Bin-Laden revisited: best comment yet

"In moments such as this, secularism leaves us bereft of any appropriate response. If there is no God above us, who trains our Seals for battle (Ps. 144:1), then we are left with two options, both of them bad. We are left without an appropriate vocabulary for our victories. Either we get a glorying in American military prowess, of the chest bumping variety, which is just obnoxious -- what Obama called spiking the football -- or we mistreat our warriors the way David did after the defeat of Absalom. But the only real alternative is to give glory to God. But that turns it into a religious war, and the secularists can't have that. So we are left with hubristic Americanism, or skulking home after the triumph. Gakk."           Douglas Wilson     (read the article here)

Caring for the proper things

I assume many Dovemountaineers have been following, as has my family, the media coverage of the royal wedding. I like what radio commentator Dennis Prager had to say on Friday:  "This was a celebration of all that is excellent in human achievement."  He also commended the fact that the wedding was decidedly non-secularist in the worldview and cultural impact that it had.

I later found the paragraphs below by a blogger identified simply as "hogan."   His reflections are worth paying attention to:

"But whatever one thinks of the Monarchy, in an increasingly pathetic MTV world - the ceremony today was extraordinary, and a good thing for the world to see. It was nothing short of impressive - timely, carried out with precision, dripping with military, Christian and royal traditions. The music was magnificent - there were actual hymns rather than gaudy “praise music” rock bands, a church that looks like a church, and the participants and guests were dressed not just appropriately, but perfectly… The procession was extraordinary, with hand-sewn uniforms and white and black horses leading the carriages - the Union Jack lining the streets.

The event was broadcast to an estimated 2 billion people. And in my view - that is a good thing. It can hardly be bad - for whatever flaws of the people involved - to remind people through the broadcast of a high religious ceremony that Christ is Lord. It can hardly be bad to have 2 billion people hear a Christian reminder of the importance of marriage in furthering mankind. It can hardly be bad to remind people that for all its flaws, the Anglo-influence has indeed made the world a far better place. And it is hardly bad to remind people that tradition matters - that carrying ourselves the proper way matters."

And I say, "Amen."

Praying the Psalms

Two Sundays ago I commended Dove Mountaineer John Bailey for using so much scripture in his congregational prayer.  I have always beleived that it is important that we follow scriptural models in our prayer life.  Last fall I mentioned this when I was teaching the couples' group how to teach their chidlren to pray.  One of the moms asked at the time, "Where do I get examples of phrases of adoration my children can put into their prayers?"  I told it was a thoughtful question, with an easy answer: Psalms.   Dietirch Bonhoeffer wrote, in one of his last books, "The Psalter filled the life of early Chrisitanity.  But more important than all of this is tht Jesus died on the cross with words from the Psalms on his lips.  Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure is lost to the Chrisitan church.  With its recovery will come unexpected power."                           

As you think about voting and the current election...

One of the controversies in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's time was "the Jewish question."  In his biography of Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas summarizes a controversial address Bonheffer made on this subject. Here are some excerpts from that address, dealing withe the relationship of church and state:

" 'The church must continually ask the state whether its [the state's] action can be justified as the legitimate action of the state, i.e., as action which leads to law and order, and not to lawlessness and disorder.'  In other words, it is the church's role to help the state be the state [emphasis in the original].  If the state is not creating an atmosphere of law and order, as Scripture says it must, then it is the job of the church to draw the state's attention to this failing.  And if on the other hand, the state is creating an atmosphere of "excessive law and order," it is the church's job to draw the state's attention to that too.

"If the state is creating 'excessive law and order,' then the 'state develops its power to such an extent that it deprives Christian preaching and Christian faith... of their rights.'  Bonhoeffer calls this a 'grotesque situation.'  'The church,' he said, 'must reject this encroachment of the order of the state precisely because of tis better knowledge of the state and of the limitations of its action.  The state which endangers the Christian proclamation negates itself."

Of course, it is well to point out that Bonhoeffer was executed by the state, eventually.  And that state fell ("negated itself") to the Allies three days later.

It's "Back to School" TIme

As some thoughtful parents assign part of their children's welfare to carefully chosen teachers with curriculum and procedures that are accountably based on a definable foundation, it is well to reflect on these words by PCA pastor George Grant:

"The great pioneers of Western Christendom thus not only took the Bible to be their blueprint for living, but they passed it on to their children in blueprint form. They believed that the revelation of God to men in the Bible was the authoritative starting point and the final court of intellectual appeal on earth. They would have wholeheartedly concurred with Cornelius Van Til when he asserted, 'The Bible is authoritative on everything of which it speaks. And it speaks of everything.'"

