Tag Archives: Law

Why have music education in a Christian school?

23 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by in Theology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

The following is a text of a short address I gave for the Grandparent’s Welcome convocation at the school for which I work. I’m a first-year faculty member and a third-year teacher. I teach Pre-K thru 5th grade this semester and will add 6th grade next semester (just to give you some context for what I do).

The mission verse for the school this year is Proverbs 20:11 and I wrote a song using the text (NIV of 1984) to help the students internalize it. When I finished the address, the students stood up, faced their grandparents and sang the verse, accompanied by another faculty member.

Continue reading →

Now that the semester has ended…

18 Saturday Dec 2010

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

A 10" 78rpm disc

So what do I do now that the semester has finished?  Well, I’ve worked a little, relaxed a lot.  I have quite a collection of old jazz 78s which I’ve been recording to my computer so that I can listen to them on my iPod.  It’s a bit of a time-consuming dubbing process, one which involves sitting and listening to each recording, applying filters so that annoying high-pitched crackle goes away, using one’s ears to make sure it sounds good overall, saving the file, importing to iTunes, creating an mp3 copy, plugging in all the pertinent information, deleting the wave form (and its copy), and repeating the process for the next disc.  But one can’t be in a bad mood and listen to Dixieland (which is most of what I’ve been dubbing lately).

For those who care, I use a Crosley USB turntable which has 3 speeds.  I use an after-market needle to play the 78s because the standard stereo needle which comes with it just doesn’t seem like a great idea to play both 78s and long-playing (45 & 33 1/3) records.

In addition, I’ve gotten some feedback lately from various people who read the blog.  I’ve gotten everything from “I appreciate what God’s doing in your life” to “You need to leave the lifestyle and repent” and everything in between.  My goal is to be the type of man where I would listen to negative feedback and instead of dismissing it, I would consider it carefully to see if anything is valuable from it.  For example, even though I am not in the lifestyle, I do need to live a life of repentance.  Repentance isn’t just the doorway we get through to be reconciled to God…it’s that, for sure…but it’s also the path a Christian treads.

Continue reading →

Strategies to Keep from Falling

15 Wednesday Dec 2010

Posted by in Book Discussion, Theology

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

What should pastors do to keep their noses clean…or, as we say in the Christian world, themselves pure?  Randy Alcorn has an article which has been highly distributed over the years which I would like to comment on.

In 1989, the book Sins of the Body was published in The Leadership Library, edited by Terry Muck.  It featured articles written by a wide variety of Christian authors.  The article which shares the same name as this blog post, was written by Randy Alcorn.  Christianity Today has the article available on its website here. Recently, some folks asked me what I thought of Randy Alcorn.  It’s been a significant amount of time since I’ve read a book by him, but I wanted to sketch out the apprehension I have for Alcorn using this article as a foil.

My operating assumption is that Randy Alcorn doesn’t understand law and gospel properly and therefore gives rather toxic advice.  Alcorn offers himself as the example instead of Christ and in doing so, contributes to the problem.

Continue reading →

An interesting interaction

04 Saturday Sep 2010

Posted by in Personal

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Continue reading →

Injurious Comments from “Brothers”

23 Monday Aug 2010

Posted by in Personal

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

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 →

Ok, who gets what?

20 Friday Aug 2010

Posted by in Book Discussion, Theology

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

Part 8 of a series discussing C. F. W. Walther’s important treatise Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible.

So far, we’ve enumerated five differences between law and gospel.  They are,

  1. Law and Gospel differ as to how they were revealed to us.  The Law was written on our hearts and can indeed be found in other religions, but Christianity is the sole steward of the Gospel.
  2. The contents of the Law and Gospel are different.  The Law demands…the Gospel takes nothing but only gives.
  3. The Law and Gospel give us different promises.  The Law offers us salvation, but doesn’t give us any means to lay hold of it.  The Gospel tells us that Someone has laid hold of that salvation in our place.
  4. The Gospel does not threaten us; indeed it removes the believer’s desire to sin.  The Law, on the other hand, is nothing but threats.
  5. The effects of the Law are threefold.
    • The Law tells us what to do, but gives us no way to carry that out, instead prompting us in an unwillingness to keep the Law.
    • The Law uncovers a person’s sins, but offers the sinner no help to free himself from sin and hurls him into despair.
    • The Law creates feelings of contrition by showing terrors of hell, death and the wrath of God, but it never offers one drop of comfort to that sinner.  If the Law is the only teaching applied to people, then they must all despair, die and perish in their sins.
  • The effects of the Gospel are threefold.
    • What the Gospel demands (namely, faith), it provides.
    • The Gospel does not rebuke sinners.  Instead, it takes all terror away from them, filling them with peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
    • “The Gospel,” as Walther says, “does not require people to furnish anything good–neither a good heart nor a good disposition nor an improvement of their condition, neither piousness nor love–whether toward God of men.  The Gospel issues no orders. Rather, it changes people.  It demands nothing, but gives all.”

The sixth and final difference between Law and Gospel relates to the persons to whom each must be preached.  The Law must be preached to secure sinners and the Gospel to those who are alarmed in their sin.

Continue reading →

Only the Law, Ma’am

04 Wednesday Aug 2010

Posted by in Book Discussion, Scripture, Theology

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

In part 6 of my ongoing series on C. F. W. Walther’s  Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible, I said:

…if the only teaching applied to people is the Law, then they despair, die and perish in their sin.  More on this in a future post…

Here is that future post.

This statement is one side of a coin.  Some people grow up, live and die under all-law preaching and never have this melt-down I’ve described, or better put, never realize that this is what’s ticking under their hood.

The other alternative is for a person to be crushed under the weight of the fact that they don’t love the Lord with all of who they are…and to not let themselves off the hook because they realize that they do not keep the law perfectly.

Obey! No exceptions! This is the demand of the Law.

Teaching people that “it takes more than faith to really please God” is, in reality, extremely cruel.  To those who are convinced of their own righteousness, it pushes them on in their odious good works.  Telling the ones who despair of their sin such a thing drives them further and further away from the Gospel…that Christ has obeyed perfectly in their place all that the law demands.

Continue reading →

It Slices! It dices!

03 Tuesday Aug 2010

Posted by in Book Discussion, Scripture, Theology

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Part 7 of a series discussing C. F. W. Walther’s important treatise Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible.

The effects of the Gospel are entirely different in nature when compared to the Law.  The Law, as we’ve discussed, breathes threats and does not give us any means by which to fulfill those demands.

Could the people at your church wear this shirt and not be sued for false advertising?

The Gospel, as some of you will rightly point out, does demand faith.  “Repent and believe the good news!” is indeed the way the Gospel is to be preached, for it is the very message the Lord Himself gave us to dispense.

The second component of this point, however, may have escaped the notice of some, so I’ll flesh it out here:  The Gospel gives the very faith it demands.  When we preach “Believe in Christ!”, God gives them faith through our preaching.  It’s not, of course, the physical sound of the spoken word which saves…it’s the content of the preaching.

The Gospel doesn’t condemn or rebuke those who hear it.  Rather, it takes all the terror, fear and anguish away from them, filling them with peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Think about the prodigal father:  he lavishes his riches on his wayward son.  In this same way, Christ has welcomed us, his wayward and hateful children, into His home where he eats with us and us with Him.

Furthermore, the Gospel never requires anything good from the person:  not a good heart, not an improvement in behavior, not piety…not even love.

Continue reading →