Wilson on Mercy Ministry & Missions

Douglas Wilson has a great summary of Biblical principles that should guide the Church’s works of Mercy and Missions.

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.

Book Review – Mother Kirk

Mother Kirk: Essays and Forays in Practical Ecclesiology by Douglas Wilson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I may be biased (since Wilson was my teacher at New St. Andrews College, as well as my pastor during those four years), but this was my second time through this book, and I still found it incredibly helpful.

Yes, all the theological insights were great, and the writing was typically witty and humorous. But, what was most striking was how Wilson addresses huge theological and Biblical topics with a consistently practical and pastoral approach. The sub-title says it well: “Essays and Forays in Practical Ecclesiology.” This is not a book for armchair theologians. Wilson is controversial at times, but he is also writing to real problems in the modern, American evangelical church. Even if you don’t agree with him, he is a great debating partner! He will challenge you to defend (from the Bible!) your fundamental notions of God, His Word, and what His Church should be doing.

I can also say, because I have some background knowledge of the actual circumstances that led to the writing of some chapters, that Wilson is writing out his own pastoral experience. He has been able, by he grace of God, to lead a large congregation through many major changes in how they understand the Bible, how they worship, how they educate their children, and most importantly, how they live as Christians every day and every hour of the week.

Many things have been said about Douglas Wilson, and many are untrue, or only half-true. Jesus said something helpful: “By your fruits you shall know them.” God has grown some remarkable fruit through Wilson’s ministry. I think many people read him, and are offended by his biting wit and sarcasm. I read him differently because I hear his chuckle in between the lines, and I see the huge grin he would always have when he was saying the most unsettling things. I would encourage other readers to keep that image in mind!

View all my reviews >>

Be Killing Sin

Although John Owen’s treatise on The Mortificaiton of Sin can be tough going at times, it is a stirring call to battle our remaining lusts. 

My favorite quote from today’s reading: “be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”

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).

More of Luther on Communion

Commenting on 1 Cor. 10:17, Martin Luther preached: “We eat the Lord by the faith of the Word which the soul consumes and enjoys.  In this way my neighbor also eats me:  I give him my goods, body and life and all that I have, and let him consume and use it in his want.  Likewise, I also need my neighbor; I too am poor and afflicted, and suffer him to help and serve me in turn.  Thus we are woven one into the other, helping one another even as Christ helped us.  This is what it means spiritually to eat and drink one another” (Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. 1, pg. 213.

Luther on the Fruit of Holy Communion

I love Luther.  He’s so practical and pastoral!  This is from a sermon entitled, “Confession and the Lord’s Supper”:

“But if you feel that you are unfit, weak and lacking in faith, where will you obtain strength but here [the Lord's Supper]?  Do you mean to wait until you have grown pure and strong, then indeed you will never come and you will never obtain benefit from the holy communion” (207).

“It is our duty to let the benefit and fruit of the Lord’s Supper become manifest, and we ought to show that we have received it with profit … Now this is the fruit, that even as we have eaten and drunk the body and blood of Christ the Lord, we in turn permit ourselves to be eaten and drunk, and say the same words to our neighbor, Take, eat and drink; and this by no means in jest, but in all seriousness, meaning to offer yourself with all your life, even as Christ did with all that he had, in the sacramental words” (208).

“Therefore, when we have received the Lord’s Supper we must not allow ourselves to become indolent, but must be diligent and attentive to increase in love, aid our neighbor in distress, and lend him a helping hand when he suffers affliction and requires assitance.  When you fail to do this you are not a Christian, or only a weak Christian, though you boast of having received the Lord and all that he is, in the Lord’s Supper” (210-11).

- all from The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, vol. 1

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.)

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 …

Is Christianity Good for the World?

You don’t want to miss this debate between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson.  Both men are articulate and witty.  The gloves come off!

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.

The Nature of Marriage

In the latest Books & Culture, Dennis Okholm has a good review of Kathleen Norris’s recent book–Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life, “The very nature of marriage means saying yes before you know what it will cost.  You may say the ‘I do’ of the wedding ritual in all sincerity, but it is the testing of that vow over time that makes you married.”

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!

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. 

Pseudo-Scholarship & Opportunities to Evangelize

Darrell Bock has good observations and advice on how to deal with the all the media hype about the “latest-greatest Jesus”.  The bottom line is that all the interest in works like The Da Vinci Code and the tomb of James, “the brother of Jesus” present a wonderful opportunity to evangelize.  The problem is that most Christians don’t know enough history to combat the silliness of Hollywood or the one-sided scholarship of much Jesus research.  Tolle lege–take up those church history books and read!  The fields are ripe for a harvest!

