The Dawkins Confusion

Naturalism ad absurdum. Read a rebuttal of Dawkins by Alvin Plantinga.

The God Delusion is an extended diatribe against religion in general and belief in God in particular; Dawkins and Daniel Dennett (whose recent Breaking the Spell is his contribution to this genre) are the touchdown twins of current academic atheism. Dawkins has written his book, he says, partly to encourage timorous atheists to come out of the closet. He and Dennett both appear to think it requires considerable courage to attack religion these days; says Dennett, "I risk a fist to the face or worse. Yet I persist." Apparently atheism has its own heroes of the faith—at any rate its own self-styled heroes. Here it's not easy to take them seriously; religion-bashing in the current Western academy is about as dangerous as endorsing the party's candidate at a Republican rally.

Beholding Beauty

Apparently, this article from the Washington Post has been heavily discussed in the Blogosphere for the past several weeks. The Desiring God blog and my friend Nate have also commented. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for me to be a day late and a dollar short. Nevertheless, I will add my two cents.

For those of you who have not heard of this story, let me give you the gist of what happened. The Washington Post enlisted Joshua Bell, a world renowned violinist, to act as a street musician at the top of some escalators near the subway in downtown Washington D.C. The idea was to see if average, busy people would recognize true skill and beauty if they heard it. In some ways, the actual result is startling; in other ways, it is not remarkable at all. Either way, it says something about us. If we are willing to look in the mirror, we may not like what we see.

“In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua Bell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and take in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run -- for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look.”

From the moment I first heard about this story, I have been strangely moved on an emotional level. The idea that a virtuoso with a $3.5M violin could play music that has stood the test of centuries and have virtually no one notice breaks my heart. What does this say about beauty? What does this say about our ability to recognize beauty? Is there such a thing as beauty, and could we know it if we saw it?

I asked two of my daughters similar questions. Yes, they said, one can know beauty if they see it. The Minneapolis skyline is beautiful. A sunset is beautiful. That building over there is ugly. Classical music is beautiful. Rock music is scraggly.

When I asked my oldest daughter (11) if a magnificent violinist playing on a street corner would be noticed, she immediately and without hesitation said no. Why? Because he is in disguise. No one would know who he is. No one would know his name. But, I replied, wouldn’t they know good music when they heard it? The answer back was that it was in the wrong place. Hmmm. Is this deep perception in a child, or simple pragmatic reality?

Before I start drawing spiritual conclusions, I think we need to ask a more basic question that has only so far been assumed. “Is what Joshua Bell played close enough to true beauty that we can consider what happened to be tragic? The music has transcended centuries. The musician is undeniably gifted. Can the music be rightly defined as beauty?”

“The acoustics proved surprisingly kind. Though the arcade is of utilitarian design, a buffer between the Metro escalator and the outdoors, it somehow caught the sound and bounced it back round and resonant. The violin is an instrument that is said to be much like the human voice, and in this musician's masterly hands, it sobbed and laughed and sang -- ecstatic, sorrowful, importuning, adoring, flirtatious, castigating, playful, romancing, merry, triumphal, sumptuous.”

If we answer no, then this whole discussion is a waste of time and you need to close your browser and go talk to your spouse. If we answer yes, then we must ask the next question, “Why did so many people miss it?” The answer to this last question, of course, is that part we don’t like when we look in the mirror. The answer is painfully obvious. C.S. Lewis gives the answer so much better than I can; so, I will quote him:

“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased” (from The Weight of Glory, Harper, 26).

We have over-indulged on the trivial. We have consumed cheap entertainment. We are saturated with the likes of American Idol, 24, Lost, Cosmo, McDonalds, and one-hit wonder boy bands ad infinitum. We consume whatever makes us feel good; only the affections we feel for a moment leave our souls empty and more shriveled than before. The fact that 1,070 people walked briskly past beauty in a 45 minute span is merely a symptom of a much deeper disease. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Phil 3:18-19).

