Does God Exist? Video

This video has been going around. There is no way of knowing if Einstein ever said these things. The arguments made me think and I hope you also grow from the video. Now let it be said, from gut instinct, I don't agree with "Einstein's" argument, but cannot really provide a reason (yet).

Attitudes of a Believer according to Jésus (and Spurgeon)

It's been a long time since I last blogged. If you're reading this, I must tell you this very important thing: there are great blogs out there, why are you reading mine? You now understand my lack of blogging.


With that being said, I've just read some vital gospel-verses and HAD to share them with you.


This is what I read (from the mouth of Jesus):

"But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the [Pharisee]. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." (Luke 18.13-14)

I don't know if lights are going on in your mind. But tonight, as I read this, something clicked. "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" If you are a believer, do you talk to God that way? Frankly, I rarely do. But Jesus' comments are devastating for those of us who do not say: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!"
Why is that? Because, Jesus goes on to say: "this man went down to his house justified (right with God), but not the Pharisee." Do you see how crucial it is that we have this kind of attitude? We must realize that God would be just to punish us with eternal hell for our sins. That is what we deserve. Only when we realize this and cry out to God in anguish: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" can we be washed clean, justified by our merciful Judge.


I pray that Jesus' words alone would convince you. But since I just recently read a sermon by Charles.H. Spurgeon, I thought I would quote him.

"As we read in history of one who was met with a pardon just when the rope was round his neck, just so does God deal with poor souls; when they feel the rope about their necks, acknowledge that God's sentence is just, and confess that if they perish they cannot complain, it is then that sovereign mercy steps in and cries, "I have blotted out like a cloud thine iniquities, and like a thick cloud; thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee."

It may look sophisticated, but its still idolatry

Millions watched MJ's funeral last week. I didn't, but would have certainly watched a bit if I'd thought of it. Tim Challies writes a good post on the topic. He compares Indian religion and the funeral. Thought provoking. His conclusion:

"Yesterday we saw idolatry of a whole different order yet idolatry that is so similar to what I saw in The Story of India. There are some who, in their idolatry, bow low before gods of wood and stone and burnished bronze. There are others who, in their idolatry, live vicariously through celebrities and who bow low before the spirit of the age. Michael Jackson’s funeral, where God’s name was invoked and where Jesus’ name was supposedly held high, was as vivid an expression of idolatry as was the footage of hordes of Indian Hindus dancing with joy and veneration before their statues. One is a base idolatry, the other is sophisticated and proper. Both are the same ancient sin, the same ancient rebellion against the one true God."

Read it all here

Why Europe?

When many people think of Europe they picture quaint villages or iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower. Perhaps you think of the European Union or Europeans living flashy lifestyles. Christians may think of Notre Dame's soaring cathedrals or stories about Martin Luther.

However, the spiritual reality in Europe today is different than you might think. In this section of the website you'll find statistics, information on Islam and postmodernism, and common misconceptions.

In recent years people in the missions world have talked about unreached people groups in the 10/40 Window; many are now focusing on the 821 million people in the 40/70 Window. Europe's influence continues to grow and millions of immigrants are flocking to the continent—imagine what God can do through authentic believers living out their faith among the peoples of Europe!

Discover the 'What Europeans are saying about God" video.

Source: Greater Europe Mission

God is the Gospel, Praise God We Don't Have to Settle For Less!

Sunday, 9am. 


We're about to go to church. Today is a special service. We'll be split into small groups for discussion, but will start by having everyone give their testimony in 59 seconds.


That would be:
-How my life was before I met Jesus.
-How I met Jesus.
-What has changed since I met Jésus.

I've been studying what the gospel for the past few weeks. I had a hunch what it was, but I wanted to saturate myself with it. I'm not saturated yet, but this morning I'll be giving a short summary of Accepting the Gospel.
The book I've found most helpful (and simple really), are the first three chapters of God is the Gospel , by John Piper. Its brilliant!

Celebrating God's Death

Every year at Easter, we celebrate the death of God. But how few of us know this? Again today, in English class, the teacher asked the students what they did at Easter and what it was about. Notice that I was in class on Good Friday. In France we don't even get a holiday.

These past two weeks I've read through the gospel of Mark with a friend. Our goal was twice each week. There are so many mentions in Mark about the deity of Jesus. I would encourage us all to read through a gospel this weekend and stand amazed at Jesus.

Below is Mark's account of the crucifixion of God.

And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whol battalion. ¹⁷And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. ¹⁸And they began to salute him,^(X) "Hail, King of the Jews!" ¹⁹And they were striking his head with a reed and^(Y) spitting on him and^(Z) kneeling down in homage to him. ²⁰And when they had^(AA) mocked him, they stripped him of^(AB) the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they^(AC) led him out to crucify him.

 ^21(AD) And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. ^22(AE) And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). ²³And they offered him wine mixed with^(AF) myrrh, but he did not take it. ²⁴And they crucified him and^(AG) divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. ²⁵And^(AH) it was the third hour^[d] when they crucified him. ²⁶And the inscription of the charge against him read,^(AI) "The King of the Jews."

God's Wonderful Plan for Your Life

Someone just pointed this out to me, so I'm passing it on:


"Many people like to talk about “God’s Wonderful Plan forYour Life.” I think that’s a great thing! Yes! God has a Wonderful Plan for your life! I was recently granted an interview with the Apostle Paul and asked him about just that very thing.
+++
ME: Paul, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this blog interview. I know you have a lot going on so I’ll cut to the chase: Can you tell us about God’s Wonderful Plan for your life so far?"

Continue reading…

Source:  Berry

Semantics for a New Ager

I'm still listening to the Nightline Face-off "Existence of Satan" debate.

I'm getting very frustrated with Deepak Chopra's new age semantics. He tries to use words that we know, but in fact, he does not mean what we think him to mean. When he says "god", he could very well mean "energy force", "evolution" is "good", "entropy" is "evil" and the list of such words goes on.

Friends, lets not argue too quickly with non-believers. If you do feel the need to set someone right, define the terms first. Otherwise, check their motivation. If they are truly seeking the truth, help them. However, if they are just looking for a fight, just move on and go to the hungry. Time is short.

Would We Argue If We Defined the Terms?

I've just been listening to the Nightline Face-off "Existence of Satan" debate. I get so frustrated listening to the debaters. Deepak Chopra is getting on my nerves right now. He should have no right to say "God is love" because his "god" is not God. I wish someone had asked him to define the term or not use it.

Does Satan Exist? Bonus question: Who is Jesus Christ?

ABC's Nightline is hosting a debate on the existence of Satan. Nightline Face-Off opposes Mark Driscoll and Jenny Lobert to New Age guru Deepack Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson.  

You can watch a preview here.

You can watch the whole thing here.

The Awesome Watchmaker

Today is my parent's 24th anniversary. But having been too busy this week to write a tribute to them, I'll have to postpone it until tomorrow. Until then, enjoy this beautiful clip, The Awesome Watchmaker. I saw it tonight for the first time and thought it worth sharing. I don't know who's behind the project, but I congratulate their effort.

So Much to Write About

People tell me that a blog should limit itself to one or two topics. For example, if I want to do book reviews, I shouldn't do loads of theological topics, or talk about the persecuted church or random daily life. While I agree with the idea, it just isn't applicable for me (or I simply choose to ignore it). I will not do book reviews (in English). The blog world has several excellent readers that recommend great God-centered books. 

But just after today, I was reminded, that I would have to handle anywhere between 10-15 blogs if I were to be organized with my topics. I just can't bear that kind of strain. I'm just not THAT organized.

Today at school, I overheard (not engaged) a conversation about sex and all kinds of twisted ideas from the beauty of sex as God intends it. As I drove home, I saw a teenage girl fight with her boyfriends. My initial thought was, drop those jerks they're not for you. But then she gave them the finger and I just mourned for my generation. We are destroying ourselves. We go about not thinking, not wanting to think about the meaning of our life. Sleeping about, destroying the beauty of sexuality and of marriage and exchanging the satisfaction of God for worthless idols.

Then when I got home I glanced through the village paper. There was a schedule for the Family Planning section. On the same line were "contraceptives, abortion (in France they call it volontary interruption of pregnancy), and women's rights". I just wanted to burn the paper in sadness and in anger. If I wrote an article advertising my services to tell them about Jesus, it would be forbidden in our secular society. But to have feminists come and tell you what are the options available to kill your baby, that is welcomed!

Then of course I would also like to tell you about daily life in France and about daily Bible readings. There is also life in a small French church. There is so much to tell you about!

The God Who Is There (by DA Carson)

In an essay entitled “Do Christians Have a Worldview?” Graham Cole begins with the following lines as his opening paragraph:

He took the blade. It was bright silver. He loved the way it glistened. It felt good in his hand. He cut deep into her chest again and again. He showed no emotion, no recognition of her humanity. She lay motionless, her life gone. He made no attempt to cover the body. Later that night over a beer he openly talked to a stranger in the bar about what he had done. The stranger felt ill.

