Greetings all, we are back in Colorado now, beginning my last year of seminary.  It has been awhile since I have posted (about 3 months actually!) .  I am going to try and be better about posting to our blog.  For those of you who didn’t know, Sarah, Abby and I spent the winter in Springfield, IL.  We made some wonderful friends while there and were able to spend some time with Sarah’s parents who have been home from the mission field.

Last week was the first week of classes here at the seminary and we completed our first class, The Doctrine of God.  Dr. Lewis Hill, President of Reformed Discipleship Ministries was our lecturer.  It was an excellent study of our Scriptural understanding of who God is, and his plan of redemption.

This week’s course is Pastoral Counselling, led by Dr. Andrew Zeller.  Primarily we will be reading through Instruments in the Redeemers Hands, by Paul David Tripp.  From what I have read thus far, this is an excellent book that is not only helpful for those who “professionally” counsel, but to any Christian, who takes relationships and discipleship seriously.  I have only read the first 3 chapters so far (I should be finished   by the end of the week), but already I can see that Dr. Tripp is laying a foundation of who we  are in Christ Jesus instead of presenting a “system” on how to counsel people.  One of the neat things with this course and this book is that the women at the seminary are also going to go through this book as part of their study this summer.

Well, I think that is all for now, we would love to hear from you.

-Paul

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Greetings all.  As a student at Sangre de Cristo Seminary, I am taking Biblical Hebrew this semester.  We are using Page H. Kelley’s Biblical Hebrew An Introductory Grammar as our textbook.  I use BibleWorks 7, I like to use the vocabulary module that is built into the program (I used it, and still use it for Greek).  I could not find anyone else that had created a Hebrew vocabulary module for this textbook, so I created my own and I would like to share it with anyone who is interested in it.  Click here to download the file. I created the file for BibleWorks 7, so I don’t know if it will work for earlier versions or not.  Please let me know if you find any mistakes.

Blessings,

Paul

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I am beginning to learn that sleep is really overrated . . . or at least that’s what my daughter would have us believe. It is amazing the amount of changes our lives have undergone in the past 2 weeks. We went from just the two of us to the three of us and our entire life now seems to revolve around the eating and sleeping schedule of Abigail (last night it seemed like every half hour). This is not news to “seasoned” parent, but this is expected from a brand new infant. Nevertheless, no matter how much I prepared myself for it, I was not prepared. I have to say that as much as I love to sleep at night, I love holding my daughter (Okay so I really like sleep)! It is amazing how much I am already starting to see her personality. Every day Abby seems to change just a little bit more. We were excited to find out yesterday that she is almost at 5lbs. Well, speaking of baby needs, I think it’s time for a diaper change Enjoy the video below!

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Last week I attended the Presbytery of the Southwest (PCA) meeting with Pastors Phil Kruis and Luke Evans, Parker Tenet who is the University of Arizona RUF minister, and Ruling Elders Dean Saxton and Paul Marien in Alamogordo, NM.

I really enjoy attending Presbytery, call me crazy, but I am one of those weird guys that actually enjoys it.  Presbyterianism is, I believe, the most biblical model and the most effective for church leadership, disciple, and shepherding.  It is a beautiful thing really! At this meeting there was a lot of laughs, a lot of business was done, and it was obvious that these men really love one another. There are a lot of exciting things happening right now in the presbytery and a lot of opportunities for growth for the Kingdom of God. The Rincon Mountain contingent had a wonderful time of fellowship while together in Alamogordo.  We really appreciated the hospitality of Phil’s in-laws who put up with us for a couple of nights and were really wonderful.  At the meeting as well, one of the pastor’s gave a talk on Nietzsche, postmodernism, and how the pastor should interact with the culture. It was a really intriguing talk.  (Listen to it below)

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The other day I had an interesting discussion. Really, it was a debate on the sovereignty of God. It was said to me: “God only knows about what is going to happen, but does not control things.” Well, naturally I reject this line of thinking and said so, but it got me to thinking about God’s sovereign control of the world and man’s responsibility. For most people, the idea that we are not in total control of our lives, but that God is in control, is incongruous. In the discussion I had, it was said that a loving God would not allow bad things to happen, and so man must have free will. I brought up the point that the Bible says we are predestined, to which I was told that only means God’s foreknowledge, does not involve His decrees. Predestination does involve God’s decrees though, “By predestination we mean the eternal decree of God, by which he determined with himself whatever he wished to happen with regard to every man.” (John Calvin-Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.21.5) In Romans 8:29-30 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (NASB). Why if predestination means only foreknowledge does Paul repeat himself? Clearly the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul has something else in mind. Look at Psalm 115, it is all about God’s sovereignty. God created the world and everything in it (Gen. 1:1; II Kings 19:15; Job 26:13; 38:4; Prov. 3:19; Isa. 42:5; 44:6; 45:12; 66:2; Jonah 1:9; John 1:1; Rev. 1:8; 3:14; 4:11). God is in control of everything that happens in the world. He rules over the kingdoms of men and gives them over to whomsoever He wills (Isa. 54:5; Dan. 4:17, 25). John Murray said it this way:

God’s sovereignty consists in the all-pervasive and efficient exercise of government. It is not simply that God is the owner of all. Nor is it simply that He has the right of dominion and rule over all. But it is that he also exercises government over all in accordance with His perfections and in accordance with the prerogatives that are His because of His ownership of all and the right of dominion over all. This sovereignty He exercises with omnipotent and irresistible efficiency. The mighty hand of God is the executor of His will. He is the great, the mighty, the terrible. He rideth upon the heavens and in His excellency on the skies.

