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This is a snippet from Doug Wilson's blog...do we
respond as sons and daughters as Swanson would say?
Don't react....think about it.
...First, a restatement of my view on this. The Scripture is what it is, and contains both promises and imperatives. For the one who reads the Scripture in evangelical faith, he sees all the imperatives in the context of a larger grace. For the one who reads the Scripture in unbelief, he can sound out the promises, but they are always trumped by what he thinks is the larger demand of "do this and live." The former contextualizes everything as a subset of God's grace. The latter contextualizes everything as a subset of law.
For the believer, even the Ten Commandments can be understood as gracious. The preamble reminds the Jews that these words were coming from the one who brought them out of the house of bondage. For the unbeliever, even the message of the cross is foolishness, an intolerable demand. So that, in a nutshell, is what I think is going on with law and gospel...whole thing here
The fact that most believers respond like the non-believers to God's Laws speaks volumes about US.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
His Law is Like Honey...
From the Chalcedon Blog...
The Law Makes it Personal "The covenant with God is a legal relationship... it is more personal because of that fact. The modern mind separates the legal and the personal, because humanism has made law statist and abstract and hence impersonal. This is not true in the reality of God's creation. My relation to my wife is personal because it is legal, because it meets God's law. An illegal sexual relationship is impersonal and exploitive. In Scripture, the more faithful we are to God's law, the more close and personal is our relationship to Him and to our fellow men." ~ R. J. Rushdoony,
Systematic Theology, p. 674.
The Law Makes it Personal "The covenant with God is a legal relationship... it is more personal because of that fact. The modern mind separates the legal and the personal, because humanism has made law statist and abstract and hence impersonal. This is not true in the reality of God's creation. My relation to my wife is personal because it is legal, because it meets God's law. An illegal sexual relationship is impersonal and exploitive. In Scripture, the more faithful we are to God's law, the more close and personal is our relationship to Him and to our fellow men." ~ R. J. Rushdoony,
Systematic Theology, p. 674.
Time To Buy A Vowel, Hey Someone Put Garbage In Here
Linda Chavez has a column out stating the obvious. It's been years, a lot of years since we were watching tv. Even then, we taped it all because the commercials themselves were causing our hair to stand on end. That was ten years ago. You have to face it, if you are still watching tv programming and they put something on where you go, "they didn't have to show that!", "why did they do that, or show that." Well sorry, yes they did have to do that, their pagan, they answer to a different god than ours, and serve him they must.
Anyway, Linda here, like many Christian parents that still have their children attending the humanist temples of indoctrination just cannot believe what has become of humanist TV.
Say goodbye to family friendly TV By Linda Chavez
Am I imagining it or is television becoming even more family unfriendly? For years now, primetime television fare has offered a steady diet of comedies that depend on sexual innuendo and situations for laughs, crime dramas that make the world seem like it's filled with sadistic predators and perverts, often within our own homes, and cable "news" programs that spend as much time dissecting the bizarre antics of this week's celebrity bad girl (or boy) as they do covering real news...
Not only do commercials try to use sex to sell everything from automobiles to soap, it seems half the ads on TV now are marketing sex itself in the form of sex-enhancing drugs. And there's no avoiding the ads, no matter how careful you are with selecting your programming...
...but what do you do about the ads in family programs — like Major League Baseball? I was astonished at what aired between innings of the fourth game in the National League Championship Series between the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks, for example...
You can read the whole article here Read it All
Anyway, Linda here, like many Christian parents that still have their children attending the humanist temples of indoctrination just cannot believe what has become of humanist TV.
Say goodbye to family friendly TV By Linda Chavez
Am I imagining it or is television becoming even more family unfriendly? For years now, primetime television fare has offered a steady diet of comedies that depend on sexual innuendo and situations for laughs, crime dramas that make the world seem like it's filled with sadistic predators and perverts, often within our own homes, and cable "news" programs that spend as much time dissecting the bizarre antics of this week's celebrity bad girl (or boy) as they do covering real news...
Not only do commercials try to use sex to sell everything from automobiles to soap, it seems half the ads on TV now are marketing sex itself in the form of sex-enhancing drugs. And there's no avoiding the ads, no matter how careful you are with selecting your programming...
...but what do you do about the ads in family programs — like Major League Baseball? I was astonished at what aired between innings of the fourth game in the National League Championship Series between the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks, for example...
You can read the whole article here Read it All
Media Discernment
We watched the History channels Biography show on Winston Churchill DVDs The two biggest things we pointed out to the kids was how they made such a big deal on how Winston was the perfect man at just the moment he was needed by his nation and the world. What a fluke, what timing! It's like it was amazing, and just leave it at that. We pointed out to the kids how it is God who uses the saved and the unsaved for his own glory. He lifts up nations and lowers them. He numbers the hair on our head and a sparrow doesn't fall that he doesn't know.
The show covered a 70 year span of last century, both world wars, and did it from the world view that history happens in a vacuum, that it's just random things. Stuff happens. There is no God. God happens on Sunday while some of us watch football. We pointed out how their world view is showing. They are fools.
This is the type of show I use to give a free pass too...they didn’t deliberately attack my faith or ridicule my God, they didn’t try to defile me to my face. That I would've noticed. It's what they have done for a long, long time that was just as bad, every bit as rebellious, but more insidious. Subtle. The real bad was on my part. My understanding, my world view, was so shallow, that TV and movies could have no reference to the God of the universe and do hours and hours of programming on his universe and his world as if he didn’t exist and I wouldn't notice so long as they didn’t offend me.
