taking the low seat

Important lesson from John the Baptist today:

Church leaders face a particular kind of temptation.  They exert themselves stridently towards an ideal.  Problem-It is one thing to represent the ideal (Christ) but another thing to identify ourselves with that ideal.  What do I mean?
John passionately prepared the people for the Messiah.  He represented the Messiah.  However, he could not identify himself as the Messiah.  He (Jn) made clear that he wasn't the One to come.

We can too easily confuse what we're about.  Christ is the One that people need.  We cannot let our ego and personalities get in the way.  We're just representatives.  "A man can receive nothing unless it has been give to him from heaven", Jn said to his disciples after they said that Jesus was baptizing and everybody was going to him.  "He must increase, but I must decrease."  Jn 3:30

There is a tension isn't there?  Leaders do need to graciously enter into the place of influence without having to grovel in a false humility.  In other words, there is a gracious way to accept the seat of honor that others may bestow upon us.

But let's be clear about this-What do we have that we have not been given?  Let's not war on behalf of ourselves when others disrespect.  Let's strive for the honor of His name, not ours.  When we do this in sincerity, He lifts us up.  He gives the Spirit without measure, (Jn 3:34) and that's what people need-not us, not me.

St. Anne's is back!

I've posted there some same stuff as here, but there's a new issue and lots of cool stuff..

Go here: stannespub.com

if you missed it (below)

the bridesmaid has an earring that links up with my ear exactly

Me and wedding pics do not get along

Parenting

"Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it."
Prov. 22:6


Too often this verse is taken to mean something like:


Spank my child like a perfectionist machine.. Make him eat all his vegetables and organics.. Make him comb his hair and sit in church quietly..   Discipline him in reformed manners and ways and when he's old he won't depart.  Put him through a really hard classical Christian education.  That'll do it.

Instead, I think we must read the verse like this:


Give 'em the good life.  Show 'em heaven.  Show them tenderness.  Yes, bring the sting of spanking regularly and consistently.  Hold them to a higher standard.  Expect strict manners but in a spirit of humility from the heart.  Shepherd them through a robust Christian education.  Teach them to embrace hard things.  How?  By example.


But, train them up in the way they should go...  Laughter.  Family fun.  Prayer with them.  Stories.  Feasting.  Play.  Time with dad.  Time with mom.  Dates.  Discussing movies watched together.  Vacations.  Teaching them diligently from the Word to understand Him and the world.


They will not depart from a home like this.


And if God requires that church officers have these kind of children-faithful and believing (from the heart, we can deduce) then it is possible.  Not just possible but commanded and blessed by His grace.


We need help.. And God will give it.  Ask.  believe.  Obey.

You need a laugh

Encouragement for ya

The Word never fails to deliver to those who hunger and thirst:

"It is a trustworthy statement:
For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;  If we endure, we will also reign with Him;  If we deny Him, He also will deny us;  If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself."
II Tim. 2:11-13

In these three verses we see the balanced perspective of the fear of sin and of the Lord, the promise of vindication, and rounded off with a great promise.

Alexander Piano recital with James playing a fun Chopin piece

Christmas Eve Service Homily

Homily

Pastor Alexander

“No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow- Far as the curse is found, Far as the curse is found, Far as, far as-the curse is found.”

The mall is postmillennial.  Secular businesses are postmillennial, caught up in the triumph of God’s incarnation in Christ without even realizing it.  How?  Because they play “Joy to the World! the Lord Is Come.”  The hymn says; “let earth receive her king, the Savior reigns, He rules the world with truth and grace,” and (above).  One day, the courthouse will ring with this truth in the middle of summer.

Sins and sorrows do grow.  Thorns continue to infest the ground.  They draw blood and we curse them spitting and grumbling.  We kick those people or objects that happened to be in our way because we’re angry at the fall. 

We forget, we deserve them.  The rocks, hills and plains want to repeat the sounding joy but they are angry with us, because we have cursed them in our sin.  And so waters sometimes flood us and the lions roar at us, because we cursed them.

But… we are not to live in defeatism.  Christ has come!  Therefore, you are free from passivity and retreat.  Hope is alive.  No more let laziness sleep.  “Wake, Awake, for night is flying!”

In the name of Jesus the Christ people of God, our mission is clear:  Beat back the sins and sorrows of your life because of the triumph of Grace.  Subdue the thorns.  Dominate over the dysfunction around you and in the name of Christ fashion truth, goodness and beauty instead.

Away with pettiness!  Away with bitterness!  Away with the accusatory finger!  Give the Scrooge in your heart a kick down the stairs.  Away with all victim mentalities.

He comes to make His blessings flow!  Let them flow through you first.  Then, beat back the sins, sorrows, and thorns like warriors.  Make blessings flow to others far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found.

Amen.

Elegant words

"By What Means God is Made Known Unto Us:


We know Him by two means:  first, by the creation, preservation, and government of the universe; which is before our eyes as a most elegant book, wherein all creatures great and small, are as so many characters leading us to contemplate the invisible things of God.."


Article 2 Belgic Confession (1561)

New Snow

Professional Family Pics

Jana's blog

Me wife is bloggin' again.  check it out at flowerofgrass.blogspot.com

stiff shot of Bible whiskey

"A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy." Prov. 29:1

May God give us broken and contrite hearts.

Rene Girard

"Why does Jesus regard the Father and himself as the best model for all humans?  Because neither the Father nor the Son desires greedily, egotistically.  God 'makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and he sends his rain on the just and on the unjust.'  God gives to us without counting, without marking the least difference between us.  He lets the weeds grow with the wheat until the time of harvest.  If we imitate the detached generosity of God, then the trap of mimetic rivalries will never close over us."

Girard defines this "mimetic rivalry" to be the awakening of desire within us when our neighbor simply has something we don't.  This is like a toddler who wants the toy that the other toddler has in his hand, even though there are hundreds of toys just like it on the floor.

Elijah is six.

"Dad."  What.  "When I get married I am going to get a hotel room."  Me- .................. O-k-a-y.

Kids these days.

All I got to say is BAM

The Mind of A Servant...

"Are you in your right mind?  Aren't there unattractive, thankless people in your life whom you should be loving and serving, but whom you are about to give up on?  Maybe it is a spouse?  Your parents?  Others in the church?  Pastors often hear:  "I work my fingers to the bone in this church and what thanks do I get?"  Is that the way it is?  Your service was for thanks?  Are you in your right mind?  Servanthood begins where gratitude and applause ends.  Do you only serve people whom you like or whom you find attractive or who are like you?  Even sinners do that (Luke 6:32-34).  Christians, like Peter's mother-in-law, give diakonia because they have been healed and given diakonia by Christ (Matt 8:15)."

Tim Keller~pastor in Manhattan

Accepting painful correction

Never ceases to humble me:

"Poverty and shame will come to him who neglects discipline, But he who regards reproof will be honored."