New Tripp Book

Ted Tripp has a new book coming out, a followup to Shepherding a Child's Heart. It's called Instructing a Child's Heart. Here is a video preview of the new book. It sounds like it goes beyond the foundation of heart oriented discipline and talks about the need for instruction of a Christian worldview. Looks good!

Mild Critique of McClaren's Book

CT has a mildly critical, but thoughtful review of Brian McClaren's book, Everything Must Change. While the reviewer gives McClaren the benefit of the doubt more than I would, he does bring some perceptive critique to McClaren's thinking, most importantly calling out the fact that McClaren is blatantly ahistorical. In other words, it's a nice way of saying that McClaren is naieve about the real problems we face and the real solutions to those problems, as well as the depth of Christian thought and discussion that has occurred on these issues for 2000 years.

Maybe the emergent church isn't all that new and revolutionary after all.

Happiness Dependent on Worth

I was reading this article from MSNBC today. It's about a study they did hooking people up and watching their brain wave / emotional response to sips from five glasses of wine, ranging in price from $5 to $90. Irregardless of the actual taste (and value) of the wine (it could have been $2 a bottle), participants showed the highest pleasure with the bottles they were told were worth $90. From this the researchers determined that our joy and happiness are dependent on what we perceive to be valuable. Negatively, they also note that this can affect our self-worth, since our happiness is then tied to the value of the objects we purchase.

I started thinking about all of this, not in terms of material objects, but in terms of the basic connection between happiness and worth. And I'm not surprised by the study! In fact, it's a great illustration of the reality of sin.

You see, sin deceives us when it comes to issues of value and worth. Sin acts in a way similar to the researchers in this study. It gives us a $2 bottle of wine and tells us that it's worth $90 so that we experience a temporary joy. We find momentary happiness in the $2 bottle, not realizing that we've missed out on on something of real value.

If happiness is dependent on our appreciation of the worth and value of something, then our greatest need in life is to know and recognize what is of supreme worth and value. The greatest treasure of all is God, and we come to know this wonderful, beautiful, glorious God through Jesus. If Jesus is the object (person) of greatest value and worth, then knowing him brings us maximum joy!

That's why sin is so deceptive. In my sin, I am blinded by a warped sense of value. Instead of maximizing my happiness with the person of greatest value, I exchange him for what I perceive to be most valuable--idols of materialism, selfish desires for comfort and praise.

The study illustrates a great biblical truth. Happiness is dependent on the value and worth of an object. Human beings are worshipers, and we will worship whatever we treasure. But it also shows us that our sense of what is valuable is prone to deception. And that's why we need a sure and reliable sense of value--a restoration of what has been lost through sin.

Early January Roundup

Since I've been absent from blogging for awhile, here is a roundup of some notable articles, etc.:


1. Devin Brown, an English prof at Asbury College, gives his wish list for the new Prince Caspian movie. I think he has some great points about the storyline and Aslan, and how the movie needs to retain certain elements to really capture the message of the books.


2. CT has another article about a faculty member at Iowa State denied tenure for his research on intelligent design. It's amazing to me how many people think intelligent design is creationism. ID is a valid scientific approach to understanding our origins, based upon the observation that certain processes are irreducibly complex. In other words, you can't demonstrate that they can exist by the process of time and random mutation. It doesn't matter how much time you allow, some things are so complex they have to be designed all at once, not by gradual additions. As far as I know, no one has been able to demonstrate (through experimentation or the fossil record) that random mutations and time can lead to the development of a new species.


3. If you have any interest in the emergent church stuff, the guys at Pyromaniacs have a really interesting video posted about Solomon's Porch, Doug Pagitt's group. The folks at Stand to Reason did a critique of Brian McClaren's fall article in Leadership. Well done. There is also a new book coming out by a friend who went to Hope about the Emergent movement (a critique). You can check out the website or look at a preview by Justin Taylor.


4. The gender blog at CBMW has a great commentary on the dangers of a "gender-neutral" society. Apparently the homeless shelters of NYC are going gender-neutral and it raises some problems for ensuring the safety of women and children. Any guy who claims to be a woman can sleep in the same room and use the same bathroom facilities as the homeless women and kids staying there. You don't even need a Bible to know that something is wrong with that! While we're on the subject, CBMW had another great little article a few days ago on a new strategy for normalizing homosexual marriage through divorce. It's worth reading.


5. Here are a few reading lists for you from various blogs. The staff at Desiring God gives us their picks for the year. And rather than re-list all the great lists of books for 2007, I'll give an HT to Jason Button at Theosource for his wonderful compilation of booklists for the year. And another HT to Justin Taylor for pointing out this list of great biographies.


6. For any pastors out there, Justin Buzzard made his premartial counseling questionaire available recently, and it is excellent (very thorough).


7. Here are some more books that I think I want. But I probably need to let these desires stew a bit. I have quite a few books to read right now.

A review of the Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion.

A preview of Tom Schreiner's New Testament Theology.


8. Tim Challies does a great post on the differences between the way men and women think about gifts. All I can say is that this really hits home. My wife, for some odd reason, LOVES those smelly soaps and lotions. To be fair, she does actually use them, but we do have quite a few sitting in the closet right now. I found Challies thoughts quite humorous :).

9. An EXCELLENT article by Mark Dever on what evangelism ISN'T. This is a great reminder to all of us that nothing can replace the proclamation of the gospel as the fundamental definition of "evangelism."

10. An finally, a little dose of theology from Sam Storms. The question: "Could Jesus have sinned?" Storms does a great job answering that question.

Sorry for the huge list, but it's been almost a month!

Young Life and the Gospel

Christianity Today has an interesting online article about Young Life and some recent firings over the way sin is presented in the gospel. I hadn't heard about this before, and I don't know all the details, but I'm encouraged to see Young Life emphasizing the need for more talk about sin before presenting the gospel...