Wal-Mart Christianity?
Oh, how the gray-haired saints can bless us! Don't ever sell their wisdom short. Click here and be edified.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Enduring My ImpatienceI’m suffering a mild but steady bout of impatience. This month marks the seventh consecutive month that my house has been on the market. My wife and I “sold” the house in August and the buyers proceeded to pull out of the deal with three days to go before close of escrow. This was quite discouraging and was followed with tears and a lot of questions. One question was, “What idiots!”. Ok, that’s not a question. But you can just see the questions oozing out of that exasperated response. Why did they wait so long? Don’t they know we have my son’s wedding this weekend? Don’t they know we’ve sold a lot of furniture and packed up the kitchen, and now I can’t find the milkshake mixer? Don’t they know we’re moving? Don’t they know that while they were leading us on, our house was off the market and another house around the corner that was smaller than ours, and not as nice, and only slightly less expensive, and certainly not a house one would pick over ours, was sold, and closed, and I’m sure these other buyers would have picked our house had they had the opportunity to buy it? Don’t they know I’ve put in notice at my work? Oy!
So, the dominoes have fallen. The movers cancelled, the storage un-rented, the career recovered (thanks boss!), “some” stuff unpacked. Now we start the process all over again, but with less furniture (one large room nearly empty but for the borrowed items), no pictures on the walls, and of course we must keep the house clean at all times because you never know when someone might want to come over and have a look. And of course, no more of daddy’s special milkshakes.
What motivated us to try this “sell the house and move thing”? We wanted a simpler life. What have we gained? A lot of chaos, stress, and the pleasure of explaining what happened over and over and over again to folks at work, at church, in our neighborhood. Going away parties had been thrown for us, going away presents given too us, plans of others were made around our plans. Have I said “Oy!”?
We’ve unwound all of this stuff and “hope” to get to wind it all up again, soon.
My will has been thwarted and I’m sinning because of it. My humility is lacking. My patience is running thin. I feel guilty for wanting what I want. I’m usually pretty skilled at just putting this stuff away and not dwelling on it, but my family is affected (especially my fetching wife, God bless her) by all of the uncertainty. And to top it all off, my newly married son is now away from us living with his bride. We gained the daughter we always wanted and promptly lost her and our first born son as they preceded us to our future hometown. Ok, we didn’t lose them but she’s not here where I can give her a hug, is she? And he’s not here where I can encourage him man to man instead of phone to phone.
I feel shafted.
[cut!]
[take two]
Enduring My Impatience
This month marks the seventh consecutive month that my house has been on the market. While that is a discouraging circumstance, let me tell you about the blessing God poured out on us. In August we “sold” our home and this happened in a very, very soft market. It’s been the only offer we’ve received this entire time. Unfortunately, the buyers backed out at the last minute and so we get to start the entire process over again.
Where’s the blessing you ask? The buyers backed out for no good reason and so they forfeited their earnest money or deposit of $5,000 to us. Due to this we were able to give a substantial sum to a missionary couple that our church is sending to the Philippines. We also will be giving a substantial sum to our local crisis pregnancy center at a fund raising dinner this evening. And to top it all off we have invested some of the money in repairs to our home that we had decided not to spend money on.
Look, instead of receiving no offers to this day and having nothing to show for it, we have used a blessing that God has provided us to help spread the gospel to an unreached tribe, to help young mothers choose life, and to repair our home for an even better chance at selling in this market.
God is great and greatly to be praised!
There…that’s much better.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
When Worldviews Collide
Ah, Halloween approaches. And so comes another face to face meeting of my new Christianity and my old world view. For 42 years Halloween was…well…Halloween! Dressing up, knocking on doors, begging for candy, handing out candy, sorting candy, trading candy with my sisters. Of course I stopped doing the door-to-door thing myself at around 13 or so, but that doesn’t change what Halloween was.
So, now I’m a Christian and I hear that Halloween is evil and I shouldn’t partake. “Halloween glorifies evil”, I hear (and it certainly does). Vampires, witches, ghosts, serial killers, and all manner of “the undead”, flit from house to house
demanding candy. What am I, a “new creation”, with candy hungry kids, to do? I could forbid my children from participating. We could darken our house and pretend we’re not home or leave and go to the mall to avoid the sugar fueled hordes.
Avoidance. That’s not being a very good witness, so we will participate to some extent. I’m just not sure how much. We’ll also, as a family, re-evaluate when this season is over and try to establish a plan for how best to glorify God in the future.