Let us take this line of thinking where it ultimately needs to go: what does this have to do with our ability to see God? If you know Lewis, you know that the context of the above quote was specifically in relation to what one sees in the New Testament. Jesus offers “unblushing promises of reward…in the Gospels,” yet we are far too easily pleased. The gospel offers true beauty (Isa 33:17), true blessing (Mt 5:3-11), true forgiveness (Luke 24:46-47), true pleasure (Ps 16:11), and true freedom (John 8:36). Unfortunately, and much to our sorrow, the vast majority of people simply walk on by (Mt 7:13).

What then is our response? Why did those seven people who did notice the beauty of Bell’s music not try to stop everyone around them and awaken them to the wonder and beauty and majesty flowing from his Stradivarius?

“It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington,” Furukawa says. “Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some were flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, Omigosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?”

The picture in the mirror takes another turn for the worse. The answer is the same, yet infinitely more deplorable. I am deeply convicted by my answer as shown in the poor way in which I proclaim the good news. May Christ help us.

(HT: Desiring God, The Richochet)

Humility in Ministry, Part 3

Jonathan Edwards writes (Religious Affections, Yale, 312-314):

The essence of evangelical humiliation consists in such humility, as becomes a creature, in itself exceeding sinful, under a dispensation of grace; consisting in a mean esteem of himself, as in himself nothing, and altogether contemptible and odious; attended with a mortification of a disposition to exalt himself, and a free renunciation of his own glory.

This is a great and most essential thing in true religion. The whole frame of the gospel, and everything appertaining to the new Covenant, and all God’s dispensations towards fallen man, are calculated to bring to pass this effect in the hearts of men. They that are destitute of this, have no true religion, whatever profession they make, and how high soever their religious affections may be; “Behold, his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him; but the just shall life by his faith” (Hab. 2:4): i.e. he shall live by his faith on God’s righteousness and grace, and not his own goodness and excellency.

Humility in Ministry, Part 2

C.H. Spurgeon writes (Lectures to My Students, Zondervan, 331):

Have you not by this time discovered that flattery is as injurious as it is pleasant? It softens the mind and makes you more sensitive to slander. In proportion as praise pleases you censure will pain you. Besides, it is a crime to be taken off from your great object of glorifying the Lord Jesus by petty consideration as to your little self, and, if there were no other reason, this ought to weigh much with you. Pride is a deadly sin, and will grow without your borrowing the parish watercart to quicken it. Forget expressions which feed your vanity, and if you mind yourself relishing the unwholesome morsels confess the sin with deep humiliation. Payson showed that he was strong in the Lord when he wrote to his mother, “You must not, certainly, my dear mother, say one word which even looks like an intimation that you think me advancing in grace. I cannot bear it. All the people here, whether friends or enemies, conspire to ruin me. Satan and my own heart, of course, will lend a hand; and if you join too, I fear all the cold water which Christ can throw upon my pride will not prevent its breaking out into a destructive flame. As certainly as anybody flatters and caresses me my heavenly Father has to whip me: and an unspeakable mercy it is that he condescends to do it. I can, it is true, easily muster a hundred reasons why I should not be proud, but pride will not mind reason, nor anything else but a good drubbing. Even at this moment I feel it tingling in my fingers’ ends, and seeking to guide my pen.” Knowing something myself of those secret whippings which our good Father administers to his servant when he sees them unduly exalted, I heartily add my own solemn warnings against your pampering the flesh by listening to the praises of the kindest friends you have. They are injudicious, and you must beware of them.

Humility in Ministry, Part 1

Sin is sin. Blatant immoral sin certainly leaves behind a mess; simply look at the many prominent Christian ministers who have shipwrecked on the rock of sexual sins. Yet, many other sins are just as heinous, which have found acceptability within many ministries. Pride, for instance, is often tolerated if the minister is good enough. Pride comes in many forms. Some forms we all readily recognize as blatant arrogance. Are there more subtle kinds of pride? The following quote is from Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline, 110, 114, as quoted in Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Navpress, 122).

Self-righteous service requires external rewards. It needs to know that people see and appreciate the effort. It seeks human applause—with proper religious modesty, of course….Self-righteous service is highly concerned about results. It eagerly wants to see if the person served will reciprocate in kind….The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recognition. It will devise subtle, religiously acceptable means to call attention to the service rendered.

Our battle, then, is on multiple fronts. I pray we all fight against the visible, outward, immoral sins, and the hidden, inward, immoral sins.

The Ringing Bell

Derek Webb releases a new album and graphic novel tie-in on May 1. Yes, you read that correctly, "graphic novel tie-in." The album is titled The Ringing Bell.

1 Samuel 12:19-25

I preached my second of two sermons for preaching class on February 25, 2007. The assignment was to preach on any Old Testament text.

Right click here and choose "Save Link As" to download an mp3 of the sermon.

Any feedback would be welcome.

Social Justice?

When most of us think of social justice we think of Darfur or human trafficking or the right-to-life. However, I wonder if this article shows another form of social justice...

Key quote: "I went to my trailer for about 15 minutes and I thought, there's people dying every day. A lot of worse things are happening in the world."

Vivaldi "Summer"

This is why my kids are learning to play the piano. I would love to see them play like this to the glory of God.



(HT: Nate)

Bothered by the Bible

One of the things that keeps me from being in the same stratosphere as many of my classmates is that I am not bothered by the Bible like they are. Let me give an example in order to explain. Nick, who is brilliant to begin with, will get bothered by something, for instance Gal 5:17. Gal 5:17 says, "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do." This verse bothered him so much that he wrote a 7 page paper on trying to solve what was bothering him.

I don't get bothered by the Bible to the point where I am driven to write 7 page papers. I write papers because of school, and I am assigned to, not because I am bothered by something. What is it that needs to change in me so that I get bothered by the Bible and am consumed trying to figure it out?

In conversing about this with a friend, he reminded me about having four kids and a job and school, etc. "You don't have time to be bothered." But this is somewhat of a cop-out, isn't it? I want to be a minister of the word of God. That is a holy calling that should consume me. At the same time, I am called to love my wife like Christ loved the church. So which is it? To quote a cliche, "it is both/and." I don't have the time to write seven-page papers at the same rate that Nick does. But the word of God should consume me, and as a desire to have right affections for him, I should be bothered when his word doesn't make sense.

My prayer is that God would grant me the inclination of my heart to his word, and the open eyes to see wonder there, and the united heart to fear his name, and the grace to be satisfied by his word.

By the way, do you see what bothered Nick in Gal 5:17?

Faith or Foolishness?

Hello Jason,

This is John Doe from Northwestern College, and I'm in Dr. Jason DeRouchie’s Biblical Worldview: Personal Responsibility class. Dr. DeRouchie has required us to give a presentation on various theological questions that we’ve chosen. My group's questions are "how do I balance 'faith' with 'foolishness' with regard to my future and my finances? How do I know when to take a step into the unknown and when not to do it?" The professor told the class your testimony of how you were an engineer and had a high salary, but you were then were convicted by the Holy Spirit to drop your job and sell your house to come up here in Minnesota to attend school for the ministry that God had planned for you. And so my group was wondering if you would spend some time giving us a little more detail on how you knew that the Holy Spirit was telling you to do a courageous act and come to study for His ministry. We were wondering if you could share with us how you can tell if it was God that turned your heart in the way that you have. I know you are busy with school and a full time job, so don't feel like you have to give us the whole story. I would appreciate it if you would just email me back a short testimony of how you can tell if God was leading you this way. Thank you. God Bless you and your family. And may God be with you as you pursue His will.

John Doe

Dear John,

Thanks for writing. I am sorry that my reply is long in coming. Asking a seminary student for a short written reply is somewhat of an oxymoron. However, I will do my best to be brief. If, after reading what I have written, you still have questions, please feel free to call. It might be easier if we spoke over the phone. You have the gist of our story, so I won’t repeat that. However, where I need to start is probably a review for you, given the nature of your class. The question about what is faith and what is foolishness will be answered differently by people with different worldviews. A distinctly secular-American worldview will consider much of what I consider faith to be foolishness. In the same way, what I would call foolishness, the secular-American mindset will call the American dream, or the wise way to live (house, cars, 401(k), family, etc.). So, in order to answer your first question, “how do I balance ‘faith’ with ‘foolishness’ with regard to my future and finances,” you have to start with a biblical worldview.

