I had a talk with my pastor tonight about what a church is. That is, what defines a local church verses a para-church, i.e.: Baptist Student Union, Chi Alpha, Young Life, Kanakuk, and the like. He gave me a really good definition that pretty much sums up my beliefs.

A church is where the word is rightly preached, the sacraments are properly administered, and church discipline is properly applied.

Of course there is lots of hub bub on what does “properly” mean, but we shall save that till another time.

C’est fini!! I have completed the Iliad, but with great disappointment. Despite the wonderful story line and the detailed war images, the book was lacking one thing…THE TROJAN HORSE!! What the heck, one of the only reasons I read the book was to learn more about the horse and how Odysseus concocted the plan. But no, I was mistaken, evidently Homer’s recount of the battle of Troy ends before the city ever gets sacked…sorry if I ruined if for you.

Needless to say, I would definitely recommend anyone interested in classic literature to read this adventure. However, be warned. Being a Greek novel, it was extremely hard to find redeeming value with in the pages. It is saturated with humanism. Go figure; None-the-less a great story.

By the by, does anyone know where I can find the account of the Trojan horse?

But perhaps the most mysterious thing he ever said about it was this. I was questioning him on the subject—which he doesn’t often allow—and had incautiously said, “Of course I realise it’s all rather too vague for you to put into words,” when he took me up rather sharply, for such a patient man, by saying, “On the contrary, it is words that are vague. The reason why the thing can’t be expressed is that it’s too definite for language.”

-C.S. Lewis, Perelandra

And now that the thing had happened I was no longer in a condition of abject panic. My sensations were, it is true, in some ways very unpleasant. The fact that it was quite obviously not organic—the knowledge that intelligence was somehow located in this homogeneous cylinder of light but not related to it as our consciousness is related to our brains and nerves—was profoundly disturbing. It would not fit into our categories. The response which we ordinarily make to a living creature and that which we make to an inanimate object were here both equally inappropriate. On the other had, all those doubts which I had felt before I entered the cottage as to whether these creatures were friend or foe, and whether Ransom were a pioneer or a dupe, had for the moment vanished. My fear was now of another kind. I felt sure that the creature was what we call “good,” but I wasn’t sure whether I liked “goodness” so much as I had supposed. This is a very terrible experience. As long as what you are afraid of is something evil, you may still hope that the good may come to your rescue. But suppose you struggle through to the good and find that it also is dreadful? How if food itself turns out to be the very thing you can’t eat, and home the very place you can’t live, and your very comforter the person who makes you uncomfortable? Then, indeed, there is no rescue possible: the last card has been played. For a second or two I was nearly in that condition. Here at last was a bit of that world from beyond the world, which I had always supposed that I loved and desired, breaking through and appearing to my senses: and I didn’t like it, I wanted it to go away. I wanted every possible distance, gulf, curtain, blanket, and barrier to be placed between it and me. But I did not fall quite into the gulf. Oddly enough my very sense of helplessness saved me and steadied me. For now I was quite obviously “drawn in.” The struggle was over. The next decision did not lie with me.

-C.S. Lewis, Perelandra.

On Teaching and Conversation...

Proverbs tells us the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. That is, in order for our thoughts and knowledge [In all things not just theology, however, we shall restrict ourselves to such in this instance.] to be consistent and certain, our heart and mind must be completely dependent on the one who created this world; the one who causes it to exist. This dependency is not just some verbal promise to stay true to God, but achieved by a constant effort by the believer, through faith in Christ, to work out his salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12).

Too many times I see man try, in their own ignorance, to reason their theology out and ignore scripture all together. When this is done, we forsake the very pillar of truth which our faith is founded on. When we abandon scripture for the sake of personal goals, we are abandoning Christ himself. A good example of this is the exhortation given at the Baptist Student Union (BSU) last week. According to the speaker, if one was given a pair of gloves, and let them sit on a table, they could do nothing in themselves, however, if one puts the gloves on, the gloves, controlled by the wearer, can do many things. Such as take care of widows and orphans. The analogy is that the gloves represent God and He can do nothing without us. This is sacrilege! Granted, if I was to question the speaker about this I guarantee that he would affirm God's sovereignty and he was only trying to get a point across. But this is the precise mentality I am writing against. We tend, in true sincerity, to depend on our on abilities and knowledge to instruct others in the way they should go. However, in doing this, we are forsaking our dependence of the only source of truth. Believe it or not, man is sinful, even redeemed man. And his thoughts are bent toward falsehood. This is why we have a canon (Bible), a standard in which to measure things, instead of the yardstick of our own stupidity.

