Month: December 2009 Page 1 of 3

Some Bible Reading Resources

On December 31, 2009

Reading the Bible slowly is analogous to walking through the streets of a great city, taking in the sights, wandering in and out of its stores and gaining a knowledge of the city’s smells and sounds and colors and personality.

But sometimes, to know what the city looks like from the top of a 95 story building or from an airplane flying high above enables us to see how the various neighborhoods and streets and districts all meld into a coherent whole.

Sometimes it is important to get such a view of the Bible. How to do so can sometimes stump us. It is particularly helpful to have a means of pacing ourselves so that we do not get overwhelmed in this task.

I have posted two plans for reading through the bible in 2010 on the Hope Church website. One is designed to guide you through the whole bible. The other is a bit more ambitious, covering the Old Testament once and the New Testament and Psalms twice.

For those who want to make the journey at a less hurried pace, I’ve provided this.

I trust that some of you will find these helpful.

Some Prayer Resources

By Randy

On December 30, 2009

In Christian Life, Prayer

I have posted on the Hope Church website some resources which some of you might find helpful in nurturing the discipline of prayer in your life. Each are a bit idiosyncratic, but some of you might find some of these resources helpful. Clicking on the links below will download the files.

1. A simple prayer plan. This was shared by Tim Keller in a class a number of years ago. I modified it slightly, but it is in essence all his. (If anyone from Redeemer sees this and believes I have violated some copyright, please tell me!)

2. General prayer guidelines. These are some thoughts I put together some time ago to help me navigate my own prayer life.

3. A Simple Way to Pray. Martin Luther’s barber once asked Luther how to pray. Whether Master Peter the barber was serious or was simply making talk we may never know, but the result was a 20 page treatise on the matter. The whole is worth reading, and is widely available on the internet. For convenience I’ve uploaded this here.

4. Luther and Prayer. Perhaps Luther’s barber would have preferred a summary of the good Doctor’s helpful comments. That is posted here.

5. The Lord’s Prayer. Luther recommends praying through the Lord’s Prayer. But how do we do that? Luther’s comments are helpful, but so is the exposition of the Lord’s Prayer given by the framers of the Westminster Larger Catechism. This document simply takes their exposition and explodes it into various phrases to help us use it as a guide for prayer.

I hope someone finds these helpful!

Candle MPG Test Drive

By Randy

On December 29, 2009

In Uncategorized

Previous studies on Christmas Eve candles were performed under laboratory conditions.

In real life situations involving wiggly nine year olds and wind currents caused by AC fans kicking on and off, candle burn time is reduced to at most 40 minutes. People get nervous after fifteen.

Still, it is clear that we can burn these babies longer than the traditional three minutes!

Discipline

By Randy

On December 29, 2009

In Christian Life, Prayer

I quit piano lessons when I was in third grade. It wasn’t ‘cool’ when all my friends were into football.

I took up the piano again in seventh or eighth grade, motivated by a girl who had caught my fancy. I was starting to show promise, and then the teacher quit.

I never again pursued this with any seriousness, so that today I can play a butchered ‘Whinnie the Pooh’, most of Chicago’s ‘Color My World’, and a smattering of this and that.

And I so wish I could return to third grade and take up where I left off.

It’s a strange truth, but the greatest freedom belongs to those who for a time bound themselves to the taskmaster discipline. Those who play music with the greatest freedom are those who at some time in the past applied themselves to the discipline of practice when more obviously enjoyable things beckoned.

So, too, in the Christian life, the spiritual disciplines of bible reading and prayer and worship all seem to be so confining. They seem to demand a joyless labor which runs counter to the freedom we proclaim in the gospel.

And yet, there is to those who are trained by such discipline the eventual blossoming of freedom and delight. The disciplines of the Christian life put us in the way of God’s grace, in the place where he blesses. And as we battle off the lethargy of the flesh to put ourselves in worship or in the Scriptures or in prayer, we put ourselves in the places where perhaps slowly at first but more richly in time God reveals himself to us.

There are books that put this all so much more eloquently and practically than I. Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life are two I commend.