We need to show our kids how every subject of their home schooling ties into the creator and his universe, how no subject can be properly understood if separated from God. If we don't show how it ties back to our Father we are still part of the rebellion and pretending the first commandment doesn't mean what God meant it to mean.
If you need help on this like I needed it. I recommend Israel Waynes book called "Homeschooling From a Biblical World View." http://www.wisdomsgate.com/ It's small, short and does an excellent job bringing a biblical worldview to any subject. Developing a biblical worldview set my faith on fire.
Everything! has been made to glorify the triune God! Everything! We are called to interact with everything in this light, in obedience to God's commands. To bring dominion, for the glory of God, to everything. In Philippians 2:4-11 points out after showing all that Jesus has done so that, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord... it also gives the reason why... to the glory of God the Father in heaven! It's what sons and daughters do. I'm only beginning to get the hang of this.... which is sad, because it's what I was created for. It's the purpose for my being a man, for being a husband, for having children, for working, for having a church and going to church, for the dirt outside and the heavens above! If your living for something else I pity you. Because your living for a lie. I like Douglas Jones phrase "the art of living small."
Rom 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
The show covered a 70 year span of last century, both world wars, and did it from the world view that history happens in a vacuum, that it's just random things. Stuff happens. There is no God. God happens on Sunday while some of us watch football. We pointed out how their world view is showing. They are fools.
This is the type of show I use to give a free pass too...they didn’t deliberately attack my faith or ridicule my God, they didn’t try to defile me to my face. That I would've noticed. It's what they have done for a long, long time that was just as bad, every bit as rebellious, but more insidious. Subtle. The real bad was on my part. My understanding, my world view, was so shallow, that TV and movies could have no reference to the God of the universe and do hours and hours of programming on his universe and his world as if he didn’t exist and I wouldn't notice so long as they didn’t offend me.
We need to show our kids how every subject of their home schooling ties into the creator and his universe, how no subject can be properly understood if separated from God. If we don't show how it ties back to our Father we are still part of the rebellion and pretending the first commandment doesn't mean what God meant it to mean.
If you need help on this like I needed it. I recommend Israel Waynes book called "Homeschooling From a Biblical World View." http://www.wisdomsgate.com/ It's small, short and does an excellent job bringing a biblical worldview to any subject. Developing a biblical worldview set my faith on fire.
Everything! has been made to glorify the triune God! Everything! We are called to interact with everything in this light, in obedience to God's commands. To bring dominion, for the glory of God, to everything. In Philippians 2:4-11 points out after showing all that Jesus has done so that, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord... it also gives the reason why... to the glory of God the Father in heaven! It's what sons and daughters do. I'm only beginning to get the hang of this.... which is sad, because it's what I was created for. It's the purpose for my being a man, for being a husband, for having children, for working, for having a church and going to church, for the dirt outside and the heavens above! If your living for something else I pity you. Because your living for a lie. I like Douglas Jones phrase "the art of living small."
Rom 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Re-writing History
This has been going on for a long time now. The Park Service with nothing but time on it's hands and us paying the bills continues to scrub the Triune God out of American history. Nothing to see here, please move along...
Now, God banished from Washington Monument
Historic cap engraving 'Laus Deo' out of sight
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The National Park Service has banished God from a key display of America's Christian heritage in Washington, and a California pastor who regularly leads teams of visitors to see markers of the nation's religious history wants Him restored.
The reference is an engraving of "LAUS DEO," which is Latin for "Praise be to God," and is on the east side of the 100-ounce aluminum cap of the Washington Monument.
Since the actual inscription on the cap, which on the other three sides provides other information, is unviewable atop the 555-foot stone column, the National Park Service has created a replica, which is on display inside the white-colored obelisk of marble, granite and sandstone...
The pastor sought a ranger with the National Park Service in the Monument to ask about the inscription.
"She smiled at me and said, 'It's not a conspiracy or anything,' Interesting first answer I thought! I replied, 'I didn't say anything about conspiracy. I was just wondering why all the sides of the replica are not shown to the public?" he said.
The ranger responded that the cap is positioned inside the Monument as it is atop the stone column, and then explained "there's not enough room," for the cap display to allow people to read the fourth side....
The 2000 description, he said, was:
APEX OF THE MONUMENT Reproduction The builders searched for an appropriate metal for the apex that would not tarnish and would act as a lightning rod. They chose one of the rarest metals of the time, aluminum. The casting was inscribed with the phrase, Laus Deo, (Praise be to God).
The last sentence was edited out for the 2007 display, he said, which includes only:
CAP OF THE MONUMENT Reproduction The builders searched for appropriate metal for the cap that would not tarnish and would act as a lightning rod. They chose one of the rarest metals of the time – aluminum....
They have pictures Read it all
Now, God banished from Washington Monument
Historic cap engraving 'Laus Deo' out of sight
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
The National Park Service has banished God from a key display of America's Christian heritage in Washington, and a California pastor who regularly leads teams of visitors to see markers of the nation's religious history wants Him restored.
The reference is an engraving of "LAUS DEO," which is Latin for "Praise be to God," and is on the east side of the 100-ounce aluminum cap of the Washington Monument.
Since the actual inscription on the cap, which on the other three sides provides other information, is unviewable atop the 555-foot stone column, the National Park Service has created a replica, which is on display inside the white-colored obelisk of marble, granite and sandstone...
The pastor sought a ranger with the National Park Service in the Monument to ask about the inscription.
