Category Archives: Personal

Getting Used to Justification

08 Monday Nov 2010

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For my Spiritual and Ministry Formation class, we’re assigned blog summaries in which we interact with material assigned the previous week.  This week’s assignment was to read the Lutheran view of Sanctification as discussed in Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification, edited by Donald Alexander, published by IVP.  The Lutheran view was articulated by Gerhard Forde.  I figured I’d share my assignment on my blog.

Dr. Forde begins his discussion of sanctification as “the art of getting used to the unconditional justification wrought by the grace of God for Jesus’ sake.  It is what happens when we are grasped by the fact that God alone justifies.”  In other words, Dr. Forde asserts that sanctification is the natural byproduct of justification and thus, all of it is indeed brought about by none other than the Christ who bought us.  Many people view sanctification as the “getting down to business” of the Christian life.  It’s what we bring to the table after Christ saves us and is (so it is thought, anyway) the way we stay in God’s good graces.  This is, Dr. Forde asserts, “entirely false.  According to Scripture, God is always the acting subject, even in sanctification. ”

Repeatedly, Dr. Forde calls attention to the dangers of speaking of sanctification.  All the discussion appeals to the old man, he says, becoming a verbal exercise which sounds very impressive, but lacking the necessary foundation of love which the old man is completely incapable of laying himself.

Sanctification, as well as justification, is rooted in the unconditional promise of God.  This is something the old man does not know how to handle because “as old beings, we simply cannot understand or cope with the unconditional promise of justification pronounced in the name of Jesus.  What we don’t see is that what the unconditional promose is calling forth is a new being.  The justification of God promised in Jesus is not an ‘offer’ made to us as old beings; [instead,] it is our end, our death.”

Are you putting YOUR old man to death?

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Quoting myself

26 Tuesday Oct 2010

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I’ve decided to switch up my email and have been converting it over to another GMail account (all my accounts are still used and checked; I’m simply running everything from an online ‘hub’ rather than from Outlook for the sake of my convenience).  In the process, lots of random emails from the last 4 years have come across my screen.  One of them contained a reflection I wrote in December of 2008.  It reads,

It fascinates me that people are willing to talk about their feelings, but not deal with the actual Scriptural realities behind what they believe and are called to do in Christ.

Are you listening to anyone except yourself?

I don’t recall the context; it was a retort to something on a forum of which I used to be a part.  But I can’t say much has changed.  People would rather air their feelings about God instead of do the hard work of searching out what the Bible says about this concern or that situation.  Call it a product of my ENTJness, but seriously…WWBD? (That’s “What Would the Bereans Do?”) 😉

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A Psalm 88 kinda day

19 Tuesday Oct 2010

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Psalm 88

I Cry Out Day and Night Before You
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.

1O LORD, God of my salvation;
I cry out day and night before you.
2Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
3For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
4I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
5like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.

Psalm 88 has long been one of my two favorite psalms of lament.  The other, a close second, is Psalm 13.

Today’s lament really started in earnest yesterday afternoon.  I was driving away from school and there was a runner with an amazing body standing at the intersection that I didn’t just lust over…I was full-on envious.

Then this morning, I saw two or three guys who I find myself being very intimidated by at chapel.  They seem very articulate and talented and like they’ll be good pastors.  And they’re all really attractive on top of all of that.  And they wear that attractiveness like it doesn’t really matter to them…they could take or leave it.

Oh, to be that bold.  To have the security to hold one’s looks loosely in one’s hand like they seem to…it’s a pretty impossible task.  How many idols have I just rattled off? Probably five or six.

I just feel very alone; I couldn’t really concentrate in Sermon Preparation & Delivery today…I sort of phased in and out on what the sub would say (though he had excellent things to say, and the stuff I did hear seemed very insightful).  If there’s one class I never check out of, it’s Prep and Del.  But I just couldn’t focus.

I unfriended someone on Facebook this morning.  The past few times I’ve gone to his page to see what he’s up to, he and his cute boyfriend are all over the place.  The guy himself looks like a model. I get that life isn’t fair…but like Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame), I ask, “but why can’t it ever be unfair in my favor?”

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Start with the Text, Not with the Commentary

18 Monday Oct 2010

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Jay Sklar, a professor at Covenant Theological Seminary, has a little ritual in his classes.  In his class greeting, he and the class say,

Sklar: Shalom, class.

Class: Shalom, Jay.

Start with the Text…

…not with the commentary.

Context…

…is king.

I once sat in a church where, at the beginning of the sermon, the pastor told his congregation that he’d consulted 20 different commentaries, 13 of which validated his interpretation of the text.  Aside from that being only slightly extreme, I think this pastor missed the point entirely of using commentaries.  He seemed to have started with his own presupposition first and then ran a tally count of people who agreed with him, going to the text last.

