Quote of the Day
"I love Christ, therefore I love missions. Healthy churches are churches that are gripped by the urgency of the task to take the gospel to those who have not heard. Clearly, this must start in our own neighborhoods and towns, but it cannot stop there, nor should it be called “missions.” That should be called “normal Christianity.” The local church has a responsibility to look to areas of the world that are unreached and pray how they might be involved in the task." - Jeff Brewer

Learning New Languages Opens Up Your Worldview

The Wall Street Journal: “New cognitive research suggests that language profoundly influences the way people see the world.” Here are some highlights:

• Russian speakers, who have more words for light and dark blues, are better able to visually discriminate shades of blue.
• In one study, Spanish and Japanese speakers couldn’t remember the agents of accidental events as adeptly as English speakers could. Why? In Spanish and Japanese, the agent of causality is dropped: “The vase broke itself,” rather than “John broke the vase.”

Enjoying Iowa

After 300 years of Persecution

I thought this was an interesting piece:
See how the hidden Catholic Christians have changed in Japan, and what they are today. It made me realize how just a little compromise to avoid persecution in our lives can destroy so much.

Back in Iowa!

My 3 Year-Old Theologian

I was driving in the car today when my 3 year-old son Noah says, "I want to listen to John Piper." I just smiled and relented. I think I've mentioned Piper just two times over the past few months while in the car.

Later today I was looking at a website where there was a picture of Jonathan Edwards. Noah asked, "Who's that?"
"Jonathan Edwards," I said.
Noah replied, "He has funny hair... I want to play with him."
Laughing I asked, "Why do you want to play with him?"
Noah answered, "He gave me funny books about polar bears once."
Okay...
Then he turned and said, "Where is John Piper?"
Funny.

Why Adopt?
More and more of my Christian friends have been adopting children these days. It is an exciting, as well as a profoundly challenging thing. Why? As John Piper explains here, adoption is at the very center of God's plan for the entire universe.

What is Freedom?

I thought this was a good quote - especially in light of Independence Day.

"We're only free when we have no choice."
- Caedmon's Call

To most, this statement seems paradoxical if not crazy.
Although we enjoy a measure of freedom in America and in Japan, we cannot experience complete freedom now, because we are so bound by our harmful desires to do wrong. This only leads to more and more bondage, not freedom. The more we "free ourselves" from morality, the more we find ourselves enslaved to corruption. That's why the only complete freedom is when God changes our hearts and mind to desire only the good and truly beautiful.

Christians have begun to experience some of this now, and thus we have the capacity for greater freedom and joy than others. However, true and complete freedom to do everything we really want, and at the same time have it fully satisfy us, will only come in heaven. In heaven we will be perfectly free because we will have no choice but to do the best and most fulfilling things from our own wills. I am so excited to experience that true and ultimate freedom that we were made for. In that thought... have a TRULY happy Independence Day week!

Mohler's Talk Now Online
After a two week wait, the video is finally out. Here is Mohler's talk, given at the Ligonier National Conference entitled, "Why Does the Universe Look So Old?. I congratulate Dr. Mohler on his boldness and conviction about this hugely important issue. Especially if you don't think this issue is so important, I encourage you to watch and give me your impressions afterwords.

Does the Bible say Dinosaurs Lived with People?
I was always curious when I read verses like Job 40:15-24 and Job 41 if dinosaurs ever lived with man.
Eric Lyons, M.Min. and Bert Thompson, Ph.D write:

Why is it so difficult for people to accept that dinosaurs and humans once lived together? No doubt one of the reasons is due to the fact that for many years, we have been inundated with information—on television, in books, in classrooms, in movies, in magazines, and on all sorts of paraphernalia—suggesting that dinosaurs and humans are separated by 60+ million years of geologic time. Thus, evolutionary scientists (and those who accept their timeline) have constructed a barrier that must be broken down in order to get people to consider the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans.

I encourage you to watch this (albeit dated) surprisingly good and informative video about the topic, and/or read the rest of the above article here.

The cartoon below may give you hint about where I stand on the issue now: