Entries from August 2006 ↓

I’ve privacy-locked my post from yesterday in which I quoted a recent blog entry from Pastor Mark Driscoll (of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church) about mainline churches and liberal theology.

While I still stand by the post’s assertions, it’s becoming apparent to me that the way that it was framed might paint an inaccurate picture of me and where I stand in relation to the larger culture. I am not fighting some “Culture War” that somehow pits Jesus against the pet issues that my fellow evangelicals like to harp on. I’m far more interested in seeing culture transformed by Christ through local churches than seeing culture taken over by political conservatives masquerading as the “Evangelical Voting Bloc”.

Along with that, the post (taken by itself and without any real conversation) was less than loving and could appear homophobic and misogynistic (both of which I abhor).

So, like I said, I stand by the assertions made by Driscoll, but my bald reposting of them showed a real lack of the grace required of me. Please forgive me.

(To see Driscoll’s blog entry, click here, and to see the L.A. Times article that it partially relied on, click here.)

I like this one a lot . . . plus the last one was causing trouble (I think) with Technorati pinging.

It’s pretty bare for now (for instance, the sidebar links are gone), but I’ll be tweaking in the coming days.

The longer I’m in Columbus, the more I’m convinced that the crap we went through that forced us to move here was God-engineered in order to get us to Grace Central as members and to start me on the path to ministry.

Of course, that’s the good “Calvinist” thing to say, but seriously . . . I marvel when I look back on the sequence of events of the last year and a half.

I’ll be there.

Will anyone else reading this be there as well?

Russ

Originally uploaded by Rae Whitlock.

I met Russ a little over three years ago when I lived in Tennessee. Amy and I were unmarried, expecting a baby, aimless, clueless, and at eachother’s throats. Desperate for the Lord’s help and direction, we started attending the church that we would eventually be married in and join as members. After a very brief time of talking to a couple of the pastors there about our situation, they, without hesistation, told me that we should start attending a small group, particularly the one led by Russ.

Probably one of the most insightful things they could have told me. Amy and I grew in our understanding of Christ, our relationship with eachother, and our relationship with God’s people during our time in that group. I learned more about the Gospel packed into that short time than I can ever recall before, and I learned much about being a Christian husband and father just by seeing it modeled in their home. I think I can honestly say that no one else has made me want to be more like Christ.

All this to say . . . the man can preach, too. He was recently elected to the eldership of his church and has had a couple of occasions to preach on Sunday mornings. I listened to a podcast of one of his recent sermons (only his second time preaching ever) . . . on Psalm 14 and sin. Holy crap. Tore . . . me . . . apart. Seriously one of the best I’ve ever heard. God has seriously gifted him with the ability to clearly communicate the Gospel.

Gives me some encouragement for whenever I start to preach. Russ is a high school art teacher by trade, not a seminary-trained preacher. I’m a computer network administrator . . . again, not a seminary-trained preacher. Knowing that God has gifted me, in some measure, to teach, I can only hope to have a modicum of the clarity that I heard in this sermon.

(You can . . . and should . . . hear the sermon in question by clicking this link.)

(edit: Fixed audio link to sermon. Whoops.)

I know the Lord is nigh,
And would but cannot pray,
For Satan meets me when I try,
And frights my soul away,
And frights my soul away.

I would but can’t repent,
Though I endeavor oft;
This stony heart can ne’er relent
Till Jesus makes it soft,
Till Jesus makes it soft.

Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
My help must come from Thee.

I would but cannot love,
Though wooed by love divine;
No arguments have power to move
A soul as base as mine.
A soul so base as mine.

I would but cannot rest,
In God’s most holy will;
I know what He appoints is best,
And murmur at it still.
I murmur at it still.

Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
My help must come from Thee.

(Help My Unbelief. Taken from the Gadsby Hymnal #278. Words: John Newton, 1725-1807. Chorus and music by Clint Wells, 2005.)
–
Weary of earth, myself, and sin
Dear Jesus, set me free,
And to Thy glory take me in,
For there I long to be.

Let a poor laborer here below,
When from his toil set free;
To rest and peace eternal go;
For there I long to be.

Burdened, dejected and oppressed,
Ah! Whither shall I flee,
But to Thy arms for peace and rest?
For there I long to be.

Let a poor laborer here below,
When from his toil set free;
To rest and peace eternal go;
For there I long to be.

Empty, polluted, dark and vain,
Is all this world to me;
May I the better world obtain;
For there I long to be.

Let a poor laborer here below,
When from his toil set free;
To rest and peace eternal go;
For there I long to be.

(Weary of Earth, Myself and Sin, Taken from the Gadsby Hymnal #386. Words: Samuel Medley, 1738-1799. Music: Brian T. Murphy, 2005.)

My friend Steph wrote today about a situation in which she agonized, waffled over, and finally confronted two friends of hers about sin that the friends had been involved in, and the diametically opposite reactions of each friend.

It’s well worth the read.