The Supremacy of God Abroad

Add supremacyofgod.wordpress.com to your list of routine stops… Excellent reading from abroad from one of our brightest and most articulate. It’s certainly encouraging to know that such God-exalting language is being uttered among the nations.

tdg

When Pluralisms Collide

 

I doubt we’ll ever see that much anticipated showdown between Batman and Robin, Dora and Diego, or Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, but the stage is set for the next best thing… PETA meets the ACLU.

Apparently, as reported by Fox News, park rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are cranking up a program that seeks to halt sacrifices and offerings made to the Hawaiian fire god, Pele at Mt. Kilauea. The incense candles and food left behind are reeking havoc on the environment:

The food often poses a hazard to the endangered nene, the state bird endemic to the islands, because the geese often try to eat what is left behind. Rice, for example, can explode in a nene’s stomach, killing the bird, the park said in a statement.

People also burn fake money, which in Chinese culture is meant to aid people in the afterlife. Such fires are illegal, the park said.

“It’s a place that is sacred to Native Hawaiians and we want to keep it pristine and take care of that sacred landscape,” Orlando said.

Native Hawaiians are guaranteed access to Kilauea for traditional religious ceremonies in which offerings can be made. Some Hawaiians believe lava is the physical representation of the fire goddess Pele, making the volcano summit sacred.

The whole concept of laying down a sacrifice at the base of quite possibly the most undisputed display of God’s kindling wrath gives me immense pause here.  We dare not stand without a mediator.

tdg

“I fly through the jungle and learn to talk. Who am I?”

“Daddy, whasat?” “Abigail, that’s a toucan.” “Daddy, whasat?” “Well that’s a chamelion” “Daddy whasat?” “Um… that’s a tiger. “Daddy, whasat?” “Abigail… that’s a toucan still.” “Daddy, whasat” “That’s a chamelio– What do you say let’s play with your blocks.”

My nearly 2 year old daughter’s fascination with these pictures in one of her many animal books, reminded me of something I read an eternity ago in Piper’s book the Pleasure of God. Something about seeing it illustrated in your own child that… even now if I was being honest, makes me well up a bit. Please, enjoy as Piper expounds upon the words of one of his former teachers at Wheaton College, Clyde Kilby:

“‘I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.’ -Clyde Kilby

One of the tragedies of growing up is that we get used to things. It has its good side of course, since irritations may cease to be irritations. But there is immense loss when we get used to the redness of the rising sun, and the roundness of the moon, and the whiteness of the snow, the wetness of rain, the blueness of the sky, the buzzing of bumble bees, the stitching of crickets, the invisibility of wind, the unconscious constancy of heart and diaphragm, the weirdness of noses and ears, the number of the grains of sand on a thousand beaches, the never-ceasing crash crash crash of countless waves, and ten million kingly-clad flowers flourishing and withering in woods and mountain valleys where no one sees but God.

I invite you, with Clyde Kilby, to seek a freshness of vision, to look, as though it were the first time, not at the empty product of accumulated millennia of aimless evolutionary accidents (which no child ever dreamed of), but at the personal handiwork of an infinitely strong, creative, and exuberant Artist who made the earth and the sea and everything in them. I invite you to believe (like the children believe) that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course you shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the Architect who calls Himself Alpha and Omega.”

To see like that again…

tdg

Not a square inch…

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” - Abraham Kuyper.

Busy week for me research wise- but, as always, well worth reward.  I may be the last guy at Southern Seminary to have come across this famous quote by Abraham Kuyper, but I will not forget the day. Mountains? Mine. Oceans? Mine. Political unrest? Mine. Wars? Mine. Famine? Mine. Cancer? Mine. Marital problems? Mine. Tests? Mine. Finances? Mine. Pregnancies? Mine. Lunch plans? Mine. From the most devastating catastrophes to the most minute, seemingly inconsequential details- “Christ, who is Sovereign over all” cries ‘Mine!’.

Hmm… Anyone finding difficulty in applying this one? If so, you might check to see if you are still breathing… but then again, breathlessness is his also. In fact, he’s the one who restores breath. Might as well just yield.

tdg

How do you celebrate Easter?

SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines- “Victor showed no fear, smoking a cigarette, waiting in line for his turn on the cross. But he cried out and openly wept as the five-inch, (13-centimetre) stainless-steel nails — pre-soaked in alcohol to disinfect them — were driven through his palms with the ordinary carpenter’s hammer. Victor was one of at least 19 Filipinos who underwent ritual crucifixion on Good Friday in the northern village of Cutud, as part of a bloody annual spectacle that continues to shock tourists and outsiders in this devoutly-Roman Catholic nation. It was his 17th year imitating the Passion of Christ, and said he was doing it so his mother would recover from a chronic illness.”

