God’s Mobile Home

June 23, 2015 David Murray 0 comments

paperbackfront_753x930 (5) God’s Mobile Home: Stories of Grace from the Tabernacle $1.99.

Most Bible reading plans founder towards the end of Exodus, and collapse after the first few chapters of Leviticus, as the stirring narratives of Genesis and the first half of Exodus give way to chapter after chapter of laws and regulations about the Tabernacle, it’s furniture, and its rituals. Preachers also tend to avoid these chapters like the plague because they are so hard to bring to “life” for a contemporary audience.

That’s where this short book comes in. God’s Mobile Home attempts to put real-life flesh and bones on the Bible’s teaching about the Tabernacle. Rooted in Scripture, it narrates how the words of Exodus and Leviticus translated into action in the ordinary lives of ordinary Israelites. It’s a story about the Tabernacle as seen through the eyes of a young Israelite girl, her family, and her favorite priest; a story that teaches a lot of theology, but does so in a way that young people and even children can understand. You can read a sample chapter here.

For those who want to go a bit deeper, there are study questions for each chapter that have been designed to lead readers further into the New Testament’s light on the Tabernacle.

I invite you to join Jerusha, Benjamin, Rachel, Abiel, Rouel, and Levi as the Tabernacle and its teaching about God and His grace come to life. May God’s Mobile Home bring God into the home of your heart. May He tabernacle with you, full of grace and truth.

Other eBooks in this series include:

Check out

June 23, 2015 David Murray 0 comments

Blogs

No Adam, No Fall, No Original Sin, No Substitutionary Atonement | A Daughter of the Reformation
It’s logical.

The Benefits of Catechetical Preaching
Bill Boekestein makes the case.

Former Mars Hill elder apologizes | World Mag
This is encouraging to everyone in conflict situations.

Take Heed | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org
Older article but sadly every relevant.

How to Stop Forgetting What You Read | Scott Young
From the guy who did four years of MIT courses in one year.

You’re Using The Internet Wrong: Here’s How To Finally Eliminate Digital Distractions | Fast Company
Some good hints and tips here.

70+ book picks from TED speakers and attendees | TED Blog
Find out what’s influencing the influencers. But remember that Bestsellers ≠ Best Books.

Color Me Colorblind | R C Sproul Jr
“I wish we lived in a world, and I hope and in fact know that one day we will live in a world where no one has to pretend to be something that they are not–because nobody is going to value that which has precious little value. Rachel did not need to be white, she did not need to be black. All she needed to be was a woman and all she needed to do was work for the advancement of people. That is the world I am looking forward to and the day that I’m hoping for and the future that I am laboring for.”

Kindle Books

Standing Strong: How to Resist the Enemy of Your Soul by John Macarthur $1.99.

Mad About Us: Moving from Anger to Intimacy with Your Spouse by Gary and Carrie Oliver $1.99.

Emotions: Can You Trust Them?: The Best-Selling Guide to Understanding and Managing Your Feelings of Anger, Guilt, Self-Awareness and Love by James Dobson $1.99.

I Just Agreed With Richard Dawkins

June 22, 2015 David Murray 0 comments

Although we usually disagree on just about everything, I recently found myself in the strange position of agreeing with Richard Dawkins as he came to the defense of Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sir Timothy Hunt, who’s been hounded out of his important and prestigious job for foolish comments he made at a scientific conference in South Korea.

Speaking about women scientists, 73-year-old Sir Timothy had said that the “trouble with girls” in laboratories was that “you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them they cry.” Indefensible, stupid, wrong, and infuriating. No doubt about it.

Hunt subsequently apologized for the comments, saying they had been intended to be jocular and ironic (as the unreported following sentence proved). But due to the massive social media backlash, he was told by his employers at University College London that if he did not resign his position he would be sacked. He has complained that he was given no opportunity to explain his remarks or allowed to put them in context.

He was also forced to resign from a number of other influential academic posts and roles, such as the Royal Society. Thus a fifty-year career in cancer research has been brought to an ignominious end by stupid remarks magnified and amplified by the social media megaphone.

No apology would suffice. No second chance was given.

Then, into the breach steps Richard Dawkins with a letter to The Times:

“Along with many others, I didn’t like Sir Tim Hunt’s joke, but ‘disproportionate’ would be a huge underestimate of the baying witch-hunt that it unleashed among our academic thought police: nothing less than a feeding frenzy of mob-rule self-righteousness. A writer in The Guardian even described it as ‘a moment to savor.’ To ‘savor’ a moment of human misery — to ‘savor’ the hounding of one of our most distinguished scientists — goes beyond schadenfreude and spills over into cruelty.”

Subsequently many women scientists have spoken up in support of Sir Timothy, praising him for his personal support and encouragement of them.

I’m with Dawkins on this one. Yes, what Hunt said was extremely foolish in our current hyper-sensitive culture. Surely an apology and perhaps even a brief suspension would have sufficed.

But Sir Timothy is only one of many who have suffered at the hands of our “no-second-chances” culture. It’s truly frightening the way talented and successful people are being written off and consigned to the garbage heap of history for one mistake, one bad decision, one bad remark, one loss of temper, one bad joke.

