Report of the Watcher

This Sunday we are looking at Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38ff. 50 years ago A.W. Tozer caught the jist of this passage when he wrote,
"Were some watcher or holy one from the bright world above to come among us for a while with the power to diagnose the spiritual ills of church people there is one entry which I am quite sure would appear on the vast majority of his reports: Definite evidence of chronic spiritual lassitude; level of moral enthusiasm extremely low.
"What makes this condition especially significant is that Americans are not naturally an unenthusiastic people. Indeed they have a world-wide reputation for being just the opposite. Visitors to our shores from other countries never cease to marvel at the vigor and energy with which we attack or problems. We live at a fever pitch, and whether we are erecting buildings, laying highways, promoting athletic events, celebrating special days or welcoming returning heroes we always do it with an exaggerated flourish. Our building will be taller, our highway broader, our athletic contest more colorful, our celebration more elaborate and more expensive than would be true anywhere else on earth. We talk faster, drive faster, earn more, spend more, and run a higher blood pressure than any other people in the world.
"In only one field of interest we are slow and apathetic: that is the field of personal religion. There for some strange reason our enthusiasm lags. Church people habitually approach the matter of their personal relation to God in a dull, half-hearted way which is altogether out of keeping with their general temperament and wholly inconsistent with the importance of the subject.It is true that there is a lot of religious activity among us. Interchurch basketball tournaments, religious splash parties followed by devotions, weekend camping trips with a Bible quiz around the fire, Sunday School picnics, building fund drives and ministerial breakfasts are with us in unbelievable numbers, and they are carried on with typical American gusto. It is when we enter the sacred precincts of the heart’s personal religion that we suddenly lose all enthusiasm."

Why Hell?

This may seem a strange time of year to be thinking about hell. But I stumbled upon this excellent article called "The Importance of Hell" by Tim Keller, and wanted to place a link here. I don't know how long this link will be good, so don't wait too long....

Something for a College Student in Your Life

I always look forward to Christmas and summer vacations. That's because college students come home. I don't get to know them the way I would like to--but I wish I could and did. And I enjoy seeing them.
In fact, I am reading a book that is intended for college students, and that I am finding an excellent read. It is written by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., who was once the president of Calvin College (his brother Alvin is one of America's premier philosophers, and an articulate defender of Christianity against its secular philosophical despisers). One of Cornelius's other excellent books you may have heard me mention--Not the Way It's Supposed to Be, which is a powerful book on sin.
So for the college student in your life--if it's too late for Christmas, get it for them for New Year's Day. It's available from http://www.wtsbooks.com/ (good discounts!), among other places.

The Real Tightwads

Many of you will appreciate the unexpected (?) findings by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof found here.

Incarnation

The divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needed to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child…. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. (J.I. Packer)

Our Disinformed Electorate

During the last election cycle I, along with many others, appreciated the web site www.factcheck.org. They tried to sift through the competing claims of campaign advertisements, and find the truth (or lack thereof) therein. For you perusal, here is their post-partum report, titled Our Disinformed Electorate. A worthwhile read--particularly if you thought one side had all the truth and the other side all the falsehood.
I mention this becaue tomorrow we are going to look at Christ, the newborn king, in relation to the wise men from Persia, the wise men in Jerusalem, and the "King of the Jews" Herod. We long for King Jesus. At present his kingdom is spiritual, and we sojourn in earthly kingdoms (and republics, democracies, etc.). None of these earthly kingdoms and their aspiring rulers can deliver. That doesn't mean we should give up on them--they serve the common good at God's appointment (Romans 13:1-7), but we dare not put our ultimate hope in them (Psalm 146:3).

Real Harmony Amidst Apparent Contradiction

I'm studying the Magi in Matthew 2, and here is a marvelous quote from John Calvin about this account:
"A beautiful instance of real harmony, amidst apparent contradiction, is here exhibited. A star from heaven announces that he is a king, to whom a manger, intended for cattle, serves for a throne, because he is refused admittance among the lowest of the people. His majesty shines in the East, while in Judea it is so far from being acknowledged, that it is visited by many marks of dishonor. Why is this? The heavenly Father chose to appoint the star and the Magi as our guides, to lead directly to his Son: while he stripped him of all earthly splendor, for the purpose of informing us that his kingdom is spiritual. This history conveys profitable instruction, not only because God brought the Magi to his Son, as the first-fruits of the Gentiles, but also because he appointed the kingdom of his Son to receive their commendation, and that of the star, for the confirmation of our faith; that the wicked and malignant contempt of his nation might not render him less estimable in our eyes."

