Sorry for the interruption, but “life” got in the way last week and I just didn’t have enough time to post everything, so the “Poetry and Music Friday” feature was cut. However, in a normal week, I set aside Fridays to celebrate creativity by featuring a poet and a musical act who features at least one track for free and legal download. I also regularly link to the photography of Steve McCoy, Joe Thorn, Will Turner, Alex Forrest and Joe Kennedy as well as the Friday Flickr group they participate in.

Today’s featured poet is: Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705). According to Fire and Ice, Wigglesworth “was born in England and came to America at the age of seven. He lived in New Haven until he went to Harvard; he was graduated in 1651 and remained as a tutor for three years. He lived out the rest of his essentially uneventful life in Malden, Massachusetts, the place of the ministry to which he was appointed in 1656.”

His best-known poem, The Day of Doom, is quite lengthy (you can download the 45-page Word document here) but serves as a good reminder of the connection that ought to exist between deep theological reflection and artistic expression. Our featured poem today is A Prayer Unto Christ:

O Dearest Dread, most glorious King,
I’le of thy justest Judgements sing:
So thou my head and heart inspire,
To Sing aright, as I desire.
Thee, thee alone I’le invocate,
For I do much abominate
To call the Muses to mine aid:
Which is th’ Unchristian use, and trade
Of some that Christians would be thought,
And yet they worship worse then nought.
Oh! what a deal of Blasphemy,
And Heathenish Impiety,
In Christian Poets may be found,
Where Heathen gods with praise are Crown’d,
They make Jehovah to stand by,
Till Juno, Venus, Mercury,
With frowning Mars, and thundering Jove
Rule Earth below, and Heaven above.
But I have learnt to pray to none,
Save unto God in Christ alone.
Nor will I laud, no, not in jest,
That which I know God doth detest.
I reckon it a damning evil
To give Gods Praises to the Devil.
Thou, Christ, art he to whom I pray,
Thy Glory fain I would display.
Oh! guide me by thy sacred Sprite
So to indite, and so to write,
That I thine holy Name may praise,
And teach the Sons of men thy wayes.

• Purchase the works of Michael Wigglesworth

Today’s featured musical act is a band calling themselves Caspian. Caspian plays a brand of loud, sometimes heavy instrumental rock. A bit more straight-forward than much of what is considered “post-rock,” it would still generally fall into that category. The music is guitar-driven and can be quite cathartic. The band features one track from their recent EP, one track from an unreleased demo, one live track and several unreleased more ambient loops which are also featured here.

• Download Further In
• Download Loft (demo)
• Download Last Rites (live)
• Download A Sketch of You Sleeping
• Download Brion
• Download Doomsday Clock
• Download Black Pen
• Download Tucher
• Download Beige
• Visit the band’s official website
• Purchase You Are the Conductor by Caspian

Yes, yes yes, here we are another week in the bag, more days under the bridge flowing like the proverbial water. Consider this sort of like your pool strainer, capturing all of the little floating things clogging up the filters of your computer. The Weekly Town Crier strains the good bugs from the bad for your browsing pleasure.

Watch the recent interaction between Chris Wallace and Bill Clinton in which Clinton tells Matthews, “You got that little smirk on your face, and you think you’re so cleaver…” Good journalism; good entertainment. Neil Postman would be proud.

Browse Educated Nation’s “Top Ten Web Tools For College Students.”

Read the two (here and here) public statements from Ligonier Ministries about its recent decision to withdraw legal proceedings against a blogger going by the name of “Frank Vance” (apparently not his true identity).

Read this post reporting that Dr. Francis Beckwith has in fact been granted tenure by Baylor University (ht: JT).

Read Justin Taylor’s post of George Orwell’s “Rules for Clear Writing.”

Read Joe Carter’s “Open Letter to the Religious Right” which includes the admonition: ‘Being Right doesn’t mean we are always right. I know we claim we understand that but it would probably help if we acted like we believed it as well.”

Read Allmusic’s review of the newest collaboration between personal favorite Medeski Martin and Wood with guitar great John Scofield, Out Louder.

Read Christianity Today’s review of the new Chris Tomlin album as well as their review of the new one by By the Tree (not quite so favorably reviewed!).

