One Day, Two Helmets (part deux)

As Spurgeon put it so well, being outdoors is "a tonic for the soul." When the sky is blue and the runs are freshly groomed at Mission Ridge this is doubly true. And when the snow recedes on the dirt trails in the foothills lining the Wenatchee Valley then it's trebly true.




Iffin' your interested, here is a short slide show you might call "Up and Down the Liberator Express in 105 Seconds." Enjoy.

Confessing Sloth and Indolence

(Ecclesiastes 10:18) Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks.

Jehovah God our Creator and Redeemer, all praise, honor and glory be to You. You are ever-creating, ever-refining, ever-transforming and ever-overseeing the works of Your hands, and sovereignly guiding the course of history to a grand and glorious climax of love and redemption. Forgive us dear Lord…

For unlike You, we have been slothful and indolent. In spite of the fact that You have given us every reason to be active and energetic in Your glad service, we have simply chosen to be inactive, lifeless and uncaring. We have chosen the self-serving leisure of computers and television over the selfless hard-labor of service; and the inglorious ease of isolation to the glorious messiness of community. Lord have mercy upon us…

For we find ourselves the victims of our own idleness, inactivity and apathy. The roof of Your house (the Church) sags, sinks-in and leaks. Through laziness and inattention, sloth and distracting recreations, we have failed to build, repair, renovate, protect and preserve Your house (the Church.) Lord have mercy upon us…

For neither have we sought out new “living stones” for You to fit together with us in the building of Your house (the Church.) We have preferred the tidiness of our holy huddles to the disarray of evangelism and new-believer discipleship. We have spent countless hours refining our understanding of truth, but failed to take it to those in our community who are entrapped by falsehood. We have spent countless hours honing our grasp of goodness, but failed to share it with those who live in the clutches of evil. We have spent countless hours perfecting beauty and yet failed horribly to redemptively address the ugliness of sin in our valley: poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, gross sexual sin and addiction, fatherlessness, homelessness and hopelessness. For our sloth and indolence, Lord have mercy upon us…

And hear us now as we confess our particular sins to you….

List or Lung?

Eureka! Sometimes the the truth is just right in front of you, and has been all along. Think for a moment about the etymology of the word "membership." When I think of myself as a "member" of the local YMCA (and I am) I think of my name in their computer system and my access to the exercise rooms, racquetball courts, rock-climbing wall and gymnasium. But that was not at all Paul's conception of the word "member." To Paul, "member" meant "bodily organ"; an irreplacable component of the body that only made sense in context, and working in concert with, the other "members."

So here's the question Christian: When you think of your "membership" at your local church, do you think "list" or "lung", "roster" or "renal gland"? If the question intrigues you, then listen to the sermon clip below.

Sermon Excerpt - True Members from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.

Mousetrap

Too funny (but only if you watch 'til the end.)

(HT: Kevyn Vinson)

What's Your Alibi?

Sleeper arise from the dead
You're wasting your life in the bed
The world is weeping
You're still sleeping
Somehow it's just isn't right
To sleep day and night

It's a sleep paradise à la mode
When you wake up, you'll explode
The world is screamin'
You're still dreamin'
Somehow it's seems like a crime
Sleep all the time

Tell me now sleeper don't lie
What's your alibi?

(Sleeper, DeGarmo and Key)

Evangelistic Lethargy

Any true healing begins with deep repentance, and the first duty of repentance is contrite prayer. If you haven't recently confessed your lack of evangelistic zeal, then the following prayer might be a good place to start. Pray it carefully, and as you pray, ask the Holy Spirit to help you mean what you are praying.



"Father and God, we confess that we have accommodated ourselves to the idea of most people not knowing You. We confess that we have believed what nonbelievers say about themselves, which is that they have a right to remain in their unbelief.

Father, we confess that we live in a nation that believes that it has the right to not come to You, and we confess this sin on their behalf.

We know, Father, that if we in the Church regard iniquity in our own midst, or in our own hearts, this prayer will be ineffectual. Father, we confess that we in the Church have been lethargic in our evangelism. We ask that You would forgive us for this, and that You would stir us up with a zeal for others to come to know You.

And Father, we also confess our own sins to You now—Selah . . . We do this in the majestic name of Jesus our Savior, and amen."

(Pastor Douglas Wilson, Christ Church, Moscow, ID)

The Left-Handed Power of Hospitality

Martin Luther dubbed the power of love and service "left-handed power" compared to the "right-handed power" of physical strength and military might. Below is a recent exhortation from Pastor Douglas Wilson that I encourage you read, heed and apply.



