Picking Our Battles

"Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning; but give me the man who has the pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing.  That’s my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat."  George Eliot 

The Lesser of Two Evils?

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894), theologian, editor, anthologist, biographer, and great-great-grandson of Jonathan Edwards
“Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.” 
“Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.”
“Facts are God's arguments; we should be careful never to misunderstand or pervert them.”
“Most controversies would soon be ended, if those engaged in them would first accurately define their terms, and then adhere to their definitions.”
“Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.”
“Sinful and forbidden pleasures are like poisoned bread; they may satisfy appetite for the moment, but there is death in them at the end.”
“The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers, rather than fill it with the accumulation of others.”
“To rejoice in another's prosperity is to give content to your lot; to mitigate another's grief is to alleviate or dispel your own.”
“We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often have more power than the living.”
“What we gave, we have; What we spent, we had; What we left, we lost.”

Extracting Hope

"It is not from the secret counsels of Heaven, of which all are ignorant, but the open communications of Heaven, to which all have access, that we extract hope." Thomas Chalmers

Kuyper Online

Princeton Seminary has begun digitally archiving their massive theological library--including the complete works of Abraham Kuyper.  The free library is now available online.  Amazingly, only about one-sixteenth of the Kuyper canon has ever been translated into English--so, here is a great opportunity for some Masters and Doctoral projects or theses. Kudos to my bibliophile friend, Ben House, for this heads-up find.

Dos Logos

Covenantal Confession for Corporate Sin

“O Lord God of Heaven, the great and awesome God Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, to hear the prayer of Your servant that I now pray before You day and night for the people of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against You. Even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments and the statutes that You commanded Your servant Moses. Remember the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make My Name dwell there.’ They are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand. O Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who delight to fear Your name, and give success to Your servant today, and grant him mercy.” (Nehemiah 1:5-11)

“O Lord, the great and awesome God, Who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from Your commandments and laws. We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your Name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which You have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against You. To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, refusing to obey Your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against Him. He has confirmed His words, which He spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity. For under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what has been done against the covenant people. As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this calamity has come upon us; yet we have not entreated the favor of the Lord our God, turning from our iniquities and gaining insight by your truth. Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that He has done, and we have not obeyed His voice. And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made a Name for yourself, as at this day, we have sinned, we have done wickedly.  O Lord, according to all Your righteous acts, let Your anger and Your wrath turn away from Your city, Your holy hill, because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Your people have become a byword of shame among all who are around us. Now therefore, O God, listen to the prayer of Your servant and to his pleas for mercy, and for Your own sake, O Lord, make Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary, which is desolate. O my God, incline your ear and hear. Open your eyes and see our desolations, and the city that is called by Your name. For we do not present our pleas before You because of our righteousness, but because of Your great mercy. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive. O Lord, pay heed and act. Delay not, for Your own sake, O my God, because Your city and your people are called by Your name.” (Daniel 9:4-19)

Easter Market

In All the Annals

“In looking back over the history of the Christian Church, and thinking of the great men who have from time to time appeared on her stage, I cannot recall any man who so brilliantly combined so many qualities of greatness as Thomas Chalmers.  We may find some men as distinguished in certain properties, natural or acquired: in learning—of both classical and theological erudition—in precise reasoning, in ready powers of discussion and debate, in eloquence, in holiness of life, in regularity of purpose, in determined leadership, in steadfastness even in adversity, in energy of character, in sagacity and humor, in attainment in science, in depth of artistry, and in influence upon the widest array in society—equally at home with princes and with paupers, with devout and with doubters, with the thoughtful and with the thoughtless.  Where however, shall we find a case in which so much original genius is blended and concentrated in one individual?  Where shall we find a case in which all these rare elements combined with loftiest Christian principle and devotedness, and the exercise of the most humble, gentle, generous, cheerful Christian virtues?  Surely, such graces are precious few in all the annals of the world.” John Gordon Lorimer (1808-68), Pastor of Free St. David's, Glasgow

