“Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”
A city radiant as a bride
and bright with gold and gem,
a crystal river clear and wide,
the new Jerusalem;
a city wrought of wealth untold,
her jeweled walls aflame
with green and amethyst and gold
and colors none can name.
A holy city, clear as glass,
where saints in glory dwell;
through gates of pearl her people pass
to fields of asphodel.
In robes of splendor, pure and white,
they walk the golden floor,
where God himself shall be their light
and night shall be no more.
A city ever new and fair,
the Lamb’s eternal bride;
no suffering or grief is there
and every tear is dried.
There Christ prepares for us a place,
from sin and death restored,
and we shall stand before his face,
the ransomed of the Lord.
Set in vast realms of space
Across an untold time
The sprawling story he creates,
Sings the song sublime.
The music pure made matter hard,
The words became the real.
What is was built by his mere word,
The worlds the words do feel.
A garden sprang up from the song,
Replete with sacred tree,
The sounds had no notes in them wrong,
Though people there were free.
So when they chose to disobey,
Transgress God’s holy word,
The judgment wrought a disarray,
Unsheathing death’s sharp sword.
He sang again in Egypt land
His people to redeem.
By outstretched arm and his strong hand,
The Lord made freedom ring.
At Sinai Ten Words Yahweh spoke,
The people ate and played,
At Sinai tablets Moses broke
When golden calf was made.
In mercy wide with steadfast love
The Lord he made a way
Through trackless waste, bread from above,
Water from rock he gave.
Like Adam then the people sinned,
Transgressed the holy word,
Forsook their faithful only friend,
The Lord, their Shepherd.
Like Adam then from the land,
Israel was driven,
With consequences of command,
Asunder they were riven.
The covenant was broken,
The marriage bond no more,
Yet the Lord had spoken,
Of hope beyond death’s door.
And then the bridegroom came,
Prophesied of old,
Then heard the deaf and walked the lame,
And word was spoken bold.
To kill him his own people sought,
The murderer went free.
Salvation on the tree was wrought,
Mysterious to see.
While they meant evil God meant good,
A remnant he would save,
In whose place condemned he stood,
Then rose up from the grave.
Someday soon he’ll split the skies,
The trumpet call resound,
From their graves the dead will rise,
At white throne gather round.
Wheat from chaff, sheep from goats,
The Lord will separate.
Those who made the cross their boast,
Who sought the narrow gate,
Will on that day reward receive,
Who claimed Christ as their Lord,
Who in him with whole heart believed,
Clinging to his word.
And glory bright and glory fair
Will cover the dry lands,
Full as heavens are with air,
Or deserts are with sands.
The Lord will have his way on earth,
His Kingdom he will bring,
So through the pangs of this childbirth,
In faith and hope we sing.
We all found out last month what the President of the United States thinks about marriage. He sat down for an interview with ABC News and announced to the world [in his own words],
“I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married…”
He went on,
“[Michelle and I] are both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but, you know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated…”
My reaction to what the President said probably wasn’t that different from yours. I thought that what he said was outrageous. I thought that citing Jesus as if He were in support of sexual immorality was blasphemous. But I also thought, there’s really nothing new here.
The president is a sign of our times not the cause of our times. If you think that the President has caused the massive revolution in our culture on marriage, you are just wrong. The changes have accelerated in the last few years, but the seeds were sown many decades before.
Our culture long ago embraced…
-The sexual revolution of the 60’s and 70’s …
-The idolatry of sex and the diminishing of marriage…
-The ubiquity of the birth control pill and the severing of human sexuality from its connection to children and family.
-No-fault divorce and the idea that we can change spouses like we change sox.
-That there’s no difference between men and women, gender is just a social construct that we learn from culture, not something given to us by God at creation.
-And closely related to this, the idea that gender shouldn’t matter when it comes to human sexuality. And so we have a whole generation of young people who see nothing at all wrong with homosexuality.
No, our culture’s devolution didn’t begin last month with an announcement from the President. This slide has been a long time coming.
Denny’s exposition of Ephesians 5:21–33 that followed this introduction was powerful and piercing, and funny too–you’ll probably hear me belly laughing when you listen to this.
And Denny’s conclusion was poetic. He had me and many others in tears with these words:
I wrote a poem for Susan on our third anniversary that was a bit of a vision of how I was hoping and praying we might end up. It’s a story that ends with a short prayer.
The old man took her tired hand
to hold for one last time.
The years had fin’lly pressed her to
her final breaths of life.