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

Jesus is a Complete Savior

J.C. Ryle anticipated a number of current controversies as he wrote in the Victorian period.  Of course, this proves that there is nothing new under the sun.  I found the following spot-on in regard to the Lordship controversy (though I’m not sure it’s actually a controversy anymore):

“Jesus is a complete Saviour.  He does not merely take away the guilt of a believer’s sin.  He does more–He breaks its power. (1 Pet. 1:2; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9; Heb. 12:10.)” (Holiness, 49).

We Exist for the Love of God

The medieval mystic, Julian of Norwich (circa 1373), claimed to see a series of visions, all related to the “Divine Love.”  While much of it is medieval nonsense, there are some gems: “And he showed me more, a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball.  I looked at it thoughtfully and wondered, ‘What is this?’  And the answer came, ‘It is all that is made.’  I marvelled that it continued to exist and did not suddenly disintegrate; it was so small.  And again my mind supplied the answer, ‘It exists, both now and forever, because God loves it.’  In short, everything owes its existence to the love of God,” (Revelations of Divine Love, chap. 5).

Excerpt from Auden

“Those who will not reason

Perish in the act:

Those who will not act

Perish for that reason”

- W. H. Auden, “Shorts”

Calvinistic Presumption

“But as we ought to presume nothing of ourselves, so ought we to presume all things of God; nor are we stripped of vainglory for any other reason than to learn to glory in the Lord,” (John Calvin, Preface to Institutes of the Christian Religion, 13).

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

Living Stones & Historical Irony

Going through my journal of my trip to Italy (5 years ago), I remembered a bit of history which is fascinating and ironic:  the evil Emperor Nero had a fantastic “Villa of Gold” built for himself but, after he died, Titus (I think) destroyed it.  Ancient Romans had a tidy custom of wiping out the monuments of evil rulers.  Titus (I think) then used the stones from Nero’s villa to build the Colosseum.  When the Church finally conquered Rome, stones were plundered from the Colosseum to build St. Peter’s Basilica.  Apparantly, Bernini even used some of the stones to build the magnificent altar.  So the stones which witnessed Christian martyrs torn to shreds eventually became part of the earthly center of the Western church. 

1 Peter 2:5, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

(The choir I was touring with sang during a Mass in St. Peter’s.  Quite an amazing experience.  I can relate to the emissaries from Russia who saw Hagia Sophia for the first time and decided to convert to Christianity because it looked like heaven on earth.  Our architecture really does express our worldview.)

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.)

Ascension and the Lord’s Supper

The Ascension of Christ is essential to our understanding of the Lord’s Supper.  Of course, most of what happens to us at this Table remains a mystery, but we can say a few things, given what we know about Christ.  We know that Christ is in heaven, seated at the Father’s right hand.  We also know that Jesus Christ still has a resurrection body.  Many Christians have never thought about this, but it is true.  John says that we don’t know what the resurrection will be like, but we know that we will be like Jesus (1 Jn. 3:2).  And we know that Jesus had a real body that Thomas could touch and feel.  Jesus ate and drank after his resurrection.  This table prepares us for heaven.  Revelation tells us that heaven will be the wedding feast of the Lamb.  We will eat and drink with Jesus in heaven.  We are eating and drinking with him now, in the Church.  But, we often assume heaven will be less than what we know now.  We think we’ll float around, playing harps.  But, what if heaven is an eternal banquet with tastes and pleasures that would make your mind explode now?  Perhaps, when Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding at Cana, he was bringing a little bit of heaven to earth.  Whatever heaven will be, we must guard against the gnostic heresy, which says our bodies are not important to our salvation.  Christ came to save the world, including our bodies.  In the Ascension, Christ took a human body back up to heaven.  Things have changed at the center of the universe.  We can’t go back.  A grand and glorious party is coming.  Don’t be left behind.  If you’ve been baptized, and are not under church discipline, then you are already wearing the wedding garments, and you need to come to this party.