In His Time

“Christians often have occasion to remark that God’s ways are not as man’s ways, nor His thoughts as man’s thoughts.  Likewise, His measure of time oft far varies from our own estimations. This holds true in a vast variety of respects—but it holds especially true in connection with the removal of the righteous from this scene of things by the hand of death.  If the affairs of the church or the world were entrusted to the management of man, he would protract the life of the faithful to the extremest limit of human existence, and while the life was prolonged he would take care that the mind should retain all its vigor, and that the experience and public usefulness should ever enlarge.  Widely different sometimes is the Divine method of procedure. The servants of God are often unexpectedly taken away, not when enfeebled in gifts, or graces, or influence, but when their powers are most matured, their minds most thoroughly disciplined for future service, having successfully weathered trials and temptations readied by more favorable circumstances for exerting propitious influences upon men and nations.”  John Gordon Lorimer (1808-68), Pastor of Free St. David's, Glasgow

Slow Down and Rest

"I have often felt that the bustle of too active and varied sphere of exertion is adverse to the growth of one's personal and spiritual Christianity." Thomas Chalmers

Half-Hearted Ruts

“Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis

Schaeffer 100 Conference

Children in Worship

After worshipping with us at Parish the first few times, people will often comment on how delightful, among many other things, are the sights and sounds of our "lively family atmosphere" and our wiggling, squirming, and murmuring children.  These are the sights and sounds of life.  These are the sights and sound of the past meeting the future.  And these are the sights and sounds of authentic community and covenantal worship.  Indeed, these are what Charles Spurgeon once called, "the sweet sights and sounds of a holy hubbub."  


At Parish we want to be very careful never to smother out that "holy hubbub."  That necessarily means that we very much want our children in the midst of us during worship.  We want them to learn to worship by watching their parents, siblings, friends, and covenant family members worship.  


Sometimes that may mean that things will get just a little distracting.  Sometimes it may mean that a mom or a dad (or perhaps a grandmom or uncle or sister  or next door neighbor) will have to slip out the back and into the foyer for a little "time out".  But, this is what life in the Kingdom should look and sound like. 


So, we are happy to embrace our children in our services--even as we are sensitive to and considerate of all those around us.  We will encourage families to worship together--whenever possible and practical. We want to graciously, invitingly, and purposefully help our covenant children to learn of the beauty, goodness, and truth of the Gospel as they approach the throne of grace with all the rest of us in the Body of Christ. 


So, bring on the "wiggling, squirming, and murmuring." 

The Vicar

Nearly every time I go exploring in the vast, uncharted realms of Arthur Quiller-Couch's anthologies, I find some heretofore overlooked gem.  This summer as I was working my way through his Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, I ran across this wonderful poem by Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802-1839).  

I don't think it is too much to say that these thirteen stanzas capture almost perfectly my own vision of what a parish pastor's life and ministry ought to be. There is so much to learn from here.  I absolutely love it:

Some years ago, ere time and taste

  Had turn’d our parish topsy-turvy,

When Darnel Park was Darnel Waste,

  And roads as little known as scurvy,

The man who lost his way between

  St. Mary’s Hill and Sandy Thicket

Was always shown across the green,

  And guided to the parson’s wicket.

Back flew the bolt of lissom lath;

  Fair Margaret, in her tidy kirtle,

Led the lorn traveller up the path

  Through clean-clipp’d rows of box and myrtle;

And Don and Sancho, Tramp and Tray,

  Upon the parlor steps collected,

Wagg’d all their tails, and seem’d to say,

  “Our master knows you; you ’re expected.”

Up rose the reverend Doctor Brown,

  Up rose the doctor’s “winsome marrow;”

The lady laid her knitting down,

  Her husband clasp’d his ponderous Barrow.

Whate’er the stranger’s caste or creed,

  Pundit or papist, saint or sinner,

He found a stable for his steed,

  And welcome for himself, and dinner.

