This blog used to be a place to find daily devotions. Those days seem to be long gone now, as an infrequent post is usually all I can muster on such a demanding schedule. Well…the schedule is not going away, so I have decided to try another, easier method. While I don’t know how long it will last either, I can at least give it a go and see where we end up.
I have written several hundred devotions over the past several years during the course of my regular studies. Some of them have been published on previous blogs, others have even appeared here in one format or another. Since most have not been read by current visitors, I thought it might be good to go back into the archives and re-publish a few.
This evening I will be posting the first in a previous 12-part series from James. As I read them now I realize my thought and writing patterns have changed a bit, but I think most are still profitable. If nothing else, they each contain a short passage of scripture and some thoughts that will hopefully point us to the Savior. Let me know what you think after we’ve walked down memory lane for a few days. I would appreciate it.
I am an admirer of Dr. Charles Phelps and have greatly appreciated his preaching for several years. Consequently, I have mentioned him a number of times here, sometimes featuring his sermons or messages from Maranatha Baptist Bible College chapels. Over the past week (or so) I started to notice an alarming amount of search traffic to our site as a result of queries for “Chuck Phelps leaving MBBC”, “Charles Phelps resignation” and “Chuck Phelps resigns”. (Those statements apparently reflect a combination of words that appear somewhere within this blog.) At that point I began to assume something was happening that had not yet been publicized. Today, the news broke.
One could not help but note this report comes at a moment of endless wrangling over Calvinism and the role it will play in the future of the fundamentalist movement. It is a debate in which Dr. Phelps has not participated (to my awareness), though his name had been mentioned more than once during initial skirmishes. That has given me cause for concern as I reach for my mouse, ready to visit all the popular flame-throwing blogs.
I fear some authors, curious to a fault, will begin digging or even speculating. Call me suspicious only after you see the other Dr. Phelps searches that have resulted in a visit here!
It is important that men of God are above reproach when it comes to reporting on incidents for which they are not involved. While sleazy newspaper reporters may have no problem dealing in realms of innuendo and suspicion, Christians (especially those in leadership), should have no part in it.
Today I am praying for Dr. Phelps, his family and the entire MBBC student body, faculty and staff. Though our family has no involvement with the school apart from a simple admiration and enjoyment of their sermon podcast, I somehow feel connected with them. I hope to meet Dr. Phelps one day and express my appreciation in person. If I know anything of his heart for ministry I can see him heading back to New England – a very needy mission field – to pastor, plant a church or any number of other things. Praise the Lord!
I truly hope I am the one doing all the speculating today, and expect I will look back on this post and laugh, realizing I had nothing to be concerned about. Wrestling over matters of doctrine and opinion, in the fundamentalism I know, stop well before degrading into personal attack. I pray this is the stripe of fundamentalism that will display itself all over the internet in coming days!
Regarding the debate I mentioned last night: as I suspected, it was futile to venture outside the “unwritten rules of all Calvinism-related debate”. They are as follows: if you agree with me, you are smart – if you agree with the other guy, you are not – and if you agree with neither of us, you are too ignorant to comment. See what I mean by visiting the original article, along with my comment, which is directly followed by a reply from the author.
I have been commenting this week on another one of those fundamentalist controversies on the web. (See Young and Restless, Bauder Weighs In and RINO, FINO Parallel.) I’m not sorry I did, because I generally stayed above the fray, focusing on a wider theme rather than the hotly-debated minutia (i.e. Calvinism). Those arguments are tedious, never-ending and generally only ego-driven. Besides, I don’t fit well into either camp, refusing to be held hostage within the confines of the debate – the ideas of two confused men.
You may not know this, but there are dozens of fairly prominent Pastors, missionaries and authors that argue these things out in blog comment threads and forums all over the internet. This is a dangerous pastime, I think, because words can never be taken back after one hits the “send” button. I don’t have the confidence to believe I can properly express myself or even be right enough of the time to do that! So…generally I read the articles and keep my thoughts to myself, no matter how much I agree or disagree.
You already know where I am going right? Yes, tonight I commented on an article with which I disagree. I think I did so in a Godly manner, as I asked the Lord to superintend in its writing. Still, there were very fine seminary professors, Pastors, missionaries and other Christian leaders commenting too, and I disagree with them all. That makes a nervous feeling well up in my stomach, I must admit.
One way or the other I’m expecting a response from the author sometime soon. Pray that he answers in an equally Godly manner. I’ll try to let you know what happens and provide links when I hear more.
