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December 25, 1843

Dec6

He dressed himself all in his best, and at last got out into the streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and walking with his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured fellows said, “Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!” And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.
* * * *
He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows: and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk — that anything — could give him so much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew’s house.

—A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Scrooge went to church. I know that Catholic, and I assume Anglican, churches have a tradition of midnight Mass on Christmas, and I imagine other masses are held on Christmas Day. Most evangelical churches don’t have a tradition of holding worship services on Christmas morning. Some have some kind of Christmas Eve service. Our old Southern Baptist church had a Christmas Eve Candlelight Lord’s Supper service at about 6:00 P.M. on Christmas Eve so that people could still get home in time for family festivities. Another Southern Baptist church we attended a long time ago had a silent Christmas Eve service. Signs at the doors enjoined silence upon entering the church and asked that worshippers maintain that silence until they went out the doors. Each person was given a candle, and the church was lit with candles. There was music, and the Word was read from the pulpit, but the worshippers were silent. It was quite refreshing.

Since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, we will be attending worship on Sunday morning as we do every Sunday. I don’t know yet what other opportunities for worship there will be. I’m really looking forward to worship with my church on Christmas morning. What will your church be doing on Christmas and on Christmas Eve? How will you celebrate the day of worship and Christmas Day together?

Humilité

Nov5

Humility has a pleasing ring, I think
it’s a promising tactic,
but the side effects seem so steep.

From Ariel at BittersweetLife

So hard to talk about this topic. The ironies and paradoxes keep creeping in. For instance, I’d like to impress you by saying something profound about humiity, but I doubt my ability to do so. Is that humility or is it pride? As long as humility is a tactic instead of an attitude embedded in my soul, can I ever be humble? Why do I even want to be humble? Don’t I really just want others to see my humble goodness and recognize what quality lies beneath my apparent humility? But then what if they don’t? What if no one ever recognizes my humble service? A false humility that subtly calls attention to itself really seems a safer bet.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Mt. 11:29

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. I Peter 5:6

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being
made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became
obedient to death– even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name
that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth
and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. Philippians 2:5-11

So I wait. I do what I’m called to do, and I rest in the knowledge that God Himself is on my side (or I’m on His). He’ll lift up whatever needs to be noticed in due time. Of course, that kind of life requires trust–that God will be there when I need him, that I don’t have to do the pushing for myself, that God isn’t too busy or too distant, that He really won’t forget me or overlook me. Maybe only a Christian who believes that God was big enough to humble Himself to become a man, even a dead man, can be secure enough to be truly humble, no hidden agendas, just trusting that the same God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also redeem my pitiful rags and dress me in white robes to be presented before Him someday as His spotless creation. Apart from that hope, I must keep trying to attract His attention (or your attention) by my works of humility–which turn into pride in my own great humility. Only He can lift me up out of the traffic circle where I drive around and around, chasing humility, then chasing self-esteem.

So today seems like a good day to celebrate three saints who never got much recognition in this life, but who are now among those whose names are known by God in heaven:

John Early, my father-in-law, preached in little country churches, taught school, raised a family and loved the Lord.
Mrs. Dee Jones took me to camp–twice–taught me at church, invited us girls over to her house, invested time in a few girls in a Baptist church in West Texas. She, too, loved the Lord; that’s all.
Joanna Kirsten died before she was born. She never did anything to deserve praise nor condemnation. Yet I believe that she and I will meet someday in heaven, too. I believe the grace of God is wide enough and deep enough that her name, too, is written on His palm. (Isaiah 49:15-16)

A Lump of Deformity Smitten With Pride

Oct31

As I said in an earlier post, I re-read Guliver’s Travels last week for my British Literature class. The last section of the book ends with Gulliver, alone and misanthropic, makng the following rather ironic observation:

