What are we saying?

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your very eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Galatians 3:1-3

As we sat yesterday discussing Mormonism and Christianity at an LDS Institute of Religion these verses kept coming into play.

For a time I was agnostic, there was little to sway me to believe any religion was more true than another. In my ignorance I obeyed the rules to be, "Accepted by whatever god was real." Yet, I wanted answers.

Not answers that were pre-written, pre-memorized, or pre-scripted, but real factual answers. 

As I read more about the Bible I found evidence to support it's authenticity, this helped lead me to read the Bible and in so reading come to faith. But a large part of what helped was having real discussions when people used their own words to describe what we believe.

Sitting here in these discussion between Mormons and Christians has brought out an interesting tie between the two.

Most christians can speak the language but don't believe it. Most Mormons speak the language, believe it, but never think about it.

There is nothing more saddening to me than a Christian who only uses cliche to describe their heart-understanding of God. There's nothing more odd than a Mormon who says what they believe, believes what they say, but never think about the implications of the script.

As the Bride of Christ should we not aim to be unified? Should we not aim to speak openly about difficulty, pain and struggle in our small groups? A Mormon would never confess their issues because that means they wouldn't be able to go to Temple. But most Christians treat their local church the same. We are not Mormon! We are Christian, Christ as redeemed us from the curse of the law and seated us in the heavenlies, by grace you have been saved. Therefore we are completely free to love unconditionally, to speak unreservedly and to serve unflinchingly. 

We are not Mormon, we are Christ's. We ought to speak and act like it.

What are we saying?

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your very eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Galatians 3:1-3

As we sat yesterday discussing Mormonism and Christianity at an LDS Institute of Religion these verses kept coming into play.

For a time I was agnostic, there was little to sway me to believe any religion was more true than another. In my ignorance I obeyed the rules to be, "Accepted by whatever god was real." Yet, I wanted answers.

Not answers that were pre-written, pre-memorized, or pre-scripted, but real factual answers. 

As I read more about the Bible I found evidence to support it's authenticity, this helped lead me to read the Bible and in so reading come to faith. But a large part of what helped was having real discussions when people used their own words to describe what we believe.

Sitting here in these discussion between Mormons and Christians has brought out an interesting tie between the two.

Most christians can speak the language but don't believe it. Most Mormons speak the language, believe it, but never think about it.

There is nothing more saddening to me than a Christian who only uses cliche to describe their heart-understanding of God. There's nothing more odd than a Mormon who says what they believe, believes what they say, but never think about the implications of the script.

As the Bride of Christ should we not aim to be unified? Should we not aim to speak openly about difficulty, pain and struggle in our small groups? A Mormon would never confess their issues because that means they wouldn't be able to go to Temple. But most Christians treat their local church the same. We are not Mormon! We are Christian, Christ as redeemed us from the curse of the law and seated us in the heavenlies, by grace you have been saved. Therefore we are completely free to love unconditionally, to speak unreservedly and to serve unflinchingly. 

We are not Mormon, we are Christ's. We ought to speak and act like it.

Missionary Trust

The main difference between Mormon heaven and Christian heaven is that in Christian heaven you get God because of Jesus' finished work; while in Mormon heaven you get god because of your works.

As we sat and discussed this reality with a young lady you could see that she was getting it. It wasn't a notion Evangelicals hold which was falling on deaf ears, no it was falling on listening ears, and from what it appeared they longed to hear more of this workless, grace-full gospel.

But time was cut short and it was time to leave.

So what happens to a missionary when they are so close to seeing one convert to Christ, but won't see it happen?

Trust.

The missionary must trust that God is sovereignly in control. The missionary must trust that God will bring his people to himself. The missionary must trust that, that one will be cared for by the Good Shepherd and brought to the fold of God. The missionary leans not on his own prowess in speaking eloquently but on God's Spirit to save completely.

The missionary must trust that it is for God to save and for man to proclaim. 

