Advent

Almighty God,
give us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

St. Andrew

Almighty God, by Your grace the apostle Andrew obeyed the call of your Son to be a disciple. Grant us also to follow the same Lord Jesus Christ in heart and life, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Heroes

In the wake of evil, we find the strongest acts of good.

REUTERS: Staff emerge as heroes in Mumbai hotel sieges

Pray for the peace of Mumbai.

Why is it so unbelievable?

From the hymn O Come, All Ye Faithful, waxing Nicea:

God of God, Light of Light;
Lo, He abhors not the Virgin's womb:
Very God, begotten, not created;
O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

It is because of this that the phrase "Mother of God" enters into our speech.

That's right. I said it. "Mother of God". Or Theotokos, if you will.

Isn't that nuts? Isn't that crazy? The shock in it has nothing to do with Mary. It has everything to do with the fact that the Creator of the universe condescends and takes on a human nature, made of ordinary flesh made of ordinary molecules made out of ordinary atoms that were fused in an ordinary star sometime in the past, just like you and me.

The logic of the universe (see John 1) is wrapped up in a tiny, crying, pooping baby.

This is the lengths to which God will go to redeem the world. By the standards of human wisdom, this is scandalous.

More reflections on this later.

Famous One

You are the Lord
The famous one
Famous one
Great is your name
In all the earth
The heavens declare
You're glorious, glorious
Great is your fame
Beyond the earth

And for all you've done
And yet to do
With every breath
I'm praising you
Desire of nations
And every heart
You alone are God
You alone are God

You are the Lord
The famous one
The famous one
Great is your name
In all the earth
The heavens declare
You're glorious, glorious
Great is your fame
Beyond the earth

Church discipline

So I'm a big believer in church discipline. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 18:15-20:

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.

Sometimes it takes this latter extreme, bringing to the church, to bring a person to repentance. In such situations the whole body of believers is involved, and boy can it be difficult.

My pastor said in the sermon last week while talking about this that John MacArthur makes it a policy to sometimes read off the list of names of people who are in the situation where they are completely unrepentant, and unable to come to communion because they have been barred. I just think this is wrong.  Sure, this person needs to know that they may not approach the Table of the Lord (for their own safety if nothing else), and others need to know this too so that there can be accountability. But repeatedly driving this point again and again in this way can lead to all kinds of sin. Doing this could cause others in the church to feel negatively towards the fallen brother or sister, thinking "Ha! I'm glad I'm not that guy" or " Boy, she is such a horrible sinner." It breeds arrogance in the body.

I've always kind of thought that MacArthur was nuts anyway, but I was still surprised by this. Fundamentalism breeds pride and arrogance. True evangelicalism upholds the truth of Scripture, and the necessity of church discipline, but does so with humility and grace as well as firmness.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Any takers?

"Dear Ed. Young"

Hilarious. Simply hilarious. 

But very true.

I'll stop talking about it now.

If only I was Presbyterian...

There are plenty of those kind of churches where I'm moving... not shocking that there's only two LC-MS churches in the whole dang city of Boston.

Good stuff at STR

A good program from Stand to Reason this past weekend... topics are divorce and remarriage, the power of prayer, and how we know that Jesus was who he really said he was.

Listen here.

EDIT: Don't care much for the global flood/YEC stuff that comes at the end though. Too bad otherwise competent apologists have to peddle this crap.

What does your pastor read?

The great thing about where I go to church is that I know exactly what my pastor is reading besides the Bible. Why? Because before he goes off on some big idea he names the person he got the insight from. I don't want to label ideas by the person they come from, but it does help me get a bearing on whose thought is influencing the guy who brings the Word of God to me every Sunday. And that is very good.

Incidentally, this is why being part of a historic tradition actually means that you are probably less prone to wander away from the Bible, because at least if you're a Lutheran or a Calvinist or a Baptist or whatever at least you know where your ideas (and hence your biases) about the Bible come from. If you're nondenominational, where do your biases come from? Basically your pastor. Where does he get  his ideas about the Bible from? Whatever he's been reading; this year, this month, or maybe even this week.

People who say things like "you have Luther, we have only the Bible" drive me nuts.

