A BIT OF TESTIMONY + A NEW RANT

Caught myself thinking again the other day.....actually I was listening to a recording of Bob Kauflin leading "In Christ Alone" (Keith Getty, Stuart Townend) at T4G.
In Christ alone my hope is found....

So, how true is that for you?......for me? My "thinking spell" led me down the paths of all these debates and discourses on Facebook, blogs, forums, etc. I have friends and have myself been involved in the calvinist-arminian debate; I have friends who turn all colors over the young earth-old earth arguments; I've been bent out of shape by paedo-baptist proponents. Now I have a friend who is majoring on "family integrated" assemblies, eschewing age-graded classes, etc.

Wandering further back into time, I revisited my "intellectual" roots. I was an absolute, total, vehement skeptic, unbeliever, "religion is the opiate of the masses" type of guy who by God's grace found himself married to a Christian woman (thank you, Lord!). Early in our marriage, I remember being asked by an acquaintance, a wicked, lying, crooked woman lawyer, "are you in that religious hooey?" meaning "like your silly wife?" I told her, Nah, she does her thing, I do mine.

A few years later, I decided to settle her hash about all that Bible stuff. "Read the Bible, read the Bible, read the Bible......" I kept getting that from her.......So, I said: I will read the Bible and I will show you, for your own good, what a load of baloney it is! I got me a nice "intellectual's Bible"--the Jerusalem Bible--a nice Roman Catholic production with twice as much text in scholarly footnotes as in Bible. I waded through most of the Pentateuch and was getting nowhere....made no sense whatsoever.....and she said: Go to the New Testament, read the Gospels. Yeah, right....

I never got all the way through the Gospels....the conviction of sin was so great, I was literally calling out: What must I do to be saved?!! Just another example of the power of the Word of God....absolutely remarkable, outside reason, outside intellectual understanding, simply supernatural. I pitted my intellect against God and it was no contest.

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
(1 Corinthians 1:20-21)

I need to wake up every morning being aware of this: In Christ alone my hope is found

My "great understanding" of scripture is not a source of hope; my hope is not in the truth of calvinistic soteriology. I think there is a real danger of straying into this intellectual realm, the realms of heated discourse or civil conversation are equally risky. We must not lose sight of Christ. This intellectualism is an aspect of the flesh, a manifestation of pride. Oh, I am so smart......I've got this nearly figured out! All those on the "other side" are so dense; how many more hours must I belabor them before they see the light?

I encourage you to think about these issues in the context of our presence in this world populated with lost and dying men. What's important? How much time do we have for debating, for example, "young earth vs old earth"? Do we want to be known as an outspoken leader in the field of "family integrated worship"? I am very skeptical of the field which is called "apologetics" because it seems over-run by debaters whose primary goal is outscoring an opponent, some sort of intellectual victory.....made him look like a monkey, I did! (Yes, there are a few men in this field who are doing a good job of making the Gospel the center-piece, and I am not referring to them, obviously)

Let's think about a "good debate"--suppose I call out some arminian and he and I debate "limited atonement" I'm an experienced debater (high school and college, albeit half a century ago)....I make him look like that monkey mentioned earlier; I score all the points. Does that make him a calvinist? More likely, it makes him bitter, having been humiliated, and more cautious about whom he debates in future. Me? It just puffs me up a bit more.......Then, I take on an unbeliever, a Muslim, or a cult member and really show them what's what. At the conclusion of the intellectual drubbing I deliver, will they convert? I think not; more likely, they will not see the same result I see, rather thinking they carried the day and affirmed all their own errors....so, both parties leave claiming victory and the lost are still lost; only my pride is enhanced.

I urge you to focus on the Gospel. Lost people do not need to be lectured or hectored about young earth vs old earth.....they are going to Hell no matter how old the earth is. Their only hope is in Jesus Christ........that's Christ the Person, not Christ the intellectual concept which you have garnered from your books........Christ the Person, the one of the song: In Christ alone my hope is found
Preachers, your congregations don't need you to be driven by "family integrated" church structure thinking; they sure don't need a spiritual leader who thinks he's CEO of a million-dollar business enterprise. They need the Gospel! What percentage of your congregation is lost? And you want to spend all your time selling some organizational concept? I'm talking about your FOCUS....incidentals have to be dealt with, I know.....but I'm talking to the way-too-many who are one-trick ponies, monomaniacs who get on some elaborate hobby horse generated by their fertile imagination and ride that poor horse to death, while their congregations starve spiritually for want of the Gospel.

Bottom line is: I don't care if you're young earth, old earth, or middle earth. I don't care if you have age-segregated classes or not; I don't care if you're supra or infra; I don't care if you are a total abstainer from alcohol or a wine sipper; I don't even care if you sprinkle babies! All that is between you and God. I'll tell you this for sure: Unless your hope is in Christ and Him alone, you're lost. Your intellect, your wisdom, your skills, your personality, your charisma, your experience, your education, your superior abilities in so many fields, you will carry them with you (or not) into eternity, lost.

In Christ alone my hope is found

ADDENDUM: A few hours after I posted this on my Facebook page, I added a comment there about preterists. That started a big debate which at the 4-hour mark already had nearly 40 comments.....a lot of them mine, of course. That debate is a great illustration of just the kind of intellectual rabbit trails one can be sidetracked by. Only a few folks probably read this, which I intended to be a call to the Gospel....but a good fight on some doctrinal hair-splitting draws a big crowd.

I also found this photo (which was not credited, so I cannot give credit here as I'd like to).....this is a visual illustration of just exactly what I've been trying to state verbally.

TO DIE IS GAIN.....

This past month has been such as to get me thinking about death--particularly about my death, impending as it is. (Heb 9:27) I am not being maudlin, nor am I morose, but I am certainly MORTAL.

Of course, in its wanderings my mind strayed soon enough to Philippians 1 and Paul's comment "to live is Christ, to die is gain" Really, what a thing to say! Frankly, for me, the second clause is easier than the first. I have no doubt that my death will usher me through a doorway to inexpressible joy and eternal blessings. And, I grow weary of this world. The political situation in this country is ugly and offers no sensible hope for improvement in the near term, rather going from bad to worse. That doesn't weigh on me too heavily, however, not nearly so much as the decline of the church. (See my previous blog article for some of that)

All the forces of the flesh continue to hammer away at the professing church and more and more inroads are made, undermining once-sound bodies with one form of theological HIV or another. The "American Church" stands aloof from the persecuted church in China, Africa, Asia and elsewhere.....seeming impervious to persecution and martyrdom. Unfortunately, the reason it is untouched is that it is not an offense to the world. So long as this "church" goes along, it gets along. Millions warm a pew for an hour or two on Sunday morning, then spend the remaining 166 hours of the week living the most worldly, Godless lives, totally indistinguishable from the non-church going, non-Christ-claiming population.