The story reported by Breitbart.com goes on:

“Nine men were crucified under the burning sun in Cutud village, north of the Philippine capital while 10 others also underwent the same ordeal a few hours earlier in the nearby village of Santa Lucia. This Good Friday practice has been going on for decades, spawning controversy and attracting hordes of foreign and local tourists.”

And to top it off:

“As the crowds dispersed, local children could be seen, scavenging the discarded whips as souvenirs, swinging the bloody flails at each other playfully.”

Despite the “man-that’s-really-weird factor” associated with the story, there’s obviously something crucially misguided here. If for even a second, one thinks the Gospel entails such a gross identity with Christ’s crucifixion, we’ve missed its defining element. No doubt this is so far out there that it doesn’t even deserve the label “fringe”; however, it serves as a sounding board for a reminder that those who are united with Christ, need no other mediator, and dare not bring one. There’s a reason why we don’t nail ourselves to the cross, and he’s seated at the right hand of the Father awaiting his enemies as his foot stool. Tomorrow is resurrection Sunday… Receive the Gospel afresh; grace and mercy through the death and resurrection of the Son, the only salvific stance before the Father - We boast nothing else!

tdg

Giuliani on Abortion

During an interview set to air tonight on CNN at 7:30ET, Rudy Giuliani was asked if he stood by his comments in 1989 concerning his support for public funding of abortions:

 

“I’m in the same position now that I was 12 years ago when I ran for mayor — which is, personally opposed to abortion, don’t like it, hate it, would advise that woman to have an adoption rather than abortion, hope to find the money for it,” he said. “But it is your choice, an individual right. You get to make that choice, and I don’t think society should be putting you in jail.”

 

The power of rhetoric- as if knowing the candidate feels bad about his own policy is enough consolation to warrant a vote.

tdg

Try your hand at speed reading…

I came across this link on another blog recently. Try the initial settings first… then crank it up and see what you can handle.

www.spreeder.com

tdg

First the Iranians, now England?

Apart from the Gospel of Christ, the world has always been irrelevant to itself; however, there has rarely been a time in history this has been more evident. Fox News picked up on an article that appeared in the London Times concerning a current trend gaining momentum in public schools:

“Teachers are dropping controversial subjects such as the Holocaust and the Crusades from history lessons because they do not want to cause offense to children from certain races or religions, a report claims… The report, produced with funding from the Department for Education, said that where teachers and staff avoided emotive and controversial history, their motives were generally well intentioned.”

Prior to my having children I was extremely opposed to homeschool or sending them to private school. Why? Because I wanted them to be able to interact with the secular world, as opposed to their being sheltered from it. More and more however, it is becoming quite clear that the “real world” doesn’t even know what the real world is anymore. It’s beginning to shelter itself from itself. The only way to prepare children to interact with secular society is to first impart to them the truth of the Gospel of Christ. All else will return void. In the Gospel, subjectivity is overcome by supreme objectivity; falsehood and folly by grace and truth- precisely what a world that refuses to talk about its own history, namely its history of sin, needs urgently.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).

tdg

John Piper at Southern Seminary

There has been a little talk at Southern as to whether there is an unhealthy obsession with John Piper amongst Southern students… I really do not care to even entertain that discussion - just to say that while self-examination is no doubt an essential part of the faith, I’d drive a great distance to hear a man speak with such passion and clarity about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray the Lord makes me such a preacher, such husband and father, such a man…

Soldiers of Christ in Truth Arrayed

A hymn written in 1860 for the first graduation ceremony at Southern Seminary, sung again in chapel this week, and tonight in the Giddens home…

Soldiers of Christ, in truth arrayed,
A world in ruins needs your aid:
A world by sin destroyed and dead;
A world for which the Savior bled.

His Gospel to the lost proclaim,
Good news for all in Jesus’ Name;
Let light upon the darkness break
That sinners from their death may wake.

Morning and evening sow the seed,
God’s grace the effort shall succeed.
Seedtimes of tears have oft been found
With sheaves of joy and plenty crowned.

We meet to part, but part to meet
When earthly labors are complete,
To join in yet more blest employ,
In an eternal world of joy.

We meet to part but part to meet… That’s about as counter-cultural and life-changing as it gets.

tdg