The OOC

Saw this in the latest ByFaith Update:

“In All Things…”: The Preeminence of Christ in the History of Covenant College, 1955-2005, authored by Dr. William S. Barker, is now available for purchase. Commissioned to commemorate Covenant’s 50th anniversary, this limited edition book features a foreword by President Niel B. Nielson, photographs spanning the half-century history of the College, and observations on all aspects of Covenant’s history. The first five hundred books will be signed and numbered. To order “In All Things…”, send a check for $55 to cover the book and mailing, make payable to and mail to:

The Covenant College Foundation
534 Chestnut Street
Suite 100
Chattanooga, TN 37402

Or, I’m guessing you can talk to that humble, unassuming fellow who sits over on the left-hand side of the congregation with his wife during worship… Congrats, Dr. Barker.

Granted, with a record of 51-47, “success” may be overstating it a bit, but the story‘s interesting all the same:

NEW YORK — As Mike Piazza stood by his locker Thursday, discussing the state of his career — “I look at it and surrender to it. It is what it is,” he said — a book titled, “Your Best Life Now,” courtesy of Carlos Beltran, rested in the adjacent locker, awaiting his eyes.

The book had been recommended to Beltran by his pastor in Puerto Rico. He bought one, and he and his wife, Jessica, began reading it together.

“It’s a good book. It’s about life and how to walk straight,” Beltran said. “I wanted to share it with all my teammates.”

So he bought books for everyone.

“Not just for Mike,” Beltran said.

In case you’re not a teammate of Carlos Beltran’s, Your Best Life Now is a bestselling book by “Houston megachurch pastor and inspirational TV host” Joel Osteen, in the words of Amazon’s review. I had heard that Beltran was a believer, but frankly I’m disturbed that an ultra-wealthy major-league ballplayer is sharing the prosperity Gospel with fellow millionaires. If you’re not entirely familiar with what Osteen, et al, teach, Ken Silva has a good backgrounder.

Let’s go, Mets — to the real Gospel, that is.

Fox news reports today that many couples are choosing alternate pledges to the traditional “until death do us part.” I’m wondering… is this a good thing (i.e., people are being honest about the fact they intend to stay married only as long as it suits them) or a terrible thing (no explanation needed!)? I certainly think it’s unacceptable for professing Christians and probably detrimental to society in general, even if it does reflect what is already a reality for many people (for a good “common grace” explanation of why marriage as an institution is important to our society, read The Case for Marriage).

A growing debate in the world of stem-cell research is whether injecting human stem cells into the brains of monkeys, especially fetal monkeys, could produce a moral monkey. Interesting in a time when many scientists are telling us that we are no more than animals ourselves, they would now debate that animals could become moral with human stem cells. The scientific world has become so very confused – we are all just animals, we are moral beings. Which is it!? The church plant has been conducting a “Questions of the Faith” series and next week we will be discussing how scientists form their hypotheses (are they using pure scientific methods, or is there something else behind it all – a personal belief system).
This kind of debate illustrates just how much our own belief system shapes how we interpret the world around us. Obviously, if there is no God and we are all just animals created from one cell, there is no reason to think that human stem cells would affect the moral values of a monkey. However, if we recognize that human beings do possess some moral values, we have to decide whether or not these values are genetic or if they come from another source (God). If there is a genetic tie to moral values, we should be very concerned about injecting human stems into the brains of monkeys. The human cells could infuse some kind of moral fabric into the monkey genetic code. Who knows where that could take us! On the other hand, if the God of the Bible is real, and “humans are set apart by God as morally speical and are given stewardship over other forms of life” (Genesis I: 26-28), then the debate is over and there is no possible way for the monkey to ever posses the kind of moral values that humans are given by God.

This from today’s ByFaith Update:

The Spurgeon Archive
The Spurgeon Archive includes many free, online writings of Charles Hadden Spurgeon (1834-92). Sermons, books and tracts online include: “The Treasury of David” (on the Psalms), “Morning and Evening” and Faith’s Checkbook, the “Sword and the Trowel” tract evangelism, “All of Grace,” “Sermons in Candles,” much more. Tour the Spurgeon Library at William Jewell College; see Spurgeon’s handwritten sermon notes. Go to http://www.spurgeon.org/.

If you’re interesting in additional information about Iraq’s history after reading the Smithsonian article (Iraq’s Unruly Century) passed around after worship Sunday in preparation for our Iraqi guest speaker at House Church Wednesday, here are a few links:

• Iraq, After the Flood
• Baghdad’s Buried Treasure
• Can It Happen? The chances for Iraqi democracy