Lord Christ
Your servant
Martin Luther
said he only had
two days
on his calendar
today
and that day
and that’s
what I want too.
and I want
to live
today
for
that day.
- Joe Bayly, "Psalm of Anticipation," Psalms of My Life
"The path of the just is as the shining light, That shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Proverbs 4:18
Tim and I rejoice that Denise Sproul, wife of R.C. Sproul Jr., has entered the full light of glory. But our spirits weep for our brother, R.C. Jr., in the loss of his beloved wife, and for Denise and RC's eight children whose mother lost her battle with leukemia in winning eternity this morning. May God gird them up in faith in the hours and days ahead.
"The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?” (2 Kings 20:19)
This year Iain and Jean Murray write in their family letter...
Continue reading "For your tomorrow, we gave our today..." »
Yes, I know Chris Hitchens died. Have I read the obit Doug Wilson did for CT?
No. I try to protect my flock from that publication that makes its money being meretricious...
One brother we love is suffering, with his family, an intimate knowledge of the tenuousness of his wife's life just now. RC Jr.'s wife, Denise, is suffering under Leukemia and we ask you to pray for them. RC just posted a meditation on the shortness of life and God's kindness and tenderness in numbering our days. It's good. May I ask you to read it and pray for RC and his dear Denise? (TB)
Is Holiness Possible Today (With a Warning from Esau)
Along with a number of other dear brothers (Ron Scates, Gary LeTourneau, Jim DeCamp, Terry Schlossberg, Ben and John Sheldon), my friend Rev. Marty Radcliffe continues to languish in the heretical PC(USA). Pray for him. Marty was a godly encouragment to me in the work of the ministry back in the early eighties when we both were ordained and served within the PC(USA)'s John Knox Presbytery up in Wisconsin.
Marty just commented under the post, "Death of an eighteen-year-old brother...," that he'd recently listened again to my Dad's final sermon given from the pulpit of College Church in Wheaton a few weeks before he died. After Dad's death, I had three-hundred cassettes of this sermon duplicated and sent them out to many friends.
This is the sort of preaching almost completely absent from the PCA and other conservative Reformed circles today. And it's tragic. Out of fear of being labelled a "pietist" by godless hypocrites who persecute those pursuing the sanctification without which no man will see God...
Continue reading "A sermon from a dying man to dying men..." »
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he should bear The yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and be silent Since He has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, Perhaps there is hope. Let him give his cheek to the smiter, Let him be filled with reproach. For the Lord will not reject forever, For if He causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant lovingkindness. (Lamentations 3:25-32)
(NOTE: Since posting this a few hours ago, I've made a couple corrections and added some text at the end.) Back in 1964, my brother, Joe, went off to Swarthmore on a (rare) full ride National Merit Scholarship. He was a philosophy major, ran on the Cross Country team, and loved the Lord. He planned to go on for a Ph.D. and serve in foreign missions.
Meanwhile Dad...
Continue reading "The death of an eighteen-year-old brother..." »
A Song of Ascents, of David. O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever. - Psalms 131
Last night in an elders meeting with a couple suffering a troubled marriage, we were reminding the couple that God's goodness calls us out of our romantic idolatry of our husband (or wife) by shoving our nose in the truth of his sin. And ours...
Seeing our husband's sin exposes our own sin, also, as the Holy Spirit leads us away from worshipping man to love and adore God Alone.
The discipline is difficult. And if we are tempted to reject it and continue to hold our idolatry precious, it is the love of our Heavenly Father to intensify it until we unstiffen our necks. In that context we told of the warning Thomas Watson gives in The Ten Commandments
For six years ending late December of 2006 when she went to be with the Lord, my Dad's sister, Elaine Bayly, lived with us here in Bloomington. She arrived just days before 9/11 and she brought a personal perspective on that day because she'd spent years of her life building the World Trade Center. Thus 9/11 and Aunt Elaine have always been bound together in our family's memory.
Aunt Elaine spent about seventy years in the same apartment on Parsons Blvd. in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens and for a number of those years she worked as a secretary for the project manager of the construction of the World Trade Center, the Tishman Company.
Elaine was personal secretary to Tishman's number one and number two men on the project and her dear friend Abe Levine (number two holding the position of Deputy Construction Manager) provides this account of Aunt Elaine's work there.
We had nine secretaries, but at the World Trade Center she was the personal secretary to the man at the top and the second in command. She took shorthand at a mile a minute. We turned out hundreds of letters a week.
We had documents that ran forty to fifty pages, and some of them had to be done over again, every single week—like the minutes of our official meetings. She did those and she did them to perfection—like a masterpiece. They were full of technical stuff (we were doing engineering) and they were always done to perfection.
