Not sure if this is encouraging or discouraging

"Life's tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid."

~John Wayne

The real amount~ rip off!

And my beautiful model demonstrates how mamy chips are really in the bag

Look at all that room!

What you call a rip off

Has anyone ever had Kettle brand chips? They're pretty good but I think the package they come in is completely ridiculous. In the next two pics I am going to illustrate how little chips you actually get in a big bag. "Oh, they do that because the bag needs air filling so the chips don't get smashed..." They don't need that much air!!

The Jewey beaner

Jule's a cutie

Apple Pickin'

This was from Bishop's Orchard where we went on a very cold day to pick apples for cider, a big thick apple pie, and little caramel apples. It's a fun time..

The Honey, the boy and I

Crashing the Reformation Day Party

So Jana and I had some fun planning out an invasion into our church's Reformation Day Party by dressing me up as a roman catholic cardinal. I had a little troop of minions with me and we made a procession right in the middle of it complete with a trumpet before I entered down a rolled carpet. We then took to prison a choice protestant rebel and engendered many laughs.

Laughter

Laughter is wine for the soul
- laughter soft, or loud and deep,
tinged through with seriousness -
the hilarious declaration made by man
that life is worth living.
Sean O'Casey

Another quip from our family poet

So we have a crisis in our family.. Jana calls them poop days.. What's that you ask? Ohhh, it's the days that our beloved Julia needs to use the loo. It's an all-day, public family affair. I say public because Julia whines, fights, wrestles, cries and bellows in agony for pretty much the whole day to anyone far or near. Oh, she's quite content to go in her shorts, no issue there. She wrestles like a champ, though we would prefer she wrestle with something that takes a little more courage.

So the quip comes from of course Abigail. She had one of my short tent pegs (a stand in for a magic wand) and says:

"Julia, Now with this magic wand I shall make you go poop!"

Did it work? Yes, only hours later with a movie to distract her.

Old P.J.

Granting to governments the privilege of printing unlimited amounts of money is like giving liquor and car keys to teenage boys.
- P. J. O'Rourke

Trust~the crux of life...

"The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, For in God the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock."

Isaiah 26: 3,4

What should be the main priorities of the local church?

Worship. Others. If we could visualize the priorities of a church, I would see it this way: Faithful attendance and participation in spirit and truth in worship on Mt. Zion every Lord’s Day. This would be the top, the crest of the mountain. From there, the priority of the church should be each other, our families and our fellow members. This is the beginning of the “rivers” that flow from the origin of the Spirit (the top of the mountain) to the Church, and then down the mountain into the valley of the world. Worship and mountains are frequently associated with each other in the Bible. This is because we are to understand the connection between worshipping God in the heavens and our entering into those heavens with God when we worship.
Christian education is absolutely crucial as a priority for the church and esp. for the family. A church can have an intimate link with the support of parents and their responsibility to provide/give a Christian education to their children. I see a parochial school/co-op system to be a great way to educate children. A full-fledge day school can be a great way to go to, though the cost is a significant issue and the fact that they often compete with the church in their tendency to take center place in the family’s life and culture is a problem. Hear me, I would love to send one or all of my kids to a godly day-school, but I am concerned about how children are so loaded up with schoolwork that it crowds out everything else in their life.

One critique that I would have of the CREC is its placing its priority of the church in only worship, family, and Christian Ed. Worship yes, ministry to strengthen the family, absolutely, and a high regard for Christian ed. yes. But what is missing? The Church for the world. We should worship, build up “our community” (the family, the local church’s ministry and fellowship itself and devotion to a Christian ed.) and then, we must orient ourselves towards hospitality and involvement in the institutions of the city i.e. (City council, volunteering, community events, Boy Scouts etc.); You name it, places where there is potential in the city-the world- for relational development with the lost. We must get involved in the place where God has put us in the world. We aren’t here to isolate ourselves from the world and hole ourselves up in our church bldg’s, families, cars, cubicles at work, little Christian schools and then back again. Where is the time to invest in sinners (Jesus was a friend with notorious sinners wasn’t He?) if we spend all our spare time running our kids to soccer practice, piano lessons, debate club, church activities that we could let go, and 2 hours of homework every night that we must help our children with? But let’s face it. There’s not enough time to devote to friendship with the lost if we are too busy with 50 day-school activities, too many church events, and if our families are shy and overly independent from others. I think we need to rethink the way we do some things. We need to prioritize people more with the way we arrange our lives and institutions, to the degree that we are able. I am not against the day-school model. I am concerned however that families in them are too busy with homework loads and other functions. Can we provide more time for them to do their schoolwork at school? I think their is room for flexibility. I would love to send some of my kids to a day-school but the cost and homework are major issues for me.

