It seems like a simple enough question, but so many misunderstand. Here are several videos that tell what the Gospel is.
Trip Lee:
Mark Driscoll:
John Piper:
Sam Storms:
Michael Horton:
Paul Washer:
Each of these videos tell the same message, but each appeals to a different audience. Which of these presentations of the Gospel resonates with you the most?
Showing posts with label scripture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scripture. Show all posts
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Some of My Sources...
I have had several people ask me where I get my information from, so I wanted to share with you, loyal reader, the websites that I check regularly. Most of these I check daily, if not more. Some of them I may check only a couple times a week.
Facebook - I have two accounts: one personal one, and one solely dedicated to political postings.
Email - I have three email accounts that I check, not including multiple work emails.
Twitter - you can follow me at @realtonygoodwin at Twitter. I retweet a lot of stories and things I find interesting, not very much in terms of original content though. See below to see some of who I "follow."
http://www.msn.com/ MSN.com - this is for headlines and interesting little stories
http://drudgereport.com/ The Drudge Report is known for breaking news stories
http://www.fark.com/ Fark.com is a news aggregator, it includes user-submitted links and snarky commentary
http://www.politico.com/ Politico is my main source for mainstream political news, especially the 2012 Live tab
http://www.fark.com/politics/ - This is Fark.com's special politics section
http://realclearpolitics.com/ - RealClearPolitics has the best and most accurate polling numbers, as well as news stories
http://www.maximumpc.com/ Maximum PC is all about PC hardware and other technology stuff
http://www.tomshardware.com/ Tom's Hardware has indepth PC hardware articles, with excellent reviews and testing
http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/maximum_tech Maximum PC's tech site, for Android, tablets, phones, etc
http://www.smartmoney.com/ SmartMoney has a portfolio tool where I can check my real and fantasy investment portfolios, as well as interesting articles
http://crawlingroad.com/blog/ Crawling Road keeps me up to date with interesting investment news, mostly focusing on Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio Strategy
http://thegospelcoalition.org/ The Gospel Coalition features great articles and blogs from a solid theological footing
http://www.challies.com/ Tim Challies has great reviews of books and whatnot, from a Reformed perspective, and his a la carte posts are quite interesting
http://edstetzer.com/ Ed Stetzer blogs about church research, missiology, and church planting
Here is just a small sampling of the several hundred accounts I follow on
TWITTER:
Politics
https://twitter.com/#!/gallupnews
https://twitter.com/#!/POLITICO2012
https://twitter.com/#!/politico
https://twitter.com/#!/BuzzFeedPol
https://twitter.com/#!/BuzzFeedAndrew
https://twitter.com/#!/BuzzFeedBen
https://twitter.com/#!/ZekeJMiller
https://twitter.com/#!/HuffPostPol
https://twitter.com/#!/thehill
https://twitter.com/#!/TheFix
https://twitter.com/#!/daveweigel
https://twitter.com/#!/TheStateColumn
https://twitter.com/#!/PeterHambyCNN
https://twitter.com/#!/BretBaier
News
https://twitter.com/#!/csgazette
https://twitter.com/#!/HawaiiNewsNow
https://twitter.com/#!/MilitaryTimes
https://twitter.com/#!/reason
https://twitter.com/#!/TheEconomist
https://twitter.com/#!/CatoInstitute
Polling
https://twitter.com/#!/pewresearch
https://twitter.com/#!/ppppolls
https://twitter.com/#!/RasmussenPoll
Christianity
https://twitter.com/#!/MarsHill
https://twitter.com/#!/edstetzer
https://twitter.com/#!/PastorMark
https://twitter.com/#!/PastorTullian
https://twitter.com/#!/RELEVANT
https://twitter.com/#!/desiringgod
https://twitter.com/#!/CTmagazine
Miscellaneous
https://twitter.com/#!/joshualyman
https://twitter.com/#!/AnonyOps
https://twitter.com/#!/LiveActionFilms
https://twitter.com/#!/5tu
https://twitter.com/#!/HomeschoolConv
Facebook - I have two accounts: one personal one, and one solely dedicated to political postings.
Email - I have three email accounts that I check, not including multiple work emails.