Mormon Conversation

I've never had a legitamate conversation with a Mormon before yesterday, now I've spoken with four.

In one since it was a lively conversation between similar aged students, in another sense it was learning another religion, and in another sense it was a battle in the war for eternity.

It was a lively conversation, because we talked and discussed the finer points of our belief systems. The Trinity, women in the Church, and an evangelical view of marriage were questions they asked of us. The Mormon view of Jesus, the levels of heaven, and the Mormon translation of the Bible were asked of our Mormon counterparts.

It was learning about another religion, because how often do you get to sit down for two solid hours and simply talk to Mormons about the similarities and differences of our religions? While Mormon's would say there is little that separates Evangelicalism from Mormonism, Evangelical's would always maintain the drastic differences between the two.

It was a battle in the war for eternity, because we believe, as Evangelicals, that hell hangs in the balance and will be the result for the students we spoke with yesterday if they do not repent of their sins, turn to Jesus Christ (fully God and fully man), and believe that God raised him up on the third day according to the Scriptures, by the grace and calling of God.

Yesterday was not a simple time to learn and discuss, it was a valuable time to have free range opportunity to speak of the gospel winsomely to the dying world. May God use the questions asked to haunt a Mormon toward Himself.

Different Religious Dictionary

Have you ever taken a comparative religion class? Or just a world religion class in general? There's Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and maybe even Zoroastrianism  but how often does Mormonism get thrown into that mix?

Think about this, all the terms you use to talk about Christianity, but with completely different meanings. You talk of atonement, they talk of atonement. You talk of God's love, they talk of God's love. You talk of God as your Father, they talk of Heavenly Father. Yet each of those means something different

Their idea of atonement is not the Evangelical Christ view of atonement, nor their idea of God's love the same, nor their view of God as their Father.

It all sounds the same but all the meanings are different. Apologetics with a Mormon are, I would guess, a waste of time. How can you move a conversation forward if you're both working from different dictionaries? (To add to this, they always come in twos and have "lying for the lord," as backup for getting into tricky conversations.) 

So what is the apologetic we use? Relationship.

We use the dictionary we both have in common, our humanity and need for community, to build a relationship wherein we can form trust and literally show 2 Peter 3:14-17 to those of another religious dictionary.

How is prayer different on the mission field?

I arrived in Salt Lake City last night for our week-long mission trip. As I drifted off to sleep I began to pray for God to protect me. But it hit me. The culture that I'm now surrounded by most likely prays similar prayers, but to a completely different god than the God I worship. So my prayers altered, to a much more Trinitarian version of the same prayer I just prayed. 

Yes, I know the intent of my heart was to pray to the God who inspired our inerrant Scriptures by his breath, but praying rightly isn't just about the intent, is it?

This morning I read Matthew 3:13-17, the baptism of Jesus, a wholly Trinitarian passage. Then, Dr. Mickinions Theology 1 class kicked in, I looked up the Athanasian Creed (I think I'll sit in these all week), and read, "The Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.

So back to the above question, how is prayer different on the mission field? Well, it's not, but it is.

It's not different because at all times we should be strikingly aware of the words we are using to pray to the Maker of All. But it is different because I know I've been wrenched from the normal routine and stuck in a place where 2.8% of the people are affiliated with an evangelical church. Out of nearly 1.8 million people that's about 50,000 people who regularly hear the gospel proclaimed in an evangelical church. (statistics taken from NAMB). 

Robin Williams and the Millenial Generation

Robin Williams.

He died yesterday.

It hits me as uniquely strange that he would die at this time. Why now? Think a little more about that.

The world, it seems, is spiraling out of control. Children are reportedly being cut in half in Iraq, Ebola has claimed over 1000 lives, the US has border issues and Gaza still be isn't at peace.

Then my millennial generation’s childhood escape and laughter dies. There is a collective sadness and a profundity to this particular death which, for some odd reason strikes a different heart string. Thousands are dying today. All deaths seem so terribly needless, but this one, this poor fellow seems so despairingly sad. “He was deeply depressed.”

