March 2009

(Tim) Tonight, March 27th, is our first opportunity to hear The Good Shepherd Band play songs from their recently released EP, Wake Up Sleeper. The free concert starts this evening at 8 PM, at Church of the Good Shepherd. Opening for them will be The Runaway Davids from Nashville, TN. If you haven’t downloaded Wake Up Sleeper, yet, do it now.

And those of you looking forward to getting your hands on the Wake Up Sleeper CD, they'll be available at the concert tonight.

So, if you're in Bloomington or close enough to drive, invite your friends and come on over. We’d love to have you.

But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities... (Acts 16:19)

(Tim, w/thanks to Lucas) A Greek Bible web site used by lovers of God's Word around the world has been shut down by the German/United Bible Society. Why?

Because they are intent upon defending the stream of money they've lived off for many years, now, provided by the Greek text of God's Word they've assembled. They claim their text is the closest anyone can possibly get to the original autographs inspired by the Holy Spirit.

So think about this. The better they do their job, the closer they will be to claiming copyright for the very word of God. In an e-mail, my son-in-law, Lucas, put it this way:

I was trying to figure out what, exactly, the UBS was copyrighting when they produce their version of the Greek New Testament. My only guess is that when they produce a Greek New Testament, they are copyrighting their specific choice of words. In other words, their copyright is not so much on the words themselves, but on the precise sequence of Greek words in their version of the Greek New Testament.

Their ultimate goal, of course, is to produce a Greek New Testament that is *exactly* the same as the original. But here's the crazy part: If they succeed in their goal, they will have succeeded in copyrighting the *actual* text of the Greek New Testament--not a translation, but the real thing.

Is that not crazy? If I'm right, then you can state it another way: the goal of the UBS is to copyright the *original* text of Scripture.

The head spins...

(Tim) Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, "The cruelest lies are often told in silence," and as I noted a week or so ago, it's been interesting to watch how the recent post about Emergency Contraception (sic) Pills, birth control, and abortion has been carefully avoided by men, but embraced by women. There are lessons here, one of which I think is that pastors today are about as concerned about the blood guilt of our sheep as the chief priests and elders were about the blood guilt of Judas when he came to them in anguish, confessing...

(Tim) Yesterday, our text was Matthew 27:1-10, the account of Judas' repentance and suicide. What a terrible end he chose!

Then, this morning, I read the following meditation Michael Foster put up on Facebook and I got thinking about Judas, again. Judas was paid handsomely to betray Jesus and did so by kissing him. The Apostle Paul resisted Peter to his face. Two men and two public actions that shouldn't be hard to interpret. Yet Judas was our Lord's enemy and Paul was Peter's friend. Appearances are deceiving, aren't they?

Here's Michael's helpful post...

...were Ft. Lauderdale, New York, San Francisco, or Bloomington the Apostle Paul's Athens, he'd focus his call to repentance precisely at our rebellion against the Eternal Fatherhood of God.

(Tim) It's been a long strange trip Tully's been documenting over on his blog detailing the process of his merging the two churches he wanted to serve and becoming the pastor of the new two-become-one Coral Ridge Presbyterian (PCA) Church. I've read thousands of words there and elsewhere, and nary a mention of the need for approval of the call by South Florida Presbytery. As Tully put it, if last Lord's Day's vote on his call was good, it would all be over. Done. Finis.

If the vote is unanimous or nearly so, we move forward. If it’s not, we stop. This is the final step in the process.

Really, Tully? The "final step"?

Well, err; actually not. There is that matter of my examination by South Florida Presbytery that comes two days later. But we all know that's merely a technicality. A formality. A fait accompli. I mean, who's going to say "no" to Billy Graham's grandson or Coral Ridge?

Keep in mind that Tully has been a presbyter for years, now. He knows presbtery's vote is "the final step" that determines whether he and Coral Ridge will "move forward" or "stop."

Two days after it was announced to the world, South Florida Presbytery examined Tully concerning his views and then voted whether or not to permit him to take the pulpit of Coral Ridge...