BaylyBlog: Out of our minds, too...

Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength...

Psalm 29 awakens the slothful and sentimental postmodern soul. Have you read it recently?

For the new year: 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, "Psalm of Anticipation," Psalms of My Life

The path of the just....

"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.

Please pray for RC Jr. and his dear Denise...

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)

So what about anonymous comments...

Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. (Mark 12:4)

A reader personally unknown to me and my brother, David, wrote of his appreciation for Baylyblog, and then asked this question:

(H)aving seen some of the comments you have made (on Baylyblog about anonymity), I wanted to ask if you believe it is wrong if I post a comment only using my first name? The reason I do so is that I am (an) engineering student and will (soon) be graduating ...and it would probably make it quite difficult for me to get a job since employers google names and mine is a rare one... Is that a bad reason?

To which I responded:

Dear John Doe,

I have mixed feelings about this, dear brother...

Not to worry, Congresswoman Bachmann's resigned membership in her WELS church...

The Wisconisn Evangelical Lutheran Synod sees the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and raises them one. Or maybe ten.

In my former home of Pardeeville, Wisconsin, the WELS congregation was the dominant religious presence in town. When they called a new pastor, Mary Lee and I decided to invite him with his wife and children over for dinner. After a cordial introduction, we sat down at the table and I turned to him and said, "I've heard lots of things through the years, but let me ask you directly: do you pray, do I pray, or do we not pray at all?"

He answered, "You go ahead and pray and we'll sit by," and immediately his good wife turned to their children and said, "We're going to pray; fold your hands and close your eyes." God bless her.

We had a pleasant evening. During the conversation the WELS pastor told us his grandmothers was a godly Baptist and that he didn't pray with her, either...

Faith of our fathers...

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

May God bless you this Father's Day...

Toutou carin kamptw ta gonata mou prov ton patera ex ou pasa patria en ouranoiv kai epi ghv onomazetai. (Ephesians 3:14-15)

Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse. (Malachi 4:5-6)

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19)

The father of a family--the only true adventurer...

There is only one adventurer in the world, as can be seen very clearly in the modern world, the father of a family. Even the most desperate adventurers are nothing compared with him.... Everything is against him. Savagely organized against him. Everything turns and combines against him. Men, events, the events of society, the automatic play of economic laws. And, in short, everything else. Everything is against the father of a family, the pater familias; and consequently against the family. He alone is literally ‘engaged’ in the world, in the age. He alone is an adventurer. - Charles Peguy in Clio 1.

(TB)

Godly fatherhood...

My Dear Bristol,

Before you were born I prayed for you. In my heart I knew that you would be a little angel. And so you were!

When you were born on my birthday, April 7, 1980, it was evident that you were a special gift from the Lord. But how profound a gift you turned out to be! More than the beautiful bundle of gurgles and rosy cheeks...more than the first-born of my flesh, a joy unspeakable...you showed me God's love more than anything else in creation. Bristol, you  taught me how to love.

I certainly loved you when you were cuddly and cute, when you rolled over and sat up and jabbered your first words. I loved you when the searing pain of realization took hold that something was wrong...that maybe you were not developing as quickly as your peers, and then when we understood it was more serious than that...

Should Christians sterilize when facing genetic disorders?

Every time I do an Institutes study with college students at Christ the Word one of our favorite passages is the section titled "The Faith of Abraham" in which Calvin recounts the trials and sufferings by which God taught Abraham faith and weaned him from the world.

The section ends with God's command that Abraham sacrifice his son on Mt. Moriah:

But for a son to be slaughtered by his own father’s hand surpasses every sort of calamity. In short, throughout life he was so tossed and troubled that if anyone wished to paint a picture of a calamitous life, he could find no model more appropriate than Abraham’s! (Vol. 2, Ch. 10, Sec.11)

To be the source of your own child's death is a terrible form of suffering indeed. I was reminded of this section from the Institutes when I read recently of a Christian couple who took surgical steps to prevent further pregnancies after their number two child died of a rare genetic condition.

Despite our sympathy for parents who lose a baby, and despite a genetically-linked death appearing to arrive by the parents' own hands, we must ask whether such a response is consistent with faith in God.

My thinking on this matter is influenced both by Scripture and by personal experience. Tim's and my mother and father continued having children despite the death of our older siblings from genetic diseases. I suffer today from the same genetic disease (hemophilia) my oldest brother died of, and Tim and I had two additional brothers die as the result of another genetic disease (cystic fibrosis).

Standing in the gap; assassination of bin Laden...

