Brother Blog

My brother has started blogging.   His latest post on loving our wives is quite good.

Why I Don’t Blog More

The last few paragraphs of this article by Carl Trueman summarize some of the reasons I don’t blog more (besides the sheer lack of time!).  I find that the more time I put into real people (my wife, my children, my students, fellow church members), the less time I have to blog.  That might just be my limitations, but read Trueman’s arguments for yourself …

All Saints’ Day/ Reformation Day

Here is something I wrote a few years ago on the subject. 

And here are some more developed thoughts that I didn’t have time to write then!

“Reformation Day Thoughts (09)” - a talk I plan to give to at a church gathering on Oct. 31.

Wise Advice from a Magic Grandmother

I’m reading the The Princess & the Goblin to our boys in the evenings.  It’s a bit over their heads, but it’s full of wonderful little theological insights:

 

The Princess’ Magical Grandmother (talking to the Princess when her friend Curdie can’t see the Magical Grandmother): “But in the meantime you must be content, I say, to be misunderstood for a while.  We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be.  But there is one thing much more necessary.”

 

Princess: “What is that, grandmother?”

 

Magical Grandmother: “To understand other people.”

 

Why We Need Christian Colleges

Dr. Steve Henderson – “Investing in Their Faith: How your teen’s college choice can impact their future” - some depressing studies show that tons of Christian kids fall away at college.

Covenantal Education

Paul House provides a succint summary of Deuteronomy’s priniciples for covenantal education.  It is both inspiring, as well as humbling, as I consider my role as a teacher and a parent:

“Third, Yahweh commands the people to internalize the covenant and teach their children to do the same (6:6-9).  Each new member of the holy community must be taught God’s ways.  Faith does not occur automatically.  It must be understood and owned (6:6), so each parent must teach his or her children, just as Moses has been teaching them.  Instruction must be purposefule, even to the point of becoming public (6:9).  The idea is to ‘impress, or inscribe’ truth on the heart, not simply to suggest it.  Such careful teaching will help avoid forgetting Yahweh in prosperity (6:10-12), in new settings (6:13-19) or when new generations emerge, uncertain of what the old revelation means (6:20-25).  Only scrupulous intergenerational teaching can keep exclusive love of Yahweh alive in a polytheistic culture” (Paul R. House, Old Testament Theology, 178).

The Fruit of Her Hands

The Fruit Of Her Hands by Nancy Wilson

Very helpful! I read this in college, but it went over my head. Now, after being married for a few years, it’s immensely more meaningful. We know the Wilsons personally, and Nancy practices what she preaches.

Lutheran Sanctification

Two bits from my reading diet caught my eye:

“Nevertheless we still experience sin and death within us, wrestle with them and fight against them.  You may tie a hog ever so well, but you cannot prevent it from grunting.  Thus is is with the sins in our flesh,” (Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. 1, 247).

“Precisely because the totality of the gift, the new being [the one justified by faith] knows that there is nothing to do to gain heaven.  Thus the Christian is called to the tasks of daily life in this world, for the time being.  Students, for instance, are sometimes very pious and idealistic about ‘doing something,’ and so get caught up in this or that movement ‘for good.’  It never seems to dawn on them that perhaps for the time being, at least, their calling is simply to be a good student!  It is not particularly in acts of piety that we are sanctified, but in our call to live and act as Christians” (Gerald O. Forde, ”The Lutheran View” in Christian Spirituality:  Five Views of Sanctification, ed. Donald L. Alexander, 31).

Adoption Theology

The Orthodox Study Bible repeatedly emphasizes the theology of adoption in its explanatory notes.  This is laudable, since Protestants generally neglect this important way to understand our own salvation. 

 

We know several adoptees personally, and it is good to meditate on the fact that we are all adopted sons and daughters of the King.  In this regard, the Study Bible’s notes to Luke 3:23-38 (the geneology of Joseph and of Jesus) are particuarly moving: “Jesus was born to bring all mankind into adoption by the Father, and thus He affirms that a lineage of adoption is as binding and receives the same inheritance as a lineage of blood (Gal 4:4-7).”