What does the paragraph mean? If the words refer to a serial killer boasting about his latest savage triumph, the sentences are pretty ghastly, and the man in the bar should call the police. On the other hand, if the words refer to a forensic pathologist who talks about his autopsy of a particularly interesting corpse, there is no criminality (though there may be a lack of professionalism in talking like this to a stranger). How you interpret the quoted lines depends entirely on the context...

Read the rest of the article. 

A Tribute to My Grandmother Sophie Kapitaniuk

The following post is a shortened version of the tribute I wrote to Mamy the week she died:

November 11, 2008

’Mamy’, as we called her, has gone to be with Jesus and is most happy now. Mamy was a pillar and model to me. Her influence upon my life is incalculable because she was a woman of prayer with great faith in God.

Though 75 years-old, she laughed like a child. God and the Bible were her greatest sources of happiness. When I dedicated my life to missions, she was perhaps the most excited of my whole family. In my grandparent's view, missions and the pastoral ministry were the highest callings and they wished to see the world engulfed in worship of Jesus.

The Bible was a daily source of comfort and strength. She savoured and meditated upon God's word each day. Because her sight was so diminished, she had to be read to. I often wonder why God would take away the sight of a woman who so loved the Bible, while most of us, though seeing, do not treasure the Bible as we ought.

By her death, Mamy leaves a void in my life. She was a friend, a prayer-partner, a counselor and my grandmother. Though short in stature, she is high in my esteem. Her treasure was Jesus, and therefore, in heaven was her heart. She lived out Psalm 71:

    "Even when I am old and grey, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come." Psalm 71:18

Though dead, her life will continue to speak. Death was gain to her, so her life was well lived. If there is one thing she would want for each of us, is that we not waste our momentary earthly lives. 'The best is to come,' she told me recently and now that time has come for her.

Happy New Year in the Bible! Let's Start Reading!

I won't comment on the year gone by. I haven't been writing simply because I've had better things to do. My habit has been to read through the Bible every year and every time several facts hit me in the face:


-My lack of discipline. I start so strong and finish having to read huge portions because I was unable to be regular and read EVERY day.
-My incoherence. I say the Bible is marvelous, what I read in it is marvelous and yet I struggle to read every day!
-God's greatness. That the very words of God could be put in a book so that I could know Him is simply unbelievable.
-God's plan of salvation for His children is clear throughout all the Bible.
-That the 66 books that make up the Bible have only one author. There is so much similarity despite the 2000 years that separate the first book and the last book, yet they are coherent with themselves and compliment each other in a way that must be divine.


I have many other facts about myself and about God that I observe every time I open the Bible, but it would form a very long list. My purpose was not to make a list, but to encourage each and everyone of us to pick up a Bible reading schedule/plan and resolve to read through the Bible again this year in a regular and ravenous manner. If you don't have a reading plan, there are hundreds on the web. Also you can click here and email me . Give me your address and your name and I'll send you the reading plan I'll be using this year.

Get the Old Ladies and You Win the War

While distributing the monthly flyer in my village, I thought of a video I'd watched. The video was made by Mars Hill Church in Seattle. On the web it is known as the "Banned Church-Planting Video" for an interesting reason...
Anyways, Mark Driscoll argues that a church-planter should strive to get the young men in their twenties. They are the innovators, the entrepreneurs, the leaders and the heads of young families. "Get the men and you win the war", says Driscoll. He is very convincing.

However, as I was doing my route in Recquignies, I was hit with the reality of my present situation. It seems that most people in the village are little old ladies, where am I supposed to find the men?
As I was talking to God about this, it hit me that Driscoll might have it all wrong. It isn't the men we need, for example, look at George Verwer's testimony. As he always tells us, some little old
lady put him on "her Holy-Ghost hit-list" (aka Prayer) and he gave his life at a evangelistic meeting.

So I felt that God might be saying to me, "get the old ladies and you
win the war..."

Tribute to a Great Little Woman

With tears and much joyful sadness, I write a tribute to Sophie Kapitaniuk, my 75 year-old grandmother.

After years of battling illness, her heart stopped last night (Friday 7th November) and the doctors were unable to do anything. She has gone to be with Jesus and I know her to be most happy now. 'Mamy', as her grandchildren called her, was a pillar and model to me. Her influence upon my life is incalculable as she was a woman of prayer with strong faith.

75 years-old, she still laughed like a child to express her joy. God and the Bible were her greatest sources of happiness. She was perhaps the most excited of all my family when I dedicated my life to missions as she had been praying that at least one of her eight sons would become a missionary. In my grandparent's view, missions and the pastoral ministry were the two highest callings and Papy and Mamy wished to see the world engulfed in the worship of Jesus.

The Bible was a daily source of comfort and strength. Because her sight was so diminished, she had to be read to. She savoured and meditated upon God's word each day. I often wonder why God would take away the sight of a woman who so loved the Bible, when most of us see and do not treasure His word as we ought.

