08 Tuesday Mar 2011
Posted in Personal
My next sermon’s text is Romans 4:1-12. I plan to discuss as my two main points the wages of the law vs. the gift of faith. Now that I have some potential direction, I can start to work on other things. Fortunately, this means I only have to have four illustrations total, instead of the customary five.
25 Friday Feb 2011
…the term “holiness” is not exhausted by that of “moral purity.” Granted, the latter is not excluded, but neither is it the only meaning, not even the primary one. … Holy is that which in all things conforms to the special laws God has ordained for it. Holiness is perfection, not only in a moral sense, but in the comprehensive sense in which the unique legislation of Israel conceives it: a religious, ethical, ceremonial, internal, and external sense.
–Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics vol. 2: God and Man, Baker, 2004: pg. 219.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
–Hebrews 12:14, ESV.
23 Sunday Jan 2011
Posted in Personal
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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.
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”).
01 Saturday Jan 2011
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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 Personal
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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
24 Friday Dec 2010
I’m a bit of a grinch when it comes to Christmas. The big holiday in my family has always been Thanksgiving. We go and visit extended family, see people we don’t really know that well and eat until we almost go into a coma. It’s everything anyone could want, from pies to turkey to arguments over breakfast.
26 Friday Nov 2010
Posted in Personal
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One of my favorite hymns of all time has part of its root in Psalm 71:17-18:
17O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
your power to all those to come.
19Your righteousness, O God,
reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you?
The hymn is “How Firm a Foundation.” The sixth verse reads:
Even down to old age all my people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn
Like lambs they shall still to my bosom be borne.
Thanksgiving is always an interesting holiday for me. This year, I graduated to “adult” status at the dinner in Elwood, IN, because the coordinator asked me to pray before the meal started.
25 Thursday Nov 2010
Posted in Personal
I’m very appreciative of my brothers with whom I’m in seminary. They have really rallied around me, encouraging me. I don’t have anyone’s permission to use their names, so I’ll just rattle off some scenarios and they’ll know who they are.
19 Friday Nov 2010
Posted in Personal
I had two tests today. I don’t know how I did…but at least they’re over.
I gave my first devotional in my sermon preparation and delivery class. I got a lot of really good feedback…some things I can improve upon and some things I’m already doing fairly well. I’m really looking forward to coming semesters of preaching.
The plan is to get some things done for my covenant theology class paper on Numbers 21 (“Snake on a Stick”) tonight and be done by Sunday evening so that I can get other things done. If I can get my CovTheo paper cranking…and my Greek homework done…it will be a good weekend.
I had some really great conversations this week, both in person and via email. And I have been fighting temptation a lot this week, but am seeing a lot of encouraging things in my own life and hearing really encouraging things from others. I love this group of guys God has surrounded me with here.
There is a lot to be thankful for right now in my life.
Gay and Evangelical 
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