"She smiled at me and said, 'It's not a conspiracy or anything,' Interesting first answer I thought! I replied, 'I didn't say anything about conspiracy. I was just wondering why all the sides of the replica are not shown to the public?" he said.
The ranger responded that the cap is positioned inside the Monument as it is atop the stone column, and then explained "there's not enough room," for the cap display to allow people to read the fourth side....
The 2000 description, he said, was:
APEX OF THE MONUMENT Reproduction The builders searched for an appropriate metal for the apex that would not tarnish and would act as a lightning rod. They chose one of the rarest metals of the time, aluminum. The casting was inscribed with the phrase, Laus Deo, (Praise be to God).
The last sentence was edited out for the 2007 display, he said, which includes only:
CAP OF THE MONUMENT Reproduction The builders searched for appropriate metal for the cap that would not tarnish and would act as a lightning rod. They chose one of the rarest metals of the time – aluminum....
They have pictures Read it all
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me
You read some things and you think, no way. But not only are they out there. There's lots of them out there. From Chalcedon. What is syncretism?
How Can a Christian Priest Be a Muslim?
Lee Duigon
Thou shalt have no other gods before me … for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God. —Exodus 20:3, 5
You would think that when an ordained Christian minister or priest publicly professes belief in a non-Christian religion, and publicly practices it, some degree of church discipline would be in order. Depending on the circumstances, the addled cleric might be subject to a formal rebuke and an exhortation to repent, or defrocked, or even excommunicated...
Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding, now a congregant at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, Seattle, made national news recently by revealing that she also worships as a Muslim at Al-Islam Center, in the same city, and has been doing so for almost a year...
Rev. Redding told The Episcopal Voice (June 2007, “On being Christian and Muslim”) that the Christian doctrine of Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God “is not literal,” and likened the affirmations of the Christian creeds to “fraternity hazing—you have to say these words in order to be part of the club.”...
Redding cites her “early exposure to interfaith relationships” (Episcopal Voice) as a factor in her decision to follow two religions simultaneously: baptized by an African Methodist Episcopal minister, Sunday school at an Episcopal church, Unitarian youth group, etc. She said she was introduced to Muslim prayer practice in 2006 and immediately “knew she had been wrestling with a call to Islam” (Episcopal Voice). “I was following Jesus and he led me into Islam,” she said...
In the Footsteps of Jeroboam
Syncretism, defined by R. J. Rushdoony (citing the dictionary) as “egregious compromise in religion or philosophy,” is the operative word here. Redding’s Voice interview is a muddle of feelings, confused thinking, and false theology. For instance, she finds irresistible the Muslim practice of praying five times a day—as if there were anything keeping a Christian from praying five times daily or more.
As Rushdoony writes, syncretism “is destructive of the human mind, of rationality … [One who has embraced syncretism] has lost the capacity for clear thinking.” “If a man believes that orthodox Christianity can be reconciled and united, or live in peace with, modernism, humanism, Mohammedanism, or Buddhism, that man is a syncretist, not a Christian. A syncretist has always abandoned his original position, even though he refuses to acknowledge this fact.”
Syncretism has been around for a long time, and is always offensive to God. Almost 3,000 years ago, Jeroboam I, the first king of northern Israel, installed golden idols at Bethel and at Dan because, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel …” (1 Kings 12:28). This fusion of Judaism and paganism, initiated by Jeroboam, “made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 15:34).
“Interfaith” is simply another name for syncretism: trying to combine all or several contradictory religions into “one path that leads to God.”...
Read it all
How Can a Christian Priest Be a Muslim?
Lee Duigon
Thou shalt have no other gods before me … for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God. —Exodus 20:3, 5
You would think that when an ordained Christian minister or priest publicly professes belief in a non-Christian religion, and publicly practices it, some degree of church discipline would be in order. Depending on the circumstances, the addled cleric might be subject to a formal rebuke and an exhortation to repent, or defrocked, or even excommunicated...
Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding, now a congregant at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, Seattle, made national news recently by revealing that she also worships as a Muslim at Al-Islam Center, in the same city, and has been doing so for almost a year...
Rev. Redding told The Episcopal Voice (June 2007, “On being Christian and Muslim”) that the Christian doctrine of Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God “is not literal,” and likened the affirmations of the Christian creeds to “fraternity hazing—you have to say these words in order to be part of the club.”...
Redding cites her “early exposure to interfaith relationships” (Episcopal Voice) as a factor in her decision to follow two religions simultaneously: baptized by an African Methodist Episcopal minister, Sunday school at an Episcopal church, Unitarian youth group, etc. She said she was introduced to Muslim prayer practice in 2006 and immediately “knew she had been wrestling with a call to Islam” (Episcopal Voice). “I was following Jesus and he led me into Islam,” she said...
In the Footsteps of Jeroboam
Syncretism, defined by R. J. Rushdoony (citing the dictionary) as “egregious compromise in religion or philosophy,” is the operative word here. Redding’s Voice interview is a muddle of feelings, confused thinking, and false theology. For instance, she finds irresistible the Muslim practice of praying five times a day—as if there were anything keeping a Christian from praying five times daily or more.
As Rushdoony writes, syncretism “is destructive of the human mind, of rationality … [One who has embraced syncretism] has lost the capacity for clear thinking.” “If a man believes that orthodox Christianity can be reconciled and united, or live in peace with, modernism, humanism, Mohammedanism, or Buddhism, that man is a syncretist, not a Christian. A syncretist has always abandoned his original position, even though he refuses to acknowledge this fact.”