"We gather here as a result of the gospel, and we gather as a means of proclaiming the gospel. The ordained evangelist proclaims the gospel to those outside, and the informal evangelist shares the faith with others as it comes up. But all of us together are evangelical Christians, and we are all to be radiating the gospel (that has gathered us here) in an ongoing way. So we are all evangelists in some sense.

And so here is a two-fold exhortation. And it is just that—an exhortation. Nothing here to bind the conscience, but it is an exhortation to take to heart. Between now and Paschal Sunday, the day of resurrection, I would urge you to share a meal with unbelievers. Whether you take a co-worker to lunch, or have a neighboring family over for your first barbeque of the spring, the task is a simple one. Before Easter, break bread with some unbelievers. The second task is to simply pray that God would use it for their good, and His glory.

Don’t have them over, and then get into a sweat about how will you ever bring up the gospel? Don’t worry about that. Give it to God. You are not selling insurance, and you are not in multi-level marketing. You don’t have to close any deals. We are loving individuals, not dealing with quotas or timelines.

So there it is, a simple exhortation. Invite a non-Christian over. See what happens."

(Pastor Douglas Wilson, Christ Church, Moscow, ID)

Rich and Impure or Chaste and Poor?

Here is a question: What does scripture forbid more strongly, pre-marital sex or marrying while poor?

Here is a second question: Do we evangelicals encourage the biblical priority (see above) with our standards for marriage?

For some intriguing thoughts on this subject please read this.

Two Helmets, One Day

Two helmets, one beautiful day in the Wenatchee Valley. Man, I love this place!

Rapture Pet Care

Don't really know whether to laugh or cry at this one. (HT: Douglas Wilson)

Lewis on Loving Your Spouse Well

"When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now.

Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all.

When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased."

—C. S. Lewis, Letters of C.S. Lewis (8 November, 1952) HT: Justin Taylor

To Hell With Hell

Toby Sumpter has "hit another one out of the park" here. All praise to the God who interrupts! (HT: Corey McEachran)

Don't Run With Scissors

"Police in Indiana are searching for a man who robbed a tobacco store with a pair of scissors. They said the guy could be a real danger — unless you have a rock." (Jimmy Fallon)

The Thorn

The Thorn
by Martha Snell Nicholson

I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Shack Attack

A very large portion of modern evangelicalism has read William P. Young's The Shack. Here are some very good resources to help you think Biblically about this popular novel. (HT: Justin Taylor)

Work Well Done

"The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.

. . . Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade—not outside of it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meant they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. But the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meant for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word.

The official Church wastes time and energy, and moreover, commits sacrilege, in demanding that secular workers should neglect their proper vocation in order to do Christian work—by which she means ecclesiastical work. The only Christian work is good work well done. Let the Church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery or sewage-farming." (Dorothy Sayers, Chaos or Creed)

HT:Justin Taylor

Critique of Driscoll Sermon: Part I

Recently, a sister-in-the-Lord asked for comments on a sermon preached by Mark Driscoll directly before he baptized his son (and some others) in the River Jordan. Before I weigh in on the sermon I would like to make a couple of prefatory comments.

Firstly, I realize that to disagree with Pastor Driscoll publically is roughly the equivalent of painting a bull’s-eye on my chest and giving the raspberry to an army of English longbow-men. But, as they say, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

Secondly, under the heading of “giving honor where honor is due,” I am greatly indebted to Pastor Driscoll for the many helpful insights that I have gleaned from his books and online sermons. Personally and pastorally Mark has been a huge blessing to “me and mine”, and I praise God for him and for Mars Hill Church.

And now, with that said, on to the comments!

I have to admit that I was a bit envious when I figured out that Pastor Mark was preaching a sermon on baptism, while standing on the shore of (or in) the River Jordan about to baptize his son, mother and father and others who were assembled for that purpose. I mean really. How cool is that? You could even hear some Palestinian geese heckling Mark as he preached (probably Muslim or Jewish birds!)

The bulk of the sermon was very good, especially his comments on repentance and confession. Driscoll’s gift for taking theological concepts and making them understandable and practicable for Joe Average Christian was gloriously evident as he preached on the necessity and practice of true reconciliation. Amen, and amen brother Mark!

My disagreements would fall under two headings: Religion and the proper recipients of baptism.

