A Thinking Man's Thoughts

So Who's at the Next Table, Anyway?

2011-10-04T00:04:00.000-04:00

"So Who's at the Next Table, Anyway?" - That is the title of a recent post by my friend and fellow bi-vocational pastor (in Scotland) Jon Gleason.

Pastor Gleason is a good thinker and a great pastor. I have really enjoyed his comments and writings in a number of areas over the last few years. He has recently begun a new blog called Mind Renewers that I have found to be very thoughtful and very pastoral. I have added his blog to my blog list on the left side of this blog and I encourage you to visit and read there often. You will challenged and you will be edified.

In the post linked to above, Pastor Gleason relates two experiences of overhearing conversations in restaurants (one serious and one humorous) and then encourages us with some piercing thoughts in conclusion:

Who is listening when we start exercising our jaw bones and wagging our tongues? Do you know who is at the next table? How would we moderate our speech if someone different were sitting next to us? What would we be saying about someone if the person at the next table is his neighbour or cousin (maybe it is)?

...

Both cases reminded me of the need to give consideration to the question: ”Who might be listening?”

Make sure you go over to his blog and read his last sentence - for it is the crux of the whole thought and one that we all ought to consider.

Just someone else's thoughts,

Frank

Milltown Pride

2011-06-11T13:04:00.001-04:00

Last night, Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury hosted the Regional Premiere of Milltown Pride, a new film from Unusual Films (a division of Bob Jones University).

It was good to see some folks out for the film and I pray the film was an encouragement to those who came out. For those who were unable to make it out, we are planning a second showing of the film on the evening of July 15.

Milltown Pride follows the path of Will Wright as he pursues his dream of playing baseball in the big leagues. Growing up in a wealthy family, Will leaves the wealth of his home and family in pursuit of his dream as he goes to play baseball for the local Newton Mill in the Mill League and signs up for a job at the mill in order to be able to play.

While the bigger setting is the baseball that caries the picture, the reality is that baseball is not the only struggle for young Will Wright - or even the most important struggle. Will struggles with alcohol and anger, but most importantly, Will struggles with pride - as he thinks he can do everything on his own, not realizing that it is in Christ that "we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28).

How often do we find ourselves choosing to go "our own way?" Whether the path is baseball, booze, or business - when we focus our choices on what we want instead of what God wants, we have made a foolish choice and placed ourselves on the throne of our lives instead of living with God on the throne of our lives.

Who is on the throne of your life? Whose direction and desires are you pursuing? When you make choices throughout the day, who are you choosing to please - God or self? When you make a choice today about your entertainment choices - will you choose to please God or yourself? When you make a choice this week about being in God's house for the services - will you choose to please God or yourself? When you make choices about how to spend your life - are you choosing to please God or to please yourself?

May God help us all to choose to please Him.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Free Puritan Books (for Kindle)

2011-05-28T00:44:00.000-04:00

Some of you know that one of my favorite toys/tools of the last couple of years was the Kindle that my wife got me for Christmas a couple of years ago. In fact, in my seminar on reading that I did at last year's Annual Conference of the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches, I spent some time discussing the use of electronic readers and may have helped Amazon sell a couple of Kindles in the process.

Unfortunately, my Kindle died while we were down at BJU for Bible Conference in March (I tried to make it fit into an area it could not fit and broke the screen).

However, with the way Kindle has developed over the last couple of years, you can still access any of your previously purchased Kindle books through other Kindle applications, such as the Kindle for PC application that I use.

Now, a Kindle on your PC is not nearly as good as a Kindle in your hand, but ... it will do in a pinch - especially if you think you may eventually get a Kindle (or replace your broken Kindle).

One of the nice things about Kindles is that there is often a good amount of free content that is made available from time to time. Most older classics are already available free, but even newer books come up from time to time and some of the older religious books become available as someone takes the time to convert them into the Kindle format.

I noticed some recent free additions to the Kindle library that I thought I would pass on to those who still happen to read this on occasion.

Over at Bring the Books, the author has converted a number of Puritan (and other older works) into Kindle format - including The Sovereignty of God by A. W. Pink, The Complete Works of John Bunyan, Spurgeon's Commentary on Matthew and Sermons on Proverbs, Christian in Complete Armour (William Gurnall's three-volume work on Ephesians 6), William Wilberforce's Practical Christianity (which Jim Berg refers to at length in Essential Virtues), biographies of John G. Paton, George Mueller, and J. Hudson Taylor, and many more works by men like Richard Sibbes, John Owen, Thomas Manton, and more.

The link for the Free Kindle Books is here - http://www.bringthebooks.org/search/label/Free%20Kindle%20Book

Even if you have some of these in dead tree editions, at least some of these may be useful in electronic format due to the ability to search through the electronic book in a much faster way.

Anyway, hope you find this useful.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

NCAA Championship - and Results of A Thinking Man's Tourney Time

2011-04-04T19:02:00.000-04:00

OOOOOOOOppppsss!! Sorry!

I just discovered that I accidently put this post up at the church blog (The Pastor's Pen) rather than here at my personal blog (A Thinking Man's Thoughts). This was posted on the Monday of the Championship game (and I am going to publish it as though it was here on that date so that I can find it easier next year if I need to do so).

Tonight is the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Game between the University of Connecticut Huskies and the Butler Bulldogs.

The fact that these two teams are in the Finals is extraordinary in a lot of ways. I have not had a lot of opportunities to watch many of the games this year, but I have greatly enjoyed most of the ones I did see. There are some incredible athletes at this level - and as a fan of the underdog, this game has provided a bunch of upsets as the little guys took down the top seeds over and over again.

Last year when Butler made the Final against Duke there were a lot of comments and comparisons between Butler and the movie Hoosiers with the small school underdog Hickory winning the Indiana High School basketball championship. Since Butler made it this far last year, their return trip has not generated quite as much as surprise, but in some ways this trip is actually more similar to the REAL story underlying upon which the movie Hoosiers is (loosely) based.

For instance, while the coach in the movie is an old grizzled coach and the team makes an incredible one-year run, in real-life the Milan team was coached by a very young coach (who was a graduate of Butler University) and the championship in 1954 was actually the culmination of an incredible 2-year run like Butler is currently experiencing. (The Milan 1952-1953 team had surprised everyone by reaching the Indiana High School Final Four in 1953 and then came back the next year to win it all.)

I commented on some of the other similarities last year - here.

Included were these comments (original includes a couple of links - and please excuse the self-quote):

For instance, the movie's final scene where tiny Hickory High won the championship was filmed at Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse, the real person upon whom the movie's basketball star "Jimmy Chitwood" is based upon was a young man named Bobby Plump, who followed his career at Milan by playing at ... you guessed it - Butler University. The coach of the 1954 Milan team was a graduate of ... Butler University.

I am rooting for Butler, but Connecticut has had an incredible run in their own right with an incredible run throughout the Big East Tournament preceding this tournament.

A Thinking Man's Tourney Time Results

Since no one in A Thinking Man's Tourney Time has either one of these teams reaching the finals, we can declare the final results of this year's tourney.

This year A Thinking Man's Tourney Time was the year of the Andys. Winning it all this year is Andy Rupert. Andy followed up his runner-up finish last year to win it all this year with an impressive bracket in a year of bracket-busting games and bracket-busting teams. For instance, Andy had 11 of the Sweet 16.

Congratulations to Andy!

Not only did we have an Andy win it all, we also had an Andy come in second place. Andy Efting rebounded nicely this year as he almost went from worst to first, falling about one early game loss away from winning it all in an impressive display of bracket redemption.

# Player Points Wins Championship Pick
1 Andy Rupert 185 38 Ohio St. (145)
2 Andy Efting 180 35 Ohio St. (133)
3 Jon Knisely 166 35 Kansas (141)
4 Matt Jury 163 35 Ohio St. (198)
5 Ron Bean 162 34 Kansas (155)
6 Frank Sansone 159 34 Duke (179)
7 Sarah Nething 151 29 Kansas (157)
8 Don Johnson 144 31 Ohio St. (147)

Thanks again to all who played.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Tourney Update

2011-03-25T02:37:00.000-04:00

Well, with the Sweet Sixteen half-over, I thought I would give a quick update on The Thinking Man's Tourney Time.

We have a pretty close tourney this year, although Andy Rupert has a pretty significant lead overall and I am not sure he can be caught. Andy Efting has got a pretty solid 2 position, but the next three players are only separated by a total of four points.

In the wild world that is the tourney, last year's winner is bringing up the end, but everyone's eventual champion is still alive except for mine (Duke).

I am enjoying Bible Conference at BJU, so I have not had much time to post or to watch games.

Here are the standings so far.

1 Andy Rupert 176 points 36 correct
2 Andy Efting 164 points 32 correct
3 Ron Bean 158 points 33 correct
4 Jon Knisely 157 points 33 correct
6 Matt Jury 154 points 33 correct
7 Frank Sansone 150 points 32 correct
8 Don Johnson 140 points 30 correct
8 Sarah Nething 140 points 27 correct
\

A Thinking Man's Tourney Time

2011-03-20T18:27:00.000-04:00

March Madness is my favorite sporting event of the year. I love the event for the excitement of the actual games and for the great story lines that usually come out each year. It is neat to see the little guys make a run at the big guys and send them home. It is exciting to see players come out of nowhere and have the tournament of their lives. It is cool to have so many games going on at once (at least in the early rounds) - this also allows you to skip out on the ones that are blowouts and watch the more interesting games.

Each year for a number of years, I have completed a bracket and I have run bracket competitions. I am not sure when I started this, but I know I have run bracket competitions but I remember students at HCA and GCCS being involved in bracket competitions and doing the scoring manually before the days of all these nice internet sites that figure out the scoring for you. For the last few years I have hosted a bracket challenge here at A Thinking Man's Thoughts and this year is no exception.

I have not had the opportunity to watch much of the tournament yet, but I have enjoyed the parts that I have had the opportunity to watch. (I have had the opportunity to listen to some and have found Westwood One to be doing a great job with the radio broadcasts of the game.) I happened to be home briefly (I was bringing home a couple of bookcases) on Thursday and was able to see the last minute or so of the Temple v. Penn State game. Even though I was only able to watch about a minute of the game, I saw two incredible plays in just that little time.

With about 17 seconds left, Penn State's Battle put up a three-point shot from well beyond the arc to tie the ball game. It was an incredible shot and I yelled "Wow" to my son. He came in and watched the last seconds of the game with me. If you watched the game, you know that this was not the end of the story. Temple came back with ball and Fernandez had the ball in his hands with the time running out. He pivoted over and over looking for a shot, but was pretty well defended. With one second left, he leaned over to his left and put up an incredible leaning shot that went in to win the game for Temple. Wow! What a play. THAT is why I love March Madness.

Anyway, after the first round of this year's NCAA Tournament, out standings at The Thinking Man's Tourney Time show a couple of Andy's up in the lead. Long-time sufferer Andy Efting has taken the early lead with 127 points, followed closely by Andy Rupert with 121 points.

Ron Bean has a perfect West Region Bracket so far and Jon Knisely has a perfect East Region Bracket. Everyone other than Matt Jury and I have at least all of their Elite 8 teams remaining. Matt was perhaps doing a little more "rooting" than picking since he had Penn State in the Elite 8. I was a little too convinced in the chances for St. John's since they had knocked off some pretty good teams this year.

So, here are a standings and totals after the Round of 64.

1. Andy Efting 127 points
2. Andy Rupert 121 points
3. Frank Sansone 112 points
4. Matt Jury 110 points
5. Jon Knisely 109 points
6. Ron Bean 108 points
7. Don Johnson 107 points
8. Sarah Nething 102 points

Three P's of Preaching

2011-03-19T12:45:00.000-04:00

John Murray was a theologian who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary and then helped to found Westminster Theological Seminary along with J. Gresham Machen and others.

I saw some comments attributed to John Murray regarding the difference between preaching and lecturing here.

The comments are simple and helpful, so I thought I would pass them on. I feel like I have heard this somewhere else before (perhaps in one of my preaching classes?), but I thought I could not hurt repeating.

So, here is what Murray says distinguishes the two:

A sermon must be Personal.

It must be Passionate.

And it must involve a Plea.

Just someone else's thoughts,

Frank

One third of a French Fry short of a Big Mac Value Meal

2011-03-18T19:49:00.000-04:00

Warning: Political comments (sort of)

Sometimes when we hear all the big numbers involved in things like the federal budget it is easy to let it go in one ear and out the other. I read this article on the Powerline blog and thought it was a great way to illustrate the current debate over the federal budget.

Anyway, the article is here.

Just someone else's thoughts,

Frank

Warnings

2011-03-13T21:10:00.001-04:00

In a couple of days is the "Ides of March." While most of us do not use the terms "ides", many of us have undoubtedly heard the expression, "Beware the ides of March."

William Shakespeare includes the following exchange in his play, Julius Ceasar.

Act 1, Scene 2
Soothsayer: Caesar!
CAESAR Ha! who calls?
CASCA Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!
CAESAR : Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry 'Caesar!' Speak; Caesar is turn'd to hear.
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR: What man is that?
BRUTUS : A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
CAESAR: Set him before me; let me see his face.
CASSIUS : Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.
CAESAR What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.
Soothsayer Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR He is a dreamer; let us leave him: pass.

Later, in Act 3, Scene 1

CAESAR [To the Soothsayer] The ides of March are come.
Soothsayer Ay, Caesar; but not gone.

While we generally think of the exchange as simply a story by Shakespeare, according to ancient Greek historian Plutarch in his "Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans", a similar exchange did exist - and it was this that Shakespeare later based his scene upon.

Plutarch - Life of Caesar

The following story, too, is told by many. A certain seer warned Caesar to be on his guard against a great peril on the day of the month of March which the Romans call the Ides; and when the day had come and Caesar was on his way to the senate-house, he greeted the seer with a jest and said: "Well, the Ides of March are come," and the seer said to him softly: "Ay, they are come, but they are not gone."

If the story is true, Julius Caesar was warned to be on his guard and even warned what day it would be - but he refused to take the warning seriously.

Warnings are important. Warnings often make the difference between life and death and between success and failure. In Ezekiel chapter 3:16-21 and Ezekiel 33:1-9 we find some important instructions about warnings.

Eze 3:16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
17 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
20 Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
21 Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

One of the things we notice in both of these passages is that there is a proper way that warnings are to be dealt with and there is an improper way. Our need to deal properly with warnings is evident whether we are the one giving the warning or the one receiving the warning. We must deal with warnings properly.

I. If we are going to deal properly with warnings we must understand the Nature of Warnings

One of the Leadership Principles from AACS: "Discipline is good, not bad." We could correctly paraphrase that as well to tell us that "Warnings are good, not bad."

When we view warnings as bad, we are hesitant to give the needed warning and when we view warnings as bad, we are angry when we have been given a warning.

A Biblical understanding of warnings, however, tells us that warnings are not a bad thing. Warnings are not given against the person, but are given for the person.

A. Warnings are designed to enlighten, not enrage.

B. Warnings are designed to protect, not punish

When you love someone, you want to protect them and so it is necessary to warn them.

C. Warnings are a depiction of concern, not condemnation

When Paul writes to the church of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 4:14, he mentions the relationship in connection with the warning.

I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.

Solomon reminds us of this truth, as well:

Proverbs 27:5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Therefore, we need to understand it is the loving thing to do to warn others and that the person who is warning you is the one who is loving you. The one who is telling you it is okay to continue in your sin is the one who is hating you.

II. If We are Going to Deal Properly with Warnings, we must understand the Instruments of Warnings

There are some instruments that God uses to warn us. Two of those instruments are mentioned in this passage.

A. The Word of God - "hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me." (Ezek 3:17)

The Psalmist and Paul also remind us that the Word of God gives us warning and reproof.

Ps 19:11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

That is one reason why it is so difficult to be faithful to your devotions when you are choosing sin - you don't want to hear the warnings from God's Word. It is also one of the reasons why it is easier to get involved in sin when you are not being faithful with your time in God's Word - you are missing out on the warnings from God's word.

Someone has said "This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book."

The second instrument that God has chosen to give warning is his people.

B. The People of God

This whole passage emphasizes the fact that God has chosen people to give warnings.

The reality is that we, as believers, are to be instruments of warnings to others.

Paul repeatedly emphasizes this point:

Ac 20:31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

1Th 5:14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

Ro 15:14 And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.

III. The Response to Warnings

One of the most important things to understand about warnings, is the response to warnings. In Ezekiel 33:3-5, we have a record of the two responses to warnings:

If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

A. A Warning May Be Rejected

When legitimate warnings are rejected, the one rejecting the warning is heading for destruction.

Again Proverbs reminds of this:
Proverbs 29:1 ¶ He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

(See also Proverbs 1:24-31)

Repeatedly we see this in Scripture. Ahab & Jezebel rejected, rather than accepted the warnings of God through Elijah - and God destroyed them. Pharoah & the Egyptians rejected, rather than accepted the warnings of God through Moses - and God brought great destruction.

B. A Warning May Be Accepted

Ezek 33:5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

David understood the proper response to a warning and he said in Psalm 141:5 "Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities."

God in His great mercy and love offers you a different path. If you choose to heed His warnings, you shall be delivered rather than destroyed.

This is the desired response - by God and by the warner. (Matt 18:15 - "thou hast gained thy brother"; Gal 6:1 - "restore such a one")

Warnings are important and we must deal with warnings properly. When we understand the Biblical truth regarding warnings, we should be much more inclined to deal with warnings properly. We must understand the nature of warnings - that they are "Good, not bad" - that they are designed to enlighten, not enrage, they are designed to protect, not punish and they are a depiction of concern, not condemnation. We must understand the instruments of warning - that God has chosen to warn us through His Word and through His people. And we must make the right response to warning - accepting rather than rejecting the warnings.

The story of Harry Randall Truman from Mt. St. Helens is a great illustration of the danger of refusing to heed a warning. (You can read of Harry Truman at Wikipedia here.)
Harry Truman was warned again and again of the dangers, yet he refused to heed the warnings and destruction and death came.

What is God dealing with you about today? What warning has God brought up to you? Perhaps God is warning you about the danger of your eternal soul - will you heed his warning today? Perhaps God is warning you about a particular sin that you are allowing into your life - will you heed his warning today?

Will you deal properly with warnings today?

(The preceding reflection is based on this morning's sermon at Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury.)

Good Soldiers

2011-03-07T01:55:00.000-05:00

One of our men leaves this coming week to serve our country in the middle east. He is a good man and he loves the Lord, he loves his family, and he loves his country. He will be missed around here by many (including me and my family), but I rejoice in his willingness to serve our nation and I will pray for his safety as he is away, as well as for his influence for Christ amongst his fellow-soldiers and for his family that is left behind.

The Bible often uses the picture of soldiers and physical warfare to remind believers of the very real, but invisible, spiritual warfare of which we are all involved. As I thought of my friend in preparation for leaving this week, I was drawn to Paul's words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:3-4

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Paul uses a number of illustrations in this passage regarding the nature of Christian service and Christian living. Among these illustrations are comparisons to racing or competition ("strive for masteries"), to farming ("the husbandman that laboureth"), and this passage here on being a good soldier.

When Paul speaks of this soldier, I find it challenging to consider the traits that he lists, for these traits ought to be evident not only in the lives of good soldiers who are fighting the physical battles, but of all of us who desire to fight successfully in the spiritual warfare.

A Good Soldier Endures Hardness

One of the realities of being a soldier is that there is often times great hardship in being a soldier. There is the hardship of the conditions in the field. There is the hardship of the lost opportunities of things that could be done were the soldier at home instead of far away. Perhaps the greatest hardship, however, is the hardship of separation from loved ones.

In the spiritual realm, there are times when there may be physical hardships in the spiritual battles - and Paul certainly knew something of those hardships (see 2 Corinthians 10, for instance), the reality for most believers in America is that any "hardness" we may have to endure for Christ is not likely to be that of the physical nature. The reality is that the hardness that you and I are most likely to be called to endure involves relationships - relationships that are strained as we seek to do those things that are pleasing to Christ rather than following through with the world's way of doing things. Of course, as believers, we can take heart in the Lord's promise that this is to be expected (John 15:18).

A Good Soldier Ends Entanglements

Another reality of being a good soldier is that the soldier who is on the battlefield has to recognize that the entanglements of this world need to be avoided if he is going to fight successfully. Focusing on the things of his world back home instead of focusing on the task at hand can be very dangerous on the battlefield. Even good things must be left behind for the sake of successful soldiering.

In the spiritual realm, the picture is again obvious. Believers need to be careful to end entanglements with the things of this world if we are going to successfully serve as soldiers for Christ. It should be obvious that the sinful things of this world ought to be avoided - after all, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) However, successful soldiering does not just involve ending the entanglements with sinful things. Successful soldiering also often requires that we get rid of the silly things and even the "not bad, but unnecessary" things.

A Good Soldier Pleases His Commander

Another reality of the characteristics of a good soldier is that the good soldier is careful to do those things that please his commander. He does not follow his own agenda in the battle, but he instead follows the orders and instructions given unto him by his commander. A soldier that "goes rogue" is a danger to himself and those around him.

In the spiritual realm, believers need to be focused on pleasing Christ. While we recognize that we can do in our own strength apart from Christ (John 15:5), He has nevertheless given us instructions and commands and as good soldiers it should be our hearts desire and our life's practice to please Him. Too many times it is easy for believers to pursue our own agenda rather than Christ's agenda. Our flesh wants us to please it, instead of pleasing Christ. The world around us clamors for us to please the world instead of pleasing Christ. A good soldier focuses instead on pleasing Christ.

What about your life? Are you a good soldier of Jesus Christ?

Have you shown yourself to be a person who is willing to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ? Are you willing to take the ridicule of "friends" and even family for standing up for Christ and the truth? Enduring hardness requires dedication to the cause and discipline to carry through.

What is your relationship to the entanglements of this world? Are you eliminating all sinful, silly, and useless entanglements or are you caught in a web of wrong actions, wrong affections and wasted time?

When we think of our daily walk, whose agenda are we pursuing? Who are we seeking to please? Are we seeking to please our Master and Commander or are we seeking to please ourselves?

May each of us strive to be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

* The preceding is (to some degree) a summarized reflection on the message I preached this morning at Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury.

Cultural Fundamentalism - A Rejoinder

2011-02-18T13:49:00.001-05:00

This post is a little old because I just happened to find it in my "drafts", but I thought it was still relevant since it is not really "time-sensitive" in nature. I updated my original thoughts some to account for the time difference between the original writing and now.)

Pastor Larry Rogier over at Stuff Out Loud made some comments a few months ago on "Cultural Fundamentalism."

He starts off the comments by saying that the term "cultural fundamentalism" has recently been used and I seem to remember reading some comments on that term myself recently, but I can't remember where I read it.

Anyway, the heart of Larry's comments is the following:

But what most people ask about is cultural issues, because that is what people think fundamentalism is. Now, one might attempt to make the case that the Bible version is not cultural, but theological. I think that is partially true and partially not true, but I don’t want to deal with that argument here.

You see, they know exactly what a cultural fundamentalist is … It is a fundamentalist who is known first for his stands on cultural issues. He is not known for loving the gospel, sound doctrine, theology, and the church, though he may do all those things. He is known for cultural standards.

Now, there may be some truth to his comments, especially in the minds of some, but I believe as I read his post, he does not really support his position because he bases his comments on some faulty thinking.

(I am not trying to pick on Larry. I generally appreciate much of what he writes at his blog and on SI).

As you read, you find that he supports his assertions regarding fundamentalism being known primarily due to the cultural issues by giving a summary of questions he has been asked recently by Pastors and indicating because most of those questions are culturally based that it means that Fundamentalism is known mostly for the cultural issues instead of about "the gospel, the church, doctrine, ministry fellowship/participation."

I would think, however, that there is at least one other legitimate interpretation of the fact that these are the questions that were asked - in fact, an interpretation that actually speaks well of Fundamentalism rather than negatively of Fundamentalism.

That interpretation has to do with the natural assumptions that come from the term. By declaring that I am a Fundamentalist, I am already stating that I believe the Bible is the Word of God and that every word of it is true. I have already identified the fact that I believe in the Biblical gospel, the importance of the local church, carefulness in fellowship, separation from apostasy and disobedient brothers, etc.

Therefore, because the answer to those questions are already assumed by my previous identification as a Fundamentalist, the subsequent questions are therefore to clarify more specifically where I stand on other more specific issues.

I had a conversation the other day with a rather liberal Methodist preacher while I was working. Due to the location of the conversation (I was working and in a store), we did not get into a lot of details, but his general questions and statements revealed he was coming from a totally different perspective than most of the preachers with whom I deal. Because he was not familiar with Independent Baptists (he has asked what kind of Baptist church I pastored and when I told him it was an Independent Baptist Church, he said "good at least you are not Southern Baptist :)". When it came up that I was generally more conservative than Southern Baptists, he was surprised and wanted to know in what ways that would be the case. He asked about speaking in tongues. He was surprised that I did not think that all churches should just get along and join together and and seemed generally shocked that I believed there was a Biblical responsibility to separate from apostates, rather than support them and their ministry, etc.

My point about this conversation is that because this person was not familiar with where I was coming from, his questions were of a different nature than the questions Larry received - and I generally receive questions a lot closer to Larry's list than this man's questions.

Those familiar with Fundamentalism are going to ask the questions that Larry points to - questions about Bible versions, cultural standards, etc. because they are already know the answers to the "other" questions and are wanting to differentiate between what "type" of Fundamentalist the person.