All of these sites are worth a visit, though you may want to focus on one category more than (or to the exclusion of) the other. My online reading usually fits under two broad headings: Christianity and technology. By the way, I cannot endorse any of the moral or political viewpoints of the tech industry sites mentioned. While most would express little more than full-time geekery, one never knows what secular authors may say or advocate.
Christianity
- an oxgoad, eh? – A Canadian Pastor’s view of the current state of Fundamentalism.
- The Gospel in China – Timely and down-to-earth updates from a Baptist missionary in mainland China.
- Sacred Audio.com – A terrefic selection of conservative Christian music for 99 cent download.
Technology
- Scobleizer – Robert Scoble is one of the smartest and most tuned-in tech minds in the country.
- A List Apart – I have never found a more valuable series of articles for those of us in charge of creating/managing websites.
Keep up with what we are reading daily by clicking Latest above or following us on either Twitter or FriendFeed.
This site was long-overdue for a design upgrade, which we succeeded in bringing to it late Christmas evening. Those who follow us on Twitter will know that I am a big supporter of WordPress, and with the recent release of version 2.7 most older themes became, not obsolete, but definitely less useful. I had customized a theme called fSpring back when I was on WordPress 2.1-something and hadn’t done an upgrade since. These months of neglect opened a few security holes that I have been eager to fix.
Thanks to the folks at CodeScheme for the original layout, which I am continuing to modify. Next I will be working on some new photo functionality, reformatting of a few past articles and minor alignment changes. Other than that, the redesign is finished and the security issues are resolved. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
In an effort to share photos in a more timely and efficient manner with friends and family, we set up a Harper photo blog back in August. For a while we were publishing a new image every day; that is until we moved, experienced a phone company mix-up and were without an internet connection for almost a month. Now we are back in regular-posting mode, although with three small children and a busy church and work life we can’t promise anything.
In the same tradition as our daily devotions, the photos will come at as steady a pace as we can manage. Simply click the next or previous buttons at the bottom right to peruse the entire collection. Posts are also tagged rather clearly, so you can visit entries featuring specific subjects or members of the family. If you’d rather have each new photo sent via e-mail, just type your address in this form and click the confirm link that shows up in your inbox.
By the way, even when we are not posting new photos or blog articles on a regular basis, we are always active on FriendFeed. Click to Latest tab at the top right of this site to see what’s happening on an almost hour by hour basis.
A few weeks ago I registered for a Twitter account, mainly so Deborah could keep up with what I was doing throughout the day at the office. Twitter is a microblogging application that asks “what are you doing?”; to which you can reply with a maximum of 140 words. I began posting with a Firefox add-on called TwitterFox. It is a great little program that appears in the bottom right corner of my browser, allowing me to type a quick note while I work, which posts to my Twitter page immediately.
While I felt these notes might be of interest to those visiting this site, I have had difficulty finding a plugin for WordPress that does an adequate job of displaying them in my sidebar. In my pursuit to find just the right method, I came across an implementation on a tech site I often read called Scobleizer. Prominent blogger Robert Scoble shows all of his latest web activity via a service called FriendFeed. It captures and displays all his new entries in chronological order, whether they are from a blog RSS feed, a Twitter or other microblogging account, a Flickr photo stream, or a myriad of other social networking platforms.
Need a translation for any of this? Just visit our new FriendFeed and you should easily figure out what I am talking about. Here is a list of the various ways you can now stay connected with Missionary Broadcasting.com:
Hopefully I can get a more Scoble-like sidebar application running within the next few weeks. Right now I have put in a request with our web host to upgrade the software we need to make it happen.
I have been blogging for nearly three years and have never posted a blogroll. The truth is, I find very few blogs worth reading every day. Many post good articles regularly, but come from a philosophical (or doctrinal) perspective that is “less than the best”. Other fundamentalist blogs tend to ride one particular hobby-horse, or cultivate arguments that are tedious and unhelpful.
Recently, I have developed a short list of feeds that I browse every day, usually finding something fascinating enough to hold my interest.
Audio
Churches
Ministry
Missions
News
Pastors
Popular
There are interesting stories behind how I found most of the smaller sites, but I won’t take time to relate them here. Obviously I cannot (and do not) endorse every one of them completely, but feel they all have something sane and relevant to say on a regular basis. Visit and let me know what you think.
Updates | Chris | 
August 13, 2009 6:00 am | 
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