My Reconcilement to the Yahoo-kind in general might not be so difficult if they would be content with those Vices and Follies only, which Nature has entitled them to. I am not in the least provoked at the Sight of a Lawyer, a Pick-pocket, a Colonel, a Fool, a Lord, a Gamester, a Politician, a Whore-Master, a Physician, an Evidence, a Suborner, an Attorney, a Traitor, or the like: This is all according to the due Course of Things: But when I behold a Lump of Deformity, and Diseases both in Body and Mind, smitten with Pride, it immediately breaks all the Measures of my Patience; neither shall I be ever able to comprehend how such an Animal and such a Vice could tally together. The wise and virtuous Houyhnhnms, who abound in all Excellencies that can adorn a Rational Creature, have no Name for this Vice in their Language, which has no Terms to express anything that is Evil, except those whereby they describe the detestable Qualities of their Yahoos, among which they were not able to distinguish this of Pride, for want of thoroughly understanding Human Nature, as it sheweth itself in other Countries, where that Animal presides. But I, who had more Experience, could plainly observe some Rudiments of it among the wild Yahoos.

But the Houyhnhnms, who live under the Government of Reason, are no more proud of the good Qualities they possess, than I should be for not wanting a Leg or an Arm, which no Man in his Wits would boast of, although he must be miserable without them. I dwell the longer upon this Subject from the Desire I have to make the Society of an English Yahoo by any Means not insupportable, and therefore I here entreat those who have any Tincture of this absurd Vice, that they will not presume to come in my sight.

By the end of Swift’s satirical travel guide, Gulliver is too repulsed, too refined, actually too proud, to associate with any of the human beings who are his own countrymen.

I thought today that some of the bloggers (naming no names) I’ve been reading have more than a trace of Lemuel Gulliver’s malady. Especially evangelical Christian bloggers. Some of us are so anxious to distinguish ourselves from those right-wing fundamentalists, those Yahoo Christians, those Halloween-hating, demon-fearing, book-burning, lumpish Dobsonites, that we end up displaying the very vices that we decry. I include myself because I’m certainly not immune to pride, and I know how deceptive the human heart can be. It’s important to remember that all of us are Yahoos at heart, no matter how educated and refined and sophisticated we may think we are. Some of the other Yahoos may actually know more than we do about something or another. And we all know what Pride goeth before.

Perhaps it would behoove us all to consider the great distance between our intellect and that of Almighty God and then give our brothers and sisters the benefit of the distance as we write. I think we could all use a little more humilité, as Guinevere called it. Do I need to get me dose by reading C.J. Mahaney’s new book?

/sermon

SCP Journal

Oct16

Spiritual Counterfeits Project (or SCP) is an apologetics ministry that focuses on “confronting the occult, the cults, and the New Age movement and explaining why they are making an impact on our society.” They publish a newsletter about once a month and a journal about twice yearly. (I say “about” because I can’t tell from the website or from the publications themselves exactly what the publishing schedule is.) The SCP newsletter is sent to those who contribute at least $10.00 annually to help offset publication, printing, and postage costs. The SCP Journal plus the Newsletter are sent to those who contribute at least $25.00 annually.

I received my copies of SCP Journal and SCP Newsletter free via Mind and Media in return for my review. So here goes.

The newsletter is sixteen pages of current events commentary from a Christian perspective. The one I received, Volume 29:4 Summer 2005, featured a front page article by the president of SCP, Tal Brooke, comparing the themes and impact of the first movie version of War of the Worlds, made in 1953, with the Stephen Spielberg version released earlier this year. This same newsletter also has a “Letters to the Editor” section, a timely article on the battle of the appointment of judges, and an index to past articles in both the newsletter and the journal. I see lots of potentially useful stuff for Christian apologists in the index: book reviews, interviews, and scholarly articles featuring such authors as Gene Veith, Philip E. Johnson, Ron Rhodes, Ted Baehr and Brian Godawa (just some of the names I recognized). You can order past issues of both the newsletter and the journal via the SCP website.

SCP JournaL is a seventy-five page magazine, no ads except for ads for the ministry and its literature, full color cover, and seventy plus pages of meaty content. SCP Journal, Volume 28:4-29:1, features three articles. The first called “Soul Under Siege II” is obviously a continuation of an extended examination of the War on Terror and global politics. Although I’m not sure the New World Order is quite as threatening or as organized as the author of the article, Lee Penn, states, this advice is well taken:

In the face of these long-standing national and global trends, it is difficult to formulate a promising political counter-strategy. Nevertheless, if we each turn away from sin, seek God’s guidance and wisdom, discern the signs of the times, do not cooperate with evil or join in the prevailing deceit, and pray for God to have mercy on our foes (and to grant them the grace of amendment of life), we will be doing what Christians are called to do.

