The Holy Spirit makes men penitents long before he makes them divines; and he who believes what he knows, shall soon know more clearly what he believes.

-Charles Spurgeon

I love the idea of glory-to-glory sanctification, both in doctrine and in practice. The longer I walk with the Lord the more I see how much of a jerk I am and how much of a jerk I have been. The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I see His guidance through the Holy Spirit in even the most mundane aspects of my life.

I think it's the process -- the glory-to-glory process -- that helps me understand more clearly what I have been blessed to believe.

Repent. Believe. Persevere. Repeat.

Inspired by my most recent post, and not quite ready to go to bed, and with a mind to waste some time - unfortunately a hobby of mine recently - I did a search of every post of ours that has the word "Emerging" in it.

Reading through the Thinklings archives backwards is kind of like being an archaeologist who is slowly unearthing the layers of a civilization that has gone to the dogs more recently but which shows an ever increasing vibrancy the further down you go. I came upon this long ago post of Jared's which lists a number of our blog-pals of yore. I began testing links to see who is still out there. I was gratified to find that Marla Swoffer is blogging again, but then I came across this

Speaking of the Inklings, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the way my blog got its wings was when it was noticed by Jared Wilson, ringleader of what was then The Thinklings, a group blog, which though all male, I considered kindred spirits. They were the first ones to spread "the conversation" to my fledgling blog. (mind you, when I use that phrase, it has nothing to do with anything "emergent")

Heh.

We got called a "was" by someone who hasn't blogged in seven years! O how the mighty have fallen . . .

It's not her fault. She has a point, even if unintended.

(it's also ironic though completely coincidental that the quote above contains the word "emergent" :-)

I leave you with this.


a picture of a monkey

Good night blogosphere. Jesus loves you

So, remember several years ago when the Emerging/Emergent church was emerging?

Well, what happened? Did it finally finish emerging and do we now just call it "church"? Or are the days long gone when church could consist of a faith maze, a fourth-century latin chant, followed a peace-ripple and then a response time in which you would finger-paint your desire for covenant membership on the worship-wall?

All kidding aside, I'm actually curious and not trying to be snarky. What happened? Back in that day the Christian blogosphere - which was a smaller pond where even a shoestring blog like ours could make a splash - was exploding with emerging/ent talk. The watchbloggers were out in force, newspaper in one hand and MacArthur in the other, and the emergers were dredding themselves up spectacularly and getting their left calves cross-tatted. Those were indeed heady days.

I kind of miss them.

I've been tasked in recent months with finding employees for my company. Here are some helpful hints for people who are looking for a job.

- If you leave a phone number, make sure your voice mail box isn't full.

- If you don't have voice mail, get it.

- If you send me an email, I probably won't respond if the domain name is from a video game cafe.

- If you leave me a voice mail, I'll be more apt to respond if you sound coherent and fully awake.

- If you ask me to call you in the morning, it might be a good idea to be available in the morning.

- If you set up a time for an interview, you probably don't want to show up an hour late.

- If you do show up an hour late, you might want to have a good I-had-to-save-a-baby-from-certain-death type excuse.

Pastor Steve Bezner writes on hospitality here. An excerpt:

So about ten years ago we decided to make the table a significant place in our home. We put Sharpie markers in the drawer of our table and invited each of our guests to sign our table.

Yes, that's right, they sign it.

Not on top, but underneath. They get on the floor and sign whatever they want.

This created quite a stir for the first few guests. People honestly believed we were playing some sort of practical joke. But, eventually, we would coax them under the table and they would see other signatures.

And so they would sign.

Ten years later that good table gave up the ghost. Sadly, we didn't think to take pictures of the bottom of the table. But we're on our second table now, a table that once belonged to my grandmother. JB [Steve's wife] has reupholstered the chair cushions and we have moved the Sharpies to a new home.

And our guests are now signing here.

When you sit across the table from someone, there is an inherent sense of community immediately fostered. Inhibitions drop quickly. Laughter ensues. I almost always ask new friends, "What is your story?" You'd be amazed at the answers that question brings. Some answers are short, but most are twenty or thirty minute stories that tell us more than we might ever gain in a year of Sunday school classes or social get-togethers.

