In the spirit of the mountains, here is a link to download the bluegrass night of worship at Campus Outreach at Samford on March 11, 2008. I apologize that the tracks are not split up, but I don't really know how to do that just yet... The featured players: Keith Davis (banjo), Ryan Warden (miscellaneous hand-struck instruments & intricate third-part harmonies), Alyson Snow (vocals), Trey Wagoner (improvisational violin/fiddle action), Cliff Cook (mandolin), and myself (vocals & guitar). We played "Come Thou Fount, "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand," "Amazing Grace," "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go/I'll Fly Away," and "O Praise Him." It's not the best quality, we don't mesh all that well at times, but it's bluegrass, so it's beautiful, it's fun, and it speaks to the soul. Enjoy.
Quotes of the Day:
"Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery, like the idle, curved tunnels of leaf miners on the face of a leaf. We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that, choir the proper praise." -Annie Dillard
"The end of wisdom is design; the end of goodness is doing good. To suppose these perfections not to be exerted would be to represent them as insignificant. Of what use would God's wisdom be, if it had nothing to design or direct? To what purpose his almightiness, if it never brought anything to pass? And of what avail his goodness, if it never did any good?" -G. Tennent
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
From the top of Slieve Donard
Pictures compliments of Dwight Castle"...The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least me can do is try to be there." -Annie Dillard
I spent this Saturday climbing the top of Slieve Donard, the highest mountain in Northern Ireland. Some beauty is so staggering that words run in fright from the tongue for fear of being clumsily lumped together into a dreadfully paltry description. When we reached the peak, with the wind beating us like a jealous lover, furious that we’d intruded upon his secret space, we were left completely speechless.
From atop the wall, we could see for miles in all directions- a range of emerald mountains at our backs and the rugged, grey-blue Irish Sea on three sides. God’s righteousness is like those mighty mountains. Everything around them changes, grows, retracts, and develops, but the mountain sits unchanged, unmoved, unaffected. Revolutions of thought and science make man more and more “modern,” but The Moutain. Is. Constant. Like the sunrise. Always faithful. Always the same.
I looked upon the homes far below the mountain near the shore. With one eye closed, I held my thumb up over them. I was reminded of the astronaut who went into space and held his thumb over the earth, and then of the cosmonaut who said, with great joy, that he “had not found God in space.” I think it would have been far more surprising to learn that he had. I looked upon the tumultuous sea that sailors and fisherman and warriors had no doubt crossed these past millennia.
Even in Ireland, the sea is still the sea. It’s amazing how just feeling the breeze and watching the waves angrily crash upon the rocks can be so comforting. There’s such constancy. Rough waters conjure up so many memories for me: sailing in the Keys after 8th grade; Destin my freshman year; the failed sunrise of St. Augustine; Joseph Rhea & I fighting the hurricane waters of Panama City; So many nights on Beach Project spent with the air full of Black & Milds and talk of God. The water puts my soul at ease. When I look at it, I am consumed by it; I am brought to peace. It is such a reminder of how small I am, how small my problems are, and how great & constant God is. When I look at it, I wonder how anyone can think of their own importance, how great they are, or how big their accomplishments are. The ocean would destroy them without thinking. The ocean would destroy them simply by being itself and doing what it does (much like the glory of the divine, eh C.S.?)
I looked again upon the homes and shops below. How small they seemed. How insignificant. How frivolously their inhabitants surely live their lives, unaware or purposefully ignorant of how tiny & fleeting they are. It is so easy for me, in my routine in the concrete jungle, to grow self-important, to forget the fragile, brief nature of my existence. I will pass; my body will decay and nothing will remain of me. My flesh will surely be consumed by creeping insects and returned to the earth from whence it came. Rot will not fail to eat my bones. It seems that one of the most important things that I can do is to simply remind myself of the inevitability of my own demise and to live as I should wish that I had lived, supposing I live to old age.
The earth is about 4.5-4.7 billion years old. Countless tests all point to it. Even rocks taken from the surface of the moon give the same report. An American man generally experience seventy or so heliocentric revolutions before he is laid bare upon the cold steel and made to look pleasing, to be beautiful, before the world one final time.
Maybe that, then, is the fundamental quest, our raison d’etre, the reason why we must shout our barbaric yawps before the race of man before we go. We are all on the quest for beauty… to behold it…. to be called it… to know it by its name and have it wait for us solitarily by the fireplace in the lobby after the doors have closed for the night.