Paul said the only reason he would stay in this world was for the benefit of his flock-- " I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,..." I do not mean to equate myself with Paul in any way except to say that I feel like that with regard to the ministry I have. So long as I am useful, able to minister the Gospel to my inmate brothers or elsewhere, I am content. It is disconcerting to think of being physically unable to do anything like what I consider ministry. This is at war with my intellectual understanding that God has people paralyzed in hospital beds, incapacitated in nursing homes, etc, all for His glory. Me, I'd rather just go on..........(not that He's going to ask my opinion)

Albert Barnes' listed 7 ways in which it is gain for a Christian to die:

1. The Christian will be freed from sin. (Hallelujah!)

2. He will be freed from doubts.

3. He will be freed from temptation.

4. He will be delivered from his enemies.

5. He will be delivered from suffering.

6. He will be delivered from death.

7. He will be immediately and eternally ushered into the presence of our Savior. (which makes the other 6 almost irrelevant)....and if we ever get accustomed to His presence, we will also be in the presence of all the saints of all the ages, forever!

So, understand me when I say with Paul:

My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.
(Philippians 1:23)

Death is the crown of life:
Were death denied, poor man would live in vain:
Were death denied, to live would not be life.
Were death denied, even fools would wish to die.
Death wounds to cure; we fall; we rise; we reign!
Spring from our fetters; fasten in the skies;
Where blooming Eden withers in our sight.
Death gives us more than was in Eden lost,
The king of terrors is the prince of peace.
(Edward Young
Night Thoughts, iii.)

PASTORAL HERMENEUTIC? (part 3--conclusion)

When I started this series, my intention was to frame it like the old preacher's joke: "3 points and a pome" (poem to you literate folks). The first two posts took forever and intervening posts have come and gone; frankly, I've lost momentum on this train of thought.

Except for the "pome" The poem was the dramatic conclusion to the sermon, the moment of pathos where all the intellectual brilliance and spiritual power of the 3 points landed with a thud in the hearers' hearts, breaking those hearts and driving the hordes to the altar of repentance, rededication, and reconciliation.

So I've been haranguing pastors for haranguing their congregations, demanding obeisance and other forms of blind following; exhorting the sheep to fill the coffers so the $25 million dollar pile of bricks can be properly maintained and the million dollar payroll continued without interruption.

Now I want to shine the spotlight on myself for a few words. I was a pastor once. November 2009 will mark the 30th anniversary of my ordination to the Gospel ministry. At that time, I was serving as interim pastor for a little country congregation who had, in their deranged state of mind, decided to call me as their pastor.

I was painfully reminded of that experience a month ago when I met a pastor-friend not quite my age but who started younger and probably has about as much time in ministry as I have....30 years or so. After a handshake, the first communication from him was: "I'm really disgusted with my congregation. I don't know if half of them are even saved." (as an aside: I feel that way about most congregations.....the number of church members who are really saved has to be low)

But, I didn't say anything, just let him rave on for a few minutes about how his congregation did this and didn't do that, and now it was summer and attendance was down from 100 to 50-60, etc, etc, etc. What I was tempted to ask him was this:

How much time do you spend praying for those people?

Have you ever, I mean ever, wept over them, their apparent coldness, their lack of spiritual growth?

See, he sounded just exactly like I sounded, and acted, 30 years ago. I went into that little country church and told them "what for". The next week, I raked them over the coals because they had not changed......."What is the problem? I told you a week ago how you should live, and still you are unchanged!"

I rode my hobby horses all over their turf. I had come out of the independent Baptist world into this Southern Baptist association and I spent half my time condemning the SBC and urging this congregation to leave the association and go independent. I had 5 deacons, one of whom showed up for the services faithfully. Three others were there most Sunday mornings but never at night or on Wednesday. One showed up for Easter or something like that. One day I had them all in a Sunday a.m. service and called them to the front of the congregation and gave them "down the road" Now, every one of these men was older than I, and had grown up in that church. But I told them to either "deac" or hit the door!

I am sickened by my past behavior and attitude. I'm grateful to God that His longsuffering permitted me to even live through that kind of behavior, let alone continue in ministry to this point where, finally, I have some sense. So, it was really disturbing to hear this "senior pastor" talking just like I used to be 30 years back.

I doubt God will ever put me back into a pastorate. In many ways, I consider myself a "pastor" to my inmates but it's not quite the same since I am restricted by rules and regulations about exactly what I can and cannot do regarding their families and so forth. I know that my heart is more of a "pastor's heart" today than ever before.

If I were a pastor, and I say this to those who do serve as pastors, two things: If you don't have a heart which is broken over the souls of the folks who face you every Sunday, get out! They do not need you to lecture them, harangue them, scold them, or fleece them. Secondly, if you do have that heart, you will do this without me telling you--just preach the Word faithfully and trust God to do His work in their heart. If He does it instantly, praise the Lord; if you preach there 20 years before you see change, praise the Lord. During those 20 years you'll have spent most of your time on your face before God praying that He move upon those folks because you 1.) love Him and want to see Him glorified in their lives, and 2.) because you love them and want to see them transformed into the image of His son.

Anything else that happens is secondary at best, probably less important........new buildings, new carpeting, doubled membership, all the stuff the world uses as a measuring stick. The greatest joy a pastor can have is seeing his folks changed by the power of God.....I wouldn't trade that for 3 twenty-five million dollar buildings and a television ministry.

ON MINISTRY (Part 2--The Point)

I wrote that lengthy, detailed article about Carolyn's surgery and hospital stay for two reasons: to get myself in motion writing and to provide some background for this, the main point, if anyone is interested in detailed background. Feel free to skip it.........lol.

What I want to write about is suffering, and caring for those who are suffering, those who are helpless, and what I have learned about those things during the past 3 weeks. This was my wife's 12th major surgery so in some ways it wasn't exactly a new experience for me (or her!). In a more important way, however, it is a remarkable experience, a life-changing lesson. My greatest fear in attempting this is that I shall fail to communicate verbally something that is so purely experiential.

As we anticipated this surgery and all that comes with it (anticipated most of the stuff, anyway), I had this intellectual grasp of what I would be doing. I've done it before. You have a helpless patient, a pain-racked patient, and it's someone you love dearly. Things need to be done--things which despite long years of intimacy are still discomforting to the one who cannot care for herself as usual. I'm not going into specifics--y'all know the kinda stuff, not limited to holding a basin for someone to vomit into, or washing their face afterward, but stuff like that.

