Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend, my lovely Mrs. and I flew up to Colville, WA for a day and a half. What? Never heard of Colville? Not surprised. We were brought up there by Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, a nice little church ministering in this nice little town. I had been asked by their pastor to come up in June, but that's when I got uber-sick, so we had to scratch that trip.

Turns out that this particular weekend was the big community festival, and the local pastor's association was apparently putting a lot of pressure on all the churches in town to cancel their services, so everyone could attend the big worship service type-thing at the festival. Emmanuel, was one of the few churches in town that didn't buckle to the ecumenical/municipal spirit. Which put me in the enviable spot as being one of the main competitors to the mush-fest's "Keynote Speaker" (not preacher, not minister, but Keynote Speaker), Frank Peretti. Not that he was quaking in his boots, if anything, he was probably a little glad that he didn't have to face the hard stare of the frozen chosen as he entertained the gathered masses. :)

But that's not important, just somewhat amusing. The service went well, SDG. Despite having me as a song leader (those poor, poor people), and me giving my first exhortation since April (so I was a bit rusty), I think it was an edifying and encouraging time for everyone. I know it was very encouraging to me, it's one thing to fill in for a minister with people who really have no choice, they're stuck with you; it's quite another to be asked to come. Had the chance to spend time with a few of the families afterward, which made for a very pleasant Lord's Day. Pretty near everyone in the congregation thanked me for coming, and more than one said they'd hoped I could come back. I hope I can.

The area around Colville was just gorgeous, it was nice to be in awe of the sheer number of trees and deer everywhere rather than the sheer number of Chevron stations like I am here. But the best I could do was a 24.0 kpbs dial-up connection while I was there, so y'know, it's a trade-off.

All in all, between the people and the environment (little better, IMHO, of small towns in the PNW)...one of the more refreshing weekends I've had in awhile.

The Blessedness of Those who Love Jesus

oops...this one should've been first.

from The Christians Reasonable Service by Wilhelmus á Brakel

How blessed are you who love Jesus, for God loves you! “He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father” (John 14:21); “For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me” (John 16:27). The Lord Jesus loves you: “He that loveth Me...I will love him” (John 14:21). If you are loved by God and the Lord Jesus, They will accomplish in you all that proceeds from eternal love. Would God then not behold the beloved of His soul, deliver them from all that would harm them, and provide for them in all their necessities? “Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and Thy glory above all the earth; that Thy beloved may be delivered: save with Thy right hand” (Ps. 108:5–6); “For so He giveth His beloved sleep” (Ps. 127:2). The rendering of the Statenvertaling differs significantly from the KJV. It reads as follows: “Het is alzo, dat Hij het zijnen beminde als in de slaap geeft.” Literally translated this reads, “He gives it to His beloved as during their sleep.”

Oh, how great is that good which the Lord will give to His beloved! “I...will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21); “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23); “That I may cause those that love Me to inherit substance” (Prov. 8:21). God's heart is inclined toward you, God's eye is upon you, God's hand is for you, and all discomforts come upon you in love (Rev. 3:19)—all things must work together for you for good (Rom. 8:28). All that is subservient to your salvation and can satisfy you is intended for you (1 Cor. 2:9). Of you it may be said, “Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy
help, and who is the sword of thy excellency!” (Deut. 33:29). The very zenith of your felicity is love itself and the privilege to love eternally—without end to remain satisfied with the immediate manifestations of love, and the mutual enjoyment of love with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Exhortations to Increase in Love Toward Jesus

from The Christians Reasonable Service by Wilhelmus á Brakel

Love is imperfect here, and we are therefore continually in need of exhortations. Therefore you who desire to become more abundant in your love toward the Lord Jesus, consider these matters:

First, consider Jesus in His preciousness. After the bride had described Him from His head to His feet, she concludes, “His mouth is most sweet: yea, He is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song 5:16). According to His divine nature He is the brightness of His Father's glory and the express image of His person. He possesses all divine perfections to an infinite degree. According to His human nature He is perfectly holy. He who delights in holiness must find delight in Him. As Mediator He is crowned with honor and glory, and He is most benevolent, friendly, compassionate, and loving. Grace and love are poured out upon His lips, and He is full of grace, truth, righteousness, and benevolence, so that He is simultaneously majestic and lovely. If there is therefore anything that will beget and stir up love within you, it must be the Lord Jesus—that is, if He would but reveal Himself to you and you could but behold the King in His beauty.

Secondly, love begets love. Jesus, however, loves you with the greatest love imaginable. Since He is love, He can therefore love those that are not loveable, and delight Himself in blessing His beloved ones. His love toward you is an eternal love, and thus without beginning and without end; it is a most intimate and vehement love. Meditate for a moment upon all in which he manifests His love toward you.

(1) He came into the world for your sake, assumed your nature, and became like unto you in all things, sin excepted. He even took upon Himself the form of a servant. He thus put Himself in your place, became your Surety, took your sins away from you, took them upon Himself as if He had committed them, and bore the punishment due upon your sins. “Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25).

(2) How He has been despised and what griefs He has borne! Everything was against Him; God was angry toward Him, and poured upon Him His righteous wrath against your sin. Go to the manger and follow Him to the cross. Behold Him there in His utmost distress and anxiety, and imagine that in His deepest sorrow He were to address you as follows: “Look at Me, My elect, My beloved. Love to you brought Me into this condition. My love is so great that I would be willing to suffer a thousand times more before I would allow you to perish.” In love He paid your ransom, accomplished eternal redemption for you, reconciled you with God and established peace between Him and you, and led you to Him as a reconciled Father.

(3) You are still bound upon His heart. He continually thinks upon you, prays for you, is your Advocate with the Father, and His eye is upon you to preserve you.

(4) Consider in what a lovely manner He has drawn you to Himself. For your sake He sent the gospel to the locality where you were to be born, and when your time came He called you, allured you, and, while knocking, stood before your heart waiting for you to open to Him. When you were averse to His way and disobedient, He bore you with longsuffering, He regenerated you, illuminated you, gave you a heart that fell in love with Him so that you yourself sought Him and ran after Him.

(5) How frequently He has spoken to your heart! How many kisses of love has He given you! How frequently has He comforted you in your sorrow, delivered you in your perplexities, and encouraged you in your discouragements! With how much longsuffering has He borne with your weaknesses! Time and again He has manifested His goodness to you, as if you had not sinned against Him at all!

(6) He will at last bring you unto Himself into heaven in order that you may be eternally with Him. There He will glorify you; there He will cause you to rejoice; there He will cause you to be perfect in love. He will thus be with you eternally and you with Him, to eternally satiate you with love. Meditate upon this, and believe this, for if this cannot stir up your heart to love in return, you are indeed void of love. Therefore stir up your love.

Thirdly, there is joy in love, and the heart of man is inclined toward joy. There is no joy in the world for you. That which is most delightful grieves you when Jesus has departed. You will have to acquiesce in a song I once made about the month of May:

How sweet is the time of songs and flowers,
in which animal and man rejoice!
Yet it is nothing but sorrow to me
as long as I miss the love of Jesus.
But if He would but speak to my soul,
“Thou art Mine and I am Thine eternally,”
And cause my sinful life to disappear—
then it is for me the time of songs and flowers!

If the soul may sit in the shadow of the love of Jesus, and if her love sweetly issues forth to her Beloved, she has a heaven full of joy, and only then is she in her element. Then she wishes that this love would never be disturbed—just as the bride expressed it, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till He please” (Song 2:7). Jesus rejoices in the expressions of His love to you. “As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee” (Isa. 62:5). Likewise a loving soul also rejoices in the expressions of her love to Jesus, and in the sensible enjoyment of Jesus' love toward her. “The King hath brought me into His chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in Thee...the upright love Thee” (Song 1:4).

Fourthly, consider attentively how Jesus is the object of the love of the Father, the angels, and believers.

(1) The love of the Father goes forth to Jesus; God loves Him. “For the Father loveth the Son” (John 5:20); “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 17:5).

(2) The holy angels love Him, rejoice in beholding Him, worship Him reverently (Heb. 1:6), and are ready to serve Him (Matthew 4:11)—as seen at His birth, in His suffering, and at His resurrection. At His coming unto judgment they will accompany Him with joyful willingness and love.

