Sermon Up

This morning's sermon, "The New Covenant," is up and available for download in the box to your right.

Friday Link-Around

Blog of the Week:

Preaching Help, by Steve Higgenbotham. Steve preached in Glasgow, KY until moving this summer to Knoxville to teach at the school of preaching there. he doesn't post often, but when he does he's really good.

Bible Study Resource of the Week:

E-Sword. An electronic Bible you can search, complete with concordance codes. Original language translations pop up when you roll your mouse over the Strong's number. A handful of translations are free (as are the Greek and Hebrew texts), with more available in the paid version.

On-Line Trivia Game of the Week:

The Summer Hiatus Challenge, written by . . . well . . . me. This is the sixth consecutive year I have provided a daily quiz for Jeopardy fans who don't get to see original material when the show goes away for the summer.

A new round starts every Monday, and all comers are welcome.

Podcast of the Week:

Garage Logic, hosted by Joe Soucheray. Based in Minneapolis, Joe talks about what's going on in the world without having his thoughts based on which side he wants to win an election. KSTP-AM 1500 posts two hours of his show every day, typically on a 24-hour delay.

And no, it's not all about cars.

Word of the Week

ktisis (n). -- Fabrication, creation (as something from something else).

Key verse -- 2 Corinthians 5:17. "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

Thoughts on ktisis -- When you become a Christian, the scars of your old life don't really disappear. There are still consequences of past mistakes to be endured. What happens in conversion is God takes the old parts and makes something new with them. It no longer matters where the parts came from; what matters is how they will be used going forward.

Whether God makes His saints out of gold or dirt, what makes them saints is not the material He uses, but the fact that it's Him who made them.

Song In My Head -- Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways;
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard,
Beside the Syrian sea,
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word,
Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee,
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity,
Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of Thy call,
As noiseless let Thy blessing fall
As fell Thy manna down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.

Great lines:

Start with the byline. John Greenleaf Whittier. An actual poem written by an actual poet. The literary quality of the entire piece is just wonderful.

Then there's the premise. Whittier wrote the poem in response to the craziness he saw at a Shaker revival meeting. Instead of more emotional fervor, his call is for reverence, purity, and above all sanity. The greatest testimony of the presence of God in a person's life is not how "out of control" they can get, but how ordered and calm their lives are in spite of the craziness of life.

Wednesday Word of the Week

eis (ACE, or possibly ICE) (prep.) -- For, toward, moving in the direction of.

Key verse: Acts 2:38 "Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.""

Thoughts on eis: I mentioned a couple of weeks ago how big a fan I am of Isaac Newton. This week's word is a bit controversial, in that there are occasions in the New Testament when the order of the words in the sentence place the effect before the cause. In Matthew 12 and Luke 11, for instance, Jesus says that Nineveh repented "eis" the preaching of Jonah. Then, in Acts 2:38, baptism is "eis" the forgiveness of sins.

So which is it? Does forgiveness come before baptism, or does baptism come first?

The truth is you can't really tell from eis. There is no automatic, universal implication of time moving in a particular direction across the preposition.

What eis does is demonstrate a Newtonian causal link. It explains one state in terms of the other. And there is clearly a causal link between baptism and forgiveness of sins.

Now, which one causes which? Does the forgiveness of sins result in a person being baptized, or does baptism result in forgiveness? Eis doesn't know. Eis doesn't even really care much. The answer to that question has to be found elsewhere (I'd start with Romans 6 and Galatians 3, but that's just me).

But there can be no denying that the causal link exists. Eis says so.

The Power of Context

One of the first social lessons human beings learn is that there are certain actions where whether they are right or wrong is determined by the context in which we do them.

Examples:

Potty training -- Nobody minds if a small child relieves themselves. We just prefer that it happen at a particular time and place. This is typically the first lesson in social context we learn. Biting or hitting the kid next to you is always wrong, but going to the bathroom is fine as long as it's in the bathroom.

Gossip -- The difference between a true and false witness is whether or not the information is factual. But even factual information can be gossip if is deployed a) by the wrong person, b) to the wrong person, c) at the wrong time, or d) for the wrong reason.

There are others, but the point is this: Understanding the will of God involves both knowledge of His word and awareness of your own surroundings.

Sumday Morning Sermon Now Up

Today's sermon is now available for download or listening online.