Musings of the unconventional mind

Calvin vs. Wesley

Ahh to dream

A Meditation On Sin

 Oh Lord, I will never comprehend in this life the depths of which You plunged to rescue a soul as dark as mine. The breadth and width of your love is beyond the limits of my mind. For you saved me when Satan was my closest ally and I beckoned to the every whim of he who was once my prince. Easily seduced to playing a fellow deceiver, my every display of "goodness" contained only the most selfish of motives. And it is an act of mercy that even now in this saved state not all my sins and weakness manifest in my mind, for certainly the full knowledge of awfulness still to wring out  would plung me deep into the depths of a life-long despair. With what easy vanity can I look back at how "far" I have come, but would my head turn and see the distance between myself and perfection before me, fully luminated, the knowledge would crush my mind completely. It must be grace that my conscience addresses only a few vices at a time.

  And still, in light of my salvation and of coram Deo I shall certainly sin again and again, committing acts of hatred against the One who loves me most, of whom I claim as Lord, confirming that without His grace I too would have joined the crowd in chanting, "Crucify Him. Crucify Him." How often will I offer endorsement to the crimes of Adam? How can He who is perfect love me?

current reading: Original Sin by Augustus Toplady

In application

Though we claim to believe the whole of Scripture,
in practice we frequently deny much of it by ignoring it.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981)

The call for feminine beauty

Reflections from daily Bible reading...

1 Corinthians 11:6 "For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head."

   Many times I've traveled down the road with co-workers, passing pedestrians. And many times I've been asked the honest question, "Is that a man or a woman we just passed?"

  In this day and age the increasing norm for women is to shorten their hair and wear "gender neutral" attire. Among the "liberties" of the feminist movement is the "liberation" from feminism. Taboo is the woman who represents her gender and in its place is the liberty to create confusing gender images.

  One popular question of the day for women is, "Why can't I find a man?" To which an honest answer could be, "Because you are too busy looking like a man."

   Then there are the women who seem to draw their idea of feminine beauty from the seductress mentioned in Proverbs. Dressed to seduce men, displaying their every curve to the public and drawing in the wayward, self-serving male they are left to ponder, "Why can't I find a decent man?"

Matthew Henry Commentary

Reformed Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition

The Will of God

The Will of God
by R. C. Sproul

The Bible is deeply concerned about the will of God---His sovereign authority over His creation and everything in it. When we speak about God's will we do so in at least three different ways. The broader concept is known as God's decretive, sovereign, or hidden will. By this, theologians refer to the will of God by which He sovereignly ordains everything that comes to pass. Because God is sovereign and His will can never be frustrated, we can be sure that nothing happens over which He is not in control. He at least must "permit" whatever happens to happen. Yet even when God passively permits things to happen, He chooses to permit them in that He always has the power and right to intervene and prevent the actions and events of this world. Insofar as He lets things happen, He has "willed" them in this certain sense.

Though God's sovereign will is often hidden from us until after it comes to pass, there is one aspect of His will that is plain to us---His preceptive will. Here God reveals His will through His holy law. For example, it is the will of God that we do not steal; that we love our enemies; that we repent; that we be holy. This aspect of God's will is revealed in His Word as well as in our conscience, by which God has written His moral law upon our heart.

His laws, whether they be found in the Scripture or in the heart, are binding. We have no authority to violate this will. We have the power or ability to thwart the preceptive will of God, though never the right to do so. Nor can we excuse ourselves for sinning by saying, "Que sera, sera." It may be God's sovereign or hidden will that we be "permitted" to sin, as he brings His sovereign will to pass even through and by means of the sinful acts of people. God ordained that Jesus be betrayed by the instrument of Judas's treachery. Yet this makes Judas's sin no less evil or treacherous. When God "permits" us to break His preceptive will, it is not to be understood as permission in the moral sense of His granting us a moral right. His permission gives us the power, but not the right to sin.

The third way the Bible speaks of the will of God is with respect to God's will of disposition. This will describes God's attitude. It defines what is pleasing to Him. For example, God takes no delight in the death of the wicked, yet He most surely wills or decrees the death of the wicked. God's ultimate delight is in His own holiness and righteousness. When He judges the world, He delights in the vindication of His own righteousness and justice, yet He is not gleeful in a vindictive sense toward those who receive His judgment. God is pleased when we find our pleasure in obedience. He is sorely displeased when we are disobedient.

Many Christians become preoccupied or even obsessed with finding the "will" of God for their lives. If the will we are seeking is His secret, hidden, or decretive will, then our quest is a fool's errand. The secret counsel of God is His secret. He has not been pleased to make it known to us. Far from being a mark of spirituality,the quest for God's secret will is an unwarranted invasion of God's privacy. God's secret counsel is none of our business. This is partly why the Bible takes such a negative view of fortune-telling, necromancy, and other forms of prohibited practices.