Pastor Mark regularly disparages “religion” without qualification. If Driscoll would have included the modifier “false” before every usage of “religion” then I could’ve happily agreed with just about everything that he preached. The antithesis in the Bible is between true religion and false religion, not no-religion and religion. For example, we are exhorted to the practice of “pure” religion in James 1:27. James doesn’t insist that the faithful abandon religion. Rather, he calls the faithful to practice religion in humble submission to God’s Word. The Oxford Dictionary defines religion as, “a particular system of faith and worship.” Therefore, religion is inescapable. Mars Hill Church is religious and so is its pastor. The only question is: “What system of faith and practice?” For the record, I agree with Driscoll that we ought to refute, revile and reject all forms of religion that depend, even to the slightest degree, upon man’s supposed goodness, effort and/or merit. But I would also contend that we should embrace the religion (the “particular system of faith and worship”) that insists that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

To illustrate: If someone painted a mustache on the Mona Lisa, it wouldn’t make sense to revile the painting itself. But it would make sense to lovingly and carefully remove whatever paint the vandals had put there, in order to restore, preserve and enjoy the original beauty of DaVinci’s masterpiece.

All this may seem rather petty and picayunish, but God has very strict prohibitions against calling evil that which He has declared to be good (see Isaiah 5:20).

To be continued…

Gossip and Flattery

"Gossip involves saying behind a person’s back what you would never say to his or her face. Flattery means saying to a person’s face what you would never say behind his or her back." (R. Kent Hughes in Disciplines of a Godly Man)

Adventure Books

Robin Knox-Johnston aboard the Suhaili

There is nothing quite like a real life adventure book to stir the soul and put present distresses in their proper perspective. If you enjoy this genre too, then I would highly recommend two books for your reading pleasure: Endurance, by Alfred Lansing and A Voyage for Madmen, by Peter Nichols.

Wow.

Endurance (subtitle: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage) is an account of the Ernest Shackleton's failed attempt to cross the Antarctic in 1914. A Voyage for Madmen (subtitle: Nine men set out to race each other around the world. Only one made it back.) is the account of the impromptu race sponsored by the London Globe in 1968 to see who could be the first to circumnavigate the globe alone, without stopping or re-provisioning. Both tales portray the lives of men taken to the utter limits of deprivation, fear, physical exhaustion and mental stamina. A-mazing.

Drop me a line if you read either one. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Lectionary Thoughts: Mark 4

Biblical Theology must always drive Systematic Theology. We Christians must be committed to let the Bible say what it says, even (or especially) when a plain reading of a text messes up the neatly coiffed hair of our systematized formulations of doctrine. The parable of the sower in the fourth chapter of Mark's Gospel is a good test of a Reformed Christian's interpretive priorities.

Before I continue I would like to reaffirm my love and admiration for what is known as the Reformed, or Calvinistic way of interpreting the Bible. If you cut me I bleed Westminster and Three Forms of Unity. If there were (as a pastor friend of mine once noted) six points of Calvinism I would happily believe and preach all six. I believe in what the Canons of Dordt called "The Perseverance of the Saints"; the doctrine that the elect of God will persevere in their faith and consequently in their salvation. Yes, and amen.

However, we go too far if we maintain that is is impossible for someone to have the word of God sown in their hearts, for them to receive that word with gladness and then to fall away. For that is exactly what Jesus warns of in verses 14-17.

Some Reformed types, in an effort to protect their system of doctrine maintain that the word was never really sown in, nor received by, the one who falls away. But the problem is that the exact same words (sown and received) are used to describe the person who bears the godly fruit of saving faith in verse 20. It would be more accurate to say that all the sowing/receiving in Mark 4 is genuine sowing/receiving, but not all the sowing/receiving in Mark 4 is unto salvation. I'm just sayin'...

The Birdmen Are Back...

Un-real. (HT: Jon De Jong)

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Lectionary Thoughts: Mark 3

Family is important. Very important. But we go too far if we maintain that "Blood is thicker than water." When Jesus was asked to acknowledge his mother and brothers who had come to see him, he seized the opportunity to establish heaven's hierarchy: "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and my mother." In other words, when determining ultimate loyalties, the water of baptism always trumps the blood of physical descent. Or, to put it more simply, "Water is thicker than blood."

Lectionary Thoughts: Matthew 24

(Matthew 24:37-41) For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and took them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.

In sermons and songs about "The Rapture" it is always good to be "taken" and horrible to be "left behind." But according to Jesus, to be "taken" is to be swept away in flood-like judgment. And to be "left behind" is to be spared the wrath of God. I'm just sayin'...