Look into my ears and see what I’ve been listening to at the Last.fm site which uses a plugin called “Audio Scrobbler” to track the music you listen to and then make recommendations on your established listening patterns.

Send a Bible to China through VoM’s “Bibles Unbound” program.

Become a drug dealer and help distribute AIDS medicines to Africa.

Read Michelle Malkin’s piece chronicling the decline of singer Charlotte Church from having the “voice of an angel” to having the “mouth of a sewer rat.”

Read the American Spectator’s piece noting the continued move to push for the “right” to murder the unborn.

Read this Baptist Press piece about the “Joshua Convergence,” a move by SBC leaders to capture and maintain the support of “younger” pastors.

Subscribe to Salvo, the print project from online journal Crux.

Read Russell Moore’s piece A Breeding Heart Conservative in which he wonders about the connection between having children and maintaining a conservative theological position.

Read Andree Seu.

Read Jeremy Casella’s update on the recording process for his new album.

Read and reflect as Taylor Worley offers some quotes from Nicholas Wolterstorff regarding the relationship between faith and art.

Download Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The orchestra has severed their relationship with their former record label, they’re moving the recordings to digital format and to promote the move, they are making this recording avaialbe for free for a limited time.

Read the Philadelphia Inquirer’s interview with Sufjan Stevens.

Browse Yahoo’s list of banned books.

Read Wikipedia’s (disputed) entry concerning the “Loudness Wars” amongst CD manufacturers.

Browse this list of “essential Mac applications.”

Read Greg Gilbert’s review of Joel Osteen’s Your Best Life Now for 9Marks Ministries. The helpful review begins: “Someone might legitimately raise the question why we are reviewing this book. After all, the pattern here at 9Marks has been that we review Christian books. I suppose we must be branching out now, because Joel Osteen’s Your Best Life Now is decidedly not one of those. Open the book to any random page, and you will likely find some mention of God or even a reference to Scripture. Yet that is just window-dressing.”

Read Bob Kauflin’s thoughts about the Cross in worship.

Read Justin Taylor’s post regarding the new ESV Daily Reading Bible.

Read Rhett’s post regarding what many pastors read.

Read Jim Hamilton’s post regarding “Books Every Seminary Graduate Should Have Read.”

Watch this video linked by Denny Burk of Carter Beauford drumming.

Read Mark Moore’s thoughts on Joyce Meyer at the bookstore (ht: ML).

Read Clarke’s thoughts about how great our God truly is.

This year’s Fellowship of Reformed Churches conference is fast approaching and I’d like to ask for help promoting this event. If you have a website or a blog and would be interested in helping, please contact me. Please feel free to post one of the banners below with a link to the Fellowship of Reformed Churches website.

We began the Fellowship in order to provide a platform for churches to come together for communication, cooperation and community. Our primary avenue at this point is the annual conference. This year’s event will be Saturday, October 14 at the Leadership Development Center on the campus of Southwestern Theological Seminary. Our theme will be “Humble Orthodoxy.” Please visit the website for more information, both about the Fellowship and this year’s conference.

Please link to the Fellowship of Reformed Churches website from your site. Please write about the conference and the heart behind it. If you have any questions, please contact me. Feel free to use any of these images for links or let me know if you’d like sometine re-sized. Thanks so much!

 

 

 

Many in our culture have intentionally sought to move away from the idea of consequences. We have been told that love does not hold accountable and it certainly does not enact consequences for actions. Instead, to “forgive is to forget.”

As with many notions, many of these ideas have been carried over to our understanding of God, salvation and Jesus. In many people’s minds, God is quite similar to Santa Claus: He’s an old guy with a long white beard who lives up north somewhere, and he says that everyone must be good or they won’t be rewarded but in the end, let’s face it, everyone gets a present, so it really dosn’t matter how we live as long as we keep the big sins fairly quiet.

