Faith Bible Blog

Well, for any who missed it, Sunday was a fantastic day of worship.  Least of These led our hearts to worship and then John MacArthur taught a great message on how Jesus Christ is THE Head of the Church from Ephesians 1:21-23, incorporating in pre-Reformation and Reformation history to emphasize how vital and central that truth is.

The service concluded with Rod Shackelford recounting the history of FBC and the elders & John praying for & commissioning Chris Mueller for ministry at Faith Bible Church.  Many people drove in from distant areas to participate in this special day.  It was truly a great day of worship!  Thank you to all who came!

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Last night, I read the best life story on Anna Nicole Smith that I’ve ever read.  Well…okay, it was the only one, but it was really well done.  It’s called "Go and Sin Some More: A Meditation on the Life and Death of Anna Nicole Smith" and is written by Timmy Brister (HT: Justin Taylor).

…She had everything this world could possibly offer: beauty, riches,
sex, fame, etc.  Coming from a small town in Texas a high school
drop-out, this looks like the American dream.  After all, what was it
that America could offer that she did not receive?

Yet over the past week, I heard testimony after testimony from her
friends, family, and associates about how lonely, depressed, and empty
Anna Nicole was her entire life.  One of her closest companions shared
that Anna Nicole felt no one loved her and that no man cared enough
to pursue her, so much that her last husband, her lawyer, came by
default since he was her closest friend.  This woman, having walked the
red carpet, lived in mansions, and posed before thousands of cameras
couldn’t look at herself in the face and accept who she was. 

I hearkened back to Scripture and more specifically to the life of
Jesus Christ to think about a couple of Anna Nicole’s in Jesus’ day.  I
recall a woman of Samaria who had many men in her life (John 4:1-42), a
woman of the city who was characteristically known as “a sinner” (Luke
7:36-50), and a woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11).  Like the
Samaritan woman, Anna Nicole had experienced man men in her life.  Like
the woman of the city, she prostituted herself for riches.  Like the
woman caught in adultery, she knew what it was like to be in a
courtroom, being judged by others.  Jesus was no stranger to the Anna
Nicole’s of his day. …

The obituary is fairly lengthy, but make sure to read the whole thing.

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The San Diego Natural History Museum (in Balboa Park) is going to be hosting the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit.  I saw them this last Christmas in Seattle and the display at the Seattle Pacific Science Center was extremely well-done.  Unsaved sister-in-laws were even interested through most of the 2 hours we were there.  They have audio guides for kids that talk about the scrolls in a dramatized story fashion, and interactive workstations that help people understand how hard it is to put together the fragments back into something readable.  Oh…and they have fragments of the actual scrolls on display.  You can actually see fragments of Scripture that existed for hundreds of years before Jesus.  In Seattle, they had portions of Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Psalms on display (as well as some sectarian writings).

People who’ve seen the Scrolls display in Israel say that the one in Seattle was better done and had more to see and learn about than the one in Israel.  Let’s hope that San Diego meets (or beats) the standard that Seattle set!  Dates of the exhibit are from June 29 to December 31, 2007.  Mark time on your calendars now to get down there and see them!

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In the middle of January, Desiring God published a list of suggested resources to help people speak up and against abortion.  If you do not feel prepared to talk to others about abortion with both conviction and grace, check out the links below.

• Pictures of the beautiful preborn.
• The S.L.E.D acronym is a very helpful summary of arguments against abortion.
• Warning! Stomach-turning graphic. A horrific video of an actual abortion.
• Abort73.com is a very compelling overall site with everything you need.
• The Live Education And Resource Network have a web site highlighting the implications of abortion for the black community.
• A list of 15 arguments and facts against abortion that John Piper put together some years ago.

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{mosimage}This comes from one of our Kaleo staff and should encourage & challenge each of us in how we live for and manifest Jesus.

Keeping a promise, fulfilling a vow, and standing by your word are concepts not often practiced in our culture. People make commitments and break them, marriages end in divorce, political treaties and resolutions hold little influence, loyalties are transferable as long as it benefits me personally. I’ve been there, you’ve been there, one way or another. Here is one of my stories:

I played softball throughout high school. I was starting catcher and captain of the varsity team for my sophomore and junior year. Senior year came along and the coach put someone else in my spot as catcher and the only spot left for me was the bench. It didn’t make sense to me (or to other parents and players), I was the captain and a good player and there wasn’t even a position in the outfield for me. I tried to reason with the coach and then, when things didn’t change for me fast enough, I quit. It shocked my entire team. I realize now what I didn’t see then…quitting the team showed where I placed my loyalty. It was not for the team, it was for myself. That was the last statement I left with all those people, that I was most important to me. I know God could have used me if I had just stayed and fulfilled my commitment to the team. They might have wondered why the captain of the team would still work so hard and be so joyful sitting the bench. In response I would have told them Jesus made it possible and what an impression that would have made!

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