Disney’s Christmas Carol

My wife and I went to check out the new Disney movie, A Christmas Carol. Not knowing what to expect, and just hoping for a movie to help get us into the spirit of Christmas, we met a pleasant surprise. Disney stayed very close to Dickens’ original themes of sin, repentance, redemption and grace. Tiny Tim’s quote that he wished that everyone could know “the One that made the lame walk and the blind see” was also very powerful. So my wife and I highly recommend seeing “A Christmas Carol” for your family this season.

Impartial President?

When the National Day of Prayer came, our President refrained from participating in fear of showing religious favoritism.  When he spoke at Georgetown University he had the Cross and a sacred name for Christ covered while he spoke.

Yesterday evening he opened the White House up to openly celebrate the Muslim holy day Ramadan, and talk of all the contributions Muslims have made to society, after not wanting to participate in a ”Christian” ceremony. 

I don’t disagree that peace-loving Muslim men and women have contributed alot to our society, but so have Christian men and women.  That’s where public schools started, that’s where charities like Red Cross and Salvation Army were started, and on and on.  The oversight seems almost on purpose. 

Read more here

-Frustrated

More on the Unpardonable Sin

Although I haven’t been posting much lately due to being in school, my studies in covenant theology, particularly in the area of covenant faithfulness is still trickling along.  I chose this subject mainly because of the importance this subject has on understanding God’s covenant between Him and his people, and because if misunderstood, this subject can cause a lot of unneccesary despair and introspection on the part of those who think God isn’t happy with them.  With that being said I’m posting another snippet of a mini-commentary I found on the subject:

“The unpardonable sin is a sin that is deep rooted in the heart. Jesus said that blasphemy comes from within a man’s heart (Mark 7:21-23). Blasphemy is rooted in hatred, and therefore in order to have blasphemy in your heart against somebody, you must first hate them. So in order to have the ability to commit the unpardonable sin, you must first have a hard heart which hates the Holy Spirit. Once somebody commits this sin, that person cuts them self off from the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 63:10), which is the person who leads them back to repentance (the ability to repent is something given to us by God – 2 Timothy 2:25, “…if perhaps God may grant them repentance…” NASB – there are many other verses to prove this as well, including John 6:44, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…” along side John 6:37, “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”). Therefore, the person who commits such a sin, would have no way of turning back; he would remain in his hardened heart, and would not have any remorse for what he has done. Therefore, being concerned about such a sin, is valid proof that one has not committed it!“

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us, and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness..” (I John 1:9)

MGA

In the News

I heard an interesting quote on ABC’s “In The News” program this morning:

“It’s true President Bush has left President-Elect Obama a lot of messes and bad situations to deal with, but the most important thing he’s left him to should way heavily on his shoulders, and that is the fact that there has been no terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, 2001.  That is the most important thing he has to work on, because Americans don’t want to lose that!”

I kind of agree.

Quotable Quotes: Tim Fary

“My job as a preacher of the gospel is to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comforted.” -Army Chaplain Tim Fary

Rick Warren’s Inauguration Prayer

While reading the latest on CNN today I ran across this story about a group, known as People for the American Way (read it here).  It is a group, headed by Kathryn Kolbert, who rallies for the rights of every American and their freedom of speech and ideas, oh yeah except for Rick Warren’s.  They puts lots of time and effort into making sure those guilty of “hate crimes” are prosecuted to the highest extent of the law, but’s it’s ok that they hate Rick Warren and are very open about it and are asking Barack Obama to oust him from the Inauguration Ceremony for his “closed-minded” views.

In Mark 3:1-6 we read where Jesus heals a man on the Sabbath, and saves a life.  The Pharisees begrudgingly look on ready to tear Jesus apart for breaking the Laws. 

Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him. (NKJV)

While Jesus was saving a life the Pharisees were plotting to kill him, all under the guise of “keeping the Law”.  Kind of sounds like the story above.  I guess there’s nothing new under the sun!

Quotable Quotes: Pastor Carter

“The greatest pleasures this world can offer can’t compare to the least pleasure heaven will hold”

- Pastor Carter, Westminster Presbyterian, Dayton Tn

Joseph…full of grace?

While pondering the Christmas story this year a section of a verse caught my attention. 

“Then Joseph, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.” -Matthew 1:19

This verse doesn’t really stand out until you compare it to a verse like, “And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery…and they said to Him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.  Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” -John 8:3ff

Joseph was a Jew and knew Moses’ law very well, so after finding out that his engaged wife to be was pregnant and the child wasn’t his, why didn’t he take her to have her stoned according to the law?  The scriptures tell us why.  The word used here to describe Joseph is “just”, but the NIV translates it “righteous”.  How could Joseph be righteous and not have Mary stoned?  For the same reason Jesus didn’t let them stone the woman in John 8, GRACE.  The good news of the gospel is that there is forgiveness with God.

Joseph was indeed a just man, and full of grace.  Like son like father?  Looks that way!

Experiencing Advent

Coming from a Fundamentalist Baptistic background, the season of Advent hasn’t meant a whole lot to me.  Now that our family has been Presbyterian for about 5 years now that’s seeming to change because of the change of emphaisis on how we view the story of God’s redemption.  For some reason the Holy Spirit has seen fit to open my eyes and heart to all of the beautiful aspects of what the Season of Advent means.   Allow me to explain.

Advent means “expectation”.  Was Jesus expected, or does it just make for a good story on the 25th of December?  The sad truth is that many Christians neglect their Old Testaments and just study the New.  This is sad because if that is what you are doing then you are missing the entire buildup of expectation until the glorious appearing of the Messiah.  You miss why Eve expected her firstborn son to be the one God promised, you miss the expectation Abraham felt when he said “God will provide for himself a sacrifice”, you miss the expectation of the King to sit on David’s throne, and on and on. 

But on top of all of the expectation we usually read about disappointment after disappointment, and you’re left wondering, “is anyone ever going to get it right?”  When will everything work out, or are we stuck in this cycle of failure forever?  Then we read the story of the arrival of the Messiah, the Christ child, and its almost as if your soul lets out a great big sigh of relief and says “Finally! He’s here and he’ll get it right where everybody else failed so badly!”  The word Israel in Hebrew means “God’s Prince” or “God’s Beloved”.  But we know from all of the stories of Israels failure that another prince would have to come to fulfill God’s Law and His expectations.

We hear the answer to that big gap in the OT when in Mathew 3:17 God thunder from Heaven “THIS is my beloved Son in whom I am WELL PLEASED!”  Finally, HE’s here!

May your heart experience great joy from this season of Advent.

Cool Christmas Lights

It’s that time of year again.  I think John Newton may have enjoyed this