(3) Believers on earth love Him, their hearts go out after Him, and He is the focal point of the passions of their love. “Therefore do the virgins love Thee” (Song 1:3). The bride continually has the word Beloved in her mouth. Just consider how each believer mourns when Jesus is absent; how they long for His coming to them; and how delighted they are when they may sweetly enjoy His fellowship. All their asking, crying, and weeping is for Jesus. In Jesus only do they find all their satisfaction. What beautiful expressions we find in the meditations of believers! “It is much better for me to die for Jesus than to rule over the world—My love is crucified—If you were to cut my heart in a thousand pieces, on each piece you would find the name Jesus written with golden letters—Lord Jesus, I love Thee more than my possessions, than my loved ones, and than myself—Money must perish (with all those who love possessions more than fellowship with Jesus for one day),” etc. Shall the heart of each believer bring forth a flame of love, and shall your heart then also not be set aflame? Come, join yourself to all who love Jesus, and say with them, Jesus, sweet Jesus—Jesus is the most eminent of all who I can find delight in. Jesus, if Thou dost desire to have me, I desire to have Thee and desire none other than Thee. To all creatures I say, “No!” If Jesus were to ask you, “Lovest thou Me?” would you then not answer, “Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee”? Therefore hold fast to this and continually immerse yourself in this love. Let it give you wings to render you fit to run your course with joy. Let the love of Jesus compel you to live a life pleasing to Him, in order to glorify Him here, and patiently wait until He takes you to be eternally with Himself.

A little perspective here, pal?

Okay, I'm not crazy about the new Daily Show set. But this guy...uhh...buddy? Take a pill. Get some fresh air. Talk to a girl. Something. Anything. Before long, it'll be too late and you'll turn into someone pathetic like...

um....


err....

uh.....

okay. Can't think of anyone else right now...you're officially at the bottom of the ladder.

H/T: Blogger Buzz

Medical Update

Well, figured I'd file an update on those medical terms I've learned this summer. Got some test results yesterday that eliminated Transient Ischemic Attacks and Atypical Migrane. In their place I got a shrug. Whatever it was that made the doc think about those was, and I quote, "scary but not dangerous." He can tell me many things it wasn't (including a brain tumor--BRAIN TUMOR?!?! I didn't know that was on the table!!!), but no idea what it is. If it happens again, he'd like me to get to an ER pronto so they can run some tests on me.

Great. Just great. Answers would've been nice. This is where my physician friend reminds me "It's called the practice of medicine." grrrr

The whole Plantar Fasciitis thing...ugh. Still a factor. Even with chemical intervention by my podiatrist, feet still hurt. Wonder if I can use a stool in the pulpit this week....

Suddenly, I have a weekend free

I'm standing at the kitchen counter, minding my own business, spreading peanut butter onto bread and Frodo comes up to me. "Daddy, I know who's going to win the debate."

"What debate?" I have no idea what he's talking about, what debate could a six year old be thinking of? Leo and Donny debating pizza topping?

"'Is the Bible true?'" As if I had asked the world's dumbest question. How'd he know about that? Probably reading over my shoulder way too often...I wonder what else he reads that I don't know about. "I know who's going to win!"

"Okay, who's going to win?"

Confidently, he shouts, "The Dividing Line!" Which I take as a reference to Dr. White.

"Okay," I say with a smile, "Why do you say that?"

"Because. 'Is the Bible True?'" He pauses here for a moment, as if to say "Hel-LOOO!" and then he continues, "Yes. So they win. So you don't need to go to the debate."

With that settled, he marches out of the kitchen.

the Educational Establishment Strikes again

...and a child will suffer.

Local TV news website has the following headline: "Kindergarten Age Requirement Frustrates Some Parents--One local family has to wait until next year to enroll their son in Kindergarten because he is too young"

Now, because this is a local TV news site, the link takes you to a blank page, so I can't tell you any details beyond that. But my wife and I have talked about this recently. If we surrendered our kids to the Brain Washing Centers Fine Elementary Schools here, Samwise would be starting Kindergarten this year. He wouldn't be laying around reading chapter books when he's bored. He wouldn't be adding two digit numbers, etc. No, because the Gurus have decided that we are to place kids in a grade by age, for socialization purposes, not readiness; to progress them because of age, not ability; and so on, Sam would be behind where he is. Poor kid.

...on second thought the kid is staying out of the hands of the Public School system for another year. He should be breathing a sigh of relief.

On a related note, a friend linked me to this commentary yesterday, "Home Schools Run By Well-Meaning Amateurs: Schools With Good Teachers Are Best-Suited to Shape Young Minds". Now, as he told me, don't skip ahead--read the whole thing right through...right down to the description of the author. Then chuckle.

Happy Birthday, Das!

On July 28, 1881, John Gresham Machen was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

J. Gresham Machen was a brilliant Christian Scholar, Apologist, Political Figure and Writer from the early twentieth century. In 1923, he wrote his most popular and important book Christianity and Liberalism—Machen argued that there were two rival religions warring for control in the Protestant churches: Christianity and Liberalism were rival religions, not two sides of the same religion (you can read it online here). Sadly, the Church as a whole has yet to learn his lesson. His struggles in the Presbyterian Church to preserve orthodoxy and to battle the growing Liberalism eventually led to his expulsion. Machen and several other ministers formed what would become the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Henry Coray, one of Machen's students, and a minister in the OPC wrote:

"What is it in Dr. Machen that stands out above everything else? . . . To me the answer does not lie in his scholarship, or in his teaching ability, or in his literary skill, great as these are. In my opinion the one feature about him that overshadows everything else is this: his burning passion to see the Lordship of Christ exercised in His church."

I'd really recommend the following books about Machen:

• J. Gresham Machen: A Guided Tour of His Life and Work by Stephen J. Nichols
• J. Gresham Machen: A Silhouette by Henry Coray
• Defending The Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America by D. G. Hart

But better than that is reading the man himself:

• J. Gresham Machen's The Gospel and the Modern World
• The Christian View Of Man
• Christianity and Liberalism (if you want something to hold in your hands)
• God Transcendent
• New Testament: An Introduction To Its Literature And History
• Select Shorter Writings
• What Is Faith?--a personal fave

Socio-Political Notes

• And the Number Three reason that Digital Cameras are the way to go....
• Ann Coulter opines that we shouldn't trust Bush on Roberts
• Bret posts the text from an advertisement in the Idaho Statesman--and frankly, I'm shocked they ran it
• Huckleberries Online proposes this Idaho State Quarter design (may only get a chuckle from Idahoans)
• Huckleberries also pointed to this chuckle-worthy post about a Satanist blog

Update: Links fixed, thanks to the perpetually unsatisfied one.

Applying a 2" x 4" to my noggin

'course a 2" x 4" is actually a 1.5" x 3.5" or so, but when you're getting whapped upside the head, who cares about a half-inch here or there?

For awhile now I've had a really nasty attitude towards my job. I frankly hate it. Part of that is due to the last item on the entry directly below this. When everything below your knees is searing with pain, you have a hard time enjoying what you're doing. If eating a Chicago Connection pizza while drinking a Guinness hurt like this, I'd stop immediately. (sooooo glad there's no pain in that!)

Another part is that the quality of our management has taken a horrible nose dive. Personnel (both crew and management) being stretched too thin contributes to this, new managers who shouldn't be at that level--there's one manager who I really like, but too often feel like I and one or two other crew members are really running the place when he's on shift.

Anyway that hatred towards toiling under the Golden Arches has led to a souring of my attitude in general, 'tho I'm usually able to keep it focused on the job, I'm not entirely successful. And honestly, didn't really bother me too much to hate the job.

So last night, I'm leaving for work and sign out of the chatroom. Dr. White stops me, "Hey...just remember....It is the Lord Christ you serve. :-)"

And that kind of takes all the fun out of bitter resentment...with friends like that...But I take the admonition to heart, or try to anyway.

Then this morning doing my blogrun, I hit this post on Reformation21's blog, "The Doctrine of Vocation" (you'll have to scroll to it, the 21 guys have yet to discover the magic of permalinks). Which serves as a nice little reminder of Veith's book God at Work, a nice life-changing read on the doctrine of vocation--most of which I'd been repressing lately. It's almost like someone's trying to tell me something...or pound it through my head, something like that.

So I'm refocusing myself today (and hopefully for many to come) on the Protestant Doctrine of Vocation, so nicely summed up by Veith:

When we pray the Lord's Prayer, observed Luther, we ask God to give us this day our daily bread. And He does give us our daily bread. He does it by means of the farmer who planted and harvested the grain, the baker who made the flour into bread, the person who prepared our meal. We might today add the truck drivers who hauled the produce, the factory workers in the food processing plant, the warehouse men, the wholesale distributors, the stock boys, the lady at the checkout counter. Also playing their part are the bankers, futures investors, advertisers, lawyers, agricultural scientists, mechanical engineers, and every other player in the nation's economic system. All of these were instrumental in enabling you to eat your morning bread.