 

(A good essay on this is C.N. Wilborn, “Adoption:  A Historical Perspective with Evangelical Implications” in Sanctification: Growing in Grace, eds. Joseph A. Pipa, Jr. & J. Andrew Wortman, 2001.  Wilborn quotes Robert Smith Candlish:  “The more I think of it, the more I am disposed to regret that the subject of adoption, or sonship of believers, has been so little made account of in our Reformation theology.  It seems to me to be the appropriate crown of Calvinism…”) 

Imitating Christ

“Endevor to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others, of whatever sort they be; for you have many failings yourself which must be borne with by others. If you cannot make yourself such a one as you wish, how can you expect to have someone else conform to your likings? We would willingly have others perfect, and yet we do not amend our own faults.” (Thomas á Kempis, Imitation of Christ, XVI, 2.)

The Liberating Effect of Classical Education

“Even if all one has gained from a classical education were to be forgotten in later life, anyone trained, at least for a time, to view the world as the Greeks and Romans saw it may learn to ask pregnant questions.  And even if the ancient answers be rejected, the student—of whatever—will know what they are, and approach his own world with freshened vision, one no longer blinkered by ideology and the reigning fashion.  He would have a liberal, because liberating, education indeed.  No longer would he be be imprisoned exclusively within the velvet walls of his own world’s preoccupations and fetishes.  No longer would he be just and only a child of his own time,” (Tracy Lee Simmons, Climbing Parnasssus:  A New Apologia for Greek & Latin, 22).

Truth in Action

“Truth in action–that is wisdom, that is the Right and the Good” (John Milton Gregory, The Seven Laws of Teaching, ch. 5).

Too often, we educators simply focus on downloading information from our brains to our students’ brains.  The students then download said information onto a test, after which the information is sent to the students’ recycle bin, and the miracle of education is complete!  But, from a Christian perspective, the ultimate goal of education is to learn wisdom (Proverbs, ch. 1).  And, as John Milton Gregory writes above, wisdom is not just intellectual head-knowledge.  Wisdom is applied truth.  If Christian education doesn’t impact a student’s life, then we may question whether it is really Christian education.  Truth in action …

Humble Sin In An Election Year

“For both the skeptic and the Christian, the neglect of indwelling evil stems from the same source:  the very sin overlooked.  One of Satan’s strategies is to draw our attention to evils outside of us so that sin can have its grand work unhindered where it does the most damage.  Sin is like a mastermind that gets its job done without attracting attention to itself.  It is most successful when attention is not on itself.  Sin could almost be considered humble, were it not for its corrupting abuse of virtue.

Training vs. Education

“A classical education is different in kind to the training of a technician, where the trained man demonstrates his training with a testable skill.  This, we may say, is training in the narrow sense, not an education—and many people today, without admittiting it, prefer training to education, and they must have their heart’s desire … A firm knowledge of the classical languages, history, and culture will not of itself create virtue.  It cannot shine a light into corners we have elected to keep dark, nor into those that cannot be illumined.  But this knowledge can form the mind and light a path to understanding.  For it is noble to rediscover and attend to the voices of the past.  We ignore them to our peril and to the peril of all those whom we would presume to teach.  Without a finely tuned and oft-nourished sense of the past, both near and distant, we have no culture” (Tracy Lee Simmons, Climbing Parnassus:  A New Apologia for Greek & Latin, 17.)

Ancient Wisdom for Modern Teachers

In a treatise extolling the virtues of virginity and celibacy, the church father Gregory of Nyssa enunciated a principle which applies to all areas of life, especially teaching:  “Any theory divorced from living examples, however admirably it may be dressed out, is like the unbreathing statue, with its show of a blooming complexion impressed in tints and colours; but the man who acts as well as teaches, as the Gospel tells us, he is the man who is truly living, and has the bloom of beauty, and is efficient and stirring,” (On Virginity, chap. 23).