"Thus, they taught every educational discipline to their children on the assumption that all forms of secular knowledge had been constructed on foundations of philosophical, moral, and spiritual sand. This meant that children learned to read straight from God's Precepts. They began to hammer out principles of economics in terms of God's Word. They began to develop political perspectives based upon God's Commands. They pioneered art, music, and ideas that were Scripturally grounded. Everything, in every field, on every front, was built on a fundamental rejection of the notion that there might be areas of moral, intellectual, or cultural neutrality. They understood that every realm of human endeavor must flow from Biblical principles: mathematics, biology, literature, sociology, law, music, physics, and welfare. Because God has ordained that the Bible govern them all. This is the essence of the Biblical worldview."

Why I emphasize repentance so much

One of the things that readers of my articles in Presidentialprayerteam.com have noticed is that I urge readers to first pray prayers of repentance before prayers of intercession. It's just too tempting for Christians to believe the problems are always "out there" rather than "in here."

Years ago I was on a community task force about a particular social problem. I eventually resigned from this committee because of the presumption of everyone (except me) that the solution to any human problem was "a program of education." Returning to my Christian school, I used this experience to remind teaachers that "education (alone) cannot redeem, but the redeemed can be educated." In a recent blog in which he reviewed Glen Beck's new book, Pastor Douglas Wilson said much the same thing in this excerpt:

The solution to the political pathologies we see in Washington today is to get involved and "get informed." But the biblical answer is repentance, and repentance all the way down. Our solution is not to get angry at what "they" are doing to us, but rather to be grieved at what we have done to ourselves.

Wisdom from Havner

Dave Bowen delighted us with this quotation from twentieth century preacher Vance Havner: "Anyone who doubts that the dead can be raised to life again have not seen a congregation at the end of a typical church service."

In reading about this great preacher, I found a few more jewels.

This one is often quoted, but I never knew it was from Havner:
The preacher’s job is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

On the necessity of right fellowship:
People get so used to the dark that they think it is growing brighter. It is possible to fraternize with unbelievers until false doctrine becomes less and less objectionable.

On Christian obedience:
I have read of a Coast Guard crew summoned on a stormy night to rescue survivors from a sinking vessel. One member of the crew was fearful: “Captain,” he moaned, “we’ll never get back.” “We don’t have to come back,” was the reply, “we only have to go.”

And my favorite, a clear challenge to Dove Mountaineers:
Somebody asked a prominent figure of that day, “What do you think of civilization?” He replied, “I think it’s a good idea. Why doesn’t someone start it?”

Great Voices: Repentant Slaver

One of the greatest turn-around stories of the Great Awakening was the conversion of John Newton, captain of a slaving ship. Ironically, prior to becoming captain, Newton was once captive in Africa, and actually of servant of the black people he later enslaved and hauled to America. Converted in 1748, Newton eventually left the slave trade and became a priest in the Church of England in 1764. As a preacher, Newton became so popular that a gallery had to be added to his church to hold the crowds. He penned a book of hymns called Olney Hymns, including the favorite, "Amazing Grace."

Here are a selection of quotes from John Newton:

“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.”

“Though troubles assail And dangers affright, Though friends should all fail And foes all unite; Yet one thing secures us, Whatever betide, The scripture assures us, The Lord will provide."

“Our righteousness is in Him, and our hope depends, not upon the exercise of grace in us, but upon the fullness of grace and love in Him, and upon His obedience unto death.”

This is the fifth in a series of five posts taken from a chapel program prepared for Redeemer Christian School, Mesa, Arizona, on "The Voices of the Great Awakening."

Great Voices: Crusader

One of the important voices of the Great Awakening period was not a preacher, but a crusader for social reform. As an adult convert, William Wilberforce was eager to apply the Bible in the areas of influence he was already privy to as a member of parliament. He was instrumental in getting laws passed to protect the Lord's Day, and was active in movements such as "Society for the Suppression of Vice," and the "Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals." He stirred up considerable financial support for the Church Missions Society, paritcularly on behalf of India and Sierra Leone. But his crowning acheivement was the success of legislation which completely abolished slavery throughout the entire British Empire in 1833.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Wilberforce:

“And, sir, when we think of eternity, and of the future consequences of all human conduct, what is there in this life that should make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion, and of God?”

“Is it not the great end of religion, and, in particular, the glory of Christianity, to extinguish the malignant passions; to curb the violence, to control the appetites, and to smooth the asperities of man; to make us compassionate and kind, and forgiving one to another; to make us good husbands, good fathers, good friends; and to render us active and useful in the discharge of the relative social and civil duties?”

“If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.”

This is the fourth in a series of five posts taken from a chapel program prepared for Redeemer Christian School, Mesa, Arizona, on "The Voices of the Great Awakening."

Great Voices: Voice of Thunder

George Whitefield is largely credited with launching the First Great Awakening in North America in 1730. He was one of the earliest long distance traveling evangelists, making thirteen Atlantic crossings bettween his home in England and his mission field in America.

