What Does the Scripture Say?

Our little family has been very blessed by a small tradition we call “Table Bible”. Years ago  someone encouraged us to read a portion of the Bible after each mealtime together. So we’ve been reading through the entire Bible a chapter at a time. The Old Testament takes quite a while, but once you get to the New Testament, it flies by. So what I’ve started to do is to simply take a few verses, read them and then give some commentary. That seems to be helpful to the family. Sometimes we’ll read the entire chapter first, then go through it a few verses at a time with the commentary. We also read the MacArthur Bible’s introduction to each new book, which is helpful.
In order to facilitate this tradition, we purchased a cheap paperback Bible to keep on the kitchen table at all times (so if it gets spills on it, no big deal). We call this Bible “the table Bible” (original huh). I heard that Matthew Henry’s father did something like this which Matthew emulated and that became the foundation for his full Bible commentary. I’m sure as our children get older it will get even better as they start to ask meaningful questions. Right now, they do ask some questions, which is a joy. Well please keep praying for our little family, that I would die to myself daily and that the Lord would open the eyes of our children to behold the glorious gospel of grace.

This year at the 2007 National Education Association Convention America’s public school teachers will be receiving thousands of free Bible-based creation oriented books and DVDs! I hope you will join me in praising the Lord for this tremendous outreach that He has created for Answers in Genesis at the annual National Education Association (NEA) convention. For the past 11 years, by the grace of God, Answers in Genesis has donated thousands of dollars worth of materials to this public school teachers’ union conference, reaching thousands of teachers, principals and other school administrators with the unshakeable truth of God’s Word.

Last year’s theme was “Propaganda in the Classroom” and HERE is a brief report that details some of the excitement we had down in Orlando. You can visit http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/nea to learn more. Also HERE on Ken Ham’s blog is a presentation I gave to the AiG staff last year.

This year with the conference in Philadelphia, the theme will be “Evolution Exposed”. From June 30^th to July 2^nd, we will give out 2000 of the Evolution Exposed books by former public school teacher Roger Patterson. This book is a critique of the 3 most popular biology textbooks in the public schools. Page by page we show how the public schoolbooks are promoting the lie of evolution and its associated errors. Roger will be on hand to autograph books if any should so desire . In addition thousands of other DVDs and materials will be freely distributed.

Many have asked us, “How in the world did you get into the nation’s most liberal teachers union conference?” Well, with man this might seem impossible, but with God all things are possible. You see, we are not there officially as “Answers in Genesis”. We are merely supporting the NEA Creation Science Educator’s Caucus, which was started by a Christian public school teacher 11 years ago. One day he called AiG and asked if we would be willing to donate materials to this caucus to give out to thousands of teachers at their annual conference. Praising the Lord we quickly agreed to not only donate materials but also to send volunteers to man the booth.

God has opened this incredible door to be right in the midst of one of the most liberal political lobbyist groups in America. On the surface, this teacher’s union might seem to be interested in the welfare of the millions of students within their system. In reality, however, by their actions they are known to be a very strong front for Satan’s agenda of erasing any vestige of Christ and the Bible from our nation’s educational system. The NEA promotes homosexuality, abortion, moral relativism, etc. and has tremendous political influence. The government school system has effectively censored Christianity from the classroom, but not religion. You see, when they threw out the Bible and prayer from the schools, they didn’t throw out religion; they threw out Christianity and replaced it with the religion of secular humanism.

The goal of this outreach is to reach individuals with the truth about the gospel, the authority of the Bible and creation. Our goal is not to change the ‘system’ of the government schools from the top down. Personally, I believe it is too far gone and Christians need to conduct a mass exodus from this atheistic system. We pray that our presence at this liberal teacher’s union conference as well as the thousands of materials we give away for free would be used by the Lord to open hearts and minds to the truth that the God of the Bible is the Creator and Savior of the world ( Isa 45:21-22).

I’m so thankful to all of you who have supported this outreach, this direct evangelism ministry through your prayers and gifts. As many of you know AiG is primarily devoted to equipping the saints to do the work of the ministry, including evangelism. But this one particular time per year, God gives us the opportunity to do the direct evangelism ourselves and we are very thankful to the Lord.

We praise the Lord that in recent years more and more teachers are actually eager to see our booth there and are excited to see what new materials we have for them. We have heard many testimonies from Christian teachers who have been encouraged to see this light in the midst of darkness. Many other teachers may have good intentions but have been blinded by Satan into believing the lie of evolution and the lies of secular humanism. Please join me in praying that the materials they would receive would change their minds and hearts to the truth and reliability of God’s Word.

There are many Christians who are teachers in the public school system and they need our prayers in a mighty way because they are in a system that rejects the God of the Bible, that denies the lordship of Jesus Christ, and that neglects His sovereignty over the universe.

It is very difficult for these Christians; they need boldness to “teach in the name of Jesus” as the Scripture shows us that we ought to. Pray that public school teachers would not shrink back from declaring the whole counsel of God, teaching each of their subjects in light of God’s involvement in the affairs of men. Pray they would be a light in the midst of that darkness and not merely by their presence or their kindness, but also with their lips. Pray they would proclaim the gospel. Pray for each of us as workers in our particular environments. Most of us work in a secular environment and we need boldness to proclaim the gospel with sensitivity and in love.

Please continue to keep this evangelistic ministry in prayer. As you know, proclaiming the truth of the gospel and of the authority of the Bible will simply fall on deaf ears if the Holy Spirit does not open hearts. So we request that you offer up supplications to our God and Father that He would open up hearts as we fulfill His commission to us in proclaiming the gospel of grace to these public school teachers.

May you and your families grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever.

In these audio clips you will hear John Piper talk about his philosophy of Christian Hedonism and what its implications for the Christian life are. These clips come from three different sermons. Of course not everything that comes out of Piper’s mouth is wrong. He may be able to expound upon certain biblical doctrines very well. Unfortunately his whole life philosophy is “Christian Hedonism” which is to say, unbiblical and ultimately self-centered at heart (at the motive level).

For most, what you will hear will shock you. You will start to see that John Piper really is a hedonist, albeit a ‘Christian’ hedonist. He is entirely concerned with his own happiness and will do whatever makes him happiest. It is a very self-centered philosophy. Phil 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind consider others as more important than yourself. Do not look out for your own interests but also for the interests of others.” Christian hedonism is completely self-interested at heart and goes against this and many other Bible verses.

 Piper 'Pleasure' part 1: Downloads 497
 Piper 'Pleasure' part 3: Downloads 488
 Piper 'Love' Part 1: Downloads 364
 Piper 'Love' Part 2: Downloads 361
 Piper 'Love' Part 3: Downloads 369
 Piper 'Love' Part 4: Downloads 382
 Piper 'Love' Part 5: Downloads 477
 Piper 'Worship' Part 1: Downloads 367
 Piper 'Worship' Part 2: Downloads 370
 Piper 'Worship' Part 3: Downloads 465