Maurice Hagar's Prayers, Sermons, Writings

Annual Checkup

2011-08-30T18:00:00.000-04:00

Once a year you should read David Platt's Radical, CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters, and watch this video. That should keep you on the straight and narrow!

My Only Comfort In Life And Death

2011-08-28T21:37:00.002-04:00

Heidelberg Catechism: “What is thy only comfort in life and death? That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him. How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die happily? Three; the first, how great my sins and miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance.”

The Disciplined Center

2011-08-28T20:06:00.001-04:00

Here is a good defnition of good Anglicanism.

Jesus Wants You Left Behind?

2011-08-28T08:32:00.002-04:00

In light of Harold Camping's rapture confusion, you might find this video helpful. But it presents some hard truths that most American Evangelicals don't want to hear. You have been warned!

An Unlikely Anglican

2011-06-04T16:48:00.007-04:00

I’ve hesitated to post this for some time. And I sincerely wish no offense to anyone.

One of the most frequent personal questions I get is why I’m no longer a Baptist. I was born and raised Baptist, attended Baptist schools, and even ordained Baptist. I have a number of family members who are Baptist pastors and missionaries. Some of my best friends are Baptists. So I love Baptists! And I’ve learned a lot from them, for which I’m grateful. But for a number of reasons I migrated over the years from the Baptist church to Presbyterianism and now to Anglicanism.

As I set out to write about my pilgrimage, someone asked if I had read Robert Webber’s Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail. I had not, so I did, and it saved me a lot of work! I’m no Robert Webber, of course, but my journey mirrored his in nearly every way. So now I’ll just refer my curious friends to his excellent work.

Webber, too, was born and raised the son of a Baptist pastor. He was educated at Bob Jones University and ordained a Baptist minister. He was best known as a prolific author and professor of theology and worship at Wheaton College and Northern Seminary. And along the way he, too, migrated first to Presbyterianism and then to Anglicanism.

I won’t attempt to summarize Webber’s book here but suffice it to say he lists six reasons for his pilgrimage: a return to mystery, a longing for the experience of worship, a desire for sacramental reality, the search for spiritual identity, embracing the whole church, and growing into a holistic spirituality. Six other contributors share similar stories. And I identify with all of them.

One thing Webber’s book does not address, which unfortunately can’t be avoided, is the question of infant baptism. Scripture is not clear on this, thus the debate. However, history is clear.

Infant baptism was universally practiced from the earliest days. So the church fathers had to be wrong, contend my Baptist friends. But this response always bothered me. Are we really to believe that we’re right and they’re wrong? That something as fundamental to the faith as baptism was so quickly and thoroughly perverted without any historical record of a controversy or debate? When everything else of significance was vigorously debated? Including baptism itself when the truth was supposedly recovered in the 16th century?
To get around this problem, many Baptists believe that baptism was debated in the early church, the truth lost, and they’ve been persecuted ever since. But this “trail of blood” theory of Baptist history has been entirely discredited. For more on this see the work of church historian and Baptist-turned-Presbyterian James Edward McGoldrick. His conclusion is that Baptists were 16th century schismatics within the Anglican Communion—so in a sense I’m a most unlikely Anglican who returned to the mother church.

All that remains is reconciling infant baptism with Scripture’s alleged silence on the topic. Under the old covenant, circumcision was the believers’ rite of passage into the community of faith, along with their households, infants included. Peter, preaching at Pentecost to these same people on entry into the new covenant, said:

“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2).

Based on their prior understanding that the believers’ rite of passage included infants, this Jewish audience would have naturally assumed the same of the new covenant, especially when Peter proclaimed “the promise is for you and your children.” Had infants not been included Peter would have said so. Thus the “argument from silence” in Scripture supports rather than refutes the idea of infant baptism. And in this context we see subsequent “household baptisms” in the New Testament as including infants.

This is classic covenant theology as expounded by the church fathers from Irenaeus and Augustine (the first Archbishop of Canterbury) to Calvin onward. And now you know why I’m no longer a Baptist. But in answering this question I’ve probably raised others, particularly about the current state of Anglicanism. That’s something I love to talk about, but let’s leave it for another day.

Is My Sin God's Will?

2009-07-19T19:23:00.004-04:00

Psalm 119:4-6: “You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed when I look into all Your commandments.”

Note, first, God commands us to keep His commandments or precepts. This is known to theologians as God’s perceptive will. It is God’s will that we keep His precepts. This is also known as His moral will or His revealed will because He has made His precepts known to us. God commands me, for instance, positively, to love my neighbor and, negatively, to not lie to him. Further, God grants me the power to disobey or break these precepts but not the right to do so, which is the definition of sin.

But, second, listen carefully to the Psalmists lament in response to God’s holy commands: “Oh that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes! Oh that my ways were directed to obey Your preceptive will!” Directed by whom? The Lord’s Prayer gives us a clue when we pray “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Is God not sovereign over all things, including sin and evil? Of course He is! And this is known to theologians as God’s decretive or sovereign will because these things are so by God’s sovereign decrees. This is also known as God’s hidden will because His sovereign decrees are secret and hidden from mankind. So even though God’s revealed will for me is to love my neighbor and to not lie to him, it may be God’s hidden will that I do just that! Further, God does not grant us the power to disobey or break His decretive will.

There are a number of difficulties for here for us as mere mortals. Does God’s decretive will contradict his perceptive will? Is this not at least a paradox of some sort? But there are no contradictions with God or with His word or with His intentions. The only contradictions exist in our own thick heads.

What shall we say then to all this? Is God unrighteous? Certainly not! Paul addresses this directly in Romans. And James teaches us that God does not tempt anyone but permits, by way of His decretive, sovereign will that I be drawn away and enticed by my own sinful desires to hate my neighbor and to lie to him.

Does this then in any way justify my sin? Of course not! Paul addresses this in Romans, too: “You will say to me then, ‘Why does God still find fault? For who has resisted His [decretive] will?’ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’”

So here’s the 64 thousand dollar question: Why has He made us like this? We can state confidently by faith in His word and His actions that God is working all things out for the good of His elect and for His own glory. And we could preach a whole series of sermons on that. But there’s one tiny insight as to why God commands one thing and decrees another right back here in our passage: “You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes! Then I would not be ashamed when I look into Your commandments.”

Shame indicates guilt, embarrassment, and humiliation. God is teaching us something about ourselves and our fallen condition that we otherwise wouldn’t know or understand. I was raised in church and rarely got into any trouble. I rarely had a chance to commit big sins, and I was pretty good at rationalizing away the little ones. So I grew up assuming I was a pretty good guy doing pretty well. But after I got out on my own, BAM! To my great surprise, embarrassment, humiliation, and shame, God ordained some big sins in my life. And what did I learn? That “I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior,” to put it in the words of the hymnist John Newton. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11).

Declaring The Glory Of Your Name

2008-05-26T09:21:00.004-04:00

“You are my witnesses,” says the Lord, “that I AM God. Indeed, before the day was, I AM He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?” (Isaiah 43:12-13)

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are the great I AM of time and eternity. This is Your name forever, and Your memorial to all generations. And we are Your witnesses in this earth, so let us testify and declare the glory of Your name in the midst of the assembly this morning.

For Thy name’s sake, that Your name might be made known throughout all the earth, You chose some...as objects of wrath before the day was, and who can deliver them out of Your hand? For Thy name’s sake, for Your eternal glory and fame, You chose us in Christ Jesus before the day was, and who can deliver us out of Your hand?

And now, O LORD, with Joshua of old we implore, “YAHWEH, what will You do for Thy great name’s sake now, here, in this time and place, amongst these people?” Will You glorify Your name in us? Will you lead us in paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake? Will You make us jealous for Your holy name, that we might live lives worthy of that great name?

And so it is, that with our lives, whether in word or in deed or in blood, we stand in the witness box before fools who would put the Judge in the dock. O that You would rend the heavens and come down to make Your name known with great power and glory to Your adversaries! O that You would rend our hearts that we might make Your name known to Your adversaries with great boldness, unashamedly.

By faith we do see and do testify that Your name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place sweet-smelling incense and pure offerings will be offered up in the name of YAHWEY, because Your name will be highly exalted among the nations.

Even those that are now afar off, Your enemies, our enemies, who yet name the names of so-called gods that have been ground to dust under Your feet, those that have not yet heard of Your fame or maybe have not yet seen Your glory, even these will declare Your glory among the nations. For You are indeed gathering a people for Your name from every tribe and language and nation, until all the earth worships You and sings praises to Your name, even as we do this morning.

And while we are quick to call for the destruction of our enemies, teach us something of the long-suffering mercies by which You saved us and by which You saving them now, for You are God, You have ordained all this before the day was, who will reverse it, and who will deliver them, or who will deliver us, out of Your mighty hand?

Blessed be the name of the LORD forever, Amen.

Giving Thanks For 2007

2007-12-31T10:42:00.001-05:00

“I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to His mercies, according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses.” Isaiah 63:7

As we stand this morning on the threshold of a brand new year, it’s appropriate that we reflect on the great goodness You bestowed on us in 2007 according to Your great mercies. According to the multitude of Your loving-kindnesses. So we pause now to look in the rear view mirror and give thanks to the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the God of eternity past and eternity future, the Lord of years, the Potentate of time.

And we must begin by confessing that...we have grown restless in Your providence, and we don’t know how to give thanks always for all things, or to be anxious for nothing. As the Puritan Henry Scougal put it: There is scarce any duty of religion more neglected than that of thanksgiving. Our many lusts put us to begging favors from You, while our many sins constrain us from admitting what we really deserve from You. The meager thanks we do manage to muster up are but a show and a pretense to usher in our real prayers: petitions for what we want, rather than sincere, hearty gratitude for what we have already received, like it or not.

We don’t know how to give thanks for a school shooting, a bridge collapse, a mudslide, a wildfire, or an assassination. But let us give thanks for every school shooting averted, every bridge that didn’t collapse, every home that wasn’t destroyed, and every assassination plot foiled.

We don’t know how to give thanks for 45 million abortions. But we do give thanks for our own families, for the death-defying cry of every newborn You gave us in 2007 both by birth and by adoption, for the long-awaited and hard-fought partial-birth abortion ban, and for recent advances in adult stem cell research that leave the godless no excuse for embryo genocide.

We don’t know how to thank You for war and terrorism around the world and in our own streets. But we do thank You for the forgiveness of sins, for the protection of our own in 2007, for every Sunday afternoon nap, and for peace that passes all understanding.

We don’t know how to thank You for drought, for unemployment, for the subprime mortgage collapse, or for home foreclosures. But we do thank You for our daily bread.

We don’t know how to thank You for sickness and death in the camp. But we do thank You for Your sustaining grace, for ministering spirits, for the love of family and the care of neighbors, and for Your promise that what is sown in corruption will be raised with Him in incorruption.

We don’t know how to thank You for churches split or for church plants failed. But we do thank You for every church that has prospered, including our own congregation. Thank you for our leadership, for every member, for every gift, for this building, and now for a piece of land to call our own.

We don’t know how to thank You for corrupt political leaders, dishonest judges, or the persecution and suffering of Your people around the world. But we do thank You that our children’s children will inherit the earth and that it will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, that the lion will lie down with the lamb, that the nations will beat their swords into plowshares, and that every tongue will confess “Jesus is Lord!”

For the restless, dark nights of the soul, for every sigh, every tear, every drop of blood and sweat, for every longing, for eternity in our hearts, we thank You. For salvation through the floodwaters of baptism, and for the immortal nourishment and sanctification of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, we thank You. For Your promise that all these things—all these things, good and bad—are working out for our good and for Your glory, we thank You.

So why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God in 2008! Amen.

Communion Meditation: Handling The Holy

2007-03-25T19:05:00.003-04:00

A recent meditation in Touchstone entitled “Handling the Holy” recalls the troubling scene in 2 Sam. 6: The Ark of the Covenant was being moved to Jerusalem when they hit a bump in the road, the ox stumbled, and an attentive saint by the name of Uzzah instinctively reached out a hand to steady the Ark and keep it from falling, when suddenly the anger of the Lord was so aroused against him that poor Uzzah was instantly struck dead on the scene.

The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the Ark of the Testimony, was so called because it contained the sacraments of Old Covenant worship, such as the Ten Commandments. And so holy was this thing, that even the high priest was permitted to draw near only once per year, and that at the risk of losing his life as quickly as Uzzah. Touchstone concludes, “The Ark of God was very holy, and holiness is dangerous.”

Do you realize what you are holding in your hands? “Take [reach out, touch, handle, hold], eat; this is My body,” Jesus told His followers. Then He passed them the cup, saying, “Drink from it…for this is My blood of the new covenant.” The first time the disciples heard Him say “eat my flesh and drink my blood,” they said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" And many followed Him no more. And of those that did follow, many ended up weak, and sick, and even dead for eating and drinking without first examining and judging themselves. And this is not a call to abstain from the table but to examine and judge yourself, which I trust you did on your knees during our prayer of confession. Someone has said that “familiarity breeds contempt.” May it never be at this table, for you are now handling the holy, and holiness is dangerous indeed.

Exhortation To Hospitality

2007-03-25T19:00:00.001-04:00

We are, of course, saved by grace through faith, not by works. But we also know that we are saved to do good works, and that faith without works is dead. In other words, good works are evidence of our salvation. In fact, Revelation 20 tell us that our works will indeed be presented as evidence...at a coming trial, when each of us stands before a great white throne to be judged according to our works. Jesus, in the parable of the sheep and the goats, teaches us that those works to be presented as evidence are primarily works of hospitality and compassion.

And comes as no surprise for the greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And let us not love with words or tongue but with actions, says the Apostle John. And the author of Hebrews adds, “do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some of you have hosted angels without knowing it.”

I know I’m preaching to the choir here. But I also know of one faithful family in our midst who has been in only two of our homes in two years. And I know of a recent visitor, a businessman stuck in town over the weekend, who went back to his hotel room after church to dine alone. So this is a gentle reminder to the choir that we can always do better. And if we can do better, then we must do better.

The Poison Of Pride

2007-03-25T14:39:00.006-04:00

Bending somewhat to cultural traditions, Jessica’s 16th birthday party last year was a big deal and a lot of fun. Each kid was greeted with a lei around the neck—the theme was Hawaiian—and informed that they’d have to give it up for using pronoun “I.” That slowed them down for at least a few minutes—had we like, also banned the word “like,” we’d like, have shut them up altogether! But needless to say, leis were soon flying all over the place.

“I” is one of our favorite words because it’s all about one of our favorite topics, Me. And according to an Associated Press report last month, Me is more popular than ever. Since 1982, college kids across the country have been taking a standardized evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, or NPI, which assesses responses to such statements as “If I ruled the world it would be a better place,” I’m a special person,” and “I can live my life any way I want to.” Scores have risen so dramatically over the years and are now so high that psychologists are worried!
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Communion Meditation: There Is Always Martyrdom

2007-01-01T21:01:00.001-05:00

The primary sermon this sacrament of the table preaches is that of Christ’s self-sacrifice: “this is my body, broken for you; this is my blood, poured out for you.” As strange as it may sound, then, when we partake of this bread and wine, we also share in the self-sacrifice of Christ. Let me explain.

One of Paul’s “hard sayings” is found in Col. 1:24: “In my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.” Some have misunderstood Paul...to mean that Christ’s work is somehow insufficient or incomplete and we need to add something to it. Such theological errors, for example, as merits and indulgences, and purgatory, draw their support directly from this passage.

What Paul is talking about, however, has nothing at all to do with our justification, but everything to do with our sanctification. As he says in Phil. 3, “I want to really know Him, including the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, even becoming like him in his death.”

The early church got it. They understood the connection between Christ’s suffering and self-sacrifice and our own suffering and self-sacrifice because they were being persecuted and executed just like Christ. And the accounts of their martyrdom—Ignatius and Polycarp, for example, are told in Eucharistic language, drawing specifically and intentionally from the liturgy of this table, this altar if you will.

So pervasive is this language in the early church that the historian Robin Young talks about the private Eucharist, the Lord’s Table, and the public Eucharist, martyrdom. As Irenaeus put it in AD190, our entire way of thinking and living is attuned to the Eucharist. So this isn’t something we just tack on to the end of our worship service each week. It’s our entire way of life!

Does that mean we should all seek to be crucified in 2007? Well, yes and no. Jerome faced this same question, and his response was, “Let’s not think that there is martyrdom only in the shedding of blood. There is always martyrdom.”

There it is. For the Christian, there is always martyrdom. It’s our entire way of life. Or should be. As one pastor put it, “everywhere the Apostles went there was a riot; everywhere I go they serve tea.”

As you come to this table now, you should see here the self-sacrifice of Christ. And, as you join yourself to Him, you should also be reminded of what is yet lacking in the sufferings of Christ, namely your own self-sacrifice. For the sermon this table preaches is deny yourself, take up your cross, and offer your body and your blood a living sacrifice, even as Christ did.

There is always martyrdom. It’s the Christian, that is Christ-like, way of living.

Conversion Of The Purse

2007-01-01T20:56:00.001-05:00

Martin Luther said there are three conversions necessary for the Christian (and, I might add, in this order): conversion of the heart, conversion of the mind, and conversion of the purse. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to preach on all three, and only one time has somebody walked out on me. I was preaching on the conversion of the purse!

This morning I don’t know anything in particular about the financial situation of anyone here other than myself. And, as always, I’m preaching first and foremost to myself. But I do know that, statistically, the average American...carries four credit cards and spends nearly a quarter of every dollar on debt.

The Bible has much to say about debt, and most of it is not good, in spite of the fact that debt spending is the engine that drives the American economy. For the most part, debt spending is a result of faithlessness in God’s provision for our needs, a result of the failure of God’s people to provide for those in need, and a result of the sin of covetousness for more than what God has provided.

I also know the average church-member in America “tithes” 2% of his income, and that if every one of us suddenly went on government welfare tomorrow, and tithed 10% of that, which would be more likely because, statistically, the less you have the more you give, then giving in US churches would immediately jump by over 30%!
And while I’m at it, another interesting fact, for what it’s worth, is that in the third world, churches on average spend about 90% of their money on ministering to and caring for people and the other 10% on expenses, in European churches it’s about a 50/50 split, and American churches spend about 90% on expenses, 10% on ministry.

“Woe to you who are rich!” proclaimed Jesus. “But I’m not rich,” everyone of us in this room are thinking right now. But do you know that the average lower-class American ranks in the top 5% of the wealthiest people who’ve ever lived? We are a wealthy people by any standard—historical or contemporary.

I’m not suggesting that we all swear a vow of poverty as our New Year’s resolution. But I am suggesting that as we review our priorities for 2007, we seriously consider how we might be better stewards of the resources God has entrusted us with.

Consider how you might spend less in the New Year. Consider how you might give more away in the New Year. For “one gives freely yet gains even more; while another withholds and comes to poverty,” says Scripture. And “whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly but whoever sows generously will reap generously.”

Consider how you might save more in the New Year. For “a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.” And consider, finally, that godliness with contentment is great gain. For you know that “we brought nothing into the world and we will take nothing out. If we have but food and clothing, let us be content with that. People who covet more than that fall into many temptations that lead to grief, ruin, and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”

John Ruskin, in his book The Crown of Wild Olives, said we do a great injustice to Judas Iscariot if we think he was any more evil than the rest of us. Judas was merely a common money-lover, and like all money-lovers, Judas did not understand Jesus. He sold out for thirty pieces of silver. What is your price?

There’s an old hymn that says, “Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee; Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold.” Make that your prayer for the New Year, that 2007 might be the year God converts your purse, as well as your heart and your mind.

Living Wise Among The Foolish

2007-01-01T14:52:00.000-05:00

I was a simpleton if ever there was one: young and naïve in the ways of the world, and gullible. All I knew was that I was a poor college student, and that there was gold in them thar hills, black gold, oil that is, Texas tea. Go west, young man, they said, Oklahoma’s the place you ought to be. All you need is a hard-hat and steel-toed boots and you’ll make a fortune. So I hocked my guitar, got me a hat and boots, loaded up the car, and headed west, without a map. Have you ever tried that? Every couple of hours you stop to ask, “Which way to Oklahoma?” Then it was, “Which way to the oil?” After seeing half the state of Oklahoma, I finally ended up an oil rig in the panhandle of Texas. I worked one day before running back home to Michigan. And I didn’t even get paid. Well, it’s a long story, of course, but suffice it to say the wild wild west is still very much alive and well, and they don’t call them roughnecks and worms for nothing!

Christmas Prayer

2006-12-24T20:02:00.001-05:00

I will give thanks to You in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people. For in these dark streets shineth, an everlasting light. But it was not always so.

In the beginning, it was but the deep longing of broken hearts; an ancient prophecy of crushed serpents and bruised heels; all our hopes and fears, enshrouded in mystery and shadows, for millennia; and then a kingdom, a glimmer of life, of glory even, but the night returned, and darkness cast down the light. And then a whisper, in Nazareth; and a star over Bethlehem; and rumors of a King in Galilee; and, finally, on the darkest day Jerusalem had ever known, Your great light...burst forth as the Son arose on a brand new day, and the brilliance of His glory now blazes as the light of the whole world!

Wonderful Counselor is He, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace! And of the increase of his government there is no end. To Your light, Father, we see nations streaming, even kings to the brightness of Your day. Through Thy gates called Praise they press, and into Thy walls called Salvation they crowd. Thy Kingdom come, they pray, in all its glory and its splendor, its beauty, and its brilliance.

And now, as these glad tidings of great joy ring across the land and around the world, we give You thanks here, in this great assembly, and among many people we praise You.

O come, O come, Desire of Nations come. Bind our hearts as one.
Bid every strife and quarrel cease. And fill this world with heaven's peace.

This is our hope, and this is our request, this Christmas Eve.

In Jesus we pray name, Amen.

Prayer of Praise Among the Gods

2006-11-26T13:36:00.001-05:00

Our Father in heaven, since the creation of the world Your glory is clearly seen, even Your eternal power and Godhead, so that all who refuse to glorify You are without excuse. Professing to be wise, they become fools, and change Your glory into little gods without number. But we have sworn our allegiance to You alone, and...pledged to put no other gods before You. For who, O LORD, is like You among these petty gods, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing mighty wonders, standing in the congregation of the mighty ones, and judging among all the gods.

So sing to the LORD all you earth. Declare His glory among the nations and His wonders among the peoples. For the LORD our God is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all the gods, for all others are but weak and pathetic images of the One True God who made the heavens and the earth.

And You created us in your image and called us gods. But we die like men. For among the gods there is none like You. All the nations and their gods will come before You and will render the glory due Your name.

But you, the people of His very own choosing, glorify the LORD here and now. Worship Him in the beauty of His holiness! Sing joyfully to the Rock of our salvation! For the LORD your God is a great God and the King above all gods. Let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.

For You, O God, are our God, and we are the people of Your pasture, the sheep of Your hand. Let all be put to shame who boast in idols, who worship and serve the creation rather than the Creator.

Worship Him, all you gods. For the LORD of all heaven and earth is a great and a jealous God. He is exalted far above all gods, and before the gods we praise You now.

And all the people said, “Amen!”

Educating Ourselves To Death

2006-10-09T15:02:00.007-04:00

This morning I begin a series of sermons through the Book of Proverbs, which could very well keep me busy for a long time to come. And there is good precedent for such: Martin Lloyd-Jones spent 13 years in Romans and didn’t even get through it; Joseph Caryl felt it necessary to apologize for not being more thorough in his preaching through Job after 24 years!

My intention, however, is to tackle Proverbs topically, covering such crucial and practical issues as leadership, friendship, the family, finances, sex, and discipline, in about 14 sermons over the next six to seven years, God willing.

This morning’s sermon, which I’ve entitled Educating Ourselves to Death, will serve as an introduction to Proverbs. My title is adapted, of course, from the bestseller Amusing Ourselves to Death, in which...Neil Postman mounts a scathing attack on, primarily, television for its profoundly numbing and dumbing effect on civilization.
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“But Lord, If Only..."

2006-10-09T09:20:00.002-04:00

Genesis 17 tells us that when Abram was 99 years old, the LORD appeared to him to confirm His covenant with him. I have great news, the LORD said, you are no longer called Abram but Abraham, for you will father nations and kings, and your wife is no longer called Sarai but Sarah, for she will be their mother. Yes, Sarah will bear a son, and you will call him Isaac, which means ‘he laughs.’ For, indeed, the old man Abraham was laughing at God.

Then, verse 18 adds: “Abraham replied, ‘but Lord, if only Ishmael might live under your blessing!’” Ishmael was Abraham’s beloved 13 year old son by way of Sarah’s maid. But Ishmael, of course, was far more...than that: Ishmael was Abram’s and Sarai’s solution to ‘the big problem.’ You’d have to be one of the 2.1 million young couples in this country, that’s 1 of every 6, who are infertile, to comprehend the despair and the hopelessness of ‘the big problem.’ And Ishmael was a solution, but not the solution. Born of flesh and works, Ishmael was man’s provision, but not God’s provision, born by grace through faith alone.

“But Lord, if only…” “I have heard you,” the Lord responded, hinting that this is not the first time Abraham sought to negotiate the terms of God’s covenant. “I will bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. Ishmael will father twelve rulers, and I will make him a great nation.” Great, indeed, and terrible, to this day, are the 12 tribes of Arabia and the mighty nation of Islam.

“But Lord, if only…” When the gods wish to punish us, observed Oscar Wilde, they answer our prayers. Pray, therefore, always in the Spirit, “Thy will be done,” for God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways.

How often, Father God, do we rush ahead of You by our own lights straight into many sins and sorrows rather than waiting patiently, with contentment even, and thanksgivng, for things hoped for but not yet seen, resting in Your divine providence and Your future grace. “But Lord, if only...” we implore You, and by Your all-wise mercy we receive not, because we ask amiss, driven by our own lusts and passions. Or, worse, You grant us the rewards of our folly. And if our evil lusts and passions are difficult to root out, how mch more so our lusts and passions for that which is good but not ours, for that which is acceptable but not profitable, for that which sacrifices eternal joys on the altar of temporal pleasures, for that which substitutes the cheap and easy road for the way of the cross, for that which makes good sense but bad saints. We confess, Father, that our base natures are far too quickly satiated and that our fallen expectations are far too easily met. For we walk by sight rather than faith, in step with the flesh rather than the Spirit. Hear us now and forgive us the petty personal idols of each of our own private religions. In Jesus name, and in His righteousness, Amen.

Prayer Of Praise For The Unknown

2006-09-18T08:23:00.001-04:00

Our Father in heaven, it is good and right that we praise You for what we know, that is, what You have revealed to us of Your self, Your actions, and Your will. But this morning we praise You for that which we may not know, for that which we do not comprehend, for that which we can not understand. For we are but lowly creatures. And even what You have revealed to us You did stooping low, with a lisp, as Calvin puts it, in baby-talk. And if we understand it, says Augustine, then...it’s not You! For no one comprehends the things of God but the Spirit of God.

So with the wise man of Proverbs 30 we confess that we are stupid. And with Job we confess that we speak of things we know not of. For Your thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are Your ways our ways. And as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are Your ways higher than our ways and Your thoughts than our thoughts. Even this prayer of praise is but babble in Your ear except the Spirit Himself translates for us now.

What can we say of Your Holy Trinity more than praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? We praise You, Triune God, for Your infinity, which far exceeds every category and every dimension and every measure known to man. All we know is that You are higher than the heavens, deeper than the grave, longer than the earth, and broader than the seas. We praise You for Your infinite glory, which is an all-consuming fire. We praise You for Your infinite greatness, which is unsearchable. We praise You for Your infinite knowledge, which is too wonderful and too high for us. We praise You for Your infinite understanding, which is inscrutable. We praise You for the secret things, the hidden things, the profound things, the great and unsearchable things, wonders without number or knowledge, which belong to You alone. We praise You for Your immutable decrees, for the times and the ages, from beginning to end, and for the rising and setting of men and nations, which are fixed solely by Your own authority and known only to You.

We praise You that the Soviet cosmonauts couldn’t find You in space. Your throne is established from eternity to eternity in the highest of the heavens and enshrouded in clouds so thick that our brightest imaginations only faintly penetrate. Darkness is Your hiding place while fire and hailstones signal Your presence, thunder Your voice, and lightening Your armaments. You ride on the whirlwinds and storms mark Your way with clouds as dust beneath Your feet. You tread the mighty oceans and leave not a trace of a footprint. Your Spirit blows where He will and even our Doppler 5000 can’t tell us from where He comes or forecast to where He goes.

We praise You for Your omniscience. Your eyes are everywhere, they run to and fro throughout the whole earth, You see all, You know all, and there is no creature hidden from Your sight, but all things, both good and evil, are open and laid bare before You. Your eyes are upon the ways of a man, and You carefully observe our every step. You search our hearts, You try our minds, You understand our feelings, You judge our every thought and intention. And You see most clearly in us what we are most blind to, for You plumb the depths of the depravity of the human heart, which is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.

We praise You for Your infinite love, which, in spite of our repulsiveness, extends to the heavens, and for Your covenant faithfulness, which reaches to the skies, while our fickle faithfulness barely reaches from our heads to our hearts. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is Your loving-kindness toward us—a love far greater than any tribulation, distress, or persecution. And even for these, along with the mystery of evil in the world and the sufferings of your righteous ones, we praise you through our tears and our fears, for we are but simple creatures.

We praise You for Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; for his infinite love for us, which surpasses all human knowledge; for the profound mysteries of his incarnation and his death; for the unfathomable power of his resurrection and his sacraments; and for the all-surpassing riches of His grace yet to be revealed to us in the ages to come, things which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, things which have not even entered into the trifling imagination of man, things to which the momentary sufferings of this life pale in comparison, marvelous things of eternal glory and joy indescribable. For now we see in a mirror dimly, and we do not yet know what we will be, but then, face to face. And, finally, we praise You for the divine peace that passes all human understanding and keeps our hearts and minds safe, calm, and content until that glorious day.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of Your wisdom and Your knowledge! How unsearchable are Your judgments and unfathomable Your ways! For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become Your counselor? Or who has first given to You that it should be repaid to him? For of You and through You and to You are all things, to whom be all glory and praise forever. Amen.

Prayer Of Petition: This One Thing Is Necessary

2006-09-04T09:53:00.002-04:00

“In our distress, O God, we cry out to you week after week in this great assembly: “heal us and save us!” And we know that you have ears to hear our supplications, and eyes to see our afflictions, and a heart to bless us and not curse us. But we also know that you work all things out for our good and for your glory, and that you regard the petitions of the righteous—those careful in their covenant keeping.

Grant us, then, this one thing...above all else, that we might dwell in your house forever, to behold the beauty of the LORD, that our hearts and our minds might be ever changed, that we might learn what it means to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness. For as our Lord exhorted Martha, in the midst of all the cares and concerns we burden you with this morning, only this one thing is necessary.

To that end, then, we pray for hearts and minds that fear you rather than man, and for strength to obey your law-word rather than our own lusts and passions. Make it so in this place; make it so at our mother church in Moscow, ID; make it so at our daughter churches in Greenville, NC, and Greenville, SC; make it so all across this land; make it so at our mission work in Russia; make it so in Uzbekistan; make it so all around the world—till every knee bows and every tongue confesses that “Jesus is Lord!”

This one thing only we need, but much more we desire and ask. For the pregnancies of Sarah Nash, Kristen McCann, Shelley Duchemin, and Rebecca Ewing, we plead your protection. For the sick among us, Josh Munoz, Tim McClelland, Laurie Pate, Lewis Soderberg, Loretta Wetherington, Elizabeth Lucas, and Willie and Fred Bates, we plead your healing. For the family of Ethan Stambaugh we plead your comfort.

For our heads of household two things we require of you: remove far from us vanity and lies, and give us neither poverty nor riches, lest we, or our children, become satisfied and forget you or become poor and curse you. Our prayer is simply “Give us this day our daily bread,” even as you taught us to pray. And if we have but basic food and clothing we will be content and the godlier for it.

Hear now our petitions. And grant our requests. Nevertheless, not our will, but thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus name, amen.

Prayer Of Petition: Thy Kingdom Come

2006-07-23T16:00:00.002-04:00

Our Father in heaven, this morning we join the millions of saints all over the world in praying, Thy kingdom come. And if Thy kingdom is indeed within us, then may these tiny seeds grow into mighty trees, whose branches...permeate our every thought, our every desire, our every passion, our every endeavor, bearing good and holy fruit.

Thy kingdom come not only in our hearts but in our homes, husbands loving our families sacrificially, wives managing our households diligently, and children obeying us cheerfully. May we never forget the glorious things we have seen, and may we faithfully make them known to our children and to our children’s children. To that end we ask Your blessings, as well, upon the work of Cary Christian School and on the ministry of Dell Cook.

Thy kingdom come in our churches. O God, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. For how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! That the world should hate and seek to divide us is no surprise. But from every side we see hatred and dissension! Our prayer is that you remove not the tares within but every root that bears bitter fruit, that we all might grow up, in the unity and the love of Your Holy Spirit.

We pray for our own pastors and elders, that they might never tire or falter in their labors to present us in Christ without spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless before You. We pray that they might give You no rest, O God, but cry from the walls both day and night, until You make Jerusalem a praise in the earth, and all the nations stream to this holy mountain.

We pray especially this morning for the peoples of the former Soviet Union, and ask Your continued blessing on the work of Blake Purcell and the Slavic Reformed Seminary in St. Petersburg. For those of us who are persecuted by Muslims throughout the Middle East and Africa, particularly Sudan, our prayer this morning is both for deliverance and for the mighty vengeance of the LORD.

Father, we pray Thy kingdom come in our own nation. We pray for our president, for our governor, for our judges, and for all those in authority, that they might rule with wisdom and righteousness, that we might live quiet and godly lives. We thank You for President Bush’s veto this week of Congress’ attempt to fund embryonic stem cell research, and we ask You for a new Congress.

Father, Thy kingdom come in our afflictions. We know that for trouble we were born, and that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Yet we long for the day when we are delivered from all pain and sorrow, when every tear is wiped away, and even death is no more, for Thy kingdom is come in all its fullness.

Until that day, we count as blessed those who mourn, for we have heard of Your dealings with Job, and we know that those who sow in tears reap with joy, and gain a garland for their ashes, the oil of gladness for their mourning, and the mantle of praise for their fainting.

All these blessings we ask for the family and friends of Mindy Cosart, for the Martin’s and Rench’s, for the McClelland’s, the Pate’s, the Soderberg’s, the Wetherington’s, the Lucas and McBurnett families, for Fred and Willie Bates, for the Nash’s, for Kristen McCann, Shelley Duchemin, Rebecca Ewing, Jenny Sumpter, and for the family of Josh Munoz in Phoenix. Bless and deliver these among us who mourn.

O LORD, hear now our prayers, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

He Who Sees

2006-07-19T16:52:00.003-04:00

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Barret Browning

A Philosophical Foundation For Navigating Today’s Perilous Ethical Dilemmas

2006-07-17T17:49:00.002-04:00

Pollster George Barna observes: “People do not act like Jesus…because they do not think like Jesus. Behavior stems from what we think—our attitudes, beliefs, values and opinions. Although most people own a Bible and know some of its content…most Americans have little idea how to integrate core biblical principles to form a unified and meaningful response to the challenges…of life.” In other words, most Americans, Christians included, do not hold to a Christian worldview.

In fact, Barna says a scant 4% of Americans, and 9% of Christians, hold to a Christian worldview. The top-scoring demographic...in his research, coming in at a whopping 13%, are non-denominational evangelicals, with the lowest score, a negligible 0.5%, turned in by Roman Catholics. And, surprisingly (or not) only 51% of Christian pastors hold to a Christian worldview. The number one worldview among all Americans, Christians included, is postmodernism.

Answering the WWJD question, “What would Jesus do,” turns out to be not as simple as it sounds. And it may not even be the appropriate question anyway—for a variety of reasons outside the scope of this brief treatise. The question we should be asking is, “What would Jesus have us do?”

Philosophers categorize such questions under the rubric of ethics and classify ethical systems as deontological, teleological, or virtue-based. Deontological and teleological ethics are action-based theories of morality and answer the question, "What should I do?" Virtue ethics, on the other hand, answers the question, “What should I be?" With a nod to the work of John Frame (The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God) and Vern Poythress (Symphonic Theology), here is a tri-perspective overview of historical ethical systems (that will undoubtedly generate some debate):

Deontological Ethics	Teleological Ethics	Virtue Ethics
What is the right thing to do, my duty, in this situation regardless of the consequences?	What is our intended consequence, or end-goal, in this situation and what means will work to get us there?	What virtues will further my self-actualization and fulfillment in this situation?
Kant, Locke, Rawls	Bentham, Mill, Singer	Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume
Objective	Inter-Subjective	Subjective
Universal	Situational	Personal
Rationalism	Empiricism	Fideism
Modernism	Post-Modernism	Existentialism
Conservatism	Socialism	Liberalism
Love God	Love Neighbor	Love Self
Word	Church	Spirit

The key issues, presented here as questions, that must be squarely faced by any ethical system:

How do we know the duties, the goals, the virtues?
Who gets to define the duties, the goals, the virtues?
How are conflicts to be balanced and resolved?
Is the system sufficient for all of life?
What does the system look like in real life?

And this is precisely where the various alternatives come to an impasse, each dogmatically asserting itself against the others as the only way out.

But the Christian ethic, grounded in the Holy Trinity, which alone resolves the vexing unity-diversity / one-many ontological problem, is not so narrowly dogmatic. Frame explains: “Only the Christian ethic brings into proper perspective universal, objective law (obey), particular, subjective situation (to glorify God in all things), and personal, existential subject (out of love and faith) as an organic unity or trinity” (The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God).

Or, as Christ put it: “Love the Lord your God [deontological ethic] with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbor ([teleological ethic] as yourself [virtue ethic].” On this hang all the law and the prophets—our duties, our virtue-being, and our goal-becoming.

Ethical Conclusions On Body And Soul

2006-07-17T15:29:00.007-04:00

What follows is a synopsis of the ethical conclusions drawn by philosopher J.P. Moreland and ethicist Scott Rae in their important work on substance dualism, Body and Soul: Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics.

Abortion and Fetal Research

Legalized abortion communicates that the unborn lack the basic right to life of human personhood. But other laws from criminal and civil protections to inheritance and insurance rights, as well as the treatment of fetuses as patients in the womb, demonstrate a cultural schizophrenia over the value of the unborn.
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Prayer Of Adoration

2006-07-05T21:26:00.002-04:00

Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come! The whole earth is full of Your glory! Who among the gods is like You, O LORD, majestic in holiness and awesome in glory? There is...none like You, High and Exalted One, immortal and invisible, who inhabits eternity in unapproachable light, the Father of lights, whose countenance shines forth like the blazing sun. We adore and we praise You this morning. And as the flowers spring forth in their season, so shall Your praises spring forth this morning all over the world, as Your glorious Church mirrors Your glory and brilliance and radiance and beauty and majesty! In Jesus Name. Amen!

Prayer Of Thanksgiving For All That Is Not Yet

2006-06-21T21:18:00.002-04:00

Our Father in heaven, this morning we thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, and for the great promises that are ours as we abide in Him. In Him all Your mighty promises to us are “yes” and “amen!” And in such great promises is great hope for our children and for our children’s children to the ends of the earth. For truly...the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, the lion will lie down with the lamb, the nations will beat their swords into plowshares, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. And through eyes of faith we see thy kingdom come already and we say “yes” and “amen” and “thank you.”

But for thy kingdom come not yet we also thank you, lest we learn to walk by sight instead of faith; lest we focus on the temporal blessings and lose sight of the eternal promises; lest our hearts be lifted up within us and we forget the LORD our God. And so we thank you that we are forced, still, to beg daily for bread, and for forgiveness, at Thy table, and around our own tables, that we might find our every satisfaction in, and take pleasure in, the gracious provision of fellowship with and dependence on You and Your people. In Jesus name, Amen!

Prayer In The Eye Of The Storm

2006-06-21T21:16:00.002-04:00

Though our sins were as scarlet, they are white as snow; though red like crimson, they are like wool. For by Your Spirit’s washing of regeneration in the blood of our great high priest, Jesus, our sins are washed away, every one, and the great cloud of separation between us is ripped away.

And through that veil we now march, with boldness and confidence and even joy, by way of the gate called righteousness, into...the very courts of the Most High King of all heaven and earth. And here we stand, before Your throne, in this most holy place, where priests could not stand, where mighty Moses was turned back, where even angels fear to tread, for here dwells an even greater and far more ominous cloud, the cloud of Your overwhelming glory, in all its splendor and power and beauty and perfection.

But through this cloud our eyes have seen, our ears have heard, with our hands we handle, and with our mouths we taste every week, the glory of the Lord. Who is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. Who has loosed the fateful lightning of Your terrible swift sword.

And in the torrent of His glory were our enemies brought low, the strong men of Egypt swept away, the head of the serpent crushed. But we found mercy and refuge in the very eye of the storm, and He has led us safely through the deluge of baptism, to this very place.

Why? That we might stand before You now, shouting joyfully with psalms of praise, proclaiming boisterously Your wonderful works, lifting high Your cup of salvation, with hearts full to the brim with sincere thanksgiving. May it be so. And may it be pleasing in Your sight, our Great God and King. In Jesus name, Amen!

Prayer Of Thanksgiving

2006-06-21T21:11:00.002-04:00

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! And His mercy endures forever. But who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Or who can declare His praises? Yet You have ordained our prayers. So hear now and accept this sacrifice of thanksgiving...in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For revelation through the splendor of creation, the intricacies of history, the perfection of law, and the glory of gospel, as well as for eyes of faith to see and believe, we thank You.