It seems this sadness is simply and expression of the combined sadness my generation is feeling at the state of the world - we just have a place to express it now. We - us millennials - are learning what it is to be grown ups and it’s not what it was in the movies.

His death is pointing to our lack. That though even he's our beloved actor he still, as a friend tweeted, “couldn’t climb out of the darkness.” Now that the world is morning for Robin Williams it still didn’t nor couldn't save him. The need is for something not of this world.

Teaching Hypocrites

"... Through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared..." 1 Tim 4:2

"If these words refer to 'demons' then this word will mean men deceiving through th instigation of th devil. But we may also supply the words, 'of men speaking.' He now descends to a particular instance, when he says that they 'speak lies in hypocrisy,' and have their consicences seard with a hot iron. And indeed, it ought to be known that these two are so closely joined together that the former springs from the latter; for consciences, that are bad and seared with the hot iron of their crimes, always flee to hypocrisy as a ready refuge; that is, they contrive hypocritical pretences, in order to dazzle th eyes of God; and what else is done by those who endeavor to appease God by the mask of outward observances."

"The word hypocrisy must therefore be explained agreeable to the passage in which it now occurs; for, first, it must relate to doctrine, and next it denotes that kind of doctrine which adulterates the spiritual worship of God by exchanging its genuine purity for bodily exercises; and thus it includes all methods contrived by men for appeasing God or obtaining his favor. The meaning may be thus summed up; first, that all who assume a pretended sanctimoniousness are lead by the instigation of the devil; because God is never worshipped aright by outward ceremonies; for true worshippers, 'worship in spirit and truth,' (John 4:24) and, secondly, that this is a useless medicine, by which hypocrites mitigate their pains, or rather a plaster by which bad consciences conceal their wounds, without any advantage, and to their utter destruction."

John Calvin.

4th of July

This nation, indivisible

will perish from the Earth
as surely as the leaves must change and fall

and the band will end the anthem
to dust she will return
so the sun must set on all things, great and small

but the first star of the evening
will outlive them all.

Divine Humility

It seems fitting to read the following on the day the Supreme Court makes, what is expected to be, and landmark decision concerning religious liberty in America.

“But it matters enormously if I alienate anyone from the truth.”

“Let me implore the reader to try to believe, if only for a moment, that God, who made these deserving people, may really be right when he thinks that their modest prosperity and happiness of their children are not enough to make them blessed: that all this must fall from them in the end, and that if they have not learned to know him they will be wretched.” And therefore he troubles them, warning them in advance of an insufficiency that one day they will have to discover.

“The life to themselves and their families stands between them and the recognition of their need; he makes that life less sweet to them. I call this Divine humility because it is a poor thing to strike our colors to God when the ship is going down under us; a poor thing to come to him as a last resort, to offer up ‘our own’ when it is no longer worth keeping. If God were proud he would hardly have us on such terms: but he is not proud, he stoops to conquer, he will have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to him, and come to him because there is ‘nothing better’ now to be had.”

“The same humility is shown by all those divine appeals to our fears which trouble high-minded readers of scripture. It is hardly complimentary to God that we should choose him as alternative to Hell: yet even this he accepts. The creature’s illusion of self-sufficiency must, for the creatures sake, be shattered; and by trouble or fear of trouble on earth, by crude fear of the eternal flames, God shatters it ‘unmindful of his glory’s diminution.’ Those who would like the God of scripture to be more purely ethical, do not know what they ask. If God were a Kantian, who would not have us till we came to him from the purest and best motives, who could be saved? And this illusion of self-sufficiency may be at its strongest in some very honest, kindly, and temperate people, and on such people, therefore, misfortune must fall.”