The second journal article is by Alan Morrison on a history of gnosticism. Heavily footnoted and subtitled “an historical analysis of the impact orders and mystery religions from the 6th century to the modern era,” the article attempts to define gnosticism and tie together such disparate elements as the Albigneses, the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, Freemasonry, Darwinism and Theological Liberalism. He then goes on to talk about political movements such as Marxism and religious movements such as Theosophy and mind sciences, and again he attempts to bundle these together as different manifestations of modern gnosticism. I say “attempts” because although these movements are all united in their opposition to Orthodox Christianity, they are all very different from one another and deserve to be engaged on a case-by-case basis. That said, I’m not doing justice to the author’s arguments nor his research in this brief review. You really need to subscribe to SCP Journal and read the article yourself.

The third article is called “The Suicide Option: When Life Has Lost Meaning” by Josh Ong, office manager for SCP and a student at UC Berkeley. Mr. Ong tells in this article about his own struggles as a teenager with depression and attempted suicide. It’s a testimony piece with excerpts from Josh Ong’s high school diary, but it’s also a detailed and in-depth look at suicide and the philosophical elements in our culture that can lead to despair and the hope and meaning that Mr. Ong found nowhere outside of Jesus Christ. I highly recommend this article for anyone who is working with young adults or students especially.

I found much to engage my mind and give me impetus for further thought and research in these two periodicals, and I would recommend both for apologists and serious Christians who are confronting spiritual counterfeits and lies daily.

The Bible or the Axe by William O. Levi

Sep16

Subtitled “one man’s escape from persecution in the Sudan,” this autobiography reads like a novel. Wiliam Levi, the founder and president of Operation Nehemiah, was born in a village in Southern Sudan and grew up in Uganda in exile from his native land as a result of persecution and war in Sudan during the 1960’s. He returned to Sudan as a young teenager to go to school, but soon found that Islamic persecution intensified and interfered with his schooling and, eventually, threatened his life. At one point, William and couple of other young men decide to flee to Kenya in hopes of continuing their education. They are arrested, however, and charged with intending to join the Southern rebels against the government in Khartoum, the SPLA.

It’s funny what you think about when you know you are marked for death. Perversely, I was filled with regret that I would not be able to go to school. When you are seventeen, you have your whole life ahead of you; but for me, the desire to finish school was the first thing that came to my mind. (p. 183)

William experiences torture but is able to escape from the custody of the Sudanese government soldiers. He and his family see that he must leave Sudan, and William eventually travels to Egypt, then Turkey, then France, and finally seeks asylum in the United States. Throughout all his travels and adventures, William remains faithful to God and to his vision for obtaining an education for the sake of serving his people in Southern Sudan.

I was impressed with several things in William Levi’s life as I read his story. First of all, he is passionate about becoming educated. His family sacrifices for the sake of William’s education, and his first thought after gaining asylum in the U.S. is to further his education. Oh, that our children would realize the value of education and the riches that they have here in the United States in being able to pursue an education amid an abundance of educational resources.

Secondly, I am inspired by Mr. Levi’s steadfast faith. At his baptism, William’s grandfather gives him a choice of weapons: the Bible or the axe? Wiliam consistently chooses the Bible and faith as his weapons to defeat both earthly and spiritual enemies. None of his struggles are made to seem easy, either, whether it’s the difficulty of living with worldly roomates or the confusion of not knowing where God is leading and how He will provide. The Christian life requires faith in a God who is there even when we cannot see His ways, and the story of William Levi gives numerous examples of the real life application of this kind of faith.

Finally, I see in William Levi a man who is dedicated to service in the name of Jesus Christ. At the very end of the book, Mr. Levi concludes:

In 1972, there was a peace accord, but eleven years later it was followed by renewed oppression and genocide. Please help us build a strong and united biblically based Christian community in the South Sudan and throughout the entire country during this window of opportunity.