For remembering our sins no more, nor rewarding us accordingly, and for delivering us unto eternal life from this world, our flesh, and the devil, we thank You.

For salvation through the floodwaters of baptism, for the nourishment of word and sacrament, and for Your servants in the church, we thank You.

For the communion of these blessed saints, the love of our families, the care of our neighbors, the devotion of our friends, and our responsibility for orphans and widows in distress, we thank You.

For Your bountiful provision of both prosperity and persecution, for a peaceful Sunday afternoon nap, a dark night of the soul, and for that restless longing for eternity in our hearts, we thank You.

For the diversity of our callings to stewardship and dominion, and for the One who rules and reigns over us all, from sea to sea and sun to sun, with endless glory and with kings in His chains, as the Puritan Thomas Shepard put it, we thank You both now and forevermore, in Jesus name. Amen.

Prayer To The One Holy And Eternal Flame

2006-06-11T21:05:00.002-04:00

“Fire. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not of philosophers,” cried Pascal. For your throne is a blazing fire, and your eyes, which run to and fro throughout the whole earth, are as flaming fireballs. And out of these raging flames you appear and thunder forth your word and light the way of your people—in creation, in the burning bush, on the mountaintop, in the pillar of fire, in the upper room—and the whole earth...shakes.

For You are a jealous God, and a consuming fire, baptizing us with Your Holy Spirit and with tongues of fire, making your ministers flames of fire and your word a blazing fire within that engulfs and purges and refines and incinerates the chaff of our lives. And the entire house of Israel has become a blazing fire, and Your Holy One a white-hot flame, that we might burn and devour the thorns and briers of this world.

And your enemies will flee before the wildfires of your vengeance. Like wax melting before the fire, so will the ungodly waste away before you. Even the mountains will melt under You, and the valleys will run like wax. For by fire You will judge all flesh, raining down fire and brimstone and a burning wind, spewing forth smoke from Your nostrils and flames from Your mouth. And who can stand? Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cast into the lake of fire, when all heaven and earth, reserved for fire on the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, will melt away in the furnace of your wrath and all cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars are cast into the lake of unquenchable fire forever.

Not the god of philosophers. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Fire. We worship and praise You now, O Holy and Eternal Flame, with fear and trembling. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and with the Holy Spirit, one God, both now and forever. Amen.

Prayer Of Confession (Adapted From The Prayer Of Thomas More Just Before His Execution In 1535)

2006-05-28T18:46:00.002-04:00

Almighty God, have mercy on us vile, abject, abominable, sinful wretches, meekly acknowledging before thine high majesty our long-continued sinful lives. Good, gracious Lord, just as You give us Thy grace to acknowledge our sins, also give us Thy grace, with very sorrowful contrition, to repent of and utterly forsake our sins. And forgive us also those sins, in which through evil affections and customs, our reason is with sensuality so blinded...that we cannot discern them for sin. And illumine, good Lord, our hearts, and give us Thy grace to know them, and forgive us our sins negligently forgotten, and bring them to mind with grace as we confess them now. Glorious God, give us from this moment forward the grace to firmly fix our hearts upon Thee that we may say with the Apostle Paul, “The world is crucified to me and I to the world. To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ.” In whose name we pray. Amen.

Prayer Of Praise For God's Faithfulness

2006-05-28T18:45:00.002-04:00

Celebrating Ascension

2006-05-28T16:59:00.001-04:00

Theologian Alexander Schmemann once said, “Tell me what you celebrate and I will tell you who you are.” This is, of course, Memorial Day weekend, for many a time to honor our fallen war heroes, and for others a time to celebrate the end of another school year and the beginning of what I call “boat season.” Yes, we are Americans, and we have much to celebrate as Americans. But first and foremost we are Christians, and part of what it means to recover who we are as Christians is to recover what we celebrate as Christians.

40 days after His resurrection, our Lord “ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” And from the time of the Apostles, so says Augustine, Christ’s ascension has been celebrated...as one of the four great holidays, or holy days, of the Christian year, beginning with the Feast of Ascension held on the Thursday 40 days past Easter and culminating on Ascension Sunday, today. It’s a festive time of feasting, and dancing, and even parades depicting the triumphal procession of Christ (2 Cor. 2) with captives in His train (Eph. 4). In parts of Europe it’s even a national holiday. And, of course, it has served as occasion for masterpieces of art and music, including Bach’s Ascension Oratorio and the great Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God, from his Mass in B Minor.

So why all the fuss? The Heidelberg Catechism gives us the answer in response to questions 49 and 50. Question 49: Of what advantage to us is Christ's ascension? First, He is our advocate in the presence of His Father in heaven. Is that worthy of a celebration? Second, we have human flesh, in heaven, as a sure pledge that Christ, our head, will also raise up to Himself, us, the members of His body. Is that worthy of a feast? Third, He sends us His Spirit as an earnest, a deposit or guarantee, and by His Spirit we set our hearts and minds not on things below, but on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Feeling festive yet? And, Question 50, why is it added, “Christ is seated at the right hand of God?” Because Christ ascended into heaven as both head of His church and ruler of all things. Let the party begin!

My Ascension Feast on Thursday consisted of steak and shrimp at Ruby Tuesday. Yes, we have much to recover. Not so much in terms of the gospel itself but of gospel implications and kingdom living, of sanctification and reformation and culture building, of the good life, or as Jesus put it, the abundant life. In other words, let us consider what it means to really live as Christians in light of not only what Christ has done in the past and what He will do in the future, which is where most of us prefer to dwell, but also on what Christ is doing right here right now.

The Enemy Within

2006-05-28T15:49:00.005-04:00

The day the world stood still I was in London on business when news from the States abruptly brought not only London but the entire world to a screeching halt. Minutes later, back at the hotel, the realization of what had just occurred hit me like a ton of bricks. For there, along with a mass of people packed like sardines around a couple of television sets in the lobby, we all watched over and over and over again, in stunned silence, as American Airlines flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, United flight 175 hit the south tower, American flight 77 struck the Pentagon, and United flight 93, with the White House in its sights, was brought down in a wooded Pennsylvania field.

Many quietly wept. My colleague from Turkey was obviously distraught. Our Afghani driver was falling all over himself, like a wino on skid row, apologizing for what he didn’t know. While members of the United Arab Emirates flight crew were visibly shaken. And the world stood still, for days, in vigils and memorial services and funeral processions. Even the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace was halted for a silent observance followed by The Star Spangled Banner. The events of the day...were best summed up by President Bush, speaking to the nation, on the evening of September 11, 2001: “Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts…Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature.” And what stopped us all dead in our tracks was the horrifying realization that the enemy came not from without but from within.
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Letter To The Raleigh News And Observer On Corporal Punishment

2006-05-03T14:50:00.002-04:00

I know very little about Michael Pearl but to implicate him and corporal punishment in the child abuse-murder case of Lynn Paddock is absurd. Your April 30, 2006, article reports, “Although mainstream pediatricians might consider Pearl's methods extreme, corporal punishment remains popular.” That comes as no surprise...given that 76% of us, according to the Family Research Council, recognize spanking as an important part of our own upbringing. And that popularity includes mainstream pediatricians as 70% of family physicians and 59% of pediatricians support spanking, per The Journal of the American Medical Association.

As for attempts to link corporal punishment with abuse or other detrimental outcomes, a recent report delivered to the American Psychological Association concludes that studies to date “have not established that normative physical punishment is a causal risk factor for the detrimental child outcomes with which it may be associated.” Conversely, studies on the effects of a spanking ban in Sweden reveal a resulting 589% increase in child abuse cases and a 519% increase in criminal assaults by minors. Maybe “spare the rod, spoil the child” isn’t “way-out-of-date advice from 200 years ago” after all. “Spare the rod, spoil the child” is, in fact, an Old Testament proverb that has served Judeo-Christian civilization well for thousands of years.

Prayer Of Thanksgiving

2006-04-09T21:10:00.002-04:00

We Enter into Your gates, O God, with thanksgiving, for Your wondrous works declare that You are near, that You are good, and that Your mercy endures forever. Oh, that all men would see...Your handiwork in the splendor and wonder of creation and give You thanks.

Oh, that we Your people would give You thanks in all things, which is the will of God, for You have chosen us from the foundation of the world, You are working everything out for our good, and by Your grace we are liberally enriched so that our thanksgiving might abound to Your glory.

Father, we do thank You this morning for Your Son, Jesus Christ, for the great mercies and promises that are ours in Him, and for the precious gift of Your Spirit. We thank You for Your law and for Your gospel, for our fathers in the faith, and for the communion of the saints, even here at Christ Church.

We thank You for the loving providence that surrounds us on every side: for time and for seasons, for peace and for liberty, for daily sustenance, for the blessing of family and the beauty of friends who reflect the image of God, for minds to reason, for hearts to love, and for hands to serve, for work that satisfies, for rest that refreshes, and for play that delights.

We thank You for the peace that surpasses all understanding in the midst of wars and rumors of wars, persecution and suffering, failures and disappointments, and all other things that remind us to acknowledge our dependence on You alone and Your promise to complete the good work You’ve begun in our lives.

We offer this sacrifice of praise in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be all praise and glory, with You, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever. Amen.

Prayer Of Praise For God's Faithfulness

2006-04-09T21:03:00.002-04:00

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for in Your wisdom You spoke all things into existence by a decree which shall never pass away. You spoke and it was done. You commanded and it stood fast. By Your will alone it was, and is, and ever shall be.

Praise the LORD, O heavens! Praise Him, you heights! Praise Him, sun and moon. Praise Him, you stars of light! Break out in singing, O mountains! Clap your hands, you fields! Praise the name of the LORD for...He commanded and you were created!

And when we consider these glorious works of Your hands, LORD, what is man that You are mindful of him? That You have crowned him with glory and honor? That You have given him dominion over Your creation? O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! For Your mercy is great above the heavens and Your faithfulness endures to all generations!

For as surely as the world is established according to Your word so that it cannot be moved, Your throne shall endure forever and Your seed like Your faithful witness in the sky. For thus says the LORD, who gives the sun as His witness by day and the ordinances of the moon and stars as a testimony by night, “If these creation ordinances depart from before Me, says the LORD, then also shall my seed cease. If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, then My covenant with you may also be broken.

No! As firmly as the world is established by Your word so that it shall never be moved, so is Your covenant word and steadfastness towards Your people, O LORD. So stop your groaning, you creation! Rejoice, you heavens! Be glad, you earth! Give thanks, you His people! For now has your salvation come and will yet come again to judge the earth in righteousness and the nations with truth according to the powerful word of our God!

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty. For all that is in heaven and under heaven and in the earth and in the sea and under the sea is Yours. Yours is the kingdom and You are highly exalted, O LORD, as LORD over all. Amen.

Prayer: A Fountain Flowing Deep And Wide

2006-04-05T18:17:00.002-04:00

Week after week we come and stand upon the brink of this great precipice, peering into the abyss of a great mystery, godliness, where all human knowledge and pretension grow eerily dim, and the wise among us shrink back. For who can discover the depths of God or the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens and deeper than the grave, longer than the earth and broader than the seas. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is too high for mortals, we cannot attain to it.

But deep and wide, deep and wide, there's a fountain flowing deep and wide, the children’s song reminds us. Sweeping down through this great canyon, this chasm of comprehension, rushing from the throne-room of God, by Your word and Your Spirit, giving us just a glimpse, just a taste, of...how wide and how long and how high and how deep is the love of Christ for us; and how far removed are our transgressions from us, as far as the east is from the west; and of the all-surpassing greatness of Your power and Your loving-kindness toward us, reaching as high as the heavens are above the earth, and stretching from generation to generation, from everlasting to everlasting.

And so in these rushing, mighty currents of living water we swarm, and live, and move, and have our very being. And the trees of every kind, growing along the banks, whose leaves do not wither and whose fruit does not fail, nourishes us, and heals us, and gives us the strength and the courage to gather here yet once again and squint at the brilliance of the Godhead.

And standing here now, on this ledge of infinity, what can we say? Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock, the fountainhead, of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving; and let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!

Your Elect Praise You!

2006-03-26T21:56:00.001-05:00

Our Great God and King, Maker of heaven and earth, we are but nomads and vagabonds in a foreign and desolate land, yet in this place this morning You have assembled us, as living stones, built upon that chief cornerstone Jesus Christ, elect and precious, a sure foundation, in whom we grow into a holy temple, that You indwell by Your Spirit, and in which You accept the sacrifices of a people who, though once not a people, are now, O LORD, Your very own special people, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that we may forever proclaim Your praises, for You have turned our mourning into dancing and...put off our sackcloth and clothed us with gladness, that we may sing Your praises and not be silent.

O LORD, lest the stones cry out, may we indeed praise You aloud with a new song on our lips. May we praise You with great joy in the dance. May we praise You before all peoples and nations with the timbrel and harp, with the sound of the trumpet, with stringed instruments and flutes, with loud drums and with clashing cymbals, for You take great pleasure in Your people, and beautify the humble with salvation and with glory!

And in this land of promise, this homeland, this city whose builder and maker is You, O God, with Your high praises in our mouth, and Your two-edged sword in our hand, in Your great name we will execute vengeance on the nations, and punishment on the disobedient, to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the written judgment of God. For this honor You grant to all Your saints, who offer up to You now, O LORD Most High, in this spiritual house, the joyful sacrifice of praise, in Jesus name, Amen.

Prayer Of Praise For God's Word

2006-02-07T21:52:00.002-05:00

“What is truth?” asked Pontius Pilate. Our Father in Heaven, we praise You this morning that You are Truth, and Your word, which we read even now, You have magnified above even Your great name.

As those all around us suppress Your truth in unrighteousness, we see...Your wrath poured out from heaven as they are given over to uncleanness, to vile passions, to debased minds; and we know that Great Day of Wrath is coming when all the ungodly and unrighteous are swept away like chaff before a gale into unquenchable fire.

So this morning we, Your covenant people, praise You with all our hearts for not only is Your wrath revealed from heaven but also, in Your great mercy towards us, Your everlasting righteousness is revealed from faith to faith. And, as if that were not enough, in Your grace You have blessed us with the very oracles of God, Your law and Your gospel, that we might live no longer in ungodliness and unrighteousness but according to Your word, the truth that sanctifies us.

So we praise You, LORD, for Your sanctifying word. We praise You for Your word is not burdensome but delightful, sweeter than honey to our mouths, more precious than silver and gold. We praise You for Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path. We praise You for by Your word our roots grow deep and we flourish like palm trees, our leaves ever green, never failing to bear fruit. We praise You for by Your word our children will be mighty in the land with blessings and prosperity in their homes. We praise You for on Your word we stand and can never be shaken; we have no fear of bad news or of our enemies. We praise You that Your word makes us wiser than our enemies and in the end we will look in triumph on all our foes.

We praise You, O LORD, for You are the God of truth, and though the grass withers and the flower fades, Your word stands forever. Blessed be thy holy name! Amen.

Lifted Up In Communion

2006-01-07T18:38:00.001-05:00

We talk about meeting Christ in the Supper, and naturally we assume that He meets us here in this place. But covenant renewal worship consists of three movements heavenward as we ascend into the very presence of God in cleansing, consecration, and communion. The third, climactic step, communion, represents our union with Christ and, thereby, our restored fellowship with God and with one another in Christ. And in this we don’t drag Christ back down to earth, said Calvin, in churches here and there, but...Christ draws us up from every tribe, tongue, nation, and church—as one.

This is where the grand plan of God for the ages culminates, ultimately in a marriage feast, when the Great Commission is finally complete, the last of God’s elect have been brought into covenant, and we all become one flesh with Him physically in the heavenlies. What a glorious day that will be! What a glorious table this is! For here He is not brought down but lifted up. And “if I be lifted up,” He said, “I will draw all people to myself.” Let us lift Him up now even as He lifts us up.

Prayer Of Confession

2006-01-07T18:32:00.002-05:00

Father, we confess that that which we profess with our mouths we far too often betray with our hearts and with our minds. We profess belief in the God of the universe while fretting over the petty details of our petty lives. We profess belief in the coming judgment of light while playing games in the shadows of darkness. We profess belief in the universal Church and in the communion of saints while...straining the bonds of peace and the unity of the Spirit within our own homes and communities. We profess belief in the forgiveness of sins while unwilling to confess our sins or to forgive others their sins. We profess belief in the word of life while starving ourselves to death all week. We profess belief in the Great Commission while neglecting even our closest friends and neighbors. We profess belief in worship that is pure and free of idolatry while dragging the idols of our own hearts and minds before You in this very moment. By Thy Spirit and by Thy word bring these idols now to our attention by name that our sins might be confessed and blotted out forever. Thank You for the perfect and acceptable righteousness of Christ, which is ours and in whom we now rise to worship, that times of refreshing might be ours this day, in Jesus name. Amen.

A New Year's Challenge

2006-01-07T18:30:00.001-05:00

Charles Spurgeon, in 1855 addressed his congregation thus: “This is the first day of a new year…[and] though there is no real difference between it and any other day…we regard [it] as one of the milestones…on the highway of…life. It is only in imagination that there is any close of one year and beginning of another…[for] when men ‘cross the line,’ they find no visible mark: [just as] the sea bears no trace of an equatorial belt; and yet mariners know where they are, and…take notice…We are crossing the line now. We have sailed into the year” of our Lord 2006. Let us pause and take notice.

Exactly one year ago, with Psalm 2 as my text, I stood in this pulpit and suggested that we commit ourselves anew to...three Kingdom priorities: the word, the work, and the worship of God. How did you do? I, for one, could stand to hear those words repeated, and I pray sincerely that God might make me more a doer than a hearer in this new year.

Resolved, first, by the grace of God, we will eagerly submit ourselves to the yoke of Christ, walking in the purifying light of His law-word, meditating therein both day and night, for only in humble obedience to King Jesus will we find true love and joy in this life. I challenge you to recommit yourself to God’s word this year. Spend time in it. Embrace it. Obey it. For it is yr very life!

Resolved, second, by the grace of God, we will fully commit ourselves to the authority of King Jesus, obeying His command to go into all the world, baptizing the nations, and teaching them obedience to the commands of Christ, for only in complete submission to King Jesus will “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” I challenge you to recommit yourself to God’s work this year.

Resolved, third, by the grace of God, come this year tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword, we will trust Him more fully and worship Him more fervently, for in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who over all forever reigns, working all things out for our good and His own eternal glory. I challenge you to recommit yourself to God’s worship this yr.

We have crossed the line. Forgiving and forgetting what is behind us in 2005, let us press on towards whatever good things God has in store for us in 2006, with a renewed commitment to the word, the work, and the worship of God, by the grace of God, to the glory of God—from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things.

The Great cOmmission

2006-01-07T16:02:00.013-05:00

Here’s a multiple choice quiz for you. Who made this statement: "Look at the scoreboard. Are people being saved? If not, something’s wrong."

Here are your choices:

A. Aurelius Augustine, fourth-century philosopher, theologian extraordinaire, bishop of Hippo, and Christian martyr.

B. Douglas Wilson, contemporary philosopher-theologian of some repute, bishop of Moscow, ID, and likely candidate for martyrdom in certain circles.

C. Rick Warren, bestselling author of the Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church, bishop of a twenty thousand-person Southern Baptist congregation in southern CA, and likely candidate for sainthood in certain circles.
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Advent Prayer

2005-12-18T18:40:00.002-05:00

We praise You O God, for we have found grace in Your sight. In Your great mercy You called us by name and we turned to behold the glory of the One and Only, Immanuel, God with us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and You were pleased that in Him should all Your fullness dwell, the radiance of Your glory in human flesh. Our eyes hv seen thy great salvation. Particularly during this Christmas season, as the light of the world shines ever more brightly, we gaze upon Him in utter wonder and awe and delight. Fairer than the sons of men! Glory as of the only begotten of the Father! In His face we behold...grace upon grace, and truth at last. At last, we behold the very face of God, and yet live! And in the light of His glory and grace, the kingdoms and pursuits and worries and concerns of this world grow strangely dim indeed.

Surely, LORD God, You are merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in compassion and goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generations. And though we are but a stiff-necked people, You, our faithful God, are a covenant keeping God and will yet do marvels before us such as have not been done in all the earth; and all peoples and nations of the earth shall see the awesome work of our great God and King!

We long for that day, LORD. And we long for the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, no longer a suffering servant but a conquering king! Come quickly, Lord Jesus! For we long to see, once again, very God, face to face, and to be forever changed into that beatific image. In Your holy and precious name we pray. Amen.

Meditations On Psalm 1

2005-11-16T16:20:00.003-05:00

Psalm 1 begins “Blessed is the man.” Blessed means happy, supremely happy and fulfilled. We Americans are, of course, endowed by our Creator with the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. But there are two roads that stretch out before us both promising happiness and fulfillment. The wide road, according to Jesus, leads instead to death and destruction while the narrow road leads to true life. The problem for most of us, as Dante put it in his Divine Comedy, is that “midway this way of life we’re bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, where the right road was wholly lost and gone.” Indeed, the mass of humanity trudges along the wide road and few ever find their way to the narrow road.