Lectionary Thoughts: Genesis 39

As Joseph notes in verse nine, his master Potiphar had given him everything in his house, except for his wife. This statement reminds us of the first Adam who was told that he could eat of every tree except for one. Joseph, unlike the first Adam, chose gratitude and obedince over ingratitude and rebellion, and having done so, pointed every faithful reader of the Bible to the last Adam (Jesus) who, in the wilderness and on the cross, would do the very same.

Lectionary Thoughts: Genesis 38

Having begun the story of Joseph, the Holy Spirit turns us abruptly back to what really matters: The line of "the seed" that would eventually produce Messiah, the Savior of the world. I often feel like taking a shower after reading about the gross sins of Er, Onan, Tamar and Judah. But ultimately I am reminded to delight in the knowledge that Jesus came to, through and for a race of fallen sinners. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

R.C. Sproul re: his wife, Vesta

Here is a link to Justin Taylor's excellent blog and a video of R.C. Sproul telling Mark Driscoll the ways that he loves and appreciates his wife, Vesta. Good stuff.

I'm Bigger'n You

“Suppose, in the encounter between doctor and child [in an abortion], the child won half of the time, and killed the doctor in self-defense—something he would have every right to do. Very few doctors would perform abortions. They perform them now only because of their absolute power over a small, fragile, helpless victim.” - Stephen D. Schwarz (HT: Justin Taylor)

Don't Worry About Today

"Today is the tomorrow that you were worried about yesterday. And often our worries about tomorrow rob us of the joys and blessings God wants us to experience today." - David Sunday (HT: Justin Taylor)

Lectionary Thoughts: Matthew 23

"Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation." (Matthew 23:36)

Christians who insist that the horrific events described by Jesus in Matthew 24 have yet to occur have a difficult time explaining Matthew 23:36 and Matthew 24:34. The Jews of Jesus' day reckoned a generation to be about forty years. So the plain interpretation of Jesus' words is that the famines, wars, persecutions and distresses detailed in Matthew 23:35-24:34 would all occur by around AD 73.

In order to preserve the futuristic interpretation of Matthew 24 some Christians have contended that the "generation" that Jesus referred to was "the Jews considered as a race of people." This interpretation has at least two serious flaws:

1) In Matthew 23:36 Jesus declared that end times judgments would "come upon this generation" not upon other races/peoples scattered around the globe (e.g. Romans or Russians, Arabs or Americans.)

2) In Matthew 23:29-33 Jesus carefully distinguished "this generation" (the generation of Jews to whom he was speaking) from the Jews of bygone eras. So when Jesus said "this generation" four verses later, he was still referring specifically to the generation of Jews whom he was addressing.

Jesus is the Great Prophet to whom all lesser prophets pointed. His words are true. Just as he predicted, the catastrophic events of Matthew 24 were visited upon the Jews within forty years of Jesus' prophecy, and culminated with the destruction of the Jerusalem in AD 70.

Lectionary Thoughts

A good lectionary (a systematized way to read through the Bible) serves two purposes: to edify the reader, and to increase the unity of the saints as they read through the Scriptures together. As time allows, I will be commenting on the chapters of the lectionary readings which you can find here.

"Way down here, you need a reason to move..."

If'n you're interested, here are some pics from our recent vacation in Mexico. It was a real blessing to read, relax and revel in the beauty of Los Cabos, BCS. As they say, "A good time was had by all." So very glad to be a card-carrying member of a religion where you don't get what you deserve.

Climate Confusion

Here is a wonderful example of what happens when a studied opinion meets an unstudied prejudice. (HT: S.S. Thomas)

A Dave Barnes Christmas

We've been enjoying the music of Dave Barnes for about a year now, and would highly recommend his CDs to all. But who knew he was so weirdly funny as well? Enjoy. (HT: Kyle McMullen)

The Feminization of the Church III

"Just as in the Middle Ages, women, excluded from the governance of the church by clericalism, had turned to visions to establish a charismatic authority for themselves, now women, excluded from government, commerce, and education, turned to the church, which allowed them to exercise their abilities and to gain some power and respect.

