Evangelical Outpost finally got it together and ran with this story about the killing of a Gorilla in Dallas. (I understand the gorilla was tormented by teenagers prior to the escape and the whole incident is a sad example of human cruelty. But I’m not trying to start a discussion on the obvious fact that humans are cruel.) The amazing thing here is the beginnings of Singer’s “All Animals are Equal” worldview coming to pass. With only 3% genetic difference, what is the reason secularists aren’t…..well, read it for yourself. Get EO’s comments after a Singer quote:

After all, the genetic differences between humans and gorillas are miniscule. We have 97% of the same chromosomes as gorillas and 98% of the same genetic material as chimpanzees (in fact, chimps are—genetically speaking—more like us than they are like gorillas). It would hardly be fair to exclude primates from equality with humans on the basis of a 3% difference. And as Singer points out, �some humans who quite clearly are below the level of awareness, self-consciousness, intelligence, and sentience, of many non-humans.� Without a significant basis in either genetics or characteristics, what grounds do secularists have for not including these animals under the �equal protection� clause of the Constitution? I�m curious to hear their reasoning as, I�m sure, are the few thousand gorillas, chimps, and orangutans now in captivity.

From the blog of our Romanian exile, Jesse, speaking about the visit of a group of Americans to his Bible school.

This put me into a funk which deepened when I watched their program. Most of the program was quite good, and I can’t say anything against their skits, singing, etc. But the youth pastor had to get up for preaching/altar call, which was disastrous. “Why did God create us?” he asked. “The Bible says it’s because he was lonely.” “Where does it say that?” I asked out loud from my seat. He stammered for a minute, until I waved him on, since the point was made. His sermon was one of those “Accept Jesus or you’ll really hurt his feelings” ordeals, but fortunately it was nice and short. He made everybody say the magic words, i.e. sinner’s prayer afterwards, and I’m sure everyone in the room experienced the miracle of God’s love. (JN- ed)

Since most of us don’t have the undiluted courage of out young friend, here’s a question:

How is the best way to register a criticism or disagreement with a sermon? Sermons are monologs, and most pastors don’t have any form of feedback in place. Well, that could change. How could any preacher allow criticism, questions or feedback on sermons in a way that would be less confrontational than standing up and lettin’ it fly? (Note: Don’t go too techie on me here with this answer.)

BTW- Young Angry Lutheran has his two year anniversary/Best of post up.

Among my all time favorite artists and poets….Michael Card

There is a joy in the journey,
there’s a light we can love on the way.
There is a wonder and wildness to life,
and freedom for those who obey.

All those who seek it
shall find it,
a pardon for all who believe.
Hope for the hopeless and sight for the blind

To all who’ve been born of the Spirit
and who share incarnation with him;
who belong to eternity, stranded in time,
and weary of struggling with sin.

Forget not the hope
that’s before you,
and never stop counting the cost.
Remember the hopelessness when you were lost?

One Boy = one day’s work.
Two Boys = one-half day’s work.
Three Boys = no work at all.

To all of you parents out there, my hat’s off to you. We’re just finishing up a week of respite foster care. Where do you get the energy?

And for those of you who teach…my enjoyment of young people seems inversely proportionate to quantity. If I had another hat (or even more hair) it would be off for you guys too.

Holy cow, to be a parent and a teacher?

I need to email my Mom and apologize right now…

AMC Gremlin, eh? Too bad, I’m holding out for that rusted Trans Am with the 350 v8 that actually worked, once upon a disco ball.

Movie Review: Chicago ruled.

Even with my recent evolution to a Caponian Cake eater, I still recommend these IM essays. One of them cost me one of my favorite BHT posters, but I never thought they were all that controversial. I mean, I’ve lived through the CCM revolution in worship music. I don’t think my comments are so much a Reformed knot head as they are just a person who got tired of the circus. (Forgive me, fellows, for uttering the term “regulative principle” :-) which is endlessly irritating to some. What I suggest in essays 2 and 3 on here is NOT the legalistic police action some of you have experienced.)

