It's that time again--time to revel in the slips and the slops, the misunderstandings and the falling short, the errors and the mistakes. Here are my favorite moments from my students of the last school year--and if you don't get it, make sure you read it again! Enjoy, and don't forget to chuckle!
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The 89th Psalm:
Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever:
with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I
have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou
establish in the very heavens.
Lord, we love to
sing of your mercies in this gathering. You are indeed faithful to all generations,
from Adam down to the infant born this very morning. You have given your Word on
the cross and in the Scriptures, and we are to spread that good news as far as
we can. So first we thank you for an organization doing just that: Huguenot
Heritage, for Francis Foucachon and the other members of that organization,
working to bring your mercy to French-speaking lands. We ask that you bless
their work with startling success and bring your wonderful covenant to even
more of your chosen.
But evangelism is
not the only method you have chosen to build up David’s throne. You have sworn
to establish it “for all generations”—and in order to have those generations,
you must grant us new ones to replace the old. And godly generations are most
numerous when they are the fruit of godly marriages. So thank you for our
marriages here at King’s Cross. In a Western world where most have never even seen
constant, day-to-day faithfulness lived out between a man and a woman, you have
made us abound in it. We do not thank you enough for that. So when our spouse
delights—or frustrates—us this week, remind us to praise your wonders in
marriage.
We bless your
faithfulness to the congregations of the saints. Who can compare with it? Particularly
we bring before you Covenant Presbyterian Church of Alberta, Canada, and their pastor
Chris Cousine. We are grateful that lockdowns gave them the spark to gather
together—establish their lampstand firmly.
And in all our
other, unspoken blessings, help us to fear you as we ought, and not grow in
easy contempt through out closeness.
Amen.
Thanksgivings, King's Cross May 26th, A.D. 2024
Rather than overload a commonplaces post with the massive number I pulled out of my reading of the Federalist Papers (which I finally finished last month, after twelve years of attempts) I have decided to put them all in one place. Even if quote lists are not your thing, I think you will find some of these enlightening. Enjoy!
"All warfare is based on deception.”
“In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.”
“Hence the saying: if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
“The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.”
“To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”
“To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.”
Full-Time: Work and the Meaning of Life by David Bahnsen is written by a Christian to Christians, and we desperately need to pay attention to every bit of what he has to say. This book has a pretty simple thesis: everything pop culture has told you about work has probably been wrong.
"I think we are all familiar with the cliched Hollywood setup of a man 'married to his career' who over the course of the movie slowly realizes that he is missing out on the 'important' things in life and eventually picks an alternative (a romance, his kids, more frequent walks through a garden, mentoring a troubled high school youth) over the 'evils' of careerism and personal ambition." (17)
Now, Bahnsen stresses (over and over again) that there is nothing wrong with these 'important' things. Rather, the problem is in making work and these things enemies. Can you have both work and a healthy life, without downgrading work or the life? Why are we always told we have to choose between them? Shouldn't it be possible to do both?
Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me,
lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy
lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way
wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.--Ps. 143
Lord, we live in a world covered in enemies and foes. Some are out in the open, seeking to use their own power or even the power of others to crush us and our works. Some hide near us and whisper slanders and shame. Our own flesh shrieks rebellion, the very ground we work delivers thistles in return our toil. So deliver us, Lord, from all these enemies—we flee to you to hide from them. Thank you that when we flee we do not have far to go.
Be with Logos School members in their trials, and
with the elders and deacons of Christ Church and King’s Cross as we attempt to build
for the future here in our little corner. We pray also for the rest of your
Temple: for the persecuted saints in India, for the Christian members of our
legislative assemblies, for all those unsure of how to handle our troubled
times. We ask that you grant them knowledge and teach them to do all Your will; for You are God: Your spirit is good; and you have
promised to lead us into the land of uprightness out of a dark pit,
or even a grave. For You even know
the way out of one of those.
Let this comfort all here who feel the shadow of their
grave fall on them: the sick and suffering. Particularly, be with those having operations, those with permanent sickness, and the rest of our saints whose
names we bring before you every Sunday. Bring them to fullness of life, Lord,
for your name’s sake, and for your righteousness’s sake (since we have none)
bring them out of trouble. We have more suffering than we can name, but you
have more righteousness than we could ever comprehend. And you promised it to
us, in your own beloved Son.
So in thy mercy cut off our enemies, and destroy all them that afflict our souls: for this congregation
is your servant.
Petitions King's Cross Feb. 18, A.D. 2024
The short answer? Yes.
But if you want to start getting into more depth than that, Mark David Hall's Did America Have a Christian Founding: Separating Modern Myth from Historical Truth (2019) is a great place to start.
"Scholars and popular authors routinely assert that America's founders were deists who desired the strict separation of church and state...Even prominent Christian college professors such as Richard T. Hughes argue that "most of the American founders embraced some form of Deism, not historically orthodox Christianity." Examples of authors who make such statements may be multiplied almost indefinitely. These claims are patently and unequivocally false. This book demonstrates why." (xv)
“We observe [the impossibility of neutrality in government] perhaps most clearly in the question of marriage and the status of women. Here, too, opinions completely diverge. In one perspective, man and woman are only two names for what we commonly call human being, and because there must not be inequality between one person and another, no distinction between the two is warranted. Conceptually, then, marriage is something that cannot be permitted to persist. Or, if we still want to call it marriage, it is in fact nothing other than a contractual agreement between two equal individuals that in no case may be binding any longer than they themselves want it to be. Nor may such contractual living together be considered more honorable than living together without contract. In this way, “free divorce” and “free love” stand on the same level as marriage. With this the foundation of the family collapses, and the care for the children falls to the state. Diametrically opposed to this new—or, in fact, warmed-over pagan--thinking stands the other view, which acknowledges an essential difference between man and woman, sees marriage as arising from this essential difference, permits divorce only in very specific cases, and places—thanks to the permanent character of marriage—the children under the care not of the state but of the parents. How is government to remain neutral in this? And is it not clear that “neutrality” would in fact mean being partial to the first perspective? If the government is not involved with marriage and does not regulate its permanence and its consequences, then the men and women who advocate “free love” get what they want. Their will and desire become the law of the state, and marriage acquires the character of a private pastime. Here then a choice must be made and is always made. Government, if it is responsible in its choice, must know why it chooses the first over against the second approach.”--pg. 207
"The same must be said of the matter of public decency. To a greater or lesser degree, everyone still expects that the government will maintain a measure of decency in the public realm. Order and safety are not enough. Human honor must govern the public realm, and it is simply contrary to any notion of the role of government for it to allow human beings to live like animals. But, of course, in order to maintain “decency,” government must have a conception of what is honorable and what is not. Here, too, “neutrality” would be nothing but surrendering all decency, and the most shameless individual would attempt to have his base instincts become the law of the land." pg. 209, Common Grace Vol. III
Well, I didn't quite manage to publish twelve "Book of the Month" posts. I shall have to attempt to be more consistent in 2024.
In order to console all five readers of this blog for missing so many of my sparkling recommendations, here is a brief list of twenty of my favorite reads of 2023. When strangers ask me what I do with my free time, the answer will probably involve some of these. They are in no particular order. Some of them appeared as a Book of the Month, some didn't--but I think they are all worth your time. I've added a few flyaway thoughts to each. If you want further musings on any of them, feel free to ask. There are few things I like talking about more than what I'm reading.
Happy New Year to you all, and let's see what this next one brings. (Hopefully, a lot more books!)