I don’t know what would have happened to me if I’d been judged like this, because I often feel as if my whole life has been built upon second chances, third chances, and even more chances. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve disappointed over the years through foolish statements and actions, and yet I’ve received grace upon grace.

But I fear that this is changing even within the Christian community. Increasingly I’ve seen ministers (and other Christians too) written off after years and years of faithfulness, for one slip of the tongue, one bad decision, one failure to visit, one poor sermon, one memory failure, one disagreement.

Surely if there’s anywhere we should give second chances, it’s the church? Surely Christians can be more gracious than Richard Dawkins?

UPDATE: Here’s a feminist scientist’s take on it:

I am a feminist – I don’t need the T-shirt, thanks, I’ve got the PhD – but I do not want to be part of an intolerant feminist movement that seeks to punish, silence and repress its declared enemies, grinding them underfoot. I don’t want to shame people for their mistakes and delight in their misfortune. And I despair at the cowardice of the institutions who, mindful of their public image, and desperate to be seen as upholders of the “liberal” moral consensus, are so willing to comply with this vicious, censorious agenda. Offence won’t kill you. It’s time to call off the hunt.

Check out

June 22, 2015 David Murray 0 comments

Blogs

Weep and pray with me: Tullian Tchividjian Steps Down From Florida Megachurch After Admitting An Affair.

If you like your theology in narrative form, here’s a few stories with big theological takeaways. Learn about reconciliation in Reconciled After Five Years, learn about grace in When the Wages of Sin Is a Grandbaby, and learn about God’s sovereignty in God Stepped In, Says Debbie Dills, Who Spotted Alleged S.C. Killer and also in this God-magnifying interview with Dills on Fox News.

Related to this story, here’s an answer to a question that many have been asking, Do Psychotropic Drugs Cause Violence and Aggression? And Rick Philips has a deeply touching Reflections from an AME Prayer Vigil.

As many families wind down their happy father’s day celebrations, Calvin College professor digs back into painful memories to write about Fatherless Days. And ever heard of the The Proverbs 31 Man? Neither had I, but I want to be one now. Staying with the family, here’s the audio from the recent Reforming Families 2015 Conference held at the Creation Museum.

Lastly, asks Why Are So Many Christians Unhappy? Don’t know if this is connected but it could be: Michael Hyatt on 9 Reasons You Need More Fishing in Your Life.

Kindle Books

Killjoys by John Piper $2.99.

Andrew Fuller by Paul Brewster $2.99. Other books in this biographical series include John A. Broadus and Adoniram Judson.

Found: God’s Peace: Experience True Freedom from Anxiety in Every Circumstance by John Macarthur $3.82.

See also hundreds of Puritan & Reformed classics, most at a dollar or less, at DollarPuritan.com.

Video

A Life Almost Lost, A Story Re-written, And Lives Changed Forever

The Most Painful Interview I’ve Ever Watched

June 19, 2015 David Murray 4 comments

Poor Brian Williams. He just couldn’t say it: “I lied.”

After almost 10 painful minutes of agonizing squirming, the closest he came was: “I am sorry for what happened here.”

Notice, it’s not the active and personal, “I’m sorry for what I did.” It’s a passive construction that distances himself from involvement in the events. It’s a phrase that Williams uses a few times in the interview: “What happened here…” not, “What I did here…”

At one point he did admit, “I said things that were not true,” and in a number of other places concedes, “I said things that were wrong.” But that’s not the same as saying, “I lied.”

There are some moments in the interview where Williams says that he takes ownership, accepts responsibility, etc., but despite Matt Laurer’s admirable pushing and prompting him on the “lie” issue, Williams refused to admit that he was trying to mislead people.

Lauer pressed again, “Did you know it was not true?”

Williams: “I told the story for years before I told it incorrectly. I was not trying to mislead people. That was a huge difference here.”

Lauer once more: “You said you were not trying to mislead people…Did you know when you went on the nightly news, that you were telling a story that was not true?”

Williams: “No. It came from a bad place. It came from a sloppy choice of words. I told stories that were not true…I never intended to. It got mixed up. It got turned around in my mind….”

Lauer: “Did you give thought to going on air and saying, ‘I lied.’”

Williams: “I know why people would see it that way. It’s not what happened. What happened is the fault of a whole host of other sins.”

Later on Williams says: “I said things that were wrong. I told stories that were wrong. It wasn’t from a place that I was trying to use my job and my title to mislead.”

So we have things that happened, unintentional errors, mix-ups, mistakes, wrongs, mis-speaking and sloppy choices of words; but no, “I lied.”

I’m not without compassion for Williams; in fact, I feel desperately sorry for him. If any of us had been filmed so much in so many settings, few of us could stand such scrutiny. To one degree or another, we are all embellishers, exaggerators, and enhancers. If our “black boxes” were opened and replayed, it would not be pretty.

But, as even Lauer said, if only he would say, “I’m sorry, I lied,” people would be much more likely to forgive him. Instead, his ego continues to damage and destroy him by his refusing to name the sin properly and to take full personal and present ownership of it.

“He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).

In fact, he’d be on the path to enjoying even more than mere human forgiveness.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8).

Then Brian would have the greatest story of all to tell, a story that needs no embellishment.