Kingdom of God Conference

October 14-15
Saint John's Reformed Church
Lincoln, NE

Speaker Dr. David VanDrunen Professor at Westminster Seminary California.


This is an important topic that is much discussed these days. Come, hear, and learn.
Meal will be provided on the 15th.

Suggested donation - $10

For Contact information
402-477-7289

Rob Bell, Blogging, and Responsibility

I thought I owed everyone a reason the blogging has been almost non-existent. While there are always several factors, one major one sticks out for me. And yes it does involve Rob Bell. I have been absent from blogging to try and catch up on the trends in the culture so I am better prepared to pastor the church. For me, it meant less blog time. I am just not one of those guys who can do both.

Rob Bell is the perfect example. Now everyone should know that I believe in hell, and Rob Bell is clearly a heretic for denying it. When his book came out the blogosphere erupted in criticism, as it should have. But it should have done it 6 years ago or more when Bell admitted "hell was full of forgiven people" in his book Velvet Elvis. Or when he said the "gospel is you" in his Nooma Video series. But instead we waited until he was a huge mega pastor being invited on CNN to discuss his denial of hell that sparked Newsweek, Time, and the Washington Post to declare hell was dead. It is good he was soundly condemned, but it should have happened much earlier. How does this affect me?

Well, it started back in Herreid, SD. I heard of Rob Bell then. No kidding. A town of 488, and I heard about Rob Bell. Someone asked me about him, and I had never really heard of him. I found out he was associated with the Emergent stuff, and I gave the rejection of that. But the people in Herreid are unfamiliar with terms like Emergent, as I bet most are. But they are familiar with names like Rob Bell. I should have known if someone was known in Herreid, I should know about it. Then I came to Lincoln, NE. Here every youth in the high school class already knew of Rob Bell and asked to use his video series in class. Now I knew I had to do something. A pastor in Sutton had the series and a let me see it. Now, I was ready to talk to the people about it. But this is far too late. I need to be on top of things more. The youth also wanted to see more about Francis Chan, and we had to deal with that as well.

It was somewhere in here that I realized I was behind the curve. The people were exposed before I could get on top of new theological trends. I was reactive, not proactive. I have since trying to be more proactive.

My wife aided in this when she told me, "You need to read this." It was a book that was selling thousands of copies without any push from any publishing house. They were selling because her blog was a success. The blog and book is by Ann Voskamp. The book is called 1,000 Gifts. My wife said that all her "mommy bloggers" are reading it and referencing it. Since then Voskamp has been mentioned twice in World Magazine, and has even written a one page article for it. Voskamp is an emotional writer who will bother linear thinkers. She is emotional more than logical. She does not say anything awful, but her teaching comes more from experience with Scripture backing it up than Scripture informing her experience. She is going to display this way of thinking and living life for many. Anyway the point is that I am ahead of the curve rather than behind.

So, this has meant a lot more reading and a lot more discussions with people. I have been trying to catch up, and blogging is what got the ax. Hopefully I can be a little more active on the blog now, but I hope you will all understand the necessity of what I was doing and forgive the absence.

Merry Christmas!

Let me wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. A remember that we celebrate because the Word was made flesh so that we might be saved from our sins. Has there ever been a better reason to feast than that?

Notice

Since there have been some complaints about my spending too much time on sports, I have decided to make a blog for my rambling thoughts on the Pittsburgh Pirates. It is up and running. Feel free to take a look. And for those of you who do not care about the Pirates:
a) shame on you
b) you can now expect more regular material here on this blog

Hope you enjoy.

Christmas wishes

Merry Christmas. I just wanted wish everyone a blessed day. It is good to have a day to stop and remember the miracle of Christmas: that God took flesh in order to save his lost sheep. Clearly a day of celebration. You all have my permission to feast without remorse.