Syncretism has been around for a long time, and is always offensive to God. Almost 3,000 years ago, Jeroboam I, the first king of northern Israel, installed golden idols at Bethel and at Dan because, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel …” (1 Kings 12:28). This fusion of Judaism and paganism, initiated by Jeroboam, “made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 15:34).
“Interfaith” is simply another name for syncretism: trying to combine all or several contradictory religions into “one path that leads to God.”...
Read it all
Taking An Offense
We must all be on our guard. We must be vigilant as the enemy is going to want to squish out the life from any fellowship that is being used by God to look for, and try to walk out the old paths. We must partner with our elders to keep the little foxes from spoiling the grapes.
Peace and Purity
Douglas Wilson
The problem of pettiness is not itself petty. Unchecked, it can destroy congregations, and the minister and elders need to be constantly on the alert for signs that "smallness of mind" is threatening the peace and purity of the church...
The armor that protects these alien definitions of peace and purity is often the armor of subjectivism. What matters is not what the minister said from the pulpit, for example, but rather how the disgruntled parishioner said he was made to feel. And when the refs stop making the calls accurately, the defending basketball player can pretend to take the charge and flop however it suits him. Of course he was offended. He's on his back, isn't he?
The myth of neutrality plagues us here as well. We often assume that people in community are not leaning one way or the other, but rather just gathering facts objectively. Then, when they get to a certain critical mass of facts, they make up their minds. But neutrality is impossible, especially in the community of the local church. People either love people or they don't. If they love them, then they will interpret whatever happens through that grid. If they do not love them, then they will bide their time, gathering evidence or, to use the scriptural term, a record of wrongs...
And many Christians have learned the jargon of pained vagueness. "Oh, I don't know. It is just that the sermons don't speak to my heart anymore. I am not feeling fed." Of course the reason he doesn't feel fed is that he is not eating, but that would be taken as an unloving thing to say...
Read it all
Peace and Purity
Douglas Wilson
The problem of pettiness is not itself petty. Unchecked, it can destroy congregations, and the minister and elders need to be constantly on the alert for signs that "smallness of mind" is threatening the peace and purity of the church...
The armor that protects these alien definitions of peace and purity is often the armor of subjectivism. What matters is not what the minister said from the pulpit, for example, but rather how the disgruntled parishioner said he was made to feel. And when the refs stop making the calls accurately, the defending basketball player can pretend to take the charge and flop however it suits him. Of course he was offended. He's on his back, isn't he?
The myth of neutrality plagues us here as well. We often assume that people in community are not leaning one way or the other, but rather just gathering facts objectively. Then, when they get to a certain critical mass of facts, they make up their minds. But neutrality is impossible, especially in the community of the local church. People either love people or they don't. If they love them, then they will interpret whatever happens through that grid. If they do not love them, then they will bide their time, gathering evidence or, to use the scriptural term, a record of wrongs...
And many Christians have learned the jargon of pained vagueness. "Oh, I don't know. It is just that the sermons don't speak to my heart anymore. I am not feeling fed." Of course the reason he doesn't feel fed is that he is not eating, but that would be taken as an unloving thing to say...
Read it all
More Credenda Agenda
It's no secret, I enjoy Doug Wilson's Credenda Agenda and his Blog and Mablog site. Thought provoking. Humorous. This is from Crenda Agenda vol 17 number 3
The Art of Pettiness
Douglas Jones
Have you ever found yourself at a nice dinner party but can't find anything to take offense at? Is it getting harder to make people feel sorry for you? Do the people around you no longer bend to your silent punishments? Do you find yourself accidentally considering conflicts from other peoples' perspectives? Has your extrasensory gift for seeing motives become cloudy?
You might be in the early stages of beneficium creationis, a debilitating condition that causes memory loss, ironic giggling, and flippancy; side effects sometimes last for a thousand generations. Millions have found success in reversing the habits of this condition by relearning the ancient techniques of pettiness, the skills of counting mint, anise, cummin—or as we call it, the art of living small...
whole thing here
The Art of Pettiness
Douglas Jones
Have you ever found yourself at a nice dinner party but can't find anything to take offense at? Is it getting harder to make people feel sorry for you? Do the people around you no longer bend to your silent punishments? Do you find yourself accidentally considering conflicts from other peoples' perspectives? Has your extrasensory gift for seeing motives become cloudy?
You might be in the early stages of beneficium creationis, a debilitating condition that causes memory loss, ironic giggling, and flippancy; side effects sometimes last for a thousand generations. Millions have found success in reversing the habits of this condition by relearning the ancient techniques of pettiness, the skills of counting mint, anise, cummin—or as we call it, the art of living small...
whole thing here
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
The Black Plague
As I continue to read through the Old Testament, I'm now in Numbers, and I am struck as to how much of the destruction brought on by the black plague during the middle ages could have been avoided. If just God's word/law concerning what is clean and unclean had been followed. His directions on what to do if you find a body, etc, etc. No one needed to understand anything about germs, just to obey God would have protected so many lives.
His Law brings life.
Today because people don't fall over dead within days, weeks, months we are too slow to see how much of what is happening around us is a reaping of what has been sown in the past. Either from ourselves, or our families or the forefathers of the church etc, etc. We are seeing in the culture what happens when God's people get syncretized. Balaam's trick has worked again.
We don't need revival, we need Reformation. For God's children to really start acting like sons and daughters. To really want to know...how does God want me to understand and see this or that and then to respond like I am his son. May God grant it.