Two posts from my son, Joseph Bayly, worth reading--the first on standing in the gap and the second on the assasination of Osama bin Laden.

Joseph and David Abu-Sara are leading a church plant in Indianapolis called ClearNote Church of Indianapolis. Listen to some of the sermons, here; I commend their ministry to you and your Indy friends and relatives.

(TB)

The joy of faith...

Young Christians are the fuel churches run on. Christ the Word has been blessed by the addition of Jae Michalak to her ranks this last year. Jae recently graduated from an alternative high school, he's a single father and he loves Jesus. Please pray for Jae: for growth in Christ, for wisdom with Pierre and Pierre's mother, for the right place to live.

This recording of Jae reciting rap he's written to the glory of God was made in the CTW office several months ago on a day when Jae stopped by for a visit.

 

(DB)

A psalm for Easter...

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

How do babies survive us...

(Tim, w/thanks to Kamilla) As you get older, you wonder how God could allow this or that person to have the responsibility of raising a child, but then you remember what you were like when He blessed you and your wife with a little baby--your first--and suddenly it occurs to you to stop thinking and be happy!

Nationalized health care and parental authority...

(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...

Teach us to number our days...

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.”

And from the sea there blossoms red, life that shall endless be...

(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.

A young woman will lead them...

(Tim, w/thanks to Al) Live Action is the work of young men and women who use hidden video cameras to record those acts of Planned Parenthood that are still criminal. (The paid murder of unborn babies has been legalized.)

In this video, actors posing as a pimp and one of his women are coached by a Planned Parenhood worker in New Jersey on how best to carry out several criminal acts including how to bypass parental consent laws with their fourteen year old prostitutes.

Yes, Planned Parenthood is corrupt. We've always known that. There's no honor among thieves.

More corrupt even than Planned Parenthood, though, are the...

Check it out...

(Tim) Just a note to direct readers to this ongoing discussion some may find helpful.

The obedience of faith...

(Tim, w/thanks to Sharon Dykstra) Wonderful account of the power of prayer when faith is smaller than a mustard seed. Today, God may direct you to speak to someone, to do something, or to pray in a particular way for a particular person. If so, trust God and speak or act or pray in such a way as to fall on your face if He doesn't add His power to your mustard seed of faith.

A Psalm for the new year...

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 for the new year...

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

Can a Christian be a feminist...

(Tim) Again, because we've removed the comment feed on our main page, it's impossible to know where active discussions are occurring here on Baylyblog. Here's one discussion I'm putting up as a post hoping it will be helpful to those souls seeking God's truth concerning sexuality. The commenters' words are in italics.

* * *

Since when does being a feminist condemn one to Hell? ...I always thought it was belief in Christ that saved someone and allowed them to go to Heaven... ("If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." ~Romans 10:9)

Father-rule is God's decree and ordering of the world to reflect His own archetypical Fatherhood. Hence, to reject father-rule is to reject the Father from Whom all fatherhood gets its name (1Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 3:14,15). Can one be a Christian and reject God's Fatherhood?

No. All those who belong to Christ are adopted by the Father (Romans 8:15) and, therefore, have the witness of the Holy Spirit crying out within them, "Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6).

Can one be a Christian and reject God's ordering of all creation under His Fatherhood?

Maybe, but why would someone ask such a question? It's horribly impious...

Luther on the Gospel-grace of the Law...

(Tim) At times, it seems best to promote a discussion to the main page. Readers lose track of discussions in the comments under old posts. Here's one such discussion that I'm promoting for reasons I hope are obvious.

It's my conviction that the endless mantra of grace that permeates our Evangelical/Redeemer/Westminster/Campus Crusade/R2K/Covenant world leads to us knowing little of grace because we despise God's Law and repentance.

In the midst of a discussion bearing on this matter, the historian Darryl Hart asked me to clarify what I meant when I spoke of the grace of the Law--that to preach the Law is Gospel preaching and that the Law is our Gospel schoomaster or tutor? Here I respond:

Scripture says:

Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith" (Galatians 3:24).

This is the great failure of Gospel preaching in our time, and the reason for the absence of fruit within our churches. We fail to preach the Law, instead trying to save unregenerate sinners from the indignities of repentance. We preach grace without leading souls there through the Law. We repudiate the Schoolmaster. It's the habit of pastors only to address the regenerate within the Covenant Community while outside that Community we gag preachers, leaving Gospel proclamation and conversion to Campus Crusade...

Death and life are in His mighty hands...

(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...

Giving thanks for true love...

