Psalm 95:1–2 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
Psalm 98:4,6 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
I had to take the picture of this great bumper sticker when I saw it. The name of the gun shop is Stonewall Arms, named after General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and the town the store is located in is appropriately named “Winchester, Virginia.”
It’s not often that you read a news article with the headline: “Jesus Christ dumped from jury pool for disruption,” but that is the headline of a story that includes the following excerpts:
Efforts to reach Christ for comment were unsuccessful.
...
But Turner said unlike some Jefferson County residents, Christ didn’t try to get out of jury duty and was “perfectly happy to serve.”
Perhaps this is one of the reasons folks have trouble taking Christians seriously.
I was introduced to the delightful PDQ Bach when I was in high school and have loved his music ever since. Here are a few of his Christmas carols for your dining and dancing pleasure. Let’s kick off the Christmas season in fine baroque style:
With or without the comma
And one bonus track for your further enjoyment. Dim the lights, pour some wine, cuddle up with the one you love and let the romance envelope you as you immerse yourself in this phenomenal fare (Renaissance fair?) ... hmmmm.
eing the son of a pastor, I grew up having a particular focus on folks in positions of leadership in the local church. I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly. Blessed, as I was, with a father who is an outstanding pastor, I didn’t see much of the bad and none of the ugly until well after I had moved out on my own—and I have seen more and more of it in recent years.
The primary ugly feature that I have seen in elders and pastors for the past decade or so has been egotism and elitism. Over the past few years I have observed that the increase in this elitist attitude among pastors has grown widespread and this has become a great burden to me.
I praise God that the pastor of our current church is a humble man with a heart for God and the people under his ministry. It is a huge relief to see this characteristic in a pastor again. And it was brought to mind by a very interesting post at the IX Marks blog titled “Can Someone Who Is 29 Years Old Be a Senior Pastor?” A response to “On the Principle of the Presiding Elder,” this post shows the humility that is a biblical requirement of those who would lead God’s people:
In our church, we practice a "first among equals" approach. This is just a natural development:
- I was the first elder here and served by myself for some time.
- I do 90% of the Sunday morning preaching. I used to do all the Sunday night preaching as well. A certain amount of authority accrues with that. This is also true with the other elders in our church. While we're all "equal", some elders will have more authority in the congregation than others by virtue of their teaching and care for the congregation.
- This is my job and my life. I spend all day every day thinking about this stuff (except when I'm thinking about this or this). The other non-staff elders are committed, but they have day jobs to attend to as well.
I do not, however, take the title "Senior Pastor". The other elder on the church's payroll and I just go by "pastor" and the other elders (not on the church's payroll) for the most part go by "elder" rather than "pastor". We do this for a few reasons:
- This is how normal English speaking church-goers use those words. When we say "pastor", we usually mean "elder on staff" or something like that. I realize there are exceptions and it's not a Biblical distinction, but I think Reformed people are weird enough. Let's try and be normal whenever we can.
- I don't take the title "Senior Pastor" (or even the honorific "Reverend") because I have authority issues, so I am constitutionally allergic to inflated titles. Plus, when I started the church I was 29; nothing seemed very "senior" about me.
- Also, Jesus seems to think it's a dumb idea [see verse below].
Matthew 23:5-12They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
A few precautions:
- Because elders are godly men, some may naturally be deferential towards authority. So a pastor in the "first among equals" position will need to work hard to draw the other elders out and get them involved in the decision making process. So in our elders meetings, I try to wait until every other elder has spoken before I state my opinion. That way they say what they really think rather than adjusting their thoughts to come in line with my opinion.
- Our hearts are prone to self-worship. We all secretly believe that we know what we're doing and don't need much help. We need to cultivate humility and actually listen to what our fellow elders are saying. This helps them to develop as leaders and helps to avoid a monarchy. Plus, it's great to have a group of men to share
the blamethe burden of leadership genuinely.
Praise God for humble church leaders. They’re quite rare, and just like a rare coin or a rare gem they are quite valuable.
hen God moved us from Lynchburg this past August, we were disappointed to be leaving Lynchburg and we were a bit scared about what to expect. But we knew that God is in control of all our circumstances and that he loves to show his love for us in amazing ways.
When God opened a house for us in Front Royal, Virginia, we had no idea what a wonderful town Front Royal is. But we did recognize immediately that God had given us the house of our dreams—a 1940 farmhouse with the original large windows and hardwood floors, but with updated appliances and heating and air conditioning.
