day no. 17,161: circumstantial, but substantial

"Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.” — Henry David Thoreau

If a farmer is accused of stretching the milk by thinning it out with water, a trout in the milk would go a long way toward substantiating the accusation. Clearly, some water has gotten into the milk. You may not have him dead to rights, but you do have something that cannot be denied. It may be circumstantial, but it is damningly circumstantial.

"Suppose you found an turtle on top of a fence post. Okay. The reality of such facts indicates that something is up. But the trout in the milk merely requires us to believe that someone put it there, not that [a particular someone] did." — Douglas Wilson, Why Candace Should Stop Connecting Dots

A turtle cannot get on top of a fence post all by itself. If it is there, someone put it there. You may not have enough evidence to convict a particular someone, but you know that a particular someone was involved. It may not be enough to convict someone, but it is enough to have the conviction that someone is culpable.

If a preacher is accused of stretching the truth by thinning it out with therapy speak, a nod to same sex mirage goes a long way toward substantiating the accusation. Clearly, some wokery has gotten into the pastor's noggin as witnessed by the pride march that made its way on to his calendar.

day no. 16,941: feminism is a Christian heresy

“Feminism and egalitarianism can be considered Christian heresies.” — Rich Lusk, Celebrating a Patriarchal Eucharist

God designed distinctions and called them, "good."

Day and night, water and land, man and woman. 

All distinct and all distinctly good.

Egalitarianism is the erasure of distinction. It is not equality. It is insanity. It is one thing to argue that men and women are equally valuable, but quite another to declare that men and women are equal. XX does not equal XY. They are not the same. Egalitarianism is predicated on the principle that differences are bad. Its religious position is that distinction is transgression. Egalitarianism declares that a woman can be as strong as a man and that a man can be just as pregnant as a woman.

Feminism is egalitarianism applied to sex and gender roles. 

Atheism is egalitarianism applied to religion.

Materialism is egalitarianism applied to science

Socialism is egalitarianism applied to economics.

Communism is egalitarianism applied to philosophy

Environmentalism is egalitarianism applied to nature.

Egalitarianism is derivative. It is a perversion. It is not substantive. It requires a host. It cannot sustain itself, it can only suck the life out of something else. It is a Christian heresy. It is a parasite fed by the fumes of Christendom. It needs the world God made the way He made it in order to distort it for its own purposes. Rather than submitting to God's purposes for it, it kicks against the goads, and like Saul, it will be knocked off its high horse.

"The Feminist (which means, I think, one who dislikes the chief feminine characteristics) has heard my loose monologue, bursting all the time with one pent-up protest.” — G.K. Chesterton

Feminism presupposes the feminine that it despises.

Antichrist presupposes the Christ that it contradicts.

day no. 15,562: no joke

"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn."-- Martin Luther

"The devil . . the prowde spirite . . cannot endure to be mocked." -- Thomas More

Heretics are, in one sense, no joke; but in another, that's all they are.

spell-check yo self before you wreck yo self‏

In a recent e-mail, spell-check changed “Deo” in Deo volente to: doe.

Nice work spell-check.

Top shelf.

Never before have I so LITERALLY experienced Romans 1:22-23:

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Deo to doe.

God to deer.

Immortal God for animals.

Good call Paul.

Score another one for the prophetic pen of Scripture.

(although at this point Scripture is kind of running up the score)

i wholly hate false doctrine which is only half right‏

Revelation 2:6

Yet you do have this: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

I am better at hating false doctrine than I am at believing and behaving in love based on true doctrine.

It is right to fight against bad teaching.

It is wrong to ignore good teaching.

We can dwell on what is wrong so much that we dwell on nothing else.

We can dwell on our hate of evil to the exclusion of everything else.

Revelation 2:4

But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

It is good to hate evil.

It is better to love God.

If you love God, you will also hate evil.

If you just hate evil, you can live without love for anything or anyone, even God.

"if anybody preaches other than this, let him be damned. who's trying to win friends now?" thoughts from "An Astonishing Trade" by Matt Chandler

I adore Matt Chandler. Check out the link to him in my "axe sharpener" section below to the right.

I recently listened through the whole Galatians series as preached by the Village Church pastored by Matt Chandler. Below are some excerpts from one of my favorite messages in the series, "An Astonishing Trade" covering Galatians 1:6-9.

Click HERE to listen for yourself.


Paul is saying, "I am astonished that you would leave this and go over here, because this isn't the gospel.This doesn't set you free. This cannot work." Paul is going to tell us in the weeks to come, "Trust me, I've tried. That doesn't work." Then look at what he says next, because this is important. "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed."

This is bold. Crazy bold. He's going, "Listen, if I come back and tweak this message, if somebody comes from Jerusalem, if some other guy comes in here claiming to be an apostle and teaches something other than this, let him be damned. If, say, you're out in the woods and an angel appears and gives you golden tablets and rolls out another gospel, let him be accursed. There is no other gospel." This is the gospel.This is what saves. This is what delivers.