Their wrinkled hands in warm embrace
brought back the long-gone years,
The memories of their happy times,
and those dissolved in tears.
The old man saw in her ill frame
the girl that stole his heart.
He saw in her that gracious gaze
that filled their home with warmth.
His mind turned back to lighter days
when she did make her mark,
The children her love reared for them,
Her single heart for God.
He also felt the weight of grace
that marked her many years,
How she had borne him patiently
when he did cause the tears.
The old man said, “My love, the time
was cruelly short to me.
I cannot say goodbye to you
and let your passing be.”
“How can I ever say farewell
or ever let you part?
You are my only precious thing,
the joy of my old heart.”
And as his eyes began to well,
she reached to touch his face.
And then her quivering voice began
to give one final grace.
“This is the day the Lord has made,
The one He’s brought to pass.
This day was written in His book
before my first was past.”
“The Lord has granted us to spend
together all these years.
He’s also granted all the joy
and even all our tears.”
“And though this is a bitter day,
we owe Him so much thanks.
Dear, we made it! By Him we did!
Yes, we made it! By grace!”
________________________
Oh Father, grant that we may see
our days as at their end.
Oh let us know the weight of grace
in every year we spend.
We make this prayer unto You,
for there is no one higher.
This testimony of Your grace
we desperately desire!
Lead us, Evolution, lead us
Up the future’s endless stair;
Chop us, change us, prod us, weed us.
For stagnation is despair:
Groping, guessing, yet progressing,
Lead us nobody knows where.
Wrong or justice, joy or sorrow,
In the present what are they
While there’s always jam-tomorrow,
While we tread the onward way?
Never knowing where we’re going,
We can never go astray.
To whatever variation
Our posterity may turn
Hairy, squashy, or crustacean,
Bulbous-eyed or square of stern,
Tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless,
Towards that unknown god we yearn.
Ask not if it’s god or devil,
Brethren, lest your words imply
Static norms of good and evil
(As in Plato) throned on high;
Such scholastic, inelastic,
Abstract yardsticks we deny.
Far too long have sages vainly
Glossed great Nature’s simple text;
He who runs can read it plainly,
‘Goodness = what comes next.’
By evolving, Life is solving
All the questions we perplexed.
Oh then! Value means survival-
Value. If our progeny
Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,
That will prove its deity
(Far from pleasant, by our present,
Standards, though it may well be).
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.
I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,
Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,
The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.
His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.
My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.
I got to see the battle-front,
She stayed to fight at home.
The enemy I saw at work,
She didn’t get to roam.
I smelt the smoke and saw the flames,
She took care of our kids.
The fray I joined with the s-word of God,
Some more homeschool she did.
I got to see the fighters,
On the spiritu’l front lines,
Inspired by their hope and faith,
And how their courage shines.
She got to do the laundry,
And put the kids in bed,
She made their meals and got them dressed,
And held fast in her stead.
Without her, be here I could not,
She fights this fight with me.
I wish that she could see the front,
And feel the urgency,
For though she may not see it,
She wields her weapons too,
And holds the line and joins the charge,
In our cause most good and true.
Sunday, December 9, 2011
Composed overseas in honor of my sweet wife, who championed the cause of the gospel on the home-front, mothering our four children, while I was teaching the Bible to people training for ministry on the other side of the world.
Into a land of darkness
Where the light not legal is,
We will go to sing the song
Of how the soul may live.
This is a land where evil men
Forbid the truth be known,
Though illegal, we will go,
God’s glory must be shown.
Doubt not the truth that in the end
The gospel will prevail.
Through flame and blood we testify
To one who did not fail
When into a land of darkness
Where the light not legal was,
The baby’s cry did pierce the night
Satan’s seed were set to flight
The blind were given back their sight
When came the one to set things right
The Lord of all, the light of light,
Against him stands no chance the night.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Composed Overseas
—-
From December 2–19, 2011, I was overseas teaching. The country I was in is among the 50 worst countries for the persecution of Christians (it’s in the top 20).
The nations rage, the peoples plot in vain, and the one who sits in the heavens laughs: the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ (Ps 2; Rev 11).
In 1988, Jimmy Swaggart was caught with a prostitute. He was famous. On television. Known worldwide as an evangelist and preacher. He was initially suspended for three months, then the Assemblies of God suspended him for two years. When he resumed preaching after three months, the Assemblies of God defrocked him.
In 1991 he was stopped by a police officer in California with a prostitute in the car. He told the church he continued to serve that the Lord told him it was none of their business and temporarily stepped down from ministry.
