Musings of a Bystander

With Malice Toward None

2007-06-13T00:11:00.000-07:00

My denomination, the PCA, is holding its annual General Assembly this week. Later today the PCA Study Committee report on the Federal Vision/Auburn Avenue Theology and New Perspective on Paul will be presented.

For those still trying to catch up on the debate, here are some last minute links:

Those with a keen eye will find my name (humbly) added to the latter document.

Not that I am anybody, but I have followed the Federal Vision issue since the first conference held at Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, LA. At first the negative reaction and controversy surrounding it seemed like a tempest in a teapot. I sympathized then, and still do so now, with some of the concerns raised by those in the Federal Vision camp.

However, after reading the papers presented at the Knox Colloquiam (back before they were published in a book and available online), and continuing to try to read and follow the various arguments back and forth, I have come to be convinced that the Federal Vision theology is inconsistent with our doctrinal standards. More specifically, I believe the concerns expressed by Federal Vision advocates (such things as emphasis on covenant, the sacraments, the necessity of good works, and others) are well addressed by our historic doctrines as expressed in the Westminster Standards, and need no revision.

As my title indicates, I harbor no malice toward those in the Federal Vision camp, but respectfully believe that their doctrines do not fit in with the doctrines of the PCA. Their beliefs fit in better elsewhere.

I am not able to attend the General Assembly this year, but will follow the news with interest, and hope to catch the discussion and debate on the Study Committee Report on the GA webcast.

The Long and Winding Road

2007-06-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

Finally finished!

After nine years I graduated from Westminster Seminary in California on Saturday. The ceremony was very nice, the best part of it being Hywel Jones' address on I Corinthians 15:1-11 and God's grace. What he said continues to bounce around in my head. It was a very powerful and moving exposition of God's Word.

I'll write more later, but suffice to say here that one of the other highlights was that all my family was able to be there, including my mom and dad from Seattle. That was gift enough, but they also gave a very generous gift that KMR and I have decided to put towards a use that will benefit the church I hope to plant later this year.

We had a very nice lunch after commencement with all the family and some very good friends as well. All in all it was a wonderful weekend.

The Value of Higher Education

2007-05-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

Somewhere along the way while motoring all over the So Cal freeways this weekend I saw this vanity license plate:

IB4 USC

English major.

Obviously.

Southern California Travels

2007-04-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

This was a busy weekend, but very fun:

Friday night KMR, Half Pint and a friend picked me up from work and we drove to West L.A. to see a girls high school drama production of The Wizard of Oz. Why? My little sister played in their "orchestra" or "band" or whatever it was. The play was great. All of the actors stayed in character very well and - bonus! - they could actually sing. They put in some additional dialogue that was also very good. Late night, but very enjoyable.

Early Saturday I went out to Hemet for Vikinglord's frosh-soph invitational track meet. I got stuck in traffic in Riverside for a half hour due to construction, so by the time I got there he'd already finished the long jump and ran in the 4X100 relay. His long jump was his best this year, but not his best ever. He was happy though: "I finally got my technique back." I got to see him in the triple jump and also run the first leg of the 4X400 relay. He had a good TJ and ran his best 400 time ever. If I remember right, he got 8th in the long jump and 6th in the TJ. If he'd jumped at or near his best in both events he probably would have come in 2nd in the TJ and 3rd or 4th in the LJ. So right now he's motivated to work on those events over the summer. The meet was sponsored by West Valley HS in Hemet, and they did a terrific job. It was incredibly hot, but they ran the events quickly and the meet was over by 12:30pm - often these meets go until mid to late afternoon. As I drove away I saw a sign saying the temperature was 95 degrees.

From there it was down to Escondido to see if I could catch the last couple hours of our presbytery meeting. They usually go until 3 or 4pm. I got to the church at about 2pm, and the parking lot was almost empty. I called a friend, already on his way up the freeway back home, who said they finished before 2pm. That's pretty unusual, but apparently there wasn't much business to conduct. The MNA Committee, which has oversight of church planting, did report to presbytery about my "preliminary proposal" to do a new church plant in north OC. That's pretty cool. God willing I will meet with them in July, while also continuing to talk with the session at my church. So, all that driving only to miss presbytery, but that's OK.

To back up a bit, on Friday during lunch I looked at a potential place for the new church plant to meet. The father of a co-worker owns some commercial property on Imperial Highway in La Habra. While we won't need it until much later this year, it would be a very good place to start a new church. They can't hold it for us, but if it doesn't rent out between now and then it could be ours. Very exciting!

Saturday night was supposed to be the annual dinner auction for Half Pint's school. But Tia, her sitter, got sick and had to go home. So I stayed with Half Pint while KMR went to the dinner. Half Pint is not as into Little House on the Prairie as she used to be. Lately it's been DVD's of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. She also likes the Robin Hood series on BBC America. So we're hanging on the couch and flipping through the channel guide and what's on? The classic Robin Hood movie with Errol Flynn. Of course we watched it. After that they had several Robin Hood movie versions, which we recorded on the DVR.

Then Sunday morning we got up early and went out to Palm Desert to visit Providence Presbyterian Church (see at right), and our friends Clayton and Kristi Willis. We hadn't been out there in quite a while, so it was good to see them and the other people at the church. We've been visiting regularly since they started just over 4 years ago, but much less often recently. Clayton preached a very good sermon on Ephesians 2:1-2. It's a small congregation, but maturing strongly in Christ and the Word. If you know anyone who lives out that way, point them to PPC.

Today it's back to work, and then down to Escondido again for class. This may be my last drive down there to attend class, although we may decide to meet for two more weeks. It's hard to believe seminary is almost over.

Many miles and a very busy weekend. But, as I said above, very fun.

PCA Committee Report on Federal Vision, New Perspective

2007-04-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

The PCA study committee commissioned by last year's General Assembly to study and write a report on the Federal Vision (aka Auburn Avenue) Theology and New Perspective on Paul has released its report. The committee comes to nine conclusions and five recommendations that it is asking this year's General Assembly to adopt.

I've seen some less than enthusiastic reaction to the report among some in the blogosphere who are opponents of FV and NPP. These folks view the report as not strong enough in its language or proposals. Overall, though, I think the committee did a fine job.

There are a few things worth remembering:

Committees don't judge cases. The committee was commissioned to study FV and NPP and give its recommendations to GA. This they have done.
Ultimately it is up to each presbytery to handle judicial cases - if necessary - in regard to teaching elders who hold to FV or NPP doctrines. And it is up to each session to do so in regard to ruling elders.
More than that, though, I believe the report (assuming it is adopted essentially as is by GA) calls on TE's and RE's to be faithful to their vows. In particular, men are required to have the good conscience to report themselves if they find they have adopted views out of accord with the Westminster Standards. Again assuming the report is adopted, it will be the "official" statement of the PCA regarding FV and NPP, and as such, any men who hold to these views in the PCA will be honor bound to report themselves. I believe the committee's report is giving them this opportunity. Also, elders vow to uphold the peace and purity of the church. To report themselves, and to submit to the correction or discipline required by session or presbytery, is to uphold the peace and purity of the church. For some (or perhaps many; I hope not) this may mean they will need to leave the PCA peaceably.

This kind of scenario and outcome probably doesn't satisfy the more rabid folks who are looking for red meat. But it is presbyterian. God forbid that it should be so, but given our sinful nature I don't doubt that there will be FV/NPP adherents who refuse to submit, messy trials will then result, and they may have to be forced out of the PCA. That may satisfy the rabid folks. But it shouldn't.

Why Do Birds Sing?

2007-04-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning when the alarm went off, I laid there trying to decide whether or not I should snooze for another few minutes. Outside our bedroom window is a large tree. From its branches I could easily and clearly hear the song of one little bird. It was quite beautiful, and much more pleasant to wake up to than the bleating of an alarm clock.

This morning the tree had a choir of birds heartily singing away. And while I knew from the different songs that there had to be at least three or four different kinds of birds going at it, each kind with its different song, their combined song did not clash, but was again quite beautiful.

It made me think about why birds sing.

If you watch Animal Planet or other nature shows, birds sing to attract a mate, or to outline and defend their territory. Maybe for some birds singing is also a primitive form of communication: "Hey, there's a cat skulking up - beware!" or "Check this out, lazy boy filled the bird feeder - it's chow time!"

In the mechanistic world of modern science, something as utterly lovely as a bird's song is reduced to the merely utilitarian. It's not enough that birds sing. Science can't justify it unless it serves some purpose.

But the reality of the world that God created is this: He created it good. Very good. Yes, it is fallen and suffers terribly under the curse of the Fall. But there are things in this life, things in this world, that are beautiful for no other reason than that's the way God created them to be.

God tells us in Philippians 4:8, through Paul:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

When was the last time you simply sat and thought about, really deeply contemplated, let your mind dwell upon, the kinds of things in the list above?

Think about it!

Trusting God in the Mundane & Practical

2007-02-28T07:14:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been reading through the Pastoral Epistles, thinking that they would be a good resource for developing a biblical view of how to start and lead a new church plant. It turns out a friend has been reading them, too, and made the comment that it's interesting how there's really nothing in I & II Timothy or Titus about raising money, renting a facility, advertizing the new church, etc. Paul's concerns are spiritual and very relational. This observation is right on and well worth remembering.

It struck me this morning, in thinking about his observation, that this is pretty much true of the entire Bible. There are no practical instructions for how to sow barley, tend the fields as it grows, harvest it, thresh out the grain, or mill it into flour. I think this is for two reasons.

Firstly, God knows that we know how to do these mundane and practical things. They are part of what is common to men, whether they are God's people or not. The Bible isn't concerned so much about these kinds of things. So, secondly, the Bible focuses on the spiritual. What does the believing barley farmer do that the pagan barley farmer doesn't? He trusts in God. He sows, tends, reaps, threshes and mills in faith. He knows that it is God who causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine. He knows that it is God who will provide for his needs in whatever circumstance of life, rain or shine, or lack thereof. But that doesn't make him lazy. He still sows, tends, reaps, threshes and mills, and he does it to the best of his ability. This glorifies God and shows the farmer's faith in Him and thanks to Him.

The same principle applies to church planting. We know, in today's society, that we need a place to meet, there are certain costs involved in "doing" church, and that we need to plan wisely for these things. But this is not where our hope lies. Our hope and trust is with God, that He will raise up Christ's Church. So Paul in the Pastoral Epistles focuses on the spiritual attitudes, characteristics, habits and disciplines a biblical church ought to have. We need to wisely, prayerfully, and in faith do those practical and mundane things that are necessary, and we also need to wisely, prayerfully and in faith follow after God's wisdom for us given to us through Paul in his instructions to Timothy and Titus, and that wisdom that reveals the ordinary means of grace - God's Word, prayer, the sacraments, etc. - that God has given us for the health and true growth of the body of Christ.

Aaah, Baseball!

2007-02-23T07:16:00.000-08:00

Now that pitchers and catchers have reported, I'm reminded of something Half Pint told me a few weeks ago. She said the months of the year go like this: January, February, March, Baseball.

She's getting it!

Of course, more die hard fans see the year something like this: January, Pitchers & Catchers, Spring Training, Baseball, All Star Game, More Baseball, World Series, Free Agent Deadline, Winter Meetings.

This story about the mystery gyroball pitch at Yahoo! Sports is the kind of story that illustrates why baseball is the greatest sport. As fun as they are and as much as I enjoy them, football, basketball, soccer, or any other sport would never have a similar story.

Scripture as a Necessary Evil?

2007-02-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

That's the surprising contention Heiko Oberman makes in his wonderful biography of Martin Luther. Thinking about the post below reminded me of a couple paragraphs in the book where Oberman describes Luther's view of Scripture and how it impacted the Reformation:

...The Reformation reached the people because of a surprising conclusion Luther drew from the scriptural principle he had known for so long: the Scriptures must be preached! Because heresies threatened the living apostolic message, it had to be recorded in a book to protect it from falsification. Preaching reverses this process of conservation again, allowing the Scriptures of the past to become the tidings of the present.

So the Bible is a necessary evil! It is necessary because without it man's spirit will claim to be holy and there will be no way of proving him wrong. Scripture becomes "evil" when, as a hollow pontifical document, it petrifies in holiness instead of being publicly proclaimed in the Church as the living Word. The Gospel has been committed to lifeless paper; fresh words can transform it into glad tidings again.

Heiko Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, pp. 173-174

There is a lot that is provocative in those two paragraphs.

But what is especially striking to me is the last sentence. We hear a lot about how important the printing press was to the spread of the Protestant Reformation and the ideas written down on paper by Luther and others, and then copied all over Europe. This is no doubt true.

Nevertheless, I think Oberman is right in ascribing much of the "energy" behind the Reformation to the preaching of the Word. Men, some supremely gifted by the Spirit and some just determined to preach Christ and whose names we'll probably never know, opened up God's Word to a world of dead, dry bones and the Spirit took that preached Word and brought those bones to life. The "fresh words" of the preachers proclaimed the living Word, and it did not return to God empty, but instead accomplished a truly great thing in bringing true revival to so much of Europe.

Today we get all excited about the internet and its remakable ability to communicate with people, and the amazing avenues of communication that are opened up to regular folks (like me!). Some churches are all energized about the latest sound and video equipment in their services, drama presentations and "relevant" music.

The internet truly is an incredible tool, and I think it has and will have a positive impact. But neither it nor AV equipment nor drama nor music nor Powerpoint and movie clips can replace the simple, yet powerful, preaching of God's Word.

I hope and pray that the current mini-revival of Reformed theology is not merely an intellectual recovery of these Biblical truths (with the Bible as an "evil," hollow theological document?), but that it is the kind of movement like that of almost 500 years ago, where faithful preachers captured the exciting, amazing, saving grace of the Word and through such ordinary means the Spirit brought new life to a dying world.

Humble Orthodoxy

2007-02-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

In re-reading the Christianity Today article on the new young Reformed movement I was struck - again - by the last two paragraphs.

Joshua Harris - the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye and now a pastor - is quoted in those paragraphs. Harris describes his Reformed views as a "humble orthodoxy" and is described by the author as someone who "reluctantly debates doctrine, but he passionately studies Scripture and seeks to apply all its truth." And then the final paragraph:

"If you really understand Reformed theology, we should all just sit around shaking our heads going, 'It's unbelieveable. Why would God choose any of us?'" Harris said. "You are so amazed by grace, you're not picking a fight with anyone, you're just crying tears of amazement that should lead to a heart for lost people, that God does indeed save, when he doesn't have to save anybody."

Harris' point of view resonates strongly with me. I'm not so keen on debate myself, but do love to discuss theology. It's not that theology shouldn't be debated, but I've realized I'm not the best guy for that task. I'm very thankful for men like the faculty at Westminster Seminary in California who are willing to stand firm for the truths of the Reformed faith. I'm also very thankful for the various men on sessions, in presbytery, or at General Assembly who have the giftedness to understand the intricacies of church polity and make sure we do it right.

My joy - what gets me energized - is teaching and hopefully someday regularly preaching the truths of God's Word, and helping people understand the truly amazing grace that is revealed to us in the work of salvation accomplished for us by God in Christ through the work of the Spirit.

Wonderful World of Birds

2007-02-08T22:50:00.001-08:00

I came across a great website today. Mangoverde has a World Bird Guide with photos, videos and sound recordings of birds from all around the world.

Today's photo on my page-a-day bird calendar had a group of steamerducks, which the caption said are flightless. I'd never heard of flightless ducks before, so did a search and found the Mangoverde site. Not only did I find out about steamerducks, but learned that there is a group of birds called flowerpeckers. Now woodpeckers I've heard of (and seen a few), but flowerpeckers is a new one.

Here are a couple photos I copied from the site:

This one seems to be caught in the act of flowerpecking...

This one is remarkably colorful.

There are many more great photos there; the site also has a dragonfly/damselfly page and a butterfly page, both also with many photos, if you prefer colorful flying insects.

Apologetics and Green Beer

2007-02-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

The following is from a paper I wrote for one of my first classes at Westminster Seminary. Fun with apologetics...