Now don't get me wrong here, I am not saying analogies are inherently evil. What I am advocating is that if we use analogies we make sure they are biblically based. When we teach others, even in conversation, we should teach with fear and trembling. Or do you not remember the verse in Matthew, "but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." (18:6 NASV) Or Christ's sermon on the mound, "Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Mat. 5:19 ESV) Point being, we should not be lax in our speech of God.

Understand, we will be held accountable for such errors in our teachings and in our conversation. Yes, preachers and teachers of scriptures have a greater burden than those who are laymen of the church. But don't think just because you are a layman you are off the hook. It troubles my very soul to think that I might have caused someone in my day to believe in a false doctrine. It may be a doctrine I whole heartedly affirm, yet in my sinfulness can not see its flaw. It maybe something I said in the rashness of debate, a phrase uttered not because I thought it true, but because I wanted to win.

Christian here my stand, we are not to convince the world of Christ, but God who draws. We are not to win souls to Christ through the wisdom of preaching, but the foolishness thereof. Not through our wisdom, but through wisdom of the one in which all knowledge stems. When we reject our dependence on God's knowledge only to replace it with our own understanding and cultural practices, we run the danger of leading others astray for the sake of vain glory. We should be constantly refining our thoughts with scripture so we may not cause others to stumble, but encourage one another, letting "the peace of Christ rule in [our] hearts, to which indeed [we] were called in one body. And be thankful. [Letting] the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in [our] hearts to God. And whatever [we] do, in word or deed, [let us] do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

From the depths of woe I call to thee;
The stout for my consumption!!

Ok, it's no Martin Luther, however, it IS finished...I have finally bottled my first stout. I poured the bottom of the batch into a glass and set it in the freezer. Wow, that's all I have to say. Give me about 3-4 weeks aging and then come on over and have a taste!

Tonight while working on my thesis, I was lead to a web sight I thought all would enjoy. Give it a shot and tell me what your score is. As of now, mine is 380. The sight is called, Fling the Cow. Enjoy!!

Well, I have just added the trendy section of my BLOG. That is the what I am reading and what I have read this year section. It seems to me that I have a lot more reading on my pallet than I thought I did. Maybe I should do less reading and more thesis work...hmmm...whatever the decision, I make a stand right here and proclaim it for the world to read. I will not start reading anymore books, or buy any more, until I have reduced my reading list to below five books. That's cut in half!! Gentlemen place your bets now on how long this quest will last. I myself say at lest one week.

Last Monday after a long day's "work" (my work consists teaching math and babysitting overgrown babies) I decided to take advantage of a sale the local bookstore was having. Bring in a book for trade and get 30% off. So I took a book off of my shelf that I have not looked at in three years, Jerry Bridges' Pursuit of Holiness, and traded it in for Volume 14: 1868, Pilgrim Publication of Spurgeons Sermons and Herman Witsius' Economy of the Covenants between God and Man. The latter of which is out of print and the former is just damn good (for a Baptist that is).

As I walked into the store I was asked if I would like to pick items out for my shelf. Now let me explain. The girls who work there and I have been flirting with the idea of me having a shelf on the employee picks section so that I may share with the world my recommendations for fine reading. Needless to say, joy filled my heart as I previewed the grand selection of thoughts that lay before me.

No surprise I reached for Lewis and MacDonald first. After that was John Owen, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I put some Milton in there to tie the fantasies with thoelogy. Then topped it off with a little Packer for a bit more Anglican flare.

Now that all is said and done, I shall sit and wait to see if my shelf is completely ignored, thus revealing once again the bitter truth that no one outside my circle of friends shares or is even remotely interested in my thoughts.

Over the still summer garden rested a weight of peace. It was a night to the very mind of the fastidious, twilight-loving bat, flitting about, coming and going, like a thought we can not help. Most of Walter's thoughts came and went thus. He had not yet learned to think; he was hardly more than a medium in which thought came and went. Yet when a thought seemed worth anything, he always gave himself the credit of it!-as if a man were author of his own thoughts any more than of his own existence! A man can but live so with the life given him, that this or that kind of thoughts shall call on him, and to this or that kind he shall not be at home. Walter was only at that early stage of development where a man is in love with what he calls his own thoughts.

