Home. Ahhh. Unpacked and relaxed. Christmas music officially allowed on the stereo (one of the Windham Celtic Christmas CDs) and Noel is decorating/wrapping. The tree will be up tomorrow. Even though I have my two sermon/two class Lord’s Day (plus interviews) in front of me, I am excited about the first Sunday of Advent. Listened to two messages by Gregory Nichols, one of the preaching elders at Trinity Baptist in Montvale, N.J. Very searching and earnest application, the weakness of my own preaching, for obvious reasons. It is painful to put myself directly in the line of fire. Preaching tomorrow on the geneology in Matthew and the “Big Picture” that stands behind the name “God with us.”

Denise and I spent a lot of time discussing how we will want to relate to future sons/daughters in law. So important to build the right kind of relationship from the outset. Especially to let your adult children be adults, and to not treat them as children. (Where they can come for advice and encouragement, but not to act like children and escape from their own mistakes by blaming the spouse and knowing you will always believe them. )Also important to have a relationship with the prospective spouse built on the understanding of what you have invested in your children and what you want from them and for them. I want to have the kind of relationship where being Dad as authority figure, Dad as spiritual example and Dad as helper and advisor can all be together in one person. I want the prospective spouse to know that to have my blessing and my friendship will take more than just wanting to have sex with my daughter. I make a great friend, but I also can be a determined adversary and I will not sell out my commitments to accomodate someone else’s. I want to be a rock in every way that matters.

Also really felt the effects in the lives of our family of a lack of Gospel preaching. Liberals are one thing to talk about, but when you see what they do to the lives of people with their replacement of the cross with political crusades, it breaks your heart. The foundation of recovering from failed marriages and failed parenting and so much else is the honest knowledge of our own sin and the hope that comes from the Gospel of the cross. Without this, we are left to blame, and drown in our petty pride, and look to psychology- a waste of existence- for answers. The answer is who and what we are TRULY as rebels made in God’s image and what we are TRULY as people for whom Christ died and who have hope only in the Gospel. Liberalism leaves the hopeless with no hope except their own goodness, or psychology or political salvation. I truly can agree with the damnation of ministers who are wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Quite moved by the new Sara Groves CD. More later.

What a topsy-turvy world we’re in.

Happy Birthday C.S. Lewis!

It’s almost 8:30 p.m. in this strange phenomenon called Central time. How do you people do it? The family is eating turkey sandwiches and I am getting ready to sermonize. I’m listening to the new delirious? cd “Touch” and waiting to listen to the new Sara Groves and new Phil Keaggy cds. I can’t wait to get in the car and go home. There are problems in the extended family over here and we are either 1) helpless spectators or 2) unwelcome examples of a family that isn’t falling apart. I miss my house and my dog. I’ll sermonize for a while since it is the first Sunday of Advent this Lord’s Day. I recall something I stole from Merton and morphed into a line in a bad unfinished novel where this monk is chanting with his fellow monks in the middle of the night, and he says that sitting here by candlelight, chanting the Psalms in that cold church was somehow the very rock bottom meaning of his existence, and maybe the meaning of life. I feel that way about any moments in the Word and especially of those moments preaching. It makes no sense. It does no visible good. I have no authority. Few people choose to come hear me. Yet this is the meaning of my life, and I know that however many heartbeats are left to me, my own brokenness and humanity is rescued by the One who comes to me in that Word. Tis mystery all…

See you all under better circumstances. Pray for our very broken, lost and desperately confused loved ones at least once.

Bah humbug. This just might be the nail in R.C.’s coffin.

What kind of school has “burnt orange” as its official color? ;-)

Hope everyone had a great Turkey day … and the required nap afterwards.

I thought a bit about the whole hate crimes statistics that came out this week. They show whites committing the majority, about 6,500. What I noticed is missing from the 2001 stats is the attack on the World Trade Center, as it would have Middle Easterners running second, instead of blacks, as perpetrators, as thousands died in the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon.

It is also interesting to note that different figures are quoted (sometimes incidents, sometimes victims—whichever fits the slant better). This is much like quoting the numbers that voted for Pat Robertson in Palm Beach county. The numbers sounded rediculous, but the percentage fit the percentage that voted for him in the previous election. Muslim crimes up 1600% sounds ominous, but the few numbers of crimes makes it easy to have a jump, esp. when you compare incidents from 2000 to numbers of Muslims in the second. Note that the FBI report still shows both the number of incidents and number of people affected by “hate crimes” against Jews are still a lot higher than those against Muslims.

