A Boomer in the Pew

My Prayer for 2009

This is a photograph that I took about a year ago.  I call it "Saguaro's Evening Prayers".

The sun is setting on 2008, and we have 2009 at our doorstep.

The Bible teaches us that even creation groans for the return of Jesus Christ. 

When I saw this Saguaro praying, it was a very moving reminder of that fact.

Abba,

We are creatures who live in time, and when the calendar rolls around each year, we tend to become reflective. 

Abba, please draw near to me more in 2009.  Please direct your indwelling Spirit to consume every inch of my life, and make me more like Christ.  I too long for your coming.  My great hope is to one day be in your presence, and hear, from your lips, my new name, and your voice calling that name.

Abba, please create in me such a presence of your light, that people are attracted to your light.  Most of all Father, my family, please, I pray, draw my family to yourself, and if I might be an instrument in that calling, I would be most pleased.

Abba, our country is in transition, and our country, because of its great wealth and comfort, has turned its back on you.  Because so many, in our country can provide for themselves, they see no need for you Abba.  I know that deeply saddens you.  I recall your tears over Jerusalem.  It hurts me to think that God cries.  Yet, what a display of your heart.  You are not only a holy Judge, but Father, Savior, & King.  Abba, press on the heart of our new president.  Show him your face.  Guide and direct his path.  Bring revival to our land.  Let 2009 be a great awakening. 

Father, please completely melt those men who have become my mentors.  Show your grace greatly upon the hearts of Jamie Rasmussen, David Otto, Steve Eriksson, John Piper, Steve Lawson, John MacArthur, Mark Devers, Wayne Grudem, Albert Mohler, and Chuck Swindoll.  I have learned greatly from these men.  Furthermore, Father, please bring the greatest of blessings to my Christian blogging brothers & sisters.

Father, thank you so much for my wife.  What a treasure she is to me.  Help us to continue our marriage journey, and understand, more fully, that the destination of our marriage is in your kingdom, your arms, your eternal love, and some unknown, mysterious, great and wonderful place that you are building for us. 

I love  you deeply Abba, my life is yours, you are my King.  I have great expectations of your glory for 2009.  Keep me near, and never let me go.

Your son,

David

Read the Bible in a Year

I have never read the Bible clear through.  Have you?  I am going to fix that this year.

To accomplish this, I am going to use the tools from the ESV Bible Reading Plans.

They have many different channels to help me accomplish this.  First of all there is a website that I could visit each day.  Nope.  I would forget.

Secondly there is an RSS Feed.  I like that!  When I subscribed, it was actually an audio feed right into my iTunes.  Today's audio is 12 minutes long.  Easy!

The third option is an e-mail.  I didn't subscribe to that, but perhaps that is the best way for you.

The fourth option is a nifty little tool that puts a reminder right in your iCal.  I like this and subscribed.  When I did, it put "Read Bible" in my calendar, each day, at 10:00, and included the verses to read.  I am going to read the verses, and listen to the audio.  Get more senses involved and hopefully sink it in more.

The fifth option is to send the verses to your mobile phone.  Not something that works for me.

And finally, the sixth option is to print off a .pdf file.  Nah, don't need to waste that many trees.

I have spent many thousands of dollars, over the years, to learn from noted business leaders.  In so doing, I have also traveled all over the country.

Here, I have the opportunity to hear from the Creator of the universe.  My heavenly father.  How could I not desire to read his word, and understand all that he desires to reveal to me about himself?

Pretty silly not to, when you think about it.

How about you?  Have you ever read the Bible clear through?  This is the perfect time to start such an endeavor.

Is it Befitting for a Christian to be a Nudist?

This is my 9th post, in an on-line study group reading of C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity".  Here is the landing page that contains all my posts.

I find our culture peculiar, in that we refuse to talk about things of a sexual nature, yet the inhabitants of our culture obviously indulge, in a closet sort of way, in those things which they refuse to talk about openly.

This sends very confusing messages to our children.  I can certainly attest that, in my childhood, sexuality was never, ever talked about. 

