If you are in a church that has resisted the temptation to professionalize worship, you are blessed. If not, my heart goes out to you. In any event, family worship will deepen your appreciation for biblical worship and make the corporate experience that much richer. However, I must caution you—family worship also has a tendency to open your eyes to the shallow, mundane, worldly aspects of the modern “worship” scene.
– Voddie Baucham
What can I say about this book other than I absolutely loved it. This was the very first book published in the Lamplighter series and was the Lamplighter series “book of the year” in 1996. This continues to be my favorite Lamplighter book (see all Lamplighter books here) and is easily one of my favorite books of all time. I couldn’t put it down and now I can’t stop raving about it.
I was skeptical at first–reading a book first published in 1878 with the title The Basket of Flowers tends to lead one to believe it’s chick-lit (for lack of a better term). However, was I very, very surprised.
This is Christian literature at its finest. Each chapter imparts lifelong lessons and leaves you feeling like you just received a doctrinally sound sermon. The gripping story drives home the lesson to remain faithful and thankful to God even in the midst of great trials and especially when standing in the face of false accusation and persecution for crimes you didn’t commit. I cannot recommend this book enough for the Christian reader and even Dr. Tedd Tripp (who wrote Shepherding a Child’s Heart) wrote an endorsement for the book on page 4.
This book needs to be on the bookshelf in every Christian home and read by young and old, boy and girl, mother and father. You and your family will not be disappointed.
The publisher says:
This first book of the Lamplighter Rare Collector Series continues to be a best-seller. James, the king’s gardener, teaches his 15-year-old daughter Mary all the principles of godliness through his flowers. She is falsely accused of stealing, and the penalty is death. Mary remembers what her father had taught her: that it is better to die for the truth than to live for a lie, and that the worst pillow to sleep on is the pillow of a guilty conscience! This story will change your life forever!
Vision Forum says:
Within this simple, unassuming book is an inspirational story for young ladies not to be rivaled by any of the novels currently circulating in Christian bookstores. Set in Germany 100 years ago, The Basket of Flowers is the tale of a godly young woman and her father who wrongly suffer great persecution, but who learn to trust the sovereign hand of God through every difficult circumstance. My wife was so transfixed by this story that she read it in one sitting.
Other reviews:
“I am giving The Basket of Flowers to my grandchildren. I have no doubt they will devour it.” -Elisabeth Elliot
“I would like to express my thanks for printing The Basket of Flowers. It is a wonderful book with many virtues we need today in this world. The The Basket of Flowers has given me a new perspective of the Bible and at the same time making a better Christian out of me and my family. Thank you so much!” -Carissa
This is the touching story of a young girl and her father. Originally written by a french author, and later translated into english, this is a book that is sure to be passed down from generation to generation. I am 12 years old and my mother just recently purchased this book for me. I wish every girl could have a copy of this book!Also recommended: The Elsie Dinsmore Series, any books by Martha Finley, any books by Oliver Optic, C.H. Pearson, or Horatio Alger Jr. Please, if you want your daughter to read wholesome, enjoyable, thought-provoking, and character building books I suggest you purchase A Basket of Flowers immediately! (Reviewer unknown)
When I fist read this book I was only 9. Having been taught to read by my great grandfather, who embodied education. This was one of his favourite books. I found it very sad and at times depressing however, it teaches one that goodness always prevails even in the shadows of death. One learns courage and the depths of love that one can have for their family. This is a book that I will forever share with my great grandfather even though he has left this earth 13 years ago. I could still smell the old hard cover text with the neat engraving on a small basket of flowers. ( I had a very old version). It’s a book that I will always cherish. – Andrea Paul McPherson
I found this book on the library shelf. It caught my eye because it was small and old looking. (I like vintage things) The first chapter into this book I instantly knew it was going to be one of my few favorites!
This tale is about a father teaching his daughter about her Heavenly Father. I am seventeen and found this book as intriguing as my favorite classic Pride and Prejudice.
What this book has to offer is character building, and a learning passion for the Lord our Father in Heaven, who always hears our prayers and cares for us far beyond our understanding! – Alli
You can purchase this book at Family Faith Books by clicking here.