C.S. Lewis The Problem of Pain. p 97-98

Kindness & Love

“…For about a hundred years we have so concentrated on one of the virtues – ‘kindness’ or mercy – that most of us do not feel anything expect kindness to be really good or anything but cruelty to be really bad.”[1]

When C.S. Lewis wrote these words in 1940, “Kindness,” ruled the day, but now over 70 years later, “Love,” rules. Starting somewhere - in the 1960’s I’d assume – love became the new pet virtue.

What we’ve seen is that our definition and understanding of love, that is what we’ve been conditioned to recognize as love, is nothing more than the obtaining of sex. And, therefore, the denial of sex is pure hatred.  We’ve been had. We have been lied to.

The lie is that sex is the true meaning of love. Whether this happened by some terrible accident of marketing, “Sex sells,” or it was some grand scheme of the devil (who needs no congratulations if it was) I don’t know. But what I do know is that the conditioning we’ve been conditioned to know as reality is truly a fiction.

A reconditioning not just of our knowledge but also of our feelings is what is required. We can know all we want about the facts of what Christian (and by that I mean true) love is, but that ought to influence our hearts – our emotions. Our conditioned understanding of love as sex must be reoriented to the true meaning of love, God.

But still more we must understand all virtues in this manner. This is the heart side of the matter of belief. In faith our emotions are impacted in a biblical way. So things that are truly unjust are seen and felt as such; things that are kind are seen as kind; and love is seen as Love.

Yet we live in – as Lewis called them – pockets and in these pockets we have convinced ourselves of our own goodness, our virtuousness. But as we look from our 21^st Century pocket to the pocket of the Middle Ages we call them cruel and mean while they would see themselves as courageous and chivalrous and us as cowardly and apathetic.

Indeed we ought to really be a horror to God and ourselves. Our pet virtue of love is really no virtue at all just a selfish desire of sexual satisfaction and our understanding of our own time’s, “goodness,” is simply because no one has yet interfered with us to the point of physical violence with them (while mental violence has already accosted them).

We must relearn what it is to be truly human and that by the blood of the cross.

---

[1] C.S. Lewis. The Problem of Pain. Pg 56

What's It Mean That God is Father?

What does it mean that God is Father? Aside from the obvious answer that it means God is our Father, there are many characteristics of God that are encapsulated in the description of God as “father.” The providing aspect of God, his Kingship and, well you know, that whole “Him” thing. Books like "The Shack" like to present God as the all-mother or some such nonsense and dispense with the clearly written words of the Bible for some gender inclusive (or just as exclusive as calling him father, but that’s neither here nor there) shtick. But we, as Christians, call God Father.

The aspects of God, his love, greatness, goodness, gentleness, awesomeness, graciousness etc. are not qualities that we would necessarily look at and think that God’s a dude, rather we’d think these cool qualities. But when coupled with his providence, Kingship, leadership and general fatherly-ness we would need to assume upon his fatherly nature because, well, he is our Father. As the Provider we his children are given an old picture of a man bringing home what is needed to give health, home and happiness to his family. As King we see a God fierce in battle and mighty to save from the onslaught of demonic hosts and our own sin. As Leader we see a God who is willing to do what is necessary to take his people where he wants them go.

But something interesting occurs when you strip God of his fatherly-ness. He becomes it and it becomes impersonal and impersonal becomes impartial and impartial becomes careless and careless becomes graceless and graceless becomes meaningless - meaningless to the point of irreverence and disregard. So much so that culture uses his name as a byword and a curse.

Culture has steadily and slowly attempted at removing God’s personal qualities, namely that he is father. And we are now, yes, even now, seeing the outcomes of those slow and steady cultural modifications to cultural Christian understandings. The modern day fight of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered (LGBT) movement for cultural standing and inclusion is part and portion of the degenderization of the society at large which is an outcome of removing God’s fatherly-ness from his personality. It is also, I believe, part of the reason we see such drastic issues with out of wedlock pregnancies and fatherless children, as well as the astounding 56 million abortions that have legally happened since Roe V Wade.

