The Truth Divide

Resolution: Play Realm of Empires in 2010

2010-01-01T10:17:00.000-08:00

I've been playing a new game on the Facebook community, titled "Realm of Empires." My understanding, limited though it is on the whole subject of video games, is that it is based on the popular Age of Empires game. I was invited to play by a neighbor, and friend of the Chicago 'Jesus People USA' commune, Ray Wilson. You, my reader(s), may consider this your invitation to build your Empire.

2009-02-23T20:52:00.000-08:00

Entire Bill Mallonee / Vigilantes of Love catalog available now.

2009-02-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

Hosted By:
Bill Mallonee

When:
Sunday, February 08, 2009

Where:
Your ears
Backroads of your heart
anytown

Description:
Paste Music magazine voted Bill #65 in their "Top 100 Living Songwriters Poll." We are pleased to announce that Mallonee/Vigilantes of Love's work is now up for sale at: http://www.VOLsounds.com Bill Mallonee and VOL were mainstay AAA and Americana-rock radio favs in the mid-to-late-nineties with hits like Welcome To Struggleville, Real Down Town, Tokyo Rose and Doublecure. Come hear why...

Click Here To View Event

2009-02-06T10:28:00.000-08:00

Bible Study Magazine and Mars Hill Church are giving away 20 copies of Mark Driscoll’s new book, Vintage Church. Not only that, but they are also giving away five subscriptions to Bible Study Magazine and a copy of their Bible Study Library software! Enter to win on the Bible Study Magazine Mark Driscoll page, then take a look at all the cool tools they have to take your Bible study to the next level!

"What is faith," i am sometimes asked....

2009-02-05T22:19:00.000-08:00

I am occasionaly asked to define faith, or at the very least to define what i mean when i speak of faith. When this does occur, i always think of this brief essay of Francis Schaeffer's which appears as an appendix to his apologetical book, He is There and He is Not Silent.

I've copied its content from a neighboring 'blog. A link to that, WordSnatcher, 'blog appears above.

Appendix B: "Faith" versus Faith

One must analyze the word faith and see that it can mean two completely opposite things.

Suppose we are climbing in the Alps and are very high on the bare rock, and suddenly the fog shuts down. The guide turns to us and says that the ice is forming and that there is no hope; before morning we will all freeze to death here on the shoulder of the mountain. Simply to keep warm the guide keeps us moving in the dense fog further out on the shoulder until none of us have any idea where we are. After an hour or so, someone says to the guide, "Suppose I dropped and hit a ledge ten feet down in the fog. What would happen then?" The guide would say that you might make it until the morning and thus live. So, with absolutely no knowledge or any reason to support his action, one of the group hangs and drops into the fog. This would be one kind of faith, a leap of faith.

Suppose, however, after we have worked out on the shoulder in the midst of the fog and the growing ice on the rock, we had stopped and we heard a voice which said, "You cannot see me, but I know exactly where you are from your voices. I am on another ridge. I have lived in these mountains, man and boy, for over sixty years and I know every foot of them. I assure you that ten feet below you there is a ledge. If you hang and drop, you can make it through the night and I will get you in the morning."

I would not hang and drop at once, but would ask questions to try to ascertain if the man knew what he was talking about and if he was not my enemy. In the Alps, for example, I would ask him his name. If the name he gave me was the name of a family from that part of the mountains, it would count a great deal to me. In the Swiss Alps there are certain family names that indicate mountain families of that area. In my desparate situation, even though time would be running out, I would ask him what to me would be the adequate and sufficient questions, and when I became convinced by his answers, then I would hang and drop.

This is faith, but obviously it has no relationship to the other use of the word. As a matter of fact, if one of these is called faith, the other should not be designated by the same word. The historic Christian faith is not a leap of faith in the post-Kierkegaardian sense because He is not silent, and I am invited to ask the adequate and sufficient questions, not only in regard to details, but also in regard to the existence of the universe and its complexity and in regard to the existence of man. I am invited to ask adequate and sufficient questions and then believe Him and bow before Him metaphysically in knowing that I exist because He made man, and bow before Him morally as needing His provision for me in the substitutionary, propitiatory death of Christ.

Acts 29 Survey of Church Planter Charcteristics

2008-12-17T14:59:00.000-08:00

One of our exec. pastors, at Mars Hill Church, has posted a survey of Church Planter Characteristics. It is suggested that my followers, all one of you, that you consider yourself as you read through these. It is my opinion that you may qualify as one; something to consider for your career following the current Naval service?

http://www.acts29network.org/acts-29-blog/survey-church-planter-characteristics/

Mars Hill Church | Lake City | Blog Archive » Thanksgiving is an Attitude, Not a Day.

2008-11-11T16:43:00.001-08:00

Mars Hill Church | Lake City | Blog Archive » Thanksgiving is an Attitude, Not a Day.

Posted using ShareThis

Demon Hunter Interview with Pr. Tim Smith

2008-11-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

Mars Hill Church's Pr. Tim Smith, one of our "worship" band leads, has posted a relaxed sit-down interview with two members of the band, Demon Hunter.

Meet a Pro-Life Feminist (and male) former Cornerstone editor....

2008-10-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Jon Trott, you are one strange fellow! I do like your oddball, though accurate, self-charactarization though. I'll reserve the right to comment further on your own 'blog?

Meet my Pastor...

2008-10-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

as he shares about the love of his life; (other than Jesus Himself, but then, she did have a little something to do with the introductions)...... :)

http://voxpopnetwork.com/vision/2008/09/22/20-years-of-grace/

The WHAT? - Am I Promoting Division!?

2008-10-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

In a word, no. Indeed Jesus, Himself, prayed in His high priestly prayer that we believers would all be one in words recorded in John 17:21. He also stated, though, in John 14:6 that He is the way the truth and the life. And, furthermore, that no one comes to the Father (God) but through Him. Open your bible and see for yourself. Truth by its very nature serves to divide us one from another based upon whether we choose to believe or not. I pray that you will make a good choice.

Again, Jesus is likened to a shepherd in Matthew 25:32, where He is found to be separating, or dividing if you will, people into two groups. One group, at His right hand, are His sheep. The other, on the left, are the goats. I would encourage you to be counted in the group on His right.

In case you need to know how to find yourself there, i will refer you to a portion of a messenger's letter to a church in Corinth. Specifically, 1 Corinthians 15:3-9, wherein the messenger summarizes his message commonly called the Gospel. I will quote the passage here, from the Holman CSB; ...I passed on to you as most important what I also received:

that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
that He was buried,
that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,
and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then He appeared to over 500 brothers at one time,
most of whom remain to the present,
but some have fallen asleep.
Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one abnormally born,
He also appeared to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle...