Terry Pruitt's Blog

Ever notice that a lot of what we read in the Christian media is really about Christian subculture. We do need to know about the rift in the Episcopal church and how churches are using technology. On the other hand, these sorts of topics have replaced real thinking on how we apply the principles taught in the Scripture with dialog about religious trends. Have you noticed that some in the church are really talking about using software marketing style communication. While we should not be against things based on the style, it is often more about style and less about substance. We can be assured there are many blessed exceptions to this rule, but we should be wary of those who seek to tickle our ears for either to benefit their ego or their pocket book. Of course, anything truth discussed with actual substance should transcend style. Use any style of communication that does not alter the message or distract from the message. Where are all our blogs discussing the application of Ro...

Most of us has been jealous at one time or another. If you are reading this blog, that means you have been here on this sod long enough to experience it. A new insight for me from Romans 10:19, " But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, 'I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry'.” (ESV) While jealousy is not a positive attitude, in fact it can be one of the most negative ones, God says he is using it to shape those who are his people. While the Christian must be careful not to sanctify his sin, here is an intriguing concept, God can use my most negative attitudes to draw me to godliness. I can see the godliness and success of others, let that make me jealous, and then I pursue God according to his program of grace and faith and leave my own system of merit on the floor.

Linking to an article on Collide Magazine's website. The discussion is whether the Contemporary Christian Music industry will be viable in the future. It is a good discussion. I always wonder why our best musicians are not focusing on being worship leaders instead of performers. Well, maybe they are. There are a lot of different model of how to have a career in music. A minister of music is different than a worship leader in my book. The worship leader focuses on leading a band that leads the congregation in worship. The music minister coordinates music groups that perform at the church during worship. How do you do church music right? Is a successful music program at a church mean that everyone listens to the most popular music on Christian radio and then imitate those performers in various degrees of proficiency? I'm quoting enough of Collide's article to get you started and a link to finish it out. PREDICTIONS Before we go much further, let’s establish what Ch...

My internship with the presbytery was completed last Saturday. The feeling is happiness. I don't see it as an achievement so much as I got through it. I'm free of the nagging thought that I need to get more done. I have learned about my own limitations, and some strengths that I did not know I had. Coming face to face with these has not been pleasant since my weaknesses loom larger than my strengths in my thoughts and feelings. Some of the information that I needed to hear, I think I was not ready to hear so it took time. That is why God waited to let me know. Perhaps he was telling me all a long but I just was not hearing it. "But we know that God works all things for good to those who love God, to those called according to his purpose."

The problem of evil is not one that is easily solved by the Christian apologist. The blog post is intended to spur on further thinking but does not pretend to solve the problem. Posing the "problem of evil" is not mortal wound to Christian faith, but is a common element that contributes to individual Christians to lose their faith. Rather than hide our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich, Christians should deal with the issue forthright. In some sense the question is really not about simply the "question of evil" but how does one define evil and describe suffering as it corresponds with our world. What is Evil and What is the Nature of Suffering? It is somewhat amusing that Christians from the suburbs who live a relatively safe and prosperous life are the same ones who are bothered the most by the "question of evil". There is an expectation that God of the Bible is also the one who should promise the good life. Christians from these suburb...

Some translations interpret the Greek work σαρκος as being the sin nature. However, my Greek professor Dr. Eager says this is the word just meaning "human effort". It really changes what is meant in Romans 8:1-8. Here is the ESV rightly just translates it as flesh, but simply think flesh as human effort. Life in the Spirit 1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6...

Yesterday we talked about people sowing in an organizational church hoping for heavenly rewards. A common experience in life is expectations to be unmet. Because one expects something does not mean it is right, realistic or even agreed upon but all parties. A lot of relationships have unspoken expectations and it can be a source of conflict. Jacob had his wages changed. He worked for seven years expecting to marry the love of his life only to be given her sister in marriage. He also had his wages changed several times after that. Many people who are disillusioned with the organizational church are so because of expectations not being met. Their wages are changed. They expected peace, joy, hope, respect, love, or meaning. What they received was membership, responsibility, obligations, trials, and pain. Of course many experience both because of the earthly and heavenly natures of the church. Disillusionment need not be the end story.