The other girls all looked up to her. Everyone respected her. When she did a letter, it was a masterpiece. No one else was like that.
It was extremely hectic at the World Trade Center. One day we were having a meeting with the Port Authority—all the bigwigs...
Continue reading "Aunt Elaine helped build the World Trade Center..." »
This past year, my dear friend and father-in-the-faith Dr. Roger Nicole went to be with the Lord. Other than family members, there are only a couple birthdays recorded each year on my calendar, but one of them has been Dr. Nicole's. His teaching at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary was in a category far beyond any professor I've sat under before or since (and I've had some superb profs).
I'll never forget Dr. Nicole's lectures in Systematics I on the doctrine of Scripture. One day he began by asking our class a series of questions probing our knowledge of the book of Psalms...
Continue reading "The blessing of Roger Nicole and his lectures on the authority of Scripture..." »
Scott is a missionary to the brand new country of South Sudan. My son-in-law, Ben Crum, with his wife, Michal, and our daughter, Hannah, worked under Scott at an orphanage in South Africa several years ago. Since then, Scott's turned his attention to the Sudanese and I commend him to you for your support. He's a member of a PCA church in Asheville, but serves under the Reformed Presbyterian mission agency.
If you read international news, you know Sudan has been the center of much oppression and state-sanctioned murder for years, now. The slaughter was directed by the Muslims in the north against the animists and Christians who predominate in the south. With the secession of the south and the creation of South Sudan, international human rights organizations hoped to be able to turn their attention elsewhere. Sadly, though, large tensions remain--particularly what will happen with the oil-rich Abyei region which hasn't yet held a required referendum on which nation to join.
Scott just sent an e-mail asking his friends and supporters for help exposing atrocities being committed now a couple hundred miles north of him in Sudan. He attached the report below outlining mass graves being dug...
Continue reading "Mass graves being dug in Sudan, but no response from US or UN..." »
A Psalm on the Death of an Eighteen-Year-Old Son
What waste Lord
this ointment precious
here outpoured
is treasure great
beyond my mind to think.
For years
until this midnight
it was safe
contained
awaiting careful use
now broken
wasted
lost.The world is poor
so poor it needs each drop
of such a store.
This treasure spent
might feed a multitude
for all their days
and then yield more.
This world is poor?
It’s poorer now
the treasure’s lost.
I breath its lingering fragrance
soon even that
will cease.What purpose served?
The act is void of reason
sense
Lord
madmen do such deeds
not sane.
The sane man hoards his treasure
spends with care
if good
to feed the poor
or else to feed himself.Let me alone Lord
You’ve taken from me
what I’d give Your world.
I cannot see such waste
that You should take
what poor men need.
You have a heaven
full of treasure
could You not wait
to exercise Your claim
on this?O spare me Lord forgive
that I may see
beyond this world
beyond myself
Your sovereign plan
or seeing not
may trust You
Spoiler of my treasure.
Have mercy Lord
here is my quitclaim.- Joe Bayly, on the death of his eldest son
For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. -1 Kings 11:4, 5
The rebels are dying. First, a few months back, it was our dear friend Dr. Roger Nicole. Then more recently, Catherine Kroeger and Nancy Hardesty. Both Nicole and Kroeger taught at our alma mater, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, although Nicole finished his career at Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando).
Back in the early eighties, Dr. Nicole's rebellion seemed fairly innocuous. He advocated women's ordination but held the line on the husband's authority in marriage and family life. Someone suggested Dr. Nicole's failure was the result of his Baptistic polity; that he had no doctrine of ordination, so the ordination of women was no big deal. It seemed about right as part of the explanation.
But I was more convinced Dr. Nicole's innate irenicism made it difficult for him to teach on a campus where the feminist rebellion was institutionally enshrined and his lectures were attended by many women preparing for the ministry. It was my gut feeling...
Continue reading "An elegy for my dear father, Roger Nicole..." »
Let's celebrate Easter
with the rite
of laughter.
Christ died and rose
and lives.
Laugh like a woman
who holds her first baby.
Our enemy death
will soon be destroyed.
Laugh like a man
who finds he doesn't have cancer
or does but now there's a cure.
Christ opened wide the door of heaven.
Laugh like children
at Disneyland's gates.
This world is owned by God
and He'll return to rule.
Laugh like a man
who walks away uninjured
from a wreck
in which his car was totaled.
Laugh
as if all the people in the whole world
were invited to a picnic
and then invite them.
