Big roundup!  Grab a snack and read a while.  I was traveling last week (great visit to see my daughters!) and haven’t done much writing.

—–

Why does God let us suffer? — An excellent response to one of the most common objections to Christianity.  Side note: Atheists tend to use this as a trump card against us while ignoring that all worldviews must account for suffering.  Our explanation is far better than their’s, because they can never ground suffering with any meaning.

—–

False Teachings About Hearing Audible Words From God Taking Even Deeper Root in Today’s Church — this is such an important topic, as this destructive false teaching seems to be growing.  I was talking with an inmate during a prison ministry visit and he has been troubled for years because he thought he “heard” (not audibly) God tell him that he would be out “soon.”  He has stayed in longer than expected, so that obviously didn’t happen.  He is still a believer but it has damaged his walk.

As I always say, if you want to hear from God, read the Bible.  If you want to hear from God audibly, then read the Bible out loud.  If God speaks to you it will be unmistakable.  How can I know that?  Because every example in the Bible shows it that way!  The Bible quotes God roughly 3,000 times, and not once do the writers say they kinda sorta thought God might have told them something.

This topic is a good excuse to post this again:

—–

Contraception use increases abortion rates, and even the NY Times admits it.

—–

Tolerant leftists threaten to murder 14-year old girl for defending marriage — Can’t you just feel the love?  All she did was state the obvious — marriage is a union of one man and one woman — and people want to kill her.  Why wasn’t this front page news?

—–

Angry Arminians — They aren’t the reason I switched to Reformed theology despite being in Arminian churches my whole life (for right or wrong it was all about the Bible), but they did make me wonder why they were so angry and made me want to dig deeper.

—–

The most troubling modern trends — a great summary of where modern thinking has gone wrong: moral relativism, social nihilism, Constitutional interpretation and political correctness.

—–

The problem with making the morning-after pill as easy to get as a candy bar — Yeah, what could go wrong?

—–

Obama defends his record with a bunch of misquotes.  But the mainstream media already told you that, right?  Right?!

President Hayes, the TV flash in the pan, the horse is here to stay — they’re all at the Wikiquote page on “Incorrect Predictions.”

. . .

Christopher Columbus? Once upon a time, your average well-informed high-schooler, never mind the smartest president in history, understood that Columbus was laughed at not because everyone believed the world was round: Educated Europeans of his day accepted the earth was spherical and had since Aristotle’s time. They laughed because they thought he was taking the long way round to the East Indies. Which he was.

So let’s see. The president sneers at the ignorance of 15th century Spaniards, when in fact he is the one entirely ignorant of them.

—–

Leftist fake Christian ghouls use Trayvon Martin death for their political agenda — These “Christians” would have been glad to have the government force you to pay Trayvon’s mom to abort him, but now they are glad to use his tragic death to advance their agenda.  Do they speak out against the New Black Panthers’ “Dead or alive” incentives to kill the Hispanic gunman?  Do they speak out against black-on-black violence?  What was their reaction to the black-on-white hate crime where a 13 year old boy was set on fire because he was white?

—–

Another reason to like Santorum: The obligatory “Santorum ready to go after Internet porn as president” post.  There are many things Obama could be doing, but won’t.

America is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography. A wealth of research is now available demonstrating that pornography causes profound brain changes in both children and adults, resulting in widespread negative consequences. Addiction to pornography is now common for adults and even for some children. The average age of first exposure to hard-core, Internet pornography is now 11. Pornography is toxic to marriages and relationships. It contributes to misogyny and violence against women. It is a contributing factor to prostitution and sex trafficking…

—–

Jimmy Carter keeps embarrassing himself.  The latest is his use of the fallacious “Jesus never said anything about homosexuality” sound bite.  I used to want to like Jimmy for his Habitat work (even though he was a horrific President).  But alas, he keeps opening his mouth with his terrible theology.

—–

I’m glad a former elder is speaking out against Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill church.  They  had potential to do good things but it looks like egos got in the way.

—–

Pro-’Gay’ Liberals Dare Not Discuss This … Homosexual Health Risks — gruesome but true.

—–

A great summary of home schooling.  I wish we would have done this for both girls and for much longer.  Hat tip: Debunking Atheists.