Blog - Page 243 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Life and Legend of Bear Bryant

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:20-05:00January 26th, 2008|Categories: College Football|

The history of college football is preserved not only in words and numbers, but in images and notable symbols. One of the most enduring images is Bear Bryant, houndstooth hat
on his head, leaning against a goalpost prior to an Alabama game. The first time I saw Bear Bryant in person was in 1957 when the Bear had just arrived to rebuild a decimated Alabama football program. My dad said to me, as we sat at Venderbilt Stadium in Nashville on a Saturday evening, "Son, see that men there" as he pointed at the Bear on the sideline, "Someday he will make this team truly great again."
My dad added that he had grown up in the some Arkansas county and was born the same year as Bryant and thus he knew him before he became a legend. An impression was made on me […]

Evangelization in Haiti

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:20-05:00January 26th, 2008|Categories: Evangelism|

No place I know has been evangelized, again and again, and yet without the lasting fruit of real discipleship, quite like the country of Haiti. Americans have dumped all kinds of money and effort into Haiti and few of these ministries have done truly lasting work for the kingdom. (There are marvelous exceptions but this generalization is sadly too true!)

My former
Wheaton College Graduate student, Yreille Belizaire (who was the first graduate in our new M. A. program in evangelism),
sends me her prayer letters from Haiti regularly. Today’s email brought a new one, telling of her various with my readers since it brings some perspective, and encouragement, from the world outside of the United States, yet a world so very close to us on the map. It also reveals how this godly woman is using her several gifts of preaching and evangelism to fulfill her calling as a minister of the gospel in making Christ known in a powerful and […]

The Box Office Rarely Lines Up with the Quality of Modern Films

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:20-05:00January 25th, 2008|Categories: Film|

Rarely are popular films a great success with critics. Some of this is snobbery and some of it is perspective on what makes a "great film" and what people simply enjoy watching. This has been generally true this year, as in the past. Presently the greatest box office films are
I Am Legend and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
I have seen both films and enjoyed them both. I Am Legend is actually more than just a good box office draw. It is a pretty well done re-creation of several earlier versions of the same story. Will Smith is superb and the modern ending, done just for the screen and this edition, provides all kinds of messianic and redemptive themes, including blood being given as sacrifice to save the human race. The movie includes a prayer scene that is well-done as well as subtle […]

How to Handle the Political Debates in the Local Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:20-05:00January 24th, 2008|Categories: Unity of the Church|

The Vault, a unique Web site, has recently provided data that says that in an election year 35 per cent of bosses will openly share their political views in the work place with employees and 66 percent of respondents said co-workers will candidly discuss politics with them.
The same site also provides four tips for handling opinions and advocacy in the work place.
When I read these four tips today in The Dallas News I thought about the local church and the coming months. The wisdom that these four tips provide for Christians, as we navigate the next nine months leading up to election day in November, is self-evident in some ways. The tips are:

1. Don’t feel pressured into sharing your views.
2. If you do want to share your opinions, don’t bash those you disagree with.
3. Don’t […]

God Uses Messed Up People

By John Armstrong|2008-01-22T23:09:42-06:00January 22nd, 2008|Categories: Spirituality|

Somehow I got it into my head, perhaps in my early twenties, that God only used those people who "got it together." Now do not misunderstand me. I am not promoting lawlessness at all. I think bad Christian living does considerable harm to the mission of the Church. But the fact is God uses messed up and weak people to do his work. Someone sent me a YouTube clip that says this well. This is not only pretty clever but quite edifying.

I had a long and hard day. I spent it writing in preparation for my speaking the next few days in Texas for the Anglican Mission in America and Trinity Presbyterian Church in Plano. It was one of those days when a lot went wrong. I felt quite unready to "be used" in the coming days. This video lifted my spirits considerably. Enjoy!

How to Think About the Present Economy

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:20-05:00January 21st, 2008|Categories: Economy/Economics|

I try to reflect on a number of issues—spiritual, theological, political, social and economic. I am an amateur in so many of these areas but that never stops me from thinking and writing. I am one who loves to be stretched and to challenge ideas, my own and yours. One friend who has helped me to think a great deal better about the economy is David Bahnsen. David is a professional financial advisor and a member of our ACT 3 board. He wrote the following piece for several publications and allowed me to reprint it. Even if you protest his language his basic ideas seem so patently obvious as to be quite hard, if not impossible, to refute.

It is indisputable to those with functioning sensory skills that the economy is in the midst of substantial turmoil. Brought on by the bursting of a housing and mortgage bubble, the excess of which defies the imagination even of the dotcom atrocity, large sectors of the economy sit at a crossroads, and the financial system at-large is struggling to nurse its way through a deserved […]

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Dream

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:20-05:00January 21st, 2008|Categories: Race and Racism|

Today is Martin Luther King day in the United States. Though this celebration was met with much opposition in its origins some years ago I am persuaded that it reminds us, sometimes most uncomfortably, of our very long struggle regarding race. It also reminds us of the need to remain ever vigilant to address the injustices and racism that still remain.
I personally believe Dr. King was an American icon for social change and that his legacy, though not perfect, is properly honored by us all today. I thank God he helped us to truly pursue the day when his children, and all other children, would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

The sad truth is that such a day has still not yet come. Maybe it never will fully come in America but people of good will and true faith must not stop trying to bring this about.

I […]

Roe vs. Wade: 35 Years After the Worst Court Decision in Our History

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:21-05:00January 20th, 2008|Categories: Abortion|

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the worst court decision in
U. S. history. I know there were some truly horrible decisions made regarding slavery and racism before and after the Civil War. I can think of several more very bad court rulings by the Supreme Court in our history as a nation. But none was more poorly grounded in the reasons given for the actual decision, and none has had a higher cost in human life, than Roe v. Wade.

Since 1973 we have aborted 49 million unborn children in America. Think about this. One third of an entire generation was wiped out by this decision. One third.

Today a friend and I reflected upon the implications of all this. We were talking about the complexity of the immigration issue. We both agreed that the borders need securing. We both […]

The State of the Church

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:21-05:00January 20th, 2008|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

I make it my concern to continually observe the Church in America. I read the polls, visit different churches to speak week-by-week, and still talk to leaders continually. I try to read the various signs of life and change as best I know how. This is a part of my calling and thus my public ministry.

This weekend my wife and I visited a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). The LCMS is much more conservative than the mainline Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA), indeed it is rightly thought of as a faithful confessing church body. (There are several smaller Lutheran churches that are much more conservative than the LCMS by the way.)
One of the problems that I always run into in an LCMS setting, when I do visit, is the practice of "closed communion." Some LCMS congregations try to get around this but it is the correct practice according to their official denominational stance. In the bulletin of the church we visited last […]

Spirit Song

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:22:21-05:00January 19th, 2008|Categories: Music|

Last Lord’s Day (January 13) we sang a medley of hymns and praise choruses in the morning worship service of the First Reformed Church in South Holland. I preached from the Lectionary text for the day, following
Matthew 2:13-23, as I shared in a blog I wrote earlier this week.

Sometimes a familiar song or chorus strikes a new note in your heart that is deep and moving. I try to pay attention to what the Spirit is saying to me, and to the church, in worship. Some of my most moving and assuring moments have come, and still come, through the music used in worship. My emphasis, as a minister, is rightly on Word and Sacrament but congregational singing is so powerfully important.
It allows us to respond to God and Paul says we clearly respond to one another in singing too. Thus there are powerful ways that music encourages us and others around us. Music can and does have a great […]