But the truly blessed man or woman is more than happy and fulfilled for the blessed one...enjoys God’s special favor and grace, the deeper meaning of “blessed.” And the word used in Psalm 1 is plural: this one finds much happiness and fulfillment and blessings and favors and graces. Blessed is the man, the woman, the child, the home, the church, the nation that does not do certain things and does do other things.
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Prayer For The Nations

2005-11-13T21:54:00.002-05:00

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

On this Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, grant, we pray, what You have commanded, by giving us hearts that cry out for our brothers and sisters who are imprisoned, and tortured, and raped, and enslaved, and executed by the millions all around the world for the name of Christ. Grant them...grace to stand firm in the faith as they proclaim Your Gospel to the ends of the earth, rejoicing that they have been found worthy of suffering for Your sake, entrusting themselves and their families to You, O Sovereign God, who will surely judge all the earth with justice and with righteousness. Hasten the day, O Lord.

Father, You command us to not keep silent, to give You no rest, by our prayers, until You establish Your Church as a praise in the earth. So we plead with You for a great victory over Islam in the Middle East. We cry out for the peace of our brothers and sisters in Africa who are racked by poverty and civil wars and genocide. With heavy hearts we long to see the light of Your gospel penetrate Asia where over half the world’s people live in spiritual darkness. In Europe we beg of You a new Reformation as the fires of Your former work is reduced to a flicker by secularism. And in our own backyard, Latin America, where Your children are the targets of revolutionaries and drug traffickers, may Your Church Triumphant advance swiftly on the gates of Hell.

For our own nation, this most blessed of all nations, Father, we weep. In Your great mercy turn our hearts back to You in true repentance and revival that we might raise our families in peace with all godliness and reverence. We pray especially for our President and the newly elected Congress, as well as for our state and local leaders. We pray for their wisdom and holiness, and for righteous judges.

For Your Church, even right here in the Cary area, we pray for the courage and strength to engage the forces of darkness that have lulled us to sleep. And between our churches we ask for unity, for how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity!

For our own body we ask that we might be filled with the knowledge of Your will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that we might walk worthy of You, O Lord, fully pleasing You, being fruitful in every good work, strengthened with all might, according to Your glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy. We ask Your continued blessings and sustaining graces on our pregnant mothers and their children, on the sick and the grieving among us, on those struggling financially, on those struggling with besetting sins, and on those pleading for unsaved family members. We ask all these things not for our own sake alone but for the sake of Your Great Name. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

What We Believe About Work

2005-10-23T16:23:00.008-04:00

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that when Gene saw my sermon he remarked, “That’s not a sermon; it’s a series! See if you can keep it under two hours.” The good news is that I’ve cut and edited and summarized and think I can bring it in just under two hours!

I have so much to say because so little has been said. In fact, our topic just might be the most important thing you’ve never heard a sermon on. In keeping with Gene’s series on what we believe, I’ve entitled our sermon this morning ‘What We Believe About Work: A Theology of Vocation.’

What comes to mind when you think of the Protestant Reformation? I think of the glorious doctrines of grace, and of God’s supernatural work on our behalf, and so we should. But one of the many things it produced is what theologian Herman Bavinck calls “a reformation of the natural,” with a focus on man’s work, or vocation. And it was this that captured the hearts of peasants, farmers, and craftsmen all over Europe, and shook the very foundations of the Western world!
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Prayer Of Praise

2005-10-07T21:48:00.002-04:00

O God, I declare the glory of Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I praise You this morning. For You have chosen us to be holy, a people set apart for Yourself, a special treasure above all peoples. You did not favor us because we were greater or more deserving than any other people, for...we were the least of all peoples; but You set Your love upon because of Your faithfulness, because You remember forever the covenant that You swore to our fathers.

O seed of Abraham, praise Him! You descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, You chosen ones of Israel, worship Him! For He has not despised nor abhorred our affliction. Nor has He hidden His face from us. But when we cried to Him, He heard us. Praise Him in the great assembly! Pay your vows to our great God and King this morning! Tell of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name! Let your hearts rejoice before Him! Seek the LORD and His strength! Seek His face evermore! Remember His marvelous works! Remember His wonders! Remember His judgments! Eat and be satisfied! For He is the LORD your God forever!

O Lord, You are greatly to be praised for You are our God forever. Our posterity, too, will serve You. Your glory will be recounted to the next generation, to our children, and they in turn will declare Your righteousness to a people yet to be born, to our children’s children. And they will all know that You are God, that You are faithful, that You keep covenant and show mercy for a thousand generations to those who love You and keep Your commandments!

O Lord, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to You. And all the families of the nations shall worship before You for You rule over all the earth and even those who go down to the dust shall bow before You. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Prayer Of Thanksgiving

2005-09-23T21:00:00.002-04:00

Great God of heaven and earth, what prayer, or what psalm, or what hymn, or what sacrifice of human tongues is sufficient thanksgiving for Your mighty wonders, Your immeasurable love, Your magnificent promises? Yet You have ordained our prayers. So hear now and accept this feeble sacrifice of our lips and our hearts, through Your Most Holy Spirit, in the blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For earthly life and wealth, we thank You. For the death-defying cries of every new-born baby, we thank You. For the love of...family, the care of neighbors, the devotion of good friends, and the companionship of animals, we thank You.

For the chirping of mountain birds and the roar of ocean waves, we thank You. For peace on earth, the blessed rest of a Sunday afternoon’s nap and a good night’s sleep, we thank You. For the restless, dark nights of the soul, for every sigh, for every longing, for eternity in our hearts, we Thank you.

For persecution, for suffering, for trials and temptations, and for sustaining grace, we thank You. For holy angels and ministering spirits, we thank You. For glory on the faces of Thy beloved as they pass through the valley of death, we thank You.

For eternal sanctification of these most corruptible bodies, we thank You. For salvation through the floodwaters of baptism, we thank You. For the immortal nourishment of the Body and Blood of our Christ, we thank You.

For Thy Spirit of Truth, we thank You. For the precious gift of adoption, we thank You.
For the beauty of holiness, we thank You.

For the beatific vision to come, we thank You. For the first-fruits, even a morsel, of heaven on earth, we thank You. And for Thy ever-triumphant kingdom come, we thank You. Both now and forever. Amen.

Prayer: Let Everything That Hath Breath Praise The Lord!

2005-08-20T18:42:00.001-04:00

O heavens above, we call upon you now, all angels, you sun, moon, and stars. We call upon you night and day, light and darkness. We summon you waters, winds, dews, and frosts. Ice and snow, fire and heat, summer and winter, we call out to you. Rise up you clouds and rains, thunderings and lightenings. We beckon you mountains, rocks, hills and plains, springs, seas and floods. All you that teem in the waters, you that swarm in the air, you that graze in the fields, and you that forage in the woods, lift up your heads. O children of men, we call upon you; let the souls of the righteous and the hearts of the humble...rise up. O my soul and all that is within me, lift up your voice with these in one accord and praise ye the Lord!

Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and the harp!
Praise Him with the timbrel and the dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with crashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord!

For all glory, honor, and praise belong to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Litany Of Praise

2005-07-01T20:51:00.002-04:00

O God the Father, Creator of all things, Your creation praises You. O God the Son, Redeemer of all creation, Your redeemed praise You. O God the Holy Spirit, Sanctifier of all the redeemed, Your sanctified praise You. Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. O Lord, hear now our prayers.

For Your law, for Your gospel, for Your mighty deeds, and for...the grace to believe, we praise You. O Lord, hear now our prayers.

For Your holy Church, for her sacraments, and for her servants, we praise You. O Lord, hear now our prayers.
For remembering not our sins, nor rewarding us accordingly, we praise You. O Lord, hear now our prayers

For delivering us from the world, the flesh, the devil; from ourselves, and from death and eternal damnation, we praise You. O Lord, hear now our prayers.

For hearts to love and to fear thee, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our covenant God, we praise You. O Lord, hear now our prayers.

For family, for friends, for community, and for communion, especially with orphans and with widows in distress, we praise You. O Lord, hear now our prayers.

For the bountiful fruit of both prosperity and persecution, and for our various callings to stewardship and dominion, we praise You. O Lord, hear now our prayers.

For Your sovereignty over the principalities, powers, and nations, and for Your ever-coming, ever-lasting kingdom of peace, we praise You. O Lord, hear now our prayers.

O Lord, hear now our prayers, in the name of Jesus Christ, to whom be all glory and praise, with You, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever. Amen.

Prayer Of Confession

2005-06-19T21:36:00.002-04:00

Our Father in heaven, how is it that we, who continue daily to burden you with our many sins, and weary You with our many iniquities, enter now so freely and boldly into Your heavenly sanctuary, into the very Holy of Holies, to present ourselves before Your mighty throne, with its...fiery flames spewing forth lightening and thundering and voices, human and otherwise, countless thousands upon thousands ministering before You, O Ancient of Days? Thank You Lord Jesus, that You stand between us n this very moment as both our propitiation and our advocate.

And we cry out, with the prophet Isaiah, “Woe is me.” For we are undone, and we dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Hear us now as we confess our many sins and iniquities before You. Hear our prayers, O God, and forgive us. For who is a God like You, who delights in mercy, full of compassion, passing over transgressions, subduing iniquities, and casting all our sins into the deepest sea? Blessed be the name of the Lord forever and forever. In Jesus name, Amen.

A Challenge To Fathers

2005-06-19T17:08:00.001-04:00

Humorist Erma Bombeck was not her usual self when she wrote these words in Family Ties That Bind and Gag: “One day father didn’t get up and go to work. He got up and went to the hospital. The next day he died. I hadn’t thought much about father before that. He was just someone who left every day and came home at night…We never did anything so I didn’t know his leaving would hurt so much.”

I’m afraid leaving is what fathers do best, which is why so many fathers have children but so few children have fathers. Today...we live in a fatherless world, which explains why an estimated 75% of our homes are clinically dysfunctional, 25% of our kids are carrying weapons, half are abusing drugs, more than half are sexually active beginning, on average, in the 5th grade, and most, if they believe at all, carry around a distorted and grotesque image of our Father-God.

And who’s to blame for this calamity? The experts speculate that Hollywood is the villain, or that teachers aren’t paid enough, or that the government has somehow failed us. But we know, don’t we, that the buck stops right here in our churches and our homes, and not merely in our churches and our homes, but with our men in particular.

Men, let me remind you this morning that Scripture exhorts us thus: “Fathers, raise your kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” You’ve no doubt heard a sermon or two on “the nurture and admonition of the Lord” but how many have you heard on “Fathers, raise your kids?” A scant 3% of biblical passages on parenting address both mom and dad while mom is addressed 21% of the time. A whopping 76% of biblical passages on parenting put the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of dad. Raising your kids is not your wife’s job, home-school dad. It’s not Mr. Stephenson’s job, CCS dad. It’s not some youth director’s job. And, God forbid, it’s not even the job of Sesame Street or Veggie Tales. No, just as surely as child-bearing is your wife’s job, so child-rearing is your job.

And Scripture goes on to say, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children,” and elsewhere “Fathers do not embitter your children.” In other words, do not anger, or irritate, or tease, or provoke your kids. It’s easy to do, isn’t it? Dad, first, straighten up and, then, lighten up! Show your kids God’s law and then show them His grace and mercy. Love them like God loves you. I challenge you this morning to go home and meditate on 1 Cor. 13 with your kids in mind. And, finally, ask yourself this sobering question: “What will my kids have learned about their Father in heaven from their father on earth when I, too, leave for the hospital to never come home again?”

How To Change The World

2005-06-15T16:56:00.008-04:00

This time of year millions of people gather in high school gymnasiums and college auditoriums all across the country to hear that time-honored charge to a bumper crop of fresh graduates known as the commencement address. And just like the one I heard recently at a Christian high school by a well-known attorney on the front lines of the culture war, they’re every one an admonition to change the world. President Bush, for example, speaking at Calvin College, said: “As Americans we share an agenda that calls us to action…and with your help, we'll all do our part to transform our great land one person and one community at a time.”

Yes, everybody wants to change the world. Our final words to our young people before we kick them out of the nest are “go, therefore, and change the world.” And so with all the vigor and enthusiasm and idealism of youth, they go, and they change the world, and the world is worse off than before! But not having received a single invitation to share my thoughts on all this, you might consider this my commencement address, appropriately entitled, How to Change the World.
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Elijah On How To Change The World

2005-06-14T16:51:00.015-04:00

I want to share with you now two specific steps you can take to change the world for the better. To begin, read with me from 1 Kings 16:29-33: “In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set youp an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.”

The context here is 100 years of darkness and evil in the land. And where were God’s people? Chapter 18 verse 4 tells us they were hiding out in caves, probably wondering if God cared, if God knew, if God was even there. And suddenly, in the midst of all this darkness, an extraordinary man of God named Elijah bursts onto the scene and...changes everything! He’s been called by various historians and commentators “Gods prophet of fury and wrath who poured out judgment on the enemies of God;” “the roughest and toughest of all the prophets of God;” “a stalwart of the faith who raised the dead and rained down fire upon the enemies of God;” “the superman of Judeo-Christian history...the most eminent prophet of them all...the grandest Israel ever produced...a colossus who dwarfs us all!”
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Children At The Lord's Table

2005-06-13T16:42:00.002-04:00

C.S. Lewis once said, "The veil between the worlds…is nowhere else so thin and permeable to divine operation [as here at the Lord’s Table]. Here a hand from the hidden country touches not only my soul but my body. Here the prig, the don, and the modern in me have no privilege over the savage or the child.”

Just as infants and children of the old covenant were admitted to sacramental meals such as Passover, paedocommunion is the practice of admitting infants and children of the new covenant to the Lord's Supper prior to a confession of faith at some so-called age-of-accountability. And though a controversial practice...in the Western Church today—but not the Eastern Church—it was the universal practice of the Church until the late medieval period. Augustine, for example, said: “Yes, they're infants, but they are His members. They're infants, but they receive His sacraments. They’re infants, but they share in His table, in order to have life in themselves."

This life was first denied them in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, not as the result of an ecclesiastical reformation or purification of doctrine, but the result of the theological corruption known as transubstantiation. The fear was that little ones would spill or spit up the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ. Thus, the fourth Lateran Council, in 1215, decreed that children must wait “until the age of discretion before partaking of the Eucharist, at which time they would eat with respect and understanding.”

Some time before this leaven worked its way through the Western Church, a fifteenth-century hymn was sung thus:

You gave us His body to eat, His holy blood to drink, What more could He have done for us?
Let us not deny it to little children, Nor forbid them, When they eat Jesus' body.
Of such is the kingdom of heaven, As Christ Himself told us,
and holy David says also: From the mouths of small children and of all innocent babes
Has come forth God's praise, That the adversary may be cast down.
Praise God, you children, You tiny babes, For He will not drive you away,
But feed you on His holy body.

So be you a prig, a don, a modern, a savage, or a child, feed you on His holy body, for here a hand from the hidden country touches not only your soul but your body, in order to have life in yourselves, and He will not drive you away!

Prayer Of Praise For Our Salvation

2005-05-14T21:47:00.001-04:00

Our Father in heaven, how is it that we, who continue daily to burden You with sins and weary You with iniquities, enter now so freely and so boldly into Your heavenly sanctuary, into the very holy of holies, to present ourselves before Your mighty throne, a fiery flame spewing forth lightnings and thunderings and voices, with countless thousands upon thousands ministering before You, O Ancient of Days, both day and night?

In the midst of this glorious spectacle we stand here in stunned amazement. For...we who were once dead in trespasses and sins, who in ourselves are utterly depraved and lethally polluted, who were by nature the children of wrath and the enemies of God, present ourselves before You now as kings and priests in full assurance of faith by the blood of Jesus Christ!

In Christ You have made us alive and raised us up to sit in this heavenly place. In Christ You have washed away our transgressions and cleansed us from all unrighteousness. In Christ You have pardoned our sins and remember them no more. In Christ You have healed us and blessed us with an abundance of peace and truth. In Christ You have clothed us with the garments of salvation as a bride is beautifully adorned for her husband. In Christ You accept us this morning as blameless and pure and clean, and there’s not a better feeling in all the world! For this we were created! This is the chief end of man! To stand before You and reflect the very image of God, like a mirror, brilliantly displaying Your glory and radiance and beauty and majesty.

We adore You and greatly praise You O LORD, and as the flowers of the earth spring forth in season, so shall Your praise burst forth in due season before all the nations of the world to Your eternal glory and our eternal joy! Blessed be Thy glorious name forever. Amen!

Prayer Of Adoration

2005-04-24T21:44:00.002-04:00

Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come, the whole earth is full of Your glory! Who among the gods is like you, O LORD—majestic in holiness and awesome in glory? There is none like You, High and Exalted One, immortal and invisible, who inhabits eternity in unapproachable light, the Father of lights, whose countenance shines forth like the blazing sun, whom no man has seen or can see, but whom all creation longs to see and to know as a man...knows his friends, face to face.

We praise You, O Matchless One, for we have found grace in Your sight. In Your compassion You have known us and called us by name. You have set our feet upon a solid rock and hid us in the cleft of the rock. You have descended in a cloud and made all Your goodness pass before us. You have proclaimed the very name of the LORD, Immanuel, God with us, the Word become flesh. And You were pleased, Father, that in Him should all Your fullness dwell.

And with the angels of heaven above and the creatures of earth below we gaze upon Him in wonder and in awe! Fairer than the sons of men! Glory as of the only begotten of the Father! In His face we behold grace upon grace, and truth. Ah! At last, we behold the very face of God, and yet live! And in the light of His glory and grace, the kingdoms and pursuits and worries and concerns of this world grow strangely dim indeed.

Surely, LORD God, You are merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generations. And though we are but a stiff-necked people, You, our faithful God, are a covenant keeping God and will yet do marvels before us such as have not been done in all the earth; and all peoples and nations of the earth shall see the awesome work of our great God and King!

We long for that day, LORD. And we long for the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Come quickly, Lord! For we long to see, once again, very God, face to face, and to be forever changed into that blessed image. In Your holy and precious name we pray. Amen.

The Christian’s Hope Chest

2005-03-14T17:03:00.001-05:00

A hope chest is technically nothing more than a box or a closet used to store household objects collected over time. But a hope chest, of course, is so much more than that. It is a dowry and all that stuff is not mere knick-knack but precious treasure that a woman brings into marriage to begin building her own home and raising her own family. But a hope chest is even more than that. It is a beautiful symbol of a young woman’s brightest hopes and dearest dreams for a future yet to fully unfold.

Christian, open the lid of your spiritual hope chest...this morning. What’s inside? What are your hopes and dreams? Humanistic hope is characterized by wistful optimism and silly sentimentality such as, “I hope she likes me” or “I hope the Yankees win the pennant this year.” Or, maybe something far more grand such as Lloyd George addressing the British House of Commons on Armistice day in 1918 when he said, “I hope we may say that on this…morning came an end to all wars.”

Scripture has much to say about hope and it doesn’t get as much press as it’s better known siblings, faith and love. “Set your hope fully on the grace and riches of your glorious inheritance,” we’re instructed. While hope is forward looking it so shapes our present. Colossians 1 says, “Our present faith and love spring from our future hope.” Likewise, Titus 1 says, “Our present faith rests on our future hope” and Hebrews 11 says, “Our present faith is the substance of our future hope.”

Victor Frankel delivered a speech upon his release from a Nazi concentration camp in which he said: “There is only one reason I am here today…I dreamed. I dreamed that someday I would be here, telling you how I, Victor Frankel, survived the Nazi concentration camps. I've never been here before, I've never seen any of you before, I've never given this speech before. But in my dreams, in my dreams, I have stood before you and said these words a thousand times.”

Christian, you have a hope even more secure. A hope that anchors the very soul. Don’t grow discouraged and disheartened as the boisterous seas of this world rage and churn about us! It is the hope of glory that will get you through the trials and tribulations of yet another week in this fallen and falling world. Set your hearts and minds on things above. And dare to dream of a brighter day and a glorious kingdom yet to be fully revealed! For our God is the God of hope.

Prayer Of Exaltation

2005-02-25T21:50:00.002-05:00

O LORD, enthroned in heavenly places, exalted far above all gods, principalities, and powers, might and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come, hear us now as we lift up our feeble voices in praise of You.

With the saints of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues around the world this morning and throughout the ages...we praise You! With kings, princes, and judges, old men and young children, we praise You! With all the beasts of the field and birds of the air and creatures of the sea we praise You! With the rivers, the fountains, and the oceans we praise You! With the flowers, grasses, and trees we praise You! With mountains, hills, valleys, and deserts we praise You. With rain and snow, fire and ice, clouds and wind we praise You! With the sun, moon, and starry hosts we praise You! With the angelic throng and the thousands of thousands around Your throne we praise You! With everything that has breath, every creature that is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea, we join our voices now in a thundering chorus of praise echoing before, behind, and all around Your throne in heaven.