(Tim) In the preface to his book, Alias Shakespeare, the late Joe Sobran wrote: "I would much rather be in the tradition of great American cranks like Thoreau, Ambrose Bierce, Lysander Spooner, and H. L. Mencken, than belong to the mass of scholars who, ever mindful of tenure, promotion, grants, and that last infirmity of ignoble minds, respectability, never deviate from scholarly consensus."

Everyone wants to have led a scientific revolution, but where's the man willing to lead one?

This Thanksgiving, I thank God for the nobility and fear of God that led Joe Sobran and Joe Bayly to deviate from the consensus and to oppose the regnant racism and sexism that deny the moral agency of blacks, women, and Jews...

Children are a blessing from the Lord...

(Tim) In a post last week, I praised God for the gift of new life brought into the world through the labor of one Church of the Good Shepherd mother, Amber Litwin. Amber named her son, Jackson Cruz. and here's a pic from worship this past Lord's Day: l to r, Annalyssa (1), Amber, Callahan (5), Veronica Allen (Amber's main CGS friend), and little Jackson Cruz. Amber kindly gave me permission to share this pic with you. Aren't these children beautiful! Please pray for them, and for Amber as she raises them. Thank you, Amber, for letting us all share in your joy!

If there's an abortuary near your church where little babies are slaughtered for money and your church has no witness outside calling mothers home to Jesus and promising them, "Whatever--and we mean WHATEVER--you need, we'll help!" stop and think what you're missing.

Better yet, look right here at what you're missing.

A primer on avoiding the murder of our loved ones...

(Tim) Yesterday, my brother, David, copied me on a letter he'd written responding to an article promoting euthanasia. Sad thing was, the article was written by a conservative Christian physician and published in a conservative--reformed, even--publication. This highlights something similar to my previous post where I called attention to a PCA pastor-friend of mine who wrote an oped piece that ran in his local newspaper in which he called his state legislators to visit homeschoolers' homes to check up on how they are teaching their children.

Both articles--the one by a physician promoting euthanasia and the one by the pastor promoting Child Protective Services extending their work to homeschooling mothers--are examples of the naivete of Reformed Protestant church leaders and officers. And let me say it clearly: we cannot fulfill our calling if we are lacking in discernment about these things. Truth is, we pastors are perfectly placed to head off the murder of aged relatives by ignorant or evil physicians or family members who want to limit expenditures or hurry Mother off to death. We're in the hospital room and we hear the discussions, and either we do or we don't have the Biblical and theological wisdom to oppose our culture of death...

Please pray for Joe Sobran...

(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.

Live by faith, vow a marriage, have babies, plant a church, start a school, college, and seminary...

(Tim) Back in 1993, I wrote an article on a conflict over the policy of Westminster School in Atlanta that required board members of this private Christian school to be confessing Christians. The New York Times had done an article on the controversy and I took the piece as a jumping-off point to say a few things about home, public, and Christian schools. Since then, Mary Lee and I have educated our five children (as well as several other children who lived with us through the years) in each of those ways--home, public, and Christian school. This is the final year we have a child at home and Taylor, our youngest, is finishing high school at the school my wife Mary Lee, with a couple others, founded and served as principal--Lighthouse Christian Academy.

It's been years since we've had a child at LCA. When it put up a building, we watched its former commitments decline. It seemed bent on becoming the sort of Christian school that, from the beginning, we'd worked hard to avoid. But this is the ho-hum way of all institutions, Christian or otherwise, and there have been some encouraging changes at LCA the past couple of years--hence Taylor's presence there this year.

But as I point out in the article below, the best antidote to school decline is the founding of a new school. It worked with Yale as a reform of Harvard, Princeton as a reform of Yale, and it's still working with schools like New St. Andrews being a reform of Wheaton, Westmont, Gordon, and Covenant.

Tired and timid souls always laugh at the upstarts...

Casting our cares on Him...

(Tim, w/thanks to Jeff) Note that we can trust God with our complaints. Or rather, we must trust God with our complaints.

Righteous are You, O LORD, that I would plead my case with You; Indeed I would discuss (complain-ESV) matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease? You have planted them, they have also taken root; They grow, they have even produced fruit. You are near to their lips But far from their mind. But You know me, O LORD; You see me; And You examine my heart’s attitude toward You. Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter And set them apart for a day of carnage! How long is the land to mourn And the vegetation of the countryside to wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it, Animals and birds have been snatched away, Because men have said, “He will not see our latter ending.” (Jeremiah 12:1-4)

Give glory to the Lord...

Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, I implore you, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give praise to Him; and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.” (Joshua 7:19)

(Tim) MLB's pitching superstar, Roger Clemens, has been indicted for lying and obstruction of justice in testimony he gave before Congress about his use of performance enhancing drugs. In "Pettitte's Words and Character Carry Weight," the Times' George Vecsey compares Clemens to his longtime friend, Andy Pettitte, whose testimony carried the most weight in assuring Clemens' indictment.

Vecsey reports Clemens is "the alpha male in that friendship, the man with the huge gymnasium on his property, the man who knew how to train his way to eternal youth, to the Hall of Fame one day."

And Pettitte?

Vecsey says he's "humble" and that when he provided testimony before Congress, he...

"Football was no longer my dream..."

(Tim, w/thanks to David W.) At the beginning of his second season as an NFL running back for the 49ers, 23 year old Glen Coffee just announced his retirement:

It was a struggle for a long time. Actually when I look back I feel I never should have entered the draft in the first place. Football was no longer my dream. I found Christ in college. It changed my views on everything. But I still was a football player because it was expected of me, it was something I did all my life. I was basically wasting the (49ers') time.

Asked if he might change his mind, Coffee responded: "I've already told Christ it's time to go. I've already rung the bell. That's not going to happen."

Augustine would be smiling.

A better possession, a lasting one...

(Tim) Praise God for His faithful servants, killed in action. Let us pray for their loved ones.

For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. (Hebrews 10:34)

In the city and for the city...

(Tim) Churches mired in the conceit of being urban and cosmopolitan speak frequently of being "in the city" and "for the city." Leaving aside "in the city," what does it mean to be "for the city?"

There's no one better to take that question to than our early church father, Augustine. As Rome fell, Augustine wrote his magisterial City of God. It was a voice from the City of God to the City of Man--which at that time was the City of Rome. To Augustine, being for the city didn't consist of taking in a play, hanging at the local pub, or hiring Indie musicians to lead worship. He'd been down that road quite a ways prior to his conversion and he was younger than that now.

Instead, Augustine wrote against these things--relentlessly and as an insider. He'd spent his entirely dissipated youth...

Disciplining racism: It all came down to just a couple votes...

(In September of 2008, preaching in the midst of a raging controversy over racism that was dividing his own congregation) Pastor Bulkeley condemned the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations, saying its leader taught that Nazism was the "racial order" of God and that Jews should be eliminated. "This teaching was evil," Bulkeley told his congregation. "It is heretical. It is from the pit of hell and it's a direct offense against the gospel. There should be no mistake about that. It is completely contrary to everything the Bible teaches."

(Tim, w/thanks to Joel B.) Here's an article and sidebar from the Summer 2010 issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report telling the story of good church discipline carried out in Friendship Presbyterian Church outside Asheville, North Carolina. The discipline ended up also being adjudicated by the congregation's appellate court, Western Carolina Presbytery (PCA). (And if you don't understand why I'd refer to a PCA presbytery as an appellate court, read Brother David's superb commentary on the state of the PCA post-General Assembly union, here.)

Racism was the sin, and thus the Southern Poverty Law Center this one time stood on the side of the angels. Both the article and the sidebar attempt to provide some of the historic context for the battle against racism throughout the history of the PCA--very much a southern denomination with its roots deeply embedded in "The Recent Unpleasantness."

These articles have both the weaknesses and strengths of their origin outside the PCA. I hope you'll take the time to read them.

First, though, one prefatory remark. Dealing with abortion or racism or feminism is a bloody work...

The PCA all gussied up...

And it will be, like people, like priest... (Hosea 4:9b)

"A feminized Christianity may work to attract a certain type of man, but he’s probably not the man you want around when the local Imam starts practicing taqiyya on your congregation."

(Tim, w/thanks to Tim R.) Here's an article about the effeminacy of the Christian church, today. The piece approaches the crisis by noting the attractiveness of Islam to real men, making the point that a re-masculinized Christianity is necessary to hold off the forces of Islamic jihad. But if faith in Jesus is for this life only, we are of all men most foolish. We love, worship, and trust Jesus, not because it's useful, but because we fear the Holy God and know our sin, we dread Hell's worms and fire, and we ache for Heaven's joy and peace in the presence of the Lord. And yet...