Redefine Christmas

In this Sunday's sermon I'm going to make reference to a newspaper ad to "redefine Christmas." Here is a link to an article (from 2007) about the "Redefine Christmas" ads, web site, etc. Here is a link to comments about it. Both are interesting reading. What do you think? And find out Sunday what it has to do with the visit of the Magi to see Jesus...

Jesus Made in America Redux

A few months ago I blogged enthusiatically about Stephen Nichols' book, Jesus: Made in America. Here is a video interview of Steve about that book, with Derek Thomas. Steve will be our speaker at our 2009 "Greater Reading Gathering of Reformed Evangelicals" (a meeting which, incidentally, needs a new name; I am open to suggestions!).

Something different

Sometimes being a missionary is quite exciting... click here.

Joining in Prayer, Some More

Those of us who are naturally inclined loners may need to grab ourselves by the shirt collar and give ourselves a stern scolding, something along the line of: My true identity before God is marred if I indulge this attitude of emotional withdrawal and keeping my relational distance. It does not allow me to be fulfilled; I am not growing in grace as long as I indulge myself in inner detachment in this way; my children and my friends are not benefitting as they should from my example of shared faith. My call from God as one of his people is to be transparently close to others in fellowship, ready to open my heart to share my own testimony, just as I need to receive the testimony of others, and I should be as ready to pray with them as they are to pray with me. (J.I. Packer, Praying, p. 254)

Joining In Prayer

In preparing for this week's Sunday School class (on prayer in fellowship with others) I came across this excellent descriptiong by J.I. Packer of some of what ails the church (as a whole) nowadays. Packer writes about what he calls an overly individualistic "piety":
'The popular form of pietism that we no face... is this priority of "personal relationship with God" pulled out of shape by this modern, secular, Enlightenment-bred type of individualism that teaches us to see ourselves as distinct from, if not actually against, all existing forms of society (family, school, political consensus, cultural consensus, church, whatever). In secular contexts this individualism glorifies the rebel; in Christian contexts it makes recognition of churchly identity as part of our Christian identity difficult.... The popular pietist way is to value church services... as we value gas stations and maybe college lectures too: we show up in order (in one sense or another) to fill up and then go on our way without any sense of continuing commitment to the source of our filling.'
The antidote is found in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul speaks of the church as a body; or Ephesians 4, especially vv. 11-16, where, growing up into Christ, the whole body makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. So close are we in Christ, and so dependent on one another. Come and reflect on this together Sunday in Sunday School.

Fixing, Forcing, and Ordering

In connection with the Daily Office, here are some of the Puritan John Owen's words about meditating on God's Word:
"To be spiritually minded... is to have our minds really exercised with delight about heavenly things..., especially Christ himself as at the right hand of God.
"Spiritual-mindedness is developed, exercised, and reinforced by meditation.
"By meditation I intend the thought of some subject spiritual and divine, with the fixing, forcing, and ordering of our thoughts about it, with a design to affect our own hearts and souls with the matter of it.... In meditation our principal aim is the affecting of our own hearts and minds with love, delight, and humiliation." (from Praying, by J.I. Packer)