The clergy, ignored by men, turned their attention to women. Frances Trollope observed this phenomenon in America, but her observations can be generalized. Men's crudity of manners led them to neglect women and prefer coarse male company. The only exception to this male neglect of women was the clergy: "It is from the clergy only that the women of America receive that sort of attention which is so dearly valued by every female heart throughout the world." Trollope was both fascinated and horrified by the emotionalism of the American religion of the revival and the campground. She ascribed part of the interest in revivals to the lack of other amusements….Americans tended to let the emotional excitement of their religion lead to more carnal excitement…. Among American young men it is a matter of folklore that a revival is an excellent place to pick up a young woman; but apparently not even the prospect of sexually excited women was enough to get men interested in church."

(Leon J. Podles, The Church Impotent)

The Feminization of the Church II

“During the First Great Awakening, which began in 1797, women continued to dominate church life: Ministers wrote that converts were usually young, most often between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five, either single or married but without children, and predominantly female.

Such revivals invariably began with women. They were initiated by the conversion of a young woman or of a group of young women, and often the efforts of such women were opposed by men, es¬pecially young men, who, according to the accounts of ministers, often ridiculed converts, refused to attend church meetings, and conspired to break up revivals in progress. Family men, fathers and husbands, wanted to have nothing to do with these revivals, and though they tried to prevent their wives or daughters from attending church, they were eventually brought into the church them¬selves by these women. Such pressure sometimes worked, but did not win the long-term affection of men for the church. Female zeal later found outlets in such crusades as the temperance movement, in which female church members allied with ministers to conquer male vices, to the continued annoyance of men, who chafed under the reins of the alliance of women and the clergy...

Throughout the nineteenth century the temperance movement aimed to protect women from the vicious pleasures of men. Ministers and women worked together against men, especially young men: "It was often as a covert crusade to salvage not the alcoholic but the woman at his mercy. The drunkard, usually a male, destroys by his debauches himself and his saintly wife, mother, daughter, or sister who loves him and would draw him from the saloon to the fireside." Women took over the leadership of family prayers; men were obviously unsuitable.”

(Leon J. Podles, The Church Impotent)

The Feminization of the Church I

"Despite the constant complaints of feminists about the patriarchal tendencies of Christianity, men are largely absent from the Christian churches of the modern Western world. Women go to church, men go to football games."

"To be Christian, for the mid-Victorians, was to lack the exuberant physical masculinity of the normal boy, to be weak, to be helpless, to be a victim. In other words, the religious man was like the Victorian ideal of woman, who was supposed to suffer from mysterious complaints, to be unable to engage in vigorous activity, and to find sex distasteful. C. H. Spurgeon complained that "There has got abroad a notion, somehow, that if you become a Christian you must sink your manliness and turn milksop..."

(Leon J. Podles, The Church Impotent)

The Collateral Effects of Faith

While it is true that every individual must personally place their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, it is equally true that we are profoundly affected by the faith of others. In Matthew 9, Jesus saw the faith of four friends who bore their paralyzed friend to the feet of Jesus, and pronounced forgiveness to the paralytic on the basis of "their" faith.

In community, those who are strong in their faith bear those who are weak in their faith through their various trials and temptations. In evangelism the faithful trust in God's promise to save the lost long before the lost even recognize their need for such. In other words, there are potent collateral effects of faith. John Calvin says this in his commentary on Matthew 9:

“Now, as Christ granted to their faith the favor which he bestowed on the paralytic, a question is usually raised on this passage how far do men derive advantage from the faith of others? And, first, it is certain, that the faith of Abraham was of advantage to his posterity, when he embraced the free covenant offered to him and to his seed. We must hold a similar belief with regard to all believers, that, by their faith, the grace of God is extended to their children and their children’s children even before they are born. The same thing takes place in infants, who are not yet of such an age as to be capable of faith. With regard to adults, on the other hand, who have no faith of their own, (whether they be strangers, or allied by blood,) the faith of others can have nothing more than an indirect influence in promoting the eternal salvation of their souls. As the prayers, by which we ask that God will turn unbelievers to repentance, are not without advantage, our faith is evidently of such advantage to them, that they do not arrive at salvation, till they have been made partakers of the same faith with us in answer to our prayers. But where there is a mutual agreement in faith, it is well known that they promote the salvation of each other. It is also beyond all question, that earthly blessings are often, for the sake of the godly, bestowed on unbelievers.”

All this is good news indeed. But all these lesser collateral effects of faith should point us to the ultimate collateral effect of faith: The Faith of Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote to the Galatians:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Galatians 2:16)

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Silent Hallelujah Chorus

Free Speech in Canada

A little good news from our neighbor to the North.