Removing God’s Fatherly nature from the written word, from our modern understanding of God and our cultural understand of Christianity has done nothing in the way of help for our economy, our children or our future. It is safe to argue that homosexuality is not an economically sound decision because economics is based on buying units, of which, homosexuals do not produce because they cannot reproduce. The same can be said for abortion; on an economic point 56 million buying units have been lost thus far, those are both dollars not being used but also jobs not being created or sustained by one, if not all, of those 56 million. And statistically speaking a child born out of wedlock is more likely to live life on welfare than one born in a married family and is , therefore, a burden on the economy because a non-producing unit is only consuming.

But father God is and father he remains. He is father because he has revealed himself as such. He has spoken clearly of who he is in his word, therefore we see him not as impersonal, impartial and unimportant; no we see him as personal, partial and vastly important and this changes everything.

To read an expanded peice on this topic visit Parts, Portions & Pieces.

Pigtails

We were at church the other weekend and a little girl was being baptized. I love baptisms, but this one was really making me think. 

"How can this little girl with pigtails have more confidence in the gospel than me?" I questioned in my mind.

"I can tell you why I disagree with J.I. Packer and why I do agree with John Piper. I can tell you why I think Driscoll & Spurgeon don't go far enough at some points. I can tell you why Dawkins is ultimately wrong. But I can't have the confidence this little girl has in the gospel?" My mind began to formulate the arguments against me.

For two weeks this has been bouncing around in my skull and I couldn't really get it out. But reading this has helped, 

"Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: Look you scoffers, be astonished and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not even believe, even if one tells it to you." Acts 13:40-41

Beware, O my mind, lest you miss what is going on before your waking eyes. Beware, O my mind, lest the preachers speak the truth of the ages to you and you do no believe. Beware, O my mind, lest the astonishment of your redemption is lost for want of knowledge.

I stand in no other place than that little girl with the pigtails stands. I know no more than the child in the water. The knowledge of the holy has not saved me - indeed it cannot. The coming of God in the flesh taking my sin, God's wrath and my shame has done it, finished it and won me.

Not so much that I believe this, or that I cling to this truth like a shipwrecked rat, but that this truth holds me - that it grips me tighter than my gradually loosening skin. I could want for more faith to believe the beauties of the realities of the gospel, but ultimately it is not something I hold, it holds me. It holds me. He holds me.

He holds me like a raft in the midst of the tempest of death. He holds me like the Shepherd holds the forlorn lamb. He holds me like the husband holds his weeping wife. He holds me.

You see, my knowledge or my faith could not convince me of my faith. They couldn't convince me because they're mine and the fallibility of me is astounding. But that faith is not mine, it's His. His faith in himself to save this sinners for his glory. This is my faith and confidence. The rope is tide tight roundabout my heartstrings and will not let me go, and I cannot let it go.

Will Our Laws Hurt Our Christianity?

As I was reading Jonathan Merritt’s post on The Atlantic today I couldn’t help but be faced with the gruesome reality of what we are facing as a Christian community. His article – if you didn’t read it – paints a picture of the laws conservative Christians are supporting eventually being used against us. And this is true. I think he’s right to say that someday somehow laws that are made to protect religious freedoms will, in fact, be used against the ones excited about their possible implementation (even though most of them have failed).

Being a former pastor now professional Tweeter (yea, I’m a tweeter on the Tweeter) I understand the desire to protect the church. I’ve had difficult conversations with people telling them that for the safety of the church they’d have to leave. So here, in this argument of laws initially being in support of religion turning on religion my first thought is how to protect the church? But what about what the Bible says?

Are the authority of Scripture and the possible passing of these laws at odds? If they’re not then are we to protect the Church from the threat of possible future persecution or are we to obey what the Bible says? (For the sake of this post let’s say the laws and Scripture are not at odds – even though may be.)

So what do we, as Bible believing Christians, do when a current biblical trend could possibly be dangerous, and even harmful, for the church?

