Good thoughts...

From Ray Ortlund:

I believe in the sovereignty of God, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Solas of the Reformation, I believe that grace precedes faith in regeneration. Theologically, I am Reformed. Sociologically, I am simply a Christian – or at least I want to be. The tricky thing about our hearts is that they can turn even a good thing into an engine of oppression. It happens when our theological distinctives make us aloof from other Christians. That’s when, functionally, we relocate ourselves outside the gospel and inside Galatianism. The Judaizers in Galatia did not see their distinctive – the rite of circumcision – as problematic. They could claim biblical authority for it in Genesis 17 and the Abrahamic covenant. But their distinctive functioned as an addition to the all-sufficiency of Jesus himself. Today the flash point is not circumcision. It can be Reformed theology. But no matter how well argued our position is biblically, if it functions in our hearts as an addition to Jesus, it ends up as a form of legalistic divisiveness.

Here's the conclusion:

My Reformed friend, can you move among other Christian groups and really enjoy them? Do you admire them? Even if you disagree with them in some ways, do you learn from them? What is the emotional tilt of your heart – toward them or away from them? If your Reformed theology has morphed functionally into Galatian sociology, the remedy is not to abandon your Reformed theology. The remedy is to take your Reformed theology to a deeper level. Let it reduce you to Jesus only. Let it humble you. Let this gracious doctrine make you a fun person to be around. The proof that we are Reformed will be all the wonderful Christians we discover around us who are not Reformed. Amazing people. Heroic people. Blood-bought people. People with whom we are eternally one – in Christ alone.

HT: Justin Taylor

SBC roll call

Here's an interesting piece from Ted Olsen on the recent SBC resolution on regenerate church membership. The numbers are eye-opening to the current state of SBC churches.

Check it out here.



HT: Justin Taylor

Saturday Afternoon in Athens

The following is a post I made in reply to Bryan Barley's rundown of College Football's Greatest entrances, in which he left off UGA. (And a few others of note - Clemson, FSU...see the other replies.) Just thought I'd share this here as well....

Brook Whitmire's voice booms over the loudspeaker in Sanford Stadium and 92,746 are summoned to their feet.

"It's Saturday afternoon in Athens!"

They've spent the past two hours at the Dog Walk, lining the way between Lumpkin Street and the Bridge with red and black. The team has walked the walk, looking the Bulldog Nation in the eyes as they prepare for the game ahead.

The Redcoat Band now stands Between the Hedges as Whitmire's voice fills the air. Then, there in the southwest corner of the stadium, a lone trumpet soloist stands, and the Battle Hymn of the Bulldog Nation begins.

Larry Munson's voice now, distinct and raspy as ever, comes over the speakers while the images of Bulldog greats - Herschel Walker, Vince Dooley, Erk Russell, Lindsey Scott, Kevin Butler, Eric Zeier, Champ Bailey, Robert Edwards, David Greene, Boss Bailey, Mussa Smith, Thomas Davis, Matthew Stafford - roll on the screen. Lindsey Scott's crushing 80-yard TD run on Florida in 1980. Herschel's legs pumping through Tennessee in his freshman campaign. Dooley getting carried off the field on shoulders - "Look at the Sugar falling out of the sky!" Verron Haynes stomping on the Volunteer's face with his hobnail boot. David Pollack stripping and recovering for the TD against the Gamecocks. Michael Johnson leaping over Auburn to capture the TD and the SEC East.

All this to The Voice of the Bulldogs, in his legendary style, and on the backdrop of the Battle Hymn:

"Heroes have graced the field before, with the hearts, bodies and minds of which the Bulldog Nation can be justifiably proud. The tradition of unbridled excellence demonstrated by these, whose memory spans more than a full century. And now a new breed of Bulldog stands ready to take the field abound to assume the reigns of the Georgia forebearers and continue that tradition, understanding that there is no tradition more worthy of envy, no institution more worthy of such loyalty, as the University of Georgia. As we prepare for another meeting Between the Hedges, let all the Bulldog faithful rally behind the men who now wear the Red and Black, with two words, two simple words which express the sentiment of the entire Bulldog Nation..."

And 93,000 fans, filling the stadium and bridge, yell at the top of their lungs, in exact unison with Redcoat Band,

"Go Dogs!"

I'm not saying that Sanford Stadium has the greatest single moment of entrance, but I challenge anybody to give me a greater two hours leading up to game time than you'll find on any fall Saturday afternoon in Athens.

Mars and the Watts

Two places to go... or not to go, really... whatever.

The first, check out NASA's mission to Mars. This is pretty incredible, if you ask me. I had a great uncle who died a few years ago in his 90's. He swore up and down that we never sent men to the moon, but that in fact they just walked around in the Arizona desert. I wonder what he'd think about a robot on the Red Planet...

Here's NASA's Mars Pheonix site.

The second is probably not worth your time, but I had to go for the name's sake. I saw it on a banner ad on CNN today. I think it's the first banner ad I've ever visited.

Here it is: www.SaveTheWatts.com. Awesome. They're trying to save my family.

You really might not want to visit it. It's about energy conservation or some junk like that...