So, I've done that before and I don't mind doing it. I don't. And she knows, as much as humanly possible, that I don't find such things repulsive or disgusting. I love her; I'd do anything to help her when she's suffering. But this time it's different. God has taken me in hand, put His arm across my shoulders, and drawn me a bit closer, let me see a bit more of His grace through His son.

As I sat through those worst hours there in the hospital, doing my little routine with the basin and the wet cloths on her forehead and so forth.....sometimes I sat and waited for the next call to service and realized that I wasn't being a dutiful husband, suffering through these menial chores with a stiff upper lip, deserving of so much appreciation for my dedication. What I was is this: Blessed. I experienced something which previously I had only read about: the joy of serving another person, the blessing which God bestows upon His children as they learn something about "ministry"

I want to say it out loud: I love caring for her. It's a joy to care for her in whatever way I can. I'm so grateful to God for taking me past that selfish state of "being noble" and suffering dutifully. Jesus said He came not to be ministered to, but to minister. Have we ever twisted that word into something grotesque! Most "ministers" haven't the foggiest concept of ministering.

We all know the story of the "Last Supper" from the Gospel accounts. As the apostles arrived, Jesus garbed Himself as a servant and washed their feet. And we hear a lot of sanctimonious preaching about how we need to do likewise, and some denominations take that literally and have services during which folks wash one another's feet. What do you suppose they are thinking when they do that?

What do you think Jesus was thinking as He did that? "I'm gonna do this to teach these guys how to be humble" If you think that, you are making Him out to be disingenuous at best. This was a cultural practice, a courtesy extended by hosts to their arriving guests. The household servants washed the guests' feet because they were dirty! Jesus Christ came as the Servant of Jehovah. This was His heart on display; He loved those apostles. He wasn't thinking "Yuck, I've got to do this just to make the point"

If we love the brethren, we will serve them with the same heart....not begrudingly (well hidden, of course) but joyfully. It was Christ's great joy to serve His children. It will be so in all eternity as well.

We're home now and Carolyn is regaining some mobility and can care more for herself but still needs help. I am still in service here. I still rejoice in it. I am beginning to feel that I've failed in my attempt to communicate this. May God make it clear to all who read this, despite my poor effort. Ministry is servant-hood. Poor, pitiful folks who think "being like Jesus" means being King......or some other big shot. The Christ whom the church is to emulate is that Humble Servant, joyfully washing the feet of the disciples.

ON MINISTRY (Part 1--Background)

You might want to read Part 2 first...this is the "deep background" for it and might not be worth reading at all...

This seems to be my toughest-ever writing assignment.......self-imposed as it is. Been thinking about it two weeks and just can't get started.....so here we go:

June 22 Carolyn had knee-replacement surgery. I spent 4 days and 3 nights at her bedside in hospital and have been her 24-hour per day "nurse" since her return to the house.

The Monday evening after the surgery, all day Tuesday, and Wednesday morning were rough! She came out of surgery about 2:30 Monday afternoon. Surgeon called me and reported that all went well and she would be in Recovery for a while. About 4:00, they let me go back into the Recovery Room and visit her. At that point she was in excruciating pain and the staff was baffled and in a well-controlled frenzy trying to figure out what the problem was. During the surgery she had had a spinal block (short lived but highly effective) plus an epidural anaesthetic (longer term). At the end of the surgical procedure the anaesthesia team did a block of one branch of the femoral nerve which was intended to control the pain as the spinal block wore off and when the epidural catheter was removed, ending that relief.

Bottom line is the femoral nerve block failed....so she had no anaesthetic benefit at that point only 90 minutes after the incision was closed. She was in agony and the staff was doing a major running analysis there at her bedside, so they ran me out, promising to call me back when they had overcome the problem.

At 5:30 they called me again, saying that Carolyn was fine and ready to go to her own room. We didn't get the information immediately but the short form of the story is that there are 3 branches to that femoral nerve and they either missed the first attempt (my guess) or it was necessary to do a second block on another branch (their spin). This is not intended to be critical....that stuff happens and I'm impressed at the concentration of brain power and intense effort the whole staff put into resolving the situation as quickly as possible.

An attendant rolled her bed down endless corridors and through a couple of elevator banks to another building which must be a quarter mile away. We ended up in the old Vanderbilt Hospital building, 6th floor, in a huge (by hospital standards) room. From her arrival there, Carolyn was pitifully nauseated off and on for the next 24 hours. She has always suffered from this post-surgery misery and though this was not the worst-ever, it was pretty bad at times. As time went on, we figured out is was a reaction to the high-powered pain killer they were giving her by IV (oxycontin). After 3 doses at 12-hour intervals, she told them...."Don't do that again; I'd rather hurt!" They switched her over to some oral stuff of lesser magnitude and the nausea was greatly abated.

Tuesday morning, they announced that her blood level was low and they were going to give her a transfusion. We were prepared in advance for this possibility and she had given a pint earlier which they had on hand......so she would be transfused with her own blood. This is about a six-hour procedure and would delay her physical therapy for just about the entire day. At this point it looked like we were losing a whole day in the scheduled process geared to her being sent home on Thursday.

Three hours into the transfusion, she was racked by more excruciating pain. Worse, she says, that the undiminished post-surgical pain when the nerve block failed. Once again, the staff was baffled! We had this tremendous charge nurse, a young woman originally from Colombia, and she was doing the transfusion.....but she fell victim to the same sort of thing which happened in the Recovery Room.....something outside the "way it ought to be" Severe back pain is a side effect of blood transfusion. They know that. BUT....it isn't (according to The Book) supposed to happen when you are being given your own blood. The nurse was smart enough to see no other proximate cause and turned off the blood flow. Within minutes, the pain eased, and Carolyn went to sleep. Watchfully, the nurse turned the drip on again, and the transfusion was completed without further incident.

Wednesday was really the beginning of physical therapy, the progress in which is a determining factor in when and whether one goes home on schedule. It did not go well. Carolyn was still nauseated off and on, more or less a day behind, acting like someone whose surgery had been Tuesday not Monday. It was discouraging to hear talk of going to a Rehabilitation facility for 7-10 days rather than going home on Thursday as we had planned. At the same time I forced myself to face that possibility, I also resolved to do all I could to get her home.....and that "what" was to beseech God to do a work regarding her condition.