However, the fact that these questions are asked does not mean that these are the areas for which Fundamentalism is known any more than asking a self-identified "college football fan" about Boise State means that college football fans are primarily known about where they stand on non-AQ schools.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Free Audio Book - The Pursuit of Holiness

2011-01-17T17:33:00.002-05:00

I know I have not written much lately, but I did notice this today and thought I would highlight it for those few who still stop by or have my feed on some service.

In the past, I have highlighted a number of Free Audio Books that have been made available from Christianaudio.com.

The free featured book this month is a book that is worth downloading if you do not already have it. The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges is a book that I have read a couple of times with great profit. It will challenge your complacency and encourage you to move forward for Christ.

Of course, as with all books, the usual caveats apply - read it with discernment and recommendation of the book does not imply I agree with everything Jerry Bridges has said or done - or even that I agree with everything contained in the book.

Anyway, here is the link at Christianaudio.com for the free audio book - http://christianaudio.com/free/. I hope you find it useful.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

I thank God for those who have served

2010-11-11T15:44:00.003-05:00

Today is Veteran's Day here in the United States of America. It is a day in which we honor those who have served in defense of our nation.

It seems like Veteran's Day is a holiday that often gets overlooked any more. Other than some government offices, it seems like things just continue as normal. Schools in our area do not take the day off and I don't know of any parades or anything locally that is designed to emphasize this day and I think that this is a shame.

I am thankful for a heritage of men who served, even though I never served myself. I am thankful for my grandfather who served in WWII and my dad who served in Korea and my brother who served in Desert Storm (aka The First Gulf War).

If you are a veteran reading this, thank you for your service. Thank you for your sacrifice.

Following are two tributes that I found online that I thought I would share with you.

Please enjoy and take some time to thank a veteran today and thank God for the freedoms we have here in the good ole U.S.A.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Yeah, for Merchant Circle

2010-11-11T15:39:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I asked about Blog Readers in light of the fact that Ask.com announced that it was discontinuing the Bloglines service that I have used for the last few years.

I have looked at a couple of the suggestions and was kind of resigned to using Google Reader, even though I still do not know mark and keep the articles that I wish to keep on Google Reader without keeping all the stuff I do not want to keep.

Anyway, I was pleased to read a few days ago that Bloglines is going to be kept alive after all, thanks to Merchant Circle who is going to take over this service from Ask.com.

Yeah :)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Some Thoughts on Preaching - from Ben Franklin??

2010-10-11T23:31:00.003-04:00

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is one of those books that I have read parts of a number of times over the years. It is currently one of the books I have on my Kindle, so at times I find myself reading from this interesting book.

Benjamin Franklin was a moralist, but not a Christian. His book, however, has some interesting comments in various places in his Autobiography about preaching and preachers. Perhaps the most famous of these are the ones where he discusses the preaching of the great evangelist George Whitefield, who Franklin had the privilege of knowing personally.

It is in another spot, however, that I read recently that is the subject of this post, for it serves as a warning to preachers and it also serves as an illustration that some errors are not new.

In discussing his relationship with the "only Presbyterian minister or meeting we had in Philadelphia" he mentions that he once attended five Sundays in a row and follows that comment with the following:

Had he been in my opinion a good preachers, perhaps I might have continued... but his discourses were chiefly either polemic arguments, or explications of the particular doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral principle was inculcated or enforc'd, their aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens.

Now, I take his comments with a grain of salt, since what he would have been looking for in a message would be "moral principles" rather than necessarily faithfulness to God's Word, but I do find it interesting that the specific example he gives would indicate that there is good reason for Ben Franklin's concern.

The very next paragraph he mentions a specific sermon that this pastor allegedly preached on Philippians 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Here are the points that Dr. Franklin says the preacher got out of that passage:

1. Keeping the Sabbath day holy
2. Being diligent to read the Holy Scriptures
3. Attending duly the publick (sic) worship
4. Partaking of the Sacrament
5. Paying a due respect to God's ministers.

Assuming that Franklin presents this accurately, I agree with his comment after giving this summary of points.

These might all be good things; but, as they were not the kind of good things that I expected from that text, I despaired of ever meeting with them from any other, was disgusted, and attended his preaching no more.

Preachers, we need to be careful that we preach God's Word clearly and carefully. One of the great early leaders of our country was turned away from the hearing of the Word of God because a pastor chose to seemingly ignore the text of Scripture and instead proclaim what seems to have been his personal pet peeves.

It is one thing if it is the faithful preaching of the Word that offends and drives off folks - and the Word, when faithfully preached, will likely do that at times. It is another thing entirely to offend by preaching our opinions.

Let us be careful in the proclamation of God's Word - and pray for me that I would be careful in my proclamation of God's Word.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

A New Book by a Favorite Teacher

2010-10-02T22:53:00.004-04:00

When I was in graduate school at BJU, among my favorite classes was Systematic Theology by Robert Bell.

Dr. Bell was an excellent teacher and I enjoyed his class tremendously. He did a great job of bringing the subject to life and for such an important subject, that is vital. I remember him talking about theology being the queen of the sciences and the idea that sciences usually had labs and suggesting that we eat a bunch of lemons to see what it means to have our "teeth set on edge" (see Jer. 31:29-30).

In addition to Systematic Theology, one of the other classes that Dr. Bell taught was Advanced OT Theology.

BJU Press has recently released a new book by Dr. Bell on this subject entitled, "Theological Messages of the Old Testament Books". The book's list price - and Amazon's price is $39.95. It is currently ON SALE at the BJU Campus Store for $23.97. (It is about a 500 page book according to Andy Naselli, which is where I heard about its release - thanks Andy.)

From the blub at Amazon.com, we read the following:

In The Theological Messages of the Old Testament Books, Robert D. Bell suggests strategies for understanding and preaching every book of the Old Testament. Following the method for biblical theology outlined in his introduction, Bell bases each study firmly on the actual text rather than on imposed theological categories. Students will find the tools they need to understand the text of each Old Testament book on its own terms. Pastors will find resources for preaching sermons or series on a book's themes, characters, or overall message. Sample sermons and scores of tables included.

While you are at the BJU Campus bookstore, you can also find some currently good deals on a couple of other books worth picking up if you do not already own them.

Dr. Michael P. V. Barrett's book Complete in Him: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Gospel (recently back in print) is also available for $11.89, Robert Vincent's Gospel Primer is available for $7.67 and Colin Marshall and Tony Payne's book that has gotten considerable attention lately, The Trellis and the Vine is available for $10.49. (I have read some good reviews of some of these and I am looking forward to reading them.)

So, if you have been thinking about picking up some of these, check out this current sale at the BJU Campus Store.

Any Suggestions regarding Blog Readers

2010-09-13T23:01:00.002-04:00

For the last couple of years I have been very happily using Bloglines to keep up with a number of RSS feeds from a number of my favorite blogs. It has been a great help to me, as I catch things sometimes through this that I would never see if I needed to check the blogs myself. (For instance, I got a free Kindle download tonight that I found out about via my blogline feed from Theosource).

I have always liked the simplicity of bloglines, but since they will no longer be an option as of October 1, I was wondering what other feed readers my readers (hopefully someone still reads this - I would not blame you if you don't - and I would guess if you do read it, you read it through a feed reader).

Anyway, I would love to hear your suggestions - and why.

Just looking for your thoughts,

Frank

Recent Books of Significance or Help

2010-07-22T18:35:00.003-04:00

I am going to be leading a workshop in a couple of weeks at the Annual Conference of the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches. The title for this workshop is "Whatcha' Reading?" (I did not come up with the title :) ).

As part of that workshop I want to discuss/consider some recent books of which pastors (in particular) should be aware - either because of their significance or because of their helpfulness.

I realize that people will have vastly different opinions of what is significant and what is helpful, but the more suggestions I can get on this, the greater help it will be as I seek to lead the discussion.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

(P.S. I am aware that Chris Anderson at My Two Cents has asked a somewhat similar question in a recent post. I will also be monitoring those responses, but this question is slightly different and may elicit some different responses.)

Some Timely Words

2010-05-28T22:47:00.002-04:00

Things have been pretty busy with work the last couple of weeks and I apologize for not taking the time to finish my series in regards to the reviews of the BJU Pastors/Wives Fellowship and the discussion of the perceived weaknesses of Fundamentalism that spun off of those reviews.

I hope to get back to work on this soon.

I came across the following quote in my reading a little bit ago:

I sometimes have the distinct impression that the most stringent criticism of evangelicals, oddly enough, come from other evangelicals bent on winning the favor of a nonevangelical audience. By this I mean that some young evangelicals feel that they must criticize their own religious tradition in order to gain acceptance in an academic community hostile to that tradition. Evangelicals should by all means be self-critical - but for the right motivations and with a sense of ownership and compassion.

If you changed the word "evangelical" with "Fundamentalist" I would say that I get the same impression at times.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

BTW, the quote is from the book "Letters Along the Way: A Novel of the Christian Life" written by D. A. Carson and John Woodbrige. It is said by the fictional "Dr. Woodson" in the book as he writes to his young friend Timothy Journeyman.

PS, I am planning on writing a review on this, as well, but it will have to wait until I finish the book, which I have almost completed and until I finish a much more important review that I am currently working on regarding a very cool Bible study software program.

PPS, you can get a free copy of Letters Along the Way as a PDF file here. (HT on the free PDF: Andy Naselli)

A Memorial Day Message

2010-05-25T08:30:00.002-04:00

Today, in the U.S.A., we celebrate Memorial Day (or Decoration Day, as it used to be called).

The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.

-Benjamin Disraeli

Memorial Day Poem

The following poem was sent out by Mikey's Funnies (although it is not funny).

I thought it was fitting for Memorial Day.

GOING TO THE GONE
A checklist for Memorial Day

by Greg Asimakoupoulos
May 23, 2008

Go look in on your children still asleep
within their bed.
Remind yourself they're safe and warm
because of some long dead.

Go for a walk through cemeteries
lined with little flags.
Take time to ponder homebound heroes
flown in body bags.

Go stand between those granite stones
engraved with names and dates.
Imagine all who died defending
our United States.

Go on and kneel beside a marker
offering a prayer
with gratitude for those who gave their lives
defeating terror.

Go home and count your blessings
from the hands of those now gone.
Then vow to the Almighty that their
mem'ry will live on.

Also found here.

The following note applies to this poem: Copyright 2008 Greg Asimakoupoulos. Permission is granted to send this to others, with attribution, but not for commercial purposes.

Just someone else's thoughts,

Frank

Is it unfair to say Obama and Congress are spending money like a drunken sailor?

2010-05-12T17:36:00.003-04:00

Apparently this guy thinks so:

At least to the drunken sailor :)

Just someone else's thoughts,

Frank

ht: 22 Words

44 Ways to Ruin Your Financial Life by Age 30

2010-05-06T08:20:00.004-04:00

That is the title of an article of at Frugal Dad.

I am over 30 now and some of this is no longer relevant to me, but I think he has some good thoughts.

And besides, I did not want to leave the blog completely without a post for this long and haven't had time to write my own this week.

The article can be found here: Frugual Dad - 44 Ways to Ruin Your Financial Life by Age 30.

Just someone else's thoughts,

Frank

Follow-Up Post 1: Perceived Weaknesses of "Older" Fundamentalism - Preaching Concerns

2010-04-27T19:28:00.006-04:00

In my last post (my review of Nathan Crockett's presentation at a recent BJU Pastors/Wives Fellowship), I mentioned five things that Nathan listed as perceived weaknesses of the older generation of Fundamentalist by some of those in the younger generation of Fundamentalism.

Those five perceived weaknesses were:

1. Lack of mentoring
2. The rut of tradition
3. Unfair evaluation of certain evangelical ministries
4. Preaching concerns
* issue-oriented (rather than theologically-driven) preaching
* lack of expositional preaching
5. Unnecessary divisions

I appreciate the comments of Don Johnson and Andy Efting on that post and I am hoping that we can generate some continued discussion about all five of these areas.

I was originally going to take them in the order they were presented, but with Don's comments (which addressed all five) and with Andy's comments, which focused on the fourth point, I think I will start there and work my way to the other points.

The younger fundies apparently believe that one of the weaknesses of the older fundies is in the preaching of the older generation.

As is the case of most of these things, I believe that there are definitely some for whom the shoe fits and some for whom this accusation is very unfair.

As I would like to do with each one of these points, I wish to consider two things - 1) is the criticism legitimate and 2) what can/should be done in response.

Is this criticism legitimate?

As with most of these criticisms, the reality is that in many cases, the criticism are both true and false. And no, I am not being some type of post-modernist who believes in a lack of absolute truths. What I mean by this is that for some older fundamentalists, surely this is a legitimate criticism - and for some older fundamentalists, this is far from a legitimate criticism.

Have I heard some bad examples of preaching among Fundamentalists? Yes. Even at chapel at BJU - gasp, did I say that? However, I have also heard some pretty bad (even worse) examples of preaching from without the camp, so to speak. Have I heard some very good examples of preaching from Fundamentalists? Yes - and not just in Greenville at some "leading light" churches like Mt. Calvary Baptist Church. I had the privilege of serving at Hardingville Bible Church in New Jersey with one of the men who I feel is one of the best expositors in the country (I have repeatedly tried to encourage him or some folks around him to put his series on 2 Peter into print somewhere.) Are there good examples of preaching from non-Fundamentalists? Yes.

Here are a few things that strike me about this criticism, however.

1. It seems to me that an unfair comparison is being made in this regard between your "average" Fundamentalist pastor and the "leading lights" of the "Contemporary Evangelicalism" movement.

Is Big Mac a better preacher than little ole Frank Sansone? I am sure that he probably is. However, while I don't think we ought to necessarily be picking teams and making comparisons on things like this, I would say that I would put Minnick's series on Philippians up against even Mac's series on the same passage. Or Franklin's series on 2 Peter or Doran's message on 1 Corinthians 15 at the National Leadership Conference a couple of year's ago. It is an unwise and unfair comparison that pits the best of the one side verses the average or (even worse) a bad example of the other side.

I would contend that, on the whole, there is stronger preaching in fundamentalist churches than in non-fundamentalist churches. (Defining fundamentalism as "mainstream" fundamentalism, not IFBx types.)

***IMPORTANT: Having said that does not mean that 1. I think that we don't need to continually work on improving in this area or 2. I think the poor examples of preaching within Fundamentalism are somehow okay because a person is a Fundamentalist or because others do a poor job as well.

2. It seems that much of this criticism are centered in a unbalanced focus on expository preaching.

I will admit it is hard for me to write those words, because I am very partial to expository preaching. In fact, I was recently told by another pastor in town (who I have still not met personally, but hope to do so soon and who I don't believe would consider himself a Fundamentalist) who was at T4G recently that while he was talking to some guys at T4G he made the comment "I (meaning him) must be the only expository preacher in Salisbury" to which one of the persons he was talking to and who has heard me preach on a number of occasions, said, "No. Frank Sansone is down there as well."

I believe that a steady diet of expositional preaching is best for the believer (and the preacher). I would (in general) agree with the comments that Andy made on the previous thread that:

I think one of the most important things that pastoral ministry should do is to help their people think like God. There is no better way to do that, imo, than to work through the logic and progression of a passage within the context of a whole book. Not only do you get the point of the passage, but you get how God thinks about the whole thing and why and how things should fit together in our minds. God doesn't just give us bare lists of things to believe and do – He gives them in the context of logical thought.

And, as Nathan Crockett quoted one of his friends,

It concerns me because people in the pew learn to read and interpret their Bibles by how their preachers preach.

So, as I said, I believe that a steady diet of expositional preaching is best for the believer (and the preacher). However, even among those who agree with that statement, there are differences as to what that actually entails. Some seem to use the term "expository" to simply mean the preaching is faithful to the text and argue that therefore all preaching should be expository. To those, I say "Amen" on the conclusion, but I believe you are misusing the term expository and have simply exchanged "expository" for "Biblical" without really understanding that "expository" preaching is actually a sub-set of Biblical preaching.

Expository preaching is not just preaching that is faithful to the text, but is rather something very specific.

John A. Broadus (whose book On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons used to be the standard textbook for homiletics classes in a number of fundamental and conservative schools - including being used as our textbook for "Pulpit Speech" when I was a Bob Jones University) says this about expository sermons.

An expository sermon is one which is occupied mainly with the exposition of Scripture.

And

The expository sermon may be defined as a sermon that draws its divisions and the exploration of those divisions from the text.

It seems today that we have seen the pendulum in regards to preaching swing towards expository preaching - and, in doing so, it has (at least in some cases) swung too far. In an attempt to rightfully distance ourselves from a style of preaching that focuses on man's opinions in the name of topical preaching, younger fundamentalists have often embraced a mind-set that expository preaching is the ONLY Biblical preaching.

In doing so, however, they reject much preaching that is both Biblical and, at times, necessary. For instance, while I believe in a steady diet of expository preaching, the best way to faithfully handle most doctrinal matters is in a TOPICAL manner - gasp. For instance, to properly teach on the Trinity would seem to require a topical sermon. The same could be said with the hypostatic union. The reality is that to get a full Biblical picture on almost any topic would seem to require a topical sermon. (Hmm. Maybe there is a reason for the terminology :) )

3. It seems that much of this criticism is often used as an excuse.

Now, younger guys, please don't jump too hard on me because of saying this. However, I have noticed that the crowd who often decries the lack of expository preaching amongst older Fundamentalists usually reveres Charles Spurgeon. Now, I like Spurgeon a lot. One of my most valued possessions is a set of Spurgeon's sermons that I received from my wife's grandfather before he died. (Don Marken was a former church planter and missionary in Ohio with the American Sunday School Union for years.) However, it would not be unfair to say that many (most?) of the sermons from the "Prince of Preachers" would not qualify as expository sermons. In fact, I agree with some comments Nathan Crockett made in this area in his presentation - if an older pastor were to memorize one of Spurgeon's sermons and preach it as his own, many of these critics would likely criticize the sermon - until they found out it was one of Spurgeon's sermons.

I am not finished with my thoughts on this, but this is at least some initial thoughts on this matter and I thought I would at least get these up since I indicated in the comments of the last post that I would be responding today.

Just my (unfinished) thoughts,

Frank

Certain Truths in Uncertain Times - A Review of Nathan Crockett's Presentation at the BJU Pastors/Wives Fellowship

2010-04-26T05:50:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently had the privilege of attending a Pastors/Wives Fellowship in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania sponsored by BJU. In my first post on the conference, I made some general comments and introduced the speakers and topics. In my second post on the conference, I reviewed and commented on the first session by Dr. Bob Jones, III.

In today's post, I will review and comment on the second presentation of the day, "Certain Truths in Uncertain Times: Timothys and Pauls working together for the cause of the Gospel" by Nathan Crockett.

I don't believe I have ever heard or met Nathan before, but I believe one of his brothers came to our church (Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury) a couple of years ago as the leader of a BJU Ministry Team. I also had the privilege of hearing his father, Dr. Leigh Crockett of Grace Baptist Church of Anderson, Indiana, many years ago when I was a ministerial student at BJU. Some of you may remember Dr. Crockett was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer a few years ago and was cured in such a way that it puzzled the doctors and he was interviewed on Good Morning America at the time - one news story on the situation can be found here.

I appreciated Nathan's workshop very much. His task, it seems, was to basically approach the Paul and Timothy scenario from that of a Timothy. (He is a fairly young man - I would guess no more than 30 at this point.) While he made some introductory comments about Understanding the Times in which we are living, the focus of the session was on the Paul and Timothy relationship.

Nathan was kind enough to send a copy of his entire notes - including the quotes he used and all the references, but I want to take most of my comments here from the notes that I took that day on the handout that was given.

As he began the initial part in regards to Understanding the Times, he made a comment that "Scripture gives examples of changing a method without changing the message" and he used the examples of Paul at Mars Hill and Jesus' approach to different people - Nicodemus (John 3) and the Samaritan woman (John 4).

In the area of Understanding the Times, he discussed understanding the world around us and dealt with a number of the characteristics of the day in which we live (such as Technology- driven, Consumed with the present, Pluralistic, Sensual, Fast-paced, etc.) and understanding the church today - including a consumer mentality in which the "church is full of window shoppers and church hoppers." He discussed some of the errors of the day in the church (both old and new errors) and how that we are seeing the same errors spilling over into Fundamental churches.

He then offered some "Biblical Solutions" towards the situation in the world and in the church - nothing ground-breaking, but true, nevertheless. The five things specifically mentioned were as follows:

1. Expect the world to be worldly
2. Offer people something distinctively different
3. Value eternal souls
4. Speak the truth in love
5. Trust God

After dealing with the times, he dealt with Pauls Understanding Timothys and then Timothys Understanding Pauls.

In the Pauls Understanding Timothys, he commented that he asked some of his other young friends training for ministry what they perceived to be the strengths and weakeness of the previous generations. He mentioned appreciation for many things (such as witnessing zeal, faithfulness, strong convictions, etc.) but focused on the perceived weaknesses - of which he listed the following.

1. Lack of mentoring
2. The rut of tradition
3. Unfair evaluation of certain evangelical ministries
4. Preaching concerns
* issue-oriented (rather than theologically-driven) preaching
* lack of expositional preaching
5. Unnecessary divisions

In addressing the Timothys understanding of Pauls, he encouraged the Timothys to understand five things.

1. The need for loyalty
2. The need for humility
3. The need for dialogue
4. A respect for tradition
5. A respect for age.

As I listened to Nathan, I was encouraged to hear his heart in this area and I think that he overall has gotten a lot of things right in his presentation. The nature of a presentation like this limits the ability to have lengthy discussions about each of these areas, however, I do believe that many of these things are worthy of a longer discussion - and the nature of blogging is that we can have that longer discussion - assuming that some of you folks would like to participate in the discussion.

Before anyone jumps on me (or Nathan) about the list of weaknesses, I would like to note three things. 1. This list is given as "perceived" weaknesses. Whether we would agree that these are truly weaknesses of the older generation, we can at least agree that many young men perceive these things in the older generation of Fundamentalism (no matter where we personally fall in that dynamic of old or young). 2. These are necessarily broad-brushed statements. Surely even those who brought them up to Nathan and Nathan would acknowledge that these things are not true of every one in the previous generation. When you paint with a broad-brush, you usually paint a lot of areas that should not be painted. 3. These are the observations of a number of young men - young men Nathan describes as "cream of the crop" type young guys committed to Fundamentalism - and not Nathan's observations alone. (In fact, some of these areas were not on Nathan's radar - for instance, he had the privilege of being mentored by his father, who was also his pastor and feels that he has received a lot of mentoring.)

While I have some quibbles with some of the things in Nathan's presentations (which I plan on bringing out in the follow-up posts), I appreciate Nathan's tack in this area much better than the bombastic and often bloated sounding criticism of the "older generation" of Fundamentalism offered by some of its critics - including some who still claim to love at least the "idea" of Fundamentalism.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Surely THIS is one of those Sacred Sandwich type of sites

2010-04-20T22:20:00.007-04:00

Unfortunately, I don't believe it is.

Wow.

HT: Scott Aniol

Is this a compliment or an insult?

2010-04-20T16:04:00.004-04:00

Over at Biblical Christianity, Dan Phillips (blogger extraordinaire of Pyromaniacs and Biblical Christianity fame), gives a very nice recommendation to Gospel Meditations for Women a new book out by my friend, Pastor Chris Anderson of Tri-County Bible Church in Ohio. In fact, Dan wrote one of the "blurbs" for the back of the book.

His blurb reads in part:

Gospel Meditations for Women is richly Biblical, richly Christ-entranced, and richly Gospel-centered. ...I’m glad to commend it, without reservation, to sisters in Christ—and I’d suggest their husbands sneak a peek whenever they can, too!

However, in Dan's Biblical Christianity post recommending the book, he makes the following comment that I thought was kind of funny:

It's surprisingly deep, thought-provoking, doctrinal and devotional. (emphasis added)

Not sure how I'd take that if I was Chris :).

Just my thoughts,

Frank

An Amazing Picture of Lightning and Ash over the Icelandic Volcano

2010-04-19T23:58:00.004-04:00

I saw this picture linked from Pastor Gordon Dickson's Facebook. It is breathtaking.

Make sure you visit the Astronomy Picture of the Day site to see it in fuller size. Wow.

Awesome.

Just my speechless thoughts,

Frank

Don't Give Too Much For That Whistle

2010-04-17T17:22:00.002-04:00

Don't Give Too Much for that Whistle!

In the writings of the American statesman Benjamin Franklin, there is a little article entitled "The Whistle." In this article, Dr. Franklin tells the story of an incident from his childhood and a lesson that he has learned from it.

"When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children, and being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My, brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.

This, however, was afterward of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, Don't give too much for the whistle; and I saved my money.

As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for the whistle."

It is a very easy thing to pay too much for a whistle. Many men devote their entire lives seeking the whistles that this world seems to offer.

Some men give their lives in order to try to gain the whistle of prosperity - ever more searching for wealth and the things that wealth might buy. Many men have violated Scriptural principles in such a search. Many have sacrificed their families and their walk with God to pursue the "almighty dollar." Only to find themselves in the end of their lives hearing the words of Luke 12:20 "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"

Other men give their lives in an effort to attain the whistle of power - lusting for the sense of being in control of others. Politicians and business leaders have often ran over the "little guy" in an effort to "look out for number one." Yet, in reality, the whistle of power is a fleeting toy, for man does not even have power over himself, let alone power over others. Jesus asked in Matthew 6:27 "Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?"

