23 Sunday Jan 2011
Posted in Personal
Tags
A short, late-night musing.
I suppose a person who has as many friends (and even more acquaintances) as I do, this sort of thing is bound to happen. I maybe three or four friends right now who I will text and who won’t text back…or they text me, I ask them a question in return, and they won’t text back.
Or something along these lines.
21 Friday Jan 2011
Posted in Theology
A friend of mine here at the seminary sent me this link to Justin Taylor’s blog regarding some comments made by Randy Alcorn about Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Last night, a few of us from the seminary discussed at some length the merits and demerits of having services which commemorate extra-biblical events, holidays, etc. This friend, who was involved in the conversation, was interested to know what I’d say to Alcorn’s assertion. Here’s the email I sent to my friend.
18 Tuesday Jan 2011
Posted in Personal
I spent some time with a couple of good friends this morning in the chapel at CTS. We got started shortly after 9 and finished up at a quarter to twelve. We rehearsed and recorded six of my original tunes and one arrangement I’d written while at my previous church. All three of us had a great time (even though I’m a little bit hoarse from the sinus gunk that’s been going around lately).
It was an extremely encouraging way to spend a morning, indeed a privilege, to worship God with our skills and our instruments as we recorded songs which ranged from heart cries (Psalm 88) to celebrations of God’s mercy (“The Holy Ghost Must Give the Wound”) to songs about the risen Christ (“I Know that My Redeemer Lives”).
14 Friday Jan 2011
Posted in Theology
“I have heard many fanatical persons say the Holy Spirit revealed this and that to them. Now that is very generally revealed nonsense. The Holy Ghost does not reveal anything fresh now. He brings old things to our remembrance. ‘He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have told you,’ [John 14:26]. The canon of revelation is closed; there is no more to be added. God does not give a fresh revelation, but he rivets the old one. When it has been forgotten, and laid in the dusty chamber of our memory, he fetches it out and cleans the picture, but does not paint a new one. There are no new doctrines, but the old ones are often revived. It is not, I say, by any new revelation that the Spirit comforts. He does so by telling us old things over again; he brings a fresh lamp to manifest the treasures hidden in Scripture; he unlocks the strong chests in which the truth had long lain, and he points to secret chambers filled with untold riches; but he coins no more, for enough is done.
Continue reading
10 Monday Jan 2011
Posted in Theology
Tags
Gospel, marriage, preaching, relationships, repentance, theology
A friend recently sent me some notes he took during a sermon at his church. Here’s what he sent me:
- It’s easy to pick someone [as a spouse] to have fun with, but it’s more important to chose someone you want to go thru hardship with.
- My responsibility in marriage is to guard our oneness.
- The biggest enemy of marriage is selfishness.
- We get into trouble when WE decide what parts of scripture are relevant.
- Learning to pursue God indicates the ability to pursue our spouses.
The trouble, in short, is that none of these takeaways require a crucified and risen Savior.
Let me put it another way: can an atheist create a list like this (with, of course, the exception of the final point)? Can the final point be made by a Jewish person just as easily as a Christian person? I still maintain that if the sermon’s punchline is not repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Christ, it is not a distinctly Christian sermon.
06 Thursday Jan 2011
Posted in Uncategorized
Folks, I’m still around and doing a lot of thinking. I haven’t been posting because I found out I did indeed pass Greek, so I’m on to step 2…translating 1 John. It’s an uphill climb…but nothing about my life seems to be terribly easy. I’ve been pretty tired lately and sort of down.
The good news is that Christ has still paid for my sin…and that I still want to read His Word and grow in His wisdom through it.
Off to study for my Greek midterm exam tomorrow. In the next 15 hours, it’ll be all over and I’ll be ready for week 2 of Greek. I can hardly contain my excitement at present.
01 Saturday Jan 2011
Tags
According to Covenant Eyes, more than 40% of adolescents have intercourse before talking to their parents about sex. I’m not sure who the sample included, but I have some thoughts about why this is.
Parents of children, especially those in the church, do not believe in original sin. We talk often, especially pro-life oriented churches, of the “innocence of children” and “the innocents” as a group (usually infants or toddlers). This is a misnomer and a gross misrepresentation of the biblical teaching on original sin.
One reason 40% of adolescents have sex prior to their parents having “the talk” is that parents simply wait to long to have it. My own childhood did not have honest talks about sex at all. Toddlers, it has been long known, engage in self-exploration long before they equate such action with being sexually aroused. Rather than using this opportunity to discuss the body, I was chastised, “Don’t play with yourself! It’s dirty!”
31 Friday Dec 2010
Posted in Theology
Isaiah 11:1 says, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” This German hymn, dating from 1560, was translated by Theodore Baker (vv1-2), Harriett Spaeth (vv3-4) and John Mattes (v5). Taken from The Trinity Hymnal, Revised Edition, 1990. Hymn #221.
Lo, how a rose e’er blooming
From the tender stem hath sprung
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
As men of old have sung
It came, a floweret bright
Amid the cold of winter
When half-spent was the night.Isaiah ’twas foretold it,
The rose I have in mind
With Mary we behold it
The virgin mother kind
To show God’s love aright
She bore to men a Savior
When half-spent was the night.
31 Friday Dec 2010
Posted in Personal
Tags
Check out Puritan Reformer’s video on seasonal depression and some easy ways you can avoid its effects. As someone who wrestles with seasonal depression a bit, I think his advice sounds like it will help…for example, eating fewer carbs. As I was telling a friend of mine tonight, not only do the carbs influence my mood, but they’ve caused me to put on weight which makes me more depressed because in my family when people start, they don’t usually stop.
HT: Tim Challies
30 Thursday Dec 2010
Posted in Theology
Tags
“O God, You make this most holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light. Grant that as we have known the mysteries of that Light on earth we may also come to the fullness of His joys in heaven; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever” (Collect for Christmas Midnight, from The Lutheran Service Book).
Gay and Evangelical 
You must be logged in to post a comment.