(The Sovereignty of God in Salvation-John Murray)

The problem with God being is control, some try to say, is that if God is sovereign, then He would also have to be the author of evil and sin. They can not see how a loving God would allow bad things to happen to good people. First off, of course we know that there are no “good people” in the world, but secondly that is the wrong conclusion. The Bible very clearly shows throughout that although God allow and uses bad things and sin to accomplish his will, he is not the author of sin or evil. Theologians have argued over this for centuries and so I don’t expect I can fully answer this issue here. Which brings me to the final “argument” that was thrown at me and that is that; “there are many ways to interpret the Bible and many versions of the Bible.” My answer to this is there is only one way to interpret the Bible and there is only one Bible. Sure there are variations in some versions, but versions that were properly translated from the Greek using excepted scholarship say the same things. I realize this is a very loaded statement. But what the line of argument that there are many versions and interpretations is really saying is that fundamentally, the Bible cannot be trusted, but my opinion can be trusted. I think it is this way, thus it must be. Man has place himself in the place of God and are a law unto themselves. Both the Old and New Testaments are full of the glory and sovereignty of God. He determines by his decrees what is going to happen, and it comes to pass. God is never surprised, alarmed, frustrated, or defeated by circumstances of sin or by man’s rebellion. “Our God is in heaven and He does as he pleases.” (Psalm 115)

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John Piper has a really interesting article on preaching on concept and not simply contextualization. The adventure of preaching sometimes is taking the Biblical truths we work through in the study and bringing it out in a helpful way in the pulpit. There are many books and theories as to how best preach. I think it is safe to say that the key to Biblical preaching is through great preparation and pray. Here is a quote from Piper’s article.

We must pray and preach so that a new mental framework is created for seeing the world. Ultimately, this is not our doing. God must do it. The categories that make the biblical message look foolish are deeply rooted in sinful human nature.

The preacher must work to change the minds of his people to have the outlook of the Bible, but he must first pray to have his heart and mind changed by God through his study of God’s Word. There are Biblical truths that are hard to understand and even harder to accept because of our sinfulness. The man who preaches must struggle with them himself before he can preach them. Easy to say, much harder to do. Pray for those who preach the Word.

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Sermon I preached on December 30, 2007

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Some of our friends from church recently read an article on Reformed Worship. Sarah and I attend, Rincon Mountain Presbyterian Church, a PCA Church in Tucson. The issue of proper worship should be a question that all churches should deal with. It seems that with worship, most of the battles are about music tastes. What I like or don’t like when it comes to music should not be the issue, as important as that is, but the real issue is what is worshipful to God. Many in Reformed churches, it seems, have been moving further and further away from the theologically rich Reformed tradition and exchanging it for the “feelings oriented” contemporary evangelical worship. Every church has liturgy, it just depends how much, what kind, and how theologically deep it is. The reason to do liturgy in a worship service is to expose the people to the Bible. Every element of worship should be steeped in the Bible. It should drip with the richness of the Psalms, the Gospels, the Epistles, etc. The Old Testament and the New Testament, the Word of God, should be read publicly, preached, prayed, sung, confessed, and rejoiced over. Unfortunately, for many people in church congregations, the only Bible they get that week is what they hear on Sundays. (This is a sad testament to the spiritual walk of many Christians, but a topic for another time). Many people approach a church service and say things like; “The worship was good, and the preacher said some encouraging words.” Modern Evangelicalism, equates worship with singing. Everything that happens in the worship service from the Call to Worship to the Benediction, IS worship. Most of the fighting when it comes to worship, seems to be over music, but there is so much more to it then that. Our worship, as I said, must be Biblically, and theologically rich. There is one danger on the other side of this issue that we must deal with in Reformed Churches, and that is that is that just because something is older it is better. Not all hymns written in the 16th century are good, and not all praise songs written today are bad. That to me is not the issue. All elements of worship, and this of course includes music must be Biblically based. All generations of Christians should be writing new songs and singing old ones along with the new ones. Music in worship, along with confessions of faith, connects us with other Christians in time and space. Music must also preach the Gospel, just as the pastor does. This is the purpose of music and all elements of worship. The Gospel going forth to the people, encouraging, challenging, convicting of sin, and rejoicing over the salvation that is only through Jesus Christ. Let us go forward in worship and make it Christ exalting!

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