Mute-inducing beauty is what drove me to the top of the hill. It is what I came to see. In the face of something so magnificent and timeless, I am still. Be at rest once more, o my soul. You have caught a glimpse of the passing backside. Let your face now radiate unveiled that the world might now the beauty you’ve seen.
This beauty is a gift to us; all of creation stands as an ebenzer to us: Behold, I AM! I AM truth; I AM freedom; I AM beauty.
The waves swallow the shoreline again and again. As spectacular as they seem, as timeless as the ocean and these mountains are, they are but glimpses. They only point us towards the epicenter of the beatific earthquake, towards the truth of our incomparable artist, the Unmoved Mover. He is beauty and eternity defined. And He is asking us to behold these shadows of Him and to faith that He is so much more than we could know or dream of. To praise and wait in hope for the day when we will no longer see through a glass darkly, but face to face.
Even the earth, the sky, and the seas are groaning with death. Every mountain, even this one upon which I stand, will be brought low. Even these hills are fleeting. But for now they stand like holes punched in a black canvas in front of a spotlight, revealing the brilliant light that lies underneath, giving undeniable evidence to what lies beyond the present darkness. One day the canvas will be ripped from top to bottom, and the Artist will paint His final masterpiece, where he, the Great Floodlight of truth and beauty, will rest with his children, the partakers of his glory.
Beauty is only made true when it is shared. We are all the proselytizers; let us proclaim the beauty of the King who was and is and is to come.
Monday, February 11, 2008
God the Gardener in America
Yesterday, I heard Dr. David Platt echo the words of Derek Webb and so many others by declaring that, statistically, our churches are losing relevancy by the day. The American church has never been so irrelevant to today’s culture. Congregations are not only generally more empty, they’re less impactful. America, it seems, no longer cares to hear about brimstone, they have their weights and wallets to worry about; they no longer need to hear about morality, Oprah instructs them on how to live; they no longer need grace, they never believed in sin.
I have to wonder… is Christ pruning the American church? It seems like the children of the simple pew-fillers of yesteryear now are thankful for that extra two hours of sleep each Sunday morning. Those who might have once sat in church, believing that they, well, believed, now make no such mistake. Going to church, save in a few small pockets across the South, is no longer the norm- it is a much more radical notion than it used to be. Maybe Christ is pruning away the branches of the American church to have a healthier core that is more apt to grow. If He is sovereign, which He is, doesn’t it make sense that He would be working even this for His and our good? That He was purifying and preparing His bride to receive Him even when it seems like His bride, at least in the Western world, is growing weaker?
Just as in pruning, where the excess is cut away so that the smaller, healthier bush can truly thrive and grow as it should, perhaps this is what God is doing to the American church. And what do we do in response? Beg for God to water and feed this mustard plant; reach out to the lost and dying world with every ounce of strength that we have; encourage, challenge, and rebuke one another in love; and wait patiently for the coming King.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Talk with Clayton about Regeneration/Second Birth
REGENERATION
Regeneration- an act of God in which He imparts spiritual life to us; it is being “born again.” It cannot be undone
1 John 5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him:
John 1:13 “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God”
It is God’s will; just as we did not choose to be physically born, we did not choose to be “born again”- it is something that “happens” to us
Questions from last week
(1) Have faith and repentance continued to be a part of your life?
(2) How does God save us? From his perspective, how do we become Christians? Is there anything we could do screw it up?
-Ephesians 2:1-10… we were dead in our sins, but God, because of His great love for us and not because of anything good that we had done, made us alive in Him. It is solely by grace that we have been saved through faith; we are saved by a gift of God.
-2 Timothy 2:11-12 “The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have 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”
-Mark 13:13 “Any you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved”
-John 10:26-30 “But you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one”
-It is not that God demands perfection or any “good works” for us to get into heaven, but if we move towards doing these things, it is a sign that we have been “reborn”, since “every one who does what is right has been born of Him” (1 John 4:7). Once He has saved us, there is nothing that can separate us from Him. How sweet is that?