But, O LORD, which of us is worthy to ascend this holy hill, to stand in this holy place, for truly You are an awesome God and a consuming fire? But we who have clean hands and pure hearts, who are poor and of contrite spirits, who tremble at Your word, and hope in nothing but Your mercy and Your everlasting righteousness. Thank you, Father. Blessing and honor and glory and power to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever! Amen!

The Christian’s Daily Bread

2005-02-24T17:05:00.001-05:00

Most mothers worry at one time or another that her child’s eating habits may not be healthy. Newborn babies very naturally and eagerly suckle milk at their mothers’ breasts before growing up to eat solid foods and, eventually, feed themselves. This is when the questions begin. Are they eating too much junk food? Are they getting a balanced and nutritional diet? Are they eating only their favorite foods, avoiding what they don’t like? Are they getting enough? Are they binging? Are they developing a sweet tooth?

As important as these questions surely are, Jesus reminds us that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The law-word of God is our daily bread for the soul without which...we shall surely die. It is both our tree of life and our tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 1 Peter exhorts us to desire the pure milk of the word that we may grow thereby but Hebrews adds that those who partake only of milk are unskilled babes for solid food belongs to the mature, those who by constant use of the word are trained to know both good and evil.

Do you have a healthy appetite for ingesting and digesting the word of God on daily basis? Are your spiritual eating habits healthy? Are you still suckling at the breast of the basic principles of God’s word or are you growing up to eat solid foods? Are you learning to feed yourself or are you content to be spoon-fed by your mothers and fathers in the faith? Are you eating spiritual junk food, processed food, or the pure milk and bread of God’s word? Are you getting a balanced and nutritional diet consisting of the basic food groups: law and gospel, garnished with generous helpings of biblical history, poetry, wisdom, prophets, and epistles? Are you eating only your favorite foods, avoiding what you don’t like, or are you devouring the whole counsel of God? Are you getting enough, binging at the Lord’s feast-table on Sundays but starving yourself the rest of the week?

Or do you meditate and chew on God’s word every day and night, like Joshua and the Psalmist, never allowing it to depart from your mouth? Are you developing a sweet tooth? The Psalmist proclaimed, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey!” So go ahead and indulge a bit. “I ate your words,” declared Jeremiah, “and they were my joy and my heart’s delight because I bear your name.” Do you bear his name? Then feast on his word not only today but all week long. For as the Psalmist reminds us, “His name and his word are exalted above all things.” Be sure His name and His word are exalted above all things in your home and around your table this week!”

Prayer Of Thanksgiving

2005-02-07T18:12:00.002-05:00

Give thanks always for all things to God. And be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Father, we confess that we are by our fallen natures ungrateful, anxious creatures. We grow restless and apprehensive in the circumstances You in Your great wisdom have ordained for us. We worry and fret over the bounty that You in Your great mercy have provided for us. And we cry out to you in prayer not with thanksgiving but as beasts of the field...who whine and grumble before You in the lusts of their flesh.

As long as we attribute our circumstance, our situation, our lack, our discomfort, our pain, our loss, to anything or anyone, other than You our Sovereign God, from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things, then we are but brute beasts, driven by our lusts to whine and grumble and beg and plead, and to wonder why we do not receive.

As the Puritan Henry Scougal put it: “There is scarce any duty of religion more commonly neglected, or slightly performed, than that of…thanksgiving. Our many desires put us to begging favors from You, while our many sins constrain us from admitting what we deserve from You. Thus self-interest and self¬-love drive us to our prayers. But, alas! How small a part has genuine thanksgiving in our devotions before You? The meager thanks we manage to muster up in our prayers are but a show and a ceremonial pre¬face to usher in our real prayers: petitions for what we want, rather than sincere, hearty gratitude for what we have already received, like it or not.

Your law teaches us that the sacrifice of thanksgiving is a peace offering, and with such a sacrifice You are well pleased, and that by way of such a sacrifice we come to know the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, and guards our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So we come now this morning, a royal priesthood, on behalf of all that You have given us dominion over, particularly those of our own households who are not yet able with their lips or with their hearts, to give You sincere and heartfelt thanks for all that we are and all that we have, like it or not, for You are good, and Your love and Your mercy endure forever. Amen!

Marriage, Civil Rights, Natural Law, And American Democracy

2005-01-29T13:09:00.002-05:00

As fodder for discussion, a friend recently posed the loaded question, “is marriage a civil right?” To which I replied, “on what basis?” A civil right is a liberty guaranteed by civil law. While marriage laws vary from state to state, I’m not aware that marriage is mentioned in the US Constitution, amendments to the US Constitution, or the civil rights acts of 1866, 1964, or 1991. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States is a signatory party, does guarantee “the right of men and women of marriageable age to marry and to found a family” (Article 23). But, again, on what basis? According to the UN declaration on civil and political rights “these rights derive from the inherent dignity of the human person” (Preamble).

Precisely how one reasons from “the inherent dignity of the human person” to the civil rights of two persons to marry I don’t know. The civil magistrate does, of course, have a vested interest in marriage as the very heart of civilization but the fact is that marriage is not a “civil right.” Marriage is...a sacrament of the Church. The Church, therefore, stands opposed to the godless notions of marital “civil” rights, marriages, unions, etc.

“But America is not a ‘Christian’ nation so you can not restrict marriage to ‘Christian marriage’” the critics respond. Clearly defining the terms of any debate is imperative. The marriage debate is so convoluted precisely because we, God's ambassadors in the public square, have failed to clearly articulate God’s word on this important topic (and just about every other topic of consequence). I suggest we call a spade a spade: the “traditional marriage” that natural law theorists advocate to produce a strong, viable state is precisely “Christian” marriage. To pretend otherwise is intellectually dishonest of our opponents and a compromise we can’t afford to make.

“Traditional marriage” in Muslim societies, for instance, is not at all what we have in mind. Mohammed had 45 wives plus concubines and sex slaves. One of his wives was a six year old girl whose marriage was consummated at age nine. Therefore, in Muslim societies, girls may be “given” (taken) in marriage at the age of nine years old. And, according to the Koran, God told Mohammad: “We have made such women available to you without any payment to them, these are all your cousins, slave women and any Moslem woman who would like to give you herself, or any women whom you desire free of charge.” As Muslim scholar Ebn Abbas observes, “the highest member of Moslems, who is the Prophet Mohammed, has also the highest appetite for women”--in this life and the next. Therefore, in Muslim societies, polygamy is encouraged. After Mohammad decided to steal the wife of his adopted son, he received another revelation from God: “A Moslem man cannot adopt another man's child.” Subsequently, his son's adoption was annulled and his wife taken. Therefore, adoption is prohibited in Muslim societies. Mohammed and his cohorts also freely discarded (divorced) and beat their wives, even to death. One of Mohammed's own daughters was beaten to death by her husband and readily replaced by yet another of Mohammed's daughters. Thus, women are systematically abused and killed in Muslim societies. Finally, Muslim societies hold to something they call "muta," or temporary marriage: any man away from home is free to take any woman he wants as long as he pays something (any meager amount) for her services. Therefore, even prostitution and rape are legal in Muslim societies. "Traditional marriage" in Muslim societies produces a weak, unviable state.

Now, to be sure, any amendment of Muslim marital law that we, even the secularists among us, might want is towards a distinctly "Christian" tradition vs. some vague, natural law remedy. Is it not? Western civilization was built intentionally and explicitly on Christian principles whether or not we know it or will admit it. And the further away from that Christian tradition we move, the more we compromise our intentions in the public square to make the case more palatable on some utilitarian basis, the closer we are to gay marriage, polygamy, polyamory, etc., and the subsequent downfall of life as we know it. And we’re only half a step from there today, which is why political "conservatives" can’t take an honest stand on gay marriage--I recently heard a national conservative leader comment that he’s pleased “the conservative tent is now large enough to include gays and lesbians.”

Yes, my thinking on this and many other topics is rooted in a rejection of common sense, natural law remedies. I understand the natural law rhetoric but show me one historical example where it has proven effective. In fact, history demonstrates just the opposite.

The first natural law theorists were, of course, the Greeks. But would we really embrace the social and ethical proposals of Plato, Aristotle, et al? Modern Muslim societies trace their origins to an amalgamation of teachings from the Koran and the natural law theorists of Greece. When medieval Roman Catholics discovered the Greek philosophers, they, too, pursued a synthesis for apologetic purposes (e.g. Aquinas' Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles). Now, what made this mix palatable vs. the Muslim mix? Well, obviously, it was the Christian seasoning, which, again, begs the question as to whether natural law serves our purposes apart from Christ.

Natural law apologists cite the American founders as men committed to natural law ("we hold these truths to be self-evident...") and American democracy as the gold standard of social construction. But were not the founders heavily influenced by the West's distinctly Christian heritage? And could it be that God blessed America primarily because of the Puritans rather than the founders? The Puritans, like the Reformers before them, explicitly rejected "Roman Catholic" natural law politics. And now that the Puritans are all but dead and gone in America, replaced by Evangelicals eager to embrace natural law for compromising, apologetic purposes, the gold standard is looking more and more like fool's gold. (An interesting study is a comparison and contrast between cultures influenced more by Reformed Protestantism vs. Roman Catholicism, and I believe I could make a compelling case that today's Evangelicals think more like Roman Catholics than Reformed Protestants.) As far as I can tell by looking at human history, natural law leads to nothing other than godless naturalism, humanism, and autonomy.

And while I’m at it, and I’ve written on this before, the brand of American, natural law democracy now being aggressively exported around the world is a corrupting evil—complete with MTV and X rated films. Speaking of the Puritans, they also explicitly rejected the notion of democracy as downright dangerous. America was not a democracy but a republic, and most of our contemporary political ills are directly attributable to our ongoing transition from a republican to a democratic form of government.

As an aside, the US just labeled as “outposts of tyranny” Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Belarus, Zimbabwe, and Burma. How politically convenient! What about Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Muslim world? What about China, where forced abortion and female infanticide have claimed over 250 million lives to date and where a 34-year old woman, Jiang Zongxiu, was just executed for distributing bibles? What about the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, where the “Philadelphia 5” is facing 47 years in prison for criminal conspiracy, possession of instruments of crime, reckless endangerment of life, ethnic intimidation, riot, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct, and obstructing highways, for merely showing up to protest a gay rights festival? (If you haven’t seen the video” take a look and decide for yourself.)

There is no legitimate civil law that is not established and maintained on the basis of God’s law. A whitewashed, Moslem culture built on anything else will not, in the long term, accomplish what we intend. Nor will a whitewashed, post-Christian Western civilization. I believe it was John Piper who once said he'd rather have a drunk for a neighbor than a self-righteous man because there's always hope for the drunk. Shalom is established on no other terms than God's. Let us not be like the Israelites of old who said, "peace, peace” when there was no peace. Let us work for peace, of course, but our shalom-building must also account for Christ's teaching that He came not to bring peace on earth but a sword. And that would divide even families. So be it.

Christianity In 178 AD

2005-01-29T13:07:00.001-05:00

Celsus, philosopher, writing on Christianity in 178 AD: “Let no cultured persons draw near, none wise and none sensible…but if any man is ignorant, if any man is wanting in sense and culture, if anybody is a fool, let him come boldly [to Christ]…Most teachers cry, 'Come to me you who are clean and worthy,' and they are followed by the highest caliber of people available. But this silly master cries, ‘Come to me you who are down and beaten by life’ and so he accumulates around him the rag, tag, and bobtail of humanity...the worst, the vulgarist, the most uneducated persons...They are like a swarm of bats or ants creeping out of their nest or frogs holding a symposium around the swamp or worms convening in the mud.”

Anna Karenina And Oprah Winfrey

2005-01-12T17:24:00.006-05:00

Finding a good read amongst airport bookstore drivel, I surmised, would be akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. But I was desperate. Imagine my surprise, then, when I stumbled across the eight-hundred page tome Anna Karenina, by the eminent Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, with an “Oprah Book Club Selection” banner wrapped around it! It had been somewhere on my reading list for years; it took me months to get through as it lived up to its arduous reputation.

Before penning my own thoughts, though, I thought I’d have a look at what Oprah has to say at her book club website:
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New Year's Prayer

2005-01-07T18:24:00.001-05:00

Almighty God, You have reminded us once again this Advent season that Jesus Christ, that Dayspring from on high, is pure light from pure light, Thy glory streaming, full of grace and truth, to enlighten the whole world. In this new year may that light now enkindled in our hearts blaze forth in this place, in our homes, across this land, and around the world, penetrating every valley and every recess, dispelling the darkness of sin and death, and consuming all that is unworthy of Thy great name. Grant now this morning yet another glimpse of Your glory and grace as your people worship You in Spirit and in Truth, in Jesus name. Amen.

Your God Reigns!

2005-01-02T17:28:00.008-05:00

Open your Bible with me to one of our favorite psalms here at Christ Church, Psalm 2. I want to begin, though, where Pastor Gene left off two weeks ago: that glorious Christmas promise of Isaiah 9:6-7. And since Christmas has now come and gone, I want to paraphrase that Christmas prophecy from our side of its fulfillment: Unto us a child was born, a Son was given. And the government [of the whole world] is upon His shoulder. And His name is called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of His rule and peace there will be no end. From the throne of David He is ordering and establishing His kingdom with judgment and with justice [both now and forevermore]. This is the glad tidings of great joy! This is the good news of the gospel! The King is come! Let heaven and nature sing! Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King!
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A Communion Toast

2004-12-22T17:38:00.001-05:00

It’s said the Jacobites of Scotland never sat down to a table without lifting a cup to toast the future return of their King. It was a tradition rooted in the ancient world when a king preparing for travel would cut a blood covenant w his subjects, granting them dominion over his kingdom in return for their allegiance during his absence. And this covenant was re-enacted on a regular basis in memory of the king until his return.

Similarly, King Jesus cut a covenant with His apostles and, thereby, with His Church. In the little known preface...to this covenant, Jesus said: “Fervently have I desired to eat this Passover with you and I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then came the more familiar words: “He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; this do in remembrance of me.’ In the same manner He took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Finally, came this little known postscript: “And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as my Father bestowed on me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom.”

When we enter into a covenant with this King, we receive a kingdom, and dominion, and even permission to eat and drink at the King’s table! And as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup in covenant renewal, we remember His death, that is our Lord’s departure, and we proclaim anew our allegiance to Him until He returns.

In one sense, of course, He has already returned. “Fervently have I desired to eat this Passover with you,” He said, “and I will not eat it again until the Passover is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 1 Cor. 5:7 tells us that the Passover was fulfilled the very next day when Christ, our Passover lamb, was slain. And the shadow of Passover was set aside for the substance of the Lord’s Supper. And here at this table the King Himself meets us once again in the “already” of His kingdom.

Yet there is also, of course, a “not yet” sense in which we lift our cups now to proclaim our covenant allegiance and to toast the future return of our King! Now to the King...

Antony Flew's "Conversion"

2004-12-11T13:07:00.001-05:00

The evangelical world is abuzz, giddy even, with excitement over the “dramatic news,” broken on Thursday by ABC and the Associated Press, that one of the world’s foremost atheists, British philosopher Antony Flew, has renounced atheism. For a fascinating interview with Flew to be published in the Winter edition of Philosophia Christi, go to www.biola.edu/antonyflew/flew-interview.pdf.

On the one hand, such giddiness strikes me as just plain silliness. A fool admits his folly and throngs of Christians stand up and cheer wildly as if he somehow just validated our (little) faith! On the other hand I recognize how momentous this surrender to sanity is and I, too, stand up and rejoice.

The fact is, though, that Flew's deity is the age-old god of the philosophers so he's just now catching up to where pagan thinkers have been for millennia. And that's a long, long way from the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Even the demons are nearer the Truth than these guys.

Years ago the brilliant philosopher Mortimer Adler wrote a book entitled How to Think About God: A Guide for the 20th-Century Pagan. After 16 chapters laying out the case for god comes "To the Chasm's Edge." Natural, or philosophical, theology "can go no further. It carries us up to the edge of the chasm that separates what Pascal called 'the God of the philosophers' from 'the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,' and of Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. Pascal himself turned his back on the God of the philosophers and...crossed to the other side of the chasm not by reason, but by a leap of faith...there is a world of difference between believing that God exists and believing in God."

I later picked up the book Philosophers Who Believe where Adler tells the rest of his story. In "The Leap of Faith" he says: "I fell ill...The illness was protracted. I was in the hospital for five weeks...During this long stay in the hospital I suffered a mild depression, and...I would, unaccountably, burst into tears. Father Howell, the rector of St. Chrysostom's Church...visited me, and once when he prayed for my recovery, I choked up and wept...On that day and in the days after it, I found myself repeating the Lord's Prayer, again and again, and meaning every word of it. Quite suddenly, when I was awake one night, a light dawned on me, and I realized what had happened...I had been seriously praying to God. But had I not said at the end of How to Think About God that no one who understood the God of the philosophers as well as I thought I did would worship that God or pray to him? Only if, by the gift of grace, one made the leap of faith across the chasm to the God of religious Jews and Christians would one engage in worship and prayer...I thank God for the leap of faith that enabled me to cross that chasm."

My sincere prayer for Antony Flew is "the gift of grace" to "cross that chasm" where he now finds himself precariously perched. At 81 years of age, I pray the hound of heaven comes on quickly, like a bruit (Francis Thompson's “The Hound of Heaven,” which is must-reading if you've never experienced it.) And when He does, let us not exult in the triumph but in humility recite yet again “The Apologist's Evening Prayer” by C.S. Lewis.

Advent Prayer

2004-12-05T13:06:00.001-05:00

In this, yet another advent season of anticipation, longing, and hope, the darkness of night still lingers about us like a fog, and clings, as ominous shadows enshroud our hearts with gloom, our enemies rage and conspire against us, and our most dreaded foes still stalk the land.

Yet in Thy presence will we remember and take heart. We lift up our heads to glorify the Lord. For in the dark streets shineth an everlasting light. Whisperings of long ago are shouted from rooftops. And good tidings of great joy ring throughout the land.

That the King has come! The glory of the Lord has dawned! And He is the light of the whole world! Wonderful Counselor is He called, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government there shall be no end.

So arise and shine, you his people! The sun has risen indeed, and never again will it set on the land of the living! The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the shadow of death a new day has dawned!

And as the day shines brighter and brighter, now we see ever more clearly, that our shadows are but the shade of Thy outstretched hand, O Lord, guiding and protecting and sanctifying. And to Your light we see the nations streaming, even kings to the brightness of day. Through Thy gates called Praise they press and into Thy walls called Salvation they crowd. Thy Kingdom come, they pray, in all its glory, its beauty, and its full brilliance.

O come, O come, Desire of Nations come. Bind the hearts of all mankind as one. Bid every strife and quarrel cease. And fill this world with heaven's peace. This we hope and pray, in Jesus name. Amen.

The Dangers Of Democracy / A Thanksgiving Prayer

2004-11-27T13:05:00.002-05:00

One Iraqi’s infamous response to a reporter’s question about what the American presence in Iraq means to him personally: “Democracy, whiskey, and sexy!” Indeed, drunkenness and pornography are now rampant in this embryonic democracy. Likewise, the response of a Haitian man as to why he joined in a looting rampage following the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide: “This is democracy….we can do what we want.” If such sentiments strike you as outrageous then you need to wake up and smell the coffee because this political ideology is the number one American export around the world, appropriately earns us the epithet “The Great Satan” in much of the world, and is downright dangerous at home and abroad.

A bit of hyperbole, you muse? Consider, for instance the US Supreme Court ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey: “At the heart of liberty,” as proclaimed in the US Declaration of Independence, “is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." And more than 40 million young Americans have now been murdered. Abortion is the leading cause of death in the US and has already taken 64 times more American lives than all our nation’s wars combined.

At the heart of contemporary American democracy is the absurd humanistic philosophy of personal autonomy, or Self-rule, vs. theonomy, God-rule. There are no authorities but Self and there are no values but Choice. And democracy without values leads to nihilism, to anarchy, and eventually to totalitarianism.

Oh, it couldn’t happen here, you assert? Again, wake up and smell the coffee. Thank God for the 4 million or so (out of 300 million) “values voters” who swung the last election but take a look at what’s happening in other countries practicing American democracy without American “values voters.” In one country, for example, recently profiled in a First Things (April 2004) piece entitled “Thinly Disguised Totalitarianism,” the courts are currently deliberating over such things as whether medical professionals will be forced to perform abortions, whether churches will be forced to marry homosexuals, whether religious charities will be forced to recognize same-sex relationships, whether religious schools will be forced to hire homosexual teachers and allow same-sex dating, and whether graduates of religious schools will be permitted to teach school. The government has already mandated that anti-gay speech is a hate crime and that Christian-run businesses may not decline work from homosexual advocacy groups. Never fear, though, as the government promises to remain “broad-minded…in allowing churches to administer their own sacraments as they see fit.” The article summarizes the situation with a quote from Pope John Paul II: “As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.” And we’re not talking here about Russia or China but about our democratic neighbors to the north, Canada.