Neither Paul nor any other legitimate church leader in 2000 years has ever found it necessary (or even helpful) to use streetwise sex education—not as an evangelistic strategy, and certainly not as a means to sanctification for people already overwhelmed with sex-talk from a corrupt culture. Adopting the world’s obsession with sex and filthy talk cannot possibly have a sanctifying effect, because the strategy itself is unholy.
The notion that degenerate subcultures and sexually-addicted people cannot be reached without “learning to speak their language” is an absolute fallacy. Grace Church is seven miles from Hollywood, in the heart of Southern California, in a carnal, pleasure-mad culture well-known worldwide for everything but healthy spiritual values. No city in America is more “unchurched” than our valley, which houses more than three million people. The people of Grace church are reaching friends and neighbors in every imaginable subculture—from ex-cons to ex-Catholics to people in the entertainment industry. We baptize new believers virtually every Sunday night. It is neither necessary nor helpful to inject explicit sexual references into the conversation in order to reach people from such a culture. God draws them to Christ through the gospel.
– John MacArthur
The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. – Luke 6:45
In the past DefCon has taken issue with Mark Driscoll on several concerns including his gutter mouth, lack of reverence for God, and even his mocking of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Most of the time I’ve played a less-than-active role in these matters as other contributors have mainly been on the front lines. Well today I’m getting in the trenches because I’m furious at Mark Driscoll and Pilgrim Radio for what transpired yesterday. Here’s the story:
My wife told me about a sermon Pilgrim Radio was playing on the radio as she was returning home from the grocery store with our young children in the car. She said that the man preaching (she had no clue who he was so there were no preconceived notions or expectations) was talking about “prostitutes,” “whores,” and “lesbians” and that he kept using these expressions as if trying to be shocking.
My wife who knows very little—if anything—about Mark Driscoll hit the nail on the head in her evaluation of him.
She then told me that this same man began talking about wives in submission to their husbands and how oftentimes men abuse this. Instead of using an innocuous example to make his point he chose to expound on such abuse by illustrating an example in which men misuse their wives’ submission by making them watch porn!
Seriously? Are you kidding me? That’s the best example he could come up with? For crying out loud, my kids were in the car and heard this trash before their mother turned it off. Does this guy’s mind ever come up out of the gutter for air?
Consider, if you will, all the images that were conjured in the minds of those who heard this man go on about porn yet again (he was talking about porn in another sermon just a few weeks ago on Pilgrim Radio). Does he not care about all those who are struggling with pornography who listened to this pastor expecting to hear the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ preached in reverence, only to their minds drawn back to the gutter? How many men and women at that moment had impure thoughts rush into the battlefields of their minds because of Mark Driscoll’s seemingly insatiable appetite for discussing all things sexual in a public forum?
How dare he stand in a pulpit spewing such juvenile, perverse, and debase ideas under the guise of preaching? And how dare Pilgrim Radio air such filth from the ever-flowing open sewer of the mouth of Mark Driscoll?
When my wife described this to me I immediately knew who she was referring to because during the same hour of the morning that this sermon was oozing across the airwaves, I also had turned on Pilgrim Radio and heard Mark Driscoll talking about men liking noisy power tools because it drowns out the constant yapping of the wives they hate. Are you kidding me? This was coming from the pulpit and Pilgrim Radio thought this was acceptable? What an obnoxious thing to say!
Needless to say I immediately turned off the radio. Little did I know, fifty miles away my wife and little children were about to have their minds polluted with the whimsical handling of the matters of “prostitutes,” “whores,” “lesbians,” and “porn.” These are not matters that my children should have to be exposed to in such a flippant manner, especially by one who claims to be a minister of the Gospel and on a radio station that claims to be Christian.
My wife had no idea who this profane man on the radio was but she had enough sense and discernment (which seems to be lacking in so many others) to reject him and change the radio station.
Now let me clarify something to avoid any confusion, I am not opposed to such words (and dealing with such subjects) as “prostitution” and “whores.” They are real sins, and they are addressed within Scripture. What I am opposed to is the use of these subject (ad nauseum I might add) by Driscoll (or anyone else for that matter) to make people laugh or to be shocking. There is a way to handle sensitive and weighty issues such as these without reverting to a juvenile mentality.