I love the idea of guests signing the table. I've long thought that it is significant that meals together play such a large role in the narrative of scripture. From Abraham preparing a meal for his three heavenly visitors to the solemn, hurried, dark and awe-filled feast the night the angel passed over, to Elijah and the widow with her never-ending handful of flour and cup of oil, to all the meals our Lord attended with the sinners, tax collectors, and national leaders he befriended, to his Last Supper, to fish on the beach, to the love-feasts of the vibrant early church and finally to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Scripture is replete with meals.

I think they are more important than we believe. And that is one reason why our culture, our flesh, our ancient enemy, our schedules, our fast-food appetites and our sloth war against the beauty of a simple meal and fellowship.

It is of such things that the Kingdom is built.

I think the reason the world recoils so violently at the thought of homosexuality being a sin is because that message reaches into the heart of a person -- into the innermost part of who they think they are -- and tells them that they are a sinner to the core.

But that message isn't unique to homosexuals. It's the truth of the human condition. We are all totally and absolutely depraved.

Thankfully, there is a solution to our problem.

4 Reasons Why I'm Not Getting My Hopes Up About the Upcoming Superman Reboot

1. Aside from Nolan's Batman series, DC can't get any of their superhero films to click.

2. They keep trying to make Superman into Batman.

3. Hollywood can't figure out what to do with Superman. He comes across cheesy because they see no virtue in a virtuous hero and don't know how to write him three-dimensionally without muddying him up. They don't know how to flesh out a genuinely good guy unless he's played by Tom Hanks.

4. If I set my expectations bar really low, I have a better chance of being pleasantly surprised.

Hands down, accepting no arguments, airtight. From first best to tenth best.

1. Casablanca

2. It's a Wonderful Life

3. The Wizard of Oz

4. E.T.

5. Seven Samurai

6. City Lights

7. The Godfather, Part 2

8. Raiders of the Lost Ark

9. The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy)

10. The Sound of Music

Jim Gaffigan's hilarious - and quite insightful - take on McDonalds and our culture:



Note: Gaffigan is a refreshingly clean comic, but there are two four letter words in this sketch, FYI.

Robert Griffin III tweeted this morning that "West is Waco" and that his prayers are with Waco. He's right.

This community, Waco, has been my home since 1995, and in 2009 my wife and I bought a little 2-acre homestead just a stone's throw from West. Our town, Gholson, and West are small town rivals of sorts, but shoulder to shoulder neighbors nonetheless. Without doubt our volunteer firefighters were some of the first on the scene; God be with them.

As the crow flies my home is less than 8 miles from the blast site. Some of our best and closest friends live in West, just a few miles from our home (they're OK).

It was an eery feeling going to bed last night, knowing that my wife, five children and I were safe, yet just a few miles from absolute chaos.

I have no idea how many friends from the Waco area are there as first responders. We found out about the blast by receiving a text from a friend of ours whose husband, a doctor, was called in to his hospital in expectation of a sea of casualties. God be with those who offer a cup of water in His name.

Pray for Waco.

Pray for West.

This community is less than five miles from our home. Apparently there's been an explosion.

Please pray.

It may be a mistaken impression on my part, but it seems that in the last few years one quick way of getting smacked down in a debate is by making "slippery slope" arguments. The general retort is that slippery slope thinking leads to logical fallacies.

Is this really true? It occurred to me tonight that many debates that people engage in are "slippery slope", if they have anything to do with the future. So arguments about Calvinism may not be SS, but arguments about global warming, or marriage, or foreign policy generally are. Maybe I'm not catching the distinction, but most discussions that have to do with where we're headed include weighing the probabilities of where we will end up. It seems to me that calling someone out for their fallacious "slippery slope" argument may just be a lazy persons way of avoiding debate. But I may be missing the distinction.

Let me give you a famous example of a societal debate that, I'm sure, included a lot of slippery slope argumentation: In 1965 the Moynihan report was published, which raised alarms about the state of the African-American family.

I would imagine that opponents of certain family-hostile welfare policies, no-fault divorce legislation and overall loosening of sexual mores in the 1960s offered slippery slope arguments. For setup, take a look at this line from the report.

"Both white and Negro illegitimacy rates have been increasing, although from dramatically different bases. The white rate was 2 percent in 1940; it was 3.07 percent in 1963. In that period, the Negro rate went from 16.8 percent to 23.6 percent."