What I Saw at the Revolution The souring of my relationship with CCM. (Part 1)
The Lord Is My Song Toward a workable regulative principle. (Part 2)
Lessons From the Psalms God has plenty to say about worship music. (Part 3)
Looney Tunes The goofy theology of some worship leaders almost makes me laugh…..almost.
Dr. StrangeLiturgy How I wound up a liturgical transvestite

We’re less than 200 posts from the 20,000 milestone. Who will win the AMC Gremlin sitting on blocks next door to the bar? I’m holding my breath.

John Kerry’s Catholicism. I hope evangelicals just leave this alone, and let Jenny harp on it.

An imposter. Kill him. No, actually, it’s pretty good.

Walloworld is the King of the Blogs, and deserves the honor. Very classy blog. Good writing. Added to the sidebar.

I don’t have to preach at all next week. (Sing to “I didn’t sleep at all last night.) Revival twice a day for a week. The revival preacher is an ex-OBI employee, current Warrenite pastor, but a good guy who knows our students and situation. Humble for a preacher, which is rare. And a former baseball coach, so I’m hoping. I have some games this week as our season opens. Pray we get two new kids eligible. Quick.

The good people in our community are having an anti-drug march and rally on May 2nd. It would be hard to communicate to you what our local government is facing with the Meth labs, pot farms and dope dealers. A lot of the local pastors have decided to put bodies in the street to show dealers, politicians and law enforcement that something has to change. Law enforcement has already stepped up their efforts. The local prosecutor- one of my elders- and judges are doing good work. Now they are asking the local pastors to get people in the streets to show community support. So we’re supporting it, both at church and school.

One thing that encourages me is there is an emphasis on helping the people involved with drugs and not just throwing every user in jail. A lot of these users are local young people who are in way over their heads. Addicted, sick and ruined. It’s horrible to see. They need treatment, and the group is hoping to get Federal money to allow judges to send more users to treatment. I know that will irritate the libertarian purists amongst you, but in a community with no industry and no capital- the 118th poorest of Ky’s 120 counties, and the 10th poorest county in America- we need help to help these people. Pure and simple. So we’re praying for Citizens for a Better Clay County Anti-Drug March and Rally on May 2nd.

And very special thanks to this weekend’s Internet Monk tipper. (The C.S. Lewis on a Harley tattoo cost $85, if anyone cares.)

The heart: Hearing our sermon today brought me to many thoughts. I can’t keep on track while most people preach. I thought of the heart as he brought up the uniformity of the human heart.

Whatever peice of land you are on the heart is the same. A cheating wife, while the external may speak apathy, the heart is torn. There is something about Jesus that speaks to everyone’s heart. If He speaks of sin it tears us up or makes us angry. If He speaks of compassion we all would love that same spirit. The heart is spoken to by Scripture in a way little or no other book can.

My heart was torn once by a beautiful girl, while her name wasn’t Kara she was special. I left her and sadly didn’t look back. My heart is torn as she has moved away from our Lord. My heart bleeds anytime I hear her name or her voice. What I called my best friend actually was the love of my life. The termendous sense of loss knowing I’ll never see her again leaves me in want. Only Christ and Him alone can give the peace of God. I doubt I’ll find this peace to my satisfacation until I reach Glory’s side.

I have yet to read IM’s new article but I hear it is a good read. I’ll look forward to this later this week.

Prayer if you could, I have a job interview tomorrow and God ordaining I’ll get it.

Until then, salinte.

Deep Thoughts The tavern is deserted. Looks like I’m kicking around here all by myself today. Sounds like a good time to share my occasional deep thought; nobody’s here to question me or disagree! O.K. It’s this: I’ve always been a church-goer from the days of my infancy. I’ve been a Christian from a very early age. And I was a goody-two-shoes kind of kid. Though I usually prefer to think of sin (singular) instead of sins (plural) I’m going with the plural right now. It just hit me a day or so ago (continued ruminations post The Passion of the Christ, no doubt) that because I was saved as a child, some 99.999% of all of my sins that put Jesus on the cross were sins I’ve committed since becoming a Christian. And sins I have yet to commit as a Christian. That’s a very sobering—-and somewhat heart-sickening—-thought. Wow. Thank goodness “there is now no condemnation…”

Michael: Thanks for directing me to the Psalms essay, my first scan made me think that the essay is what would have been produced if I’d had a Vulcan mind meld with a real writer. Same Spirit, same thoughts…Laurie and I will read it together later. We had a discussion along the same lines on the way to Fargo yesterday.