John Robbins

John Robbins of the Trinity Foundation, passed away. He was not well liked because of his polemical style and nature. And I have to admit sometimes his rhetoric was over the top and his tendency to blame Van Til for everything put off more than a few. However, Robbins was a Christian leader and thinker. He is too often pigeon holed as that polemical man who annoyed a lot of people. His short little pamphlet on Philemon is excellent and shows that Robbins could deal with Biblical texts. If you have not read his critique of Doug Wilson entitled Not Reformed At All then you have not read everything you should. His works on economics were stellar, and his chore of reprinting Gordon Clark too often goes unappreciated. I have little worry in saying that Robbins has left the church militant and joined the church triumphant. So put aside anything you have heard about the man. Go get a few of his works and read them. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

My prayers will be with his friends and family.

Suffer the Little Children

I am now back from camp, and I am happy to report that the counselors won the annual volleyball game again. I enjoy camp once I am there, but I never look forward to it. Leaving the family is not easy once you pass the age of about 18. Camp is a young person thing, not so much for old guys like me.

Still, I believe church camps are good and do a lot of good in the life of the church. Not only does it bring young people together from many churches creating a network of professing, believing, young people, but also it can serve to guide them and teach them in addition to entertain them. Our Heidelberg Youth Camp is very good at that, especially with the Senior High. Still, I do sometimes wonder if we could do more to engage the Junior High and even Senior High where they are. I always come back from camp learning that we are not doing a good enough job of reaching these kids and enabling them to deal with the trials that they normally face. Is the church speaking about tattoos, cuttings, and the like? Are we speaking to the dangers of on-line relationships, Facebook, and the new media that these kids are consumed by? Are we speaking to escapism of books, the moral assault of TV, and the worldviews of movies?

I come back every year challenged that the church needs to equip parents and get involved with young people on their level so that they can make Christian decisions. When we as a church think and talk about evangelism we need also to think and talk about reaching out to unbelieving children as well as adults. I fear that too often the church desires to raise its own kids in a Christian manner, but never plans to reach out to the lost until they have jobs and are all grown up. This was clearly not the way the early church did it as you read about the church running schools all the time. It was clearly not the way that Jesus did it. Not only do you have the rebuke of the disciples when Jesus utters his famous phrase of let the little children come to me (Matthew 19:13-14), but also you have instances such as Matthew 21:15 where the children are crying out praises to Jesus in the temple. Here it makes the Pharisees angry and they demand he stop them. Children are a battleground and it makes the enemy angry when the little children praise God. I pray that we as a church are able to reach out to the children of unbelievers and reach them with the gospel.

I expect apologies

HA! I was right! I was right! I was right! The NBA did rig games and they used the refs to do it. I was right!

I have had that theory since I was young. I used to tell my family that I could predict who would win a playoff game after watching the first 5 minutes based on foul calls. I had an extermely high success rate. My family never believed me and mocked me ruthlessly. Today's revelation was not one to me. Just confirmation of a long known fact. I cannot believe that this is not getting more notice. The consipiracy theorists that have been mocked by their families and by ESPN, I might add, deserve apologies.

I hope the NBA goes away never to return.

Well I am finally back from my vacation and Synod. I will blog more later, but let me just give you the few lessons I learned on my trip.

1. Hotels hate large families. Usually they do not have the ability to room more than 5. They have removed the concept of rooms with an interior door because they do not want you to bring your kids to their hotel.

2. The execption to this rule is Americinns. They are hands down the best hotel chain for families even giving us free microwave popcorn.

3. Sleep Inn likes to trick you into staying. They said they could room my large family for a certain price. What they refused to tell me was that they were splitting my family into two rooms and that the price quoted would be per room. They even gave me two bills rather than one. Never ever stay at a Sleep Inn. They did not even have bath tubs which is a very bad thing when your family has four members under the age of 5.

4. The only place for "Southern Style Chicken" is Chic-Fil-A. I have now had the Arby's version (pathetic) and the McDonald's version (better), but they both pale in comparison to the real deal.

Update

I know that I am supposed to be putting up stuff about Van Til, Schaeffer, Federal Vision and the Pirates crumbling hope, but I had this beautiful little girl. So, I am behind a little.

In the meantime, please read James's wonderful blog about Jeremiah Wright.