Many people carry and image of Jesus with them that is anything but accurate. For many, Jesus is a skinny Caucasian who’s really in touch with his feelings and just wants everyone to be happy. Again, it really doesn’t matter what you do or how you live as long as it’s not as bad as that guy over there; he’s really bad and I’m not like him…

Yet such notions could not be farther from the truth and they certainly do not align with the biblical portrayals of Jesus or how we are to think of Him. I was confronted with this very fact the other day while reading 1 John. It was one of those moments when you know you’ve read a passage before, but you haven’t really stopped to meditate on it until that moment. Consider 1 John 2:28-29:

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

I was familiar with the second part of that verse, fitting, as it does, with much of John’s overall emphasis on practical holy living as a true test of our faith. I don’t know why, but I had never really paused at the first part of this section. John says that we must abide in Christ so that when He appears, we may be confident and not shrink from Him in shame.

This image of shrinking from Christ in shame caught me off-guard and has rested upon my soul for the past couple of days. How different is this Jesus than the one so commonly touted by so many who will pat everyone on the back like an old college friend. How different is this Jesus whose holiness blazes forth uncontrollably. How different is this Jesus who causes us to shrink from Him in shame. How different is this Jesus who takes sin so much more seriously than do we, that is until His coming.

I truly worry that many who claim to know Jesus do not know the true Jesus, the Jesus of Scripture, Jesus as He presents Himself; holding the right and the power to judge (Matthew 25:31-46, etc.) and who will come again waging war with the sword from His mouth, finally calling those who have committed treason to account (Revelation 1:16, 2:16, 19:15, etc.).

Any conception of Jesus must arrive from the Scriptures rather than from our culture. We are not free to view the Bible through the lens of culture. In fact, we must strive to do exactly the opposite. We must lovingly assert that true love always asserts consequences and that Jesus has come to save His people, but He will also return to judge His enemies.

This is certainly not a popular concept, that if we are not in Christ that we are His enemies, but it is the Scriptural truth and it is at the heart of the Gospel message. The Gospel is about being saved by God from God and we are called to the mouthpiece of this message that is both uplifting and terrifying.

We must do a better job at not only proclaiming but at portraying biblical love. This includes churches understanding and implementing church discipline and it means rejecting any false notions claiming that humility means uncertainty. We must not pursue orthodoxy at the expense of humility yet we cannot do away with doctrine. We must be men and women characterized by love and service, but most of all, we must proclaim the Jesus of Scripture and nothing else.

ADDITION: It was pointed out that I had neglected to make a book recommendation at the end of this post (thanks Sean!), so here you go:

• Read The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson

One of the joys of my position as a pastor is seeing the Body of Christ function as it should. Many Americans have been raised on the “I can go it alone, I don’t need no one never; I can pull myself up by my bootstraps” mentality. We’ve bought into the notion of the “self-made” person who “works alone.” All the while, we’ve forgotten that even the Lone Ranger didn’t travel alone. We were created for relationship.

The ultimate relationship for which we have been created is with God, but we must also admit that it was even prior to the Fall that God said “it is not good that man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18). As the author of Eccesiastes reminds us, this is common sense (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12):

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him–a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

It’s often been said that “blood is thicker than water,” reminding us that family ties are often stronger than other bonds we share in this lifetime. How much moreso those relationships bound together by eternal blood of infinite worth? God often refers to salvation as the gathering of His “sons and daughters” (Isaiah 43:6, etc.). In fact, Paul says that the church, as the Body of Christ is to be so united that when one member suffers, we all suffer with them, or when one member rejoices, we all recoice with them (1 Corinthians 12:26) and that we are to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2).

Yet many of us have not only not had this experience but we have been hurt by those claiming to be members of this same church that is to so deeply love one another. It is common to hear some say that they do not “need to be in the church” to worship: they can worship beside the trickling creek all by themselves. While it is true that all of life is to be worship, this idea that we do not “need” the church is misguided at best. We must clarify and say that American in particular have many preconceived notions about conducting church that we could leave behind and at root, “the church” is gathered, committed believers, but we must nonetheless say that, though we are saved as individuals, we live out the Christian life in community.

It’s common to hear people say that they are dissatisfied with a particular local church because “no one reaches out.” While many churches do suffer from this, the immediate question ought to be turned inward because in a real sense, Christians are one another’s keepers and if we feel that no one has “reached out” to us, we must be willing to ask ourselves what effort we’ve made in that same process. This often means examining ourselves for pride because Paul says that we are to consider others as more important than ourselves (Philippians 2:1-4).

