrition he needs. His cancer is of the esophagus, has spread to his lungs and has affected his digestive system dramatically. His attitude is positive but we know that it will take God to intervene to heal him.

I trust that God will choose to heal my friend and he'll have many years together with his wife and children. But whether Chris lives on this earth for many more years or not, we take comfort in knowing that the grave has already been conquered. Jesus won against sin and sickness and death over 2,000 years ago and all those that place their faith in Him have the promise of eternal life. I am so glad that my Redeemer lives.

Redeemer by Nicole C Mullen

Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning
Who told the ocean you can only come this far?
Who showed the moon where to hide 'til evening
Whose words alone can catch a falling star?

Well I know my Redeemer lives
I know my Redeemer lives
All of creation testify
This life within me cries
I know my Redeemer lives

The very same God that spins things in orbit
He runs to the weary, the worn and the weak
And the same gentle hands that hold me when I'm broken
They conquered death to bring me victory

Now I know my Redeemer lives
I know my Redeemer lives
Let all creation testify
Let this life within me cry
I know my Redeemer, He lives

To take away my shame
And He lives forever I'll proclaim
That the payment for my sin
Was the precious life He gave
But now He's alive
And there's an empty grave.

And I know my Redeemer,
He lives
I know my Redeemer lives
Let all creation testify
This life within me cries
I know my Redeemer lives

Here is a moving live performance of this song. Please click here if the video player doesn't show up.