Thursday morning a new day dawned but I was so exhausted from the 3 days of stress and sleeplessness, I wasn't too cognizant of the change until mid-morning. Carolyn was simply "much improved" The physical therapist could hardly believe she was the same person who could barely do anything 18 hours earlier. Carolyn was up, taking steps with her walker, sitting in a chair, getting up, etc. By noon or one p.m. the charge nurse was saying things like: I think you'll be going home. When I, still a bit stupified, said "When?".......she floored me with "this afternoon"......and sure enough, at 3:05 Thursday, she was in the car and we were merging into the traffic outside the hospital driveway.

ONLY ONE LIFE, 'TWILL SOON BE PAST....

Well, I've had an interesting life.

I've seen a number of wars: WW 2; Korea, Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq, and numerous "small wars" in between.

Saw one president assassinated, at least 3 other attempts: Truman, Ford, Reagan; and had the job of protecting LBJ during my days at a Texas base where he landed to board ground transportation to his ranch. At least he didn't get shot on my watch.....

Went through high aspirations for a personal career in politics which culminated in working tirelessly for a candidate whose loss rivals Alf Landon's defeat by FDR. Then transferred that idealism to the world of military operations and offered myself in the battle to "save the world from the Red Menace". My mother's only two brothers were both killed in WW 2; in the Vietnam War, I lost dozens of friends and buddies, comrades in a way no one who has not been there will ever understand. I remember sitting in the snack bar lounge at Elmendorf Air Base in Alaska night after night as the medevac flights from Vietnam (via Tokyo) landed to refuel, seeing the walking wounded de-plane, come in for a coke, viewing their missing limbs and broken bodies, leaving me to wonder how much worse were the guys lying in hammocks on the plane, those who were unable to walk at all?

I came out of the military thoroughly radicalized politically, returned to university and joined with my old friends, some of whom had served and returned, others who dodged the draft and stayed home. United again, we took an active part in the anti-war movement, burned our 214s and threw our medals back toward any "establishment" figure. Being an active participant in that time, in that place, in that culture, I was a soldier in the Sexual Revolution and an entrepreneur in the Drug Business.

Sensing the futility of that lifestyle, I walked away from it cold one night and moved to Louisville, then quickly on to Nashville. The morning after my arrival in Music City, I drove down Galatin Road and rented an apartment in East Nashville. Next door lived a young woman whose parking place I accidentally co-opted, necessitating a conversation and introduction. About 40 years later, she's still here, in the next room, hardly ever further away than that.

Reading this now, one can begin to see God's hand in all this: my survival of the war, my survival of the post-war madness; my meeting Carolyn. But at that time, I saw nothing. I was blind. The whole "move to Nashville" thing was for the purpose of establishing myself as a writer of music. Meeting and marrying this school teacher seemed to fit right in. She could teach and earn money while I sat at the typewriter all day waiting for the creative epiphany. That didn't work out. We married in April and she quit teaching in May! So, I had to go to work.

We moved to Florida, had our first child, moved back to Tennessee, and have been here ever since. We had five children, buried two, seen three grow to maturity, suffer, struggle, succeed, fail, fall, flounder and survive. We've given up work and business and have thoroughly retired to a place in the woods, quite primitive, which Carolyn described within minutes of first seeing it, as "the place I've always dreamed of".

In 1976, God by His unfathomable mercy and grace saved me from the wrath I justly deserve. Though I "surrendered" to a life of Christian service and ministry shortly thereafter, only in recent years have I had any sense of doing anything which really glorifies Him, and that in a very inadequate way. Through all this, through the teaching of His Word by His Spirit, He has shaped my thinking, re-shaped it from the view of the world where man is exalted to a view in which God is central.

So, when I look back upon all which at one time seemed so important, I understand the scripture which says: All is vanity. I see the country I once fantasized about leading politically, the country I took up arms for, the country I would not leave for any other residence on earth, going further and further into rebellion against God, further into idolatry, further into sin of the most depraved forms. I see no hope for this country. Though I could list sin after sin which blot the soul of this nation, I will mention only one for it is more than enough to justify God's wrath and destruction: the murder of millions of unborn children, murders which have been condoned, abetted, and even financed by the government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" of the United States.

Now, while most of the nation, yea, the world, celebrates the inauguration of our first Black President, I see the nation taking one more great stride toward destruction. The implementation of this administration's pro-abortion policies, already in motion on this first full day in office, sound the death knell for America. My sense is that we, as a nation, have "crossed God's deadline." There is no turning back. How can we undo 50 million murders since 1973? God has given this nation over to a reprobate mind; He has written "Ichabod" over the Seal of the United States. And I want to be clear that I am speaking of the nation as a nation, not about individual persons. God will save his children who are resident here, calling them out one-by-one as He has always done. This nation however is bound for judgment.

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
(Psalms 9:17)

So, as I see my life coming to a close here (though God might surprise me and keep me around a lot longer than I expect) I have no regrets about departing this world. I pray that when He takes me out of here, I won't be found clinging by my fingernails to the stuff of this world, trying to maintain a grip on this corrupt and dying society.

There is one thing I see which offers great encouragement so far as the affairs of men in this world. Though the "church" is corrupt and becoming more so every day, not just "in the world" but very much "of the world," there is always that faithful remnant. I see a whole generation of young preachers being raised up, preachers who are convinced of not just the inerrancy of the scriptures, but their sufficiency. These men have returned to the Truth which gave birth to the Reformation and they are preaching it faithfully. I think that in the 30 to 40 years it takes these fellows to get to my present age, God will make one "last call" for America. There will be that time of revival where His true church radiates the Gospel and God brings many sons to glory. I'm excited by that prospect. It would be nice to be here for it, but if not, I shall have a great view: I'll be among the myriads and myriads experiencing that "joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents."

An interesting life, and very soon to be infinitely more interesting........

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
(Titus 3:3-7)

PREACHER OR MINISTER?

I have been a "preacher" for quite a long time. Later this year I'll observe the 30th anniversary of my ordination (and I was preaching for some time prior to that date).

Quite recently, however, I started to learn what it means to be a "minister" as opposed to a "preacher". My early experiences as a pastor were major disasters because of my status as a "novice" combined with total ignorance as to what it means to minister to God's flock.

Most of the N.T. references to "minister" in the King James (usually rendered "serve" in the ESV) are instances where Paul used the word διακονέω (diakaneo)--the same word from which "deacon" comes, and with the same import: servant, serving. Interesting to muse on the weakness of the King James there in that it has allowed countless readers, myself included, to consider "serving" something done by the deacons whilst us preachers carried on nobler work.