God started creating a biblical worldview in us in 1997. Slowly, he taught us that life was not centered around us, but around him. He was the center of the universe and we lived in order to reflect and display his glory—he did not exist to be a cosmic bellhop who was at our beck and call. Instead, Jesus Christ died in order to free us to see God more clearly. God was sovereign over every detail in the universe including the election of those unto salvation. His promises given in the Bible are absolute and trustworthy, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory” (2 Cor 1:20). Having God create this worldview in us enabled us to cut through the fog of the American dream and realize that there is more to this life than a career, a house, kids, and two cars. Instead, we are called to seek our greatest joy in God, even if that leads to death in this life. Our bottom line purpose for living (our chief end) became “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” With that being our new worldview, we saw what the world considers foolishness in an entirely new light. Selling our house, giving our money away, and moving across country to enter ministry was no longer foolishness, but obedience. In fact, we had become so convinced of the necessity to do this, that to not do it would have been sin.

So, to answer your first question, in order to balance faith and foolishness with regard to your future and finances, you have to have a radically God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated worldview, or as is often spoken of Jonathan Edwards, you must be God-besotted or God-entranced.

Your second question, “How do I know when to take a step into the unknown and when not to do it?” is much more practical in nature. Given a God-entranced vision of all things, how do you discern what God is leading you to do—especially when the air we breath is totally antithetical to what you think and feel God is asking you to do? Now, we are no more special than the thousands of people (if not millions) who have quietly gone about giving their lives for Christ all over the globe. Read Christian biography. How many of the heroes of faith made decisions that the world would call wise? Is it wise to move your family from affluent America to Africa or New Guinea or Saudi Arabia in order to learn a language and try to reach a tribe with the gospel? What do you say to the missionary dad who was burned alive in his car with his two sons in India in 1998? Was he foolish? What we did pales in comparison to the people who have given their lives for the glory of God.

Obviously, this is a huge question and a very hard one to give a step-by-step guide to determine the answer. I can’t. I can’t say that if you do 1, 2, 3, and 4, you will know when to step into the unknown and when not to. If you knew, then the outcome of your choice wouldn’t be unknown, and it wouldn’t take faith in the God who makes promises. Nevertheless, I will tell you what my wife and I did. We attempted to be consistently in the Word of God. We were on our knees, begging God to NOT let us waste our lives, but to show us how to live for him. We were active. We didn’t sit around waiting for God to send us a telegram with the next step, but we moved forward. We started by serving in our local church and seeking to determine how God had gifted us. For me, I taught an adult Sunday school class for over five years, and found great joy and frustration in it. Over time, the joy outweighed the frustration and the idea that I should seek to teach full-time entered my mind. Then through prayer and fasting (actually not eating for two or three days) in an attempt to humble ourselves before God and seek his guidance, we read his word, looking for texts that would speak to us about what we should do. And the Holy Spirit led us to texts. Matthew 19:27-30 says, “Then Peter said in reply, ‘See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’” This was a key verse for us. God promised us that if we left everything, he would provide everything. Not in a prosperity-gospel sort of way, but we did not have to worry or be anxious about what it was we left behind. Another massive text for me was Matthew 13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” We were seeking our greater joy by selling everything in order to buy the field.

Outside influences convicted us. When we realized how much we had (money, house, cars) in relation to the rest of the world, we realized that we should live in such a way as to be comfortable and then give everything else away (read Randy Alcorn’s The Treasure Principle and Google “global rich list”). What did we need stuff for? We can’t take it with us to heaven, so we might as well give it away, and by so doing, store up treasure in heaven. Paul wrote to Timothy, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life” (1 Tim 6:17-19). We wanted to take hold of “that which is truly life.” Our worldview changed us so that we saw “that which is truly life” NOT to be a big house, a career, cars and an immaculate lawn, but eternal life with Jesus.

My wife and I set aside a week to fast and pray separately and then come together to see how God had spoken to us. Every time we had a major decision to make we would do this, and every time, when we came together again, we both felt led by the Holy Spirit and by Scripture in the same direction. We both agreed to give all the profit from our house sale away. We both agreed to whom to give the money. We both agreed to move to MN and attempt to enter TBI. God confirmed his direction in us, first by his Holy Spirit and the Word, and then by each other. As the early church said in Acts 15:28, “it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” to leave everything and enter full-time ministry.