I think that there is a community role somewhere in Judaism that is in effect a liturgist.

I believe that our transition from “teaching” to “testimony” in the church (the pragmatist’s gospel?) has opened the door. One time I went to a sound system workshop for the church we attended and was stunned to learn that a lot of churches had “prophecy” mics. Hmmm…

It’d probably be good to keep a pile of stones handy too…

Russell & Phillip: Up here in the land of 11,000 lakes (there’s been a recount) “Our Lady of the Lake” takes the cake (urrggg!).

Kent: Welcome, and I like this:

I had a thought: Is modern worship music a conversion of “one man’s experience” into liturgical practice?

And I’d say yes, but it didn’t start with modern CCM. In my essays about worship music, I observe that what happens with the Psalms is the experience of one person is “owned” by the community as the beginning of liturgy. So whether it’s Psalm 23 or 51 or another example, this isn’t really out of bounds. I think the role of artists in the church is to produce an individual statement of experience, and then it’s the role of the leadership of the church to find a way to incorporate that into worship. (It really highlights for me that there is a role for the liturgist as a legitimate calling.)

Here’s my essay on using the Psalms in worship.

Phillip: Thank you very much. I’m getting nice notes already. I’ve wanted to write this one for a while, but couldn’t get the time. So I took off baseball practice and just did it. (BTW- GO ROUGHRIDERS!)

I really want to say to the world that the obedience of faith is what God desires, not obedience with results. This changes EVERYTHING because it takes the measuring, bean-counting process largely out of our hands. It means that when we deal with the observables (in the visible church), we do a major double-check on our humility and on what faith really is as Jesus illustrates it. So all kinds of people with pretty unimpressive or invisible results (by some accountant’s calculations) are the great examples of faith. (Look at the thief on the cross.) This is one way I know I am around actual cake eaters. They treasure the Gospel of by grace through faith, and see works vitally connected, but they also realize measuring those observable works as evidence of faith is foolishness. This doesn’t take away the importance of a single admonition, but it sure pulls the rug out from under pride.

It’s what obedience comes FROM- Faith!- not what it leads to- works- that is the difference between the Gospel and legalistic thinking, imo.

You people have GOT to read this hilarious Megan Cox Gurdon/NRO piece on packing lunches for little kids JUST TO READ THE CANADA PART! Good grief, Richard. You have my prayers.

Michael: Your grace article is great—very challenging. I’ve printed it (six pages!) and my wife and I are going to go through it beginning later today. I’ve already read her a few highlights. Truly, this is one of your better articles.

Russell: My favorite would have to be “Our Lady of Perpetual Motion.”

Jim: Speaking of stories missing key details, that story about the Scotsman who killed an armed robber with a sword and went to prison was also missing an important detail. Turns out he was a drug dealer, and went to prison for drug charges, not the stabbing.

Thanks iMonk for the grace article. Somehow it reminded me of “Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility” – the church of Lake Wobegon.

IM is updated with my new essay. “Our Problem With Grace.” The last section could be one of my better moments. The subject inspires me.

I also have a new short piece up at michaelspencer.us.

If you are a typical Protestant and don’t have any idea how Catholics look at mass, and how that differs from our evangelical view of worship, let Amy Welborn’s comments today shed some light for you. I am a Protestant, and a Reformed one, but I appreciate deeply what Amy is saying about letting the scriptures speak. God bless you, Amy. Your blog is a real ministry.

I really enjoy Robin Mark. Garments of Praise is a great tune.

I should probably add to my list:

Reverend Gary Davis (original)
Peter Paul and Mary (remix) : Samson and Delilah

Here’s a question: Is Bob Dylan going to be in heaven? Followup: Will he actually be able to sing there?