Before you ate, you probably gave thanks to God for your food, as is fitting. He is caring for your physical needs, as with every other kind of need you have, preserving your life through His gifts. "He provides food for those who fear him" (Psalm 111:5); also to those who do not fear Him, "to all flesh" (136:25). And He does so by using other human beings. It is still God who is responsible for giving us our daily bread. Though He could give it to us directly, by a miraculous provision, as He once did for the children of Israel when He fed them daily with manna, God has chosen to work through human beings, who, in their different capacities and according to their different talents, serve each other. This is the doctrine of vocation.

New Words I've Learned This Summer

Well, many of these I knew vaguely, but when they're applied to you--whether in theory or in fact--you tend to learn them a bit better.

Roughly in order:

• Diverticulitis
• Smoldering Appendicitis--the Smoldering part is where it takes days upon days to get to the critical stage
  
• Fatty Liver
  
• Pericarditis
• Transient Ischemic Attacks--a.k.a. TIA, mini-stroke
• Atypical Migrane
• Plantar Fasciitis

and that's just so far--still have August to fill up!

We're still looking into the last three--deciding what I have, how to treat, etc. That's kinda preoccupied me for the last week. Having a hard time thinking or writing about anything else honestly. Trying to get better about it, and getting back to dealing with life outside of my corpus, but it ain't easy.

New Group Blogs

• Founders Ministries Blog from Tom Aschol, the Executive Director of the SBC group.
• Reformation 21 Blog the new blog from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals--to go along with the new online magazine from ACE, Reformation 21 (which, seems to me, is basically a blog with really long posts and infrequent updates). Both well worth the read.

From Time Magazine

Good, short, piece:
When Denial Can Kill: We Muslims must admit that our religion might be motivating the bombers
By Irshad Manji

(hattip to Bloggeronicus Rex--not that he blogged it, just showed it to me)

yeah, I know it ain't much, but needed to say something...been a week w/o a real post

Great read. Better pacing than Rowling's done in awhile. That's all I can say for now.

Thanks for the idea Ransom, hope this isn't too much of a rip off....

Potter-time (You can't touch this)

at least 'til 12:01 am tomorrow.

In honor of the Potter-mania, I'd like to post a few links:

• Doug Jones' "Most Real Fantasy", best line:"Harry Potter can't be a threat. Wizardry doesn't really work. And if your kids are really tempted to join a coven then it's not a giant leap to say that you've failed miserably as a parent. Where is the ballast in your childrearing?"


• Go watch "Welcome Back Potter" from last night's The Daily Show (you have to sit through a little bit of other hilarious stuff first). Stewart brings up the oft-quoted Cardinal Ratzinger interview where he talked about the books containing, "“subtle seductions that work imperceptibly, and because of that deeply, and erode Christianity in the soul before it can even grow properly." Stewart replies "yes, and really who knows better how children can be subtely seduced..."


• While you're there, see "Harry Potter Terror" also from the Daily Show


• I think this photo shows the greatest threat posed by Rowling's books: those hats catching on.


• Meghan Cox' A Classic for the Ages?is worth a read


• Lastly, sure the themes get a little old, but most of the 11 pages here are worth a read.

Comments

Have been having a lot of trouble with Haloscan recently--mostly it showing 0 comments where there were some, etc. Anyway, I've enabled blogger's comments now to avoid that...sadly, the blogger hack which was supposed to enable me to see my old Haloscan comments on old posts and the new blogger comments on the new posts didn't work. So for a little while, I'm keeping both up. But if you want to say something, please use the your Noise link, as I'll be getting rid of the other pretty soon.

btw, many apologies to those RSS folks I've bugged today with all my tweaks.

oh yeah, and thanks to all my #pros buddies for their support on the post below.

Yessir, that's my baby...

Shortly after we were married my wife and I went to Borders Books where a prof of mine was doing a signing—he was then Idaho’s “Writer in Residence” and had to go to all over doing that sort of thing (or maybe he was promoting one of his mind-bending novels…the details on that are kind of fuzzy). I introduce them and Lance asks a few “get to know you” kind of questions… “are you into Sci-Fi?” “no” “Not even Star Trek?” “Uh, no.” “Ohh, fantasy?” “No.” “You read a lot?” “not really” etc. I remember her just looking uncomfortable, and Lance running out of things to try to ask her, they were worlds apart—and she was convinced that Lance was going to conclude we weren’t a good match, etc.

There was probably even a little, “Man, this guy I married is such a geek!” After all, for every one of Lance’s questions we’d have been able to talk for a few hours. And in the years since, she’s had that “this guy is such a geek” reaction a lot—and a little bit of pride in her lack of geekiness.

And then…a co-worker insists I borrow his Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone DVD—he’s convinced I’d love the F/X. Which I do. We love the story even more. So we decide to try the first novel…and within a couple of weeks, she’s read the entire series (up through Goblet at the time)—and I was close behind. And the wall between her and fandom starts to crumble.

Cut to today, on her way to work I get this picture:

Resplendent in her Geekiness—Gryffindor scarf (you can almost see the insignia), costume glasses (wouldn’t surprise me if she came back from the optometrist with those frames one day), lightning bolt scar (temporary…not a tattoo, I trust), genuine Olivander’s Wand replica, and bag of Bertie Bott’s Beans…oh yeah, and can’t forget: “No Compromise” bracelet.

What a difference a few years make...

Update: She just called...for some reason, the her new staff don't quite know what to make of her...pretty much just staying away. The veterans on her staff just laughed, but the newbies...go figure

Update 2: Allright, had to replace the picture with something more acceptable to her. For close friends and family who missed it, the original picutre is available via email. Oh and here's her initial reaction to my first picture

Mutual Edification

One of the elders at my church and I were talking about the benefits of family worship in our kids lives--the little roots that my kids are putting down and some hopeful signs of buds, and the fruit that his kids are showing, and the like. We talked about desires, hopes, and plans for us to be able to do what the Directory of Family Worship had in mind. That it should "be pressed and set up; that, with national reformation, the profession and power of godliness, both personal and domestick, be advanced." Some of the ends of that desire are well put (again) by the Directory "for cherishing piety, for maintaining unity, and avoiding schism and division." My guess is that schism is both intra-family as well as intra-church.

What a plague we've brought on our homes, our marriages and our churches because we don't give a rip about family worship! I know it can't be proved, but I'd be willing to wager some serious money that the degrading and ignoring of family worship is directly tied to the pathetic state of the Church and Christian family today.

Anyhow, last night we were doing our bit to advance the national reformation, and as we were wrapping up, I asked, "What great miracle does the Holy Spirit perform in the hearts of God's people?" Frodo jumps up with, "Turning Stone into Flesh?"

"And what do we call that?"

"Regeneration." And we people think we have spent too much time in the OT with him. Ha. Gimme that over a vanilla "being born again" any day. (not that the incredible doctrine of the spirit bringing new life is anything to sneeze at, just the phrase is pretty much emptied of meaning nowadays).

As I thought about that later (and I spent a lot of time coming back to it), I thought of one more reason for Dads to make family worship a priority. Stuff like that is a great encouragement for Dads! 8-D Not sure it's precisely the "Mutual Edification" the Directory had in mind...but it's close, and good enough for me.

Breeding a Snob

Frodo's having quite the quotable week...

Mrs. WhiteNoise is getting annoyed with our Science curriculm lately, the Science tests that our curriculum provider (name withheld to protect the guilty) gave us are filled with typos. For exacple, the other day Samwise took a test that asked what teeth he'd use to chew a "cooky." So she's grumbling about all the typos she's finding and Frodo pipes up in their defense:

"Maybe they went to Public School."

(groan)

at this rate I'm going to have to change his blog nickname from Frodo to Malfoy.

Goblet of Fire

Down to hours before Half-Blood Prince and we're starting to get noise about The Goblet of Fire movie. A handful of early reviews at aintitcool already, and now one from a regular.

Can't wait for this one!

Gratitude

Gratitude is one of those things that I'm really good at expereiencing/feeling, but am really lousy at expressing--which is actually the most important part, the rest is pretty useless without that.

When someone performs an act of kindness--being given a gift; being brought a glass of water by a waitress on a long day (better: being brought a few refills on that and a coffee cup that never gets empty); being paid a compliment--far too often the words "thank you" or "thanks" just don't seem to get the job done. There's a sense of obligation, or debt, that comes along with it--but it's a welcome debt; unlike, say, medical bills or student loans. Somehow that debt has to be repaid.

Seems to me that if charity and generosity are attributes that the Christian is to display, half of that needs to be the ability to respond correctly to charity and generosity. Exacty how you get better at that is the question I'm dealing with.