Then look at verse 10 just as we close, because there seems to be an accusation being made against Paul, and he's not having it. Look at verse 10. "For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." I love this. Apparently there's an accusation being made against Paul that the reason Paul didn't tell them about circumcision (because that can't go over well to grown men), the reason he didn't tell them about the dietary laws, the reason he didn't do those things is he wanted to win friends and influence people. The accusation is that Paul soft-pedaled the gospel in order to gain converts. So Paul goes, "If anybody preaches other than this, let him be damned. Who's trying to win friends now? Because if I'm trying to win friends then I'm not a servant of Christ. If I'm trying to tickle your ears, then I do not love Jesus." So the place I want to pull you back to repeatedly between now and the end of June is this is what has been made available to you: Life to the full by Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 1

Read HERE.

The aim of the Christian’s marching orders is love produced by a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. A heart pure in that it has been forgiven by God in Christ. A conscience good in that it has been reconciled to God by Christ’s work and subsequent fruit evidenced by faithfulness. A faith sincere in that it is rooted and anchored in Christ alone to deliver from the righteous wrath of God wholly deserved.
 
Many have walked away from these basic edicts. Different doctrines as Paul mentions here are often articulated even by those whose hands hold Bibles showing that is not merely illiteracy that produces false teaching. When swerving from sound doctrine, endless discussion into keeping the Law is often the alternative. If there is no true Gospel, there is only the most recent, novel strategy for fulfilling or escaping the Law.
 
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…”
 
This is true and trustworthy. In Christ God is reconciling the world to Himself in producing and sustaining faithful adherence to His provision alone. It is true that the Law is good if used lawfully. But when the Law is used as an olive branch instead of a sword, it cannot produce that which it was put in place to accomplish/teach.

The Law is a perfect representation of God’s holiness and otherness in comparison even to our best attempts to be like Him. The Gospel is a perfect and holy representation of God’s goodness and mercy in fulfilling His promises to unite us to Himself without disgracing His own holiness.

Some are teaching doctrine other than Christ and Christ alone. Hymenaeus and Alexander were a few by name in Paul’s day guilty of this distortion. There are certainly some even now doing the same.

And they have names too.

May those teaching this false Gospel be called out and may they in turn repent and be the sinners for which Christ came into the world to save.  If you insist on the Law being the way to salvation, you forsake Christ's cross and make it meaningless.  May those sitting under these teachings be given discernment to cling to whatever is good and cast away all that is evil.  May the Gospel be preached and lead many to repentance.

Would we be so bold and committed to Christ as to call out those merely masquerading?
Would we be so humble and committed to Christ as to repent when we are rightly called out ourselves?

Thoughts from "The Three Amigos" circa 1986

Paige and I decided to watch The Three Amigos the other night because we're awesome. At one point in the movie, Steve Martin's character (Lucky Day) utters the following statement:

“In a way, all of us has an El Guapo to face. For some, shyness might be their El Guapo. For others, a lack of education might be their El Guapo. For us, El Guapo is a big, dangerous man who wants to kill us. But as sure as my name is Lucky Day, the people of Santa Poco can conquer their own personal El Guapo, who also happens to be *the actual* El Guapo!”

I absolutely adore the humor employed in exposing this nonsensicial sentiment often applied to preaching through Bible texts (particularly the Old Testament as though it were not about Jesus and were about us).

The ridiculousness of comparing shyness to imminent physical harm is absurd. That is the joke and Steve Martin expected you to laugh.. I love that the comedic value of this device was so apparent.  That is not to say this was a diatribe regarsding preaching, but rather that this principle of making everything about you is a skill set.  In principle, I have observed this phenomenon saturating a lot of what is passing for preaching.

Have you ever heard been asked, "What is your Goliath?" or "What is your Jordan?"  Now I get what some of these people often mean when they use these examples, but still it meets with resistance in my spirit at the suspicion of what could be meant by it. 

First of all:  David and Goliath is NOT a story about YOU!  You arrogant, self-absorbed, self-righteous jerk.  Everything should not have to be about you in order for you to care about it or to be relevant.  The Bible is relevant because it is, not because it appeals or applies to you in each and every circumstance in a "this for that" transaction. .

Second of all: The Bible is about Jesus.  David and Goliath is part of the metanarrative that is the revelation of the Messiah.  Some stories historically demonstrate God's preservation of the people through whom the Christ would arrive in fulfillment of His specific promise.  Some stories are documented as types and shadows of who the Christ will be.  Jesus is the Old Testament and the fulfillment thereof.

Lastly: Whatever your Goliath is, it is not "the actual" Goliath.  We all have difficulties to overcome and crosses to carry and none of them are Goliath or The Cross carried by Christ.  That is not to dismiss real pain and trial, but is to say that yours and David's were two different trials specific to you.