The most hated man on the BHT, in his natural habitat. Kurt, I’m sending you a framed print! :-)

You probably heard the reports, or even ran into some web editorials about the woman in Utah who’s being charged with murder for failing to heed a doctor’s advice and allow her unborn twins to be delivered by C-section. It’s been part of the office buzz here for a while, mostly because I’m surrounded by people whose opinions on abortion rights give me kidney pain. What you may not have heard, and what somehow I missed in all of the conversations, confrontations, and web surfing, is the tidbit at the bottom of this news brief: the woman in question is a cocaine and alcoholic user, and the surviving baby had the substances in its body at birth.

I know we don’t talk about abortion here, and I’m hardly one to jump on the bandwagon with those ready to hang this woman (who obviously has more issues in her life to deal with than just not wanting C-section scars), but it bothers me that I didn’t hear about any of this until now. Is this just a momentary blindspot of mine?

I had a thought: Is modern worship music a conversion of “one man’s experience” into liturgical practice?

I say this in a world in which “surviving the test of time” means “they’ll still carry it next month”.

For those of you who dare to try believing again, and maybe sense the therapeudic value of caring about something more than theology every so often, here’s a wonderful Baseball season preview, complete with a recommended blog for every team.

PWinn: I want a cap!

And I will gurantee you, nothing is cooler than taking your kids to a Minor League game. I mean, is anything cooler than this?

Here’s Minor League baseball’s site. Find a team near you (see the geographic locator), go see a game…...and buy me a cap.

Who are you going to listen believe, your mom, or one of Australia’s top doctors?

Speaking of music in the church…
I pray for Eminem. I want him to convert, love Jesus, and rap a mad set of lyrics for the JC! woot! (what a great testimony he’d have).

On Sanctification: The holy father (jn) Edwards says that Sanctification ”’Tis as much the nature of one that is spiritually new born, to thirst after growth in holiness, as ‘tis the nature of a newborn babe, to thirst after the mother’s breast.”

Westminster Shorter Catechism;
“What is Sanctification?”
Answer: Sanctification is a work of God�s free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.

This definition may read differently due to how one defines the “image of God” but I agree we should look like both Adam and Jesus. Adam in the sense that we are to walk with God, as a created being and created for His work. As Jesus, as to a righteous servant and love for all mankind.

Now a totally different topic. I found Hodge funny in his presentation of the atheist position.

Atheism does not call for any separate discussion. It is in itself purely negative. It affirms nothing. It simply denies what Theism asserts. The proof of Theism is, therefore, the refutation of Atheism. Atheist is, however, a term of reproach. Few men are willing to call themselves, or to allow others to call them by that name. Hume, we know, resented it. Hence those who are really atheists, according to the etymological and commonly received meaning of the word, repudiate the term. Volume I, ch.3

Hymns Great to read, (for me) difficult to sing. There is a guy who is working on taking Scripture readings, adding a techno background, and sending them to me. Plus he’s a cool guy because of his site.

How much (or what kind of) “life change” should one see in the first few months of a NEW Christian’s life?

The “first few months of a NEW Christian’s life” are exactly when? None of my children are baptized, so I shouldn’t expect it, right? My nephew was baptized as an infant; shouldn’t the Holy Spirit’s influence mitigate against the “terrible twos?” In my own story, would that be when I was 8, and prayed the sinner’s prayer with my dad? When I was 16, and walked away from fundamentalism in favor of the reformed tradition? When I was 25, and was confronted by the Lord over my lifestyle? Or at one of the several points afterward where there was a shift in my understanding and awareness of God’s work in my life? Last November, when my life fell apart (or three weeks later, when I had a Damascus Road experience?) Last weekend, listening to Brennan Manning, watching God blow away much of what I thought I knew about Him?

My experience has been that God is systematically drawing me to Himself through the events of my life. All of my own attempts to “get closer to God” have been miserable experiences; they were neither enjoyable during the effort nor ultimately of value except as a negative lesson. So I would say the following things about sanctification generally:

• The primary role of sanctification in the life of a believer is to confirm to the believer himself that the Spirit is within him.
• Whatever the role of an individual’s visible signs of sanctification are supposed to be within the body of the church, it isn’t to be a sort of scoreboard to form the basis of a spiritual evaluation of others by me, or me by others.

