Tim Ellsworth

It’s Opening Day. ‘Nuff said.

I may have made predictions before, but here are my predictions for this season.

NL East: NY Mets

NL Central: Chicago Cubs

NL West: Arizona Diamondbacks

NL Wildcard: Atlanta Braves

AL East: Boston Red Sox

AL Central: Detroit Tigers

AL West: Seattle Mariners

AL Wildcard: Cleveland Indians

NLDS: Mets over Cubs, D’backs over Braves

NLCS: Mets over D’backs

ALDS: Tigers over Mariners, Indians over Red Sox

ALCS: Tigers over Indians

World Series: Tigers over Mets

For the past month, I’ve been at work on a book entitled “God in the Whirlwind: Stories of Grace from the Tornado at Union University,” to be published by B&H Publishing Group.

The book, which will be available June 1, is a collection of stories about how God has acted providentially in the lives of students and others through the Feb. 5 tornado that hit Union University.

The project has been a consuming one for me, but I’ve been blessed to put into writing some incredible stories about God’s grace. I hope it will be a blessing to those who read it.

I’m almost finished with the book, and will be sending it to the publisher on Tuesday. I’ll post more updates as the publication date nears.

Great quote from Attorney General Michael Mukasey, when asked about the profiling of Muslims:

Mr. Mukasey said that tactic is not used at airports. However, he used blunt language to defend extra scrutiny the Justice Department gives to militant Islamic groups.

“So far as focusing investigations, we investigate where the threat is coming from. The threat is coming from Islamist extremism. It’s not coming from Calvinism,” the attorney general said.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A state appeals court has agreed to reconsider its decision last month that barred homeschooling by parents who lack teaching credentials, raising the possibility that the judges will change a decision that has infuriated homeschool advocates nationwide.

The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles granted a rehearing Tuesday at the request of a couple who have taught their eight children at home without credentials.

It is not unusual for appeals courts to reconsider decisions, and the result is often a minor revision that leaves the original conclusion unchanged. But the three-judge panel in the homeschooling case hinted at a re-evaluation of its entire Feb. 28 ruling by inviting written arguments from state and local education officials and teachers’ unions.

This is good news. Maybe this time they’ll get it right. I previously blogged about the original ruling.

Interesting article in the New York Times about the increasing number of Muslims who are home schooling.

No matter what the faith, parents who make the choice are often inspired by a belief that public schools are havens for social ills like drugs and that they can do better with their children at home.

“I don’t want the behavior,” said Aya Ismael, a Muslim mother home-schooling four children near San Jose. “Little girls are walking around dressing like hoochies, cursing and swearing and showing disrespect toward their elders. In Islam we believe in respect and dignity and honor.”

Have a blessed Easter weekend.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says he has become a Christian.

Hat tip: Craig

Frazee crazy: Triplets lead Lady Flames back to NCAA tourney
Still hospitalized, prayer lifts UU duo
Campus ministers at Tulane use sports to spread the gospel
Baylor men earn NCAA berth
Baylor women seeded third in NCAA tourney

So say the people at First Look, who produce children’s Sunday school literature. They have chosen to omit the story of the crucifixion and the resurrection from their literature for preschoolers because such children “are simply unable to truly grasp what it means to die and then be raised again through the power of God.”

Here’s the letter with their explanation (PDF version).

Go see all the details at Two Institutions.

Hat tip: Tom

UPDATE: Tom Ascol has posted an update. It seems the publisher has corrected this course of action.

The best spring training facility in the world is no longer home to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yesterday the Dodgers played their final game at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla. The facility has been the Dodgers’ spring training home for 61 years.

I’m going to miss the place. At least I can say that my last experience there was an interesting one.

Have a good weekend.

Revival: Baylor’s Drew brings team back after years of struggle
China harasses Christians ahead of Beijing Olympics
Union completes undefeated season, prepares for NAIA tourney
An interview with Indianapolis Colts punter Hunter Smith
HBU rolls past UT-Arlington

Douglas Groothuis writes about the “fetus fatigue” that has taken its toll on millions of evangelicals.

It appears that millions of evangelicals, especially younger ones, are experiencing fetus fatigue. They are tired of the abortion issue taking center stage; it is time to move on to newer, hipper things–the sort of issues that excite Bono: aid to Africa, the environment, and cool tattoos. Abortion has been legal since they were born; it is the old guard that gets exercised about millions of abortions over the years. So, let’s not worry that Barak Obama and Hillary are pro-choice. That is a secondary issue. After all, neither could do that much damage regarding this issue.

Evangelicals (if that word has any meaning), for God’s sake, please wake up and remember the acres of tiny corpses you cannot see. Yes, the Christian social vision is holistic. We should endeavor to restore shalom to this beleaguered planet. That includes helping Africa, preserving the environment, and much more. However, the leading domestic moral issue remains the value of helpless human life.

Hat tip: Denny Burk

Last Sunday night I was privileged to speak at Emmaus Road Fellowship, a new congregation that my brother Marty is leading. They’re in the process of becoming a church, and they’re thinking through some important matters as they go down that path.

I addressed the topic of elders in congregational life, and talked a little bit about how things are done at my church. If there was one thing I hope they took away from what I said, it’s this:

Don’t be someone who grumbles about your leaders, and someone who criticizes your leaders, and someone who’s always finding fault in what it is that your leaders do. I’ll say this, if you find yourself in a position where you cannot support the leadership of your church, as long as there is no sin in the leaders, as long is there is not some way that they are sinning that needs to be addressed — but if it’s just an issue that you don’t particularly like this, or you don’t particularly like that — either, number one, shut up, or number two, go someplace else. How many churches would be spared so much heartache and so much division if people would do that?

You can listen to the entire address here.

I’m glad to see that Albert Mohler has weighed in on the utter insanity coming from the California, where an appeals court ruled that parents must have teaching credentials to educate their children at home.

As part of the ruling, the court argued that “parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children.”

So now the government is in the business of denying people rights that are not explicitly spelled out in the Constitution? I wonder when they’ll start cracking down on people eating Big Macs, because I don’t find that right in the Constitution, either.

As Mohler noted:

This is a controversy that demands the attention of all parents. After all, if parents have no constitutional right to educate their own children, what other aspects of the parent’s choices for their own children lack protection? This question reaches far beyond educational decisions.

UPDATE: The Home School Legal Defense Association has started a petition for the California Supreme Court to depublish the opinion handed down by the loonies on the appeals court. Please go and add your name to the list. This is serious business, my friends, and something that warrants your time — even if you do not home school your children.