-Joe Bayly
(Tim, w/thanks to Tenile: One blogger produced a very, very rough transcript of Martin Bashir interviewing Rob Bell and I asked Tenile Victorsen if she'd give us a good one. Here it is. If you find an error, please let us know and we'll correct it. Interspersed in the text are a few comments of my own in black text between brackets, italicized.)
Bashir: One mega church pastor has ignited a theological firestorm by suggesting that our response to the Christian message in this life will not necessarily determine our eternal destiny. In his book Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, Rob Bell says that ultimately all people will be saved, even those who’ve rejected the claims of Christianity. He argues people will eventually be persuaded by God’s love, postmortem, in the life to come. [Note how straighforward Bashir is stating Bell's thesis. As we enter the murkiness of Bell's words, we must remind ourselves of this straighforward warning from God: "...it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment..." (Hebrews 9:27)] Pastor Rob Bell joins us now. Good afternoon, sir. Before we come to talk about the book, just help us with this tragedy in Japan. Which of these is true? Either God is all-powerful but he doesn’t care about the people of Japan and, therefore, they’re suffering, or he does care about the people of Japan but he’s not all-powerful? Which one is it? [Do we really have to choose between these two, Mr. Bashir?]
Bell: I begin with the belief [Let the listener understand he means no offense to those with a different belief.] that God--when we shed a tear, God sheds a tear. [Hallmark card sentiment, but the scale of the senitment doesn't match the scale of the horror. Pastor Bell trivializes the massive death and destruction of the earthquakes and tsunamis, or the terrible suffering of the Japanese people. Just one tear? Whole cities destroyed and "a tear" for Pastor Bell and "a tear" for God?] So I begin with a divine being [Speaking to the Areopagus surrounded by the pantheon of gods, the Apostle Paul declares: “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth..." (Acts 17:24). Speaking to the world today in the midst of our pantheon of gods, Pastor Bell can't even bring himself to use the definite article to refer to his god. It's not "the God Who is there" but "a divine being."] who is profoundly [Adverbs weaken arguments but strengthen sentiment. Pastor Bell adores adverbs.] empathetic, compassionate and stands in solidarity with us. [Actually, God stands in solidarity only with those who, by faith, are "in Christ" and His Church. Concerning all others, the ax is at the root. Thus note how, by leaving "us" undefined, Pastor Bell denies the distinction between the Church and the world. This denial of distinctions is central to his false prophecies and is a defining prejudice of post-moderns--Pastor Bell's target audience.] Secondly, the dominant story [To speak of the work of redemption recorded in Scripture as a "story" reminds me of what everyone said when the planes took down the World Trade Center on 9/11: "It was just like the movies." The false images of movies helped our mind's eye to see...
Continue reading "Hide it under a bushel, yes! I'm gonna blur the lines..." »
...for the foetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a foetus in the womb before it has come to light. (John Calvin)
(Tim) Readers familiar with Baylyblog are aware my brother and I believe most use of contraception is contrary to the will of God Who commanded us to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:22, 28; 8:17; 9:1, 7; 35:11; Jeremiah 23:3) and to propogate for Him a godly seed (Malachi 2:15). This is the reaon the Westminster Confession (XXIV, 2) explicitly states fruitfulness is one of the three purposes God created marriage. Still today, this reason is recited in the wedding liturgy used by Biblical pastors presiding over wedding ceremonies. Listen for it.
We don't believe every married couple has a Biblical duty to have as many children as physically possible, yet it should be our joy to give ourselves to what God has commanded and to receive His blessings with glad hearts. We live in an evil day, though, when even among the People of God, couples are expected to justify their Biblical faithfulness in this area and if they give themselves to Biblical fruitfulness, they feel the weight of other Christians disapproving of their hard work and asking them to justify it.
Beyond faithlessness in childbearing, Christians today are also faithless in the methods of contraception they use. Which is to say that as convenience is the basic concern behind couples choosing not to have lots of children, so convenience is the basic concern behind which method of contraception they use.
Let me say this clearly...
Continue reading "Contraception or birth control: a matter of life and death..." »
(Andrew Henry) The conflict over Joseph Maraachli throws into stark relief our modern age's attack on the authority of fathers and mothers.
The circumstances are simple and painful. Several years ago, Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader lost their daughter, Zina, to a degenerative neurological condition. Her respiratory function deteriorated so severely that she was placed on a ventilator. Rather than allowing her to die in the hospital, her parents decided to take her home. A simple tracheotomy allowed her to breathe without the aid of a ventilator and she lived for six more months at home with her family before passing away.
Fast forward several years to the birth of Joseph. He was considered to be at high risk for the same genetic condition and was closely monitored as he grew. At four months old, he began having seizures and his parents worst fears were confirmed...