I come to this subject because sexual morality is the next subject in C.S. Lewis', "Mere Christianity".  In the opening paragraphs, he first touches on the subject of modesty, propriety, and decency, as opposed to chastity. 

I intend to cover chastity in my next post.  However, I think the subjects of modesty, propriety, and decency merit a discussion.

Please read on...

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) Debate 2008

Last night, I found myself up until the wee hours of the morning watching a debate hosted by Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS).

The subject of the debate was this:  Do relations of authority and submission exist eternally among the Persons of the Godhead?

In other words, Jesus Christ, while on earth, was in submission to the authority of the Father.  Is this submissive relationship eternal, or did it exist only while Christ was incarnate?

On the side of eternal submission were Dr. Wayne Grudem, and Dr. Bruce Ware.  Arguing for submission only during incarnation were Dr. Tom McCall, and Dr. Keith Yandell.

Here is a link to the video of the debate.

It seemed to me that this was a debate of the theologian verses the philosopher.  I found it interesting that early in the debate, Dr. Tom McCall made a comment something to the effect that, "we could all stand here all night and quote scripture..but".

That is where the philosophers lost me.  It is my strong belief that the scripture contain all the we need to understand about our heavenly Father.  Traversing deeply outside of God's revealed word can get very muddy, and even dangerous.  Satan has muddled the mind of many a man through philosophy.

This debate is 2 1/2 hours long, but is a wonderful contemplation and exercise for your brain. 

Dr. Wayne Grudem is one of my spiritual mentors, and I was very proud of him when he opened up the debate proclaiming the word of God as the quintessential authority to this question.

C.S. Lewis - Morality and Psychoanalysis

This is my 8th post, in an on-line study group reading of C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity".  Here is the landing page that contains all my posts.

We are now in the 4th chapter, of Lewis' third book, in Mere Christianity.

Here is Lewis' train of thought on Point #1:

1.)  Christian morality claims to be a technique for putting the human machine right.

2.)  Psychoanalysis makes a similar claim.

3.)  Two things are involved in a moral choice:  the act of choosing, and the various feelings that go along with that choice.

4.)  Feelings may be normal, or unnatural.  Normal would be a man's desire for a woman, abnormal would be a man's desire for a man.

5.)  Psychoanalysis seeks to remove the abnormal feelings to give the man better raw material for his acts of choice.

6.) Free choice is the only thing that morality is concerned with.

7.)  Bad psychological material is not a sin but a disease.  It does not need to be repented of, but to be cured.

8.)  Human beings judge one another by their external actions.  God judges them by their moral choices.  We are not to judge.  We can't see the inside. 

9.)  When the body dies, all that will be left is the central core that made the moral choices.  Then, and only then will we be able to see/judge.  Note:  there will be surprises!

Read on for my thoughts on Lewis' logic...

My Lunch Reunion with a High School Friend

These are my high school senior portraits from the 1974 graduating class of Okemos High School.

Boy...who picked out that shirt and tie.  And that hair!  It kind of looks like that mayor in Chicago!

Now that I am done wiping the tears of laughter from my eyes, let get down to the subject of this post.

I was able to have lunch today, with a high school friend, that I haven't seen in...well...let's see...30+ years?

The best part of all is that we sat down and immediately reconnected.  We talked about the chronology of our lives, our successes, our bumps in the road, our faith, our families, our parents, our favorite authors, and even left a little room to share our hopes for the future.

All in all, it was a wonderful visit, and I am most pleased to have a reconnected friend here in the Valley of the Sun.

The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing

I have been spending quite a bit of time reading C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity" and swimming in the quagmire which seems to come along with the reading of C.S. Lewis.

I have been spending months studying the word of God, and with my reading of Lewis, found myself yearning for the simple reading and exposition of God's word.

To that end, I have chosen to spend some time with Dr. John MacArthur's teaching on the very difficult Doctrine of Total Depravity.

This particular message is running very high, in downloads, over at www.sermonaudio.com.

Here is the link to Dr. MacArthur's Message.