That second one is important to me. I’ve been in churches that had such a twisted concept of sanctification (and church discipline) that a person who was divorced and remarried before their “profession of faith” was allowed to serve in church leadership, but a man whose wife had walked out on him to live with someone else she’d been sleeping with wasn’t allowed to sing in the choir.

I’ve met people who were completely and instantly delivered from addictions as a result of coming to Jesus. I’ve met Christians who spent their entire lives struggling with particular sins and never having more than a few day’s victory. Which of these is more sanctified? Which of these is more qualified?

If you want to experience the hypocrisy behind this, here’s a test. Next Sunday, in the middle of your worship, stand up and boldly confess to having lustful thoughts, and praise the Lord for delivering you from them several years ago. State clearly that you are making this public at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, to bear testimony to the Lord’s power and grace and provide hope for others with similar issues. Then, after the service, approach the pastor and ask to serve in the children’s ministry. See how fast he calls you back.

Disgusting example, right? Absurd to even think of it, right? Fine, I agree; even I would have difficulty with someone who did that. Now play back the same scenario, but substitute some more socially acceptable sin – let’s say gluttony, or greed, or anger. Does it end differently? If you say no, then you’ve probably just lied. Better not confess it, though. If the nominating committee gets wind of it, they might pass you up for deacon… More »« Less

Let’s play a game: How many allusions to Matthew can you find in James?

Prayer Request Update: Everything seems to be checking out OK. I’m going to live. Getting more tests in 3 weeks, but mostly just to confirm that I’m going to live.

Thanks for your prayers.

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest musicians that the Church has ever had, and Josh gets to claim him as a fellow Lutheran. If I am not mistaken, he wrote a lot of music specifically to be played in church. Besides being a genius of musical composition, he was also a theologian. The Church today should be so blessed with such a man to bring wonderful music with sound theology into our churches! [This was, in fact, something that Craig Parton was begging to be done again in his book “The Defense Never Rests”, a kind of apologetic work for the Lutheran Church.]

Now, if you remembered my post from last week, you may be wondering why I am lauding the 17th century Bach and not Sebastian Bach of Skid Row, the 80s hair band. Well, it seems that being around the classical music last week actually started me down a path of liking classical music. As I was listening to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” a couple of nights ago, I realized that I was wishing I had some classical to listen to. Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t hating one of PF’s master works (okay, Roger Water’s masterwork), but I realized that the music was rather drab and lacking in the fullness that most classical has.
As for operas, I hated L’Italiana in Algeri, but I thought that Rigoletto was a great time.

A good post from Lurker Brian Boss:

“Our church started as a monthly hymn sing on the first Saturday of the month. The church is now three+ years old and we’re still having them, and they are still well-attended. We have a “hymn of the month”, which we learn in four parts. Families are encouraged to work on them at home with CDs the church has put together that have each part played out (for those who don’t have a piano player at home). During the church service itself, we sing the HOTM by parts and then altogether. And at the hymnsing we sing the hymns we have learned. We have even tackled the Hallelujah chorus the last two Christmases. Less than half of the members of the church come from a tradition (or prior church) that had hymn-singing. It’s been a revelation to them, many of whom had decided that the old hyms were dirge-like and boring. Personally, I grew up in church that sang exclusively hymns and many Psalms, and I love them. Nothing better than a hymn sung in four parts with accompanied by a pipe organ. I agree whole-heartedly that the PW stuff is nearly unsingable. I remember listening to Moody radio (I’m in Chicago area) and thinking to myself, That is nearly unsingable. Of course, at the end of the song, the DJ said, “Well, that’s a great new song. We’ll be singing that in our churches very soon.” Huh?”

Thanks Brian.

I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t struggle with legalism sometimes. Most of the time, its when I’m thinking about somebody else’s sin and ignoring my own. I’m good at pointing out what YOU shouldn’t be doing. What I do is between me and God, heh.

That said, I hope I can rise above that, at least for one post. I do draw a distinction between Law and Gospel, and I don’t lump justification and sanctification together. At least, not on purpose.

How much (or what kind of) “life change” should one see in the first few months of a NEW Christian’s life?