The dictionary definition of democracy is simple: “Rule by the people exercised by the majority or their representatives.” But rule by the people can literally mean anything and is an insidious idea. It is not what the American framers had in mind—a democracy is not the same thing as a republic—and is certainly not something worthy of cherishing, upholding, and exporting as our dearest American ideal. Inflammatory, you think? I’ll go further: I would vigorously argue that any other form of government based on Christian principles is superior to democracy based on human passions. And the day is coming when every knee will bow to a King (Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:10).

As it is Thanksgiving weekend, I close by quoting from George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Day proclamation:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor…Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be…that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions…to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations…and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.

Ah, now there’s an ideology worthy of export. For not only did it make the United States of America the greatest nation on earth, our fathers recognized it as a divine mandate to “protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations…and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.” Sounds more like a missionary than a president, huh?

We do humbly beseech Thee, O Lord, to pardon our national transgressions. You have blessed us and our great land mightily. And for this we give You thanks and praise. But to whom much is given much is required and we confess that we have failed You and we have failed the nations. For, like national Israel in their darkest day, we refuse to bow the knee to our Great King and, instead, do every one of us what is right in our own downcast eyes (Judges 21:25). Forgive us. Lift up our eyes. Restore our vision. For without a godly vision we will stubbornly persist in our sin and destruction (Proverbs 29:18). In the name of King Jesus we pray. Amen.

Response To A Roman Catholic Critique Of Presuppositional Epistemology

2004-11-23T17:30:00.002-05:00

Written in response to a philosopher-friend's critique of Presuppositional epistemology and subsequent contention that the transcendental argument proves Roman Catholicism to be the one, true Church. That’s quite a claim, say I. As I understand it, your critique of (A) a Presuppositional epistemology is as follows:

(1) Presuppositionalism demands absolute certainty for knowledge.
(2) Yet, the Reformed doctrine of human depravity denies that absolute certainty is possible.
(3) Thus, Reformed Presuppositionalism effectively and unwittingly renders knowledge impossible.

It does appear that (A) is self-defeating and I fear that many Reformed folks have, indeed, set themselves up to fall unwittingly into the trap of Cartesian skepticism. The quickest route to skepticism has always been the Cartesian definition of knowledge as absolute certainty. This was the gist of RC Sproul’s problem with Greg Bahnsen and for this reason, while I admit much that is good and right about (A) both in principle and in practice, I am not a strict Presuppositionalist. The obvious solution is to redefine either (1) or (2).
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What Is Truth?

2004-11-22T16:37:00.001-05:00

The age-old pursuit of philosophy is the search for truth: Metaphysics—what are we to believe? Epistemology—how do we know? And Ethics—what should we do about it; what is our duty? The search for truth, though, is far more than a philosophical enterprise. It is first and foremost a spiritual endeavor. “For this reason I was born,” proclaimed Jesus, “and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “Truth? What is truth?” scoffed Pontius Pilate and promptly ordered the Way the Truth and the Life executed.

This fundamental antithesis between those on the side of truth and those opposed to truth is a thematic thread woven into the very fabric of...human history, rooted in the very first distortion of truth in the Garden of Eden, leading to God’s curse of perpetual “enmity” between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, between Christ and His Church, the pillar and foundation of truth, and the father of lies and his countless minions opposed to truth.

As this war rages about us, the starting point for every one of us as individuals, whether or not we admit it, is a basic, objective knowledge of the truth—Calvin’s sensitus divinitus—known by way of general, or natural, revelation. The noetic effects of mankind’s plunge into sin, however, are a depraved mind and an incessant struggle to suppress the truth in rebellious unrighteousness. Yes, the City of God is at war with the City of Man and the battlefield is my/your very own heart.

God forbid that we, His covenant people, should ever violate His greatest commandment by bowing in deference to the idols of ungodly thought. We unapologetically refuse to keep an open mind to the “truths” of those who tempt us with humanistic fruit that promises to make us wise! And we refuse to tolerate the futile reasoning of those who, professing themselves to be wise, are utter fools, self-deceived and deceiving, blind leaders of the blind—in politics, education, media, the arts, and even the church!

The beginning of knowledge, our metaphysical foundation, is a holy fear of the Great I AM, revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this we know, as well as all that is required of us, by way of Holy Scripture, which is our epistemological foundation. As the children’s chorus puts it: the B-I-B-L-E yes that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.

The Da Vinci Code

2004-11-12T16:31:00.001-05:00

In March 2003 this heady conspiracy-thriller blasted off with 6,000 copies sold its very first day. Within a week it left the stratosphere and hit the NY Times bestseller list, where it has been a permanent fixture since. And with a Ron Howard movie now in the works that promises to rival Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code shows no signs of reentering earth’s atmosphere anytime soon.

The Da Vinci Code, according to Dan Brown’s website, is “an exhilarating blend of relentless adventure, scholarly intrigue, and cutting wit” that “heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightening-paced, intelligent thriller…surprising at every twist, absorbing at every turn, and in the end, utterly unpredictable…right up to its astonishing conclusion.” Without revealing the plot, which you may want to read for yourself, suffice is to say the book is...a smorgasbord of ancient/New-Age spirituality, Gnosticism, paganism, feminism, and goddess worship replete with sex rituals, all tied neatly together in a conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories that vilifies 2000 years of Christian history. “The greatest story ever told is, in fact, the greatest story ever sold” (266-7).
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Prayer Of Thanksgiving For Our Heritage

2004-10-30T21:13:00.002-04:00

Father we have so much to thank You for this morning—more than we even know. We thank You for Jesus Christ and for the great mercies and promises that are ours in Him. We thank You for our families and for your assurance that the promises and the blessings are theirs, too. We thank You for...Your loving providence. We thank You for the breath, the strength, and the freedom to worship You in spirit and truth, and for Your liberal provision of this facility for another year. We thank You for the privilege of choosing those who govern us—may we do so wisely. We thank You for the discipline and for the trials that produce in us endurance and a perfect faith. We thank You even for the pain and suffering that serves to remind us that this world is not our home and to wean us from its intoxicating pleasures.

We thank You particularly this morning for Your covenant faithfulness through all generations. And for the deep and rich heritage of faith that we draw upon so casually this morning, passed on to us by the blood, the sweat, and the tears of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of Moses and Joshua, of the old covenant judges, kings, priests, and prophets, of John the Baptist, the Apostles, and Saint Paul, of Ignatius, Polycarp, and the church fathers, of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Irenaeus, Athanasius, Anselm, and the church’s apologists, of Ambrose, Chrysostom, Jerome, Augusine, and the church’s preachers and teachers, of Lombard, Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Knox, and our reformers, of Baxter, Owen, Rutherford, Turretin, Bunyan, Watson, Boston, and the Puritans, of Edwards, Whitefield, Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones, Carey, Livingston, and our own evangelists, of Dabney, Kuyper, Berkof, Hodge, Warfield, Machen, Murray, Van Til, Schaeffer, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Sproul, Reymond, Frame, and our theologians, of Wilson, Leithart, Schlect, Liechty, Stephenson, Guyer, and our other pastors. May we, too, be found faithful fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, stewards of the storehouse of grace, that our children and our children’s children might rise up and call this generation “Blessed.” For this honor we thank You.

And for all these things we offer this sacrifice of thanksgiving in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be all praise and glory, with You, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever. Amen.

They Say It's The Economy, Stupid

2004-10-30T13:05:00.001-04:00

Faith Can Enrich More Than the Soul, NY Times, 01/31/04: “Harvard researchers…say analysis of data collected in 59 countries between 1981 and 1999 shows that economic growth is stimulated by whether one believes in...afterlife—especially hell.”

Dear Mr. President: They say “it’s the economy, stupid.” Maybe something like excerpts from Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” on the stump would do the trick.

Evangelical Abortion

2004-10-30T13:04:00.001-04:00

Evangelical Christians, who reject the notion of moral culpability prior to the “age of accountability,” may not be aware that other Christian traditions reject the notion of an “age of accountability” on the grounds of culpability for original sin. Traditional Catholics, for example, hold that only the baptized are admitted into heaven, regardless of age or mental capacities, while Reformed believers hold that heaven is open only to the elect on the basis of Christ’s completed work of redemption.

My wife once commented that were she not Reformed she would be pro-choice. To my utter amazement, I recently ran across a serious attempt to make precisely this case...I was flipping through back issues of Faith and Philosophy, the journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers, and happened upon “No Harm, No Foul: Abortion and the Implications of Fetal Innocence” in the April 2002 issue. Babies who are aborted go to heaven. Babies who develop beyond the “age of accountability” will likely reject Christ and forfeit heaven. Therefore, while abortion is a sin to be avoided by Christians, it should be permitted as a morally necessary evil because it provides “a free pass to heaven” for those most at risk of getting there otherwise, the children of the ungodly.

Let’s break this down by doing some very simplistic benefit/risk analysis:

1. Pro-Choice: you commit murder by aborting your baby and struggle with the repercussions (on a scale of -5 to +5 this gets -4 points as I can think of worse sins) + your baby goes to heaven (+5) = +1. There is even a chance that your guilt will drive you to Christ and you are forgiven and join your child in heaven (+5) = +6.

2. Pro-Life: you raise your child as a good American and avoid the repercussions of abortion (+2 as you don't get as many points for doing what you should as you lose for doing what you shouldn't) + chances are that your child grows up to reject Christ and goes to hell (-5) = -3.

The pro-choice position wins. Here’s another way to think about it:

1. Pro-Choice: 40+ million babies aborted to date = 40+ million more residents of heaven and 0 in hell.

2. Pro-Life: Say 40+ million babies are saved temporally = ~4 million more residents of heaven and ~36 million in hell lost eternally.

Pro-choice wins again. Can you say reductio ad absurdum?

And while we’re on the subject of abortion, here are a couple of interesting tidbits from my Ad Absurdum, Ad Nauseum file:

Planned Parenthood Hires National Chaplain—Seeking to Woo Christians, Will Expound 'Spiritual Dimensions' of Sex, WorldNetDaily.com, 03/11/04: Planned Parenthood has hired Ignacio Castuera to increase the base of clergy and congregational support for “choice.” Castuera explains: “God created us as moral agents with free will and when we restrain the ability to choose, we’re going against the design of God.” Oh, why didn’t we think of that? We certainly wouldn’t want to restrain anybody’s free will!

Pretty Stones and Dead Babies, Breakpoint, 10/01/03: Abortion clinics around the country are taking a novel approach to comforting distraught mothers: spiritual counseling, baptism ceremonies, love letters written on pretty pink paper and signed “Mommy,” pretty stones to take home as a precious keepsake, and "I Had An Abortion" tee-shirts. Excuse me while I go throw up.

Poor Richard

2004-10-21T13:03:00.003-04:00

Richard Dawkins: “If people think God is interesting, the onus is on them to show that there is anything there to talk about. Otherwise they should just shut up about it.”

Richard Dawkins: “You cannot be both sane and well educated and disbelieve in evolution. The evidence is so strong that any sane, educated person has got to believe in evolution.”

Richard Dawkins: “It is absolutely safe to say that, if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that).”

Richard Dawkins: “Our leaders have described the recent atrocity with the customary cliche: mindless cowardice. ‘Mindless’ may be a suitable word for the vandalising of a telephone box. It is not helpful for understanding what hit New York on September 11. Those people were not mindless and they were certainly not cowards. On the contrary, they had sufficiently effective minds braced with an insane courage, and it would pay us mightily to understand where that courage came from. It came from religion.”

Richard Dawkins: “To fill a world with…religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used.”

Richard Dawkins, The Devil’s Chaplain: “Blindness to suffering is an inherent consequence of natural selection. Nature is neither kind nor cruel but indifferent.”

Richard Dawkins, Free Inquiry: “The mental abuse constituted by an unsubstantiated threat of violence and terrible pain, if sincerely believed by the child, could easily be more damaging than the physical actuality of sexual abuse. An extreme threat of violence and pain is precisely what the doctrine of hell is.”

Richard Dawkins, The Humanist: “It is fashionable to wax apocalyptic about the threat to humanity posed by the AIDS virus, ‘mad cow’ disease, and many others, but I think a case can be made that faith is one of the world's great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate.”

Richard Dawkins: The Virus of Faith: "Innocent children are being saddled with demonstrable falsehoods. It's time to question the abuse of childhood innocence with superstitious ideas of hellfire and damnation. Isn't it weird the way we automatically label a tiny child with its parents' religion?"

On Miracles

2004-10-20T13:01:00.001-04:00

Nancy Gibbs, Time, April 10, 1995: “For the truly faithful, no miracle is necessary; for those who must doubt, no miracle is sufficient.”

Give Thanks

2004-10-19T13:00:00.001-04:00

Os Guinness: “Rebellion against God does not begin with the clenched fist of atheism but with the self-satisfied heart of the one for whom ‘thank you’ is redundant…The man or woman of faith is the one who gives thanks. Unbelief, on the other hand, has a short and ungrateful memory.”

A Skeptic's Skeptic

2004-10-17T12:59:00.001-04:00

Dr. Armand Nicholi's popular Harvard course, The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud, was recently turned first into a book (The Question of God) and then a PBS television special. The book is fabulous because Dr. Nicholi presents a clear and compelling case for Christianity. PBS' producers, on the other hand, give us a clear and compelling case for naturalism in the person of professional "skeptic" Dr. Micahel Shermer. In spite of some astounding assertions and admissions by Shermer, the cacophony of other voices is no match for him. The Christians, in particular, are characteristically unprepared both intellectually and emotionally and, sadly, score dead-last on my debate card.

Though we know by revelation that Shermer artfully suppresses in unrighteousness the truth he can't not know, his "Skeptic Manifesto," published on his Web site, feigns objective, intellectual honesty:

“It is easy, even fun to challenge others' beliefs, when we are smug in the certainty of our own. But when ours are challenged, it takes great patience and ego strength to listen with an unjaundiced ear. But there is a deeper flaw in pure skepticism. Taken to an extreme the position by itself cannot stand…Skepticism is itself a positive assertion about knowledge, and thus turned on itself cannot be held. If you are skeptical about everything, you would have to be skeptical of your own skepticism. Like the decaying sub-atomic particle, pure skepticism uncoils and spins off the viewing screen of our intellectual cloud chamber.”

Shermer's solution to the problem of "pure skepticism" is to balance it with "pure naturalism," noting that "skepticism is embodied in the scientific method" of observation, induction, deduction, and verification. In this context, he makes a most interesting statement: "All facts in science are provisional and subject to challenge, and therefore skepticism is a method leading to provisional conclusions. Some claims, such as water dowsing, ESP, and creationism, have been tested (and failed the tests) often enough that we can provisionally conclude that they are false."

Please indulge my skepticism at this point. Shermer has observed creationism "often enough" to conclude that it is false? I suspect he would respond: "What I meant to say is that we have observed and verified enough about creation to reasonably conclude that creationism is false." But this doesn't at all solve his problem and only serves to introduce a host of logical fallacies (see www.datanation.com/fallacies/index.htm for help sorting them out—this would be a good exercise in critical thinking).

His real problem is rooted in this presupposition: "Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason is his only means to gain it." I must confess, once again, to a healthy dose of skepticism. How does Shermer the Skeptic know this? Has he verified it scientifically? Many would argue that his hypothesis has been tested often enough to provisionally conclude that it is false. Does Shermer reject this data? Must he personally verify it? Oh, but he's a naturalist a priori so why bother? Because, we, the skeptics' skeptics, want to know, Michael, not only "How do you know?" but "What if you’re wrong?"

A friend observed, "In the end, no amount of evidence would ever convince [Shermer] of anything where God is concerned." In fact, no amount of evidence could ever convince Shermer the Naturalist of anything where God is concerned. Hmmm…I take that back. The Incarnation solves the problem of skepticism, doesn't it, and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ IS—from Pilate the Skeptic to Shermer the Naturalist. But I digress.

I began by asserting that Shermer "artfully suppresses in unrighteousness the truth he can't not know" and "feigns objective, intellectual honesty." Read this startling exchange from the PBS transcript and render your own verdict:

Armand Nicholi: Were you agnostic before, or did you have a spiritual worldview, and change from that to what you might call a scientific or secular worldview?

Michael Shermer: My philosophy is that all phenomenon have natural explanations. There is no supernatural, there's just the natural and stuff we can't yet explain. That's basically my position. Socially, when I moved from theism to atheism, and science as a worldview, I guess, to be honest, I just liked the people in science, and the scientists, and their books, and just the lifestyle, and the way of living. I liked that better than the religious books, the religious people I was hanging out with — just socially. It just felt more comfortable for me.

Doug Holladay: Was it a real clear, one day here, one day here?

Michael Shermer: No, a couple years.

Armand Nicholi: So it was a relationship-driven decision.

Michael Shermer: Not solely. The intellectual stuff and all that is part of it, but if you're going to be honest, it's not just reasoning your way to a position.

Doug Holladay: Well, how do you make sense of the other, now?

Michael Shermer: In reality, I think most of us arrive at most of our beliefs for non-rational reasons, and then we justify them with these reasons after the fact.

Armand Nicholi: Well, as a psychiatrist, I think that we are primarily beings of feeling, more than of thought. And I think that most of our decisions are often — are made on the basis of what we feel instinctively. And so, I wonder, in all of us, how much of it we're influenced by people that we meet whom we admire and want to be like.

And here's one more telling exchange:

Armand Nicholi: Lewis wrote in a letter about his transformation from being a militant atheist to the spiritual worldview that it was very intellectual, very gradual, and not simple. He first noticed that, throughout his life, from the time of his childhood that he periodically experienced a sense of intense longing — for someone or something, that he really didn't understand. He eventually came to realize that no human relationship could ever fulfill this longing, and he saw this as a signpost pointing with unmistakable clarity to the creator. Is there anything in your experience that parallels that? Do you think that his arguments are convincing?

Michael Shermer: No. I don't know, it seems like you have all the theistic arguments that are recognizing the signposts, and all the atheistic arguments to counter them providing natural explanations. It seems like it's really closely balanced. It's not obvious. It's like you have to take a leap of faith. And isn't that how it should be? Because if it was provable, and it was just obvious, then everybody would believe — or they should. But they don't.

The fog of philosophy aside, we see clearly that Shermer the Skeptic is none other than Shermer the Sinner. Such is the verdict of a fellow Sinner whose sincere prayer is that God, in His great mercy, might grant another, Michael Shermer, repentance unto salvation.

The Problem Of Evil

2004-10-15T12:58:00.001-04:00

I recently caught my son and friends on the Internet engaged in a vigorous debate over the persistent problem of pain, suffering, and evil in God’s good world. What a pleasant surprise! And I was pleased as punch that they invited the old man’s two cents worth. So here you go, fellows.

The problem of evil is, of course, the classic conundrum for us Christians because, as classically stated, it is a potent defeater of the Christian worldview...Why? Because it points up what appears to be a glaring inconsistency. George Smith sums up the problem in his book, Atheism: The Case Against God, thus: "If God knows there is evil but cannot prevent it, he is not omnipotent. If God knows there is evil and can prevent it but desires not to, he is not omnibenevolent." Atheistic philosophers from David Hume on insist very loudly that such an argument formally renders the case for Christianity fallacious and absurd.

To this we must respond and we begin by readily admitting, as Christians have done throughout the history of the Church from Old Covenant to New, that the problem of evil is, indeed, a deadly serious issue. And for far too many it is far more than a mere logical paradox or intellectual mystery but a cry of very real, personal pain and suffering. Oftentimes, then, the solution is to establish a genuine, loving relationship over the long haul that earns you the right to move behind the intellectual fog and minister to underlying physical needs and spiritual issues.

On the other hand, though, as Greg Bahnsen observes in Always Ready, for far too many others the problem of evil is a mere philosophical smokescreen blown in our faces not as an intellectual basis for a lack of faith in God but as an intellectual expression of a lack of faith in God. For such “intellectuals,” then, how do we resolve the logic problem?

The problem is typically stated in the form of a syllogism with three propositions:

1. God is all-good.
2. God is all-powerful.
3. Evil exists in God’s world.

Bahnsen maintains there is a critical, missing premise here:

4. God has a hidden but morally sufficient reason for allowing evil to exist and is providentially working all things out for the eventual good of the elect and for the eternal glory of God.

Part of the reason unbelievers have so much difficulty with the problem of evil is because, from their naturalistic perspective, this is all there is and there ain’t no more with regards to life and death and reward and judgment. Things look very different, however, in the context of a just God who is all-wise, all-just, and sovereign over all time and eternity. Indeed, we confess that this life, important as it is for beings created in the image of God, is but a vapor (James 4) and a shadow of the life to come. In this life we have nothing to fear from pain, suffering, evil, and even death for our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will someday be revealed in us (Romans 8).