He then tells about some of the ministries of the Nehemiah Project: church planting, education, trade school, health care, ministry to Sudanese widows and orphans, investment in micro-businesses, agricultural projects and construction and infrastructure projects. Surely ministries like this one and projects that are grounded in a deep Christian faith are the hope of Sudan and of Africa. The novel I read a few months ago, Acts of Faith by Philip Caputo does a good job of showing the problems and the temptations inherent in any kind of relief work, especially in Sudan and northern Africa. This true story, The Bible or the Axe? sounds a note of hope. The problems and divisions in the Sudan are rooted so deeply in history and in the sinfulness of the human heart that Christ is the only hope.

This book was given to me as a gift by Mind and Media and by William O. Levi for the purposes of review. You can purchase a copy of The Bible or the Axe from Winepress Books. I’m planning to read this book aloud to all my urchins because I believe it would be an inspiration and an encouragement to them.

Blast from the Past

Aug16

What ever happened to . . . Rubik’s Cube? I remember when these were popular, about twenty-five years ago. But according to this firebug, some people are still trying to solve Rubik’s Cube. And he derives a spiritual application:

One of the things you quickly learn is that you can’t move one piece without affecting at least one other piece. And most moves displace at least three pieces. It’s a three-dimensional object lesson about the inevitability of causes and effects, as well as an effective illustration of the principle of 1 Corinthians 12:25-25: any body composed of multiple members is still one body, and whatever effects one member affects the whole body.

I never managed to even get close to solving a Rubik’s Cube. I’ll bet Engineer Husband could do it.

Quiver Full Revisited, Part 2

Aug4

Next reading assignment: Molly at My Three Pennies Worth writes Quiverfull Schmiverfull. Good stuff to continue our discussion. Summation quotation:

“There are some good reasons why limiting family size can be godly, and I have friends who have had to make that difficult decision due to life-threatening issues. They are the minority, though. For many, the decision to “have 1.7 children” is not birthed (pardon the pun) from prayer, but from a nonchalant acceptance of what our godless society says is Normal.”

So to review from Quiver Full Revisited, Part 1, my first point was:Our culture is becoming anti-child, and this attitude is bad for our society and wrong for Christians.

My second point is easy to state and understand, too. The anti-child attitude and the lack of prayer and careful thought about the issue of contraception among Christians is a problem—not the number of children a couple chooses to have or not to have.

I consider myself “quiverfull.” We have eight children, and we don’t use contraceptives (anymore). We came to this place slowly after several years of the same prayerlessness and lack of careful thought that I decry in the above statement. I’m glad to see Christian women (and men) thinking about the issue of contraception and asking what the One who is supposed to be Lord of our entire lives would have them do in this area of decision.

A few years ago a leader of women’s ministry in my (Baptist) church told me, laughingly, in front of the younger of her two children, that she and her husband should have only had one child. The second one was a mistake. They were really only able to handle one child, and after the second one was born, they got that “fixed” right away so that there wouldn’t be any more mistakes. I couldn’t believe she was telling me this, and I was literally speechless. I have since thought of many responses, both good and bad, but the main question I would like to ask that lady if I were able to do so is this: “Do you really believe God made a mistake in giving you a second child?”

For Christians, children are never mistakes; children are blessings.

Quiver Full Revisited

Aug3

First mosey over and read this column by Albert Mohler. I’ll wait. . . Some of the guys at Boars Head Tavern hated it, so I figured I might like to read what Dr. Mohler had to say. First, let’s review what he didn’t say:

1. He didn’t say that married couples who are unable to have children or who are unable to have as many children as they might like to have are sinful or cursed or less spiritual. “Morally speaking, the epidemic in this regard has nothing to do with those married couples who desire children but are for any reason unable to have them, but instead in those who are fully capable of having children but reject this intrusion in their lifestyle.”
2. He didn’t say that Christian couples must never use contraceptives under any circumstances or that they must do everything they can to conceive and give birth to all the children they possibly can. “Couples are not given the option of chosen childlessness in the biblical revelation. To the contrary, we are commanded to receive children with joy as God’s gifts, and to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
3. Finally, Dr. Mohler says nothing to justify this question by Michael Spencer at BHT: Isn’t he just saying the “Full Quiver” position- pregnant, bed-ridden 48 year old wives pregnant for the twentieth time and all- is the Biblical position?”
No, actually, Dr. Mohler said nothing of the kind—which is why I agree with the ideas in his column. I am 48; I’m not pregnant; and I agree with the Full Quiver position (as defined by me, not by someone else).

