Another reason to love Lynchburg
This past Saturday we went to downtown Lynchburg to the open air market that sells Virginia-grown vegetables, flowers, and other wonderful items. This market has such a flavor of Lynchburg. The sellers are friendly, welcoming and helpful. The buyers are polite, friendly, and respectful. It’s just a great time.
In addition to the outdoor sales, the market includes an indoor area where folks display various crafts and more food. The craftsmanship is amazing and tremendously varied. There are also small retail shops in this indoor area including restaurants.
We found this market when we first moved to Lynchburg about two years ago and determined that we needed to go back often. We have not done it often enough, but decided to go on Saturday.
We purchased eggs, a huge chunk of real churned butter, flavored goat cheese, quiche, Italian sausage, some brown eggs (that still had a hen feather on one of them), and other wonderful food items—all for way below store prices. We also purchased some flowers for decorating the front of our house.
Our son chose some beautiful daffodils, which will look great in front of our house planted in two small cement urns. He has always had great taste in decorating. And my wife chose a beautiful hanging plant with purple flowers, which is now hanging from a shepherd’s hook next to our front walk.
After leaving the market, we decided to just walk around Lynchburg and enjoy the city. We walked down to the waterfront where our son watched some long freight trains go by. We walked to Amazement Square—a great hands-on children’s museum. We walked to the large air conditioning units outside Amazement Square that have been converted into a full-sized school bus for the children to play in. The children can turn the front tires with the steering wheel, turn on the blinkers, honk the horn, turn on the windshield wipers, and open and close the cool bi-fold entrance doors. My son loves it.
We walked down a street we had not walked before and found a fantastic camera shop (which I’m sure will become a regular hangout for me). We walked past the delightful mix of eclectic architecture Lynchburg’s city buildings present.
And we went to the fantastic Inklings Used Bookstore (and café). The coffee is amazingly wonderful. If this place takes off, Starbucks will be out of business. And the bookstore is delightful too. I found a copy of Berkhof’s Systematic Theology in great shapre for a great price. My wife found some wonderful treasures in books too. The owner of the store is an Episcopalian priest and is a very interesting man. I think you would have to be unusual in order to successfully run a store like this.
As always, it was a thoroughly enjoyable time out and about in our wonderful City. We love Lynchburg!
Did I mention, we love Lynchburg?
Blog Header – April 6, 2008
This week’s photo is another of the photos I adjusted in Photoshop for use in our church’s lyric projection for the praise songs. This barn is located on a hill to the side of Route 29 in Nelson County, Virginia. Everytime I passed this barn I was struck with its beauty, especially against the mountains in the background.
Finally, one day I drove to the side of the road, pulled out my camera and took this photograph. I took the photo in black & white but placed our church’s logo on the side of the barn in Photoshop.
Spring is in the air
I took all of these photos yesterday. These flowers are among the many flowers that are blooming all around our house.
C.H. Spurgeon
The Golden Key of Prayer
As spring scatters flowers, so supplication ensures mercies.
C.H. Spurgeon
The Practice of Praise
Praise means this, that you and I are appointed to tell forth the goodness of God. Just as the birds of spring wake up before the sun and begin singing—and all of them singing with all their might—so become the choristers of God. Praise the Lord evermore, even as they do who, with songs and choral symphonies. Day and night, circle His throne rejoicing. This is your holy and privileged office.
Martin Luther
A man who could make one rose . . . would be accounted most wonderful; yet God scatters countless such flowers around us! His gifts are so infinite that we do not see them.
Dorothy Parker — Flowers are heaven’s masterpieces.
Help for the spiritually abused
What defines a cult? Is all fundamentalism cultic? Are cults only those groups that deny certain orthodox Christian Christological doctrines? Or is it possible that there may be cults within conservative Evangelical Christianity?
If you are interested in the answers to these questions, you need to check out two outstanding web sites:
Because so many earnest Christians still remain ignorant of the phenomenon of cultic social practices within Biblical Christianity, I hope to increase awareness and hopefully spare others the pain and tragedy that I have endured. Most Christians have no knowledge of the techniques of thought reform and psychologcial manipulation employed by legalistic Christian groups, so this site purposes to inform as many people as possible of the cultic nature of these otherwise Christian schools of thought.
