Summer's Passing

We are now up to the last week of Summer. My calendar tells me Autumn begins next Wednesday. Once again the year is flying by. My friends who are into that sort of thing are talking about hunting. The football season is in full swing, and I don't mean soccer. The Detroit Lions even won a game on the road, proof that wonders never cease.

The start of school and the coming of Fall also means activities and programs at church are swinging into full gear now that Summer is passing.

Yesterday the choir began a new season of ministry. The piece that we sang had a part where the choir and the congregation together sing "Holy, Holy, Holy". I was doing all right holding down my part in the bass section of the choir, but confess that when the congregation joined in with us, I had to suck it up to keep from losing it emotionally. (The spirit of the prophets is controlled by the prophets.) It was just so awesome... A taste of that worship we will engage in around the throne (Revelation 4-5).

The men's Bible study starts this week. From week to week different men will be leading the study. Lord willing, I will be leading the study on the topic "Men at Church Grasp Grace". It's been a good lesson to prepare for. Jerry Bridges' book Transforming Grace has been an excellent supplement to the study book we are using.

Bridges says a number of things I have thought and come to believe regarding the pre-eminence of grace not only in our initial salvation, but also in our on-going sanctification. Let me end this post by paraphrasing and building on one thought from Transforming Grace.

Both legalism on the one hand, and antinomianism on the other, share a common foundational flaw. Both legalism and antinomianism have a deficient view of what the Gospel is, and what Gospel grace does. More on that some other time...

In His joy,

~ The Billy Goat ~

A Dramatic Reading of Revelation 4 - 5
(English Standerd Version)

A narrative passage of Scripture lends itself to dramatic reading. Such a dramatic reading can be a useful teaching tool in engaging the class with the passage. Here is an example of how a dramatic reading of a narraitve portion of Scripture can be structured. I used this example in an actual adult Sunday school class.
~ The Billy Goat ~

The Promise: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)

[Chapter 4]

[Narrator] After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said,

[First Voice] "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."

[Narrator] At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

[Four Creatures] "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"

[Narrator] And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

[24 Elders] "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."

[Chapter 5]

[Narrator] Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,

[First Voice] "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?"

[Narrator] And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me,

[Elder] "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals."

[Narrator] And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying,

[Four Creatures & 24 Elders] "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth."

[Narrator] Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

[All] "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!"

[Narrator] And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

[All] "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!"

[Narrator] And the four living creatures said,

[Four Creatures] "Amen!"

[Narrator] And the elders fell down and worshiped.

“And I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals…” (Revelation 6:1a)

Evangelical Legalism

“We’ve gotten beyond the Galatian brand of legalism today. We haven’t resurrected circumcision as a requirement for salvation, and we’re clear that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ apart from the keeping of the law. Instead, we have developed another brand of legalism, a brand that is concerned, not with salvation, but with how we live the Christian life. I call this “evangelical legalism”…

...Despite God’s call to be free and His earnest admonition to resist all efforts to curtail it, there is little emphasis in Christian circles today on the importance of Christian freedom. Just the opposite seems to be true. Instead of promoting freedom, we stress our rules of conformity. Instead of preaching living by grace, we preach living by performance. Instead of encouraging new believers to be conformed to Christ, we subtly insist that they be conformed to our particular style of Christian culture. We do not intend to do this and would earnestly deny we are. Yet that’s the “bottom line” effect of most of our emphases in Christian circles today…

…We are much more concerned about someone abusing his freedom then we are about his guarding it. We are more afraid of indulging the sinful nature then we are of falling into legalism. Yet legalism does indulge the sinful nature because it fosters self-righteousness and religious pride. It also diverts us from the real issues of the Christian life by focusing on externals and sometimes trivial rules…

…We build fences to keep ourselves from committing certain sins. Soon these fences – instead of the sins they were designed to guard against- become the issue. We elevate our rules to the level of God’s commandments. “

From Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God’s Unfailing Love by Jerry Bridges

Spiritual Abuse in the Pulpit and the Pew
by Dale O. Wolery, (Spiritual Abuse Recovery Resources)
"Pastors should be the last people to perpetrate abuse. The idea is disconcerting and repulsive, but God’s people sometimes do God’s work in destructive ways. Surely not every clergyperson is an abuser, and yet many thoughtful observers believe that spiritual abuse, intentional or not, has become the norm for modern pastors.