Reformed men and women need to understand how focused the PCA is on gussying herself up for this effeminate age. As a denomination, we are all about perfect pitch rather than men making music to our God Who is a consuming fire. No Delta blues for us; it's all Julliard, violins, pianos, and maybe the occasional acoustic guitar or mandolin just to keep the audience off-balance. As with music, so with preaching: we allow no danger and take no risk. After all, women don't like danger. It could hurt their child.

But men? Real men don't wake up until they see why they're needed. And that need usually has something to do with danger--bullets, grenades, bombs, sexual predators, heresy, the wrath of God, death, and Hell.

But what have we done to Hell? We've turned it into the Narcissists' heaven. It's man getting himself forever, and what's not to like about that? No scared children. No women having hissy-fits over spiders hanging over the crackling fire. No worms eating a carcass. Just me, myself, and I forever...

Who cares about the sheep...

Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. - Acts 20:28

(Tim) I was discussing leadership with a friend who'd served a number of years in the Navy and Marines. A Viet Nam vet, he was wounded twice during the Tet Offensive's Battle of Hwa.

My friend said the military teaches men to make decisions, and that the worst thing an officer can do is to avoid making a decision. He illustrated the principle with a story about a patrol he'd been on where the men came under fire. Instead of maintaining command and assuring his soldiers' safety, the officer dove for cover.

From the way my friend told the story and the silence at the story's end, I knew this was about as bad a thing as an officer could do. "So what happened to the guy?" I asked...

A Psalm for Easter...

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

Joe Sobran: preaching to the conscience and the Roman Catholic error of transubstantiation...

(Tim) Ten years ago, I read this column by Joe Sobran. Joe's declaration of faith gave me joy, but what struck me, particularly, was this statement:

Great as Shakespeare is, I never lose sleep over anything he said. He leaves my conscience alone.

Still today, I find myself wondering whether what's lacking in Shakespeare is not also lacking in my own preaching? Do God's sheep leave my proclamation of the Word of God each Lord's Day morning with easy consciences? Is their sleep always peaceful? If so, what an unfaithful minister of the Gospel I am.

Then we hit Sobran's promotion of the Roman Catholic error of transubstantiation. If you think it scandalous that I'd give any space to Sobran's defense of transubstantiation, never fear. Think about this.

Jesus didn't say, "this wine which is poured out for you," "this wine is the new covenant in my blood," or "for as often as you eat this bread and drink this wine...."

Rather, He said:

“This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood" (Luke 22:20b). And the Apostle Paul said, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. (1 Corinthians 11:25-28).

Reformed Protestants have no need to fear the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantiation. If their claim to hold to the literal meaning of these texts were true, it wouldn't be the wine, but the cup that becomes our Lord's blood. Have you ever tried to drink a cup?

Preaching to an effeminate age (II)...

(Tim: this is second in a series, with the first, here) It's in vogue for preachers to cop a posture of humility, today, but it’s almost always a counterfeit humility. While claiming to be speaking for God, they deny the very authority of God and His Word that forms the only foundation they can stand on when they say, “Thus says the Lord.”

Jonathan Edwards, the best-known preacher of the Great Awakening in Colonial America, points to the difference between true and false humility:

A truly humble man is inflexible in nothing but in the cause of his Lord and Master, which is the cause of truth and virtue. In this he is inflexible, because God and conscience require it. But in things of lesser moment, and which do not involve his principles as a follower of Christ, and in things that only concern his own private interests, he is apt to yield to others.

There are various imitations of (humility) that fall short of the reality. Some put on an affected humility. Others have a natural low-spiritedness, and are wanting in manliness of character. …In others, there is a counterfeit kind of humility, wrought by the delusions of Satan: and all of these may be mistaken for true humility. [1]

Edwards strikes an interesting note...

The sin of believers...

Then he began to curse and swear, “I do not know the man!” And immediately a rooster crowed. (Matthew 26:74)

(Tim) In one of his more recent comments, Darryl wrote that I'd called his "profession" into question. This is not true. I've nowhere questioned Darryl Hart's faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

So how could he think so?

My guess is Darryl can't understand how I could accuse a man of discouraging the holiness and sanctification of believers without considering that man doing the discouraging an unbeliever, himself. In other words, such an accusation is so serious that the one making it must be holding another far more serious accusation in abeyance.

Not so.

Reading through the account of Passion Week from the Gospel of Matthew last night (as is our congregation's habit on Palm Sunday evening), we were confronted by the Disciples' utter failure as Jesus went to His death...

A wonderful anniversary present to Mom and Pop Hitchens...

