The Sound of Forehands Clapping

Posted via email from dwayne’s posterous

Christian Audio dot com offers a different free audio book each month. This months selection is another amazing classic:

Beginning with the story of Stephen from the book of Acts, considered the first Christian martyr, the drama builds to the passion of the early Church’s persecution under the Roman Empire. The hardy and radical faith of those first believers spawned medieval missionary movements that spread the gospel across Europe and into England, Scotland, and Ireland.

If you prefer actual books you can grab the book on Amazon too.

Excerpt from the Foxes Book of Martyrs

Adrian Warnock just made an exciting announcement about 1) the Gospel Coalitions usage of The City and 2) that the doors are open to the public to logon!

I can exclusively announce that the all-new and FREE Gospel Coalition Network website opened just a few minutes ago. The kind people running it have offered blog readers like you the chance to be first in line to join.

If you already know what this is all about, then feel free to head straight over to one of the following links depending on what continent you are from, since this is a genuinely global offer. Don’t worry, you will have access to the whole community no matter where you live. Then, do feel free to mention this on your own blog, or view my profile and add me to your contacts to follow my updates.

(more…)

Post are back in flow starting this week. Mark will be posting his review of chapter 2 of RBMW today and mine will be out on Wednesday. I also have some other ideas that have been cooking in my head that I need to get down, so hopefully I’ll find time for that this week as well!

Christian Audio dot Com
In the mean time, if you haven’t heard me mention ChristianAudio.com in the past then let me just point you to them for the first time. They’re a great source for Christian audio books. They have a lot of the classics on their site, but also a huge collection of current stuff. Everything is excellently narrated and prices are good.

They also give a way a free title every month. This months is Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. On the first of each month a new title comes out.

Now for the Important Part!
ChristianAudio created a FaceBook group and promised a $150 gift certificate to whoever invited the most folks to join! As of a few days ago I was in second place, but who knows now. Today and tomorrow are the last days of the contest and so I figured I’d make one more push to win! :D

To help me when first join the group and then go post “Dwayne Forehand” in this thread.

Thanks for the Prayers
Also thanks to all of my friends who have been praying for my family. We really appreciate it and still need it!

This post is part of a larger series of posts by Dwayne Forehand and Mark Tubbs on the book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (RBMW). The entire book is available online for free here or buy it on Amazon. For a complete list of posts in this series Click here for the series index.

This week Mark’s post is following mine: Read Mark’s review at DiscerningReader.com and, if you missed it, mine here.

To save time I will answer the “so what do you do question” and “what are you up to lately” right here and update it as needed.

Christian
Constantly striving (well sometimes I fall off the wagon) to become more Christ like, grow and use my gifts to edify the body of Christ.

Husband
I’ve been married to my wife, Joy, for 8 years. If I stop and think about what kind of “helper” she is to me it just makes me shake my head in disbelief of all that she does. Our marriage has changed a lot. We both want more from our marriage, but we can look back and see that God has grown us already so much.

Father
Joy and I have 4 children. Right now they make up all the odd numbers between 0 and 8. 7 and 5 year old girls, 3 year old boy and 1 year old baby girl. Like my marriage, there are a lot of areas for me to grow in with regards to being a father, but I am progressing in Him. My children are precious and delicate; The weight of Gods call for me to be a father to them as He is to me is awesome.

Software Developer
I work for the Port of Seattle doing software development. I didn’t go to college – just God’s grace on my family. We used to mainly do Java, but now it’s mainly .NET C#. Web development, web services, mobile development, desktop and on it goes!

Student
I’m currently learning Greek. Slowwwwwwllllyyy learning Greek. I’m also going through a read the bible in a year plan and every day I try to read a sermon or two, a theology article and some good blog posts.

Small Groups
Our family participates in 2 small groups through our local church right now. One of them is going through some discipleship material and the other is a straight bible study. The first one has more older folks in it which my wife and I really need and appreciate. The second one is mainly folks our age and has been good for fellowship.

Blogging
I made a concerted effort recently to start getting my thoughts down on paper, er, blog. It’s been good. I haven’t posted as much as I’d like, but it still has caused me to wrestle more with my thoughts when I do post. I am not under the delusion that I have anything new to offer – there are so many men who are exponentially more qualified and gifted to teach then myself – but I think a good test for whether or not I am “getting it” is if I can re-explain it in my own words.

Again I am perplexed: Where are the parents?

Parents, this is an exhortation to you. If you’re unable to come to this event, seek another. Learn how to teach your kids about sexual abuse as well as to learn how to handle the abuse when it does happen. Statistics show it likely will.

The same exhortation goes to you: child care worker, children’s ministry volunteer, teacher, grandpa, grandma, aunt, uncle. You could be the first person the child feels safe to tell, or the first one to see signs and symptoms of abuse.

The above quote is from a friend of mine who organized a presentation on sexual abuse prevention that my wife and I attended today. Annette Schuster of Kids Need to Know presented a lot of good information. Let me emphasize a lot. She dispelled myths, shared statistics, spoke on what Scripture had to say, gave very practical advise on how to prevent abuse and more.