Continue reading "Nationalized health care and parental authority..." »
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalms 90:12)
(Tim: from Dad's "Out of My Mind" column in June of 1964) Last week a church editor told several of us, "I had a colostomy a few years ago—the growth was malignant. Later I met an old warhorse who told me, 'Good. Thank God for it. You don’t begin to live until you know you’re going to die.'"
Dying men aren’t afraid of their reputations. And they throw everything into the battle. “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
(Tim, w/thanks to David W.) Concerning the most recent case of Somali piracy, two of the four murdered were the owners of the yacht, Scott and Jean Adam. The BBC reports: "Friends have described the Adams as adventure-seekers who were also driven by their Christian faith, at times distributing Bibles at ports of call." The BBC reports further that Scott Adams had studied at Fuller Seminary. May every last Bible the Adams gave away produce fruit for the Kingdom of God.
Psalm 90: A Prayer of Moses the man of God.
Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
A Psalm of Anticipation
Lord Christ
Your servant
Martin Luther
said he only had
two days
on his calendar
today
and that day
and that’s
what I want too.
and I want
to live
today
for
that day.
-Joe Bayly
(Tim) The past two weeks the Bloomington Baylys have had sorrow and joy. Sorrow in the death of my dear cousin, John DeWalt, who succumbed to a long illness connected with diabetes. He died two weeks ago this coming Monday and some of us were able to travel to Pittsburgh for the funeral. There we grieved, and yet celebrated his homegoing with his mother, Inis (Mrs. Curtis) DeWalt, his sister Beth DeWalt, and his brother Paul DeWalt (along with Paul's wife, Patti, and their three children--Zachary, Sarah, and Jacob).
A week ago today, we had the joy of joining brother David's family in the celebration of the marriage of David's eldest son, Nathan, and his lovely bride, Aleaha (pron. a leah). It was a joyful day.
Then the past three days we've had the joy of gathering here in Bloomington for our family Thanksgiving celebration and being joined by my mother-in-law, Margaret (Mrs. Ken) Taylor. That's the pic you see above. For the record, we now have ten grandchildren. (I apologize to my dear wife, Mary Lee, for the mysterious white-out on her forehead, but otherwise it's the best pic.)
Names? Well, let's do it by families...
Continue reading "Death and life are in His mighty hands..." »
(Tim) Last night on our way out to Vienna, Virginia for Joe Sobran's wake, Brian and I (Charlie Dugdale is also with us) traded Sobran quotes for a while, writing down our favorites.
- A college education teaches one the correct views on racial minorities and provides the means to live as far away from them as possible.
- The U.S. Constitution poses no serious threat to our form of government.
- Politician's lexicon: Greed is wanting to keep as much of your wealth as possible. Need is wanting someone else's wealth. Compassion is the means by which the transfer is arranged.
- Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I'm a Republican.
- Quoting Chesterton: The modern and morbid habit of sacrificing the normal on the altar of the abnormal.
- The U.S. Constitution bears the same tenuous relationship to our government as the Book of Revelation does to the Unitarian Universalist Church.
- Quoting Charles Peguy: No one will ever know how many acts of cowardice have been committed out of the fear of seeming insufficiently progressive.
(Tim) If any readers are planning to attend Joe's wake or mass and would like to meet afterwards, please send me an e-mail. With one or two men from Bloomington, I'm planning to attend both.
Here are the details from Joe's publisher, Fran Griffin. Please note the need for help with funeral expenses....
Continue reading "Attending Joe Sobran's wake and funeral mass..." »
(Tim) As a subscriber to Joe Sobran's e-text syndicator, last night I was sent word Joe had departed this life. Then friends sent me links to notices of Joe's death at other places including National Review and First Things. Both lamented his passing while going on to regret how Joe's great learning had made him mad. Not angry-mad but anti-Semitic-mad.
He'd criticized Israel's foreign policy, then gone on to point out how toxic Jewish influence on the affairs of men had been visible in the twentieth century in Marxism and the wholesale slaughter of unborn babies--a Holocaust that in simple gallons of blood drowns the evil of the Third Reich. Too, Joe had the chutzpah to point out how Europeans were gagging men who publicly questioned aspects of our received history concerning the Christian/Jewish/homosexual/handicapped German holocaust.
"He's a Holocaust-denier!" they huffed and puffed. But of course, anyone who actually read Joe through the years knew he wasn't denying the Holocaust, but that he had a much larger point--namely, the hypocrisy of public intellectuals...
(Tim) Please pray for Joe Sobran. He's near death and I'd ask you to pray that our Heavenly Father will give him grace and will lead him to place his faith in the work of Christ alone for his salvation.