(Tim, w/thanks to Josh Congrove) Peter Hitchens has provided such a good set of reasons for the hope that is within him (and sadly, not in his brother, Christopher) that I abstain from comment and simply post the link. So many wonderfully wise and beautiful things here, I can't bear to mention only one.

Thank you, brother Peter. We will pray for your dear brother, Christopher.

(Peter's book, The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith, will be issued this coming Monday, March 15th.)

CORRECTION: The Rage Against God is now planned for release in early May.

Greater love hath no man than this...

(Jesus said) "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep" (John 10:11).

(Tim, w/thanks to Todd W.) The NYTimes' David Brooks sets out to explain how a nation of five million won as many gold medals as our nation of three-hundred million at the Winter Olympics this year. So he tells a brief version of the story of Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian instrument maker who tried to get back into Norway to help the Norwegian resistance movement during the Second World War.

The account reminds me of the Apostle Paul. What courage and tenacity in the face of the most terrible danger and suffering these hardened men demonstrated!

Which prompts me to ask when it was, precisely, that the sign of godliness in a pastor changed...

Fearful and fearless women...

(Tim: This from Heidi Bayly and the ClearNote Blog)

"I am strong, I am invincible; I am woman!" -Helen Reddy

The majority of women would not admit to being fearful and anxious. We roll our eyes at the women of the past who fainted far too often and squealed much too high. Fear has become distinctly un-American. After all, in America, what do we have to fear except fear itself?

But if we're honest with ourselves, we realize our life is governed by fear: the fear that we'll never get married, never have children, our babies will die, our husband will stop loving us, our children will not repent, the pain in our back will not go away, we'll not have any friends, or that God will require too much of us. The list goes on.

So now, from the time we're little girls, we're fed lies that we can conquer our fears on our own. Or maybe with a little help from a medical professional. We're taught to think of ourselves as invincible, powerful, strong, independent, and fearless... (continue reading)

Corrie ten Boom, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oskar Schindler, and Leah Winandy...

(Tim, w/thanks to Alan) Now that it's safe, movies are made and books written about the men and women who feared God and took action to save the lives of Jews during the Third Reich. Corrie ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoeffer are the best-known in evangelical circles. Oskar Schindler was the inspiration behind Steven Spielberg's Academy Awards Best Picture, Schindler's List. Too, there's the relentless (and unjustified) attack on Pope Pius XII for his purported failure to defend the Jews.

But back when Hitler was still in power and the Jews were still being slaughtered, who then was making movies about Corrie ten Boom, Oskar Schindler, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer?

No one. Our Lord made it clear prophets don't get garlands until they're dead and buried.

And while, elsewhere on this blog, the debate rages over whether any pastoral prayer should include a petition that God our Father would cause our civil magistrates to repent of their hatred of justice and mercy and bring an end to the slaughter of untold millions of unborn babies they have presided over, there are a few heroes at work in our cities today...

"Practically in shackles..."

(Tim) In response to the post, "The Pleasures of Patriarchy, part 1," over on ClearNote Women's Blog, my daughter Hannah Weeks wrote something that strengthened my faith. I hope it will yours, too.

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Why aren’t you taking advantage of your blessed condition of having been born in an age in which you have the freedom to get an education, make something of yourself, make a difference in the world, and enjoy the opportunities that are available to you today but were unavailable to your grandmother in her day?

I was just standing at my stove this evening, working on dinner, and thanking God that I'm not where I was a little over a year ago...

U.S. Supreme Court vs. Gianna Jensen...

“Now Gianna, we love your message and your story, but you don’t really need to say so much about Jesus.”

(Tim) This from Leslie Taylor on this tragic anniversary of the betrayal of God's little ones by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade:

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She was born alive after her birth mother went in for a saline abortion, 7 ½ months pregnant.

In Gianna’s words, “They didn’t know who they were trying to kill.” Gianna’s a survivor and a voice for many more who aren’t...

Pornography and faith...

(Tim) These wise words were made as a comment under the recent post, Stats on internet pornography, by Alex McNeilly, a young sax student in Church of the Good Shepherd. Thank you, Alex.

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Regardless of how guarded any home is against sin, particularly the sexual sin of the media, in the world opportunities to indulge in it will abound. But even as we build larger and stronger walls against these sins in the home, worldly access to them becomes ever more available as we see in the stats in this post. As a result, I agree with Kevin that the strongest defense against these things lies in the spiritual battle.

We must teach our children the dangers of sexual sin and pornography, so that when they go into the world (a friend's house, a computer lab, a video store, etc.), where there are no guards, their hearts will already be fortified against these iniquities...