update: Well apparently no one wrote anything over the weekend. On the camping trip I didn’t teach after all because we got hit by a big storm. Yet again, all our efforts are for naught. Perhaps we should have thrown Jonah in the lake.

I’m awfully sorry folks, but I will be going to a camping retreat with the high-schoolers from my church this weekend. I will not be able to make any post until Sunday because I will not have any internet access. However, there is a bright side to this devastating piece of news. I have asked Garret and Ben to write a few posts for me this weekend so you should be getting some great posts with a fresh perspective.

This retreat will be focused on teaching the high-school students how to effectively evangelize. I will be giving a talk on the basics of the gospel and I hope to share a summary of what the Lord shows me on this subject.

I’ve heard a number of sermons preached on idolatry. Without fail, the preacher will mention that idolatry is different in our day and age. Our culture does not bow down to things made of wood and stone, but rather we worship other, more abstract things like money and success. While all of this is true, I think there is a very real sense in which our culture bows down and worships false gods. The confusing thing, however, is that we often name these idols Jesus. An idol is a false god that man has made for himself to worship. Every time we fashion for ourselves a fake Jesus because our idea of Jesus is easier to worship than the Only Living God, we are guilty of idolatry. I’d like to talk about a few of the specific ways in which our culture has made false Gods. (more…)

Hello ex-icarusians. My name is Ben, and I am a part of Lexington Christian Fellowship along with Mr. Icarus himself. First off, I would like to thank Dan for graciously allowing me to enter the ex-icarus conversation.

Having said that, I will direct your attention to the first of hopefully many weekly reviews (playfully labeled “Tuesdays with Wesley”) of selected John Wesley sermons. Today’s Wesley tidbit comes from Sermon II, entitled “The Almost Christian.” In this sermon, Wesley lays out what is implied in being an almost Christian and contrasts this with what he sees as an altogether Christian. (more…)

A review of Every Man’s Battle.

Yesterday, I was looking for a relaxing afternoon spent reading. I saw Every Man’s Battle sitting on the shelf and I thought I might at least read the introduction. It has been popular for a few years, and with the multitude of spin-offs and all the marketing and hype surrounding the book, I was expecting a wishy-washy, pop-Christianity piece of fluff. I ended up reading the whole thing in less than 24 hours. To be honest, the writing wasn’t spectacular, and most of the content was stuff I had heard before. However, the thing I appreciated about the book was the fact that it took a pretty hard-line stance on holiness and left no room for sin to survive. I was pretty surprised to find, in our ‘nobody is perfect’ generation, a book that stressed Ephesians 5:3-5, which tells us to not even have a hint of sexual immorality. (more…)

Philippians 2:1-11

As servants of Christ we are to become like Christ. We are to take him as an example and follow in his footsteps. Once we are walking down that path, if we lift up our eyes to see where it leads, we will see the Cross. The life of a Christian is a life of continual death to self. One of my favorite verses in the bible is Ephesians 5:1. In it, Paul tells us to sacrifice ourselves for the others around us just like Christ gave himself up. I often get caught up in “me” Christianity. I am worried about my struggles, my hopes, my relationship with the father. These are all good things to think about, but somewhere in the mix it is easy to loose sight of other people. (more…)

Mark 3:13-15

In all the gospels there is a distinction drawn between the crowds that gathered wherever Jesus went and the disciples who really followed him. I’m always concerned for the crowds. It seems like they are interested in Jesus, but he always speaks to them in parables. They follow him around at a distance, but never really know him or get close to him. He has compassion on them and heals them, but they never really give their lives to him. In the great commission Jesus does not command us to go out and make crowds, but to go out and make disciples of all nations. This makes me ask, “what exactly is a disciple?” I think this verse in Mark 3 shows that disciples are meant for three things: intimacy, mission and power. (more…)

Titus 2:11-14

Sometimes, when I preach on campus, I tell people, “Jesus Christ did not die so that you could go to heaven.” This usually makes a few people stop and listen. Our culture has inundated these people with a teaching that revolves around their own personal desires. The context in which they think about Jesus is all based upon, “what can he do for me?” The problem with looking at salvation as a benefits package is that true salvation requires a total death to self. In this passage in Titus we learn that the purpose of Christ’s death was not to give us the warm fuzzies, but rather to purify for himself a people who are zealous for good works. (more…)

This is a review of the sermon preached by Denny Kenaston. You can listen to it on Sermon Index or read the text.

Where are the men in this generation? Where are the leaders that will rise up and establish the kingdom of God? Where are the fathers that are training their children in Godliness? Too often we find them fiddling around with their own mess rather than taking the responsibility to rise up and become leaders.

I listened to this sermon on father’s day and I believe that this message that was preached to our fathers’ generation is one we need to hear again today. (more…)

This week I ran across a guy who absolutely refused to follow any God who would condemn people to hell. He didn’t care what they had done or who they were. “Hell is a horrible place,” he argued, “and no one deserves to go there.” His problem was not necessarily a misunderstanding about God, but rather a misunderstanding about man. Before we can ever follow Christ, we have to understand how truly wicked we are without him. There is a difference between understanding the depravity of man in an abstract philosophical way and coming to a full conviction of how evil we are. It is only the power of Jesus Christ who can rescue us from this condition and help us walk in “newness of life.” (more…)

This is the first in a series of posts called PHI 101 where I will be taking a look at several philosophers and philosophical ideas from a Christian perspective.

Descartes is widely regarded as the most important philosopher in the European Enlightenment. He is also considered by many to be the dividing line between ancient and modern philosophy. Because his ideas have been so influential, it is important that Christians understand them and how they have influenced the worldviews that are present in our culture. I will limit my discussion here to two of his main ideas and their consequences: skepticism and the cogito. (more…)