Twitter - you can follow me at @realtonygoodwin at Twitter. I retweet a lot of stories and things I find interesting, not very much in terms of original content though. See below to see some of who I "follow."
http://www.msn.com/ MSN.com - this is for headlines and interesting little stories
http://drudgereport.com/ The Drudge Report is known for breaking news stories
http://www.fark.com/ Fark.com is a news aggregator, it includes user-submitted links and snarky commentary
http://www.politico.com/ Politico is my main source for mainstream political news, especially the 2012 Live tab
http://www.fark.com/politics/ - This is Fark.com's special politics section
http://realclearpolitics.com/ - RealClearPolitics has the best and most accurate polling numbers, as well as news stories
http://www.maximumpc.com/ Maximum PC is all about PC hardware and other technology stuff
http://www.tomshardware.com/ Tom's Hardware has indepth PC hardware articles, with excellent reviews and testing
http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/maximum_tech Maximum PC's tech site, for Android, tablets, phones, etc
http://www.smartmoney.com/ SmartMoney has a portfolio tool where I can check my real and fantasy investment portfolios, as well as interesting articles
http://crawlingroad.com/blog/ Crawling Road keeps me up to date with interesting investment news, mostly focusing on Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio Strategy
http://thegospelcoalition.org/ The Gospel Coalition features great articles and blogs from a solid theological footing
http://www.challies.com/ Tim Challies has great reviews of books and whatnot, from a Reformed perspective, and his a la carte posts are quite interesting
http://edstetzer.com/ Ed Stetzer blogs about church research, missiology, and church planting
Here is just a small sampling of the several hundred accounts I follow on
TWITTER:
Politics
https://twitter.com/#!/gallupnews
https://twitter.com/#!/POLITICO2012
https://twitter.com/#!/politico
https://twitter.com/#!/BuzzFeedPol
https://twitter.com/#!/BuzzFeedAndrew
https://twitter.com/#!/BuzzFeedBen
https://twitter.com/#!/ZekeJMiller
https://twitter.com/#!/HuffPostPol
https://twitter.com/#!/thehill
https://twitter.com/#!/TheFix
https://twitter.com/#!/daveweigel
https://twitter.com/#!/TheStateColumn
https://twitter.com/#!/PeterHambyCNN
https://twitter.com/#!/BretBaier
News
https://twitter.com/#!/csgazette
https://twitter.com/#!/HawaiiNewsNow
https://twitter.com/#!/MilitaryTimes
https://twitter.com/#!/reason
https://twitter.com/#!/TheEconomist
https://twitter.com/#!/CatoInstitute
Polling
https://twitter.com/#!/pewresearch
https://twitter.com/#!/ppppolls
https://twitter.com/#!/RasmussenPoll
Christianity
https://twitter.com/#!/MarsHill
https://twitter.com/#!/edstetzer
https://twitter.com/#!/PastorMark
https://twitter.com/#!/PastorTullian
https://twitter.com/#!/RELEVANT
https://twitter.com/#!/desiringgod
https://twitter.com/#!/CTmagazine
Miscellaneous
https://twitter.com/#!/joshualyman
https://twitter.com/#!/AnonyOps
https://twitter.com/#!/LiveActionFilms
https://twitter.com/#!/5tu
https://twitter.com/#!/HomeschoolConv
Sunday, January 22, 2012
But I didn’t have neighbors, that’s why they call it hood...
First, from Christianity Today:
Four alleged members of the Latin Kings in Elgin, Illinois, are asking to be removed from a lawsuit barring gang members from meeting in public. The four men say they are now Christians who have left the gang or were never members. They also want to talk with current Latin Kings about Christianity in order to lead them out of the gang. The Kane County state's attorney office filed suit against 81 alleged Latin Kings in September, attempting to weaken the group.Now, please listen closely to the lyrics presented in this excellent song.
Just some things to ponder as we start out 2012.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
On homeschooling...
So, my wife and I have decided that we are going to attempt homeschooling our oldest daughter, who turns 5 years old in a week. This decision has come after much prayer and discussion. We will try for her Kindergarten year and reevaluate after that.
Now, you may not realize this, but there are several different types of home-educating. Some parents choose to do "school-at-home," some do unschooling, some use Charlotte Mason, some use Unit Studies, some use an online school. Some use a Waldorf method, some Montessori, some eclectic homeschooling, or some use the Thomas Jefferson method. Some explanations can be found here and here.
