Modesty Today

Here is an article from the USA Today paper:

"Modest" Young Women's Clothing Back in Style

Modesty in young women's clothing is getting a boost from the dismal economy. When consumer spending was in overdrive, retailers could sell to the masses and ignore the more muted voices asking for a decent supply of sleeved shirts or prom dresses that show more fabric than skin. Now, however, it's the rare retailer who's willing to take the chance of turning off any possible customer. Whether it's more of a fiscal or moral shift, understated girls' clothing may indeed be making a comeback.

USA Today 3/8/09

My question is should modesty have ever gone out of style. Why do we as parents give in to such pressure from our children? If we learned about our style from the ultimate "style guide", I think modesty (humility) may be at its core.

Cubs to retire Number 31 of Jenkins and Maddux

Greg Maddux is my favorite pitcher of all time and the person whom I tried to and believe was successful at pitching like (not powerful, but smart...hitting the locations with lots of movement). He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame (hopefully as a Cubbie!). Way to go Mad Dog!'

The Chicago Cubs will retire the No. 31 worn by both Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux.

The two star right-handed pitchers will be honored at a ceremony May 3 before a game against Florida at Wrigley Field.

It will be the fifth number retired by the Cubs, joining No. 14 (Ernie Banks), No. 26 (Billy Williams), No. 10 (Ron Santo) and No. 23 (Ryne Sandberg).

Jenkins, elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991, and Maddux, who won 355 games before retiring in December, are the first pitchers in Cubs history to have their numbers retired.

Jenkins retired before the 1984 season. When Maddux broke in with the Cubs two years later, he was given No. 31.

"I remember walking down the stairs there at the clubhouse. I got called up in September from Des Moines and it was just right there in my locker," Maddux said of the No. 31. "Being 20 years old at the time the last thing I was going to do was complain about my number. I was just happy to be there."

A few weeks later Maddux learned he had been given the same number that Jenkins wore with the Cubs.

"I thought that was pretty cool. They gave me Fergie's number. I knew he was one of the best pitchers to ever play for the Cubs and for baseball period."

Turns out Maddux became one of the greatest, too.

"Both of us had I think brilliant careers," Jenkins said. "He won a Cy Young as a Cub and I did it, also. I think it was a productive number."

Maddux said he didn't give much thought to having his number retired during his first stint with Chicago from 1986-1992 but acknowledged he did during his second stretch.

"I thought it was pretty cool. I always liked seeing Ryno's number up there because I had played with him," Maddux said.

Jenkins went 167-132 with a 3.20 ERA in 401 appearances during two stints with the Cubs. He was a three-time NL All-Star (1967, 1971 and 1972) and won the 1971 NL. Cy Young Award after going 24-13. During his 19-year career that also included stops with the Phillies, Rangers and Red Sox, he had a 284-226 record with a 3.34 ERA. He pitched 267 complete games.

Maddux won 133 games for the Cubs and earned the first of four consecutive NL Cy Young Awards with the Cubs in 1992, when he went 20-11 with a 2.18 ERA. He then signed with Atlanta.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Chaplain at Florida Hospice Resigns Over 'God' Restriction

This article came from Fox News. I do not know what disturbs me more the hospice who refuses to let their chaplains talk about God or the other chaplains who have no problem with that.

A chaplain at a Florida hospice says she has resigned due to a ban on use of the words "God" or "Lord" in certain public settings.

The Rev. Mirta Signorelli said that Hospice by the Sea in Boca Raton told her and other chaplains on Feb. 23 to "cease and desist from using God in prayers," the Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

That ban on religious references, she said, rendered her incapable of doing her job.

"I can't do chaplain's work if I can't say 'God' — if I'm scripted," Signorelli told the Sentinel.

Hospice by the Sea CEO Paula Alderson said the restriction applies only to staff meetings. Ministers, priests and rabbis still are free to speak about God when counseling patients or families in private.

"I was sensitive to the fact that we don't impose religion on our staff, and that it is not appropriate in the context of a staff meeting to use certain phrases or 'God' or 'Holy Father,' because some of our staff don't believe at all," she told the Sentinel.

But Signorelli said the policy also forced her to watch her language when leading prayer in the hospice chapel, and when meeting patients in public settings like nursing homes or weekly patient conferences with doctors, nurses and social workers, the Sentinel reported.

"If you take God away from me, it's like taking a medical tool away from a nurse,” she told the paper.

None of the six other chaplains have objected to the new policy, she said.

Mark Driscoll on Marriage and Men

I haven't even listened to this video yet and I know it is going to be good. I have been very convicted of the fact that in order to lead and run a church an elder must be able to lead and run his own family.

SBC Farewell?

This is link to a story from a Southern Baptist which I agree with. Many within the rank and file of the SBC are challenging the superiority of Scripture versus tradition within SBC churches. Sola Deo Gloria in all church decisions. Sola Scriptura in all church decisions.


