Tag Religion and Spirituality

Pop Goes the Gospel Blog Carnival Sept Edition

Allen Frederick 2 Comments

Welcome to the September 30, 2008 edition of pop goes the gospel.

I want to thank everyone who submitted an article for this month’s “Pop Goes the Gospel” blog carnival. I enjoy reading each of the submissions and gleaning some new insight to share with others. I attempt to keep the carnival short and to the point and only include the best of the best submissions. Articles that provoke us to think and respond. If any of the articles enlightens you, encourages you or offers up something of value, be sure to comment on the blog post so the writer can be blessed as well with the knowledge of knowing that someone else received value from the post.

Now enjoy this month’s “Pop Goes the Gospel”

In Culture

Michael Snyder presents 15 Things That Are Wrong With America posted at The Moral Collapse Of America,This post is sure to prompt many to comment. Please feel free to add your thoughts to those expressed by Michael in this post. Michael points out the ineffectiveness of the church but I wish to add that God still has the ability to take the worst case scenario and change it for the better. If His people would only take the time to pray.

Chris presents Tip #1 for Getting Promoted – Know your Flocks – Part 1 posted at ProsperingServant.com, saying, “Tips for Christians in today’s workforce” is a good article incorporating biblical principles in the workforce.

Church Life

Astrid Lee presents Pope’s Mass in Paris Brings Focus on Practical Spiritually posted at World Healing,Astrid shares Pope’s message of materialism with the rest of us. Perhaps it is something we all need to think about?

Yvette Nietzen presents Be Doers of the Word posted at Fresh Wind Ministries, Int´l.Yvette a frequent poster here at Pop Goes the Gospel shares a short word on walking the walk and not just talking the talk.

Education

Allen in Fort Worth presents Teaching truth as fact posted at The Whited SepulchreAllen presents a well written blog post on finding truth behind the story. Or seeking buried treasure. Truth seeking, Allen reasons, is far superior than fact finding.

Family

ChristianPF presents Why you should get out of debt posted at Money in the Bible | Christian Personal Finance Blog, saying, “We need to get out of debt for others, just as much as ourselves…” so states ChrisitanPF in his latest post concerning money and the bible.

ChristianPF presents Are you a good steward? posted at Money in the Bible | Christian Personal Finance Blog.

Politics

Allen Scott presents Selecting a Leader posted at A View from the Nest, saying, “As host of this Blog Carnival I have the opportunity to review and read many article submissions and no other category received as much attention as this one. The right to vote is a cherished freedom we enjoy in this country but it is also a responsibility to choose wisely when selecting leaders.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
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August Edition of Pop Goes the Gospel is now live

Allen Frederick

The current edition of Pop Goes the Gospel is now live. Stop on over to Pop Goes the Gospel Blog Carnival. If you missed being included in this edition be sure to get your articles in early for the next one. Now hurry on over while the midway is still open. Happy blogging.

Former Pastor turned Evangelist Preaching Darwanianity

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

For the past six years, pastor-turned-evangelist Rev. Michael Dowd has been going from pulpit to pulpit preaching the gospel—no, not the good news of our salvation through Jesus Christ, but of our liberation and empowerment through Charles Darwin.

“[Darwin gives us] a far more empirical way of talking about human nature than through stories like the original sin.”

There you have it–the science is in! It is not from the heart that evil thoughts, murder, adultery, and sexual immorality come; it’s from a physical law working on our chemistry. Feeling better now?

Dowd calls his theological perspective “creatheistic.”

Dowd represents this, pictorially, with a logo on the van he and his wife use in their “outreach.” It shows two fish kissing: one labeled “Jesus” and the other, “Darwin.”

I think I prefer the way the Apostle Paul states it better. In a way Paul lends a helping hand to all the Dowdists out there who are overcome by their inherited sinful nature but then Paul goes on to give the remedy which is through Jesus Christ.

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sin2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.Eph 2:1-10 (ESV)

God’s Big Back Yard

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

Then Jesus said to them, “So wherever you go in the world, tell everyone the Good News. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:15-16 (GW)

vbs logo1188 North Valley Road was where my early childhood backyard was located. We were the first family to move into this development and my family owned the corner lot and the one behind it.

Having both building lots meant lots of BIG BACK YARD space for baseball, football, a swimming pool, picnics, golf, and wintertime sledding. Our yard could accommodate all the neighbors from the entire neighborhood and still leave room for people to play in the adjacent lot. We had a Big BACK YARD!

After getting my first bicycle my big back yard got even bigger because now I could ride throughout the neighborhood and play in other people’s back yards. As I got older and was able to drive, towns and cities were in reach from my back yard. With today’s modern transportation on any given day we can travel from our back yards to other states and cities and even other countries. Planes, trains and automobiles have taken the place of that Schwinn bicycle of my childhood.

With the advent of the internet the whole world is now accessible from my kitchen table. I can speak to anyone anywhere in the world in nano seconds. Truly our back yards have gotten really, really big.

Artist's conception of GPS satellite in orbit

GPS Satellite

From a control room in Houston Texas NASA can play in the big back yard of space. They have launched space crafts into outer space and even landed a remote controlled land rover on Mars. Voyagers 1 and 2 are speeding towards the ends of our galaxy in rapid pace.

Satellites orbit the earth and send back images and sound waves which we can receive via satellite receivers on earth. These satellites can tell us pinpoint accuracy where we are in the world by GPS positioning. Radio and television programs can even be broadcast world wide.

ps241As technologies have changed throughout the course of my lifetime some things have still remained the same. One of those constants is the commission from God to the church to go into His big back yard and proclaim the gospel to everyone. We can no longer just look at our physical address as our back yard.

With the availability of web casting, chat rooms, instant messaging, and email the whole world is in reach of any individual or church congregation. Radio, television and now GodTube have all become instruments from which we can spread the gospel into God’s big back yard.

I do not own physical real estate but I do stake several claims in cyberspace. Our church has an address on the World wide web as well. The Christian witness can be accessible 24 hours a day thanks to the modern day internet. As a church and as a congregation we should be reaching out in every way possible into God’s big back yard in an effort to spread the gospel of the kingdom to all peoples.

To think it all started with 1 man (Jesus) who told 12 others about the kingdom of God and now we have been entrusted with that same message to proclaim from our own back yards into God’s big back yard. We all have a circle of influence, all of our lives intersect other’s lives, and as a result we are required to look out for our neighbors by sharing the same joy of salvation with them which we have received. Are you being a good neighbor? Are we as a congregation doing everything we can to reach as many people as possible with the gospel of Jesus Christ? How big is our BIG BACK YARD really?

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)

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The Devil Made Me Do It

Allen Frederick Leave a comment

The devil’s plan for your life:
Bound up
Doubt – To make you question God‘s word and His goodness;
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Genesis 3:1 (ESV)

Discouragement – To make you look at your problems rather than at God;
Jesus did not eat anything for 40 days and 40 nights. At the end of that time, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”Matt 4:2-3 (GW)

Diversion – To make the wrong things seems attractive so that you will want them more than the right things;
Once more the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms in the world and their glory. 9 The devil said to him, “I will give you all this if you will bow down and worship me.” Matt 4:8-9 (GW)

Defeat – To make you feel like a failure so that you don’t even try;
So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes. Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” Job 2:7-9 (ESV)

Delay – To make you put off doing something so that it never gets done.
Be careful, brothers and sisters, that none of you ever develop a wicked, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Encourage each other every day while you have the opportunity. If you do this, none of you will be deceived by sin and become stubborn. Hebrews 3:12-13 (GW)
The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I (Jesus) came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly. John 10:10 (ASV)
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