My point? None. It just goes to show how the media can make something out of nothing. The increase in population is not figured in to the comparisons, and the fact that a new standard was adopted in 2001, or that more agencies are reporting to the FBI is not taken into consideration. Plus, I think, personally, that a person should be tried for the crime committed, and there should be no special “hate crime”. When you beat someone’s head in and kill him, does it really matter if you did it because he, as an individual, ticked you off, or because he was a [put favorite racial slur here]. To the family and friends of the victim, the desire for justice is equal. The only thing I can see the “hate crime” designation adding, is making some highly visible special interest groups very happy.

Thanks for the great posts, Michael and everybody.

God is good, indeed.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Judd

Rod Rosenblatt on some surprises waiting for us at the eschaton:

As C.S. Lewis put it, there are going to be a lot of surprises at the eschaton.

There are going to be people there that we just don’t imagine will be there.
There are going to be believers in Jesus who never darkened the door of a church.
There are going to be scads of Roman Catholics, people who never listened really to the theology preached by their priests, but just believed in the sufficiency of Jesus’ blood—no matter what their priest was preaching.
There are going to be call girls, there are going to be drug dealers, maybe even a couple of lawyers!
People who just believed in Jesus and His blood shed for them, for their sin.
Surprises, lots of surprises.
It bugs me to say it, but there might even be a couple of I.R.S. employees, maybe a congressman or congresswoman. (Everyone has some class of people they really don’t want to die as believers in Jesus! Those are mine!)
To put it closer to home, there might even be a theologian or two who believed in Jesus.
There might even be a despicable leftist socialist college professor or two! Academics who daily sold out the wonderful American constitution and filled their students’ heads with statist drivel and mush.
Cowards, scum, “bottom-of-the-barrel”, reprehensibles, jerks, deadbeat dads, murderers, all sorts of rabble. And they died believing in Jesus and His blood as their only hope.

Any one day that you live, my brother, there is enough mercy packed away into it to make you sing not only through that day but through the rest of your life. I have thought sometimes when I have received great mercies of God that I almost wanted to pull up, and to “rest and be thankful,” and say to him, “My blessed Lord, do not send me anything more for a little while. I really must take stock of these. Come, my good secretaries, take down notes, and keep a register of all his mercies.” Let us gratefully respond for the manifold gifts we have received, and send back our heartiest praise to God who is the giver of every good thing. But, dear me! before I could put the basketfuls away on the shelf there came wagons loaded with more mercy. What was one to do then, but to sit on the top of the pile and sing for joy of heart? Then let us lift each parcel and look at each label, and lay them up in the house and say, “Is it not full of mercy?”

Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-92)

Have a great Thanksgiving everybody. I’ll see you on Friday. Monk…....out…........................

A good answer to the “What Would Jesus Drive?” gang.

Operation Christmas Child- an outreach of Samaritan’s Purse- is getting a whole new paintjob in Alberta. Proselytizing is the new bad word. (Though what IS this doing in public schools?) Here’s the CT comment: “We’ve been here before. In March 2001, The New York Times inaccurately criticized Samaritan’s Purse, saying that while workers aided earthquake victims in El Salvador with government funds, they found time to “preach, pray, and seek converts among people desperate for help.” Call the hate crime police. Between this and the coverage of slain missionary Bonnie Penner Witherall, it’s clear that many people see aid and relief work motivated by Christian mission as a force for evil, not good.

A ton of abortion stories on the CT weblog today.

Wow. Islam is growing in Mexico.

I’ve seen some church league games about this bad.

JackH: Did you ever visit this cathedral?

An excellent editorial about current trends in church music: Here is a sterling excerpt: “In a curious way, then, many American Protestants are in the process of going back in liturgical history to pre-Reformation times, becoming increasingly passive in worship where their forebears had been active. This has its perils. For as Jay Rochelle, a former Lutheran professor of liturgy, now a sub-deacon in the Antiochian Orthodox Church, observed, “When Eastern Christians listen to their ancient liturgies, they identify with a great tradition spanning a millennium and a half.” But what of those who sit the soft megachurch seats, taking in soothing or exciting sounds emitted by praise bands? What will they pass on to subsequent generations—anything comparable to St. Ambrose’s powerfully inspired Te Deum? Or to Gregorian chant? Or to Luther’s stirring “Mighty fortress” and Louis Bourgeois’ wonderful doxology, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow?” “None of that,” said Rochelle sadly, “all they’ll be left with will be wimpish, limp-wristed stuff.“

My reformed Baptist friends would say a hearty Amen.