In sum: Faithful worship, healthy families and a solid Christian education are the most potent things for evangelism, but they are not sufficient without face-to-face contact and involvement with the world outside.

So, to return.. Worship. Others. We learn to worship God individually and corporately and then we build our church up in its fellowship and community..By doing so, we strengthen the broader Church and our families as well. Healthy marriages and families in turn, build up the Church. They both feed into one another. After this, we pour out ourselves in faithfulness through relationships in our respective vocations and in ministry to the community (Chaplaincy, prison ministry, friendship evangelism and hospitality, pregnancy care center volunteering, nursing home visitation etc. etc.,) The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is to minister mercy to the poor, dysfunctional, and messed up people of the world. God will bless us with growth if we do these types of things. I believe He will bless us with gospel growth, and not just sheep-stealing from other churches.

On the subject of interpretation~something to think about

"The medieval theory of levels of meaning in the biblical text, with all its undoubted defects, flourished because it is true, while the modern theory of a single meaning, with all its demonstrable virtues, is false. Until the historical-critical method becomes critical of its own theoretical foundations and develops a hermeneutical theory adequate to the nature of the text which it is interpreting, it will remain restricted-as it deserves to be-to the guild and the academy, where the question of truth can endlessly be deferred."

David Steinmetz

This is not approving fanciful allegory but it is saying that there are multiple levels of meaning in Scripture. It is important to teach and preach the central truth and force of a text, but never, never are we to be either confusing or reductionistic/simplistic when summarizing the Bible's teaching. The Bible is profoundly simple, poetic and deep/complex at the same time.. If only I and other preachers could be that too. It's hard, pray for us!

The gospel message is a threat to all dominant powers

"Of course, when we pray in the name of Jesus, we find, again and again, that what we want to pray for subtly changes as we focus on Jesus himself. Part of the game is the readiness, in great things and small, to put our plans and hopes on hold and let God remake them as we gaze upon him, revealed in the inglorious glory of the manger, in the powerless power of the cross...."

N.T. Wright

Wright goes on his statement to show of course that the cross was the true power. The little humble King born in the animal trough would crush the great power of Caesar Augustus' Rome through conversion only 4 centuries later.

Radio evangelical preachers

Just a thought here...

We are used to hearing a man appeal to people to "invite" Jesus into their hearts. But is that an accurate depiction of both God and us?

We don't "invite" the Judge of the Universe into our hearts. We rather plead, beg, and cry for the living God to receive us, for Him to be our Savior.

We don't let Him be Lord of our lives, He already is, over every living and non-living thing in the universe. We just have to come to the point where we will throw away our "sovereignty," bow the neck and plead for forgiveness.

But that message is not as palatable for our self-inflated egos.

16 oz. to the pound from Gary North

"The road to the comprehensive peace of God begins with the transformation of the covenant-breaking heart. Personal regeneration must precede comprehensive social reconstruction...But we must begin this process of reconstruction with confident faith in the gospel; we must be confident that God's salvation is as comprehensive as sin is....

It is the unwillingness of Christian commentators and social theorists to return to the biblical record of Old Covenant that is the heart of the problem. Because they will not look at biblical law as the model, Christians are left without specifics for organizing society. This leaves them in the difficult position of denying the continuing validity of judicial standards set forth in the Old Testament, yet simultaneously claiming that 'the Bible has answers for all of life,'a claim which disintegrates on contact as soon as someone asks a specific political or judicial question regarding civil government."

An Israel within an Israel

Is there still an Israelwithin an Israel?

I am speaking of the reality of the people of God, the Church, the community of faith or even the "elect" I might dare to say, who still don't really knowthe Lord. There is still a faith-filled people within a faith-less people of God in the broader scope.