Jimmy Swaggart is famous, so a lot of people know about him. There are many ministers who fall into sexual sin. It is all too common for ministers who aren’t famous to fall out of ministry because of sexual sin. It is all too common for Christians who aren’t ministers to fall into sexual sin.
In Jeremiah 3 Jeremiah is warning the Southern Kingdom of Judah by pointing to what happened in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Jeremiah wants Judah to learn from what happened to Israel before it’s too late, before like Israel, Judah is destroyed. We want to learn from the sins of others before we commit them ourselves.
We need to see the consequence of sin and the rewards of repentance and faithfulness. We need to learn from the fall of other ministers before it’s too late in our case. People who fall into sexual sin accumulate a series of small transgressions that they don’t turn from, and the small sins build to big ones.
Jeremiah’s message in Jeremiah 3:6–4:4 is that Judah should look at what happened to the northern kingdom, Israel. Jeremiah is calling the southern kingdom, Judah, to repent of the little sins that will add up to the big exile.
This is a beautiful passage in which Yahweh promises to bless Israel if they repent. Specifically, in Jeremiah 3:22, the Lord declares that if they will return to him he will heal them.
Do you want the healing?
Healing full and free –
Won’t you come to Jesus?
Come the Savior see –
Do you want the freedom?
Loosed from all your chains –
Won’t you call upon him?
Speak the Savior’s name –
He will wash you fully.
Take away your stain –
Won’t you have the joy he
Showers where he reigns?
At several points in this passage Jeremiah alludes to the way that God saved Israel in the past to point to the way that he will save them in the future. Interesting to see the use of the OT in the OT (an OT author, Jeremiah, using earlier OT Scripture). You can hear all about it here: Jeremiah 3:6–4:4, Repent and Be Restored.
What does Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” have to do with the ESV not being too difficult a translation for people to understand?
Much in every way!
Before I explain, let me invite you to enjoy Carroll’s foray into sniglets (words that don’t appear in the dictionary but should) and logatomes (made-up words that obey phonotactic rules but have no meaning):
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
So how does this poem prove people can understand the translation of the Bible known as the ESV?
Proponents of Dynamic Equivalence are constantly telling us that translations that are Literal or Formally Equivalent or Essentially Literal or whatever are too complicated for people to understand. Just to be clear, we’re not talking about Young’s Literal Translation or the KJV or even the NAS. I’ve now heard from Americans, Englishmen, and Australians that the ESV is too difficult for people to understand.
HOGWASH! That’s what we call nonsense in Arkansas. I think my friends in England call it rubbish. You get the idea.
Jabberwocky, with all its nonsense words that no one knows, disproves this meme about an Essentially Literal translation being too difficult.
The poem disproves the claim because while no one can know the meaning of these words that Lewis Carroll invented, anyone who knows English can understand what is happening in the poem. Here’s my favorite recorded recitation of the poem:
That’s my seven year old, and he understands the poem. No doubt he’ll understand more if he returns to it when he’s 37 or 67, but he gets it now.
Human beings are made in the image of God. They can figure out how to work iPhones and those complicated new remote controls.
If you tell me that just because they didn’t finish high school they can’t understand a literal translation of the Bible, I’m going to point you to the previous generations of people who, in many cases, had little or no education but faithfully read the King James, and it gave them everything necessary for life and godliness.
If a man can read, all he needs to do is read, pray, and meditate, and he might understand the Bible better than someone with a PhD in biblical studies.
If he can’t read, if he’ll pay close attention to someone else reading it, he can get it.
Human beings are made in the image of God. I don’t buy the argument that the ESV is too complicated for them. In fact, I think the argument comes very close to insulting those who bear God’s image.
If I said to you that God can relate to you when you feel abandoned, falsely accused, misunderstood, attacked, and denied, would you tell me that God is God and it is impossible for him to relate to these feelings precisely because he has all power, all knowledge, and all authority?
Is there any way you can imagine God being able to experience the loneliness, the hurt, the vulnerability, and the disappointment of being treated in these ways? How can we relate to God, omnipotent and unassailable, perfect and invincible? Is it possible for God to know what we feel when we are lonely, vulnerable, wrongly-accused, and betrayed? Yes, God is all knowing and all powerful, but can he know what we feel? Can God relate to us?
Jesus can relate to us. Jesus can relate to us in our loneliness, our abandonment, our sense that we are condemned for believing and speaking the truth, and our experience of being betrayed by those who ought to be loyal to us.
