Though it was decades ago, I remember it like it was yesterday. I was a teenager working at fried chicken place in San Antonio. Over in the corner, the assistant manager and manager were talking. “Woo-hoo!”, the manager finally hollered. And with a big grin he slapped the assistant manager on the back and loudly said, “When the cat’s away, the mice will play!” The basic meaning of the expression was self-explanatory, but I still didn’t know what they were talking about specifically. I asked the fry cook next to me and was told that while the assistant manager’s wife was out of town, he had gone on a date with another woman. I was disgusted. To this day, the memory of his unsuspecting wife visiting the restaurant with their children a few weeks later still fills me with a sadness I can’t put into words.

The truth is this: that man was unfaithful to his wife in his heart before he ever acted on it. The fact that he took advantage of the opportunity only shows what was there all along.

It has been said that character is who you are when no one is looking. If you only do what’s right when you are being observed, then your righteousness is a façade. It’s what you do when no one’s watching, when no one will ever know, that reveals who you really are.

That’s a scary thought. Most of us like to think of ourselves as “basically good” even when we do things that are wrong. The truth is that we can deceive ourselves. “The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out. Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:4-5). “All a man's ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. (Proverbs 21:2). “As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man. Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are the eyes of man” (Proverbs 27:19-20)

Don’t listen to the advice of Hollywood which often says, “Follow your heart.” You cannot trust your own heart. It will deceive you. An old hymn says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.”

Unless God himself reaches inside you and changes your heart and its desires, you will keep pursuing things you know you shouldn’t. This is why David, after he sinned with Bathsheba, prayed; “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10). He knew that unless God changed his heart he would continue to sin.

If you need someone to talk to, email me at philip.schroeder777 - It's a googlemail email address.

Just thought you should know. :-)

Slogan from an AT&T commercial I just saw (the context is an imagined future elementary school spelling bee that has been going on for 48 hours with no one eliminated):

Access to the Internet makes all of us smarter.

Yesterday at church we had a guest speaker, Dr. Daniel Akin, who delivered a very challenging message on fulfilling the Great Commission. In his message Dr. Akin relayed the following conversation which happens over and over in the life of a Christian college administrator:

Freshman Orientation at a Christian College

Parents (to administrator): Now, I'm expecting you to keep watch over our son. Keep him away from the Big Three [Drugs, Alcohol, Sex], get him in a discipleship group, and make sure he gets plugged into a church.

Administrator: I'll do my best.

Phone Call from Student to Parents, Two Months Later

Student: Mom, Dad, I've decided to switch majors.

Mom and Dad: You have? What to?

Student: I've decided to not get a Business degree anymore. I'm now going to major in Christian Studies. My plan is to do full-time missions-work.

Parents: [stunned silence]

Five Minutes After Aforementioned Phone Call

Christian College Administrator, answering the phone: Hello?

Parents: We asked you to keep our son away from the Big Three, get him into a discipleship group, and get him plugged into a church. We didn't ask you to make him a fanatic!

With regard to the famous Patterson-Gimlin film, most detractors dismiss it as a man in a monkey suit. In my opinion, modern eyes are colored by Hollywood special effects. From what I've read -- and I've read a decent amount on this subject -- if the P-G film was a hoax, it's one of the best hoaxes in modern history. Take 10 minutes to review this film that was aired on the National Geographic channel, because it might make you question your presuppositions.

Back in the day, about 100 years ago or more, liberal Protestant theology was all the rage (or at least gaining in popularity). As a result a group of conservative Protestant clergymen published a truckload of essays that are collectively known as The Fundamentals. From that fertilized egg, the modern fundamentalist movement hatched. (And depending on your point of view, the resulting bird is either a chicken or an eagle.)

Being a center-right guy myself (though not a fundamentalist), I thought it would be fun to start another world-conquering, King James-based movement kick around some ideas of what you all think are the fundamentals of the Christian faith.