Oh, and candy corn rules. Don't even argue with me!
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Alcohol and God's Blessing
Recently the Southern Baptist Convention voted on and passed a non-binding resolution that called for total abstinence concerning the use or manufacturing of alcohol and prohibiting anyone who partakes of alcohol from leadership in the SBC. While it is non-binding in itself, it is suggested that it will prompt particular member churches or organizations to adopt binding resolutions proscribing, within their sphere of authority, the use or manufacturing of alcohol.
The topic of alcohol and the Christian life is interesting to me as a relatively new believer, having come to Christ at age 42, being one who has a history of drinking alcoholic beverages. This history includes multiple instances of drunkenness in my 20's, decreasing instances in my 30's, and now a total distaste for the idea of drinking until intoxicated. Yet, I continue to enjoy alcoholic beverages, in moderation. I even manufacture beer at home on occasion and enjoy the entire process, from deciding on the ingredients, managing the fermentation process, and partaking of the result. It's a craft for me, a hobby, and I've produced some batches that were very fine indeed, surpassing in quality (in my opinion) the vast majority of what could be purchased from a vendor. I've also produced some complete losers, worthy of immediate disposal.
So the topic of what God's word teaches concerning alcohol is of course very important to me, for I do not wish to sin before God by violating His commandments. If His word shows that I am sinning, I will immediately destroy my craft brewing equipment and cease from purchasing and using alcohol.
In this article I am not going to mount a defense of imbibing alcoholic beverages. That is not my intention here. What I bring to your attention are two articles that deal with the subject and deal with it in a God honoring, scripturally based fashion. Whatever side of this issue you come down on, I expect you will be edified by the articles offered.
The first article "Concerning alcoholic beverages" is from Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He writes in support of the SBC resolution and does so using Scripture. The second article is from a blog entitled "ConcernedSBCer" and is a response to Patterson's article. The author has chosen to remain anonymous. While I will generally be loathe to link to a Christian who chooses to remain anonymous when speaking or writing concerning Christian topics, I find from this individual's writing that he/she is not choosing anonimity to allow the usual kind of abuses that come with a lack of accountability. The author is also using Scripture as the ground and authority for his argument.
As for the meaning of the title for my article, it will become apparent as you read the articles above.
Enjoy,
Michael Herrmann
UPDATE (May 23, 2007):
As things go on the net it was only a matter of time before the links in the article would become obsolete. That day has come.
Recently the Southern Baptist Convention voted on and passed a non-binding resolution that called for total abstinence concerning the use or manufacturing of alcohol and prohibiting anyone who partakes of alcohol from leadership in the SBC. While it is non-binding in itself, it is suggested that it will prompt particular member churches or organizations to adopt binding resolutions proscribing, within their sphere of authority, the use or manufacturing of alcohol.
The topic of alcohol and the Christian life is interesting to me as a relatively new believer, having come to Christ at age 42, being one who has a history of drinking alcoholic beverages. This history includes multiple instances of drunkenness in my 20's, decreasing instances in my 30's, and now a total distaste for the idea of drinking until intoxicated. Yet, I continue to enjoy alcoholic beverages, in moderation. I even manufacture beer at home on occasion and enjoy the entire process, from deciding on the ingredients, managing the fermentation process, and partaking of the result. It's a craft for me, a hobby, and I've produced some batches that were very fine indeed, surpassing in quality (in my opinion) the vast majority of what could be purchased from a vendor. I've also produced some complete losers, worthy of immediate disposal.
So the topic of what God's word teaches concerning alcohol is of course very important to me, for I do not wish to sin before God by violating His commandments. If His word shows that I am sinning, I will immediately destroy my craft brewing equipment and cease from purchasing and using alcohol.
In this article I am not going to mount a defense of imbibing alcoholic beverages. That is not my intention here. What I bring to your attention are two articles that deal with the subject and deal with it in a God honoring, scripturally based fashion. Whatever side of this issue you come down on, I expect you will be edified by the articles offered.
The first article "Concerning alcoholic beverages" is from Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He writes in support of the SBC resolution and does so using Scripture. The second article is from a blog entitled "ConcernedSBCer" and is a response to Patterson's article. The author has chosen to remain anonymous. While I will generally be loathe to link to a Christian who chooses to remain anonymous when speaking or writing concerning Christian topics, I find from this individual's writing that he/she is not choosing anonimity to allow the usual kind of abuses that come with a lack of accountability. The author is also using Scripture as the ground and authority for his argument.