On top of the different philosophies for homeschooling, there are a plethora of curricula to choose from. You could choose an all-in-one boxed set, such as Horizons, or PACE, or Bob Jones, or A Beka. You could use a company that compiles the different books for you, such as Tapestry of Grace, or Sonlight. Or you could create your own. This would probably be the case if you chose to use a living books method of educating.
After doing much online and library research (which I LOVE to do) I became a fan of the Classical method as explained in the book The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer. The thing about that is she doesn't really recommend starting formal education until the child is in First Grade or so. Until then, the important things are developing a love for learning and learning to read. Lucky, our almost-five-year old loves to learn.
She loves to watch movies and TV shows. We have Netflix Instant, and my two girls like to watch the normal kid shows that are on there, such as Dora the Explorer, and Diego. They often default to Spanish (well, Spanglish, really)when they are very tired or needing help. ¡Ayúdame! is often heard when one sister is squishing the other one, or if they are stuck. Recently we have discovered a show called WordWorld. The girls LOVE this show. Ever since they started watching it, our oldest has been blending letters and reading and writing all kinds of words. So, I know she learns auditory/visually, at least.
We have decided to create our own curriculum instead of using a boxed set, or an expensive program that packages all the "best" books for each subject together. I don't think one size fits all when it comes to educating children. We wanted stuff that was fairly easy to teach, in order to ease all of us into it. Something "scripted" sounded good to us! We also wanted something academically challenging, while allowing us to have realistic expectations of what she will be able to learn. We also sought curriculum that would be interesting for my daughter. The following is a list of what we have decided on.
Phonics/Reading - The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching is written by the co-author of The Well-Trained Mind, Jessie Wise. According to my research, it is usually effective, and generally easy to teach. It is very scripted. It includes a little more than 200 lessons that should take 10-15 minutes to teach. The first 26 or so go over the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they each make, so we will most likely skip those lessons since dd already knows those very well. By the time all the lessons are complete, she should be reading at about a fourth-grade reading level or so. She also has the first set of BOB Books. She can read the first seven or eight of these easy reader books by herself. As she progresses, we will probably purchase the second and third set of BOB Books as well. And I imagine she will continue to watch WordWorld.
Writing - A Reason for Handwriting: Manuscript A. This is actually the second level (so, first grade) for this writing course. Our younger daughter is going to work on the K book. The oldest can write her letters pretty well, but has trouble neatly combining them into words and the words into sentences. The K level just focuses on individual letter formation. The A level does a review of all the letters, then starts into words and sentences.
Math - Math Mammoth Grade 1-A. The two basic types of math curriculum are mastery based, and spiral based. Math Mammoth is mastery-based, and gets rave reviews from other homeschoolers. It has been favorably compared to Singapore Math, while being easier to teach. It is a worktext, which means she will work the problems on the same pages that she will learn it from. Also, we got it as a download. Whenever our youngest is ready for school, we can just print out the pages again! We decided on the first grade level, since she already could do everything Math Mammoth expects a Kindergarten graduate to know. She has been doing this for a few days now and LOVES to do math!
Science - Magic School Bus DVDs. I felt science and history, while important, are not crucial for her to learn quite yet. However, with these DVDs, my wife will get a much needed break during the day, either for herself or to spend some time with the newborn. At the same time, I hope the seeds of a love for science may be planted within the girls. Science is a subject I struggled with at times in school, and I know learning something you enjoy is generally easier. There are pre-built science kits that correspond to the DVDs that we will probably purchase if there is a science subject she particularly enjoys learning about, such as space, or sound, or water, or bugs.
Bible - Big Truths for Little Kids. Big Truths for Little Kids goes through a children's catechism via stories to help teach solid theology at a level even 3-5 year olds can understand. The only concern that we do have is that it does have one lesson that teaches infant baptism. We are creedobaptists as opposed to paedobaptists, so we will either skip that particular lesson, or use it as an opportunity to teach the girls about Believer's Baptism. Otherwise, every lesson includes the catechism questions, questions about the story that was read, a Bible verse, and prayer suggestions. We will combine this with regular readings from The Jesus Storybook Bible, as well as continuing in AWANA for Scripture memorization.