The Cosmic Egg

My four year old son has many imaginary friends.  Sometimes he has as many as 100 (the highest number he knows), but sometimes they dwindle to 30.  They’re all dogs, and they’re all named Duke.  They can run faster than cheetahs.  But, I digress.  The other day, he informed me that they don’t have mamas or papas.  I asked where they came from, since everyone has to be born from a mama and a papa.  He thought for a moment … turns out they all came from a big, warm egg.  I asked him where the egg came from.  He said it was always there.  Turns out Carl Jung was right about the collective unconscious.  Even my preschooler knows what many primitive tribes relate in their mythologies–the universe all came from a big, cosmic egg.  Do we all, in our own growth, recapitulate the growth and maturity of the human race?

The latest theological problem we’re working through is, “How does God see if He doesn’t have eyes?”  Try and explain that to a four year old!

Depression

I struggle with the sin of depression.  It’s been hard for me to recognize it as a sin, but Jay Adams was helpful in showing me how we need to get to the root of problems like depression (or mental illness, in many cases).  Sin is a destroyer, and the effects of sin take many forms.  As I’ve reflected on what causes me to be depressed, I submit the following:

Depression comes of not trusting in the Lord for the future and/ or in not resting/ rejoicing in what He has provided now.  Being anxious and being discontent produce a feeling of paralysis (even a visceral, empty feeling in my stomach) and depression.  But, when I take my eyes of myself and my problems, trusting in the Lord, the depression vaporizes.  Thanks be to God!

Peace Like a River

My wife and I just finished reading Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River.  It’s a beautiful book.  The best thing about Enger is that he’s a Christian writer who actually writes well.  The novel is Christian without being preachy.  It’s full of underhanded Biblical allusions and symbolism.  Be sure to read it when it’s cold in order to get the full atmosphere of Minnesota and N. Dakota in the winter! 

Enger has a new novel out, but I haven’t got to it yet:  So Brave, Young and Handsome.  Looks good!

Eucharistic Meditation

The Lord’s Supper is a family meal.  What would you think of a family which didn’t allow their adopted children to eat dinner with the family?  I hope we would all condemn them and probably excommunicate them if they did not repent.  But, what if, after they met with the elders, they decided to not serve the adopted children dinner until the adopted children were old enough to decide whether they really wanted to be part of the family?  Or, what if they refused to serve the adopted children dinner until they could discern whether the adopted children were really acting like good members of the family?  I think we all see the folly of this mindset. The family that eats together stays together.  If we want our adopted children to feel like part of the family, we treat them like part of the family.  We don’t wait for them to make a decision to join our family.  They are a part of our family, and they have right to join us at the family table.

God has adopted us into His family.  God feeds us at His table.  This is how he builds up his family.  He invites us to partake of His Son in faith, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  And He invites all of us, including our children.  If they are baptized, then they are also His adopted children.  If you feed your children at home, then you need to feed them here.  But, you can’t feed them here.  You need to bring them to the Lord’s Table, where God feeds all of his adopted children.

Sermon – The Good News of Adoption

Sermon (Ephesians 1:1-10)

Collect for Illumination (Calvin & Bucer)

“Almighty and gracious Father, since our whole salvation stands in our knowledge of your Holy Word, strengthen us now by your Holy Spirit that our hearts may be set free from all worldly thoughts and attachments of the flesh, so that we may hear and receive that same Word, and, recognizing your gracious will for us, may love and serve you with earnest delight, praising and glorifying you in Jesus Christ our Lord.”  We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the power of the Spirit, Amen.

God recently blessed our family with the addition of an adopted daughter.  As I read through Scriptures, Paul’s use of the adoption-theme jumped out at me.  The doctrine of adoption is often over-looked, but it is central to the good news that Jesus brought into this world in His Incarnation.

Delight in Your Children

Andrée Seu, writing in World, stresses the importance of delighting in our children.  We are made in the image of God and, as parents, we need to reflect His image rightly.  If we only reflect the justice, law, and wrath of God, then we are lying to our children.  We sometimes forget that God delights in his children (Ps. 18:19).  We should do the same. 

