Off To Seattle

Two big things. My dad has fallen 15 feet and broken his left arm and pelvis. He also had surgery to remove his spleen. I am told he is doing well.

The other thing is that my wife and I are going on our 15^th anniversary date. This date will last a week on the Mercury Cruise liner. We are departing from Seattle seaport. Sunday night. Dr. White will start a week’s worth of teaching on the historicity and theology of the cross.

The cross is central to the Christian life. Our churches may offer McDonalds in the foyers, or classes on how to balance check books. If everything is not about the foolishness of the Cross, then it could be done by any religious or civic organization.

The Apostle Paul tells us 1Co 1:18 “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

It is precisely through this foolishness that God has chosen to save His people. After five days worth of teaching and fellowship, on Friday night Dr. White will debate Shabir Ally, Muslim Apologist. If you are a Christian who reads this, please keep in mind the Muslim sees the Cross as total foolishness. In the Muslim world, Allah would never allow a Prophet to die a death by the vilest means. Martin Hengel’s work, Crucifixion, says,

“By contrast, to believe that the one pre-existent Son of the One true God, the Mediator at creation and the Redeemer of the world, had appeared in very recent times in out-of-the-way Galilee as a member of the obscure people of the Jews, and even worse, had died the death of a common criminal on the cross, could only be regarded as a sign of madness.”

The same is true for the modern Muslim. He simply cannot believe in an Eternal Son who much less died on a Cross for the sins of His people. It is simply madness in their minds.

Please pray that God would be honored in the clear proclamation of His Gospel, and that the Spirit would be pleased to give life in the preached Word.

May the Muslim world hear the Good News that Jesus is a greater Savior than they are a sinner.