Monthly Archives: December 2011
The Year That Changed My Life
Adjustment. Refinement. Correction. Modification. Reversal. Say it anyway you like and it means the same thing: Change. We’re told it is good for us. But few truly enjoy it. Most people are willing to change, not because they see the light, but because the feel the heat! I’m no different. This year, I’ve been going through a lot of adjustments and refinements. I quit my band, picked up my Colorado roots and moved the whole family to the retiree state. I closed a thriving business and started it up again in Florida. (Thriving is not the word I would use to describe the new business.) We also learned Read the rest of this entry
Our Top 11 Most Discussed Posts of 2011
We had a lot of interesting discussions over at Not For Itching Ears in 2011. We have listed our Top 11 most discussed posts below. They cover a wide range of topics from the Seeker-Sensitive Church movement, Calvinism, Solo-Scriptura, Worship, The Best Salsa Recipe in the Blogosphere, American Idolatry and more. It’s never too late to join the discussion. Jump into any you may have missed. Happy New Year Everyone. Thank you to all who follow us! Read the rest of this entry
The Top Ten Most Read Posts of 2011 from Not For Itching Ears
That’s right, my friends. The following post contains our own version of the Top 10 list: The most read posts from Not For Itching Ears this year. You may be very surprised at the#1 post. It is not only our number one post for the year, it is #1 of ALL TIME. Far surpassing anything else! It is clearly out of character with the rest of the blog and reveals a spicy secret about me… I dare you to try it out. You won’t be disappointed. Read the rest of this entry
Seeing Past the Glitter…Encountering Christ at Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone!
Not being catholic, I seldom read what the Pope has to say. But this year I actually read his Christmas eve sermon. I was touched by his story of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. I have posted it here. I hope my protestant friends can read it.
“Today, anyone wishing to enter the Church of Jesus’ Nativity in Bethlehem will find that the doorway five and a half meters high, through which emperors and caliphs used to enter the building, is now largely walled up. Only a low opening of one and a half meters has remained. The intention was probably to Read the rest of this entry
A 300 Year Old Prayer for The Difficult Seasons of Life
The following prayer was first offered back in the 1700′s. It is from the largely forgotten deposit of the Puritan Movement of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These people knew God and they knew how to pray. We can learn a lot from them. They are written in old english. I have updated a few outdated words and changed the Thee’s and Thou’s to make it more 2011. However, they still have the feel of that era. This prayer, titled ’The Valley of Vision’, along with many others, can be found in a book titled “The Valley of Vision”, by Arthur Bennett. Read the rest of this entry
The Bottom 5: Our LEAST Read Posts from 2011
Yes, it is that time again. The “Best of” posts are all coming out. Tomorrow we will have our top 5 posts of the year. Today, as an act of humility, we present our Bottom 5. They are our least read posts of 2011. Go ahead and read one. They can’t be all bad!
Merry Christmas Everyone! Read the rest of this entry
Monday Mornings with The Early Church Fathers: What Authentic Christianity Looked Like- Justin Martyr
Do you ever grow weary of all the new fads and techniques the modern church creates? I do! What is important to us, may not have been important to those who were personally discipled by Jesus Christ and those whom they disicpled.
I am continually challenged when I read the history and the writings of the early church. I am drawn to them over and over again because of how close they were in time to the Apostles. Their writings are not scripture, but neither are the writings of Luther, Calvin or John Stott. These writings shed tremendous light on how the Apostles and the early church viewed the Christ event and the implications of it. Anyone who wants to follow Jesus Christ faithfully owes it to themselves to read the writings of these Godly men.
Today, I have posted a quote from Justin Martyr as well as the quote in context. It deals with identifying real Christians and is from his First Apology, chapter 16. Justin lived from 100 AD to 165 AD. He was a philosopher who was converted to Christianity and became a tireless evangelist and apologist. He was executed for his faith sometime Read the rest of this entry
The Most Meaningful Christmas Gift Ever Given to Me
I received it 26 years ago. I know that because the inscription from my non-Christian sister who gave it to me is dated “Christmas 1985.” Though I have over 20 other bibles of various versions sitting in my study, this Bible is my most cherished friend. It has spoken into every area of my life, through every season of that life: being single, getting married, raising a family, pastoring, sermon preparation, tragedy and heartache; victories and failures. It was the Bible I read from at the high school graduation of both my kids. Every morning it sits on my desk, waiting for me. Someday, when my days on earth wind to a close, it will be the Bible used at my funeral.