But the encouragement here is to step up the discipline in your spiritual life just a notch. The mistake we all make is this time of year trying to correct every fault through a resolution or two that are so unreasonable that we cannot possibly keep them. Make little commitments and keep them rather than big ones which defeat us.

Such steps will bear good fruit. Over time. If we don’t quit.

MPG on a Christmas Eve Candle

By Randy

On December 23, 2009

In Uncategorized

What is the manufacturer’s estimated MPG (Minutes Per Glow) on a Christmas Eve candle?

I don’t know. No where does the box indicate. So, we have to do our own experimentation.

I put a ‘candlelight service’ type candle in its sleeve (with sufficient candle below the sleeve for a hand to hold). I placed this in a cup on my desk and let it burn.

The picture shows the progress at the 40 minute mark.

I’d say we are looking at an MPG of at least an hour or more under laboratory conditions.

As they say, results may vary. Especially in the hands of a six year old….

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Note: If you would like to try this under real-life conditions, join us for our Christmas Eve worship at Hope Church Thursday night at 6:00 PM!

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UPDATE:
At 60 minutes, the candle entered the ‘twilight’ stage.

At 75 minutes, the candle entered the ‘somewhat iffy’ stage.

At 90 minutes, the candled entered the ‘seriously iffy’ stage.

At 94 minutes, the paper sleeve caught on fire:

Rays Give Up…

By Randy

On December 23, 2009

In Sports

I have a 1/2 dozen posts conceived and another 1/2 dozen started, but I have this time of year multiple 1/2 dozens of other things that I need to do.

Like read up on the Tampa Bay Rays…

If you like the Rays, and have an appreciation for well conceived irony, grab a cup of coffee and enjoy this post.

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[And, while I’m at it, from the shameless promotion department: Cinnamental Bakers has a very nice Christmas gift package of four rolls in attractive packaging for $10. We will deliver in the Bradenton area on the afternoon of the 24th if you need a last minute unique gift idea! Email me if interested.]

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Okay… back to work.

Scrivener On Sale

By Randy

On December 22, 2009

In Preaching, Technology

If you do ANY research oriented writing projects (sermons, books, whatever) and you use a Mac, I HIGHLY recommend Scrivener. I don’t have time right now to tell you how I use it or how it could be useful, but it has become for me in my sermon prep one of those how-did-I-ever-work=without-it kind of tools. I mention it now because this program is a great deal at its normal $39.95 price. But from now until New Years Day, the publisher is offering a 25% discount.

Worth every penny!

Look to the Bridge

By Randy

On December 20, 2009

In Christian Life

This morning I use an illustration drawn from portions of a letter. Here is the setting of the letter re-stated and the full text of the letter.

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Robert Lewis Dabney was a great and renowned preacher and theologian of the nineteenth century. His work was brilliant and his love for his Savior passionate (and his blind spots as regarding slavery well documented). Yet, as he advanced in years, he was afflicted with innumerable physical trials including complete blindness. Even great theologians are prone to lose heart if proper spiritual care is not taken. So, Dr, Dabney’s old friend C. R. Vaughan perceived, and wrote when Dr. Dabney was 78 years old. I believe there is so much practical and godly wisdom contained in this letter of a friend to a man of God in need of encouragement that it is worthy of consideration by us all.

—–

N. P. Manse,
February 3, 1890

Dear Dabney:

Yours of the 28th, just received, relieved a tension of feeling which has held me painfully ever since Mrs. Dabney’s last. I dreaded to hear, and then to hear you are in any degree better was an inexpressible comfort. It melted me to hear of your prayers for faith and dying grace. The stress of such constant and severe bodily pain is enough of itself to try you; and the tempter is sure to use it to affect your hope.

Pray on, dear old soldier, of course; but listen to me awhile. I want to give you a morsel of honey out of one of my dead lions, though, in fact, there is a large herd of them still living, and they roar on me often till I an sick with fears. You know we are sanctified through the truth. Sanctification is just the growth of the particular graces of the spirit, of which faith is one. Just here is where Christians make a great mistake. When they want more faith, or want to know whether things be believed, they turn their eyes inward and scrutinize their faith. They want to see something in their faith to trust in, something that will certify their faith. Of course, self-examination is all right, but not when it practically substitutes faith for our Lord, grace and righteousness. Even a great theological thinker is as apt to make that mistake when he has come into the practical stress of this awful world as a common Christian.