One of his most unusual qualities was his booming voice. Whitefield is reported to have preached numerous times to outdoors gathering between ten and twenty thousand, without benefit of our present day means of amplification. Benjamin Franklin, upon leaving a sermon early, reported he was able to hear Whitefield's voice all the way back to his house!

Here are a selection of my favorite quotes by Whitefield:

“And now let me address all of you, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, to accept of mercy and grace while it is offered to you; Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation; and will you not accept it, now it is offered unto you?”

"For it pleased God, after he had made all things by the word of his power, to create man after his own image.”

“It is very remarkable, that in the book of life, we find some almost of all kinds of occupations, who notwithstanding served God in their respective generations, and shone as so many lights in the world.”

The is the third in a series of five posts taken from a chapel program prepared for Redeemer Christian School, Mesa, Arizona, on "The Voices of the Great Awakening."

Great Voices: American Puritan

Best remembered for his sermon, "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God," Jonathan Edwards was exemplary of that curious mixture of solemnity and deep joy which Leland Ryken writes of in his Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were. Edwards wrote hundreds of sermons, dozens of books, and was a great educator, both at Yale and Princeton (when they were actually Christian colleges). But what I admire about him most were his progeny: he was father and grandfather to thirteen university presidents, sixty-five professors, and scores of ministers.

Here are a selection of my favorite quotes by Edwards:

“Resolution One: I will live for God.
Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.”

“To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here”

“The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified and exalted.”

The is the second in a series of five posts taken from a chapel program prepared for Redeemer Christian School, Mesa, Arizona, on "The Voices of the Great Awakening."

Great Voices: European Reformer

From time to time I have quoted from The Losungen here, a lectionary of daily readings published by the Moravian Church. The Moravians are the result of the Christian community-building efforts of Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760). Like many of the other Protestant Reformers, Zinzendorf did not set out to "found" a denomination, but grateful followers tend to perpetutate the ways of their leaders, and the rest is history.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from Zinzendorf:

"I have but one passion - it is He, He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ..."

"Our method of proclaiming salvation is this: to point out to every heart the loving Lamb, who died for us, and although He was the Son of God, offered Himself for our sins...by the preaching of His blood, and of His love unto death, even the death of the cross, never, either in discourse or in argument, to digress even for a quarter of an hour from the loving Lamb: to name no virtue except in Him, and from Him and on His account - to preach no commitment except faith in Him; no other justification but that he atoned for us; no other sanctification but the privilege to sin no more; no other happiness but to be near Him, to think of Him and do His pleasure; so other self-denial but to be deprived of Him and His blessings; no other calamity but to displease Him; no other life but in Him."

"There can be no Christianity without community."

The is the first in a series of five posts taken from a chapel program prepared for Redeemer Christian School, Mesa, Arizona, on "The Voices of the Great Awakening."

Mere Christianity

For those not familiar (or formerly familiar) with C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, the words are those of a senior devil instructing his young nephew on the arts and crafts of tempting humans:

"The real trouble about the set [of friends] your patient [human being tempted] is living in is that it is merely Christian. They all have individual interests, of course, but the bond remains mere Christianity. What we [devils] want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call "Christianity and." You know - Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian coloring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing."

As we anticipate the regularity of the Lord's Day tomorrow, let us be thankful for that particular Same Old Thing, realizing we stnd in a two thousand-year-old tradition with roots even several thousand years deeper!

Heroes of the faith

A few weeks ago in the Manhattan Declaration Sunday School class we talked about heroes of the faith who have gone before us. Nearly every one of us could name one or more of our own personal heroes, many of whom were not familiar to all members of the class. One of those named was Amy Carmichael, and although I had heard her name before, I decided it was time to learn more about her.

Amy Carmichael was in in Northern Ireland in 1867 to a Presbyterian family. After successfully founding Welcome Evangelical Church in Belfast, which ministered primarily to young millworkers, she went to the mission field, eventually serving in India for fifty-one years. She founded the Dohnavur Fellowship, which rescued unwanted young girls who would have been forced into temple prostitution.

In her work in the orphanage she taught and nurtured hudnreds of souls in their faith, and over the course of her lifetime published thirty-seven books, primarily devotional in nature. The fruit of her work still remains in India (see here), and one of her most famous sayings was:

One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving." — - Amy Carmichael

He actually said it!

...and I agree!

"Our children are taken into captivity because of apathy on the part of the church."
Pastor Allen Cooney, February 28, 2010

Now, what do we do about it?

Mudpies or beach vacation?

From a recent sermon (because these gems come out of Pastor Allen's lips so quickly, and I knew you would want to read it over and know the source):




“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desire not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, we are like ignorant children who want to continue making mud pies in a slum because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

The Weight of Glory and other addresses, by C.S. Lewis. (The Macmillian Company, New York 1949).

