They said to each other,"Did not
our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" (Luke 24:32)

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Bishop Ryle - Dead Mentors

"Few can have any idea how much wear and tear and anxiety of mind and body I had to go through for at lest five years before my wife died. I very rarely ever slept out of our own house, in order that I might be in the way if my wife wanted anything. I have frequently in the depth of winter driven distances of twelve, fifteen, twenty or even thirty miles in an open carriage to speak or preach, and then returned home the same distance immediately afterwards, rather than sleep away from my own house. As to holidays, rest and recreation in the year, I have never had any at all; while the whole business of entertaining and amusing the three boys in an evening devolved entirely upon me. In fact the whole state of things was a heavy strain upon me, both in body and mind, and I often wonder how I lived through it." A quote from this bio-sketch of J.C. Ryle.

It may not mean much to most, but this man wrote the first book I ever that could be considered anything near christian theology outside the bible, it was Holiness, I was sixteen with Pantera and Marylin Manson posters on my wall, full of uncertainty to who I was, and full of morbid thoughts and depression, and I had just met the Lord, and was completely undone by Ryle. What is so striking to me in this little quote above is the reality in which a man like Ryle lived for six years with a sick wife, and how crushing it is, to my very immature and chauvinistic views of life and marriage. This has been a small part in deepening my need for greater reality, and responsibility in my life. If I could some up my life lesson for 2008, it would be that my biggest problem isn't my circumstances, it never has been (even though I pray to my loving Father for them to change), it is that I am a hugely selfish sinner. If you know anything about the christian faith at all, you know that there is a river where mercy flows for that problem man, that is the most gracious gift to see, to have eyes to see your sins and shortcomings, and eyes to see the one who dying love changes you from the inside out..

Here is a quote from the first book that started me down an awesome journey on the path of walking with God, in community, even with those who have already gone to glory.

"Would you be holy? Would you become a new creature? Then you must begin with Christ. You will do just nothing at all, and make no progress till you feel your sin and weakness, and flee to Him. He is the root and beginning of all holiness, and the way to be holy is to come to Him by faith and be joined to Him. Christ is not wisdom and righteousness only to His people, but sanctification also. Men sometimes try to make themselves holy first of all, and sad work they make of it. They toil and labour, and turn over new leaves, and make many changes; and yet, like the woman with the issue of blood, before she came to Christ, they feel “nothing bettered, but rather worse” (Mark 5:26). They run in vain, and labour in vain; and little wonder, for they are beginning at the wrong end. They are building up a wall of sand; their work runs down as fast as they throw it up. They are baling water out of a leaky vessel; the leak gains on them, not they on the leak. Other foundation of “holiness” can no man lay than that which Paul laid, even Christ Jesus...

Holiness comes from Christ. It is the result of vital union with Him. It is the fruit of being a living branch of the True Vine. Go then to Christ and say, “Lord, not only save me from the guilt of sin, but send the Spirit, whom Thou didst promise, and save me from its power. Make me holy. Teach me to do Thy will.”

The man's man on fatherhood..

"Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason (which the pagans followed in trying to be most clever), takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, “Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labour at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make such a prisoner of myself? 0 you poor, wretched fellow, have you taken a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful. carefree life; I will become a priest or a nun and compel my children to do likewise.”

What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, “0 God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers. or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? 0 how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labour, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight.”

...

Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool, though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith, my dear fellow you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling, not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith. Those who sneer at him and see only the task but not the faith are ridiculing God with all his creatures, as the biggest fool on earth. Indeed, they are only ridiculing themselves; with all their cleverness they are nothing but devil’s fools.

St. Cyprian, that great and admirable man and holy martyr, wrote that one should kiss the new-born infant, even before it is baptised, in honour of the hands of God here engaged in a brand new deed. What do you suppose he would have said about a baptised infant? There was a true Christian, who correctly recognised and regarded God’s work and creature. Therefore, I say that all nuns and monks who lack faith, and who trust in their own chastity and in their order, are not worthy of rocking a baptised child or preparing its pap, even if it were the child of a harlot." (Martin Luther Quote from Anesthetic Smoke Blog)


My pastor a few months ago talked about how Luther had been a single for decades, and you can always sense of certain coarseness in all his language that partly comes from it, but he echoes what I have had to learn and appreciate myself. The the school of marriage and fatherhood (and probably more so in motherhood but I'm not one) is one of the greatest schools of character. It is an radical challenge to real selflessness and like I tell a lot of folks its one of those things, that are as hard as they are worth it.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Make way for the King

The beheading of John the Baptist by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1869)

What the world did to John the Baptist, and to many who prepare the way for the world's rightful Lord.


During Christmastime you hear sermons about John the Baptist, who was the one to pave the way for the great King who was born in Bethlehem. It reminds me of my time in Kenya (in east Africa) where I spent almost a year after high school. Whenever the big man, the president would visit any part of the country, all of a sudden the money that was set aside to fix lights, straighten roads, and build new structures were shaken out of the hands of the corrupt. Now mind you, the working lights, the bulldozed squatter settlements, and every other means of whitewashing, only would occur exactly on the path the president would go, this of course is not a new thing at all in history.

Then my minds soars to a different place, how different it will be the next time our King (the true Lord of the earth, that we are blind to) comes. God does not give out his itinerary, which place he will visit first, or when he will come, but when He does, He will see every abuse, every bit of neglect, every crooked path.

When He comes He will come everywhere..

No whitewash will fool him, not even on ourselves, He will make judgment, and he will make changes, as he completely sets in order His kingdom reign.

