General – Page 50 – neumatikos

Yesterday’s

Second attempt:

Introverted inversion.
Copper-bottomed theology?
Excellent.
Cotton Mather:Charismatic Puritan.
Fixed gear = bleh. But check out the wheels on that sucker.
Great news: Sherlock shaves his chest.
I remember cracking a windshield with the defroster after an ice storm. Would this have worked then?
Amen!The only people that Wal-Mart ever hurt were people who were hoping to charge premium prices for commodities.

As for me, something I’ve been praying about lately is a sense of spiritual sluggishness. Everything’s right as rain, but it’s hard to pray, hard to pursue any spiritual disciplines. At least, it’s easy to go through practices, but when it comes to engaging the heart… I feel tired.

Amazingly, since I’ve been praying about this, the greatest sense I’ve had has been of peace – almost to the point of feeling lackadaisical. And honestly, I think that may be right. Even a marathoner can afford to strain himself. But a pilgrim has to trek. The important thing is being steady, and a strain one day can lead to discontent the next.

Yesterday’s

I’m trying a new thing here, to keep up the blogging. I find I’m reading lots, but saying little at the moment. Writing takes time, preferably in long, consecutive clumps, and that I ain’t got much of lately. So:

(emoticons)
I see an eighty-year-old talk show host coming on.
Forget JFK. This guy wants to be FDR!
We knew it was bad, but at least it’s not the worst one yet.
The brother on the left is cooler – he invented Cyrillic.
This is the reason why I’ve decided that conversations about climate change really bore me.
Interesting, yet expected.
Some of these are fun, and some sad. But mostly, I don’t trust this list, since it includes the family farm and home-delivered milk on the list. If those are “about to disappear,” then we may have a little time on the others.
The cellphones preach!
Not proud or ‘nothin.
This is just taking things too far.
What, nothing?

Richard Sibbes is My New Hero

From his book, The Bruised Reed:

The Presence of the Heavenly Fire

First, if there be any holy fire in us, it is kindled from heaven by the Father of Lights, who “commanded the light to shine out of darkness” (2 Cor. 4:6). As it is kindled by the use of means, so it is fed. The light in us and the light in the Word spring the one from the other and both from the one Holy Spirit….
Secondly, the least divine light has heat with it in some measure. Light in the understanding produces heat of love in the affections….
Thirdly, where this heavenly light is kindled, it directs in the right way. For it is given for that use, to show us the best way, and to guide us in the particular passages of life; otherwise, it is but common light, given only for the good of others….
Fourthly, where this fire is, it will sever things of diverse natures, and show a difference between such things as gold and dross. It will sever between flesh and spirit, and show that this is of nature, this of grace….
Fifthly, so far as a man is spiritual, so far is light delightful to him. He is willing to see anything amiss that he may reform, and any further service discovered that he may perform, because he truly hats ill and loves good….
Sixthly, fire, when it is present, is in some degree active. So the least measure of grace works, as springing from the Spirit of God, who, from his operations, is compared to fire….
Seventhly, fire makes metals pliable and malleable. So grace, where it is given, makes the heart pliable and ready to receive all good impressions. Obstinate spirits show that they are not so much as smoking flax.
Eighthly, fire, as much as it can, sets everything on fire. So grace labors to produce a gracious impression in others, and make as many good as it can.
Ninthly, sparks by nature fly upwards. So the Spirit of grace carries the soul heavenward and sets before us holy and heavenly aims. As it was kindled in heaven, so it carries us back to heaven….
Tenthly, fire, if it has any matter to feed on, enlarges itself and mounts higher and higher, and, the higher it rises, the purer is the flame. So where true grace is, it grows in measure and purity. Smoking flax will grow to a flame; and, as it increases, so it discards what is contrary to itself and refines itself more and more.

Secret prayer

For the last few months, I’ve been re-reading Charles Hambrick-Stowe’s History book on Puritan devotions, The Practice of Piety. I ran across this quote-ridden paragraph today:

Regular secret prayer was not only a means of grace but also the primary and most necessary means. New Englanders continually pointed to the dire consequences of the neglect of prayer, making much of the failure, suicide, or criminal conviction of those who “never used Secret Prayer” and “frequently omitted Family Prayer too.” Thomas Shepard said that the voice of the Lord “singles a man out” and is heard by a divine and newly created “internal spirit of prayer.” The other means of grace, both public and private, were preliminary to the awakening of this ability to pray in faith. “Is it not the end of Preaching, that you may learn to pray?” John Cotton demanded. True prayer required faith, so that “a man must not fetch his prayer from his parts, as will, memory, understanding, or ability, but from the Spirit, who is the prayer-maker.” In fact, the English Puritan John Preston defined prayer as “the voice of God’s own Spirit, that is, such as arise from the regenerate part which is within us, which is quickened and enlarged to pray from the immediate help of the Holy Ghost.”

