Expelled

What's better than "Win Ben Stein's Money?"...that would have to be his film "EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED".

I know I haven't posted a blog in a good month, let's say it's been hectic. Beyond that I haven't really had any burning topics to post about. Our life, lately, has been very focused on the upcoming baby, our family, seminary, and the great things God is doing at Living Faith. But tonight, I found a topic to blog about.

One of the youth from our church loaned us a copy of EXPELLED, the Ben Stein Documentary. Needless to say this was a very interesting movie to watch. I would say that Ben Stein has hit a home run with this movie. (I really couldn't have watched this movie at a better time, since I visited the Creation Museum for the second time last Monday).

This movie takes a look at the scientific community's response to Intelligent Design. The movie is very clear that Intelligent Design is NOT creationism. Though I personally hold a literal seven day creation view, learning about the Intelligent Design school of thought, though different from creationism, was very interesting.

From what I gathered from the movie, Intelligent Design (ID), is just the thought that there was some sort of intelligent design behind the universe. This does mean that you are a Creationist, a Christian, or even an adherent to religion, it just simply means that you see a trace of intelligence in the creation of the universe.

According to the movie many scientists in the scientific community have been laughed at and "expelled" from their teaching positions and careers. The movie points out, what seems to be, a clear political and pushing of a Darwinistic worldview from our culture. I can't really do the film justice, but I would highly encourage you to watch it.

One scene of the movie that intrigued me dealt with some scientist who began discussing worldviews. I found that interesting, since worldviews are more on a philosophical level than scientific. The scientist said that the worldview that one has results in the science that they find. Once again, I cannot do the film justice, but it seemed to be implying that the worldview came first (NOT THE SCIENCE!). As a result of holding to an atheistic worldview, atheistic explanations that voided a Creator from the conversation was put forth. Now that's food for thought!

I know it's been out for a while, but go and watch it. A word of caution, if you remember Ben Stein from Ferris Buehler's day off.....the movie might be a little dry for you, I found the style and humor wonderful.

Update on Summer

Let's just be honest, I've not updated my blog very much this summer! Please forgive a brother, as it has been a very busy busy summer. But let me take a few moments to give you an update

At the beginning of the summer me and Taran took a trip to Cocoa Beach Florida, wow! It was a great Trip. We went to Universal Studios, Island of Adventures, and The beach. It was a great trip that I got to spend with my wife.
I was also blessed with being able to go on my eighth trip to Central America, Honduras. In Honduras we saw several people make public professions of Christ. We were so blessed in how God moved on our trip.
We also participated in the Daviess McClean County Associational camp, at Camp Schaffer. Kyle Franklin preached for us, it was a great camp.
As summer winded down, our church went into full swing. We have currently started a new sermon series called "Back to the Basics". In this sermon series we are covering the Basics of what Christians believe. So far we have talked about "The Word, God, and Salvation". I will be continuing to preach this series for a few more weeks.

One of the hardest moments of the summer came with the passing of my Grandfather, L.C. Gray, or Pap. Pap was a great man of God whom I am proud to call my grandfather. He was a tremendous influence on my life and taught me much of the scriptures. He will be greatly missed.

As summer is over, we are now pressing forward with a new semester at Liberty, Upward Flag Football and looking forward to "Find it Here". If you are not familiar with "Find it Here", you can find out about "find it here" on the website www.findithere.com. Did you like that? That's a lot of finding isn't it?

Hopefully we can all take a big deep breathe and embrace grat times of refreshing from the Lord. Be checking the blog often, b/c I have plans to update more.

More Free Sermon Media

Found this link on a blog...thought I would pass it on. Great stuff

http://neobaptist.com/2008/04/29/free-graphics-resources-for-churches/

Ed Stetzer on the Role of a Pastor

Ed Stetzer recently blogged about what the role of a pastor is. It's a good reminder to us pastors and to our congregations.