Ascension Day

Thursday was Ascension Day.  Most of American Evangelicals do not know that.  And this is quite ironic.  We just celebrated Mothers’ Day.  Woe to you if you forgot this Most Holy Day!  Memorial Day is coming up.  Most of America has some exciting plan for Memorial Day.  Maybe a few people will actually visit the graves of our fallen soldiers.  But, Ascension Day?  Isn’t that Roman Catholic?  Well, it also happens to be one of the days the Reformers celebrated.  Ascension Day celebrates the ascension of our Lord and Savior back into heaven.  Jesus Christ was the God-Man.  He was God, who became Man, in order to take mankind back into the heavenly places with him.  You see, Jesus did not ascend alone.  As the Head of the Church, our Head ascended back into heaven.  And the location of the head affects the location of the body.  If the head is under water, the body spazzes for a while, and then dies.  But if the head is above the water, the body can be totally under water.  In the same way, if our head were still submerged in this sinful world, we would soon be shark-food.  But, since our Head is at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, we are filled with life, and we kick sharks in the face.  Where our Head is makes all the difference in this world, and the next.  So, let’s reclaim this wonderful Feast Day of the Church.  Our Lord is risen, Amen!  But the glory doesn’t stop there.  Our Lord is ascended into heaven.  Glory!  Hallelujah!  Because he ascended into heaven, we, too, will ascend into heaven.  Blessed be the name of our risen and ascended Lord.  But, we are not fit for heaven while we cling to this sinful life.  So, let us confess our remaining sins to Almighty God …

Eucharistic Meditation – Rogation Sunday

Gathering around this Table every Lord’s Day reminds us over and over again that we are part of God’s household.  God adopts us as his children.  Though our earthly families may crumble apart and though death may separate us from those we love, we are never separate from God’s love.  Often God takes things away from us so that we learn to appreciate them more.  But, the only thing which can keep us from this Table is our own stubborn refusal to repent of our sin.  Though God may take our husband, wife, or our children, he will not cast us out of his house.  As long as we are his children, we have a place at this Table.  As long as we are his children, he will feed us.  Let’s enjoy the fellowship we have with each other now, while it lasts on this earth.  Our earthly fellowship will be disrupted by death.  We will all die.  But, even that is only temporary.  We will fellowship with each other again in heaven.  We will fellowship with those that God has already taken to himself.  Paul was torn between remaining with the Church in his body or being with the Lord in his spirit.  We may think of old age and of losing our spouse with fear and uncertainty.  How will we make it?  God will give us strength for the day.  And God gives us strength for each day through the ministry of the Church.  God gives us strength for each day through this Table. 

Exhortation – Rogation Sunday

Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 27) – What dost thou mean by the providence of God?Answer: The almighty and everywhere present power of God; (a) whereby, as it were by his hand, he upholds and governs (b) heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, (c) fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, (d) riches and poverty, (e) yea, and all things come, not by chance, but be his fatherly hand.

The catechism next teaches us about the nature of Providence.  From one point of view, nature is Providence.  We see God’s hand in the stars, in decomposing mulch, in the flight of a bird.  There really are no natural laws.  There is no such thing as an impersonal nature, much less a Mother Nature.  God the Father has established every so-called “law” of nature.  Nature is simply God’s law in action.  But providence means more than this: providence is God’s active care over his world.  The rain keeps falling on our heads because God makes it rain.  The lightning which tears the sky is his power.  The thunder which shakes our earth is his will shaking the earth.  Providence means that God is charge of every sparrow that smashes into your sliding glass door.  Providence means that God knows exactly how many hairs fell to the ground during your last hair-cut.  But some Christians are schizophrenic about providence.  This is often seen in what we call “natural” disasters.  As hard as it is to believe, we must believe that God was guiding the tornado which destroyed Greensberg, Kansas. 

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 …

Easter Meditation

Excerpt from an Easter Sermon by Gregory Nazianzen (bishop of the Eastern church in the late 300s):

“Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us.  Let us become  God’s for His sake, since He for ours became Man.  He assumed the worse that He might give us the better; He became poor that we through His poverty might be rich; He took upon Him the form of a servant that we might receive back our liberty; He came down that we might be exalted; He was tempted that we might conquer; He was dishonoured that He might glorify us; He died that He might save us; He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were lying low in the Fall of sin.  Let us give all, offer all, to Him Who gave Himself a Ransom and a Reconciliation for us.  But one can give nothing like oneself, understanding the Mystery, and becoming for His sake all that He became for ours” (Oration I.5).

Practical Help for Keeping the Sabbath

Get serious (and joyful!) about keeping the Sabbath: Abondante Living.

Britney’s Crotch – Photos

If you came here, you have a problem.  If you’re married, you’re wrecking your marriage.  If you’re single, you’re training yourself to be a selfish husband.  Don’t fool yourself about sin.  It grows and multiplies, just like cancer.  Virtual sex is no substitute for real sex in a Biblical marriage.  Your pursuit of pleasure will leave you hollow and empty.

Ten Ways to Break the Stronghold of Pornography  

Head Games 

Reformational Sex

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. 

The Messy CREC

 

I’m a part of the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).  Our denomination is messy, like every other group out there.  There are aspects of the CREC which I think are wonderful, and aspects in which growth is needed.  The great thing about the CREC is that most everyone I know in the denomination realizes that growth is needed, and is working for that.  We try, as far as I can tell, to avoid the man-the-life-boats mentality of so much orthodusty. 