Any ministerial behavior, mine or someone else’s, that damages someone’s relationship with God is spiritual abuse..." (complete article...)

Faith Matters to Public Life
By Charlotte Allen, to the source, August 4, 2004
"...Religion, by nature, is a public thing, because it acknowledges a reality that is outside the private realm of the inner heart. Individuals' faith and religious experiences are private matters, but religion itself, whether it be Wicca, Buddhism or Roman Catholicism, is shared and communal. Those who would banish religion to the realm of the strictly private in effect contend that religion has no relevance to public life. This notion fatally trivializes religion by treating it as essentially meaningless.

More important, religion recognizes there is inherent meaning, order and purpose in the universe. It thus induces humility; a recognition that our puny ideas about how things are and ought to be may not be the final word. The horror of 20th century totalitarianism was the insistence of atheistic, militantly secularist intellectuals, from Germany to Russia to China to Cuba, that they had a right to impose their pet utopian schemes at the point of a gun or threat of the gulag. Professing "allegiance … to a higher authority," as Robert Reich, secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration puts it, is a check on such murderous egotism..." (Read more here.)

Observing the Signs
This has been a pretty cool August. We've hardly used the air conditioner at all. Temperatures have definitely been below normal for this time of year. The days are also noticeably shorter. The feel of fall is in the air, but this should be the most "summer" part of summer. Here and there I've even seen a few trees starting to turn color!

On our trip to visit my parents, we passed a number of fields of corn, a standard crop for this area. Probably the majority of the fields we passed looked pretty good, but a noticeable number of them looked pretty sorry. That had to do with all the rain we got in May that delayed the final plantings. Also, with this cooler weather, we've not had the hot days and cool nights that are optimal for corn plant growth and development.

While on our way home, we passed through a relatively brief, but heavy rain storm. As the rain started to let up, the sun came peeking through the clouds in the west. I told my daughter and her friend who was with us to look off to the east for a rainbow, for if there was going to be one, that was the optimal time. They looked and sure enough, there was a rainbow in the east. Having to keep my attention on my driving, I was only able to see one leg of it. There it was, God's bow, just as He said.

Pondering the sight of the rainbow and the progression of the seasons, I thought again of the promises made so long ago to Noah:

"While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease." (Genesis 8:22)

"This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth." (Genesis 9:12-13)

With the passing of the seasons and the sight of the colors of the rainbow arcing across the sky, God has once again reminded us that He is faithful and true. He will keep His promises. We can put our hope and trust in Him and His Word even as Noah did so long ago. All glory be to Him!

~ The Billy Goat ~

Going "Back Home"

We just spent a few days visiting my parents. They still live in the same area, and on the same farm where I grew up. Dad has long since stopped farming, and the land is rented out.

There are so many memories in that area; the farm I grew up on with the river cutting across the middle, the old school building, the sleepy rural town, the country roads, and the land I used to help Dad till with tractor and implement.

Now days the only farmers in the area that have their fields fenced off are the Amish. As you drive around the country side, many a barn and silo stand empty and unused. In many places the barns and silos that once stood there are long gone, including some that once stood on our farm.

When we drive up M-99, we see one barn still standing, the name "Britton" faded but still readable on its siding. My 2nd great-grandfather brought his family from Vermont to Michigan, and settled on that farm about 150 years ago. The farm stayed in another part of the family line for over 100 years before finally being sold off to someone outside the family.

Down the road and around the corner from where Mom and Dad live stands the house my grand-parents built back around 1916. My Dad was born in that house, and I spent the first five years of my life in that house. Memories... So many memories...

Mom and I went out to the Burt Cemetery where many of her family are laid to rest. We brushed the grass clippings off of Grandma's stone, and Uncle Bob's stone, and the stone for my Grandpa who died when momma was only seven years old so I never got to see or know him. Grandpa's twin brother, Uncle Stub and his wife are laid to rest there also. It's been 30 years since Grandma left us, and I still miss her...

Over in another part of the cemetery lie Grandpa's parents. My Great-grandma's stone was obscured by the over grown perennial flowers. I thinned them back, and once again the sun lighted up the engraving on the stone.

