What about my cousin? Can I now marry my cousin? What about my 12 year old daughter? Can my wife and I marry her? You wouldn’t discriminate against a 12 year old would you? What if it’s love? Did I mention my pet? Don’t forget animal rights. Suddenly you seem to be so intolerant. You are going to end up on the wrong side of history.

Talk about moral confusion! Confusion is when everything is mixed up and those who want to redefine marriage are certainly mixed up.

“Never reduce Christianity to a matter of demands and resolutions and willpower. It is a matter of what we love, what we delight in, what tastes good to us. When Jesus came into the world humanity was split according to what they loved. “The light came into the world and men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19). The righteous and the wicked are separated by what they delight in—the revelation of God or the way of the world.”
– From John Piper, Delighting in the Law of God – Psalms 1

Humpty Dumpty and Alice. From Through the Looking-Glass. Illustration by John Tenniel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master—that’s all.'”

Redemption’s Song

(c) by J. Gary Ellison, April 4, 2012

See Him there upon the cross
As He dies in shame
We’re the ones who nailed Him there,
We’re the ones to blame.

It was for crimes He had not done,
Our sins that caused His pain.
He knew no sin, the Righteous One,
For sinners He was slain.

O Lamb of God on sacred tree
T’was there You died for me
To take away my sin and shame
That righteous I might be.

That Holy One did bear our sin
No other one could do.
He is the Lamb, the spotless One,
Who died for me and you.

Holy, innocent, undefiled,
On Him our sins were laid,
To cleanse us from our awful deeds
The penalty He paid.

O Righteous One, I hear you now,
“It’s finished! It is done!” —
The work on Calvary’s bloody cross —
The victory’s been won!

They laid Him in a borrowed grave
He would not use it long.
God raised Him up that He might save,
This is Redemption’s song.

Making disciples by going, baptizing and teaching people the Word of Christ and then enabling them to do the same thing in other people’s lives – this is the plan God has for each of us to impact nations for the glory of Christ.

This plan seems so counterintuitive to our way of thinking. In a culture where bigger is always better and flashy is always more effective, Jesus beckons each of us to plainly, humbly, and quietly focus our lives on people. The reality is, you can’t share life like this with masses and multitudes. Jesus didn’t. He spent three years with twelve guys. If the Son of God thought it necessary to focus his life on a small group of men, we are fooling ourselves to think we can mass-produce disciples today. God’s design for taking the gospel to the world is a slow, intentional, simple process that involves every one of his people sacrificing every facet of their lives to multiply the life of Christ in others.

David Platt, pastor of The Church at Brook Hills and author of Radical

HT:http://ministryu.org/

From Justin Taylor

I’m not sure exactly why now, but there’s been a spate of new reviews of The Shack of late.

Here are three new blog posts:

• Tim Keller, “The Shack—Impressions“
• Albert Mohler, “The Shack—The Missing Art of Evangelical Discernment“
• Fred Sanders, “Making the Most of The Shack“

And here are three recent reviews:

• Timothy Beal, “Theology for Everyone,” The Chronicle of Higher Education (January 15, 2010), pp. B16-17. [subscription required]
• Katherine Jeffrey, “‘I Am Not Who You Think I Am’—Situating The Shack in a Christian Literary Landscape,” Books & Culture (January/February 2010), pp. 33-34.
• James B. DeYoung, “Book Review: The Shack by William Paul Young” (PDF)

See also The Shack Attack

Technorati Tags: The Shack,Doctrine,Books

He Was Wounded for Our Transgressions

(Isaiah 52:13-53:12, ESV)

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.

53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

You will find many helpful reviews on the web. The first three are particularly helpful:

• A very helpful review by Tim Challies.
• A good one-page review can be found here: SHACK ATTACK- OR A CALL TO DISCERNMENT?
• Alan Dunn, Pastor of Grace Covenant Baptist Church Flemington, NJ, has written an in depth review called “The Faulty Foundation of The Shack”: Part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry also has a good review.

These articles have some helpful information:

• False god of ‘The Shack’ is the A.A. ‘higher power’
• Why is The Shack so successful?

If that’s not enough to get your started, check out Shane Trammel’s Blog for more links.

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HT: Justin Taylor