We’ve been through a lot together. I went to Bible College with it. Professor Middlebrook’s notes from I Peter and I John are still Read the rest of this entry
A Wise Word of Encouragement from the Early Church to Today’s Generation
Saint Cyprian penned the following wise words in AD 256. Brothers and sister, we would be do well to take them to heart. They remind us that what God requires of us is not a deeper understanding of his ways, but a life that is lived following them. It is easy to get the two confused. Learning facts is one thing. Living them out on a daily basis is something entirely different. When we have more facts than fruit in our lives, our lives are out of balance. Of course, theology was important to the early church. It just took a back seat to living the Christian life. Cyprians words reminded me that Read the rest of this entry
Could the Doctrine of Total Depravity be Totally Depraved?
Over here at Not For Itching Ears we like to discuss issues that challenge our view of Christianity and the Church. It is healthy to consider what one believes about the Christian faith and how we express that faith in our corporate church life. If all we ever do is listen to ourselves, we can inadvertently become the kind of people Paul warned Timothy about: People who surround themselves with “teachers who say what their itching ears want to hear.” Today’s post is an attempt to counter that tendency among us as we discuss the Doctrine of Total Depravity. To do this, we turn to a passage from “Reconsidering Tulip” by Alexander J. Renault. It is written from an Orthodox perspective.
Like many of you, I have always assumed that Total Depravity was a doctrine universally accepted by the church of all ages. But I was wrong. It is a rather new concept. In fact the early church fathers, categorically rejected the idea. That troubles me a lot. If Paul understood humanity to be totally depraved or to have a total inability, why did his disciples and the disciples after him flat-out deny it? Calvinism doesn’t work without this idea, so I can see why we would hesitate to even discuss it. It wasn’t until Calvin that this idea became the unquestionable doctrine it has become.
I don’t think this article settles the question, but the author does bring out some interesting things that most of probably have not considered.
So, let the Discussion begin…
A Strong Argument Against Calvinisim? Part 3 You Decide….
Over here at Not For Itching Ears we like to discuss issues that challenge our view of Christianity and the Church. It is healthy to consider what one believes about the Christian faith and how we express that faith in our corporate church life. If all we ever do is listen to ourselves, we can inadvertently become the kind of people Paul warned Timothy about: People who surround themselves with “teachers who say what their itching ears want to hear.” Today’s post is an attempt to counter that tendency among us as we discuss Free-Will and Determinism. To do this, we turn to an extremely interesting email exchange between Father John Whiteford (an Eastern Orthodox priest) and some proponents of Calvinism.
This isn’t your typical argument! Father Whiteford brings another line of argumentation to his view that is almost entirely absent from the typical back and forth between Calvinists and Arminians: What did the early church fathers teach about this?
I recognize that there are three groups of people who will read a post like this: 1) Strong Calvinists who will want to defend their view. 2)Strong Arminians who will want to find ammo for their view and 3) those who don’t have their minds made up but may lean to one understanding of things. My hope, is that all three groups of people will be challenged and encouraged. It’s a long discussion so I will be breaking it up into three posts. Read Part 1 Here, and part two here. The third and final post …… Read the rest of this entry
A Strong Argument Against Calvinisim? Part 2 You Decide….
Over here at Not For Itching Ears we like to discuss issues that challenge our view of Christianity and the Church. It is healthy to consider what one believes about the Christian faith and how we express that faith in our corporate church life. If all we ever do is listen to ourselves, we can inadvertently become the kind of people Paul warned Timothy about: People who surround themselves with “teachers who say what their itching ears want to hear.” Today’s post is an attempt to counter that tendency among us as we discuss Free-Will and Determinism. To do this, we turn to an extremely interesting email exchange between Father John Whiteford (an Eastern Orthodox priest) and some proponents of Calvinism.
This isn’t your typical argument! Father Whiteford brings another line of argumentation to his view that is almost entirely absent from the typical back and forth between Calvinists and Arminians: What did the early church fathers teach about this?
I recognize that there are three groups of people who will read a post like this: 1) Strong Calvinists who will want to defend their view. 2)Strong Arminians who will want to find ammo for their view and 3) those who don’t have their minds made up but may lean to one understanding of things. My hope, is that all three groups of people will be challenged and encouraged. It’s a long discussion so I will be breaking it up into three posts. Read Part 1 Here; here’s part 2: Read the rest of this entry
Not For Itching Ears 