Entries from June 2005 ↓

(Thanks to Girl Talk for this. Yes, I read a blog called “Girl Talk.” Shut up. It’s by the Mahaney ladies.)

I plan on praying this over Zoë (and our future kids) regularly before I put her down for bed . . .

“Apply Your redemption to her heart, by justifying her person, and sanctifying her nature. Teach her to place her happiness in Thee, the blessed God, never seeking life among the dead things of earth, or asking for that which satisfies the deluded; but may she prize the light of Thy smile, implore the joy of Thy salvation, find their heaven in Thee.”

I might even leave the “Thees” and “Thys” in there.

Again, no Sunday reflection . . . no Church Search update. For the first time in a long time, we didn’t go to church anywhere on Sunday. Last week was because it was Fathers’ Day, and we just decided to hang out as a family all day; this week, we were in the car, on our way to Grace Central, but as we were approaching, we saw that the streets were lined with cars and that tons of people were walking around. Seems that we’d forgotten that Comfest, Columbus’ big hippie-LGBT-and-general-liberal brouhaha, was this weekend and that GCPC is right in the midst of it all. Funny thing was, I actually wanted to go to Lifepoint tonight, but Amy wanted to go to Grace Central. Since she actually gave me some input, I gladly went where she wanted. Guess it just wasn’t to be tonight.

The lack of corporate worship the last couple of weeks has made me realize that Sundays have indeed become my weekly “personal time with God with other people around” (one of the very things I railed against in this very blog a few weeks ago). Daily time for personal (and family) worship and prayer has become almost non-existent. Sure, I’ll sit for a while and read some scripture pretty much every day, but it’s really gotten to the point where I’m doing it just to say that I’ve done it. Very little has taken root lately. I need your prayers . . . especially if I expect to be this family’s spiritual head.

I’m a geek.

Inspired by an invitation to Odeo yesterday, I decided to try to create a “podcast” feed for Northbrook’s sermons. After a little bit of poking around the Flash applet on the “Messages” page, I was able to find the paths to the audio files. After that, I just had to create a blog and a Feedburner to “house” the RSS feeds, and it looks like it’s up and running!

Here are the links . . .

http://nbchurch.blogspot.com/ – Northbrook Church Messages blog
http://feeds.feedburner.com/nbchurch – Podcast feed

Call me the Gambler.

I turned down the shorter-term, no-benefits, lower-paying job offer in hopes that I will receive an offer from the other company. I received a call the day after the interview (much sooner than expected) saying that they’d like to bring me on. I informed them that I was under consideration for another position and that I’d like to get back to them with my decision. Unfortunately, they wanted me to start the next day (again, much sooner than expected), so I thanked them and turned the position down, in hopes that i’d get the other job.

The moronic recruiter then pointedly and rudely asked me why I “wasted her client’s time” by taking the interview in the first place. As tempting as it was to do otherwise, I remained professional and reminded her that a job interview is for the interviewee’s benefit as much as for the interviewer’s. At this point, I’m glad I won’t be working for her, whether I get the other job or not.

(Thanks to Mere Comments for this.)

It’s no secret that I have very little respect or hope for the United Church of Christ, possibly better termed “Unitarians Considering Christ”. I’ve long thought it an apostate denomination with a few actual Christians scattered here and there.

Well, apparently a few of the people there who have their heads on somewhat straight decided that it was time for the denomination to officially affirm that, yes, they believe that Jesus is Lord. Unbelievably (or perhaps believably), the resolution is expected to fail.

Kyrie eleison . . .

Some notable blogs (and individual entries):

The 2005 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America has its own blog. Really interesting info and reflections on seminars and resolutions. Check it out at blog.ga2005.com.

Chris over at Godshot has posted a nicely done diatribe on the diversities of good espresso.

As always, Chris Johnson at the Midwest Conservative Journal wants conservatives in the Episcopal Church USA to wake up and get out of dodge.

interview #1 (higher pay, longer-term) – went fine, as far as i could tell. asked me some standard questions about my experience and know-how. gave me the standard “we have some other candidates to talk to. we’ll be in touch” line at the end. i’m not particularly worried, as every time i’ve previously been given that line, i’ve gotten the job. we’ll see.

interview #2 – went quite well. they’re bringing on 10-12 technicians of varying skill levels on for a short-term deployment project. i’m being considered for one of the two lead tech roles. the guy seemed like he really wanted to extend an offer to me, and soon. i’ll probably hear from him by the end of the week.

those who prayed, thanks!

After a few weeks of nothing, I have two interviews tomorrow. The first is a “phone screen” at 10 AM, the second a face-to-face with another company in the afternoon. I’m hoping for the first one, as it’s a year-long contract (as opposed to the other, which is a short-term project) and much higher pay. Any job is better than none, though.

Pray for me.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the ancient Roman church, said this:

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. – Romans 2.6-11 (ESV)

This little passage has irked me for a while now, especially since God began “reforming my heart” about a year and a half ago. Statements like “he will render to each one according to his works” and “there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil . . . but glory and honor and peace for eveyone who does good”, at first glance and thought, betray my Protestant sensibilities. Does this teach a works-based salvation? Is the very thing that Martin Luther went to battle with Rome over sitting right here in Scripture? Salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone, right? Sola gratia! Sola Fide! This is a “hill upon which to die” for us! What’s all this talk of works?! My mind has wrestled with this passage for hours at a time without resolution, and all of the commentaries in the world (ok, on my bookshelf) didn’t offer much help.

When I looked in the bulletin and saw that Greg would be preaching on this passage tonight, I silently said “PLEASE God, use him to explain this to me”.

God answers prayer.

It was made clear tonight . . . Paul was in no way teaching that one is saved or justified by his works. Indeed, that’s the very thing he rails against in the very next chapter of Romans. We are justified by faith; we are judged by works. To put it another way, God provides our salvation through the faith in Christ that he gives; our works prove that salvation. This is what Paul is saying here, and it echoes James’ sentiment that “faith apart from works is useless” (James 2.20). Yes, God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us when he gives us the gift of faith, but he does not stop there. He does not only elect us to salvation, but also to sanctification, that is, to right living and right thoughts and right attitudes . . . to be “conformed to the image of his son” (Romans 8.29).

Amen.

Thank God for answered prayer, and thank God for people who are willing to be used as vessels to communicate his truth. Soli Deo Gloria!

Now, to glorify him by listening to some old school Havalina Rail Co.

My tiny presence in the blogosphere has been validated . . . I somehow warranted a mention in one of Phil Johnson’s posts today.

Obviously it’s only because I referenced him the other day, but I’ll take what I can get.