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2009/07/whats-a-pastor-to-do-a-look-at.html

Bethels?

Last week I had the privilege of co-directing our associational camp, at Camp Schaffer in Pellville Ky. Our theme was "Ignition". It was an incredible week. Overall we had 9 professions of faith, 30+ recommitments and one from our church called into the ministry. It was an amazing week.
Camp Schaffer is a very special place to me, because this is where God called me into the ministry at. I was explaining to Kyle Franklin, who was our camp pastor, that God will give us Bethels. Remember the story with Jacob and God wrestling? He named that place Bethel. Schaffer in many ways is my Bethel. This is place where I met God in a powerful way. There is nothing special about a Bethel, except it is the place where you met God. I'm thankful that my mind always recalls that great week that I experienced when I stepped foot on that camp ground. I pray that many of the kids from last week, will also have found memories.

Back from Honduras, Busy Summer, and a Baby?

Our '09 Honduras Trip has come and gone. Every year God is so good to us as we venture out with "Baptist Medical and Dental Missions International" on an evangelistic team.
This year we had a team of eighteen that stepped up to the plate to serve. We worked with missionaries John and Tina Woods as we worked in the city of La Esperanza. Working with a new church plant, whose name translates out to "TRANSFORMATION", we saw 60 professions of faith in Jesus Christ. It was truly amazing.
The city of La Esperanza was a very large place (20,000 people). It was also very wet. It rained about every day. During the rain I was reminded of the awesome power of God. We had the chance to minister in a school one day, during what seemed like a massive flood. Sadly as a result of the rain the kids were not allowed to cross the courtyard to come to the assembly that we were conducting. After waiting for almost a hour, we did what we should have done from the beginning. We asked God to stop the rain. And He did. I praise The Lord for being faithful to answer prayer. The kids were able to come, and we had 200 kids that were able to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ in a school. Our God is so amazing.
This trip was no doubt a wonderful time with Jesus! I was very thankful that we had two of our deacons from Living Faith, my wife, some from my previous church, and many other friends that I have acquired throughout the year. It was a great time!

When we got back home we were greeted with still a little more hectic summer to get through. We are gearing up for VBS, next week and very excited about the chance to minister to more children. We also have youth camp with the Daviess McClean Association the week after. Whew! It's all for Jesus!

Now...some great news. Taran and I found out that we are going to be parents in nine months. Apparently we took the little one to Honduras with us. How awesome is it that one of the first things our kid did was go on a foreign mission trip? Be in prayer for us as it is still very early. We want to be good parents that show the love of Jesus.

God is great.

East to West and then down South

Wow! What a busy week! Living Faith is sending out four mission teams this month. Our first one was a group to Eastern Kentucky, Lynch and Cumberland. They helped out with a large medical clinic that was conducted by the KBC. Taran and I drove down to visit the group on Thursday and came back on Friday night. It was a great blessing to see our group ministering with joy before The Lord. I had never really been to Eastern Kentucky, except for to preach in Pikeville (I literally drove in and out the same day), so it was really neat to see a lot of the ministries that are going on there.
We currently have another group ministering at Kentucky Changers in Princeton Kentucky. Today was their first day and they will be ministering throughout the week. Me and the wife just got back from worshipping with them tonight. It was a great service.
So we have traveled to the east of Kentucky and then to the west of Kentucky. Somewhere in the midst of this craziness I was able to work on my message for tomorrow. I'm preaching on Spiritual Leadership, focusing on Pastors and Deacons. I'm very excited about preaching on this subject, b/c it always makes me point the finger back at myself. A wake up call, so to speak.

We are preparing for Honduras as well. This upcoming trip will be my eighth and Tarans second. Please be in prayer for us. The fourth team that Living Faith is sending out this month will be a group of teenage girls that are going to Eastern Kentucky, they will be working in the ministries that we got to see. So we have traveled to the west to the east in one week, and soon to the south. Busy but rewarding!