She said that many, many churches are not been open to having a presentation like hers to educate people on how to prevent a lot of the sexual abuse of our children. Why? Why? Why could that possibly be? I am sitting at the table here shaking my head and trying to put my trouble comprehending this into words.

1) Rape and molestation of precious little, made in the image of God children is prevalent.

2) There are things we can do if we know them to prevent much of it.

3) A lot of these things defy common conceptions

4) Learning from someone who works a lot in this field can help with 3, 2 and out of that hopefully 1.

The Kids Need to Know website has some simple, free resources and some other very affordable resources that go into more depth.

If you have a child and are uninformed about child abuse, what it is, how it happens, how perpetrators work and steps to prevent abuse then you need to change that.

There are other resources I am sure. If you know of others, especially good free online ones, please do share.

I began a reading plan on January 4th this year. Here’s a little update on my progress. If I had started the plan on the first of the month then I should have already read:

• Matthew 7
• Acts 10
• Psalm 15
• Genesis 35

Here is what I have actually read through:

• Matthew 10
• Acts 10
• Psalm 7
• Genesis 12

So Matthew good, Acts good, Psalm eh, Genesis doah! I have a bit of catching up to do, but I’m determined to end each month on target and, more importantly, to build the habit of reading the Scritpures most days (Resolution 14 if you are keeping track.)

Did you start a reading plan this year? We are only 2 weeks into it. How is it going?

The Unashamed Workman brought up this quote in a short post:

“There were…necessary safeguards to [Calvin's] reasoning process. In dealing with any biblical text, Calvin purposed not to exceed what Scripture itself taught. The Reformer was careful not to enter the realm of speculation. As Calvin said, ‘Where the Lord closes His holy mouth, let us also stop our minds from going any further.’ In other words, he would say no more than Scripture.”

(Steve Lawson, “The Expository Genius of John Calvin”, p 79)

It really got me thinking about how much time I spend speculating over the “gaps” in Scripture. He clarified that he isn’t saying he thinks it is always wrong to speculate. When would it be okay though? For example say you come across this passage in Genesis:

Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.

God is saying that whoever commits murder will be killed. The implication seems clear, murder is wrong. Why is murder wrong and why should it be punished you ask? God gives the answer “for God made man in his own image.” See, murder is wrong because we are made in the image of God . . . Hmm, ok, but what is it about being made in the image of God that makes murder sin?

If seems as though God expected his answer would make sense to us, but what if it doesn’t. Is it okay to “try and figure out” in your head what Gods reasoning might be?

Romans 14
5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Paul says elsewhere that “all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.”   In the text above we see this principle teased out some.    Most Christians have heard of this principle and can intellecuatly nod their assent to it.  This passage though calls us to much more then just an acknowledgment that “while some things aren’t sin we still shouldn’t do them.”

Paul says that “each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”  Fully convinced of what?  Fully convinced that our choices in this short, earthly life are being made from a mindset of Christ being the supreme Lord of our flesh and of our spirit and that each thing we do and think and say should be in honor to Him, not simply in exercise of our freedom.

Paul also says that “each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.”  He doesn’t say that “each is fully convinced” because by nature we are, well, lazy.  “We’re free! Thinking through these things is hard and heavy.  It doesn’t feel free!” There’s a Mars Hill song that has a line “It’s not for freedoms sake that Christ set us free.”  We have been set free from slavery to sin so that we might be made slaves to Him!

So, maybe you are one of those wonder types that has a huge quantity of mental ram and never needs to work through ideas by writing things down.  Good for you.  Now, for the rest of us, might I suggest an exercise to help follow Pauls instructions for each one of us to be resolved as to what lawful things in our lives are actually helpful in honoring Him.

It was a couple of years ago that I did this and I believe it was out of inspiration from Jonathen Edwards example.  What I did was simply to ask myself “Dwayne what are you convinced that your day to day life should look like and what are you convinced will help you to do that?”  Then I wrote down my answers in bullet form.  Here they are:

Resolution 1: To lie down early five times a week.

Resolution 2: To arise early five times a week.

Resolution 3: To not drink beer three nights in a row.

Resolution 4: To fight the battle each day.

Resolution 5: To humble myself always.

Resolution 6: To take captive each thought.

Resolution 7: To delight in Him ceaselessly.

Resolution 8: To fight for my wife’s heart

Resolution 9: To not rest until my children know my love.

Resolution 10: To eat three healthy meals a day five days a week.

Resolution 11: To replenish His temple throughout each day with water.

Resolution 12: To consider how I might stir up my friends to good works and love.

Resolution 13: To be confident in my calling.

Resolution 14: To drink scripture regularly.

Resolution 15: To listen to those who came before me.

Resolution 16: To seek counsel.

Resolution 17: To be before His face always.

Now, let’s be honest here.  I haven’t seen this list for probably a good year since it popped in my head last week.  Yet as I read them my conscience is stirred and, yes yes, I am convinced in my mind that these are the things I should be doing.  So I’ll add one  new resolution (and a recurring event on my calendar to go with it):

Resolution 18: Remember to read and pray over these Resolutions once a week.

Would you consider taking 10 to 20 minutes to briefly write down your own convictions and ask the Helper to enable you to live by them?   To get you started, would you share with us the first one or two that come to mind for you?