Hope you enjoy it.
Though I Once Embraced the Darkness
08 Wednesday Jun 2011
Tag Archives: Gospel
And We’ll Understand It Better By and By
28 Monday Mar 2011
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I was listening to “By and By” by Phil Zito’s band on the way home. (But of course, as the jazz nerd that I am, I was listening to a transfer that I made myself from the original 78 with my Crosley USB turntable.)
Almost the entire time the song was playing in my car, I cried. I’ve been fairly emotional for the past few days. I think it’s due largely to the overwhelming support I’ve had from guys I have class with.
In the course of a conversation I had the other night with two awesome friends, I disclosed that there are things I won’t even post here about myself…things that I suspect that if my closest friends knew, they would disown me…or at least keep their distance. In my mind, if I’m a window that my seminary brothers can look through to help minister to people who wrestle with homosexuality (or even those who fully embrace it), then that’s great.
Maybe even if they know me as someone who is lonely from time to time, then that’s a little more risky…but as long as I spread out my expectations of who I want to hang out with, people won’t tire of me and my seemingly endless loneliness. It might even get to the point where someone might offer me a hug, which of course means a lot, but isn’t something I readily ask for.
But when I stop being a window and start being someone who is real flesh-and-blood who crushes on people, finds them attractive…then what? Will people still love me?
My next sermon
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.
Response to Randy Alcorn and Abortion
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.
Good Advice? or Good News?
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.
Look at the Rose
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.
Silence!
28 Tuesday Dec 2010
Posted in Theology
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. from the Liturgy of St. James, trans. by Gerard Moultrie, 1864. As published in Cantus Christi 2004 revised edition, pg. 241. (For those keeping track, this particular hymnal was produced by Douglas Wilson’s church.)
All Praise to Thee, Eternal God!
27 Monday Dec 2010
A hymn by Martin Luther. From The Lutheran Hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, Concordia Publishing, St. Louis, MO: 1941. #80.
All praise to Thee eternal God
Who, clothed in garb of flesh and blood
Dost take a manger for Thy throne
While worlds on worlds are Thine aloneOnce did the skies before Thee bow
A virgin’s arms contain Thee now
While angels, who in Thee rejoice
Now listen for Thine infant voice
A Great And Mighty Wonder
26 Sunday Dec 2010
Posted in Theology
From the Greek of Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople and a member of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451. Translated by Dr. J. Mason Neale, 1862.
A great and mighty wonder
The festal makes secure
The Virgin bears the Infant
With virgin-honor pure.The Word is made incarnate
And yet remains on high
And cherubim sing anthems
To shepherds from the sky.
Hark, How the Heavens Ring!
25 Saturday Dec 2010
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A hymn I’ve selected for the first day of Christmas.
“Hark, How All The Welkin Rings!” is a hymn by Charles Wesley, first published in his Hymns and Sacred Poems in 1739. It has passed into modern usage as “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” While I understand and to varying degrees support the modernization and editing of this hymn that has gone on, I think it’s good to examine the original. There are some notable changes, so read carefully.
Gay and Evangelical 