Jason's Poem

The Big, Hairy Beast

You were a friend to those inside our home,
and the fear of all outside.
You were the reason the UPS,
and the mailman hated us.
You devoured raw chicken and
gave it back to the green grass.
You barked at bicycles
and howled at music and song.
You listened politely to our every word,
though I doubt you understood much.
You roared like justice,
and slobbered like peace.
Bent and broken by age at last,
you came one last time when I called.
I remembered the holes you once dug
in the bushes by the fence,
as I scratched behind your ears
and whispered my farewell.
Only one hole remains to remind me,
but I have no dirt to fill it in.
(Jason Helsel)

You can check out more of Jason's musings at The Super Salad

Strauss' Last Day

Today was Strauss' last day. For the past ten years he has been "one of the family", a faithful companion, always seeking to please us, loving us unconditionally and always desiring our company. Strauss was, hands down, the best dog we've ever owned.

We who hope daily in the resurrection suspect that there might well be a resurrection of the animals that we loved in this life, and who functioned as integral parts of our covenant households. But only time and eternity will tell for sure.

Rest in peace Strauss, son of Levi, trusted friend, guardian of the Helsel home and protector of Helsel children. We will miss you terribly, but rejoice in your release from the pains of these last few years. Vaya con dios "Wonder Dog."

A Helsel Thanksgiving

My sister Sylvia and her daughter, Lydia, were unable to join us at my parents; Josiah and his family spent Thanksgiving with his in-laws, and Jason joined the Rice family down in Tri-Cities for the festal day of thanks.

But my brother, Ken, and his family (Bonnie, Kyle and Casey) were able to come up from Cottage Grove, Oregon to join Ellen, Rae, Bekah and me for Thanksgiving at my folk's place in Edmonds, WA. We were also blessed by the company of Whit, a young man from Thailand who was an exchange student at my nephews' school for a year.

We enjoyed an amazing turkey-dinner together on Thursday (my mom is a phenomenal cook and hostess) and took in the new 3D A Christmas Carol movie at the IMAX Theater on Friday, followed by a stroll through the sculpture park on Elliot Bay.

As they say, "A good time was had by all." I am so very thankful for my family, and for how very much I enjoy their company. My cup truly "runneth over."



If you are interested, here are a few more pics.

Eyes-Open Worship II

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.
(from Paul Simon’s I am a Rock)

“Beware of all isms, except for prisms.” (Unknown)

One of the idols du jour is individualism. If you are a modern American evangelical Christian you struggle, at least to some degree, with the pernicious notion that you are, as Paul Simon crooned, “a rock…an island.” But salvation, biblically defined, is salvation not only from sin and death, but to the holy community of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and to the community of Christ’s body, the Church.

This bent towards individualism shows up in many places, but perhaps most surprisingly in our observance of the Lord’s Supper. In the tenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthian church, Paul reminded the saints in Corinth that partaking of the communion bread made them “one bread and one body.” Two chapters later, Paul chided the Corinthians for thinking individualistically and not recognizing their place in, and need for, others in the one body of Jesus Christ.

Sandwiched between these two important references to Christ’s body (the Church) is Paul’s warning to not drink the wine of the Lord’s Table “unworthily” (1 Cor. 11:27). Two verses later Paul went on to define “unworthily” as “not discerning the Lord’s body.” Taken in context, this is another reference to the Church, the one body of Christ gloriously comprised of many diverse members.

This being true, to partake of the Lord’s Supper “worthily” we probably ought to be taking the bread and the cup with our eyes wide-open, looking around us to see our brothers and sisters in Christ and knowing ourselves to be joined together with them as “one bread and one body.” But inexplicably, most modern evangelicals seize this as an opportunity to close their eyes and thereby close themselves off from those around them, and individually meditate with guilt and shame upon the broken body of Jesus as he hung upon the cross. As pious as this sounds, this is not what Paul meant by “discerning the Lords’ body.” And therefore not a worthy partaking of the cup.

As the author of Hebrews reminds us, Lord’s Day worship is corporate worship; it is “the general assembly and the church of the firstborn.” It is not a collection of saints worshipping God individually whilst being in the same room together at the same time. Paul Simon is wrong. We are not individual rocks. Together we form the one loaf who is Christ. We are not islands. We are the many diverse members who together make up the one body of Christ.

Given our bent towards prideful individualism, eyes-closed worship is a dangerous posture to adopt in corporate worship. Eyes-open worship reminds us of our place in the one body of Jesus Christ, and our desperate need for the wholeness that can only be found in concert and community with other Christians.