It’s the same as the expression “Oh my God.” The words themselves are not the problem, but the spirit behind them and how they’re being delivered. The way the Psalmist cries out “Oh my God” is completely different than the way a thirteen-year-old girl shrieks “Oh my God” when the boy she has a crush on invites her to prom. If you cannot see the difference, then I don’t expect you to understand the point of this post.
As a result of this, I have done the following three things:
1). I’ve removed Pilgrim Radio from this blog as they will no longer be endorsed by DefCon.
2). I wrote to the once trusted Pilgrim Radio a lengthy letter detailing my disappointment of them for allowing this type of material to be aired. Unfortunately their entire response was:
Thank you for your thoughtful remarks on Pilgrim Radio’s programming. We were, of course, sorry to learn that you no longer feel comfortable in endorsing our ministry which is aimed at a very broad segment of the Christian community. We do appreciate your enthusiastic past support. God bless you.
3). All the Driscollite defenders who patrol the internet and swarm blogs such as this to offer excuses for their Golden Calf will have to find another soundboard for their approval of and winking at sin as their comments will no longer be welcome here. I refuse to provide a platform for their calling evil good and good evil.
Our family strives to be holy in spite of being surrounded by the world, the culture–and now even the professing church which is indistinguishable from the world and culture–where holiness is a strange and foreign concept, and oftentimes openly mocked by those who should know better (those who claim to be Christians while still practicing lawlessness). So when the wickedness of the world sneaks in via a Christian radio station you can imagine my surprise, anger, and disgust. My kids should have never been subjected to this filth and as their father it’s my responsibility to protect them and keep them pure.
Shame on Mark Driscoll for using the pulpit to advance his agenda, and shame on Pilgrim Radio for giving this purveyor of perversity a platform to poison my precious children with his toxic, man-centered, flesh-pleasing oratory.
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate. -Proverbs 8:13
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I do not stand alone in my concern of Driscoll’s pornification of the pulpit. See related:
Sound Doctrine; Sound Speech (A sermon by Phil Johnson delivered at the 2009 Shepherd’s Conference)
John MacArthur on Mark Driscoll (Part 1)
John MacArthur on Mark Driscoll (Part 2)
Finally, it seriously overstates the involvement of John Piper and C. J. Mahaney to say they are “discipling” Mark Driscoll. In the first place, the idea that a grown man already in public ministry and constantly in the national spotlight needs space to be “mentored” before it’s fair to subject his public actions to biblical scrutiny seems to put the whole process backward. These problems have been talked about in both public and private contexts for at least three or four years. At some point the plea that this is a maturity issue and Mark Driscoll just needs time to mature wears thin. In the meantime, the media is having a field day writing stories that suggest trashy talk is one of the hallmarks of the “New Calvinism;” and countless students whom I love and am personally acquainted with are being led into similar carnal behavior by imitating Mark Driscoll’s speech and lifestyle. Enough is enough.
– John MacArthur
Yet another fantastic sermon by Don Green. This week DefCon presents both parts of his two-part message on the narrow path spoken of by Jesus in Matthew 7:13-14. This is one of those texts that I never tire of hearing because it is such an essential truth of the Bible so often overlooked and ignored by much of professing Christendom today, but yet so very serious to a man’s soul.
You can download the audio version of this video by right-clicking here.
As reported at KSL News:
SOUTH JORDAN — There were some 6,000 to 8,000 lightning strikes in the Salt Lake Valley Saturday, and it appears one of them struck the new Oquirrh Mountain temple.
Witnesses say the lightning blackened the arm, trumpet and face of the Moroni statue that sits on top of the temple’s steeple.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not confirmed the lightning strike.
And if the LDS organization never confirms the lightning strike, then it never really happened.
In the realm of subjective confirmations, a lightning strike trumps a “burning in the bosom” any day.
HT: Christian Research Council
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See related: Let the idols hit the floor!
