Uillean Pipes

I like to blow the harmonica occasionally - goes nice with the guitar. But this, this is something in another category altogether. Not many folks have heard of uillean pipes, but most folks have probably heard them being played.

Harder To Believe Than Not To

This video from Steve Taylor begins with the hauntingly beautiful "Vocalise" from Sergei Rachmaninoff. Steve's hairstyle in the vid is unfortunate, but the song is powerful.

From the album's liner notes:
"The song takes its title from a line found in the collected letters of Flannery O'Connor, a critically acclaimed fiction writer from the Deep South. Her literary friends in New York City had a hard time believing that a writer of her caliber could be something as common and unfashionable as a follower of Jesus. She reacts in her letter to a criticism that Christianity's primary function is as a crutch for the weak-spirited. She writes how they just don't understand the cost involved in Christianity, that 'It's much harder to believe than not to believe.'"

Christianity demands things from us that we don't naturally want to give.

Pastor, teacher and theologian John MacArthur speaks against a "designer gospel...tweaked to overcome consumer resistance...The idea is to make Christianity easy to believe. But the unvarnished, untweaked, unmodified, unavoidable truth is that the gospel is actually hard to believe. In fact, if the the sinner is left to himself, it is absolutely impossible." (page 20, Hard to Believe)

Any sugar-coated sermon flavored to make "deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me" more palatable is not the Gospel at all.

"So you want to follow Jesus, do you? It'll cost you absolutely everything." (John MacArthur)

The Defending Shepherd

Most of us are familiar with the story of the lost sheep in the New Testament. It tells of a shepherd who is missing one sheep and searches until he finds it. Here we learn of the Shepherd's persistence in making sure that not one sheep belonging to Him should be lost.

Working our way back toward Deuteronomy, we read a blessing for those loved by Lord, that they "rest between His shoulders." This is a picture of a sheep being carried on the back of a shepherd. A shepherd might be carrying a sheep in this fashion if it were sick or injured or simply lost.

Jumping to 1 Samuel we see another description of our Shepherd that perhaps goes unnoticed by many. In many ways, the man David is a picture of the future Messiah. He is a shepherd king with a heart after God. In chapter 17 he describes his fearless strength in defending his sheep:

But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Vv 34-35

Our Great Shepherd carefully guards us, carries us in all our troubles, and rescues us from our enemies with decisive victory.

Something Different

There's nothing like a change of scenery. One of my most memorable motorcycle trips was to the mountains of north central New Mexico. While riding through the Santa Fe National Forest, it started to rain and we took a short break just after passing the Valles Caldera to batten down the hatches. Riding through the mountains is pure bliss, and riding in the rain is actually fun too, so this was an experience like no other. I actually felt sorry for the people in cars. BOOOORING. Trips like this are the antidote for stale living. A person must have a spirit of adventure to truly enjoy life, to remain vibrant and creative and full of wonder.

I would suggest that the same is true in our walk with Christ. How disappointing it is to hear the same wooden prayers being recited by passionless preachers or the same patterns for worship being employed to the point of numbness. I'm not calling for abandoning fundamental truths, but for the sake of keeping our relationship with Christ in "Spirit and in Truth", I certainly am calling for the abandonment of stale Christianity.

Why do the Psalms implore us many times to "sing a new song?" Why does God lament that people honor Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him? We should keep in mind that a change of scenery is not only nice, but necessary. We should sing a new song, find a new place to pray and pray in a voice that is our own, not filled with "Christianese". We should learn again to be filled with wonder as we read the Scriptures.

Our God is not a robot or a mystical god to be approached with special formulas and models. He is the Creator of all, infinitely creative, the Maker of music and art and language and color. Let us worship and serve Him in the "splendor of His holiness."

Prone To Leave...

Phil Wickham leads one of our Faith's most beautiful, compelling hymns . . . Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

Indescribable

How do you quantify the love a parent has for a child? If it's even possible, how can you describe the extra dimension added to that love when the child is one that was given very little hope of survival by doctors?

My youngest as yet has no real conception of the miracle his life is. Sometimes (well, often) I'm simply overwhelmed by the fact that he is with us and is fully functional, beautiful, intelligent and ornery in spite of having ARPKD. Last night I sat with him on the couch and held him as if I were holding some wonderful treasure, awed by the realization that he is mine. He is a dream, a blessing from God, and a testimony to his brothers of God's goodness.

The point that I'm getting at, and won't get to no matter how hard I try, is to try and describe this kind of love. It can't be done. All I can say is that it's real, it's bigger than me, and it can't be stopped. It must be so, then, that the love of God for His children must be just as extravagant. Kissing my boy's scruffy little head every morning is pure joy. Could it really be true that my heavenly Father feels this way about me?

Five Solas Are Everything

It is a fact that my desk and shelves are adorned with many a clipped or copied quote from great men and women, along with the occasional Tumbleweeds cartoon. Sometimes I am diligent enough to cite the sources for these quotes, and sometimes I let it slip. The quote I'm about to share is one of those that dangles in my office without proper citation. I have no idea where I found it - somewhere in the vast ocean of the web.

The Five Solas; Evidence of the Genuine Gospel

"The Reformers from the 16th and 17th centuries gave us a method of understand this exclusive Gospel. The Fives Solas are the polemic, divisive, markers that are evidence of the genuine Gospel. They state that it is from Scripture Alone through Faith Alone in Christ Alone to the Glory of God Alone. Any emphasis outside of this marks that form of the gospel as false. No part of it can be removed and used instead nor can they stand apart from the rest.

"These Five Solas together with nothing taken away and nothing added seems quite narrow doesn't it? That is because the Gospel is narrow for it is the narrow gate. Christ is the only way to God and those whom He saves come to Him on His terms, not theirs. These terms do not include religiosity. No, there is nothing added. we come empty handed to the cross.

"What we must never forget is that God is Sovereign. He is going to save His people, not by our efforts, but as we obey Him in making disciples where He has us. He saves His people from first to last. He preserves them eternally. He has graciously given us the opportunity to be part of this great work of bringing people in to the Kingdom."

There are so many aberrations of the Gospel in our world today. No doubt there have always been. To know the Gospel in simple, rock solid, unadorned terms in priceless, and necessary.