Bryan Chapell, former pres. of CTS

Bryan Chapell, in his book, Christ-Centered Preaching, pg. 74, makes the following assertion:

You must think through what Scripture says in order to be able to expound adequately and apply meaningfully what commentators say.  No commentator has room to write down all the implications, insights and truths given in a text.  no distant educator or long-dead scholar knows your situation or your congregation’s concerns.  It is not wise habitually to run to commentaries as the first step of sermon preparation, lest your thoughts start running in a groove carved by one not in touch with what you need to address.

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Update and new book!

16 Thursday Sep 2010

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First, I haven’t fallen off the radar completely.  I’ve been swamped with reading for my Covenant Theology class, as well as learning Greek and doing my first outline for Sermon Preparation and Delivery.  Pretty stoked.

I’m also a reader for another student (meaning, I read their assignments onto an mp3 file and then send it to them). It pays pretty well and it’s a class I’ll have to take in the future, so I’ll have read most of the materials for those classes when I get there.  Pretty excited about that, actually.  But what that means is I fell behind in reading a little bit this week and spent 8 hours reading, 2 for the other guy, 6 for me…just to get caught up.  Then I came back from class today and read for over 2 hours for the other guy.  Now I’m taking a break from Greek to write this.

Washed and Waiting, by Wes Hill

But another distraction has arrived.  Amazon just sent me the copy of Washed and Waiting by Wes Hill. I couldn’t put it down and spent an hour this afternoon reading it. It warrants its own post, but allow me to quote from page 42 (which is, of course, the answer to life, the universe, everything):

A sexual orientation is such a complex and, in most cases, it seems, intractable thing; I for one cannot imagine what ‘healing’ from my orientation would look like, given that it seems to manifest itself not only in physical attraction to male bodies but also in a preference for male company, with all that it entails, such as conversation and emotional intimacy and quality time spent together.

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An interesting interaction

04 Saturday Sep 2010

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Last night, I was working at the store and a Oneness Pentecostal guy came in.  I told him I had relatives that had gone to ABI (Apostolic Bridal Bible Institute) and instantly he wanted to talk, which was cool.

It was a fascinating discussion.  We talked about imputed righteousness, eschatology, holy living, the marks of a true Christian…all in the space of one hour.  I was in it more to hear how he heard my questions and how I might ask them better of someone I’m trying to share the gospel with, so it was a fruitful time.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him, however, that not only was I not baptized “in Jesus’ Name,” but that I’ve never spoken in tongues.  He did get to the point however, where he would refer to himself and me in terms I’d relate to “the invisible Church.” He put a high premium on inspiration (his own) through sermon prep and even at one point claimed to have seen the backside of God in a dream.

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New music and good friends

28 Saturday Aug 2010

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My Cry Ascends

First, before I get onto the reflective part of my post, go check out this new worship CD. I never recommend worship CDs anymore…but this one is rocking my face off, especially Paslm 68.  Isaac Watts’ words +Celtic flavoring + men’s choir in unison + 6/8 time signature = SCRIPTURAL AWESOMENESS!

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Injurious Comments from “Brothers”

23 Monday Aug 2010

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About a month ago, a man who purports to be a brother in the faith wrote this on my mother’s facebook wall:

In his blog, your son says he is a homosexual and says his primary attraction is to men.  He does not say that he has struggled with temptations to such sins…he calls himself a full fledged homosexual.

I have no idea about his state of repentance but I’m sure you would agree…..that it is totally inappropriate for one who calls himself a homosexual to be teaching in church or leading worship.  This is exacerbated by a purposeful hiding of this lifestyle so that he can participate in church leadership roles that would never be knowingly allowed by our elders. Continue reading →

I Lost My Nerve

20 Friday Aug 2010

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I went to dinner last night with a couple of guys who are starting seminary with me this fall.  I don’t know them very well, but I invited them to join me for a drink at Bar Louie.  We had a good time talking about the Gospel and necessity of its clear proclamation.

We also talked about the Church’s response(s) to homosexuality.  And we talked about our dating types.  One of them asked me mine…and I pretty well shut up.  I described the girl I’d liked in college because, in all truthfulness, she does tend to represent an ideal for a potential mate to me.  But I wasn’t forthright about my attractions.  I hesitated and then back-pedaled.

Why did I do that? Was I afraid of being dismissed?  Was it that I don’t want to be “that guy?”

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The Dark of Night

26 Monday Jul 2010

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God perceives the imperfections within us, and because of His love for us, urges us to grow up.  His love is not content to leave us in our weakness, and for this reason He takes us into a dark night.  He weans us from all of the pleasures by giving us dry times and inward darkness.  In doing so He is able to take away all these vices and create virtues with us.  Through the dark night, pride becomes humility, greed becomes simplicity, wrath becomes contentment, luxury becomes peace, gluttony becomes moderation, envy becomes joy, and sloth becomes strength.  No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works passively in that soul by means of the Dark Night.

–St. John of the Cross, as quoted in A Beacon in the Darkness

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