My Day as a Lobbyist

I spent the better half of Super Tuesday lobbying state legislators. I have to admit, I felt dirty. It was sort of sprung on me. Another pastor friend of mine and I went down to Pierre for Pastor’s Day put on by a group loosely affiliated with Focus on the Family (name of the actual group withheld to protect the pseudo-innocent). It was advertised to us as a chance to tour the capital, meet with some lawmakers, and pray for them and talk with them. Then we were to have a nice lunch where lawmakers would come and talk to us, and it was sort of understood that there would be some sort of recruiting speech as well. Well, it turned out the ‘meet and pray for the legislatures’ was actually a lobby these two bills for us. The one I was given, I didn’t even really agree with. It had to do with restricting ‘Adult Content’ business. I feel that is more of a local matter and the state government should not bother trying to zone municipalities. So, I walked around with a few guys and was shown the lobbying ropes, but I never said anything. I did meet one of my representatives and one state senator. I discovered that lobbyists are treated like bothersome flies by most legislators, and with good reason. We wandered around the floor of the House and Senate bothering people while they looked like they were trying to work. I did end up having a few good conversations. I just did my own thing after a while. I did ask a few legislators if there was a way I could uphold them in prayer, specific needs, that sort of thing. I thanked a few of them and that seemed to get the best response. And I got to talk with one Pro-Life Democrat who knew someone in Herreid. We chatted for some time until the professional lobbyist saw us together and made my friendly conversation a dirty lobby-like one. Still the legislator wanted his picture taken with me and my friend. The rest of the day did go about as expected, but it was an eye opening look into political life and the work of lobbyist. I came away with a few lessons.

1. Lobbying is a lot like bribery. A saw lots of gift bags from different groups.
2. Lobbying is a lot of intimidation. The professional lobbyists are ignored, so they bring in ‘constituents’ like me and try to make it look like I am not with him, but just a concerned citizen. Our badges said ‘Pastor’ so that it looked like I was representing not just myself, but a lot of other voters too.
3. Legislators have to hide to do real work. I saw a lot of them do this. And a few would stop the group I was with after the first sentence or so because they had already been talked to twice that day. I bet it gets annoying.
4. There are lots of lobbyists. I saw at least a large group of Midwife lobbyists and I met the Planned Parenthood lobbyist leader, or was shown whom she was without being allowed to speak to her. I also saw ‘Blue tag lobbyists’ those are the lobbyists from the government. They often lobby themselves. Yes, my taxpayer dollars pay for the Depratment of Education to come lobby the Legislature about taking over preschools around the state.
5. Theocrats love the government no matter how much they pretend they don’t. This organization was a Theo-conservative organization. They wanted the government to require lots of things in bills that supported their worldview. They had no problem with the government coming in and taking away a bookstore owner’s right to sell smut within a certain distance of about everything in a city. Yet, they were upset about a bill that would take away the right of a Pharmacist to not sell RU486 and other contraception. Their view of government is a bit contradictory. If you are wondering about the Republican Party dilemma, Theo-conservatves are the reason the Republican Party is moving left.
6. Lobbying without knowing what you are talking about is ridiculous. We were given large sheets of paper to discuss things about each bill. Try talking to a legislator sometime having to look down at a sheet of paper to get your talking points, not to mention the name of the bill. I bet a lot of people laughed at us all day.

Those are my early thoughts about a day of being a dirty no good lobbyist. I did get a lot free books and got to see government up close and tour the capital without a tour guide. All in all, I guess it was worth the day trip.

Various Notes and Lessons

I have a Youth event this weekend, so this and the next quick blog are all you should expect from me this week. Preparing for this event is taking up more time than I thought. So here are a few quick things that would have gotten fuller treatment if I had the time.

If you want to keep a good opinion about our country and its vigilance to stay safe from enemies do not ever study Joseph McCarthy or the Red Scare of the 40’s and 50’s. I will probably post a fuller review of the new book Blacklisted by History about Senator Joseph McCarthy, but needless to say, it is a devastating look into how our country allowed communists to set our agenda for years. Disturbing to say the least.