Abide In Christ

“Would you continue holy?  Then abide in Christ.  He says Himself, ‘Abide in Me, and I in you … He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit’ (John 15:4, 5).  It pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell–a full supply for all a believer’s wants.  He is the Physician to whom you must daily go, if you would keep well.  He is the Manna which you must daily eat, and the Rock of which you must daily drink.  His arm is the arm on which you must daily lean, as you come up out of the wilderness of this world.  You must not only be rooted, you must also be built up in Him,” (J.C. Ryle, Holiness, 61).

Amen to That!

Two good posts:

An Orthodox view of culture which Reformed folks should take to heart

 

PCA pastor on Eschatology and Diapers

Spiderman Theology

Now that the Spiderman triology is complete, I’ve noticed a common theme.  None of the villains in the Spiderman movies is really evil.  They all have evil thrust upon them, either by some potion, invention, dysfunctional relationship, or an accidental gun-shot.  Additionally, in the last two movies, the villains have good motives–Dr. Octupus is seeking the advancement of science and Sandman is trying to save his sick daughter.  The third movie introduces a black blob which causes people to become wicked, but it only magnifies their latent wickedness.  It’s hard to actually blame those overcome by the black blob. 

Since the third movie highlighted the problem of evil (in the form of the black blob), it had to deal with forgiveness.  I was hopeful when Peter’s Aunt gave a little sermon about revenge and forgiveness, but I should have known better.  Her advice culminated in: “forgive yourself.”  Um, okay …  Perhaps that’s why the movie ended with meaninful looks rather than an actual apology from Peter.  The only real apology came from the Sandman, but that was an apology for an accident. 

So, once again, Hollywood skirts around the problem of evil and teaches our children that evil isn’t really their problem.  They aren’t really to blame for their actions–they just need to put on a new suit.  Of course, that’s part of the answer–we need to put on the righteous robes of Jesus (or, rather, He needs to put them on us).  But, we won’t realize the need for a new suit unless we realize the depth of our own sin.  Nor can we take off the black suit, even if we’re in a church bell tower–God Himself is the only one who can take it off.

Purity of Heart

“A holy man will follow after purity of heart.  He will dread all filthiness and uncleanness of spirit, and seek to avoid all things that might draw him into it.  He knows his own heart is like tender, and will diligently keep clear of the sparks of temptation.  Who shall dare to talk of strength when David can fall?  There is many a hint to be gleaned from the ceremonial law.  Under it the man who only touched a bone, or a dead body, or a grave, or a diseased person, became at once unclean in the sight of God.  And these things were emblems and figures.  Few Christians are ever too watchful and too particular about this point,” (J.C. Ryle, Holiness, 44-45).

Young Christians need to remember this when they watch implied fornication on TV, or when they listen to the lustful ravings of rappers.  Constant wallowing in the mud of the world will have an effect.  The pig doesn’t notice how foul they smell because they’ve gotten used to the stench.   

This Sounds Familiar

“Of all the foolish things that parents say about their children, there is none worse than the common saying, ‘My son has a good heart at the bottom.  He is not what he ought to be; but he has fallen into bad hands.  Public schools are bad places.  The tutors neglect the boys.  Yet he has a good heart at the bottom.”  The truth, unhappily, is diametrically the other way.  The first cause of all sin lies in the natural corruption of the boy’s own heart, and not in the school.”

J.C. Ryle – Holiness

Academic Mission Opportunity

I came across an exciting mission opportunity for academics. This organization sends Christian teachers into other countries, finding positions for them in secular universities. A quote on their home-page says it all:

“The university is a clear-cut fulcrum with which to move the world. Change the university and you change the world,” declared Dr. Charles Malik, former president of the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council.

Stem Cell Research and Adoption

“North Carolina proponents propose spending $10 million, a fraction of what’s been committed in some other states, but comparable to amounts spent in Illinois and Maryland.

