“It is one of the defining marks of Our Time that God is now weightless. I do not mean by this that he is ethereal but rather that he has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life. Those who assure the pollsters of their belief in God’s existence may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgment no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertisers’ sweet fog of flattery and lies. That is weightlessness. It is a condition we have assigned him after having nudged him out to the periphery of our secularized life….Weightlessness tells us nothing about God but everything about ourselves, about our condition, about our psychological disposition to exclude God from our reality.” (David Wells, God In The Wasteland)

By Cesar Vigil-Ruiz

Feliz Friday! I pray this week has been one filled with love, meditation and prayer for those in our communities who have been affected by the fires. Let us keep them in mind as we get through this weekend. Here are this week’s links:

• Joe Carter is back with another article in his apologetics and worldview analysis series called, “What Does 1+1=2 Mean? – Why Christianity Matters for Math (and Everything Else).” If you want to delve deeper into this subject, Vern Poythress, who has a Ph.D in Mathematics and teaches New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary, has a very thorough article that argues for a distinctly Christian view of mathematics. This will change the way you do math. Not sure about those AP tests, though…
• How are you doing… sleep-wise? We know we have that notion in the back of our minds that we should be sleeping more, but in this fast-paced, on-the-go world, who really has the time? Pastor David Murray has written about the deleterious effects of sleeping less than 6-7 hours of sleep, along with ten excuses (he said “reasons”, but I think we all know he was being nice about it) for why we don’t sleep longer. As a late-night owl, I heartily amen the advice given by Pastor Murray and hope to begin this tonight.
• Speaking of advice, we tend to give it out a lot (I do it all the time on these posts!). However, is every bit of advice we give helpful? How can we discern when we are giving good or bad advice? Ed Welch has a gem of a post worth reading regarding giving advices.
• Yesterday was the 30 year anniversary of the death of Francis Schaeffer. He was a model for someone consistently spoke truth and acted with grace. An unconventional evangelist, he opened his home for anyone to come and ask him whatever questions they had, and he would even let them spend the night when the conversation carried into the night. I first heard about him from a book called Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer and have enjoyed learning from him ever since. In commemorating this, Ray Ortlund gives three reasons he’s grateful for the life of Schaeffer. I echo those reasons and hope to grow in my love towards others as well as be unwavering in speaking the truth as an expression of love.
• This week, Apologetics 101 brought us a new release of lectures by Westminster Theological Seminary professor K. Scott Oliphint. He is considered to be one of the foremost proponents of presuppositional apologetics, and this is a great resource to benefit from. Also, keep in mind that it’s FREE. Don’t pass on this one!
• Ben Edwards of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary has written a review/critique of a book that chronicles a Word of Faith church. The author provides an insider’s perspective, as he provides sociological data that will give you some background of the inner workings of the mindset of those who accept this kind of teaching. Very informative.
• For those interested in the Calvinist-Arminian debate, Mark Jones was interviewed concerning the relationship between definite (limited) atonement and penal substitution, and how those who refer to themselves as Reformed or Calvinists differ in their views from Arminians, both in the past and today. It may seem heady at first, but there is some solid insight in this interview. Check it out.
• Andy Davis is a pastor at First Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina. He is known for his discipline of memorizing large portions (even books) of the Bible. He has just published a small booklet called An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture and was interviewed on how every believer can develop the discipline of Scripture memorization and why this isn’t done more often. An earlier draft has been made available. I’m not sure if it’s been updated, but I hope this will be a reminder of our need for God’s Word to be embedded into our hearts more so than our own words. Jon Bloom from Desiring God follows up with ten reasons to memorize large portions of Scripture. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness (1 Timothy 4:7)!
• What does Jesus say about homosexuality? I think you’ll be surprised at the answer.
• As promised, Michael Kruger’s full review of Bart Ehrman’s book How Jesus Became God has been posted. Don’t be caught off guard with these kinds of objections.
• How often should we talk about ourselves in counseling others? Bob Kellemen has some thoughtful words related to this question that we would be wise to consider.

That’s all the links for this week! We can praise God even during this difficult time while our neighbors are evacuating from their homes because God is still good. Let us that this time will bring many to recognize their need for a Savior, and to hold our own possessions loosely for the sake of the Gospel. See you all Sunday!

Soli Deo Gloria