Steve Brown mentioned on his podcast that his Christian parachurch organization will die some day but the church is eternal. He said that Intervarsity, Campus Crusade for Christ, and many fine Christian colleges will die, but the church will live eternally. I agree with him. The church will be around for eternity, but I don't think this inflatable church building will be eternal. Neither will the national cathedral. (By the way, the Darth Gargoyle is from the National Cathedral. ) Most of you will say yes the people are the church and not the building. I would have you consider, that yes the people are the church, but not the denomination. Not the denomination, but neither is the local church government as a human institution. The church is a spiritual corporate body. People who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God all share a common experience of getting what we do NOT deserve, we all share in being a part of the family of God, we all share the indwelling Holy Sp...

Reading is both a pleasure and a time consuming chore for me these days. I have much to read for seminary but that leaves less time to read what I want. I guess the next big book I am hearing about is The Shack . I read both good and bad reviews on it. On the warning away from the book there is this one in By Faith Online . Then Suburban Christian who is a Ph.D. student work veteran of the Christian publishing industry gives a positive review. Neither one feels the author is completely orthodox but the author may be dealing with other issue. I would love to hear other people's opinions.

I remember when I was about 10 year old asking a Sunday School teacher if "Thou Shalt Not Kill" meant animals. She said she did not know. I also remember very clearly someone telling me about the veil between the main section of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Holy of Holies. The teacher said that people tried to break that veil using oxen and other animals so they could know God. The seperation between the God and man was broken when Jesus died on the cross; there was an earth quake that broke that curtain giving mankind access to God I also remember a Vacation Bible School lesson how each one of us is unique and we are not a number. I did not get it. I was being raised in a rural farm community and computers were a novelty, not a force for making the world impersonal to me. Here are three clear communications from a good church with good teachers that simply missed the mark in Bible interpretation, missed the mark on the facts of the Bible and missed the mark on app...

Another in my series on reviewing churches. The Reformed Church of Canberra is a gem. Perhaps in some ways one of the most friendly churches I have ever visited. I ask for the bus number that runs close to their church, they volunteer to have someone pick me up. I come as a visitor, they treat me like an honored guest. I come as a stranger not knowing anyone, I am celebrated as a brother in Christ from a far away land. After church meals are a big part of church life at the Reformed Church of Canberra, at least that is what it seemed to me. I was invited to the home of a warm couple in the church who also invited a family seven to their table. The conversation was lively and diverse. I can't say enough about the hospitality of the church, on a scale of 1 t0 10 with 10 being the best, they are a 10 on hospitality. Pastor Peter led the worship service and preached in a compelling fashion. There was not a disconnect between the music and preaching, instead this was a worship...

Anger: Handling a Powerful Emotion in a Healthy Way by Gary Chapman is a must read for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike, even though it comes at the issue from a Christian perspective. If you have ever hear some of the anger management type psychology stuff going on out there (or seen the movie Anger Management ) you may not see the value in examining the topic. Chapman however does do a good job of talking about real situations, and is realistic about solutions. (He does not expect that rephrasing the problem in trendy psychological terms to abolish ones anger issues.) Probably the most two surprising things he says in the book is that anger by itself is not sin and that if someone does not apologize, one need not forgive the offender. Both he backs up as a Christian point of view. There is more to it than that, but I will allow your curiosity bother you a bit so you read the whole book. It is worth the read. The strength in the book is in the pragmatic explanation...

I have been in seminary for over 12 years off and on. I have thought that going to seminary should be done with real ministry going on so that the education is connected to the real world. However, taking one class at a time most semesters has meant progress toward my degree has been at a snails pace. My boss at my day job mentioned last week his plans for my departure after I graduate from seminary. It sort of got me thinking, I certainly am not making the progress that I had envisioned. I am over half way to my degree but at the rate of one class per semester, I still five years from finishing. I have prayed about it and I am cutting back on ministry and diving into more studies. Okay, I still can not take but perhaps two to three classes per semester, but that will speed things up to twice the rate as before. That will move me from snail's pace to turtle's pace. I was praying about this and a brother at the church called to encourage me. I have had that happen very...

adrianwarnock.com: DWELL - Should YOU be a Church Plant Leader? (20 Questions) This is an excellent self-assessment list. Thanks Adrian and Scott Thomas.