(Tim) If erudition's your thing, the late Donald Bloesch was your man. Seminary professor, denominational prophet to his own and President Barack Obama's United Church of Christ (which he referred to as "Unitarians Considering Christ"); and theologian; Don was bonkers prolific. He never seemed to stop writing. Speaking personally, though, Don was a dear friend who taught me much about how to work for reform within the church and how to apply the truths of God's Word to this present evil day.
Which is ironic when you stop to consider Bloesch held to classic Neo-Orthodoxy--particularly its denial of the plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture. Once I tried to talk Don into delaying writing the volume of his systematic theology dealing with revelation until he'd gotten older and thought better of his commitments. Of course, I failed, but the disagreement didn't end our friendship. Don understood my concern and didn't resent my attempt to keep him from the publication of his errors. (And of course, it was IVP that printed those errors. IVP has long been in thrall to the Academy, leaving far behind its earlier foundation on the plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture.)
Speaking of his view of Scripture, one night Mary Lee and I were having dinner with about five other guests at Don and Brenda's home in Dubuque. Brenda had served a wonderful meal and we were gathered in their living room for conversation, afterward. There were books here, there, and everywhere. Don sat in the middle of the couch and on the coffee table at his knees was Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood which at the time was a runner-up to Clark's Man and Woman in Christ for the best book in print on the Biblical doctrine of sexuality.
Pointing to the book I asked Don if he'd read it? He said it was on his list but he hadn't gotten to it, yet. Brenda inserted that she'd been trying to get him to read it for some time, but failed. (She held the Ph.D. in French Lit and, given their childlessness, served as Don's full-time assistant in all his writing and speaking endeavors.)
With the subject broached, I asked Don what he thought of woman officers in the church?
He responded that...
(Tim, w/thanks to Taylor) Vladimir
Ladyzhenskiy is dead. It had come down to the final at the World
Sauna Championships in Heinola, Finland, last Saturday, and he placed second. But they couldn't give him his prize.
Seconds before he died Ladyzhenskiy was still competing, giving a thumbs up to the medics watching through a window (along with a thousand spectators). The sauna was above boiling--230 degrees fahrenheit, to be exact--but neither Ladyzhenskiy nor five-time champion Timo Kaukonen were willing to lose. The other finalists exited around three minutes and Kaukonen had just three minutes more to wait until Ladyzhenskiy's death crowned him the six-time champion.
When medics entered the sauna...
(Tim) This question from a reader, followed by my answer.
An honest question, no snark, from someone seeking to further understand your viewpoint here: If one's religious beliefs compel them to denounce those of the homosexual persuasion I can understand that regardless of whether I share those beliefs.
However, we live in a country that does not have a state-endorsed religion. With that in mind, how does someone such as yourself, Mr. Bayly, advocate legislating your religious beliefs? The military is an extension of the government and I'd just as rather see my church stay out of such things.
Once again, thanks in advance for your explanation. I truly do seek to better understand a viewpoint other than my own on this issue.
Dear Lynn,
Love of sinners and their victims is what causes Christians to denounce the wicked sexual perversion known as sodomy, just as love of sinners and their victims causes us to denounce murder, rape, and incest.
These awful crimes against God and man are all the same...
(Tim) Two weeks ago,
son Joseph and his wife, Heidi, were blessed by God with an unborn child.
Joseph and Heidi adopted a son, Joseph Tate Bayly VII, a little over a
year ago, so we were all joyful at the news of a younger brother or
sister joining their family, giving Tate some company.
Sadly and joyfully, the Lord took their unborn child home this past weekend. Joseph and Heidi have faith in God's goodness and loving care, but of course it's hard. This is their fourth miscarriage and they yearn for a home filled with children. Would you please pray for them; that God would comfort them and, if He so wills, bless them with a fruitful home?
And if you're in the Indianapolis area, I encourage you to lend your support to the new church plant Joseph and Dave Abu-Sara are leading, there. ClearNote Church of Indy meets Sunday mornings...
Continue reading "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away..." »
(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, has passed from this life to the next. We grieve with his wife, Denise, and the many who were strengthened in holiness and faith by his ministry.
* * *
A Psalm about the Shortness of Life
I said
O Lord
let me end the work
You gave to me to do.
So much
must yet be done
before the dark
so little time
remains
before I’m home.
You are eternal
God
a thousand years to You
is but a passing day.
You scatter ages
I hoard my hours.
Please understand
my need for time
to do Your will
complete my job.
I understand
He said
I do
I only had
three years
of daysand I was through.
- Joe Bayly
(Tim) Please pray for David and Cathron Dodrill and their children as they mourn the loss of their oldest son, Stephen Dodrill, who died in an ATV accident late this afternoon.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.