Liturgical Permanence

"Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best – if you like it, it “works” best – when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.

But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. The important question about the Grail was “for what does it serve?” “Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god.”

A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may to exclude it, the question “What on earth is he up to now?” will intrude. It lays one’s devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, “I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, or even Teach my performing dogs new tricks.”

Thus my whole liturgiological position really boils down to an entreaty for permanence and uniformity. I can make do with almost any kind of service whatever, if only it will stay put. But if each form is snatched away just when I am beginning to feel at home in it, then I can never make any progress in the art of worship. You give me no chance to acquire the trained habit-habito dell arte [the practice of one’s art]. - C.S. Lewis (HT: Scott Welch)

Feminism Unmasked

"Feminism is mixed up with a muddled idea that women are free when they serve their employers but slaves when they help their husbands." -- G.K. Chesterton (HT: Trev McCallum)

Tattooshipping

"The sight of a woman being tattooed live on the altar accompanied by the sound of a buzzing ink gun provided a startling backdrop to Sunday's evangelical sermon.

Your parent's church service this was not. In the drive to stay relevant, the Gold Creek Community Church has been hosting a series called "Permanent Ink" that featured Sunday's live-tattoo finale." (from The Seattle Times article entitled, Tattoos at Mill Creek Church pierce skin, soul - November 23, 2009)



The first time I read this recent article in the Seattle Times I was reduced to incoherent spluttering (ook...ack...erk...icky-btang.) But upon some reflection came up with three dissimilar comments. Let me know which one you like best (or least.)



1) These are hard times for satirists.

2) Do you keep find yourself wondering how you're going to find time to go to church and get a tattoo? Now you don't have to choose. You can do both at the same time!



3) Somewhere back in the seventies when the Church was busy abandoning the historic liturgies and music of her past, some older saint had to have prophetically warned some of the innovators at his beloved church, "Mark my words you young whipper-snappers: If you keep trading your liturgical inheritance for a mess of modern-pottage, someday the Church will be tattooing congregants on the altar as a part of its Sunday morning worship!" There would have been a brief pause broken by raucous laughter, knee-slapping, and the dabbing of mirth-induced tears from the corners of youthful eyes, followed by a breathless, "Oh yeah grandpa, like that could ever happen!"

Octopus in Love

Too funny!

He'll Take Care of the Rest

I saw Keith Green in concert, in Moscow, ID, sometime in the late 70s. He preached for as long as he played (upsetting many who had come to hear a music performance). But I thoroughly enjoyed the concert and the preaching. Here is a little sample of Keith's live music. Enjoy.

He Descended into Hades...

(1 Peter 3:18-20) For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

Every week in our worship service we sing the Apostle’s Creed. And doing so we affirm that the Lord Jesus Christ “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell, the third day he rose again…” But what do we mean by “He descended into hell”? Do we mean the place of fiery judgment? Actually, no, it would be more proper to say that Jesus descended into “Hades.”

In the Old Testament, everyone, good, bad and in-between expected to die and go to Sheol (the netherworld of departed spirits.) Recall how when the witch of Endor called “up” the spirit of Samuel, the spirit of godly Samuel told the ungodly (and still living) Saul, that he (Saul) would soon join be joining Samuel “down” where he (Samuel) was.

In the NT, God’s people referred to Sheol as Hades. Recall Jesus story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. In Jesus’ parable, both men died and went to the netherworld (which Jesus called Hades.) But it is important to note that within Hades there were two distinct districts. The rich man was in a place of extreme torment, and Lazarus was in a place of extreme bliss (which Jesus’ termed Abraham’s Bosom.) But both were in the realm called Hades.

Before Jesus’ death he prophesied that he would spend three days and nights in the heart of the earth (i.e. “down”.) But he also promised the repentant thief that on the day of Jesus’ death that the thief would be with him in Paradise. Hmmm…

So taking all things together, it appears that Jesus, after his death, descended to Paradise, taking the thief with him, where he then preached to the spirits (as Peter noted.) And then in Christ’s glorious resurrection, took Paradise with him into heaven above. So that when Paul later visited Paradise, instead of going "down" to it, he was caught "up" into Paradise (2 Cor. 12:2).

This also helps us understand the account of departed saints who appeared to their loved ones after Jesus’ resurrection and before his ascension. It seems that in that 40 day period between Christ’s resurrection and his ascension, a few of them dropped in to say “hey” to some of their family and friends.