Man, I AM hard on myself. You couldn’t be more right. My daughter is such a great kid, incredible scholar, unbelievable resume, great ACTs, etc. that we know there will be several paths for her. I don’t see her choice of Centre as being a bad one. I mean, we had a chance to consider Havard, and had a major guy willing to fly her up and give her a foot in the door. But she didn’t want to be that far from home. Same with Hillsdale and William and Mary. We decided that if she was going to go to the best school possible, then Centre made sense because it is the “Ivy League” as far as the small Southern schools are concerned. Plus- if you noted the numbers- they are an incredible deal. U.S. News has them a Top 40 best buy every year, even though they are #1 in price in Ky. They are #1 in America in per capita Alumni giving. 100% several decades in a row, which is amazing if you think about it. Plus the NYT rated them one of the top 5 schools in America in student satisfaction. We’re sold on Centre. My deal is simply that 1) Anything could happen, and a viable second choice makes sense. 2) What’s wrong with two schools offering you big bucks to come? 3) WKU will take her application in February and has already promised a full ride. So she has pocket money in that deal. 4) She doesn’t want to go to UK. As a UL fan, I will not allow such a blasphemy. (Hint: her boyfriend is applying there as one of his three schools, though I think he will be at Miami of Ohio or Ohio State.

At this point, I am not being abused too badly. Dad has to be the bad guy but it usually looks better a few days hence.

BTW, in KY if she is a public school English teacher, she will start at about 30K. If she goes the principal track- and they are desperate for principals in KY- she could be making $60-80 in 5-10 years. She says she wants to teach in the West, but I suspect she has a lot of choices in front of her. I will not be at all surprised to see her go with college teaching. She is an extremely gifted writer, and I can see her going into journalism too. The IM empire may need an heir. ;-)

Ron C: In my book the best Christian Scholar would have to be?????? The Monk – Peace

RonH: I have booked him for the BHT Christmas banquet. He’ll be right above your head.

HOW’S MY PARENTING? Tonight’s question: Was I right to have my daughter apply to another college? Here is the background. My daughter wants to be an English Teacher. Noel is settled on one school. Centre College. $25,000. Best English department in the state. Based on what we know now, we have every reason to believe the majority of her education at Centre will be paid for. However, it will be weeks before we know anything for sure. SO I insisted on at least one other school. Her choice: UK. Largest school in the state and a school that she hasn’t even looked at once much less twice. We thought it would be WKU since she spent 3 summer programs there and travelled with WKU people to Europe. But she says no way. WKU is totally paid for because she was a Governor’s scholar. Have already told her that would be the best second choice. It is the best English department of the state schools. She has reluctantly agreed to apply, but only because we sort of insisted. SO today she says again that it will be Centre or UK, but really only Centre. I said you must have a VIABLE second choice that you can live with. It’s only reasonable. So she decides on Transylvania University in Lexington, the #2 small school in the state. (Sorry Eric. Couldn’t get her to consider G-town.) All their big $$$ scholarships have to be applied for by Dec 1, so we spent the afternoon like crazy people getting recommendations, applications, transcripts all together. That is now ready to go. (BTW- Transy takes about 350 freshman and gives 25-30 of them 85-100% scholarships.) But I have been taking it on the head all day for pushing this through. She now is applied at Centre and Transy, and has a good shot a good $$ from both. And she has WKU or UK as a state university backup if there is an economic collapse, terrorist attack, etc. BTW, when I was her age, I had one school in mind and no one could even talk to me about another. I wound up transferring after one year ;-) I figure this way she has two great private schools to pick from, and two state Universities if it comes to that.

Thought you might find these number interesting if they fit on the screen. We are right at the $25,000 mark. (Noel already has $6000 Governor’s Scholar $ and $3500 KEES $ guranteed.

Centre College Financial Aid Award by Adjusted Gross Income for Class of 2005*
Adj. Gross Income/ No. of Awards/ Avg Aid Award/ Range of Aid Awards / Avg.Grant/ Avg. Loan/ Avg. Work-Study
$0-25,000 / 22/ $21,274/ $14,425-24,700/ $16,853/ $3,646/ $1,474
$25,001-50,000/ 45/ 19,179 / 10,100-24,060 / 15,157/ 3,295/ 1,458

When I became a Calvinist, I knew next to nothing about Calvinists. I came through the Founder’s movement, reading Luther in seminary, reading Spurgeon, listening to Martin, MacArthur and of course Piper. Soteriology basically. I wasn’t aware of the groups and sub groups. Sandlin is making a very astute observation, because I feel many of us actually left narrow fundamentalism and came into Calvinism for some fresh air. Its been in the Reformed faith that I found the Catholic Church as the Creed describes it. Its been in the Reformed camp that I found a ecumenism that really works, as in the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. I am not a six day creationist. I am a moderate on the RPW. I have no major issue with women elders. I admire the more intense guys but I prefer guys like Piper, whose churches are more evangelical than Calvinist. I vote with Andrew on being a CC.