From the Book of Common Prayer:
When they come to the Grave while the Corpse is made ready to be laid into the Earth, the Minister shall say, or the Minister and Clerks shall sing.
Man, that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.
In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased?
Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
Thou knowest, Lord, the secrets of our hearts, shut not thy merciful ears to our prayer; but spare us, Lord most holy, O God most mighty, O holy and merciful Saviour, thou most worthy Judge eternal, suffer us not, at our last hour, for any pains of death, to fall from thee.
A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”
All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.
Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” Behold, the Lord GOD will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes. (Isaiah 40:6-11)
(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) One young couple gave birth to their son. They held him and cooed over him and loved him and prayed for him and sang hymns to him until, two hours later, he died. They allowed their pastor to hold their son, too. The beautiful nurses dressed the couple's son in miniature baby clothes they themselves had knit for this and every one of their babies. This was their life--they spent each day in their metro-area preemie unit serving their babies and their babies' mom and dad as they fought, then gave in to death.
After two hours of love, their son died. Mom and Dad asked their pastor to take their son to the funeral home. The pastor took him in his arms. He was dressed in the nurses' homemade clothes and wrapped in a warm blue blanket. Down the stairs and out to the car.
The pastor laid him on the passenger's seat for the twenty-minute drive to the funeral home and wondered at the beauty of these nurses...
Continue reading "He will gently lead the nursing ewes..." »
(Tim, w/thanks to Valerie) This from National Review Online:
When we were serving as witnesses against Terri's judicial murder, we watched Mr. Schindler's quiet dignity as he was obstructed by the civil magistrate at every turn in his work seeking to save his daughter's life. May God have mercy upon him.
(Tim) This is a sermon manuscript--not a transcript--and thus differs substantially from the sermon itself.
From the Pulpit of Church of the Good Shepherd
(Service held at Sherwood Oaks Christian Church)
Funeral Service for Elizabeth Rasmusen held July 24, 2009 at 10:00 AM
My Little Daughter Is Dying
Mark 5:21-24; 35-43
(Preliminary comments on the frequency of death of children in Colonial America, followed by excerpts from prayer requests taken from the flip sides of Jonathan Edwards’ sermon manuscripts.)
Professor Stephen Stein, a retired faculty member here at Indiana University, read the flip sides of hundreds of the scraps of paper on which Jonathan Edwards wrote his sermons. At the time, paper was a valuable commodity and Edwards recycled the pieces of paper given him by his parishioners containing their prayer requests each Lord’s Day, later writing his sermons on them. Professor Stein published an article outlining the content of those requests and they're instructive for us today, on this occasion of the death of little Lizzie Rasmusen. Listen as I read you a few excerpts of these requests and see if there is anything for us to learn from souls who have gone before us...
(Tim) For several weeks, now, the news has been filled with articles reassuring Americans that government medicine is inevitable and poses no danger to us. They tell us government medicine will not fund abortions except in the most extraordinary cases where any reasonable man would agree the baby must die. It will not require the wholesale slaughter of the old and feeble--what we are taught to refer to as "euthanasia." After all, termination counseling isn't mandatory; it's simply an option offered those who may find it helpful.
A front page article in the Indy Star yesterday (picked up from the LA Times, by the way) blamed Rush Limbaugh for all the fear. "Nothing bad will happen," the civil authority tells us. "Just trust us."
Trust you?
You have got to be kidding! Trust you? You can't be serious!
Look at your track record. Your government education is so bad you'd sooner die than enroll your own children in the public schools serving your neighborhood there at the White House. And this is equally true of Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama.
Trust you?
(Tim) During four years in the late nineties and early two-thousands while pastoring Church of the Good Shepherd, I also led the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood as its Executive Director. My brother, David, joined me in that work and was a great help, designing our first web site and providing invaluable counsel while also serving in the pastorate.
Part of my work was editing CBMW's journal. Periodically, we ran interviews--one being with my hero, Elisabeth Elliot. Naturally, I did the interview myself.
Growing up, the Bayly family had a long personal association with the Howards of Philadelphia--particularly Dave Howard and his sister, Elisabeth Elliot. A couple months ago, Elisabeth's husband, Lars, wrote me telling of a recent trip he and Elisabeth had taken to visit family down in South America. For those of you who know and love them, Lars and Elisabeth are doing well.
So then, here's the interview from CBMW's Journal, Volume 5, No. 1.
* * *
PLAIN AND SIMPLE: AN INTERVIEW WITH ELISABETH ELLIOT
JBMW: We are delighted to be able to speak with you. Why do you think you've been a lightning rod in the evangelical world on this particular issue?