2 Corinthians 5:14-19; John 3:1-8; 1 John 5:1-5; Romans 6:1-14; Ezekiel 36:26-27
-What does it mean to be a new creation? What are some of the differences between a person who is a “new creation” and a person who has reformed their life to be a better person? Between a Christian and Gandhi? Romans 8:8 “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” No matter how “good” a non-Christian seems, the Bible says that all their righteousness, every good thing they’ve ever done, is as filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6). Non-Christians can do seemingly “good” acts because they were created in the image of God, but they do not give honor to God in their actions, so, even what seems to be “good” is sin before God. We, as Christians, however, are “new creations” in that we stand before God and He sees Christ’s righteousness in place of our own. We can give glory and honor to God because we have been made clean by Christ’s blood.
-What did Jesus mean in John 3 when He said that you couldn’t see the kingdom of God unless you were born again? What is the significance of this?
2 Corinthians 4:4-6 “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake/ For Gods, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned”
-What does it mean to be dead to sin and alive to God? How does this change occur and how does it affect our daily life?
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone , the new has come”
Regeneration- an act of God in which He imparts spiritual life to us; it is being “born again.” It cannot be undone
1 John 5:1 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him:
John 1:13 “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God”
It is God’s will; just as we did not choose to be physically born, we did not choose to be “born again”- it is something that “happens” to us
Questions from last week
(1) Have faith and repentance continued to be a part of your life?
(2) How does God save us? From his perspective, how do we become Christians? Is there anything we could do screw it up?
-Ephesians 2:1-10… we were dead in our sins, but God, because of His great love for us and not because of anything good that we had done, made us alive in Him. It is solely by grace that we have been saved through faith; we are saved by a gift of God.
-2 Timothy 2:11-12 “The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have 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”
-Mark 13:13 “Any you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved”
-John 10:26-30 “But you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one”
-It is not that God demands perfection or any “good works” for us to get into heaven, but if we move towards doing these things, it is a sign that we have been “reborn”, since “every one who does what is right has been born of Him” (1 John 4:7). Once He has saved us, there is nothing that can separate us from Him. How sweet is that?
2 Corinthians 5:14-19; John 3:1-8; 1 John 5:1-5; Romans 6:1-14; Ezekiel 36:26-27
-What does it mean to be a new creation? What are some of the differences between a person who is a “new creation” and a person who has reformed their life to be a better person? Between a Christian and Gandhi? Romans 8:8 “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” No matter how “good” a non-Christian seems, the Bible says that all their righteousness, every good thing they’ve ever done, is as filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6). Non-Christians can do seemingly “good” acts because they were created in the image of God, but they do not give honor to God in their actions, so, even what seems to be “good” is sin before God. We, as Christians, however, are “new creations” in that we stand before God and He sees Christ’s righteousness in place of our own. We can give glory and honor to God because we have been made clean by Christ’s blood.
-What did Jesus mean in John 3 when He said that you couldn’t see the kingdom of God unless you were born again? What is the significance of this?
2 Corinthians 4:4-6 “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake/ For Gods, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned”
-What does it mean to be dead to sin and alive to God? How does this change occur and how does it affect our daily life?
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone , the new has come”
Talk with Clayton about Faith
FAITH- January 30, 2008
(John 3:16-21; John 12:11; John 1:12; ACTS 20:21)
Major Points from Last Week (Repentance)
1. Repentance is a gift from God that brings us back to Him
2. We become more like Christ only through a life of active repentance
Questions from Last Week
1. How are faith and repentance intertwined? Can you have one without the other?
-You cannot have one without the other. They are both tied together in the act of conversion, our willing response to the gospel, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation. Turning from sin is called repentance, and the turning to Christ is called faith (if we agree that repentance and faith are tied together and cannot be separated, this means that people cannot accept Jesus as “Savior” without also accepting Him as “Lord”).
2. What is the difference between the belief that the demons have about Jesus (James 2:19) and the belief that saves in John 3:16-21?
-Knowledge is not enough, nor are knowledge and approval (see Nicodemus in John 3:2; he had concluded that Jesus must be from God, but still did not believe in Him). In addition to knowledge of the facts of the gospel (“How can they believe in Him of whom they’ve never heard?” Romans 10:14) and approval of them, I must decide to depend on Jesus to save me.
-Saving faith is personal trust in Jesus Christ alone as a living person for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God.
John 1:12- Much as we would receive a guest into our homes, John speaks of receiving Christ.
Why is it dangerous to separate faith from repentance?