I really think answering this should be hard for us. In essence become the enemy of the Church, the Bride of Christ, the one for whom he died in order to pass a law that is biblical? Or protect the Bride of Christ from the Law of Land based out of the Word of God?

The trends and poles are pointing to the loss of religious freedoms; I would add the loss of Christian religious freedoms. Dr. Ashford of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary spoke last Monday at an evangelism conference for North Carolina Baptists on the issue of suffering for our beliefs. Saying things like, “Pastors will go to prison for hate speech.”

So do we aim at passing laws affording us the freedom to speak on while others continue to gnaw away at the base of the church for they are free to do so? Or do we let hate speech become something we will often pay the penalty for? Do we protect the Church from the constant gnawing of her dissenters or do we see our own become our enemies and our leaders go to jail for speaking truth?

As hard as it is to see yourself become the ‘Church's enemy’ we must, as Christians, stick to the authority of Scripture. Not just because that’s what we believe but because that’s what makes us Christians. Yes, ultimately the gospel is what makes us Christians, but penultimately we must believe that God has revealed himself - and his gospel - in Scripture. So if, and when, in the future we are faced with the difficult choice of protecting the Church by deviating from Scripture or hurting the Church by clinging to Scripture we must, for we are bound by who we are, stay close to Scripture.

“Go back, go back to the ancient paths;

            Lash your heart to the ancient mast,

            And hold on, boy, whatever you do.

To the hope that’s taken hold of you,

            And you’ll find your way.

You’ll find your way;

            If love is what you’re looking for;

            The old roads lead to an open door,

            And you’ll find your way back home.” - Andrew Peterson

            

Friday Thoughts

1. Rest with God & he will give you rest; rest without him & you will find anxiety.

2. Luke 24:46-48. Christ Died; rose from the dead; established his Church. Gospel.

3. Participation in the gospel is the same. We've died with Christ; risen with Christ; are building with Christ.

4. We become partners in the grand discussion when reading books and talking. The discussion is founded & moderated by Scripture alone.

5. The story of Joseph is interrupted by Judah. Makes since.

6. Abortion is a central fight against the gospel. It is a direct affront against man being made in the image of God & therefore worth saving.

7. Have we sacrificed community for missions? These shouldn't be at odds, but so often are.

8. When we agree with the world it isn't for the same reasons as the world.

9. Morality cannot be changed at will.

10. Be relationship rich and experience poor.

Thoughts of the week

1. Shell shock.

2. Seminary seems to be more about developing a good root than about fancy words & big books.

3. "To be a son or daughter of Abraham you have to have the faith of Abraham." -Greenham

4. In America we call it ministry; internationally we call it missions; in reality they're both apart of the Mission. We must not separate the idea mission from our culture.

5. Classes started, gonna be good stuff.

6. Sometimes it's better to be ignorant of a situation when the alternative of knowing means sinning.

7. It's regular for my wife & I to work our way through 3 mugs a day.

8. Ever had to do too many grown-up things in a week? #buildafort

9. The order of words in a sentence shows the order of loves in one's heart.

10. "Amidst all our pursuits & designs, let us stop & ask ourselves, For what end is all this? At what am I doing? Can the gross & muddy pleasures of sense, or a heap of white & yellow earth, or that esteem & affection of silly creatures, like myself, satisfy a rational & immortal soul? Have I not tried these things already? Will they have a higher relish, & yield me more contentment tomorrow than yesterday, or the next year than they did the last? There may be some little difference betwixt that which I enjoyed before; but sure, my former enjoyments did show as pleasant, & promised as fair, before I attained the,; like the rainbow they looked very glorious at a distance, but when I approached, I found nothing but emptiness & vapor. Oh! What a poor thing would the life of man be, if it were capable of no higher enjoyment." ~Scougal 

Simple.

We can't fight for the last word, just what's right.

If our King suffered, so shall we. We will suffer while watching children die on the altar selfishness. We'll suffer while watching friends run into folly. We'll suffer while the world around us runs from the one Person that can save it. Our God was aquatinted with grief, so too shall we be.

