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Jesus is Enough

January 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

One of the key themes in Paul’s letters to the fledgling churches of the first century is the insistence that Jesus is enough. In Jesus, they have been granted all that is needed. Everything that the Old Covenant foreshadowed is found in Jesus. Everything that the pagan nations ached for and groped toward, has now been revealed in Jesus. All goodness, all pleasure, all wisdom, all blessing is found in Jesus because Jesus is God’s Eternal Son. Jesus is the Executor of God’s estate. He runs the whole show. He has access to everything, and therefore in Him, we have access to everything.

One of the greatest threats to the early church’s grasp of this came specifically from the Jews, the nearest relatives of the Christian Church. The book of Acts clearly shows that the Jews were the center of the persecution of the first Christians (witness Saul/Paul), and in every city Paul proclaims the gospel to the Jews first and then when they have had enough, Paul turns to the Gentiles and this tends to enrage the Jews and before long they have stirred up mobs and riots and chased the apostles out of town. Surely other pagans had their own axes to grind, but the pressure is coming in its most virolent forms from the synagogues.

This pressure included direct political/physical threat and force (beatings, imprisonment, trials), but it also included multiple layers of social force and threat below this: threat of excommunication from the synagogues, being cut off from friends, family, and inheritance, as well as enduring the frowns, the disappointment, the implicit and explicit signs of betrayal, disappointment, let down. And these pressures and tensions aren’t usually just theological or abstract. God made the world such that battles are usually pitched in particular places, on particular dirt. There is usually much more going on than what can be seen in a particular flash of conflict, but the location and occasion for the conflict are relavent. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Colossians, Bible - Galatians, Creation, Culture, Education, ethics, Food, Grace, Jesus is Enough, Pastoral Theology, Politics, Wisdom

The Wood Remembers

October 30, 2012 — 2 Comments

My daughter recently began violin lessons, and her mother and I are very excited about this. She has actually wanted to play for a while, much to my delight, and she has a fantastic teacher whose enthusiasm, skill, and creativity mesh together to make my daughter even more into it than before (if that is possible). Of course there is some of the beginner squeaking and scratching going on, but I can honestly already imagine the sounds growing solid, maturing, filling out, glowing warm and vibrant off the strings, singing high haunting notes, resonating through the wood, filling my home.

Anyone who has played violin or has any interest in violin music knows or has heard that the most famous, most coveted violins in the world have the name Stradivarius. I don’t really know much at all about violins, but I have heard the name Stradivarius. Though the rightful preeminence of these violins is disputed by some, the name alone has become short hand for excellence, quality, and a legacy of beautiful sound. Because of the weight of glory that follows the name, many studies have been done both to the materials the instruments are made of and built with as well as various analyses of the sounds they make. While there doesn’t seem to be any conclusive results from these investigations, the legendary status lives on. Continue Reading…

In Art, Creation, Education, Family, Grace, History, Music, Theology - Eschatology, Worship

Asking for Car Accidents

October 22, 2012 — 1 Comment

I’m a casual person. Ask my wife. Ask my friends. I sort of have to decide to get worked up about stuff. I like hanging out. It’s pretty easy for me to get goofy, be silly, and go into clown mode. I like having fun. I like my people having fun too. I’m laid back. I want people to be comfortable, to be at ease, relaxed.

But turns out casual, relaxed, and laid back didn’t make the fruits of the Spirit list. There’s probably a bit of overlap in there. Peace is calm, collected, but peace can also be militant and bold. Joy can certainly include happiness and fun, but it doesn’t have to. Self-control and gentleness have their laid back sides, but that’s not all there is to them.

And then combine casual and laid back with sinful hearts, sinful habits, sinful tendencies, and there’s no shortage of laziness, cowardice, and disrespect wound through any number of situations. It’s easier, more comfortable not to confront someone in their sin. It’s simpler, less messy to not get off the couch and discipline the child who needs it. So it’s lazy and cowardly. But it’s also ultimately cruel.