"Daily Office" Resources

Here are a number of resources to use for the "daily office," that is, times to be with God throughout the day in meditation on his Word and prayer (in the case of books, links will take you to where to buy them):
Heart Aflame: Daily reflections on several verses from the Psalms, from John Calvin's commentary on the Psalms (I have used this for my noontime office).
Valley of Vision is a collection of about 180 prayers, from the published prayers of Puritan preachers. I use these prayers to start my own prayers when I first arrive at the church office. (It is also available in an audio format, and in a sturdy leatherbound volume.)
Another similar collection of prayers is by John Baillie, A Diary of Daily Prayers. It has morning and evening prayers for each day of the month.
Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours (comes in several volumes; one is Autumn and Winter, then there are Spring and Summer volumes as well). Tickle has brought together prayers from Scripture (mostly) with prayers from the Book of Common Prayer and church history. The downside is that it has a Roman Catholic "bent," but I would say it is not fatal. I have used her volume for Christmastide. You can find these volumes on Amazon, if nowhere else.
You can get the offices from the Book of Common Prayer online, and organized by day here (this is the internet; it's not perfect. But try "Rite II" for the time you want--the day's date, morning, noon, or evening). Or you can find just the Bible passages for the day in the ESV version here.
Somewhat more distinctly Roman Catholic, so somewhat more problematic perhaps, because less grace-centered (no one Reformed has done much of this, alas), is the daily office of the Northumbria Community, found here.
Perhaps the best way to start is to begin with Psalm 1, and take a few verses from the psalms consecutively until you work your way through all of the psalms. It will take quite a while, and you will become more familiar with the psalms (the church's inspired "prayer book," as it is sometimes called). Of course, you will want to intersperse your reading of the psalms with your own prayers, but the psalms should get you going.
Don't forget the "daily office" is God's work in you through his Word--not your work. Beware of both legalism and self-righteousness as you receive his Word in this way. It is he who works in us both to will and to do what he purposes for us (Philippians 2:13)

Brokenness

It has been a while since I got around to adding anything to the blog. That is not a function of laziness, but of busy-ness, I promise. It is also a function of brokenness.
Brokenness. Not a popular idea. Something we try very, very hard to hide. But it is unavoidable, and the sooner we make peace with our brokenness--by recognizing it, not being surprised by it, and applying the gospel to it--the sooner we will grow in grace, and in graciousness.
I have been extremely busy lately because of the brokenness of others, which in turn feeds my own brokenness. But let me add, because of the gospel that is a good thing. It is good for us to face our own sinful limitations, to find out anew that we are not "together" apart from the gospel. "Apart from me you can do nothing," Jesus said (John 15:5)--but we sure do try. And we sure do fail. And we sure do hide our failure. And it makes no sense for us to do so, but we do anyway.
For his part, Christ loved broken people. The tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5:29-31). The serial adulterers (John 4). The people who sinned, and who owned up to it, and sought his redress for it. When you think about it, that is what all Christians are--people who sin, own up to it, and seek Christ's redress for their sin.
So let's not hide our brokenness unnecessarily. We have nothing to prove before Christ except his gracious redemption (1 Corinthians 1:31). We have nothing to prove before one another except Christ and his gracious redemption.

Job--Before and After

In this Sunday's sermon I am going to make reference to William Blake's paintings on the life of Job. Here is Job's family before and after in Blake's series of paintings:

At the beginning (notice the instruments up in the tree):

At the end:

Job 42:5-6: "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Things That Cannot Be Shaken

In light of the financial crisis, here are some thoughts from the 19th century by British pastor Charles Spurgeon (sometimes called the "last of the Puritans"), who in his lifetime lived through some financial crises as well. Take your time to sift through the unfamiliar language to find the biblical truth he gives:
"We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things. Yet, we have certain "things which cannot be shaken," and I invite you this evening to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain. Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot of His cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus' precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in Him; no breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening. God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, "He is my Father still. In my Father's house are many mansions; therefore will I not be troubled." You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of His affectionate naturenothing can affect that. The fig tree may not blossom, and the flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing, "My Beloved is mine, and I am His." Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel's land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the summer's ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earthborn, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation."

Hat tip: Bobbi Cansick.