Among those of us who look in dismay at the awful state of marriage and family cohesiveness in 2013, an illegitimacy rate of 23.6% would be a miracle right now. The current rate for the country is over 40% (source, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The percentage for African Americans is quite a bit higher than this average.

Haven't we traveled a good distance down a slope here?

I was reminded of this after seeing this opinion piece in Slate tonight: Legalize Polygamy! No. I am not kidding.

The definition of marriage is plastic. Just like heterosexual marriage is no better or worse than homosexual marriage, marriage between two consenting adults is not inherently more or less “correct” than marriage among three (or four, or six) consenting adults. Though polygamists are a minority—a tiny minority, in fact—freedom has no value unless it extends to even the smallest and most marginalized groups among us. So let’s fight for marriage equality until it extends to every same-sex couple in the United States—and then let’s keep fighting. We’re not done yet.

As the marriage debate got revved up over the last few years, I wasn't the only one to point out that the same logic used to legitimize same sex marriage was completely applicable to legalizing polygamy and polyamory.

Every cultural change and trend alters the terrain that we as a society walk. Some of them take us down paths that have an angle. It doesn't seem like a logical fallacy to wonder where we'll end up.

[H/T for the polygamy article: Instapundit]

"If you only knew the powah of the Dark Side!"


A couple of years ago I said that I essentially hated Macs. I guess that still might be the case, but I have a Macbook Pro coming in today. Problem is Apple happens to be the industry standard for photography so I had to pony up and get serious.

I'm open to any suggestions from the Borg Apple enthusiasts regarding proper methods of assimilation.

I am defeated.

[H/T C. Michael Patton]

John Piper's first and last sermons as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church:

Audio: The Wisdom of Men and the Power of God - July 13, 1980

Video: God Raised Your Great Shepherd from the Dead
- Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013

The angels were stunned, the stars hid their light, the universe went silent at the audacity of it, the wrongness of it, the outrageousness of it. The Judge of the guilty is himself judged guilty. Here now at last, in all the thick catalog of human rebellion, is the lie so brazen as to surely bring down upon the heads of the insurrectionists as punishment swift and terrible. But no, the prisoner standing in the dock calmly responds, “For this was I born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.”

In perfect freedom, the Son become the goat become the Lamb of God is condemned by the lie in order to bear witness to the truth. The truth is that we are incapable of setting things right. The truth is that the more we try to set things right, the more we compound our guilt. It is not enough for God to take our part. God must take our place. All the blood of goats and lambs, all the innocent victims from the foundation of the world, all the acts of expiation and reparation, they only make things worse. They all strengthen the grip of the great lie that we can set things right. The grip of the lie is broken by the greatest of lies, “God is guilty!”

God must die. It is a lie so monstrous that to suggest it invites instant annihilation – except that God accepts the verdict. Those who know the awful truth hear his voice. . . .

To those who are accustomed to living in a world turned upside down, setting it right cannot help but appear to be turning it upside down. With our first parents we reached for the power to name good and evil, thinking to assert control, and thereby we lost control. With the prodigal son, we grabbed what we could and ended up impoverished and alone in a distant country. Because God is not the God of the philosophers, because God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because God is love, He sent His Son to the far country to share our lot, to bear the consequences of our folly, to lead us home to the waiting father.

- from Death on a Friday Afternoon by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus

[H/T The Corner]

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.

Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
In you they trusted and were not put to shame.

But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth,
And from my mother's womb you have been my God.

Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
Many bulls encompass me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.

I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;

you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.

But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!
You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him.

From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
May your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.

All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that he has done it.

Psalm 22

Last Monday night, my eldest daughter had a baby and the first of the third generation Thinklings entered the world. Arden Scott Wahlquist was born at 10:04pm and weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds, 11 ounces.

We are overcome with joy. God is good!

I look forward to firing up a steak at some future Moot with this little guy.

Some pictures.



He's cute. And smart and talented as well




My daughter Molly, her husband Joey, and Arden, shortly after he was born. I'm amazed at how good Molly looked considering she had just endured nineteen hours of natural labor

We're blessed. Very blessed.

While I don't like it generally when a verse or passage is lifted from its context, this little verse in Leviticus sideswiped me this morning; not with its plain and intended meaning, but with its far more convicting ramifications.

“If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity." - Leviticus 5:1