I’ve sat back and wondered about what God is doing in our culture with Tim Tebow. Our God does all things well, but He is certainly mysterious.

Tim Tebow has become a cultural phenomena (with his name having become a verb), which I am normally put off with when Christians are at the center of such things (because too many Christians have been more of a disgrace to Jesus than a genuine witness in the end). But this has seemed different to me somehow.

We live in a time when, on the one hand, people do not generally believe in or want to submit to God. God is perceived to be the enemy of good living, and Christians (in particular) are buffoons to be casually laughed off as throwbacks to a failed religion. On the other hand, people generally know that a world without God and the supernatural is somehow not right.

I think many are wondering to themselves, “What if?” People will be tuning it today’s game just to see if God will intervene again in history and surprise everyone. People are going very, very far out of their way to deny that they believe anything of the kind. But they…do. Read the rest of this entry »

My son Adam attends Veritas School in Newberg, Oregon and was a member of the Concert Choir last year. Their choir, directed by Sally Mehler, won the  OSAA 1A/2A Oregon State Choir Championship.  He has not been in the choir this year because of his very busy schedule. However, he has been able to work with Mrs. Mehler and rearrange his activities to re-join the choir this week – We are so pleased for him!

Here are come of the pieces performed by the choir at the State Choir competition.

“Masters In This Hall”

[The camera centers on Adam at time-marker 1:14]

“If Ye Love Me”

[The camera centers on Adam at time-marker 44 sec.]

“Bonse Aba”

The translation is “All who sing have the right to be called the children of God.”

[The camera centers on Adam at time-marker 1:07 - He must be a popular and photogenic guy!]

Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards and President Barack Obama. (AP Photo)

As “Anti-Abortion Sunday” draws near (January 22nd) I wanted to pass on a CBS News story on the last records provided by Planned Parenthood: Planned Parenthood’s Annual Report: Got $487.4M in Tax Money, Did 329,445 abortions reports that Planned Parenthood is now an organization that has “net assets as of June 30, 2010 topped $1 billion, specifically $1,009,600,000.00,” and:

When compared with previous annual reports, the latest one shows an almost steady increase in the number of abortions performed at its clinics: In 2006, Planned Parenthood did 289,750 abortions; in 2007, it did 305,310; in 2009, it did 331,796; and, in 2010, it did 329,445–a small decrease from the previous year…

According to PPFA’s annual report for fiscal year 2007-2008,  in 2007 Planned Parenthood’s “adoption referrals to other agencies” totaled 4,912. In Fiscal Year 2010 that number was 841, a decrease of 82.8 percent.

The PPFA Fact Sheet states that adoption is included in 1 percent of services in 2008 (primary care and “other services” are included in that 1 percent), or 2,405 adoption referrals.

The latest annual report claims that abortion services make up 3 percent of “medical services,” but PPFA states it served 3 million people and performed 329,445 abortions – numbers that show 11 percent of customers received an abortion.

Thus, Planned Parenthood has a record of declining adoption services and a general increasing of abortion services.

Make no mistake: Planned Parenthood is an enemy of life, and thereby shows itself to be an enemy of Christ,who sent for His Spirit, the Lord and giver lof life!

Rembrandt, "The Angel Appears to the Shepherds" (c. 1640-42),pen and brush drawing; Hamburg, Kunsthalle.

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Luke 2:14 (NKJV)

Year after year churches put on Christmas programs not unlike this one. We thrill at the retelling of the story of the coming of our savior by our children, and are warmed by the sense of wellbeing that we have. We tend to think of this as a kind of backwards look into the past, as a memorial to what God has done in history by giving His Son to be our savior. While this is certainly true – Christmas celebrations are also an anticipation of what Jesus will yet bring to pass in the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

“This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award.”

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook recently and I thought it sufficiently thought provoking to share it as well. What I like about it (apart from the excellent animation) is that it calls into question the educational paradigms that may have come out of the Enlightenment. These may have been consistent with and worked fairly well at one point in history – but may not be so useful in our current cultural context. Further, it is clear our educational methods may need to be rethought not just in terms of the need to provide Christian worldview thinking, but may also need to be adjusted to promote a more creative and comprehensive thought process.