Mark 14:53–72 is full of impossibilities. We should not become so familiar with it that we cease to feel its shock value: How could it be possible that Israel would reject its Messiah? How could it be possible that the High Priest of Israel, who himself symbolizes the true mediator between God and man, would accuse the one he represents of blasphemy? How could justice be perverted to the point of Jesus being condemned to death? How could Peter, the boldest of the disciples, deny Jesus? How could these things possibly happen?
The Jewish leadership means to kill Jesus. They mean to kill the best man who has ever lived, the only man ever to live without sin, the incarnation of the everlasting God, the healer of the sick, feeder of the hungry, giver of life, epitome of love, teller of truth, hope of the world, King of kings, Lord of all. Their response to him is to want him dead.
Mark has done such a good job of telling the story that we understand why they want to kill him. They do not believe that he is the Messiah. He has not met their expectations. They love themselves.
When the High Priest asks Jesus if he is the Messiah, Jesus turns the tables in his reply: as Jesus answers, he shows that he is the one in charge. The reality is not what it seems. He is not the one on trial. Though the High Priest and those accusing Jesus think they have him on trial, in reality they are on trial. In reality their choices and actions will determine their destiny when they come before the world’s righteous Judge.
Jesus makes three offensive statements.
1) I Am
2) Psalm 110:1
3) Daniel 7:13
Here he asserts that he is Lord, that he is the descendant of David, that he is the Son of Man who will receive everlasting dominion.
After Jesus is falsely accused and blasphemed, Peter denies him.
Have you been in a position where you wanted to do the right thing, and you simply broke? You hoped to have backbone, you hoped to have courage screwed to the sticking place, you meant to be the hero, and you quailed, played the part of the coward, and found yourself denying what was most precious to you?
The evil is so large, so black, so powerful that only Jesus can stand before it. It crushed him and killed him, but he did not quail. Because he did not flinch in the face of evil, the last defense against evil held. Jesus broke its back. Jesus overcame evil.
If you do not side with Jesus, when he comes on the clouds of heaven, he will condemn you in an awesome display of almighty justice. Your condemnation will be right, and God will be as faithful to you then as he is being faithful to you now.
If you say to me: how can he receive me. I’m such a failure. Look at what Peter does here. Peter knows that he has betrayed the one who is trustworthy. Peter knows that he has denied the one worthy of his allegiance. Peter knows that Jesus stood alone and that he abandoned him. And Peter feels the crushing weight of his sin, and weeps.
Let me invite you to consider how good God has been to you, how magnificent God’s creation is, how privileged you are to be a human being made in the image of God.
And in light of the gifts God has given to you, let me invite you to consider how ungrateful you have been, how presumptuous, how proud, how perverse, how complaining, how defiled and profane.
Weep over it. It’s ugly.
But oh, sweet the sound of the Savior’s love!
Low we were, in woe and shame, without hope,
And then he came, from on high, from above,
And took our sin and shame in fullest scope
A few logistics and some stray comments before I attempt to combine words to get across the four big things I want to say about the trip: The expedition was made financially possible by Answers in Genesis, Canyon Ministries, and The Master’s Seminary. I don’t know who the donors were (each of us received a $3,300 scholarship), but I hereby register my gratitude for their generosity.
Let me also say that if you’re looking for a way to contribute financially to a Bible teacher or Christian leader having a great time on the river with Christian brothers discussing the age of the earth, the flood, and the Canyon, this is a great cause.
Or, if you’re looking for an exciting and educational vacation, why not plan a trip through the Canyon? You won’t find a better guide than Tom Vail of Canyon Ministries. The man knows where to find a shaded campsite, how to run a rapid, how to explain the Canyon’s geology, how to relate to all kinds of people, and even how to cook a birthday cake down there on the river. I’ve heard he catches rattle-snakes if they enter camp (seriously–thankfully no need to this time), and the power of the gospel is heard in his testimony and seen in his actions. Go to the Canyon Ministries website to book your trip.
We entered the river at Lees Ferry, and we helicoptered out 190 miles later, just past Lava Falls. I had never ridden in a helicopter. I had never been white water rafting. I had never been to the Grand Canyon. I had never slept under the open heavens–no tents necessary with no bugs and clear skies. I never imagined I would eat so well on a rafting trip.
I had no idea the Colorado River was so cold–47 degrees–and wouldn’t have expected bathing and doing laundry in it to be so easy (ok, it took a couple days to get used to the shiver-inducing cold of the water). Nor could I have imagined that the Little Colorado River would look like the clear blue waters of the Caribbean, or that flash flooding upriver could make the water of the Colorado look like Chocolate Milk. Willy Wonka would be proud.
