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.