Might there be an elect within an elect? In the NT, the "elect" were the marked out ones by baptism and the Spirit who professed faith in Israel's Messiah. The new thing was twofold. God was doing something big in redemptive history by separating the sheep from the goats (if you will) by bringing a fundamental choice to the people of God, the Jews in the 1st Cent. The choice was this: Either repent and receive the promise of your Messiah, or enter a definitive judgment--AD 70. The second new thing was the extraordinary inclusion of the gentiles. The "elect" were these believing gentiles and the remnant of the largely apostate Jewish nation.

In other words, we have to be careful of injecting meanings to Scriptural words that they don't fully possess. Does the word elect in the NT mean a person who is "once saved, always saved?" Or does it mean a person who is a part of God's new people in the New Covenant administration?

Now, this is important.. I do believe strongly and passionately that the Bible teaches eternal security for the believer. The rub comes when we try to read hearts and peg who is truly elect and not.

The Bible doesn't teach us to go around and try to find these people. To do so, creates mayhem and great sin in a church.

Rather, God has given us the very clear and gracious covenant in which to relate and hold people accountable. Baptism, fruit, obedience and perseverance are all the ways in which we go in and come out with one another on these matters.

Any tradition that tries to peg a person's assurance on a static event in their life put their trust in something shaky. Christ is the One that we look to, in enduring trust, upon His faithfulness. We can't trust in our "incredible testimony," the card we signed, or even mere baptism without the reality in which it is all about. Paul said that circumcision or the lack thereof is nothing, but a new creation.

So, the Q. is how can we know the truly elect from the generally elect New Covenant people of God? The answer?

We don't worry about it. God is for us and our children, we have so much evidence for that, that I am not going to take the time to argue that point. "Well, what happens if I commit the unpardonable sin? Or if I'm really not the truly elect?" Don't worry..God is not a hyper-Calvinist. If you really are brazen and rebellious in your sin, your elders will come and find you out. You are not going to wake up in the morning suddenly falling out of God's favor, like He's in a bad mood one day.

No, we are the elect of God biblically. But what of all the Calvinist teaching of predestination and perseverance of the saints? I think it's wonderful. I love that and I love them. I am a Calvinist. But I do believe that the Calvinistic system can be taken too far or misunderstood to the point that it itself becomes the primary way we relate to others on the q. of their eternal security. Has God given us the glasses to see who's predestined to heaven and who's not? No. Does the truth stand then? Yes. I am comforted that I am in this persevering category because I know God is for me, and my children. I rest in grace, so I obey. I can say, with confidence that I am the elect.But I can never say that by waving anything BUT a life that obeys because of what Christ did..This means that no matter how many Calvinist books I read and write, great feats of faith that I might accomplish or anything--nothing can be a sure sign of my eternally elect status if I don't take up my election by the horns and trust God to carry me through. I hope I've made it clear that any notion of perseverance by works without faith is ridiculous and misguided.

We still have to let Scripture balance itself with its own internal witness. John 10:28 has to be harmonized with the parable of the sower, and John 15:1-6. Scripture is content to play out the longevity of a person's spiritual health in terms of organic growth. See John 15, Rom 11, and Heb 6. This doesn't mean that we can't believe in the Calvinist reading of Scripture, it's simply that the Calvinist system must be attended with a strong covenantal theology. What does that mean? It means that the doctrine of eternal security is grounded in God's objective favor towards believers and their children, not an impersonal system of random and arbitrary choosing.

We have to hold the tension between those that believe in God, thus being children of God in one sense, and those that have faith for a time, who are children of God in another sense. I believe the whole Scriptural testimony gives full credence to the Calvinist reading and the covenantal reading both. Those who truly fall away (apostasy is always a dark mystery) were children of God in a very important sense but not in the sense that persevered. I am not arguing that an apostate covenant member was a child of God in the same exact sense as one that didn't apostasize. It just doesn't do justice to Scripture's own terminology and teaching to hold that the warning passages for apostasy are for those who really weren't in the Church, or even in Christ, in some sense--see John 15 again. This is covenant language, see Ps 128 and how it speaks of wives and children. So my argument is that we have to hold the nuance~between what it means to be a child of God. When a person says elect these days, they usually mean the eternally elect person. I think we just need to speak of those that are in the church in covenantal language. It is right, proper and even mandated to speak to the collective church on a Sunday as the elect of God. We are not to narrow more than God does. And it is also okay to speak of them that are eternally elect, we are to believe that all around us are such. "Let God be true and every man a liar." Even a Calvinist has to hold the tension...God looks over some, but somehow, someway, they also choose volitionally and carefully to rebel. The person who falls from grace who had a relationship with Christ (though not saving) did so on purpose.