This meandering was inspired by an act of charity and kindness. I'm sure the man that inspired it knows who he is (he is pretty clever). And he knows what a woeful job I did of expressing it. Sorry. I'm working on it.

Quick Shot: When Grace Comes Home

No energy to do a bigger review. But this is a book to get. Basically, it's purpose is to answer the big "So What?" question regarding the Doctrines of Grace. What difference does Calvinism make to the way you live? How does it effect your prayer, your assurance, your sanctification, the way you look at evangelism or adversity? The chapter on "Law & Liberty" is better than many books written on either subject. Good read. Easy read. Powerful read. Haven't seen my wife this into a book not written by J. K. Rowling in years.

My pal, Mark Gibson (or whoever writes the "Book of the Month" blurb for his church says:

If anyone is foolish enough to think that theology, particularly Calvinistic theology, is impractical, he needs to read this book. And even if you don’t, read it anyway. Terry Johnson has provided a splendid work on how right theology bears upon our worship, character, suffering, witness and growth in the Christian life. This is exactly what the evangelical church needs because, whether evangelicals know it or not, their future as a viable movement depends upon the rediscovery of such God-honoring theology.

Basically, get it and read it.

2nd-Grade Exegesis

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)

Shockingly, tonight was the first time I remember talking about this verse with my kids. We were in John 3, and Frodo and Sam were able to get the whole talk about being "born again"--they had an easier time when I showed them it was the same thing as the "regeneration" talked about in their catechism.

But we go over the ever-so famous verse 16. Simple little questions, "why did God give his Son?" "What will happen to those who believe?" "What does perish mean?" Frodo even gets a couple of points for bringing in the Bronze Serpent. Then I ask something like "who can have eternal life?" Frodo blinks, and then realizes it's self-evident: "Those who believe."

note to Dave Hunt: my 6 year old can get it. Come on man...

Happy Birthday, Jean!

Jean Cauvin was born on July 10th, 1509 in Noyon, France. And the world has never been the same.

It's quite the understatement to say that this man has been used by God to radically alter my life. More and more it's not his doctrine--well, at least not the stuff he's famous for--that impacts me. It's his piety, it's his love for God, his heart aflame (think there's a book called that by somebody) because of his fame-making doctrine--that's what draws me. I've been telling people in my church (not sure they believe me yet) if you want answers to your theological questions, read Turretin, or Hodge, or Reymond--Berkhoff, too. But if you want your heart moved, then you read Calvin.

You can see a hint of that in these quotations (I could've killed blogger's disk space by posting everything I wanted to):

"For until men recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by His fatherly care, that He is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond Him - they will never yield Him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in Him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to Him."

"Doctrine has no power, unless efficacy is imparted to it from above. Christ holds out an example to teachers, not to employ themselves only in sowing the Word, but by mingling prayers with it, to implore the assistance of God, that His blessing may render their labor fruitful."

"If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is 'of him' [1 Corinthians 1:30]. If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects [Hebrews 2:17] that he might learn to feel our pain [cf. Hebrews 5:2]. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross [Galatians 3:13]; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other."


Lord, thank you for your gift of this man, and the work you gave him to do. Soli Deo Gloria.

Optimism

Calvinism is a religion of fundamental optimism. The contentedness of the previous point [from 2 Cor. 12:10 and Phil. 4:11-12] is not a fatalism. It doesn't breed passivity in the face of adversity. Ours has been an active, resolute, even defiant, tradition. Ours is not like the world's optimism, however. The world urges a positive outlook for the future on the baseless assumption of human goodness and human potential. Auschwitz forever reminds us of the groundlessness and futility of that hope. Our hope rests in a sovereign God. Nothing is impossible for Him. 'With God, all things are possible,' Jesus said (Mark 9:23). This gives me confidence and hope in the midst of shadows and darkness. I am resolute in the face of defeat knowing that God is able even to raise the dead.

--Terry L. Johnson

The Emergent Church

Have been meaning to get around to tackling some of this new "Emergent Church" stuff that's all the rage, but haven't had time (imagine that!).

But just sampling a little here and there...pretty sure I've got better things to do with my life. So does The Church, tho', and these folks are gonna be around for awhile...anyhow, a few quick links (all critical, mind you):

• "C" is for Clueless--a review of A is for Abductive. Also the funniest book review I've read in a while. Hat Tip:Real Clear Theology
• Penguin sex, flaming liberalism, living with the hippies ... ahhh, Donald Millermy pal Rusty, rants a bit about a couple of lousy books
• Tim Challies stuff on EC
• and Emergent No, by a pal, an acquaintance, and someone I've never met, looks to be pretty exhaustive.
  

Quote of the Day

from the presbyterians-opc email list:

Christian Fundamentalists pass out tracks and annoy people at streetcorners by using a bullhorn to proclaim the Gospel. Islamic Fundamentalists blow people up.

When the worst your extremists do is talk to people about religion in socially unacceptable ways, you've got a pretty good thing going.

--N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Overcoming the World: A Review

Joel Beeke is fast becoming one of my "go-to" guys when it comes to contemporary theology, and this book is a stellar example why I'm turning to him faster than "bigger named" Reformed writers. I'll start with my complaints and then move into the reasons I think any Christian who is not yet completely sanctified should read this book.

There are two drawbacks to this book. The first is that Part Four is addressed to Ministers. And that's fine, don't get me wrong. But it's not marketed that way, it's marketed for the general audience, not as an expansion on talks he did at a ministerial conference (so it makes sense that one talk would be focused particularly on ministers). It's not too difficult for a non-minister to find application for their own life in those chapters, but, there's some real gold that many probably won't bother to look for since it's in a chapter about pastors.

Second problem is bigger. Beeke's attitude toward entertainment: movies, TV, novels, magazines. Now in the aforementioned Part Four, he talks about being careful with worldly entertainment--I have no problem with that and would echo it. But in Part One, he gets overly-specific, IMO, and ends up wandering into "the doctrines and commandments of men" area, neglecting that "God alone is Lord of the conscience" (WCF XX:2). On the whole, I was able to do a little mental edit around those issues and keep his point intact. I may return to this issue in a later blog.

I guess I should mention that the only problems I had with Parts Two and Three were that they were just too convicting.

So on to the good stuff:
The first paragraph of the Preface gives a better summary of the purpose of the book than I could hope to:

Worldliness is destroying the church of Jesus Christ. Christians and churches that fall prey to it lose their saltiness. The time is thus right for us to biblically expose and condemn worldliness, and to promote the alternatives of genuine piety and holiness.

What follows is practical guidance for living that life--what Beeke elsewhere describes as "Experimental Calvinism."

In Part One: Overcoming the World by Faith, Beeke lays the groundwork: what is worldliness, why we should overcome it, some basic steps in that direction, and encouragement to the task. My complaints about liberty/entertainment come in here, but on the whole it's well worth it.

Beeke then moves on to a case study in Part Two: Overcoming the World through Piety: Calvin's Answer to Worldliness. Here we are treated (and I do mean treated) to a survey of the teaching of, and life of, piety in John Calvin, the great Reformer. What does Experimental Calvinism look like? It looks like Calvin. It's wrapped up in the Church, it's found in communion with the Lord, it's found being lived by the believer. This part of the book will encourage you to greater faithfulness, while showing you just what you're missing.

Part Three: Overcoming the World through Holiness is the heart of the book. He echoes the Biblical stress on "vital, progressive sanctification."

concretely, then, what must you cultivate? (1) Imitation of the character of Jehovah; (2) conformity to the image of Christ; and (3) submission to the Holy Spirit.

While this section does mention particular sins the believer needs to beware of, the weight of the material is oriented to the heights we are to scale. It's here, where we see how far short of the mark we are, that our sins are exposed to a greater degree than they are when he says "watch out for X." There are many, many wonderful concrete portions counsel here that I want to quote, but I can't seem to find a decent place to start and stop. Pure gold.

As I said earlier, the weakness of Part Four: Overcoming the World in the Ministry is it's (stated) focus on Ministers. But the practical advice in private holiness, prayer, communing with God, properly prioritizing your family, dealing with pride and criticism, and motivations to overcome worldliness are worth reading for everyone.

I am in awe of (but not letting myself covet) Beeke's ability to effortlessly and seamlessly mix quotes/illustrations from Scripture; Puritan/Reformer quotes; contemporary authors; and his own insight and experience into such clean and effective prose. I know it wasn't effortless gaining that ability, but to see it in action is a pleasure.