Here's the way it works, without thinking too much about it, and without looking up your proposed position in Wikipedia, leave a comment detailing your "fundamental" and why you think that point of theology or doctrine is essential to authentic, orthodox Christianity. (You'll get bonus points if you have Scripture to bolster your position. Unless of course your position is something like, Church Tradition Trumps Scripture Every Single Time.) This isn't an attempt to start a flame war, and there won't be any getting up in anyone's face (at least not on my side of things). In short, be nice.

So, I'll start:

My fundamental is baptism. It's essential because a) we're commanded to do it (along with repentance) (Acts 2:38), b) JESUS linked it closely to salvation (Mark 16:16, etc.), c) inasmuch as it is an "appeal to God for a good conscience" it "now saves you" (1 Peter 3:21), d) there is no such thing as a non-baptized Christian in the New Testament.*

That's it. That's my fundamental. It's not what I think to be the primary fundamental of the faith, but I do consider baptism to be essential to an authentically lived Christian life.

Now, what's yours?

*Update -- Except for the thief on the cross.

"Paul was writing his own life story, but Jesus stole his pen."

Love that!

(From this post by our favorite Gospel-wakened Ninja)

I don't think we've discussed this sort of thing recently. What Bible translation are you all into these days?

My childhood was spent with King James. In my early adult years, I was a New American Standard guy. Since roughly 1996 I've been a New King James enthusiast, and here lately I've been reading a lot of the English Standard Version.

I still love my New King James, and I always will, but the English Standard Version is really doing it for me these days. I was recently given a copy of the ESV Study Bible -- it's amazing! Study Bibles can be so ... odd, and I tend to be leery of titles like The Dallas Cowboys Sports Fan Study Bible. (No, that bible doesn't really exist, but I'm sure I'm giving someone a great money making idea right now.) Thankfully the ESV Study Bible is full of good, useful historical and theological information (primarily from a Reformed vantage point), and at the very least it's a good resource to have in your library.

So what do you all like to read? I have no agenda here. I just like to talk about Bibles.

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift in the sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. . . .

If I must boast, I will boast in the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. -- from 2 Corinthians 11 (ESV)

He kind of makes me feel like a wimp.

You ever watch this show on A&E called "The First 48"? It follows real life homicide investigations in the first 48 hours after a murder. An episode I was watching tonight covered a murder investigation in Harris County, Texas, the place of Houston, my hometown. I still have lots of family and friends there, so despite having been gone 16 years, I am accustomed to the growing concerns about crime -- gangs, drugs, illegal immigrants, etc -- in the Houston area. My brother in law is an HPD detective, so I hear some of these concerns from a guy with skin in the game.

It was easy tonight to think, "Man, I'm glad I don't live there any more."

Now we live in Vermont. One of the unofficial mottoes of Vermont is: "What happens in Vermont stays in Vermont. But nothing ever happens here."

But as I reflected upon my relief over not living in Houston any more, I thought to myself how even more dangerous our current home can be. I don't live in a place that even has suburbs any more, but I reminded myself how dangerous it is to live in the suburbs.

How dangerous it is to be rich! How dangerous it is to never be uncomfortable! How dangerous it is to never be sick! How dangerous it is to never lack! How dangerous it is to live a safety-laden life.

In fact, if I'm tracking with the Scriptures on this stuff, I have to realize that safety and comfort are as dangerous to the soul as insecurity and discomfort are to the body.

We posted three videos on a row. What are we, NBC?