There are three people out there in the world therefore. The faithful covenant member, the unfaithful covenant member (who will know great judgment) and the pagan. That is my understanding of Scripture. A covenantal Calvinism is what I've found to be most consistent with the Bible.

The reality is the older covenant is still in continuity within the newer covenant. The difference is that there is much greater blessing in the new covenant and there is also much greater judgment-Heb 12:22-29.

Jesus spoke of the danger of removing the tares because of the possible destruction of the wheat.

Heb 6:1-8 speaks of those who are in more than a mere "general" covenant with God but who have been partakers of the Holy Spirit, and yet have fallen away (v.6).

In summary, we don't fear. We trust. And our trust proves itself by working out our salvation with fear and trembling. But we know that Christ is the One that is faithful, who will also do it, as Scripture says.

I know the post is long, I'm just trying to be helpful.

Blessings.

One kingdom or two kingdoms?

I believe a significant juncture point in the debate on whether or not America is a "Christian nation" lies precisely in what constitutes for a binding relationship with God.

The living God is king over all the nations. They are His by right. He still deals with nations and their corruption. He hasn't checked out of the business of settling matters with them and us.

I am studying Is 7-9 this am and God is prophesying through Isaiah that He will bring judgment on Damascus and Samaria part. because they belonged to God by covenant. They were God's people in the sense that mattered for particular judgment. They were not God's people in the sense that they were the remnant, or the truly faith-filled and faithful ones.

We have to maintain those two senses throughout Scripture--there is a way to be God's child and be held in special judgment for spurning His great gifts, and then there is a way to be a child of God and get it. If we try, as many Christians do, to abandon the concept of people belonging to God who yet fall away, then we aren't in accord with Scripture. On the other hand, if we try and abandon that God does preserve that remnant or those truly saved, then we are out of accord with Scripture too.

The biblical answer, like so many things, lies in the middle. "Once saved, always saved baby." Amen. But who is truly saved? Ah, be careful here. Let the secret things be God's and let us take up the signs and seals (baptism, fruit, repentance etc) in which to evaluate others and ourselves.

We don't have reason to doubt for us and for others. God is not capricious. His "bar" is low. Salvation is simply by faith in the gospel. What matters is our present and persevering faith by grace alone as believed on in demonstrated works by us. Our faith's actions are built on Christ's faithfulness. We prove that we really have genuine faith by working it out. This is the way God's world works.

So, tying this back to America as a Christian nation.. God can and does deal with special judgment on America precisely because so many belong to God through baptism, active profession, and attendance to His binding covenant meal--The Lord's Supper. In this sense, we are still a Christian nation.

God judges the household of faith first (I Peter 4:17).

Famine, disease, and poverty will come a plenty if we Christians in this nation do not repent and cast our idols away. The curses of the covenant apply to us because we outnumber the pagans in this nation by baptism, profession and all the hypocritical connection by covenant breakers within the church.

Parenting

I am reading a great little book called, The Things You'll See: Notes to my children on how they were raised. Our children are worth our studying to love them skillfully aren't they? "Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart." Prov. 29:17 "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap." Gal. 6:7

"Pistachio trees need seven years before they'll bear a commercial crop. That's seven years of pruning, watering, and feeding. It's seven years of fighting pests and disease. Seven years of paying attention and seven years of work, tending to matters when they call for it instead of when it's convenient. Farmers go through this for one reason: to bring in crops.

Raising children takes longer and it takes more. More diligence, more feed, more care. It takes more of ourselves. It can't be hired out. But the fruit? No crop compares.

Distinguish between your rules and God's, remembering His are more important.

Don't be petty.

A tyrant rules to please himself.

Say 'yes' often."

All this is from this great little gem of a book. Our children are worth any amount of energy, prayer, thought, study and disciplined training on our part to be a blessing to them!