Well-written, accessible to a wide range of reader, and addressing a vitally important issue. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Ugh...it took a lot longer to read this thing, and to write the review, than I figured. How does Challies do it? hmmmm, lot less TV posts on his blog. Could that be it?

nahhhhhh

This is why they shouldn't have friends

So I'm heading out the door last night, on my way to the dreaded Golden Arches, and Samwise stops me to tell me something vitally important. I do appreciate the fact that the kids feel the need to tell me every little tidbit of information they gather during the day, but sometimes the timing could be better. But I soon stopped caring about that.

SAM: Daddy! I forgot to tell you Caleb told me today that I shouldn't point with this finger! [he illustrates his point by flipping me off] He says it's bad!
ME/MRS: WHAT?!?
FRODO: Yeah, he says it means the "F-word"
SAM: (at the same time as above) He says it means something bad
ME: He's right, it is bad.
MRS: (at the same time as above, to Frodo) What did he tell you it means?
FRODO: He didn't say, just the "F-word." And it's bad.
ME: Good. That's good enough for now. Yeah, it's bad. Sam--stop doing that with your finger! Stop it, Caleb was right.

Life was so much simpler when we didn't have a yard, or other kids in the neighborhood.

"I want to learn the ways of the Force"

I recently discovered I was failing in essential duties as a father. Frodo, at 6 years of age, didn't know what a Jawa was. He'd gotten one in a kid's meal from Burger King (mmmmmm....Whopper), and was clueless. And then a couple weeks later he got another one of those toys--think it was an Episode IV-era Luke--and if you looked up through his feet you could see pictures from the movies. One of the pictures was of an AT-AT during the Hoth invasion and he asked several questions about it, during one of my answers I used the word Stormtrooper. "What's a Stormtrooper?"

That sent me reeling. When I was his age, I had multiple Stormtrooper figures, I knew that the white armor was something the bad guys wore, they were all about helping Vader and the rest to hunt down Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie. It was one of the things I knew best in the world (not saying that's necessarily good, but it's the truth). And now my son...my eldest son...the smartest and wisest of the lot...he was completely and utterly untaught in the ways of Star Wars. Everything he knew about Star Wars was learned from seeing Revenge of the Sith commercials on TV. What kind of father am I?

So this weekend, we corrected that. Or at least started the correction. I made the kids watch Episode IV (and, yes there was a bit of coercion there). Frodo was into it, spent a lot of time discussing various things with me during the movie, but afterwards was non-committal about liking it. Samwise was leaning forward during the final battle sequence, eyes wide; he practically cheered during the medal ceremony; and had to sit on my lap during the Vader/Kenobi duel--but that was cool with me, I knew he was getting it. The Princess was lost during most of it, but cheered when the boys did.

Now I've just got to figure out when I can fit in Empire. But until then, I've got this unusually strong desire to listen to my Twin Sister CD.

Holiness

Holiness . . . extends to every part of our persons, fills up our being, spreads over our life, influences everything we are, or do, or think, or speak, or plan, small or great, outward or inward, negative or positive, our loving, our hating, our sorrowing, our rejoicing, our recreations, our business, our friendships, our relationships,our silence, our speech, our reading, our writing, our going out and our coming in--our whole man in every movement of spirit, soul, and body.

--Horatius Bonar

New Template

Okay, after receiving many, many complaints about the old template (mainly having to do with light gray text on black). I decided to lighten things up a bit. What do you think?

(and yes, I have the old one ready to return at a moment's notice)

The State of the Blog

Yeah, I know I haven't posted anything on A Different Jesus in a week, spent most of this week trying to get caught up on a few other things, and am realizing the summer is slipping away from me. There's just no way I'm going to finish my "to read" list. Which is very depressing. Especially since I've come up with another, incredibly time-consuming, project I want to work on.

I do hope to pick up the pace of blogs--especially those that require thought to deal with, not just the "ooh check out this movie/tv show/trailer" type. But this week is pretty shot in that regard.

I had thought about saying something about the whole Eminent Domain thing from last week, but the polymath and Jollyblogger covered it better than I could (in both the serious and joking ways I would've gone, respectively)

Just don't get it

Surfing on Google News Beta (btw,how long is this gonna be Beta?) this morning, I saw several articles saying this:

Bloomsbury, the publisher which was transformed by Harry Potter, is poised to launch its biggest ever advertising campaign to coincide with the launch of Harry Potter and the Half Blood prince.

ooookay, more than 1 million pre-orders of this book have been made on amazon.com world-wide, it's probably going to be the best selling novel of all time before month's end (that's July, not June, because that's now). WHY do they need to advertise this? I just don't get it. If you care at all about this, you know. You've probably known since the publication date was set last year--whether you want to or not. Why spend the money on advertising?

Ditto for Revenge of the Sith earlier this year. I mean, Hel-lo, we know! Well, okay, a good part of that advertising was to convince the jilted fan-boys that their hopes weren't going to be shattered for the 3rd time in this prequel series.

BTW, in case anyone wants to know, as I hit "Publish Post" there are 15 days, 13 hours, 40 minutes and 32 seconds 'til the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The Proof is in the Pudding

There were many who had doubts when this maker of 3rd rate horror flicks got the go ahead to make The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And to say that he answered just about every doubt in The Fellowship of the Ring is to probably understate it--and he crushed the doubts, grinding them into a fine powder with The Two Towers. Then he sprinkled that powder of the graves of the doubters in The Return of the King (whether the doubters were in their graves yet or not).

So then he turns his eye to the movie he's wanted to remake since he was a kid. Many eyes rolled. Many figured he was a one trick pony anyway. And besides, do we really need another King Kong?But now the trailer's out. Jack Black plays a real human being. Adrian Brody gets to kiss the hot chick. Naomi Watts seems capable of stepping into Fay Wray's vocal chords. And we get a second or so of Andy Serkis doing his thing.

Wah-and might I add-hoo! Click here to see for yourself

[Expletive deleted]!

Just watched my first episode of The Closer. In many ways I've seen everything in the show before--a murder or two being shoved under the carpet so the Feds/Someone Else could take down a major underworld figure; a cop who no other cop likes, but is great at their job; the cop who tries to help out a friend who's a suspect only to find out the guy is a major creep; the cop who sets up the bad guy to get whacked as the only way to get justice for the victim; the cop who puts relationships (professional, romantic, whatever) on the line to close the case...etc.

But rarely have I seen it this well done. Got this down in the calendar for next week.

Not only was Kyra Sedgwick was great, the supporting cast was spot on. Great to see G. W. Bailey again, Corey Reynolds did a good job, and while it took me a lot longer than it should've to recognize J. K. Simmons, I really enjoyed his performance. But it's Kyra's show, and she carried it well.

Spurgeon quote of the Day

"Overcome the world by patiently enduring all the persecution that falls to your lot. Do not get angry; and do not become downhearted. Jests break no bones; and if you had any bone broken for Christ's sake, it would be the most honored bone in your whole body."

Why God Invented Elders

Nice post over at Jollyblogger, his notes taken from J. Ligon Duncan's sermon at the Opening Worship Service for the PCA's GA.

Day 2

Well, I talked about how much I hurt after Day 1 of my fitness program. Felt miserable yesterday...maybe felt worse this morning. But I made myself tackle the Day 2 regimen. Still didn't accomplish everything I should've, but got more done than Day 1. The pain is a lot less (mostly) than it was when I was dragged (kicking and screaming) out of bed this morning.

There may be hope for this ol' boy yet...

As if on cue...

Just the other day I'm lamenting how few really Presbyterian blogs there out in the blogosphere and *poof* one appears: Posse Bloggare Posse Non Bloggare. Keep an eye on this one, folks, should be worth the read (don't recall him uttering a less-than-edifying word in the pulpit or in discussion list emails...)

hmmm, maybe I should lament the lack of scholarships of OP Ruling Elders who are going to seminary... :)

A Different Jesus?, pt. 4

Chapter 3: Why a Restoration?

This chapter is significantly longer than the previous chapters, and I really don't have that much time for this today, so I'm only going to do a little bit of it...

Right out of the gate we read: "Foundational to any understanding of the Latter-day Saint conception of Jesus Christ is the idea of a restoration of divine truth in modern times." Yup. What was it that our Savior said about building on sand? He gives a couple of OT spoof texts for Isaiah and Amos prophesying about it, and then some NT spoofs for the apostles warning of it. Of course none of these texts have anything to do with a great apostasy, but why should that stand in anyone's way? He concludes his opening paragraph stating: "That apostasy entailed the loss or corruption of divine authority and true doctrine." (his emphasis) and the next section (and the only one I'm covering today) focuses on those.