As a break in the programming, I'll throw out some quotations from Karl Barth's Evangelical Theology:

The Word of God is the Word that God spoke, speaks, and will speak in the midst of all men. . . . It is the Word of God's work upon men, for men, and with men. His work is not mute; rather, it speaks with a loud voice. (Pg. 18)

That man who refuses to listen and to obey the Word acts not as a free man but as a slave, for there is no freedom except through God's Word. We are speaking of the God of the Gospel, his work and action, and of the Gospel in which his work and action are at the same time his speech. (Pg. 19)

The Spirit is himself God, the same one God who is also the Father and the Son; he acts both as Creator and Reconciler, as the Lord of the covenant. As this very Lord, however, he now dwells, has dwelt, and will dwell in men. He dwells not only among them but also in them by the enlightening power of his action. It is that flowing air and moving atmosphere in which men may live, think, and speak wholly and entirely freed from presuppositions -- for they are men who know the spirit and are known by him, men called by him and obedient to him, his children begotten by his Word. (Pg. 54)

The object of theological work is not some thing but some one. . . . This object is not an "It" but a "He." And He, this One, exists not as an idle and mute being for Himself, but precisely in His work which is also His word. (Pg. 163)

I think a face melting on this blog is way overdue.



Lyrics after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry . . .

I love literal videos!



Disclaimer - I guess this will further solidify my reputation as the Edge-y Thinkling . . .

This video is somewhere between PG and PG-13, lyrics-wise. Just FYI.

I believe Christians will be talking about John Piper hundreds of years from now in much the same way people currently talk about guys like John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and Charles Spurgeon.

In this short clip Piper expounds on Romans 8:31-39, explaining what "more than conquerors" means.

Homestead Heritage is an agrarian Christian community a few miles north of Waco built around a fusion of Anabaptist tradition and Pentecostal theology. In 2005 Christian historian and theologian, Roger Olson, characterized the group as “a bold experiment” in intentional Christian community, and, as with any countercultural stream, the group has had its share of proponents and detractors.

For six years I’ve worked among these people for eight hours a day, Monday through Friday. My family and I have visited their craft village several times, dined in some of their homes, welcomed them into our home, and taken part in many of their special activities. We have friends in their community, we have friends who have almost joined their fellowship, and we have friends who have once been a part of their community, but, for whatever reason, decided to part ways. I believe we’ve seen them from just about every angle possible, without actually being part of their congregation.

With that said, this post isn’t about theology (though it will, at times, wax theological), and it’s not about what I disagree with them about, but rather it’s about what I’ve learned through them, and how I believe that my family and I have benefited in so many ways from the good, positive things that have been modeled through their day-to-day lives.

I’d like to also add that it’s not my intent to turn this into a forum for ex-members to discuss problems and disagreements with Homestead Heritage doctrine, practice, or theology. Therefore, please be aware that I will be moderating the comments (assuming this post actually generates comments).

Now, on to the point of my post: What I’ve learned from Homestead Heritage. The list is long and varied (I won’t list everything here), and, in reality, my wife and I have had many similar convictions to Homestead Heritage before we were ever acquainted with them (e.g. homeschooling, complementarianism, et cetera). This list is in no particular order:

Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

That’s the question that Paul asked John the Baptist's Ephesian disciples in Acts 19:2, and, as one of the Thinklings’ patron saints, John Piper, has said, “Now that is a remarkable question for contemporary American evangelicals who have been taught by and large that the way you know you have received the Holy Spirit is that you are a believer” (see Piper’s sermon, What Does It Mean To Receive The Holy Spirit?). Homestead Heritage has helped me appreciate the fact that the baptism (or filling) of the Holy Spirit is, as Piper also said, “experiential, not just inferential.” When a Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit, he (and others) ought to know it. It’s not merely an inferential, theological position, but a manifested reality.

Like most branches of the Pentecostal tree, Homestead Heritage emphasizes “the Holy Ghost,” and unlike many thinkers from my childhood Baptist heritage (which I’m indebted to), they see the baptism in the Holy Spirit as a distinct, essential component of Christian discipleship that’s manifested in an experiential manner. To once again quote the incomparable Piper:

We scratch our heads and say, "I don't get it, Paul. If you assume we believed, why don't you assume we received the Holy Spirit? We've been taught that all who believe receive the Holy Spirit. We've been taught to just believe that the Spirit is there whether there are any effects or not. But you talk as if there is a way to know we've received the Holy Spirit different from believing. You talk as if we could point to an experience of the Spirit apart from believing in order to answer your question."

