A bit of a broken record

I know that I seem to post on "fundamentalism" to the point of which seems that I have a anger problem towards the movement, but that is not it. That is not to suggest that I agree with the idea of fundamentalism; I completely do not. However, I do not wish to characterize myself through writing, preaching, ministry philosophy, or any other context of expression to speak of what I am not, rather I would like to present what I am and hope to persevere in by God's grace and for his glory. Now, with that stated I will post what is of major importance regardless of fundamentalism or evangelicalism. The problem is simply in the church as a whole, namely, "Pharisaism" (Matt. 23).
My last reading in my seminary Systematic Theology studies was this by Anthony Hoekema:

Churches that fully accept Paul's teaching on justification by faith may yet exhibit another kind of legalism: the insistance that their members abstain from certain practices that are deemed wrong-though they are really "indifferent things".
With respect to the question of which practices are to be put on the list of "forbidden things" there is great variety. In the United States many evangelical churches, particularly of those of the fundamentalist type, have rules against smoking, drinking, movies, dancing, and card-playing. Many churches in Europe, however, whose members readily drink and smoke, recoil in horror at the idea of Christians wearing blue jeans or chewing gum. Some years ago my wife and I heard a sermon on the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a Protestant church in Interlaken, Switzerland. After describing how the Good Samaritan bandaged the injured man, put him on his donkey, and brought him to the Inn, the Pastor went on to say, "He [the Good Samaritan] gave him a cigarette and a beer, and had a little talk with him". We were greatly amused, and wondered how American fundamentalists might have reacted to this application of present day Swiss hospitality to the man in the Parable!
Hoekema goes on to say, "The danger involved in this type of legalism just described is that abstinence from these "indifferent things" comes to be thought of as the essential mark of a Christian. When this is the case, things that are less important receive greater emphasis than the things that are most important, so that we end up by majoring in minors. When this happens, we are like the Pharisees about whom Jesus said, "You give a tenth of your spices-mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law-justice, mercy and faithfulness" (Matt 23:23).

Anthony Hoekema, Created in God's Image, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 238-239.

Been Busy

I am now back at work full time. My schedule with Seminary has died down to only a thursday night class for the next 2 weeks and then out for the summer. Unfortunately, this means that I have to join the "work-a-day-world" with the masses. I have learned to find enjoyment in my house framing, but yet it keeps me very tired at night. Now that I am full time hopefully I will develope those 'full time legs' and won't be soooo tired each evening. I have much planned for this summer by way of reading and studying my Hebrew. Busy, busy, busy. I guess I'll stop complaining and boast for just a moment.
Last week Adri and I found out the sex of our baby. IT'S A BOY! The nurse said, "Do you want to know the sex of the baby?" We (Adri and I) said, "Yes." She then said, "It's a boy." That is when Adri said, "How sure are you, statistically speaking?" She said, "Honey, 100%. Little girls don't have scrotums and penis'." Adam says, "Right on nurse lady! Right on!" We are both (Adri and I) very happy.
My son's name will be Owen Gregory Thomas. Owen, because my wife has liked it for quite some time, Gregory, for my father-in-law, and Thomas...well...you get it I'm sure. Anyway, now I really appreciate hearing Guns N' Roses, "Sweet Child of Mine" at work each day. I'm so pumped to see daddy's little fella.
Owen, God willing, will make his debut August 31. I can't wait!

Pics are forthcoming!

We Like Fam' Yo

I thank God for good friends. Friends, that you know no matter what happens have your back (so to speak). Dan Valentine, among others, have been that for me in times when I have needed it the most. I have had my share of up's and down's not unrelated to my own doing I am sure but regardless each time my buddy Dan hung in there. It rarely gets better than a tight friend and fortunately I been able to experience that. God established Dan and I in a friendship during our time in college, it deepened during our seminary days (present-coming to an end) and has knit our hearts together for service in the future.

I say all that to say this, "Fam hooked me up yo!" The other night I got to small group and I received, according to Dan, "a mercy ministry" (I think that translates "Dude, you need some help") from him (I guess that makes him "mercy" personified hmmm....?). Anyway, I (of course)take the good gift of mercy and again, thank God for good friends.

The Gift:

Such Quick Reminders

For all who have been reading my blog lately I would like to apologize. I feel that I have received a great reminder on just how deeply I need the empowering presence of God's Spirit in daily life. The scenario is perfect. I was talking about what I have come to love to discuss, plan and strategize about...and then...it hit. While talking about the great work of God and his plan for me to minister in his work of redemption (in all probability in the context of Pittsburgh) I proved to be, once again, a trangressor of the law. I failed to love a fellow brother. I read his comments and then "bit back" so quickly it even startled me (almost). I was reminded later that day that love working through faith "is patient and kind...is not arrogant or rude...it is not irritable or resentful". By virtue of my quick bitting comment I was guilty of breaking God's law.
Thus, once again, I was brought full circle. It is I who need to constantly be reminded of Christ and his power in my life which enables me to "put to death the deeds of my body" (Romans 8:13) even the death of arrogant or rude comments. It is Christ "who redeemed us from the curse of the law" (Galatians 3:13). Praise be to God.
How quickly God can humble us. I was talking about church planting and sharing what has become a great passion of mine in the last six months thinking all things are moving forward greatly, planning, strategizing and dreaming! Then, as quickly as it comes, it goes. I was shown just how much I still need God, as though for a moment I forgot that magnificent piece. Don't you just love our Father for his unwavering commitment to making us more like his Son in all matters, even in matters of mundane conversations.

"Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection, Outdo one another in showing honor" (Romans 12:9-10)

Brrrrr...

Who would ever want to live in the North? Unfortunately, I think that I am going to be soon enough (Pittsburgh). What to do?

Rarely are baseball games postponed when there isn't so much as a raindrop. But Thursday's 1:05 p.m. ET scheduled game between Detroit and Toronto at Comerica Park was postponed by 10:15 a.m. ET due to chilly 27-degree temperatures and wind gusts as high as 32 mph.
Those wind gusts created a wind chill of 14 degrees, and the game was called due to "inclement weather," though there were only moderate snow flurries that fell leading up to the scheduled game-time. The forecast in Detroit didn't look much better the rest of the day, with a high temperature of 36 degrees and wind gusts of 40 mph.
"It was a smart decision, players are at risk," manager Jim Leyland said. "I think also you think of the fans when you call a game like this. No one wants to come out in this."

(HT: detroit.tigers.mlb.com)

Stop the Scandals

Dever offers some great advice on how Christians can prevent private sin from becoming a public scandal. How do we fight sin among us? Dever writes, "Here's the good news: corrective discipline doesn't have to be public! Actually, in a healthy church, private corrective discipline is happening all the time. People in the church sin. But growing Christians welcome other Christians into their lives for the purpose of confessing their sins to one another (James 5:16, 1 John 1:5-10). That is, in large part, how spiritual growth happens-by accepting biblical correction. You need to be modeling this kind of humble accountability as a pastor and encouraging it in other members.
Confessing our sins to one another makes us bring our sins out into the light, where they can be dealt with in the context of mutually sanctifying friendships in which people are strenghtening each other through prayer, encouragement, and application of the Word. Sin needs darkness to grow-it needs isolation disguised as "privacy," and prideful self-sufficiency disguised as "strength."
The church needs to be a web of meaningful spiritual relationships in which people are engaging each other in casual conversation, spiritual conversation, mutually encouraging and sanctifying discipling relationships, mutual accountability, and small groups."

Whatever the sin, you are not alone. Persevere in Church fellowship.

Dever, Mark. The Deliberate Church. (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005), 68-67

Unfortunate and Scary

I cannot think of any one major prospective that I have known of John Piper's and immediately thought that I disagreed? I know that my disagreeing with him is of no consequence to him or any other person in the world, but yet it troubles me. I so look up to Piper I just hate to see something come to the fore that I certainly (at this present time anyway) completely disagree with. He strongly dislikes the NIV and thinks that its use in preaching "undermines good God exultant preaching". Is that not a really weird position?
About the NIV he says, "I feel what I am about to say with a passion built up over 25 years. I have longed that there be something more readable than the NASB and more literal than the NIV. The NIV is a paraphrase with so much unnecessary rewording and so much interpretation that I could not preach from it." He goes on to say, "My biggest concern has to do with preaching. When a paraphrase becomes the standard preaching, reading, memorizing Bible of the church, preaching is weakened—robust expository exultation in the pulpit is made more difficult. Preaching that gives clear explanations and arguments from the wording of specific Biblical texts tends to be undermined when a Bible paraphrases instead of preserving the original wording on good English. And when that kind of preaching is undermined, the whole level of Christian thinking in the church goes down, and a Bible-saturated worldview is weakened, and the ability of the people—and even the pastors themselves-to root their thoughts and affections in firm Biblical ground diminishes."

I appreciate, as always, his agressive God-centered Christ exultant world-view, but I find it oddly placed or applied here in the NIV issue. The NIV is not by any means my choice or favorite translation, but yet I think that I could certainly preach from it without undermining "robust expository exultant" preaching. Ahh...I hate disagreeing with Piper. It really is unfortunate and scary.

The Story is the Gospel

The most critical and invaluable thing that I have learned in Seminary is that the entire canon is simply the gospel. I do not say "simply" because it is 'oh so simple' student need not study. That is ANYTHING but the truth. In fact, tracing the beauty of the gospel as it unfolds throughout every square inch of the Holy Scriptures is intense, and quite difficult at times. However, I have learned, primarily through the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life, with the aid of men such as Ligon Duncan, Mark Dever and Greame Goldsworthy to see Jesus Christ in every section, passage, era and setting of Redemptive History. God foreshadowed the gospel of his Son in the OT only to beautify it and magnify it through his Son in the NT beginning with the mission of the incarnation. The whole story is the gospel at every turn the beauty and brilliance of God's covenant love is there.
A great primer for understanding the presence of the gospel throughout all of Scripture is Romans 10. Paul demonstrates the centrality of the gospel throughout the OT by using quotations or statements from or concerning Leviticus, Nehemiah, Deuteronomy, Joel, Isaiah, Nahum, and Psalms. He is arguing for the gracious gift of the gospel of Jesus Christ from every section of the OT. This is an invaluable lesson for all exegetes and pastors. It has huge ramification for EVERYONE who says that they love Jesus (the gospel). When properly understood this radically shapes our devotions, preaching, discipleship, and teaching at every level.
Never forget that the whole story of Scripture is God's story of his Son. The Gospel is THE STORY. How perfectly fitting for this time of year especially.