Her grandchildren were another source of great joy. She always has loved children. Mother of eight, grandmother of 25 (this number is always on the rise), she loved having children around. Her grandchildren sensed this and reciprocated her love. Offerings of drawings, paintings and countless 'bouquets' of flowers adorned her house. Her smile will be a wonderful memory to cherish until I see her again.

By her death, Mamy leaves a void in my life. She was a friend, a prayer-partner, a counsellor and my grandmother. Though short in stature, she is high in my esteem. Her treasure was Jesus, and therefore, in heaven was her heart. She lived out Psalm 71:

"Even when I am old and grey, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come." Psalm 71:18

Though she experienced suffering that would have made most modern men doubt or renounce their faith, she clung to Jesus knowing that He held her tight. Her heart was for the lost and Bill and Sophie were always on the lookout for an opportunity to tell people about the forgiveness found in Jesus. How often I heard Mamy say, "Bill, give them a new testament!" or "Bill, here is a tract to give to that person!" She also told people about what she had experienced with Jesus, but Mamy was the praying strength in the 50 years of my grandfather's ministry of evangelism.

Though dead, her life will continue to speak. Death was gain to her, so her life was well-lived. If there is one thing she would want for each of us, is that we not waste our momentary earthly lives. 'The best is to come,' she told me recently and now that time has come for her.

The Perfect Deal, Sleeping to Glorify God

It is very frustrating how sleep-dependent God has made me. There must be some good in it. Perhaps to keep me humble as I would be prone to think too highly of my abilities if not hindered by my need for much sleep. I think my body needs more than 9 hours of sleep each day and it will never get them as long as I live.

Yet last week I had to come to a point of surrender. I was so tired and therefore so depressed that I despaired and cried out to God. I basically had to say, "God, you are God and I am not. You are great and I'm puny. You are wonderfully powerful and I am extremely feeble. I need you and you don't. I'm going to bed now, because I'm being a fool and you don't need me. I can sleep and you will continue to work out your wonderful plan for the salvation of your children, the joy of your elect and the glory of your name. Please give me restful sleep, in Jesus' name."

And with that I went to bed, cranky, tired and frustrated at how weak I am. Yet is this not a way to glorify God? To work with all your heart is God-glorifying, but to rest in His sovereignty is also wonderful worship, if done consciously.

So fear not you sleep-deprived generation. Glorify God by sleeping, granted that your life glorifies Him in the first place...

When Did I Give Up On It?

When did I give up on the belief that man has free will?

I don't know if I ever had this belief formulated, but I certainly acknowledged that Jesus had taken "a risk" by dying at the cross. This was a consequence of Phillip Yancey's influence in my life. I believed that Jesus died for the world, but we had the freedom of accepting him, or refusing him, hence the "risk".

While it isn't clear when I changed belief or what was the leading argument, it is clear that I no longer believe in the doctrine of Freewill.

If I knew what it was that had me convinced, I would use it to convince others as they become offended by my view. But I have no idea what it is that changed my opinion. All I know is that in God's sovereign grace, He saved me from my sins. He picked my out of my former ways and told me to live for Him. He changed my heart and I was enabled to love Him as He is the only being in the universe worthy of my worship and affection. In Ezekiel 11v19, God says it well:

"I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:"

In my sinful state, I know myself to have been utterly unable to chose God. God chose me.

How good is good enough?

What is excellence? How do you know if you've worked hard enough and
tried hard enough? While working onboard the Doulos, I often heard
people remark in this manner. They would comment on how the task was
above them, they couldn't do it and yet, by God's grace the job was
done. I don't want to criticize this view, as I've been there many
times. But there is something in that attitude that perturbs me. It
seems to say that we should be placed in jobs that our beyond our
ability so that God is the one who does the job.
This is all very nice, but couldn't we also say that we do our best
and no matter what we do, God is the one who gave us the ability to
do and will what we did? I don't know if this makes any sense. What I
suppose I dislike is the attitude, "I'm not qualified for this, I
have no idea what I'm doing." I would contrast that with, "I can do
this. I've studied, worked myself to a place where I can confidently
say, 'I can do this, through God who strengthens me.'"

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Phil. 2v12)

This is perhaps obvious for some and dumb to others. Again, I've
spent three years with the Doulos, where we're repeatedly placed in
areas out of our expertise. But in a general way, I think we should
take some confidence in our abilities and simply work our self hard.
And when we succeed in the end, we give God all the credit.
What I mean by this is simply:
Should we have a God who uses us in our weaknesses or a God that gives us strength? Are these different or the same thing?