(1) Offers false security to those who say they believe or have “prayed a prayer”
(2) Cheapens the power of what God has done
Acts 26:18- Just like repentance, faith is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8-10
Questions for next week
(1) Have faith and repentance remained a continuing part of your Christian life?
(2) How does God save us? From his perspective, how do we become Christians? Is there anything we could do screw it up?
(John 3:16-21; John 12:11; John 1:12; ACTS 20:21)
Major Points from Last Week (Repentance)
1. Repentance is a gift from God that brings us back to Him
2. We become more like Christ only through a life of active repentance
Questions from Last Week
1. How are faith and repentance intertwined? Can you have one without the other?
-You cannot have one without the other. They are both tied together in the act of conversion, our willing response to the gospel, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation. Turning from sin is called repentance, and the turning to Christ is called faith (if we agree that repentance and faith are tied together and cannot be separated, this means that people cannot accept Jesus as “Savior” without also accepting Him as “Lord”).
2. What is the difference between the belief that the demons have about Jesus (James 2:19) and the belief that saves in John 3:16-21?
-Knowledge is not enough, nor are knowledge and approval (see Nicodemus in John 3:2; he had concluded that Jesus must be from God, but still did not believe in Him). In addition to knowledge of the facts of the gospel (“How can they believe in Him of whom they’ve never heard?” Romans 10:14) and approval of them, I must decide to depend on Jesus to save me.
-Saving faith is personal trust in Jesus Christ alone as a living person for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God.
John 1:12- Much as we would receive a guest into our homes, John speaks of receiving Christ.
Why is it dangerous to separate faith from repentance?
(1) Offers false security to those who say they believe or have “prayed a prayer”
(2) Cheapens the power of what God has done
Acts 26:18- Just like repentance, faith is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8-10
Questions for next week
(1) Have faith and repentance remained a continuing part of your Christian life?
(2) How does God save us? From his perspective, how do we become Christians? Is there anything we could do screw it up?
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Lessons from 2007
Prayer is the primary means by which God conforms our hearts to His own; it is our primary work here in this world; it is how God has chosen to work in this world- by hearing and responding to the prayers of His people; to pray without ceasing effectively (i.e. as a "righteous man," whose prayers are always effective) one must continually be "made right" before the Lord, i.e. practice repentance.
The only way that a person becomes more like Christ (that is, his/her character more closely models that of Christ's) is through an active searching of the heart for sin (and being willing to pray until sin is revealed in the heart as sin, that is, something grievous and akin to treason before God, something deserving immediate and infinite punishment because it is an offense against someone infinitely worthy) and repentance thereof. If we are not repenting, we are certainly not growing.
Every moment of every day we are called to be ministers of His word. That is, when we don't want to let out lights shine brightly before all men, we need to repent and pray for God to change our sinful hearts because we are but vapors and these days are evil.
We serve a God who will one day make all things right. Even so, the heart of God cries out for us to plead and act on behalf of justice in this world.
Discipline is one of the man of God's best friends.
The Lord loves a humble, contrite spirit and hates American self-sufficiency. Oh how vital it is to remember how utterly dependent upon Him we are at all times for all things.
The only way that two sinners can exist in a relationship that is mutually encouraging and glorifies God is to found it solely upon grace and to practice honesty.
God is good; that is enough.
The Lord is trustworthy in all that He does.
A community of love and grace that is unafraid to practice discipline may be the greatest gift any believer could hope to receive.
I am but a small vessel- the Lord may use me as He wills, with or without my consent. How amazing it would be to never be remembered, but to have only left Christ's imprint upon the world, for the glory of His name.
I have re-learned how to use my gifts of "reading" people for good (that is, for spiritual encouragement) instead of using it for selfish gain. I have learned how to use it to motivate, how to use it to raise questions, and how to help people discover answers on their own.
I have learned that the Puritans were studs, and I pray that God, one day soon, gives me the desire to study the Word like Edwards.
God is at work in all people at all times everywhere to varying degrees, and my primary job in evangelism is to simply pray for discernment as to where the Spirit is already at work and to pray that the Spirit continues to work unto salvation, as only it can.
We can love each other because we were first loved. We can be Christ and the church only because He was Hosea while we were yet Gomer. We love because we were loved while were still unlovable.
If I do not love my brother or sister in Christ, I do not love Christ.
I may be called to preach- a call that I have passionately resisted for three years now.