I am reading Nehemiah right now. A big theme is God's sovereign protection. Some of the ways this theme is portrayed in the book: o - When Nehemiah is sad before the king, instead of getting punished he is rewarded. I heard in a Bible study years ago that being sad before the king at that time could be a capital crime. o - When Nehemiah is traveling with much wealth, he and his party are protected without the king's guard. o - When enemies came against Nehemiah to stop the work of rebuilding the wall, God gave the success to continue. o - When the wall was complete the various people groups around them recognized the hand of God in helping the people of Jerusalem in rebuilding the wall. I would say the American Evangelical church does not preach these themes. I have a couple of reasons why I think that is. One would be that we don't have much threat against us. Another would be that God's divine protection implies much more connection with a world that is not na...

Lee Irons at The Upper Register Blog has some interesting comments on those who claim to be Reformed but not Evangelical. (2) The current disdain for “evangelicalism” in Reformed circles is also wrong because it places the accent on the distinctives of Reformed theology and practice instead of on what we have in common with evangelicalism. But what we have in common with evangelicals (being Christ-centered, cross-centered, and gospel-centered) is far, far more important than our distinctives (our Calvinistic soteriology, our covenant theology, our view of the church and the means of grace, etc.). The distinctives of Reformed theology and practice are useful only to the degree that they undergird and clarify the gospel, the evangel. I'm not sure I get how Reformed distinctives are only useful in the way that he says. If they are true, they are true regardless if it helps to clarify the gospel or not. There are many truths that do not do that and are useful. Fortunately, the Refo...

I finished reading the two books of Chronicles in the Bible. A major theme in the books is that God wants his people to seek his guidance and protection. In the Evangelical circles that I run in, this is not something we embrace since it has a subjective element of truth to it. But reading the books of Chronicles has me convinced that we should be seeking guidance and protection. I don't think I hear anyone talking about God's sovereign protection anymore. I believe that to be because it requires interpreting events in terms of what God intends to communicate through them. Another theme in these two books is the need for faithfulness in worshiping the one true God. These are basic ideas that the New Testament is built on. If you pull these ideas out, the New Testament faith is not cohesive as a system of thought.

I just finished my course on Future Church and Missions Trends. I did my research project on the use of Moodle for pastor training in the majority world church (formerly called the third world church). As I approach the subject I'm conflicted. I really don't know how people in other countries have access to the Internet. I have read about it but I don't know if it is a practical thing to think that a significant number of pastors or missionaries could get regular access to the Internet. The following site shows where Moodle is currently being used, but this is without regard for wither the school has any religious affiliation or not. Some are, and some are not.

So I finally began to read last month's Mission Frontiers magazine. I did not want to since it was about people walking away from Christianity, walking away from faith. It is not an article or two, but this is the second issue on the subject, there are multiple articles about it. To say the least, I did not want to hear it. But as I read the articles, they were more engaging than discouraging. It was not that the authors were presenting solutions. An article by Ruth Tucker called " Great is Thy Faithfulness: Some Reflections on the Loss of Faith " was particularly good. I think some people who walk away from the faith are simply those with more courage to state what they believe than those who simply want to fit in though they have adopted a secular world view. What do I mean by a secular world view? My informal definition would be that there is nothing supernatural. No miracles. No angels. No devil. No life in eternity. Simply what you see in the here and...

Here is a link to the sermon I delivered today at Glen Burnie Evangelical Presbyterian Church. It is about how the story of David defeating Goliath is about how God works in our weaknesses.

The folks who do the NET Bible have updated their website. I have been doing a lot of reading on distance education for a term paper I have coming up. They have an interesting distance education program. Just add water and you have instant theological education program.

If you have not checked out 4-Block World , I think it may be worth your time. I now have dozens of blogs I read through Google Reader and I hit them four to six times per week. I always read Jollyblogger , D.J. Chang , Messy Christian 2.0 , and always, always read 4-Block World. Rather than spend a lot of time with words, he does a diagram on some current event topic. It is always insightful and usually funny. It is all about comparisons. I highly recommend it. What I especially liked about this one is that it ties into my 43-Things goal of making more small talk. If we want to talk to people, do we stay on the trivial or do we go for the meaningful. Do we go safe or make an impact. I personally like the impact but the communication always takes two. I want to learn and share. Even though that is my desire, the paradox remains.

