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 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

The morning star is shining through
And every eye is watching You
Revealed by nature and miracles
You are beautiful
You are beautiful

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

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th’angelic host proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Christ, by highest Heav’n adored;
Christ the everlasting Lord;
Late in time, behold Him come,
Offspring of a virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail th’incarnate Deity,
Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Hail the heav’nly Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
 Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”

So how well was that time spent?

You have no idea how right this turned out to be.

How science is really done

According to the Onion, at least.

St. Ambrose

O God, you gave your servant Ambrose grace to proclaim the Gospel with eloquence and power. As bishop of the great congregation of Milan, he fearlessly bore reproach for the honor of your name. Mercifully grant to all bishops and pastors such excellence in preaching and fidelity in ministering your Word that your people shall be partakers of the divine nature; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Liturgy

There's something about it... not sure what it is. Maybe I'm going through a phase. But I'm increasingly drawn back to it.

Tragedy has a tendency to drive you strongly in one direction or the other. For me, the tragedy was a long time ago (well, relatively speaking). However, I've observed from my experience and that of others that tragedy will either drive you away from God or toward him.

In my case it drove me toward him. Not just toward God, but deeper into the traditions that have formed me since my youth. I still believe that so many of my Lutheran brothers and sisters are dead in terms of their evangelistic fervor. However, I have grown tired of happy-clappy worship that revolves around my emotions and how I feel instead of the story of what God has done in Christ.

That doesn't mean I reject contemporary worship forms. In fact, the places where I've attended the past few years have carefully chosen "praise and worship" choruses that have glorified Christ, his work on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and his coming return and renewal of heaven and earth rather than focus on me and my changing emotions. However, even so, I feel drawn to the ancient forms that I heard since I was a young child.

That probably has more to do with what's comforting than anything else. Which, of course, brings things back to my emotions, not Jesus. Hence why I think it might be a phase. 

I remember almost two years ago, at around the time my personal tragedy was coming to a close, when I went to a conference for church leaders with my best friend. On the last night of the conference, there was a long prayer time, occasion for confession of sin, and the Lord's Supper. I remember going up for confession (because boy I needed it), receiving absolution, and then receiving the Supper. I then went back to my seat to pray, feeling refreshed. There was worship music still going on as I prayed. Then the band started to play:

Jesus, what a friend for sinners;
Jesus, lover, of my soul!
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole.
Hallelujah, what a Savior,
Hallelujah, what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end!

I broke down bawling. Like, literally, on the floor, crying. I remember singing that so many times in the church where I grew up. And the words just cut straight through to my heart, it was exactly what I needed. I remember going to bed that night at peace, very odd because of what was supposed to happen the next day.

It was comforting because it was familiar. We can make the familiar into an idol, yes. And we can depend on it rather than Jesus. But maybe this was (and is) something else. Maybe this is Jesus taking me down, down, back to the basics. Back to the "heart of worship," if you will. Stripping away all of my foolish pretenses about being holy and good and all of that, and bringing me back to the place where I cling to him for life, indeed, for life eternal.

Jesus, I do now receive him,
More than all in him I find!
He has granted me forgiveness,
I am his, and he is mine!
Hallelujah, what a Savior,
Halleluhah, what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end!

St. Nicholas

Yes, for real... anyway... here you go.

Almighty God, you bestowed upon your servant Nicholas of Myra the perpetual gift of charity. Grant your Church the grace to deal in generosity and love with children and with all who are poor and distressed and to plead the cause of those who have no helper, especially those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief. We ask this for the sake of him who gave his life for us, your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

And Pastor Paul McCain has a great post on St. Nicholas up at his blog. Supposedly he got so mad at Arius he slapped him. Wow!

Bad Associations

To adopt an over-used phraseology from the election, the AiG Creation Museum pals around with unrepentant Jew-haters.

If you want an example click here (warning, you may be very offended, and in fact, you should).

DISCLAIMER: When I say "Jew-haters" I'm really only referring to Herman Otten, not to anyone else in the picture.

Issues, Etc. Promo Video

St. John of Damascus

O Lord, through your servant John of Damascus, you proclaimed with power the mysteries of the true faith. Confirm our faith so that we may confess Jesus to be true God and true man, singing the praises of the risen Lord, and so that by the power of the resurrection we may also attain the joys of eternal life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Christmas Needs to Get More Materialistic

This is the best Christmas sermon I've ever heard: it was preached by the Rev. Sam Wells, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University . It's entitled "Christmas Needs to Get More Materialistic," and the Scripture text is John 1:1-14 . You can get the text of the sermon here.

My favorite part, where he really hits it home:

This is Christianity: not some set of disembodied ideals and noble values, but the life shaped around the logic of God in a human form, at Christmas found in a tiny crying baby, on Good Friday found in a naked man hanging on a cross, on Easter Day found in the wonder of a man defeating death and opening the gates of glory. And this is what we find difficult about Christianity: not its sense of the spiritual, not its sense of inner logic and its appeal to a personal God, for who could be against such reassuring things; no, what we find difficult about Christianity is its materialism, its claim that God took human, material form and lived and died and rose again clothed in and surrounded by the sheer material stuff of ordinary life. A God who is watching us from a distance is a God we can keep at a distance. A God who takes human form is a God that comes up close and personal, a God so close to us we can never escape his grace.

Death before the Fall

Greg Koukl of Stand To Reason nails it on this last week's program regarding the question of what kinds of "death" were in operation before the Fall and what it all means theologically. You can hear it on this week's podcast.