Saturday Night Pictures

The Beardsleys, Preusslers, and the Waldron

To Life and New Life

On Saturday evening I had a refreshing time over at Ryan and Kelly's apartment with my old friends, Luke and Nicole Preussler. It was great to be able to spend time with these two couples who have been such great friends to me over the last three years or so. We enjoyed food, drink, and the hilarious, canceled television show, "Arrested Development," but the highlight of the night for me was meeting Luke and Nicole's new baby daughter, Sophia. Luke's toast as we had our drinks is the title of this post: "To life and new life." We thank God for our lives, and for the life of baby Sophia, and we especially thank God for the new life we have in Jesus Christ.

Peter 1:22 - 2:5

"Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation- if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."

David Brainerd

I just read the following excerpt from "The Life of David Brainerd," the journal of an 18th century missionary to the native Americans, compiled by the great pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards. May God grant to each of us a resignation to his will, to trust him to take us to be in his presence at the time of his choosing rather than ours. But may God grant us first the intense longing to depart and be with Christ to such a degree that we, like David (and the apostle Paul for that matter), may actually be inclined to have such a desire as David writes about here.

"When I am in a sweet resigned frame of soul, I am willing to tarry a while in a world of sorrow, I am willing to be from home as long as God sees fit it should be so: But when I want [lack] the influence of this temper, I am then apt to be impatient to be gone. Oh, when will the day appear that I shall be perfect in holiness, and in the enjoyment of God?"

Back to School

A second year of seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School is now well underway for me. I am taking four classes, all of which I thoroughly enjoy: Pentateuch and Historical Writings, Poetic and Prophetic Writings, Lukan Writings, and American Church History. As usual, I have more reading than am able to get read, but I enjoy (almost) every page and am learning much. I am still working part time at a funeral home as a visitation attendant, but have recently been employed at Christian Heritage Academy about 15 minutes from my residence as the Saturday "space sharing supervisor." I work every Saturday, unlocking the building for those who will be renting the school's space for the day, keep an eye on them while they are there, and lock up at the end of the night. It is a tremendous blessing in that I am able to earn some money as well as be able to do some studying in the process! This will have to suffice for the time being as a current update on my life and times down here in Illinois. As always, prayers for my continued growth in the grace and knowledge that are in Christ Jesus are welcome and needed.

Chronological Snobbery

C.S. Lewis, the great English professor and author, coined the term "chronological snobbery" for a trend which disturbed him in his day and continues to disturb many of us today. According to Lewis, chronological snobbery was "the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited." Lewis saw that there is a kind of snobbery, an arrogant attitude which believes that one's own standpoint in history makes everything from the past second-rate. Lewis recognized, however, that every age has its own cultural biases and that, therefore, it is necessary to learn from the past. He wrote the following in this regard:

"It's a good rule after reading a new book never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to three new ones... Every age has its own outlook. It is especially good at seeing certain truths and especially liable to make certain mistakes. We all therefore need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period... None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books... The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds and this can only be done by reading old books."

For our age and culture in particular, the Puritan church authors are perhaps some of the most helpful correctives to our own various blindspots. I have benefited greatly from the writings specifically of Jonathan Edwards, John Owen, and Samuel Rutherford. Currently I am reading a recent edition of three of John Owen's books combined, called "Overcoming Sin and Temptation," edited by Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic. Reading many of the Puritan writers is like being called to battle by William Wallace after being accustomed to Mr. Rogers (no offense to Mr. Rogers; he hosted a childrens television program after all). Modern Christian authors are all too often shallow in their theology and either cold or happy-go-lucky in their religious emotions. The Puritans, on the other hand, took both solid doctrine and intensely fervent emotion seriously. I commend to all the writings of these great brothers of the past!

P.S.- The C.S. Lewis quotes were taken from the following web address:

http://www.cslewisinstitute.org/sites/www.cslewisinstitute.org/files/webfm/aboutcslewis/LewisChronologicalSnobbery.pdf

Wait for the Tide

These are the lyrics from a song by Newsboys from their album "Step up to the Microphone." It's called "The Tide," and I think it's an analogy about waiting for God when it feels he is totally out of the picture.

Think I'll wait for the tide
seems it's all I can do right now
there must be a reason
i've run aground

I'll wait for the waves
to come
by the moon and the tide
like a man and his bride
i will wait
on you Lord
and we will run so far from here
to your...safety

think i'll lie in the sun for awhile
maybe inside out
i've been leaving messages for you
i'm sure it will all work out

and i know the waves
will come
by the moon and the tide
like a man and his bride
i will wait
on you Lord
and we will run so far from here
to your....safety in the storm

there is courage for the simple man
to the holders of secrets and scars
learning to stand with reaching arms
we'll wait till the very last
no matter what will be
you're always good
always good
to me

Prince Caspian Review

Check out these reviews of the movie "Prince Caspian." I think they offer perceptive thoughts. Especially check out the second one.

http://www.dougwils.com/index.asp?Action=Anchor&CategoryID=1&BlogID=5450

http://lookingcloser.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/the-looking-closer-review-prince-caspian/