Net Stuff #2

A few sites of interest:

Professor (Westminster Seminary CA) R. Scott Clark provides a thumbnail sketch of the Federal Vision controversy in the Reformed world.

John and Noel Piper encourage parents to eschew sending young children to "Children's Church" in favor of the real thing: the covenant family in God's presence together.

And because you just need to know these things: Stuff White People Like.

Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Part I

At the urging of a brother in the Lord, I am digging into this Puritan classic. Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646) was a member of the Westminster Assembly and a prolific writer. Here (and we'll see how this goes) are my notes from his first chapter.

Chapter One: Christian Contentment Defined

Christian contentment is, “that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”

To flesh this out:
I. Christian Contentment is a business of the heart – a sweet, inward thing, a work of the Holy Spirit indoors.

II. It is a quiet of the heart, yet it is not opposed to:
A. A due sense of affliction. Christ doesn't say, “Do not count as a cross what is a cross.”
B. Making in an orderly manner our complaint to God. We are allowed to “unbosom” our hearts to God. We may enlist the encouragement of others.
C. Using lawful means to remedy the situation.
But it is opposed to:
A. Murmuring at the hand of God.
B. “Vexing and fretting,” which are beyond murmuring.
C. Tumultuousness of spirit, a la the multitude in Acts that doesn't know for what purpose it has come together.
D. A spirit distracted from present duties to God in our several relationships. Luther wrote that ordinary works, done in faith and from faith, are more precious than heaven and earth. We are to resist distraction.
E. Distracting, heart-consuming cares – anything that chokes or deadens the heart's union with Christ. We are to think in terms of outer and inner rooms of the heart; ordinary cares and fears may be allowed into the former room but not the latter.
F. Sinking discouragements – the despairing conclusion that God cannot resolve this trial.
Sinful shiftings and shirkings to get relief and help. Examples: Saul's consultation of the witch of Endor; Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:7,8; Jacob lying to Isaac, not trusting in God's means and timing. The heart that thinks, “I do not care how I am delivered, if only I may be freed,” is far from quiet.
G. Rebellions, in situation of long and severe affliction.

III. Christian Contentment is a quiet frame of spirit. The quiet comes more from the temper and disposition of his own heart than from any external argument or from the possession of anything in the world. Consider the healthy man who warms his cold clothes in the morning by wearing them, as opposed to the sickly man whose clothes can be warmed only by proximity to the fire, and then only fleetingly.

IV. Christian Contentment is a compound of all the graces. Yet it is distinguished from:
A. The quietness of mere temperament or disposition.
B. Mere sturdy resolution. Some seem never to be troubled, come what may.
C. Strength of natural (unsanctified) reason.
Such may not appear to be disquieted, but neither are their hearts lively in the service of God, or to sanctify the name of God in their affliction. It is not enough merely not to murmur. And such are just as content when they commit sin against God.

V. Fifth characteristic: freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God's disposal.
A. The heart is readily brought over; much effort is not required to bring one there.
B. Freely, not constrained; no patience by force. “Readily and freely I will be content” -- knowing full well that this is affliction.
C. Not mere stupidity or lack of sense.

VI. Freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God's disposal as “sending under.”

VII. Taking pleasure ... being well-pleased (taking into account II. above) in so far as one can see God in it. “It is good that I am afflicted.” (Present tense) Paul pronounces himself “possessing all things” while in prison. Not as possessing, but possessing. Prov. 15:6

VIII. Looking up to God in all things – not at instruments and means, but up to God. Christian contentment takes pleasure in God's wisdom. “All is traced to God's disposal.”

XI. ...In every condition:
A. Whatever particular afflictions God may place one in (we would usually prefer some other area of life to what we're now facing)
B. Submission as to the time and continuance of the affliction. When God casts one down, one must be content to lie until God bids stand up, and God's Spirit enters to enable it.
C. Content about every circumstance related to the affliction – sometimes the circumstances surrounding are worse than the affliction itself. Sometimes God sends one affliction after another in series. In fact, afflictions rarely come alone.

Armchair Hiking

Well, if you can't be doing something you love (because, oh, just as a hypothetical, you're flat on your back recovering from being yucky sick with stomach flu) you can always read about it.