Some men give their lives in an effort to gain the whistle of popularity and fame. It is not uncommon for people today to subject themselves to absurdity in order to get a few moments of fleeting fame. People go on reality TV shows and talk shows and make a total fool of themselves because they want to be popular or famous. Many times this whistle of popularity is not sought on a broad scale, but on a small scale, people selling their principles down the river in order to not come across as odd or different among their peers. Teens often sacrifice a right relationship with their parents because they want the whistle of popularity among their friends. Guys and girls often sacrifice their purity or at least their modesty because they want the whistle of popularity with the opposite gender. Rather than fear what men think of us, we need to remember that "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe." (Proverbs 29:25)

What is the whistle that you are pursuing? Is it a whistle that is really worth all the effort? It is a whistle that is really worth sacrificing that principle or taking that wrong stand?

Perhaps there are some who may read this who are pursuing these whistles of prosperity or power or popularity or something else and think that these pursuits are worth while. If so, you are like the young Benjamin Franklin looking at the whistles and not even realizing the true worth of those items.

Jesus said it best: "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mark 8:36)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

(Note: This is a re-run, it was originally posted in July 2007)

BJU Pastors/Wives Fellowship - Dr. Bob Jones, III Session

2010-04-15T11:04:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned last week, I recently had the privilege of attending a Pastors/Wives Fellowship in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania sponsored by Bob Jones University. I introduced the speakers and made general comments in my last post.

The first session of the day was by Dr. Bob Jones, III, Chancellor of BJU. Dr. Bob spoke on "Turbulence in the Air; Chaos in the Cabin; Confusion in the Cockpit: What a Time to be Flying!"

The text was from 2 Timothy 3 and Dr. Bob used the analogy of an airplane flight throughout - as if you could not have guessed that by the title :) .

In regards to the Turbulence in the Air, he spoke about the "dangerous times" v. 1 and the reality that the prince of the power of the air continues to stir things up and cause many problems.

In regards to the Chaos in the Cabin, he spoke about the fact that church has tares among the wheat and that in these dangerous times there would be persecution from without and corruption from within.

The character of men in general (the world at large) is described (with lovers of self and lovers of pleasure being the bookends of the description given in 2 Timothy 3:2-5) and the reality is that this description is often mirrored within the church.

The description of ministry men is also discussed in this passage with a description given in 2 Timothy 3:6-9 and 2 Timothy 3:13 - reminding us that there are folks in the ministry that sneak into houses, they deceive, and wax worse and worse.

In regards to the Confusion in the Cockpit he dealt with the confusion that sometimes occurs among the older and younger men in ministry and the need for "Pauls" and "Timothys" to work together. In doing so, he focused on 2 Timothy 3:10-17 where Paul writes that Timothy has fully known his doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, etc.

The emphasis was on the relationship between the older and younger men in ministry.

Among other things mentioned, there was a challenge to the older men to admonish the younger as Paul did with Timothy (2 Timothy 2:7, 2:8, 2:14, 3:14; 1 Timothy 4:6, 4:11), there was a challenge to the older men to instruct the Timothys, and an encouragement that God was not looking for another Paul when he chose Timothy and that one day the Timothys will replace the Pauls.

He also encouraged the older men to "train the Timothys, don't try to clone yourself" and "Don't fault them because of questions. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. They need to have freedom to come to Bible convictions themselves. We can't dictate the Timothys conclusions."

To the Timothys he commented on the need to not blame the guy in the pilot's seat for all the turbulence and to have a learning disposition and to recognize that both Pauls and Timothys are needed.

He also commented on a discussion he had with some folks who were from far different theological perspectives (one was Episcopal, I believe) and the concerns that they had going on within their groups. After discussing this conversation, he also made a comment (not as an excuse, but as an observation), that every group (including Fundamentalism) has "foolishness, failures, and fogeys."

In the discussion time, he also commented to the effect that there are people who call themselves Fundamentalists that he would not want to have anything to do with - which led to a private conversation later that will remain private.

I don't know where I am in the Paul/Timothy scale anymore. I tend to think of myself as young still, but now that I am 40, perhaps some would dispute that.

I do know that I have greatly appreciated some of the Pauls in my life.

As a teenager, God brought Pastor Ron Hamilton (no, not THAT Ron Hamilton) into my life as a Youth Pastor at my home church in Phoenix, Arizona and I had the privilege of later serving with him at Heritage Baptist Church in Mt. Laurel, NJ when I was the Youth Pastor and he was (and still is) the Administrator of the Christian school. It was neat being able to work with Pastor Ron and I appreciated the privilege of even having some of his children in my youth group while I was there (as I had been in his youth group when I was younger). Pastor Ron helped me prepare my first "real" sermon, demonstrated for me a steadfastness in his walk with Christ that never seemed to waver even in the midst of difficult times, and showed me how to uncompromisingly stand for the right with a right disposition.

In college, I had a number of godly men that surrounded me - from my society chaplain, Eric Chapman (now a missionary to Lithuania), to teachers, pastors, and work supervisors.

As I got older, I was privileged to serve under Pastor Mark Franklin at Hardingville Bible Church in Monroeville, New Jersey. In Pastor Franklin, I was able to observe up close the kind of Pauline leadership that Dr. Bob was espousing as we had three young men go through the HBC Pastoral Internship program while I was there before I also went through a modified version of the Pastoral Internship program in preparation for my current ministry as "Senior" Pastor.

On the Timothy side of things, I appreciate the fact that God has given me the opportunity to work with a number of young people over the years who are now faithful in serving Christ - including some who are faithful as Godly laymen and deacons, as well as those in ministry as Pastor, Youth Pastor, and Christian School Teachers.

As I thought about the illustration/analogy that Dr. Bob used, I was reminded of a recent plane flight that I was on in which I experienced more turbulence than I have ever experienced before as a passenger. While I would love to do some piloting myself one of these days, I have never actually been a calm passenger (on the inside). I am grateful that the pilot who was flying was experienced with dealing with the turbulence. I appreciated his warning that it was coming and the calm demeanor he projected as he spoke of the upcoming turbulence. I also appreciated the reassuring comment that we were just about through the worst part of the turbulence. A hand of experience at the helm in the midst of turbulence can be a very good thing. Having been through it before will help to avoid the errors of inexperience - whether that is failing to realize how serious it is or overcompensating and making changes so quickly that the cabin is even more chaotic than it was at the beginning.

Anyway, just my thoughts on his thoughts,

Frank

Truisms about Men and Women

2010-04-14T09:36:00.001-04:00

I don't do this very often, but ...

A friend sent me this via email. I am not sure of the original source.

TRUISMS about MEN AND WOMEN and our differences to ponder:

BATHROOMS
A man has six items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, comb, shaving cream,
razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from the Holiday Inn.
The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man
would not be able to identify most of these items.

CATS
Women love cats.
Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats.

FUTURE
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

MONEY
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he wants.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't want.

MARRIAGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change but she does.

ARGUMENTS
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEKEND
Any married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people
remembering the same thing.

Just someone else's thoughts,

Frank

An Atheist Goes Undercover

2010-04-11T21:17:00.003-04:00

Time magazine has a very interesting article in which they interview a lady named Gina Welch who claims to be an atheist who attended Thomas Road Baptist Church (Jerry Falwell's church) for two years "undercover."

Often when you read articles like this, they tend to be very critical of the Christians, but this article actually seems to be pretty balanced.

It was definitely not what I was expecting when I saw the headline linked from Nathan Bingham's blog.

One question I would like to ask is what is the membership requirements for Thomas Road (Terry, are you reading this?). It would seem that if she really "joined" TRBC, then either TRBC's requirements of membership are not what you would expect for a Baptist church - e.g. regenerate, baptized membership or she was willing to lie about her conversion and be falsely baptized for this "experiment." Which puts her actions well beyond what is acceptable.

However, if they are using the term "join" in a more loose manner to indicate merely that she started attending and became part of the church, then this is interesting. (It still leads to some questions, however, as the article indicates that she even went on a mission trip with the church.)

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting read if you have a few moments.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Thoughts on a recent BJU Pastors and Wives Fellowship

2010-04-05T16:00:00.003-04:00

Last Monday, my wife and I had the opportunity to attend a BJU Pastors/Wives Fellowship Day in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Over the years, we have been able to attend a couple of these, although I am pretty sure this is the first one we have been to since we have been down here in Salisbury. (When I was at Hardingville Bible Church, all of the Pastoral staff - and most of the wives -would often go as a group.)

We had a really enjoyable time at the Fellowship. The sessions were good, although not ground-breaking, there was a decent discussion time in connection with each of the Pastor's sessions, and there was a chance to fellowship with some other Pastors during the lunch time meal.

Added to our enjoyment was the fact that an awesome family in our church (THANK YOU, Bob & Diane) was willing to watch our children overnight and make sure they made it to and from school on Monday. This allowed Missy and I to be able to go up on Sunday after our second service and spend the night at a hotel in the area before going to the Pastors/Wives Fellowship in the morning.

We really enjoyed our time up there for the day. It was great to get to fellowship with some pastor friends and their wives that we don't get to see very often as well as to be able to meet some others that we haven't met before.

In addition to the sessions and the fellowship, I was also able to pick up a few books while I was there - including a couple of Stewart Custer's commentaries that I did not yet have and a book by Will Senn (longtime Pastor of University Baptist Church in Clemson before moving to Colorado a few years ago) on college ministry that I hope may give me some insight in how to make an impact in the colleges in our area - specifically Salisbury University, Wor-Wic Community College, and the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore. (Below is the shameless plugs for those books from my Amazon Associates account:))

The sessions for the day were divided, with the ladies hearing from Mrs. Benneth Jones on "Recognizing the Dangers of Our Times", "Reclaiming God's Territory", and "Rebuilding for God's Glory" as well as a seminar from Mr. Marvin Reem, (Chief Information Officer for Bob Jones University) on the topic of "Casting Down Every Idol - The Case for Controlled Technology." I did not get to any of the ladies sessions (obviously), so unless Missy decides she is interested in being a guest-blogger, I doubt there will be any reports on A Thinking Man's Thoughts in regards to the ladies sessions.

As men, we had three presentations and a time for questions after each. As I have done with a number of other conferences over the years, I would like to do a little review of the conference - not only for my readers, but also so that I have taken the time to adequately reflect on what I have heard.

The Men's Agenda for the Day was "Knowing the Time" and the three speakers were Dr. Bob Jones, III, Chancellor of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, Nathan Crockett, who teaches some undergraduate Bible classes at BJU and serves as a youth pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Landrum, SC, and Mr. Marvin Reem, Chief Information Officer for BJU - he is in charge of maintaining the technology infrastructure of the campus.

When I originally wrote this post, I had included the above comments and my review of and comments on the session by Dr. Bob Jones, III in this one post. However, after looking at how long that post would have been, I have decided to just mention the conference first and then to add my reviews and comments in subsequent posts.

So, since I cut the whole review out of this post, I will say that I appreciate the administration of BJU putting on these Fellowship Days. I have found them to be encouraging, enjoyable, and (at times) challenging over the years. I look forward to trying to attend the next one (which will probably be in about two years) and urge Pastors out there to take the day to attend one if/when they have them in your area (see upcoming schedule).

Just my thoughts,

Frank

A Couple of Sports Thoughts

2010-04-04T23:22:00.004-04:00

First of all, we have reached the championship game of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. This has definitely been a unique tournament and the set-up for the National Championship Game continues to add a little bit of intrique as we get the proverbial "David vs. Goliath" match-up of the perinniel powerhouse Duke Blue Devils vs. the upstart small-school mid-major Butler Bulldogs.

Many people will be playing up the comparison to the movie "Hoosiers" and the 1954 Milan High School basketball team upon which it was (very loosely) based. The connections are definitely interesting and will make for some great copy for those who wish to pursue them. (For instance, the movie's final scene where tiny Hickory High won the championship was filmed at Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse, the real person upon whom the movie's basketball star "Jimmy Chitwood" is based upon was a young man named Bobby Plump, who followed his career at Milan by playing at ... you guessed it - Butler University. The coach of the 1954 Milan team was a graduate of ... Butler University.)

The story line of little Butler vs. mighty Duke will get lots of play this week, although the story is actually a little bit of a stretch.

For instance, while Butler does not have the storied history of Duke, the reality is that seeing them in the Finals this year should not be much more of a suprise than seeing Duke in the Finals. Back at the beginning of the year, the expectations for both teams were actually quite similar. The pre-season AP poll had Duke ranked 9 and Butler ranked 11. The pre-season ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll had them at 8 and 10 respectively. (You can see the polls here.)

Even the size difference is not really that great. Butler enrolls about 4.000 undergraduate students while Duke enrolls about 6,400 undergraduate students.

However, that should not make it any less fun to watch if the realitively unknown Butler can defeat the mighty Duke Blue Devils.

In regards to our Thinking Man's Tourney Time, the final results are now set since no one picked either of the remaining teams.

So... without further ado, the results of the 2010 Thinking Man's Tourney Time are:

1. Sarah Nething with 36 correct picks and 190 points.
2. Andy Rupert jumped into second place with the Duke win and finished with 37 correct picks and 180 points.
3. Don Johnson finished third with 36 correct picks and 179 points.
4. Ron Bean finished with 37 correct picks and 178 points
5. Jon Knisely - 35 correct picks - 169 points
6. Matt Jury - 35 correct - 160 points
7. Frank Sansone - 32 correct - 145 points
8. Andy Efting - 25 correct - 119 points

Congratulations, Sarah on winning the Tourney. Very impressive.

Way to go, Andy R. and Ron for getting the most picks correct, with 37 each.

Andy E. and I will have to say like the old Brooklyn Dodger fans - "Wait until next year." BTW, Andy's "jinx" finally ended in this last round as he mentioned in the comments of the last basketball post that he wanted Butler and Duke with Butler winning it all.

On an unrelated sports note, the Philadelphia Eagles traded away our "franchise" quarterback, Donovan McNabb, to the Washington Redskins today. While no one should be shocked at the Eagles trading McNabb (it has been talked about for the last couple of weeks), I was a little suprised that the Eagles traded him to a division rival whom they will face at least two times every year.

Eagles fans have long had a kind of "love/hate" relationship with Donovan McNabb. From the "booing" at the Eagles' selection of McNabb as the number 2 pick in the 1999 draft (btw, the "booing" was not directed against McNabb, but against the Eagles management as many Eagles fans wanted the Eagles to draft Ricky Williams - or at least get a lot of picks for not drafting RW).

Donovan McNabb has been a very good player for the Eagles and I agree with Andy Reid that his career will likely be considered a Hall of Fame career when it is over. Over the years it has been my opinion that McNabb and Andy Reid's offense were not a good match - I know, considering McNabb's 73-39 win-loss record as an Eagle, that seems kind of a stretch.) My point has been that while McNabb has a fairly high completion rate, he seems to lack one of the most important skills necessary for success in a "West Coast" type of offense - the ability to consistently "lead" your receivers with your passes. If you have watched many Eagles' games over the year, you will notice that McNabb is notorious for throwing behind the receiver. Even though many of those have been caught, the receiver is seldom able to get many "yards after the catch" in that type of play - and the whole point of the West Coast offense is to set up the receivers to get those very yards after the catch.

I have said over the years that the Eagles either need to switch their offense to an offense more suited to McNabb's skills - perhaps a "run and gun" type of offense, or if Andy Reid is so wed to the West Coast offense that he will not do that, he needs to find a quarterback that can run the offense he wants to run. (BTW, I believe this issue of the "leading" the receivers is why you have had a number of Eagles back-ups do well when they replaced McNabb over the years - Koy Detmer, A. J. Feeley, Jeff Garcia, etc. It is not that they are better overall quarterbacks than McNabb, but that they seemed to have been able to make those lead passes that McNabb could not consistently make.

Anyway, a new Eagles era has begun. I hope Andy Reid knows what he is doing.

Just my sports thoughts,

Frank

Now THIS is cool

2010-03-31T10:02:00.004-04:00

The price tag is kind of prohibitive for most of us (about $97,500 + the cost of the printer), but the Espresso Book Machine is a pretty cool piece of equipment.

I know that you can get a lot of stuff electronically, but, if cost were no object, wouldn't it be cool to print off whatever old book you wanted to print off that you can only find through Google Books.

Also, wouldn't it be nice to be able to print off any book you happen to write in a matter of minutes.

Oh, well. Not gonna happen.

(BTW, this is the first time I have ever embedded a YouTube video on this site, so I am not sure how it will look. Also, please be aware that when you click on an embedded YouTube video you will be taken to the actual spot at YouTube and that YouTube does not police its comments and the comments are therefore often vulgar and offensive.)

Anyway, just my thoughts.

Frank

HT: Lincoln Mullin who also writes (with Paul Matzko) at Religion in America.

Don't you hate it when ...

2010-03-31T01:40:00.000-04:00

(Oops, I did not realize that this got buried behind a number of other posts. Also, note it was [mostly] written before the more recent post that I mention.)

Don't you hate it when... you write an anti-Fundy post that seeks to paint a Fundamentalist Bible college as hypocritical only to have commentators show up and point out that in the one small paragraph of your post you have 1) misrepresented the school's involvement in the one conference as well as 2) misrepresented the school's reaction to the other conference.

Then to top it off, you reveal in the comments that you do not even understand why there is and ought to be a different reaction to the two events.

Our internet friend, Ben, over at Paleoevangelical had that happen to him recently (not sure he realizes it, though) :).

Pretty impressive, Ben.

I tend to like Ben. He has some legitimate concerns at times - including some of the questions he raises in his most recent post, but this post is the type of post that HE would attack if a Fundamentalist made such a post regarding one of the current CE "bigwigs."

Notice this post

You Might Be a Fundamentalist If . . .

. . . you think it's a good idea for a fundamentalist college to send students to an Americans for Prosperity "Defending the American Dream Conference" to "share their faith" by singing the "National Anthem" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," but a bad idea for a fundamentalist college to give its students permission to attend Together for the Gospel.

As you read the comments, you find out:

1) He has misrepresented the school's involvement in the first conference.

Thankfully, someone who actually knew the situation being mentioned happened to read Ben's blog as well. Consider these comments from Dave Marriot (who, based on the context of other comments, I assume is the son of the President of Maranatha Baptist Bible College):

Ben, perhaps you have mistakenly twisted what the newsletter says?

I quote:
The Third Annual Defending the American Dream Summit will be March 12-13 at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells. A men's chorus from Maranatha will open Saturday's session by singing the National Anthem as well as The Battle Hymn of the Republic. This is a unique opportunity for us to share our faith and showcase our college to thousands of politically and economically conservative people who might consider supporting an educational institution that promotes those ideals. Please pray that our men will have a powerful testimony there."

Your article says, "to share their faith by singing the National Anthem..." which makes it sound like the content of the faith is the same as the content of the Anthem or Battle Hymn. The singing of these songs at this event will allow the students an opportunity to be there at all, and thus share their faith with those there and in the organization. I have been to events like this where I was seated next to seemingly powerful people, and have had opportunity to open my mouth boldly and make known the gospel.

As to the charge that Ben misrepresents the school's reaction to the second conference, notice these comments from Jeremy in the same thread.

"It is important to point out that Maranatha has not prohibited attendance at T4G."

As I read through the comments and see Ben's attempt to explain himself, he makes the following statement which seems to be the key to his case:

"Fundamentalists raise the issue of conservative evangelicals and separation and point out that their relationships and alliances can create confusion over the gospel. That knife cuts both ways."

Ben's point is true. Relationship and alliance can create confusion over the gospel - and that applies whether the one with the questionable relationships and alliances is a Fundamentalist or a Conservative Evangelical. All of us ought to be careful in regards to the message that our alliances and relationships. Just having on one label or another does not make us automatically right or automatically wrong in this area.

The problem, however, is that Ben seems to fail to realize that their OUGHT to be a difference in regards to the response to these two types of events. (I am moving out to general principles here rather than necessarily the specific cases.)

The key thing that Ben seems to be missing in this post is that the nature of an alliance makes a huge difference. All of us have various forms of alliances with others - as John Donne wrote, "No man is an island." The issue is not whether every alliance I have is completely void of anyone with whom I have legitimate - and even profound - disagreement with, but what is the nature of that alliance.

If Ben is in a home owner's association with a Catholic Priest and a Muslim Cleric, I don't think anyone would raise an alarm - because the nature of the association is such that it is secular by nature and deals with this specific area of life - their roles as homeowners. The same thing could be said in regards to a membership in AAA, an Eagles Fan Club, or a political party or event - in each case, the area of association is clearly secular in nature. This does not mean that our Christianity is a mute point in those circumstances, but that we are not promoting those things as a Christian or spiritual activity. We are not indicating that the fellow associational members are co-belligerents for the cause of Christ.

However, when one is involved in a conference or activity that is promoted as spiritual or religious in nature, the presence of one who attempts to proclaim the true Gospel alongside of those who reject or twist the true Gospel is a serious concern. In these cases, the one that is right on the Gospel is providing spiritual ground cover for those who corrupt the Gospel. (This is why I have a bigger concern about the more recent conference that Ben has highlighted.)

By the way, this is also why Albert Mohler's recent involvement with the Manhattan Declaration has raised some eyebrows - and not just among Fundamentalists. The religious wording of the Manhattan Declaration makes it clear that this is not just political, but religious.

(BTW, I find it a little odd that apparently Dr. Mohler sometimes "gets it" - at least somewhat - in this area - consider this post, where he states:

I cannot participate in any setting that would confuse the Gospel or the nature of the true Gospel church.

but then he signs The Manhattan Declaration and in doing so violates completely the sentence above.)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

The Final Four - but no final scores

2010-03-31T00:06:00.003-04:00

This year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament continued its weird ways over the last few days as little Butler has made it to the Final Four and Michigan State defeated Tennessee in an exciting game.

Duke ends up being the only 1 seed remaining and the championship game is guaranteed to feature a 5 seed (as 5 seed Butler plays 5 seed Michigan State for the right to make the championship game). (The last time a 5 seed made the final was in 2000 when Indiana made the Final game.)

If Michigan State or Butler wins it all, they will be the lowest seed to win the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship since 1988 when Kansas (6th seed) beat Oklahoma.

As far as The Thinking Man's Tourney goes, we have a winner who is guaranteed, but some of the other spots are still up in the air.

Sarah Nething will be a winner.

Don Johnson currently sits in 2nd place, but Andy Rupert could move into second place with a Duke win over WV.

So, here are our current standings.

1. Sarah Nething 190 points - 36 correct
2. Don Johnson 179 points - 36 correct
3. Ron Bean 178 points - 37 correct
4. Andy Rupert 174 points - 36 correct
5. Jon Knisely 169 points - 35 correct
6. Matt Jury 160 points - 35 correct
7. Frank Sansone 139 points - 31 correct
8. Andy Efting 119 points - 25 correct

Just my thoughts,

Frank

We are down to the Elite Eight

2010-03-27T00:59:00.002-04:00

This has been one of the craziest NCAA Basketball Tournaments that I can ever recall, although some things seem to have returned to normal after this latest round. Depending on how the next round of games turn out, we could have a fairly normal looking Final Four (Kentucky, Duke, Kansas Sate, Michigan State) after a tournament that has been anything but normal.

The game last night between Xavier and Kansas State was incredible. I did not start watching the game until the final quarter of regulation, but it was an incredible ending of regulation and the first overtime. I was rooting for Xavier, but it was a great game anyway. I wonder if Xavier's coach would have been better off not calling the timeout that allowed Kelley to get back on the floor, but it was an exciting game.

I would have loved to see more of the Northern Iowa game, but the local channel only showed the last minute or so of it - by the time it was basically over.

Our Thinking Man's Tournament is nearing the end. Sarah Nething has a pretty decent lead after the first three rounds, although she can mathematically still be caught. If I am accurate in my understanding, Mr. Bean needs Kentucky to win it all and Duke and Kansas State to make it to the Final Four in order to win it all. (Doing so would give him at total of 202 points and Sarah a total of 201, wow!) Other than that scenario, Sarah will win it all.

Here is our standings after the Sweet Sixteen.

1. Sarah Nething (190 points, 36 correct games)
2. Don Johnson (174 points, 35 correct games)
3. Ron Bean (173 points, 36 correct games)
4. Jon Knisely (169 points, 35 correct games)
5. Andy Rupert (163 points, 34 correct games)
6. Matt Jury (155 points, 34 correct games)
7. Frank Sansone (134 points, 30 correct games)
8. Andy Efting (119 points, 25 correct games)

Many of the players have four of the final eight teams - mostly the same four (Kentucky, West Virginia, Duke & Kansas State). Don Johnson (the Canadian non-basketball fan) has five of the final eight including two of the lower seeds still alive (Michigan State, Baylor, Kansas State, Duke, and Kentucky)

Poor Andy E. If you looked at his Elite Eight before the tournament started, you would have expected more of them to have survived (Kansas, Ohio State, Syracuse, Pitt, Villanova, New Mexico, Kentucky). His bracket only includes one long-shot in the elite eight (Texas A&M - a 5 seed), yet he only has 1 of his Elite Eight teams remaining.

Anyway, we'll see tomorrow if we have a final winner or not.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

O Love Divine, What Hast Thou Done!

2010-03-26T08:53:00.002-04:00

I came across this old hymn by Charles Wesley recently that I don't recall having ever heard or read before. (I found it an online hymn site called HymnSite.com and subsequently found it at the cyberhymnal (it would be nice if they ever get the Cyber Hymnal back up to a good and functioning format again.)

Anyway, take a moment to consider the words:

1. O Love divine, what has thou done!
The immortal God hath died for me!
The Father's coeternal Son
bore all my sins upon the tree.
Th' immortal God for me hath died:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

2. Is crucified for me and you,
to bring us rebels back to God.
Believe, believe the record true,
ye all are bought with Jesus' blood.
Pardon for all flows from his side:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

3. Behold him, all ye that pass by,
the bleeding Prince of life and peace!
Come, sinners, see your Savior die,
and say, "Was ever grief like his?"
Come, feel with me his blood applied:
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

I found this additional stanza here:
Then let us sit beneath His cross,
And gladly catch the healing stream:
All things for Him account but loss,
And give up all our hearts to Him:
Of nothing think or speak beside,
My Lord, my Love, is crucified!

