Tried With Fire

What do you want to experience, to have, to do, to enjoy, and be preserved from in the New Year? James Smith, Spurgeon's predecessor at the New Park Street Chapel, has a few suggestions, and I couldn't ask for anything better for my loved ones or myself. Read more  here .

Christmas vacation is over. Time to go back to work.

God kept His promise from Genesis 3:15: "The New Testament witnesses to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the One in whom and through whom all the promises of God find their fulfillment. These promises are only to be understood from the Old Testament; the fulfillment of the promises can be understood only in the context of the promises themselves. The New Testament presupposes a knowledge of the Old Testament. Everything that is a concern to the New Testament writers is part of one redemptive history to which the Old Testament witnesses. The New Testament writers cannot separate the person and work of Christ, nor the life of the Christian community, from this sacred history which has its beginnings in the Old Testament." The Goldsworthy Trilogy: Gospel and Kingdom by Graeme Goldsworthy, 2011, Paternoster Press, pp. 18-19.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:21 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  John 1:29

Oh Saviour of our fallen race, Oh brightness of the Father’s face Oh Son Who shared the Father’s mind Before the world knew day or night Oh Jesus very light of light Our constant star in sin’s deep night Now hear the prayers Your people pray Throughout the world this holy day You came down You came down To a stable and manger Not a kingdom or a crown Remember Lord of life and grace How once to save our fallen race You put our human vesture on And came to us as Mary’s son You came down You came down To a stable and manger Not a kingdom or a crown For from the Father’s throne You came His banished children to reclaim And earth and sea and sky revered The love of Him who sent You here Oh Christ redeemer, virgin born Let songs of praise your name adore And with the Father be adored And Holy Spirit evermore You came down You came down You came down You came down To a stable and manger Not a kingdom or a crown Words ...

At His first advent, we adore Him with gratitude, rejoicing that He is “God with us,” making Himself to be our near Kinsman. We gather with grateful boldness around the Infant in the manger and behold our God. But, in the anticipation of His second advent, we are struck with a solemn reverence, a trembling awe. We are not less grateful, but we are more prostrate, as we bow before the majesty of the triumphant Christ. Jesus in His glory is an overpowering vision for mortal man to behold. John, the beloved disciple, writes, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” We could have kissed His blessed feet till He quitted us on Mount Olivet, but at the sight of our returning Lord, when Heaven and earth shall flee away, we shall bow in lowliest adoration. His first appearing has given us eternal life, and that holy confidence with which we are looking forward to His glorious appearing, which is to be the crown of all His mediatorial work. There are many contrasts between our...

Calviiiiiiiin! Their latest album includes the hit song, "All I want for Christmas are the Institutes."  ht: Calvinistic Cartoons

I am thankful for: Our small group Christmas party and white elephant last night. Good food and good fun. Finals are over for my girl. I'm thankful for God's enabling grace and strength for her and how she has grown even in just these few months. More sleep at night. 7+ hours is much better 6+. Children's books that make me laugh when they are read out loud. I think authors write with parents in mind, too. Further steps on the road of emotional healing. It can't be rushed. It takes time, but God is faithful. The simple pleasure of decorating the tree. It's fake, but it's still beautiful. The opportunity to spend Christmas with family. As I grow older, these are moments to be treasured. God never fails to keep His promises even when we've blown it. He will accomplish what He has decreed. No exceptions. Photo credit: By Kofler Jürgen (self made by Juko) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.or...

I'm sharing a prayer from The Valley of Vision at Out of the Ordinary : O SOURCE OF ALL GOOD, What shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts.     thine own dear Son, begotten, not created,     my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,     his self-emptying incomprehensible,     his infinity of love beyond the heart's grasp. Herein is wonder of wonders:     he came below to raise me above,     was born like me that I might become like him… Read the rest here . The Valley of Vision , edited by Arthur Bennett, Banner of Truth Trust, 2013, pg. 16. Photo credit: Workshop of Rembrandt [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

God had made many visits to men before Christ’s Incarnation, but the most wonderful visit of all was when He came to tarry here, some three and thirty years, to work out our salvation. What but tender mercy, hearty mercy, intense mercy, could bring the great God to visit us so closely that He actually assumed our nature? Kings may, for various reasons, visit their subjects; but they do not think of taking upon themselves their poverty, their sickness, or their sorrow. They could not if they would, and they would not if they could; but our Divine Lord, when He came hither, took upon Him our flesh… Our Lord so visited us as to become our Surety, our Substitute, our Ransom. He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, and the Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. This was wonderful tender mercy on His part; it excels all human conception and language. If, for the first time, you had heard of the visit of the incarnate God to this world, you would be struck with a wond...

