Tag Archives: repentance

Good Advice? or Good News?

10 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by in Theology

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

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.

Continue reading →

Break Forth!

30 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by in Theology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

“O God, You make this most holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light.  Grant that as we have known the mysteries of that Light on earth we may also come to the fullness of His joys in heaven; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy  Spirit, one God, now and forever” (Collect for Christmas Midnight, from The Lutheran Service Book).

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 →

Getting Used to Justification

08 Monday Nov 2010

Posted by in Book Discussion, Personal, Theology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

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?

Continue reading →

New music and good friends

28 Saturday Aug 2010

Posted by in Personal

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

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!

Continue reading →

But You Promised!

07 Wednesday Jul 2010

Posted by in Book Discussion, Theology

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Part 4 of a series discussing C. F. W. Walther’s important treatise Law and Gospel: How to Read and Apply the Bible.

If you’re anything like me, you have (or have had) people in your life who will make promises contingent on something you do.  “If you do this, then I’ll do that.”  This is precisely what the Law does to us.  Both the Law and the Gospel promise eternal life and salvation, but the Law gives conditions which must be satisfied prior to those items being obtained: namely, perfect obedience to its demands.  Says Walther,

…the greater the promises of the Law, the more disheartening they are.  The Law offers us that food, but not close enough for us to reach it.  The Law offers us salvation in about the same manner as refreshments were offered to Tantalus in the hell of the pagan Greeks. …[The Law] always adds: “All this you will have, but only if you do what I command.”

Continue reading →

Don’t Screw This Up

15 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

The words of the title still echo in my ears.  I’d been called to my previous pastor’s office over the contents of my December 1st blog post, simply because a couple of people had forwarded the post to him.  These individuals hadn’t understood fully what I meant in my post and were not, according to my pastor, seeking to accuse me of any sin.

Continue reading →

Should we confess sexual sins publicly?

12 Saturday Jun 2010

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Great Creator, we thank You
for the gift and mystery of our bodies.
We thank You for the gift of loving sexual intimacy.
Forgive us the misuse and abuse of that gift:
For taking it too early, with the wrong person,
for replacing love with lust,
for separating concern from self-fulfillment.
Make us pure in love, discerning in passion.
Make us choose commitment over possession.
Christ Jesus, who came to reconcile and restore all relationships,
heal and restore our fragile or broken marriages.
In your name, Lord, we pray, Amen.

Continue reading →