If, when he reach’d his journey’s end,

  And warm’d himself in court or college,

He had not gain’d an honest friend,

  And twenty curious scraps of knowledge;

If he departed as he came,

  With no new light on love or liquor,—

Good sooth, the traveller was to blame,

  And not the vicarage, nor the vicar.

His talk was like a stream which runs

  With rapid change from rocks to roses;

It slipp’d from politics to puns;

  It pass’d from Mahomet to Moses;

Beginning with the laws which keep

  The planets in their radiant courses,

And ending with some precept deep

  For dressing eels or shoeing horses.

He was a shrewd and sound divine,

  Of loud dissent the mortal terror;

And when, by dint of page and line,

  He ’stablish’d truth or startled error,

The Baptist found him far too deep,

  The Deist sigh’d with saving sorrow,

And the lean Levite went to sleep

  And dream’d of tasting pork to-morrow.

His sermon never said or show’d

  That earth is foul, that heaven is gracious,

Without refreshment on the road

  From Jerome, or from Athanasius;

And sure a righteous zeal inspir’d

  The hand and head that penn’d and plann’d them,

For all who understood admir’d,

  And some who did not understand them.

He wrote too, in a quiet way,

  Small treatises, and smaller verses,

And sage remarks on chalk and clay,

  And hints to noble lords and nurses;

True histories of last year’s ghost;

  Lines to a ringlet or a turban;

And trifles to the Morning Post,

  And nothings for Sylvanus Urban.

He did not think all mischief fair,

  Although he had a knack of joking;

He did not make himself a bear,

  Although he had a taste for smoking;

And when religious sects ran mad,

  He held, in spite of all his learning,

That if a man’s belief is bad,

  It will not be improv’d by burning.

And he was king, and lov’d to sit

  In the low hut or garnish’d cottage,

And praise the farmer’s homely wit,

  And share the widow’s homelier pottage.

At his approach complaint grew mild,

  And when his hand unbarr’d the shutter

The clammy lips of fever smil’d

  The welcome which they could not utter.

He always had a tale for me

  Of Julius Cæsar or of Venus;

From him I learn’d the rule of three,

  Cat’s-cradle, leap-frog, and Quæ genus.

I used to singe his powder’d wig,

  To steal the staff he put such trust in,

And make the puppy dance a jig

  When he began to quote Augustine.

Alack, the change! In vain I look

  For haunts in which my boyhood trifled;

The level lawn, the trickling brook,

  The trees I climb’d, the beds I rifled.

The church is larger than before,

  You reach it by a carriage entry:

It holds three hundred people more,

  And pews are fitted for the gentry.

Sit in the vicar’s seat: you ’ll hear

  The doctrine of a gentle Johnian,

Whose hand is white, whose voice is clear,

  Whose tone is very Ciceronian.

Where is the old man laid? Look down,

  And construe on the slab before you:

“Hic jacet Gulielmus Brown,

  Vir nullâ non donandus lauro.”

Thanksgiving in Boston

Early on the settlers expressed their thanksgiving for the evidence of God’s good providence in their lives.  Despite all the hardships they faced, they recognized the peculiar opportunity they had been afforded.  Thus, they outwardly affirmed their fealty to God and His ways.  

This verse by the renowned historical epic poet, Hezekiah Butterworth, captures that predisposition toward gratitude in early Boston.

"Praise ye the Lord!"  The Psalm today

            Still rises on our ears,

Borne from the hills of Boston Bay

            Through five times fifty years,

When Wintrop's fleet from Yarmouth crept

            Out to the open main,

And through the widening waters swept,

            In April sun and rain.

"Pray to the Lord with fervent lips,"

            The leader shouted, "pray";

And prayer arose from all the ships

            As faded Yarmouth Bay.

They passed the Scilly Isles that day,

            And May-days came, and June,

And trice upon the ocean lay

            The full orb of the moon.

And as that day, on Yarmouth Bay,

            Ere England sunk from view,

While yet the rippling Solent lay

            In April skies of blue.