I had no idea that the connections between the geological evidence about the formation of the Canyon and the Genesis flood were so strong.
I’m hoping to go back with my wife and kids (once they get old enough) and as many other family members as possible.
My four big take-aways from the trip have to do with the immensity and beauty of the Canyon, the relationships strengthened and formed, the power of the flood, and the joy of homecoming.
Immensity and Beauty
If you want to feel small, high thee up on that ledge above Deer Creek Falls that leads to Upper Deer Creek. Jason Derouchie has nerves of steel. He was standing right next to that ledge! I was with Mike Wittmer trying to get as close to the cliff sloping up behind it as possible. Eventually we agreed it was better not even to look at those guys who were so close to it. Especially when Nate started mocking us by acting like he was going to lunge off the ledge. Crazy. I was claiming Psalm 121:3, “He will not let your foot be moved.”
But from that ledge you can see a long, long way, and it’s Canyon as far as eyes will go. Enormity. Immensity. And it goes a lot farther than weak human eyes take in.
I wish my words were as beautiful as the Canyon’s splendors. It’s a place worthy of poets. Pictures can’t do it justice, but my sweet wife checked out several picture books on the Canyon from the local public library so she and the kids could have a glimpse of its glory.
At the end of the trip we received Tom Vail’s book, Grand Canyon: A Different View. When she saw it, my lovely wife said, “This is what I was hoping for from the books we got from the library; these pictures are far superior.” Its message is, too.
The size of the place is awesome.
At one point you’re a mile deep from river to rim. As you pass through the Upper Granite Gorge and the Middle Granite Gorge (we choppered out before the Lower Granite Gorge), you’re in canyons within the Canyon, and the walls of granite rise so steep and high that the outer rim cannot be seen.
It is big. And it is beautiful. Variety, radiance, harmony, wholeness: glory seen there.
Relationships
Thirty-two men on two boats rafting down the Colorado River. Away from wives, kids, and work responsibilities. No cell phone signals, no laptops, no blogs, twitter feeds, or facebook pages. Walls of rock rise on either side of the river. Eat. Raft. Eat. Raft. Hike. Raft. Eat. Sleep on a cot on a piece of sand in a bend of the River. When you wake up you’re with the same guys ready to sit on the boat again for hours. Plenty of time to talk. Long conversations punctuated by blasts through drenching rapids.
That’s a recipe for relationships, especially when the men are Christ-following and eager to serve.
What a blessing to walk through life with Christian brothers. There is indeed a unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There were four men from the UK, an Australian, and Americans from California and Virginia, Minnesota and Georgia, and a bunch of places in between. It was a blessing to strengthen old friendships and start new ones.
What a gift is friendship, yea, brotherhood–sweetened by the knowledge of the true and living God, faith in his Son Jesus Christ, and the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
Mercy.
Flood
That massive and beautiful Canyon was cut by water. A lot of water moving fast. A catastrophic amount of water. It’s stunning, really, to look at the Canyon and imagine how much water moved through there. Sea water, no less, as evidenced by many, many fossils of salt-water critters.
Anyone who has read the opening pages of my recent book knows that I love guided tours. Even better than some device with a recording is a live tour guide who is a good teacher and likes to answer questions. Andrew Snelling was our live and in person geologist through the Canyon. You can check out his writing in short or long form. In addition to Andrew guiding us through the rocks, Bill Barrick was there to guide us through relevant passages of Scripture. What a blessing to be taught by these men.
We had many discussions of the age of the earth as well, and Terry Mortenson took the lead in these. I’m a convinced young-earther who thinks that flood was global. As World magazine’s books of the year demonstrate, this is a hot topic. Some have recently advocated the idea that what threatens fidelity is not the idea of an old earth but of theistic evolution. With that I’m sympathetic, and I also think the Preface to the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy is relevant to this dispute, as it shows men humbly contending earnestly for the truth. For this we should strive as we engage old-earthers (among whom, apparently, we find Augustine, Thomas Chalmers, C. H. Spurgeon, B. B. Warfield, James M. Boice, and Wayne Grudem).
Consider the attractive power of the earnest humility expressed in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. In the Preface the framers begin by asserting the significance of the issue:
We see it as our timely duty to make this affirmation in the face of current lapses from the truth of inerrancy among our fellow Christians and misunderstanding of this doctrine in the world at large.
