John Owen – Law of Grace

“Yet the duties God requires of us are not in proportion to the strength we possess in ourselves. Rather, they are proportional to the resources available to us in Christ. We do not have the ability in ourselves to accomplish the least of God’s tasks. This is a law of grace. When we recognize it is impossible for us to perform a duty in our own strength, we will discover the secret of its accomplishment. But alas, this is a secret we often fail to discover.”

This quote has kept Kristina sane lately.  Raising, loving, and being patient with three kids (one of them being Ben – who can climb anything) requires strength we do not possess.

Some Sermons

I have a new sermon page and I will be putting sermons up every now and then for you to check out if you want.  You can find it here. 

More pics

Blank Bible

For those of you who may not know, Jonathan Edwards was famous for having a copy of the Bible taken apart and resewn with blank pages for notes in between the Bible text pages.  Over the course of time he made around 5,500 entries. Yale Publishers, who print the multi-volume “works” of Edwards, recently published it (look here). 

This has led to a host of people trying to make their own “blank Bible” in order to have a place for sermon notes, study materials, and meditational musings.  The most famous of these is Tony Reinke. On his blog he catalogs the process of making one.  (Here)

I think that I am going to try making one.   

Deacon

we got elfed.

check out the taylor “elfing”. http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1394929002

God is not Great

I just saw the interview that Jon Stewart of the Daily Show did with Christopher Hitchens, author of God is not great. I expected more. Renowned atheists usually scare me until I hear them…

Once again Hitchens demonstrates that our hearts really guide our interpretations of the facts — and we humans have a tendency of making facts out of our interpretations. He listed the fact that every religion’s “God” comes into this world in a way that bypasses normal conception through sex and vaginal delivery. For instance, Jesus was born of a virgin and Buddha came out of his mother through a slit in her side, etc. This is true. The stories are different in significant ways, but, nevertheless, there is a similar motif.

Hitchens cites this fact and then interprets it, but he does not differentiate between his facts and his interpretations. He says that these similarities show a common hatred of sex among religious adherents. (At this point he mentions circumcision as another sign of hatred of sex). Religion’s hatred of sex is then presented as a case for its duplicity.

Now, not being religious himself, I wonder how Hitchens knows that stories of virgin births (and the like) are a sign of hatred of sex? I am a Christian and I do not hate sex! I do not see sex as being foundational to humanity’s problems. I interpret these facts as saying that there is something wrong with humanity from birth, therefore something different has to happen at birth to change the problem (ie. Jesus did not have a sinful human nature because of conception by the Spirit). Is it possible that this is the reason for the similarity and not hatred of sex? Maybe we hate the moral weakness displayed by normally born people (ourselves included).

Maybe sex being brought into the discussion at all has to do with Hitchens’ infatuation with sex, and not a religious man’s hatred of it.

I think of another British man (a former atheist) who also was plagued with confusion by the myths that echoed Christian truth. In fact, myth was one of his areas of expertise. It was C.S. Lewis. His interpretation of these mythical similarities was that God was allowing, though the ages, a vocabulary to be created for the truth that was to come in Christianity. In other words, according to Lewis, we would be ready to receive the real because of the myth. I see no compelling reason why Hitchens’ interpretation has any more validity than Lewis’.

I say all of this because Hitchens began the conversation by discussing the fact that he longs for the day when the man of faith will be disparaged in society instead of flattered. He wants people who are shaped only by the facts; and faith is belief without fact. What I am trying to show is there is no person shaped only by facts. We have hearts (inner desire and worldview)  that shape interpretations of those facts, and Hitchens displays fatuity and hubris in failing to acknowledge that fact — pun intended.

Its a boy!

That’s right — I have a good Old Testament wife.

His name will be Deacon. Very few people have liked that name so far, but Kristina and I are absolutely sold on it. Finding out was really funny because of our experience with ultrasounds in the past. The other two times, the tech had to find the baby, then try to get the right angle to determine the sex. With Deacon, when the tech put the “ultrasound thingy” on Kristina it was an instant “money shot.” It took about a second and a half for all of us to go “that’s a boy!!”

To be honest, I am really glad its a boy for one reason: Now Ellie will always be my little girl. Benny is just as special to me (and I could write post after post about how special he is to me), but he has always been “the boy,” not “my little boy.” By the time he came around I was somewhat used to taking care of a baby all by myself on no sleep in seminary on nights when Kristina worked. (That’s not to say two wasn’t a challenge). It was different with Ellie, though. I had to grow up in a hurry with her and learn to do things I did not think myself capable of. Therefore, as much as I know I am going to love to care for Deacon (he will forever be the baby), and as much as I love Benny (He looks like me, but actually has personality), I am glad that Ellie will forever be my little girl.

Photos

disney and vacation

There are a lot of repeats and what-not here.  Just an album of vacation photos.  And when you get to the pool pictures…well, never mind the man boobs.  Love, Drew

I just want to bless you

I know that it has been a while since I have posted anything.  Ah, the life of a Student Pastor in the summertime.  Gone a week, home a week, gone a week, etc.  It was touching that a couple of you noticed that I had not posted in a while  – it’s nice to know someone cares.

Because I feel so blessed by your interest I want to bless you back.  Therefore I present the most jaw-dropping, frustrating, sad, there-are-no-words video I have seen in a long time.  Be blessed as you hear people praising God for free will.

Ps.  It didn’t work with Apple Safari.  Apple users: Get the Firefox browser.