–George MacDonald, Home Again

On the View of Women in Pop Culture...

Sunday night as millions of Americans sat in ritualistic fashion watching the "big game", I spent the night enjoying a full bowl of fine tobacco, a tall glass of fresh brew and a good book; oblivious to the appalling display of immaturity being acted out during the half-time show.

What irritated me most was not the fact that Ms. Jackson and ole Timberlake had the gall to "pull off" such a stunt. I would almost expect something like that and take no offense whatsoever. However, my beef is with the mentality of people who enjoy such music and show. Especially girls. Over my short existence in this world, I have witnessed more than my fare share of ignorance and I have been apart of many myself.

Time and time again, I see well meaning young ladies set their hearts on some dashing lad who is doing none other than imitating the MTV mentality. And then they are shocked at the fact that there knight in shining armor lacks of the chivalrous behavior that characterizes a knight. When a guy's cultural icons are people like Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, M & M and the like, girls should not be shocked when there prince charming treats them more like a T-Bone steak than a precious jewel.

My point is women are not to be treated as objects for self gratification. They are companions and helpers through our pilgrimage in these shadowlands. For, “it is not good that the man should be alone.” We, men, are to treat ladies with the up most respect and not as a drool toy.

However, there is a flip side to this cycle of absurdity. Men are not the only ones to blame. Girls acceptance of such behavior is just as bad as the behavior itself. When girls play the role MTV and media put forth, how else are we to treat them? It is natural to treat murderers as murderers, thieves as thieves, prostitutes as prostitutes, and meat as meat. (One might make an objection here, “Media does not influence the way we think.” If that is the case, why are super bowl commercials $2.4 million for 30 seconds?)

Also, there is a more grievous psychological side to the problem as well. Over and over we here stories of battered wives returning to there husbands only to be beat again and again. Girls staying with boyfriends even though he treats them with no respect. What sence of comfort draws them near to such a great danger, I may never know.

My hope is that we, men and women alike, will start to play a part in redeeming the culture around us. That our eyes may be opened to the degradation of the culture around us and that we may change it not only with our tongues, but also with our actions. That we may be doers, and not just hears of Truth.

Here is an article I came across rummaging through the archives of the Credena Agenda site. I would have made a link to it, but it was just too much work.

Ethical Math Skills
By Douglas Jones

Mathematics has been described as the "science of patterns." In order to solve a problem, you find all the relevant patterns and dismantle it according to general principles. To find the patterns, you have to look past all the particular, tricky details and grasp the big, abstract picture lurking in the background.

This sort of reasoning disciplines one's judgment to deal in the world of generalities and abstractions. If, however, you just look at the particular details, you won't be able to solve the problem (and vice versa).

Over the past decade, the government schools of many states, especially California (of course), have focused on "particularizing" mathematics. That is, they've adopted curricula which try to minimize abstraction in mathematics and make it more "understandable" and friendly by obsessing about particulars, manipulables, and images for years on end. No doubt such things can be helpful at points, but when you try to develop a mathematical mind over years by minimizing abstractions, then you are asking for trouble. It won't happen. You will miss half of the story. And as one could predict, parents and critics are already lining up in various states to complain about this gutting of mathematics. They want to know why students continue to lack mathematical abilities.

The real fight here though isn't about algebra. Even if you never want to be an engineer, mathematics provides a discipline for all other types of practical reasoning, especially ethics. Think about legal reasoning in its simplest terms. A conflict between two persons comes before a judge and/or jury who have to determine whether a general rule applies to the details in the conflict. Is this a case of negligence? Is it an instance of a general prohibition? Cases turn on such judgments.

We do the same thing when we have questions in personal ethics. We look at the facts and judge whether this is a violation of God's commands. Is it an instance of a general prohibition or requirement? Ethics is like a giant word problem.

If you just focus on the particular details, you won't be able to make any ethical judgments. Thus we get a wonderful argument for the practicality of algebra and calculus far beyond engineering. It might even contribute to our sanctification, our discipline in working smoothly with ethical abstractions. And it might also help explain why mathematical ignorance fits so nicely with moral decadence.

Now of course this can't mean that math students are morally superior to other students. In fact, those who only live in mathematics tend to think all the world is a clean mechanical, engineer's dream, which can create even worse problems. Ethics is more messy and complex than calculusit desperately needs the poet's touch. And a good balance between math and poetry is what we used to call a liberal education.