We are all excited for this upcoming school year! We received our shipment from Amazon today, and we have looked through the books we ordered. We will be starting our oldest daughter's formal education very soon, and then we will probably take a bit of a break while my wife is settling back in after the birth of our third daughter in July. Please keep us in your prayers. We need continued peace, encouragement, patience, and joy. For both the teacher/parents and the little students.
Now, you may not realize this, but there are several different types of home-educating. Some parents choose to do "school-at-home," some do unschooling, some use Charlotte Mason, some use Unit Studies, some use an online school. Some use a Waldorf method, some Montessori, some eclectic homeschooling, or some use the Thomas Jefferson method. Some explanations can be found here and here.
On top of the different philosophies for homeschooling, there are a plethora of curricula to choose from. You could choose an all-in-one boxed set, such as Horizons, or PACE, or Bob Jones, or A Beka. You could use a company that compiles the different books for you, such as Tapestry of Grace, or Sonlight. Or you could create your own. This would probably be the case if you chose to use a living books method of educating.
After doing much online and library research (which I LOVE to do) I became a fan of the Classical method as explained in the book The Well-Trained Mind, by Susan Wise Bauer. The thing about that is she doesn't really recommend starting formal education until the child is in First Grade or so. Until then, the important things are developing a love for learning and learning to read. Lucky, our almost-five-year old loves to learn.
She loves to watch movies and TV shows. We have Netflix Instant, and my two girls like to watch the normal kid shows that are on there, such as Dora the Explorer, and Diego. They often default to Spanish (well, Spanglish, really)when they are very tired or needing help. ¡Ayúdame! is often heard when one sister is squishing the other one, or if they are stuck. Recently we have discovered a show called WordWorld. The girls LOVE this show. Ever since they started watching it, our oldest has been blending letters and reading and writing all kinds of words. So, I know she learns auditory/visually, at least.
We have decided to create our own curriculum instead of using a boxed set, or an expensive program that packages all the "best" books for each subject together. I don't think one size fits all when it comes to educating children. We wanted stuff that was fairly easy to teach, in order to ease all of us into it. Something "scripted" sounded good to us! We also wanted something academically challenging, while allowing us to have realistic expectations of what she will be able to learn. We also sought curriculum that would be interesting for my daughter. The following is a list of what we have decided on.
Phonics/Reading - The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching is written by the co-author of The Well-Trained Mind, Jessie Wise. According to my research, it is usually effective, and generally easy to teach. It is very scripted. It includes a little more than 200 lessons that should take 10-15 minutes to teach. The first 26 or so go over the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they each make, so we will most likely skip those lessons since dd already knows those very well. By the time all the lessons are complete, she should be reading at about a fourth-grade reading level or so. She also has the first set of BOB Books. She can read the first seven or eight of these easy reader books by herself. As she progresses, we will probably purchase the second and third set of BOB Books as well. And I imagine she will continue to watch WordWorld.
Writing - A Reason for Handwriting: Manuscript A. This is actually the second level (so, first grade) for this writing course. Our younger daughter is going to work on the K book. The oldest can write her letters pretty well, but has trouble neatly combining them into words and the words into sentences. The K level just focuses on individual letter formation. The A level does a review of all the letters, then starts into words and sentences.
Math - Math Mammoth Grade 1-A. The two basic types of math curriculum are mastery based, and spiral based. Math Mammoth is mastery-based, and gets rave reviews from other homeschoolers. It has been favorably compared to Singapore Math, while being easier to teach. It is a worktext, which means she will work the problems on the same pages that she will learn it from. Also, we got it as a download. Whenever our youngest is ready for school, we can just print out the pages again! We decided on the first grade level, since she already could do everything Math Mammoth expects a Kindergarten graduate to know. She has been doing this for a few days now and LOVES to do math!
Science - Magic School Bus DVDs. I felt science and history, while important, are not crucial for her to learn quite yet. However, with these DVDs, my wife will get a much needed break during the day, either for herself or to spend some time with the newborn. At the same time, I hope the seeds of a love for science may be planted within the girls. Science is a subject I struggled with at times in school, and I know learning something you enjoy is generally easier. There are pre-built science kits that correspond to the DVDs that we will probably purchase if there is a science subject she particularly enjoys learning about, such as space, or sound, or water, or bugs.
