Listen to this...

I love Cannon in D. It is a great song. It was played at a wonderful wedding that I did this weekend. Take three minutes and enjoy this! Phillip

Book Of The Week VII

I also just finished The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life by Ramesh Ponnuru. It is an amazing resource on all issues pertaining to life: abortion, stem cell research, and euthanasia. If you are not informed on these salient issues it alone is valuable for this.

Ponnuru also takes us through how the popular notions of the history of abortion in America have become utterly distorted and he provides some good information to straighten out these false notions. He addresses infanticide and how people now argue seriously that parents should have the right to kill children during the first months after birth. He talks about the works of Peter Singer of Princeton University (recounted in chapter 15 in this book) and you will be aghast that such a person is given tenure and is shaping the minds of young adults for the next couple of generations.

It also deals with the changing of political tide in the Democratic Convention. He argues the party for the little man has forgotten the littlest man, namely the unborn. He shows how they made the killing of infants a part in their political machine. I loved this book because it is a secular defense of life. I can argue a Biblical defense of life, but the writer uses reason, history, and the courts, to show how un-American and devastating our nations killing of our unborn are. It was deep reading at times. It was a ton of information, which was so interesting I read faster than I should have and did not process it as well. But, I can reread it later.

Anyways, now I am moving on the The Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell. It deals with the blind ideas of liberals, how they implement them and refuse to admit their failure. Also, just cracked Why I Am Not A Calvinist by Jerry Walls and Joseph Dongell, name says pretty much what this book is about.

So, as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body. (13) When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His commands, because this is for all humanity. (14) For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

Pastor Phillip

Book Of The Week VI

“"Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.” I have started trying to re-read great books. I just finished re-reading Gospel and Kingdom by Graeme Goldsworthy it is a great book. He argues in the whole Bible you are looking for who are God’s people, where are God’s people, and are God’s people enjoying His promises. This all culminates in Jesus who is the focal and centerpiece of all Scripture and all of Scripture has to be interpreted in light of Him.

• Look at what Jesus says about this "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me" (John 5:39).
• "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27; cf. v. 44).
• "What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled" (Acts 3:18; cf. vv. 21, 24).
• "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures" (I Corinthians 15:3f).

In all of these cases, the writer quoted is saying that the Old Testament teaches the gospel. There is grace and continuity between the two Testaments It is a very simple easy to follow and very short. He has a longer version that is on my “to buy and to read list.” If you are not familiar with the whole story Scripture this would be a good book for you. Another book in the same view is God’s Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts. I have re-read it and I love. I encourage you to seek to understand the Bible as beautiful tapestry as opposed to disjointed devotional fragments.

Pastor Phillip

Good Question?

Why doesn’t God totally remove Satan and all demons now, since he will someday without their approval (Revelation 20:10)? John Piper answers this in the first paragraph of chapter nine of Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ.

The glory of Christ is seen in his absolute right and power to annihilate or incapacitate Satan and all demons. But the reason he refrains from destroying and disabling them altogether is to manifest more clearly his superior beauty and worth. If Christ obliterated all devils and demons now (which he could do), his sheer power would be seen as glorious, but his superior beauty and worth would not shine as brightly as when humans renounce the promises of Satan and take pleasure in the greater glory of Christ.

Think about Philippians 2:14-15 “Do everything without grumbling and arguing, (15) so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world.” How does this dark back drop bring even more beauty and glory to the good deeds that you do? Also, how does understanding this help you see the plan and purpose of God behind all that God does, even those things that we find hard to understand or appreciate?

Also, this was the daily Psalm I read this morning. It shines light on this as well

Trusting In God's Plan & WIll & Not My Own, Pastor Phillip

Who Wants To Take A Field Trip?

I loved field trips in school. We go to go to goat farm and milk some goats one time, random museums, a overnighter to Charleston. They were great. Mildly educationally, usually slightly chaotic, but I always looked forward to them. Well, I am not sure about this field trip in San Francisco. I was blown away by this. I found this here.

A group of San Francisco first-graders took an unusual field trip to City Hall on Friday to toss rose petals on their just-married lesbian teacher - putting the public school children at the center of a fierce election battle over the fate of same-sex marriage.

The 18 Creative Arts Charter School students took a Muni bus and walked a block at noon to toss rose petals and blow bubbles on their just-married teacher Erin Carder and her wife Kerri McCoy, giggling and squealing as they mobbed their teacher with hugs.Mayor Gavin Newsom, a friend of a friend, officiated.

A parent came up with the idea for the field trip - a surprise for the teacher on her wedding day."She's such a dedicated teacher," said the school's interim director Liz Jaroslow. But there was a question of justifying the field trip academically. Jaroflow decided she could. "It really is what we call a teachable moment," Jaroflow said, noting the historic significance of same-sex marriage and related civil rights issues. "I think I'm well within the parameters."

On Friday, McCoy and Carder, both in white, held hands on Newsom's office balcony overlooking the rotunda and recited their vows."With this ring, I thee wed!" Carder said, shouting the last word for emphasis.

After traditional photos, the two walked out City Hall's main doors where the students were lined up down the steps with bags of pink rose petals and bottles of bubbles hanging from their necks. McCoy, a conferences services coordinator, was in on the surprise and beamed as the children swarmed around Carder. The two met on a dance floor two years ago.

Creative Arts administrators and parents acknowledged that the field trip might be controversial, but they didn't see the big deal. Same-sex marriage is legal, they noted. "How many days in school are they going to remember?" asked parent Marc Lipsett. "This is a day they'll definitely remember."Carder's students said they were happy to see their new teacher married.

"She's a really nice teacher. She's the best," said 6-year-old Chava Novogrodsky-Godt, "I want her to have a good wedding." Chava's mothers said they are getting married in two weeks.

The students' parents are planning to make a video with the children describing what marriage is to them. Marriage, 6-year-old Nolan Alexander said Friday, is "people falling in love." It means, he added, "You stay with someone the rest of your life."

As is the case with all field trips, parents had to give their permission and could choose to opt out of the trip. Two families did. Those children spent the duration of the 90-minute field trip back at school with another first-grade class, the interim director said.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's not controversial for me," Jaroflow said. "It's certainly an issue I would be willing to put my job on the line for."

So, is your child going on this trip? What are you feelings? For your information this is what is at stake in the culture wars between conservatism (both social, political and religious) and liberalism (both social, political and religious). This is where the left wants our nation to be heading. They want to use schools, media, taxes, whatever they can find to bring about their agenda. We must be pray and be active. Remember as Edmund Burke said "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Not Liking At All San Francisco Values, Pastor Phillip