On my trek through the Bible, I'm in the book of Job once again. Most evangelicals feel that the message of Job is simply that there are unseen issues happening in heaven so we can not understand suffering. However, we have a lot of chapters in Job (41) for that simple message. That's right, people who wrestle with the idea of suffering know nothing. The thinking is that all these orators and thinkers in the book of Job got it wrong and God has it right. Could we not have done as well by a poignant proverb in the book of Proverbs if that is the long and short of it? "Suffering is not understandable; quit trying to figure it out unless someone mistakenly think that you communicate with the transcendent one and understand the meaning of your life." III Evangel-Christian Chapter1, Verse 13 A part of our evangelical philosophy of life is mistaken by thinking that things like beauty, meaning, and righteousness are somehow less true than things that are provable via ...

Psalm 100 (ESV) His Steadfast Love Endures Forever A Psalm for giving thanks. 1Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth A 2Serve the LORD with gladness! B Come into his presence with singing! A 3Know that the LORD, he is God! A It is he who made us, B and we are his; {and not we ourselves} B we are his people, B and the sheep of his pasture. B 4Enter his gates with thanksgiving, A and his courts with praise! A Give thanks to him; B bless his name! B 5For the LORD is good; A his steadfast love endures forever, B and his faithfulness to all generations. B Pattern Analysis Hebrew poetry rhymes ideas rather than words. Sometimes scholars describe the patterns with letter. For instance, the ABB pattern means that there is the first line with an idea. The second line relates a new idea, but the third line is a repeat of the second idea, perhaps with a new perspective. Pattern analysis helps to understand the structure so that the reader can lift the meani...

The Jollyblogger points to a post by Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost called Divine Demarcation: Why Christians Should Discard 'Supernatural' . For some time I have thought that the definition of a miracle commonly used, that is "something done outside the confines of laws of science" is quite inadequate. God often uses means and controls and governs all things day in and day out. Then people place God's actions as supernatural and everything else is his grand wind up toy. That is not the picture we have in Scripture. God is guiding all things. Thanks Joe for your post.

A friend recently asked how do Christians know that Christ is sinless. Someone recently told this friend that Christ was fully God and fully man, so therefore Christ sinned since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Of course in this case, Jesus is the exception. Often times when we say “all” we exclude in a natural manner those not in the category, for instance no one naturally take it that this means all things in the universe sin. We don't take it that all rocks are sinful. This would be a category that would be excluded, even though a rock can be used for sinful purposes such as raw material for making an idol or it could be used as a murder weapon. In these cases, still we do not hold the rock as sinning but merely an object used for the purpose of sin. On the other end of the spectrum, we don't count the angels in heaven nor God himself as sinful. So the all excludes many things. The problem comes in since we would naturally count t...

The CBS Numb3rs episode which aired last Friday night, called “ Atomic No. 33”*, made me start thinking about the use of the word “cult”. They used the word in Numb3rs to say that the FBI has a list of cults that they watch for violations of the law. I'm wondering if the FBI really does have such a list. If they do, should it really be called a cult list? It really does not matter if the organization claims if it is religious or not. It also does not matter if an organization is deemed by others to be religious or not. What does matter is if the group is breaking the law. However, if a law enforcement group such as the FBI does maintain a list of cults, then what is the criteria? I would suspect the criteria would be abnormal control of the members, abuse of members and/or illegal practices. What do I mean by abnormal control? I mean draconian methods of control such as pressuring members to giving up of all possession, requiring fasting and causing sleep deprivation....

Link to Evangelical Articles, well worth the reading. 10 Ways Darwinists Help Intelligent Design (Part 1) 10 Ways Darwinists Help Intelligent Design (Part 2)

You might check out this article by Monty Galloway called a Tale of Two Pens about the value of being a bi-vocational pastor.

Jungle Pop has a post about the strange passage Galatians 5:12 . His solution to this problematic passage is to have Paul wish that the men cut themselves off from fellowship of the church rather than emasculate themselves. While this is a common solution to the problem, here is a repost of the comments I left on his blog. ---------------------------------- When I took Exegesis in seminary the teacher talked about this passage. Some factors we should remember that are different from our culture to the one in which Paul was speaking. 1. There were those who were eunuchs in the ancient cultures. As such, there was those who performed castration on themselves. There were those who were made eunuchs as babies. While this seems a remote and almost mythical practice to us, thinking of the harem guards of story books, it would not have been absurd in Paul’s day to have met a eunuch. I don’t believe I have ever met a eunuch, so that puts this category of thinking outside my normal system ...