N.T. Wright (to step on even more toes!) said it well: “There is a tidiness proper to full human life.  There is also a tidiness of the graveyard,” (New Testament and the People of God, 109).  The CREC does not have it all figured out, and I hope everyone involved is humble enough to admit that.  When we circle the wagons and refuse to learn from history, then idolotrous stagnation sets in.  “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” said a wise man, but it’s also true that those who learn from history will not repeat the pattern endlessly.

Now, there are a myriad issues we could discuss in detail, and I’m intentionally speaking in generalities.  But, Wright highlights an important principle, which gives me hope in a messy world.

Mark Foley, Amish Shooting, & Tomato Hornworms

I’ve been thinking about secret sins lately.  Two events in the wider world brought the issue into high relief: Sodomite Congressman Mike Foley’s fall (due to sexually-explicit IMs to minors) and the Amish school shooting.  In both cases, secret sexual sin led to a mighty fall.  In the case of the Amish shooting, the killer suppressed his sin for years, but it finally boiled over into death.  What is a Biblical response to these tragedies? 

The Amish horror illustrates Romans 1:18-31 yet again.  Read it over with the recent events in mind.  In Foley’s case, we will hopefully see Haman hanged on his own gallows.  Foley helped push through more stringet child-protection laws, which could potentially convict him now.  He dug a pit, and now he’s fallen into it.

And I couldn’t help thinking about tomato hornworms.  Yes, there is a connection between big, yucky caterpillars and secret sins.  The medieval Christians believed the entire world of nature was full of spiritual truths, and I think we need to learn from their example.  Sin is like the eggs the wasps lay on the caterpillar: eventually it will hatch and devour us (James 1:14-15). 

Presbyterians & Presbyterians Together

Well, I’ve signed it: Presbyterians and Presbyterians Together. Joel Garver’s analysis of the document (as one of the architects) is helpful. If you see me writing in such a way that violates the principles behind PPT, feel free to call me on it. It’s not an agreement not to debate, but it’s a call the charitable debate.

Praying in Jesus’ Name Practicum

According to Russell D. Moore in the latest issue of Touchstone, praying in Jesus’ name is a difficult thing to do in our military. His article, “Uniform Prayers” discusses the pressure chaplains are under to address God in prayer without the sectarian tag “Jesus”. It just makes Muslims and Jews uncomfortable. And, since our Army of One is the arm of our pluralistic empire “under God (however you define Him/Her/It)” this should come as no surprise.

Apparently, the House of Reps. is seeking to pass legislation to prevent such discrimination against Jesus’ name, but Moore points out that this is not ultimately the government’s job. He exhorts seminaries to train chaplains, and encourages denominations to send out tough, orthodox, chaplains to the front lines, instead of lowest-common denominator pansies. (I’m putting words in his mouth, but the substance is the same …)

Moore also includes brief discussion of why we pray in Jesus’ name, which relates to my previous post.

Dear Jesus … In Jesus’ Name?

I heard it again today: praying to Jesus, and then closing the prayer “in Jesus’ name”. This is pious, well-intentioned, heterodoxy. I won’t take the time to proof-text this (unless someone either asks sweetly or calls it heterodoxy in turn). However, I think it’s fairly obvious that we are to pray to God the Father, in the name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is how the ancient Church used to pray (note the closing benedictions at the ends of John Chrysostom’s sermons), and it makes good Trinitarian sense. Jesus did not pray to himself. Jesus told us to ask things in his name. And Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit prays with us (Ro. 8:26).

I should also mention that I heard a seminary-trained pastor do this! If seminaries aren’t teaching men to pray properly, what are they doing???

WWJP – what would Jesus pray? I’m sure God accepts our confused prayers, but there’s no need to perpetuate this anti-Trinitarian praying.

Refoming Beyond a Movement Mentality

Joost Nixon has a great article on what it will take to keep the modern reformation/ classical Christian education going. In a word: endurance.

The REAL Jewish Conspiracy

Aaron Freeman, who advertises himself as the “funniest Black Jew on National Public Radio” has this insightful piece on the The REAL Jewish Conspiracy. He calls on Jews to bring out their “secret weapon: Shabbat”. He maintains that the goal of Sabbath-keeping is to party-hearty. His point is well-made and applies, as well, to those Christians who strive to keep God’s Law (though on a different day). We are more attracted to what is beautiful than what is philosophically or theologically true. We can argue all we want that the Sabbath should be kept holy, but a hearty Sabbath party is more persuasive than ten dry-as-dust Puritan treatises.