Will glo Bible Replace Bound Bible?

Posted on April 3, 2010

GLO is the brainchild of Nelson Saba, a Brazilian evangelical Christian who was once, before his conversion, a technology vice president at Citibank. Three years ago, he joined forces with Phil Chen, a Taiwanese businessman whose family has an interest in the publicly traded company HTC, manufactures handheld wireless devices designed to compete with the iPhone.

Chen, 31, comes from generations of devout Christians and is a Christian minister himself, trained and ordained at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. He was in Afghanistan building schools and orphanages for poor kids when he started thinking about the ways in which he could use technology for a good cause. “If I give this,” he told me, gesturing at his cell phone, “to a child, I’m not giving him a book. I’m giving him a library, a university, a future.”

HT: Newsweek

How Good is Good Friday to You?

Posted on April 2, 2010

How good was Good Friday to the disciples of Jesus, our forefathers in the faith? How good is Good Friday to us?

The Garden of Gethsemane

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Are you Asleep?

Is your faith asleep? Do you rest unconsciously, not consciously, in the death of Christ? Many of us sleep to own our shame, possessing a faith of sleepy indifference to Jesus’ suffering. We desperately need a soul-awakening to the cost, merit, and person of Jesus Christ. We do not pray. We do not watch. We do not plead for deliverance from temptation.

While Jesus was weeping in the garden, we were sleeping under the tree. In one of his moments of greatest discomfort, we rested in unconscious comfort. What shame. What mercy!

What Shame, What Mercy!

As you contemplate our Savior’s excruciating sacrifice today, make much of his sacrifice by bringing your sins to him in confession. I began the day by confessing my unconscious reliance on the cross, my relative indifference to his suffering for my salvation and joy. What shame. Ah, but Jesus does not leave us in our shame. Extend your arms and soberly, gladly receive the benefits of his death—total forgiveness and total love. What mercy!

Maundy Thursday (or getting ready for Easter)

Posted on April 1, 2010

Kevin DeYoung has a helpful reflection on Maundy Thursday, the night of Jesus betrayal:

Like millions of Christians around the world, we will have a Maundy Thursday tonight. If you’ve never heard the term, it’s not Monday-Thursday (which always confused me as a kid), but Maundy Thursday, as in Mandatum Thursday. Mandatum is the Latin word for “command” or “mandate”, and the day is called Maundy Thursday because on the night before his death Jesus gave his disciples a new command. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).

At first it seems strange that Christ would call this a new command. After all, the Old Testament instructed God’s people to love their neighbors and Christ himself summarized the law as love for God and love for others. So what’s new about love? What makes the command new is that because of Jesus’ passion there is a new standard, a new examplar of love.

There was never any love like the dying love of Jesus. It is tender and sweet (13:33). It serves (13:2-17). It loves even unto death (13:1). Jesus had nothing to gain from us by loving us. There was nothing in us to draw us to him. But he loved us still, while we were yet sinners. At the Last Supper, in the garden, at his betrayal, facing the Jewish leaders, before Pontius Pilate, being scourged, carrying his cross, being nailed to the wood, breathing his dying breath, forsaken by God–he loved us.

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