Insomniac's Blessing I am sort of an odd ball when it comes to human relationships. My wife is very forgiving of my oddities, and for that I am exceptionally thankful. However, not everyone is as forgiving as my blessed wife and children. So I have to really watch myself at work and church to not disenfranchise people with my matter of fact assessments and challenges to their way of thinking. Thinking through how to continue to communicate on a deeper level and not disenfranchise people has been something that I have been rethinking quite a bit. It kept me up a lot of Friday night. Two things set me off on this anxious, sleepless thought. The first was I was asked to help to reform some of the organizational aspects of a ministry. The thing that struck me what that I could get into a lot of conflict over this. I feel quite a bit of rejection from people in general, so further disenfranchising people sounds painful. I am trying to build bridges that I have torn down in the...

A Muslim writer, Al-Muhajabah, has an article The Veil in Christianity , I would assume it to be directed toward his fellow Muslims as a defense of Muslim practices and possibly as a way of showing of Christian practices do not line up with our own Scriptures. I may be wrong in assuming this because there is also indications of a desire for multi-faith dialog. It was also reprinted in the Pakistan News website Pakistan Daily . The Pakistan Daily edition is how I found it in my Google News daily news cruise. 1 Corinthians 10:3-10 is a highly problematic passage about head coverings for women during worship and the husband being the head of the wife. We Christians who regard the Bible as God's Word must deal with the passage by asking if the passage must be taken as a prescription for women and men in all cultures and all ages or is the passage dealing with a cultural situation that must be interpreted. Al-Muhajabah in interpreting 1 Corinthians 11:3-20 takes this as prescripti...

I was given the privilege to preach a couple of weeks ago. I preached on the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:1-23. While it is not really a sermon about time management, I used that type of thinking to help people evaluate whether their heart corresponded to one of the soil types. So the title of the sermon is " Are You Wasting You Time in the Word of God? " Sermon Cloud is a great resource. It has a lot of other sermons on it besides mine.

There seems to be a repentance from ever saying anything positive about Francis Schaeffer in the Article, Not Your Father's L'Abri . The article covers the changes in thinking at the L'Abri ministry and the drift of questions from those original visitors asked. Interesting, but why must American's view historical figures, recent or distant past, from the point of view that debunking them is the best way to understand them. We can debunk all history makers by talking about lack of depth in thinking in some area, leadership style, lack of vision, and legacy problems. These criticisms are true of all leaders except the Divine One. Schaeffer planted, someone else water, but God is giving the increase. Why not see Schaeffer's legacy as being a part of a tapestry, complex and beautiful, that God is building in his kingdom? Interpreting Schaeffer's legacy is of course something that is very difficult to do. He had good and bad, strengths and weaknesses. Did Go...

I saw at Reasoned Audacity that Obama does not salute the flag. I think he may be referring to the fact that Obama did not place his hand over the heart at a playing of the National Anthem. A CNN blogger, FIRSTREAD has this. " Obama told the questioner the picture was actually taken during a playing of the national anthem and said, "During the Pledge of Allegiance you put your hand over your heart, during the National Anthem you sing." "This is the classic dirty trick of the campaign," Obama said later Wednesday at an event in Cedar Rapids."" United States Code Title 36 Chapter 3 — National Anthem, Motto, Floral Emblem, and March §301. National anthem; Star-Spangled Banner The composition consisting of the words and music known as The Star-Spangled Banner is designated the national anthem of the United States of America. Conduct during playing — During rendition of the national anthem— when the flag is displayed — all present except those in un...

Matthew 13:1 : So Jesus picked a place of nature to teach. I think the shore might have made a nice place to gather with the sloping hill. Matthew 13:2 : Where did the crowds come from? Were they from the villages in the region or did they come from a distance? In the next chapter Matthew 14: the people are not close enough to their own homes to get food so they must not from the immediate vicinity, though of course there may have people from near and far. Matthew 13:3 : So the method of teaching in parables is established as both a method and a parable about teaching with parables. Recursive thinking, and for me recursive humor. The attention getting device of the word "Behold". The parable is about listening and the teacher wants to get the attention of his audience. Again recursive thinking. He introduces the character in the parable, the sower. His action is sowing. Who is the sower? Is it anyone who preaches or teaches the word of God or i...