What he did say (and I agree):
Our culture is becoming anti-child, and this attitude is bad for our society and wrong for Christians.

Couples are not given the option of chosen childlessness in the biblical revelation. To the contrary, we are commanded to receive children with joy as God’s gifts, and to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We are to find many of our deepest joys and satisfactions in the raising of children within the context of the family. Those who reject children want to have the joys of sex and marital companionship without the responsibilities of parenthood. They rely on others to produce and sustain the generations to come.

I have been reading The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What To Do About It by Philip Longman and Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future by Ben J. Wattenberg. Both of these books document, from a purely secular point of view, how the anti-child ethos in Western civilization is a new kind of “population bomb” set to go off in this century and cause all kinds of somewhat unpredictable problems and challenges for our children and grandchildren.
For both practical and spiritual reasons, Christians should be different. Christians should welcome children, regard them as gifts from a loving God, and do the work and self-sacrifice required to nurture and admonish each child God gives.

Part 2 tomorrow. Wow, a lot of people have already written a lot of good stuff about this subject.

ZAYIN: In the House of My Pilgrimage

Jul19

Remember the word to Your servant,
Upon which you have caused me to hope.
This is my comfort in my affliction,
For Your word has given me life.
The proud have me in great derision,
Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.
I remembered Your judgements of old, O LORD,
And have comforted myself.
Indignation has taken hold of me
Because of the wicked who forsake Your law.
Your statutes have been my songs
In the house of my pilgrimage.
I remember Your name in the night, O LORD,
And I keep Your law.
This has become mine,
Because I kept Your precepts.

Key words: remember, comfort, Your law,

There’s a discussion at Intellectuelle, started by my Baylor friend, Laura, about the relationship between right thinking and right actions–and by extension, how emotion plays into our Christian pilgrimage. It seems to me that according to the psalmist we are to use our minds to remember God’s law, and as a consequence we are to be comforted (emotion). Of course, keeping God’s precepts involves right action that is based upon our remembering and being emotionally strong enough (comforted) to do what God commands. Yes, the intellectual act of remembering comes first, but it is no more vital to righteousness than emotion or action. Right thinking, which comes from God as the first verse indicates, produces both comfort and right action. I remember what God says; I am comforted by His word; I keep His precepts. Then His statutes can become my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.

WAW

Jul15

Let your mercies come also to me, O Lord–
Your salvation according to Your word.
So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me.
For I trust in Your word,
And take not the word of truth utterly our of my mouth.
For I have hoped in Your ordinances.
So shall I keep Your law continually,
Forever and ever.
And I will walk at liberty,
For I seek Your precepts.
I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings,
And will not be ashamed.
And I will delight myself in Your commandments,
Which I love.
My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments,
Which I love.
And I will meditate on Your statutes.

So where is the line between simply trusting in the mercies of God through Christ, speaking of God’s works before important people without shame, finding my hope in the word of God and not in the wisdom of men—-and simplistic trust which says “Jesus is the answer” before anyone gets a chance to ask the question? I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes (Romans 1:16); however, I am sometimes ashamed of the way that gospel is communicated. Following Jesus is not a formula: say a prayer, believe in Jesus, and go to heaven. Being a Christian is a lifetime of meditating on God’s statutes, delighting in His commandments, trusting in His word, and walking at liberty. Having been a Christian for more than forty years, I’m only beginning to understand how to do some of those things, but I keep stumbling in the right direction. I would invite anyone who’s interested to stumble along with me because even feeble progress in the direction of the Light is much better than standing around in the dark too proud to admit that I haven’t any light of my own.