The Curious Question of the Tainted Beverage
Or

Jesus as a Green Beer

In the rural countryside of Sussex, Mr. Sherlock Holmes had retired himself to beekeeping. After some time his faithful friend Dr. Watson had given over his medical practice to a partner, joining his friend in Sussex. No longer occupied with cataloging the exploits of the great detective, Watson had taken up the study of metaphysics. In the end even the aging Mrs. Hudson, their onetime landlord, finally acknowledged that she missed her former tenants (and they too acknowledged the same for her), and sold the famous residence on Baker Street, joining Holmes and Watson in Sussex. By now she was rather old and eccentric, so the housekeeping was left to younger hands, while Mrs. Hudson took up a rather curious hobby: brewing her own beer.

On a fine Spring morning sometime in the midst of the fourth decade of the new century, Mrs. Hudson found Dr. Watson devouring books on metaphysics in the study of their rural estate. She brought with her a large pitcher of beer and two mugs.

Watson: Why, Mrs. Hudson, this must be your latest creation!
Mrs. Hudson: So it is, so it is. I’m hoping you and Mr. Holmes will give me the courtesy of your opinion.
Watson: And so we shall. I’m expecting him in from inspecting his hives any moment.

Mrs. Hudson carefully set her offering on a table between the two men’s favorite reading chairs and hurriedly left the room. Though she was fond of Mr. Holmes, his unpredictable behavior still somewhat frightened her, and she was uncertain of the reaction her latest concoction would evoke.

Holmes: (bursting in) My dear Watson, what a glorious day! My bees are fairly abuzz. This latest spate of warm weather has shaken off the doldrums. What’s this? I see that Mrs. Hudson has been a-brewing. What a curious color, though.
Watson: Yes! I say, it is a fair shocking shade of green at that. But, tell me Holmes, how did you know that Mrs. Watson brewed this beer?
Holmes: Come now, Watson. You know my methods. Of course I deduced it from the evidence!
Watson: But my dear Holmes, how do you know that Mrs. Hudson is the creator of this beer. I contend you only have a probable knowledge, and the only way to truly know she brewed this beer is to pre-suppose Mrs. Hudson.
Holmes: I see your purpose, old friend. You’re trying to draw me into a debate of that new metaphysics you’ve been reading from across the Pond. Who’s the author again?
Watson: Van Til. He’s still young, but he shows great promise. Listen, what better way to spend a splendid Spring day than to sharpen the mind with a good debate? What say you?
Holmes: I say I’ve never been fond of metaphysics. But my bees have enlivened me. Let us have to. The game is afoot!
Watson: Shall we use an analogy? Mrs. Hudson shall be our analogue for God; her abnormally colored beer an analogue for God’s revelation.
Holmes: Again I see your purpose, old man. I shall acquiesce for now, while asserting that God – pardon, Mrs. Hudson -- must communicate to us in real facts. Otherwise we can’t really know anything about Him. And the real facts are these: Mrs. Hudson brews beer; I know from past experience that her efforts often produce odd results; it is highly unlikely any local brewer would produce such an odd concoction. From these simple facts I can readily deduce that Mrs. Hudson made this green potable.
Watson: My dear Holmes, you’ve just bolstered my own argument. Using phrases like “highly unlikely” doesn’t make a very certain case, ultimately. But before we discuss the beer in question I think we need to be clear about Mrs. Hudson.
Holmes: Mrs. Hudson has left behind a littered trail of clues by which and with which we can reason. Let us use that reason. Would you like me to list more clues?
Watson: Thanks all the same. Perhaps later. First let me clarify: we are not the same as Mrs. Hudson – we’ve got to maintain the woman-man distinction. Men and women just think differently! Admittedly however, Mrs. Hudson is rational and knowable in some ways, so we can’t treat her as something utterly different than we men. So our thinking is like hers in some sense. If Mrs. Hudson is God, and we are her creatures, then our knowledge of her is created as well. So, the only way to reason that makes sense is by analogy. We must submit our knowledge of the green beer to hers. She knows that she made it. Only because she knows are we also able to know.
Holmes: Watson, you know my opinions of women! But the simple truth is that no matter how different she is, Mrs. Hudson must communicate intelligible facts to us. We are the ones who must reason using those facts.
Watson: Remember that in our analogy Mrs. Hudson is God. Your approach amounts to sitting in judgement of God. My approach maintains Mrs. Hudson’s sovereignty. Mrs. Hudson made and knows perfectly and completely everything about this beer. Only by presupposing her existence and her knowledge of the beer can we really know anything about the beer and, ultimately, Mrs. Hudson.
Holmes: You’re making a capital mistake. You can’t theorize about something before you have the data. Your approach amounts to circular reasoning. We must start with the facts and our ability to reason from them. Even if you “presuppose” Mrs. Hudson, you are still the one making the decision to believe or not believe in her existence, much less the existence of any green beer she’s brewed.
Watson: I don’t deny that I’m the one who has to make a decision. What I’m saying is that Mrs. Hudson’s knowledge is the ultimate criterion of truth regarding this beer. We can’t use our criteria or – I emphasize again – we set ourselves up as judges of God. That is simply unacceptable.
Holmes: I don’t deny that Mrs. Hudson’s criteria – whatever they are – are ultimate. But remember you’ve said that Mrs. Hudson is different enough from us that we have to think about her by analogy. That’s not adequate, and it is a fatal flaw. Look, she knows everything there is to know about this beer right?
Watson: Perfectly.
Holmes: And we must think like her in some analogical manner, correct?
Watson: Precisely. We must think our thoughts after her, according to her way of thinking.
Holmes: That’s all well and good, but practically it makes no sense. As soon as we think thoughts “after” someone, we move from analogical to univocal thinking. In other words, there must be points of connection in her and our thinking. That connection is reason and logic. So when I use reason and logic I use the God-given tools for reason. Since they are God-given then I am using His criteria for judging anything, including green beer.
Watson: You’re making progress, but there’s still a problem. You still need a standard by which to judge your use of reason and logic. That standard can only be Mrs. Hudson. It’s her beer. Or, analogously, it’s God’s world.
Holmes: But I can’t make Mrs. Hudson the supreme standard if I don’t know her – which you’ve asserted I can’t. Therefore I must use some other standard. Metaphysically, that would be something like the law of non-contradiction. It’s universal. For this beer I fall back on the standby of elementary deduction: eliminate all possibilities but one, and the one that remains, no matter how implausible, must be the truth.
Watson: Since you’ve brought up metaphysics, let me introduce God’s own revelation. Your approach violates the teaching in Romans 1, verses 18 through 21, that everyone knows God already. It also violates the teaching in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31. There we learn that everything must be done to the glory of God. Using your standby of deduction or even the law of non-contradiction fails to do that.
Holmes: You still haven’t answered my accusation of circular reasoning.
Watson: It’s quite simple, really. Certainly some circular reasoning is faulty. One cannot say that the Bible is God’s Word because it says it is God’s Word. But one can claim that evidence understood according to God’s criteria shows the divine authority of Scripture. Ultimately all forms of reasoning amount to such a broad circle. Take logic. Data interpreted according to the overall rules of logic demonstrate the validity of logical thinking.
Holmes: That’s very clever, but really begs the question --

At that moment Chauncey their gardener entered the room with a bouquet of freshly cut flowers. Though a talented gardener, Chauncey was a bit dim, and moved to place his bouquet in the still full pitcher of green beer.

Watson: Hold, man! Can’t you see what that is? You can’t put flowers in there!
Chauncey: Oh dear, I’m very sorry, sir! Why not?
Holmes: (motioning to Watson that he had a plan) Don’t you know what that is?
Chauncey: No, but it is very pretty.
Watson: Holmes, are you suggesting what I think – that we should witness to this dear fellow?
Holmes: (as Chauncey wandered to a far corner looking for a more suitable vase) Exactly! Why not take this silly analogy a step further. Here we have, in Chauncey, an unbeliever. How do you propose to convince him that Mrs. Hudson brewed this beer?
Watson: Chauncey knows that Mrs. Hudson brewed this beer. He’s just suppressing the truth. He must be confronted with the truth and his own rebellious suppression of it. What’s your proposal?
Holmes: Simply present the evidence, and reason with him toward the truth. Do not the same Scriptures you’ve quoted say, “Come let us reason together?” This is what I propose to do, in all obedience.
Watson: You can’t appeal to his reason. He is using his reason to suppress the truth. That’s what Romans 1 is all about.
Holmes: I respectfully disagree. His reason is intact. In fact, his reason is a remnant of the image of God left after the Fall. The problem is that he isn’t using it properly. My job is to reason with him, properly.
Watson: That denies the doctrine of total depravity – or at best it’s a weak doctrine of total depravity. The Fall has corrupted him through and through. Every aspect of his thought and life is dedicated to resisting God.
Holmes: I’m not denying total depravity at all. You’re simply asserting your own definition. Total depravity affects the heart, the will. The mind is certainly wicked due to the depravity of the heart, but it is still capable of reasoning soundly. I simply need to state the brute facts and use reason to show that this green beer was brewed by Mrs. Hudson.
Watson: Ah, yes – “brute facts.” In what foreign world do these exist? There are no such things as brute facts. Merely stating a fact is an interpretation of that fact. Saying, “this beer is green” is an interpretation of “beer” and “green” at the very least.
Holmes: Watson, you amaze me. And after all those years together gathering clues and observing my methods. Do you think we could ever have seen any criminal convicted if facts were so subjective?
Watson: I’m not saying that there aren’t objective facts. What I am saying is that the only legitimate interpreter of facts is God. The only legitimate interpretation of the facts regarding this pitcher of green beer is the one in Mrs. Hudson’s mind. We’re back at criteria again. You simply can’t start with some set of “neutral” facts and use those to reason toward God. Rather, we must reason from God’s mind to what He has revealed to how that revelation speaks to us, inevitably, about the existence of God. Chauncey is bringing a set of ultimate heart commitments about the world – his presuppositions – to any interpretation of the evidence surrounding Mrs. Hudson’s green beer. These presuppositions must be dealt with.
Holmes: You’re falling into subjectivism. Why in the world should Chauncey exchange his presuppositions for yours? In your own way you’re making man the judge of God. You’re denying the objective truth that exists in a set of facts. Mrs. Hudson’s beer is green not because of any presuppositions about “beer” or “green.” The beer is green because the beer is green.
Watson: Are you denying that Chauncey has presuppositions that affect his thinking?
Holmes: No. But the solution is not to exchange one set of presuppositions for another. Rather, by reason Chauncey must be called upon to abandon his presuppositions and use reason as the starting point in his search for truth about this mysterious green liquid that he sees. Romans 1 tells us that what may be known about God is made plain. Therefore by this evidence and reason we can know God. This isn’t a presupposition, it is a conclusion.
Watson: That what may be known about God is made plain is true simply because God is a self-attesting God. He has graciously made Himself known through His revelation. This doesn’t imply reason from facts. The knowledge is made self-evident by a God who speaks to us about Himself in His revelation.
Holmes: That’s a nice theory but, again, what practical use is it? Chauncey’s mind still has to function, use some sort of reasoning capacity, to see God in His revelation. Of course I acknowledge that God must reveal Himself to us in order for us to know Him. His revelation appeals to our capacity to reason about His revelation.
Watson: That’s why we have the Holy Spirit. He testifies inwardly of the self-attesting God.
Holmes: Where’s the Holy Spirit in your green beer analogy?
Watson: Let’s not go there.
Chauncey: (wandering back and eyeing the green beer suspiciously) I’m thirsty.
Watson: The point is that our dear Chauncey here cannot truly know anything without the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Holmes: Are you saying then that only Christians have true knowledge, since only they possess the Holy Spirit?
Watson: Absolutely not. Certainly unbelievers know some things truly, but that is largely a happy inconsistency, or an accident, in their thinking.
Holmes: I think you have a peculiar understanding of the illumination of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit imparts to all men an ability to understand some truth, for example the basic truths of Scripture. But only to Christians is given a knowledge that leads to salvation. Once again you’re sounding awfully subjective in your approach, Watson.
Watson: And you still sound as if you are rejecting the clear teaching of Romans 1, that men like Chauncey willingly suppress the truth with every ounce of their being.
Chauncey: I’m really thirsty! Just a drop or two would quench the parch.
Holmes: So, where does this leave us? I don’t think we’ve really resolved our little debate.
Chauncey: Begging your pardon, gentlemen, but would you have anything to drink?
Watson: I think you are suppressing the truth, Holmes!
Holmes: Watson, you see but you do not observe!
Mrs. Hudson: (returning in hopes of a verdict on her latest brew) What’s this? You two have sat here all morning and not had a drop! What’s that Chauncey?
Chauncey: I’m really very thirsty!
Mrs. Hudson: (pouring Chauncey a mug full of green beer) Here, drink this.
Chauncey: What is it?
Mrs. Hudson: Beer. It’s got a funny greenish tint to it, but beer nonetheless. Brewed it myself!
Chauncey: (draining his mug in one swig) Aaaah!!!
Watson & Holmes: (in unison) See, I told you!!!

Harry Potter 7 Publication Date

2007-02-02T19:58:00.000-08:00

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is scheduled to come out on July 21, it was recently announced. I admit to being very anxious to read the last book in the series. Patience...patience...

For all you fans out there also waiting, or for those of you curious about this book selling phenomenon, HogwartsProfessor John Granger has a very interesting web site where he discusses the literary characteristics of the Harry Potter series, and argues that the author, J. K. Rowling, uses powerful Christian symbols (not allegory) in the books.

At least it'll keep you occupied until Deathly Hallows comes out.

Ancient Hymns

2007-02-02T07:22:00.000-08:00

I was in a local bookstore the other day looking to pick up a couple books I need for seminary this semester. Didn't find them, but the store also has a pretty good section of used books, where I found something titled, Earliest Christian Hymns.

Since I love hymns (I have a collection of hymnbooks) and early church history I bought the book.

It starts out with examples of hymns or poetic texts from the New Testament, and then has chapters on everything from Gnostic hymns (ugh!) to early hymns from the Greek and Latin fathers.

Here's a nice, simple hymn by Prudentius:

The clouds, the shadows, and the night
Long held in gloom both earth and sky,
Light enters, and the heavens grow bright,
Christ comes, and lo, the shadows fly.

The blinding fog is pierced amain,
By shining arrows of the sun,
Earth's golden rays return again,
The glory of the morn is won.

The light is thine, O Christ! we see
Thy glory in the open day;
With tears and songs we come to thee;
Lift up and guide our souls, we pray.

Cleanse us from stain of sinful pride,
And warm us in thy living light;
Thou art our heavenly lamp, our guide;
Shine in thy sweetness, clear and bright.

To God the Father, glory be,
And equal glory to the Son,
The same, O Paraclete, to thee,
Forever reigning, three in one.

What is faith?

2007-02-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

Dr. Scott Clark over at The Heidelblog has a very, very, very, very, very, very important post on faith and how seriously the Federal Vision theology gets it wrong.

Read it.

Don't have time? Make time.

Louisiana Presbytery Decision on Steve Wilkins

2007-01-29T07:30:00.000-08:00

For those who are searching...

Louisiana Presbytery of the PCA recently posted the following on its web site:

On January 20, 2007, Louisiana Presbytery, exercising its authority and prerogative under BCO 31-2, passed the following motion pertaining to TE Steve Wilkins:

"Louisiana Presbytery, after thorough examination and investigation of TE Steve Wilkins as per the SJC directives regarding allegations made in the Central Carolina Presbytery Memorial, finds no strong presumption of guilt in any of the charges contained therein and exercises its prerogative not to institute process regarding those allegations." [Clerk's note: See BCO 31-2.]

"Grounds: See the written exam and oral exam of TE Steve Wilkins on December 9, 2006."

Personally I am not surprised by this decision, though admit I am disappointed.

I have no idea where this controversy will go from here, but will be surprised if it isn't a major issue at our General Assembly later this year.

