James Jordan-2010 BH Conf on "Wine, Women, Song, and Death"

For the bride to be glorified, the Bridegroom has to be sacrificed. This is Christ and His Church. From Adam’s death, comes Eve. From Christ’s death, comes the Church. Phil 2 Christ poured himself out. It is sacrificial language. Paul said that he is about to be poured out. Pouring out results in glorification.

Christ died for the Church. In Islam, men do not die sacrificially to beautify their brides. They debase women. They die so that they can rape 70 virgins in heaven!

Jordan believes that Islam is Satan's counterfeit New Covenant. We drink wine, they ban it. We honor women's sexuality, Muslims "circumcise" theirs. We glorify women in song. Women are the shape of biblical song. Men sing bass, the foundation of songs, women sing soprano and Alto, the "front" and most glorifying part of songs.

The first Starbuck's--Pike Place Market-Seattle

Andreas Christopher

Andreas says "Da-Da" for everything he experiences. When's he tired and cranky--DADA! When he's happy, Da-Da, when he's desperately trying to communicate-DAADAAAHHHH! It's nice to be appreciated ;)

On the road with Tolkien

Wyoming

Alexander fam first camping trip 2010

This just hit me

"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith."

I Jn. 5:4

Faith will overcome the world.. That's powerful.

Faith in what?

I Jn 5:5:

"Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

A prayer of thanks

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.” Ps. 100:4-5

Our heavenly Father, You are good. You have always been good, and You always will be good. No good gift will You withhold from those who walk uprightly. Yet we are truly perplexed at the circumstances of our lives sometimes..How can this be good? Yet in your infinite wisdom and perfect plans You allow for pain to enter in and sting us. We cannot understand as You do. We were not there when You laid the foundations of the earth…We see with our eyes 5 ½ ft. off the ground, but You cause atoms to play together on Pluto. You roll the thunderclouds like a 17 year old rolls cotton candy in the spinner. We just eat cotton candy…That’s all we do, as we stare up into Your grandeur, while drooling sugar with squinty eyes. We just sit around the living room staring at this new Jonathan Thomas Kuntz, wondering at the miracle of his black cow lick on the back of his head. Why does food have to taste so good? What is this feeling of forgiveness that we feel? How come people look so beautiful when they smile!? Black and white, brown and pale, fat and thin, young and old, beautiful people made in your image. It is because we are made in your image… You are the source of all beauty, we’re just fragments reflecting You. Your creation preaches your lovingkindness with each gracious flower springing to life from the dust. You will spring us to life after we all enter that veil in faith. We are all on an adventure, one with real stage props, sin and death. Real darkness. But we will rise again and everything will spring to life. We will all meet little Victory Athanasius Cummings.
We are all here to love and to know you and each other. We do not hold the universe in the span of Your control as You do. We do not understand Your vastness, Your glory, that You are awesome beyond imagining. You know the end from the beginning. You are good. No lie is in You. You are truth. We know that You will triumph over wickedness, over death. Everything heinous will be reckoned. Yes, you are sovereign. You are the King of all providence. You allow pain to come so that somehow, somehow in the deep of our dark—we may know You more.. You are worthy. Show us your glory! Everything’s going to be okay because You are God. So, for this reason, we give You thanks for dry and dusty old stodgy reformed systematic theologies and the like…because we have been reminded there that yes, You are the Calvinistic God…You know what is going to happen because You have orchestrated everything in Your most loving and wise providence. Nothing can happen to us that first does not come through your all-wise loving hands. We are thankful for good ole’ doctrine..Because in it we learn something of You…Esp. when things get rough. We can rest.

We give you thanks Abba, Father, that we are not in a evolutionary washing machine of time, chance and violence. We do not have to placate polytheistic gods so that we will not have drought. We don’t live in fear-filled superstition as though the world was controlled by a pantheon of warring and petty gods. We don’t serve Allah, the brutal demon tyrant. We don’t serve the Buddha who blurs right and wrong, justice and injustice. We condemn the gods of the Bhagavad Gita, that tyrannize the universe in perversion. There is a God who reigns, and You are this God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David and Samson, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with You and the Holy Spirit are one God, world without end.

Amen.

My defense for it

"During breakfast, Tolkien glances at his newspaper, but only in the most cursory fashion. He, like his friend C.S. Lewis, regards 'news' as on the whole trivial and fit to be ignored, and they both argue (to the annoyance of many of their friends) that the only 'truth' is to be found in literature. However, both men enjoy the crossword."

One would expect the crossword reference from men like that. My only further input is that I justify theology like that too!

Yoga

Yoga for Immunity and Vitality

"Sit cross-legged or in a chair with spine straight. Stick your tongue all the way out and keep it out as you rapidly breathe through your mouth. Continue this breathing for 1 to 3 minutes. Not only will your body strengthen its defenses, but your spirit will be lifted to the sky."