"Pray to the Lord with fervent lips,"

            Each morn was shouted, "pray";

And prayer arose from all the ships,

            As first in Yarmouth Bay;

Blew warm the breeze o'er Western seas,

            Through Maytime morns, and June,

Till hailed these souls the Isles of Shoals,

            Low 'neath the summer moon;

And as Cape Ann arose to view,

            And Norman's Woe they passed,

The wood-doves came the white mists through,

            And circled round each mast.

"Pray to the Lord with fervent lips,"

            Then called the leader, "pray";

And prayer arose from all the ships,

            As first in Yarmouth Bay.

Above the sea the hill-tops fair;

            God's towers--began to rise,

And odors rare breathe through the air,

            Like balms of Paradise.

Through burning skies the ospreys flew,

            And near the pine-cooled shores

Danced airy boat and thin canoe,

            To flash of sunlit oars.

"Pray to the Lord with fervent lips,"

            The leader shouted, "pray!"

Then prayer arose, and all the ships

            Sailed in Boston Bay.

The whit wings folded, anchors down,

            The sea-worn fleet in line,

Fair rose the hills where Boston town

            Should rise from clouds of pine:

Fair was the harbor, summit-walled,

            And placid lay the sea.

"Praise ye the Lord," the leader called;

            Praise ye the Lord," spake he.

"Give thanks to God with fervent lips,

            Give thanks to God today,"

The anthem rose from all the ships,

            Safe moored in Boston Bay.

Tool Box

"My books are my tools.  They also serve as my counsel, my consolation, and my comfort.  They are my source of wisdom and the font of my education.  They are my friends and my delights.  They are my surety, when all else is awry, that I have set my confidence in the substantial things of Gospel truth and right."  Charles Spurgeon 

Free Agents and Non-Partisans

“It appears to us that a Christian minister cannot keep himself in the true path of consistency at all, without refusing to each of the parties all right of appropriation. . . He who cares for neither of two rivaling political parties is the only independent man; and to him only belongs the privilege of crossing and re-crossing their factious line of demarcation, just as he feels himself impelled by the high, paramount, and subordinating principles of the Christianity which he professes. . . But turning away from the beggarly elements of such a competition as this, let us remark, that on the one hand, a proper administration will never take offence at a minister who renders a pertinent reproof to any set of men, even though they should happen to be their own agents or their own underlings; and that, on the other hand, a minister who is actuated by the true spirit of his office, will never so pervert or so prostitute his functions, as to descend to the humble arena of partisanship.  He is the faithful steward of such things as are profitable for reproof and for doctrine, and for correction, and for instruction in righteousness”  Thomas Chalmers

Over My Morning Joe

“What are the objects of mathematical science?  Magnitude and the proportions of magnitude.  But in the foolishness of my youth, I had forgotten the two chief magnitudes: I thought not of the littleness of time and I recklessly thought not of the greatness of eternity.”  Thomas Chalmers

Sorrow, But for a Time

"There are no crown-wearers in Heaven who were not first cross-bearers on earth."  Charles Haddon Spurgeon


"You will not be carried to Heaven lying at ease upon a feather bed." Samuel Rutherford

The One, True Sanity

What first attracted G.K. Chesterton to Christian orthodoxy, he remarked, was that “it was attacked on all sides and for all contradictory reasons.” Fellow skeptics found the monks too meek and the Crusaders too bloody, the vestments too showy and the sackcloth too threadbare, the membership too common and the theology too exclusive. They faulted it for being too optimistic about the universe and too pessimistic about the world; for repressing sexuality too much and (according to the Malthusians) not enough. Yet the common man embraced Christianity. “Perhaps,” Chesterton concluded, “this extraordinary thing is really the ordinary thing; at least the normal thing, the center. Perhaps, after all, it is Christianity that is sane and all its critics that are mad--in various ways.”