But as we’ve gotten to know the town and the surrounding Shenandoah Valley area better, we’ve come to realize that the entire package is an amazing gift of love from God. The entrance to Skyline Drive is across the street from our son’s high school, giving us access to one of the most beautiful drives in the United States whenever we feel the desire to enjoy its sights. The Shenandoah River is less than a mile from our house and may be accessed without even leaving our neighborhood. And to make it even better, just before the river is one of the most scenic railroad junctions around. Our son loves it.
My wife has greatly enjoyed decorating our farmhouse for each season and couldn’t wait for December so she could begin decorating for Christmas. We already have a Christmas tree on our front wrap-around porch and another one in our dining room. We will be purchasing a tree for the living room sometime in the next week or so. The stairs are decorated with a real pine needle garland and colored beads. There are wreaths and ornaments hanging from many of the doors and windows. The Christmas candles are out on the coffee tables and side tables. Our nativity scene is set up in the entry foyer, a musical porcelain face of Saint Nicholas is hanging in the dining room, and Christmas stockings are hung on the fireplace mantle and at the top of the stairs. It is beautiful and we were getting into the Christmas spirit very nicely.
And then God reminded us of his great blessings by unleashing six inches of fresh, soft snow.
We saw the forecast for snow early in the morning and soft flakes of snow began falling right on time at about 7:00 in the morning. The light snow turned to heavy falling snow (light and feathery flakes, but lots and lots of them) by about 10:00. And it kept snowing heavily until about 5:30 in the evening. By that time there was a deep covering of snow everywhere and Front Royal had turned into a winter wonderland that defies description. Truth be told, these pictures really don’t do it justice either. The scene was magnificent—all day long.
Kim is not typically a snow lover, but we all decided to head to the center of town where the Christmas tree is displayed in the town’s gazebo to see how it looked with snow falling. And we were not disappointed. The yearly Christkindlmarkt was underway, so many townsfolk were there enjoying the gorgeous snowstorm. Quite a few children and their parents were rolling snowballs to make snow men in the town square around the Christmas tree. Christmas carols boomed from the public address system around the town square. People walking around the town stopped to greet one another and couldn’t hide their enthusiastic joy in the falling snow.
We, of course, had our cameras in hand and took many pictures. But at one point I was overcome with emotion and had to wipe the tears from my eyes. I stopped for a moment and thanked God for loving us so very much and for giving us such a beautiful world—and, personally, such a beautiful town to live in.
I hope you don’t mind my very personal post. I really wanted to share some of the photos with you. But even more, I want to shout God’s praises from the rooftops. In spite of our sinfulness. In spite of our lack of faith and trust. God blesses man daily with the most incredible artistry imaginable.
Thank you, God, you are awesome!
It snowed today! And Front Royal turned into a winter wonderland.
Pictures will be forthcoming, but for now I will simply replace the header, taken from almost the same vantage point as the previous header photo—just one week later and quite a bit earlier in the day.
Front Royal is so beautiful!
n 1980 I was attending Baptist Bible College. As a music major, I tended to hang out in the music building most of the time—perhaps a bit too much. I managed to find a way into a locked archive room where I found some amazing treasures. There was sheet music, instruments, old 78-rpm glass records—a wealth of interesting items. And there were records of contemporary Christian rock and jazz bands. This was music we were not allowed to listen to at the school. And I took full advantage of my find.
Among the wealth of music I found a record from the Sweet Comfort Band, a Christian jazz-fusion group that just knocked my socks off. They were phenomenal musicians and they had a great message in their songs. I wished so much that I could share this music with my friends at the time, but since this style of music was outlawed at the college and because I had found it by breaking into a locked archive closet, I thought it best to keep it to myself.
Today I ran across a video of one of the songs from that album. You may recognize the lead singer as Bryan Duncan, who is still producing outstanding Christian music today.
Years later, Sweet Comfort’s lead singer, Bryan Duncan, is still producing quality music with a fantastic message. This performance from 2007 encourages those who have not yet trusted in Christ to make that move NOW! And his message has not changed at all from what he was saying in People Get Ready.
This last one is an appeal to those who didn’t know that they needed to get ready and they didn’t know that they needed to keep moving forward in the Lord step-by-step. This is the appeal given to those folks from Jesus:
Thirty years later, I still love this group. And I pray that God is using their message to reveal himself to those who need to find him. And I pray that he is pulling them into his family through Bryan’s music.
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