My preaching for years, after my pastoral failures, took on a drive-by approach. Preach at 'em and run. Let the Holy Spirit finish the message....No one-on-one contact, no involvement with individuals. God has been changing me with regard to this over the past few years. I had a couple of very influential experiences recently and as I was mulling them over, I received this quote from an internet source I subscribe to:

We do God’s work for our brothers and sisters when we learn to listen to them. So often Christians, especially preachers, think that their only service is always to have to "offer" something when they are together with other people. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking. Many people seek a sympathetic ear and do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking even when they should be listening. But Christians who can no longer listen to one another will soon no longer be listening to God either; they will always be talking even in the presence of God. The death of the spiritual life starts here, and in the end there is nothing left but empty spiritual chatter and clerical condescension which chokes on pious words. Those who cannot listen long and patiently will always be talking past others, and finally no longer will even notice it. Those who think their time is too precious to spend listening will never really have time for God and others, but only for themselves and for their own words and plans.

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Those words, even upon an eighth or ninth reading, still affect me like a slap in the face (deserved, too). "...clerical condescension choking on pious words...." Ouch!

Two experiences in the past 10 days reinforce the lesson Bonhoeffer teaches: 1.) In our Tuesday night Bible study at a prison, my brother Elvis is teaching through Matthew. We got to chapter 19 which begins with the discourse on divorce. This is a sensitive area for inmates, particularly Christian inmates. Most are divorced. Most have been subjected to the preaching and teaching of the modern-day Pharisees and often condemned to Hell because of their marital mess. The believers are broken over their past sin and infidelity and divorces. As we got into that reading, God gave me the chance to minister His grace to a dozen or so men in a way I have seldom if ever experienced before. I am convinced that He changed lives that evening; that He drew some of His children closer to Himself; that He lifted some burdens; and that Grace became more than a word, became a force in the life of more than one man.

2.) I'm a poor counselor. So, I try to avoid getting into situations where I have to counsel anyone. But.....I got into one, a serious one, and I decided I needed help getting help for someone. I located someone I thought was right for the job and gave him the details and anxiously awaited the much-needed help. What I got was a plethora of platitudes smothered with generalities. My first reaction was: What? Did you not read what I wrote? The response was almost totally irrelevant to the case at hand. Now, I see in the Bonhoeffer quote, what I got was the "clerical condescension," the non-response from a non-listener. He never stopped talking long enough to hear what I was saying, what I needed.

Oh, LORD, I beg you, don't ever let me be like that again. I know I have done that countless times, missed countless opportunities to minister the Grace of Jesus Christ because my mouth was engaged and my heart was closed. Please.....for His great glory, Amen.

FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONTROLS US...

Did you ever experience something which was radical and life-changing then wonder if anyone else ever experienced that, or if you were the only one in the world?

Then, as time goes on, you find out that it is not a unique phenomenon but that it happens to others, and they even have a name for it--a Latin name, even! (No, it's not a mental disorder, thank you.)

Now that I've started this I've got to deal with another problem. I learned the name of the phenomenon by reading an article in Christianity Today (bad enough) written by Richard Foster (unthinkable!) So, there it is: public confession. I read it; I even learned something from it; and still, I am not Emergent. Please don't bother writing to tell me what an ogre he is....thanks.

You see, the first 25 years or so of my Christian experience were quite orthodox, maybe hyper-orthodox if there is such a state. It was all about Doctrine (and Standards, in one phase). It was decidedly not about feelings or emotions, ever. I "grew up" (as a 30-something) in churches where if someone said "Amen!" the rest of the congregation would pop a vertebra craning around to see who let in a charismatic. The idea of one lifting his hands in praise during singing or preaching (or anytime other than to wave bye-bye in the parking lot) was totally unacceptable, probably considered heresy.

Now, this isn't about that kind of expression but something much deeper. I said that only to set the tone for what follows. I was Dead Orthodox with emphasis on the Dead. I was to "love not the world, neither the things which are in the world" and occasionally I worked on not loving the worldly "stuff" which I still loved. My orthodoxy enabled me to trash the social-gospel practitioners who went about feeding the hungry, treating the sick, but not giving them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Do-gooders" trying to earn a place in Heaven.....

Then God put me into prison ministry. Five years down the road of working with these guys whose lives are or were totally disrupted by their criminal actions and the consequences, families destroyed, futures dimmed, worldly hopes weak to non-existent, I find myself weeping over their plight. My heart is more aligned with "pastoral ministry" than ever before, even when I was a "real" pastor. These men have wayward children at home whom they wish to keep from following in their destructive footsteps; they have wives and mothers and fathers who are sick, broke, angry with them, or any combination thereof.

Today, I find myself not just teaching and preaching Doctrine, which I certainly do, to a fault probably in the eyes of some who disagree with my dogmatic presentation of Scripture, but writing to and speaking with wives and parents, seeking churches to minister to parolees, looking for Christian workers in this town or that town to go visit the wayward son of an inmate and tell him about Christ.

An internet friend, a Godly brother-preacher, wrote recently of his heartbreak over starving children in Africa, the down-and-outs of America, and all the miserable, hopeless fellow-humans across this globe who are generally and royally neglected by those of us in this wealthy, comfortable tiny corner of creation. He wondered if he was being untrue to his theological bent, seeing as how he is one of those cold, calculating calvinists like me. You can read his article here.

And that's where Richard Foster stepped in....What he describes as the "cultural mandate" begins with contemptus mundi..
"being torn loose from all earthly attachments and ambitions" OK, I have a strong dose of that. "In the beginning God plucks the world out of our hearts......we experience a loosening of the chains of attachment to positions of prominence and power...We experience a glorious detachment from this world and all it offers." Not wholly there, but I'm closer to this point than even 5 years ago.

Foster goes on: "And then just when we have become free from it all, God hurls the world back into our heart--amor mundi ...We deepen in our compassion for the bruised, the broken, the dispossessed. We ache and pray and labor for others in a new way, a selfless way, a joy-filled way."

Now, I might want to totally disregard much of what Foster says in this article and most of what he writes in general, and I'd like to pick at him over the two different meanings of "world" as in "For God so loved the world....." and "Love not the world...." Nevertheless, he has given me some insight into what I've experienced in recent years and I'm grateful for it. And now, when I find myself with passionate interest in the lives of my inmates and their families, and excited by my brothers who are working with the "street people" in Nashville, feeding and clothing them as well as preaching to them, I take some comfort in knowing that it's more than just me "goin' liberal" in my old age.

RABBIT TRAILS, Part 2

Part 2.

A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
(1Tim 3:2-6)

Maybe in this segment I can get to the point....