The North Carolina bill’s supporters emphasized that only embryos a few days old that are left over from fertilization clinics could be used under the proposed state policy. Tens of thousands of cells sit in freezers and would otherwise be discarded as medical waste, supporters said.

‘This bill comes down to what to do with the embryos that are left over after in vitro fertilization,’ Gulley said. ‘Do you flush them or do you use them to find a cure for people like me?’” (Raleigh News and Observer)

One bad deed doesn’t deserve another.  This raises the question of whether we should have all these frozen children waiting to be thrown away in the first place!  The whole in vitro fertilization and “design-your-own-child” clinic travesty is a quite sad.  Why do couples spend so much money to create their “own” baby when thousands of children are suffering and dying in orphanages around the world?  American consumerism knows no limits. 

Cultures always sacrifice their children to their gods–we flush ours down the drain so that we can have our model 1.5 children who look just like us.  Good thing God doesn’t treat us that way: He adopted us even though we were disfigured and disabled by sin.  “As you did unto the least of these, you did unto me …”  

Convicting Words for Any Teacher

“The goal of reading is the application, in our lives, of what we read. Not to learn it by heart, but to take it to heart. Not to practice using your tongues, but to be able to receive the tongues of fire and to live the mysteries of God. If one studies a great deal in order to acquire knowledge and to teach others, without living the things he teaches, he does no more than fill his head with hot air. At most he will manage to ascend to the moon using machines. The goal of the Christian is to rise to God without machines.”

     -Elder Paisios the Athonite

HT: Mind in the Heart

How to Break Up in a Theologically-Correct Manner

For those unfortunate enough to be dating, breaking up is a painful moment where we search for the right words to communicate finality, without hurting feelings.  Or we just hurt feelings.  It’s good to have a theologically correct answer thought out beforehand. (Courtship avoids this problem, at least if the father has a shotgun.)

Preaching to Toddlers

Parenting teaches us so much about God.  I often think God is teaching us more about Himself through raising three young ruffians than we are teaching them about God.  But, of course, I know that’s not true.  Their conception of God the Father is being shaped by how their sinful and foolish father behaves.  Their conception of the Church is being formed by seeing my wife bathing them and feeding them.  Their conception of Christ is being molded by how I love my wife.  It’s a haunting thought …

Paedocommunion & Thanksgiving

Eric Wait has a hilarious piece on why we should not allow our children to eat Thanksgiving Dinner.

All Hallow’s Eve

I don’t have time to defend celebrating Halloween in a distinctly Christian or Reformational way.  We had our “traditional” pot pie and German beer, followed by a rousing liturgy of children chanting the 5 Solas (while banging toy hammers), Bible readings, and hymns.  Perhaps I’ll post that liturgy later.

I was struck, however, by the attempt of local churches to provide an alternative to Halloween.  I drove past one church which had set up inflatable jump-houses and various other fun, exciting things for kids to do.  All in the name of an “Old-Fashioned Fall Fesitval”.  Yes, jump around like your grandpappy used to! 

But, why celebrate Fall?  What Biblical reason do we have to celebrate the seasons?  Sounds like ancient paganism to me … Our family has a long way to go, but we are trying to celebrate the Church Year with more feasting and more candy, not less.  Last night, we celebrate the Communion of the Saints and God’s mighty acts in history, as well as his providence over the seasons. 

So much of the Christian reaction to what the world has done to Church holidays is still too worldly.  Like contemporary Christian music, or some “Christian” curricula, we just copy the world’s way of doing things without stopping to think about deeper meanings. 

Peter Leithart’s “Five Maxims for Parents”

Heritage Academy has a helpful piece on parenting by Dr. Peter Leithart. Sometimes I feel my former theology and literature professor dwells in another mental solar-system (reading his blog makes my head hurt), but he also has much practical wisdom, as this article shows.