Yep… there goes the ol’ bile rising to the surface. Mmm… bile…..

NUFF SAID!

Matthew J: I noticed it’s called “Through the Cracks Ministries”. As in thie guy is CRACKED.

Personally, I think this says it all…

Michael: Pastor Gas 1 and Pastor Gas 2.

Judson: Intent is a very important part of the legal system, but only in determining the severity of the crime. When a person, for example, fires off a gun, it is manslaughter if they did it because they were drunk and stupid, but first degree murder if they planned it out. Intent is not used to determine whether or not a crime was committed. In the case of the homosexual killing the 51 year old lady, I expect some “she deserved it” articles eventually, although no one will be as blatant as that.

As for the white washing, I am certain it is more an prevalent in national media than anything else. Unfortunately, people like Jackson and Sharpton put such a bad taste in our mouths that many will turn the channel when a black person comes on, or at least that is the perception the news has. Bernie Goldberg waxed over this issue in his book Bias.

While I agree with Jackson, et al, that the news whitewashes, I believe we should stop the count altogether, meaning both normal people and the news media (not a slip, I intended to indicate they are abnormal). If we stopped counting, we would probably find that most people get hired for their skills and not the amount of melanon in their skin. Yes, there are racists in this country, but most of us are not blatant racists. And, the “leaders” do very little to combat the racism, as they are spending too much time guaranteeing their power base, which is done via bashing white people as racists. It is an evil cycle.

Good News, Michael! A brand new Christian bookstore right near you!

When will someone tell Vicinte he does not have a say in what we choose to do in OUR COUNTRY? And, where did this term “undocumented worker” come from? Are we too afraid that the term illegal alien might offend illegal aliens?

I wonder if this has ever happened on the pulpit…

I am experiencing some razormouth.com withdrawal. They’ve been down for weeks.

Seriously. This guy has his own ministry?

Scott W: You can go right ahead and use my stuff, though I am stupefied (truly – and a bit gratified!) that anyone would want to use anything of mine for any useful purpose. Thanks :-)

Thanks for the input on my questions. And now, in the spirit of Deuteronomy 14, a Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I’ll think of you on my way to work :-(

Every once in a while I run into an atheist who actually has some intellegent arguments, and who’s willing to listen to intellegent responses. Right now, my manager and I are discussing the origins of the names of God, and the history of religion in the Middle East, starting with the Persians and the Babylonians. He’s still convinced that all religions are basically following the same God but different prophets, but he’s willing to discuss things intellegently at least.

The guy on the site you listed below, Mike, is not. I’ve run on his site before and, although he starts out with some interesting issues – possible contradicitons and such – he then degrades his own POV by turning it into a “Fundamentalists and Creationists and Christians all suck” mudmatch, and becomes as much of a fundamentalist as those he opposes.

Ohhh…ohhh…. The Cruel Site of the Day. Many coool things.

Many un-cool things.

Scott: Probably. Tilton. If that guy is in heaven I’m considering Buddhism.

Michael S: Is this the Tilton thing you’re talking about?

MatthewJ: When you start a church, give Angus and the Monk a call. I always knew I was more of a Welsh Calvinistic Methodist than most anything else. Actually, the theologian I am most like is Robert Tilton, because we both make great faces when we pass gas. (If you don’t know what this means someone find the video clip and post it.)

My sleeping in, don’t have to go to work morning was spoiled by 2 hours of work related problems. I hate being so essential that I cannot sleep in one morning without the phone ringing off the wall. And all “turf” matters. I have handed off a responsibility I’ve had for 10 years and naturally everyone concerned is treating the new people like crap, so I have to sooth everyone’s feeling. Uggh.

Judson: If you don’t like celebrities, is that a hate crime? ;-) It is in Madonna’s mind.

This may be it: Pastor Gas: Part 1.

BTW: Lots of cool coool sound bites, parodies, songs and other things. Look at the end.

Has anyone read this? Wow. Old people are a pretty powerful group and the GOP got them. Who is going to be left to vote for the Dems in ‘04? Homosexuals and mental midgets.

Good luck on finding a “good” one. I’m 7 months from ordination in the UMC and I have to say, “good” UMCs are hard to come by.

I answered honestly (for once), the problem is that I now have to go find a good Methodist church to attend.

What’s funny is that when I answered the questions honestly I got Wesley/Luther (there was some waffling on one question). But, when I put in all the answers that I thought only an A-hole would say, I got Calvin.

Irony of ironies?