Now, I trust that gives you a picture of what it took for us to do something that the world considered foolish. But I want you also to realize that it wasn’t easy. Faith was essential, because it is not in our sinful nature to trust the promises of God implicitly. It is in our nature to worry, doubt, and think of all the things that might go wrong. We might end up on the street living in a box, or we might be eaten by cannibals (that is a reference to the missionary John Paton). Many a morning I was up before everyone in the house, lying on the living room floor, spread-eagled, in tears, crying out to God that I not be stupid and that what we were doing not be a mistake. And every time, after I cried out to him, he would give me some measure of peace.

Some of our family thought we were foolish. Some at my work thought we were foolish. The people who looked at our house thought we were foolish. The pressure was intense. But our worldview, and our trust in the promises of future grace given by a sovereign God outweighed the pressure of the world, so that we moved forward.

My wife camped on this verse: Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act (Psalm 37:5). We trusted in this glorious promise most specifically. We had committed. We were trusting. And we begged God to act. And he did. He proved himself faithful in every way. He blew our minds with his faithfulness. Our move was costly. It was hard, and it has entailed suffering in ways that we did not imagine. But neither my wife nor me would do it differently. We trusted and God fulfilled his promises.

And, in so doing, God got the glory. Everyone who knew what we did, realized that our God was real and powerful and glorious. This was the whole point in the first place.

May God bless you as you wrestle with these things. How blessed are you to be taking this class and wrestling with these big issues of faith at your stage in life. O how I wish I had seen what you are seeing ten years earlier. O how I wish to see God more now. I still don’t feel faithful enough. I long to pour myself out for him.

For Christ and His kingdom,

Jason

Together for the Gospel

A lot has happened since the last post. One of the biggest things was a trip to Louisville, Kentucky for the Together for the Gospel Conference. About thirty pastors and TBI students from Bethlehem left at 6:00 AM on Tuesday, April 25, for Louisville. We took the church bus and van, and made the trip in about fourteen hours. While it was long, it was also filled with good conversation and a chance to rest and read.

On Wednesday morning, we had breakfast with Tom Schreiner, professor of New Testament Studies at Southern Seminary, and then went to chapel at the seminary, where R.C. Sproul gave the address. After chapel we had lunch with a bunch of TBI alumni and Pastor John Piper who flew in from his sabbatical in Cambridge, England to speak at the conference. It was good to see Pastor again and hear about his studies. A new book will come out from these studies, I am sure.

After a stroll around the Southern Seminary campus, we headed to the conference in downtown Louisville. The conference was put together by four friends from different denominations who are "Together for the Gospel." They are Mark Dever, pastor of Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC; Al Mohler, president of Southern Seminary; C.J. Mahaney, pastor of Covenant Life Church in Maryland; and Ligon Duncan III, pastor of First Presbyterion Church in Jackson, Mississippi. For the conference, they invited three guests, John Piper, R.C. Sproul, and John MacArthur. It was a delightful three days of fantastic sermons, worship, and encouragement for pastors. While these men differed on certain issues (like the mode of baptism), they certainly agree on the gospel. It was a joy.

Click on the title to this post for a link to the T4G website. You can download each man's talk for a small fee. I think the two best talks were John Piper's and Ligon Duncan's. Pastor Piper spoke on why expositional preaching is particularly glorifying to God. Duncan spoke on preaching from the Old Testament. Please download these and listen to them. Even if you never preach, they are worth hearing.

I arrived back early on Saturday, April 29, and spent the rest of the weekend catching up with Wendy and the kids. What a joy it is to come home.

Twins Win! Twins Win!

Last Saturday night, April 15, Chase and I had the good pleasure of attending a Minnesota Twins baseball game in the Metrodome. The Twins were playing the Yankees, who happen to be Chase's favorite baseball team. I am sure that this is a travesty to Alex Bejerano and Tim Wines, who taught me to enjoy baseball, and consequently hated the Yankees. Oh, well. I think Chase mostly likes the Yankees because they have a bunch of former Seattle Mariners.