If we cry out Lord! Lord! Show us your will! But then are clueless as to the written record that he deliberately left behind for us to follow...ouch! ouch! We have got to get out our camping flashlights, the big bright ones, the hot ones, and head out into those unexplored parts of the Old Testament. We need to get familiar with them like we are with Colossians and Romans and the Gospels. We're not looking for our righteousness, we have that in Christ! But what else has God said about life..."it's a lamp unto my feet." That's from psalm 119, that's talking about the Old Testmament! Do we believe that about the Old Testasment? "That it is a lamp unto my feet, and light unto my path." How come we dont? God doesn't lie.
Cultural side note: We have been trained subconscienciously by our culture to always want the new. Just think about the word "old." Old Testament...we of course want the..New... Testament. After all, it's new. It's probably improved.
Think of it rather as the First Testament. Without which you will not correctly understand the Second Testament, I mean New Testament.
Kevin Swanson drove this point home when he mentioned you will not see Jesus correctly without the Old Testament.
Reformation. We must chew on this stuff. Less we be like the seed that fell upon the side of the road...
A California side note: it's being roasted by wildfires right after it shook it's fist in God's face concerning his definitions of men and women as it relates to the education of it's children. No, I have not said it's God's judgement on them. But God does say that he is the the one who makes the blind. Just thinking out loud. I would say that this fire that is destroying so many homes and acres of land is less damaging then the spiritual firestorm that is taking place in the heavenlies over the laws recently passed there. Which firestorm are God's children more worried about? Which fires have been the biggest motivation for God's people to cry out to Him, or fast? Are we concerned with our captivity? Or that the supply of leeks and onions might be interupted? Just thinking.
God the dangerous, he is a consuming...
His Law brings life.
Today because people don't fall over dead within days, weeks, months we are too slow to see how much of what is happening around us is a reaping of what has been sown in the past. Either from ourselves, or our families or the forefathers of the church etc, etc. We are seeing in the culture what happens when God's people get syncretized. Balaam's trick has worked again.
We don't need revival, we need Reformation. For God's children to really start acting like sons and daughters. To really want to know...how does God want me to understand and see this or that and then to respond like I am his son. May God grant it.
If we cry out Lord! Lord! Show us your will! But then are clueless as to the written record that he deliberately left behind for us to follow...ouch! ouch! We have got to get out our camping flashlights, the big bright ones, the hot ones, and head out into those unexplored parts of the Old Testament. We need to get familiar with them like we are with Colossians and Romans and the Gospels. We're not looking for our righteousness, we have that in Christ! But what else has God said about life..."it's a lamp unto my feet." That's from psalm 119, that's talking about the Old Testmament! Do we believe that about the Old Testasment? "That it is a lamp unto my feet, and light unto my path." How come we dont? God doesn't lie.
Cultural side note: We have been trained subconscienciously by our culture to always want the new. Just think about the word "old." Old Testament...we of course want the..New... Testament. After all, it's new. It's probably improved.
Think of it rather as the First Testament. Without which you will not correctly understand the Second Testament, I mean New Testament.
Kevin Swanson drove this point home when he mentioned you will not see Jesus correctly without the Old Testament.
Reformation. We must chew on this stuff. Less we be like the seed that fell upon the side of the road...
A California side note: it's being roasted by wildfires right after it shook it's fist in God's face concerning his definitions of men and women as it relates to the education of it's children. No, I have not said it's God's judgement on them. But God does say that he is the the one who makes the blind. Just thinking out loud. I would say that this fire that is destroying so many homes and acres of land is less damaging then the spiritual firestorm that is taking place in the heavenlies over the laws recently passed there. Which firestorm are God's children more worried about? Which fires have been the biggest motivation for God's people to cry out to Him, or fast? Are we concerned with our captivity? Or that the supply of leeks and onions might be interupted? Just thinking.
God the dangerous, he is a consuming...
Reformation
More reflections from the Uniting church and Family Conference
So your standing around with other believers. You have your plumb line out, your Bible and your trying to be sure you move forward as correctly as you can. We all realize that if you are off, just a little, when you first start out that as you move down the line and over time you could be way, way off from where you intended to go.
What we don't do, is assume, that the position that we are starting from, could already be way, way, off course because of errors committed by those who have gone before 50, 100, 150 yrs ago.
We give ourselves a free pass on where we currently stand for most issues. We have been unaware that for us and those who have gone before that we have interpreted God's word from within a framework of thinking that was shaped by "values defined by an autonomous culture."
But most of us can quickly think of too many areas where we see the fruit of misdirection by our forefathers in the faith I.E. the embracing of humanistic mindsets for the raising of our children, not just public schools but some of us brought into our homes the same principles that were being taught in the schools. The teaching of knowledge without a real foundation of the fear of the Lord. The church embraced the fragmenting of the family as the best way to impart God's truth. It seemed normal, even wise.
The American idea of the rugged individual which turned into the family being just so many individuals all really going in different directions rather than a cohesive force for the advancement of God's Kingdom, which in turn has become the church full of "families" (I use the term lightly) all going in different directions. I speak of modern evangelicalism on the whole.
How about last weekend hearing Don Hart, Scott Brown and Kevin Swanson bring out principles where I just felt embarrassed, like "I didn't know my zipper has been down..."