Purity is Possible: How to live free of the fantasy trap by Helen Thorne, The Good Book Company, November 2014, 112 pages. In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness about the use of pornography by Christian men. But what about women? Are they purer by nature and thus immune to this temptation? While stereotypes may encourage this idea, Helen Thorne would disagree with this myth because she's been there. She was caught in the trap of pornography, erotica, and sexual fantasy. However, the solution wasn't to muster up self-resolve and stop through sheer will power. Helen found the answer in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Purity is Possible  takes an honest look at this temptation that many Christian women experience. Sexual sin is not minimized in any way and neither is the call to repentance. The author also digs beneath the surface as to what may be the underlying idols that fuel the fantasy. But there is hope because this sin is not beyond the scope of Christ...

ht: Wrong Hands

Clearly, different people can respond differently to the same messages and environment. One way to understand the differences in perceptions is to keep in mind that many victims of sexual abuse suffer from guilt and self-blame as common effects of sexual victimization. This is often due to the deliberate blame shifting strategies that perpetrators employ to ensure the victim’s silence. Having already internalized poisonous beliefs about their culpability and unworthiness, abuse victims are often particularly sensitive to sermon and classroom teachings that reinforce the condemnation and despondency they struggle with daily. As a result, many abuse victims are sensitized to perceive and remember victim blaming/perpetrator exonerating attitudes and teachings that individuals without such life experiences fail to note consciously.  In more concrete terms, abuse victims may be able to detect toxic victim blaming/perpetrator exonerating attitudes in highly diluted concentrations th...

I posted this quote two years ago, but it's worth repeating. Even though Austin Duncan's talk was about dating, his take on practice versus principle can be applied to many non-gospel issues where Christians disagree. Until Christ comes back, there won't be uniform agreement because we interpret scripture differently. The only way to ensure complete agreement is to enforce interpretation and its application, which seems to harken back to pre-Reformation days. God forbid that we should demand that from one another. We should strive to be good Bereans but also like Martin Luther who would not let his conscience be bound to anything other than the Word of God. From  this talk  by Austin Duncan at the 2012 Shepherd's Conference (emphasis mine): When you translate that [biblical] principle into a specific action and decision and seek to call it still a principle  rather  than an application  of  a principle, you can find yourself in a position like the fa...

GLORY to God in the highest,” was an old, old song to the angels; they had sung that strain before the foundation of the world. But, now, they sang as it were a new song before the throne of God, and in the ears of mortal men, for they added this stanza, “and on earth peace.” They did not sing like that in the Garden of Eden. There was peace there, but it seemed to be a matter of course, and to be a thing scarcely needing to be mentioned in their song. There was more than peace there, for there was also glory to God. But man had fallen, and since the day when the Lord God drove him out of Eden, and placed the cherubim with a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life, there had been no peace on earth, save in the breasts of believers, who had obtained peace of heart and conscience even from the promise of the Incarnation of Christ. Wars had raged unto the ends of the earth; men had slaughtered one another, heaps on heaps. There had been strife within as w...

The George Lucas special edition of the new Star Wars trailer: And a cat's reaction:

Dorothy Sayers clearly describes what happens when we forget that people are individual human beings made in the image of God. We are not clones. We are not the Borg . We are not data points to be placed on a bell curve and judged accordingly. God is not a statistician or a manufacturer who churns out copies of a limited set of models over and over again. He is Creator, God, and Father who has fashioned mankind out of His infinite creativity. I think her words are applicable, not just to my country but to the church as well. What have we lost because we have forgotten what it means to be human and to treat others as human beings too? What is repugnant to every human being is to be reckoned always as a member of a class and not as an individual person. A certain amount of classification is, of course, necessary for practical purposes…What is unreasonable and irritating is to assume all one's tastes and preferences have to be conditioned by the class to which one belongs... To o...

I'm posting at Out of the Ordinary today: "I can't imagine what went through Adam and Eve's minds after they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They had lived in perfect communion with God, each other, and creation. But now, by their act of disobedience, sin ruined this harmony forever. Adam and Eve hid from their Creator. They were blame-shifting and about to be expelled from paradise. If I summed up all my moments of regret and multiplied them thousands of times over, perhaps it might come close to what they were feeling. But I also wonder if these words gave them hope even in the midst of the fall. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.  Gen. 3:15" Read the rest of the post here . 

Because I can't seem to close this can of worms, here are links to two papers that survey different views of Genesis 3:16 and the scope of marital submission. Both are written by evangelical, non-egalitarians. Genesis 3:16 - The Pronouncement on Eve by Les Galicinski, M.Div. (ht: A Cry for Justice) This paper has a helpful diagram that lists the theologian and his/her interpretation of Genesis 3:16. Of note, the author does not agree with Susan Foh's recent interpretation but believes that desire is a  desire for her husband. He also cites John Piper and Wayne Grudem as differing from the Foh view, which I find surprising as I was under the impression that CBMW promotes her interpretation. But I may be wrong. What Does "Submit in Everything" Mean? The Nature and Scope of Marital Submission by Steven Tracy, Ph.D., Professor of Theology and Ethics at Phoenix Seminary. Published: Trinity Journal (TrinJ) 29 (2008) pp. 285-312 Dr. Tracy discusses the differe...

Drinking - Honey crisp cider. Enjoying - The 70 degree weather for the first day of December. I was able to wash the car today which was in desperate need of a bath. Listening to - Persuasion by Jane Austen. I've read it several times but listening adds another dimension. Anne's sadness is so moving in her resignation and the maturity with which she handles it. Quite the opposite of Marianne Dashwood. The reader also feels her joy more keenly because it is such a contrast to the beginning of the story. It's tough to choose, but I think Persuasion has moved up to the place of favorite Austen novel. Finished - My 6th NaNoWriMo novel. It's a fun, albeit time consuming diversion. It also forces one to let editing fly out the window and just write! Consequently, it's a good exercise for those of us who tend to edit something to death. Feeling sad - Friends from church are moving this month. Our area has a number of military facilities, so families move in and ou...