All that KJO stuff previous was born out of a recent experience with a young pastor who is of the KJO persuasion and took great umbrage because of a quote I posted elsewhere--a 1954 statement by A.W. Tozer wherein Tozer decried the decline of fundamentalism into (even then) shallow, worldly, man-centered religion.

This young fellow's problem is that he has been taught that fundamentalism = the belief that the King James Version is "the" Word of God; that short haircuts on men, dresses on women, and attendance to every church service are Biblical mandates, even indicators of salvation.

That's why I get in trouble when I describe myself as a "fundamentalist"--because I mean none of that by the word. Before the 60's or whenever the co-optation of the word took place, "fundamentalist" meant simply and clearly "an adherent to the fundamentals of the faith." Those fundamentals were defined with some variation but more or less agreed-upon to mean:
1. The inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture. 2. The virgin birth and Deity of Christ. 3. The vicarious, substitutionary, and penal death of Christ. 4. The bodily resurrection of Christ. 5. The imminent return of Christ.

From thinking about this fellow, who is pastor of a small Baptist church, my thoughts expanded to include all the young preachers I have come across in the past 30 years--including myself, for I was young once. Very few of the men I am thinking of are scripturally qualified to be pastors (elders, bishops). They are novices! My experience is limited to the Baptist world, either independent Baptist, or Southern Baptist, and in a small corner of the world, but this is what I've seen. Men are routinely "ordained" to the Gospel ministry based upon their profession of a calling from God followed by an examination conducted on a local level, by other pastors, many of whom themselves might be poorly qualified.

What we end up with is churches, especially the smaller, "country" churches, pastored by novices who lack:

1.) Emotional maturity simply because of their age and lack of life experiences.

2.) Any education or training whatsoever (who lean heavily on "Ye have no need that any man teach you..." while clearly lacking the "anointing" referred to in the same passage)

3.) At best, or perhaps "worst" some of them have been trained--at Dr Billy Bob's Bible School and Flea Market--where they were indoctrinated into the particular cultic mindset of whatever sub-set of "fundamentalism" they belong to.

I speak from experience, too, having qualified in all three of those categories at the time I was "ordained" by a local SBC church: NOVICE: saved only 2 years. NOVICE: no education or training of a theological nature. NOVICE: under the influence of the KJO, neo-fundamentalist world I lived in as a new convert.

Part of the problem here is that there are way too many local churches and too few qualified pastors. The county where I live has about 28 churches in the local association. There are usually 5 or 6 open pulpits--mostly little 20-60 member congregations (some even smaller) who can barely pay a man gas money for driving out there and holding one service a week. They have no teaching ministry ("Sunday Schools" are a travesty), no outreach, no witness, most are just kept alive by tradition and family sentiment (Grandad is buried out back....). I have preached in several of these, just filling in on a Sunday morning. I have been offered pulpits in nearly every one....after one appearance......with no questions asked apart from "would you be our pastor?" The idea of qualifying a man to be the episkopos based on his ability to walk into a building, speak for 40 minutes without slobbering too much, and having a firm handshake, prevails in too many such situations.

I heard this story (not directly from Paul) that Paul Washer preached in a pastor-less church one evening, first time ever in the town, and after the service was approached by the leadership who offered him the pastorate! Just like that......! Now, he's an impressive preacher, to be sure, but his reaction was right on: What? You don't KNOW me......you have no idea who I am, how I treat my family, how I live my life.....and you offer me your pastorate?

Exactly. This passage of scripture carries no weight with entirely too many churches. because they are desperate, they are frustrated, and they are like ships without a rudder. They have no internal leadership to carry on when there is no pastor. Of course, this is another strong argument for plurality of elders but that's for another time.

Compounding the problem that these hundreds and thousands of churches, especially small congregations are "led" by novices is something even more disturbing to me. In recent years, mostly in the "internet phase" of my life, where I have been in contact with many more "pastors" than would be possible for me to do "face-to-face," I have found a level of carnality among these men which is astounding. In this internet world, the filthy mouth, the trivialization of the things of God, the preoccupation with things of this world (sports, money, sexual things, etc) demonstrated by self-styled "men of God" is absolutely mind-boggling. And, I'm not hanging around with unitarian-universalists or liberal Methodists...I'm talking about "fundamentalists".

We're all sinners. I am aware of my own fleshly inclinations, so I'm not talking about the occasional slip and stumble; I'm talking about a lifestyle of worldly preoccupation, behaviors, and attitudes. Much is written these days about the problem of the local churches being populated by an unregenerate membership. Real problem. A product of the decisional regeneration heresy, superficial "evangelism" and psycho-babble preaching of the self-esteem mantras.

Now I'm beginning to suspect an even more disturbing aspect of this situation: unregenerate pastors. It would not be illogical for these novice preachers, those who perpetuate the easy-believism heresy and the morphing of fundamentalism into a system of outward appearances, for them to be deceived even about their own salvation. When they are teaching others that one's salvation depends upon "saying the prayer" and "walking the aisle" why should we not wonder if they have fallen for the Lie? J.C. Ryle said it succinctly: Where there is no holiness, there is no Holy Ghost.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND TESTIMONY ALONG SOME RABBIT TRAILS.

Part 1

Today, August 3, 2008, I went to church carrying my Bible.

Zowie, that's a hot item, huh?

It really is because that Bible was an ESV (English Standard Version). I did it without thinking, because we missed Bible study and were going just to the preaching service, I decided to leave behind the large, heavy Key Word Study Bible (KJV) which I usually carry to our Small Groups class. This event marked the first time in the 32 years I've been going to church that I did not carry a King James Version.

That should say something.......and I've been trying to figure out just what it says. It's not a landmark because I've been using other translations for years--mostly ASV and NKJV--for study and comparison; and have unhesitatingly referred to Greek and Hebrew texts and commentaries like Keil and Delitzsch and Robertson's Word Studies. Maybe what it says is that old habits die slowly.

When God saved me, He used the witness of some fellows who were members of an Independent Baptist church of the most extreme sort, and one decidedly King James ONLY. Though we lasted in that atmosphere only a few years because of our discomfort (and worse) concerning various practices and teachings, the King James stuck with me. It probably took 20 years for me to get over the KJO brainwashing I had been subjected to. I remember my wife taking up with an ASV (American Standard Version) at some point and making a serious effort to dissuade her from using it. (She still uses it.)