EE: I didn't know I was! I have just proceeded the way I've tried all my life to proceed-by studying what the Bible says and living by it. If I'm asked to talk about it, of course I have a responsibility to talk about it. It is from this that I have learned that I'm not wanted in many circles...
(Tim) Our spam filter has been acting up again causing legitimate comments to be thrown into a spam bin where, in thirty days, they die if David or I don't go in and browse the smut to see if there's some treasure. You can imagine that browsing the smut is, for us, not something we want to do. So that, combined with time constraints, means we are late to find those treasures. And that means when we do find the treasures and post them, often they're so late to the queue that they don't show up on the "Recent Comments" column of the blog's main page. So, you'd have to be reading old comments for the fun of it to find them.
Sad state of affairs, isn't it?
All this to point your attention to a couple comments you don't want to miss, both toward the bottom of the page. One is by Eric Rasmusen who, grieving the loss of his parents and nine-year-old daughter, Lizzie, last month, wrestles with the question of Scripture's teaching on the eternal destiny of children of believers...
Continue reading "You don't want to miss these comments..." »
After Calvin's comments, we'll pick up our theme as it is opened up by God's Covenant promises and work.
First, then, the text, followed by Calvin's explanation.
And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy.(1Corinthians 7:13, 14)
Verse 14: "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified."
Paul therefore declares here, that marriage is, nevertheless, sacred and pure, and that we must not be apprehensive of contagion, as if the wife would contaminate the husband....
Continue reading "Thoughts on children, death, and eternity (II)..." »
(Tim) Recently, I've done some reading on the teaching of Scripture concerning children who die early in life, whether in the womb, at birth, or before the age at which they are able properly to discern the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ--to examine themselves as they come to His Table.
First, we have to admire the single-mindedness of the Roman Catholics. Although the doctrine of limbo is widely reported to be on life support at the Vatican right now (and I'm sure abortion has played a key role in bringing it into question), we can see they acted on principle in their manufacture of this dogma. (And yes, despite their efforts to deny it, this doctrine has been dogma until now.)
From conception, children are corrupted by Adam's sin; therefore children, too, need to be saved from that corruption if they are to enter Heaven; baptism washes off the corruption of original sin, saving a man; children who die in the womb are not baptized; therefore, children who die in the womb are not saved. Thus such statements as these...
Continue reading "Thoughts on children, death, and eternity (I)..." »
(Tim) We went to the Vietnam Memorial, today, and I found it unexpectedly moving. From the first, I was no fan of Maya Lin's design. But having been there, now, I think I was wrong.
To be sure, it's minimalist, but there's no question the people of these United States have come to own it. And how could they not, with the terrible weight of names and names and names--stretching down and back up out of the ground? It's an intensely intimate monument to our national loss.
Walking along the wall, we passed one man doing a brass (granite) rubbing of some man's name. An older couple peered at the name their fingertips were pressed against. Was it a neighbor boy or their son? Surrounded by tears and whispers, children were quiet.
And then the memorials laid in the three of four inch granite trough that runs the length of the wall--so far, 62,000 of them.
Here are some left today...
(Tim) Tentatively, the visitation for Elizabeth Rasmusen, daughter of Eric and Helen Rasmusen, has been set for this coming Thursday, July 23rd, from 4-8 PM at Deremiah Frye Mortuary. The funeral service is likely to be Friday morning, July 24th, but neither the time nor location has yet been set.
Just now, Eric and Helen are at the visitation for Eric's father and mother, Benjamin and Marilyn Rasmusen, at the Eighner Funeral Home in Somonauc, Illinois. Services in Illinois will be held tomorrow morning at 10 AM at St. John's Lutheran Church, also in Somonauk.
Here's the obituary for Benjamin and Marilyn Rasmusen.
As it now stands, it is likely Amelia and Ben, Eric and Helen's two children also injured in the crash, will be released from the hospital tomorrow.
In behalf of Eric, Helen, and their family, I thank all of you for your love for the Lord Jesus Christ which has poured out to the comfort of the entire Rasmusen family.
(Tim) Friends, the last two days have brought a blow to Church of the Good Shepherd and, despite the ephemeral nature of this forum, personally, I'd like to ask your prayers.
From Baylyblog comments, some of you will recognize the name, Eric Rasmusen. Monday evening, Eric and his wife, Helen, lost their second daugther, Elizabeth, as well as Eric's parents, in an automobile collision. Here's the statement Eric released...
(Tim) Late last night, David forwarded an e-mail that my longtime friend, Larry Allen, had died. It was a sudden death with no prior warning. Larry was on the phone with a co-worker and friend, laughing, and then God took him. The cause of death is unknown.
