200th Anniversary at Mt. Vernon

I enjoyed being an invited speaker at one of the celebration services of the 200th anniversary of Mt. Vernon Baptist Church in Raleigh. This is the church my family was a part of while I was in high school. At that time I sensed God's desire for me to minister through preaching and teaching. Fortunately, Pastor Shannon Scott (far left) was willing to allow some of us young guys to preach and get some experience. I spoke last Wednesday night with Jarrod Scott (far right), who was my good friend in high school and roommates throughout college. Jarrod is now pastor of Green Pines Baptist in Knightdale, NC. Jeff Spry (middle-left), a good friend from Mt. Vernon and beyond also spoke. Jeff is an associate pastor at Western Avenue Baptist in Statesville, NC.

Summer Sunset

We are finally back from a week of vacation at the beach and another week out of town. I am posting a few sunset pictures from Hilton Head to mark the end of summer! Classes at Appalachian State and in the homeschool teaching cooperative start up this week. At ASU I am teaching two sections of Public Speaking and a First Year Seminar called Discourse in Politics and Religion. I am teaching Medieval History in the teaching cooperative. We were able to take sunset pictures over the water because we were staying on the west side of Hilton Head Island. If you look closely in the last picture, you can see a sliver of the moon.

Difficult is Not Miserable

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt 7:13-14).

I am amazed at how our American Christian culture attempts to follow Christ and enjoy the wide, easy way at the same time. I am amazed at how I attempt to do this. It is important to understand, though, that by narrow and wide we don’t mean miserable and wonderful, respectively. Difficult does not always mean miserable and broad does not always mean wonderful. We can escape this illusion by knowing that inward joy and fullness of purpose is greater than whatever may be difficult or easy for our bodies and circumstances.

Following Christ in this world means carefully choosing to what is holy and right before the Lord. It means saying no to many, many, many things the world offers and puts before us. And in these choices we find security and peace and love. I am still making entirely too many soft choices, instead of choosing the very best for me and my family before God.

Working By God's Grace

“I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” 1 Cor 15:10

I want to work hard and get lots done. I want to be productive for the kingdom of God. But I know what it is like to do that is my own strength and be limited to my own abilities. I have the grace of God with me. Grace = what God gives me. And not just all that he has already given me, even the strength and abilities to which I could limit myself. His grace is daily, moment by moment. I want to consciously draw from his grace in me by faith for each task.

Andrew Peterson's New Album: Counting Stars

Thanks to my buddy (whom I will keep anonymous, assuming he would like his iTunes gift to be thus kept), I downloaded the new Andrew Peterson Album, Counting Stars. If you know me, you already know that Andrew Peterson is one of my all time favorite artists. Thank you, Andrew, for continue to create authentic, thoughtful, God-honoring music. I have uploaded one of my favorite tracks from Counting Starts, "In the Night," for your listening enjoyment. 09 In the Night

The Wandering of the Appetite

“All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. . . . Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after the wind.”Eccl 6:7, 9

There has to be something more to life than working to have food so that one can satisfy his hunger. He will be hungry again and must work all the time to eat. The wandering of the appetite is vanity. Chasing after our whimsical desires is like chasing the wind. Our appetites are never satisfied. What a shallow, unthinking, meaningless existence. And, sadly, how common!

Better is the sight of the eyes, the conscious, careful awareness that allows one to make decisions based on more than his appetites. I don’t have to chase my appetites. I am not an animal. I can deliberately choose to do something that I do not want to do. I am able to deny myself for a greater cause. I am able to see past the meaningless, unending, empty, and impossible aim of pleasing myself in the way the world does.

It is not God’s purpose for us to be miserable. And we certainly should enjoy eating, drinking, and working, for this is our lot (Eccl 5:18). It is the temporal vanity of finding our full meaning in enjoying this life that we must escape. There is something greater.

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11

What is this path of life? What frees us from this world and enslavement to our appetites? Faith in the atoning death and resurrection of Christ, which breaks the penalty and power of sin and reconcile me to God, who is life himself. “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

Manly Missionary Monks

This Fall I will be teaching Medieval History (and Theology) in the Blue Ridge Teaching Cooperative in our local homeschool association. It will be based on the textbook Omnibus II: Church Fathers through the Reformation. We will be reading and discussing the following primary sources: Eusebius, The Church History Augustine, St., Confessions Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People Geoffrey, The History of the Kings of Britain Luther, Martin. The Bondage of the Will

Today I have been reading about the monk Bede, who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

"A common misconception about early medieval monasteries is that they were places where monks went to escape from civilization. But the opposite is true: monks boldly went into untamed places and carved out fresh civilization by establishing monasteries. In doing so they carried literacy to place where people could not read, food to where people were underfed, medicine to the sick, and most importantly, they carried the Christian gospel to people who had not heard of Jesus” (Omnibus II, 90-91).

I also found it interesting that Bede was the first to mark time with reference to the birth of Christ. In Latin he wrote, “ante vero incarnationis dominicae tempus” (“the time before the Lord's true incarnation”). This was translated into English and popularized as “Before Christ” and abbreviated B.C. Bede also used and popularized an earlier time marker, the Latin phrase anno Domini, “the year of our Lord,” abbreviated A.D. (Omnibus II, 95; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Christ).