College Football has been crazy this year. Lots of people are wondering why and what the meaning of it is. Sadly no one gets it quite right. The true point of this year’s fiasco that is college football is that the BCS system is fundamentally flawed and broken. The question and debate is not about whether or not Kansas belongs in the title game, but really the question is why is Hawaii just brushed aside. What this year has shown us is that BCS conferences are really not any better than any other conference that are not part of the BCS. Go back to the beginning of this year when Boise St. beat Oklahoma. The Big Ten this year has two losses against Division I –AA. Let us remember that Division I-AA teams play the BCS teams on the road. Yet, when the top I-AA teams get a shot at the big boys, they can win. North Dakota St beat Minnesota for the second year in a row. Appalachian St. beat Michigan. Northern Iowa beat Iowa State from the Big 12. Other power house I-AA teams like Montana did not get a shot at any BCS or Division I-A schools. In fact, when the USA Today did its conference power rankings, which are naturally weighted for the Division I schools the Southern Conference (I-AA), the Gateway (I-AA) and the Colonial (I-AA) all finished ahead of multiple Division I-A conferences.

The lesson from this football year is that the BCS is a power grab by conferences in order to not reveal how weak they can be. The lesson is that until a playoff system is instituted without polls and all conferences are created equal, no champion is a real champion in college football.

Air Travel Dislikes

I just got back from a trip to sunny Sacramento, and I have to make a few comments about air travel. Needless to say, I hate it. Let me just list a few things about air travel that make me sick.

1. It is designed for business, and not family. I was on this trip alone, but as a member of a big family, I find it disheartening to see travel by air become the property of the business class. The people on planes hate children. They will ask stewardesses to move them away from young children, they will shoot mean looks at kids under the age of 10, and they mutter under there breath about how awful children are.
2. The sole reason Democrats are able to play the ‘rich vs. poor’ card and get it to work is air travel. I understand people buying first class seats get better service, and I can even live with them getting on the plane early. However, United Airlines has given their ‘premium’ customers a special lane to help them get through security faster. Security is about safety, not about money. That one just annoys me. And, United also provides a red carpet for those ‘premium passengers’ during the ticket taking process. I am serious. There is a red carpet at every gate that people who miles points or in first class get to stand on while their ticket is taken, and then it is roped off so everyone else has to go through a different line. Just for the record cutting across the red carpet to get to the second class passenger line is frowned upon.
3. LAX is the worst airport in the world. Oddly enough it has nothing to do with air traffic or crowds. It is too big to appear clean. It was not really dirty, just not overly clean. In addition to that, I expected more out of LAX. It is a giant airport, larger than most normal sized cities. Yet, if you don’t like McDonalds or are not adventures enough to eat Mexican right before getting on a plane with one bathroom, you are going to starve to death in LAX. The Delta wing had nothing besides those two options. The United Wing had a few other highly overpriced stores like ‘Wolfgang Puck Express’ (isn’t the point of Wolfgang Puck restaurants to eat Wolfgang Puck type food? Is not an Express version of that self-defeating?) or one pizzeria that I saw make at least three different people late for flights. Minneapolis has tons of restaurants, Denver at least has multiple fast food chains like Burger King, but LAX has nothing.
4. People never obey the rules. It does not matter how many times flight attendants, gate keepers, or ticket takers tell the business passenger that the suitcase designed to fit in overhead bins of a 747 do not fit into the overhead bins or under the seat of ‘puddle-jumpers’ they will take them on and try it anyway. You have to pry those things from their cold dead fingers. Then the airlines let them put it under their feet, but not properly stowed away. That way it serves as a nice projectile if turbulence hits and can crowd the already non-existent space of the person sitting next to them. Don’t even get me started on staying buckled until the seat belt light is off.
5. Cell-phones. I am the only person in America that does not own a cell-phone. One is not allowed to use a cell-phone during flight, and that is good. However, I was unaware that not talking during the flight necessitated people to talk on the phone until the very last minute when the stewardess asks them to turn it off. It also means that as soon as the announcement states it is okay to use cell-phones again (if not before), everyone must either text someone or phone someone. If you have a cell-phone and are not on it as the plane is on the way to the gate, it is a sure sign that you are a social outcast.