Let's tackle authority first. He defines it as "the power to act in the name of God" and states that the NT "clearly teaches the need for it." But I honestly don't see this concept as he describes it in the NT. And then he simply states, "With the death of the apostles, within approximately one hundred years of the crucifixion of Jesus, this authority...was lost from the earth." No explanation of how it was lost (the spoof texts earlier don't give us enough information to test his assertion), no description of what happened, no evidence to support his claim, just "it was lost." And then he gives us roughly 1800 years of church history compressed into a couple of paragraphs and skewed horribly.

While Catholics claim apostolic succession... and Protestants speak of a "priesthood of all believers," Latter-day Saints teach that God's divine authority was not to be found in the Old World by the middle of the second century A.D.

1. This isn't at all what the phrase "priesthood of all believers" means! Hello! Doesn't Eerdman's believe in fact-checking? Who edited this book? Here's what the phrase means:

To be sure, Christ's apostles call all who believe in Christ "priests," but not on account of an office, but because, all the faithful having been made kings and priests, we are able to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God through Christ (Exod. 19:6; I Peter 2:9; Rev. 1:6). Therefore, the priesthood and the ministry are very different from one another. For the priesthood, as we have just said, is common to all Christians; not so is the ministry. The Second Helvetic Confession - Chapter XVIII

2. Again, no evidence for why the LDS teach that this authority was gone, it's just gone. Guess I'm asking too much...moving on:

The Roman Church had control of the Christian faith until the sixteenth century, when courageous men objected to, opposed, and broke away from Catholicism.

Church History a la The DaVinci Code. I'm guessing here (just a guess, because he doesn't spell it out) he means from the middle of the second century or so through the sixteenth. To call something the Roman church for the first few hundred years is silly. To think that as a persecuted group throughout the civilized world anyone "had control" is laughable. It wasn't 'til the 4th century that Constantine protected Christianity, and Rome certainly had no control over the Church then! And while the Reformers certainly were courageous (on the whole) the description of them as men who "objected to, opposed, and broke away from Catholicism" misses the point--sure they objected to it, protested it, but they didn't break away--they were kicked out! I do find it funny that Wesley seems to be lumped in with the Reformers--men whose doctrines he would oppose, and who were dead long before he came along.

One more point on his history. He holds up Roger Williams as someone who saw the need for apostolic authority to be given by God to the Church. He describes Williams as "the man known as the founder of the Baptist faith." I took a moment to ask a group of pretty knowledgeable Baptists if they agreed with that description. One Baptist who's taught Church History replied, "Uh, no." And that was the general consensus. I don't blame Millet for this totally, some editor along the way should've stopped this historical mess.

At this point he segues into the "loss or corruption of doctrine and I've gone on so long already, I'll leave that for tomorrow.

Ummm, Errr, Ummmm...this is a good thing, right?

Stryper is releasing a new album in August, Reborn. Here's the official press release.

Gotta Tip Your Hat to this Lady

I'll admit I'm not that up on the whole Jim West controversy (mayor of Spokane, WA), I've heard a little bit about it on TV, read some on a couple of blogs (espeically Huckleberries Online)...but he's not my mayor, so I haven't really focused too much on it. But the story of Shannon Sullivan is a gripping one. I hope she and her son come out of this thing intact...

A Different Jesus?, pt. 3

Chapter 2: The Jesus of History, the Christ of Faith

Sorry this one took so long...Real Life^TM caught up with me Friday, putting me behind schedule. Let's see what Millet has for us today.

He starts off talking about the Jesus Seminar, much his response to it (and like thinking) is on the money. I'm a little annoyed by his "I add my voice to the growing through of tens of thousands of irritated Christians." Sure, he considers himself a Christian, and part of his plan is to get evangelicals to think the same (he keeps saying it like this and many of his readers will start doing it too). But surely this is a red flag that some editor along the way at Eerdmans should've caught.

He quotes Gordon B. Hinckley, back when he was a mere apostle (emphasis his):

Modern Theologians strip [Jesus\ of his divinity and then wonder why men do not worship him. These clever scholars have taken from Jesus the mantle of Godhood and have left only a man. They have tried to accommodate him to their own narrow thinking. They have robbed him of his divine Sonship and taken from the world its rightful King.

ummm, Kettle? Pot's on line 2, something about you being black. Do I absolutely agree with Hinckley as far as Liberal Theology goes? Yup. But what does LDS theology do to Christ's divinity? They strip Him of it! He's not divine, He's not fully God yet fully man. He's just like every other spirit-child of God, He just came first! Utter hogwash.

Along the lines of thinking "Faith is based on evidence, and the stronger the evidence the stronger the faith" he favorably quotes John Warwick Montgomery...heh. You'll never see him quote Greg Bahnsen. :) Who, incidentally, would make mincemeat out of this book. I do have to admit, I agree with the Montgomery quote regarding the impossibility of any kind of Christianity without the events of the Gospels being true. He follows it with a quote from Alma, which takes a little wind from my sales. He then goes into the whole C. S. Lewis--Liar, Lunatic or Lord thing and assorted arguments on that front.

Then we come to the conclusion. It's here that my hackles really get raised, he invites people to

"Come and see" (John 1:39). We believe the final great test in determining the living reality of Jesus Christ and the essential truthfulness of the New Testament record is the test of faith, the test of spirit, the test of individual revelation, with the assurance that all can know.

Sure, sounds a little Josh McDowell-ish. But that's not what the invitation of the Scriptures is. It's not "try out Jesus for 30 days, your money back if not completely satisfied." Not even sure what the test of spirit is...need to ask someone. Okay, I asked someone; it seems the test of faith=test of spirit=test of individual revelation=test of assurance. It's the point where you're talking to an LDS missionary and they tell you to pray whether it's true or not, and you'll get a "burning in the bosom" or "a feeling of certainty" inside that it's all true. Pretty sure this isn't what John had in mind when he told us to "test the spirits." It sure ain't the apologetic Paul used on Mars Hill.

He then talks about trusting the Bible:

While the Latter-day Saints do not subscribe to a postilion of scriptural inerrancy, they do have a firm conviction that the scriptures mean what they say and say what they mean. They are to be trusted.

You can trust the Scriptures, sure they might be wrong from time to time...and the Prophet can correct them anytime he wants...but trust 'em.

A final thought about Millet's use of C. S. Lewis and J. B. Phillips, etc. This chapter is filled with quotes by evangelical apologetic works (many I have on my shelf), and there's an impulse to not be bothered because of his target: Jesus Seminar-type people. You know, the whole enemy of my enemy thing. But I am bugged by it. He's quoting these guys for a reason: he wants to appear like he's just a part of a different "brand" of Christianity. And I don't think he's trying to be deceitful or anything by quoting orthodox types, but he's clothing himself in the clothes of sheep because he thinks he is one (at least on some level). But at the end of the day, he's just a deluded wolf.

Can't stop laughing...

ROFLOL

Michael Jackson culture

James Bowman starts his review of My Summer of Love--like pretty much everything Bowman reviews, an interesting sounding movie that I'll never get around to watching despite my intentions--with the following observation. But it's stuff like this that makes me read his reviews

Writing in The Times of London about the Michael Jackson trial, Oliver James, a psychologist, notes that "The thing about people with borderline personality disorder, which I believe Jackson has, is that they have a weak sense of self - as evidenced by the need to change his skin color, his erratic moods and the fact that he thinks he is Peter Pan. They are constantly acting out different personalities, which means that the boundary between fantasy and reality is blurred." As in other ways, however, in this Michael Jackson stands for so much more than himself. Ours is the age of borderline personality disorder - not to mention the Peter Pan culture of eternal adolescence. The culture which once attempted to mould and shape us to a particular ideal now turns us loose into a world of infinite choices, and of nearly infinitely possible selves and demands only that we choose. Small wonder if we retreat and hide from such choices, or pretend like Michael Jackson in his absurd military uniforms, that we can slip from one to another without ever committing to any.

ow ow ow ow ow ow

Chat pal of mine who's really into fitness and taking care of yourself and that sort of nonsense got me hooked up with this home fitness thing. Really simple exercises, have done harder workouts back in the day (so long ago that phrase wasn't a cliche). Due to uber-mystery disease delays, today was Day 1.

I am past my prime. Not sure I had a prime that lasted more than a couple of days, really. But it was long, long a ago.

I couldn't do everything I was supposed to do, even using a ridiculously low amount of weight, and I am hurting. I will probably not be able to move pain free 'til Weds.

when it's time for Day 2.

Stick a fork in me...I'm done.

No Compromise

Don't normally do this (actually, have never) but this morning's sermon was so good, so on the money, and soooo not what most people heard this morning (never mentioned Father's Day once...Quelle Horreur!) Give it a listen: The Way God Sees It from Luke 17:1-5. The last few seconds got cut off, but you can get the gist of it.