This is written on the side of an Echinacea tea box with a picture of a woman in a yoga position tongue all the way out and eyes closed... Then in small font.."Before doing this exercise or participating in any exercise program, consult your physician."

This is the most hilarious satire of yoga, and the best part is that I think it might be real.

Our beloved Hannah

Hannah's been asking us some deep and crucial Q's about eternal security and assurance these days.

We praise God for the Spirit's continued working in her heart. Just yesterday, Hannah came out and confessed some lieing and deceit from almost a yr ago and confessed her sin.

One morning, after her own reading of the account where Samuel rebukes Saul's disobedience, we talked about obeying God supremely above our own desires, esp in light of Saul's departing the faith.

This, in conjunction with the 3 excommunications in our church the past year and a half, has really got her attention. And I'm so grateful for this.

Mommy, in one bedside heart-to-heart one night was encouraging Hannah in the assurance of Christ's salvation for her. This is one beautiful moment in the conversation:

"Hannah, do you see how your head is resting on your pillow right now? That is how you can rest in Jesus' grace in salvation for you."

Hannah, when hearing this, welled up with tears...

Way to go Mom!

And Praise be to God for his working in Hannah by His Spirit to ask these Q's.

We're about to start a little I JN. Bible study with Hannah and Abigail in conjunction with all this and Pastor Joost's preaching through the book.

Clear Light

"The best light comes in through the clearest glass: too much paint keeps out the sun." Spurgeon

Live in the Light.

Live in faithful, honest confession.

"The lamp of the body is the eye."

If your heart isn't clear then your life will not be clear.

Don't try to paint and embellish God's too clear truth.

This little piece will bless your day and beyond, esp. in Easter time

"What is the chief end of man? What is the greatest calling of every subject of the Kingdom of God? Your central purpose from beginning to end, first to last, your greatest task and privilege is the worship and glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This being the case, the central purpose of education is the training of Christian worshipers. The reason you are reading this essay is so that you might chant, sing, clap, pray, kneel, raise hands, listen, eat, drink and shout with understanding, reverence and joy to the end that the God of heaven and earth will send justice like summer rain and mercy like a downpour on the earth. The reason you study math, science and art is so that your imagination will be filled with wonder and awe at the Creator of the most mind blowing project ever: the world. And whether you are learning to read music or playing an instrument, whether your hand is holding a pencil or gesturing in the theater, you are training yourself for the warfare of worship. You are teaching your body gratitude; you are teaching your soul thanksgiving. There is hardly an adequate evaluation of your progress, but the best grade you can receive is the outworking of a thankful heart. If you have truly learned Algebra, if you have mastered the story of Western Civilization, if you can tell me the names of the constellations that whirl about our heads, then you will do it with laughter in your voice, you will do it with joy in your heart and gratitude in your bones. Worship is the point of learning because worship is the point of life. And worship is the point of life both because this is the chief honor of every faithful subject in the Kingdom of God and because it is the head of many waters, the council chambers of the King of all the earth. From the world gathered at the table of the Lord issues the great judgments of the King.
Hitler’s world is the story of eternal collision, unending struggle and violence. In that world blood and genes are the fundamentals of life, and pure Aryan blood is Hitler’s absolute best. But the Christian story scoffs at the small-mindedness of German nationalism even as it scoffs at American imperialism. The Lord of Heaven derides Hitler’s arrogant racism and sickening genocide as much as He abhors the slaughter of the unborn in our own country. But this is all the inevitable end of evolutionary thought. If the world is a galactic mosh pit, then bigger is better, might does make right. However, history tells the story better. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. But blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. And the sons of God are welcome at His table. The gospel declares the pure and undefiled blood of Jesus Christ, whose blood purifies every nation of the world. Hitler was right: pure blood will conquer the world. But ironically (for Hitler) that blood is the blood that was shed by an innocent Jewish man two thousand years ago. The sons and daughters of the Most High are family through the blood of Christ and are therefore invited to the family meetings. The Christian faith encompasses all of life, visible and invisible. Forgiveness cleanses the soul, and fruit proceeds out of the heart. In a mystery, the visible and invisible mingle and mix. In a wonderful glory God adopts us into His family with water and faith, He feeds us with His word and bread and wine. And we bless one another with words and smiles and hugs. Joy makes bones strong, and wisdom gives long life. We live in the world that God made, a world where heaven and earth touch, for we have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God. In Christian worship we ascend into the throne room in heaven to ask the Father for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Fate speaks, destiny beckons and all of the scrapings of Hitler are like sand in the wind. But the Lord speaks, the Triune God beckons and the prayer of the righteous man avails much."

Toby Sumpter

Toby is pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, ID and has three little ones-River, Felicity, and Tovia.

For the rest of the absolutely amazing article go here: http://resources.veritaspress.com/Sep06_epistula.htm It is the "feature article." It's not that much longer.