We would be wise to follow the counsel of John Calvin when he said, "When God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry." The true mark of spirituality is seen in those seeking to know the will of God that is revealed in His preceptive will. It is the godly person who meditates on God's law day and night. While we seek to be "led" by the Holy Spirit, it is vital to remember that the Holy Spirit is primarily leading us into righteousness. We are called to live our lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. It is His revealed will that is our business, indeed, the chief business of our lives.

Summary

1. The three meanings of the will of God:

(a) Sovereign decretive will, the will by which God brings to pass
whatsoever He decrees. This is hidden to us until it happens.

(b) Preceptive will is God's revealed law or commandments, which we have the
power but not the right to break.

(c) Will of disposition describes God's attitude or disposition. It reveals
what is pleasing to Him.

2. God's sovereign "permission" of human sin is not His moral approval.

Essential Truths

"Jesus is My Boyfriend" Music

from The Wittenberg Door

Hymnody has fallen on hard times. The Second Great Awakening, Pentecostalism, and the Jesus Movement have taken a toll. No longer are hymns theologically informed and centered upon the Glory and majesty of God; instead, the great truths of Scripture that moved the pens of hymnists have been replaced by the man-centered lavender quills of romantics.

Dr. Michael Horton, professor of theology and apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, reflects upon this transition in an article titled, Are Your Hymns Too Spiritual? Here's how the article begins:

The average Christian will learn more from hymns than from any systematic theology. Hymns chart progression from classic hymns of the 17th and 18th centuries (especially those of Charles Wesley, Augustus Toplady, John Newton and William Cowper) to the Romantic "songs and choruses" of the 19th and 20th centuries. They reflect the shift from Reformation categories (God, sin and grace, Christ's saving work, the Word, church, sacraments, etc.) to Romantic individualism. We sing, "I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear, singing in my ear, the voice of God is calling. And he walks with me and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own." Or, "He touched me." The number of 19th century hymns that talk about the objective truth of Scripture, and that which God has done outside of my personal experience, is overwhelmed by the number of hymns that focus on my personal experience. It is my heart, not God and his saving work, that receives top billing.

If that was true of the 19th century, the 20th century only exacerbated this emphasis, and the style of the commercial Broadway musical was imitated in songs that elevated personal experience and happiness above God and his glory. Today, the vast majority of entries in the Maranatha, Vineyard, and related praise songbooks are not only burdened with this self-centered and Gnostic tendency, but often contain outright heresy--probably not intentionally, but as a result of sloppy theology. In our day, sloppy theology usually means some form of Gnosticism.

Modern Worship Video

Wittenberg Door

Military Humor

 There's this Marine for whom I'm turning his Korean War Memoirs into a book. Anyway, he sends some interesting stories my way from time to time. I thought this one contained some good humor.

Subject:  Speeding ticket via F-18


Gotta love it.....


 Subject: Speeding Ticket  -Top this for a speeding ticket....
Two California Highway Patrol Officers were conducting speeding enforcement on I-15, just north of the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar . One of the officers was using a hand-held radar device to check speeding vehicles approaching the crest of a hill.
The officers were suddenly surprised when the radar gun began reading 300 miles per hour.  The officer attempted to reset the radar gun, but it would not reset and then turned off.
Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact locked on to a USMC F/A-18 Hornet which was engaged in a low-flying exercise near the location.
Back at the CHP Headquarters the Patrol Captain fired off a complaint to the USMC Base Commander.  The reply came back in true USMC style:
Thank you for your letter. We can now complete the file on this incident.  You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Hornet had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked on to, your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it, which is why it shut down.
Furthermore, an Air-to-Ground missile aboard the fully-armed aircraft had also automatically locked on to your equipment location.  Fortunately, the Marine Pilot flying the Hornet recognized the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile system alert status and was able to override the automated defense system before the missile was launched to destroy the hostile radar position.
The pilot also suggests you cover your mouths when cussing at them, since the video systems on these jets are very high-tech. Sergeant Johnson, the officer holding the radar gun, should get his dentist to check his left rear molar. It appears the filling is loose.  Also, the snap is broken on his holster.
Thank you for your concern.  Semper Fi.

2nd Great Awakening

  I don't remember exactly what thread of thought lead me to researching the Second Great Awakening recently. Perhaps visiting my friends evangelical church last Sunday night and witnessing traces of what I like to refer to as Finneyism (in reference to Charles Finney).

 Of course Finney played a protagonist in that second awakening in America (c. 1800 - 1830). I remember reading how his legacy was, in the most significant regards, short lived; although he has retained accolades from evangelical theologians to this day. Although some would think of him as the King of Converts perhaps the more appropriate term would be Archduke of Apostasy. For although he's accredited with conversions of an almost double-digit percentage of the U.S. population of his time, his ministry became insignificant by the end of his life. Even Finney's co-worker wrote to him:  "Let us look over the fields where you and others and myself have labored as revival ministers, and what is now their moral state? What was their state within three months after we left them? I have visited and revisited many of these fields, and groaned in spirit to see the sad, frigid, carnal, contentious state into which the churches had fallen--and fallen very soon after our first departure from among them."