I may write more later, but one quick thought: I don't understand why people whose views are (it seems to me) clearly out of alignment with historical Presbyterian doctrine would want to stay in a Presbyterian denomination. Why not leave peaceably? The PCA has no claim on their property. Why prolong the controversy, and how does doing so conform with the vow all elders take to uphold the peace and purity of the church? Baffling...

God's Grace

2007-01-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

At Saturday's meeting of the South Coast Presbytery of the PCA I passed the licensure exam. This is a huge relief, something that's been a goal for many years.

Thanks to everyone, family and friends, who prayed and who lent so much encouragement to me during this process! What could have been a very stressful process actually went relatively smoothly - I was much calmer than I expected to be at least.

Yesterday during worship our pastor prayed a wonderful prayer of thanks, and for God's blessing over the next step at presbytery, which would be ordination.

But first things first: two more classes at Westminster and then, DV, graduation in June.

Though it has been a long process (I started seminary way back in 1998!!) KMR and I can look back and certainly see God's gracious hand in all that has happened.

Trees, Comets and Tidepools

2007-01-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

I'm fairly old-school in my view of Creation: relatively young earth, six literal, consecutive days, etc. I examined evolution fairly intently in college almost 20 years ago, back when I had to take a lot of science classes for my engineering major, and found it severely wanting. It's a really crummy theory. I haven't studied intelligent design all that much, but from what I have it's not that attractive to me, either, in the end. I wish someone would start with the biblical narrative as a base presupposition and test it. For example, if a world-wide flood really did happen, how did it impact things like continental drift, climate change leading to ice age, and the tilt of the earth? And a big part of the reason why I'm not attracted to anything other than the Genesis account is that when I go out and observe the world around us, it is just too amazing to be explained by these odd theories.

Recently I've had the opportunity to see some exciting things.

Not too long ago, Half Pint, Vikinglord and I went up to the Sequoias to see the biggest giant sequoia - in fact the biggest tree by volume - in the world, the General Sherman tree.

I've seen big, tall trees, having lived for over two years in the redwoods and visited there a few times since, including going through the famous drive-through tree. But the giant sequoias are simply astonishing. The base of the General Sherman tree above has a diameter bigger than the length of the condo we live in - sheesh! We also drove over to the grove, and went on a short hike, to see the General Grant tree.

There was some road construction while we were there, and for several minutes we had to wait while traffic going the other way went through the construction zone. As we were parked, people a couple cars ahead got out of their car and started pointing up the hill to our right. Curious, I got out to see what it was all about. Right there, no more than 20-25 feet away, were a couple deer, a decent sized buck with a doe. Taking pictures through the bushes and trees was a bit of a challenge, but I think you get a good view of the buck here:

Then a few days ago I went out on the river trail near our home to get a good view of the horizon at sunset. Why? Because one of the brightest comets in years is currently visible, Comet McNaught. I didn't take a picture of it, but if you add homes and trees to the horizon below, plus a little pale orange in the sky, this is pretty much what I saw:

When Comet Kahoutek was here back in the 1970's and was a big deal in the news, I didn't get to see it, though I did try. And Halley's was a bust when it came. So it was a real kick to look into the horizon and see with my naked eye a real comet. It was even better with binoculars, and I watched it slowly set into a couple palm trees.

Finally this past weekend there was a pretty good low tide so again Vikinglord, Half Pint and I went down to check out the tidepools. The day turned out to be perfect for finding tidepool critters. We saw a ton of hermit crabs, and a good number of little tidepool sculpin. My son found an octopus that at first looked like a small ray or flatfish pressed against a rock. This was after we saw a gull gulping down a dead octopus. The live octopus was cooler. There were all sorts of gulls and other shorebirds, including a few brown pelicans. The tide was low enough that hundreds of mussels were exposed. We found a starfish - sorry, "sea star" glommed in a hump on the side of a rock, probably enjoying a little mussel dinner. I was able to take one decent photo of a sea star, and tried to get one of a California sea hare, a type of sea slug that we saw several of.

All three of us are ready to go back; my son and I will probably make an effort to get down that way for more of the day to give us time to see the tidepools and go for a decent hike in the large state park nearby.

As we drove out, we got a good look at a Kestrel perched on a sign near the parking lot. Not exactly a common sight in Orange County.

These things exist by chance? No way. The variety of God's Creation is beyond imagining, and too vast for mere chance, and too wonderful a display of His greatness, power and love.

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves??

2007-01-10T08:22:00.000-08:00

This morning I received an e-mail with the subject, "New Year, New You!" from a Christian retailer. Inside, the e-mail asked, "Wouldn't it be wonderful to look back and say '2007 was the year He made all things new'?"

Wow, that would be great. Now the sales pitch: "With motivational books, exercise music, devotionals, daily Bibles, and God on your side you can."

And, of course, the rest of the e-mail is an ad for diet books, exercise books, various one-year Bibles (packaged just for your particular need/want, of course!), and how-to-get-organized or how-to-manage-your-money books.

Look. It's real simple.

Either it's God who makes all things new OR it's you who makes yourself new with God alongside to help.

I'll take the former. After all, "it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."

And if I take the former then what's needed is not more spit and polish (with all due respect to Admiral Boom ***), self-help books, diets and exercise routines. What's needed is to let God work according to the means He chooses to work: His Word, prayer, the sacraments, and the accountability, discipline and fellowship of being among His people in a good, solid church.

Oh, but that doesn't sell many books....

---
***
Mary Poppins: Now, let me see. First of all, we must go to the piano tuners. And then we go to Mrs. Cory's sh-- Mrs. Cory's shop for some gingerbread.
Jane: Ah, gingerbread!
Mary Poppins: And then we go to the fishmonger's, I think, for a nice dover sole and a pint of prawns. Uh, Michael, stop stravaging along behind.
Admiral Boom: Ahoy, there! Ahoy! Good day to you!
Mary Poppins: Good morning, Admiral.
Admiral Boom: Michael, what fine adventure are we off upon today? Going to fight the Hottentots? Dig for buried treasure?
Michael: We're going to buy some fish.
Admiral Boom: Very good! Proceed at flank speed.
Michael: Aye, aye, sir.
Admiral Boom: Let's put our backs into it, lad. More spit and polish. That's what's wanted around here.

PCA and Steve Wilkins Update

2007-01-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

I seem to get a lot of search hits related to Pastor Steve Wilkins and the investigation into his doctrine by the PCA. Here are a couple updates for readers to look into:

Steve Wilkins' response to questions raised,

An analysis of that response.

When the first Auburn Avenue conference was held and there was an initial flurry of reaction to it, the whole thing struck me as a tempest in a teapot. It seemed like people were talking past each other, and that critics were finding error where none was intended.

However, when the second conference was held it became clear that there was significant error, and my conviction that it is error has only increased as I've continued to follow the controversy. I read all the papers presented at the Knox Seminary colloquiam, and have read much (but certainly not all) of what has been written since.

What bothers me about this are two things. One is that, while I am very sympathetic to many of the concerns raised by the Federal Vision people I wish they could see that the answers to their questions are in our Reformed confessions and creeds already. Reformed theology already addresses their concerns, and doesn't need to be changed. This leads to the second concern, that in trying to "reform" Reformed theology they have changed it into something which it is not, and have created a theological system that is - in my very humble opinion - anti-biblical.

In addition, I am baffled that people who believe something different than what the Westminster Standards teach would want to continue to maintain that they are faithful to that teaching, and remain in a denomination that holds to those standards. But then I remember my church history, and that this seems to be the consistent M.O. of those who teach error. They try to argue that they are orthodox, outwardly affirm their agreement with creeds or confessions of faith, and then teach that which is contrary to those standards.

Holiday Spirits

2007-01-08T07:24:00.000-08:00

The span between Thanksgiving and New Year's is one of my favorite times of the year. I actually like to go gift shopping, and of course love all the food and presents and bowl games and Christmas TV specials and everything else. It all seems to climax in the week between Christmas and New Year's, a week we have typically spent in Seattle with my family, and engaging in a whirlwind of visits with extended family and friends.

This year we stayed home. Our two oldest daughters have to work, and we thought it would be good for us all to be in one place and be able to see each other.

It made the holidays quieter and less hectic, but they were also very satisfying. I realize looking back how thankful I am for my family. I have been blessed with a wonderful wife who is a helper more than suitable for me, and four wonderful children who are a true joy.

So despite all the shopping and eating and gift giving and gift receiving, what stands out for me this year is how blessed I am and how thankful I am for the family God has given me.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2007-01-06T23:34:00.000-08:00

Well, a few anyway...

The new Blogger set-up includes "labels" - categories in other blogging software. So I've updated the site with labels. Scroll down the sidebar on the right to see an alphabetical listing; click on one to see posts with that label.

I also added another link to the "daily constitutional," the Heidelblog, which is written by one of my seminary profs, Scott Clark. Check it out.

In the meantime, God willing, more to come.

Mary Did You Know....?

2006-12-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

"Mary Did You Know?" is a popular contemporary Christmas song that is heard more and more in Evangelical Christian circles. It's melody is quite pretty and compelling. The lyrics also ask a series of poignant questions, wondering if Mary knew just who this little boy of hers was.

Did she know her son would save our sons and daughters? Did she know this boy that she delivered would one day deliver her? Did she know that her son would perform all sorts of miracles? Did she know that when she kissed his face she kissed God? Did she know that he was Lord of all creation, ruler of the nations, the great "I am?"

Part of the reason for the poignancy of the lyrics, I think, is due to the underlying assumption with which they were written and are sung: that Mary didn't know. And isn't that ironic? Isn't it touching?

But what does the Bible tell us about Jesus' birth and what Mary knew or didn't know?

When Gabriel came to Mary to tell her that she would give birth to a son by the power of the Holy Spirit, he also told her that this son would be the Son of the Most High, would sit on the throne of his father David, that his kingdom would never end, that he would be a holy one and the Son of God (see Luke 1:26-38).

Mary's betrothed Joseph was told by an angel to take Mary as his wife because the son she would bear was from the Holy Spirit and was to be named Jesus since he would save his people from their sins (see Matt. 2:20-21). Joseph must surely have told Mary about this.

When Mary went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth wondered why she was so favored to receive a visit from the mother of her Lord (see Luke 1:43), language reserved for God.

Mary's response was to praise God, glorifying the Lord and rejoicing in God her Savior (see Luke 1:46-55 for Mary's wonderful song of praise).

The shepherds who came to visit the newborn Jesus had been told by the angel who visited them that this child was their savior, Christ the Lord (see Luke 2:5-12). I'm sure they told Mary and Joseph about this.

When Jesus was taken to the Temple for the proper rites, the man Simeon took the boy in his arms and filled with the Holy Spirit thanked God for allowing him to see God's promised salvation (see Luke 2:25-32).

It is true that Mary and Joseph marveled at the things said about their son (Luke 2:33). But I think it is also true that because of the things said to them they knew who he was.

To answer the question of the song: did Mary know?

Yeah. She knew.

Christmas Carol

2006-12-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

Here's something I wrote back when Vikinglord was about 2 months old:

He sleeps so still,
This Child, this Night,
Beneath a starlit veil of sky.
The mother sheds her hears of joy;
The father loves his newborn boy.
While high above shines that one star,
Guiding those who travel far
To see the One who sleeps so still.

He sleeps so still,
This Child, this Night,
As shepherds watching hear the cry:
"Behold! To you a child is born!
You shall find him in the morn
Wrapped in cloths in manger mean.
Go now shepherds to the scene
And worship Him who sleeps so still."

He sleeps so still,
This Child, this Night,
As wise men keep their vigil nigh.
They saw the star in far off lands
And followed it in caravans
With gifts of gold, incense and myrrh.
Such princely treasures to confer
Upon a babe who sleeps so still!

He sleeps so still,
This Child, this Night,
Who for mankind one day will die.
What child is this who trembles not
At this - a dark and frightful thought?
Whose face in sleeping peacefulness
Begs for a mother's gentle kiss?
The Christ!, 'tis He who sleeps so still!

RUF Back at Brown University

2006-12-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

It's a little stale, but I heard the news yesterday that the RUF ministry at Brown University is being allowed back on campus. This is great news. Thanks to Dr. Clark for the info.

RUF at Brown University

2006-11-21T12:12:00.000-08:00

As readers know, I have tremendous respect for Reformed University Ministries (RUM) and the Reformed University Fellowships (RUF) they have established at many college campuses.

This news about the RUF at Brown University is both disturbing and surprising. In addition to the three principles I've been writing about, one of the requirements for any RUF to be established is that it must be invited on campus. A campus minister may initiate a request to set up a RUF organization, but will not move forward without the school's permission. RUM does not do guerilla campus ministry. So for the RUF at Brown to move from welcome to unwelcome so quickly is surprising.

It is also disturbing in that it may be part of a mini trend that includes Georgetown University, according to this report.

Of course, in another sense it is neither surprising nor disturbing, as the New Testament is quite clear that Christians will suffer persecution for their faith. Pray for the RUF team and students at Brown.

Theological Pointillism

2006-11-20T10:44:00.000-08:00

In the art world there is a fascinating painting technique called Pointillism. Founded and popularized by Georges Seurat, it uses small points or dots of paint to create the larger image. Color TV's and printers use a similar approach to create an image. Probably the most famous of all Pointillist paintings is Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Here's some detail from the painting La Parade by Seurat:

(Click on the image to see the full painting.)

Notice how the colors and overall image change as you view the full painting.

Why I thought of this I don't know, but I think there is something similar that happens in theology.

I've met folks who passed through the doors of Reformed churches and left for Eastern Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism. Their reasons vary, but a common theme is that Reformed theology doesn't capture "X" aspect of Biblical teaching well. The corollary is that Reformed theology focuses too much on "Y."

While I might disagree with these folks' reactions, analysis and understanding of Reformed theology, there is something to what they say.

Reformed theology loves its Pointillist dots. Seurat the painter was fascinated by theories of light and color. Each dot in his paintings had precision and a purpose. We in Reformed circles also love our dots. We're fascinated by theological precision and accuracy. We want to know not only that we are justified sinners, but also in detail what justification is -- and isn't. It's important to us that salvation is sola fide, but also that sola fide is sola fide.

But we can't lose the overall picture. I don't think we intend to, and more than that I don't think a full and careful reading of Calvin or any other Reformed theologian can miss the big picture that is there.

Nevertheless when new believers, or believers new to Reformed theology come into our midst, we often - maybe far too often - give the impression that all we care about are picky little details. We need to remind ourselves, and especially remind those new to our ranks, that there is a bigger picture, that when you step back from all the wonderfully detailed dots that make up Reformed theology what you get is an amazing picture of the work that God has accomplished for and applied to us poor sinners.

Big Brother Brag

2006-11-16T08:01:00.000-08:00

My little sister, a violinist, will be playing as one of the backup musicians for singer Josh Groban on the Tonight Show this evening. Check it out!

Grandma Was A Commie

2006-11-11T22:22:00.000-08:00

I turn to my maternal grandmother, Grandma Birnie, last. Though she had the shortest life of any of my grandparents, dying when I was just 12 years old (more than 12 years before my next grandparent died), she had more of an influence on me growing up than anyone but my two parents. She was a remarkable woman.

In 1932 at the age of 21 she joined the Communist Party - or as she put it, the Communist Party joined her. She had met and become friends with the mother of Tom Mooney and Richard Moore of the International Labor Defense, a Communist front organization that was integral in the defense of the Scottsboro Boys. Later that year she was "tutored" in Communist dogma by William Z. Foster, the party leader who was running for U.S. president. They saw in her an energetic, opinionated woman who hated Capitalism and understood what class struggle was all about. Even though she was very green she was made a district organizer for the IDL.

Now, I put all those links in because very few people remember the very significant threat that Communism was in and to the United States, who the players were and what their strategy was. My grandmother was mixed up right in the middle of it all, and worked with the tireless enthusiasm of a fanatic throughout the Midwest and Rocky Mountain areas on behalf of the Party, even at the expense of her own health and well-being.