Furthermore, I always liked the KJV, and still like it. For my own reading it's fine; I love the Jacobean language and am comfortable with it (probably related to my love of Elizabethan literature). All the scripture I have memorized is from the KJV. I never make any effort to memorize ESV or NASB. At the same time, I am aware of the various weak spots in the translation and correct them in teaching or preaching without the slightest twinge of guilt--an act which is directly contrary to my KJO indoctrination.

For the past few years, since I have been preaching in prisons, I frequently intersperse readings from the ESV where the archaic language of the KJV is just too much to cope with, especially for a group of men whose average education is on the 3rd grade level. One can take the time to translate the occasional archaism when reading from the KJV, but some entire passages are replete with words which cause my listeners to go "Huh?"

The KJO world is still out there; it's small but it's loud and it's impenetrable to reason and logic. And, it's sad to see people so wrapped up in a totally baseless "philosophy" which is, in fact, idolatrous. Though it might sound to some as if I'm making this up for the purpose of mockery, I assure you this is true and not unique, though maybe not a majority view in the KJO world: I have heard it taught (condensed version here): Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1); the Bible (KJV or course) is the Word of God; therefore, the Bible = Jesus. We are carrying Him around with us. We worship the Bible (Jesus).

So, it's hard to get along very far with KJO folks if you're not one of them. I started working as a volunteer with a prison ministry which is KJO. It's a great ministry with fine, Godly men serving therein. I had no problem because I always used my KJV (which is just how I am; I didn't do it just for their benefit; I always preach from the KJV) I was compromising to some degree in that I knew better than to "correct" the KJV in any way, whereas I might have so done in another setting. I finally got convicted about my duplicity and have forsaken the work. It's interesting though, looking back. My "calvinist" preaching never bothered anyone; but if I had "corrected" the KJV or quoted my ESV, I'd have been jerked out of the pulpit in a heartbeat.

(to be continued)

Overwhelmed By Grace

We partook of the Lord's Supper yesterday morning and I was (and am) particularly affected by the sermon and the service. Earlier in the service two adults were baptized and, as is our practice, they gave a brief testimony of God's redeeming work in their lives as they stood in the waters. Both were greatly moving depictions of His love and grace, transforming lives from misery and hopelessness to peace and hope in Christ. Our pastor's message from I Cor 11, the standard texts for the observance was far from "usual" in that he was greatly empowered by the Holy Spirit to communicate to us (to me, at least) a vivid remembrance of my Savior's body and blood and a fervent longing for His return. He had spoken of our Lord's body being "crushed" as Isa 53:10 is rendered in the ESV (Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; ) The use of "bruised" in the KJV seems weak to us today; being bruised is no big thing. But Jesus was crushed for me! As he spoke about the bread he said, as I have heard others say but not with such convicting power, it would be so much more meaningful if we had a chunk of bread rather than those little Baptist crumbs we use--a chunk of bread from which we would tear pieces--symbolically tearing His body as it was torn for us. Because it was us, it was me, who tore His body......it was for my sin that the Father crushed Him.

So, as the elements were passed to the congregation, I took my little wafer and, as I have always done because I have this dread of ever dropping it, I held it tightly between my index finger and my thumb. This particular wafer had a big air pocket and not much substance. As I squeezed it, making sure I didn't drop it, I crushed it in my fingers. I am incapable of writing well enough to convey how this affected me. Tears well up even now, 36 hours later, as I try to write this. I crushed it. I crushed Him. He was wounded for my transgressions; He was crushed for my iniquities. It was me! It was not some amorphous group of "them" There is no anonymity available in the Truth of His death. It was me. Horatius Bonar wrote:

'Twas I that shed that sacred Blood,
I nailed him to the Tree,
I crucified the Christ of God,
I joined the mockery.

But that's not the end........

He died that death willingly, for the joy that was set before Him.
He died that death willingly, to reconcile me to God.
He died that death willingly, out of Love:
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Bonar concludes:

Yet not the less that Blood avails
to cleanse me from sin,
and not the less that Cross prevails
to give me peace within

Yes, I crushed Him. But the Blood avails; the Cross prevails!

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

MOURNING WILBUR

One of our dogs did not make it home from their night-time hunt last Wednesday. No sign of him since; he is most likely dead--a victim of the coyotes who live across our creek, with whom our dogs were "singing" the night of his disappearance. Of all our "mutts" Wilbur was a favorite to both me and my wife. At the same time, I could not choose one of the remaining six to exchange for Wilbur's return.

Both of us are pretty sad about losing this charming, frisky little dog, but yesterday and today, God has spoken to me about the state of my heart in view of this situation. Events like this sometimes help us focus on just what is important in our lives. I am literally "mourning" the loss of a dog, even to the point of tears. OK, how does that fit in with the overall approach to life which I am demonstrating, day in and day out?

My Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is despised and rejected by most all the population of this country and the world. Am I mourning that state of affairs?

During the hour it has taken me to put this post together, over 6000 souls have gone out into eternity. Statistically, most of them were lost and are now in Hell. Every day, over 150,000 people die, going into eternity, mostly unprepared, lost forever. Am I mourning over those who will die tomorrow, and next week, and next year (56 million!)......most of them dying without Christ?

I am involved in ministry to men in prison. Their lives are shattered, families destroyed, children forever affected. Just as in the "free world" a remnant has been called out, been born again by the Spirit of God, and we try to teach these men and disciple them. In a unit with 300 inmates, we might see 20 or so in a worship service. Those other men, some might be saved, most probably not. How great is my burden for them?

With these questions on my heart, I say "Thanks, Wilbur! You were a good companion, and now when I remember you, I'll have some better perspective on my life"

Thanksgiving--NOT a sad story

I've spent some time and space here relating "Sad Stories".....It's time to remind myself and my readers that not all stories are sad, that the Ultimate Story is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that is Good News!

This past Sunday, the Lord gave us a day in which He emphasized what a blessing are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our older son and his wife have been looking for a new church home, one where the Word is the focus and where Christ is exalted. Our church qualifies, I think, but the 150 mile round trip for them is too much, especially in these days of $3.00+ gasoline. Providence led me to the Shepherd's Fellowship and thence to the members list where I found 3 men who belonged to a church in the same county where they live, albeit a 45 minute drive. After reading their doctrinal statement and looking at their website, we decided to organize a visit for this past Sunday morning.

At the same time I was discussing this with our son, I was carrying on a "discussion" via internet with another member of the Shepherd's Fellowship who lives in the same county and was greatly discouraged by his "purpose-driven" church. He decided that he should check out this church possibility as well and we planned a meeting with him for the same Sunday morning.

