Neighbour rage: In Italy a trial begins for those accused of killing their neighbours because of too much noise.
Shocker: After several deaths in Canada due to tasers, a study finds that they may not be safe.
Christianity: The Associated Press finally notices the Christian bestseller “Blue Like Jazz”
Caveat: If you wrestle in Jello, you accept the risks!
Parenting and the Bible: If your kids memorize Bible, give them context.
Church: Is the Church making a resurgence in Turkey, through martyrdom?
Conversions: (to Christianity) Are they worse than terrorism? Some groups in Indonesia think so.
Preaching: Do preachers really do it as opposed to just acclaim it? IrishCalvinist asks.
UFOs: Is Canada facing an invasion of aliens? Reports of UFOs in the North and in PEI. (I agree with one commenter, why can’t people come up with a better hoax given modern technology?)
Manners: A brilliant article by Mark Steyn on rudeness and the what it says about society.
Environment: An Australian professor believes that there should be a tax on having excess children, to better help the planet.
Canada: A young Muslim woman in Canada is murdered, and her father is in custody. There seems to have been a disagreement about her not wearing hijab to school.
Epistemology: A thumping good article on Christian worldview is posted at The Gospel Coalition.
Anger: Okay, I know that stories in the paper aren’t to be believed at face value. But if you read this story without getting angry, you are a far more gentle person than I.
It’s interesting how some people characterize the Gospel. We all know that “gospel” means “good news” (or at least we all know it now), and Christians know this is somehow central to their religion. The problem is that there are a lot of different gospels out there, and people need to think a bit on a given formulation of the Gospel before they know how close to the actual gospel we see in scripture.
One of these permutations of the Gospel is the “God is love” camp. Of course, the statement that God is love is true. We have it on scriptural authority that it’s true (1 Jn 4:16), God reveals himself as love. When we think a little, though, we recognize that the statement on its own may be a little questionable. After all, we live in a society that thinks “love” includes everything from sexual attraction to a particular fondness, to sentimentality. God thus becomes either a freaky stalker boyfriend (really freaky for heterosexuals like me) or a giant amorphous care-bear. This is definitely not good news, especially if one notices that we humans are quite adept at evil. It also assumes that the only object of God’s love is me.
The camp that focuses on God as love as the Gospel tends to minimize the problem of evil in the world. It seems to them that whilethe world is messed up, we ourselves are mostly okay. That’s simply not true from a scriptural perspective (Rom 3:23), and its manifestly not true if we reflect a little on how we treat others and think about them in our hearts (of course, maybe you, dear readers are far more noble than I…… I am a sinner, and become more convinced of it daily).
There’s something in me that wants the wrongs righted, that wants to see evil punished and justice prevail. The Bible promises us that God will do this, but that means there’s a problem for me, and anybody else who sins. If God is not just love, but also just and righteous, to fix the world and punish evil, he’s going to have to punish me somehow. I get the feeling my sin is a far bigger deal than even I imagine. If I am to come to God as I am, for God to be just to those I have wronged (including himself) I need to be punished. If God loves justice, and loves righteousness, and loves the people I have wronged, I cannot go unscathed before the throne of His glory.
The good news is that a just God has found a way to deal with my sin, taking the punishment on himself in Christ. That is true love, but it is neither a care-bear or a nutty sexual thing. Nor is the wholeness of that Gospel contained in the (true) phrase, God is love.
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:7-9
A lot of things are working together in my life to make me think more strongly about evangelism. I’ve had discussions with close friends about the need to do evangelism, and for Churches to stop being content with their own self-existence and get on with the great commission we see at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew (28:18-20).
Then, in my daily Bible reading I came upon the above passage. I hope that the following rant is not an example of what Martyn Lloyd-Jones calls “having a pet theory” of the scriptures.
It strikes me that God says to Joshua twice that he is to be strong and courageous. The second time is the one that’s interesting to me here, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”.
I think that the second command is actually more than just an imperative “you should be strong and courageous”, which seems a silly command if it’s just given out there. It’s like saying to someone “grow a third arm” or “fall in love with that girl over there”. The second time the command is given, it’s based partially on the statement that God has commanded it. What God is asking of Joshua here is not simply a willingness to screw up his courage and take the jump into leading Israel, but to trust God’s command as steadfast. What God commands is good, and in the power of God (and usually in the power of God alone) can be accomplished. This is why we see at the end of the statement the phrase “for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go”. There’s an implied proposition that Joshua should trust that the word of the Lord will stand firm and come to pass. That as Joshua remembers the Law and the acts of God and the precepts of God, he will see the faithfullness of God at work in the past and be able to trust God’s commands for the future.
But what does this have to do with evangelism and the great commission? Simply that we too have a command of God in Jesus Christ to go out into all the world and make disciples of all nations. That command is a sure one since it comes from God incarnate, and thus WILL come to pass.
Joshua had a land full of people in entrenched positions, and walled cities, and large soldiers which had scared his forefathers into not entering the land. We have a world here in the west overrun by secularism, entrenched in sin.
Yet as with Joshua, we have the promise of God Himself that the command He gives will come to fruition, we need only be used of God to do it as Joshua was. As Jericho fell, people’s souls can come to love and treasure God so much that they forsake their wickedness and earthly treasures.
Jesus ends the command in Matthew similarly to the way we see God ending Joshua’s commission in the Old Testament, “behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”.
We have the King of kings and Lord of lords giving us a command to go into the world and to make disciples, and we have his own promise that he will be with us in it. The work cannot be done by our power, but as with Joshua, we are not to trust in our power, but in God’s. His commands are not burdensome, and his word does not fail, so maybe we should start stepping out in faith, trusting in the word of God and his faithfulness in the past as a seal on what He can and will do through us to further His glory. Let us get to the task, after all, has he not commanded us? 
(considering) 8:28 