Chris called me this morning and asked me to take some photos of an accident on the campus. This is what I walked out to find:

I’m still a little surprised to see this happen in a parking lot.

Kari surprised me this week and told me she wanted a blog. Of course, how could I say “no” to her using technology?

Check out Kari’s blog here: The Maddox’s.

This was written for a World Religions class I’m taking this summer. It is in response to the question are you an inclusivist, restrictivist, or universalist; and why.

Succinctly put, I am a restrictivist hoping that inclusivism is true. I hope that God will save more people than those who we know have heard the message of Christ. This group is too large to callously ignore.

Although inclusivism and restrictivism both present valid points, I find restrictivism better fits within a biblical model. Restrictivists affirm the necessity of Jesus in a more concrete manner than do inclusivists. (Sanders, pgs. 42-43, 57) General revelation is an important aspect of the unveiling of God to the world, but the Bible notes that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17, ESV). Although theoretically possible that people will be given an opportunity to believe after death, Hebrews notes that “after [death] comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27; pg. 46). It seems more like wishful thinking than valid theology to operate with this sort of belief.

Although I do not fully subscribe to a reformed position, reformers make cogently argue the elect will hear the gospel (Sanders, pgs. 57-58). If the elect will hear the gospel, then all who do not hear the gospel are unelect and do not affect the mercy and love of God any more than a staunch Calvinist position would.

Universalism needs little explanation as an invalid theory as it denies every scripture regarding judgment (pg. 108) and removes every semblance of human choice (pg. 110).

Inclusivism rests on two things: first, the universal salvific nature of God (pg. 131) and a struggle within its adherents to reconcile a loving God who sends much of humanity to hell. I question whether theology based on personal feelings should define God. The greatest fault of inclusivism rests on the extra weight put on a few scriptures which indicate God’s desire for mankind’s salvation. If we could prove that one person would experience judgment (as Jesus strongly indicates) then we must conclude that God will not save all of mankind. If all of mankind is not saved, then a theological system that demands the universal accessibility of salvation is trivial. All will not accept salvation and we are not in a position to judge if it is fair. I made no choice that I would be born in Dallas, Texas to a certain family. It is plausible that God likewise makes salvific determinations in a similar manner. Romans 9:21 and the discourse between Job and God both indicate that God will do what He does.

I do see a few potential glimmers of hope regarding the salvation of the unevangelized. First, Paul’s encounter with Jesus was both real and not conveyed by men (Acts 8), and points to the possibility that the Spirit could supernaturally reveal Christ. Second, I disagree that people must refer to Jesus as “Christ” or “Jesus” since those terms were translated to English. “Christ” means “anointed,” so someone who has never heard of Christ can still know Christ because of the Spirit’s work in the world (Introduction III, Slide 24). Similarities within elements of world religions represent the Spirit’s work in the world (A. Lord, pg. 236). This raises the possibility that the Spirit has enlightened the hearts of others, but non-shared elements often contradict one another making a universal comparison difficult. It presents a good start but an incomplete end.

I’ve decided it’s time to get back into blogging, so I migrated from Movable Type to Wordpress. Hopefully (crossing fingers), I’ll have time to start posting more regularly again!

Below are some designs I put together for our the new student ministry mini-site here at Champion Forest Baptist Church. I designed their current website, In Your Element, in 2006, and was featured in a the book, Web Designers Idea Book (2008). The aims of the ministry have changed since then and a new student pastor has also arrived. As such, they requested a new site to represent their new identity.

Here’s what we’ll present to them next week.

Below are some design sketches for the new TNCCA website. The TNCCA is a small consultancy which helps churches and their buildings.

The sketches provide a basic overview of the elements of the design and constitute a wireframe to work from. This is always my first step in visualizing how to orient a site.

The second sketch was the one presented to the client.

Photography is another area of personal expertise. Below is a portion of my photograph portfolio.

The Grand Canyon at Dusk

Rural Sunset

A Taste of Fall

Sunset (2)

I had the privilege of working on the Online Prayer Room at Champion Forest Baptist Church. I designed the interface, and David Corley, our application developer wrote most of the back end. I helped polish the remaining loose ends. You can see a brief screencast of the application below. (I’m narrating)

Have you ever been stuck in traffic, hopelessly mired in a sea of cars? Time drags on and you dream of getting onto the open road again.
In an instance, an opening appears, and you gun it, pursuing that hole in traffic. As you drive on, it’s like the Red Sea has parted before you and you’re flying down the road. Well, you and all of the other cars who have shared this good fortune. In the back of your mind, you think, “It’s about time. I’m so glad the traffic has ended.”
In your fervor for the open road, you have inadvertently been a bit too aggressive and you’re speed is now approaching 90 mph. It’s all okay, that is, until you cross another hill and see the same sea of red lights in front of you. You have sped up to return to the fog of cars. You’re in traffic again.
It seems to be human tendency to exploit the opportunities in front of you. We go fast as a response to going slow. We eat too much after not eating for a while. We gorge ourselves on things at Christmas time. We endure periods of tight finances while working to have more money. Then we blow it all as soon as we can.
So it seems to be with the economy. When things start to turn up, corporations increase spending exponentially. And like so many of us in traffic, we find that companies and individuals spend so much that they push themselves back to the brink of poverty.
Consider the sub-prime mortgage industry. Corporations wanted to make money on marginal loans with high interest rates, while our neighbors all wanted to keep up with the Joneses. Consumers continued to buy and failed to save, acting in steroid-like rage, commercially speaking. And now we’ve run ourselves back up against the wall of reality, finding that excessive spending over the past 5 years does indeed have real consequences in life.
In the end, when you start to catch back up to the traffic on your way home, consider, “Am I catching up with the traffic in other areas of my life? Am I spending at a non-maintainable rate? Am I exploiting people? Am I looking to make marginal deals for the sake of short-term prosperity?”
I think we won’t like the answers to those questions.

Podcastable (adj) – any sermon, lesson, or speech worthy of being recorded and placed online.
Definition courtesy of Brad Naeher