Newtown

With the deaths of twenty children and eight adults we are confronted with ourselves. Is the sin in us so different from the sin in the one who killed these children? Yes and no.

Yes it is different. It is one thing to hate someone and another to lash out in violence. It is one thing to lack self control but quite another to go on a killing spree.  How can sins like anger, irritability, hate, and rebellion be compared to these murders? 

These are categorically different things right?

Loving Our Enemies and The Snowball Effect

Review Luke 6:27-38 and Ephesians 3

My thoughts on sermons at Andover Baptist.

Loving Our Enemies
Who do we love? Most of us love many people. Friends and family. But if we carefully think about who we love, we may realize that we don't love many people that don't give us some advantage.  Think about it - who do you love with no advantage to yourself? It is a tough question because it is unpleasant to admit that mixed in with our good and sincere feelings of love are usually selfish motives as well.

For instance, maybe the love we have for our parents is tinged with a selfish emphasis on what we can get from them. Or maybe our love for our children is mixed with a sinful pride in how they positively reflect on us. We would be naive not to admit that our hearts are filled with these sorts of mixed feelings.

But how does God love us?

Rich Veins: Isaiah 30

I'm hoping to begin a series of posts on encouraging passages of scripture which are less familiar. I'm calling these posts "rich veins," because I think of stumbling across these encouraging and interesting passages as being analogous to a miner uncovering a rich vein of copper, iron, or gold. 

Please comment with some of your own.

I will just share this encouraging passage of scripture and dispense with further comments:

  "Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you,
      and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
 For the LORD is a God of justice;
      blessed are all those who wait for him.

  For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow."

(Isaiah 30:18-26 ESV)

Preview - Ephesians 3

I am not sure what to expect regarding a sermon on this text (Ephesians 3:14-21) and all of the great truths regarding the "love of Christ which surpasses knowledge." This reminds me of Jeremy Walker's comments regarding our failure to understand the lovingkindness of God here. 

But it will be exciting to be sure. 

Every "family" in heaven and on earth is named after God the Father.  Does that mean every family in the sense of those who follow God's will and love Him, or is it more of a broad meaning speaking to God being the author of all creation?

"The riches of His glory" is a frequently used phrase in Ephesians.  This could be a preamble to any benefit that the Christian receives - for it is all from the incredible riches of God's grace and to the praise of His glory (or glorious grace).

Paul is praying that we would know the unknowable.  This is a paradoxical tension, but one that Christ can increasingly reconcile. Perhaps in reference to our sanctification it can be said that we know more of the infinitely unknowable riches of God's grace now than we did when we first believed.  And in this way we may be always approaching full knowledge.  And yet only in heaven can we hope to have this unknowable knowledge in full.

I am still mulling over the concept of infinite desires from last week's sermon. Our infinite desires can only be satiatied by an infinite God.  And in the context of Ephesians 3, it stands to reason that the intellectual desires of those made in God's image are also infinite.  We want to know all things. We want deep and profound knowledge. And yet the noetic effects of the fall, our weaknesses, our simplicity, and our sin all conspire to prevent the satisfaction of these desires. But in Christ we can begin to understand the deepest and most profound knowledge of all time.  While we can't understand the love of Christ completely, we can know the mystery - thank God the Gentiles are fellow heirs! This will be one of the many things to keep our minds bursting at the seams with activity through eternity - to understand and know the deep love of Jesus.

Harlan Photos - Winter 2012



Before we cut - with Daddy

This year we decided to go to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree.  The kids were extremely excited about this! I must begrudgingly admit that this was better than visiting the people who came up from North Carolina to sell pre-cut trees out of a trailer.  Thanks to Martin Luther for Christmas trees.

"Legend has it that Martin Luther began the tradition of decorating trees to celebrate Christmas. One crisp Christmas Eve, about the year 1500, he was walking through snow-covered woods and was struck by the beauty of a group of small evergreens. Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmered in the moonlight. When he got home, he set up a little fir tree indoors so he could share this story with his children. He decorated it with candles, which he lighted in honor of Christ's birth."

James White in Treasure Island?



As Long John Silver in Treasure Island (check out the ink!)




Teaching

Is that James White?

The Root of All Sin

Our book study is currently reading Respectable Sins: Confronting The Sins We Tolerate by Jerry Bridges.  This has been a very helpful book and has dealt with some very interesting, mostly practical, questions about Christian living.

The chapter we discussed was dealing with the sin of "ungodliness."  Before reading this book I would never have thought there was such a sin, but essentially it is the sin of not loving God above all else.  It is simply not having God in our thoughts in our every day life and not living for His glory or in dependence on Him.

Luke 5 & 6 Selections: Teachings of Jesus

Luke 5:33 - 6:26

My thoughts on sermons at Andover Baptist.

Regarding Jesus' parable of the wineskins, I had previously asked the question in previewing this passage, "Is this simply a statement regarding a practice not being fitting or appropriate? I have never researched this one and perhaps the question will be explored tomorrow, but that is what this passage seems to be saying."

No! There is much more going on in this parable than simply stating that it is not fitting for the disciples to fast.

Tips from Mark: Real Human

Ethan: AHH there's a stinkbug!
Mark: When you see a stinkbug you have to pretend that you're a statue. That way the stink bug won't know you are a real human.

Review - Luke 5

Review of Lord’s Day: November 18th 2012

Pastor Shane Walker
Luke 5

My take on Sunday's morning sermon at Andover Baptist and other thoughts.

Jesus did not come to conquer physical death but spiritual death.  The power He shows over death and disease shows His power to make men spiritually alive.

Lookng Forward to It

Many times when I am struggling with difficult circumstances in life, I find it very helpful to look forward to good things on the horizon.  Right now I'm taking advantage of some vacation time that I've been looking forward to.  But when our life seems to be swirling out of control it becomes obvious that there is nothing else to look forward to in this empty life. These difficult times afford us the opportunity to turn our minds to things above where we can find true hope of a better life.  In Christ we have already begun this better life but when we think of heaven we are looking forward to the fulfillment of what has begun in seed form now. 

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:23-25

I've written a list of the specific things I hope to experience in heaven after the resurrection.  I was reminded of this list when my brother-in-law sent me a link to a choir singing the Hymn "Praise My Soul the King of Heaven." I hope to explore each entry on this list individually in future posts.  The thing hoped for is first and the counterfeit or opposite is in parentheses.

An Election 2012 / Abortion Conversation

A reply to Brad's post regarding abortion and the 2012 election here.

Brad -

You said, "What I do not agree is that someone who thinks it might be alright to vote for someone who is pro-choice, on the basis of other reasons besides abortion, holds to an untenable premise."

I wanted to first say that my comments apply to America.  Let us now put aside hypothetical Americas and other nations, because that is what the American voter had to do.  It won't do to reference the U.K. or Australia just now.  We're Americans voting for the President of our country. We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief because our analysis is much clearer now.

Let us also now put aside all pretenses to the supposed urgency of other issues.  We would be profoundly foolish to ignore other issues it is true.  But the reason there are so many one-issue voters such as myself who will only vote based on the abortion question is not, as you seem to think, that our facility for moral reasoning has shriveled.  Indeed, the success of moral reasoning depends not on its complexity, relevance to great philosophers, reference to current moral thinking and norms, or warm encouragement of non-believers or dissenting believers to mutual understanding.  No, successful moral reasoning results in a decision that is righteous.  The urgency of our time is to stand for the righteous cause of the unborn.