I lived a good bit of time as what I’d called a “lasped believer”. I honestly believed that Jesus had died for my sins, I just didn’t care to let that affect my actions much. Surely, I would have frequent periods of conflict and guilt, but I got pretty good at ignoring that kind of thing.

God didn’t leave me alone. Through the Spirit’s conviction (whoo-hoo, a “feeling led” reference! [JN]) and the example and discipleship of other Christians, my passion for God was greatly magnified. I don’t want to say that I “got back on track”, because, I don’t dare to pretend that I’m “a-Ok”, right now. I’m still a miserable sinner and a screwup.

With all that said, I don’t see a flaw in expecting a Christian to behave as one. I knew the truth and, if confronted, would confess that same truth, but I got very good at avoiding it when the truth became uncomfortable. But, it was still there. I could ignore Christ, but I could not deny Him.

For new believers, I feel it is important to encourage and admonish them to grapple and deal with this truth that they now possess. For those that err, I feel it is the job of the church to charge them with “acknowledge Christ in this, or deny Him.” We’re not to be fault-finders, but the church is charged with leading its members to repentence and, if they won’t repent, to eventually put them out of the church.

Santification is a continual process. In regeneration, God renews our hearts and gives us that deposit of faith that lets us see the truth. A Christian can ignore this faith, but cannot, I think, deny it outright. Only God can see the heart, but I think that we need to make our best efforts to discern nonetheless. Paul spent a lot of his words saying, essentially, “because you have been given the truth, now live as if you do.” There will be false sheep in the flocks, and, in our limited human view, we should do what we can to pick them out.

Jim: During The Great Church Hunt of 2003, I visited a PCA church in which the “special music” (that which we Episcopalians call the “offertory,” and during which we sing) was that very song – “I have decided.” I think objections come from people overly-sensitive to any hint of perceived intrinsic righteousness. I don’t like the song, but that’s not a doctrinal issues, it’s a stylistic issue – it smacks of dreadful country music in every arrangement I’ve ever heard. Yes, we are monergistically saved by God’s grace. But from our human perspective, we still decide and choose and act and serve.

In general—and knowing very little about MWS—one can be extremely concerned about sloppy theology and still be incorrect.

Overall, it seems that most of the hymns you mention are pretty recent, no? I don’t recognize several, at least.

Bill: The commentary is currently out of print, but you can pick it up here. The title is “James, the Apostle of Faith: A Primary Christological Epistle for the Persecuted Church.” I give it a qualified recommendation, as I didn’t agree with all his conclusions. However, the completely different take (a letter of instruction for pastors full of semiticisms alluding to the Gospel) was refreshing.

Didn’t CS Lewis call hymns “second rate poems set to third rate music”?

Josh: Is that commentary on James online anywhere?

Welcome: All the new guys!

Should there be a change in a newly regenerate Christian? Yes. Please don’t make me be more specific than that.

CCM is one of those topics I love to post on and hate to post on at the same time. It’s hard for me to be critical of someone like Michael W. Smith, because of what I know about him. So all I’ll say about “Above All” is this: you might not agree with what he’s saying, and that’s fine, but please don’t attribute that to sloppy theological thinking. That sort of thing matters a great deal to him, from what I’ve seen and been told. (My brother toured with him for some time.)

If you have a problem with I will open up my heart and let the healer set me free , then what exactly should be the believer’s prayerful response of thanksgiving be to their awareness of the persistent seeking of a loving God after them? Maybe you prefer and I will sit on my butt and not try to do anything but passively wait for you, because I’m just a worm after all… The only problem I have with “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” is that sometimes the worship gets caught up in the spirit of the song, and we actually do end up singing of His love forever, or at least over and over. But that’s not a bad thing necessarily…

I do have a slight problem with the line from “Now Is the Time” that seems to imply that those who seek now have a special blessing over those who will bow “one day,” but it’s probably just a residual reaction against premillenialism, so I sing it and move on.

For that matter, a lot of hymns suck. And some of them don’t suck badly, but they need amending. I’ve made it a personal crusade to get the slides for “Near the Cross” changed so what we sing ”’til my ransomed soul shall find..”; the original word there is “raptured”, which isn’t an awful idea (when I enter the “rest beyond the river”, I expect to experience rapture as an emotion), but it tends to validate premillenialism.