Education and Faith

"Education is inescapably a religious discipline. The content, methodology, and the very culture in which education takes place are the product of the theologies which drive them. There is no neutrality. When parents choose between a Biblical vs. non-Christian educational paradigm for their children’s education, they are actually making a decision between competing faith systems. The question is simply this—in which religious educational system will my child be discipled?"  Doug Phillips

All of Grace

‎"What sweet consolations, what deft motivations, what strong demonstrations there are for us in the grace of our God." Thomas Chalmers

New Sermon Series: Genesis 1-11

Four decades ago Francis Schaeffer wrote, "The battle for a Christian understanding of the world is being waged on several fronts. Not the least of these is Biblical study in general, and especially the question of how the opening chapters of the Bible are to be read. Modern writers commenting on the book of Genesis tend to treat the first eleven chapters as something other than history. For some, the material is simply a Jewish myth, having no more historical validity for modern man than the Epic of Gilgamesh or the story of Zeus. For others, it forms a pre-scientific vision that no one who respects the results of scholarship can accept. Still others find the story symbolic but no more. Some accept the early chapters of Genesis as revelation in regard to an upper-story religious truth, but allow any sense of truth in regard to history and the cosmos (science) to be lost.... Here is where the great battle lines lie. Here is where the future of Christian civilization rests. Either God¹s Word can be trusted or it cannot. Therefore, it is the first order of business in the Church to settle the matter of how Genesis is to be read." (from Genesis in Space and Time, 1972)

What was evidently true then, is surely even more so today. The battle for our culture and the battle for the faith really begin on the front lines of Genesis 1-11.

Over the next several months at Parish Pres, we will undertake a detailed study of those early, formative chapters of the Bible--where virtually every Biblical truth, every doctrinal position, and every dogmatic revelation is given to us in seed form. May God use this time to shape and form in us an effectual faith and an abounding grace to meet the challenges of our culture and our world.

The Wisdom of John R.W. Stott

"Every Christian should be both conservative and radical; conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it."

"Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us."

"Good conduct arises out of good doctrine."

"We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior."

"Apathy is the acceptance of the unacceptable."

"We should not ask, 'What is wrong with the world?' for that diagnosis has already been given. Rather, we should ask, 'Where is the salt and light? Where is the Church? Why are the salt and light of Jesus Christ not permeating and changing our society?'"

"To encounter Christ is to touch reality and experience transcendence."

"The Christian community is a community of the cross, for it has been brought into being by the cross, and the focus of its worship is the Lamb once slain, now glorified. So, the community of the cross is a community of celebration, a Eucharistic community, ceaselessly offering to God through Christ the sacrifice of our praise and thanksgiving. The Christian life is an unending festival."

"His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice."

"Christian giving, like Christian living, is to be marked by self-sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, not by self-congratulation."

"The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion."

"The chief occupational hazard of leadership is pride."

"It is impossible to pray for someone without loving him, and impossible to go on praying for him without discovering that our love for him grows and matures."

"The Gospel is good news of mercy to the undeserving. The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales."

"These are the marks of the ideal Church: love, suffering, holiness, sound doctrine, genuineness, evangelism and humility. This is what Christ desires to find."

"The incentive to peacemaking is love, but it degenerates into appeasement whenever justice is ignored. To forgive and to ask for forgiveness are both costly exercises. All authentic Christian peacemaking exhibits the love and justice--and so the pain--of the cross."

King, Judge, and Lawgiver

"There is to come a day when men shall be judged--judged after a better fashion than you or I can judge. How dare we, then, travesty God's great assize by ourselves mounting the throne and pretending to rehearse the solemn transactions of that tremendous hour? Judgment will come soon enough: may the Lord have mercy upon us in that day. My brother, why neediest thou hurry it on by thyself ascending the throne? Cannot God do his own work? Between brother and brother, differing on minor points, between Christian and Christian, each one obeying his conscience, we are not to exercise mutual condemnation. Come hither, brethren! Here is work enough for you all. Let us not therefore impudently intrude ourselves into the office and perogative of Christ. Let God be God--and let us content ourselves by this alone: He has redeemed the weak and the strong alike." Charles H. Spurgeon