William Cowper and Perseverance

While working on a Sunday School lesson, I recently came across a talk by John Piper on the life of William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper," it turns out). You can listen to it here. It takes on the difficult question of the "perseverance of the saints" in a life marked primarily by despair and depression. It also highlights the "mysterious way" in which God moves--Cowper is the writer of several hymns, including "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" and "There is a Fountain Filled with Blood."

I'm not sure why, but I have a fascination with the "hard cases," such as William Cowper. If you do, too, you may be interested in this.

Good Article on Massachusetts Medical Care System

A little off on an unusual topic, here is a Factcheck report on the Massachusetts health care law, six years after it was passed. This is of interest to political types, because Mitt Romney, a likely republican presidential candidate, was behind the Massachusetts law. For my part, I am moderately opposed to what is known as "ObamaCare," and that is all the more reason to read reports like this carefully.

Some Thoughts on the Special Election

On Tuesday we had a special election for state senator, Michael O'Pake, our long-time state senator having died during surgery in December. Leading up to that, we received almost daily political fliers in the mail from the "challenger," Republican Larry Megdalia--I say "challenger" because it is a heavily Democratic district, as it includes the city of Reading. We never received anything from the campaign of the Democrat, Judy Schwank.

The first flier we received was what you might call a positive ad, telling us what Megdalia was likely to do if elected. That was fine, and I thought, yeah, he makes sense.

But following that were daily fliers reminding us that Schwank had received $12,500 from a disgraced former city-councilman in Philadelphia. Yes, they came every day, for at least a week (maybe two, I wasn't counting). And though each one looked a little different, they all had the same black-and-white and fuzzy picture of Schwank, and the accusation in large, bold print.

It was not the finest season of political advertising for Berks County. Nor was I terribly unhappy, I'll admit, when Schwank won the election. She did not do anything to get my vote, as it were, and she did not--but Megdalia did a lot to make me hold my nose when voting.

Is Depression Biological

Dr. David Powlison - Is Depression Purely Biological? from CCEF on Vimeo.

Here is an excellent video where Dr. David Powlison gives a measured answer to the question of a biological cause for depression. Very, very worth a view and listen.

Christ-ian Emotions

I have recently begun re-reading J.I. Packer's Knowing God. It is for good reason considered a classic--and if you read one book this year, outside of the Bible, this should be it. Here he is on one of the themes of my ongoing discipleship--what following Christ looks like from an emotional (or affective) viewpoint. (I, for one, struggle mightily with my emotions, and long for them to be part of God's regenerative work in my life.) Here is Packer:

The emotional side of knowing God is often played down these days, for fear of encouraging a maudlin self-absorption. It is true that there is nothing more irreligious than self-absorbed religion, and that it is constantly needful to stress that God does not exist for our 'comfort,' or 'happiness,' or 'satisfaction,' or to provide us with 'religious experiences,' as if these were the most interesting and important things in life. It is also necessary to stress that anyone who, on the basis of 'religious experiences,' 'saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him' (1 John 2:4; cf. verses 9, 11, 3:6, 11, 4:20). But for all this, we must not lose sight of the fact that knowing God is an emotional relationship, as well as an intellectual and volitional one, and could not indeed be a deep relation between persons were it not so. The believer is, and must be, emotionally involved in the victories and vicissitudes of God's cause in the world, just as sir Winston [Churchill's] personal staff were emotionally involved in the ups and downs of the war [WW II, that is]. The believer rejoices when God is honored and vindicated, and feels acute distress when he sees God flouted. Barnabas, when he came to Antioch, 'and had seen the grace of God, was glad' (Acts 11:23); by contrast, the psalmist wrote, 'rivers of water run down my eyes, because they keep not thy law' (Psalm 119:136). Equally, the Christian feels shame and grief when convicted of having failed his Lord (see, for instance, Psalm 51, and Luke 22:61f.), and from time to time knows transports of delight as God brings home to him in one way or another the glory of the everlasting love with which he has been loved ('transported with a joy too great for words' [1 Pet. 1:8, NEB]). This is the emotional and experiential side of friendship with God. Ignorance of it argues that, however true a man's thoughts of God may be, he does not yet know the God of whom he is thinking."

Here is a brief video about the referendum being held this week in southern Sudan. Please watch and pray.

Read the Bible This Year!

Want to read the whole Bible in 2011? Why not? It only takes about 10-15 minutes a day (yes, really!). One way is to start in Genesis and go all the way through, reading 3-4 chapters per day. Another way is with one of several reading schedules that are chronological. Send me an email, and I can send you one. I have one that puts all the Psalms on Sundays, another that puts the Psalms, as much as possible, into their historical context (the latter is the one I've used for about a decade).

The ESV web site also has several reading plans that you can do online--you can find out about that by clicking here.

Why not do it this year?

Silent Night/7 O'clock News by the Beatles

Here is a video that captures the contrast of Christmas with Matthew 2:13-23 (the aftermath of the wise men's visit and Herod's fear/anger). It was done by Simon and Garfunkel during the Vietnam war: