Merry Christmas one and all - especially at Wartburg Watch

Perhaps Michael W. Smith's best hymn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH9cSGPUjSU

All is well

R.C. Sproul Sr - R.I.P.

"For me, the story begins as a teenager stuck in a desperate struggle with huge theological questions in the 1970s. Of course, R.C. Sproul, with firm conviction and a friendly smile, would rightly insist that the story begins in the gracious will of our sovereign, eternal, and omnipotent God. Actually, those were some of the big theological questions that had me by the throat.

I had been confronted by teachers in high school who had declared their own atheism and ridiculed theism. I was surrounded by a culture of increasing moral relativism and the first wave of what would later be called post-modernism. I knew Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and I wanted to be faithful to him. But how?

My struggle was spiritual and moral, but it was also irreducibly intellectual. How could I know and defend the Christian faith? I did not even know where to begin. At home and at church, I was surrounded by sweet Christians who loved me and invested their lives in me. But I had big questions they could not answer. Questions that gnawed at me and kept me awake at night. Questions that I feared could not be answered. Questions that I had no idea Christians had grappled with for centuries.

Thankfully, I found help. I found other Christians who were struggling with the same questions, and some of them passed to me cassette tapes. At that time, the cassette was a recent invention. For me, these tapes were a lifeline – bringing me expository preaching from Dr. John MacArthur and lectures from this strangely infectious and compelling teacher at an oddly named center in Western Pennsylvania. The teacher was R.C. Sproul.

Those tapes from R.C. Sproul were not my own. They had been passed to me after several others had listed to them. They squeaked. Nevertheless, I pounced on them like a hungry tiger. I received the tapes out of sequence. No matter – I just gained confidence and understanding with every tape.

R.C.’s voice was captivating. Honestly, I probably would have listened to him read the Farmer’s Almanac. But the power of his teaching was the vitality and virility of biblical Christianity, presented logically, forcefully, biblically, and passionately.

My own pilgrimage as a theologian cannot be traced without the indelible influence of R.C. Sproul. Had I never met him in the flesh, I would have been in his debt and gifted with his influence. By God’s grace, I came to know R.C. Sproul as a teacher, colleague, encourager, and friend.

He was, as the British would say, a man in full. He never made a half-argument, presented a half-correction, preached a half-sermon, or laughed a half-laugh. He was all in, all the time. His voice would fill the room, his preaching would shake the timbers, and his passion would spread like a virus. He showed up as everything he was and with everything he believed – every time.

He was one of the great defenders of historic Christianity of our times. It is fair to say that R.C. was the greatest and most influential proponent of the recovery of Reformed theology in the last century. He was a stalwart defender of the Word of God, and one of the primary architects of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in 1978. His tapes were soon accompanied by his books and the vastly expanding influence of Ligonier Ministries.

When he taught about the holiness of God, a generation of evangelicals was rescued from the emaciated and desiccated theology of cultural Christianity. When he defended Reformed theology, he taught us all how to understand the gospel in terms of God’s eternal purpose to save, consistent with his sovereignty. He was rigorously biblical and ruthlessly logical . . . with a smile.

He loved to introduce Christians to both the splendors and the humbling lessons of church history. He wanted evangelical Christians to stand in a line of faithfulness that began with the apostles and continued to the present. He had the heart and courage of Martin Luther and the theological precision and passion of John Calvin. He was a proud son of the Reformation, and the solasof the Reformation were the architecture of his mind. He urged and taught Christians toward the development of the Christian mind, and ideas were his battleground.

He was a preacher of the Word of God, a faithful steward of God’s mysteries. In the later years of his life, he told friends that his greatest joy in ministry had come as a pastor. That comes as no surprise.

R.C. Sproul was an evangelist. “Evangelism is our duty. God commanded it,” he taught: “But there is more. Evangelism is not only a duty; it is also a privilege. God allows us to participate in the greatest work in human history, the work of redemption.” There will be many saints in heaven who came to hear the gospel through R.C.’s talks, sermons, videos, conferences, books, and personal witnessing.

The work R.C. so courageously and brilliantly and infectiously led for so many decades goes on, in the work of Ligonier Ministries. R.C. planned it so, and set an example for us all in fulfilling this stewardship. His teaching and his influence will continue, channeled into successive generations. He surrounded himself and populated Ligonier Ministries with a leadership team that will continue steadfastly.

To know R.C. was also to know that the man and his ministry could never be explained—and would never have been begun—without the incredible loyalty, love, and devotion of his gracious wife, Vesta. Their hearts beat as one, and few spouses in ministry have been so demonstrably faithful, insightful, affectionate, and absolutely necessary as Vesta Sproul. R.C. would insist that you know that truth.

Our prayers are with the Sproul family, and our hope is in Christ. Listening to one of R.C.’s messages in the last few hours, I realized that R.C. had been preaching – decades ago – as a man ready to die, trusting in Christ.

In a tribute to his own beloved teacher, Professor John Gerstner, written in 1976, R.C. stated: “In an era of church history when theology is in chaos, the church is being shaken at its foundations, and Christian ethics shift and slide with every novel theology, we are grateful for the vivid example of one who stands in the midst of confusion as ‘a bright and burning light.’”