The whole group arrived at church in time for Sunday School, had a few minutes for introductions among ourselves and met a few folks from the congregation before going into the Fellowship Hall for the adult s.s. class. What a blessing! A well-prepared, expository lesson through the 96th Psalm. What a radical change from what we have experienced in the past and from what the young folks have been experiencing in the churches where they've been until now.

The pastor of the congregation has been on sabbatical and the pulpit was filled by one of the teaching elders who did an exposition of Genesis 2, centered on the Truth of God's Word and focused on the Glory of God.

We were so encouraged to find this congregation, isolated in the sea of "seeker-sensitive" entertainment-focused churches, standing on the Word, dedicated to the Glory of God, with leadership determined to keep them faithful to the One Who gave Himself for the Church. We were encouraged to find a brother like our internet acquaintance who is convinced that he needs to be in a Christ-honoring church and willing to pay the cost to find such a place for himself and his family. It's especially encouraging to see our son following the leadership of the Spirit of God, seeking a Biblical church for himself and his wife.

After church, we went into a local restaurant for lunch and were blessed once again by running into a man who had been an inmate in one of the prisons where we hold services every week. While he was there, he was a leader among the brothers, faithful to attend services, with a strong testimony to the life-changing work of Christ in his life. I had heard from his pastor that he and his wife were constant in their church attendance and were striving to serve the Lord in their lives.....and here he was, with his wife, having just come from church. What a great reunion we had! It was a joy to see them, to meet his wife, to introduce them to our son and daughter-in-law, to have a few moments of renewed fellowship.

High on our list of "Things To Be Thankful For" should be our brethren in the Lord. I am grateful to God for all my brethren I've mentioned here, what an encouragement they are when we see the Lord at work in transformed lives.

But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(2Th 2:13-14)


And I want to join Paul in the following exhortation to those brethren and all my other brothers, that you stand fast; and in his prayer that God comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work:

Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.
(2Th 2:15-17)

Dispensationalism's Loosening Grip.....

When God saved me in 1976, I immediately began attending church with the men who had been faithfully witnessing Christ to me for the preceding year or so. It was not only a "King James Only" church but one where many of the members carried and read the same edition of an Oxford Press Scofield Reference Bible.....the so-called "old Scofield" to distinguish it from the 1960-ish "New Scofield" which had updated some of the archaic language in the King James (a real no-no in the KJO world). This Bible was so popularly used that the preacher could say "Turn to page 1114" and we'd all be looking at John 1.

My point is that I was "raised" a Scofield-type dispensationalist. I left Scofield behind some time ago but have continued to consider myself a dispy, especially in the negative sense--that is to say: I am NOT a follower of "covenant theology" Though I long ago abandoned ideas like "God saved men in different ways in different dispensations" I have continued, rather thoughtlessly I'm afraid, to follow dispensationalism in general. As I examine my somewhat unquestioning allegiance to this position, it seems that much of the motivation is my continued rejection of the alternative (or what I view as the alternative): Covenant Theology.

I admit up front, because it will be obvious soon enough, that I am no authority on Covenant Theology. I am just beginning to study it carefully. The initial stumbling block to me is infant baptism. My understanding is that covenant theology teaches that infant baptism is the New Testament (or Church Age) equivalent to circumcision. Sorry folks, there is NO scripture to back that up--not in my Bible anyway. Baptism is for believers...period.

Further, I am under the impression, subject to correction, that covenant theology leads to Amillennialism. That view of eschatology requires one to spiritualize much of OT prophecy. Can't do it......the Word of God stipulates a 1000-year reign of Christ on this Earth and I'm lookin' for it! Tied in with that is a denial of the literal restoration of Israel, the idea that the Church is Israel and all the promises, spiritual and earthly, given to Israel may be claimed by the Church. All this requires suspension of belief in the literal truth of the Word and the substitution of man's spiritualized interpretation.

So, when I look at the leading proponents of Dispensationalism, like Scofield and Ryrie, and see their errors--like the "different means for different dispensations" of Scofield and the idea of the Cross being "Plan B" I don't want to be too strongly identified as a Dispy, any more than I want to be identified with a bunch of baby sprinklers. This Scofield idea of the Church Age being a "parenthesis" in the plan of God is becoming repugnant to me. I've not read Ryrie thoroughly but will take a chance and relate what Dr Alan Cairns states as Ryrie's position (knowing that Cairns is strongly anti-dispensational and might have exaggerated this): Ryrie has carried the "parenthesis" idea even further. In a sentence, parenthetical remarks have relationship to the words before and after the parentheses. Ryrie says that the Cross and the ensuing Church Age are not parenthetical, but that they are an intercalation --that means the parenthetical words have no relationship whatsoever to the other words in the sentence, either before or after the parentheses. Ryrie is saying that the Cross and the Church have no relationship to the Old Testament economy, nor to the future Kingdom....that it is a totally separate and stand-alone event or phenomenon. All I can do is hope I've misunderstood that......if that's true, what is the Book of Hebrews doing in the Bible?

more later..........I welcome your views and am open to correction--just provide the Scripture with your thoughts.

About this blog......

As will soon become apparent, I'm new to this blog world. Let me begin with a few comments about the name I chose for this blog. Perhaps you know the scripture from which it's taken:

Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
(2Ti 2:7-9)

I could not begin to count the number of times I've read that passage over the past 30 years, but it struck me particularly and personally most recently and I've had it on my heart and mind. This week, as I started doodling around setting up this blog, that phrase seemed to "fill the bill" for the name.

Thank God that His Word is not bound! Paul bound in chains in that Roman prison knew that his sovereign God was not thwarted by man's efforts to disrupt the spread of the Gospel. In fact, God used persecution of the Church as a means to expand its influence.

Thank God that His Word is not bound by the limitations of the men who preach it! I am an "uneducated country preacher" but am able to trust God to use my flawed efforts to bring glory to His name. As concerned and conscientious as I am about preaching pure doctrine, rightly dividing the Word, I am all too aware of my propensity for error. How encouraging are His promises!

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
(Isa 55:11)

The great evangelist John Wesley held some confused positions regarding justification and sanctification but God used him in a wonderful way and thousands upon thousands of souls were saved under his ministry. Our sovereign God is not dependent upon the intellect and education of preachers.

Thank God that His Word is not bound by the limitations of the men who hear it! There are those, even in the Church, who think certain classes of men are beyond redemption. Since I work in prison ministry, I hear that kind of stuff frequently....."Why do you go out there?....with those people?" There are some "hard cases" in our prisons, but my God is able!


Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
(Heb 7:25)


For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
(Heb 4:12)

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(Eph 2:8)

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
(Rom 10:17)

Thank God, His Word is not bound!