Saw It!

Not much to say but wow! Sign me up for the sequel! Maybe in the next few days I'll find time to say more, but for now....wow!

Blogroll Housekeeping

Added a few links (Bloguccino, Patrick's Pensees, http://www.challies.com/, PyroManiac), dropped a few. If I'm overlooking anyone, sorry, feel free to remind me.

Not to sound all partisan, but I wish I had more presbyterian blogs...I know of a few, but frankly, don't think they're terribly presbyterian.

Warfield on Learning and Devotion

saw this on The Christian Mind and wanted to bring it up here:

"Nothing could be more fatal, however, than to set these two things over against one another. Recruiting officers do not dispute whether it is better for soldiers to have a right leg or a left leg: soldiers should have both legs. Sometimes we hear it said that ten minutes on your knees will give you a truer, deeper, more operative knowledge of God than ten hours over your books. "What!" is the appropriate response, "than ten hours over your books, on your knees?" Why should you turn from God when you turn to your books, or feel that you must turn from your books in order to turn to God? If learning and devotion are as antagonistic as that, then the intellectual life is in itself accursed, and there can be no question of a religious life for a student, even of theology."

--Benjamin B. Warfield, The Religious Life of Theological Students

12 hrs and counting...

In 12 hours I will be in cinematic heaven. The Mrs. and I will be sitting in a theater with too many of my fellow Canyon County citizens watching the best movie Batman ever (if reviews can be believed--and so many of them are saying it, I kinda am forced to).

Man, I remember Burton's Batman. We had midnight showing tickets...pretty sure my dad fell asleep, my mom probably toyed with sleeping. Not me, not for a second. I was drinking it all in--this was probably the the moment I became a geek in the full sense of the word at the ripe ol' age of 15. Now, I watch it again and think that Burton over-stylized things...bit too gothic in Gotham. But right then...it was perfection. A year or so previously I'd gotten into a heated debate with some friends over the casting of Michael Keaton. They couldn't believe that a Mr. Mom/Johnny Dangerously could pull it off. I'd seen one picture of him in Newsweek--a still from a previous film (maybe Clean and Sober) that sealed it for me. There was an intensity, a grit, to the man. I knew he could do it. Sadly, I didn't carry the picture around with me to show my friends, and they won the debate. But I won the war. Keaton rocked--don't think many deny that.

But then came the excesses of Batman Returns, and the lousy scripts/directing of Batman Forever and Batman and Robin that made us all yearn for the restraint of Burton. And a well-deserved break/exile from the theaters. It wasn't 'til Byran Singer and Sam Raimi showed everyone you could make a decent superhero movie again that there was any hope (I remember wanting to rush out of the theater after X-Men and buy every comic book I could find).

So now Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale have come to the rescue of the Dark Knight. Sure, in 5-10 years I'll be able to complain about it in the same way I can pick at Batman (still hae my doubts over Katie Holmes--you know that was a studio-pressured casting). But not tonight. Tonight's all about the fun. whoo-hoo.

for the record, this is not me in the first couple of panels (mostly because I don't have such a shirt...okay, 100% because I don't have such a shirt)

A Different Jesus?, pt. 2

Chapter 1: Jesus Before Bethlehem

So he starts by buttressing LDS belief in pre-existence of souls by showing that "many have perceived" something similar, like William Wordsworth and Marcel Proust. Okay, so Millet's proved that he survived Survey of Western Lit II, but that's about all.

Describing the pre-mortal state he says,

We developed and matured according to our adherence to God's eternal law, and in spite of the fact that we walked and talked with God, it was necessary for us to exercise faith in God's plan for the ultimate salvation of his children.

"Ultimate salvation," a phrase nicely slipped in. Wonder when that'll come back up and be explained (I'm guessing never)....kinda sounds like a Reality TV show...probably on Pax or TBN.

Millet quotes Bruce R. McConkie, saying that Christ

is described as being 'from everlasting to everlasting' (D&C 61:1), and 'from all eternity to all eternity' (D&C 39:1).... He was born, as were all the spirit children of the Father.

Now let's stop for a second here..."everlasting to everlasting" and "born." Ummmm, 'scuse me? Isn't that kind of a tough thing to pull off--he's eternal, but he had a start. And yeah, I know the LDS have some convoluted explanation for this, but Millet doesn't even bother to give it. This'd be a great time for it, but it's nowhere to be found.

Throughout this chapter there are several quotations from D&C that resemble/quote the Bible, but he only cites D&C. There's strategery here...on the one hand, you might think of citing both texts to imply that the D&C says the same as the Bible. On the other hand, by simply quoting D&C, you get evangelicals to think "oh, that's where that phrase is" (or something to that effect). There's pluses and minuses to both. On the whole, I'd go with the other tack, but that's just me.

One of his points in this chapter is to show that myths/legends/other religions have elements of truth mixed in (holdovers from early man having the truth).

In as much as the doctrines of rebirth, regeneration, resurrection, and the immortality of the soul were taught from the beginning, why should we flinch when we discover the doctrines of reincarnation, transmigration of souls, and rebirth in such traditions as Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, or when we encounter a people like the ancient Egyptians who are obsessed not with death (as some suppose), but with life after death?

Now not saying anything about the truth of this claim for the Egyptians (don't know, not sure I care), but you just don't throw something like that out there without defending it. C'mon Robert, we deserve a footnote at least. Sloppy. I think the argument he's making is intriguing, and I'd like to see him flesh it out some more, but he damages his credibility with tactics like this.

Everyone has access to some measure of light and truth from the Almighty. Brigham Young thus declared that there has never been "a man or woman upon the face of the earth, from the days of Adam to this day, who has not been enlightened, instructed, and taught by the revelations of Jesus Christ.

Nice assertion, why don't you argue for it more. Oh, too busy?

He attempts--shamelessly--at this point in his conclusion to bring C. S. Lewis in to argue his case. Now whatever problems Lewis had (there are many!), there's no way he's trying to make the same case as Millet. Period. No way. This does illustrate some of the problems with Lewis' Tao. But when Lewis talked about those "who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so. There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. He's talking about a Christian malgre lui (a la O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard To Find, not someone taught by revelations of Jesus Christ who just haven't been led to a higher light in the gospel (either in this life or the next). This is downright dishonest.

Some of these comments might seem picky, but they're the same complaints I make of evangelicals when I read 'em, Millet deserves nothing less. I'm not saying that my complaint about the Egyptian line (for example) disproves Millet's thesis, I'm just saying it takes points away from him.

All right, that's it for Chapter 1.

You a little sick of the gloating?

Michelle Malkin does the work we're all to lazy to do and shows that the Schaivo Autopsy Report isn't all that some say it is.

A Different Jesus?, pt. 1

For a change of pace (and to keep myself reading this book), I'm going to be live-blogging my thoughts on Robert L. Millet's book A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (Eerdmans, 2005). Yeah, I said Eerdman's--as Dr. White, Dr. Svendsen, and several others have chronicled reactions to and by Eerdmans publishing an apologetic work by a Latter-Day Saint (those links are just a sampling from each site, btw, look around on all of them). I personally, think it somewhat fitting that a company named for an indifferentist (to use Machen's term) like Charles Eerdman would later sellout the gospel, still, it bugs me no end. From the get-go, this book doesn't appear to be what it claims for itself--an explanation to evangelicals of LDS belief. It's an argument for it. Period.

Forward by Richard Mouw. Mouw assures us, "I still have some serious misgivings" regarding LDS thought "But I also have to admit that the misgivings do not run quite as deep as they did earlier." This is thanks to discussions with Millet and other LDS scholars. He also casts some aspersions on books by Christians on Mormonism. He makes it clear that you can't trust Christian writers on this topic, at least not as much as you can Mr. Millet. Outrageous! Because of co-belligerence on Right-to-Life work, as well as on other fronts, LDS and Evangelicals are working together more, so this is a chance for bridges to be built and us to be a "wonderful demonstration of civility in our increasingly uncivil world." Zowee! A demonstration of civility! Nothing like being civil while souls are rushing to destruction.

Why This Book Was Written
Millet starts off asking some questions:

Do we worship the same Jesus worshipped by our Friends of other Christian Faiths? [how many Christian faiths are there? Eph. 4:5] This question is not answered quickly or easily. It strikes at the heart of who the Latter-day Saints are and what they really believe. Gordon B. Hinckley, fifteenth president of the Church, asked: "Are we Christians? Of course we are! No one can honestly deny that. We may be somewhat different from the traditional pattern of Christianity. But no one believes more literally in the redemption wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ. No one believes more fundamentally that He was the Son of God, that He died for the sins of mankind, that He rose from the grave, and that He is the living resurrected Son of the living Father."