One predisposed to unbelief will surely find such answers too mysterious and, ultimately, unsatisfactory. What then? Bahnsen recommends turning the tables: "The problem of evil is not really a problem for the believer—but rather for the unbeliever." For example:

“We are grateful that we can agree in condemning and resisting evil but on what basis do you make such judgments? Do you stand on the shifting sands of subjectivism or the solid rock of absolutes? Are your definitions and categories relative social constructs or binding universals? Does your naturalistic worldview consistently justify such a position or are you, in fact, standing on God’s ground, as demonstrated by the rich Christian tradition of fighting for good to triumph over evil?”

And if all else fails in addressing this most profound of questions? Then we are left where we surely should have begun: on our knees before our God who alone is all-good and all-powerful.

On Legislating Morality And Twisting Logic

2004-10-12T12:58:00.002-04:00

“A certain old man fell into horrific sin and landed half dead by the side of the road. Now by chance a religious man happened by but, seeing dear old Uncle Sam in the ditch, left a gospel tract and passed by on the other side with a gleam in his eye—he was an eschatological pessimist. Another religious man soon happened by, stooped for a look and a brief gospel admonition, and went on his way with a tear in his eye—he was an eschatological fatalist. But a certain evangelical, as she journeyed by, took compassion on the old man, bandaged up his wounds, and helped him on his way—she didn’t know any better.”

I recently heard a new twist on the old, tired rhetorical claim that it’s not nice for us to press our Christian morals into civil legislation: It’s not right for us to press our Christian morals into civil legislation when God is using civil immorality to judge us. Sodomy is a case in point...The logic of this assertion, as best as I can untangle it, runs something like this: “For sin in the Church (root rot) God judges Culture (fruit rot) and thus the entire tree. God is judging Culture (fruit rot) and thus the entire tree. Therefore, sin is in the Church (root rot) and the proper response is Church reform vs. Culture reform.” While exuding much that is true and wise, such reasoning is so muddled that I hardly know where to begin.

Affirming the consequent, for starters, invalidates the argument, as do the fallacies of cum/post hoc ergo propter hoc, mistaking correlation for causation, false analogy, and hasty generalization. I think we make a category mistake of botanical taxonomy and pathology when we confound as if one the intertwined but antithetical vegetation of the City of God and the City of Man. A case could reasonably be made that in its long and checkered history the Church has in various times and places fallen into corruptions at least as great as today’s Church without a contemporaneous visitation of judgment on Culture. Conversely, a case could be made that Culture has at times sunk in sodomy in the face of a just Church. Was the early Church responsible for Rome’s fall into sodomy and eventual sacking? Many Christians thought so. Augustine disagreed, calling for a more sophisticated differentiation between the triumphant Kingdom of God and the transient fiefdoms of this world.

Logic aside, on what biblical or historical foundation are such conclusions grounded? Scripture exhorts us in the “good” and “lawful” use of civil legislation: bridle “the lawless and insubordinate, the ungodly and sinners, the unholy and profane” by restraining evil, specifically “murder, fornication, sodomy...and any other thing contrary to sound doctrine” (1 Timothy 1). Accordingly, the fathers urge what the Reformers and Westminster divines came to call the first use of God’s law; the first use of God’s law is its political use in restraining the evil of unregenerate humanity in the civil sphere. Calvin, for instance: “The first use of the law is, by means of its fearful denunciations and the consequent dread of punishment, to curb those who, unless forced, have no regard for rectitude and justice. Such persons are curbed, not because their mind is inwardly moved and affected, but because, as if a bridle were laid upon them, they refrain their hands from external acts, and internally check the depravity which would otherwise petulantly burst forth.” “Whatever [civil] laws,” he says, “shall be framed [according to the light of natural law or the rule of moral law]…there is no reason why we should disapprove of them…If any disturbance occurs in a commonwealth, the evils that usually arise from it must be corrected by new ordinances…There are nations inclined to a particular vice, unless it be most sharply repressed.” He goes on to praise as exemplary those pagan regimes with “laws to punish whoremongers and to cause wedlock to be kept undefiled.” And dissenters he characterizes as “malicious and hateful toward public welfare.” Therefore, concludes Greg Bahnsen: “In resisting the political use of God's law, in detracting from its political relevance, and in encouraging either indifference to questions of social justice or else alternative standards for it, [we] are not aligned with [our] Reformation forefathers.”

The ultimate purpose of God’s law, of course, is to reveal sin and point us towards Christ (Galatians 3). Thus, there is no gospel that is not preceded by law and there is no legitimate law that fails to reflect Christian morality. Luther insists that this “first use of the law” is “very necessary, and appointed of God, as well for public peace, as for the preservation of all things, but especially lest the cause of the Gospel should be hindered by the tumult and seditions of wicked, outrageous and proud men.” And on this task of cultural regeneration as precursor to spiritual regeneration, J. Gresham Machen writes, “It should be ours to create, so far as we can, with the help of God, those favourable [cultural] conditions for the reception of the gospel.”
Nonetheless, the argument counters on the basis of Romans 1, sodomy is a special case of sin as God’s judgment and, therefore, contra 1 Timothy 1, we are wrong-headed to resist it. In addition to sodomy, however, Romans 1 lists more than twenty other sins, including murder. Are we wrong-headed to resist murder in the civil realm? And while we’re at it, are we wrong-headed to ease pain in childbirth, to avoid sweat in toil, to oppose terrorists, or to delay death—all special cases of God’s judgment?

Judgment surely begins at the house of God and we have much to repent of. By all means let us do so fervently. But to sit idly by in sackcloth and ashes—with either a gleam or a tear in our eye—while our neighbor’s house burns to the ground strikes me as disingenuous love—especially if we are, in fact, responsible for the fire. What, precisely, does it mean to love our neighbors as ourselves given the very definition of love is putting God’s law into action—and this in the context of political “ministry” (Romans 13)? What does it mean to seek the peace and prosperity of our pagan neighbors (Jeremiah 29)? What does it mean to disciple the nations? What does it mean to be the world’s preserving salt and illuminating light?

As Edmund Burke famously observed, “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” As fervently as we repent, let us press the crown rights of King Jesus in every inch of every sphere of every nation, conceding absolutely nothing in Culture, until God’s holy ordinances are once again established for the good of the people and Uncle Sam once again pays homage to our great God (Abraham Kuyper). Then will this present darkness pass.

“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer” (Samwise Gamgee).

Preaching Eugenics And Other Evils

2004-10-01T12:57:00.002-04:00

Eugenics (yu-jen-iks) n. the science of improving ourselves through controlled breeding.

The July/August 2004 issue of Books & Culture reviews a new book Preaching Eugenics by Christine Rosen. And wouldn't you know it?! Shoulder to shoulder with Progressive Science, on the front lines of the battle for yet another “blatant evil,” which came to full fruition in the Nazi movement, stood...liberal American churches, the Episcopal Church in particular. Surprise surprise. With apologies to the remnant there, not much has changed in the past century or so.

Who stood up to take on this hideous beast in the public square? Our friends in the Roman Catholic Church such as GK Chesterton—see, for example, his Eugenics and Other Evils. And here's an interesting quote from the review: "When in 1927 the U.S. Supreme Court famously upheld [forced sterilization], the lone dissenter was the court's one Catholic justice," proving that Catholics "could never truly be reconciled with secular democracy...As late as 1949...[critics] ranted against Catholic willingness to allow defectives and even 'monsters' to be born alive, and to be viewed as full human beings."

The SUPREME COURT was wr-wr-wrong?! Say it ain’t so! It ain’t so. For is not abortion a continuation of this very same policy? To "better ourselves," we continue various, insidious forms of eugenics such as abortion and genetic engineering—all in the name of our good friend Scientific Progress. And had it not been for the Nazi era, the eugenics movement likely wouldn’t have missed a step and we’d be much further down this road than we are today.

Now I’m no bio-Luddite but the Australians want to build better Olympic athletes! We humans need to ask ourselves some serious questions: What’s to prevent Scientific Progress from leading us straight to Brave New World? And what is “better” anway? And what, precisely, is a “full human being?” And who gets to decide? And why?

A common response runs something like this:

“Such questions we just can’t answer with absolute certainty.”(Translation: Such questions we just can’t answer by the scientific method—yet).
“So we must remain tolerant and open-minded, not allowing our personal biases and bigotry to stand in the way of betterment.”
(Translation: So you must remain tolerant and open-minded, not allowing your personal biases and bigotry to stand in the way of Scientific Progress).
“Have faith in the human spirit, listen to your own heart, and everything will work itself out for good in the end.”(Translation: Have faith in Scientific Progress, listen to your own fallen heart, and everything will work itself out to my liking in the end.)

“For example, pro-lifer, suppose you have 20 seconds to save a batch of frozen embryos from a burning building. You rush inside to discover, in addition to a freezer full of embryos, a trapped and terrified little girl. Does your heart not compel you to forget the embryos to save the little girl? And doesn’t this teach us something important about the value of life and what it means to be fully human?

The problem with such a hypothetical, of course, is that it sets up a false dilemma. Do the lack of actualized vs. potential capacities, such as fear of fire, really make embryos less intrinsically valuable? If so, are we suggesting that someone (Scientific Progress) establish subjective criteria for personhood and then grade life on a curve? So children are less valuable than healthy, productive adults? As are the disabled, the infirm, and the elderly? Famed ethicists such as Princeton’s Peter Singer say so, valuing “biographical life” over “biological life.”

But what if you rush inside that burning infertility clinic, to rescue your own precious embryos, and there discover a trapped and terrified, condemned serial killer? What then? And what would that teach us about the value of life and what it means to be fully human?

And while we’re at it, a fellow Centurion asked me, why are we freezing and abandoning embryos by the hundreds of thousands anyway? And why aren’t pro-lifers adopting them en masse? After all, they are “fully human,” are they not? Talk about building the Kingdom of God on earth. How about birthing the Kingdom of God on earth!

Indeed, we’ve got some hard questions to wrestle with if we are to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly coram Dei in this generation of Scientific Progress. Are you ready to go to the mat? What is the alternative? CS Lewis penned these prophetic words in 1944:

I am only making clear what Man’s conquest of Nature really means…The final stage is come when Man…has obtained full control over himself. Human nature will be the last part of Nature to surrender to Man. The battle will then be won. We shall…be henceforth free to make our species whatever we wish it to be. The battle will indeed be won. But who, precisely, will have won it?
…
I am not supposing them to be bad men. They are, rather, not men (in the old sense) at all. They are, if you like, men who have sacrificed their own share in traditional humanity in order to devote themselves to the task of deciding what ‘Humanity’ shall henceforth mean. ‘Good’ and ‘bad’, applied to them, are words without content: for it is from the that the content of these words is henceforward to be derived…It is not that they are bad men. They are not men at all…they have stepped into the void. Nor are their subjects necessarily unhappy men. They are not men at all: they are artifacts. Man’s final conquest has proved to be the abolition of Man” (The Abolition of Man).

May it never be. Lord, help us to be illuminating light and preserving salt in the midst of this dark and decaying culture. By Thy grace redeem this fallen world and transform it into Thy glorious kingdom of life and light, we pray. Amen!

I Am Zelig: A Stream-Of-Consciousness Confession

2004-09-30T12:56:00.001-04:00

“‘Who are you?’ said the caterpillar. Alice replied rather shyly, ‘I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.’”

Legion I am not, by God’s grace, but Zelig I am. So postmodern, in fact, that you might even call me pan-modern...On Sunday I’m a premodern postmodern of the pipe-smoking, wine-bibbing, Psalm-singing, Reformed Protestant variety unless, of coure, I’m with extended family when I’m most decidedly a tee totaling, hymn singing Fundamentalist, or with friends when I’m more likely a hand clapping Evangelical or maybe even an arm waving Charismatic. One must fit in, you know, when in Rome...Monday through Friday I’m decidedly more modern postmodern—liberal, secular, naturalistic...One must make a living, you know. Yep, a real man of the world, whichever world, that is, I happen to be in: Research Triangle Park, Philadelphia, London—existence before essence, you know. Back home on weekends my Selves vary considerably—definitely more postmodern postmodern, Mr. Diversity. There’s one persona for my wife, another for the kids, one for the neighbors, a couple on the Internet, the artist persona, the athlete, the intellectual, the…well, you get the point. Weekends can be craaazy, you know. But always exhilarating! Never, ever, ever boring! God forbid!

Why so many Me? Never thought about it really. Some of Me are decidedly well-groomed, to be sure, while others, I think, appear to be more fluid, spontaneous, impromptu, improvised. It’s a gift of sorts, I suspect. Favorite pastime? Well, I do spend a good bit of time surfing—the Internet, channel surfing, surfing the radio, newspapers, magazines. I’ve even surfed friends, I suppose, and churches, too.

Church really is about the existential search for My true Self, you know. I mean, other media do a better job showing Me My choices but church supports My coming out. I’m proud to say, in fact, that I really am quite religious. And nothing’s more important than finding the right (not in that sense—I wouldn’t presume to judge another Self—tolerance is the key here) church, where I can be the real Me, the all I can be Me. You know.

Part of the problem? Who, Me? I don’t think so (no judging now!) but it does get confusing at times. Confusing? No, I said amusing—please don’t twist my words.

Forgive me O Triune God, Great Three in One, Lord of the One and the Many, of Unity and Diversity, who created and unites every Particular by Thy Eternal Logos! It is no longer I my self who do these things, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. How wretched I am! Who will rescue me, center me, integrate me? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! Help me, O Lord, to die to my selves that You alone might live in and through me for Your glory and my good! And may my liberty, my choices, and my conformity be regulated not by self-love but by other-love, properly esteeming others higher than my self! Help me to use my shape-shifting, chameleon-like adaptability no longer for conforming to this world but solely for becoming all things to all people that some might be reconciled to You! Amen.

Labor Day Clash Of Worldviews

2004-09-06T12:54:00.002-04:00

“The facts, ma’am, just the facts,” implored Sergeant Joe Friday of the syndicated television program Dragnet.

From today’s NY Times editorial, “Workers of the World, Relax”: “The most remarkable feature of the modern workplace…lies in the Western world's widely held belief that our work should make us happy…Greco-Roman civilization tended to view work as a chore best left to slaves…Early Christianity took a similarly bleak view of labor, adding the even darker thought that man was condemned to toil in order to make up for the sin of Adam…The first signs of the modern, more cheerful attitude toward work can be detected in the city-states of Italy during the Renaissance.” Christianity...didn’t catch on until the 19th century.

From today’s Breakpoint commentary, “In Celebration of Labor: The Value of a Good Day's Work” (www.breakpoint.org): “Work to many…is a necessary evil…But that attitude and that goal are contrary to a Christian worldview perspective on work…In the ancient world, the Greeks and Romans looked upon manual work as a curse, something for lower classes and slaves. But Christianity changed all that. Christians viewed work as a high calling—a calling to be co-workers with God in unfolding the rich potential of His creation. This high view of work can be traced throughout the history of the Church” and became known as “the Protestant work ethic.”

Hmmm…what is, as Francis Schaeffer put it, the “true truth” on this one? Well, I don’t intend to muddy the waters by throwing in my two cents. Go check the facts yourself. And don’t overlook the primary source document, the Bible. I suggest you start right from the beginning and note, in particular, Genesis 2:15, which occurred prior to the fall/curse.

The Truth is out there!

Running To Win

2004-08-09T18:08:00.001-04:00

Over 10 thousand men, women, and children of every race, class, and creed are now converging on the city of Athens, Greece for the Summer Games of the 28th International Olympiad. The one thing all these people have in common and the one thing that differentiates them from the rest of us is a life-long, absolute devotion of heart, soul, mind, and strength to whatever it takes to win the gold.

This is, of course, a passion much older than Western Civilization itself as Greece birthed and hosted the Olympic Games for nearly 1200 years from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. The ancients were every bit as captivated by sport and competition as are we moderns. And the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle Paul, draws on this fascination to teach them and to teach us something crucially important about the Christian journey.
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Historic Creationism On Trial: Review And Critique--By Regis Nicoll

2004-08-05T19:42:00.004-04:00

[A response to my paper Historic Creationism On Trial by my good physicist-friend Regis Nicoll.]

General Comments:

Although I believe that young earth creationism (YEC) is certainly a very biblical position, I do not consider myself a proponent of it. My reasoning for this is as follows:

There is a plethora of empirical data that can be used as evidence for an old earth. That data, although not unassailable, is based on well-established dating techniques (e.g., radio-carbon and potassium-argon) used to date stuff out to about 4 billion years. However, the evidence suggested by the data...is dependent on many assumptions. For example, accurate radiocarbon dating depends on a stable atmospheric ratio of C-12 to C-14. And that depends on many factors that have been known to vary in recent history … and over the history of the earth -- who knows? The same can be said for potassium-argon dating. Its reliability depends on the noble gas, argon, being completely driven out of molten lava when landmasses are formed from volcanic activity. But there again, there is evidence that indicates this is not always a good assumption.
On the other hand, there is empirical evidence for a young earth, using the same radio-dating methods but with different assumptions.

The problem with either of these is that in each case an advocate can bring forth empirical “evidence” to support their case -- evidence that is filtered through a particular worldview. So unless someone is willing to change their worldview, you’re not likely to get them to look at the evidence differently. That is why YEC vs. OE (old earth) so often runs into dead ends. I think the realization of this is what prompted the Intelligent Design luminaries to adopt a more fruitful strategy.

Their line of attack is to focus the debate on the design and architecture of creation so we can avoid a clash with empiricism, and create a “wedge” in the hegemony of scientism. They capitalize on the empirical association of “complex specified information” with the agency of intelligence. Granted other worldviews advance theories to explain “apparent” design; but undirected, random evolution has never been demonstrated (empirically!) to result in anything resembling a product of design. Thus, empiricism is clearly on the side of intelligent design, leaving the other side with only a philosophical commitment to naturalism.

Therefore, the issue for me is not whether the universe was created in 6 days or 13 billion years. The issue is that He spoke and it was!

Admittedly, many theists have embraced an OE model because they 1) feel threatened by scientism, 2) desire to fit in with the academics, 3) believe that the scientific consensus on evolution can’t be all wrong, 4) want a more manageable and less authoritative god, 5) want an intellectually satisfying way of reconciling science with the biblical record, and/or 6) cannot see any other way for a beneficent God and evil to co-exist. Thus, many of these turn out to be Process or Open theologians whose adolescent God evolves and matures with His creation. That is certainly not a God deserving obedience and worship in my book!
Specific Comments:

Although God calls the cycle of light and dark as “one day” in verse 1:5, it would seem difficult to establish a 24-hr periodicity until the appropriate frame of reference, namely the sun, is created (10 verses later). Even a day in the polar regions (which you refer to) is based on the sun as the reference point for the completion of one rotation. Further, to establish a diurnal pattern in the first few yoms, God would have had to place the earth in rotation initially upon its creation. But if He did that, the subsequent introduction of the sun and moon would have resulted in significant rotational and gravitational effects on the earth. In such case, it is unlikely that the original periodicity would not be altered.In addition, scripture also tells us “a day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day.” That would imply that God was not bound by the restraints and conventions of space-time during His creative acts.
I’m not sure the objection of Adam living “through at least one entire age-yom” is valid. If Adam was created perfectly, he was created to be immortal. Since time is a convention to measure change, time is irrelevant in the world of the eternal. Thus, prior to the Fall, when all was destined for eternity, it is presumable that Adam could have lived for an indefinite period (age-yom). After the Fall; change, age, mortality, and time were introduced into the natural order.
Your point that God created a mature universe, with the appearance of age is well taken. But as I said in the General Comments, this is inserting one’s WV into the evidence. Which is OK; it’s just not going to carry much weight for the materialist or OE advocate.
I do take issue with the Whitcomb and Morris statement that “even the simplest atoms… would necessarily have an appearance of age.” To the contrary, there is no apparent age to individual entities in the atomic or sub-atomic regions. In fact, these individual entities exist indefinitely until they interact with each other. Even a single radioactive atom has a chance of having an infinitely long life. In short, there is no known age mechanism in the realm of the atomic world.
I also question their statement, “There could be no genuine creation of any kind, without an initial appearance of age inherent in it.” Why not? Are the angels created? Do they have the appearance of age? Consider light, one of God’s first creations. According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, anything that travels at the speed of light does not experience the effect of time. Thus, a light photon traveling uninterrupted through space is ageless!
I think the last page and a half of the essay is the strongest, although it really could be used in support of either YE or OE, since OE does not necessarily involve evolution.

Hopefully these comments give some perspective from the “other” side. It’s not that I necessarily disagree with YEC, it’s that I can see either YE or OE fitting into the biblical account, without stripping it of historical authority. What to take figuratively and idiomatically, versus literally is the real challenge of biblical exegesis in my mind. So when I approach things like the first verses of Genesis, I always ask myself, “What is God wanting to tell me here? Is He trying to give me a scientifically precise explanation for how and when the universe was formed, or is He trying to communicate the immutable truth that all that is exists because of His will through the agency of His spoken Word?

The answer could be “yes” to both, but it is certainly “yes” to the latter. That’s why the ID (intelligent design) movement has shifted the debate from Genesis to John.