Of special interest to me is the increased interest and acceptance of “Family Integrated Churches” which promotes the traditional idea of family as central to the restoration of Christianity within Western Civilization. I am deeply disturbed by this trend because groups such as Vision Forum headed by Doug Phillips promote the family but with rigid, legalistic standards of acceptable conduct. These extra-biblical standards are dangerous in my opinion but are marketed and widely accepted by many unknowing Christians as Biblically sound and orthodox. The tactics and practices used and promoted by Doug Phillips via the Vision Forum vehicle correspond to cultic practice and thus create a hegemonic and neo-Gnostic belief system. Because of the strong focus on their own version of Patriarchy, it is the opinion of many that the sequelae of this system present a very real danger to women.
Anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today is the anniversary of the assissination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is good for us to remember the positive impact of individuals who fight for what’s right. It is particularly good to see the vision of such people come to fruition in the society we live in.
William Wilberforce dedicated his life to improving the morals of English society and to the total and complete abolition of the slave trade. We can read his writings and look at the world around us and realize that his dreams have been fulfilled. We can celebrate the life of William Wilbeforce, rejoicing in the knowledge that what he worked so hard to accomplish has become a reality today.
But what of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream? We all know what his dream was—he stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in our nation’s capitol and told us what that dream was. Dr. King said that he had a dream that one day all men “will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Has Dr. King’s dream become a reality?
In a day when the majority of people in our society proclaim that we are making personal attacks against anyone whose character we call into question, I think the answer must be “no.” In a day when a Barack Obama can run for the presidency of our nation and although he seldom speaks of race, we hear non-stop reports (both favorable and negative) about him being “the first black man to run for the presidency,” and we hear about folks even from Obama’s political party stating that he could never have made it this far had he been a white man, implying that he is succeeding only because of the color of his skin and not because of any excellence on his part.
These attitudes are not what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., fought and died for. May we all commit ourselves to viewing and judging those around us not by the color of their skin or the nation of their origin, but by the content of their character. And I would add to that the need to judge them also by their understanding and belief in the death and resurrection of the Son of God who came to save people from every tribe, tongue, and nation—not because of the color of their skin, or because of the content of their character, but because of their great need of a Savior. I don’t recommend judging them to disenfranchise them, but to target them for the proclamation of the gospel because if they do not yet believe in Jesus Christ, this is their greatest need.
Avoiding Rash Judgment
So often I jump into the emotional fray, relying on my perception of the situation my past experiences to determine my present actions—when I should be waiting peacefully on God and relying on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
This passage from My Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis admonishes us in these matters. I think it is good advice and worthy of consideration:
Avoiding Rash Judgment
Turn your attention upon yourself and beware of judging the deeds of other men, for in judging others a man labors vainly, often makes mistakes, and easily sins; whereas, in judging and taking stock of himself he does something that is always profitable.
We frequently judge that things are as we wish them to be, for through personal feeling true perspective is easily lost.
If God were the sole object of our desire, we should not be disturbed so easily by opposition to our opinions. But often something lurks within or happens from without to draw us along with it.
Many, unawares, seek themselves in the things they do. They seem even to enjoy peace of mind when things happen according to their wish and liking, but if otherwise than they desire, they are soon disturbed and saddened. Differences of feeling and opinion often divide friends and acquaintances, even those who are religious and devout.
An old habit is hard to break, and no one is willing to be led farther than he can see.
If you rely more upon your intelligence or industry than upon the virtue of submission to Jesus Christ, you will hardly, and in any case slowly, become an enlightened man. God wants us to be completely subject to Him and, through ardent love, to rise above all human wisdom.
Boisterous praise
© Richard D. Gelina
Nehemiah 12:43 And they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.
I enjoy this verse so much. Even with our electronic sound reinforcement, our churches don’t typically praise God at a volume level that may be “heard far away.” Imagine how great this must have been.
I can’t wait to hear what it’s going to sound like in heaven!
Answering felt needs or real needs?
My father writes one of the best blogs I’ve seen for simple exegetical, devotional discussions, complete with thought-provoking questions and application. The most recent two posts on his blog are particularly outstanding.
Navigators: How God Looks Upon a Distorted Gospel deals with our need to stick to the Word of God, not adding or subtracting according to our own agenda or whim.
Navigators: People-Pleasing Preachers discusses directly the common current problem of adjusting the church’s message to suit the “itching ears” of the congregation. This post is particularly important during these days of “Seeker Sensitivity,” Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, and the other fad-driven church-growth people and programs.
Take a read, comment on the thoughts, join the discussion.
Working hard to misunderstand
It’s getting harder and harder to debate with people these days. The mere suggestion of disagreement becomes “a personal attack” and it seems that all the arguments you present to convince the hearers of your position are misunderstood intentionally, many times with the obvious goal of misdirecting the debate into territory that is not pertinent to the discussion.