One expects to see Osteen, Warren, Jakes, Meyers, Bell, Driscoll, and Schuller on the shelves of their local Christian bookstore because they will sell whatever people will buy (regardless if it’s damaging to the soul, detrimental to the Christian’s walk or out right heretical). But I was shocked to discover what my local “Christian” bookstore was selling now .
I walked into the bookstore and (once I passed all the Jesus trinkets) lo and behold staring at me from the bookshelf was none other than The Shack. This tome of doctrines of demons was prominently displayed eye-level in the number one spot on the best seller’s bookshelf.
This, if you recall, is the same bookstore I previously posted about in regards to the owner’s reasons for selling books steeped in rank heresy. In that post (you can read it here) I asked the question if Christian bookstore owners are responsible for what they sell? In a post prior to that on the same topic I inquired of whether or not the readers of DefCon support their local Christian bookstore? You can read it here.
There is absolutely no excuse (other than the desire to make money) for any supposedly Christian bookstore to sell The Shack. And claiming ignorance will not suffice.
For those wondering what the stink about The Shack is all about, allow me to quote a description of the book from the January 2009 Writer’s Digest magazine (a secular periodical) who wrote a favorable piece on William Young’s book:
In Young’s story, Jesus is a dark-skinned Middle Eastern Jewish man who thwarts Mack’s expectation of a hunky blonde Jesus. God isn’t a white-haired wizard figure, but rather a matronly black woman who calls herself “Papa” in an attempt to challenge Mack’s preconceived notions. The Holy Spirit is a transparent creature named Sarayu who can’t be seen directly.
What business does a “Christian” bookstore have selling this rank heresy?
Most people will agree that they are sinners. However, few will readily admit that they are helpless sinners. There is a big difference.
– John R. Cross
Your sermon of the week is part one and part two of Paul Washer’s message entitled Biblical Manhood. This concludes our four-week series on manhood leading up to Father’s Day.
If you only listen to one message on fatherhood this year, make it this one. I think I’ve certainly saved the best two sermons on fatherhood for last, and I trust that you’ll agree.
I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock . . . – Acts 20:29
Source: Africa Center for Apologetics Research
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See related posts:
Charismania unrestrained: Africa’s witch children
The Hell-bound false prophetess Helen Ukpabio of Liberty Gospel Church in Nigeria
Take notice, that it stands as a blot in the reputation of the Corinthians, that they were altogether for a gospel that should cost them nothing. Corinth was the most convenient, and so the most frequented, port of trade in all Greece. The inhabitants are said to have been very wealthy, proud, and voluptuous. They had abundance to spend upon themselves, but could find nothing for Paul, while he resided among them, and preached the gospel to them. . . . It is a sad word, but too frequently experienced, that a faithful minister of Christ may labor, and yet live in want, in a wealthy city.
– George Hammond
Ingrid covers the arrested development plaguing many Westerners in this CrossTalk episode: Death of the Grown-up.
This edition of Crosstalk begins with Ingrid’s review of Diana West’s book, The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development is Bringing Down Western Civilization.
Do you remember a time when kids wanted to grow up to be like their father or mother? Unless you are a certain age or older, you may not even notice the shift that has taken place whereby American adult men and women, many in the church as well, often look and act like “teenagers.”
The highlight of this program is caller discussion that focuses on this idolatry of adolescent immaturity, and how we can get beyond that and raise children properly toward Christian adulthood.
The storm is coming folks. You simply can’t ignore the sounds of thunder on the horizon.
We continue with week three of our four-week series on Biblical manhood. This week’s sermon of the week is aptly entitled Biblical Manhood by Voddie Baucham. I trust that you will be blessed, challenged, convicted, and encouraged by both parts one and two.
Many a man’s knowledge is a torch to light them to Hell.
– Thomas Watson
1620 – 1686
The man who is thoroughly devoted to the Lord does not need to wear some badge in his coat lapel, nor to proclaim that he is “living a life of victory.” It is still true that actions speak louder than words.
– A.W. Pink
1886 – 1952
God saw all that He made, and behold, it was very good . . .
-Genesis 1:31
Christ Alone Wyoming 