Emotional Health and the Therapeutic Culture

As you read Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, the one thing you should be aware of is Scazzero's frequent use of therapeutic or pop-psychological terms in place of more biblical language. Even the phrase "emotionally healthy" may strike us a bit more therapeutic than biblical.
So let me try to explain (1) what we are trying to get at by using this book, and (2) what to do with the therapeutic language.
(1) If you read what the watching world says about "born-again" types, one frequent criticism is that they are hypocrites. They talk a big game about morality, both private and public, but when you scratch the surface, "born-againers" are not that different from anyone else.
Inasmuch as this is true (and it often is!), it should humble us--and drive us back to the gospel, asking God to complete the work he has begun in us. And our desire should be for God, beyond transforming the surface of our icebergs (the 10% of our lives that is externally visible), to transform the whole iceberg. This includes the secret corners of our hearts, where much sin lurks unexposed.
And one of the goals is that we would love well--love God with all that we are, and love our neighbors as ourselves--in a way that is genuine, true, authentic, and complete, not merely on the surface. Again, we will not be perfect in this life; but by God's grace (alone!) we rejoice in whatever progress we make.
(2) Therefore, we will need to interpret correctly the language of therapy. Here, for example, is a quote Scazzero uses from a book by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman:

Emotions are the language of the soul. They are the cry that gives the heart a voice.... However, we often turn a deaf ear--through emotional denial, distortion, or disengagement. We strain out anything disturbing in order to gain tenuous control of our innner world. We are frightened and ashamed of what leaks into our consciousness. In neglecting our intense emotions, we are false to ourselves and lose a wonderful opportunity to know God. We forget that change comes through brutal honesty and vulnerability before God.

Now Allender and Longman have not spoken, in that paragraph, about sin, and it may bother us that they have not. We may wish they had. However, though they have used the language of psychology, they are making a biblical point--but it takes some sanctified imagination to "translate" what they write.

Thus "gain[ing] tenuous control of our inner world" means, translated, becoming our own gods--idolatry. Being "frightened and ashamed of what leaks into our consciousness" means that we see rotten fruit coming out of our hearts (which include our emotions), and it reveals that there is sinful rotteness in our hearts (see Luke 7:43-45). "Brutal honesty and vulnerability before God" by which "change comes" is what the Psalmist calls for in Psalm 139:23-24.

We may be more comfortable with language that is more directly biblical. On the other hand, sometimes what is more familiar splashes off of us too easily, without penetrating our hearts. So before we write something off because it doesn't use words we are used to, we do well to listen and try to apply it.

New dollar bill

In light of recent events, I heard today, a new dollar bill is being printed...

Hat tip: the folks at Kardia Learning Center.

Emotionally Healthy Market-watching?

In light of Sunday's sermon, we might ask ourselves what kinds of emotions a present look at our financial portfolio (for those who have one) evokes. Fear? Surprise? Disbelief? What do our emotions about that say about what is in our hearts?
Even so, compassion is also called for. I'm sure there are many who had been working to retire--but who now find themselves suddenly 20% shorter than 6 months ago; whereas people my age and younger still have ample time for their retirement investments to recover.
The ethics of the credit debacle, and of the recovery plan that today failed in the House of Representatives, is (to quote Obama on another matter) "above my pay grade." Still, it seems to me that a people who live on debt are asking for just this kind of thing to happen--as are those who peddle debt to others. As a friend of ours says, we live in a culture that has a greater love for debt than for children, and surely something is backwards in that equation.

Financial Turmoil Cont'd

I can't help myself--I am fascinated by the Wall Street upheaval. So I am trying to learn how all this happens. Is it simple greed? Is it lack of regulation? Who is responsible? Well, here is another article that I found helpful, and you may, too.

Financial Turmoil

I am neither an economist nor otherwise much learned in matters of finance (except for keeping the family finances). But one of the great idols of our time is named "portfolio" ("portfolio" also has many proper uses, in his own place, of course). And so it is with some interest that I followed the events on Wall Street banks over the last ten days or so. And in my own unlearned way, here is an article I found of some help in understanding what it is all about. Most evangelicals are part of the "Reagan Coalition" of social conservatives, free-enterprise business interests, and foreign policy hawks. It seems to be that perhaps this is an area, however, where we have not been served by unregulated markets. If the government has a role to play in social policy (abortion, etc.)--where I think evangelicals generally overstate government's role--does it also have a valuable role to play in regulating the financial markets? Something to think about...

Jesus' Emotional Life

This Sunday our focus will be Jesus' emotional life. Perhaps that seems a strange concept for you. It certainly has opened up a new way of seeing Jesus for me. A great deal of what I preach will come from an excellent essay by B.B. Warfield (professor at old Princeton Seminary) entitled, "The Emotional Life of our Lord." It's a pretty good read!