Ed Young makes a fool of himself on CNN

The anchor really takes him to task. Good for her.

So what should we think about the "7-Day Sex Challenge"?

Pastor Todd Wilken of Issues, Etc. and listeners talk about it. Listen embedded below or go to the Issues, Etc. web site.

Just take it

Do you know what's great about the Sacrament of Holy Communion? That it's the body and blood of Jesus, shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins. That it's a means of grace simply because of what it is.

I have  long lived with a foot in both evangelicalism and Lutheranism, living in the tension that such a position engenders. One of the things I  have noticed about (non-Lutheran) evangelical celebrations of the Lord's Supper is that there is such a contemplative air about it. People take the bread and wine, meditate and pray, and then eat and drink. 

Now, to itself, this is all well and good. In fact, it's biblical: "Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup." (1 Corinthians 11:28, ESV) We should take some time to remember what it is we're doing, why we need it because of our sin, and thank God for the gift he's given us in Jesus.

But this goes too far when we make our contemplation the make-or-break element of our receiving the Lord's Supper. "If I don't remember, if I don't take it in appropriately, then I haven't done it." How could you ever be sure you "remembered" enough? Will God, who supposedly wants to give us a "means of grace", withhold that grace if our contemplation isn't up to snuff?

No. It's a means of grace for those who have faith in Jesus because it is what it is, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus. If I eat the bread and drink the cup, believing that I need what Jesus gives for the forgiveness of sins, I will receive it. That's it. It's not conditioned on the quality of my rememberance. 

So go receive the Supper. Hear the words "shed for you" and "broken for you". Take and eat. Take and drink. And be forgiven.

Sola Fide

Great post over at Internet Monk.  An excerpt:

I grew up in a church that would have told you that you had to believe in salvation by faith alone to be a Baptist. I minister among those same people today.

And what do I hear?

I hear that no Christian could read Harry Potter.

I hear that no Christian would wear that t-shirt or listen to that kind of music.

I hear that no Christian could possibly not see in the Bible all the things that I see there.

I hear that if you are a Christian, you must support these political views.

I hear that a person can’t be a Christian and not oppose another set of political views.’

I hear dress codes called “the way Christians should dress.”

I hear in reference to any number of sins common to human beings that “no one could be a Christian and do that.”

And with every statement (and many more) sola fide is dismantled a bit more.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said that if you aren’t regularly accused of being an antinomian, you probably haven’t preached the Gospel. I absolutely agree.

How many?

"How many do you worship on a Sunday?"

"Three, or one, depending on how you count Him."

I wholeheartedly agree...

Who can't say "amen" to this?

All right, all right... sure, I know there are some that would. But they're wrong. :)

No idea

Why do people insist on claiming they have a "thus saith the Lord" on something when it is clear they don't?

Dropping like flies

MSNBC.com -- Episcopal diocese splits from national church

Lord, we pray for these your faithful servants, and the faith of the entire church, that one day we may all be united once again, but not at the expense of the truth of your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.

*sigh*

There are some days that I would just give up if I didn't know that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and that someday he's coming back to put everything right again.

The Day After the Election

Just another reminder....

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, Jesus will still be King.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our responsibilities as Christians will not have changed one iota.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the greatest agent for social change in America will still be winning the hearts and minds of men and women through the gospel, not legislation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my primary citizenship will still be in this order – (1) the Kingdom of God, (2) America, not vice-versa.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the tomb will still be empty.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the cross, not the government, will still be our salvation.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, our children will still be more concerned with whether or not we spend time with them than with who is President.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my neighbor will still be my neighbor, and loving him/her will still be the second greatest commandment. (Do you know the first?)

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see abortion ultimately overturned will still be winning men and women to a high view of life through the gospel of Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, the only way to see gay marriage ultimately defeated will still be winning men and women to a biblical view of marriage through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, my retirement will still not match my treasure in Heaven.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, “Jesus Is Lord” will still be the greatest truth in the Universe.

True/False: The day after the election, regardless of who wins, we will still know that God is in control.

HT: Boar's Head Tavern

Reformation Rap

Whatever you want to make of it, it makes you laugh.