The Way into the Far Country

Ok, so the visceral wording of this title is nothing more than a cheap shot to encourage further reading BUT…I do mean it in a sense. Personally, Meredith Kline has opened up so many beautiful doors to the truths of scripture and its outworking in the Kingdom of God. Love him or hate him, Kline makes you think (its true uri ;)). In honor of this great brother’s recent passing, I’m posting a series of lectures on his main Biblical Theological syllabus, Kingdom Prologue. They’re free, so download and get stoked:

http://www.amoskeagchurch.org/broadcastindex.php?dir=./sermons/Granite%20

State%20School/Meredith%20G%20Kline/Kingdom%20Prologue

On another note, Lee Irons, a Kline lover like myself (hey thugs, I love frame and Bahnsen too, so take the meat, leave the bones, and put away the labels)…has a good word on ST and BT:

http://www.upper-register.com/blog/?p=188

Today in my office a grown man cried, begged God for the forgiveness of his sins, and lamented that his life had not served to greater degree the Kingdom of God. Wow. What a humbling thing it is to see a brother so broken by the circumstances of life and yet still holding onto the hope of the cross. I am reminded of Paul’s words in Romans 8, that our present suffering is not even worth comparing the glory of God that awaits us as sons (my paraphrase). May we, men, women, family, be increasingly motivated to serve God, our king, in all we do. May the easy words of Christ’s call become hard in the midst of life so that we might cling to the cross not our of convenience but necessity. I love you and am praying for you all.

Lately I have been reading through Deuteronomy and it has been amazing to see the diversity of genres that it contains. It includes narrative, law, and even poetry. Thanks be to God for giving us such a masterpiece that is infused with both history, moral imperative, and awe-inspiring beauty.

In Deuteronomy 32 we see one of the literary achievements of the Bible, The Song of Moses. It is a song that is to be sung by all generations of God’s people to remind them of God’s goodness and to hold them accountable to their covenant.

So to practice some of my (meager) Hebrew skills, I have decided to start working on a personal translation of this poem. Here is the first part of my translation vs. 1-3. Feel free to throw in some suggestions or insight (i.e. Ron Giese).

The conference at DSC this weekend was off the hook. Check our website for Horton’s lectures and Carson’s lectures. Both of these men are incredible speakers, but more so, humble and bold for the gospel of Christ. May God be praised as his word goes forth and may we be humbled to be a part of his kingdom.

I’ll leave it to the rest of the DSC crew to fill in the gaps.

Just finished reading Clark’s history of Phil. ‘Thales to Dewey.’ I’ll give it a thumbs up for anyone interested in the subject. One of the most difficult questions in the study of the history of thought is how we might approach so many different people over such a long time with such varying ideas. In light of that issue, may I also recommend John Frame’s class ‘The history of Phil and Christian thought.’ He uses the rational - irrational dialectic as a teaching tool to discuss the development of though in broad strokes

This pedagogical method is very helpful: 1, because it narrows down the scope of the questions, 2. it provides categories for thinking through their temporal development, and 3, it relates the history of thought to God’s word by demonstrating the creator creature distinction and the impossibility of rational certainity on autonomous grounds. Good stuff or us all

As I was skating Walt’s new 3” mini ramp last night I was reminded of the fact that the why, how, and what we think is evident in everything we do. May God get glory in our minds, may we lovingly submit to the authority of his word, and may we be confident that the Christian worldview provides beautiful answers to the toughest questions man can ask.

Drew, the boots, the cow-boy of our ministry, the one who serenades our guys small group with his crazy rendition of ‘riding with private malone,’ and sometimes smells like cheap cigaretts, is a hero.

Last night, one of our transient brothers, a pseudo-homeless Carlos, fainted in the kitchen. Who knew? Los is a diabetic and was running VERY low on blood sugar. He would have most likely died within the hour had it not been for Drew. And why, you may ask, was Drew at church early…well, his parents are not Christians and don’t think much of church, however, they offer the occasional ride at their convenience. It just so happens that Drew’s early drop off was a life saver.

All that to say, keep at least one cowboy around your ministry and thank God for his perfect providence, early drop offs, and that the church is a group of messy people, all so different, with only the love and power of Christ in common.

Yesterday I met with a friend who told me a troubling story. A lifelong friend of his had gotten pregnant. This gal was like a sister to him. She told him she was pregnant and was thinking of abortion. He tried to reason with her and even told her that if she gave birth to the child, he and his wife would adopt it. A few days later he got a text from her saying that she went ahead and terminated the child. My friend was utterly heart-broken and asked to meet with me to help him think through this tragedy. How should he proceed in his relationship with his friend in light of this horror that she committed? Here is what we talked about:

1. Some time and space from your friend for the purpose of grieving might be wise, healthy and necessary. In the face of such a complex situation emotionally, sometimes a little distance is good for the sake of healing and prayer. Emotional flooding can lead to confusion in our thinking in light of the pain of a situation like this.

2. We can’t expect non-Christians to act like Christians. Should we appeal to them and reason with them to do what is right? Surely. But we should not be surprised when unbelievers act out of pure selfishness as opposed to understanding that “it is more blessed to give than receive” (Acts 20:35). May we do our battling on our knees in prayer as we ask God to remove a selfish heart that desires to kill for the sake of convenience and replace it with a heart that loves to serve in light of how Jesus served. Our reasoning can only go so far. Sin is never reasonable or rational. Though we should seek to reason with people in light of God’s word, we should not be surprised when they forsake it. Pharisees saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead and hated him for it.

Thus we have to start with the gospel with unbelievers and not with asking them to stop sinning. Unregenerate people are doing just what comes naturally to them. Thus, we can’t ask them to get cleaned up and then come to Jesus. This is pure legalism. We ask them to see their need for a Savior and then we trust his Holy Spirit to “clean them up” after they are united to Him by faith in his work on their behalf.

3. The pain of this experience gives us a front and center window into the gospel. The Bible does not say that Christ loved us when we did all the right things and followed the law of God perfectly. What does the Bible say? “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). So if we are going to love like God loves we have to love in the face of horrific sin. Did not God do the same with us? Forgiveness and love are certainly costly and uncomfortable. Those descriptors would be an understatement when it comes to crucifixion. If we want to follow Jesus, should we not expect gospel-centered loving to be costly and painful as well?

So we move forward with a tear-filled and broken, yet prayful and hopeful heart remembering that we too would be selfish and murderous if not for the grace of God in our lives. Read what Paul says here to the church in Corinth:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

“Such were some of you” rings loudly in my head as we come face to face with the gospel in this situation. May God’s grace to us inform how we love those who are far from him.

(HT: B-Lo)

This is a really well written article on how China is interacting with Tibet. The Chinese government has started officially regulating who is allowed to be reincarnated. Funny, but the real point of this article is about how the Chinese government is no better the “elite” western culture. Religion is great as long as it just cultural. It only becomes dangerous when people actually believe what they practice.

How China Got Religion

(HT: Baggy Overalls)