Now after awhile you do have to wonder just what is solidly built on God's word and what is just so much Matt 15:1-7 "the traditions of men by which you have made the commandments of God of no effect..." The next thing you could hear would be Jesus saying . .. "Hypocrites!"... That would be verse 7. The final straw was when God gave Swanson a Magnum Opus on "Pragmatism" or was it "No.. one.. really.. cares..about.. what.. God.. wants!" or was it called "I was just trying to keep the arc from falling". You stop worring about whether your zipper is down when you realize you have no pants on!
This has been a week of repentance for me. Minus sack cloth and ashes. We need to be about this work of reformation with vigor. We have got to repent and get out of left field when God is merciful and shows us what we have missed. If we let our pride get in the way....
May it not be! What mercy and grace we have recieved....Let us be like Don Hart's young son who said if he was stuck in a flood ..."he would pray and swim like crazy!"
So your standing around with other believers. You have your plumb line out, your Bible and your trying to be sure you move forward as correctly as you can. We all realize that if you are off, just a little, when you first start out that as you move down the line and over time you could be way, way off from where you intended to go.
What we don't do, is assume, that the position that we are starting from, could already be way, way, off course because of errors committed by those who have gone before 50, 100, 150 yrs ago.
We give ourselves a free pass on where we currently stand for most issues. We have been unaware that for us and those who have gone before that we have interpreted God's word from within a framework of thinking that was shaped by "values defined by an autonomous culture."
But most of us can quickly think of too many areas where we see the fruit of misdirection by our forefathers in the faith I.E. the embracing of humanistic mindsets for the raising of our children, not just public schools but some of us brought into our homes the same principles that were being taught in the schools. The teaching of knowledge without a real foundation of the fear of the Lord. The church embraced the fragmenting of the family as the best way to impart God's truth. It seemed normal, even wise.
The American idea of the rugged individual which turned into the family being just so many individuals all really going in different directions rather than a cohesive force for the advancement of God's Kingdom, which in turn has become the church full of "families" (I use the term lightly) all going in different directions. I speak of modern evangelicalism on the whole.
How about last weekend hearing Don Hart, Scott Brown and Kevin Swanson bring out principles where I just felt embarrassed, like "I didn't know my zipper has been down..."
Now after awhile you do have to wonder just what is solidly built on God's word and what is just so much Matt 15:1-7 "the traditions of men by which you have made the commandments of God of no effect..." The next thing you could hear would be Jesus saying . .. "Hypocrites!"... That would be verse 7. The final straw was when God gave Swanson a Magnum Opus on "Pragmatism" or was it "No.. one.. really.. cares..about.. what.. God.. wants!" or was it called "I was just trying to keep the arc from falling". You stop worring about whether your zipper is down when you realize you have no pants on!
This has been a week of repentance for me. Minus sack cloth and ashes. We need to be about this work of reformation with vigor. We have got to repent and get out of left field when God is merciful and shows us what we have missed. If we let our pride get in the way....
May it not be! What mercy and grace we have recieved....Let us be like Don Hart's young son who said if he was stuck in a flood ..."he would pray and swim like crazy!"
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Gleaning From the Conference
I cannot believe how much I am gleaning from listening to my mp3s of the conference.
At the conference, Kevin Swanson made the comment that all the government agencys are doing is putting their fingers into the dike to keep it from failing. That Chrisitans should be back another 50 feet building another dike for when it does fail. I do think that this is going to happen, it’s mostly a matter of when, not if. I think the same is true for much of modern evangelicalism. I’m not at the place that Kevin is, where he thinks it time to get the RIP signs ready... But, because it has abandoned the core of God’s Law as the standard for all of life it will be unable to stop its slide into irrelevancy and at some point, will just give way, if broad repentance doesn’t happen. We do need to be busy building, identifying our core identities, as to what our fellowships stand for, to be ready when, and if, that day arrives. Might want to be back further than 50ft.
At Legacy, Rob has been diligently working at this during the year. We have seen the need as a body to nail this stuff down so that as others come in they know where we’re coming from and what they would be joining. The Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 will work just fine for me. You are never gonna love everything, or you will be a church of one. So that’s where the "we are in substantial agreement with..." stuff comes in.
Having heard Swanson reformed talk multiple times now he talked about this subject in relation to the gay and lesbians...
Think about this, you can have every creed in the book and it still doesn’t tell someone whether you are taking a stand against egalitarianism, individualism, blind patriotism, big statist government. (Americana in other words) Even if you are against these things, what really counts is what you are for.
Your creed and confession doesn’t say if you have a biblical understanding of proper jurisdictions for the family, church and state. Embrace biblical patriachy with its multi-generational understanding of families or are even family integrated as a church. None tell you if the church trys to encourage a entreprenurial mindest amongst the fathers and young men and a rejection of the slave/worker bee mentality that was bred into us as a part of govenment controlled education, or if the women are seeking to recover bold biblical femininity. They don’t tell you whether the Pastor is a lone ranger with some eunich deacons or if it understands and embraces or is trying to embrace biblical eldership. They don’t let you know if they are trying to recover a biblical understanding of history and inculcating it into their sons and daughters, " so that they might not run in the day of adversity".
But at this weekends conference with the innocent sounding name of "Uniting Church and Family" almost all of these areas were addressed to one extent or another, if not during one of the talks then maybe from questions and answers. If you have been drinking deep from the cisterns of Vision Forum you will get all of this in spades.
I'm gonna add right here that if you just started downloading and listening to the Generations Radio broadcasts you would also wind up at the same place.