What led her away from the Communist Party was the realization that they really weren't about helping people like they said they were. Grandma had been discriminated against as a girl growing up, and seen others - Native Indians and Blacks - mistreated as well. As a result she was both terribly bitter about the world around her, and passionate about helping the less fortunate in society. During her time with the Communist Party she spent much, maybe most, of her time with and for black people. This was an era of lynchings and virtual show trials where young black men were often charged with crimes they did not commit. The Communist Party tried to take advantage of that by coming to their legal defense. But my grandmother found that their heart was not in it. The Party was also trying to organize and rally farmers and other blue collar workers to its cause, many of whom were white. Grandma Birnie was very good at what she did for the Party, but this also caused jealousy.

Eventually she was brought up on charges by the Party. Her crime? Fraternizing with black people and upsetting the Party's efforts to reach out to white folks who were, quite frankly, racist. So, because she rode streetcars with blacks, ate at restaurants with blacks, stayed at the homes of blacks, she was brought up on charges. Before they could officially kick her out of the Party she tore up her Communist Party book in front of them all and effectively declared war. She followed through on that war.

In the meantime, she drifted from Marxism/Socialism to nominal Christianity (my mom was baptized in the Catholic Church with a due complement of saints' names - five of them!). But she didn't really become a believer until a man, who would become her second husband, literally stuck his foot in her front door and wouldn't leave until she heard the Gospel. He was a pastor, and built a church in Riverside County that I think is still there. My grandmother readily saw that the answer to Communism was not another political ideology, but rather Christianity itself.

She became as tireless a spokeswoman for Christianity as she had been for Communism. For many years she traveled throughout the Western and Midwestern U.S. and up into Canada, speaking at churches, community centers, anywhere she could get an audience, to warn them about the dangers of Communism and the answer in Jesus Christ. She testified before Congress and had her life story dramatized on national radio (she played herself - I can't imagine anyone else doing it).

Grandma had a knack for meeting people. She remained active in the black community, knew Nat King Cole when he was a young man and loved his music for years afterward. Somehow she got to know people like James Arness (of Gunsmoke fame) and George Putnam (a radio/TV commentator who is still at it out here in SoCal). Merlin Olson, while a member of the L.A. Rams was going door to door for his Mormon faith. He knocked on Grandma's door, and since she was never one to back down from a good debate, she let him in. He was so intrigued by her he came back, but neither one converted the other.

By the time I came along Grandma was along in years and her health was suffering. She was no longer speaking, so I only knew her - at least at first - as my grandmother. She was an amazing story teller, would knit stuffed animals of her own creation, liked to draw and paint, and made some mean popcorn balls. She was fascinated by American Indian culture and nature in general, and would read to me from various books she owned or that she bought for me. She taught me a bit on how to draw, and also taught me how to identify birds as we sat in the porch at the back of Grandpa and Grandma's house. The porch looked out into a back yard that was like a mini Garden of Eden, full of an amazing variety of flowers and plants, and so it attracted a wide variety of birds.

Grandma Birnie had a very compelling personality. When I was young, and we would visit in Long Beach with my grandparents, invariably we'd receive a visit, or go and visit, a man (and his family) that she and everyone else called Uncle Jesse. Because she called him that - and no one seemed to contradict her - I believed he was my uncle. He was black. I almost got into a fight with a kid when I was about 9 or 10 who wouldn't believe me that I had an uncle who was black. But I believed it, even though there was some sort of cognitive dissonance that informed my kid brain that black babies don't come out of white women. But that's how persuasive she could be, just by the force of her personality.

I only saw my Birnie grandparents about once a year. But during the summers when I was 10 and 11 we spent several weeks visiting. During that time my grandmother began to tell me stories about her life, and about her family. The stories about her life, many of them, were quite disturbing. She would tell of some of her activities as a Communist, almost all of them with great regret. Grandma would sleep in a recliner on the porch with me, my brother and sister in sleeping bags on the floor. Late into the night she would talk and tell stories. Every now and then she'd ask me if I was still awake and if I wanted to hear more. I always did. Because for every story about her regret in riling up a mob of people (one mob she was convinced had caused an innocent bystander's death), and how sorry she was and how terrible a person she had been, there was at least one story about her life growing up in Minnesota, or about her extended family and her latest visit with or letter from them.

I learned a lot from Grandma Birnie. She taught me how to draw, how to identify birds, to love nature (besides birds, especially animals and trees), about Indians, and introduced me to stories that I still love today, like the delightful Thornton Burgess animal stories that beat Beatrix Potter by a good American mile. Her stories about her family piqued my interest in my family history and genealogy. She gave an old family piano to my parents so that I could learn to play the piano. That is one of the things I am most thankful for, because music is a big part of what I did growing up, and who I am today.

More than those, however, I learned to hate bigotry and racism. I also learned to despise those who use race for political gain. I learned that the real answer to, not just Communism, but every other "ism" in this life is Christianity. Whether political, philosophical, psychological or some other false religion, these all have one thing in common: they are devised by man to make himself feel better about himself. They all deny the one truth that Christianity alone admits, not only admits but proclaims: man cannot save himself. God must do it for us.

Finally, I learned that no one is beyond the mercy, grace and love of God in Jesus Christ. From those late night conversations on the back porch, I know that my Grandma Birnie lived with deep sorrow and pain for what she had done earlier in her life. Her tears and cries of sorrow were real. But I also know from those late night talks that she had a deep and abiding love of Jesus and thanksgiving for what He had done for her. Her tears of joy were also real.

I wrote above that Grandma Birnie was a talented storyteller. She was also a gifted writer. Toward the end of her life she wrote this poem, which seems an appropriate close:

Dear Lord Jesus:

I copied a poem,
I bought a song
For each did seem to say
Something that has been
In the depths of my heart
For many and many a day.

But as I walked back
On yesterday's road
As memory led me along
I found myself loving
Each shadow there
And thankful for each wrong
So long endured in pain and tears
Which somehow enriched life's song.

For that long, long road
I walked alone
Led to this glad new day.
For I found in the rays
Of morning light
Emerging out of my night
A bright new life
Standing straight and tall
With eager hands to grasp and hold
None of the chaff but all of the gold
To be mined from unselfish service
To the untarnished dream
Of Freedom's Light that began
When God in a far away guileless world
First breathed His breath into man.

PCA Standing Judicial Commission & Steve Wilkins

2006-11-11T13:10:00.000-08:00

The Standing Judicial Commission of the PCA has responded to a request (formally a "memorial") from Central Carolina Presbytery to take action relative to Louisiana Presbytery's investigation of the teaching of Pastor Steve Wilkins of Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church in Monroe, LA.

Those of you who have been following and/or concerned about the "Auburn Avenue" or "Federal Vision" theology will understand what Central Carolina's request was all about. Many of us in the PCA see this teaching as inconsistent with Presbyterian doctrine in particular, and ultimately with the Evangelical doctrine of justification that came out of the Protestant Reformation.

While the SJC response doesn't take immediate action, it does move things in the right direction. Hopefully this will be resolved soon, as it is important that the PCA take a definitive stand on this issue.

Student Life

2006-11-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple fun links that came through the Westminster Seminary student e-mail list:

FoxTrot is one of my favorite comic strips. This one from a couple days ago is fun.
Check out the art by one student's wife. Very nice - and you can buy it!

Divorce - Britney & K-Fed style

2006-11-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

Greg of Crowhill Manor makes some excellent points about divorce. As usual, he is concise and right on target.

I would propose an amendment to his solution: if the spouse walking away from the marriage without reason is the primary income source, he or she should pay through the nose for the "privilege" of walking away. Similarly, if the spouse walking away without cause is not the primary income earner, he or she should not be rewarded with monetary payments.

I'm amazed that the religious right is so worked up about gay marriage, and yet Christians and the Church in general treat heterosexual marriage and divorce so cavalierly. You want to protect marriage in America? Begin with reforming your attitude about divorce. I'm against gay marriage because it's a spiritual slap in the face of God who ordained marriage to be between a man and a woman. But gay marriage is a piddling threat to society compared to what rampant divorce and remarriage has done in the last 30 years.

There is now no shame associated with divorce, and celebrity marriages and divorces illustrate that all too well. Britney is barely an adult, and yet she's already married and divorced twice, and now she's depriving her very, very young children of a full-time relationship with their father. He may be a slob, but she's no princess either. Selfish. Immature. Disgusting. And it's the children who ultimately suffer.

Election Reflection

2006-11-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

I will probably seldom post about politics here. Not that I don't follow politics or have an opinion. I follow quite closely and am pretty conservative in my opinions. Rather, it is that I don't see the purpose of this blog as being political. There are tons of good sites that cover politics, much more ably than I ever could.

I've read a number of columns by people on both the left and right of the political spectrum since Tuesday's smackdown of the Republicans in Congress. One column has stayed with me: Chuck Colson's "Why Conservatives Lost."

His reason? Because they deserved to: "They failed to live up to the high standards of personal behavior they preach about. And that's what brought them down."

I think he's got a good point in general about the election. And I think there's a lesson or two there for those of us Christians who also are more conservative in our politics.

One lesson is the danger for Christians in linking themselves too closely to a political movement or party. There can be an all too seductive temptation to overlook moral weaknesses for the sake of political gain. Where were the Christian conservatives, especially those members of Congress, when moral shenanigans were going on? Christians of whatever political party ought to be willing to be the moral conscience of that party.

Another lesson is that politics ultimately isn't the answer. That's a hard lesson for those of us, me included, who love to follow politics. Rather, God is sovereign, even in elections that don't make sense to the religious right. It is God who both governs the affairs of men and changes the hearts of men. When "the people spoke" and swept the Democratic party into power in both houses of Congress, ultimately it was God speaking, for it is ultimately He who sets leaders in power to govern. What was He saying or doing?

I don't know. Who can know the mind of God? Who is His counselor? Not me.

One of the things I try to teach myself and to others in Bible studies is that when you come across a difficult question or passage in the Bible, go back to what you know. Build from there.

What kinds of things do we know in this situation? God is sovereign. Political rulers are in that position by God's sovereign rule. God works all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. It is the Gospel that is the power of God to salvation.

Ultimately, what will make a difference in our society? Political victory? I don't think so. But the Gospel will. If Christians will speak the Gospel and all of biblical truth to society then, maybe then, God will change our society for the better. It's how He promises to work. And it allows believers to speak the same truth to all political parties, calling them to repentance, faith and obedience.

I'm politically conservative because I believe that most closely matches biblical truth (see Colson's second paragraph for an excellent summary). But first and foremost I am a Christian, and the way I see it neither Democrats nor Republicans have behaved very consistently with Christian values lately.

Strategic Hoping

2006-11-04T23:34:00.000-08:00

I'd like to riff a little on a quote from John Piper posted by Pastorshaun.

Piper, preaching on Ruth chapter 3, says that "only hopeful churches plan and strategize." He claims that churches without hope "develop a maintenance mentality and just go through the motions year in and year out."

In my MBA studies my emphasis was business planning, or as they put it in the school catalog, "Strategic Management." I spent several years of my aerospace career as a financial/business analyst, putting together annual business plans, working on the strategic plan, doing capital planning, project business planning, and working on business plans for new airplanes and products.

Typical church planning is intriguing at best, amusing or frustrating at worst. Churches and Christian ministries love to apply "business" models and come up with mission or vision statements and action plans for how to get there. More often than not it strikes me as a glorious waste of time. John Piper's comments above are very thought provoking in that regard.

I think he's essentially right. What is missing from most church "planning" is hope, hope in the promises of God.

Most church and ministry planning is driven by asking what should be done, or what needs to be done, to accomplish the vision and/or mission statement. This is all too purpose driven, too much focused on "ought" or "should." It is bare, dry and ulimately hopeless. The plans become all too mechanistic, the tasks often burdensome. Buried inside them is the assumption that if we don't faithfully keep to our tasks and plans we will fail in our mission, even if that mission has some expectation for something different or better in the future. Even if that expectation is connected to some valid biblical principle or idea.

This kind of planning is law driven, not promise driven or gospel driven.

Michael Horton, in his article The Purpose-Driven Life, writes:

Law tells us what we should do, whether we’re faced with the wrath of God (full-strength law) or by the fear of not reaching our full potential (the watered-down version). God’s promise, by contrast, creates true faith, which creates true works.

True faith is accompanied by true hope, hope in the promises of God. The works that result, and the plans that accompany them, are driven by the promises of God, grounded in the sure assurance that Christ will build His church. We do what we do, we plan what we plan, knowing that what results is not dependent upon us, but upon God who works through us. We preach and teach God's Word, we make use of the ordinary means of grace given to us by God - the Word, the sacraments, prayer, fellowship - trusting that, as God says of His Word, this work will not return void, but will go out and accomplish what God purposes for it.

We also know that God has prepared beforehand those works that we should do. Each Christian has a calling, or more appropriately callings, from God. Effective church planning and strategizing looks to discover the gifts and callings of the members of the church, so that God's people may be effectively equipped to do what God has called them to do. If this is what we strive for then we can have hope that God will work through us. These kinds of plans are anything but bare, dry and hopeless, mechanistic or burdensome.

When Piper talks of righteousness that is active and strategic, this is what I think of: righteousness that seeks to do what God has called us to do, in hope and in joy, each member of the body discovering his or her gift and using it to God's glory, empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit.

I now work at a Christian organization that thinks of each employee as a divine appointment, someone God has brought to fulfill a particular role and purpose that only he or she can fill. Would that our churches would do the same. What if our churches treated every person who walked through their doors as a divine appointment, someone God brought to them to play a particular role in the life and ministry of that church? Would people feel wanted? Would they feel an appreciated part of that church or just a pew-sitter? And what if each church thought of itself as a divine appointment, chosen and called by God to fulfill a particular purpose in His plans? Would that not provide hope, purpose and "mission?" In this context churches can come up with plans and strategies that actually have worthwhile meaning.

Wouldn't that be just a little bit more fun and worthwhile than sitting around word-smithing vision and mission statements to be published with fanfare only to be forgotten within weeks? Better than planning meetings that list projects and ideas that either drive people with purpose-drive cattle prods, or that result in projects and ideas that will likely never see the light of day?

It would be to me...

Right With God by Grace Through Faith

2006-11-04T22:43:00.000-08:00

Continuing discusion of the second principle: justification.

Previous posts:

Three Principles
God at Work
Scripture is Enough
A Happy Change and Sweet Exchange
Justification - So What?

My first post emphasized the realities expressed in the first two sub-points on justification, that God declares believers forgiven of all their sins because Jesus bore their guilt and penalty on the cross, and that God also declares believers righteous on the basis of having Christ's righteousness credited, or imputed, to their account. This is the sweet exchange of the good news of the Gospel.

The second post on justifiction was a short reflection on the fourth sub-point's two first two sub-points, that understanding justification properly helps us understand and live in the knowledge that God accepts us based on Christ's work, not our own, and that this is the foundation for all the believer's life. A sound understanding of justification helps us avoid both pride and despair; pride in our own "superior" works (or "superior" knowledge of theology), or despair flowing from our accute sense of our own inadequacy.

Here I will try to briefly wrap up the remaining ideas outlined under this second principle.

A key point is that, "Justification springs from God's free grace and is received by faith alone." The Reformed University Ministries instructors emphasized that this principle is foundational for the teaching and preaching of the campus ministries. Young Christians, especially in the South where PCA churches are most numerous, have often been raised in an environment of "do and do and do" (to quote John Wesley Weasel from Walter Wangerin's Dun Cow books). Their spirituality was measured by how active they were in their local church and youth group. The better, more "spiritual" students were the ones who went to Sunday School, Sunday worship, Sunday evening youth group, choir practice, mid-week youth group, prayer group, Friday night outreach, Saturday prayer meeting, etc., etc., etc. This kind of Christian lifestyle leads to the wrong idea: that those who are right with God are the ones most active in spiritual activities and tasks.

Scripture, on the other hand, tells us that salvation is by grace through faith, the free gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast.

Nothing we can do, nothing we fail to do, can add or takeaway one whit from our right standing with God. What matters is faith, faith in the work of God's Son Jesus Christ on our behalf. That work, His work, is offered to us as a free gift - we simply receive it by faith. O sweet exchange...!