Bible - Big Truths for Little Kids. Big Truths for Little Kids goes through a children's catechism via stories to help teach solid theology at a level even 3-5 year olds can understand. The only concern that we do have is that it does have one lesson that teaches infant baptism. We are creedobaptists as opposed to paedobaptists, so we will either skip that particular lesson, or use it as an opportunity to teach the girls about Believer's Baptism. Otherwise, every lesson includes the catechism questions, questions about the story that was read, a Bible verse, and prayer suggestions. We will combine this with regular readings from The Jesus Storybook Bible, as well as continuing in AWANA for Scripture memorization.
We are all excited for this upcoming school year! We received our shipment from Amazon today, and we have looked through the books we ordered. We will be starting our oldest daughter's formal education very soon, and then we will probably take a bit of a break while my wife is settling back in after the birth of our third daughter in July. Please keep us in your prayers. We need continued peace, encouragement, patience, and joy. For both the teacher/parents and the little students.
Monday, January 24, 2011
On Calvinism
So, I have been exploring theology lately, in no small part thanks to John Piper. I am not ready 100% to say I am a Calvinist, but I do admit I am leaning that direction. I stole this from his blog, since it explains it better than I can without all the baggage of saying you are a Calvinist.
I prefer to use the term "Reformed," which, if my understanding is correct, is essentially the same thing. When I hear "Calvinist" it makes me think of following the doctrines of a man, rather than of Jesus.
The original Christians were Catholics, but I believe the Catholic faith got very corrupted between Peter and the Protestant Reformation. It has since gotten better, but since I do not believe that the Eucharist is the actual physical body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation), I am a Protestant.
We are Christians. Radical, full-blooded, Bible-saturated, Christ-exalting, God-centered, mission-advancing, soul-winning, church-loving, holiness-pursing, sovereignty-savoring, grace-besotted, broken-hearted, happy followers of the omnipotent, crucified Christ. At least that’s our imperfect commitment.
In other words, we are Calvinists. But that label is not nearly as useful as telling people what you actually believe! So forget the label, if it helps, and tell them clearly, without evasion or ambiguity, what you believe about salvation.
If they say, “Are you a Calvinist?” say, “You decide. Here is what I believe . . .”
I believe I am so spiritually corrupt and prideful and rebellious that I would never have come to faith in Jesus without God’s merciful, sovereign victory over the last vestiges of my rebellion. (1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 3:1–4; Romans 8:7).
I believe that God chose me to be his child before the foundation of the world, on the basis of nothing in me, foreknown or otherwise. (Ephesians 1:4–6; Acts 13:48; Romans 8:29–30; 11:5–7)
I believe Christ died as a substitute for sinners to provide a bona fide offer of salvation to all people, and that he had an invincible design in his death to obtain his chosen bride, namely, the assembly of all believers, whose names were eternally written in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. (John 3:16; John 10:15; Ephesians 5:25; Revelation 13:8)
When I was dead in my trespasses, and blind to the beauty of Christ, God made me alive, opened the eyes of my heart, granted me to believe, and united me to Jesus, with all the benefits of forgiveness and justification and eternal life. (Ephesians 2:4–5; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Philippians 2:29; Ephesians 2:8–9; Acts 16:14; Ephesians 1:7; Philippians 3:9)
I am eternally secure not mainly because of anything I did in the past, but decisively because God is faithful to complete the work he began—to sustain my faith, and to keep me from apostasy, and to hold me back from sin that leads to death. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 1:25; John 10:28–29; 1 John 5:16)
Call it what you will, this is my life. I believe it because I see it in the Bible. And because I have experienced it. Everlasting praise to the greatness of the glory of the grace of God!
I prefer to use the term "Reformed," which, if my understanding is correct, is essentially the same thing. When I hear "Calvinist" it makes me think of following the doctrines of a man, rather than of Jesus.
The original Christians were Catholics, but I believe the Catholic faith got very corrupted between Peter and the Protestant Reformation. It has since gotten better, but since I do not believe that the Eucharist is the actual physical body and blood of Christ (transubstantiation), I am a Protestant.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Covenant
Definition of COVENANT
1 : a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement :
Instead of a New Year's Resolution, this year I am doing a New Year's Covenant. It is to work on becoming the man described below...
If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.Titus 1:6-9 ESV
…Be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive
1 Timothy 3:2-4 ESV
Feel free to hold me to this, if you see me not holding up my end of it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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