In Jesus’ death he conquered death and the Lord of death (Satan.) In his descent into Hades he rescued the souls who by faith had known him and longed for his appearing. In his resurrection he took himself and the subterranean Paradise into heaven, temporarily re-zoning the cosmos until his final return when all the faithful who died before that return are brought back to an earth, transformed, renewed and glorified via the prayers of God’s people, the preaching of the Gospel, the administration of the Sacraments and deeds of love and mercy.

This is what we confess every week as together we sing the Apostles’ Creed. What glory! Alleluia, what a Savior!

Eyes-Open Worship

"Ritual actions are important to us. They are significant in the Bible, and we don’t ever want to fall into the trap of relegating them to the status of being insignificant. But there is another important element in all of this.

We are gathered together as an organic body. This means that our liturgy is corporate. When we say amen, we say it together. When we partake of the bread and cup, we do it together. When we sing, or confess the Creed, we do it together. When we raise our hands in the Gloria Patri, we do it together. This is not accidental.

There is nothing wrong, obviously, with individual acts of piety. But individual acts of piety are not liturgical acts, and we want to lean against the notion that we are being individually devout while just happening to be in the same room. We are a body, and we want to function smoothly together as a body.

This takes practice, and discipline, and love, and like-mindedness. As Paul says with regard to the Lord’s Table, we are to wait for one another, defer to one another, stay in step with one another. As a Puritan once put it, we serve a precise God. That being the case, we want to serve Him with precision. This is not the same as serving Him as though He were fussy and persnickety. Precision and communion are glorious—we are not trying to worship in lockstep, but rather we are trying to worship God with one heart, soul, mind, and voice." (Douglas Wilson)

The "Wise Guys" at Trinity Teens

Andy Millard, Patrick Tilly, Cole Loomis, Caleb Aumell and Jordan Ghiglia.



Jason Helsel on D'Jembe.

Hypocrite or Heir?

"In Job’s uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father’s face. His first prayer is not “O that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!” nor even “O that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!” but the first and uppermost cry is, “O that I knew where I might find Him, who is my God! that I might come even to his seat!” God’s children run home when the storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. “He that hath made his refuge God,” might serve as the title of a true believer. A hypocrite, when afflicted by God, resents the infliction, and, like a slave, would run from the Master who has scourged him; but not so the true heir of heaven, he kisses the hand which smote him, and seeks shelter from the rod in the bosom of the God who frowned upon him. Job’s desire to commune with God was intensified by the failure of all other sources of consolation. The patriarch turned away from his sorry friends, and looked up to the celestial throne, just as a traveller turns from his empty skin bottle, and betakes himself with all speed to the well." - C. H. Spurgeon (HT: Ellen Helsel)

Eyes-Closed Worship

"Modern evangelical worship is not truly corporate worship. It is rather an assembly of individuals who worship God individually while standing in the same room together." (Unknown)

Note something in the videos below: All the saints are singing with their eyes wide-open. In Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth he identified several ways that the saints were misusing and abusing one another. Paul's solution to every abuse was the same: "Look to Christ and understand your union with him and all who are joined to him by faith."

Jesus died to unite his people to the Godhead in him (in Jesus). But he also died to unite us together as one body in him (in Jesus.) Worshipping with our eyes closed cuts us off from the very ones whom Christ died to unite us together with. Other saints are not distractions to be shut-out and ignored. They supply what we lack as we worship God in the assembly, and form a significant portion of the prize secured for us in Christ's death and resurrection.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, eyes-closed worship says, "I don't really need those around me to worship God in spirit and truth. And I really prefer to embrace Jesus "a la carte"; just the head, but not the body, thank you."

Eyes-open worship affirms our utter insufficiency apart from the many diverse members of Christ's body, and delights in God's gift of the same. Eyes-open worship embraces Christ as he offers himself; "totus Christus"; all of Christ, head and body.

O Sing a New Song!

O Sing a New Song to the Lord from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.

These are a couple of videos taken at a recent Christ Church (Moscow, ID) psalm-sing. The people singing are congregants and not necessarily members of any formal church-choir. They are joyfully singing divinely inspired lyrics from "God's Hymnbook" (Psa. 95:2). And they are singing loudly and skilfully (Psa. 33:3). I love how the four-part singing simultaneously pictures God who is one and many (one God and three persons) and the many diverse members of Christ's body who are gloriously fitted together to form one body in Christ (Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12). Soli Deo Gloria!

Before Thee Let My Cry Come Near from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.