However, this does not mean that works are irrelevant to the Christian life. They are necessary. To forget them is to fall back into one of the consequences of forgetting what justification is all about. We may understand what justification is, intellecually, and so forgetting pride and rejecting despair we conclude that works don't matter at all. The false conclusion is that works are completely unnecessary. And so the believer wrongly falls into anti-nomianism, the idea that he or she can do anything he or she wants, because their sin has been imputed to Christ and His righteousness imputed to their account.

However, those who know they are right with God based on His grace received through faith are rightly equipped to understand the commands of God in Scripture. They are necessary. They are required. They are imperative. They are what God has called us to do, what He prepared beforehand for us to do, now that we have received the free gift of grace by faith. And they are eager to do them, not to earn God's favor, but to express their love and gratitude to Him for what He had done for them.

These are simple truths, but the kind that need to be taught and re-taught, emphasized and re-emphasized. They are too easy to forget, too easy to drift away from, as we try to justify ourselves before God by our good works, our "superior" spirituality. Campus groups or new churches do well to emphasize these truths, and I'm convinced that if they do they set themselves apart from the mainstream of contemporary Christianity.

The kind of spirituality that God desires flows from justification and leads to sanctification, the third principle to be understood and committed to.

Grandma Was A Lady

2006-11-03T07:09:00.000-08:00

See my previous posts about my paternal and maternal grandfathers.

My Grandma Hedman lived longer than any of my other grandparents, which is not what I would have expected while growing up. She had seemed rather frail at the time: she would fall and break an arm, or seemed constantly to be fighting a nagging cough. As the years went on she became hunched over as the bones in her hip and back gave way.

And yet I learned as I got older that she was really quite a strong woman. Her strength was not so much physical as spiritual.

I remember from sleeping over at their house, that Grandma got up very early every morning. She would bake bread made from scratch, and the aroma (and the bread) was wonderful. She would also often make homemade custard, which I loved. Overall she was a wonderful cook; her roasts and mashed potatoes were, I think, legendary in our extended family. As a kid I liked her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, not just for the homemade bread they were made with, but also because she would pile on super generous helpings of PB&J - yum!

Grandma was also the most even-tempered person I think I've ever known. I used to think that if I went to her with the wonderful news that I was just elected president of the United States her response would be, "Isn't that nice?" Or, if I were to bring some terrible, horrible news her reaction would be, "My...tsk, tsk." She was the female embodiment of Kipling's "If" poem, keeping her head while all about her were losing theirs.

I also remember that Grandma would take a nap just about every day - not a long one, but just enough to recharge her batteries. As she got older these naps became more frequent or longer, as needed. After I moved to California and my children got older, one of the highlights of every trip to Seattle was a visit with Grandma who, right up until close to the end of her life, had a firm handshake and a ready mind.

Looking back, the lessons I think I learned most from Grandma Hedman were the value of knowing when to rest, and the value of keeping an even keel about life.

I've tried to learn to listen to my body and rest or sleep when it's telling me to. In the hectic life most of us live today that is a forgotten lesson. It is biblical as well, since God has commanded us to rest one day in seven, and this for our good. There is an element of faith in being willing to stop when everything around is saying "go." As my pastor puts it, resting one day in seven is trusting that God will give seven days of provision out of six days of work. The world will not stop - more importantly God will not stop - while we stop and rest.

I don't know how much of it is nature vs. nurture, but in some sense I've inherited my grandmother's even temper. It used to bother me that I didn't get more outwardly excited about different things. But then over the years, both from seeing Grandma Hedman and from experience, I realized that this is the way God made me. There is value in it, and I think it relates to what Paul writes about himself, that he had learned to be content in whatever situation God placed him in. I can't claim to be as content as Paul, but I think there is a connection. It's not that there is no internal passion, but that it is expressed differently, and with an underlying sense that God is in control, and being willing to accept that. Underlying everything for my Grandma Hedman was a deep faith in God, and trust in what He was doing in her life and the lives of those around her.

My Grandma Birnie was a mercurial personality. Grandma Hedman was much quieter and restrained. But of the latter it was the former who called her a lady. And she was right.

95 Theses for Today

2006-11-01T07:28:00.000-08:00

I don't have 95 theses for today (I'd be lucky to pump out 9.5 theses, much less 95), but wonder if we don't need an update of Brother Martin's 489-year-old classic.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the day that Luther nailed his theses on indulgences to the church door in Wittenberg, inviting scholarly debate. I re-read them as a reminder of what his arguments were. Vikinglord, my sister and I also watched the recent Luther film this weekend; Vikinglord's been studying the Reformation for his AP Euro History class and wanted to watch the movie.

It struck me as I watched the movie's scenes where Tetzel is selling indulgences, that much of the church today is selling indulgences - albeit of a different sort - with just as much slickness as Tetzel did 500 years ago: plant a seed of faith and watch it return to you; just have faith and God will reward you with a good life, with success, with happiness; just have a good attitude, be positive and God will bless you.

The church today isn't all that concerned with the afterlife; the church today is concerned with life now. Not many today are worried about the trials and sufferings of purgatory, and trying to buy their way out of it. Today's people are worried about the trials and sufferings of this life, and trying to buy their way out of it.

In Luther's time it was the pope trying to raise money to build a big church. In our time it is televangelists and megachurch popes trying to build up a big church empire.

Both prey on poor souls, turning their eyes away from the good news of the Gospel toward false hopes of salvation, prosperity, happiness, etc.

It was disgusting then. It's disgusting now.

Lining Out the Psalms

2006-10-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

My Viking-Scottish heart beats faster when I listen to the music linked to below. I'd never heard it before, until a recent e-mail on the student group e-mail list for seminary. There is a stirring, hauntingly beautiful quality to the singing that resembles, but is at the same time very different from - rougher, more earthy, more visceral - Gregorian chant. Gregorian chant is for proper Latin-schooled Europeans. This singing fits very well with the rough, common folk, the Viking descended settlers and their Gaelic neighbors who lived on the outer edges of Scotland.

Apparently this practice of "lining out" the Psalms started in the 17th century and slowly died out everywhere but in some Gaelic speaking churches in the Hebrides, and oddly enough, some white and black churches in the Carolinas. The links below give more of the history.

Thanks to Professor Clark, who finds and sends out some of the most interesting links to the student list.

Look here, here (see link at left on line singing) and here for some history and background.

This link has CD's for sale and a few audio samples.

One participant on the list says the CD's are available for download from iTunes for a whole lot less than it would cost to buy them from Scotland.

NOTE: the links above to gaelicpsalmsinging.com are down as I post this. But keep trying; it's worth it!

He's Alive!

2006-10-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

Pastorshaun is back!

Can we do a wave around the blogosphere to celebrate?

The Wave Turns 25 Years Old

2006-10-26T22:56:00.000-07:00

The main page at Yahoo! has been linking to this story about the beginning of the Wave.

Krazy George and the UW athletic department have been arguing about who invented it for 25 years. Who cares?

I was, however, at the UW homecoming game where we first did the Wave.

It was my freshman year and I was in the marching band. Robb Weller, an alumni yell leader and at the time a national entertainment news personality, had come back for homecoming and had the student section in good form. The two regular yell leaders we had were nice guys, but couldn't get the crowd going. Just the reverse. One of them was greeted weekly with the taunt:

Hey! Ungowa! K--- go take a shower!

But Robb Weller had the magic.

He brought back a cheer he'd used in his matriculating days, having the student section stand up row by row, each row starting to cheer as they stood. First he'd do it row by row going up; then row by row going down. The students were into it, and you could hear the roar of voices grow as each row stood.

Now, in the trumpet section we also had a tradition of sorts. Most of us could fit on one row. Every now and then we'd unleash our bitingly sarcastic trumpet cheer (trumpeters aren't into organized forms of cheering or making ourselves seen or heard; we can play louder than most any other section; that's good enough and that's how we like it!). The cheer consisted of each trumpeter standing up in turn and unleashing his own variation of a cheer: "Go Dawgs!" - "Defense!" - "Hip hip!" and so on, some loud, some not, but each having to come up with something original. Freshmen rookies sat at the end and had to really think, which isn't fun to do at a football game, let me tell you.

So, after Robb Weller had the students doing the row by row cheer for awhile, one of the woodwind players - I think the sister of one of the trumpeters, neither of whose name I can remember right now (that memory is locked in a part of my brain behind a door that reads "Do Not Enter") - got our director's attention and yelled at him, "Do it sideways!"

Bill Bissell, our director, was always one for trying something different. He'd had the band strip off their uniforms at the Sun Bown a few years before, while playing "The Stripper." That day we were dressed up in Halloween costumes for our halftime routine. The year before the band formed an outline of Mt. St. Helens and blew itself up.

So Mr. Bissell got Robb Weller's attention and they decided to try it. And here's why I don't think anyone was trying to copy Krazy George. Husky Stadium is in the shape of a horseshoe. The student section is along one side of the horseshoe and extends from one endzone down past the 50-yard line. Robb Weller's intent was to do a sideways standup cheer, but only from one end of the student section to the other. The other feature of his cheer was that once you stood you remained standing.

Something else happened. Weller started the cheer up at the endzone. The students readily embraced the sideways cheer. But then so did the rest of the stadium. A wave of people standing up and cheering swept around the whole place. I think we tried it again. Same thing happened, but this time Mr. Bissell had the idea to have the student section sit down, and when the cheer came around again to stand up again. It worked, and the thing kept going round and round the stadium.

The Wave got picked up at Seahawks games. People in Seattle took to it like a warm cup of good coffee on a cold, grey, drizzly day. Well, any day actually. The students at Husky Stadium started getting creative over the next couple seasons: two or more waves going at once, chasing each other around the stadium; two waves going in opposite directions (the crash as they came together was actually pretty cool); etc.

So, really, I think the Wave is one of those things that got independently invented at two different places at roughly the same time. So who cares who invented it?

But ours was better. :-)

De-motivation

2006-10-25T09:23:00.000-07:00

Speaking of despair (see below), here is a funny take on it, for all of us with a streak of sarcasm or cynicism.

Justification - So What?

2006-10-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

Continuing discusion of the second principle: justification.

Previous posts:

Three Principles
God at Work
Scripture is Enough
A Happy Change and Sweet Exchange

At our presbytery meetings candidates for licensure or ordination are asked a series of questions, many to test their knowledge of basic doctrine. The easiest way to give the right answer is to memorize the questions and answers in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Unfortunately, this can also come off as rote memorization, and you wonder what the poor guy really knows and really understands about the doctrine.

Lately presbytery members have taken to asking - after hearing the rote answer to "What is justification?" - the candidate what the doctrine means to them practically, how does it impact his day to day life?

I believe the doctrine of justification has two very important practical implications, summarized in the sub-principle quoted below: "A Christian's understanding that justification is the foundation for all subsequent Christian life and experience." Why is this so?

Understanding what justification is all about protects against two extremes.

The one extreme is pride. Philip Ryken says in his recent commentary on Galatians that the letter was written to recovering Pharisees. And we're all recovering Pharisees. Pharisees think their good works mean something to God, that those works make them better in the sight of God. But justification reminds us that we're all lousy sinners before God and can't do anything to save ourselves. In Christ, God provided all the righteousness we need, crediting Christ's perfect life to our account by grace through faith. Therefore we have nothing to boast of but Christ. There's no room for pride.

The other extreme is despair. The despairing person has the same problem as the prideful person; he thinks what he does - or doesn't do - matters in his salvation. But he despairs because he knows that he isn't good enough; there's no way a holy, righteous God would accept someone like him. But again, in Christ, God took away all the sin we have, crediting it to Christ's account by grace through faith. Therefore we have no reason to despair. It's not about us; it is about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

So practically speaking, justification reminds me not to be prideful and not to despair, but to rest on the mercy and love of God in Christ. Practically speaking then, I can focus on those things God has called me to do (like being a husband, father, employee, student, elder, son, etc.) with gratitude and thankfulness. I can do them to the best of my ability without keeping score of how well or poorly I'm doing, and trust that God will work through me because I'm doing what He's called me to do.

The Return of Ferd Berfer

2006-10-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

Ferd Berfer is a dude I met in cyberspace (and eventually IRL) years ago. He disappeared for awhile, but is back, and forwarded me the e-mail below. It's silly, but also clever:

Product Recall

Attention Please

The Maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of year or make, due to a serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart.

This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units - CODE NAMED Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units.

This defect has technically been termed "Subsequential Internal Non-Morality" or commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily expressed.

Some symptoms:

1. Loss of direction
2. Foul vocal emissions
3. Amnesia of origin
4. Lack of peace and joy
5. Selfish and/or violent behavior
6. Depression or confusion in the mental component
7. Fearfulness
8. Idolatry
9. Rebellion

The Manufacturer, who is neither liable or at fault for this defect, is providing factory-authorized repair and service, free of charge, to correct this "SIN" defect.

The Repair Technician, JESUS, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee required.

Please upload your burden of SIN through REPENTANCE procedure. Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, JESUS, into the heart component.

Not matter how big or small the SIN defect is, JESUS will replace it with:

1. Joy
2. Love
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self-control

Please see the operating manual: the B.I.B.L.E. - Believers Instructions Before Leaving Earth - for further details on the use of these fixes.

WARNING: Continuing to operate the human-being unit without correction voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list, and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded.

For free emergency services, call on JESUS.

DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be permitted to enter Heaven so as to prevent contamination of that facilty.

Thank you for your attention.

God Almighty

P.S. Please assist where possible by notifying others of this important recall notice!

A Happy Change and Sweet Exchange

2006-10-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

The second principle from the Reformed University Ministries campus ministry conference was that "justification is God reconciling sinners to Himself in Christ."

I thought I might be able to cover this in one post. Silly me. I'll simply try to introduce the topic now.

Here's how they outlined this second principle to be understood and committed to:

Justification is God's declaring the believer forgiven of all his sins on the basis of Christ's bearing the guilt and penalty of his sins on the cross.
Justification is God's declaring the believer righteous on the basis of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to him.
Justification springs from God's free grace and is received by faith alone.
A proper understanding of justification leads to:

A Christian's continual acknowledgment that his acceptance by God is based totally on the work of Christ.
A Christian's understanding that justification is the foundation for all subsequent Christian life and experience.
A Christian's knowledge that sanctification necessarily flows from justification.

That's a little more detailed than "just as if I never sinned."

There are two quotes that I love in connection with this doctrine:

So, making a happy change with us, He took upon Himself our sinful person, and gave unto us His innocent and victorious Person; wherewith we being now clothed are freed from the curse of the law.

From Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians

and

But when our iniquity was fulfilled and it had become fully manifest, that its reward of punishment and death waited for it, and the time came which God had appointed to manifest henceforth his kindliness and power (O the excellence of the kindness and love of God!) he did not hate us nor reject us nor remember us for evil, but was long-suffering, endured us, himself in pity took our sin, himself gave his own Son as ransom for us, the Holy for the wicked, the innocent for the guilty, the just for the unjust, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else could cover our sins but his righteousness? In whom was it possible for us, in our wickedness and impiety, to be made just, except in the son of God alone? O the sweet exchange, O the inscrutable creation, O the unexpected benefits, that the wickedness of many should be concealed in the one righteous, and the righteousness of the one should make righteous many wicked!

From the Epistle to Diognetus, 2nd/3rd century

Justification is at the heart of Reformed theology - not election, not predestination, not the five points of Calvinism (TULIP). It was emphasized as the heart of campus ministry, and so also it is the heart of church planting. The good news of the Gospel is this happy change, this sweet exchange, and so it should be front and center.

Gadabout Grandpa for God

2006-10-19T22:24:00.000-07:00

My mom's dad was not her natural father, who died when she and her older brothers were still little. Grandma re-married and had another son, but that husband died as well. Finally she married Grandpa Birnie, who adopted all four children and treated them as his own.