The Twins started out very well, getting up to a quick 4-0 lead. Unfortunately, they couldn't hold their lead, and ended up down by one, 5-4, going into the ninth inning.

The Twins were able to hold off the Yankees in the eighth inning. The Yanks brought in Mariano Rivera at the end of the eighth to try for a five-out save. He shut the Twins down.

On to the ninth. Yankees were at bat first, and were taken care of relatively easily. Three outs left for the home team. The first guy (I don't know their names; I am not from Minnesota) got on base. The second guy got on base. Then the king of saves, Mariano Rivera, struck out the next two Twins batters. The situation was this: down by one, bottom of the ninth, two outs, and facing arguably the games' best closer. The Metrodome was so loud you couldn't hear yourself yell.

The fifth batter hit a single to right field driving in both runs to win the game.

Twins Win! Twins Win!

Chase was bummed, for the mighty Yankees fell, but the two of us, we had a great time. It is good to be a dad.

Out of the Silent Planet

Many years ago, a trilogy of books was placed on my shelves as a gift. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis, despite good intentions, has sat there ever since. Have you ever wondered what causes good intentions to never come to fruition?

Well, this last Christmas, I grabbed the first of the three off the shelf as a diversion. And diversion it was. "Out of the Silent Planet", despite being sixty years old, was an amazingly good science fiction novel. Yes, of course, the technology was rather like watching a black and white TV spot of Flash Gordon, but that was easily overcome as the story unfolded and the characters developed.

C.S. Lewis, if nothing else, understood human nature. He was unbelievably in tune with the way that we all think and feel. He could understand and then write about thoughts and feelings that make us say, "yeah, that's me." It is disconcerting at times, because typically it is our sin that he exposes. How could he understand the things that motivate me better than I can?

Anyway, the trilogy follows a gent named, Ransom, who finds himself the unwitting hostage on a space voyage to the planet Mars, also known as Malacandra. There he has several adventures, befriends the natives, and finally has a long discussion with the angelic ruler of the planet. For those of us with a Christian worldview, we can easily see themes that are near and dear throughout the story, but it is not nearly as alleghorical as Narnia. In fact, I don't think it is alleghorical at all.

If you are looking for something to read that is not your ordinary pop-culture fodder, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of this gem. You won't want to put it down, and your mind will be engaged. It is certainly more valuable to read than say...the Da Vinci Code.

Maundy Thursday

It is amazing to me how quickly time flies. I wanted to write about this last Thursday, and am just now getting to it.

As part of the Easter season at Bethlehem Baptist, we have a service on the Thursday before Easter. It is called the Maundy Thursday service. Maundy Thursday is sometimes called Holy Thursday and is meant to commemorate the last supper of Jesus.

Bethlehem makes the service very solemn and dark. We have a fifteen foot wooden cross at the center of the stage area lit with somber lights. Then two readers read the Passion story. The readings are intermixed with hymns about Christ's death.

After the reading and singing, a communion meditation is given and the congregation takes communion. Finally, everyone leaves the sanctuary (and out to their cars) in complete silence with all the lights turned out.

It is a deep way to commemorate the Last Supper and to begin to prepare for Easter Sunday.

The Lord has risen!
The Lord has risen, indeed!

Jackson's Island

The following sentence is controversial: We are reading Huckleberry Finn to the kids before bed. Despite the controversial nature of that, it was quite interesting to stand on the bank of the Mississippi River tonight and skip rocks.

The weather has been fine, in the upper fifties, and the sun has been shining, so we visited with some friends and walked down to the famous river. It was fun to think about the history attached to that river, and in particular the story of Huck Finn and his friend Jim, the slave. They traveled down the Mississippi from Jackson's Island, somewhere between Illinois and Missouri.

What was the river like then? What did it look like? Did rocks skip any better then than they do now?

For those of you in Washington or Oregon, think twice the next time you cross the mighty Columbia. What was it like for Lewis and Clark? What was it like for Hudson when he founded Fort Vancouver. Hey, I know, take a sunny afternoon this summer and go down and explore Fort Vancouver again. It is worth your time.

We will try and visit Fort Snelling in our part of the world. Then we can compare notes.

