I just returned from speaking at a parent / teen apologetics conference in Anchorage, Alaska with my friend Brett Kunkle of Stand to Reason. While in the frozen northwest, he interviewed me about faith, culture, worldview, apologetics, the local church and the next generation on his Bulletproof podcast. Here is the audio from that interview. Here is Brett’s podcast.
Today he makes his much anticipated start as quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Some want him to do well…others are waiting for him to fail. Here is an insightful article into who Tim Tebow really is and what makes him tick as a person. What keeps him grounded and the vision he has for life.
“I was recently doing an interview with a nationally known sports reporter,” Tebow said. “She said, ‘Now that you’ve graduated from college, are going to the NFL, will make a lot of money, everybody will know your name and want your autograph … because of all that, do you count your life as a success?’
“I told her, yes, I count my life as successful,” Tebow said. “But not because I’m famous or won two national championships or the Heisman or going to the NFL, it’s because I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Now you can Think Christianly on your iPhone and iPod touch with our new app. What do Christians believe? Why do they believe it? Why does it matter? How do the latest headlines intersect with the Christian worldview? Check out the latest podcast and more!
The media is all abuzz about the recent comments by pastor Robert Jeffress on Mormonism, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney. The fallout has been widspread and the labels are flying. Thankfully, theologian Al Mohler offers some sane commentary from an evangelical perspective. The first thing we must do is not try to cram a complex, nuanced discussion into the space of a soundbite or tweet, “There are numerous ways to frame these questions wrongly. Our responsibility as evangelical Christians is to think seriously and biblically about these issues. The first temptation is to reduce all of these issues to one question….” Well said. The rest of the article is worth your time. It can be found here.
Also, here is a helpful website explaining the differences between historic Christianity and Mormonism.
John Dyer (@johndyer) has written an insightful article on Steve Jobs, technology and the image of God which is well worth the read. Here is an excerpt:
“Steve Jobs, the most visionary technology maker of the digital era, died Wednesday at the age of 56.
His death represents the end of the first era of computing when, under his guidance, the computer went from a thing nerds built in their garage to a friend everyone carries in their pocket. Sometimes called the Leonardo Da Vinci of our times, he made the computer personal, the phone smart, and the mouse magical.
He was also famously guarded about his personal life. He kept his family, his illness, and his religious beliefs out of the spotlight in order to focus on the things he made. But as he neared the end of his life, he allowed Walter Isaacson to write a biography, which will be released later this month. But until it comes out is there anything that we might learn from this man’s life and work?
Life and Work
A natural starting point can be found in the details we do know about Jobs’s life and business decisions. Born to parents who didn’t want him and adopted by parents who never attended college, Jobs went on to drop out of the same college where Donald Miller made his famous confessions. He and his friend Steve Wozniak (“the Woz”) started Apple in a garage, but years later his own board pushed him out of the company he founded. Undeterred, he started a new computer company (NeXT), and a few years later was invited back to Apple as a kind of savior. Then over the past 14 years, he hit home run after home run—iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad—each of which shaped computing, the music industry, and even the consumer. Are there not lessons here about second chances, redemption, and what can come from a little, unwanted baby?
When he came back as CEO in 1997, Apple was making all kinds of superfluous products like digital cameras, printers, and PDAs. One of Steve’s first decisions was to drop the axe on most of those extraneous products and focus the entire company on a single idea: making better computers. Should pastors do the same with the programs at their churches, trimming the fat, and focusing on essentials like the gospel, worship, and community? We could also learn from his treatment of archrival Microsoft. After striking a deal with Bill Gates, Jobs warned Apple loyalists, “We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose.” Could we not all learn from that in our congregations, ministries, and blogs?
But I think the significance of Steve Jobs’s life goes beyond these sorts of sermonettes. It is rather in his approach to technology and creativity that I think we can find a profound warning and hidden testimony of God’s grace.
Forbidden Fruit
Though Wozniak was clearly the brains of the operation, much of what made Apple successful was Jobs’s ability to market products in such a way that they didn’t feel like products, but rather a way of life, something you’re either in to or out of.
The company’s very name—Apple—is….” (read the rest of the article)