Grandpa was born in Holland, but eventually migrated to America. He graduated from Stanford University and had a career at Goodyear. All this was behind him by the time I have any memories of him. What I remember is the blue and white VW van with removable seats, a knob on the steering wheel, and a tiny engine in back. He used it to do gardening work for a number of regular customers. He was a fine gardener, too, which was a good thing because Grandma was a great lover of plants and flowers. Their backyard in Long Beach was a veritable nursery of flora, full of all sorts of flowers, ground cover, bushes, shrubs and trees. Grandpa was always full of energy, fueled by the mountain of Wheaties he ate every morning, tan and strong even when advanced in years.

There are two characteristics of Grandpa Birnie that leave a deep impression on me: his love of his family and his energetic witness for the Gospel.

As a kid I think my image of him was that he was overly subservient. He could definitely be scatterbrained at times, and would be roundly scolded by Grandma for it. But looking back I realize he wasn't a mere bower and scraper. He truly loved her, and all of us. As a result he was more than happy to serve. I think he would have done anything for her or any of us.

When we'd come to visit, almost once a year, especially in the latter years before he moved to Seattle, a trip to the beach, usually Hermosa Beach where our great aunt lived, was a regular feature. My brother and I loved to body surf. I can still see my grandfather standing stolidly on the shore anxiously watching as my brother and I, late grade-school age, waded out as far as we could - and then farther - in order to catch the best waves. I had no doubt then, and none now, that my senior citizen grandpa would have jumped in to rescue us if we got in trouble. If the current carried us too far north, he'd wave us back closer to the pier and where the rest of our family was. He cared about us deeply.

After Grandma Birnie died, and he eventually sold their house, Grandpa took to traveling. A lot. He visited family in Canada, Holland, France and Guatemala. He traveled other places as well, often by bus. He had the innate ability to strike up a conversation with a complete stranger at a bus stop and get to know him like an old friend. Eventually the conversation would wind its way toward the Gospel. Did the person know Jesus? Was Jesus his savior? Grandpa was eager to share the Good News with anyone and everyone.

How do I know this? He told me. I loved to hear him tell about his visits after he returned, especially if his trip included seeing his sister in France or his brother in Guatemala. Grandpa knew I was learning French in school, and would test me (he could speak Dutch, English, French and Spanish, to varying degrees). He showed me the French Bible he bought for his sister and let me try to read from it before he took it to her.

Grandpa Birnie loved Jesus and he loved his family. He dearly wanted his family to know Jesus, too. One year for either my birthday or for Christmas, I think (though with Grandpa this sort of gift could be just because), he gave me a copy of John Stott's Basic Christianity. I remember reading it, and liking it, thankful for a man like my grandfather who cared enough to give it to me.

I'm not anywhere near as outgoing with others as Grandpa Birnie was. Like him I do love Jesus and my family dearly. I'm not as adept at sharing the Gospel with others but still, largely I think from his example, have a deep desire for others to know the Good News. I believe it's a part of the reason planting a church is such a strong desire for me. Not only does a pastor get to preach and teach about the wonderful salvation offered in Jesus Christ, but a church plant is the kind of environment where - hopefully - opportunities to share the Gospel with others will be more plentiful than they typically are in a more established church.

Grandpa Birnie may not have been my "natural" grandfather, but he was my grandpa. I'm so very glad he was.

Life Abundantly

2006-10-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

KMR wanted to know if I'd post something on what she told me earlier this evening.

OK, I'll bite.

She was thinking about the curse of the Fall, and how as a result our work is toil. If Adam hadn't sinned he, and us in him, would have earned life. Work without toil is what we would have. But we don't. However, the new heavens and earth will be like that life we lost. That's motivation for hoping Christ will come soon.

And she's right. In Adam we could have had life, but instead in Adam we all died. But in Christ we are made alive, and in Him we have not just the life we lost, but life more abundant. The first Adam became a living being, but the second Adam became a life-giving spirit.

I once heard someone say that if in six days God made the heavens and the earth, and all good and perfect, how much more wonderful will be the place He has been preparing for us ever since?

Maranatha!

Classy Fall Classic

2006-10-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

While Dodgers-Mariners is still my ultimate World Series, and now will have to wait at least another year, two classy, old-time teams made it to the Series this year in the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals. Being a Senior Circuit guy, I'm rooting for the Cards. I hope the Series goes seven games, though, and ends up a true classic.

More on Two Kingdoms

2006-10-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

The two kingdoms debate has become the hot topic lately among a lot of Reformed folks, and is apparently also the hot topic at seminary. (When I was there more regularly, it was a completely different issue that was the all important rage. These things tend to cycle in perceived importance.)

In any case Jason has a post - follow the link and look for "Holy Urbanism Old and New" - which also references Dr. Hart's book A Secular Faith. Jason's post has generated a lot of discussion in the comments to it. If you're interested in or curious about such things, take a look.

Veggie Poetry

2006-10-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

Half Pint has a nightly reading assignment for school. A few days ago beets were part of the story. I don't remember why, but it's now become a running gag of sorts. She might be struggling with how to pronounce a word and looking for help. My kind, fatherly assistance? "Beets." She thinks I'm weird.

I don't think she's had beets since the Gerber days, so she doesn't know what they are. Nevertheless, the beet is part of the dreaded childhood foodgroup: vegetables. I think one of the laws of the Medes and the Persians was that kids are entitled not to like a food just because it's a vegetable. Now it's ingrained in the childhood DNA.

Vegetables were in her reading tonight - no beets, though. Peas were. Half Pint doesn't like peas either. I did. And my dad wrote a poem about it, to wit:

Peas, peas, little green peas
Sitting in my bowl.
They are so yummy tasting good
I like to eat them whole.

Peas, peas, little green peas
I eat them all the time.
I eat them with my fingers
But I really am sublime.

I never use a fork or spoon
Like older people do.
You see, the actual reason is
I'm not yet even two.

Peas, peas, little green peas
Sitting in my bowl.
They are so yummy tasting good
I like to eat them whole.

Now, tell me. After reading that, how could anyone not like peas?!?

Besides, it sure beats that "Pease porridge hot" downer of a poem.

Today's kids have Veggie Tales. I had Veggie Poetry.

A Couple More Things on Grandpa H

2006-10-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

One thing I forgot to mention about my Grandpa Hedman was his love of the Lord's Prayer. I don't think I realized it until I was in my late teens. The Lord's Prayer was "routine" for me; we recited it regularly in our worship. But Pentecostals don't put regular recitation of the Lord's Prayer in their worship - I think it was seen as all too Roman Catholic. Grandpa loved it though and in the latter years of his life was asked to lead public recitations of it, for example at my first wedding and other similar occasions. It was his example that motivated me to take the prayer more seriously and really think about what it meant and why, in our church, we said it regularly.

Secondly, the photo in which the man praying looks like my grandfather is copyrighted, but you can see it at this website.

Peter Drucker and the Megachurch

2006-10-14T23:01:00.000-07:00

Several days ago I got around to adding the capability to track visitors to this site and how they got here. Near as I can tell most visits are from friends and family. But I have noticed some folks who got here by searching for something on Peter Drucker.

Drucker is often the whipping boy for critics of the megachurch movements. They see leaders of these megachurches - two well-known examples being Willow Creek and Saddleback - using techniques taught by Drucker to grow huge churches that are more business than church. Drucker was also known to be an advocate for megachurches, seeing them as the next step in the life of the church at large.

Drucker was wrong about megachurches. They may already be past their prime. But he was wrong about them whether they're past their prime or not.

Still, what he taught was, in itself, not the problem. They asked the right question. They got the wrong answer.

Peter Drucker was known for three basic questions that he said every organization should ask of itself:

What is our business?
Who is our customer?
What does our customer consider as value?

The first question doesn't apply only to for profit entities. Its essence is to ask: what are we about? For a church, its "business" is doing the work that God called it to do. I don't think there's any major disagreement on this point, in the broad sense, between megachurches and their critics.

The problem comes about in the second question. The wrong answer of the megachurches and most of the church growth movement is that our customer is the person in the pew, or the person we want to get into the pew - Unchurched Harry or Sally. If that's the answer to the second question then the only logical way to answer the third question is to go ask them what they want, what they value, what will get them into church. This is good old market research. Quite frankly, the Willow Creeks and Saddlebacks did their homework, found out what people wanted, gave it to them, and have crowds of people flocking through their doors. Whether those crowds are meaningfully Christian, that is, whether or not they have a deep conviction of sin and saving faith in Jesus Christ, is a matter of much debate.

If they have the wrong answer, what is the right answer? Our "customer" is God. This is something the Reformed branch of the Reformation understood well. When they set out to reform worship, they needed a guideline. They saw in Scripture that God is jealous for His own worship. He only may be worshiped. He may not be worshiped in any visible representtion since no man has seen Him, and therefore any image is false by definition. He seeks after those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. He punishes those who worship falsely. The Westminster Divines had it right when they concluded that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. This is what God wants from us, what He values.

Peter Drucker's questions, used rightly, lead to the historic regulative principle of worship, and to the realization that it is God whom we are to please, not ourselves, not even the unchurched. We find what pleases God in Scripture. This is where we should be doing our "market research." God's Word sets boundaries for our worship according to His desire, but also allows for flexibility within those boundaries (e.g., we should sing praise to God, but how many psalms, hymns or spiritual songs we sing is not dictated, nor is a given style). God's Word insures that He is pleased, that He is glorified, and that ultimately He is enjoyed forever.

Church & State, Faith & Politics

2006-10-14T22:43:00.000-07:00

Sean Michael Lucas has a fine series of posts on his blog. I generally agree with his views on the relationship between church and state as entities, and on faith and politics in the life of the individual believer. There is good reason for the separation between church and state (neither a wall nor a marriage, in my view), and also for the Christian's faith to inform his politics.

Lucas' series consists of three posts. The first reviews Randall Balmer's book Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory. The second reviews Darryl Hart's A Secular Faith. Both books discuss the question of the role of the Christian Church in American politics. The third post interacts with both books and presents Lucas' take on the issues.

On a fascinating and thought-provoking topic, these posts are well worth reading.

Grandpa Was a Preacher Man

2006-10-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to write about the influence each of my grandparents had on me, but the idea slipped to the back of my brain until the post below on old churches in Sweden.

Those who have heard my testimony know that I don't have a story of dramatic conversion to Christianity from a radically anti-Christian or rebellious background. I grew up in a stable Christian family with parents, grandparents, and extended family made up of strong believers. My testimony is not a Pauline Damascus road change, but more like Timothy's: a testimony of God's grace to me in the family He gave me.

I won't write about my parents - they're still alive and still influencing! But all four of my grandparents impacted me in different ways. I'll start with my paternal grandfather, my Grandpa Hedman.

His listing in the phone book, as I recall, was "Hedman, Rev. A.W." Though, despite the implication in the title above, I don't think he actually actually worked as a pastor the last 40 or so years of his life; he retired after many years at an envelope making company. I can only remember hearing him preach once, at the church my uncle serves, I think on the occasion of the church's new baptistry that had just been installed. He preached with conviction and no little fire, accenting his words like many a Midwestern preacher with an extra syllable at the end, as in "Lord-ah." I don't remember the sermon now, but I do remember I liked it.

His pastoral ministry took place before he brought his family from Minnesota to Seattle, following after his older brother. Back in the Midwest he had done missionary work among the Chippewa Indians, and founded and/or served at a number of churches in small-town Wisconsin and Minnesota. Still, so far as I know, once the family arrived in Seattle he did other work.

There are two things that come to mind when I think of his influence on me. One was his quiet, humble, but dedicated service to God; the other is what I learned about prayer.

As to the former, while not a pastor by employ, for many years Grandpa sent cards and gospel tracts to every new parent, newlywed, and to those bereaved. There was a time in Seattle when every birth, and probably most marriages and deaths (if not all) were listed in the two daily newspapers. Using those, Grandpa sent them cards and information about God and the Gospel on behalf of the church he attended. I remember a small room in the basement of their home, where he had a desk and many different published materials, cards and envelopes. I watched him as he worked once or twice, carefully addressing, signing, stuffing and mailing these simple gifts from the church. I don't think there was much, if any, public recognition or acknowledgement of what he did, but I understand that many came to the church and either came back to their faith or newly embraced it due to that simple ministry.

There was no flash or sparkle, no slick methodology - just conscientious, diligent, time consuming work to reach out to the surrounding community. Yet it had an impact, as God chose to use it in people's lives. God doesn't need our public recognition to accomplish His ends, just our faithful service to Him. He is, as Os Guinness puts it, the Audience of One. He is the only audience that ultimately matters.

That's one lesson worth learning.

The other was more indirect. I can't say I learned to pray from Grandpa Hedman. He never sat me down and gave me lessons. I can't even say I carefully listened to all the prayers he invariably gave at the many family gatherings we had as he blessed the food. They were reverent prayers, and you could tell just by listening (at least my young ears thought they could) that the man speaking them was a reverend. Later in his life, when he grew a beard he looked just like that older gentleman you see in those paintings of a white-haired, white-bearded man sitting at table praying over a loaf of bread. Grandpa resisted (he didn't like the idea of pretending to pray), but eventually he was talked into posing like that painting while his picture was taken.

(As an aside, not too long ago we were in the home of some friends where KMR saw that painting on their wall. She looked at me in shock: "Where did they get a picture of your grandpa?")

There are two specific things I remember related to my grandfather and prayer.

When I was in my third year of college I got a full time internship to work in the engineering department at Boeing. Most days I took the bus to work, and decided to use that time to pray. People might have thought I was staring out the window, but really I was trying to pray. Sometimes I could concentrate. Sometimes not. Then Grandpa had another round of very difficult heart trouble. That motivated me to pray, and regularly. I prayed that he would be healed, and believed fervently that he would be. In God's providence Grandpa was healed. The regular practice of praying for him grew into a regimen of praying for other people and other things. Some prayers God answered as I asked. Others He did not.

I learned two things: the wonderful discipline of regular prayer; and the wonderful reality that God answers prayer how He sees best. It was regular prayer where I really did believe that God not only could but would answer postively. I was praying with faith. So what to do with those prayers that weren't answered the way I wanted? Well, I had to learn deeper, more mature faith, that God is not One to be manipulated by me, that He knows His purposes better than I do, that He works all things for good for those who are called according to His purpose. I may not see that good right away - I may never see it. But I saw it often enough to know the truth of that Biblical promise.

The other remembrance is less a lesson, but was more of a shock to my system. My oldest daughter (we'll call her Sissy, which is what her youngest sister calls her) was born six weeks early by C-section. Her mom, a diabetic, had been suffering toxemia and the doctor thought her pregnancy was farther along than it was. It wasn't, but that's another story. We knew in advance what day the C-section would happen, and that day I went out to eat with my parents, my little sister, and Grandpa Hedman. I don't know where Grandma was or my other sister (bro was in Indiana at IU), but there we were, our meals just brought to the table, when my dad did what he pretty much always did and asked his dad to pray for our food.

Grandpa, the man who seemed to pray at every meal at every family get-together, did something totally unexpected, and said, "I think the new father should pray."

What?!?!?! Me? Out loud? In front of other people? In front of Grandpa, the pastor, the Rev. A.W.? My dad (natch!) agreed with him and I must have stammered out something, I can't imagine what. I was at the same time completely embarrased and terribly honored. That my grandfather would not just let, but ask, me to pray while he followed was pretty incredible. It was one of those moments where I realized I was growing up - as if the birth of my first child wasn't enough of a realization!

Now every time I am able to maintain a good, disciplined practice of prayer I often recall those bus rides praying for my grandfather. And it's not unusual, when I pray in public - especially when I'm asked to pray in public for a meal - for me to recall that terrifying moment in that restaurant. Sometimes I remember both at once. The lesson there? I'm not sure, but maybe God is encouraging me and keeping me humble at the same time.

I have a ton of other memories of Grandpa Hedman, but the above are the ones that seem to have impacted me most. Among all those other memories I remember him as a man of quiet, determined, humble, diligent faith who had a deep reverence for God and His Word.

If that isn't a blessed work of God's love and grace in my life, I don't know what is.