Speaking of television...

“The fight against censorship is a nineteenth century issue which was largely won in the twentieth. What we are confronted with now is the problem posed by the economic and symbolic structure of television. Those who run television do not limit our access to information but in fact widen it. Our Ministry of Culture is Huxleyan, not Orwellian. It does everything possible to encourage us to watch continuously. But what we watch is a medium which presents information in a form that renders it simplistic, nonsubstantive, nonhistorical and noncontextual; that is to say, information packaged as entertainment. In America, we are never denied the opportunity to amuse ourselves.” Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death, p.141.

The Return of the Prodigal

One of the book clubs I belong to (yes, there are four!) just finished Ravi Zacharias's Jesus Among Other Gods: the Absolute Claims of the Christian Message. The subtitle tells it all: the Christiam message is unambiguous about the identity of Christ. Postmodernism tolerates eveything but its own absolute claims, and the certainty of Christ's lordship stands in direct contrast.

In the last chapter, Zacharias tells a moving story about Catholic scholar Henry Nouwen, who had a deep fascination with Rembrant's The Return of the Prodigal Son (above). When Nouwen was finally able to see the original, he sat gazing on it for four hours! Here are Nouwen's thoughts about this remarkable painting:

"And so there I was; facing the painting that had been on my mind and in my heart for nearly three years. I was stunned by its majestic beauty. Its size, larger than life; its abundant reds, browns, and yellows; its shadowy recess and bright foreground, but most of all the light-enveloped embrace of father and son surrounded by four mysterious bystanders, all of this gripped me with an intensity far beyond my anticipation. There had been moments in which I had wondered whether the real painting might disappoint me. The opposite was true. Its grandeur and splendor made everything recede into the background and held me completely captivated.

Rembrandt's embrace remained imprinted on my soul far more profoundly than any temporary expression of emotional support. It has brought me into touch with something within me that lies far beyond the ups and downs of life, something that represents the ongoing yearning of the human spirit, the yearning for a final return, an unambiguous sense of safety, a lasting home."

We all share this longing for a "lasting home." In Christ we have been provided that hope! Thank God for Rembrandt, and his ability to portray the fulfillment of this hope!

From whence, authority?

One of the books I end up recommending over and over to parents is Tedd Tripps's Shepherding a Child's Heart. Here is an excerpt from its early pages on where the authority for good parenting comes from:

"Our culture tends toward the extreme poles on a continuum. In the area of authority, we tend toward a crass kind of John Wayne authoritarianism or toward being a wimp. God calls you by His Word and by His example (emphasis mine) to be authorities who are truly kind. God calls you to exercise authority, not in making your children do what you want, but in being true servants - authorities who lay down our lives. The purpose for your authority in the lives of your children is not to hold them under your power, but to empower them to be self-controlled people living freely under the authority of God....As a parent, you must exercise authority. You must require obedience of your children because they are called by God to obey and honor you (emphasis mine). You must exercise authority, not as a cruel taskmaster, but as one who truly loves them."

Breaking Bread, Breaking Sin

One of the things I like about the way we observe communion at Dove Mountain is that Pastor Allen visibly breaks the loaf right before our eyes. I am reminded of a communion meditation on this subject written by Pastor Douglas Wilson. Reprinted here from his blog, it is entitled "Breaking, Bread, Breaking Sin." For any of you are reading this before going to church today, may it help you as we prepare for the Lord's Table.

"This bread is the sacrament of the body of the Lord, as He put it. And when He picked it up in the institution of this meal, He took the bread that represented His own body, and He gave thanks, and He broke it. The remarkable grace and love that we see here is striking, but there is something else to be learned from this. Jesus broke the body that was to bear our sins, and in that breaking we see the salvation of the world. What else does God break? When we think about this, we should come to recognize what sorts of things are broken in the world as we commemorate this meal in true evangelical faith.

God breaks the images and idols (2 Kings 23:14). God breaks the houses of the sodomites (2 Kings 23:7). God breaks the weapons of war (Ps. 76:3). God breaks the jaws of the wicked (Ps. 3:7; Job 29:17). In short, God breaks all rebellion and sin.

In this memorial, we can see how He does this in such a way that we are not consumed. God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) so that we could be broken with Him, and restored and made whole with Him. Jesus took on the likeness of sinful flesh so that all those corruptions could be placed on Him, and there broken forever (Rom. 8:3). God condemned sin in the flesh, and in that condemnation, in that breaking, you can see your only hope.

In just a moment, I will lift the loaf of bread up and I will break it. Just as surely as you see that bread broken, so you are invited to see your sins, all of them, broken forever.

This is good news indeed. Come, and partake of it."