Pregnancy Update, Week 16 and Some Change

It’s been a while since I’ve updated on the pregnancy…

Things continue to go well. We had to go to a cardiologist recently, because of Shannon’s elevated blood pressure and some periodic heart racing. Her BP is back to something more reasonable, praise God, and the heart racing they called a “nuisance palpitation.” In other words, it’s annoying, but ignore it because it’s nothing serious.

On the plus side, at the cardiologist, I got to see an echo cardiogram of Shannon’s heart. It was huge, warm, and beautiful, just as I always suspected…

As far as the baby, he/she (no, I’m not switching to the TNIV) has been pretty active. We bought a fetal monitor, but it’s a little early to tell if that sound is the baby, dinner, or that thing from Alien.

Shannon is also back to work now that the preschool has started back up for the year. Unfortunately, this means that she is more tired than she was before.

Please keep us in your prayers for Shannon’s health and the health of the baby. God bless!

J. C. Carlile on Christian Mystics (By Way of Spurgeon)

I recently finished reading a short biography of Charles Spurgeon, by J. C. Carlile. The bio was interesting enough (how could it not be, given the subject), but there was a passage toward the end that particularly struck me. Carlile is discussing the mystical side of Spurgeon’s faith, and he makes an observation about classical Christian mystics that bears repeating:

The great mystics did not spend their time simply nursing the sickness of the soul. We find them undertaking missionary journeys under conditions which might well appall perfectly healthy people. We find them organizing and reforming religious orders, managing large hospitals, administering public funds, leading great movements, and doing all these things with practical acumen and success. There is nothing vague and dreamy, nothing occult and creepy about them.

For Spurgeon, mysticism meant feeling the presence of Christ and enjoying fellowship with Him. I would say “simply” but it is a wondrous delight that he himself describes:

If I were to go much further I should be accused of fanaticism, and so it may be; but yet I will believe and must believe that there are seasons when the Christian lives next door to heaven. If I had not gone within an inch of the pearly gates I am not here; if I have not sometimes sniffed the incense from the censers of the glorified and heard the music of their harps, I think I am not a living man. There have been seasons of ecstatic joy, when I have climbed the highest mountains, and I have caught some sweet whisper from the throne. Have you had such manifestations? I will not condemn you if you have not. But I believe most Christians have them, and if they are much in duty and much in suffering, they will have them. It is not given to all to have that portion but to some it is, and such men know what religion means.

To which I simply say “amen.”

Some Smart People Believe in God

I recently linked to a post about whether Christianity is rational, and it occurred to me that there is a lot of thirst out there for a rational view of Christianity. Christianity doesn’t have to be about surrendering your mind – indeed, as Paul says, Christianity is about renewing your mind. We love God with all our hearts, all our souls, and all our minds. You don’t have to check your brain at the door – your mind can be (and must be) a vital part of your worship experience.

I was reminded of this again today, when I saw something in a commentary from Dr. Albert Mohler. Dr. Mohler was not addressing anti-intellectualism in Christianity, specifically, but he made a comment that is germane to the topic nonetheless:

The great philosophical crisis of our day is an epistemological crisis. It is a crisis of knowing, a crisis of knowledge. In particular, it is a challenge for Christianity and for the Christian thinker, the Christian theologian, the Christian minister, the Christian preacher, and the Christian institution. How do we know what we claim to know? How dare we teach what we dare to teach? As Francis Schaeffer understood well, and he took the answer as the title of his most significant contribution: We speak because He Is There and He Is Not Silent.I first read that book as a sixteen-year-old, and to be honest, I think the greatest assurance I got from it is that some smart person believed in God.

Dr. Mohler has hit upon something very important here. There is a crisis of knowledge in Christianity, and few and far between are the voices that stand up and say “yes, smart people believe in God.” So let’s stand up and say it. Smart people do believe in God. And in case you have any doubts, here are but a few, in no particular order…

• John MacArthur
• Albert Mohler
• R. C. Sproul
• Mark Dever
• John Piper
• Steven Lawson
• Phil Johnson
• Nathan Busenitz
• Steven Camp

And that’s not to mention all the old dead guys like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards.

And for every one of them, there are thousands more out there. They are in your church. If you are blessed like I am, they are in the pulpit at your church. Buy their books. Download their sermons. Let them know you appreciate their ministry. And thank them for their example of loving God with all our minds.

Contending for the Faith

Centuri0n, like his fellow Pyromaniac Phil Johnson, is also looking at the issue of contending for the faith, from the viewpoint of a Christian retailer:

The first thing to say about ‘arguing’ is this: we are supposed to contend for the faith, amen? The Gospel is not some truth-less blanket that just gets thrown over things, and whatever happens to be under it this morning as we cast it out wide is not ‘the Gospel for today’. The Gospel is the power of salvation for everyone who believes. But believes what?

That’s my second point: the two most-vivid proclamations of the Gospel in the NT are unquestionably Acts 2 and 2Cor 15 — and both of those proclamations place the authority of God’s word as the centerpiece of how and why Christ died. That is to say: whatever it is Christ did (died for our sins, was buried and was raised on the third day) was “in accordance with Scripture”: it happened because Scripture said it would happen. In that, Scripture is our most precious possession in the Christian life. While we have an interior witness of the spirit, the Gospel doesn’t go out by means of interior witness: it goes out by the Gospel being proclaimed. What gets proclaimed — if we follow Paul’s example and his own words — is the testimony of Scripture.

I’m always troubled when I go into a “Christian” bookstore and see things that are decidedly borderline at best. Christian bookselling is a ministry, not a business (at least not exclusively a business).

Side note – if anyone knows of any really good Christian bookstores in the north suburbs of Indy, even independent ones, email me. I usually shop at the big Christian “chain” stores in the area, but it’s harder and harder to find really good Reformed content at those stores.

Pyromaniacs: Slice Capades

Phil Johnson gives five reasons he’s not jumping on the anti-Slice bandwagon here:
Pyromaniacs: Slice Capades

I’ve struggled with this question myself recently, since I, too, link to Slice of Laodicea from my “blogroll” on the right. But I have to agree with Phil:

Most of the abominations highlighted at Slice really deserve a healthy dose of righteous indignation. Personally, I’m embarrassed that evangelical outrage is so easily mustered against the “tone” and “tenor” of a Slice post decrying youth ministry modeled after a circus sideshow while so few are outraged by the common practice of making a burlesque of evangelistic ministry.

While the “tone” and “tenor” at Slice can sometimes be harsh, I agree that the outrage is too often very misdirected… Like the psalmist, we should be indignant at the forsaking of God’s law, not at those who point out error.

(See also: Psalm 119:49-56 “Zayin”)