Thoughts

1. It's been way too long since I last did one of these

2. I preach in Peachland, NC last Sunday. I had an ominous feeling when my barber - who is 75ish & lived in NC his whole life - said, "Never heard of Peachland." 

3. Foggy mornings are the best. So much adventure, and dinosaurs.

4. Started a new blog to keep things I've written for seminary, in readable post o-course

5. Andrew Peterson's, "Light for the Lost Boy," album is killer good.

6. Semester starts next Tuesday. This is like the weekend of the deep breath before the plunge. #LOTRreference.

7. I have to read "Knowing God," for class. This is the worst possible thing ever (sarcasm).

8. Working my way through Harry Potter... again.

9. After living in a new place for almost 9 months, it's starting to feel more home-like.

10. Fun fact: In Eph 1:6 the word "blessed" in the ESV is the same word in Greek as in Luke 1:28 when Mary is described as "highly favored." The word means: to grace; i.e. indue with special honor; - make acceptable, be highly favored." So, Eph 1:6 literally reads, "To the praise of his glorious grace with which he has made us highly favored, imbued with special honor, made acceptable in the Beloved. 

A Moment to Write

My professor, Dr. Greenham, spoke well against reincarnation. He said, “We are made to go on.”

Lewis says something similar. Something of how time is an odd thing and that because we view time as odd that this points to our not being made for the temporal but the eternal. That our terms of how, “Time has flown,” or how, “Time has slowed down to a crawl,” are hints at our eternality. We are not made for reflection or the entropy of reliving parts of life, no, we’re made to go on. Now and now and now, we’re made to go on and on and on, but never made to go back to how things once were. God himself will not return us to the Garden, he, rather, will create a city for our dwelling. Lewis does well to say, “Further up and further in.” For indeed this is what we are created for.

Something of this is freeing. Nostalgia seems such a happy place until compared to reality, then we spiral into the hope of how things were, never thinking of how things are let alone how things will be. But if creation longs to be made new (Rom 8) then ought’n we too? Should we not long for the consummation of all things in the enveloping arms of Christ the King? Yet here Lewis’ voice plays in my ears once more, “News from a country you’ve never visited… echoes of a tune you’ve not heard… the scent of a flower I’ve never smelled.” Indeed our longing for completion is evident in our nostalgia, but we cannot go backward to gain it, we must go on.

I’m finding more and more that I truly only know two things, that I am a great sinner and Jesus is a greater Savior (as Newton would say it). My feelings betray me. My heart is deceitful. My mind is a labyrinth of these's and those's, this’s and that’s. Even reality holds little to know, because I’m certain that just behind it’s frail curtain a war rages - a war of cherubim and seraphim fighting devils and demons - of light defeating darkness for the Dawn has come. There is comfort in seeing my ignorance.

Andrew Peterson has a song that has been capturing me, “Carry the Fire.” He sings, “We dream at night of city descending with the Son in the middle and a peace unending… Where joy writes the song and the innocent sing them…” The more I learn, the more those same two things are all I know. In some form or fashion all things are tied to the sinfulness of my soul and Christ’s redemption.

Parts, Portions & Pieces

I've started another blog.

Let me lay out a few things here. This blog, Aspiring Spurgeon, is my blog about my thoughts on things. There are few posts on here that are formal in nature. The new blog will be, literally, parts, portions, and pieces of seminary writings.

On a personal note, I love having this blog – Aspiring Spurgeon – it’s been a great blog for personal notes, thoughts and whatevers. I hope to keep it that way. Thus the new blog.

So, at the top just under the picture there are 2 pages, “Posts,” and, “Parts, Portions & Pieces,” all you have to do to get to the new blog is click that title and bam you be there. (Same goes for the new blog, same thing ‘cept replace “Parts, Portions, & Pieces,” with, “Aspiring Spurgeon.”)

That’s what’s up dawg.