Forgetting to Evangelize

I am beginning to think that the solution to this sort of problem is an increase in the general sort of piety that we are usually to cynical to stand. If the Gospel, particularly my own awareness of my own sin and my own need for a redeemer, happens to get mentioned in most every conversation, everything that follows in the way of evangelism is completely natural. CJ Mahaney, for instance, manages to lay the whole thing open simply by answering “Better than I deserve” whenever somebody asks how he’s doing.

Exhortation

This fallen world affects all creatures,
Saint and sinner, with the bread
Of hard affliction—mournful soul-ache,
Unjust judgment, creeping dread.

But the God of all creation
Has engineered a hidden path
Wherein the sweetest, purest pleasures
In affliction may be had.

The wise are found in those dark mine shafts
Sifting ore from worthless slag,
While the torrents of life’s hardships
Fall like oil upon their heads.

And the key into this pathway
Where God’s favorites know to hide
Is the simple abjuration
Of any form of human pride. Continue reading “Exhortation”

God’s Provision

As most of you know, I have been looking for full time employment since I graduated with my Masters in Public Health January of 2007. Since that time I have been a teacher, a CNA, an office assistant and most importantly a mom for my baby Bug. We have moved states twice searching for employment for both myself and for KB. We have prayed, discussed educational options, and continued seeking the Lord’s will for our lives.

Back in August, when we were moving to TN, I had put in an application for state employment as a child case manager. A couple of weeks later, the state’s application website was taken offline for upgrades and I was unable to apply for any other state jobs. Thinking that that door had been closed, I looked elsewhere for employment. About two weeks ago, I received a letter in the mail from the state requesting an interview for the case manager position. I interviewed and began a wait that would either end in a phone call offering the position or a letter declining my application. I was under the impression that if I was to be offered a position that I would receive a phone call within a week and the letter by Christmas. Needless to say, I was looking for the letter by this point, but God apparently had other plans.

I received the phone call this morning and accepted. My start date for orientation and the beginning of my training will be January 16th. I know that this will be a difficult job, but I’m really excited to be able to served the Lord and the families that I will be coming in contact with. Thank you all so much for your faithful prayers this whole time. We still have several decisions to make, especially in the realm of KB’s interest in going back to school for a Master’s in Accounting and childcare for D. We have some childcare options available, I just have to hash things out still.

May you all have a blessings filled Christmas and always remember that even though Christ came as a baby, he became a man to reconcile us to the Father. His gift of grace is always sufficient but he is also a God who loves to take care of His children’s needs and He is always faithful.

Emasculate the course

Andrei Toom:

To survive against competition every university and every college has to pretend that it gives something modern, advanced and immediately marketable. But is it possible to give advanced courses to students who are ignorant in elementary mathematics? Of course not. What to do? Very simple! Emasculate the course by excluding everything non-trivial, reduce the students’ task to applying ready-made recipes without understanding—and you will survive and succeed. Your pretensions that you teach something advanced will allow the students to pretend that they are educated, and this will allow the firms and departments that hire them to pretend that they hire educated people. But at some point this chain of pretensions will have to break.

Toom is talking here about his frustrations in teaching “Business Calculus” to college students, but the curious thing is that his remarks could just as easily be said about teaching grammar to middle school students.

Other articles by Andrei Toom can be found here.

Assurance

John H at Confessing Evangelical gives us more proof that the Pope is a closet evangelical. Or perhaps, not so closet.

At the same time, I’m starting to have afterthoughts about my agreement with John on the Lutheran understanding of assurance. The Lutheran emphasis has always been on the word preached with authority. The gospel has it’s effect as it is preached, and the Christian can have confidence in his salvation because it has been proclaimed to him personally by Jesus Christ, via the preacher. In the standard Lutheran liturgy, there is a time for public confession of sin, after which the minister proclaims, “your sins are forgiven.” And they are, because Jesus Christ has said so. In the same way, doubts about true conversion can be allayed with “But I’m baptized!” or even, “I am baptized! So there!”

And there’s an element of truth to it – particularly when compared to a Catholic understanding that says, “unless you see me putting my own effort into it as well, it didn’t take.” In other words, the Catholic understanding is typically that sanctification is an intrinsic part of justification, to the point that assurance is withheld against the collateral of the ongoing fruit of a Christ-like life. The Lutheran balks and says no, the word of God preached is always effective. The preacher says I have been buried in Christ and raised with him, and so I have been. The word of God does not fail. I am a Christian.

But I’m starting to veer toward a more Calvinistic perspective, which is more biblical, I think. Continue reading “Assurance”

Nice.