Pray For Australia

Australia is currently facing one of the worst wildfires in its history. The death toll exceeds 200, and thousands of homes and buildings have been completely destroyed.

We should be in prayer for those who have experienced tragic loss, and certainly for those who are still in danger. May this disaster come under control and soon end.


Below is a satellite image from NASA, depicting the Southern coast of Australia, and the white clouds of smoke rising from the out of control fires (shown in red).


Below is a rescue working helping an injured (wild) koala. Apparently the koala was harmed from the fire and this worker went to her aid—what an awesome photo!

(All images © Fox News, www.foxnews.com)

Burch Vs. Beckham

Here's a clip of Marc Burch getting a red card against David Beckham. I played for a few years at Evansville with Marc, and I think he took my legs out once or twice in the same way... hmmm... actually I think he just megged me and flew by as I fell over, making me look like a little girl.

I know a little about how Burch plays, and I'm pretty sure he just wanted to get this hit in because it was against Sir Beckham.

John Piper to President Obama

Get On The Train!

At a normal, leisurely pace, it would take approximately 70 hours to read through the bible. But you know what, even if you double that number, because the Bible can be pretty difficult to get through!, it would still take us 140 hours to read through the Bible—the whole thing, Genesis through Revelation, even hitting things like Obadiah, Haggai, Amos, Jude. 140 Hours sounds like a long time, doesn't it?

Well check this out... in a given week, the AVERAGE American will spend ONE DAY (approximately 24 hours) in front of a TV. This includes News, movies, shows, games, etc. But it does not include a computer monitor... JUST THE TV! 24 Hours in one week. You can do the math if you want, but if we spent as much time reading the Bible as we did watching the TV screen, we could easily have read through the Bible, at a leisure pace in under a month and a half.

With ease. Wow...

So much TV... so little Scripture. Where are our hearts?

I am not proposing that we do this... I am, however, proposing something else quite radical. Check this out...


There are 1189 chapters in the Bible. If you divide that by the number of days in a year (365) you will get the number of chapters that you would have to read every day in order to finish the WHOLE BIBLE in one year. Do you think it's going to be a crazy-crazy amount that is just overwhelming!?

1189 ÷ 365 = 3.2575342...

That's it. If you were to read four chapters from the Bible every day... you would get through the Bible in under a year.

This is exactly what I am proposing. Start today... get through the Bible in under a year. If you are not already reading something for yourself from the Bible... then start today.

Deonna and I have already read Genesis 1–4. It took us under 20 minutes this morning, and we even talked a little about it.

Can you spare 20 minutes every day for a year, to read your Bible? Those might just be the most valuable 20 minutes of every day in 2009...

I would love for anyone who wants to, to join in on this journey. Start today... Genesis 1–4. Tomorrow... Genesis 5–8; and so on, and so on. This would give us some great topics for discussion when we meet up, and also, it will give us something to keep each other accountable. We could help each other through this journey, we could encourage and lift up one another... we can do it TOGETHER. As a a community... as disciples of Christ seeking to encounter the True God.

I'm certain that God will use this endeavor to teach us more about Himself... and to change anyone's life who accepts this challenge. There is no doubt, it will be a challenge. But the reward surpasses everything else... certainly anything else that could be obtained through a mere 20 minutes every day...


Who's in?...

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man." Ps 118:8 (the exact middle verse of the Bible)

"How blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in His Law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither, and in whatever he does, he prospers." Ps 1:1–3

Super Bowl Fun

We had our first annual ABF Viewing of the Super Bowl over at Nicholas' house. Hopefully you were able to see the "Monsters vs. Aliens" trailer in 3–D, but if not, I'm sure that you can tell how awesome it was based on these pictures of our group's reactions:




This next one was a great picture. We decided we just wanted to take a "regular" picture, but it actually turns out that we turned in into a little game! It's kind of like "Where's Waldo," where you must find a particular individual. One of our group forgot to take his glasses off, so search carefully, and see if you can find out who it was!



Yep... it was David. Sneaky sneaky.

The Good 'Ol Days

Prior to moving to Dallas, Deonna and I worked as Youth Pastors at a Church in Evansville, Indiana—North Park Baptist Church.

Just thought I should share some of our memories from those, "Good 'Ol Days."

Watch how hard Zack hits his head...



Well, there you have it.

On Baptism

I just had a class with Dr. Pentecost. We were discussing the three passages of Jesus' baptism (Mt 3:13–17, Mk 1:9–11 and Lk 3:21–22). Dr. P alluded to an interesting point—the breadth in terminology of the word, baptism.

A lot of times those baptists (myself included?) enjoy getting themselves into heated arguments, and defenses on baptism: "there is only one way that it should be done", "it must be done in the church", "baptism is only legitimate if performed on a believer", etc., etc. However, Dr. brought up an interesting point:

When we talk about "baptism," we must distinguish which baptism we refer to, because there are more than one types.

In fact, Dr. P. argued, there are seven types. Take a look:

1. Proselyte Baptism in the OT. In the ancient world, Gentiles could become part of the Jewish (Hebrew) faith by entering into the Covenant of Abraham, and the Covenant of Moses. They would enter a new lifestyle, learn the Law, the Customs, be circumsized, and go through a ceremonial bathing, or baptism. Significance: Baptism here symbolizes a change in identity.
2. Baptism of Household Objects. This was done to make things ceremonially clean. Significance: They would be cleansed, or set apart through water. This, however, is not a cleansing of impurity or sin, but a separation from the mundane. The objects would be dipped (or sprinkled) with water, and were therefore set apart from the secular to the sacred. (ref. Lev 11:32)
3. Indwelling (Baptism) of the Holy Spirit. This occurred once, on the Day of Pentecost, and is universal for believers. At the moment of genuine, redemptive faith, the believer is "baptized" in (or "by," or "with") the Holy Spirit. Significance: Those in the community of faith have something present that was lacking prior to the time of the Acts of the Apostles. (ref. Acts 1:5)
4. Baptism Into One Body. Significance: Those in the community have an unprecedented reality of fellowship and union with one another. (ref. 1 Cor 12:13)
5. Baptism Into Christ Jesus, into His death. Significance: This marks our association with Jesus and defines a reality, not an activity. Meaning this—this baptism is not when we get immersed in water, but it is a spiritual reality (just like points 3 and 4). (ref. Rom 6:3)
6. The Baptism Of Jesus, in the Jordan River. This was not a baptism of repentance, nor for sin, as Jesus was without sin and in no need of repentance. Notice how John at first refuses to baptize Jesus (Mt 3:14). He does so because Jesus is not in need of the baptism which John had been performing up to this point. Jesus' baptism was something completely different... and singular in nature. Significance: Jesus' baptism was much like the High Priest of Old, placing his hand upon the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. The High Priest would transmit all of the people's sin onto an animal, without blemish and pure. Jesus is going through this process at His baptism, He is associating Himself with humanity, in order that He might remove our sin.
7. Believer's Baptism. This is the baptism commanded by our Lord in the Great Commission (Mt 28). Those who believe, out of faith are to be baptized in obedience to Jesus' command, and to be associated with the Church.

It is important that we realize there are numerous types of baptisms as laid out in scripture, and we should be careful not to assume that every time "baptize" or "baptism" appears in the Bible it is referencing the same thing.

Our ABF Christmas Party!