Avoiding Death by Nostalgia

Community is a Biblical Theme

I wrote this post the The Journey, Atlanta's blog. I am helping the pastors there and my friends to start "Life" groups at their church in the next 6 weeks.

"Community" is a theme that runs throughout scripture. God has always been calling out a people for Himself, beginning with Israel and continuing with the church. Even when the Jews were dispersed among enemy nations during times of captivity, they organized themselves into groups and ultimately formed synagogues (Jewish communities of worship and teaching) where they could serve one another and carry out their beliefs. It was natural, therefore, for Jesus to develop a community of followers and for Paul, Peter and other church planters to start "new communities" wherever they went as they proclaimed the gospel. These new communities began as small groups just as Jesus modeled with the 12 disciples (Mark 3:14; Luke 6:12-19).

Over fifty times in the New Testament the phrase "one another" is used to describe our relationship to other believers. We are instructed to love one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, accept one another, bear one another’s burdens, and build up one another. One of the ways we can obey these commands is in a Life Group! We really do need each other. God never meant for us to go it alone in the Christian life.

Life Groups were an integral part of the early church structure. They were small enough to allow individual members to minister to one another, use their spiritual gifts, and be discipled in the teachings of Christ. In addition, they were vibrant and life-giving communities where evangelism could take place as unchurched people watched a loving and compassionate community in action. Life Groups not only built up the church, but were vehicles for reaching a lost world for Christ.

In the coming weeks, we will be talking about Life Groups at the Journey. We will be experiencing a second “launch” with our Life Groups into our communities. These communities within communities will be one of the primary ways that we push against our culture and help our friends and family wrestle with their issues of faith. I encourage each of you to get as excited as I am about the mission that God is sending us on in the West Metro Atlanta area.

Cell Phones versus Bibles

I saw this from Haywood Floyd on my Facebook and thought it was an interesting thought provoker. However, what if you have your Bible on your cell phone?

Ever wondered what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phones?
What if we carried it around in our purse or pocket?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we turned back to get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we travelled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?
Where is your Bible?

Rev. Don A. Sanford R.I.P.

God bless the work of Don Sanford and his legacy in capturing the histories of Seventh Day Baptists.

Rev. Don A. Sanford, former pastor and long-time Historian for the Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society passed from this life late Friday after a brief illness. He was 83.

Rev. Sanford studied at Milton College, Alfred School of Theology and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, earning degrees from each. He served Seventh Day Baptist churches at Independence and Andover, NY (1950-1954), at New Auburn, WI (1954-1959), and at White Cloud, MI (1959-1967) along with serving as interim pastor in several Baptist, Methodist and Congregational churches throughout his life.

After leaving White Cloud, Rev. Sanford had a second career in education, working at public and private schools in Southern Wisconsin for nearly 20 years, including a time as A/V librarian at Milton College. After retiring from teaching in 1987, Rev. Sanford became Historian of the SDB Historical Society, a post he held until the end of 2004, when he was honored as Historian emeritus.

During his life, Rev. Sanford had a prolific writing ministry, including 15 years of editing The Helping Hand, a Bible study and devotional book published quarterly for SDB’s; a monthly column in the Sabbath Recorder called “Pearls from the Past”; and several books including: A Choosing People, Conscience Taken Captive, A Free People In Search of a Free Land, Greater Than Its Parts, and the Newport Seventh Day Baptist Trilogy. In addition to this substantial body of work, Rev. Sanford also contributed to several Baptist anthologies and presented research frequently in the larger Baptist history community.

After a long and fruitful life, Pastor Don has joined the “great cloud of witnesses” he spent so many years teaching us about. Services in honor of his life are planned for this coming week in his home church in Milton, WI.

John Piper says it all

I love this saying from the Desiring God blog of John Piper:

Here is a simple exhortation that I have been trying to implement in our family:

Seek to see and feel the gospel as bigger as years go by rather than smaller.

Our temptation is to think that the gospel is for beginners and then we go on to greater things. But the real challenge is to see the gospel as the greatest thing—and getting greater all the time.

The Gospel gets bigger when, in your heart,

* grace gets bigger;
* Christ gets greater;
* his death gets more wonderful;
* his resurrection gets more astonishing;
* the work of the Spirit gets mightier;
* the power of the gospel gets more pervasive;
* its global extent gets wider;
* your own sin gets uglier;
* the devil gets more evil;
* the gospel's roots in eternity go deeper;
* its connections with everything in the Bible and in the world get stronger;
* and the magnitude of its celebration in eternity gets louder.

So keep this in mind: Never let the gospel get smaller in your heart.

Pray that it won't. Read solid books on it. Sing about it. Tell someone about it who is ignorant or unsure about it.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

Obama Proposes Limits on Charitable Contribution Deductions

This article spells some of the beginnings of the end of capitalism here in the Americas. It is always a great idea when government starts deciding how much you can make and what you can spend your money on. We are becoming too eerily similar to our socialist neighbor in Canada or our South American socialist friends.