Cevastation in Haiti

If you subscribe to the Hopp's blog, please go read it. If you do not, please click here for a Miami Herald report about PCA missionsary Charles Amicy in Cabaret, just a short distance from where the Hopps live. And pray.

Elders and Deacons

This coming Sunday I will be preaching on elders and deacons--since this is the beginning of the month where every year we nominate men for those offices. If you want to study more about this, much of what I say comes from a little book (69 pages) called The Elders of the Church, by Lawrence Ayres. I have extra copies to give to whoever promises to read it--see me on Sunday.

Ben Hopp's Visit

Check out the Hopps' blog, where he writes about his visit to Covenant (and shooting a potato gun at the Kelly's). (You will need "approval" from Ben to veiw his blog--email him if you are not signed up yet).

Proximate Justice

Proximate justice is one way to describe what we get between Jesus' resurrection and his Second Coming. We do not get perfect justice (or righteousness, or goodness, or even perfect truth) because of the affect of sin in our lives. We get proximate justice. See this article by Steve Garber. This is a helpful way to look at election season; it is also a helpful way to look at our own lives.
I came across an example of proximate justice in 2 Chronicles 30 this morning. Hezekiah is king of Judah, and he and his princes and officials desire to keep the Passover. Passover, according to Exodus 12, is to be kept in the first month of the year; but Hezekiah finds he has does not have enough consecrated priests and Levites (v. 3). So, v. 2, they determine to keep the Passover in the second month.
Sometimes it is right to take what we can get, instead of insisting on perfection (and losing out altogether!). It is not that timing of the Passover did not matter--it did. But it was better to keep the Passover (a picture of the gospel, of what the coming Messiah would do--which is the central them of all of Scripture, Luke 24:45-49) at the wrong time, than not to keep it at all.

Brief Foray into Politics

Here is a brief foray into politics. I did not see much of the Democratic convention, as I will probably not see much of the Republican convention. It's not that I'm not interested (I am). But conventions are mostly show-biz and little substance ("The conventions have descended into a four-day-long infomercial for the two parties that epitomizes the shameless consummation of interests between Democratic and Republican parties and corporations..."--a rare truth spoken by none other than Ralph Nader). Besides, I'd rather play with my children or converse with my wife than watch political speeches on TV (both my children and my wife might not agree...). But I do occasionally read the commentary, and here is a good article by Peggy Noonan on the Democratic convention.

Christ or a Cause

Like you, I am not always enthusiastic about what appears in the New Horizons. But when you get the August issue, do check out the article on pp. 8-9 titled, A Person--Not a Cause. If you think about what Brian Wingard says there it will help to put many things into perspective--and keep us from too closely identifying Christ with a cause that may, no matter how worthy it is, threaten to steal the limelight from him as Redeemer and Lord. Click here to read the article.

Weekend with Addison Soltau

This last weekend we had a guest preacher, Dr. Addison Soltau, missionary kid from Korea, later missionary in Japan, and professor of missions at Covenant Seminary, now serving (at an age when many have faded into retirement) as assistant pastor at a church in Florida. It was a delightful time interacting with him, in addition to his preaching on Sunday morning. Sorry not everyone got to spend as much time with him as I did. But let me refer you to someone who knows him longer and better than I do to tell you more about it. Check out Barbaranne's blog by clicking here.

Sermon on Sexual Purity

Just in case you missed Ross's excellent sermon on sexual purity from August 10, it is available to listen to online. Go to Covenant's web site, or click here to listen.