As for the meaning of the title for my article, it will become apparent as you read the articles above.
Enjoy,
Michael Herrmann
UPDATE (May 23, 2007):
As things go on the net it was only a matter of time before the links in the article would become obsolete. That day has come.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Spurgeon Quote
 "On Christ, and what he has done, my soul hangs for time and eternity. And if your soul also hangs there, it will be saved as surely as mine shall be. And if you are lost trusting in Christ, I will be lost with you and will go to hell with you. I must do so, for I have nothing else to rely upon but the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived, died, was buried, rose again, went to heaven, and still lives and pleads for sinners at the right hand of God." (C. H. Spurgeon)May we all cling only to the cross of the Savior. |
Is this thing on?
I saw, on a post of Frank Turk's blog, this handy dandy script that finds scripture references in your posts and "scripturizes" them, turning the scripture references into links. I've chosen the ESV for my translation of choice because I so love it.
The question is...does it work?
Isaiah 6
John 6:35-44
1 Thess 4
Rev 21
Want to add it to your blog? Get the scoop here at FuCoder.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
An Unbalanced view of God
James Spurgeon has posted an article (God Desires to Show His Wrath) on a topic that should send every christian to his knees when it is prayerfully considered and understood.
So often we (christians) magnify God in His attributes of love and mercy and in the process give short shrift to His other attributes, holiness, justice, etc. I know I do this. It's easy to ponder our Heavenly Father loving us, pouring blessing upon us, scolding us at times, and of course showing immense patience with our meager plod toward holiness. I believe when we work to balance our understanding of God's entire nature (as best as sinful man is able to balance it), we magnify God in our hearts and better understand the nature of what it is that God has done for us, what He has saved us from.
God is Glorified in His Just Wrath
We all, every one of us, believer and unbeliever, will glorify God, believers by receiving mercy, unbelievers by receiving wrath. I don't want to glorify God as he pours his just wrath out on me. God's just wrath is too terrible to ponder for long. Though we may think upon it and believe we can plumb the depths of the terror of God's holy just wrath poured out on ourselves or another, we deceive ourselves. Our minds are too small, our knowledge of our condition is so warped by sin, that we are blind to a full appreciation of God's holy and just wrath. As awful as we can imagine it to be, it is more terrible still. Likewise we cannot appreciate the fullness of the glory and joy that a christian will be given in eternity. Maybe I'll plumb the "heights" of that topic in another post.
In prayer I often ask that God be glorified in all that I do. When I pray this I mean glorified in the positive sense, that I be a light to the world, showing myself grateful for the salvation given me and in being obedient to the commands of my Lord. But we see in the word of God that He is also glorified in the Wrath poured out on unrepentant sinners.
Lord, keep me on the straight and narrow, that I may glorify Your name in all my deeds. Amen.
James Spurgeon has posted an article (God Desires to Show His Wrath) on a topic that should send every christian to his knees when it is prayerfully considered and understood.
So often we (christians) magnify God in His attributes of love and mercy and in the process give short shrift to His other attributes, holiness, justice, etc. I know I do this. It's easy to ponder our Heavenly Father loving us, pouring blessing upon us, scolding us at times, and of course showing immense patience with our meager plod toward holiness. I believe when we work to balance our understanding of God's entire nature (as best as sinful man is able to balance it), we magnify God in our hearts and better understand the nature of what it is that God has done for us, what He has saved us from.
God is Glorified in His Just Wrath
We all, every one of us, believer and unbeliever, will glorify God, believers by receiving mercy, unbelievers by receiving wrath. I don't want to glorify God as he pours his just wrath out on me. God's just wrath is too terrible to ponder for long. Though we may think upon it and believe we can plumb the depths of the terror of God's holy just wrath poured out on ourselves or another, we deceive ourselves. Our minds are too small, our knowledge of our condition is so warped by sin, that we are blind to a full appreciation of God's holy and just wrath. As awful as we can imagine it to be, it is more terrible still. Likewise we cannot appreciate the fullness of the glory and joy that a christian will be given in eternity. Maybe I'll plumb the "heights" of that topic in another post.
In prayer I often ask that God be glorified in all that I do. When I pray this I mean glorified in the positive sense, that I be a light to the world, showing myself grateful for the salvation given me and in being obedient to the commands of my Lord. But we see in the word of God that He is also glorified in the Wrath poured out on unrepentant sinners.
Lord, keep me on the straight and narrow, that I may glorify Your name in all my deeds. Amen.
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