TBI in Three Years

After much prayer and discussion, Wendy and I decided that we would extend our time in TBI to three years. The Bethlehem Institute is set up to be a two year program, with the option of a third year extension. Essentially, the second year of work is split into two halves.

So, next year my classes will include Preaching, Jonathan Edwards, Practical Theology and Galatians. The third year will include Hebrew (eight week summer course), Hebrew Exegesis, Genesis 1-4, and a yet undetermined Greek Bible exegesis course.

This will put off the final completion of an MDiv for another year, but the value of a less hectic schedule and increased time to study and reflect, as well as more time to be with Wendy and kids is too much to pass up.

Men Like These

I know that seminary professors do not make the top-fifty-most-famous-people edition of your favorite tabloid; however, it is amazing to me how many truly amazing men I have had the chance to meet since coming to Minneapolis.

Everyone needs a hero, and of course, John Piper is mine. However, I have several other heroes who are all of the same ilk: extremely brilliant, bible-saturated, God-fearing, Christ-exalting, and well seminary professors. In the last year and a half, I have met most of my heroes. John Piper in August 2004, Tom Steller in October 2004, Tom Schreiner and Wayne Grudem in November 2005, and Grudem again in March 2006.

I am also finding new heroes since we have been here. For instance, Sam Storms has become a hero. He is brilliant and exalts Christ. Get this, he also asked his future wife to marry him on their first date. They have been married for 34 years. He seems like a down-home country boy, but his alter-ego has taught systematic theology at Wheaton College (which is the Harvard of evangelical institutions.) In May I will get to meet Dr. Douglas Moo, who was a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity school and is now heading up the doctoral program at Wheaton.

(I hope you all know that I am not writing this to drop names or sound cool. On the contrary, I am like a kid in the candy store who can't wait to tell everyone what he as seen!)

Last night, was definately a highlight. I was able to listen to a lecture by and shake hands with Donald A. Carson. He isn't as well known as Wayne Grudem, maybe, but he is an incredible man.

Now, forgive me for being so excited about all these men. I am more excited about Jesus Christ. But the thing about these men is that they point me to Christ in ways that few other mere mortals can do. They have such amazing grasps of the languages, and history and, most importantly, the Bible itself that they make it come alive. To listen to them both thrills me and depresses me. It thrills me because they shine light in areas that had only been darkness; and it depresses me because I don't think I could ever have the wisdom, knowledge, or insight that they have.

I pray for that often. I want to be able to teach like them. I believe that God has called us to Minnesota to teach me how to teach. And I have been blessed to sit at the feet of men like these.

Playing Chauffeur to Grudem

Nine times in two years our church holds TBI seminars that are open to the whole church and required for the TBI Track 2 guys. These seminars include topics like, Desiring God, TULIP, Future Grace, Why We Believe the Bible, etc.

Last night and this morning was the seminar on Gender Complimentarianism. This is the idea that the genders complement each other. In other words, men and women are equal before God, yet have different roles.

Because Pastor Piper is on sabbatical in Europe, he did not teach the seminar. Instead, his good friend, Dr. Wayne Grudem, taught the seminar. Since coming to BBC, this is the fourth time that I have seen Dr. Grudem live.

Dr. Grudem has had a big impact on my spiritual development as I found his major book, Systematic Theology, back in the late nineties. It has been very influential in my learning.

In getting to the point, Wendy and I had the honor of driving Dr. Grudem to and from his hotel to the seminar today. It was a joy to ride with him and talk to him about his children and family and his career.

Anyway, it was a small joy for us, and another of those neat things that have happened to us since we came to Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Snow Days

I have been meaning to write about this all week, but alas, now is my first chance to write.

Monday morning we woke up with about nine new inches of snow on the ground. This was a welcome surpise since virtually all of the previous snow had been melted and we had several days with temperatures in the fifties.

Then, on Thursday we had another seven inches of snow. So, in the space of four days we had sixteen inches of snow. It has been a lot of fun, especially for the kids. The temperature has stayed around 29-31 degrees, so it hasn't melted much.

Today, however, it is warmer and the snow is starting to melt, but since there is so much snow, it won't melt too fast.

This is probably Old Man Winter's last gasp. Spring starts in a few days.