Then a few lines down there is this challenging graciousness wrapped in an invitation to continue the conversation:
We offer this Statement in a spirit, not of contention, but of humility and love, which we propose by God’s grace to maintain in any future dialogue arising out of what we have said. We gladly acknowledge that many who deny the inerrancy of Scripture do not display the consequences of this denial in the rest of their belief and behavior, and we are conscious that we who confess this doctrine often deny it in life by failing to bring our thoughts and deeds, our traditions and habits, into true subjection to the divine Word.
We invite response to this Statement from any who see reason to amend its affirmations about Scripture by the light of Scripture itself, under whose infallible authority we stand as we speak. We claim no personal infallibility for the witness we bear, and for any help that enables us to strengthen this testimony to God’s Word we shall be grateful.
Amen. May the Lord give us grace to engage in these disputes with a similar spirit.
The waters of the Colorado are powerful, as can be seen in this clip (note how the guy seated front left has his hat knocked off his head when the water rushes over him, and enjoy Derouchie’s fist pumping enthusiasm when he has passed through the waters):
All this water, however, does not appear to be now widening the river’s banks or deepening its channel, which seems to indicate that the Canyon was cut by a catastrophic, unprecedented, and unrepeated flow of water. My mind can barely begin to imagine the fury of the raging waters of Noah’s flood. Praise God that Jesus was baptized in the flood-waters of God’s wrath so that those who trust in him are delivered, as Noah was in the ark.
Homecoming
My gratitude to those who made the trip possible runs deep. I’m thankful for those who made it financially possible, but the deepest waters of thanksgiving flow toward my family. My sweet wife rejoiced in the opportunity to hold down the fort with our four kids, and my heroic dad came to help while I was away. The deep channels of their sacrificial love caused soaring heights of joy when I finally got home. I am the most blessed husband and father in the world.
To have that woman throw her arms around my neck.
There are pleasures that can only be felt in this permanent, exclusive, monogamous, comprehensive, interpersonal, organic union of one man and one woman called marriage.
Praise God.
My sons prepared for my arrival with a note taped to the door of our home, “Dad’s Home, Yippee!” And they made a lap-book of the Grand Canyon. Is it possible to describe what I felt when those three boys, 7, 5, and 3 years old, clambered out of the van and sprinted down the sidewalk at the airport to fling themselves into my arms? I hope they have sons like themselves, and I hope the Lord gives them each a wife like their mother. And then there was the joy of that wobbly five month old baby girl, with her bright-eyed smile and delightful pre-word baby cooing.
The Canyon was enormous and beautiful. The friendships renewed and formed full of joy and promise. The thought of the flood-waters of judgment that cut those rocks, leaving beauty in the wake of destruction (ahem, God’s glory in salvation through judgment) evokes praise for the Maker of the mountains. Coming home to my sweet wife and our four little ones is like stepping into a dream come true.
And all of it is mercy.
Cue organ to blast out the Gloria Patri:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, amen, amen.
On Sunday, May 22, 2011, it was our pleasure and privilege to ordain Ross Shannon to gospel ministry. Ross has been serving as the Assistant Pastor for Discipleship and Evangelism at Kenwood, and he just graduated from SBTS and was called to serve at First Baptist Church, Lapeer, MI. I had the honor of preaching Ross’s ordination. Ray Van Neste’s recent post on a good shepherd laying down his life for the sheep provided my introduction, and Floyd Doud Shafer’s phenomenal 1961 Christianity Todayarticle inspired the conclusion.
We had a number of members of Kenwood graduate from SBTS, and as I was sitting there watching them cross the stage on Friday, reflecting on Ross and some other dear friends moving on to new ministries, I started this poem for Ross’s ordination.
Commission You Do We This Day
There is, my friend, no higher call
Than this we send you on with all
Our hearts, our souls, our minds we join
Both to rejoice and also mourn
The moving on of these so dear,
You’ve loved and served us so well here
That this sweet sadness deepens now
As though the grief is right somehow
We’d love to see your children born
Watch them grow and sing and learn;
And old together we might grow,
But there’s a deeper joy we’ll know
As you answer the call and go,
Our joy and grief together show
That there’s a love worth more than life,
A truth that merits sacrifice,
So join we now the ranks of those
Whose love in leaving deeper grows
Commission you do we this day
Giving God the thanks and praise.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Begun during graduation on Friday, May 20, 2011
For the Ordination of Ross Shannon
“Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear me was the task of Power divine,
Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