The first time He came quietly, walked among us, spent time with the self-righteous, the hedonists who saw no life beyond the grave, the corrupt and powerful, and the sick and oppressed, all that matters in this life is that you recognize that the King came to this out of control, treasonous ghetto, the world, that you put your hope in Him, and his victory in this life and over death to become Lord again over your own soul. Nothing else matters, because when He comes again it will not be quietly and he will not walk by your whitewashed life and overlook the death and foulness that lurks in your heart.

Something Beautiful



When Christoph Römhild, a Lutheran pastor in Hamburg, Germany, sent Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. student Chris Harrison a list of 63,779 cross-references between the Bible's 1,189 chapters, the two became enthralled with elegantly showing the interconnected nature of Scripture. Each bar along the horizontal axis represents a chapter, with the length determined by the number of verses. (Books alternate in color between white and light gray.) Colors represent the distance between references. Graphic by Chris Harrison, Carnegie Mellon University

From Christianity Today

Johannes Tauler

Johannes Tauler 1300-1361

CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL

FROM the time when the first man gave a ready ear to the words of the enemy, mankind have been deaf, so that none of us can hear or understand the loving utterances of the eternal Word. Something has happened to the ears of man, which has stopped up his ears, so that he cannot hear the loving Word; and he has also been so blinded, that he has become stupid, and does not know himself. If he wished to speak of his own inner life, he could not do it; he knows not where he is, nor what is his state. (91)

How can it be that the noble reason, the inner eye, is so blinded that it cannot see the true light? This great shame has come about, because a thick coarse skin and a thick fur has been drawn over him, even the love and the opinion of the creatures, whether it be the man himself or something that belongs to him; hence man has become blind and deaf, in whatever position he may be, worldly or spiritual. Yes, that is his guilt, that many a thick skin is drawn over him, as thick as an ox's forehead, and it has so covered up his inner man, that neither God nor himself can get inside; it has grown into him.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

mine forever


let's mine here forever, this zenith of evangelicalism
no need no more to be literate, of our scriptures
trickle down economics, spiritualized
give me the distilled version, in five chapters so I
can be not bothered by my own pilgrimage
my own prayers, my own years
my own character, my own faith,
my own sweat and my own tears
let's just mine here forever,
for the echoes are louder
and the nostalgia so
much easier..

implications

seeking the full life,
kingdom living
implicitly sinning

apply this
dynamic
don't wait for it to shift
ignorant of hell

dynamics..
implications..
applications..
time to create a whip

missional, missiological, political
implications

apply this
dynamic
don't wait for it to shift
ignorant of hell

dross for gold
tares for wheat
implicit realities
that only speak
to this cultural moment
we easily forget
the full life everlasting
and the emptiness of death

got to speak the language
who will understand?
incarnate the message
we don't understand

Alexander Whyte - Dead Mentors

My hope is that about once a week I can post a quotation from one of my dead mentors, and I have no problem with the first being this man.

Alexander Whyte

Get to know him if if you don't. You need to simply read him yourself.

They are dead yet mentors to me, because they say things I can not hear often from the living..


"So absolutely eaten up was Paul of Jesus Christ that he but spake the simple truth about himself when he said such things as these - I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' 'What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.' 'To me to live is Christ and to die is gain.' O, greatest of men! O, best of men! O, happiest of men! O, most blessed of men! Well mayest thou appeal and say to all such cold-hearted creatures as we are - 'Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ!'

Now who here will accept Paul's lofty challenge? Who here is fired tonight with that magnificent emulation and ambition? Are you? Well, the thing is in your own hand. The torch to kindle your own heart to that heavenly heat is in your own hand. And that torch is this - Think about Christ. Just think about Christ, and that will do it. Thinking about one another; meditating on one another; imagining one another, - that makes your hearts hot towards one another. And so is it with your soul and Christ. Thinking about Him will do it. Meditating on Him will do it. Imagining you see Him will do it. 'My heart was hot within me. While I was musing, the fire burned,' says David. And as often as we muse on Christ the fire burns with us also. And the longer we muse on Him, and the deeper our musing goes, the more the fire burns. And this fire never sinks low, far less ever dies out, as long as we so muse. Think enough, meditating enough, musing enough on Christ, will do it. Thinking that always ends in prayer, and in praise, and in repentance unto life, and in ever new obedience, that will do it. Think you see Christ all through the Four Gospels. Think you see Him die at the end of the Four Gospels. Think you see Him rise again. Think you see Him ascend up into heaven. Think that it is the day of judgment. And think you see the books opened, - till you cry to Him continually day and night, Rock of Ages, cleft for me! You have it in your own hand to melt your heart of ice into one pool of holy love. Yes; if you like you can read, and think and pray yourselves into the possession of a heart as hot as Paul's heart. Ay, into a heart as eaten up of your Father's house on earth and in heaven as Christ's own heart was. For the same Holy Ghost who gave Christ His hot heart, and Paul his hot heart, is given to you also. The time is long till you come to that, but the thing is true. For, behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. Be zealous, therefore, and repent."

- "How His Zeal Ate Him Up"

A New Blog

Couldn't resist, I've always kept some kind of website, even back before AOL, which has always sparked some good conversation and honed in my own witting. Well i'm back in the middle of college, I feel like its a good time to formulate some things I've been thinking about, maybe get some feedback, and pass along what I've been thinking about and reading.

Like many I could just keep a diary, and wait till I have something worth editing to put out, but like many it seems like there may be more motivation to jot things down, if there is even the smallest chance that someone else might read it.

This Blog won't have much in the way of family and ministry updates, if your interested in that, just email me and I will include you in my monthly e-mail updates.