Now, suppose a traveler comes to a bridge, and he is in doubt about trusting himself to it. What does he do to breed confidence in the bridge? He don’t [sic] stand at the bridge-head and turn his thoughts curiously in on his own mind to see if he has confidence in the bridge. If his examination of the bridge gives him a certain amount of confidence, and yet he wants more, how does he make his faith grow? Why, in the same way; he still continues to examine the bridge.

Now, my dear old man, let your faith take care of itself for awhile, and you just think of what you are allowed to trust in. Think of the Master’s power, think of his love; think how he is interested in the soul that searches for him, and will not be comforted until he finds him. Think of what he has done, his work. That blood of his is mightier than all the sins of all the sinners that ever lived. Don’t you think it will master yours? Think of his great righteousness; will it not avail for all you hope to gain? That great work is enough; it needs not to be supplemented: it meets every demand. It warrants you to come into the King’s very presence, assured of welcome, because you can come in the name of the King’s Son. That work of Christ is like a bankrupt for ten thousand dollars allowed to draw on the revenues of an empire to pay out. Think of the Master when you want your faith to grow.

Now, dear old friend, I have done to you just what I would want you do to me if I were lying in your place. The great theologian, after all, is just like any other one of God’s children, and the simple gospel talked simply to him is just as essential to his comfort as it is to a milk-maid or to plow-boy. May God give you grace, not to lay too much stress on your faith, but to grasp the great ground of confidence, Christ, and all his work and all his personal fitness to be a sinner’s refuge. Faith is only an eye to see him. I have been praying that God would quiet your pains as you advance, and enable you to see the gladness of the gospel at every step. Good-bye. God be with you as he will. Think of the Bridge!

Your brother,

C. R. V.

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[picture from Wikipedia page]

Avatar

By Randy

On December 18, 2009

In Movies

The trailers have not enticed me, so I’m not in line to see it. Even a $230,000,000 budget only makes me think that special effects will get in the way of story. This review seems balanced and mildly critical, and consistent with what I’ve read elsewhere. I’m curious what others think.

Movie Notes, Part One

By Randy

On December 18, 2009

In Movies

I’m so far behind in reviewing the movies we have seen that I’ll never catch up. So, let me make a few notes here in lieu of more extensive evaluations.

Spurred on by a great “Black Friday” deal from Amazon.com, I bought a copy of Disney’s 101 Dalmatians. (The same impulse landed me a copy of Spaceballs for $2, an impulse I’m almost afraid to confess!) I feel a particular attachment to this movie due to its having been released at a time when I would have been in its target audience. My parents gave me an LP of the music and story line which I can remember playing over and over again. It was a delight, therefore, to introduce this to my son and share it with my wife. I had not realized until I watched the special features how innovative this was and how it represented a technological step forward and trade off from past animated classics. A wonderful movie, though.

Another vestige from our 60s childhood is one my wife picked up from Wal-mart in their discount bin: Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. Back in the days before DVR and before DVD and before VHS, to watch a piece of video entertainment, one had to find when it would be on TV and make a concerted effort to be there in front of the television the moment it started. At Christmas, the networks had a stable of ‘specials’ they would air year after year. This was one of those specials, featuring a cartoon character named Mr. Magoo who was nearly blind. I remember watching this as a child, and I must have loved it as a child. And sense I loved it as a child and my wife loved it as a child, we had to foist it upon our children, at least those we could corral long enough to watch it. I confess, watching it now as an adult, I see though it is generally faithful to Dickens original, it hardly has the charm of A Charlie Brown Christmas or even Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Far, far better was a 1951 classic A Christmas Carol. It is a feature film length adaptation starring Alistair Sim, an endearing British actor some of us were introduced to in a film called Green for Danger (a classic whodunit, very much worth watching).

You know the story. But know also that the value of this film is in Sim’s portrayal of the transformed Scrooge. I think this is a picture of the joy and freedom that should attend the Christian who comes to understand the Gospel. Would that it were so.