Best of the Puritans

In Steve Nichol's book (see previous post) he takes the Puritans as his benchmark. Who were the Puritans? Let me interject here something from another book, Worldly Saints by Leland Ryken (father of Phil Ryken, pastor at Tenth Pres in Philly). In the preface, J.I. Packer describes the Puritans as follows (p. xi-xii):
"As their Christianity was all-embracing, so their living was all of a piece. Nowadays we would call this lifestyle wholistic: all awareness, activity, and enjoyment, all 'use of the creatures' and development of personal powers and creativity, were integrated in the single purpose of honoring God by appreciating all his gifts and making everything 'holiness to the Lord.' There was for them no disjunction between the sacred and the secular; all creation, so far as they were concerned, was sacred, and all activities, of whatever kind, must be sanctified, that it, done to the glory of God. So, in their heavenly-minded ardor the Puritans became men and women of order, matter-of-fact and down-to-earth, prayerful, purposeful, practical. Seeing life whole, they integrated contemplation with action, worship with work, labor with rest, love of God with love of neighbor and of self, personal with social identity, and the wide spectrum of relational responsibilities with each other, in a throughly conscientious and thought-out way." (Of course Packer is speaking here of the ideal; whether every Puritan lived up to this ideal is, no doubt, another question.)
"Knowing themselves to be creatures of thought, affection [emotion], and will, and knowing that God's way to the human heart (will) is via the head (the mind), the Puritans practised meditation, discursive and and systematic, on the whole range of biblical truth as they saw it applying to themselves. Puritan meditation on Scripture was modeled on the Puritan sermon; in meditation the Puritan would seek to search and challenge his heart, to stir his affections [emotions] to hate sin and love righteousness, and to encourage himself with God's promises, just as the Puritan preachers would do from the pulpit. This rational, resolute, passionate piety was conscious without becoming obsessive, law-oriented without lapsing into legalism, and expressive of Christian liberty without shameful lurches into license...."

Jesus-Made in America

While on vacation, I have deeply enjoyed--and been challenged by--Steve Nichols' book, Jesus Made in America. The subtitle is, "A Cultural History from the Puritans to The Passion of the Christ." (Steve Nichols is now Research Professor of Christianity and Culture at Lancaster Bible College; ten years ago he was my boss at the Westminster Campus Bookstore, while he was working on his Ph.D. and I on my M. Div.). This is a sometimes disconcerting, but excellent book.
For example, on Jesus as he was understood during the revolutionary war era Nichols writes: "The Jesus of America's founders compares to Jesus throughout the rest of America's history like a prelude to a symphony: we hear in brief the melodies and motifs to come. Jesus is a fine purveyor of morality and virtue. He is humble and meek, industrious and honest. The Gospels are a fine companion for life, especially for the young who are making their way in the world. Both Jesus and the Gospels are indispensable to both public welfare and private devotion and piety. Jesus is needed in life, to be sure, but he is also needed at death, where he welcomes departed aints into heaven's bosom. But he is less than divine. He is amiable and loving, but not judge. All of these motifs reverberate throughout nineteenth- and twentieth-century treatments of Jesus, all too often drowning out the still, small voices of the Puritans."
Here, indeed, is a recurring theme in Nichols' book: "American evangelicals do indeed like Jesus; we just don't always like him straight."
Well, I'm still on vacation, and must be off vacationing. More to follow, from other periods in American history.

Stuff of interest

For the most part, this blog will be pointing to worthwhile stuff about the world we live in, and particularly about how we can follow Jesus in that world.

Let me begin with a confession--I am a frequent visitor to the New York Times website. This is in part because they have David Brooks--for my money the best common-grace political commentator out there. For another, because there is the most complete international news available. But also because there I see what is shaping the thinking of the people around me--whether I like it or not (sometimes I do, sometimes I don't).

Here is something from there that is interesting. Being environmentally aware (however you want to put it) is a big deal these days. But it is not easy--even for the more extreme ones. Read this interesting post from Stanley Fish (one of the leaders of "post-modernism," as ill defined as that is) on the difficulty of being environmentally dutiful.

(And while you are there, don't miss David Brooks' column today (Tuesday) about why Obama is not way ahead at this point...)

Fish's column shows that while it is not easy to live by God's law (in fact, it is impossible for sinners), it is also not easy to live by man's law either--even when it is intended to "save the planet." Substituting man's law for God's, however, doesn't work either. It didn't work for the Pharisees; it won't work for the environmentalists either. And Fish manages to write very interestingly about it.

First time

Here goes--a blog primarily to let the folks at Covenant know what their pastor is finding that may be of interest to them.
There is a lot more that goes into ministering at Covenant than comes out in Sunday School lessons, sermons, worship leading, etc. Here I will put thoughts, articles, etc. that are behind what comes out in formal ministry. Stay tuned...