The 10 Spot

Ten random thoughts... No rhyme or reason...

10. I've just found the worst broadcast combination in Baseball, Darren Sutton and Mark Grace of Fox Sports. Yes, worse than Joe Morgan. At least he has Jon Miller to support him. Listening to Darren Sutton and Mark Grace is like listening to Joe Morgan broadcasting with his partner, Joe Morgan. I'm watching the Diamondbacks at the Braves right now on Fox and I promise you I just heard Darren Sutton say "Corky Miller. One of the great names in baseball. First name Corky. Last name Miller." Wow Darren! What insight! And Mark Grace. I kid you not, a batter comes up, his numbers are put on the screen, and it's like the first time Grace has seen his stats. Corky Miller's .100 BA, 0 HRs and 3 RBI come on the screen and a second later Mark gracefully adds "Man, he's not having a great year at the plate." Good eye, Mark. Good eye.


Oh, and they seriously said about Randy Johnson, "He's not your father's big unit." What? Can they say that on daytime t.v.?

9. Speaking of Joe Morgan, be sure to check out his website, http://www.firejoemorgan.com/, "Where Bad Sports Journalism Comes to Die." I wonder if Jon Miller secretly contributes to this site.

8. Even with the bad broadcasters, at least I'm getting to watch the Braves. It's just the second time since I moved to North Carolina that I've been able to catch them on the tube. It's like a piece of me has died.


7. My fantasy baseball team, Donkey's Jawbone, is doing poorly, as July Johnson would say. After sitting pretty in first for a few days, I've hovered around fifth, about 19 points back of the leader, for the last week or so. Not good. It's just a run of bad luck. I'm still banking on it turning around.

6. I spent my first two picks on Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. Last year's stats: Fielder, .288, 119 RBI, 50 HRs; Cabrera, .320, 119 RBI, 34 HRs. So far this year: Fielder, .265, 24 RBI, 6 HRs; Cabrera, .283, 26 RBI, 7 HRs.

Cabrera's projected to finish with 24 HRs, 89 RBI and Fielder's looking at 21 HRs and 82 RBI.

5. Fielder's gotta start eating meat again.

4. My catcher is Gerald Laird. He looks like this:

Allow me now to introduce you to a friend of mine, Will ElLaissi. He looks like this:

You decide.

3. Oh, and I'm probably in fifth place because Gerald Laird is my catcher.

2. The Braves are 1.5 games behind the Marlins. The Marlins. The Mets are crashing hard and are now facing distractions from their manager. The Phillies remembered they're the Phillies and only won last year because the Mets lost. I think the Nationals quit playing games sometime around the first week of April.

The Braves are going to win the East.

1. In two games against each other this year, Tim Hudson is 2-0 against Johan Santana. Which is amazing, because if you listened to ESPN in the offseason you would have thought Santana was immortal. Turns out he's just a Met.

Global Warming?

There's a petition out that's been signed by over 31,000 scientists, including over 9,000 with PhD's, denying that "global warming" is caused by manmade greenhouse gases.

I'd be interested to see Al Gore's response. Maybe he'll sign it too in order to not feel guilty about his house, the one that used twice as much electricity one month than the average household uses in an entire year. (Check it out.)

Here's the text though for anyone who is interested:

"We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limit on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the earth's atmosphere and disruption of the earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial upon the natural plant and animal environments of the earth."

You can go to their site here.

The implications of this are big. This many scientists, going against mainstream thought, will cause tidal waves of ripple effects. Stay tuned...

The heart of it all

So I'm in the heart of Paul's word on justification before God by faith as opposed to works. And I thought I'd share some of Mr. Murray's words again this morning that proved to be incredibly encouraging to me.

In making his point from the Old Testament that justification has ALWAYS been by faith, not works, Paul recalls both Abraham and David. After quoting Genesis 15:6, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" Paul proves that "to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."

And it keeps getting better.

Paul continues, "just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: (citing David in Psalm 32 now) 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.'"

And now John Murray's thoughts:
"What David spoke of in terms of the non-imputation and forgiveness of sin Paul interprets (in the preceding verse, verse 6) more positively as the imputation of righteousness."

"(Paul) is dealing with justification by faith in opposition to works. Nothing could be more illustrative of this than the pronouncement that the blessed man is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and to whom the Lord does not impute sin. For what is contemplated in this pronouncement is not good works but the opposite, iniquities and sin. And the blessed man is not the man who has good works laid to his account but whose sins are not laid to his account. David's religion, therefore, was not one determined by the concept of good works but by that of gracious remission of sin, and the blessedness, regarded as the epitome of divine favour, had no affinity with that secured by works of merit."

In the gospel of God's grace, the unmistakable indentifying feature for anyone who believes (anyone!) is not that God forgives just his sins. It's not that God just credits him for his own good works and says that's enough. No, it is far better than both. It's that God forgives his sins and gives him all the goodness and reward that deservedly belongs to Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21, "(God) made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." And in the words of Jonathan Edwards, "What sin was it? Why that sin that was in us. So we are made the righteousness of God. But what righteousness of God is it that we are made? Why that which was in Christ."

And so I hope we say with the father in Mark 9:24, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"