Some might argue that I’ve overstated the balance and minimized the personal, subjective element of the Christian life. It is true that we are to grow as individuals, but the “one another” passages make it clear that as we grow as individuals in Christ, we will “love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). My wife and I were listening to A Prairie Home Companion the other day and Garrison Keillor was singing a bluegrass song (I don’t know why he feels the need to sing on every episode but he does). The name of the song was “You Don’t Love God” and the chorus was something to the effect of: “If you don’t love your neighbor then you don’t love God.”

While we are quick to quantify and define and ask as the lawyer did, “Who then is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25-37) and believe that God will wink and nod knowing that some people are hard to love and after all, isn’t a song like that simply old-fashioned and antiquated, we forget that it is in fact drawing directly from Scripture. In fact, John goes so far as to say in 1 John 4:20 that “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar.”

While it is easy to view comments such as these as a rebuke, we do better to view them as a reminder of the blessing that is meant for every believer. The Body is made up of many members, yet it is one, each member supporting the other (1 Corinthians 12:12-26). What a blessing it is to know that, no matter our family situation, no matter our past, when we are born again, we are born into a family that is closer than any physical family because we are bound together with no ordinary blood.

My heart is that these truths would be grasped and lived, not only at Grace Community Church, but throughout the Body of Christ. These past few days I have been privileged enough to see this in action so I know that, though it sounds foreign to many of us, not only is it possible but it is the way things were meant to be.

A lightning bolt it was not. Having gone through seminary, I’ve met men who knew in an instant that they were being called to the ministry. Others possessed a sure and steady resolve that had grown over the years. By contrast, I was confused about the idea of a “calling” and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it when I thought that mine had arrived.

Being in the pastorate, it is quite common for people to share with me that they are feeling “called to the ministry.” It’s interesting that so many of us have such different perspectives on what this actually means. The most recent “Acts 29” e-mail newsletter addresses this very topic, and they offer “Ten Ways to Test God’s Calling In Your Life.” This idea of “God’s calling” is an especially one for many to discern. It can be over-emphasized to asking which pair of socks God would have me wear today, or it might be virtually ignored as though God were simply not interested in the details of our lives or active in shaping those details. We must strive above all to be biblical as we seek how most effectively live out these truths.
Though it could apply to many areas of life, it also applies directly to this discussion of ministry. The Acts 29 list is as follows:

Ten ways to test God’s calling in your life:
1. Is it within the principles of Scripture?
2. Does it demand God’s participation?
3. Is it contrary to selfish desires?
4. Will it challenge my faith?
5. Am I pursuing God through it or running from a problem?
6. Am I being patient with it?
7. Does it build up others?
8. Is it within my God-given abilities and spiritual gifts?
9. Has Godly counsel encouraged it?
10. Am I experiencing peace in it?

Scott Thomas
Director
Acts 29 Network

There are several practical helps to a list such as this one. It reminds us to involve others, asking “Has Godly counsel encouraged it.” This is a foreign concept to many of us who forget that the “Lone Ranger” even had companionship and have come to believe that we truly can “pull ourselves up by the bootstraps.” Seeking the counsel of others is either not on the radar for some people, or it is simply uncomfortable.

Scripture repeatedly admonishes us to seek counsel on important decisions, reminding us that “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14).This is also a reminder that the “call to ministry” is not simply internal and subjective. Rather, it must be witnessed to and verified by others. This is not to say that if someone dislikes my preaching “style” that I am not called to the ministry, but it is to say that if those whose judgment we trust doubt aour calling, perhaps we should as well. Are we trusted with teaching opportunities and what is the feedback when such opportunities are presented?

I know that in my own calling to ministry, this objective element came very much prior to the subjective, personal grasp of that same call. While I realize that this is not everyone’s experience, I find it helpful to review the process God brought me through to the pastorate. I was given several teaching opportunities which received (for the most part) positive feedback. Others began to question the presence of a call long before I did. In fact, I leaned heavily towards the academic side of things and entered seminary with the plans to continue through to the Ph.D. and to teach in an academic environment.

Somewhere during the seminary experience though, God literally broke my heart for the church. Through a series of events including conducting my grandfather’s funeral and taking “The Doctrine of the Church” with Mark Dever, God literally changed me from the inside out. I remember explicitly that several professors at Southern made the same comment: “If you can picture yourself doing anything other than full-time ministry and being content, then you ought to because ministry must be a calling.”