And that is in fact the way Paul talks. When he asks, "Did you receive the Spirit when you believed," he expects that a person who has "received the Holy Spirit" knows it, not just because it's an inference from his faith in Christ, but because it is an experience with effects that we can point to.

As Piper infers, it’s important to ask yourself the question Paul asked the Ephesians, and Homestead Heritage has, in many ways, helped me realize that.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might ...

That’s what the Preacher of Ecclesiastes said, and working (or laboring) with all one’s might is a noble and valuable character trait for any Christian. As another founder of our feast, C.S. Lewis, said in Mere Christianity, “God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than He is of any other slacker.” Lewis’ point, I think, speaks to the idea that a strong work ethic is essential to Christian growth and discipleship, and I’m sure Lewis’ New Man (as described in the same book) would be someone who works for the joy of labor, as a means of communion with the Vinedresser (John 15:1), and not merely as a means to an end.

In other words, Homestead Heritage has taught me that work is a joy -- and, with that in mind, I believe work can be seen as something very similar to a sacrament. God is proactive, He’s creative, and His Gospel advances through the Kingdom of Darkness. God works, and so should we. What's more, we should work with joy. Our culture sees work as a way to get what it wants, and not as a way, as the 17th century monastery kitchen worker, Brother Lawrence, said, to “practice God’s presence.” (Brother Lawrence was continually in the presence of our Lord while doing his job -- washing dishes -- so much so that he said he saw no distinction between that time of work and fixed hours of prayer.)

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9).

When the great -- though not uncontroversial! -- 20th century theologian Karl Barth visited America in 1962, he was asked to sum up his theology (which had been expressed in his voluminous Church Dogmatics), he responded, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Homestead Heritage has reaffirmed a simple truth that I believe I have known since I was a child: that JESUS does love me, and that it’s alright -- necessary, even -- to worship Him in all His fullness. While I tend to doubt that Homestead Heritage’s theologians favor the often-misapprehended Barth, I think they’d agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion.

And Yahweh God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed (Genesis 2:8).

A little over a year ago my wife and I bought a small 2-acre farm north of Waco. Since then we’ve tilled the ground, raised animals, slaughtered animals, worked the land, and have witnessed the ancient rhythms of life that humanity has been an intricate part of since Yahweh placed Adam in Eden. Out on a farm you feel seasons, you witness the principle of sowing and reaping first-hand, and you find a place of tranquility, being at one with God and His creation. It’s a beautiful life, and we wouldn’t trade it for the world. If we hadn’t met Homestead Heritage, we would have likely never pursued such an existence.

While I could think of many more examples, I won’t belabor the point: I have learned so much from an imperfect community of people who are, in many ways, strangers to me. My wife and I have, to some extent, walked among them, but we are not part of them. By no means do we believe that the fellowship is a panacea, but God has been faithful to allow us to learn from them, and to be all the better for it. We’re thankful. I’m thankful.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. - 2 Cor 3:17-18

There is a lot of good stuff in 2 Corinthians 3 and 4. In reading this tonight, I began thinking of Paul's description of the great transformation that every believer is going through. We are progressing, from glory to glory, into the image of the Lord. That's our destiny - to be like Jesus, conformed to his image! I love the angle Guzik takes on this:

The work of transformation is a continual progression. It works from glory to glory. It doesn’t have to work from backsliding to glory to backsliding to glory.

Sanctification can be wearisome. It can be a hard slog, but the end result . . . words fail. Praise be to God.

But how is one transformed? Notice how Paul puts it: . . . we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

There are disciplines we can, and should, build into our lives as we run the race, becoming more and more like Jesus. But I'm learning that the real center of sanctification is beholding the Lord. Following Jesus isn't "learning how to be a better Christian". It's keeping our eyes on our Savior, beholding His glory, and in that beholding, becoming like Him.