For that matter, how many people who sing “Marching to Zion” out of the hymnal actually believe that “Religion never was designed, To make our pleasures less.” Of course, hymn writers like Watts were smart. The objectionable stuff gets put into the 2nd verse, because everyone knows that Protestant liturgy (excluding Episcopals for a moment) studiously requires singing verses 1, 3 and 4.

In our dispensational Baptist church when I was a boy, we’d end up singing “We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations” on Missionary Sunday. When I was old enough to understand eschatology, I thought that was funny.

I have seen the following songs used effectively as part of worship:
Steve Winwood’s Higher Love
Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters (as a sermon illustration)
Bob Dylan’s Gotta Serve Somebody

I have myself performed the following songs as part of worship:
Bruce Cockburn’s All the Diamonds
Blind Willie Johnson’s The Soul of a Man
Mississippi John Hurt’s Blessed be the Name

I fully intend to sing Tom Wait’s Come On Up to the House, as Kurt mentioned. When it happens, I’ll post an mp3.

I’ve also performed contemporary arrangements of these hymns

Come Thou Fount
Near the Cross
Jesus Loves Me
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus (in an OPC church, to the consternation of hypercalvinists everywhere)
Nothing But the Blood

I recently was taught a pair of P&W songs that I’m intending to incorporate into our worship at PCNP. One is “We are a Moment”, (lyrics in the extended entry) and the other is “Garments of Praise.” I’d be interested in comments on them. Also, I’d like to hear what the pub’s Celtic Musicians and fans think of Robin Mark

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New people, new people everywhere! Welcome, Brandon and Kent, and I already welcomed Danny, but what the heck, I’ll welcome you again.

If Robert Farrell or Bruce Settergren ever post, I’ll welcome them, too. For now, we’ve got a few cold drinks in the fridge, just in case.

Denise: I’ve tended to draw the line this way:
My own attempts to live according to God’s law are borne of a healthy desire to obey.
Others’ attempts to motivate me to live according to God’s law are legalistic, as are my attempts to motivate others, as are any actions I think are somehow going to improve God’s view of me.

It’s a fuzzy line, since clearly I decide about new ways to obey because of the statements of other people, and I would hope my statements might someday help others, but I seem to be able to keep it pretty clear in my mind, I think, even if I spelled it out fuzzily.

Michael: And so we come once again, peripherally, to the idea of transactionalism. In this case, I have to say that some change should probably be expected in most people of a reasonable age, simply because we humans living in this temporal geo-spatial reality view this as a transactional thing, and from our perspective, we suddenly have a need (for ourselves, not for Him) to submit to God.

When a teen or adult is saved by God, and submits to Him, I would expect that some of those submitted things might need to go away, and others probably need to show up. However, I’m loathe to make any lists, because that way lies madness. I’ll just say that Paul seemed to heavily promote the idea that we should work daily to show more holiness, so I would probably expect something along those lines. Of course, while the lack of such evidence might be troubling (as per our ongoing discussion of James), few of us observe new believers with the kind of 24/7 observation that might be required to note real changes. In the end, God judges the heart, while we judge the outward appearance, or so I’ve read.

Children are more interesting. My children will, I hope, be raised with as accurate a picture as I can give them of a holy God who has mercifully saved them by His grace despite their own sinfulness. Knowing that (barely) when she is six, at what point am I going to call her converted? What sort of life change should I suspect? The second question is easier to answer: None. Or rather, just the normal ongoing series of life changes we all (hopefully) experience all the time, called maturity. I believe that justification is how God views me, not something that literally changes inside me, and with no literal internal change, why would I expect a reaction?

The first question – when am I going to call her converted. I could go with the probably-doctrinally-correct approach and just call her a child of the covenant for life. Her testimony: “I’m a third-generation believer, saved by God’s grace.” I note that Paul said about Timothy, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” Someday, I’ll be sure about my children.

After talking about children, I have to revise my answer about adults, too. In short: I would hope to see an increased desire for the things of God, which are not necessarily the things of American Churchianity. But hey – I would hope to see that in most long-time Christians, too, including me.