The following quote is from Pyromaniacs: Coffee Klatsch. Read the full post, but here’s a quote to whet your appetite:
Postmodernists aren’t sure about much, but they work harder than Mormon apologists to maintain the few cardinal dogmas of their system. Of course, the first article of faith in the postmodernists’ short canon is their belief that an impregnable fortress of ambiguity surrounds the very slippery notion of “truth.” They can’t seem to muster any settled conviction even when God Himself has spoken. But here’s one thing they are dead certain about: Meaning is always elusive.
Meaning is at its most evanescent whenever someone disagrees with them. The more you labor to make your meaning plain, the harder the postmodern mind will labor to find a way to deconstruct your clarifications. And if you are stubborn enough to continue explaining yourself in the face of their determination to misread what you are saying, a devoted pomo will simply pretend not to be able to hear. If you persist anyway, prepare to be labeled either stupid or uncharitable.
Family idolatry
Idolatry can arise unexpectedly from the strangest areas of our lives. And as Christians, we sometimes realize that we have placed something that we love above God. We tend to react immediately to eliminate this newly realized idolatry by viewing that thing as an evil. This is an overreaction in most cases. Many of the things that we find we are idolizing are actually good things given to us by God for our pleasure. We just have a habit of taking good things from God and placing them in higher regard than the God who created them.
Romans 1:25 speaks of those who “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” We must fight hard to not place good things given to us by God for our enjoyment in the place of the God who made them. But we also must not diminish those things once we have realized that they have been placed in a position of an idol. We simply need to return to a biblical and God-honoring view of these things.
I have recently read some articles from the Patriarchy crowd that seem to hold the family in a position of an idol. They especially place the father of the family in a position that seems to usurp God’s own position. As we are told in Luke 14:26 (the verse in the callout box to the right), our love for our families should, by comparison to our love for God, seem as if it is actually hatred. Luke 14:26 is not telling us to hate our families, but rather to love God infinitely more than we love our families.
May we all be careful to hold all of the good things God has given us in the proper place, remembering always that God is the giver of all good gifts (James 1:17) and, therefore, should be held in infinitely higher regard.
But I didn’t mean to do it…
I have always loved Bill Cosby’s video “Himself.” He discusses children’s disobedience and their common defense when asked why they did something: “I don’t know.” I try not to ask why, although I don’t often succeed and the why question just seems to pop out. But when I talk to my son about something he’s done wrong, he often says, “But I didn’t mean to do it,” as if this changes the fact that he has done something wrong.
Today as I was reading my Bible I came across an interesting passage:
Leviticus 5:14-16 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the Lord, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering. He shall also make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing and shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.
Apparently God does not accept the defense, “But I didn’t know…” or “But I didn’t mean to…” God accepts only total perfection—total obedience—or else we are guilty of the whole law (James 2:10). It’s a bit overwhelming.
After a few posts regarding our need to reject man’s rules and regulations (if they are not directly derived from scripture), I thought it might be a good idea to remind ourselves that God demands absolute obedience to His commands. And we have our hands full enough trying to reach that level of obedience. In fact the level of obedience is impossible, as we can see by looking at the 5,000 or so years of man’s inability to live by the Mosaic law.
But, praise God, there is forgiveness in Jesus’ name. Without that forgiveness, we would remain forever separated from God with no chance of redemption.
Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
T-shirts & tattoos
Although no t-shirts are available in our men’s line, this tattoo will be a wonderful addition to any TRUE man’s functional wardrobe. Proclaim loudly and boisterously your dedication to your White Washed Feminist.
For the ladies we have this fine t-shirt modeled by Kelly. Made of soft cotton cloth, the WWF historic photo has been strategically placed to cover anything that might provide titillation to others, causing them to stumble and fall when they realize that women are made differently than men, which is obviously a result of the fall and could not possibly have been God’s plan in the first place.
For purchase of more than 3,000 shirts, 10 additional WWMMD? buttons will be included free of charge. Free shipping will apply as always, except to New Zealand, which is far too Patriocentic-friendly for free shipping (or for these t-shirts, for that matter).
This is the small print disclaimer rejecting all responsibility for any potential sins resulting from these products. All fault for such sin rests firmly upon any nearby female and not on the creator of these products, as he is a male and therefor free of any responsibility for his actions, whether good or bad.
By His grace - For His glory 