The richness of the text is beautiful to me and some of the thoughts are awesome if explored, especially in the first stanza - "the immortal God hath died for me!" "the Father's coeternal Son bore all my sins upon the tree."

However, I was a little underwhelmed with the associated tune. (Of course the only version I have heard of it is the "tinny" midi version of the tune on the sites mentioned above.) I wondered if anyone knows of an alternate tune for this hymn - either an old tune or one that someone like Pinkston, Habegger, Forrest, or the like has applied to these words.

After I found the old Cyber Hymnal site with the tune meter's (which I am putting here - so that I can at least find it again :) ), I tried a number of the 88.88 tunes listed there but there are over 60 tunes listed for that meter and I wasn't coming close to something that I like with these words as I was searching through them. (ST. PETERSBURG seems the one I like best so far out of that search, but not an exact fit.)

If no one knows of an already done alternative tune, maybe Dan Forest or Greg Habegger or Scott Anoil or someone with talent would take up the task. (And while they are at it, perhaps add a stanza regarding the resurrection - or include it in some type of refrain.)

Anyway, just my thoughts,

Frank

I know not the day of my death

2010-03-24T09:50:00.002-04:00

Do you ever have those times when something in the Bible that you have read multiple times strikes you as though you have never seen it before?

I had one of those times yesterday, although I was listening to the Bible rather than reading it. (I was on the road for my job with Peet's Coffee and I have some CDs of the Bible that I received last summer at the FFBC Annual Conference from Pastor Mike Green - thanks, Mike.)

BTW, for a pretty decent audio version of the Bible being read in mp3 format, you can download a free mp3 of the entire Bible from firefighters.org, here. (I don't know anything about this group, but I do know that the download of the mp3 audio version of the Bible is an excellent resources - especially if you do a lot of traveling and have a way to listen to the mp3 while traveling.)

As I listened to Genesis, I came across a saying that I know I have read multiple times - and a statement that gained a little weight as I noticed the details I will mention below.

In Genesis 27, Isaac is about 100 years old and we read a fairly familiar story about Jacob stealing/tricking his father Isaac into giving him the blessing that Isaac was going to give to Esau.
At the beginning of this passage, we read:

Genesis 27:1 And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
2 And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:

Isaac makes one of those statements that we all kind of know and which the Bible repeats a number of times. "I know not the day of my death."

The reality is that none of us know the day of our death. (With my father's passing a couple of weeks ago, perhaps I have thought of this topic a little more lately than normal.) The Bible reminds us of this fact with verses such as James 4:13-15 and Proverbs 27:1.

James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

Provebs 27:1 Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

Usually when I think of that truth, I do so in the context of you could die at anytime, so be prepared to die. Make sure you have repented of your sins and trusted Christ as your Savior and make sure you are living a life that counts for eternity.

However, as I continued to read and then think about this statement in regards to Isaac, I noticed something that was interesting to me in Genesis 35.

Genesis 35:28 And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.
29 And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

By my short study and calculations (calculations below), I believe that there was about 60 to 80 years between the time when Isaac said "I know not the day of my death" until his actual death.
Wow!

Two things became completely obvious to me regarding this:

1. We really do not know the time of our death - duh!

2. Not knowing the time of our death not only serves as a warning to us to be prepared to die at any moment, but it also ought to be a challenge to us to be prepared to finish strong - even if the race is longer than we thought.

We don't really know a lot of what Isaac did between these two dates - the focus on the passages is on Jacob/Israel instead - but it does give me pause.

If God should give a much longer life than you expect, will you continue to make your life count for him long after you are limited in the "normal" roles of service? Or will you reach an age of "retirement" and shut things down? I am thankful that there are some in our church who are above 80 years old and still serving the Lord - may we follow that pattern.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Oh, yeah, the calculations:

Isaac is 40 years old when he marries Rebekah (Genesis 25:20)
She is barren for 20 years

Isaac is 60 years old when the twins are born (Genesis 25:26)
The boys grow up, Isaac loves Esau, Rebekah loves Jacob. Esau sells his birthright to Jacob, etc.

Isaac is 100 years old when Esau takes two Hittite women for his wives (Genesis 26:34)

Isaac at birth (60) plus Esau's age at marriage (40) gives us Isaac at 100.

Now the exact time of the incident is not given, but it makes sense that it occurs near the time of Esau's marriage. Notice that there is a concern from both Isaac and Rebekah that Jacob would not do the same thing. Rebekah uses that concern as an excuse to get Jacob out of town before his brother kills him and Esau recognizes that concern and takes different wives (Gen 26:35, 27:41-46, 28:1-9)

Isaac is 180 years old when he dies (Genesis 35:28).

If I am correct that the incident occurs when Isaac is about 100 years old, that gives us 80 years between the events, although the time of the incident is not fixed.

We know that the gap is at least 20 years because of the fact that Jacob served 20 years in Laban's house (7 for each daughter, six for the cattle) (Genesis 31:41) and was a long time back from that before the death of his father.

If we assume a normal amount of time for the other events that are in the narrative, it would make sense if the gap were significantly larger than that due to the fact that a number of other events occur before the death passage is mentioned - the moving back into the land, the raping of Dinah and destruction of the city, the moving away to Bethel, the death of Rachel, etc.

Thank you, Aaron

2010-03-22T17:11:00.005-04:00

I know a lot of you have read this already, but in an era where it seems like the only things you hear from "fundamentalists" is how bad "fundamentalists" are, it was nice to read Aaron Blummer's article on SharperIron entitled, "I Learned it from Fundamentalists."

What Aaron describes is very similar in experience to the Fundamentalism that I have known - a Fundamentalism that certain corners within Fundamentalism seem desirous to ignore in their mad rush to rip or ridicule Fundamentalism by highlighting the crazies that use the term.

Among the points Aaron makes, the following stand out in particular in my experience.

1. Fundamentalism taught me expository preaching

No one told me then that the most persuasive and enduringly powerful preaching I was hearing—and had grown to love—was called “exposition” or “expository preaching.” The Fundamentalist college I attended next taught me that this kind of preaching had a name as well as a long and glorious tradition.

Could a young man learn expository preaching outside of Fundamentalism at the time? Absolutely. But I learned it from Fundamentalists.

3. Fundamentalism taught me to be mindful of doctrine

The attitude that doctrine is extremely important and that believers should expect to put their thinking caps on and wade through it somewhat regularly was an attitude I caught from Fundamentalists.

and

6. Fundamentalism taught me the gospel.

Fundamentalists gave me the gospel in its simplicity, but also later taught me its complexity. Fundamentalists taught me what total depravity meant, what imputation meant, what regeneration meant, even what election meant.

No one is claiming that Fundamentalism is perfect. And surely this Fundamentalist is far from perfect, but it is nice to hear/read something positive for a change.

Thanks, Aaron.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Wow! What a Tournament!

2010-03-22T11:31:00.002-04:00

This has been a crazy NCAA Tournament. The number one overall seed, Kansas, went down in the second round to Norther Iowa (who?). Mighty Georgetown falls to Ohio University (not Ohio State - Ohio University is located in little Athens, Ohio - the closest town with a Wal-Mart to where my in-laws live in Ohio). An Ivy League team - Cornell - makes it to the Sweet 16.

I have not been able to watch very much of any game, so far. I was able to listen to the last half of Northern Iowa's shocker over Kansas, however - what a game.

I think my bracket is the worst bracket of my life of picking brackets. I would say it was obvious that I have not seen much college basketball this year, but with the unusual nature of some of these games, I am not sure watching the games would have helped much.

After the first two rounds of The Thinking Man's Tourney Time, we have a new leader and a new person on the bottom - sorry, Andy.

Taking over the lead of The Thinking Man's Tourney is Sarah Nething. Way to go, Sarah. Sarah has Kansas as the winner and has lost another Final Four team, so this is not over yet and Ron Bean (last year's champion) is right behind her. Sarah nailed every one of the 7-10 games in the first round, which is pretty impressive - especially since 3 of them were won by the lower seed. She also nailed Cornell's first round upset of Temple. I figure at least someone else involved knows you, but if you would give us a brief intro in the comments, it would be great to meet you.

Ron Bean is in second place. His most impressive bracket was the West - where he nailed 10 of the 12 games played there over the last four days. He also picked the Cornell upset of Temple.

So, after the first two rounds, here is the standings.

1. Sarah Nething - 170 points, 32 correct
2. Ron Bean - 155 points, 32 correct
3. Jon Knisely - 151 points, 31 correct
4. Don Johnson - 147 points, 30 correct
5. Andy Rupert - 145 points, 30 correct
6. Matt Jury - 137 points, 30 correct
7. Frank Sansone - 121 points, 27 correct
8. Andy Efting - 115 points, 24 correct

I will note that Sarah & Jon (Kansas), Don (Clemson) and myself (Maryland) have all already lost our predicted champions. Randy, Matt, and Andy E. all have Kentucky - who seems to be doing well and Andy Rupert has Ohio State, so there is a chance that someone will still have picked the eventual champion.

Anyway, just an update.

Frank

Free Audio Books

2010-03-19T13:39:00.002-04:00

ChristianAudio.com is offering two free Audio Book downloads this month. In the past, I have found the materials from Christian Audio to be very well done with high-quality recordings.

Since my current second job as a Route Sales Representative for Peet's Coffee and Tea requires that I spend a large amount of time in the car each week, I have been encouraged with the availability of materials like this to listen to while I am on the road. (I may make another post soon with a lot of other similar resources - we'll see.)

This months free books are Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die by John Piper and The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoffer.

I have never read either one of these books, but I thought they might be interesting - and you can't beat the price. Theopedia's entry on Bonhoeffer may provide some insight that will prove useful and reading/hearing his work - here.

As always, please understand that my link to these materials is not meant to be a blanket endorsement of the materials (which I still have not read or listened to) or of the authors - or of other materials on the site. (In fact, I have found that the site is pretty broad in the works it includes - merging good conservative materials with materials that are from guys like McLaren and Wright.)

The code for the Bonhoeffer book is MAR2010 and for the Piper book is MAR2010B.

Anyway and as always, when reading or listening to stuff like this, treat it like watermelon - eat the good stuff and spit out the seeds. (Unfortunately, sometimes the watermelon is so full of seeds that it may not be worth it to try to dig around the seed to get to the good stuff in the watermelon - since I have not read these before, I do not know if that is the case with these books.)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Standings after the first night of the NCAA Tournament

2010-03-19T09:00:00.002-04:00

Well, that was a rough first day of NCAA Basketball action for my bracket. I am currently in LAST PLACE - UGH!

It was kind of funny as I checked the standing three times during the day. When I checked it the first time, I was in last. When I checked it the second time I had moved up into like third and then when I checked it this morning, I was back in last.

A couple of our returning players have the top two spots - Andy Rupert and Jon Knisely, with Andy having a one-point lead. The next two players are new players this year, Don Johnson and Sarah Nething. Welcome to the tournament! Don is from the land where basketball is just a game for kids who can't skate or handle a hockey stick, but he is doing pretty well, so far. He needs Clemson to make a DEEP Run (he has picked them for the champion) to continue to do well, but he is off to a good start so far - picking a couple of nice upsets with ODU over ND and Washington over Marquette. I don't believe I have met Sarah before, but she has started off well and the only team she has lost going into the next round is Marquette.

The top five after the first day of the tournament:

1. Andy Rupert - 60 points / 11 correct
2. Jon Knisely - 59 points / 11 correct
3. Don Johnson - 55 points / 10 correct
4. Sarah Nething - 50 points / 10 correct
5. Andy Efting - 48 points / 9 correct

Matt Jury and Ron Bean (last year's champion) are just one point ahead of me near the bottom!

Biggest upset correctly picked: I correctly picked 13 seed Murray State over 4 seed Vanderbilt. (None of us picked the University of Ohio over Georgetown - in fact, a number of folks have Georgetown moving on beyond this round.)

Anyway, just a quick update.

Frank

It's Tourney Time

2010-03-17T08:23:00.005-04:00

* Updated - fixed link and added some instructions!

If anyone reading this is interested in being part of our annual March Madness Bracket Challenge - for fun only, please join us.

You can join us by following this link: http://athinkingmansthoughts.mayhem.cbssports.com/e
The pool password is "tourney"

To those who participated last year, in my attempt to send you all an invitation to join this year, I accidently selected "Remove Selected Players" thinking that the button was for "Invite Selected Players", so most of you have accidently been removed. I am very sorry. To participate again, you will have to go through the above way - unless you are still able to get in via the email link that Andy R. sent out yesterday.

If you have participated before and already have a CBS Sports ID, all you need to do is
1. Follow the link above
2. Login
3. Enter the Pool Password: tourney
4. Make your picks

If you have never participated before and would like to do so, follow these steps:

1. Follow the link above
2. Register for a CBS Sports ID (it's free)
3. After registering, it should ask you for the pool password - enter "tourney"
4. Make your picks

(Note: If you end up somewhere else after registering, just return to this page and follow the link and the instructions above :) ).

If you did not participate last year, we would love for you to join us this year.

A NOTE ABOUT THE RULES:

1. You are allowed to make up two brackets - one for your head and one for your "gut" if you wish.
2. Scoring is a Weight + Seed method of scoring

*In other words, points are awarded based on what round the game is in, plus the seed of the team. If you pick Morgan State to defeat W.V.U. in the first round and get it correct, you will get 16 points for that pick - 1 point for getting it correct in the first round PLUS 15 points for correctly picking that 15th seed to win. So, correctly picking an upset can help you out a lot, but it also means that if the team you pick to lose that game goes deep (and you picked them to go deep), you could be leaving a lot of points on the table. For example, in the previous example, if you chose WVU to beat Morgan State and to make the Final Four - and you are correct - the choice of WVU in that scenariou would actually be worth more than the upset pcik because WVU would earn you ultimately 18 points during the tournament (1st round - 3 [1+2], 2nd round - 4 [2+2], 3rd round - 5 [3+2], and 4th round - 6 [4+2]) (CONFUSED, YET?)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Classic Commentaries Online

2010-03-13T18:35:00.000-05:00

One of the great features of the internet is the resources that become available.

I recently came across some sites that includes a number of Classic Commentaries that can be used online. Among the commentaries that are available are such classics as Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (in both Complete and Concise forms), John Gill, Jamieson, Faussett, Brown, John Wesley, John Darby, and the Geneva Study Bible notes. Some of the individual books have additional commentators (such as Lightfoot on Matthew and Charles Spurgeon's classic commentary, The Treasury of David, on the Psalms.)

Now, to be honest, I am the type of person who likes to have my resources on my own computer, rather than out in cyberspace. I know the trend is to keep putting things online and off of your personal computer, however, I am just enough of a curmudgeon to reject that trend. (This is one reason why I may hold on to my Palm Centro well after I qualify for an upgrade. I like my Palm Desktop too much to surrender it to an internet only based system.)

So, because of my desire to have things actually on my computer, I will gladly continue to use PowerBible and E-Sword (until someone gives me a copy of BibleWorks or some similar program), which have many of these same titles. However, having these resources available online is also nice to know. Especially when you are not at your own computer where you have the aformentioned programs installed - or if you are one of these tech gadget guys who have one of the really cool smartphones and want to look up something on one of these passages with your phone.

So, here are some of the sites. (Part of the reason I am making this post is so that I can quicly find these sites myself in the future.)

E-Word

A listing of some other online commentaries

An additional listing of available commentaries

I know there are a ton more, but this is a good list with which to start.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

2010-03-12T00:53:00.000-05:00

After about a year-long hiatus, I have decided to tentatively return to the blogosphere. I am not promising much, but the itch has been here to write, my 13-year old son has started a blog himself (and posted more times in the two weeks that he has had his blog than I think I have posted in the last year), and my wife keeps encouraging me to start writing again. (Who'd a thunk it? - just kidding, dear.)

While I don't generally do a lot of "What I am doing now" type of posts, I can imagine that the huge following that I have are probably wondering what has been going on (oh, wait, I don't have a following for my blog anymore, let alone a huge following).

Actually, as many of you know, last year I returned to the world of being a "bi-vocational pastor." In doing so, I began working two additional part-time jobs in addition to serving as Pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury, Maryland.

One of those jobs involved serving as a driver for a company that transported patients to their physical therapy and doctor appointments. This was/is an interesting job with a chance to meet some folks and initially paid pretty well. Unfortunately, the opportunities between runs with this job have been so scarce that it became clear early on that this was not the solution to our need for a second job.

In March, through the wonderful tool of craigslist, I got an interview for and received a job working as an Independent Route Sales Representative for Peet's Coffee and Tea serving the majority of the Delmarva Penninsula - with stops in places such as Smyrna, Dover, and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware and Ocean City, Salisbury, Chester and Chestertown, Maryland and points in between. Peet's is a good place to work and they make great coffee - and their famous 90-day freshness guarantee makes sure that when you buy a bag of Peet's Coffee, you are getting the best and freshest coffee available. My job includes making sure the coffee on the shelves in my area meets that exacting standard.

Things have also been pretty busy from a church and ministry stand-point. The Lord has seen fit recently to bless our church with a good influx of some solid families, of which we are glad It has been a blessing getting to know some of these folks over the last few months and I look forward to the opportunity of getting to know them better and being able to serve the Lord with them at Fellowship Baptist Church in the days ahead.

I was also privileged to preach three times for a Junior age (grades 4-8) Winter Weekend at Tri- State Bible Camp in Montague, New Jersey in January. I have had the privilege of preaching some teen weeks and teen weekends at Tri-State in the past and I count it a blessing to be a part of the ministry there at Tri-State. Director Chris Jenkins and his staff are doing a great job with this smaller camp and it is neat to see and hear what God is doing up there. I hope the Lord continues to give me opportunities to serve up there.

Anyway, I just wanted to say "Hi" and dip my toes back in the blogging waters.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Dr. John Dreisbach with the Lord

2009-11-25T16:31:00.005-05:00

Dr. John Dreisbach, missionary pioneer and missionary statesman went home to be with the Lord this week.

Dr. Dreisbach was the subject of the film, "Beyond the Night" and was active in medical missions and other forms of missions for over 60 years. I had the priviledge of meeting Dr. Dreisbach years ago while I was involved with Mission Prayer Band while a student at BJU. He was a gracious and Godly man and his presence on this earth will be missed.

More can be found at the church blog of Heritage Bible Church in Greenville, SC, here.

Just thought some would like to know.

Frank

New Free Resource of Interest

2009-07-07T14:40:00.003-04:00

Canadian Blogger extraordinaire Don Jonson has pointed out that Codex Sinaiticus (also known as Aleph) is now available for viewing online.

Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest complete copy of the New Testament and it is physically located in four different locations, the largest portion of which is at the British Museum in London, with other parts in Russia, Germany, and Mt. Sinai. However, through the wonder that is the internet / world wide web, you can now view the entire thing from the comfort of your own home or office.

No matter what position one holds on the text, the availabilty of Codex Sinaiticus online is a neat thing to see. While I find the interface to be a little slow on my old computer, it is neat that you can look up a passage and see the actual manuscript.

You can find the site at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/

Just someone else's work,

Frank

Free* Copy of John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine & Doxology

2009-06-07T01:20:00.003-04:00

John Calvin is a name that stirs up great emotion from his admirers as well as his detractors. Out of all the leaders of the Reformation, Calvin was the most prolific writer and his works have long survived him, including his famous Institutes of the Chrsitian Religion and his numerous commentaries on different books of the Bible. Even if you are not a fan of John Calvin, you would be hard-pressed to deny

This year, 2009, marks the 500th anniversary of his birth. In connection with that fact, there are a number of projects designed to celebrate this anniversary. One of those projects is the book, John Calvin: A Heart for Deveotion, Doctrine & Doxology, which explores the life and legacy of John Calvin.

For a page that links to more details about the book, including a sample chapter, you can follow this link.

Ligionier Ministries is offering a free copy of this book to Pastors. The offer is only good while supplies last or until 6/12/09. The offer also requires that you pay a $5.00 shipping and handling charge. The offer is also only for Pastors and church leaders. The link for the book is http://calvinforpastors.ligonier.org.

Surely, Calvinist and non-Calvinist can agree that this could be a valuable resource into the life of an interesting man.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

The Sovereign Grace/Getty Music Question

2009-06-01T16:09:00.005-04:00

The Sovereign Grace/Getty Music Question. That is the title of this recent post by Scott Aniol of Religious Affections Ministries

We have been using his hymn We Gather Together as part of our celebration of The Lord's Table at Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury for a few years now. It is a rich text that does a nice job of breaking down the various aspects regarding the Lord's Table (Communion) as presented in 1 Corinthians 11. At Scott's old site, he used to have some free hymns for downloading and using and We Gather Together was one of those hymns. Unfortunately, I cannot locate this feature at his new site.

Anyway, I think his article is definitely worth a read to anyone who has struggled with this question.

I do have one quibble with the article, however. Perhaps Scott is correct, but I feel as though he raises a little bit of a straw man in regards to the issue of Calvinism and dislike of SG/G.

He comments:

"But my observation is that for some fundamentalists, the reason they are afraid of SG/G is more because of the associated Calvinism than anything else."

and later,

"If you do not want to use the songs because you are uncomfortable associating yourself with the Calvinism of these writers, then honestly state your reasons and be consistent. But please show grace to those who embrace Calvinism and choose to use these songs because they reflect their soteriological convictions."

Again, there may be creatures out there who exist that fit the trait that Scott puts here, but I have NEVER met such a creature who rejects SG/G because of their associations with Calvinism. I have met plenty who reject SG/G because of their associations with charismatism, but never because of their Calvinism. It seems like to do so would cause some serious problems with some of the most popular hymns of all time. I have yet to see a Fundamentalist that rejects "Amazing Grace" because of John Newton's Calvinism or any of the great hymns of Isaac Watts because of his Calvinism.

Methinks that sometimes the strong Calvinists among us tend to think that anyone who is not also a strong Calvinist is an "anti-Calvinist" who is looking for a Calvinist "boogey man" behind every tree. While there are certainly some who seem to fit that description, it seems more like a charicature than reality.

UPDATE: My friend, Pastor Chris Anderson indicates that he has heard (albeit second-hand) of well-known music speaker Frank Garlock making the exact charge that Scott aludes to in his post. If this is the case, I am sorry for the straw man comments. If this is the case, I would also say that the group of Fundamentalists I associate with must be a strange group, because this line of argument would never come up in my circles.

(Also, if any one has a source of Garlock saying this, I would appreciate it. I would love to see what he said in context.)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Foxe's Book of Martyrs is now available

2009-05-27T09:41:00.005-04:00

Christianaudio.com is a site that has a wide variety of Christian books (both classics and modern) in audio format. As with a regular Christian bookstore, discernment is needed, but if you are the type of person who spends a lot of time on the road or in other settings where listening to a book (rather than reading a book) is a legitimate possibility, you can find much on the site that is helpful.

One of the nice features of this site is that every month they feature a "Free Audiobook of the Month." Many of which, over the time that I have been aware of the site, are classics that they have turned into audiobooks. In previous posts, I have alerted readers to their Free editions of Richard Baxter's Reformed Pastor, Jonathon Edwards' Religious Affections, and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

There selection for this month is a book that once had great influence and is one of those books with which every believer should be familiar.

Foxe's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe (also Fox) is a classic that traces the history of Christian martyrdom from the days of Stephen in the book of Acts through the days of "Bloody Mary". It is a read that is tough at times, but also a read that will challenge you and inspire you to stand strong when testing comes.

James Miller Dodds commented in English Prose that, "After the Bible itself, no book so profoundly influenced early Protestant sentiment as the Book of Martyrs. Even in our time it is still a living force. It is more than a record of persecution. It is an arsenal of controversy, a storehouse of romance, as well as a source of edification."

If you want to get it before the month is out, head on over to Christianaudio.com and download it. You will need to use the code MAY2009 (which you apply at checkout) to get it for free. Here is the link directly to the Foxe's Book of Martyrs page.

BTW, if you want to read it online, the Christian Classics Ethereal Library has it available here.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

My Thoughts on the Recent Controversy

2009-05-22T14:33:00.003-04:00

My title is taken from Andy Efting's post on Unsearchable Riches. As most of the Fundamentalist blogosphere is aware, there has been a virtual dust-up in regards to some comments that Pastor Danny Sweatt made at a recent FBF Regional Meeting.

I have been too busy to actually listen to the message (and thus, I have not made any comments on any location about this), but I have read enough of the comments and read enough of the sections that others have quoted to get a pretty good feel of what was said.

While Bob Bixby, Kevin Bauder, Dave Doran, Chris Anderson, Don Johnson, John Piper, Andrew Naselli and others have all commented on either the sermon itself or on the response to the sermon, so far the thoughts of Andy Efting seem to reflect my thoughts the best.

So, while Andy adds some personal comments that I have not experienced, let me say that I think his post on this controversy is (so far) the closest to my thoughts on it as well. In particular, he addresses two of the concerns that I have on this issue:
1. The promotion of Hyles and Gray - I was hoping I was reading this wrong and he didn't actually do that.

2. The idea that Fundamentalism and Calvinism are somehow incompatible. It surely does not take a Calvinist to look at the influence in Fundamentalism of men like Michael P.V. Barrett, Ian Paisley, John McKnight, J. Greshem Machen, Dave Doran, et al to see that Calvinism is not incompatible with Fundamentalism. While there are legitimate issues with the ministries of Piper, Driscoll, etc., from a Fundamentalist perspective the issues with their ministries is not because of their Calvinism, but because of their associations, ministry philosophy, language, etc.

