Well done, Gideons!

An article in The Washington Times today reminds us that The Gideons should be commended for distributing more than 1.5 billion bibles since 1908.

Parenting

Skating with Sophie in Downtown Louisville, Colorado, just before Christmas.

This extract from J.C. Ryle's tract The Duties of Parents warns mothers and fathers to remember the powerful influence of their own example.

“Building with one hand, and pulling down with the other?”—J. C. Ryle (1816 - 1900)

Instruction, and advice, and commands will profit little, unless they are backed up by the pattern of your own life. Your children will never believe you are in earnest, and really wish them to obey you, so long as your actions contradict your counsel. Archbishop Tillotson made a wise remark when he said, “To give children good instruction, and a bad example, is but beckoning to them with the head to show them the way to heaven; while we take them by the hand and lead them in the way to hell!”

. . . [W]e are always influencing those around us, in one way or another, either for good or for evil, either for God or for sin.—They see our ways, they mark our conduct, they observe our behaviour, and what they see us practise, that they may fairly suppose we think right. And never, I believe, does example tell so powerfully as it does in the case of parents and children . . .¹

Be an example of reverence for the Word of God, reverence in prayer, reverence for means of grace, reverence for the Lord's Day.—Be an example in words, in temper, in diligence, in temperance, in faith, in charity, in kindness, in humility. Think not your children will practise what they do not see you do . . .

Children are very quick observers; very quick in seeing through some kinds of hypocrisy, very quick in finding out what you really think and feel, very quick in adopting all your ways and opinions. You will often find as the father is, so is the son . . .

They will seldom learn habits which they see you despise, or walk in paths in which you do not walk yourself. He that preaches to his children what he does not practise, is working a work that never goes forward. It is like the fabled web of Penelope of old, who wove all day, and unwove all night. Even so, the parent who tries to train without setting a good example is building with one hand, and pulling down with the other.²

Footnotes:

1	J. C. Ryle, “The Duties of Parents,” in The Upper Room (1888; repr., Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1990), 311-312.
2	Ibid., 312-313.

Man Hangs Half-Naked from Vail Chairlift

VAIL - A 48-year-old man was caught on a chairlift in an unenviable position after loading last week.

He fell through part of the chair, and was hanging upside down with his pants down.

A spokesperson for Vail Mountain says lift operators immediately stopped the lift and got him down within seven minutes.

The ski patrol was called to the scene. Lift mechanics reversed the lift about 10 or 12 feet and rescued the man.

He was not injured. The man does not live in the Denver area.

For more on this story, including uncensored pictures click here.

A spokeswoman for the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board says the agency considers the matter a loading incident, not a mechanical failure. If it was a mechanical problem, the agency would have gotten a report.

Vail Resorts is not required to report these types of incidents, just log them.

The Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board is part of the Department of Regulatory Agencies that oversees all public tramways in the state, including all chairlifts and gondolas.

(Copyright KUSA*TV. All rights reserved.)

Why Are There Never Enough Parking Spaces at the Prostate Clinic?

At the Reformation 21 blog, Carl Trueman has written a very helpful (and funny!) article about how many Christians engage (or accomodate) culture. He says, "I am increasingly convinced that talking about culture, for all of its loud claims to relevance, significance, and importance, can actually be a first-class way of doing precisely the opposite, of not really talking about things that matter at all." Read it, and think twice about that next PG-13 movie.

“Plenty of talk about Christian approaches to art, music, literature, sex, even international politics. All very interesting subjects, I’m sure, and the topics of many a chardonnay-fuelled discussion after a hearty dinner party. But what about subjects that aren’t quite so interesting? Take street sweepers, for example; or hotel lavatory attendants; or workers on an umbrella manufacturing line. Why no conference on the Christian philosophy underlying these vital callings and trades?”

Many thanks to Tim Challies for bringing this to my attention.

Pray for Your Pastor

I serve a congregation that loves me more than I deserve. I am sometimes asked by them: "how can I pray for you?" J. Ligon Duncan and Thabiti Anyabwile have tried to put some thought into how to answer that question. So, maybe these ideas will help you to pray for your pastor, or if you are a pastor, to tell others how they can pray for you.

Pray -

1. That [your pastor] would know and love the living God, would have a saving interest in Christ, being purchased by His blood, and thus would be bound to the Lord by the indissoluble bond of the Holy Spirit.

2. That [your pastor] would know, embrace and ever more deeply understand the Gospel and be shaped by it in life and ministry.

3. That [your pastor] would be useful servant of the Lord, that he would know and love God's word, God's people, and God's kingdom; that he would be used to build it up and so that it prevails even against Hell's gates.

4. That [your pastor] would study, practice and teach the Word of the Lord, by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

5. That [your pastor] would love to pray, because he loves to commune with his God, and that he would be a man of prayer, characteristically.

6. That [your pastor] would be ever dependent upon and filled with the Spirit; and that he would possess true Spiritual wisdom.

7. That [your pastor] would be holy unto the Lord. That his tongue and heart would be wholly God's.

8. That [your pastor] would be kept from pride, and especially spiritual pride. That the Lord himself would be gracious to slay pride in him, and that your pastor would endeavor to always be putting pride to death, by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

9. That God would give [your pastor] guidance as to where to focus his efforts in ministry.

10. That He would protect [your pastor] from himself, from the enemy of his soul, and from all earthly enemies.

11. That no decision which [your pastor] ever makes or desire that [your pastor] ever pursues would restrict his ability to pour his whole soul into the Gospel ministry.

12.That many would be converted and many built up under [your pastor]'s ministry, to God's glory alone.

13. That the Lord would bless [your pastor]'s wife, [. . . ], with holiness and happiness, Gospel assurance and Gospel rest.

14. That God would make [your pastor] a decent husband and father.

15. That [your pastor] would be a good friend to his wife, and love her self-sacrificially,

16. That [your pastor] would be a good daddy to his children. That they would love God, their parents and the church.

17. That [your pastor] would be a testimony in the home so that his wife might be able to respect him when he is in the pulpit, and so that [your pastor] will be able to feed her soul, along with the rest of the congregation.

Alien Autopsy

I may have to recant my intro to yesterday's sermon, as video evidence has been recently been brought to my attention. Thank you, Travis Blevins.

Reasons to Believe at Christchurch

Dear Blog-Readers,

Please join me and my friends at Christchurch for our "Reasons to Believe" sermon series this January.

I surveyed people in Boulder County to find their top questions about God, the Bible and Jesus. The questions we'll be dealing with this month are the top 4 from that survey.

Christchurch meets on Sunday mornings at 10:30am at Superior Elementary School in Superior (1800 S. Indiana Street, 80027). If you need more specific directions, post a comment and I'll get them to you.

Happy 2009!

Scott

PS: Thanks Travis & Laura for another cool graphic!