Douglas Wilson taught me years ago that etiquette and manners are just love in the trifles, love in the little things. But informality can be oppressive. Casual can be tyrannical. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Proverbs, Culture, Education, Family, Grace, Justice & Mercy, Misc, Pastoral Theology, Wisdom

Hasn’t Stifled Enough of Them

October 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

People are always asking me if the university stifles writers. I reply that it hasn’t stifled enough of them. There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good writing teacher.

Flannery O’Connor

In Culture, Education, Writing

NSA Exhortation: How Worship Trains Us for War and Life

December 4, 2011 — Leave a comment

We are an educational community that believes in the power of prayer and worship. We believe that when Jesus is worshiped as Lord of all things, and when His will is sought earnestly, God answers, God acts, and Reformations break out.

We not only believe that God is capable of starting Reformations and Revivals. We believe that He plans to do some pretty big ones because He plans to fill this world with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11). We believe that Jesus is in heaven putting all of His enemies beneath His feet (1 Cor. 15).

This is why we put worship at the center. Jesus is at the center because we have been rescued, because we have been forgiven. We love the gospel, we love God because He has first loved us. Worship is at the center because we love Jesus. We love what He has done, is doing, and will do in this world.

We put worship at the center because we believe that it forms us, shapes us, molds us. At the center of our educational program is the worship of the Triune God every Lord’s Day. But more generally, our prayer and worship is the central formative course that we are taking now and we are committed to throughout our lives. This is what it means to be a disciple. We want to spend time with Jesus so that we can become like Him.

Liturgical prayer in particular is this training. Just as we believe that children should not get to design their own curriculum, we don’t think it’s the best idea to just make up our worship as we go along. Particularly, we want to listen to our fathers and mothers in the faith. We want to honor them, listen to them, and treat their wisdom as weighty. Liturgical worship and prayer is just putting thought into how we will pray, how we will gather, what we will sing, and when we will sing it.

No one mocks a teacher for her detailed lesson plans. We admire her and respect her. Just as we value the old books, the classic books in our literature and history classes, so we value the old hymns, the old prayers, the old patterns of worship in our central course of worship. Centrally, we want our worship full of Scripture, full of Psalms, full of the Word of God. And so we plan for that. Continue Reading…

In Against Christianity, Education, NSA Exhortations, Prayer, Worship

You Become What You Give

November 15, 2011 — 1 Comment

In Hebrew, the verb for learn becomes teach in its intensive form.

In Deuteronomy, when God is trying to get His people to learn the law, He tells them to teach it to their children.

In the gospel, when Jesus wants the disciples to get what it means for Him to have all authority in heaven and earth, He sends them out to teach everyone about it.

In other words, disciples are made by making disciples. That is: you will grow in Christ only as you are busy giving Christ, showing Christ, sharing Christ. You become what you give. You learn what you teach.

In Education, Family, Wisdom

Wished She Had Baked Less Bread

September 13, 2011 — 2 Comments

Just tweeted a link to this a little while ago. But I thought this was one of the most salient parts:

A friend of mine, a homeschool mom, just passed away of cancer. In the week before she died, I asked her if she had any regrets in her life. She told me she wished she had baked less bread – she said if she had it to do over again she would buy bread and spend more time with her children. She had invested time and energy in pursuing the “path” because she thought it was part of the spiritual homeschool package.

Read the whole article here.

In Education, Family

How Baptism Means Christian Education

May 31, 2011 — Leave a comment

One of the reasons we have baptisms during our service is because we believe that baptism is a sacrament that all of God’s people participate in. It is not required that baptisms take place during a worship service. The New Testament frequently mentions baptisms that apparently took place wherever there was water and whenever people were converted, and it might be good to get back to that somewhat. But wherever and whenever baptisms take place, all of God’s people participate, and this is particularly obvious during a service in a local church. This is because baptism is the official entrance into the covenant. In this sense, it is a birth, and we are the family. When a new child is born, all of the family is affected. You become a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, an aunt, uncle, grandfather, cousin, whatever. When a new person enters the world, you are changed by the mere fact of your relationship to that person. And this is even more true in the Church. Baptism isn’t just an empty sign. Baptism isn’t a participant’s ribbon. Yay, you showed up. Baptism is much more like a marriage. Every baptism of course is a sign and seal of an individual to Jesus Christ, but it is also that same individual’s incorporation into the Body of Christ. Just as a man and a woman become one flesh, so in baptism, individuals are joined to the Bride of Christ, to God’s people, and by the working of the Spirit joined to Christ.