So, if you are dying to know what I think about this (which I am sure no one is), reading My Thoughts on the Recent Controversy by Andy will be the closest thing to my thougths that you are likely to see regarding this. (At least until/if I get a chance to listen to the message and formulate some thoughts.)

Just someone else's thoughts,

Frank

The answer to the "Who Said This?" and the full quote.

2009-04-27T07:36:00.004-04:00

My recent "Who said this?" post was raised to see what type of guesses I would get. I was kind of curious if the automatic assumption by the "Young Fundamentalist" crowd would be that this kind of thing had to have been said by some "mean, old, ‘Type A' Fundamentalist".

However, judging by the response, I would guess the following things to be true:

1. I think I may have lost most of my "Young Fundamentalists" readers. I guess that is what I get for not posting regularly.

2. If I do still have some of them, they were not taking the bait.

3. This type of statement regarding Billy Graham apparently could have been uttered by many. For instance, I found this quote by Dr. Bob Jones, Jr. after Pastor Wagner mentioned him as a possible source for the quote of the "Who Said This?" post.

"For a long time I believed that Billy was doing more harm than any other living man. What a tragedy to see him building the church of Antichrist, masking the wickedness of popery, and providing a sheep's cloak of Christian recognition for the wolves of apostasy."

However, the answer to the question is probably a little difficult because of the relative obscurity of the person who said it - at least relative obscurity until his son chose to write a book about him and bring him to the attention of a lot of people who otherwise would not have heard of him.

The person who made the quote is Pastor Tom Carson, a long-time missionary/pastor in French Quebec. The particular context of the quote reveals the particular damage done by the compromising ministry of BG in relation to his promotion of and failure to separate from the errors of the Roman Catholic Church.

"I heard a priest being interviewed on a French [radio] station at the time of the Billy Graham crusade, and he was asked point-blank why the R. C. authorities did not come out and denounce it as presenting much that could be construed as against Roman Catholic teaching, though not verbally stated. He hemmed and hawed, but said in effect it was better to leave the crusade alone. I could have told them why: because this upright man that is Billy Graham, his personal life beyond reproach, is the Roman Catholic church's best ally, since he welcomed them as evangelicals at his services. Graham is Jehoshophat with Ahab." (Quoted from Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflection of Tom Carson by D.A. Carson, p. 142)

I recently finished reading the book, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflection of Tom Carson by D. A. Carson (his son) and found this quote to be interesting. Pastor Don Johnson in Canada (among others) alerted me to the book with his review of the book, here.

I plan on writing a review of the book shortly, but I would like to make a couple of quick comments regarding the quote.

1. I appreciate the insight that Pastor Carson displays. While it is not unusual to hear such denouncements from Fundamentalists, it is refreshing to hear it from someone who was most likely not a Fundamentalist (although I am not really sure, since D. A. Carson does not really explore that issue in the book.)

2. It seems as though a statement like this would be attacked by the "YF" crowd if it were by a self-identifying Fundamentalist. It makes me curious that while I have read a few reviews of Carson's book (including some reviews from non-Fundametnalists), no one has seen fit to bring this out and attack Tom Carson for the comment. I cannot imagine a favorable biography of Dr. Bob, Jr. that included the quote above not garnering criticism in the blogosphere, but maybe I am just cynical. (Witness the multiple pages of posts at SI when the FBF dared to issue a very mildly written warning about Piper.)

3. While I recognize that the day of Billy Graham is essentially past, why do men like Mohler not recognize the issue that is so obvious to those like Pastor Carson, who have served on the front lines and seen the devastating effect of the compromise?

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Who said this? - BG edition

2009-04-15T23:30:00.008-04:00

I found this quote in my reading recently and thought it would be an interesting "Who Said This?" for the blog. (If anyone is actually reading anymore.)

Billy Graham ... is the Roman Catholic church's best ally, since he welcomed them as evangelicals at his services. Graham is Jehoshophat with Ahab.

Update:

1. I fixed the title, I actually had accidently titled this post with the title for the follow-up post, so I shortened this one back to an accurate title.

2. I have provided two hints in the comment sections, so far.
1. Don Johnson is correct in that he had read this somewhere else recently (I know, not much of a hint)
2. The person who made this statement is dead.

3. I will add a new hint.
Although the person who made this statement is dead, the statement was only published in 2008.

Congratulations, Ron Bean - as we come to our Final Game

2009-04-06T21:16:00.004-04:00

We are almost done with the 2009 edition of A Thinking Man's Tourney Time - and once again, I did not win.

With one game left, I can safely predict that the winner of this year's tournament is Ron Bean and I can pretty much give the entire standings (since no one other than Andy E. has picked either UNC or Michigan State - and Andy is far enough behind that he will not be passing anyone else :) ).

So, here is the (almost) Final results.

1. Ron Bean 245 points and 48 correctly picked games - good job, Mr. Bean. For those who cannot see the brackets, Mr. Bean picked a completely perfect South bracket - getting every single game of every single round correct in that bracket. He also only missed two games in the West and three games in the East brackets. Very impressive.

2. Frank Sansone 241 points and 43 correctly picked games. Not bad. While I did not have a perfect region like Mr. Bean, I only missed three games in the Midwest and the West brackets - and considering the number of upsets in the Midwest region, I would think that my performance in that region was pretty impressive.

3. Jon Knisely 231 points and 46 correctly picked games. Pretty impressive for the newcomer. Not only did he beat his brother (you know that has to count for some type of bragging rights), he also had a very well-balanced bracket. Only missing 2 games in the East, 3 in the South, and 3 in the West.

4. Josiah Sansone 220 points and 35 correctly picked games. Hey, the kid did a good job, I think I'll keep him! He let his allegiance to Ohio State get the better of him, but a pretty nice showing overall. (At least he didn't beat his old man, though, whew!)

5. Sam Knisely 199 points and 41 correctly picked games. And so ends the run of our two-time champion. Not a bad tourney, but a little out of the running this year. Probably his only relief is that while Jon beat him, Jon did not win it all as Sam has done the previous two years.

6. Andy Rupert 198 points and 42 correctly picked games. Wow, so close to breaking into the top five. A very impressive showing in the West bracket, where the only game Andy missed was in picking BYU over Texas A & M in the first round. The best West bracket in the tourney.

7. Andy Efting 184 points and 39 correctly picked games. (With a potential for 191 points and 40 correct games if North Carolina wins tonight) I will say that even Andy's bracket doesn't look that bad. We had some pretty good picking this year. And, as Andy pointed out in a comment on the last post, he is the only one of the regular players who still has a chance of picking the actual winner of the tournament heading into tonight's game - as he has selected UNC to win it all.

For those of you who are wondering, here is how some of the hypothetical and mythical pickers did.

President Obama would have lost our Tourney Challenge. Even if UNC wins tonight (his pick), his best possible score is 183. He currently sits at 177 and 40 correct picks.

Picking the highest seed in each game (at the start of the tourney) would have placed you just between Josiah Sansone and Sam Knisely (theoreically in 5th place and moving Sam down to 6th place).

The coin flip picks ended up with 150 points and 22 correct games.

Picking the lower seed in each game (at the start of the tourney) would have netted 118 points and 10 correct games.

So, Congratulations, Ron Bean - our 2009 A Thinking Man's Tourney Time champion.

(On a side note, for those who actually still come here to read things on interest, I will be making a few "real" posts coming shortly, including a "Who said it" and a book review.)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

And Now We Move on to the Elite Eight

2009-03-28T00:25:00.003-04:00

Tonight completed the round of 16 of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tourney and The Thinking Man's Thoughts Tourney Time Challenge has become very close.

I am still in first place, but Ron Bean is only 2 points behind me and newcomer Jon Knisely has moved into third place, with Josiah falling into fourth place.

At this point in the tournament, all of the human players except for Josiah have picked at least five of the elite eight. Ron Bean has 6 of the 8 and Jon Knisely has an incredible 7 of the 8. Very nice, guys.

Here are the standings after the first three rounds.
Name Points Correct
1. Frank Sansone 236 42
2. Ron Bean 234 46
3. Jon Knisely 226 45
4. Josiah Sansone 220 35
5. Andy Rupert 193 41
Higher Seeds only 190 42
6. Sam Knisely 188 39
7. Andy Efting 168 36
8. Barack Obama 165 38

2nd Round of NCAA Tournament

2009-03-22T23:49:00.003-04:00

I worte this a few days ago and just realized that I never published it - sorry. I know some of you are on the edge of your seat. :)

The second round of the 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has ended, without a whole lot of upsets and with a change in the leader board of The Thinking Man's Tourney Time.

Josiah had a rough second round - all four of his Final Four teams have been eliminated, making his chances of winning it all pretty slim.

I have overtaken Josiah and moved into the lead - although my picks are not nearly as impressive as the picks of Ron Bean. Mr. Bean has picked 40 of the first 48 games correctly and sits in third place with two regions that he is still perfect in - the South and the West. He also has 15 of the 16 Sweet Sixteen picks correct - very impressive.

(In case you are wondering how he could have picked that well and not be in 1st place, well, it has to do with the scoring system in use, which awards points based on the victory and the seed of the team that wins - meaning that a victory by a 4 seed is worth 5 points (1 for the victory + 4 for the seed) whereas a victory by an 11 seed is worth 12 points (1 for the victory + 11 for the seed). It is kind of a risk/rewards system. Picking an underdog increases the chances that you will have a game that earns you zero points (since they are not expected to win), but if you pick a lower seed and it is successful, you get the extra bounce of the seed value. So, while Mr. Bean has more correct picks than I do, my successful underdog picks have given me the lead (currently).

Here is the standings after the second round.
Place Name Correct Score
1. Frank Sansone 37 213
2. Josiah Sansone 33 211
3. Ron Bean 40 207
4. Jon Knisely 38 194
5. Andy Rupert 36 170
6. Sam Knisely 34 166
Higher Seeds Only 36 164
7. Andy Efting 31 146
Coin Flip 21 146
President Barack Obama 33 144

1st Round of March Madness Complete

2009-03-21T10:21:00.004-04:00

Wow. That was fast. Real life responsibilities - and sleep because of those real life responsibilities - caused me to not be able to watch more than 2 minutes of any of the games in the first round. As one who thinks this is the greatest event in sports and that the first four days of the madness are the best, this is kind of disappointing. The only exciting thing I was able to see was the last 15 seconds of the double overtime Ohio State loss to Siena. (I woke up* and it was on. The guy hit the three pointer before I could even process what was going on with the game and then in 3.4 seconds it was over and I knew Josiah would be disappointed this morning - as would the rest of Buckeye nation.)

My son, Josiah, joined us in the tournament this year for the first time. He picked a little bit with his heart and choose Ohio State to win it all. (While he is not from Ohio, Mom Mom and Grandpa live in the state of Ohio and he has somehow became an OSU fan as his favorite college sports teams.)

This year Sam Knisely attempts to defend his two-year run as the winner of The Thinking Man's Touney Time. Jon (his brother, perhaps) has signed up to join the rest of us in trying to stop his impressive streak.

After the first round, Josiah is actually in the lead, despite the loss by Ohio State which knocks out his eventual champion and the loss by Illinois, who he also had in the championship game. He does have a perfect West region so far and only missed one game in the East region, but maintaining his lead will be pretty tough unless there are major upsets to ruin everyone else's final four picks as well.

In second place is me :). My best region is the Midwest region where the only game I missed was Ohio State. I think this is a pretty impressive regional backet, considering the fact that my correct picks in that region included picking 13 seed Cleveland State over 4 seed Wake, 12 seed Arizona over Utah (despite many saying Arizona doesn't even belong in the tourney), 11 seed Dayton over 6 seed West Virginia and 10 seed USC over 7 seed Boston College. A region that featured 5 games where the lower seed won and I picked correctly 4 of those upsets and the only game I missed in the whole region was the double overtime loss by OSU.

In third place is Ron Bean. Mr. Bean has picked two perfect regions - the West and the South. Very impressive - someone should get you a Moxie :). Considering the fact that Josiah has lost two of his Final Four picks and I have lost one of mine, my guess is that Mr. Bean is the favorite at this time - here's hoping that someone knocks out North Carolina soon to relieve him of one of his Final Four picks.

New player Jon Knisely is in fourth place with a perfect West region and all four Final Four picks still surviving. Jon also got all four of the 7 vs. 10 games correct - correctly realizing that Texas was the only 7 seed that was going to survive - impressive.

Rounding out the top five is our returning champ, Sam Knisely, who is struggling a little bit. He also picked a perfect West region and still has his Final Four intact, but a rough Midwest bracket has got his score a little down. He may need Michigan State to make it to the Final Four to have a chance.

As I do almost every year, I also added a few "fake" competitors into the mix. For those of you who are in the A Thinking Man's Tourney Challenge and can actually see the standings and brackets of all of the players, "Joe Blow" is a made-up player whose games were picked via random coin flips at www.random.org/coins with "Heads" as the higher seed and "Tails" as the lower seed. (This mythical person would be in fifth place right now.) "Frank Republican (1)" is simply if all of the higher seeds won every game and "Frank Republican (2)" is if all of the lower seeds won every game. (The "Republican" in the name is because one year I made some mythical picks based on the way the states of the various teams had voted in the previous U.S. Presidential election.)

Here are the standings so far.

1. Josiah 178 points 28 correct picks
2. Frank 161 points 26 correct picks
3. Ron B. 140 points 25 correct picks
4. Jon K. 139 points 25 correct picks
Joe Blow 133 points 18 correct picks
5. Sam K. 123 points 23 correct picks
F. Repub2 118 points 10 correct picks
6. Andy R. 109 points 22 correct picks
7. Andy E. 107 points 21 correct picks
F. Repub1 104 points 22 correct picks
Frank Cheek 83 points 19 correct picks

Rounding out last place is a mysterious competitor listed on your score sheet as "Frank Cheek" - in reality, these are the picks of the President of the United States - Barak Obama, as copied from the ESPN.com website. Considering he is kind of considered a big basketball fan, I thought I would see how he would have done in The Thinking Man's Tourney Time. I am impressed with how our group is doing in comparison. He got clobbered pretty badly in the Midwest region (missing five of the eight games). To be fair, he actually has a prety decent bracket in later rounds (he still has all of his Final Four, all of his Elite Eight, and 14 of his Sweet 16 teams remaining), so he could still do fairly well, but right now he is in last place with less than half as many points as my 12-year old son.

Anyway this is the first round scoring update,

Frank

*Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't just "wake up" - my wife woke me up because I was snoring too loudly.

Tourney Time ... 2009

2009-03-14T18:34:00.003-04:00

Howdy, folks. "It's the most wonderful time of the year..." okay, maybe not quite, but it is definitely time for the greatest event in sports, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

It is almost time to make your picks for March Madness 2009. Tomorrow is Selection Sunday and after the teams and seeds have been announced, you should be able to log in and make your picks and fill in your brackets.

Like last year, each person is able to fill out two brackets if you so desire. This will enable you to make one bracket based on what you THINK will happen and one bracket based on what you HOPE would happen - or in other words, a set of picks from the head and a set of picks from the heart.

Anyway,you should be able to find the tourney information at A Thinking Man's Thoughts Tourney Time Picks located at http://athinkingmansthoughts.mayhem.cbssports.com.

If you have played last year, you should have gotten an email and all you should need to do is log in with your account from last year and fill in your brackets after the teams and seeds are announced.

If you did not participate last year, but you would like to join in, just send me an email at fcsansone - at - gmail . com.

Just for fun,

Frank Sansone

Wow! What a Great Week! -- And, boy, am I old!

2009-02-27T16:18:00.006-05:00

This week I have had the privilege of preaching eight times at Heritage Christian Academy in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey for the 2008-2009 Spiritual Emphasis week. (I also had the privilege of preaching in chapel last Friday at Faith Baptist School in Salisbury, Maryland and three time on Sunday at Mosherville Bible Church in Mosherville, Pennsylvania, to make for 12 times in the last 8 days.)

I love to preach and I love to preach to our folks here in Salisbury, but I also love it when the Lord gives me opportunity to preach at a different location and (having served in youth ministry from 1990-2003) preaching to young people is a special joy.

The theme for the week was "profit that matters" with a theme verse of Mark 8:36

Mark 8:36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Heritage Christian Academy is a great school that is led by Mr. Ron Hamilton (no, not THAT Ron Hamilton). Mr. Hamilton (whome I knew as "Pastor Ron") was my Youth Pastor at Heart to Heart Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona when I was a fairly new believer in Christ as a teenager. Pastor Ron's influence in my life has been an ongoing and profound. As a teenager, his life and consistent faithfulness for Christ were an example and challenge to me - a challenge to me that has continued to this day. In addition to the overall effect of his life, he also helped me specifically in giving me a chance to preach as a teenager and helping me to prepare my first "real" sermon and a sermon I heard by him as a teenager encouraged me that God can use me, despite (perhaps because of) the weak vessel that I am.

It was also a special treat to me to see a number of my former teens who are now serving the Lord by teaching at Heritage Christian Academy and helping out in other ways in the ministry there at Heritage Baptist Church. There were four teachers at the school who had been in my youth groups at various times in their lives. This fact was encouragement to me - but it also made me feel very OLD. To see Pastor Ron's daughter Beth (a 24-year old nurse at the same hospital in New Jersey where my wife worked for 9 years) especially made me feel old, since I knew her when she was still in a car seat when I was a teenager in Arizona and she was later in my youth group there at Heritage.

I also had the privilege of meeting up with some other friends and students from years gone by. It was an exciting week. Thank you to all who made the time enjoyable.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

An Awesome Speech by a Little Girl

2009-02-18T12:04:00.003-05:00

I generally shy away from posting YouTube videos on my blog because one click of the video moves you to the YouTube site where the comments are often not appropriate reading.

However, this speech by this young lady on the topic of abortion is so well done, I thought I would try to "embed" a YouTube video here at A Thinking Man's Thoughts for the first time. Hopefully this will work.

It is my understanding that this young lady won first place for this speech - after a judge quit in protest.

I do not know anything about this young lady, but her message is very good. May God use it in the ears of the many who need to hear.

Some related posts on this topic:

A National Scandal

Consider This

Change I Wish We Didn't Need to Believe In

There's Something Rotten in the State of ... New Jersey (Part 2)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Spiritual Emphasis Week at Heritage Christian Academy in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey

2009-02-18T00:37:00.004-05:00

Next week, I will have the privilege of preaching a spiritual emphasis week for the young people at Heritage Christian Academy in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey. I am looking forward to visiting Heritage again, as it has been a while since I have been up there.

Heritage Baptist Church and Christian Academy was our first place of full-time ministry and it is neat that some of the teachers and staff at HCA now were teens in my youth group when I was the Youth Pastor at Heritage. I am looking forward to seeing them again. I have to admit that it always makes me feel a little old when I end up visiting with former teens of mine who are now grown up, married with children, serving in ministry, etc.

Anyway, I will be preaching for the older chapel every day and for the elementary chapel on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The theme for the week is "What Shall it Profit a Man." (Granted the theme is geared more for the older students than the younger students.)

I would love to catch up with some of you readers who may be in the area. Drop me a note and we can try to meet up while I am up in New Jersey.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

And you thought putting a fox in charge of a hen house was bad...

2009-02-14T23:00:00.004-05:00

I don't really like to do politics too much on this blog, but the reality is that many times, political issues are also moral and Biblical issues.

Jesus said that "whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). Now, it is true that in the wickedness of man's heart this sin can be committed by anyone and it does not require that the woman who is the object of the lust be dressed in an immodest fashion, the reality is that a whole industry - a powerful and rich industry - exists that seeks to encourage this sin. The pornography industry is one of he most dispicable of industries that blight our nation.

I read today, however, that one of the great supporters of the pornography industry has been nominated by President Obama as Deputy Attorney General - David Ogden.

The Justice Department is charged with prosecuting our laws - including laws against child pornographers. Instead, David Ogden has fought to make it harder to prosecute child pornographers.

According to The Witherspoon Institute, in this article: David Ogden and the New Pornographers: Why the Senate Should Reject His Nomination

In addition to making it harder to prosecute those who sell images of child molestation and rape, Ogden has sought to ensure that pornography can be easily distributed and readily accessed in almost any medium or location. He has fought cases in Puerto Rico to allow Playboy to broadcast explicit programming on TV. He represented Philip Harvey, a man who runs the nation’s largest mail-order pornography shop out of North Carolina, in his attempt to deflect a Department of Justice investigation of his business. Completing a sort of multi-media grand slam, Ogden has sued to allow sexually-explicit content to be transmitted over the phone. Taking this quest to its absurd limits, he has even claimed in court that there is a constitutional right for pornography to be kept in firehouses. Ogden’s position is good for the industry groups he has represented but bad for female firefighters who could be subjected to humiliating and harassing images in the workplace. With an equal disregard for the comfort and protection of children, in 2000 Ogden sued to allow pornography to be accessed in public libraries.

Americans should reject this "Change We Can Believe In" and should encourage their Senators to do the same.

Albert Mohler has some additional thoughts on the topic, here.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

New Barna Poll

2009-01-30T11:15:00.002-05:00

Many of you may be familiar with pollster George Barna, who some "evangelical" leaders view as a guru of how to do church - or is it "be church" in his current vernacular?

Anyway, a friend sent me the following link via email and I thought it was interesting:

Shocking New Barna Poll

Enjoy your read,

Frank

A National Scandal

2009-01-22T23:58:00.000-05:00

(I recognize that this post is extremely long. The topic of the post, however, is very important.)

Almost two thousand years ago, a scandal spread across the country of Israel. It was a scandal that was large in its scope as everyone knew about what was going on, yet no one was doing anything about the scandal. Finally, one man stood up against the scandal. One man understood the need to speak the truth in an age when the truth was unpopular and standing for the truth could cost you a lot. In this man's case, it cost him his life.

The scandal of which I am referring to is referred to in Mark 6:14-29. In this passage, we read the story of the encounter of John the Baptist with Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas was one of the sons of Herod the Great and had a half-brother named Philip. As Herod visited his half-brother Philip, he lusted after Philip's wife, Herodias, and took her for his wife (ditching his own wife in the process). To make bad matters even worse, Herodias was also Herod's niece!

John the Baptist stood up against this scandal of his day and it ended up costing him his life.

Today, we live in the midst of another great scandal. This scandal is not one done by one man or one family, but a scandal that is done on a national level and is a scandal that is on a great scale. It is a scandal that we mark today, January 22.

As many of you are probably aware, on January 22, 1973, a court ruling was handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Roe v. Wade. While much has been said and written about this case, the result of this case is that it opened the door for abortion on demand to become the law of the land - and the practice of abortion has skyrocketed since then. It is estimated that there have been approximately 50 million abortions in the 35 years since this decision was handed down by the courts.

When we consider the statistics regarding abortion, the totals really are staggering.

In the 35 years since Roe v. Wade, there have been about 50 million abortions. Think of that a minute and let it sink in. FIFTY MILLION. We often hear big numbers today and kind of just skip over them. What does this 50 million mean? As I mentioned in a post on this topic two years ago, this 50 million represents more than the population of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Idaho, Nebraska, West Virginia, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Iowa, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington, D.C. - COMBINED! (This 50 million also represents over 10 million more lives than our largest state, California.)

The Abort 73 Web-site does a great job of listing some stats regarding abortion. Some of these follow:

Looking at some other numbers regarding abortion, we find that in 2000, there were 3,600 abortions per day, 149 per hour, 1 every 24 seconds. As of 2001, there were 246 abortions for every 1,000 live births. On average, women give at least 3 reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 2/3 say they cannot afford a child; and 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

While those who support abortion often speak about the "hard cases" - rape, incest, or some health concern with either the baby or mother - only 7% of all abortion cases fit into any of these categories - the other 93% ARE ELECTIVE.

The scandal of abortion is a blight upon our nation. And, as Christians, we ought to speak up against this scandal - even as John the Baptist spoke up against the scandal of his day and exposed the sin.

A couple of thoughts come to mind regarding our need to expose this sin.

1. If we are going to expose sin, we should understand our responsibility to expose sin.

The Bible tells us that we are to reprove - admonish, rebuke - the works of darkness:

Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

Christ also told us that we are to be salt and light - to be different and to make a difference.

Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

As Christians we have a responsibility to expose sin. We have a responsibility to explain to others what God has revealed regarding a particular matter. As we expose the sin, we need to do so with a heart of love for the sinner and a heart of obedience to Christ. We also need to be careful that we do not just give half of the story. We need to not only reprove the sin, we need to do so in such a way that we point people to the answer to the sin - forgiveness in Christ.

2. If we are going to expose sin, we should do so with the right character.

If we are to expose the sin and scandal of abortion, we should do so with a basis of right character. Herod understood that even though the message of John the Baptist about his sin was a message that he did not want to hear, the character of John was so evident that Herod actually kept him alive despite the desires of Herodias.

Mark 6:19-20 Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not: 20 For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.

When we take on the awesome task of exposing sin, we need to do so with the right character. We read that John the Baptist was just and holy. We also find out that he was bold (Luke 3:7-9) and humble (John 1:27 and John 3:30). We can have this delicate combination of boldness and humility when we understand that without Christ we can do nothing, but we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us.

3. If we are going to expose sin, we should have clarity in our message.

When John the Baptist confronted Herod, he clearly laid out the nature of Herod's sin. In regards to abortion, we need to present clearly two important truths. The first truth is the fact that murder violates God's law. For most people, this is obvious. The second truth is establishing the fact that a child in the womb is a person - and thus murdering that child in the womb is a violation of God's command not to murder.