Church should not be like an Older Youth Group

Steve Timmis had this to say about youth ministry on the Resurgence blog:

One of the most frequently asked questions we get about household church is, “What about children and young people?” People seem to think that small church is incapable of dealing with this peculiar breed of non-adults. I have to admit to being rather unimpressed with the question, because it assumes that larger churches have got ministry to children and young people nailed.

The evidence suggests otherwise. When it comes to young people, churches are hemorrhaging faster than a hemophiliac in a tattoo parlour. One of the benefits of a model of church as extended family is that it sees children as integral, and keeps them that way throughout adolescence. There is no “bells, whistles, and bright lights” show to entertain them. There is just an ordinary, not very sexy, diverse gospel community of people loving one another and relating to one another. The kids are loved and the young people are discipled. They have people around them who care for them, take an interest in them, bear with them, face up to them, pick them up, and welcome them back when they’ve screwed up.

Of course, you can add to this anything you want in terms of peer groups and big gatherings, but if this isn’t the core of what you do with kids and young people, then don’t be surprised when they lose interest because no matter how sexy your meetings, you can’t begin to compete with the sizzle in the world outside.

I believe that we are starting to live in a world of churches that are trying to conform their churches into a larger youth group in order to draw in the generations that have been lost. This is not a winning strategy. Youth groups for too long have been "fun" but if they had been "real" (and in real I mean sharing and learning about the transforming power of the gospel) we would possibly have not experienced the hemorrhaging of a generation. May the Lord lead them back to churches that can reconcile them to His word and will!

Pastor Houses Child Killer Amidst Protests

I can't even begin to imagine the internal struggle that this fellow pastor is going through with his decision to house a convicted child killer with his family in a town that he is trying to minister to against their wishes. Please be praying for Pastor David Pinckney and Raymond Guay.

Here is the link to the NY Times story on this:

Outrage Greets Child Killer’s Arrival in New Hampshire Town

Here is Pastor David's side of the story from the Acts 29 blog:

Love Casts Out Fear?

David has been pastoring in Concord, New Hampshire for years, as his father did before him. He and River of Grace have a good reputation in the city and many supporters in the community, Christian and non-Christian. But understandably citizens are scared. One man bought a $4,000 security system. Another neighbor is filled with fear. Standing on the porch, David asked his neighbor and friend: “We are going to get through this, right?” To which is neighbor replied: “How can I abandon the man [Pastor Pinckney] who gave me the car that sits in my driveway?” The love that courses through David’s family is the love of Christ, a love that he reminded me—”casts out fear.”

The Gospel Changes Criminals

This is a complicated issue. Fear is understandable. Protection of families is commendable. But we have to face the fact that even with responsible protection, we can never insulate ourselves or our families from all danger. Unfortunately, criminals will come and go, thieves will break in and steal, and the world will continue to spin as though it is somehow off its axis. We need more than security systems. Beneath all our fear hides the longing for true and lasting security, security only found in the one who made us.

Before we too quickly look for stones to cast at Ray or David, we do well to consider our own crimes against neighbor and God. It was, after all, our God-belittling obsessions with self, success, power, money, sex, and acceptance that have sent our world wobbling. It is our criminal acts that led to the murder of Jesus. Before a holy God, we all stand convicted and are in desperate need of someone to pay our penalty, to change our hearts, and to reconcile us before the just Judge and Creator. The Gospel changes criminals, all of us. The love that David continues to point to is not cheap, naive love; it is robust, self-sacrificing, life-changing love. More than mere emotion, the love of God in Christ actually changes the hearts of men. Prison doesn’t change people; Jesus does.

Making Society Safer

What the media seems to be missing is the fact that the ministry of people like David, and the power of the gospel, actually make society safer not safe-less. The commitment to pastor x-cons into productive, society-contributing, redemptive citizens is precisely what we need. With a recidivism rate of over 66%, it is clear that cells and stripped freedoms aren’t actually making society safer.

What is remarkable that in the midst of so much fear, the Pinckney family has not become the target. Their constant love and service have earned them a good reputation in the eyes of their fellow citizens. Could that be said of you, of me? Do we know and love our neighbors well enough to have them stand with us, albeit fearfully, in the midst of trial and controversy? Oh for more men like David, that love with the love of Jesus, so much that society actually becomes safer.

A Pastor with a Good Reputation

In the midst of an decade of fear and pastoral scandal, it is refreshing to hear of a story that demonstrates a steady flow of love and faithfulness, of which Ray’s acceptance into the Pinckney household, and into the community of Christ, is a sign of hope. Apparently, Ray has a 17 year track record of transformation, to which his prison chaplain is glad to testify to. I trust David’s wisdom in this situation, but that is easier said from the confines of Austin, Texas than from the rural roads of Chicester. But more than that, I trust in the God who redeems x-cons, criminals of all kinds. Oh for more men, more pastors like David who carefully, lovingly, and faithfully lead other to a life-changing encounter with Christ, who contribute to the safety of society, and enrich thier cities and towns with a good reputation.