I am just like Lazarus.
I am a sick man; I am a wretched man.
God does not need me for anything. He can accomplish (and WILL accomplish) His purposes with or without us. He never fails. It is my most awesome privilege to be used in the service of the King and to partake in His glory.
The only way that a person becomes more like Christ (that is, his/her character more closely models that of Christ's) is through an active searching of the heart for sin (and being willing to pray until sin is revealed in the heart as sin, that is, something grievous and akin to treason before God, something deserving immediate and infinite punishment because it is an offense against someone infinitely worthy) and repentance thereof. If we are not repenting, we are certainly not growing.
Every moment of every day we are called to be ministers of His word. That is, when we don't want to let out lights shine brightly before all men, we need to repent and pray for God to change our sinful hearts because we are but vapors and these days are evil.
We serve a God who will one day make all things right. Even so, the heart of God cries out for us to plead and act on behalf of justice in this world.
Discipline is one of the man of God's best friends.
The Lord loves a humble, contrite spirit and hates American self-sufficiency. Oh how vital it is to remember how utterly dependent upon Him we are at all times for all things.
The only way that two sinners can exist in a relationship that is mutually encouraging and glorifies God is to found it solely upon grace and to practice honesty.
God is good; that is enough.
The Lord is trustworthy in all that He does.
A community of love and grace that is unafraid to practice discipline may be the greatest gift any believer could hope to receive.
I am but a small vessel- the Lord may use me as He wills, with or without my consent. How amazing it would be to never be remembered, but to have only left Christ's imprint upon the world, for the glory of His name.
I have re-learned how to use my gifts of "reading" people for good (that is, for spiritual encouragement) instead of using it for selfish gain. I have learned how to use it to motivate, how to use it to raise questions, and how to help people discover answers on their own.
I have learned that the Puritans were studs, and I pray that God, one day soon, gives me the desire to study the Word like Edwards.
God is at work in all people at all times everywhere to varying degrees, and my primary job in evangelism is to simply pray for discernment as to where the Spirit is already at work and to pray that the Spirit continues to work unto salvation, as only it can.
We can love each other because we were first loved. We can be Christ and the church only because He was Hosea while we were yet Gomer. We love because we were loved while were still unlovable.
If I do not love my brother or sister in Christ, I do not love Christ.
I may be called to preach- a call that I have passionately resisted for three years now.
I am just like Lazarus.
I am a sick man; I am a wretched man.
God does not need me for anything. He can accomplish (and WILL accomplish) His purposes with or without us. He never fails. It is my most awesome privilege to be used in the service of the King and to partake in His glory.
reflection on Isaiah 63
You said to us, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” And You became our Savior. But we grieved Your Holy Spirit; we turned in sin against You towards other gods- believing that our joy was somehow to be found elsewhere, outside of Your presence, where there is the fullness of joy. You hardened our hearts, O Lord, so that we feared You not and could not follow in Your ways. Our eyes were blind so that we could not see the light of the glory of the gospel of Your truth. Our hearts were made dull, and we chased fleeting pleasures, filled our broken cisterns, and drank from wells certain to run dry.
Man frivoled in their sin, content to ignore and spit in the face of the Lord, to commit treason against God Most High in the name of themselves, building a tower to commemorate their greatness and building doctrine to belittle the greatness of God.
And the unbelievable greatness and vastness of God was revealed (though we continue to see but through a glass darkly). From before the creation of the world, God had planned this moment- the crucifixion of His perfect Son, the God-man- to offer forgiveness to mankind and to reveal His attributes and glory all the more clearly to His most beloved creation. And in this substitutionary atonement, the atoning sacrifice of one man whose worthiness cannot be contained in words, showed that God had planned from the beginning- His unflinching, unfailing love for man and unchanging glory and righteousness in all His actions.
For now, He waits, not wanting that any should perish, but that all should come to redemptive faith in His son, until the day in which the moon shall turn to blood and His robe shall be tainted the same as He treads the winepress in wrath alone, setting all things right. He will trample down those who, even in the face of offered forgiveness, do not run to the cross in repentance. And the honor of His holiness shall be known in all the earth.
And there will be a new heavens and new earth, and the chosen, adopted sons and daughters of the King will sit with Him on His throne, having been made perfectly clean, having been given new names and glorified bodies, and each day shall be better than the last.
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