C.S. Lewis - Social Morality

This is my 7th post, in an on-line study group reading of C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity".  Here is the landing page that contains all my posts.

This third chapter, of Lewis' third book (Christian Behavior), seemed to be disjointed to me.  Throughout the chapter it was as if he was simply throwing various subjects to the wind:

"Christ did not come to preach any brand new morality.  The Golden Rule of the New Testament (do as you would be done by) is a summing up of what everyone, at bottom, had always known to be true."

"Christianity has not, and does not profess to have, a detailed political program for applying 'Do as you would be done by' to a particular society at a given moment."

Lewis then talks about how people expect the church to lead them, or to provide a political program for them.  He goes on to say that the church is made up of many members, and it is the duty of the members to take action, within their particular skills, and not look upon the ministers to provide for them.

He goes on to talk about the fact that a Christian society would have no passengers or parasites.  If you want to eat, then you must work.  He says that if you were to look at this Christian society, it would appear somewhat socialistic, but that its family life would appear old fashioned, perhaps even ceremonious and aristocratic.

Further still he deducts that most of us have departed from the total plan of Christianity and have picked out, for ourselves, those parts that please us.

He muses about a financial system that allows for money to be lent at interest, while past great civilizations prohibited this practice.

He talks further about work, and that the central purpose of work is so that we might have the ability to give to those in need.  Still further he muses about how much it is proper to give from ones earnings, coming to the conclusion that we should give until it hurts.

After all of these disparate thoughts of morality, he finally comes to a point and conclusion at the end of the chapter:

"A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it;  and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian.  I may repeat 'Do as you would be done by' till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbor as myself:  and I cannot love my neighbor as myself till I learn to love God:  and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him.  And so, as I warned you, we are driven on to something more inward -- driven on from social matters to religious matters.  For the longest way round is the shortest way home."

I am with him on his last point.  It seemed to me that he was smoking his pipe, and starring at the clear blue sky quite a bit in this chapter, however.

Carpe Diem - Seize Today because Tomorrow might Suck!

We have all heard the phrase, Carpe Diem (Seize the Day), from the Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace).

Little do we realize that this poem is actually a rebuke against worrying about tomorrow because life is short.  Because life is short, then your hope should also be short, and only placed in the things of today.

TU NE QUAESIERIS

"Ask not ('tis forbidden knowledge), what our destined term of years, Mine and yours; nor scan the tables of your Babylonish seers. Better far to bear the future, my Leuconoe, like the past, Whether Jove has many winters yet to give, or this our last; THIS, that makes the Tyrrhene billows spend their strength against the shore.

Strain your wine and prove your wisdom; life is short; should hope be more?

In the moment of our talking, envious time has ebb'd away. Seize the present; trust to-morrow e'en as little as you may."

Obviously, those who believed in the god Jove (Jupiter) had very little to look forward too. 

Thankfully, as regenerated children of God, we have much to look forward too:

"But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.  For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words."  (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

Here is today's message, from pastor Jason Fischer, from Scottsdale Bible Church, on this very subject.

C.S. Lewis - The Cardinal Virtues

"Four Cardinal Virtues", from the Phoenixmasonry (Freemason) website.

This is my 6th post, in an on-line study group reading of C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity".  Here is the landing page that contains all my posts.

We continue here, in Lewis' third "book", where he is exploring the topic of Christian behavior.

In discussing behavior (a way of conduct), Lewis now turns to virtues (behavior showing a moral standard).

Lewis now calls upon the Seven Virtues, developed by "old writers", which are comprised by four Cardinal Virtues (Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and Justice) originally posited by Plato, and three Theological Virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) latter added by early church fathers such as Augustine, Ambrose, and Thomas Aquinas.

Lewis states, "the Cardinal Virtues are those which all civilized people recognize" (as evidenced by the Freemason example above), whereas the Theological Virtues are "those which, as a rule, only Christians know about".

In this section, Lewis is going to explore natural man's virtues (Cardinal Virtues), and then later in this third "book", he will take up each of the Theological Virtues separately.