Birdwatching

2006-10-09T23:39:00.000-07:00

Many, many years ago my grandmother taught me how to observe and identify birds. I've been hooked since. So this kind of discovery is one I love to see.

New bird pics:

The breadth, diversity, creativity and sheer beauty of God's handiwork is amazing.

The Lord taketh away, and the Lord giveth

2006-10-09T23:35:00.000-07:00

As one of my sisters so aptly helped describe it, the Lord smote our old TV's. And we were OK with that.

And then the other sister said, "Hey, I've got one sitting in my storage unit. You can have it." So now thanks to her we are part of the viewing public again. Just in time to catch up on CSI (some, uh, interesting episodes), and for Half Pint to resume her Little House DVD viewing.

And we're OK with that too!

Scripture is Enough

2006-10-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

Now that our computer seems to be virus free, back to regular posting!

Down below I wrote about the three principles I learned at a campus ministry seminar. The first of those principles is that, "The Bible is the Word of God given through men by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit." What does this have to do with campus ministry? What does this have to do with church planting?

This first principle is expanded into three sub-points:

The Scriptures are trustworthy, inerrant, infallible and authoritative.
The Scriptures are sufficient to reveal God, the way of salvation, and the will of God for men.
The Scriptures are clear enough to be understood by any Christian using ordinary means with the aid of the Holy Spirit.

None of the above is rocket science; all of the above contain historic Christian teaching about God's Word.

Where I think they particularly apply in today's world is in the sufficiency of Scripture and its capacity to be understood by any Christian. Not that the other ideas in the above three points are any less important, nor are they any less under attack nor all too easily forgotten. But Scripture's sufficiency in telling us what we need to know about God, salvation, and us, and Scripture's clarity to any Christian seem to be most forgotten, abused or neglected in the modern chuch.

We have methods. We have polling. We have marketing techniques. Use them and your church will grow!! But in the methods, in the pollng, in the marketing we too often forget that God promises to work through His Word.

I find it fascinating, as I read through various books and articles on church planting, that the methods proposed so often are bolstered by quotes from Scripture, as if to justify the validity of the method. What is missing is any sense that we should rely on Scripture rather than method. And what is so disappointing is that all the proponents of various methods emphasize that the "success" of a church plant is ultimately dependent on God. That acknowledgement is refreshing and welcome, but disappointing in that it misses the point of how God promises to work.

How has God promised to work? Through His Word. In Isaiah God states that His Word does not return to Him void, but goes out and accomplished what He purposes for it to accomplish. What does Paul instruct young Timothy to do? Preach the Word, in and out of season.

Today's emphasis on method, polling, technique, etc. betrays a lack of faith that God's Word is sufficient as defined in #2 above, and a lack of faith that God's Word can be understood by ordinary means (i.e., it doesn't need special packaging to be understood!).

Rather than technique or method, a new church plant must put its hopes in the sufficiency and "understandability" ("perspicacity" in theological terms) of God's Word. The new church should commit itself to faithful preaching and teaching of God's Word, but that is not all. If all the new church has is a commitment to preaching and teaching God's Word then all it has commited to is another method. The new church and its leaders must also have faith that God will work through the ordinary means of communicating God's Word. James tells us that faith without works is dead; so also are works without faith, no matter how biblical those works are.

One of the speakers at the campus ministry conference related how another campus minister with a different ministry was amazed at how many students attended the RUM sponsored Reformed University Fellowship. The RUF folks didn't aggressively evangelize. They had programs but seemed to have fewer, or at least different (e.g., small group Bible studies as prevalent as fellowship activities) kinds of activities and programs. He wanted to know how the RUF minister got so many kids to come to their weekly large group meetings. What are you doing? (Read: what's your method?)

The speaker's response? We invite kids to come to our weekly meeting, and there I preach the Word.

God's Word was - is - effective.

When/if I am called to plant a church, I pray that it will be a church that focuses on God's Word and has faith that His Word is effective.

You win some; you lose some

2006-10-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in awhile because I've been jousting with a computer virus for the last several days. This is one of my least favorite things to do, because it is so time consuming. We've been virus and spyware free for a long time, the programs we've been using doing a good job of protection. But a particularly tenacious and irritating virus got through. I tried several different things in the evenings after work to fix it, various scans and file deletions that had worked in the past, but this time to no avail. Finally today I turned to the nerdy, geeky, techie guys.

I love the nerdy, geeky, techie guys. I'm borderline nerd myself (once upon a time I carried a slide rule around; not just any slide rule, but a circular slide rule, just to be different; and early in my engineering career I dabbled in artificial intelligence programming), but don't ultimately have the patience for the detail that being a good nerd requires. Boy am I glad, though, that there are people who love that stuff.

I found one of their web sites with detailed instructions on how to do a thorough, deep clean of our computer. I ran programs we already have; I downloaded and ran new programs. Some of the scans took forever. Some six or seven hours later I got to the last of the initial (yes, initial!!!) steps, after which I'd be able to re-boot the computer and see if they had worked. I was pretty sure up to that point that the problem still existed, because I hadn't seen the particularly offensive culprit identified and eliminated. Like finding your car keys in the last place you look, I believe that last step got rid of the problem.

Re-boot.

Victory! The dark side was defeated.

Which is more than can be said for the Huskies, who came close to beating the Evil Empire today. And it's more than can be said for the Dodgers, who got swept out of the playoffs today as well (but those #%*& Yankees were tossed out, too - huzzah!).

Nevertheless, while they were losing we got a healthy computer back again.

Fair dinkum.

Potpourri for $400, Alex

2006-10-02T07:05:00.000-07:00

A mixture of several topics.
(Be sure to put your response in the form of a question.)

What was Half Pint's seventh birthday? Several weeks ago, we asked her what she'd like to do for her birthday. She wanted to visit grandma and grandpa up in Visalia, so that's what we did this weekend. Besides grandparents, there were aunts, uncles and cousins. Pizza and ice cream cake were consumed. Pictures were taken. Presents were opened. Pretty standard fare - and pretty fun, too.
What is 3 and 1? The Hamilton Bobcats varsity high school football record. This is Vikinglord's school. He's a sophomore on the team so he doesn't get to play much. But a couple games ago he saw a good bit of action on the punt and kickoff coverage teams, and made a few nice tackles. Hopefully I'll see him play this Friday.
What is 4 and 1? The surprising record of the Washington Huskies. Woo-hoo! When I heard Coach Willingham say before the season began that their goal was a bowl game this year I thought: nice motivational tool, but really? Now it looks like a real probability. This week they play the Evil Empire (aka: Southern Cal). It would be so nice if they break the Trojans' Pac-10 winning streak.
What is vocation? Calling. From God. What I've been reading a lot about and therefore been thinking a lot about, since that's part of what the class I'm taking this semester is about. We write reflection papers on our weekly reading assignment. This week I wrote about an article on death as a calling; and another paper interacting with a chapter in one of our books on how vocation can inform ethics. Very interesting and thought provoking.
What was 1988? The last time the L.A. Dodgers won the World Series. This weekend they made the playoffs as a wild card, and this year's team bears some resemblance to the 1988 team. Both have a mixture of veterans and young guys; neither team is all that stocked with stars; yet both teams have that certain determination, comraderie and will to win that can take a team far in the postseason. I hope so!
Who is "Hedman, Rev. A. W.?" My grandfather. That's how his name used to be listed in the phone book. My recent post about churches connected to my family history made me think of my grandparents, all four of whom were strong believers and had an influence on me and my faith. I think I'll write about them in turn. Look for a post about my Grandpa Hedman in the next few days.

And that's all for now.

God at Work

2006-09-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

One of the readings for the class I'm taking this semester is an article by Gene Veith on calling, or vocation. In it he mentions Martin Luther's concept of everyone having a vocation from God and that we are His masks as He does His work through us. God provides us with food, our daily bread, but it doesn't just appear miraculously on the kitchen table. God works through the farmer, the miller, the baker and others to provide that bread for us.

The podcast I posted about yesterday echoes the same theme. Shaun and Matt talk about how it is God who calls out men for ministry and sends them (see Acts 13 where Barnabas and Paul are set apart and sent out). The reason we ought to use the ordinary means that God has given us is because ultimately it is Him who does the work, through us. We need to get out of the way (i.e., quit trying to use our own methods and ideas, and also taking the credit) and let God use His own tools through us.

I think the same idea is behind the three principles from RUM's campus ministry seminar. And not just behind the principles or foundational but, to borrow again from Luther, "in, with and under" those principles.

The first principle is that the Bible is God's Word, given through men by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That couldn't be much more clear. God is at work giving His Word - He initiates and makes it happen. "All Scripture is breathed out by God..." (II Timothy 3:16, ESV, here and following) and "...men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (II Peter 1:21) both establish the principle. God doesn't just give His Word, He makes it effective, useful. The Timothy passage speaks to how profitable the Word is, but my favorite passage is from Isaiah 55:10-11. Here God tells us that just as water falls from heaven and brings forth the earth's bounty, "so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." So in the first principle God is at work. We need to let Him work through His Word.

The second principle is that justification is God reconciling sinners to Himself in Christ. Again the statement of the principle affirms that it is God who is working. He's the one doing the reconciling, not us. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (#33) answers the question "What is justification?" with, "Justification is an act of God's free grace..." Justification is God's act, not ours: "...he [God] made him [Christ] to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (II Corinthians 5:21). God is abundantly at work also in the second principle.

The third principle is that sanctification is God conforming sinners to the image of Christ by the work of His Spirit. Once again the principle itself clearly states that it is God who is at work in re-creating disobedient sinners into obedient servants. We are God's workmanship, His carefully crafted work, "created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). It is God's work that forms us into who He wants us to be, re-making us in Christ so that we are eager to do the things God has already set aside and prepared for us to do. Sanctification also is "the work of God's free grace..." (WSC #35). God is the worker in the third principle as well.

God initiates - He sends His Word as a profitable, fruitful gift. God calls out and separates men and women for Himself - He justifies sinners, reconciling them to Himself. God sends and equips them to do His work - He sanctifies sinners into the image of Christ, who lived only to do His Father's will.

One might ask: if God's doing all this work, why should I do anything? Why not just sit back and take it easy? Because just like with the farmer, miller, baker and others through whom God providentially provides our daily bread, so also in the work of the kingdom God uses the likes of us to accomplish His work.

The principles only make sense if it is ultimately God doing the work. We have a part to share in that work, but it is ultimately His.

A new church plant, a college campus ministry, an established church, a mission work, whatever field we labor in, we do well to remember that it is God's work, not ours. Sometimes I think we try too hard, we get too clever, we want to see results and feel we had some success in our work. As I wrote earlier, it is better to be conscientious than clever. Who is cleverer than God? He gave us the means, and He promised that they would be effective. It is a measure of faith to simply plug away at the tasks God has called us to do, and trust that He will work through them.

Ordinary Means Church Planting

2006-09-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

This podcast is well worth listening to.

The two commentators are friends and former fellow seminary students, now pastors in Pennsylvania (their congregations are linked at right: View Crest and Laurel Highlands).

They emphasize the reality that all ministry, and certainly church planting, is God's work that He initiates.

This fits well with what I hope to continue with from the campus ministry seminar I attended. I'll try to link the two together in my next post on that topic.

Three Principles

2006-09-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I got to attend the Foundations of Campus Ministry conference put on by Reformed University Ministries, the college campus ministry of the PCA. This was one of the best conferences I've ever been to. There is one interesting testimony to its high quality. At the same time and in the same location there was a church planter training conference being held. A number of former campus ministers, guys who had been living and practicing the ideas we were being introduced to, would skip out on parts of their training to come and sit in on ours. They were looking for a refresher on some great foundational ideas.

During the conference we were introduced to three principles "to be understood and committed to." This was part of what the church planting guys were interested in hearing again. I remember thinking at the time that these principles are applicable to any ministry: college campus, established church, church plant, mission work, chaplaincy, etc.

God willing I'll explore them over the next few days. Just to get started, here they are:

The Bible is the Word of God given through men by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Justification is God reconciling sinners to Himself in Christ.
Sanctification is God conforming sinners to the image of Christ by the work of His Spirit.

Pretty simple, right? But how profoundly would our ministry be impacted if we worked diligently to keep these principles front and center?

Kyrka & Kirk

2006-09-25T12:33:00.000-07:00

My dad sent me an e-mail with updated family history information in it - we're hoping for a big family reunion next summer. It reminded me of some other research I've done where I've come across links to actual places my ancestors lived. One of the things that I enjoy about learning my family history is how it so often connects with "real" history. But the following is more along the line of fun connections.

First are some pictures from Sweden. My great-grandfather (direct paternal line) came to America from the region called Bohuslan. From the records that I have, most of my relatives were baptized and married in this church, Krokstad parish:

However, when my great-grandfather came to America he changed his last name from Svensson to Hedman. He wanted something that sounded more American. When I asked my grandfather about this once he said the name his dad picked had something to do with where the family is from. Nearby Krokstad is the town/parish of Hede, which could be where the name came from. So it's possible many ancestors went to this church:

I love the older pictures of both.

Speaking of old...on my mom's side we're connected to the Birnie family, a branch that left Scotland and settled in Holland. Though remembering their Scottish heritage they also thought of themselves as Dutch, or Dutch-Indonesian. The name Birnie is associated with a now disappeared, small castle in Scotland, and also the Birnie kirk, one of the oldest continually functioning churches in Scotland.

My dad is Scandinavian (or as we like to put it: Viking-American); my mom is more Scottish than anything (probably). There's a link on the right to Highland Theological College, where I'd like to someday do doctoral work. HTC is not too far from Birnie kirk, just north of Inverness in the town of Dingwall, aka the Viking Capital of Scotland.

How appropriate!

Get a Good Burn Going

2006-09-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

When I was about 9 or 10 (I remember it being in third grade), my family switched from the Pentecostal church my dad had grown up in to a Presbyterian church. Except for a couple brief stints I've been attending Presbyterian churches ever since.

I remember that our church hosted a Korean Presbyterian congregation that used the sanctuary after our morning service. About once a year we would hold a joint worship service. Our pastor would preach and the Korean pastor would translate. Our pastor was a learned, erudite and proper man from Back East, and he spoke with a certain dignified manner. When the Korean pastor translated, I often wondered if they were preaching the same sermon. The Korean pastor was much more animated.

Tuesday I got to hear a Korean pastor preach a whole sermon on his own, mostly in English but there were parts that he gave in Korean, presumably reinforcing his points for the benefit of the primarily Korean speakers in the audience.

The occasion was a joint meeting of three presbyteries of the PCA: South Coast (of which my church is a member), Pacific, and the Korean Southwest Presbytery. I'd been looking forward to it for several months. We don't often have the opportunity to get together for worship and fellowship with members of our broader church. This is unfortunate, not the least because one of the hallmarks of presbyterianism is supposed to be our connectedness with each other. We talk a lot about being connected. We don't do it very well.

But Tuesday we made an effort, and it was a good one overall. I got to see some friends I don't see very often, members of both the Pacific and Korean Southwest presbyteries, and meet new friends. I hope we do it again.

I hope we do it again not just for the friendship (and the food!). I hope we do it again so we can hear preaching like I heard Tuesday morning. It wasn't so much that the sermon was theologically deep or technical. It was full of truth and expressed the power and wonder of God's loving work for us poor sinners. The pastor spoke with a passion that communicated how deeply he believed what he was preaching. As I listened I felt like the disciples left sitting at a table in the village of Emmaus, less one Companion who had expounded the Scriptures to them on the way there:

My heart burned within me.

It was a good burn.

Smite me

2006-09-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine at work has a cartoon in his cubicle of a couple of Old Testament-type prophets sniggering behind the back of another prophet who has a sign taped, obviously surrepticiously, to his back: "Smite me!"

I was reminded of this cartoon by my sister's story of how our uncle bought a nice, big, new TV several years ago that promptly pooped out. His response? "God smote my TV."

We're living that reality in our house right now. One TV was 13 or 14 years old; the other 20. They've both bit the dust in the last month or so. Our TV's hath been smote with a great smiting.