This last concept has been one that my wife and I have continually returned to, not only while finishing seminary, but throughout the process of finding the right place to serve and even through the first year-and-a-half of that ministry. I won’t lie: ministry is often difficult and if one enters into without a clear sense of calling from the Lord, it will not only be unrewarding but it will quite likely be damaging. We must take the idea of the call to ministry seriously because we take the Church seriously. Not that we want to discourage people, but it is not “one career choice among many,” and it cannot be entered into lightly.

We must not only be thankful for the Acts 29 list and men like John Piper who are willing to “Plea for Radical Ministry,” we must encourage those who feel this call and who serve us. The ministry can be a lonely, even alienating place and if God’s people to not uphold His servants, I know from experience how easy it is to become discouraged. But we can take joy in the fact that with the call, God also provides the equipping because it is His kingdom, His name and His renown that are ultimately at stake and He will not share His glory with another (Isaiah 48:11). For that we can be grateful.

• Read Brothers, We Are Not Professionals by John Piper

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! More stuff from the internet. More stuff to browse, more things to peruse, a couple more to examine and a few more to dissect! After all, you are your only limit to discovery, right? The hard-working rational mind can overcome anything and everything! Onward and upward, viva la revolucion!

Sorry, no music or poetry today. Busy week and that wasn’t one of my priorities if you can believe that. But please don’t let that stop you from browsing the photography of Will Turner, Joe Kennedy, Joe Thorn, and the Friday Flickr group in which they participate.

Read as Engadget has music bloggers react to Microsoft’s Zune mp3 player, which is hoping to dethrone the iPod.

Read Rolling Stone’s review of a recent Sufjan Stevens concert in which Stevens wore wings. After all, it’s only natural to wear wings when playing the banjo, right? All the cool banjo-ers are wearing them!

Read Business Week Online’s profile of Apple designer Jonathan Ive.

Read as Rolling Stone visits the set of the upcoming Bob Dylan biopic “I’m Not There” to report on how well Cate Blanchett does at playing Dylan. Yes, you read that correctly.

Read the Dallas News‘ interview with Sufjan Stevens about the possibility of a Texas installment in his hypothetical “50 States” project. Sufjan responds: “The problem is that Texas is such a phenomenon,” he says. “It’s so overwrought with archetypes and clichés. You have to sort of wade through all of that to get to the heart of the story of Texas. I’m not sure if I have the stamina for that one.”

Browse Entertainment Weekly’s selections for the “25 Most Controversial Movies Ever” with an interesting selection topping the list.

Browse a collection of Sesame Street/Muppets flashbacks.

Read The Times Online’s review of music download sites. Their “4-Star Winner?” eMusic, my personal favorite.

Read this Times Online article in which the author participates in the “Air Guitar Championships” and is told by one of the judges, “Man, you stank up the joint…”

Browse TechEBlog’s list of the “5 Strangest iPod Cases.”

Read Pitchfork’s article profiling the recent announcement that Bjork’s former band the Sugarcubes will reunite for at least one concert and watch a video of “Birthday” by the band while you’re at it.

Read USA Today’s article profiling the music industry’s move towards publishing rights and marketing placement as money-makers rather than actual album sales.

Read Time Magazine’s “Ten Questions For the Edge,” guitarist for some band called U2.

Listen as Pitchfork offers a download of “Bottom of the World,” an as-of-yet unreleased track from Tom Waits‘ upcoming box set “Orphans.”

Read Worldnet Daily’s article about the continued trend among big companies towards becoming “gay friendly.”

Read this article claiming that the Pope was right in his recent comments regarding Islam. The article begins with this sentence: “A telling proof of the argument Pope Benedict XVI made at Regensburg University last week is that prominent Muslim critics claimed to embrace his basic point even as they strove to disprove the words of the 14th Century Byzantine emperor the Pope quoted.”

Read this American Spectator article. As if there were still any questions about the possibility that Islam promotes irrationality and death, here’s how one Palestinian textbook for 11-12 year olds reads: “The noble soul has two goals: death and the desire for it.”