The Secret To Joy And Real Happiness

2004-07-30T18:02:00.002-04:00

Nothing describes the American experience better than these well-known words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Amazon carries thousands books on happiness such as 30 Days to Happiness and Become Happy in Eight Minutes. Or there’s the bestseller You Can Be Happy No Matter What, which exudes such wisdom as “choose being kind over being right.” Or there’s 14,000 Things to Be Happy About, which reminds us how blessed we are to have such things as sliced bread, Visa and MasterCard, Pepsi commercials, green Jell-O, fire engines, and moats.
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The Hours

2004-07-26T13:58:00.001-04:00

Glimmering on the new release shelf of your neighborhood video store like the Serpent in the Garden, the superbly crafted and critically acclaimed The Hours is beautiful to behold but deadly to the touch. According to director Stephen Daldry the film, a faithful adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novella of the same title, is a “truthful” portrayal of the “profound choices” people make in life’s desperate Pursuit of Happiness. The heroine, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore), is a repressed lesbian dutifully serving her loving family until she falls under the spell of writer Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), another repressed lesbian who eventually commits suicide reasoning “to look life in the face, to know it for what it is, to love it for what it is, is the [unalienable] right of every human being, and then to put it away.” In lieu of ending her own empty existence, Laura declares her independence by courageously walking out on her traumatized family. “It was death,” she explains, “I chose life.” The consequence of her “profound choice” is that...her son, Richard (Ed Harris), haunted by the demons of his past and ravaged by AIDS, turns his anguish into award-winning poetry before bravely putting life away by leaping to his death. When confronted by her son’s bisexual lover Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep)—surprisingly free from her nothingness after Richard’s death—Laura shows no remorse whatsoever and turns out to be an unexpected source of strength. “Is that the monster?” Clarissa’s daughter (Claire Danes) inquires after Laura. The conclusion of the matter is clear—and the venom delivered—when the sympathetic daughter welcomes Laura home in a loving embrace.

There is nothing new under the sun. “Meaningless! Meaningless!” exclaimed the Preacher long ago. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” This is the absurd worldview known as existentialism. Human fulfillment is found not in external, objective reality, values, or relationships but in internal, subjective pursuits of self-actualization. Guard against friendship, marriage, and duty cautioned Soren Kierkegaard. Always “reserve speed to run away” or one ceases to be authentic as the self is lost in the other. “Hell is other people,” added Jean Paul Sartre, because they prevent us from looking inside to find true meaning and happiness. The simplest definition of happiness, explained Sigmund Freud, is instinctual self-gratification. Much of the energy that should be devoted to the pursuit of self-gratification is employed instead in the repressive service of others.

Nihilism (from the Latin for “nothing”) followed existentialism to its logical conclusion. “If life has no meaning,” wondered Woody Allen in Love and Death, “why go on living? Why not just commit suicide?” Good question. Freidrich Nietzsche came up with the answer: Übermensch, or Superman. Nietzsche’s Superman, embodied by Laura Brown, as well as by today’s extreme athletes and totalitarian strongmen, trades the debilitating “will to live” for the more invigorating “will to power.” Embracing death provides “the greatest courage and the greatest freedom” to be, to do, to take whatever one wishes without hesitation, remorse, regret, or apology. If, as Nietzsche infamously pronounced, God is dead then man, created in his image, likewise, is as good as dead and the walking dead find nothing rational or irrational, moral or immoral, in their mad dash to the grave. Why not “grab all the gusto you can get” along the way and “go out in a blaze of glory?”

Ironically, Virginia Woolf, Laura Brown, and Clarissa Vaughn show us why not. Tormented within and without, in body and in soul, The Hours’ cast graphically reminds us that the wages of sin—autonomous disregard for our Creator’s law-boundaries—are utter despair, reckless destruction, and gratuitous death. “Here is the conclusion of the matter,” charged the Preacher, “Fear God and keep his commandments.” And his commandments are summed up in the greatest commandments to love the Lord your God with all that you are and love your neighbor as yourself. “For this is the whole duty of man.”

Prayer Of Confession

2004-07-24T18:58:00.002-04:00

We kneel before You O God in shame that our humiliation might cover us; for we have sinned against You from our youth even to this day. Through Your servant Ezekiel You said: “I will establish my covenant with you and you will know that I am the LORD so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore...because of your humiliation.” Righteousness belongs to You, O LORD, but to us open shame because we have sinned against You.” We are embarrassed to lift our faces up to You, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens. So we now we shut our mouths to confess within our hearts our many sins that our Advocate might intercede before Your throne and claim His righteousness on our behalf. Else we are lost and undone altogether. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for the shame of Yr sufferings covers over the shame of our sins. Thank You, Father, for clothing us in His robes of righteousness and for casting away our tattered rags of sin forever, in Jesus name. Amen.

Manhunt

2004-06-21T19:06:00.001-04:00

Pardon me for disturbing your leisurely read and for wasting space that might otherwise be devoted to more uplifting content. Personally, I’m outraged. By now some of you ought to be teachers and yet need to be instructed in the very basics of raising covenant children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. To my point: Do you know what video games your kids are playing? Learning recently that Christian high school kids are playing Manhunt necessitated phone calls to fathers but this tirade was precipitated by learning that even some Christian fifth-graders are playing Manhunt.

A review in USA Today (“'Manhunt' Redefines Game Violence” 01/27/04) calls Manhunt a “gruesome, disgusting and shocking, plus numbingly repetitive” game with...a “snuff film theme.” In this first-person shooter, the player assumes the persona of serial killer Earl Cash who is the star of a series of snuff films. Driven by the whisperings of your “smarmy” director, you stroll through 20 levels of brutal death and mayhem. “Delivering the nastiest killings…is key.” You earn extra points if you can “lure your victims into shadows where they can't see you, then sneak up from behind for the kill” and “higher ratings are awarded depending on how much additional carnage you can add to the execution.” Weapons include such household items as plastic bags, glass shards, metal wire, sickles, chain saws, hammers, screwdrivers, and bricks. The game “quickly degenerates into a repetitious series of ghastly murders. And really, how many times do you want to see some guy's skull get smashed to a bloody pulp?”

To state the obvious, such violent video games are evil. A series of studies published in the Journal of Adolescence demonstrates that youth engaged in virtual violence are 10 times more likely to engage in the real thing, including drug-related and gang violence. Reuters reported recently on Swedish research showing a direct correlation between video game violence and adolescent aggression and crime. Child psychiatrist Frank Lindblad says kids who play violent video games “run a very high risk of criminal behavior. The border between the virtual reality and the real world becomes diffuse, and that is dangerous." Michael Rich, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, agrees: “Video-game players are rehearsing scripts of behavior that will possibly play themselves out in real life."

And there’s more. UPI Science News (“Brain Cells Victims of Video Violence” 12/02/02) states: “Hours of playing violent video games can affect the way the brain works on a cellular level, causing misfiring of signals between nerve cells or slowing brain activity.” Brain scanning reveals “less activity” in the frontal lobe “that controls emotions and impulses as well as attention span” and suggests video game violence desensitizes the brain so that a child “can no longer understand the real effect of violence," says Dr. Carol Rumach, professor of radiology and pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver. Not only are violent video games evil, they are downright dangerous.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m no pacifist and righteous violence plays a necessary role in real life and potentially in simulations. But gratuitous violence has no place in the life of the godly. You know that, of course. But do you know what video games your kids are playing? And while I’m at it, do you know what they’re doing on the Internet, where 80% of adolescent boys are visiting pornography sites? If you don’t know, you’re not living up to your covenant obligations before God. If your eye offends you pluck it out. If your hand offends you cut if off. And if your computer or video game system offends you, cast it out. At the very least, be sure you’re using spy-ware (www.spectorsoft.com) to monitor everything because everything matters coram Deo, before the face of God.

The Da Vinci Code And Postmodernism

2004-06-13T12:50:00.002-04:00

I finally got around to reading Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. More than blasphemy, The Da Vinci Code is an alternate or revisionist history in the guise of fiction.

Brown’s Website answers the question “How much of this is based on reality?” thus: “The Da Vinci Code is a novel and therefore a work of fiction…While it is my belief that the theories discussed…have merit, each individual reader must explore these…viewpoints and come to his or her own interpretations.” He goes on to say...of scholars who discount the historicity of his work: “I obviously disagree” and “Since the beginning of recorded time, history has been written by the ‘winners’…Many historians now believe (as do I) that in gauging the historical accuracy of a given concept, we should first ask ourselves a far deeper question: How historically accurate is history itself?” This is a claim repeated in the novel by the fictional historian Leigh Teabing who concludes, “In the end, which side of the story you believe becomes a matter of faith and personal exploration” (256).

Thankfully, as reported by Peter Steinfels in the June 5, 2004, issue of the NY Times, “By now, Mr. Brown's coy claims to factuality have been pounded to an intellectual pulp.”

Nonetheless, Brown and his adherents continue to blur the line between fact and fiction—what we might call postmodern fact-ion. Postmodernism is a philosophy that replaces realism with constructionist views of truth and reality; fact is replaced by faction. In a recent graduate-level course in the philosophy of history, the lessons to be learned included:

• History tells us more about the historian than about history.
• Accepted histories are particularly suspect of manipulation.
• History is dynamic, not static, and always subject to revision.
• Development of alternative perspectives is a sign of growth.

As the covenant people of the God of history, such postmodern sentiments are a call to arms in the cultural battle for truth. Our God acts in history for the express purpose of making Himself known to all people and Scripture conveys objective, propositional truth as a permanent record of God’s actions in history.

So, let us read the book. Let us separate the fact from the fiction—books such as Cracking Da Vinci’s Code by James Garlow and Peter Jones or The Da Vinci Hoax by Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel will help. And let us lovingly engage our friends and neighbors with the true truth. Our God is sovereign over all things—The Da Vinci Code included.

Sex, Drugs, And Country-Western

2004-06-13T12:48:00.002-04:00

Having grown up in the American era of sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll, I did not live a sheltered life. But sex, drugs, and country-western?! I was surprised and saddened by what I witnessed last night at a Tim McGraw concert in suburban North Carolina: 20,000 kids wasted in every possible sense of the word. So wasted, in fact, that they had no sense at all of the irony in their singing along to Tim’s new song “Drugs or Jesus” while doing drugs of various sorts and, likely for many of them, doing Jesus at the same time. Maybe “Drugs and Jesus” would be an apt description of a culture single-mindedly obsessed with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

As I looked at that vast sea of lost and troubled teens, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Who are all these people?” They are...us. They are our children. They are our neighbors’ children. They are a generation without faith, or a vision of God. And where there is no vision or revelation of God the people cast off restraint (Proverbs 29:18). Where are their visionaries—their parents, teachers, pastors, neighbors—who cast these simpletons adrift without a vision by the hundreds of thousands in our public high schools and colleges? What a potent recipe for spiritual, physical, emotional, and cultural destruction.

On one occasion Jesus was asked, “What must I do to be saved?”
"What is written in the Law?" Jesus replied.
The man answered correctly: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
"Do this and you will live," Jesus replied.
But hoping to justify himself, he inquired further, "And who is my neighbor?"
Jesus answered: "A young girl went away to college in Raleigh where she fell into sin. She was stripped of her God-like dignity, impregnated, and left to fend for herself. Several Christians passed by but turned up their noses and moved to the other side of the street. Finally, one took pity on her, cared for her wounds, and loved her truly. Which of these was a neighbor to the girl?"
"The one who had mercy on her," he replied.
Jesus commanded the religious man: "Go and do likewise.”

Prayer Of Dominion

2004-05-22T18:49:00.002-04:00

We praise You O God for Your infinite wisdom and goodness. For You created us in Your own image and gave us dominion as priests and kings over all the earth. You made us into a great nation and set over us a Great King and of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He upholds thy coming kingdom with justice and righteousness and rules the nations with a rod of iron. In the day of His wrath he will crush kings and judge His enemies, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth. For all authority, glory, and sovereign power are His and His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will never pass away.

That great dragon, that ancient serpent, the devil, now roams to and fro with a chain at his heel to deceive the nations no more. And with all power and authority we go forth to disciple the nations. In Christ You have purposed to make us a blessing to all the peoples on earth. And though the nations conspire and the peoples plot and rage in vain against the King and His law-word, thy kingdom is ever growing like a mustard seed or a lump of yeast until it fills all the earth and all the families of the earth bow down before him, every tongue confessing that Jesus is LORD. And then the end will come, when he has destroyed all other dominions, authorities, and powers, when all his enemies are under his feet, and even death itself has been destroyed, and the kingdom is handed over to God the Father.

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are Your judgments, and Your paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been Your counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from You and through You and to You are all things. To God be the glory forever! Amen.

Prayer Of Thanksgiving

2004-04-10T21:21:00.002-04:00

This morning we give You thanks LORD for You are good and Your mercy endures forever. In our sin and distress we call on You daily from our prayer closets and weekly from this assembly and over and over again You hear us, You answer us, You rescue us, You bless us. You are...our faithful, covenant GOD and we Your beloved people. We shall not want. We shall fear no evil.

For who or what could ever separate us from Your love in Christ Jesus? You are our ever-present help in times of trouble and we look in triumph upon all our enemies. We put our trust not in our own flesh or in other men or in their governments but in You, our Sovereign LORD, and in thy name and authority we go forth to the ends of the earth conquering the nations —baptizing them and teaching them obedience to the commands of Christ.

You are our strength and our song and our salvation. Shouts of rejoicing and victory and thanksgiving resound in the tents of the righteous for You work mightily on our behalf. You have ordained us with our children to life everlasting that we might forever declare thy faithful works. You have opened unto us Your gates of righteousness and we see Thy great salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become our chief cornerstone. This was Your doing, O Lord; it is marvelous in our eyes. It is the day You have made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

For this we join now in festive procession to the horns of the altar to give You thanks, O King of kings and Lord of lords! Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! Behold your King O Israel! Hosanna in the highest! Give thanks to the LORD, you His covenant people, lest the very stones cry out, for the one living, true, and faithful God is your God, and His mercy endures forever! Amen.

Prayer Of Praise To The Captain Of Our Salvation

2004-04-10T21:08:00.003-04:00

With the prophet Isaiah we cry, “Woe is me.” For we are undone, and we dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, where the prince asks for a gift, the judge a bribe, and the great man utters only evil continually; where a companion is not to be trusted, and a man’s enemies are those of his own household. Yet we praise You this morning, O God, for our eyes have seen...the King of glory, the LORD of hosts, the captain of our salvation.

For who O God is a God like You, who delights in mercy, full of compassion, passing over transgressions, subduing iniquities, and casting all our sins into the deepest sea? You judge us by Your righteousness. You bless us with Your peace. Your grace You shower upon us like refreshing rain, and Your righteous ones flourish.

In Your wisdom You are creating a new earth as a rejoicing and her people a joy. Where justice is served, and the voice of weeping is hushed. Where the righteous live in prosperity, and enjoy the work of their hands. Where the wolf and the lamb lie down together, and the lion eats straw like an ox.

Where even the demons are subject to us in Your name! And with authority we trample on serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy! For, behold, that great dragon Satan, the father of lies who deceives the whole world, the accuser of the brethren who charged us before You day and night, has been cast down and overcome by the blood of the Lamb, who took on human flesh and gave Himself to death that He might destroy the evil one! Disarming principalities and powers He made a public spectacle of them in glorious triumph, binding up the strongman, crushing that old serpent’s head under foot.

For now our salvation has come, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of Your Christ. And His dominion is from sea to shining sea, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. And all peoples of the earth shall bow before Him—Your enemies to lick the dust like a serpent. Yes, even kings shall fall down before Him and all nations shall serve Him. Daily He shall be praised and call blessed. And His name will endure forever.

Blessed art thou, O Lord God, who does all these things in our sight, for our good, and for Your eternal glory! Blessed be Your name forever! And may the whole earth be filled with Your glory! Amen and Amen.

Prayer Of Thanksgiving For Seasons Of Change

2004-04-10T20:57:00.002-04:00

You are worthy, O LORD, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created. By your will, Our Eternal and Unchanging God, exist time and seasons and change, and in time you make all things beautiful.

A time to be born, a time to love, a time to laugh, and a time to dance. All these precious gifts of life are beautiful in their season. A time to hurt, a time to weep, a time to mourn, and a time to die—also beautiful in their season. For how great a mercy, as Richard Baxter put it, that You prepare our hearts for eternity by...weaning us from this world, which our earthly nature so clings to—that the senses and appetites, which draw our hearts and minds to worldly things, languish and decay; that our unwilling and stubborn flesh is brought down to the dust of the earth from which it came through pain and suffering; that sickness and disease sound such a clarion call to true repentance and final preparation to meet our God!

We are but strangers and pilgrims on this earth and, while our time here is beautiful, You have put eternity in our hearts and we long for our heavenly homeland. And we shall be changed! In a fleeting instant of time, a mere twinkling of an eye, our corruption shall put on incorruption and our mortality immortality—that brief, passing moment of death swallowed up in the ultimate victory of eternal life, according to that which You purposed in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, before You wound the clock of time.

So we thank You this morning for this magnificent promise of never-ending life eternal to which all our time and our seasons and our changing point us. And we praise You for Your unending faithfulness, Your steadfastness, Your immutability, the Great I AM from everlasting to everlasting, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, who was and who is and who is to come, the Almighty. Your dominion is forever, and we will love You and worship You and serve You both now and forever, Our Eternal King, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory both now and forever! Amen.

Prayer Of Praise For God's Beauty

2004-04-10T18:51:00.002-04:00

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. “Our God is a great and mighty God!” they shout with all their strength and breath. We praise You this morning our King for by thy strength and breath burst forth all things out of nothing and...in the midst of darkness sprang forth the light and how beautiful to behold in Thy sight. Out of the mists of the air the seas were gathered and dry land materialized. You called it Earth and saw that it was beautiful.

From this barren land You brought forth green grass and wildflowers and fruit trees and they were beautiful. In the blackness of the sky You hung the moon and the stars and the heavens were beautiful to gaze upon. Earth’s vast, empty waters leapt to life with an abundance of creatures both great and small, and the silence of the heavens suddenly echoed with the sweetest songs of every kind of bird, and it was beautiful. The uninhabited mountains, valleys, and plains were filled with beasts of every kind and they were beautiful. Man, male and female, You created in Your very image, and they were very beautiful!

And we confess this morning, O Lord, along with St. Augustine, that our sin is this, that we have looked for pleasure, and beauty, and truth not in You but in ourselves and in Your creation, we have worshipped the creature more than the Creator, and we have found only pain, and confusion, and error…O Beauty so old and yet so new! Too late have I come to love thee!

Renew, O God, our fallen vision and our corrupted passions. Teach us anew to give You the glory due Your name; to worship and praise You in the perfect beauty of Your holiness! “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’ And how great its goodness, how glorious its beauty!” Amen.

Prayer: The Divine Chase

2004-04-10T18:37:00.001-04:00

Who, O God, is a God like You, who delights in mercy, full of compassion, passing over our transgressions, subduing our iniquities, casting all our sins into the deepest sea?

For freely to evil we ran from You, our throats open tombs, our tongues practicing deceit, with the poison of asps under our lips and our mouths full of cursing and bitterness, our feet running to shed innocent blood, with destruction and misery in our path, and no fear of God before our eyes.

We fled You, in the words of Francis Bacon, down the nights and down the days. We fled You...down the arches of the years. We fled You down the labyrinthine ways, of our own minds. And into the mist of tears, we hid from You. Then up vistad hopes we sped, and shot precipitated, down titanic glooms of chasmed fears. From those strong feet that followed after, with deliberate speed, and majestic instancy, they beat. And a voice beat, more instant than the feet; with deliberate speed, and majestic instancy, came on the feet. And that voice, above the beat, with deliberate speed, and majestic instancy, rushed past the noised feet. That voice, came again more fleet. Until of that long pursuit, came on at last the brute. That voice, round me like a bursting sea, called my name and said: “Human love needs human meriting. How hast thou merited? How little worthy of any love thou art! Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, save Me, save only Me?”

And in the midst of this glorious spectacle of new birth, we opened our eyes for t very first time in wonder and astonishment, resting secure in Thy strong right arm, with a peace that passes understanding, clothed in the finest robes of priests and kings, to gaze at last into the loving eyes of our heavenly Father, and utter our very first words as newborn babes: “I found God!”

But this morning we see more clearly, LORD, for You have rubbed our eyes, and bathed us in Your word. You alone are our strength and our salvation and our song! And shouts of joy and thanksgiving resound in the tents of Your little ones! For You have ordained us to life abundant and everlasting! And clothed us in Your very own robes of righteousness! And opened unto us t gates of Thy great salvation where we find green pastures and quiet waters.

In return, LORD, what can we do or say? Nothing, but to offer ourselves this morning as living sacrifices and to proclaim now with all that we are: “Thank You! Thank You!” In Jesus name, “Thank You and Amen.”