Getting onto the Appalachian Trail with boots on feet, pack on back, and walking stick in hand, is something I've managed to do only once since moving to Virginia. Reading about it is something I've been able to do more of. My lady love and I have accumulated trail maps and guides, Therma-Rest pads, and Nalgene bottles, plus several books. A Season on the Appalachian Trail, by Lynn Setzer, was a welcome $1 thrift store find by my wife this week, presented to me as I rested on the couch. (Hypothetically, of course)

I blasted through it in one day. Ms. Setzer's book (ISBN 0-89732-382-3) is written for folks who know a little about trail names, trail magic, and the basic geography of the 2,000-plus mile footpath from Mt. Springer to Mt. Katahdin, yet her style is an engaging and amazingly well-organized synthesis of interactions with a couple of hundred "thru-hikers" (the folks who go, or intend to go, the entire route). On-the-spot interviews with hikers at trailheads and shelters are interspersed with comments quoted from trail registers and postcards to give an intimate and detailed picture of what thru-hiking is really like. The early chapters help potential hikers count the cost (are you sure you wanna do this? are you still sure after this horrible true life story of heartbreak, injury, and deprivation?) while the later chapters showcase the mixed bag of joys, frustrations, befuddlements, and growth in maturity for those who endure to the end. Read with nuts-and-bolts books (of which there are plenty) about how to prepare for a hike, A Season would be excellent preparation for what lies ahead.

But of course I couldn't read this one without pulling down Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (ISBN 0-7679-0251-3) from the shelf. Where Setzer provides the full breadth of the thru-hiking experience through the views of many, Bryson focuses on his own pudgy, middle-aged attempt to thru-hike with the help of his inestimable sidekick Katz - with sidetrips into the history of the AT and the men who made it, the flora, fauna and geography of the trail, and a frontal assault on the National Parks Service. Both authors write about the 1996 hiking season, curiously enough, so there is treatment of the same history of weather and dramatic events (including a double murder on the trail) from distinct perspectives. Yet Bryson is riotously funny (his account of sharing the trail with hiker Mary Ellen is worth whatever it costs you to lay hold on the book) and his story is all the better for his fully-documented failure to walk the whole woods.

I'm over the flu now, and itching to get my boots on so I can hike a section (maybe continuing northward from Dick's Dome this time) but my roles as husband, father, provider, and church leader cast their shadow ... plus I somehow dinged up my knee ...

The key to mixing God and country in a way that preserves the proper separation of church and state while allowing the religious character of the American people to flourish is through encouraging the robust, free exercise of individual conscience in the midst of a society-nourished and government-affirmed pluralism, rather than the sterile milieu of state coercion.

Southern Baptist notable Richard Land does an excellent job of unraveling the knots of the free-exercise and establishment clauses, liberal blind spots, conservative blind spots, the thorny issue of American exceptionalism, and in what ways America is and is not a "Christian nation." He even unpacks the catch-word "God Bless America" in a helpful way, and makes the case for the necessity of separation of church and state in a way that I hope would satisfy both Left and Right.

Land's Baptist presuppositions appear from time to time; Presbyterians and other heirs of the Massachusetts Bay Colony will probably disagree, as I did, with his views of the Puritan experiment in America. I came away from the book thankful at the same time that we have scrappy Baptists involved in the public square, and that I'm not one of them. He'll probably also set the theonomists howling.

I recommend it.

Free Stuff! Free Stuff! We Love Free Stuff!

Tim Challies, of Challies.com fame (famous at least in the evangelical blog-topia) has re-started his wonderful giveaways of books and DVDs. All you gotta do is sign up here. If you do, please use my referral ID; just click on the little thingy below. I wanna win too! Once you've signed up with my referral # 51149, you can get your own to inflict on others. Happy winning!

Whither to Hold One's Nose

Dear friends, if you don't want to talk politics, this isn't the post for you. Sorry.

I came across this voter's analysis of the situation faced by conservatives as we look toward November:

I’m torn. As a Christian and a staunch conservative, I’ve had to hold my nose every presidential election from 1988 to the present. As someone pointed out, at some point we have to quit doing that and work for good candidates. Is this finally the time to stop voting for the lesser of two evils?

Conservative arguments for McCain over Hillary or Obama: McCain will probably:
a) be better on the war in Iraq;
b) fight terrorism better;
c) nominate (more)conservative justices to the Supreme Court;
d) defend innocent human life (i.e. appoint strict constructionist judges to SCOTUS and elsewhere and curtail embryonic stem cell funding, etc.)

Refutations to those arguments:

a) No Democrat wants a loss in Iraq hanging around his or his party’s neck, so the Democrats will fight to win (though less competently one strongly suspects).

b) No Democrat wants to be on watch for another 9-11 attack so they will fight to win (though again, probably less competently) and McCain’s opposition to Gitmo and tough interrogation and his commitment to other Democrat-style approaches would make him basically indistinguishable from a Democrat President.

c) As someone pointed out elsewhere on this site, while a strict constructionist would be more likely to strike down Roe v Wade, et al, he would also be likely to strike down McCain-Feingold, something McCain won’t want to see happen. Hence, McCain will appoint more Souters and Breyers than Roberts and Alitos.