For seven or eight years, I served on the board of Presbyterians Pro-Life with Larry and that's when I knew him best. Being a witness for the unborn in the Presbyterian Church (USA), a pagan denomination where, as early as 1983, official denominational documents said that abortion "can be an act of faithfulness before God," meant the entire time we were at denominational meetings and general assemblies we suffered the most vile opposition. Everything short of physical attack.
Larry cared very much about the weak and oppressed, being pleased to humble himself in his association with the despised work of speaking up for the unborn. And in speaking up for them, he wasn't simply associated with God's "Yes" in supporting crisis pregnancy centers (which he did); he also said God's "No," preaching and teaching and calling us to repentance for our cruelty in slaughtering our little ones.
Continue reading "Teach us to number our days: Rev. Dr. Larry Allen, 1953-2009." »
(Tim) Father Richard John Neuhaus has passed through the valley of the shadow of death. May God have mercy on his soul. His death is a great loss for Roman Catholics and Protestants, alike. But maybe even more for Protestants since there are few men of his Biblical understanding, discernment, and courage among us. Toll the bell.
From Joseph Bottum, the editor of First Things:
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus slipped away today, January 8, shortly before 10 o’clock, at the age of seventy-two. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. He lost consciousness Tuesday evening after a collapse in his heart rate, and the next day, in the company of friends, he died...
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials... (1 Peter 1:3-6)
(Tim) Friends of Baylyblog will know of our affection for Anne Ivy, a sometime contributor who always demonstrates feminine grace combined with great Scriptural wisdom. Very suddenly, last week, Anne's husband, Don, was diagnosed with wildfire cancer. He died this past Saturday at 4:40 PM, and his funeral was yesterday, in Dallas. Our dear brothers, Bill Mouser and Mike McMillan, were able to be there for the service, joining Anne and her family in celebrating her husband's Homegoing.
Please send Anne your love and pray for her and the family as they grieve.
(Tim, w/thanks to David T.) Apparently the chattering classes never knew where turkey wishbones, legs, and breasts came from. Quite a firestorm has broken out over Governor Palin taking an interview at a turkey farm. As she was interviewed, turkeys were being killed in the background.
Aghast at the scene, as the clip was about to be aired, MSNBC newscaster David Shuster advised parents to get their kids "out of the room." After the clip, Shuster reported a "photographer asked Governor Palin if she wanted that as a backdrop and she replied, 'No worries.'" (Good responses here and here, and full length video here.)
Every Christian would do well to make sure his sons kills an animal now and then as a reminder that God has given critters to us for food and we should rejoice in His provision. To kill and eat animals is not to be cruel. It's an act of faith. Man alone bears the Image of God. Turkeys, dolphins, dogs, and crickets do not. (And with apologies to certain friends, certainly not cats.)
Earlier today, Mary Lee and I agreed that, like it or not, our youngest son, Taylor, will go deer hunting next week with Mike Boles and his son, Seth. Taylor isn't particularly interested, but he'll be going anyhow. It's a discipline fastidious boys shouldn't miss...
(Tim: This by Mark Chambers, although not the title. Incidentally, yesterday I received an e-mail from a longtime member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan who estimated the number of Redeemer's members who voted for Barack Obama was fifty percent.)
There is nothing particularly unusual about the picture above; nothing fantastic or different. It is just the result and remains of the typical abortion; a bit of messy refuse to be discarded after the useful cells have been harvested. At least it is not an entire waste, we can be thankful for that after all.
The decapitation is interesting. The heads of fetuses, being too large for the vacuum tube must be pulverized to facilitate removal. Similar to certain seed pods that find their way into my garage that are too large for the shop vac I must take steps to reduce the size of them in order to suck them up. I find that stepping on them works quite well, and it is only a minor annoyance. Not nearly so complicated as finding the obstacle via ultrasound in order to crush it with forceps. But doctors are adept at accomplishing the difficult and we must salute them...
Continue reading "By schism rent asunder, by heresy oppressed..." »
(Tim, w/thanks to James) If you're a logophile, philologer, or philologue, you might get a kick out of this written by Laurance Urdang and used by the NYT as the final paragraph of his obituary:
This is not a succedaneum for satisfying the nympholepsy of nullifidians. Rather it is hoped that the haecceity of this enchiridion of arcane and recondite sesquipedalian items will appeal to the oniomania of an eximious Gemeinschaft whose legerity and sophrosyne, whose Sprachgefühl and orexis will find more than fugacious fulfillment among its felicific pages.
ClearNote Church
Bloomington, Indiana