So, I’m not looking to tell people what creeds I embrace, or if I’m pre, post or ah...I will just say "I’m in substantial agreement with Vision Forum." That funny looking group of charismatics, presbeterians (these guys have done most of the heavy lifting), baptists, reformed baptists etc etc....all carrying around a serious attitude about the sovereignty of God and his authority over all of life!
Legacy will have the 1689 Baptist Confession. But the library table keeps looking more and more like pages from the Vision Forum catalog.
Your creed can show what you stand on, but not necessarily where your going. This is, where the battle is at today. Where are you, going?
A side note: all these areas were first being elevated by a group that called this restoration work "Reconstruction". Unfortunately the devil and his humanist friends with the help of dumb Christians, did a good job smearing them and their work, stigmatizing the name. Too bad.
At the conference, Kevin Swanson made the comment that all the government agencys are doing is putting their fingers into the dike to keep it from failing. That Chrisitans should be back another 50 feet building another dike for when it does fail. I do think that this is going to happen, it’s mostly a matter of when, not if. I think the same is true for much of modern evangelicalism. I’m not at the place that Kevin is, where he thinks it time to get the RIP signs ready... But, because it has abandoned the core of God’s Law as the standard for all of life it will be unable to stop its slide into irrelevancy and at some point, will just give way, if broad repentance doesn’t happen. We do need to be busy building, identifying our core identities, as to what our fellowships stand for, to be ready when, and if, that day arrives. Might want to be back further than 50ft.
At Legacy, Rob has been diligently working at this during the year. We have seen the need as a body to nail this stuff down so that as others come in they know where we’re coming from and what they would be joining. The Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 will work just fine for me. You are never gonna love everything, or you will be a church of one. So that’s where the "we are in substantial agreement with..." stuff comes in.
Having heard Swanson reformed talk multiple times now he talked about this subject in relation to the gay and lesbians...
Think about this, you can have every creed in the book and it still doesn’t tell someone whether you are taking a stand against egalitarianism, individualism, blind patriotism, big statist government. (Americana in other words) Even if you are against these things, what really counts is what you are for.
Your creed and confession doesn’t say if you have a biblical understanding of proper jurisdictions for the family, church and state. Embrace biblical patriachy with its multi-generational understanding of families or are even family integrated as a church. None tell you if the church trys to encourage a entreprenurial mindest amongst the fathers and young men and a rejection of the slave/worker bee mentality that was bred into us as a part of govenment controlled education, or if the women are seeking to recover bold biblical femininity. They don’t tell you whether the Pastor is a lone ranger with some eunich deacons or if it understands and embraces or is trying to embrace biblical eldership. They don’t let you know if they are trying to recover a biblical understanding of history and inculcating it into their sons and daughters, " so that they might not run in the day of adversity".
But at this weekends conference with the innocent sounding name of "Uniting Church and Family" almost all of these areas were addressed to one extent or another, if not during one of the talks then maybe from questions and answers. If you have been drinking deep from the cisterns of Vision Forum you will get all of this in spades.
I'm gonna add right here that if you just started downloading and listening to the Generations Radio broadcasts you would also wind up at the same place.
So, I’m not looking to tell people what creeds I embrace, or if I’m pre, post or ah...I will just say "I’m in substantial agreement with Vision Forum." That funny looking group of charismatics, presbeterians (these guys have done most of the heavy lifting), baptists, reformed baptists etc etc....all carrying around a serious attitude about the sovereignty of God and his authority over all of life!
Legacy will have the 1689 Baptist Confession. But the library table keeps looking more and more like pages from the Vision Forum catalog.
Your creed can show what you stand on, but not necessarily where your going. This is, where the battle is at today. Where are you, going?
A side note: all these areas were first being elevated by a group that called this restoration work "Reconstruction". Unfortunately the devil and his humanist friends with the help of dumb Christians, did a good job smearing them and their work, stigmatizing the name. Too bad.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Need a Realtor?
I want to mention my friend, Martin Spilo, if anyone has need of a realtor and doesn't have one they're comfortable with. His web site has lots of helpful tools/calculators if you just want to see what your house is worth or figure what a new payment would be after refinancing would be, etc. A good brother in the Lord. His family has a special place in my family's heart.
Martin's website
Martin's website
'Mom' and 'Dad' Banished by California
Need to be building that dike....as events seem to keep picking up speed. Good news, might help create an uptick in the Phoenix housing market as some?!? a lot?!? relocate here. Or will this not amount to much to our evangelical brothers there? If they have not seen the need to get their kids out of Government schools by now. Or will they now see an even greater need for their kids to be a "christian witness".
BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS
'Mom' and 'Dad' banished by California
Schwarzenegger signs law outlawing terms perceived as negative to 'gays'
"Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" effectively have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose.
"We are shocked and appalled that the governor has blatantly attacked traditional family values in California," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.
"With this decision, Gov. Schwarzenegger has told parents that their values are irrelevant. Many parents will have no choice but to pull their children out of the public schools that have now become sexualized indoctrination centers."
"Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, which worked to defeat the plans. "This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms... Read more>>
BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS
'Mom' and 'Dad' banished by California
Schwarzenegger signs law outlawing terms perceived as negative to 'gays'
"Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" effectively have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose.
"We are shocked and appalled that the governor has blatantly attacked traditional family values in California," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.
"With this decision, Gov. Schwarzenegger has told parents that their values are irrelevant. Many parents will have no choice but to pull their children out of the public schools that have now become sexualized indoctrination centers."
"Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, which worked to defeat the plans. "This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms... Read more>>
Monday, October 15, 2007
Evangelical,I have Stopped Going to Church
Here is something to think about in light of the teaching, instruction, wisdom given from those a little further down the road from us. We will need to seek out Gods wisdom, so we can act prudently, biblically, to the miriad of weird and not so weird things that happen when sinful humans gather together in the name of Christ. May we never just give up and let things go on. May God grant us humility to always be willing to seek out help and Godly advice. This is from the American Spectator via Pearcy Report something to think about
Church and Me
By Lawrence Henry
Published 10/12/2007 12:07:25 AM
When I was a boy, I spent summers visiting my grandparents in South Dakota. We attended a little white Church of Christ right in the middle of our little town. I could name every member of the congregation for you to this day, simply by picturing where everybody sat, but for reasons you'll see, I'm not going to do that. In fact, from now on out, I'll change names to protect the feelings of people still alive.....
But, at various stages, I have stopped going to church, because some human fallibility, some shortcoming in the congregation itself, has brought me up short. As a church, we belong to Jesus Christ, not to any particular person, whether he be preacher, teacher, elder, or friend.
But those preachers, teachers, elders, and friends do mean something, and when something goes awry -- when the church as a church just plain doesn't work, and when I start to feel the way I felt as a child, that some of the grownups are faking it, or taking refuge in rigidity -- then I start to feel that old uneasiness again, and find it a lot more comfortable to retreat to my Bible and my prayers and solitude.
Of late, that kind of thing has happened again, and I have stopped going to church. We'll see how long it takes for me to get that old-time feeling again. entire article
Church and Me
By Lawrence Henry
Published 10/12/2007 12:07:25 AM
When I was a boy, I spent summers visiting my grandparents in South Dakota. We attended a little white Church of Christ right in the middle of our little town. I could name every member of the congregation for you to this day, simply by picturing where everybody sat, but for reasons you'll see, I'm not going to do that. In fact, from now on out, I'll change names to protect the feelings of people still alive.....
But, at various stages, I have stopped going to church, because some human fallibility, some shortcoming in the congregation itself, has brought me up short. As a church, we belong to Jesus Christ, not to any particular person, whether he be preacher, teacher, elder, or friend.
But those preachers, teachers, elders, and friends do mean something, and when something goes awry -- when the church as a church just plain doesn't work, and when I start to feel the way I felt as a child, that some of the grownups are faking it, or taking refuge in rigidity -- then I start to feel that old uneasiness again, and find it a lot more comfortable to retreat to my Bible and my prayers and solitude.
Of late, that kind of thing has happened again, and I have stopped going to church. We'll see how long it takes for me to get that old-time feeling again. entire article
The Truth, Whats Your Standard? Who Says?
From Chalcedon, how timely! You will either love God and his Law or you will embrace humanism. All, of course, in the name of keeping the arc from falling.
Tolerance and Intolerance Rev. R.J. Rushdoony
California Farmer 243:6 (Oct. 18, 1975), p. 36.
A friend was accused of intolerance by an associate because he expressed his opposition to various sexual offenses. He was briefly troubled by this charge until he suddenly realized that this accuser was himself savagely intolerant, intolerant in his case of Christianity.
Intolerance is inescapable. If we are Christians and abide by Scripture, we will be intolerant towards murder, theft, adultery, false witness, and other offenses against God's order. They will be to us a violation of our freedom and order under God, and an oppression of godly men.
If, on the other hand, we are sinners and lawbreakers by nature, we will be intolerant of God and His people, intolerant of godly laws and restraints precisely because we tolerate and love sin.
Our Lord stated the issues clearly: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other" (Matt. 6:24). It is necessary for us to love God and His Word, and, if we are regenerate, it is our nature to do so. This means that we therefore hate sin and regard it as an offense against God and man and an intolerable violation of godly order which must be eliminated.
Similarly, those who hate God want to eliminate Him, and us, and everything which is an aspect of God's law and order and Word from their universe. They are savagely and bitterly intolerant.
In other words, what you tolerate says a great deal about you. It identifies your loyalties and your love, and it classifies your nature clearly. Men are known, not only by their fruits, but also by their love and hate, their tolerance and intolerance.
Article found here
Tolerance and Intolerance Rev. R.J. Rushdoony
California Farmer 243:6 (Oct. 18, 1975), p. 36.
A friend was accused of intolerance by an associate because he expressed his opposition to various sexual offenses. He was briefly troubled by this charge until he suddenly realized that this accuser was himself savagely intolerant, intolerant in his case of Christianity.
Intolerance is inescapable. If we are Christians and abide by Scripture, we will be intolerant towards murder, theft, adultery, false witness, and other offenses against God's order. They will be to us a violation of our freedom and order under God, and an oppression of godly men.
If, on the other hand, we are sinners and lawbreakers by nature, we will be intolerant of God and His people, intolerant of godly laws and restraints precisely because we tolerate and love sin.
Our Lord stated the issues clearly: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other" (Matt. 6:24). It is necessary for us to love God and His Word, and, if we are regenerate, it is our nature to do so. This means that we therefore hate sin and regard it as an offense against God and man and an intolerable violation of godly order which must be eliminated.
Similarly, those who hate God want to eliminate Him, and us, and everything which is an aspect of God's law and order and Word from their universe. They are savagely and bitterly intolerant.
In other words, what you tolerate says a great deal about you. It identifies your loyalties and your love, and it classifies your nature clearly. Men are known, not only by their fruits, but also by their love and hate, their tolerance and intolerance.
Article found here
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