Baby Theology

Tonight Athanasius asked if we can “drink the Spirit”. My first thought was to say no, you silly boy, but then I remembered Paul telling us not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Spirit. From the mouth of babes … Perhaps this is natural revelation at work, because we’ve never discussed the Spirit. Or perhaps he knows that we drink the blood of Jesus at church … ergo, q.e.d., and all that.

Sabbath Chocolate

Athanasius is advancing in his understanding of Sabbath theology. He saw his mother making me a protein drink, adding some chocolate syrup to make the brew go down better, and his response was: “Is Sabbaff?” This is encouraging, since we try to give the boys chocolate milk on the Sabbath whenever possible. Athanasius couldn’t pass an examination before the elders, but he can taste the Sabbath, and he knows it’s a sweet day.

Just Surviving Adolescence?

At school, I sometimes hear parents say something like: “This is that age. We just hope they just survive.” This attitude is part of the problem, if not the source itself. Parents who look at their teens as strange monsters, or hormone-overloaded animals, have decided years ago to lose the battle. If you adopt this attitude, then every age is an age to “just survive”. We “just survive” pouring ourselves into our infants at all hours. We “just survive” the energetic whirlwind mis-named the “terrible twos”. We fail to take every God-ordained stage of development and channel it in the proper way. Energy is a good thing, and the glory of young men is their strength. But a powerful river flows in a specific channel. That channel should have been carved out by the parents when the child was still in the 3rd grade. The teen years should not be a time of “just surviving”; it should be a time of thriving, of tremendous growth and a flowering of righteousness. But, this can only happen if there are deep roots, grounded in parental love and shepherding.

Baby Theology-Squishing the Dragon

Trying to explain Easter to Athanasius (3 this summer) has been challenging, and quite rewarding. Since he has no concept of death, we explained the events in terms he does know. Thus, the Dragon (he knows about the “yucky dragon” in The Hobbitt) gave Jesus a war-wound (our term for cuts and bruises); but Jesus “boxed” (wrestled with) the dragon; Jesus went down into the cave; Jesus got all better; Jesus squished the dragon; the dragon is fussing in the cave (Athanasius’ own addition to the plot), etc. From the lips of babes …

Athanasius the Jazzman

Interesting how universal the tendency toward the lowest common denominator in aesthetics is. Athanasius (2 ½) invariably requests “toot toot jaaazz” if I ask him what music he wants to listen to. (He was also recently introduced to the Blues, and thinks that’s nifty, too). He can identify The Messiah, and loves the “hah-yu-ya” chorus, but this was quickly superceded by Louis Armstrong’s trumpet. So, we’ve had to limit jazz to Friday night (fun night), and continue to play higher-level classical music during the week. A two year old’s musical tastes need to be disciplined (trained) as much as his behavior. What he likes is not always what he needs. He would like to eat cookies all the time (and cookies are great) but we have to give him what nourishes him, both physically and aesthetically.

Charismatic Chester

Chester (1 and a half) is quite the charismatic chubby. He says “Amen” (rather, his version of it) at the end of the psalms … and when the fridge stops running. Why not? God is in control of it all …

Baby Theology-Metaphor

One of the great joys of fatherhood is learning so much theology from watching our little boys. Athanasius (2) recently took to seeing animals and objects in the clouds. The funny thing is we had never taught him this, or suggested it. My conclusion: we are born metaphor-makers. It is a design feature to look at one thing and see another in it. Metaphor-making is a (if not the) primary way of human knowing/naming the world; apparently it starts at age 2.

Baby Eucharist

Athanasius (now 2) associates “Jesus” with the bread at communion. In fact, I’ve taught him such a strong (Calvinist) view of the Supper that he calls the bread (and sometimes other bread) “body of Jesus”. We should all have a 2 year old’s understanding of the Supper. Both boys love communion; it’s the highlight of the church service!

Demons & Learning Disabilities

I’ve had parents tell me Satan has a hold in their child’s life (because of learning disorders). It never seems to occur to them that Satan might have a hold in their life, making them believe a delusion about learning disabilities. We should consider all the alternatives …