KMR and I were talking the other day that this is probably a good thing, all in all. That is until I reminded her that our favorite show, CSI, premiers this week (tonight even - did Brass survive????), and we're missing Dancing with the Stars (KMR used to do ballroom dancing). And college football is in full swing, while the Dodgers are managing just enough swinging of the bat to still be in the pennant race.

(sigh)

Oh well. I'm still sure it is a good thing. We can't afford a new TV right now anyway, so we'll be doing other things, God willing more profitable things. And the Dodgers are on the radio. And I hear there's a good radio broadcast of the Huskies via the Internet.

New Tolkien Book

2006-09-19T07:31:00.000-07:00

This news jumps Tolkien's new book to the top of my "most anticipated" list by a long shot. And that's with the seventh Harry Potter book on its way, which is now a distant second.

I love Tolkien's writing. He was the greatest writer of the 20th Century. Most people, if they've read Tolkien at all, have only encountered The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The first is a fine story, and the latter an amazing epic tale. But what makes Tolkien great is the vast quantity of short stories, epic poetry and other writings, mostly published posthumously through the diligent work of his son Christopher. This is where one sees his creative genius at work, not only in the storytelling but in his writing skill, where he shows mastery of a number of genres, and amazingly both in English and his own invented languages.

Drucker and the Ancient Church

2006-09-14T22:36:00.000-07:00

Another Druckerism stuck in my brain: "It's better to get the wrong answer to the right question than get the right answer to the wrong question."

I was reminded of this by Carl Trueman's post at Reformation21.

I originally wanted to attend seminary to get a theological degree that might lead eventually to Ph.D. studies on the early church. I decided to get an M.Div. because in the early church fathers I saw men who, with only a few exceptions, were both gifted scholars and pastors. I figured an M.Div. degree rather than an MA in theology or historical theology would give me better insight into the world and thought processes of the church fathers.

I didn't really know what I'd do after all that education. I reckoned I could figure that out later. Pastoral ministry and teaching seemed equally possible - or even better, both!

But as time has passed and, ironically, the M.Div. gone to the wayside as I try to complete an MA, I have become convinced that my call is to pastoral ministry, in particular to planting a church. A big part of that realization has been the work I've had the opportunity to do with some of our church plants in our presbytery. Another big part is the realization that the historic truths of the Christian faith are valid for any generation in any age, even this squishy post-modern or post-foundational age. The quote Carl Trueman gives reinforces that belief. Those truths need to be preached with boldness, rather than seeking after new language or forms simply so that they might appeal to the post-modern spiritual consumer.

Rather than asking how do attract postmoderns into our churches, we should be asking how those ancient spiritual, biblical, truths answer the questions raised by postmoderns. Will they listen if we don't "package" the answers just right? I think they will. Who doesn't want to hear the answer to their question?

Whether it's The City of God by Augustine or Machen's Christianity and Liberalism, Christian truth is valid and relevant, and speaks to the world around it. How can anyone read either of those works and not see how applicable they are for today?

Hello? Puritans calling

2006-09-14T22:03:00.001-07:00

Monday night I had my first class of the semester. As he always does, and does very well, Dr. Johnson began laying the exegetical foundation of the class by unpacking the early chapters of Genesis on the topic of "calling."

(The first time I took a class from Dr. Johnson I remember thinking, as he spent a good deal of time exegeting the biblical basis for the course, "When's he going to get to the real content of the class?" Then about halfway through I realized, "Wait, this is good stuff!!" and wished I'd been taking better notes. Those were the pre-laptop days. Now I type like a fiend to get as much as possible.)

In the course of his lecture Dr. Johnson referred to the Puritans and their view on God's call and the believer's vocation. A part struck me. In essence he described how the Puritans viewed those with ambition, envy and impatience with suspicion. Their focus was more on perseverance. Those overly ambitious were seen as lacking proper contentment.

There's a lot we can learn from the Puritans on this. Too much of the Church today lacks contentment, whether it's the church growth movement with its tendency to focus on attendance numbers ("If you're not growing, you're not a healthy church." Really?!?), the prosperity gospel with its focus on money, or the megachurch movement with its focus on success. Doing things with excellence for God's glory is one thing, as is seeking to be a good steward of the resources God has entrusted to us. The Puritans didn't have anything against wealth per se, but against covetousness. And against lack of contentment with the place to which God has called you.

But today we're consumed with being number one, of growing bigger, of being viewed as successful by the world. As a result Christian bookstores are full of all sorts of books borrowing from business and management techniques that really haven't passed the test of being biblical, and church and parachurch ministry leaders buy them up like so many treasure maps.

The Puritans had it right on this one. They knew where their treasure was really hidden.

Christianity Today and Calvinism

2006-09-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

I picked up the current issue of Christianity Today the other day, having heard (first I think through Ref21) about their cover article on the resurgence of Calvinism.

It was a nice, encouraging article.

I grew up mostly in the old UPC, in a conservative congregation. I knew about and believed in such doctrines as predestination and election, and remember hearing about TULIP. But we weren't taught, nor was there an emphasis on, "Reformed theology." It wasn't until I heard a sermon in my late 20's by Mike Horton that I really "got" Reformed theology - and boy did I get it. All the things I'd been taught and believed suddenly fit together and made sense.

The CT article seemed to focus more on the resurgence of Calvinism in Baptist circles. I suppose that makes sense, since there are so many of them. But I believe the rise of Calvinism really owes a great debt to men like R.C. Sproul, James Boice and others of that generation who began writing books and holding conferences on Reformed theology, and through whose teaching the Holy Spirit has brought about a re-awakening in Presbyterian and Reformed circles. As influential as men like John Piper and Mike Horton are, I'm not sure they'd even be around if the groundwork hadn't been laid before them.

I've seen this rise in my own lifetime, and it is absolutely wonderful to see.

Not long after the death of James Boice, my mother and I were wondering who the next generation of leaders and teachers would be in Reformed circles. Praise God that He has raised up another generation of men. I am so thankful.

I'm thankful also that this new generation has a spirit of humility and cooperation, evidenced by the Together for the Gospel conference and organizations like the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The sentiment expressed by Joshua Harris at the end of the article is one I share deeply. If we really believe in the sovereignty of God, and of our own inability, how can we possibly be arrogant? And yet that seems to have been a besetting sin in Calvinist circles. Again, I am thankful that it doesn't seem to be among the younger generation, and I pray it continues.

Miles to go...

2006-09-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

...before I sleep.

Last night I realized that I spent about 14 hours on the road this weekend; probably covering somehwere between 600 and 700 miles of Southern California freeway.

Places to go...things to do...people to see...

It was a lot of driving, but it was worth it.

And tonight I get to drive to Escondido in rush hour traffic to attend class.

I'm sure it, also, will be worth it.

Jargon

2006-09-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Recently I decided that if church planting is in my future, and if seminary graduation is around the corner (possibly, possibly, in May), then I should start preparing for it. So, I've been visiting web sites, looking up books and articles, trying to find resources related to planting a church. I figure that if I can whittle away little by little at the pile of stuff I've found I just might learn something over the next several months or so. And it'll have to be done little by little since I'll have my regular classes to focus on in the meantime as well.

One of the things that struck me while reading through some materials at lunch today was the prevalence of certain words and phrases that, quite frankly, strike me as so much jargon. Some of them -- "missional," "ancient-modern," "culturally relevant," "inter-generational," "cross cultural," etc. -- are probably useful in certain contexts at certain times, if well defined and understood.

But this kind of jargon seems to me to be too clever by half. One of the Druckerisms* that has stuck with me is, "It's better to be conscientious than clever." The point? Clever schemes tend to hold the promise of achieving something without the typical hard work of just slogging through what needs to be done. The conscientious person knows or finds out what needs to be done and does it. The clever person looks for the easier path, the whiz-bang solution. (This is how consultants make their money - packaging common sense in flash and sizzle!)

That doesn't mean that there can never be a better way to build a mousetrap. It just has to really, truly be a better way.

The work of the pastor, elder, deacon, lay person in Christ's church is to diligently do the things God has called us to do. We can try new things, to be sure. But we shouldn't let the false promise of a shiny new toy distract us from the hard slogging that is often what's needed. Being conscientious isn't flashy, doesn't typically attract a lot of attention, and probably isn't cutting edge, but in the end I think it is more effective.

Sometimes this church planting jargon seems awfully like a shiny new toy and I wonder: why can't we just do what we've been called to do?

* Anyone who took classes from, sat in on lectures with, spent time with or read books and articles by Peter Drucker collects a few of his oft-repeated sayings along the way.

A Different Perspective

2006-09-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

After Legoland the other day, Half-Pint and I had dinner together. She said something out of the blue that really struck me.

Aside: Now when I say "out of the blue" I don't mean she was sitting there quietly eating and then suddently piped up with a comment. This is not my youngest daughter. Rather, out of a virtual stream of consciousness soliloquy broken only by my verbal punctuation of her oral paragraph, she ventured a new observation on a new topic.

What she said was, "I wish you still worked at Wal-Mart."

Now, I worked at Wal-Mart out of necessity. I left seminary early in the summer of 2001 to go back to full-time work. As the job search dragged on, made worse by September 11, I took a "temporary" job at Wal-Mart stocking shelves, just hoping to help make ends meet until a "real" job came along. I was at Wal-Mart for 13 months. They were some of the most difficult months for us as a family. We scrimped and went without and cut and at times we barely scraped by. But God kept us and we made it. Nevertheless, those were very hard times in many ways.

So why, I asked, did Half-Pint want me to still work there?

Because she and mommy could visit me any time they went shopping, or even just for fun. And she liked those visits, when she would run down the aisle and jump in my arms.

Now I work in an office. She can still visit, but it's harder and much more formal. And unlike Wal-Mart, where I never worked overtime that I can recall, in my new job I sometimes have to work late.

So even though my new job can support our family, for my daughter it's all about seeing daddy.

That's pretty cool.

The Lay of the Land

2006-09-04T23:51:00.000-07:00

Based on early feedback, I thought I'd explain the thought process (such as it is) behind the links at right.

The daily constitutional list consists of sites I visit almost daily. There are great links at those sites as well as many of the church sites listed below it, many of which I visit regularly but less often than daily.

The sister churches listed right below my home church are those PCA churches located in the northern part of our presbytery (South Coast Presbytery). A good number of us hope that we have the beginnings of a future presbytery in that list.

The close cousins are churches in Orange County that are members of NAPARC, the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council.

And finally I just added a list of "friends" churches, pretty much made up of churches where I know the pastor or other church members. Again, these are made up of NAPARC churches.

Why NAPARC? Member denominations are those with which the PCA has closer and more formal ties. There are of course other Reformed churches I could have listed, but NAPARC membership seemed to be the best and simplest filter factor.

Finally there are some links to schools. I'm an alum of the UW and Claremont; currently attend Westminster; and hope to be a student with Highland in the future.

Building Blocks

2006-09-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

Today Half-Pint and I went to Legoland.

It was a good daddy-daughter day. A very good daddy-daughter day.

Go Dawgs!

2006-09-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

The UW Huskies actually got off to a decent start to the football season, beating San Jose State 35-29. Given that the Dawgs only won three games over the previous two seasons I'm not getting my hopes up. But this'll do. Maybe throwing away an old cup that I used for water at work helped.

You see, it had the new Husky logo on it.

The new logo looks like, as one alumni put it, a blow-dried collie. No wonder our football team plays like pansies.

I have avoided any clothing or other Husky items with the new logo. No, "avoided" is wrong; "boycotted" is more like it.

Then the other day at work I realized the cup I got at a game a couple years ago had the accursed demon-logo on it. I'd kept the cup as a memory of the game, where new and alumni marching band members got together and played at halftime to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the band.

Well, the cup is gone.

It's time to bring back a real Husky logo:

Multicultural

2006-09-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

This morning KMR * and I went to the Orange International Street Fair. This has been a long-time annual tradition. This year we had a date since all the older kids were elsewhere and our youngest, Half-Pint (she discovered "Little House on the Prairie" this summer) had spent the night with Tia.

The street fair is fun, with lots lots of good food (KMR had Norwegian rosettes, baklava and roasted sweet corn; I had some of hers plus Teriyaki chicken kabob and Australian pulled pork). And we always run into someone we know. Neale and Ruth volunteer there every year, so of course we saw them. We also ran into an old friend Steve, who is an elder at a new church plant here in Orange County. It was great to catch up with him and also to hear about what's happening at the new church.

God seems to keep putting people connected to church plants in our path. I think He's telling us something...

At the Norwegian booth, we contemplated buying a horned Viking hat for our son, who styles himself Vikinglord on an on-line game he plays. He's proud of his Viking-American heritage. I told him if he's a Viking lord then I'm a Viking king. But then awhile later I realized that with my dad living he must be the Viking king. I guess that makes me a Viking prince. We didn't get the hat -- too much to pay for cheap plastic. Pillaging and plundering just doesn't pay like it used to.

* Katie My Rib. Huh?, you say? I'm named after Martin Luther. Huh?, you still say? Read a book.

This just about sums things up

2006-09-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Philosophy / Speculative Theology: "Questions. I have nothing but questions."

Biblical Christianity: "That was a statement."

Musings of a Bystander?

2006-08-29T00:04:00.000-07:00

So. What's with the title?

The first part of the answer is in the Peter Drucker quote above. It's from the introduction to his autobiography Adventures of a Bystander.

Those who know or have heard of Peter Drucker would hardly think of him as a bystander. The man was tremendously influential. How can that be if the bystander, as per above, "has no effect except on himself?" Perhaps it would have been better put: "has no direct effect." Let's face it. Peter Drucker impacted a lot of people; he had a great effect on a lot of people.

But that effect was indirect. He had no mega-bucks consulting firm. He led no global corporations. He held no high government office.

Peter Drucker observed. He analyzed. He saw. He saw things that were already happening but that others hadn't seen yet. And then he shouted from the rooftops. He taught. He consulted. He wrote. All prodigiously.

Later in the introduction to his book, Drucker gives the comment an old family friend gave to him as a young boy, when he expressed a rather bold political opinion: "To watch and think for yourself is highly commendable. But to shock people by shouting strange views from the rooftops is not."

In reaction to this he writes: "This is the admonition the bystander always hears, for it is his lot to see things differently...This admonition is well taken. But I have rarely heeded it..."

Peter Drucker shouted his strange views from the rooftops. Many, many people listened and took heed, and the management of businesses, governments and public sector (non-profit) organizations have been profoundly impacted.

Now -- I'm no Peter Drucker. Nor do I have aspirations to be.

But his comments about being a bystander struck a chord with me several years ago when I first read them. I saw something of myself in them. Peter Drucker was a teacher. But I believe there is another appropriate profession for the bystander: preacher of the gospel. There is no other message so strange, shocking and unwelcome as the gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet, as one of my old pastors put it when dealing with a difficult passage in one sermon, "I didn't write the book. I'm just called to preach it." Or shout it from the rooftops.

And this is the calling to which I am convinced I have been called. A good preacher steeped in the study of God's Word sees things differently than others. John Calvin talked of seeing the world through Scriptural spectacles. And that, as Drucker puts it, is refraction, what a bystander does.

-----

The other reason for the title of this blog is that it forms the acronym MOAB. The Moabites resisted the Israelites as they sought to enter Canaan. For that, God cursed them - for ten generations no Moabite could join the Israelite assembly. And yet, Ruth the Moabitess, upon profession of faith to her mother-in-law Naomi, was accepted. More than accepted, since she became an ancestor of King David, and therefore of Jesus Christ Himself.

I am no Israelite (despite recently discovering one of my great-great grandfathers was Jewish). I'm a Gentile dog. But because I confess my faith in Christ I am now counted part of the people of God, a wild olive branch grafted into the cultivated tree, the wall of hostility having been broken down. MOAB reminds me of who I am (think of Paul's "Therefore, remember..." in Ephesians 2:11ff), and of what Christ has done for me.

Oh...and my mom's name is Ruth.