Prairie Dog Peak

My friend Ted has developed a great sledding hill...north facing slope...various degrees of difficulty...authentic names...it's going to be a great holiday break...pray for more snow.

Do Not Forsake Me

The following is a devotional reflection on Psalm 38:21 from Charles Spurgeon, edited by Roy H. Clarke:

"We frequently pray that God will not forsake us in our hours of trials and tests. We need, however, to use this prayer all the time. There is not a moment in our life that we can do without His constant upholding. Whether in light or in darkness, in fellowship or in temptation, we need to pray, 'Do not forsake me, O LORD.' 'Hold me up and I shall be safe.' (Psalm 119:117) A little child learning to walk needs the hand of her mother. The ship without a captain drifts from its course. We cannot make it without continued aid from above.

Pray, 'Do not forsake me, O LORD.' Father, do not forsake your child, or I will fall by the hand of the enemy. Shepherd, do not forsake your lamb, or I will wanter from the safety of the fold. Great Vineyard Keeper, do not leave your plant, or I will wither and die. 'Do not for sake me, O LORD,' now or at any moment in my life.

Do not forsake me in my joys, lest the fully engage my heart. Don not forsake me in my sorrow, lest I murmur against You. Do not forsake me during repentance, lest I lost the hope of pardon and fall into despair. Do not forsake me in the days of my strongest faith, lest my faith degenerate into presumption.

Do not forsake me. Without You I am weak; with You I am strong. Do not forsake me. My path is dangerous and full of snares. I desperately need your guidance.

The hen does not forsake her chickens. Cover me with Your feathers, and under Your wings I will take refuge (Psalm 91:4) 'Be not far from me. Trouble is near and there is none to help' (Psalm 22:11). "Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation' (Psalm 27:9). Amen."

That's My Boy!

Thanks to Laura Yost for sending me this photo today.

Thanks to Dave Booton for owning such an awesome chainsaw.

That's my boy!

To Think with an Open Mind?—J. Gresham Machen (1881 – 1937)

I'm thinking about education a lot lately as our family tries to determine where our Anna will attend Middle School next year. Thanks to Kairos Journal for this article.

On June 17, 1932, the noted New Testament scholar and founder of Westminster Theological Seminary, J. Gresham Machen delivered three addresses to the Bible League at Caxton Hall, Westminster, London. His remarks were first published under the title of The Importance of Christian Scholarship. His analysis of the purpose of teaching and the need for hard work are enduring lessons.

There was a time when the raising of the question as to the importance of Christian scholarship might have seemed to be ridiculous; there was a time when a man who does so much talking as a minister or a Sunday School teacher does, . . . in the propagation of the faith to which he adheres, would have regarded it as a matter of course that he ought to know something about the subject of which he undertakes to talk.

But in recent years we have got far beyond all such elementary considerations as that; modern pedagogy has emancipated us, whether we are in the pulpit or in the professor’s chair or in the pew, from anything so irksome as earnest labor in the acquisition of knowledge. It never seems to occur to many modern teachers that the primary business of the teacher is to study the subject that he is going to teach. Instead of studying the subject that he is going to teach, he studies “education”; a knowledge of the methodology of teaching takes the place of a knowledge of the particular branch of literature, history, or science to which a man has devoted his life.

This substitution of methodology for content in the preparation of the teacher is based upon a particular view of what education is. It is based upon the view that education consists primarily not in the imparting of information, but in a training of the faculties of the child; that the business of the teacher is not to teach, but to develop in the child a faculty which will enable the child to learn.

This child-centered notion of education seems to involve emancipation from a vast amount of drudgery. It used to be thought necessary to do some hard work at school. When a textbook was given to a class, it was expected that the contents of the textbook should be mastered. But now all that has been changed. Storing up facts in the mind was a long and painful process, and it is indeed comforting to know that we can now do without it. Away with all drudgery and all hard work! Self-expression has taken their place. A great pedagogic discovery has been made—the discovery that it is possible to think with a completely empty mind.

It cannot be said that the results of the discovery are impressive. This child-centered notion of education has resulted, particularly in America, where it has been most ruthlessly applied, in a boundless superficiality of which we Americans certainly have little reason to be proud; but it has probably not been confined to America by any means. I wonder when we shall have that revival of learning which we so much need, and which I verily believe might be, in the providence of God, as was the Renaissance of the fifteenth century, the precursor of a reformation in the church. When that revival of learning comes, we may be sure that it will sweep away the present absurd over-emphasis upon methodology in teaching at the expense of content. We shall never have a true revival of learning until teachers turn their attention away from the mere mental processes of the child, out into the marvelous richness and variety of the universe and of human life. Not teachers who have studied the methodology of teaching but teachers who are on fire with a love of the subjects that they are going to teach are the real torch-bearers of intellectual advance.¹

Footnotes:

1	J. Gersham Machen, “Christian Scholarship and Evangelism,” in Selected Shorter Writings, ed. D. G. Hart (1932; reprint, Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2004), 135-137.

Hmmm...

...so now I'm thinking about this chart, along with a parable of Jesus in Luke 16:1-13.

Double-click on the image of the chart to see a larger version.

Jesus said in Luke 16:9 - "And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings."

Another Christmas Short

That's Christmas! from andy pearce on Vimeo.

I have a copy of Christianity Explored, so if you'd like to go through it with somebody, please ask!

A Glimpse of a Pain-Free Life, by John Piper

December 7, 2008

"Here is a three-second experience that might encourage you.

I was sitting at my desk slowly reading and praying over Job 29 and 30. The thought came over me that at this moment I am pain-free. In fact, I feel very good. I feel warm and content. Almost cozy. As if in a blanket by a fire on a cold evening with a good book and a friend.

The next thought that came over me—came over is what I mean—was that this pain-free euphoria will not last. My back pain will increase. My joints will stiffen. My eyes will grow dim. My hearing will become more muffled. My memory will weaken. My mind will slow down. My balance will make me stumble. And warm moments like this will decrease to the point where there is only discomfort interrupted with pain.

For a split second there was a deep and threatening sense of loss. A kind of nostalgic sorrow. Not fear, but sadness. The thought of never having these moments again was like a deep ache. But this sense of loss was more of an echo than a sound in its own right. As soon as it came it was fading away.

In its place, came over me—and this too was fleeting, as much as I wanted it to stay—a conquering and freeing sense of what would be true after death. Its primary effect (as odd as this sounds) was to make me feel free from shame at possible ridicule from unbelievers in moments of personal evangelism. This was all within seconds. It was like a fleeting spiritual taste of heaven and the resurrection.

I saw and felt, as through a clicking camera shutter, everlasting pain-free life. Everlasting warmth. Everlasting guilt-free days. Everlasting friendship with the most interesting and caring Person in the universe. Everlasting expectancy, as on a child’s Christmas morning. Everlasting amazement, as at the first sight of the Himalayas. Everlasting tension-free relationships where everyone knows that everyone will take what is said in the true way. Everlasting calamity-free enjoyment of everything good, without any danger of idolatry, because the Source of all good is loved above all.

All this happened in about three seconds.

The taste that is left (poorly recorded here) is strong enough to make me pray: O Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit on me and my family and my church, so that the reality of heaven and the resurrection and the new earth will be known and spiritually seen—if only through shutter speeds of illumination—that in this hope we will be the most anxiety-free, regret-free, grumbling-free, selfishness-free witnesses to the greatness of Christ the world has ever known."

And the obsessive skier/pastor says: "Amen!"