One might ask: Why does it matter so much to you that some refer to you as a non-Christian sect? [see the Introduction below for Joseph Smith's thoughts on the "traditional pattern of Christianity"] For years it didn't' I felt that it really was no big deal that persons of other faiths simply didn't understand who and what we are. That was their problem. In recent years, however, it has become more of a personal preoccupation to assist others to know what we do believe and why we claim Christian status. It began to dawn on me when someone commented that 'Mormons are not Christians" that major misconceptions were being conveyed. Does it mean we do not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ or accept the truthfulness or historicity of the New Testament? Do we not believe that our sins can be forgiven and our natures changed through the power of the blood of Christ? Do we not believe we should seek to emulate his matchless life? Do we not believe in the resurrection and the immorality of the soul? Are we like Jews or Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus when it comes to our perception of Jesus?

This book is going to be his attempt to show how the LDS view Jesus Christ "his identity, his distinctive mission, his matchless teachings, his sufferings, death and resurrection, and his transforming power." Millet makes clear this isn't authorized by the LDS church, it's his perspective. That's important to remember--only the LDS church can authoritatively speak on doctrine. No matter what this guy says, it ultimately doesn't mean it's what the church teaches. This is a nice little escape clause, don't ya think?

Introduction: How It All Began
Now according to Mouw, most evangelicals writing on LDS belief can't be trusted. So imagine my surprise when I learned nothing whatsoever in Millet's introduction where he traced the histories of J. Smith's First Vision; the roots of the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine & Covenants; a sketch of the LDS view of Revelation and Scripture; and so on. The only thing different in this intro to what I'd read previously was the "spin" put on the events and views. Whereas Evangelicals consider it all hooey, Millet considers it true--otherwise, like I said I've heard it all before.

A couple of things to highlight. First, these quotations from LDS leaders: "My mind was opened to conviction, and I knew that the Christian world had not the religion that Jesus and the Apostles taught. I knew that there was not a Bible Christian on earth within my knowledge." (Joseph Smith) "I did not join any church, believing that the Church of Christ in its true organization did not exists upon the earth." (Wilford Woodruff, 4th president of the Church) "convinced that the sects were all wrong, and that God had no church on earth, but that he would soon have a church on earth whose creed would be the truth" (describing Willard Richards, a counselor to Brigham Young). OOOOkay, why all this fuss over whether we think you're a Christian or not, Robert? Your past leaders consider us to be non-Christian, why can't we think the same of you? Are your feelings that fragile?

On the subject of the open canon of the LDS, one leader writes, "What makes us different from most other Christians in the way we read and use the Bible and other scriptures is our belief in continuing revelation. For us, the scriptures are not the ultimate source of knowledge, but what precedes the ultimate source. The ultimate knowledge comes by revelation...through those we sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators." I hope he picks up this idea some more later, because I think it's worth dwelling on...if he doesn't I'll try to return to it myself.

Okay, I think it's pretty clear I'm antagonistic to this book at the start--it's not impressing me yet. I'll try to dip into Chapter 1 tomorrow, "Jesus Before Bethlehem." That's sure to be a doozy.

Quick Plug

If you've never heard of the E4 Group before, well, you're missing out. Here's some of their canned text I'm supposed to use to get the word out:

Here's this incredible offer that I think you should check out. It's a free 31 volume QuickVerse Bible Software CD that this nonprofit ministry gives away (they do make you pick up the shipping).

I was quite impressed with the true ministry of this offer. You can get the free CD at their website: www.FreeBibleSoftware.com or by calling 866-66-BIBLE (866-662-4253).

It really is great--been using various versions for years now. Give 'em a shot.

Over at the Sem Blog

Remembered that I was supposed to be keeping my seminary events chronicled at my SemBlog, so threw up three posts over there over the last couple of days.

For those who are interested.

He's the Strongest... He's The Quickest.... He's The Best!

I remember hearing about it somewhere, Danger Mouse was coming to DVD at long last. And I dashed off to amazon.com to put it on my wish list. Then with finals/Kidney Kids' surgery/my own strange illness, I'd plum forgotten about it until Gerald blogged it yesterday. Not only was it coming out--it was out already!

So I had to start planning. My wife had been denied the luxury of cable growing up, so I knew she wouldn't be familiar with this treasure. I, on the other hand, had watched every single episode several times--loved 'em. Humor, suspense, British accents, explosions, strange catch phrases...everything that a kid could want and love. So I have to get this set--not just for me, but for my kids. This is one of those things that a father has to pass down to his sons (and some daughters, like mine, who have a taste for action heroes). But how do I convince my wife that this is just such an heirloom?

So, it hits me: my sister. Who better than the gal who watched all those episodes with me to testify to their quality? So I send her an email about him, first just to play a little, I quizzed her--she was certainly going to get this. Here's our exchange, she'll be in italics:

quick question: what's your reaction when I say _______ & Penfold

He's The Greatest - He's Fantastic!
Wherever there is Danger, He'll be There..
He's The Greatest Secret Agent In The World!
He's The Ace - He's Amazing...
He's the Strongest... He's The Quickest.... He's The Best!

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.....

(sniff) that's truly sad. Danger Mouse!

Don't think I have ever heard of him

[I'm shocked, stunned, flabbergasted as I write] Now I think you're messing with me! It was on Nickelodeon, right after You Can't Do that on Television (or somewhere around there anyway)...White Mouse with an eye patch and an English accent, doing super-spy stuff with his little hamster pal, Penfold, who was always falling over and saying "Coor, cheif!"

You have to remember this...

Okay, so I am totally laughing at you because this is not ringing any bells, and I am kind of thinking you are crazy........

Just strange the things you remember...it was a daily ritual for us for a couple of years at least, and she doesn't have the foggiest idea what I'm talking about.

Okay, so my sister can't help me. So I turn to you, loyal reader. At least one of you remembers this classic. I know it. Help me describe the show in a way that my wife will let me get this DVD set.

Quote of the Day

There is none like Christ, none like Christ, none like Christ.... There is no learning nor knowledge like the knowledge of Christ; no life like Christ living in the heart by faith; no work like the service, the spiritual service of Christ; no reward like the free-graces wages of Christ; no riches nor wealth like "the unsearchable riches of Christ"; no rest, no comfort, like the rest, the consolation of Christ; no pleasure like the pleasure of fellowship with Christ. Little as I know of Christ, I would not exchange the learning of one hour's fellowship with Christ for all the liberal learning in ten thousand universities, during ten thousand ages, even though angels were to be my teachers.

--John Brown of Haddington

The Face of Baseball

This is quite the write-up...gotta make my kids memorize this.

PyroManaic

Phil Johnson has started blogging...the universe as we know it is over. Yay!!!!

It's a daily must read folks...trust me.

Checkin' In

Been sick the last few days, so not much energy to post (and unable to sit in front of this box much, too.) Sick with what? No idea, really. Handful of theories, no evidence to support them, and no apparant willingness on the part of the on-call docs at the clinic to follow up (my doc is on vacation, alas).

Have had the chance to read some--nothing really worthwhile and edifying. Finished The Poet by Connelly (WOW!); read Double Play by Parker in one sitting (not bad, but not as good as the blurbs on the cover says, as Gerald So indicated); finished off Peter David's trilogy featuring everyone's favorite secondary character in Tong Lashing (some great moments, disappointing ending); and continue to plow my way through The Last Disciple by Hannegraaff and Brouwer (ugh! I really want to like this book, but the authors aren't helping me much).

Watched 2 movies: Meet the Fokkers (funny) and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (looked great...well, let's just leave it at that, shall we?).

Watched some TV: nothing worth remarking on...it is summer. Oh, saw the end of the Monk re-run from Season 2 where he was in prison, that was nice.

I fully intend on blogging more on The Poet and Tong Lashing...we'll see if I get around to it.

Footnote: I find it slightly amusing that blogger's spell check suggests "answerable" for "Hannegraaff"

Trailers

Okay, was shooting for something more deep to be my next post, but I gotta do this one.

One of the coolest looking trailers I've seen in ages is this one for Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly, based on the Philip K. Dick novel. Basically live-action anime. w00t. Here it is.

And I can't remember if I blogged this or not, if I did, oops. If I didn't, shame on me. This looks absolutely gorgeous.

Personal Note

Oh commenter Kelly, over to your right, you will see the words "my complete profile." Click on them, and then use that e-mail link to drop me a note. How'd you find this little patch of cyberspace? How you doing? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Great to hear from you! Been far too long... (which is my fault, too)

The Management

P.S. Anyone else (Vince, don't think we've met) is welcome to do the same :)