Some of the facts that point out the truth that a child in the womb is a person includes the following Biblical evidences.

1. Children in the womb are described with the same terminology as children outside the womb.

Ge 25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.

The word children used here is the normal word for child or son, even though the children are still in womb. It is not a word that refers to a fetus or even an "unborn child."

Luke 1:41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

The word translated babe in Luke 1:41 is the same word used in the next chapter when we read that Mary laid the "babe" in the manger.

2. Children in the womb are shown as active and alive.

For instance, in Luke 1 - John the Baptist recognized that the other baby was Christ. This baby (in the womb) was active.

By the way, we see this when we consider children in the womb today. Many of us have seen the photograph where a baby being operated on grabbed the finger of the surgeon.

3. Children in the womb are described as persons.

In Psalm 51:5, the Psalmist writes: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." Note that it is "I" that was shapen - not some "pre- I"

In Isaiah 49:1, the prophet declares: "Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name." Again, it was "me" that was called, not some "pre-me." (Similar examples can be found in Psalm 139:13, Job 31:13-15, etc.)

The reality is that the world inherently KNOWS that the unborn baby is a life. Some may have been able to plead ignorance in 1973, but with the advances in technology (including the awesome 3-D sonograms), it is beyond reaonableness to claim that this child is not a life. That is why most states have laws that if you kill the child that the mother is carrying, you can get arrested. (Remember Scott Peterson a few years ago - he was convicted of two counts of murder, Laci and the Baby.) The only time when killing a child in the womb is considered acceptable is when the killing is done by a doctor in the name of "choice."

The reality is abortion is taking an innocent life and the image of God is being destroyed by this act. (See Job 1:21 and Genesis 9:6)

4. If we are going to expose sin, we should do so recognize that exposing sin is compassionate.

It is compassionate because exposing sin helps people to recognize their need of forgiveness. Galatians 3:24 reminds us that the law is a "schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."

In our society today, we are often afraid to directly confront sin and to tell someone that their actions are a sin against a holy God. In not directly confronting sin, people think they are being compassionate and kind. In reality, this is not compassionate. Allowing those involved in sin (in whatever form the sin might be) to think that they are okay and just making a "choice" can lead them into a complacence of not recognizing their need of forgiveness.

Instead, as we point out the sin of abortion, we should do so while sharing with them the compassionate truth that there is forgiveness for sin - even for the sin of abortion. That forgiveness is only found in the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from all sin.

So, as we mark with sadness this important anniversary, may we step forth boldly and stand against this scandal in our nation. And doing so, may we compassionately point people to the One who can forgive even this sin - Jesus Christ.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

(Some of the these thoughts are adapted from the Abort73 web-site.)

Change I Wish We Didn't Need to Believe In

2009-01-20T17:22:00.006-05:00

In less than five minutes today, the message of the White House (through its official website - www.whitehouse.gove) changed from a message that celebrated life and family to a message that supports a radical view of abortion and a radical twisting of the family.

It is amazing how quickly the desire was to get rid of words like these:

All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy of protection. On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and voiceless among us.

In about five minutes, the White House website went from defending innocent life to touting President Obama "a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority in his Adminstration [sic]."

Not only is the hopeful message that celebrates a "culture of life" gone from the official White House website, the hopeful message regading the importance of marriage between one man and one woman is gone as well, replaced instead with one that supports the repeal of the Defesnse of Marriage Act (which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996) and one that opposes the federal marriage ammendment.

If you go to the White House website to look for the page that contained the words that proclaimed January 18, 2009 as "National Sanctity of Human Life Day", you will not find the page. Instead, you get a 404 message which tells you -"The page you requested wasn't found at this location. The Obama Administration has created a brand new White House website, and it's possible that the page you were looking for has been moved. Please take a moment to explore our new site, learn more about President Obama and his team, and read about their plan to bring about the change America needs."

Unfortunately, it seems that very few (if any) on the Obama team (or perhaps in Washington altogether) even have a clue about what constitutes "the change America needs." The change America needs is to recognize our sinfulness before God, to repent and to turn to Him. Certainly it is not a change that hearkens back to the days of the Ammonites who sacrificed their children to the false god of Molech.

In regards to praying for the President, while I don't agree with Dr. Al Mohler on everything, I appreciate the following words from his post on "A Prayer for President Obama."

Father, may this new president see that human dignity is undermined when human embryos are destroyed in the name of medical progress, and may he see marriage as an institution that is vital to the very survival of civilization. May he protect all that is right and good. Father, change his heart where it must be changed, and give him resolve where his heart is right before you.

Father, when we face hard days ahead -- when we find ourselves required by conscience to oppose this president within the bounds of our roles as citizens -- may we be granted your guidance to do so with a proper spirit, with a proper demeanor, and with persuasive arguments. May we learn anew how to confront without demonizing, and to oppose without abandoning hope.

Father, we are aware that our future is in your hands, and we are fully aware that you and you alone will judge the nations. Much responsibility is now invested in President Barack Obama, and much will be required. May we, as Christian citizens, also fulfill what you would require of us. Even as we pray for you to protect this president and change his heart, we also pray that your church will be protected and that you will conform our hearts to your perfect will.

Father, we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, the ever-reigning once and future King, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He and he alone can save, and his kingdom is forever. Above all, may your great name be praised. Amen.

Here is an article at Baptist Press that gives some additional details about the change in the White House website: With Obama in power, Whitehouse.gov now backs abortion rights, 'gay rights'

Some thoughts on Spiritual Leadership

2009-01-14T11:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I had the privilege of addressing some Pastors from the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches at a Pastor's Prayer Breakfast in New Jersey. We met at the Cracker Barrel in Pennsville and then headed over to Bethel Bible Baptist Church in Carneys Point (Pastored by Ron Whitehead) for the message and time of prayer.

While the fellowship was enjoyable, it was unfortunate that more Pastors could not have made the Prayer Breakfast.

I know I have not written much on here lately, but I thought I would post some of the key thoughts from the message for my readers. Feel free to comment, adapt, criticize, etc.

We live in a day and age in which leadership is talked about often, but demonstrated much less often. A search on Google for leadership shows about 164,000,000 (that's 164 MILLION) hits. An Amazon search shows over 300,000 results when that term is searched for in books.

Even if you narrow the focus to spiritual leadership, there is still much that is said about this important topic.

I have appreciated some of the resources that men of God have written over the years on this subject. J. Oswald Sander's book, Spiritual Leadership, is one of those books that I try to read at least every other year.

In Mark 10:35-45, we find some important teaching regarding Spiritual Leadership.

The context, of course, is the request by James and John for positions of authority and leadership at the right and left hand of Christ in His glory. The Matthew passage adds the details that the mother of James and John (Salome, the sister of Mary and aunt of Jesus) was also involved in this request.

When Christ responds to James and John, He does so by reminding us all of some important truths about spiritual leadership.

I. Spiritual Leadership is Burdensome

Jesus' initial comments draw them to the fact that rather than Spiritual Leadership being something glamorous, it is, in fact, something burdensome.

Mark 10:38 - But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

Both the drinking of the cup and the being baptized with the baptism refer to the concept of suffering and difficulty. Remember the prayer of Christ in Gethsemane, where he asks to "let this cup pass from me."

While their are great joys in spiritual leadreship, Christ also reminds us that there are great burdens in spiritual leadership as well. There are joys when "my children walk in truth." But there are heartbreaks when those you love and give your lives to choose to walk in disobedience and make wrong choice after wrong choice.

Paul also speaks of the burdens of spiritual leadership, speaking of the "conflict" (agon) he has for the Colossians and Laodiceans (Col. 2:1) and mentioning "the care of all the churches" as the concluding aspect of his list of difficulties he has faced for Christ in 2 Corinthians 11:28.

When we think of spiritual leadership and when we experience burdens in spiritual leadership, we should not be not be shocked or disappointed, but rather recognize tht this is part of the package - and rejoice that we can heed the admonition of Peter in 1 Peter 5:7

Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Not only is Spiritual Leadership Burdensome, Christ also reminds us that Spiritual Leadership is Bestowed.

II. Spiritual Leadership is Bestowed

While many often seek Spiritual Leadership and clearly, "if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work" (1 Timothy 3:1), the reality is that ultimately, Spiritual Leadership is not something that we strive to for ourself, but rather is something given or bestowed by God.

Mark 10:40 - But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.

This truth should help to remind us to be careful of not seeking promotion or great things for ourselves, but rather to seek to be obedient to Christ and to live according to His will and recognize that God is the one who places us where He will.

Psalm 75:6-7 - For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

Jeremiah 45:5a - And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not:

The final lesson is one about which there has been much talk, but is one that is essential if we are to function as spiritual leaders in whatever roles that Christ has given to us.

III. Spiritual Leadership is backwards from the world.

Mark 10:42-44 But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.

While the world often encourages us to "look out for number one" and views roles of leadership as symbols of power, Christ encourages us to understand that spiritual leadership is backwards from that model - that spiritual leadership focuses on service rather than on being served. Spiritual leadership is concerned with ministering rather than being ministered to.

There is always a danger of believing that being a leader somehow makes you superior or should give you an advantage, but the reality is that being a leader gives us responsibility and should force us to focus on serving.

As a Pastor, we must serve those in our church and in our community as we serve Christ. As a husband, we must serve our wives and be sensitive to their needs as we lead them. As a father, we must serve our children and lead them to what is best, not just to what is easy or desired.

The easy way can fall towards two extremes. The first extreme is to give in to our desire to be served and fail to heed Peter's warning not to "lord it over God's heritage" (1 Peter 5:3), the other extreme is just give those we serve what they want instead of what they need in an attempt to not make waves. We would be wise to avoid both extremes in our role of serving others.

The closing verse of this section remind us of the Perfect Spiritual Leader - Jesus Christ Himself.

Mr 10:45 - For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

May we seek to follow His example of spiritual leadership.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Some Good Thoughts on Retirement

2009-01-14T11:17:00.003-05:00

The Ohio Bible Fellowship is a strong group of churches in Ohio that take a strong position for Christ and Fundamentalism. They put out a nice little paper entitled the OBF Visitor and about a year ago or so, they began to publish an OBF Visitor Blog with featured articles from the newsletter. The site (and the paper) are definitely worth your time to read and check out.

Pastor Chris Anderson (an OBF Pastor and blogger over at My Two Cents) has written an excellent article entitled Rethinking Retirement that is now available over at the OBF Visitor Blog.

Below is an excerpt:

Whatever specific ministry (or ministries!) you pursue, resist the mindset that says the goal of life is to work now and play later—both for Christ’s sake and for your own. Many a retiree has stopped working only to fall into an emotional, spiritual, or physical funk. There’s a reason for that. God created us to be productive for His glory. The church needs the ministry of retirees, and retirees need to minister.

Retirees, use your newfound freedom to serve the Lord! Retire from your job, not from life or ministry. Workers, minister now and plan to minister with an even greater focus when the Lord allows you to stop working 40-plus hours a week for your employer. Finally, pastors, teach your flock that their greatest usefulness may actually lie ahead: help them plan for their futures with an open mind and an open Bible. Help them rethink retirement.

You can find the entire article at the OBF Blog - Rethinking Retirement.

Just Chris' thoughts,

Frank

A Great Weekend with Hardingville Bible Church

2008-12-30T00:57:00.004-05:00

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to go up to Hardingville, New Jersey to preach the morning and evening services at Hardingville Bible Church in Monroeville. It was great to be back up at Hardingville and to spend some time with good friends and share some fellowship together.

Going back up to Hardingville is a lot like going "home" for me. The over four years that we lived in the parsonage on Whig Lane Road rank as the longest that I have ever lived anywhere consecutively in my life. (We will have equaled that amount of time in this house in August of next year.)

I thank the Lord for the opportunity to open up His Word and preach at Hardingville this weekend, for the receptive congregation, for liberty as I preached, and for fellowship that we were able to have with the Frasers (who hosted us over night) and with the Shaws and Stimpsons (who had us over for food) and with all the other folks we were able to spend some time with. It was a great and encouraging time.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

A Couple of Football items

2008-12-26T01:35:00.003-05:00

This is the time of the year when even mediocre teams like Notre Dame can play in and win college football bowl games and when the National Football League season gets serious. As a Philadelphia Eagles fan, my team is in need of a good game this weekend over the arch-rival Dallas Cowboys and then some help from some other teams.

I recently read two articles about football that present things in a different way.

The first story is a story about a Christian school in Texas that played a team of young people who were in Maximum Security. The head coach of the Christian school had an idea to do something different with the game which made a huge impact on the young men from the correctional facility. Rick Reilly writes about it here in a column that reads "There are some games where cheering for the other side feels better than winning."

The other story is not as poignant as the first, but was interesting from a football standpoint. A high school coach in Arkansas decided after his team surrendered a punt return for a touchdown in the second game of the season that he was through with punting - for the whole season. Coach Kevin Kelley of Pulaski Academy in Arkansas decided that the math was on his side and decided to forego punting. While I do not know if this would work for everyone, it seemed to have worked for Coach Kelley and his Pulaski team as they won the Arkansas 5A state high school football title earlier this month. This article can be found here.

Just thought these were interesting stories and thought I would pass them on.

Just other people's thoughts.

Frank

Merry Christmas from the Sansone family

2008-12-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from the Sansone family,

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:11)

With all of the great things of which Christmas reminds us, the greatest would have to be the reminder that God sent His Son to be our Savior. I recently read a quote that helped to capture the importance of this truth.

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator;
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist;
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist;
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer;
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

The year 2008 has been a busy year for the Sansone family. We have all grown a little older and have started some new adventures and we are thankful to God for His working in us and through us and for our family and friends who support us, pray for us, and love us.

One of the new adventures we are experiencing this year is the homeschooling of the Josiah and Christina. Having the three kids at home all the time is a blessing and a challenge. Josiah and Chrissy like homeschooling, but also miss being around their friends at school. We are using the Hard Drive/DVDs from BJU Press for the homeschooling, so the teaching load is not bad, just trying to keep everyone on schedule - especially with Missy still working part-time at PRMC.

We were able to enjoy some special times this year. In August, Christina was baptized by her daddy at a special baptism service that we held in a church that we borrowed for the service. We also enjoyed an extended visit by Grandma Cheek for a few weeks in August. It was great to have Frank's mom here for his birthday this year and it worked out to have her visit extended a little bit so that she could still be here for Christina's baptism. We also enjoyed some visits to Assateague Island to see the wild horses roaming the island and to Ocean City to spend some time on the boardwalk. Missy and the children made a couple of extended visits to Ohio, including Rebekah staying for almost a month with Mom Mom and Grandpa Lewis and Great-Grandma Marken. (While Mommy, Josiah and Chrissy were with her for part of the time, Daddy missed her greatly.)

Part of the reason Rebekah was in Ohio for so long was that the rest of the family was able to go to The Wilds Christian Camp in North Carolina for a week. It had been a few years since we have had the opportunity to go down there. This year, we had enough teens and juniors to justify a trip as a church and traveled down for a great week.

We also were able to enjoy a great week at Tri-State Bible Camp for the Annual Conference of the FFBC. We always love the week of Annual Conference. The opportunity to see some friends and fellow-laborers in ministry is one that we look forward to each year.

As we celebrated the birth of our Savior, we rejoice in God's goodness to us for another year and look forward to what God is going to do in and through us in the next year. We pray that this year and this season has been a time of blessing and reflection upon the King of Kings. May God grant you a prosperous new year, as well.

In Christ,

Frank and Missy Sansone
Josiah, Christina, and Rebekah

2008 Church Christmas Letter 2

2008-12-24T23:10:00.000-05:00

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
Matthew 2:10

Dear Church Family,

When the wise men saw the star, they rejoiced. Christmas is a time of great rejoicing. It is a time when we rejoice in time spent with family and friends. It is a time when we rejoice with the songs of the season and the things that remind us of yesteryear. Most importantly, Christmas should be a time when we rejoice in the birth of the Savior.

This year has been an exciting and difficult year here at Fellowship Baptist Church. We have had the excitement of the salvation of Lila, followed a week later by the sadness of the stroke to Nancy. We have had the excitement of being given one van only to discover we couldn't get it through Maryland's inspection. We have had the excitement of the Lord's provision of another wheelchair accessible van and the excitement of a good turn-out for our summer Vacation Bible School. We have had the difficulties of many of our church family facing times of physical, financial, and even spiritual trials.

In November, I preached a message in which I referenced a quote from Winston Churchill regarding "insurmountable opportunities." The phrase was meant to convey the idea that the task ahead was a task of difficulty, but was also a task that could reap great benefit and great fruit. As I look ahead to the coming year, I believe that we, as a church, are facing some "insurmountable opportunities" from a human perspective, but I rejoice that even as the Christmas story reminds us, "with God nothing shall be impossible." (Luke 1:37)

In the coming days, we, as a church, need to be more diligent than ever in our attempt to reach out for Christ and to stand for Him in the midst of a lost and dying world. May I ask you to seriously pray about your involvement here at Fellowship Baptist Church during the days ahead? I am excited about some of the things that we have planned for the days ahead, but I recognize that for many of them to have the impact that they can and should have, we, as a church family, need to show ourselves faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:2 tells us that "it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." The requirement isn't exceptional abilities or great wealth - it is faithfulness. As we look forward to another year of ministry, may we be faithful in our attendance, faithful in our witnessing, faithful in our Christian walk, living for and depending on Christ in every area of our life.

May God give you a blessed Christmas season and may the New Year be a year in which we all grow closer to Christ and see Him work in us and through us in an even greater way.

In Christ,

Pastor Frank Sansone and family

2008 Church Christmas Letter 1

2008-12-23T22:19:00.002-05:00

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
Matthew 2:10

When the wise men saw the star, they rejoiced. Christmas is a time of great rejoicing. It is a time when we rejoice in time spent with family and friends. It is a time when we rejoice with the songs of the season and the things that remind us of yesteryear. Most importantly, Christmas should be a time when we rejoice in the birth of the Savior.

God is a giving God and has given unto us His Son, Jesus Christ, to born in a lowly manger, to live a sinless and spotless life, to die on the cross for our sins, and to rise again in power and glory.

As the Christmas season is upon us, may our minds not only be filled with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads, but may our minds and hearts be filled with a love for the One who gave everything for us. The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The Bible relates to us the wonderful truth that Jesus Christ came to save us from our sin and that he lived a perfect, sinless life and died a cruel death on the cross of Calvary to be our Substitute and our Savior.

December is a special time for at Fellowship Baptist Church, and we would like to invite you to join us for our Special Christmas Sunday Service this coming Sunday, December 21. As part of our service that morning, the children will be performing a program called "There's A Song in the Air." We will also have a great time of singing, special music, a special Christmas-themed message and a Fellowship Lunch with plenty of great food and good fellowship after the service.

Whether you are a regular attender or whether you have not been out for awhile, wouldn't this Christmas Sunday be a great Sunday to come back out and join us at Fellowship Baptist Church?

May God give you a Blessed Christmas in which the Gift of Christmas remains foremost in your mind.

In Christ,

Pastor Frank Sansone

A Couple of Christmas Related Items

2008-12-20T12:06:00.003-05:00

I have a few things that I have wanted to post, but Christmas tends to be a busy time. Some of this may be helpful, and some of this may be something to keep in mind for next year.

BOOK GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Jason over at www.theosource.com, I was alerted to a book giveaway at a site called "Bible Geek Gone Wild." I had never visited the site before, but I am always a sucker for free books. I have to say that I think the layout of the site is very cool. I would love to be as creative and capable as Shaun over at Bible Geek Gone Wild is at his website.

Anyway, he is doing a 12 Days of Christmas give-a-way. Unlike a lot of other contests, you don't have to sign up for some mailing list or necessarily post a link if you don't wish to. (I won a book a few days ago and am just now even mentioning it.)

There are still a few more days left if you want to stop by and visit him at www.biblegeekgonewild.com

WISHLISTS

I realize that many of you have already figured this out, but I am, after all, a little slow.

One of the comments that I often get from friends and family members is that they have no idea what to get me. Especially those that know that I love books (which is about everybody that knows me), wish they knew if there were any particular books I want - and they are afraid of buying me a book because they either 1) do not know if I already have it or 2) do not know if it is a book I would actually want.

Thankfully, there are a number of sites available now to help with this problem. I have to admit that I have not been using them as I should and I am not posting them until now, so they probably won't do my family and friends any help for this year, but I will try to do better in the future.

Anyway, one of the one's that I like is a site called "Things I Want." Things I Want is set up so that you can place a link on your toolbar and if you happen to be surfing anywhere on the web and see something that you would like, you can click the link on your browser toolbar that says "Add to Things I Want" and voila, it is added to your list. You can also add comments, prices, how badly you want it, etc. when you add a product. My short list of Things I Want is located at http://www.thethingsiwant.com/fcsansone/list/wishlist/ (okay, the Kindle is kind of "Pie in the Sky", but at least you can get the idea.)

Amazon.com allows a similar feature, although I just started it in preparation for this post. My wish list as Amazon is located at https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/4M1PKAKMU3ND

Anyway, just a couple of practical things that may help somebody.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Hey, that's me on TV

2008-12-13T01:34:00.002-05:00

Today I had an interesting experience. I was actually on TV on our local station, WBOC, in a segment called "Heart and Soul" regarding the issue of the death penalty or capital punishment.

In a recently released report by by a panel commissioned to study capital punishment in the state of Maryland, the commission voted 13-9 to recommend the abolition of capital punishment in the state of Maryland (more details here).

This morning I received a call from a reporter from WBOC who asked me some questions regarding this commissions study and arranged to interview me on camera. I have never done anything like this, so I was (understandably, to me) nervous.

A little while later, Kim Holmes and a camera man named Rob were meeting me at the church.

The interview was very short and they only used about one sentence, but the whole article was short, and while they did not include any of the Scripture passages that I quoted in answering the questions, they at least did not misrepresent me in their editing. (Something I was concerned about.)

The reporter and camera operator were both nice and professional. I understand the need to edit (after all, I served on the editorial staff of my high school newspaper so many years ago), but I wish there could have been a way to keep in some of the verses I discussed. (Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13:3-4)

I was hoping to find a link to it online at the WBOC site, but I can't find it. We did try to record it, so if I can figure out how to get it up here, I will do so. (Be warned, it's not much.)

The actual article that aired had a quote from a Catholic priest that was for getting rid of the death penalty and a quote from me saying that we should not get rid of the death penalty.

I don't know how these guys like Dr. Bob Jones, III, Dr. Mohler and others go on all these shows for longer segments.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

Frank

A Note About Goodsearch and Goodshop

2008-12-11T13:13:00.003-05:00

A Note About GoodSearch and GoodShop

GoodSearch is an organization that provide an opportunity to support the churches and charities in a pain-free and cost-free method. At the end of 2007, after researching Goodsearch, I completed the steps necessary for Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury to be able to receive funds from the Goodsearch program. We recently received our check from Goodsearch for 2008 in the amount of $76.56 and I thought this would be a good opportunity to explain the program and to encourage you to use Goodsearch and Goodshop if you use the internet - or have friends and family that use the internet.

How does Goodsearch work?

Goodsearch provides a donation to the church whenever you use Goodsearch to search the internet - instead of using Google or some other search engine. The search results are powered by Yahoo!, so the search results are good results. Anyone who uses the internet already uses some method to search the internet, with Goodsearch, we are simply asking that choice of search engine to be Goodsearch and that the designated charity be Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury.

It is a blessing to be able to receive this money and for a small church like Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury, even a relatively small amount of money like this can help offset the cost of Sunday School curriculum or Vacation Bible School materials or Jr. Church materials or tracts or bulletins. The more people who use Goodsearch for us, the more we are able to raise. The amount of money raised last year was from a relatively few people searching.

In addition to being able to receive donations by simply using GoodSearch as you search the internet, over the last year or so, Goodsearch has added a program called GoodShop. GoodShop uses the same concept, except that instead of making a donation for searching, it makes a donation when you buy something online by going through GoodShop to get to the store's online presence. The stores represented by GoodShop are places many of us go shopping anyway, such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, Staples, Petsmart, etc. The difference is that you would be making your purchases online instead of at the store. Depending on the store, you may even be able to make your purchase online and pick it up at the store in person (or have it shipped to you - or to a loved one in another part of the country for Christmas). The amount of donation from Goodshop purchases are a percentage of the overall purchase, so that purchasing that Wii from Wal-Mart could result in a donation of $4.50 (1.5% of $300).

How do I use Goodsearch?

Goodsearch has made the process pretty easy. You can either go directly to the site (www.goodsearch.com) and enter "Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury" in the box that asks "Who do you Goodsearch for?". This should only have to be entered once. You could also just simply CLICK HERE and it will already be pre-populated with the information for Fellowship Baptist Church. In addition to this, they also have a Goodsearch toolbar that you use that adds a Goodsearch search box to your Internet browser, allowing you to search for anything you want from anywhere on the internet (using this feature, you don't have to leave the page you are looking at in order to search for something else).

You can Goodsearch at your home computer or from any other computer you use. Even if you don't use the internet very much, perhaps a friend or relative may be willing to "Goodsearch" for us (my sister and mom in Illinois use Goodsearch for our church). If you need help with setting this up, please see me.

While we are not going to raise a large amount of money through this method, it can definitely be a help. If we had just 20 people using Goodsearch an average of five times a day for searching, we would raise $365 during the course of a year.

So, thanks to Goodsearch for the recent donation and thank you to all of you who already use Goodsearch for Fellowship Baptist Church. If you don't, would you consider helping us out in this way? Click here to get started.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

"God offers love to all, including humanists"

2008-12-06T11:29:00.002-05:00

"God offers love to all, including humanists" is the title of an op-ed in a secular newspaper today.