If I was to walk down the street of the old home town, very few would recognize me, and I would probably recognize even fewer, even of those I went to school with. It's been over 34 years, a major part of a lifetime. I drive the streets of the old home town as an expatriate. There is still much there I recognize, but there is also very much that has changed over the years. A part of my life is in that area, but the life now being lived there is not mine.

We are nomads, the descendents of nomads; nomads who left Europe for a better life in a new world, nomads who wandered west from New England and Pennsylvania seeking a new life in a new place. A few generations in the NW Ohio/Southern Michigan area, and then my generation wandered off again; off the farm to the opportunities of the larger cities, scattered to the four winds. There may no longer be the frontier our ancestors faced, but we still wander, and our children and our children's children will wander too.

Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans for a land he knew not of. He left Ur with only a promise, "...dwelling in tents... ... looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Hebrews 11:8-10) Someday we'll really "go home". That will be nice...

~ The Billy Goat ~

How to Think About Secularism

by Wolfhart Pannenberg, (First Things 64 (June/July 1996): 27-32)

"Whatever is meant by secularization, few will dispute that in this century the public culture has become less religious. This is not, as some suggest, simply the result of the separation of church and state that first happened some two centuries earlier. Such separation did not then entail the alienation of culture from its religious roots. In America, for instance, the end of state-established religion did not mean the end of the predominantly Christian and Protestant character of American culture. In other Western societies, the linkage between the state and one or another Christian church continued to be effective well into this century. Yet in these societies, too, we see evidence of secularization, typically much further advanced than in the United States. Secularization is not caused by the separation of church and state. The roots of the process of secularization, resulting in the present alienation of public culture from religion, and especially from Christianity, are planted in the seventeenth century...

...Christianity proposed as an alternative or complement to life in a secularist society must be both vibrant and plausible. Above all, it must be substantively different and propose a difference in how people live. When message and ritual are accommodated, when the offending edges are removed, people are invited to suspect that the clergy do not really believe anything so very distinctive. The plausible and persuasive presentation of Christian distinctives is not a matter of marketing. It is a matter of what the churches owe to people in our secularist societies: the proclamation of the risen Christ, the joyful evidence of new life in Christ, of life that overcomes death..."

(To read Pannenberg's full article click here.)

Surviving VBS & Enjoying the Experience

We survived vacation Bible school. It was enjoyable too. Over 200 children attended, with a high of 257 on the last night.

It was really fun to have an opportunity to interact with the kids in the classes. Each child had a name tag which enabled us to greet and interact with each one by name. I really enjoyed the "high fives". I'm glad I participated and was able to help.

Each night the various classes would come together for the closing assembly. In those assemblies there was plenty of loud cheering and enthusiastic singing. It was a fun and enjoyable time. But even more, it was a fun and enjoyable time with a clear focus on God and His Word. Seed was sown, and in His time, God will give the increase.

In a previous post, I talked about the relationship of children to the local church. This week's experience was an opportunity to see those principles in action.

~ The Billy Goat ~

VBS and Being "Elisha"

This coming week our church is having vacation Bible school. It will be an evening affair, running four days, Sunday through Wednesday. In the past we've had a significant number of kids from outside the immediate church family attend VBS; a good number who do not regularly attend any church.

At the urging of my wife, I signed up to help. I get to be Elisha. I'll put on the robe and beard and tell the Bible story. The costume will not be historically precise, but the effect will be there, and we'll have fun with the kids and with God's help, perhaps sow some seed that will later bear fruit in their lives.

I remember going to VBS as a child. There were the stories, the songs, the crafts, and the treats. I am not able to measure how VBS impacted me personally and spiritually. Perhaps the biggest impact was the reinforcement of the things we learned at church about the stories of the Bible. How many relatively little things like that added up over the years until that time when at the University, I found myself believing.

Now I realize how much time and effort went into those VBS sessions I attended as a child; how much those adult teachers and helpers gave of themselves on our behalf. More then a few of those teachers and helpers have since departed this world, and gone on to their reward.

Only eternity will tell what the real impact of next week's VBS will be. I pray it will be far beyond anything we can hope or imagine. For after having done all we can do in that time, the ultimate results are in His hands. Glorify Thy Name Oh LORD!

~ The Billy Goat ~