11 Tuesday May 2010
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Why should we, as the gathered church, confess our sins, out loud, as a group? Many churches never do this and it seems very strange to even consider doing so. Some churches do it and congregants never really consider why they confess their sins publicly and privately in the course of a worship service.
The first blurb is from Reformed theologian John Frame…the second thought is from me.
07 Friday May 2010
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Sometimes I feel as if I’ve been left alone. I know that ultimately, I serve the God who has not left me alone.
And yet, it feels that way. The last few days have probably been some of the loneliest I’ve had in a while. I’ve been fairly stressed with trying to get everything in order before I start seminary in the fall. I’ve been judged unfairly by people from church folks as well as family members. I miss both of my best friends a lot. I need a better job that will actually get my bills paid.
I am very tired of sleeping alone.
28 Wednesday Apr 2010
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culture, experience, Gospel, homosexuality, Jennifer Knapp, music, politics, repentance, Scripture, theology
In view of recent events regarding Jennifer Knapp mentioned on Chris Rosebrough‘s program, I believe the following words from Jerram Barrs, while not being the final word on the subject, are in fact, relevant to the discussion.
17 Saturday Apr 2010
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Will, at the Sojourns with Jesus blog, continues his reflections on Jennifer Knapp and sexuality in the Church.
Jesus in divine obstructiveness has refused for whatever reason to leave me alone especially in my sexuality. I have loved Jesus since early childhood and believed in Jesus even when I did not believe in God. I walked away from him but he never walked away from me. Jesus invaded my life including my imagination, desires, and struggles at seventeen. My only problem with Jesus has always been that he wants to be in charge of all my life including my sex life. He is thoroughly un-modern in his insistence that he is the Lord of my heart and I am not {suppose to be}.
14 Wednesday Apr 2010
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Will, at the Sojourns with Jesus blog, writes about Christian singer Jennifer Knapp’s coming out as a lesbian. I’m looking forward to hearing the remainder of his comments.
My spiritual journey with God can best be described as wrestling. I am by nature a skeptic. It is hard for me to believe in a invisible being called God that is a Sovereign Lord. That belief goes against my nature and my culture. The virtue of our society is that we are our own lords and anything goes as long as its “consensual” and “no body gets hurt”. Sovereignty implies submission and the idea of submission goes against my very nature. I love music and it has been a great influence on my spiritual journey particularly in my late teens and early 20s. I really fell in love with the raw honesty of Jennifer Knapp’s music at a time I nearly walked away from the Church. She spoke in her music about struggles with a sovereign God. I’ve struggled too.
Click here to read the rest of Will’s post.
12 Monday Apr 2010
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I’m friends with Aaron, who has a wonderful blog of his own. I’d like to share the first piece of correspondence I exchanged with him. The night that he and I began talking, he was tweeting quotes from Bill Maher’s Religulous. I had a total meltdown when he tweeted something to the effect that “doubt is humble.” So this email resulted.
08 Thursday Apr 2010
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I’m just about as insecure as the next guy. I mean, I hold my own in a discussion, I conduct choirs and orchestras with a minimum of challenges, I speak in front of groups about the Bible with no trouble at all, I can even handle a classroom full of junior high kids for 80 minutes at a time.
But I’ve never gotten past the idea I have about my being physically undesirable. It’s terribly difficult to put myself in situations to ask out girls (which I’ve done three times in my life, being shot down very recently without even as much as a second hearing). I just never think any girl alive (or even guy for that matter) would ever want me. I would categorize myself as clumsy and awkward, even though most people would probably label me as confident.
08 Thursday Apr 2010
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In this blog article, the question is asked, “is your worship worthy of God?” The following quote from Calvin is offered:
Moreover, that which St. Augustine has said is true, that no one is able to sing things worthy of God except that which he has received from him. Therefore, when we have looked thoroughly and searched here and there, we shall not find better songs nor more fitting for the purpose, than the Psalms of David, which the Holy Spirit spoke and made through him. And, moreover, when we sing them, we are certain that God puts in our mouths these, as if he himself were singing in us to exalt his glory.
Quote by John Calvin taken from John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor
It seems that Calvin has a point to make and makes it well. It would, in response to Nathan’s question, seem to point out a serious deficit in worship which is exclusively hymn-driven (or even ‘blended,’ I’d argue). This is why, as a Reformed worship leader at a non-Reformed congregation, I strive to incorporate psalmnody whenever possible. We don’t chant them, but I am capable of doing so myself due to the fact that I was in a psalm-chanting Episcopalian congregation while in college.
24 Wednesday Mar 2010
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A Hymn by Joseph Hart
Come, ye Christians, sing the praises of your condescending God;
Come and hymn the holy Jesus, who has washed us in His blood;
We are poor, and weak, and silly, and to every evil prone;
Yet our Jesus loves us freely, and receives us for His own.
18 Thursday Mar 2010
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The following post is a continuation of Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, which references this news story.
John & Charles Wesley wrote and translated many wonderful hymns.
But their theology stank.
The idea that “Christian perfection” or “the victorious Christian life” or “walking in the Spirit” could actually happen this side of heaven is nothing but garbage. It doesn’t confront the reality that Paul speaks of his life at the time of his writing Romans 7, not in terms of his pre-Christ state. Romans 7, therefore, is the picture of a Christian…not one who “has not yet surrendered his life to Christ.”
Gay and Evangelical 