Finally, given McCain’s willingness to “reach across the aisle,” we are unlikely to see any significantly conservative governance from his administration. At least with Hillary or Obama in office, Senate and House Republicans will have some tendency to impede liberal policy initiatives whereas the very same policy initiatives from McCain will be propelled by Republican party unity.

With all that in mind, perhaps we should hope for a disastrous first two years from a Democrat administration paving the way for a conservative, Republican resurgence a la the 1994 elections. Given how many conservatives are probably going to sit this one out or protest vote for a third party (and I’m seriously considering those), I suspect that that is exactly what is going to happen. McCain needs ABSOLUTELY EVERY SINGLE CONSERVATIVE’S VOTE to even stand a chance against Hillary or Obama and even then may lose big time. The alternative, should McCain win, is to see him govern like a Democrat, recast the Republican Party as Democrat-lite, and have all the disasters the Democrats would bring us hung around the GOP’s neck.

No matter which way this goes, I think conservatives will need to work like mad from now until 2008 or 2016 to build a viable third party. This will either lead to a viable party (probably not) or siphon off enough votes from the Republicans to draw the GOP rightward again. [see KAS's comment 22 in the linked thread]

I think this analysis has merit, and have little to add. What say you?

The Gift of Encouragement

One of the other elders of my church gave a recent talk to the men of the congregation about encouragement, and I am offering my notes here.

Christian men have many roles and forms of leadership. We are husbands, fathers, church leaders, military commanders, bosses, mentors, and teachers, to name a few. Leadership, as any pastor can attest, is an extremely lonely job. It is also one that requires courage -- to move our followers forward, to maintain the initiative, and to make sound decisions.

So what is the source of (genuine) courage? The world around us usually offers some form of self-reliance, the bootstraps approach. "Courage comes from within," we hear, which is half right. True courage does come from within, but its source is true knowledge of God and trust in Him. Consider God's word to Joshua as Joshua faces his new role as Israel's leader in the conquest of Canaan: "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you" (Josh. 1:5). Or Psalm 27:13,14, in which the psalmist proclaims his faith, "I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD, be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!" And Jesus' words in John 16:33: "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."

We see one believer's experience of the courage that comes from relationship with God in First Samuel 17. The Philistines' nine foot, nine inch, 400-pound champion Goliath attempts to demoralize the Israelite army and destroy its courage - and succeeds. Notice in 17:11b their dismay. Their courage is suddenly and completely gone. Yet David's history with God convinces him (verses 31-37) of God's glory and faithfulness. Despite a 6:1 weight ratio (Goliath even has an armor-bearer in attendance) David boldly sets out with shepherd's staff, bag, and sling. Yet banish any John Wayne-type images that come to mind, for David's courage is completely devoid of pride. What makes him unstoppable is his confidence in God's power and zeal for God's name.

Yet how forgetful we are! And so, the Bible's prescription: we are to encourage one another, i.e., we are to give each other courage. As fathers, we should be telling our children, "You can do it." Yet if our words stop here we do nothing but raise good humanists. Far better to remind our sons and daughters of the gifts and abilities God has blessed them with, and to call on them to put those gifts to good use. Success is absolutely connected to reliance on God.

We are to encourage one another daily. As a conference of men, author Larry Crabb once asked the audience how many had enjoyed a relationship at any time since belonging to Christ with a "spiritual father" or a "spiritual brother." A spiritual father was defined as a godly man who says, "I understand what you're going through, and have overcome. Follow me." A spiritual brother was defined as one who says, "I understand what you're going through because I'm experiencing it now. Walk with me." All too predictably, only about six of the 400 men in attendance raised their hands. How desperately we need the encouragement of others.

For more biblical examples of encouragement tied to relationship with God, note Nehemiah's words to the rebuilders of Jerusalem at a time of great opposition: "And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, 'Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.'" (Neh. 4:14) And he urges in verse 20, "In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us." Or Hezekiah, to the people of Jersalem as Sennacherib's awesome Assyrian army invades: "'Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us fight our battles" (2 Chron. 32:7-8a).

Applications: every man needs a relationship of accountability with total honesty. And let each of us examine ourselves as to whether we are doing the work of encouragement - within our accountability relationships, and especially with our wives and children.