I almost turned this into another "Who Said This?", but I wanted to go ahead and link to the source in this post instead of waiting for responses.

I noticed an op-ed piece published in today's edition of a secular newspaper by a well-known Christian leader. In this editorial, he is apparently responding to something somewhat scornfully wrote against Christians - and against his institution in particular. (I will have to track down the original article later, since I have to leave as soon as I post this.)

Here are a couple of quotes.

Let the humanists grope like blind men for the meaning of human existence. It is their right to judge all things based upon mere human reason if they choose, but the Creator God waits at the end of their way. They can't avoid their Judge forever. If they could only see how small and insignificant mankind is in comparison with the great and eternal God of Heaven, they would bow their hearts in reverence before him rather than lift their arm in defiance against him

later

But the cross of Jesus Christ shows the greatness of God more than all his creation does. His love reaches to humanists, rapists, baby killers, homosexuals -- all who choose to embrace sin and thereby go astray. "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him" (1 John 4:9).
The great Creator God made himself known to us in the person of his Son, Who said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).

Conclusion:

Any sinner who recognizes the folly of his sinful choices and the futility of succeeding by defying God and then humbles himself at the foot of the cross can be the recipient of the Savior's loving pardon. No sin is too great, and no sinner is too hopeless to be beyond the reach of the great love of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Any guesses? (Scroll down for answer and source)

Dr. Bob Jones, III in the December 6, 2008 version of The Greenville News.

The article is here.

The answer to "Who Said This?"

2008-11-29T00:31:00.004-05:00

In my last post, I posted a comment that I had recently read and asked people to guess who was the author. I also asked whether you agree with the comment or not.

The quote was:

"Separation is not isolation, it is contact without contamination."

No one guessed it, although some of the guesses were pretty good. Andy Efting's guess of J. Vernon McGee was pretty good, I thought, as both individuals had significant radio ministries and commentaries on every book and the commentaries from both are more on a "popular" level than on a "deep" level.

A couple of you commented that you would like more context in determining whether you agreed with the statement or not. I think there is wisdom in that, so I will give the context for the three places I found it.

The quote is from Warren Wiersbe and shows up in a discussion on 1 Peter 2, Psalm 1, and in a book entitled God Isn't In a Hurry.

The first place I found this was attributed to Wiersbe in a discussion of 1 Peter 2:5. Unfortunately, there was no context to this use.

After looking it up, I found this quoted in a discussion on Psalm 1:1

The context of the quote in Psalm 1:1:

First, we must be separated from the world (v. 1). The world is anything
that separates us from God or causes us to disobey Him. Separation is not
isolation but contact without contamination. Sin is usually a gradual process.
Notice the gradual decline of the sinner in verse 1. He is walking (Mark 14:54),
standing (John 18:18) and then sitting (Luke 22:55).

The last place I found it was quoted from Warren Wiersbee's book, God Isn't In a Hurry.

A church on the move must confront reality and meet people where they are.
Separation is not isolation--it is contact without contamination. Jesus
was the friend of publicans (tax collectors) and sinners. Many church
members don't have any unsaved friends, or if they do, they keep them at a
distance. Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem, where the crowd was so
cosmopolitan that the inscription on his cross had to be written in three
languages. Many churches today have abandoned the marketplace and spend
their time reminding one another of the gospel. -- Warren Wiersbe, God Isn't in
a Hurry (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1994), p. 89.

In the lack of context of the first quote, I would have to say that I have concern for the statement without any context.

I would obviously agree with the idea that we can impact the world without being contaminated by the world.

I do wonder about a couple of things regarding the quote, however.

1. The picture of Haggai 2 seems to point out that connecting something holy to that which is unholy does not make the unholy thing holy, but instead makes the holy thing unholy. (The example is of the priest's garment and dead bodies.) This would clearly indicate that the type of contact is definitely in play in regards to this concept.

2. I am not sure that "contact without contamination" is really an accurate description of "separation." While it may be true that we need to have appropriate contact with those that are lost, etc., I really don't see how this relates to separation. In other words, I think by juxtaposing the two ideas "separation" and "contact with contamination", he is bringing into the idea of separation that which is not really relevant.

The NT idea of separation seems to be more restrictive than simply "don't be contaminated." For instance, in 2 Corinthians 6, where we are told to be separate, the same context includes "touch not the unclean thing." And the question of "what fellowship hath light with darkness"?

Anyway, thanks for participating. I may add more later, but I need to get to bed.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Who Said This? Plus some

2008-11-26T13:25:00.002-05:00

From time to time some blogs I visit include a little game of "Who Said This?" or "Name that Quote" or whatever you want to call it.

I came across a quote today that I thought was worthy of being used in such a situation, but with a twist.

First, the quote.

"Separation is not isolation, it is contact without contamination."

Second, the game.

Who said the above quote? (No goodsearching, googling, etc.)

Third, the "Plus some"

Do you agree with this quote? Why or why not?

Have some fun,

Frank

My Thoughts on a Glorious Concert

2008-11-17T15:26:00.003-05:00

My family and I recently enjoyed a great concert with the Bob Jones University Symphonic Band. I wrote this post the next day, but I have not had the right computer connected to the internet since then to post this article.

Recently, on a Tuesday night, my family and I had the privilege of attending a concert by the Bob Jones University Symphonic Band at Faith Baptist Church in Salisbury. We had a great time as we were able to enjoy the majestic sounds of the band as they played such great numbers as Crown Him with Many Crowns, Like a River Glorious, How Great Thou Art, and The King of Love My Shepherd Is. The music was excellent and filled the auditorium. It was also neat at some points to be able to sing with the symphonic band, although the nature of the band in the setting was such that you could sing as loud as you desired and no one was probably going to hear you (a good thing for those surrounding me.)

In addition to the great music, conductor Dan Turner did an excellent job of both keeping the evening very balanced and interesting. In the early beginning section, the music featured a selection of patriotic numbers such as This is My Country and God Bless America. During this time, Dr. Turner kept things light-hearted as he took some time to help educate the listeners by going through and introducing all the different instruments and having the band members demonstrate the various instruments. The whole presentation of the various instruments was done in such a way that it was enjoyable - tidbits were included, the few seconds of each instrument playing were generally of things funny and/or familiar (the Flintstones, Mario, etc.). The tidbits about the instruments were also a mix of interest and humor. For instance, he explained the way that a clarinet makes its sound and talked about the reed that is used, which is only grown in a place in France. He also talked about the fact that if you stretched out the French Horn (I think) it would be 18 feet long - although he commented on it with humor to this effect: "If you were to take the French Horn and connect it to the bus and drive the bus so that it stretched out the instrument, that would probably be a good thing - and it would reach about 18 feet." (Not an exact quote, but close.)

When the group moved towards the sacred numbers, an appropriate change in tone took place and explanations regarding some of the truths of the messages of the songs were given. At times we were encouraged to read the words in the hymn book as the band played the song so that we could get a fuller effect of the message being played. It was very well done and very appropriately done.

My children liked it so much that my nine-year old daughter used her hard-earned money to buy a CD which she has played which she has regularly played as she went to bed since then -and they begged me to bring them back to the school the next day as the BJU Symphonic Band was going to give another concert for Faith Baptist Academy on Wednesday morning. I let them talk me into it and we went and the band played a completely different selection of music and did another wonderful job. They even introduced all of the instruments again, but even that varied in a lot of ways from the presentation the night before to keep up interest of those (like us) who were there for both concerts.

It was a great night and a great morning. Thank you, BJU for your willingness to send out a team like this to be a blessing and encouragement. Thank you, Faith Baptist Church, for you ability to and willingness to host such a group. We enjoyed it very much.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Some Veteran's Day Thoughts

2008-11-10T22:45:00.004-05:00

Today, November 11, is the day in the United States of America when we celebrate Veteran's Day.

Over a year ago, I started an extra blog entitled, Daily Quotes and Illustrations. This blog is an attempt to put together quotes from a variety of sources and on a variety of topics together in a place where I and others could easily access them. Each quotes is catagorized by topic (or topics) and speaker. (And yes, unlike here, there are advertisements from Google ads on that site - I established it when I was trying to figure out if I could find a way to make some extra income - I would still like to do so, but it doesn't look like blogging is going to be able to accomplish that).

Anyway, I posted this comment from President Ronald Reagan in regards to Veteran's Day and thought I would share it here as well. There are also a number of other patriotic quotes from various sources among the many quotes over at Daily Quotes and Illustrations.

It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our
country in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers
in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers,
grave and gray-haired. But most of them were boys when they died; they gave up
two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When
they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and
grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up
everything for their county, for us.All we can do is remember.- Ronald Wilson
Reagan Remarks at Veteran's Day ceremony, Arlington National Cemetery,
Arlington, Virginia, November 11, 1985.

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has a nice Veteran's Day site that includes a lot of good information about Veteran's Day - including a History of Veteran's Day.

Thank you to all who have served and to who all the families of those who served.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

The American Republic voted today

2008-11-05T09:19:00.003-05:00

I may have some of my own thoughts regarding the election in an upcoming post, but I wanted to share this for now.

Michael Hammond, a lawyer with Cramer, Price and de Armas in Florida who is the brother-in-law of my former Youth Pastor and has served as Special Counsel to the Florida House of Representatives (1991-2001) posted these words in a note on Facebook yesterday. I thought some of my readers may appreciate these words.

The American Republic Voted Today

On a cold day in January the most powerful political figure in the world, The President of the United States of America, will voluntarily relinquish the reigns of power and become, once again, an ordinary citizen. At the same time the most powerful political figure in the world, The President of the United States of America, will take up the reigns of power.

Perspective is a powerful thing. The founders had it. We have a republic in which the peaceful transfer of power occurs every 4 to 8 years. We are blessed.

I have a friend who was born and raised in Zimbabwe. Her mother still lives there. My conversations with her reinforce my appreciation for the great country in which we live. Unlike other countries, we follow an idea, a philosophy of limited government controlled by the governed. We do not follow personalities or demagogues.

Whether your candidate wins today or not, the Republic will go on. Our reasoned discourse can continue as long as we commit ourselves to it. We have the power to reject the shouting heads on TV (they used to be talking heads, now they mostly shout) and converse constructively with each other about the important issues of the day. We have that power because we live by founding principles that give us that power.

My friends, let the journey continue.

Just someone else's thoughts,

Frank

Some more reflections - in response to a question

2008-11-04T17:14:00.006-05:00

Andy Rupert, a friend and OBF member who blogs over at Isle Kerguelen, made a comment on my post regarding the Pillsbury situation and then followed up his comment with an email request for me to elaborate. Since the comments of old posts often get ignored and since the length of this is really more of a post than a comment, I thought I would go ahead and make this comment a post (as well as including it in the comments of the Reflections post).

Before I do so, I would remind you of two things I said in the post in which Andy's comments are found.

I am saddened to hear of the demise of Pillsbury. It has had a great heritage and I am concerned for the students, faculty, and staff members of the institution. I imagine it is especially difficult for some who have poured their hearts and lives into this ministry and have prayed for them during this time.

and

Historically it has often been the institutions of the movement who have been used of God to propagate, promote, defend and expand the idea. While I recognize that God does not need a particular institution, I believe it would be wise for those of us who hold to the idea of Fundamentalism to seek to do what we can to pray for, encourage, support and strengthen (including providing correction where necessary) those institutions that also hold to the idea.

Now for the comment and the reply.

Andy's comment was the following:

From my quick read through Dr. Bauder's article, I think I agree with his assessment. For instance, when he writes about the idea being greater than what the movement created, I think he has it right. See the following quotation:

"If we are going to talk about saving fundamentalism, then let us be clear that the thing we need to save is the idea. All of our associations, colleges, seminaries, mission agencies, preachers’ fellowships, networks, alignments, and coalitions are of value only to the extent that they maintain and perpetuate the idea. If they are not propagating the idea, then let them perish."

In the follow-up email, he asked about my concerns regarding the Bauder article on Pillsbury Baptist Bible College. Below is my response (with some slight alterations).

Andy,

I think a couple relevant quotes may help here.

From my post: Even though I would agree with Dr. Bauder that the "idea" is more important than the "movement", I think we may be jumping the gun on the movement.

To use the Pillsbury demise as a chance to claim even the "movement" is dead is a stretch that seems unsupportable in light of the three evidences I included in my post.

Also, from my post that I linked to in this post:

I am not arguing for the movement, so much as the idea, as properly understood. I would say, however, and this is important, that those who genuinely subscribe to the idea of Fundamentalism will not find themselves without some fellowship within the "movement" of Fundamentalism (as broadly understood). I would also say that often (not necessarily always) those guys who claim to be retaining the "idea" of Fundamentalism while shedding the "movement" tend to reveal that they have abandoned more than the "movement" when one examines their ministries and considers the associations that they do make.

While Bauder is not an example of this personally, my experience has been that the YFs are eating up the "anti-movement" comments from Bauder and others, while not holding to the idea - resulting in the worst of both worlds.

My initial reading of quotes like the one you gave by Bauder was also favorable, until I begin to think through them more.

It sounds great and elicits an initial "Amen" when Bauder writes, "If we are going to talk about saving fundamentalism, then let us be clear that the thing we need to save is the idea. All of our associations, colleges, seminaries, mission agencies, preachers’ fellowships, networks, alignments, and coalitions are of value only to the extent that they maintain and perpetuate the idea. If they are not propagating the idea, then let them perish."

However, upon further reflection, I think statements like this may actually be part of the problem, because of what it implies and what it leaves out.

First, the implication of the statement:

It implies that Fundamentalists are interested in saving Fundamentalist institutions no matter whether they support the idea of Fundamentalism or not. This seems to be creating an animal that doesn't exist - or at least exists so rarely as to be listed on the endangered species list. Are people in the OBF clamoring for Cedarville to be preserved? Of course not? Fundamentalist are not interested in saving the historically Fundamentalists institutions that are no longer Fundamentalist - either the ones like Cedarville that have headed in the direction of repudiating Biblical separation or the ones like HAC that are off on a KJVO/easy believism tangent. There may be interest in RESCUING them by some, but not just in preserving them in their current wrong direction. I would hope that there is interest amongst those in the OBF of strengthening the OBF and of preserving the Visitor, etc., not because the OBF wants to be "king of the hill of Fundamentalism", but because it recognizes that it has an important role in presenting a united and outspoken voice for Biblical Fundamentalism. No one fits the description that Bauder is arguing against - no one in "mainstream Fundamentalism" is clamoring to save the bad institutions just for the sake of saving them.

Second, the omission of the statement:

While Bauder supports the idea of letting the institutions that don't hold to the idea of Fundamentalism perish, he makes little argument for supporting those institutions that do continue to hold strongly to true Fundamentalism. This omission leaves us with a vacuum. While the internet is starting to change some of this by giving the little guys a voice, the reality is that it has been historically the institutions of Fundamentalism that have had the "bully pulpit" to expound, promote, and encourage others in their understanding of the idea of Fundamentalism. It is the united voice of the OBF - a Fundamentalist institution - allows for this idea to be sounded out with a louder sound than the solo pastor of a small church would be able to sound it out. Historically, it has been those who have had a voice - either because they were representative of something larger than themselves (such as an institution like the OBF, the FFBC, the ACCC, or the mission boards or the various colleges or seminaries) or because their voice was somehow promoted and spread (e.g. Luther and the press - or even Ashbrook and Here I Stand) that have been able to promote the idea of Fundamentalism - or at least to have had effectiveness in doing so. Surely there have been plenty of small church pastors who have preached messages and taught their people the Biblical doctrine of separation, but which of those influenced you or the other young men out there? In general, no one even hears of these warriors and instead it is the ones who are somehow involved with an institution that have been used to articulate the position to a greater audience. I was influenced by Pastor Ashbrook through his writing long before I ever met him in person. I was influenced by Dr. Pickering even though I never met him personally. These men were able to make an influence on me, in part, because they had a voice - and it was, in part, their involvement with the institutions of Fundamentalism that gave them that voice - or at least allowed that voice to be able to be spread where I could hear it. When we make an argument that the institutions are not that important, we should think a little about the implication of such a point. Even Kevin Bauder, who writes much that I generally like and appreciate is being heard because of his role in a Fundamentalist institution.

Now that I have rambled, let me get back to my specifics in regards to the Pillsbury article.

I believe that Bauder's whole premise in the article is fatally flawed. Dr. Bauder wrote, "Pillsbury Baptist Bible College is a microcasm of what is happening within institutional fundamentalism everywhere." Really? He does not support this idea at all in his article, he just lays it out there as though it is self-evident. The problem with that is that ignores the facts right in Pillsbury's "back yard" - Maranatha and Northland have grown incredibly during the same time that Pillsbury has dwindled. Rather than use the Pillsbury situation to address the real issues with Pillsbury, it was used as an evidence that "the mainstream of historic fundamentalism is dwindling."

I don't have a problem with him not going after the issues that seem to have led to Pillsbury's demise - I probably would not have touched on them if I had been in his situation and would not have commented here or at SI if it were not for Dr. Bauder's article. I do have a problem with using that demise as an evidence for something that it is not.

If we were to see a similar pattern at the other schools, he may be able to make the case he tried to make. But as it stands, I think his premise is way off.

BTW, I seriously meant what I wrote about praying for the folks at Pillsbury. One of my groomsmen was a former teacher there and I believe the later presidents really tried to do a good job of turning the ship back around. Clearly there were multiple reasons for the demise of Pillsbury. I think Dr. McCune (or was it his son) is correct that part of the problem was probably the vacuum of leadership created by Clearwaters' departure. I think a large part of it was the alienation of its support base due to the (at least perceived) leftward lurch under Potter (which is not all on Potter, btw, it also raises questions about the board in general in selecting him). I am sure part of it was the fact that there was healthy competition nearby. I imagine some of it may have been due to various financial pressures - especially with the upkeep of a campus that was as old as Pillsbury.

For those who have tried to deny the effect of the leftward lurch, I think they need to recognize that this did play a key role. If we as a church gave out copies of The Visitor and then all of the sudden Chris started using it to espouse Open Theism, I would not put out copies of The Visitor anymore and I would be very wary of ordering it again unless I had complete confidence that Chris had gotten the axe and someone I really knew I could trust (e.g. Pastor Ashbrook himself) was back at the helm.

The same principle works the other way, btw. Notice the Democrats response to Joe Liberman. Eight years ago, he was their Vice Presidential nominee. Two years ago he was defeated in his own party's primary because he did not agree with the Dems radical anti-war sentiment. Now that he spoke at the Republican Convention and has campaigned for McCain, they are talking about putting him out of the caucus (unless they need his vote to prevent a filibuster). What do you think the chances would be of him speaking at the Democratic Convention in four years? Let alone being their Presidential or Vice Presidential Nominee.

Anyway, I have probably said too much. I hope this clarifies. Feel free to ask me if I did not answer part of what you were asking.

In Christ,

Frank Sansone

The Great and Powerful O

2008-10-31T00:36:00.002-04:00

Growing up, I would almost always watch the classic film The Wizard of Oz when it came on television. I am sure many of you have also seen the movie. Lately this movie has been on my mind a lot as I think about the presidential election that will take place in a few days here in the United States of America.

After Dorothy lands in the land of Oz, she is concerned about going home and is told that she should go to see the "Wonderful Wizard of Oz", as surely he could solve her problems. Along the way, she picks up the brainless scarecrow, the heartless tin man, and the cowardly lion who all are excited to join the adventure with her as they travel to Emerald City to see the Wonderful Wizard of Oz - the One who can solve all of their problems.

When they finally get to see the "Great and Powerful Oz", they are awestruck and scared as they see the scene on the screen of what they think is the "Great and Powerful Oz." Unbeknownst to them, the real "Wizard" of Oz is simply a man behind a curtain. In reality, he is not a wizard, not so powerful and not so wonderful. It takes the little dog Toto to pull the curtain back and reveal the Great and Powerful Oz for the fraud that he is.

In many ways, this scene seems to be playing out in this election. Senator Obama is a very eloquent speaker. When I watched him speak at the DNC in 2004, I said immediately that he would be running for President - and that he would be likely to win. He comes across as a very reasonable man who seeks to inspire hope. A man who seems to be "different" than some of the candidates that have proceeded him from the left, such as Kerry or Gore. In that speech in which he was introduced to most of America, he seemed to put forth a moderate tone - one that argued that we should stop seeing ourselves as "Red States" and "Blue States" but as the "United States." He hit the right note and I believe this resonated with a lot of people.

The problem, however, is that the speech at the DNC and many of his speeches since then present a man on a screen. They present an appealing image, but the real Obama - the one hiding behind the curtain - seems to be a very different person.

The problem that we are faced with today, however, is that the news media, whose traditional roll has been to pull the curtain back and let us see what is behind the curtain, is instead desperately holding on to the curtain to keep it closed. They have decided that the "image" of the Great and Powerful O is the one that people must continue to believe and have done everything they can to shut up any Toto that dares to try to pull the curtain back. Look at what has happened to "Joe the Plumber" - a man who dared to try to pull the curtain and had his house descended upon by the media and had his private records illegally searched and has experienced an all-out onslaught against him in an attempt to discredit him.

There have been some Totos out there trying to pull the curtain back, but the Totos are being silenced or they are not strong enough on their own to effectively reveal what is behind the curtain - to reveal the true nature of "The One".

On the screen Obama shows himself to be reasonable on so many issues, but behind the screen is something vastly different.

On the screen, "The One" seems to be "reasonable" to many people in the area of abortion. Seeming to be relatively moderate. Claiming like he did in the last debate that "nobody is pro- abortion", many people can console themselves that he is not really that radical on the issue. Behind the curtain, however, he is an extremist in the area of abortion. While serving in the Illinois State Senate, Obama argued against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in 2002. This was a bill that would have required medical treatment be given to babies who survived abortions - in other words, LIVE BABIES. To consider how radical this is, a similar bill passed the U.S. Senate 98-0 - not even one of the many "pro-choice" liberal Senators voted against it. During the course of this election season, he pledged at a Planned Parenthood gathering that the first thing he would do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act - which would have the effect of overturning laws against partial-birth abortion, laws requiring parental notification for minors having abortion, and multitudes of other reasonable restrictions that have been placed on abortion over the years. In addition to this, it would have the effect of overturning the Hyde amendment - meaning that once again that people who oppose this gruesome act would be forced to have their tax money pay for elective abortion.

On the screen, "The One" seems to be reasonable on foreign affairs. He speaks before massive crowds in Germany and seems to present a nice face for America. He claims on his website that the Obama/Biden ticket has established "a strong record as true friends of Israel, stalwart defenders of Israel's security." Behind the curtain is the man who has shown great instability and carelessness in the area of foreign affairs - saying he would sit down without pre-conditions with Chavez, Castro and Iran's leader (which he has tried to twist into not being a reference to Ahmadinejad), etc. not realizing the support that such a meeting would give to those leaders. Behind the curtain, he is friendly with former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi who would prefer a "one-state solution" - meaning the abolition of Israel. Behind the curtain, he was totally wrong on the surge and would have preferred for American troops to come home in defeat from Iraq.

On the screen, "The One" seems to be reasonable on the economy, claiming tax-cuts for the middle class. Behind the curtain he reveals to Joe the Plumber that he wants to "spread the wealth around." Behind the curtain he reveals on a NPR radio show that the very liberal and activist Warren court did not go far enough. Behind the curtain he has voted for tax increases. Behind the curtain he has called for the elimination of the Bush Tax Cuts - which he won't call a tax increase but has the same effect. When the curtain was briefly pulled away by the Joe the Plumber, Obama went off script and revealed he wanted to "spread the wealth around."

On the screen, "The One" seems to be a well-educated and articulate man - which he surely is to a degree. Behind the curtain he has made a number of statements that would have gotten Dan Quayle lambasted by the media. For instance, he commented in Oregon earlier this year, "I've now been in 57 states. I think one left to go." Can you imagine if Sarah Palin had made a similar comment. It would given as evidence of how stupid she was. This is not an isolated incident, in fact, Michelle Malkin has a number of posts on these, including here.

Will someone pull away the curtain? Will people stop during these last few days and think about the real Obama rather than the one on the screen?

We will wait and see.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

For a much more comprehensive treatment of some of these issues, including actual footage of Obama commenting about abortion and other issues, see this post at hotair.com.

Reflections upon reading the Reflections

2008-10-29T13:17:00.005-04:00

Last week I read the news that Pillsbury Baptist Bible College in Owatonna, Minnesota announced that it will "cease academic activities" at the end of this calendar year.

Pillsbury Baptist Bible College has served as a strong Fundamentalist institution over the years. In the early days, Pillsbury had such presidents as Dr. Monroe Parker, Dr. Richard Clearwaters and Dr. B. Myron Cedarholm. There have been some unfortunate times of difficulty over the years, including a disagreement between between Drs. Clearwaters and Cedarholm (which is discussed in a 1999 article in Frontline Magazine entitled, "The Cedarholm/Clearwaters Conflict.")

I was saddened to hear of the demise of Pillsbury. It has had a great heritage and I am concerned for the students, faculty, and staff members of the institution. I imagine it is especially difficult for some who have poured their hearts and lives into this ministry and have prayed for them during this time.

The day after I heard of this, I was able to pray with the president of a sister school and was told that the schools were likely going to make an exception for Pillsbury students that would allow them to transfer their credits to the schools even though Pillsbury was accredited as a Bible Institute rather than a College. CORRECTION: Pillsbury is accredited by AHBE as a four-year Bible college, but apparently this accreditation is different than the accreditation that the particular school usually accepted - thank you, Professor David McGuire for the correction. I appreciated the desire of this president and the other schools to try to help out these students in a very difficult time.