Lord, help my eyes maintain their focus on You. There are so many shiny things, including my own "good" works and "progress", that distract me.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God - Hebrews 12:1-2



Beholding is becoming, so as You fill my gaze
I become more like You and my heart is changed
Beholding is becoming, so as you fill my view
Transform me into the likeness of You

For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a ninja. I’m out. I remain committed to martial arts as always but not to being “ninja” or to being part of ninja stuff. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile,disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years,... I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

Dane Ortlund posts on Lewis's "grace awakening." It is so exquisitely wonderful.

On April 25, 1951, the gospel came home to C. S. Lewis. This fascinating event does not seem to be well known, even among admirers. Yet Lewis refers to it no less than five times in volume three of the Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, which covers the final years of his life, 1950 to 1963.

The crucial letter comes in December 1951, written to priest and friend St. Giovanni Calabria:

[D]uring the past year a great joy has befallen me. Difficult though it is, I shall try to explain this in words. It is astonishing that sometimes we believe that we believe what, really, in our heart, we do not believe.

For a long time I believed that I believed in the forgiveness of sins. But suddenly (on St. Mark’s Day [April 25]) this truth appeared in my mind in so clear a light that I perceived that never before (and that after many confessions and absolutions) had I believed it with my whole heart.

So great is the difference between mere affirmation by the intellect and that faith, fixed in the very marrow and as it were palpable, which the Apostle wrote was substance. . . .

It is bidden us to ‘rejoice and always rejoice’. Jesus has cancelled the handwriting that was against us. Lift up our hearts! (p. 151–52)

What is remarkable is that this was not a passing surge of affections that evaporated as quickly as it had come. Several times throughout his correspondence for the rest of his life, Lewis referred to this 1951 experience as a renewal of lasting, life-altering significance.

In 1954, writing to “Mrs. Jessup,” Lewis spoke of his 1951 transformation as one

from mere intellectual acceptance of, to realisation of, the doctrine that our sins are forgiven. That is perhaps the most blessed thing that has ever happened to me. How little they know of Christianity who think that the story ends with conversion. (p. 425)

In 1956, Lewis remarked to Mary Van Deusen, concerning the gospel:

I had assented to the doctrine years earlier and would have said I believed it. Then, one blessed day, it suddenly became real to me and made what I had previously called “belief” look absolutely unreal. (p. 751)

In 1958 he wrote to Mary Shelburne,

I had been a Christian for many years before I really believed in the forgiveness of sins, or more strictly, before my theoretical belief became a reality to me. (p. 935)

It appears, then, that in April 1951, C. S. Lewis experienced something of a gospel awakening.

What Lewis describes experiencing is precisely what I call "gospel wakefulness." I am grateful to Dr. Ortlund for bringing these recollections back to mind (and to Justin Taylor for linking me to them), and they'll undoubtedly find their way into my forthcoming book on the subject.

Ortlund concludes:

Lewis’s personal renaissance in grace prompts grateful acknowledgment of signs of encouragement in our own day. Something of a gospel resurgence is taking place today across various swaths of evangelicalism. All this we happily receive from the hand of the Lord. The need of the hour, however, is neither self-congratulation nor smug diagnosis of who “gets” the gospel of grace. The need of the hour is deeper reverence, new levels of wonder at the grace shown oneself, and a whispered prayer that the good news of God’s free grace in Christ would spread with a continued contagion the effects of which will be felt for generations to come.

From the message in church today. This isn't an exact quote, though I was taking notes as fast as I could. The message was from Acts 4-5

We are programming ourselves to death, so much so that we miss the point of the Gospel. The early church was out of step with the world system. Because of this, the early church had influence, inviting notice and persecution.

We're not turning the world upside down. We're letting the world turn us inside out.

On a related note, read this post by our favorite Author-Pastor-Blogger, and check out the very interesting conversation in the comments thread as well.