I know what people often mean when they employ this strategy of providing application points for the congregation.  I know the need to provide a "take home."  But sometimes the take home is pondering the glory of God in Christ and His faithfulness to fulfill His promises through unfaithful people.  Sometimes there is not a "to do" application for you. .

A story about Moses climbing Sinai may just be a historical event about which the relevance is mined in knowing how that event has shaped our present.  The task is not to discover or infer what our Sinai is, was, or will be.  Maybe for us, there is no Sinai.  And THAT'S OK!  it's not about you. If you have an hour and want to understand this better.  Click HERE.

When the Church becomes a Mete Market

My wife was recently discussing a women's confernce she attended with a friend.  The conference's dominant theme was the finished work of Jesus and His righteousness being ours by faith.  It goes without saying that my wife was greatly encouraged.

However, she reported to me that before her post-conference glow had even begun to fade, one of her friends proclaimed that they were disappointed in the conference wishing it had contained more "meat."

I could not help but think, "I think she meant 'mete.'" 

Did I not mention that I am also very funny and very punny?  "Puns of fun" is what they call me.  And by "they" I mean "me."

But I digress.

We love the Law.  We adore it.  We cannot help ourselves.  We love to be told what to do.  We love having tasks meted out.  If you spend too long telling us what Jesus did we will get anxious and request a respite from grace as we shout, " Now please tell us what to do!!! Preach to us the Christian, not the Christ. How do I fit into all of this? What about me?"

Before tomorrow's sunrise has even crested our to-do lists are formed.  We have boxes to check and go to sleep already behind tomorrow's eight ball.  We love our to-do lists.  It tells us what to do.  It keeps us from forgetting important things we need to do, want to do, hope to do (will likely not get to do).

I suggest and implore you to set you to-do's aside every morning and for a moment rest in Jesus' ta-da.  Ta-da is the nail in the coffin of a completed act: the "It is finished!"  We look so longingly to what we need to tomorrow that we fail to rest in what was done for us yesterday (or yesteryear perhaps more accurately).  "Ta da" debatably has its roots in a German phrase meaning, "here it is."  All day long we try to get to the ta-da.  We long to take our bow and present a finished work.  But everyday we go to sleep knowing we did not do with excellence everything on our list and that we have failed miserably in other tasks on our list.  We have even failed to place some important things on our lists in the first place.  Our to-do's can never grant the rest that Christ's ta-da can produce.

When we react to the Gospel of grace by requesting more meat, we are in essence asking quite figuratively for more meting out of tasks, doling out responsibilities and to-do's.  We love to-do's.  We get bored quickly with ta-da's.

I love you.  Christ loves you.  Rest in Him.  The only performance that could ever be applauded before the Father is already in the books.  He did it!  He did it masterfully, sufficiently, completely, entirely, gracefully, and perfectly.  For an encore He rose from the grave and ascended to the right hand of His Father where He ever lives to intercede for those who in Him by faith find rest.

No magic. No show.  No curtain call.  No need to reproduce what has already been completed flawlessly.  He really did pay it all.  He really did win.  Can you do the difficult work of placing your faith in Him and this gift again today?  Can your to-do list contain but one reminder to repose in the ta-da of Jesus?

Faith is the hard work of trusting in Christ's hard work.

Do not so impatiently blitz through Romans chapters 1-11 to get to the "meat" of Romans chapters 12-16.  Romans 12-16 is amazing and I love it.  You will be told what to do only after you have understood what God in Christ has done.  May your appetite for Law be grounded in responsive Love informed by the Gospel.  Romans 12 is beautiful in fleshing this point out.  It instructs us how to more specifically live transformed lives in view of God's mercies. 

In view of God's mercies.

Please do not place God's mercies in your rearview.  You will lose sight of where you are going if you forget from where you were started.

Galatians 3:3

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Social Mediocre

That is about right.  I am a passionate guy when it comes to doctrine and the historical, orthodox, Christian faith.  So it goes without saying that perusing "Christian" blogs periodically on the internet drives.me.bonkers!!!

I am wrong often as well and I pray you forgive me for that.  I get zealous and speak in hyperbole for emphasis when my heart really isn't behind the weight of adrenaline pumping through my tongue (or my fingers speaking on behalf of my tongue on this blog).

Point being this however: someone on the internet IS actually wrong.  If you have been online any amount of time, you know that the there is a site or blog for every opinion imaginable.  And while you may be entitled to your opnion and you may be sincere, that does not equate to a currency of truthfulness or reality by necessity.  You can be sincere AND wrong.  Genuineness is not the ultimate arbiter.  It is appreciated and virtuous, but not a trump card. 

Be discerning young Christian as to whom you allow a passport to your soul in allowing another's thoughts to visit your mind.  We should be sharpened and deepened by others.  We are not islands.  Be discerning however.  "Bad company ruins good morals."

Some of those claiming to be light are all heat.