And this is why it is not only the parents who take vows, but the congregation as well. We are being changed by every baptism, our family is growing, and we are becoming brothers and sisters and parents to these little ones. But this is even more obvious when we remember who the Father of this family is. Our Father, is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; our Father is God the Father. And this means that we are all adopted sons and daughters in His Son, our Lord Jesus. Jesus is our older brother, and therefore, we are all brothers and sisters. And just as older brothers and sisters get excited when a new child is added to the family, so too we rejoice together when we become brothers and sisters again and again and again in the covenant. But for this to mean what we say it means, we must take our baptismal vows seriously. The Lord entrusts particular parents with particular duties, but we all take vows to uphold these parents in assisting them to fulfill those vows. The Lord asks all of us to hold up certain parts of His Kingdom, and then we all promise to assist one another holding them up. Continue Reading…

In Baptismal Meditation, Education, Family

The Box of the Covenant

May 26, 2011 — 1 Comment

Christian education is not optional. It is not a luxury item that upper-middle class believers put on their covenant tabs and too bad for those poor indigent Christians barely scraping by on the deacons’ fund.

Christian education is what every obedient father and mother is committed to from conception on. The moment you become a father or a mother, you have specific commands from the Lord of heaven concerning your duties. Those duties, among other things, include the requirement that you teach your children to fear, love, and obey the triune God, in short, to embrace life in the covenant in Jesus Christ. And this is not optional because there is no life outside of life in Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and we cannot underestimate the importance of this command and calling, all the nice pagans down at the charter school notwithstanding.

There are a number of lawful, godly ways to heed this command in faith. Christian day schools, homeschooling, coops, tutors, and online tutorials are all possible options. But none of them can provide obedience for parents automatically, as though obedient faith were something you could order on eBay or with 1-click on Amazon. There are natural strengths and weaknesses for every form of Christian education, and there will be specific strengths and weaknesses for every family and every individual child. Raising children in the fear of the Lord and refusing to provoke our children to wrath means that fathers in particular must study their children, study their wives, and study their options diligently and then make their decisions joyfully and confidently, not second guessing God’s goodness.

At the same time, the duty of raising children in the fear of the Lord is not an isolated, individualistic duty. Life in the covenant is not like life in a box of prepackaged fruit snacks. It’s not like we all jostle around in the box of the covenant, protected from one another in our own sealed packages. The Body of Christ means that we are connected organically. We swear allegiance to one another in membership and in baptism, and in particular we swear to uphold one another particularly in the raising of our children. We are family; that’s what the Lord’s Supper means. This means that we promised to help one another in prayer, in informal encouragement and exhortation, in hospitality, in sharing curriculum and educational ideas, in babysitting, in teaching Sunday School, in teaching coop classes, in teaching at the local Christian day school, and in supporting these needs practically and financially through private gifts, carpooling, fundraisers, education funds, etc. Continue Reading…

In Bible - Deuteronomy, Bible - Ephesians, Education

Parents and Elders

February 7, 2011 — Leave a comment

“… since what we teach in catechism is the Scriptures and the confessions, that should properly be considered the official teaching ministry of the church of Jesus Christ. Parents entrusted with the spiritual education of their children fulfill their responsibility under the care and guidance of the church’s elders.

. . .

‘Two parties,’ said Matthew Henry, ‘parents in their families and… ministers in more public assembles, are necessary, and do mutually assist each other, and neither will excuse the want of the other.’

We have to take care that the elders do not usurp the role of parents. In God’s covenantal structuring of the church he has never set elders or catechism teachers between parents and children or in place of parents. Elders, therefore, may not shove parents aside, nor may parents vacate their position in favor of elders. Instead, by administering a good catechism program, the elders fulfill their role by insisting and ensuring that the parents of the church obey God’s command to instruct their children in his ways (Dt. 6:6-9, Eph. 6:4).”

-Donald Van Dyken, Rediscoving Catechism, 91, 101.

In Bible - Deuteronomy, Bible - Ephesians, Books, Education