Indeed, we are grateful to God for the bright and burning light named R. C. Sproul. Soli Deo Gloria"

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Famous Scifi Author, Marion Zimmer Bradley, personified evil

Poem by her daughter, Moira Greyland

I lost my mother late last year
Her epitaph I’m writing here
Of all the things I should hold dear
Remember Mother’s hands

Hands to strangle, hands to crush
Hands to make her children blush
Hands to batter, hands to choke
Make me scared of other folk

But ashes for me, and dust to dust
If I can’t even trust
Mother’s hands.

They sent me sprawling across a room
The bathtub nearly spelled my doom
Explaining my persistent gloom
Remember Mother’s hands.

And hands that touched me way down there
I still pretend that I don’t care
Hands that ripped my soul apart
My healing goes in stop and start

Never a mark did she leave on me
No concrete proof of cruelty
But a cross-shaped scar I can barely see
The knife in Mother’s hands.

So Mother’s day it comes and goes
No Hallmark pretense, deep red rose
Except blood-red with her actions goes
It drips off Mother’s hands.

The worst of all my mother did
Was evil to a little kid
The mother cat she stoned to death
She told to me with even breath

And no remorse was ever seen
Reality was in between
Her books, her world, that was her life
The rest of us a source of strife.

She told me that I was not real
So how could she think I would feel
But how could she look in my eyes
And not feel anguish at my cries?

And so I give you Mother’s hands
Two evil, base, corrupted hands
And lest her memory forget
I’m still afraid of getting wet.

The bathtub scene makes me see red
With water closing over my head
No little girl should fear to die
Her mother’s fury in her eye!

But both her hands were choking me
And underwater again I’d be
I think she liked her little game
But I will never be the same

I’m still the girl who quakes within
And tries to rip off all her skin
I’m scared of water, scared of the dark
My mother’s vicious, brutal mark.

In self-admiring tones she told
Of self restraint in a story old.
For twice near death she’d beaten me,
And now she wants my sympathy.

I’ve gone along for quite awhile,
Never meant to make you smile
But here and now I make my stand
I really hate my mother’s hands.

Suicide and the church

http://blog.lifeway.com/newsroom/2017/09/29/lifeway-research-suicide-remains-a-taboo-topic-at-churches/

LifeWay’s study found three-quarters (76 percent) of churchgoers say suicide is a problem that needs to be addressed in their community. About a third (32 percent) say a close acquaintance or family member has died by suicide.

Those churchgoers personally affected by suicide were asked questions about the most recent person they know who has died by suicide. Forty-two percent said they lost a family member, and 37 percent lost a friend. Others lost a co-worker (6 percent), social acquaintance (5 percent), fellow church member (2 percent) or other loved one (8 percent).

About a third of these suicide victims (35 percent) attended church at least monthly during the months prior to death, according to their friends and family. Yet few of those friends and family say church members (4 percent) or church leaders (4 percent) knew of their loved one’s struggles.

____________

TWW is both for and against SIN as an element of counseling

Interesting Juxtaposition of the last two posts.

In the first post, TWW bemoan the sins of  Perry Noble and Tullian Tchividjian and TWWs belief that their particular sins should permanently revoke their ability to pastor a congregation.  TWW believes [ rightly - IMHO ] that these two gentlemen have a serious sin problem and it needs to be dealt with.

BUT In the most recent post;  The Deebs bemoan ACBC's focus and concern about the impact of people's sins upon their problems and their life.
__________

So Deebs, is sin a problem ONLY in pastor's lives and not a problem in the "hoi polloi?"  Will ongoing sin act as a depressant? 

And of course; you read the comments and so many comments appear to have a "touching and naïve faith" in the integrity and competence [ if you will ] of the secular counseling profession.  The commenters appear to believe that acquisition of letters behind your name and on your letterhead proves that you are wise and wonderful.  They naively believe that a license guarantees competence.
Have mercy my friends.  How foolish is that thought.  Don't you read the papers or Google?

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THE UNDERLYING ISSUE -

It's the narrative; a consistent reading of Scripture paying attention to the very words IS A PROBLEM  for the DEEBS and the majority of the commenters at TWW.  It pretty much puts to naught any fantasies we might have that we're good guys and not all that in need of a blood sacrifice for you sins.  It also speaks quite clearly to male and female roles;  totally unacceptable in today's feminized culture.  It says there are two kinds of people only; the Saved and the unsaved - who hate God.  That's unacceptable to TWW

They seem to like their salvation - "lite" with sin a minor factor.  Today's Cultural Christianity agrees with them. 

TWW seeks more Zacharias blood

Dee - "Some of us have been discussing this behind the scenes. Alas- My guess is that another post on Zacharias will be forthcoming…"
____________

Oh I'm sure it will.

"behind the scenes"   of course

RAVI - Christianity Today article

http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/december/ravi-zacharias-sexting-extortion-lawsuit-doctorate-bio-rzim.html.

Ravi will survive this attack - but the enemy knows our weaknesses indeed.