George Bryson

Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:23:33 -0700
From: “Mike Lawyer”
To: “Frank Turk”
Subject: Re: George Bryson

Hi Frank,

I did talk with Mr. Bryson on the phone. I assured him, without knowing how he quoted the CA paragraph, that Doug was indeed endorsing the book by mentioning it at all in Credenda.

Of course Doug was not endorsing it in the sense that he thought Mr. Bryson’s book’s conclusions were accurate, only that he described Calvinist theology correctly and well, which is what the quote on Mr. Bryson’s new book says.

Doug is still on vacation, but when I described what I’d told Mr. Bryson, he didn’t disagree with me.

Next week, he’ll take a look at it and probably write something on his blog.

Perhaps someone, like you, should do with Mr. Bryson’s book what Doug did recently with the atheists’ books.

Thanks for asking and paying attention to all of this.

Mike Lawyer
Christ Church, Moscow
www.hishandiwork.blogspot.com
__________________________________

With that, I offer my apology to Mr. Bryson for making an issue of something which is not an issue, and for any offense I have caused him.

A loose end I forgot about

Hello? Anybody still have a feed open?

This is a picture of the Dickson family. Matt and Jenna used to be members of our church, but they moved. The reason they moved is an interesting story -- they sold their big house in order to live is a smaller house; they wanted to live in a smaller house because they wanted to serve God with their money, rather than to serve their money.

That's an interesting idea, isn't it? Serve God with your money.

However, that's not why I'm violating the hiatus to post this. I linked to this video about a month ago:



In 2 weeks, Matt is slated to start work in Carrollton, TX, with Gospel for Asia.

Because 100% of all money given to Gospel for Asia for missions work is sent to the mission field, the home team missionary staff must raise their own financial support. The Dickson's goal is to raise a total of $3,600/month in support to meet their family's salary and insurance needs. This support is provided by those who feel led by God to partner with them in helping reach the 2.7 billion people who have never heard the Gospel.

Today, they have sufficient support in one-time gifts to make the move, but they are short by about a third in continuing dollars. Rather than overwhelm you with what a third looks like, here's what I'm thinking. Go to their blog, read their story, watch the video a second time (you didn't watch it the first time? One of my readers?), and send them a commitment for on-going support.

Now, under normal circumstances, about 300-400 people a day read the blog. With the hiatus being all official and what-not, there are maybe a couple-hundred hard-core hangers-on who are reading today. In that, I'm going to make two specific requests:

[1] Al Sends: contact Matt and Jenna and see if you can plug them on your radio show, dude. If you can't support them with $20 a month for the next 5 years, maybe you can get their story into the ears of 50 people who can. Even if they are Presbyterians.

[2] The rest of you: Think about $10/month to support this family who is going to serve God rather than money. Matt is giving up a great job -- the kind most of us are still clawing up the ladder to get -- in order to go and serve the Gospel with the talents he has. Jenna is, well, following him there, and taking 3 boys under the age of 10 without any questions. If 100 people can commit to give $10/month for the next 5 years, it will be a foothold for the Dicksons in their new life in world missions.

This of it this way: there are usually about 22 week days in any given month. Get a jar, and label it "Jesus Loves Matt and Jenna". Every week day, when you come home from work, drop 2 quarters out of your pocket change into that jar rather than dropping those quarters in the ash tray of your car. And when you drop that money in there, pray like this: "Father -- I'm grateful that at the end of the day I have a place to stay safely, and I have more than enough to live on. These two quarters are a gift which I usually take for granted, but today I'm not going to treat the extra you gave me as if it was worthless. Bless this money and the work of those it is going to support. Keep the Dicksons safe, and thank you for their example about what my priorities ought to be. I love you, God, and I am glad I can remember your grace even in this small way. May your name be glorified in this. Amen."

At the end of the first month, you can send the Dicksons $10, and you can keep $1 for an ice cream cone or something -- maybe the hardcore among you will give that $1 to your church as a love offering. But listen: even though this isn't Katrina or anything, this is the time we have to answer the question about who we serve.

Ok, ok ...

What a terrible week to give up blogging, but this is really the last one:

Here we have a Mormon defending a Hindu as if either of them believes in the same god. It's just too much.

Somebody please blog this. Please.

Hiatus

I've been on vacation for almost two weeks, which was nice. However, part of that time was spent assessing personal priorities, and it turns out that as much as I like blogging and believe I have something to say, it's at the bottom of the list of personal priorities -- and things which I say I value more than the blog are getting pushed out.

For example, I have a lot of weight to lose; you can't lose weight if you don't exercise, and I only have a fixed number of hours in the day. I also have two children who deserve to have a better Dad than the one who sits in front of that stupid flat screen monitor half the time, and I have a wife who works much harder than the average wife who deserves not to have to work that hard -- she deserves to have a better husband than I am.

There are also the issues of whether I am doing in real life what I blog so passionately about here, and again there being only so many hours in the day, you get the idea. What about my church? What about that trailer park? What about my pastor? What about the Gospel and lost people?

So that all said, thanks to you loyal readers. Keep your powder dry. booyah.

Loose Ends

• The Jon Zens paper didn't get finished here, but you can figure out the rest if you understand the stuff I have already posted. It will be on the top of the list of things to finish.
• I prolly have some snarky comments about GUTS Church which I could muster, but I don't have that kind of energy right now.
There's about to be an extended exchange at D-Blog with Dan Edelen about the Charismatic gifts. I'm sure it will be interesting

If you have something you need to remind me about, drop it in the meta. I'm sure I'll get back to it eventually.

Little is much

Listen to this 3-minute MP3 from John Piper and then ask yourself: will I trust God to say something right about Jesus to someone today?

Just say something. You.

Mean Calvinists, part 54671

You should read this post by my friend Mark. In the comments, where George Bryson makes an appearance, will be an educational experience.