Dr. Kevin Bauder of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Minnesota, who I have referred to in a number of articles here at A Thinking Man's Thoughts and of whose ministry I have appreciation, has written an article on the Pillsbury situation in his newsletter In the Nick of Time and that has been recently published at ShaperIron and generated some discussion - here.

While I appreciate some of the things Dr. Bauder has said, I do wonder, however, if the premise of this article by Dr. Bauder and the subsequent comments may be going a little too far and I wonder if we should ask those who are busy chiseling on the marble to think a little bit further before they finish making the tombstone.

Even though I would agree with Dr. Bauder that the "idea" is more important than the "movement", I think we may be jumping the gun on the movement - or at least the use of Pillsbury as indicative of the movement seems to be a bit of a stretch.

(For some of my further thought on the "Idea" and "Movement" of Fundamentalism, see my post, The Best and the Brightest - The Idea of Fundamentalism and the Movement of Fundamentalism.)

While I am not an expert on Pillsbury by any stretch, I question whether the case can accurately be made that the collapse of Pillsbury is merely a microcosm of a greater collapse of Fundamentalism. The reasons I question this include the following:

1. The decline of Pillsbury occurred at the same time when at least two of the neighboring Fundamental Colleges were experiencing a time of increase. While I do not have the figures, I am pretty sure that both Maranatha and Northland are significantly larger today than they were in 1990. (Faith may be as well, but I am less familiar with Faith.) I do not have the numbers, but I would guess the combined attendance at the three schools (Pillsbury, Maranatha, and Northland) is greater now than it was then - even with Pillsbury's decline.

2. The decline of Pillsbury did not occur without some issues being present at the school. As even Dr. Bauder has alluded, "Pillsbury nearly closed in the mid-1990s when it experienced multiple turnovers of administration and a purge of the faculty. This was not the first controversial period in the history of the college." The numerous changes in leadership and the changes in philosophy that some of those changes included would make most institutions unstable. (Although perhaps there is some question regarding cause and effect.)

3. Pillsbury experienced a change of leadership and focus at one point that seems to have resulted in the alienation of both alumni and other constituents due to a left-ward shift (or, so as not to get sidetracked, a perceived left-ward shift). I appreciated the efforts of some to try to "right the ship" in subsequent years, but damage like this is difficult to undo. It puts questions in the minds of folks who may be influential in helping to recruit students to a school or support the school in other ways. I know that while I was a youth pastor, we took college trips up to MBBC and NBBC from New Jersey and later added FBBC, but we were in a "wait and see" mode when it came to PBBC and never actually included it in our list of schools to visit when we took our "Northern College Trips". While we were not a huge church (at the time we probably had between 50-70 in our youth groups, I think), we did have students that attended each of the other schools we visited, and if other churches also were cautious about PBBC because of the earlier changes, this could have had a definite effect on their enrollment and ultimate survival.

Some have objected to this idea that the "left-ward leer" of a college President over a decade ago can have that much affect. I understand this objection, but I think it is misinformed. I also don't think it is necessarily a Fundamental/New Evangelical issue. In fact, I would imagine this were true even in the secular arena.

Imagine a similar scenario. A new president is selected at a well-known conservative educational institution, but the new presidents announces that he is supportive of Obama and Pelosi and the rest of the liberals in politics of the day. Even if subsequent presidents attempt a return to traditional conservative issues, unless a major mea culpa with sackcloth and ashes and comes from those involved in the hiring of the left-leaning president, many conservatives are going to be wary of recommending and supporting the institution - and wisely so. (BTW, the same would be true of a liberal institution that suddenly came out as conservative on some major issues - look what happened to Joe Liberman.)

I further question the wording of Dr. Bauder where he says the following:

The question is not whether fundamentalism is collapsing. The question is how we should respond to the collapse. More fundamentally, the question is how we should even be thinking about these events.

Is Fundamentalism collapsing? It seems that is a foregone conclusion to Dr. Bauder, even though he admits it is difficult to know the real state of Fundamentalism. I hear what seems to be almost a glee in some circles (certainly not Dr. Bauder) in that apparent collapse, but I question whether those who are celebrating should think through the bigger picture more clearly.

In 1925, Harvard liberal Kirsopp Lake wrote regarding Fundamentalism in The Religion of Yesterday and Tomorrow

“It is a mistake, often made by educated persons who happen to have but little knowledge of historical theology, to suppose that Fundamentalism is a new and strange form of thought. It is nothing of the kind: it is the…survival of a theology which was once universally held by all Christians….The Fundamentalist may be wrong: I think that he is. But it is we who have departed from the tradition, not he, and I am sorry for the fate of anyone who tries to argue with a Fundamentalist on the basis of authority. The Bible and the corpus theologicum of the Church is on the Fundamentalist side”

I recognize that the this applies to the idea more than the movement, but historically it has often been the movements who have been used of God to propagate, promote, defend and expand the idea. While I recognize that God does not need a particular institution, I believe it would be wise for those of us who hold to the idea of Fundamentalism to seek to do what we can to pray for, encourage, support and strengthen (including providing correction where necessary) those institutions that also hold to the idea.

Just my thoughts,

Frank Sansone

Fellowship Baptist Church to Celebrate 10th Anniversary this Sunday, October 12

2008-10-10T00:02:00.004-04:00

If you live in the Salisbury, Maryland area,Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury, Maryland would love to invite you to join us as we celebrate our 10th Anniversary on Sunday, October 12, 2008.

Ten years ago a small group of believers began to meet in a home and eventually formed what became Messiah Baptist Fellowship. Pastor Steve Wagner served as Pastor of this small group of believers and they were soon able to secure a meeting place next to the Red Door Sub Shop on South Salisbury Boulevard. Over the next five-plus years, this little church remained faithful to the Word of God under Pastor Wagner's leadership and was privileged to see some folks come to Christ for salvation and some other believers who were looking for a good church come and join Messiah Baptist Fellowship.

Sensing the Lord's leading into full-time Jewish missions, Pastor Wagner and his wife relocated to South Carolina where he continues to serve with Messiah Ministries. Dr. William Woodhall, who had faithfully served as Pastor of First Baptist Church of Lewes, Delaware for 33 years served as the Interim Pastor of Messiah Baptist Fellowship for most of 2004 and provided needed stability to this small flock during this time without a full-time Pastor.

In October 2004, Messiah Baptist Fellowship called Frank Sansone to serve as Pastor and Pastor Sansone and his family officially started on December 5, 2004. The last few years we have rejoiced in God's continued working in our church. Over these last few years, we have seen the Lord add to His church and we have seen growth in the people of God. In the Spring of 2006, the Lord provided us with a building at 1308 Robins Avenue and we changed our name to Fellowship Baptist Church. Since then, we have also rejoiced as this new building has allowed us to have the addition of Sunday School for all ages, some youth activities, and the excitement of Vacation Bible School in the summer. We have also rejoiced in Baptisms in the Nanticoke River and at a neighboring church, and the recent provision of a handicap-accessible van in specific answer to prayer.

For our 10th Anniversary, we invite you to join us for a very special Sunday. We would like to extend a special invitation to any of our friends who have been part of the ministry here over the years to "come home" for this Sunday. We also invite our neighbors and friends from the Salisbury area to join us for this Special Anniversary Sunday. All of the men who have served as Pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church will be preaching. Dr. Woodhall will be preaching during the Sunday School hour at 10:00 a.m., Pastor Sansone will preach the morning service at 11:00 a.m. and Pastor Wagner will preach the afternoon service at 2:00 p.m. We will also be have a special lunch at the church between the morning and afternoon service, complete with good food prepared by the folks at Fellowship.

If you would like more information or have any questions, please feel free to call the church at 410-341-7100.

Just my thought of invitation,

Frank

Internet Resources for Pastors

2008-08-01T18:41:00.002-04:00

Many of you contributed ideas last year when I asked this question and I hope to hear some feedback this year, as well.

Earlier this week I was asked about updating the information I provided last year regarding internet resources and blogs for Pastors at the Annual Conference of the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches at Tri-State Bible Camp in Montague, New Jersey. As this week has been pretty busy with Vacation Bible School (and with trying to make a final decision regarding homeschooling this school year), I have not yet had much time to put a lot of thought into this.

So... I am asking for help.

My previous suggestions are found here:

Internet Resources for Pastors

Recommended Blogs for Pastors

I know that I missed some big ones in the area of Internet Resources, especially. (E.g. I failed to list SermonAudio.com)

So, as I attempt to update these lists (before Monday at 11 a.m.), I would love to have some suggestions.

Thank you for your thoughts,

Frank

Homeschooling

2008-07-30T23:58:00.003-04:00

My wife and I have often thought about homeschooling, but have always "chickened out." Well, as the school year approaches, we are again thinking about homeschooling. We like the current school where our children attend, so it is not something against them, but we are thinking of making the switch this year.

We have a 6th grader, 4th grader, and a 4 year old. We are thinking of using the BJU Hard Drive Distance Learning option for this year, but are still thinking. I recognize that some hardcore homeschooling families will probably think this is a cop-out, but in our situation we are thinking this may be a way to see how we like educating them at home without overwhelming us. It looks Missy will still have to work some - even with not having the expense of Christian School - so I would be involved with this as well. (Of course, I would still like to be involved even if the Lord somehow provided in such a way that Missy did not have to work at all.)

Anyway, I am not looking for a big debate about homeschooling. I am aware of many positives and negatives from having worked with a number of homeschooling families over the years. I am more interested in hearing about the following things:

1. Is anyone familiar enough with the BJU Hard Drive system to offer some thoughts regarding it? (Also, we have heard that you can get a good deal by going to one of the "hotel meetings." The closest one to us is about three hours away - are the deals enough to make such a trip worth it?)

2. Any thoughts or advice for a family thinking of making the move in our situation?

3. One of the reasons we are considering this move is to give some more focused attention to one of our children who is struggling academically. In doing so, we are also trying to decide if it is a better option to have her stay in the grade she would be in if she stayed at the school and work extra with her to shore up the weak areas or if we should have her repeat the grade she just completed.

4. At Hardingville, we had a large church with a number of opportunities outside of school for the children to have interaction with others. I believe the homeschoolers at HBC who were involved with King's Kids and Youth Group got "the best of both worlds" in regards to time at home and interaction. Our little church does not yet have these options. Should this be a concern?

Anyway, I would love to hear some input.

Thanks,

Frank

A Great Week at The Wilds

2008-07-16T22:24:00.003-04:00

Last week, we had the privilege of taking a group of teens and juniors down from Fellowship Baptist Church of Salisbury to camp at The Wilds Christian Camp in Rosman, North Carolina.

The Wilds is a great camp that focuses on doing all things excellent for Jesus Christ. The camp verse is 1 Corinthians 10:31 and is not just a verse put on a sign and forgotten about, but serves as a driving force behind all that is done at the camp - "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

The speakers for the week were Evangelist Will Galkin for the teens and Evangelist Ed Dunlop for the juniors. I was pleasantly surprised at how generally low-key the invitations were from both men.

To the parents, thank you for giving us the opportunity to take your young person to camp. Pray for and with your children. Talk to them not only about the fun adventures at camp, but also about what God taught them through His Word.

To the teens and juniors, thank you for a great week. You were a joy to take down to The Wilds. Don't allow the distractions of the world to draw your focus away from Christ and "continue thou in the things thou hast learned." (2 Timothy 3:14)

To the others in the church. Thank you for praying for the young people and praying for our safety. Thank you, as well, for giving generously to help offset some of the expenses.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Some Belated Independence Day thoughts

2008-07-05T14:22:00.003-04:00

While my ultimate citizenship is in Heaven (Phil 3:20), I also greatly appreciate the country in which God has allowed me to be born and raised. America has its faults, but America is a great country.

It is alleged that Alexis de Tocqueville (the author of Democracy in America) stated:

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers - and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerc - and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution - and it vas not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.

Sometimes with the encroaching liberalism and ungodliness that is rampant in areas, I wonder how long it will be when we have to finally say that "America has ceased to be good", but the idea of America is a great idea. While the great freedom in our land allows for the ungodliness to run rampant, it is that same freedom that allows Christians in America to have relatively few restrictions when it comes to being able to exercise our faith with little fear of imprisonment or punishment.

One of the great traditions we have in celebrating Independence Day here in the United States is the small town parade. Complete with firetrucks, clowns, marching bands, and floats by local groups and candy thrown out to watching children, small town parades represent an American spirit that says "take some time off, be with folks you don't know and celebrate something great."

Yesterday, I had the privilege of visiting the parade in Pitman, New Jersey with my children. While we did not see a lot of the parade, it was a great chance to catch up with a few friends from Hardingville and have a little visit "back home." The parade is proceeded by a 4-mile race and I noticed a number of folks I know still had their numbers on from having run in the race. One of these days, I hope to show up and run the race myself - it has been far too many years since I ran any kind of race. (I think my last road race was when I was on staff at BJU back in the early 1990s.)

For those looking for quotes regarding America or Independence Day, I have a few posted at my "Daily Quotes and Illustrations" Blog - http://dailyquotesandillustrations.blogspot.com/ (click the label for America or Patriotic or Independence Day.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Father's Day Cards banned in Scottish Schools

2008-07-05T13:58:00.003-04:00

Since Father's Day has already past, this story may be a little outdated, but as I only saw the article recently, I could not comment on it any earlier :).

It seems as though a number of schools in Scotland banned the children from making cards for Father's Day.

The Telegraph reports:

Thousands of primary pupils were prevented from making Father's Day cards at school for fear of embarrassing classmates who live with single mothers and lesbians.
The politically correct policy was quietly adopted at schools "in the interests of sensitivity" over the growing number of lone-parent and same-sex households.

The Telegraph article is located here.

Another article about this is found here.

While I understand the desire to be sensitive to children, this seems to be a little overboard.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Good thougths about change in worship

2008-06-21T13:18:00.002-04:00

If you are like me, when you hear the words "change" and "worship" together, it likely puts up a "red flare," since most who advocated a change in worship are generally advocating adapting the worship of God towards the appetites of the world.

However, Pastor Matt Jury has written a good article entitled A Village Re-Elects a Dead Mayor: Some Thoughts on Worship at his new blog - Life is Worship.

Matt has been gracious over the last two years in arranging accommodations for me during the National Leadership Conference in Lansdale and is eager to get going in this new adventure in blogging. He is off to a good start, check him out.

Just my thoughts on his thoughts,

Frank

What do missionaries do all day?

2008-06-12T13:41:00.003-04:00

I have had similar questions over the years regarding "What does a Pastor do all day?" Missionary David Hosaflook in the Balkans provides a humorous answer in this post.

And, if you want something of a more serious fare, read his previous post - A Strategy of Saturation for Syncritistic Peoples

Just his thoughts,

Frank

What does a teacher make?

2008-06-10T14:41:00.003-04:00

In most of the United States, school is out or is getting out very soon. With the end of the school year comes a lot of excitement, some sadness, a sense of relief on the part of some and sense of dread on the part of others.

One of the time-honored traditions regarding the end of the school year is to get a gift to thank the teacher for their work with your children during the school year. It is a shame that this is often the only time that the teacher gets such recognition, but it is hopeful that most teachers at least get some type of recognition during this time of year.

Over on IVMan's Blaque, I found this item that I thought was fitting in thinking about the impact of teachers.

What does a teacher make?

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, “What’s a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?”

He went on to tell the other dinner guests that he thought it was true what they say about teachers - “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.”

To corroborate his statements, he said to another guest, “You’re a teacher, Susan. What do you make?”

Susan, who had a reputation of honesty and frankness, replied, “You want to know what I make?”

“I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I can make a C+ feel like the Medal of Honor and an A- feel like a slap in the face if the student did not do his or her very best.”

“I can make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall in absolute silence.”

“I can make parents tremble in fear when I call home.”

“You want to know what I make?”

“I make kids wonder.”

“I make them question.”

“I make them think critically.”

“I make them apologize and mean it.”

“I make them write.”

“I make them read, read, read.”

“I make them spell “definitely and beautiful” over and over again, until they will never misspell either one of those words again.”

“I make them show all their work in math and hide it all on their final drafts in English.”

“I make them experience music and art and the joy in performance, so their lives are rich, full of kindness and culture, and they take pride in themselves and their accomplishments.”

“I make them understand that if you have the brains, then follow your heart … and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make, you pay them no attention.”

“You want to know what I make? - I make a difference.”

“Now, what do you make?”

Just some borrowed thoughts,

Frank

May is over

2008-06-05T11:49:00.000-04:00

In May, I gave challenged myself to "30 days of blogging" in which my goal was to write a blog post every day.

I did not quite accomplish my goal of blogging every day (at least if you count only A Thinking Man's Thoughts - I think I may have posted every day on one of my side blogs - Daily Quotes and Illustrations,but it is much easier to maintain and a weak attempt to make some aspect of computers pay for itself) but this will be my 27th post since I started what I hoped to be "30 days of blogging" - so 90% is not too bad.

I learned a few things during the process that I hope will help me in the future (and had some things reinforced.)

1. I do still enjoy blogging, so I probably will keep doing it. (Besides, as my recent post indicated, Blogging is good for you.)

2. I am probably not an "every day" blogger. There are too many things in real life that necessitate attention to commit to posting every single day. (And, besides that, see number 6 below.)

3. I am long-winded (although I do not know if that is the right terminology when used in connection with writing instead of talking). I admire the skill of guys like Chris Anderson to get their point across succinctly. This will have to be one of the things that I seek to develop.

4. Blogging is much more fun when it is interactive - which is probably why a forum like SI tills appeals to me (even if it can be frustrating at times). Posts that receive comments and feedback seem to be more enjoyable, even if they are posts that are not as "deep" or involved - or even if they do not get as many hits as other posts.

5. People who come here looking for specific information from a search engine tend to only look at that information and move on (for instance, I still get a lot of hits of people looking for information on Pastor Jim Schettler - but most of the people who come to the site looking for him don't hang around and look at other pages).

6. Very few people pay attention to blogs (or at least, my blog) during the weekends. (I think the same is true of other, larger blogs - like SI - on the weekend as well.) This tells me that posting a lot on the weekend would be a waste of time.

7. Posting at least somewhat regularly is good for readership.

Just a few thoughts,

Frank

Some Good Thoughts at Stray Thoughts

2008-06-04T13:26:00.000-04:00

Barbara over at Stray Thoughts has probably one of the best blogs for Christian ladies that you can find on the internet. Even though I am not her target audience, she has a regular place on my bloglines and she writes well. While there are a lot of posts that are specifically geared towards women, she is also very purposeful about being a testimony and representing Christ well on her blog.

Her post on June 3rd is aptly titled, "OK, I've had about enough". In it, she takes on the blasphemous and frustratingly common expression "O my God." The prevalence of this expression has reached epidemic proportions and I appreciate her words on the subject.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Pickering Books Available for Free Downloadng

2008-06-04T06:57:00.005-04:00

Dr. Ernest Pickering was one of the outstanding spokesmen for Fundamentalism in former days. He was instrumental in helping many have a better understanding of the doctrine of separation and had such a knowledge of Scripture and love for the ministry, that even after he became blind, he continued to preach at churches and conferences.

Dr. Pickering wrote a number of books and it has been great that Regular Baptist Press has been active in putting many of these books back into print recently. I picked up an updated copy of Charismatic Confusion at the National Leadership Conference in Lansdale, Pennsylvania earlier this year, and I am especially looking forward to holding in my hands one of the new, updated copies of Pickering's classic - Biblical Separation: The Struggle for a Pure Church which has been updated recently by Dr. Myron Houghton of Faith Baptist Theological Seminary.

I noticed today (HT: SI) that Regular Baptist Press is providing a couple of Pickering's booklets as Free .pdf downloads from their site - here.

The first of these books is The Fruit of Compromise: The New and Young Evangelicals. (link to .pdf). This book was written by Dr. Pickering in 1980 and it should be an interesting read. I don't think I have ever read it, so it will be interesting to read it in light of the current state of evangelicalism.

Looking over the table of contents, I notice that the last section of this short, 44 page book gives "Direction for Fundamental Christians" and gives some great sub-headings that I will hopefully read soon for the meat - "Courageous Leadership is Needed", "Proper, Balanced Instruction Must Be Given", "Enlightening Information Must Be Made Available", and "Decisive Action Must Be Taken".

The second of the books is The Theology of Evangelism (link to .pdf).
Regular Baptist Press describes this book by saying that this 68 page booklet:

"describes the theological framework of New Testament evangelism with an emphasis on a balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. They author also address practical matters such as evangelistic methodology and compares current issues to the methods used in the early church."

I hope these comments whet you appetite and that you download and read these two booklets.

Also, for further reading on Biblical Separation, see Kevin's article The Making of Biblical Separation.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Free Audiobook of Pilgrim's Progress

2008-06-03T09:50:00.003-04:00

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That which is to come is probably the mostly read and best-loved book in the world after the Bible. Having been translated into over 200 languages and in print continuously since its first introduction in 1678, persecuted Baptist Pastor John Bunyan has supplied the world with a masterful allegory of the Christian's life and journey that has stood the test of time and cultures.

This month, Christianaudio.com is providing a FREE DOWNLOAD of Pilgrim's Progress. I have not had the time to listen to this production, but the other books that I have downloaded from Christianaudio.com have all been of very good quality. Unless you already have an audio copy, may I recommend you follow this link and get the copy from Christianaudio.com - the price is right.

Also, if you don't have a hard copy, the Christian Classics Ethereal Library has FREE versions of this book in a number of formats here (.pdf, Microsoft Word, Plain Text, etc.). (Of course, I would recommend that you go out and by a regular hard copy to read, instead - much better than reading off of a screen.)

Just my thoughts,

Frank

(HT: Jason Button)

Fundamental Missionaries threatened for "Hate Crimes"

2008-06-02T14:08:00.002-04:00

The issue of so-called "hate crimes" legislation is a serious issue for Christians who take the Bible seriously. This is not because the Bible encourages "hate", but because Western society has twisted the meaning of "hate" and much of the legislation that is being pushed in regards to "hate crimes" really are more of an attempt to sensor and silence those who desire to speak out than they are to prevent or deal with actual crimes of hate.

Recently, two missionaries with Gospel Fellowship Association were "threatened with arrest for committing a 'hate crime' and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned" for passing out Gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham, England (according to this article on the website of the British newspaper Telegraph). Even though the officer in question may have been overstepping his bounds, this is not a unique incident.

In an earlier post on The FFBC Blog (The Danger of So-Called "Hate-Crimes" Legislation), readers were reminded that this type of legislation continues to be pushed in the U.S. and has already passed in the house. Since then, it has also passed in the Senate, but has yet to reach President Bush's desk. President Bush has threatened a veto if the bill reaches his desk.

A resolution passed by the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches in 1999 deals with the topic of hate crimes still rings true.

Since Cain murdered Abel, all crimes of violence have been "Hate Crimes". Those murdered in a robbery or as a result of domestic violence are just as dead as the one who was targeted by a racial or religious fanatic for extermination. The very radicals who tried to abolish the death penalty and now attempt to forestall the execution of every convicted criminal are those pushing for stiffer penalties for individuals accused of "Hate Crimes".

The homosexual lobby is behind much of this legislation, which goes far beyond dealing with crimes of violence. Their real target is not those who commit acts of violence, but those who would criticize their ungodly way of life. The White House and various members of Congress have backed this legislation, perhaps because of their own immoral lifestyles. Much of this legislation is aimed at "thought control" rather than crime control.

The Scripture tells us that "Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed" (Genesis 9:6). If a serious effort was made to enforce the death penalty much of the violent crime in our country would disappear. We urge our legislators to reject so-called "Hate Crimes" legislation, to recognize the real purpose of those who sponsor it, and to remember that, constitutionally, laws should apply equally to all citizens convicted or accused of a crime.

The above information I posted on The FFBC Blog. I will make an additional comment here in regards to this, since this is a personal site and not a site directly affiliated with any ministry.

To those of you conservatives who are seriously thinking about sitting out this election, may I remind you that there are a number of issues like this where a Presidential veto may be the only thing stopping the issue from moving forward. For the record, here is an article regarding McCain's position on this issue - McCain Campaign Tells Brody File: No on Hate Crimes Bill.

Just my thoughts,

Frank

Blogging is good for you!

2008-05-30T13:45:00.001-04:00

Blogging is good for you! At least that's the verdict of this article in Scientific American.

* It is a stress-coping method

* It improves memory

* It improves sleep

* It boosts immune cell activity

* It reduces viral load in AIDS patients

* It speeds healing after surgery

The article also comments that: "A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not."

As you will notice, it is not just blogging, but also expressive writing in general that is involved in some of this research. This would indicate that some of these things (perhaps all of them) would also be true of those who write privately, rather than writing on a public forum such as a blog.

I can logically connect some of the benefits without too much thinking, but I am curious to what kind of connection they end up finding about some of the other areas.

For instance, I can understand the benefit of blogging as a "stress-coping method", since the process of thinking things out, talking them out, writing them out, etc. helps us to get our thoughts in order and look at things in a better perspective.

I can understand the benefit of blogging as an aid to memory - since the very aspect of writing something down is usually an aid to memory - so writing a whole post about something should be helpful to your memory.

I would be interested, however, in the more medical connections that they found.

I also wonder which of these would be more true and less true of blogging than other forms of expressive writing. For instance, the community aspect of blogging would seem to be a helpful thing in some areas. While the public nature of blogging may be less stress-relieving than just writing things privately (after all - don't we all tend to be a little self-conscious about what others may think regarding what we have written?)

So, fellow bloggers, what are some benefits that you see from blogging?

Just my thoughts,

Frank

HT: Bet at Dappled Things