 Other central figures of this second "awakening" included a who's-who of preachers with a humanistic slant and social reformers who worked from the pulpit. This movement of two centuries ago spawned Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, Seventh Day Adventist, and other denominations as well as "non-denominational" demoninations. Liberal and revisionist interpretations of the Bible sprung forth leaving a legacy that has formed the landscape for the American majority of today in the form of; dispensationalism, Billy Graham crusades, the charasmatic movement, etc.

 Of course answers usually bring to mind more questions and this topic is no exception. What made this awakening such a calamity? Were sinister seeds planted in the first awakening that led to this? Should Wesley shoulder some blame? What impact did Nettleton leave in the midst of this theological chaos? Is America's next great tele-vangelist a current contestant on American Idol?

Old Protestant Work Ethic

   I remember a phrase in my youth that has switfly dissipated into aniquity (gone poof): The Old Protestant Work Ethic. Perhaps two decades have gone by without hearing this term spoken. why bring it up now?

   As I embarked into the world my mind-set was make as much money as you can by doing as little as necessary to earn it, or at least that's how I defined the often used term: "Work smarter, not harder."

   I rejoice as God has led me to a new watermark... that old protestant work ethic. Mind you that "leading" involved a lot of dragging me by the hair through much financial and work ethic discipline through the years.  "But yea though I walked through the valley of foolishness I would not dwell in idleness; for his rod and his staff comforted me onwards."  Psalm 23:4 (AIV - Almost Infallible Version)

  You see, yesterday I recieved my one-year review from the company for which I work. In the category of conduct reads as follows:

"Jason shows a quiet leadership at all times. He keeps a positive attitude at all times. He voices no complaints about anything that he is asked to do. He freely expresses problems and concerns in a positive and constructive manner, always making management feel as though he is in control of each situation.

Jason is very good at dealing with the public . He also handles management and his fellow employees by listening to their concerns and solving problems.

    He can work with anyone else in teh crew. He does the job without being told how to do it, or being asked to do so. He never complains about anything, and he tries to encourage others who are struggling with certain jobs.

Jason is a great driver, and he is a positive part of the Vancouver crew. The management crew is proud to have Jason as one of their employees."  

So although I do lean towards Classical and Concentric Cessationism I have reason to believe that God continues to work major miracles to this day. (Please forgive me B.B. Warfield.)

Quotes mine & others

 Mine:

"If it weren't for all my fiery shipwrecks I wouldn't have this burning passion to build lighthouses."

"Success is getting what you want. Contentment is wanting what you've got. Joy is giving it all  away."

"In whatever way a man struggles for a freedom is the cause to which he enslaves himself."

Bigger thinkers:

Novels I've written

  Once the great American novelist Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a novel in 6 words. He came up with this: "Baby shoes for sale. Never used."

I'd like to write a novel and since it's best to begin small & work you're way up I decided to start with  6 words.

A Treatise On Faith by Jason P Sixsmith 

"Seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing."

A Treatise on Charity by Jason P SIxsmith

"Give everything. Expect nothing in return."

Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats?

ok, not an original post but I believe it necessary to get my bloggage kicked off with something profound.

Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats?

Charles Haddon Spurgeon
(1834-1892)

An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it during the past few years. It has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them.

From speaking out as the Puritans did, the church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church. If it is a Christian work, why did not Christ speak of it? "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). That is clear enough. So it would have been if He had added, "and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel." No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to him.

Then again, "He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers .., for the work of the ministry" (Eph. 4:11-12). Where do entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll.

Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all his apostles. What was the attitude of the church to the world? Ye are the salt" (Matt. 5:13), not the sugar candy---something the world will spit out not swallow. Short and sharp was the utterance, "Let the dead bury their dead" (Matt. 8:22) He was in awful earnestness.

Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into his mission, he would have been more popular when they went back, because of the searching nature of His teaching. I do not hear him say, "Run after these people Peter and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick Peter, we must get the people somehow." Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them.

In vain will the Epistles be searched to find any trace of this gospel of amusement! Their message is, "Come out, keep out, keep clean out!" Anything approaching fooling is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon.

After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the church had a prayer meeting but they did not pray, "Lord grant unto thy servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are." If they ceased not from preaching Christ, they had not time for arranging entertainments. Scattered by persecution, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). That is the only difference! Lord, clear the church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her, and bring us back to apostolic methods.

Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to effect the end desired. It works havoc among young converts. Let the careless and scoffers, who thank God because the church met them halfway, speak and testify. Let the heavy laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment has been God's link in the chain of the conversion, stand up! There are none to answer. The mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today's ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.