Those are my thoughts about the trip. I will get back to blogging as soon as I can.

I told you so

I will be at Heidelberg Youth Camp all week, so don’t expect any posts or responses.

But before I go I wanted to post a little something for those of you, especially my brother, who never believed me when I told them the NBA was rigged. I always said it was not the players who rigged games, but rather the referees. I always said you could tell within five minutes of an NBA game who was going to win based on the referee’s calls. For all of you doubters I told you so.

A Quick Note

I have family in so I won’t be getting to posting the examination of Palm Sunday and Holy Week in the next few days. But, I will leave you with hope for the future in the form of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are now climbing the standings. This is all with one of their best relievers on the Disabled List, their batting champ struggling to find his grove after a spring of injuries, and a slow start from their pitching ace. Notice when you look at the standings that the Pirates have not lost a game to Houston all year (4-0), have a good record against the Cardinals (2-3), and have a .500 record on the road.

Also do not forget that the Denver Nuggets are in the playoffs, but will find a way to blow their early series lead.

Blog Update and More Madness

We have been trying to label all the posts and completely take advantage of the blogger upgrades here at the Two-Edged Sword. And by 'we', I mean my wife. She is the computer guru. I basically just answer a question from time to time. But, she is still trying to shake all the bugs out, so please be patient and let us know if you run into any problems.

Speaking of my wife, it is time for our annual competition by filling out our March Madness brackets. So far my wife has beaten me every year excpet one in our seven years of marriage. She never watches a game all year, but spends hours researching after the brackets are announced and usually gets her way. This year she found a site she enjoyed. MSNBC has an interactive bracket that gives stats and opinions on each team when your mouse rolls over them. You click on a team and the computer fills in the bracket for you. Then you get head to head comparisons for every game. It is a nice way to avoid the pencil work and have a nice, neat bracket.

Just for the record, this year I have Wisconsin, Kansas, Georgetown, and Ohio State with Georgetown beating Kansas for the national title.

A Notice

I am off to The Northern Plains Classis meeting. So, I will not be posting until at least Wednesday. I still have a reply to Xon on to finish writing, so do not lose heart if you are waiting on that reply.

Also before I continue discussing the Federal Vision, I will post some thoughts about Philemon commentaries, which I hope will make Green Baggins respond.

Until I get back, feel free to examine the greatness of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the bright future for the Pirates. I will probably also have to rant about March Madness, as I have the fever already.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all. I hope and pray that everyone has a joyous day and season. Lord willing, I will be visiting my in-laws in Michigan, so posting will be light.

God bless us everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving

One of the things I love about Herreid, SD is the fact that we still get together on Thanksgiving. How many churches have a worship service on Thanksgiving? President George Washington asked people to give thanks to God, and ask pardon for transgressions, and I believe that practice is still followed today. Thanksgiving is set aside by the government for people to return thanks. The church should take such calls by the state seriously. We do too often have a tendency toward individualism, and Thanksgiving is no different. When the State asks the people to give thanks to God and ask for pardon, should not the church answer with a 'yes'. Shouldn't this be done corporately? We ought to do this around our dinner tables, but we ought to do it as a church too. Just a Thanksgiving thought. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

P.S. I hope to have some more posts up today or tomorrow.

Power on Display

I have never lived so close to an actual natural disaster before. A tornado touched down just outside of Eureka a few days ago. The damage is unreal. It is one thing to see it on TV and another to be near it. Two by fours in trees, barns literally twisted in knots, fields ruined and cows dead. Thankful the Lord spared all the families who lost homes. But, I learned things you do not think about when you just hear a report on TV. I visited the Eureka nursing home the day after, and they talked about having to get all of the residents out of bed and into the hallway. That is no easy task because most of the residents need assistance. I had never stopped to think about how much work it must be to try and keep a place of elderly people safe when you do not have the advance warning one has for a hurricane. If the tornado had hit town directly they would not have been able to get the majority of those people to safety.

In the end, the community is coming together to aid the families who lost homes. Rebuilding is already underway, as is monetary support. We got some much needed rain, but most importantly we got a much needed reminder that "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not." Lamentations 3:22.