How Many Herods?

Hi-rez Chart of the Herodian Succession. Feel free to download and use

In those dark days before the ESV study bible came out, I created this chart to help myself understand the Herods that kept popping up in the New Testament. There were several Herods living and ruling in the decades surrounding the advent of Christ. Distinguishing them from each other can be confusing.

I made the first version of this chart in January of '08 on a sheet of notebook paper. Several months later I decided to improve it, and so I transferred it into Mac's stellar graphing software, Graffle, which worked out just fine.

If you have an ESV study bible you can find a similar chart near the intertestamental period. (It might be a little more accurate.) I simply based this one on facts from FF Bruce's New Testament History book. If you own your own copy of the ESVSB, you can view the chart online and print it out.

Josh

Motivation for Reformation

During the last few weeks in the Institutes I have been reading about the state of the church through the ages. Then on Sunday I watched about half of the latest Luther movie. I have watched it before, but this time I watched it with a beefier view of history, I discovered that what seemed like throw away lines, are actually very important.

After watching it, I felt inspired to put together a little clip for motivation for reformation. Watch the entire movie for maximum effect.

Enjoy!

Josh

My Most Listed To Music of '09

Keith And Kristyn Getty - In Christ Alone (2007)

This will probably not impress or be helpful for everyone, but I thought it would be worthy jotting down what I liked to listen to this year, at least for the sake of posterity. Who knows, maybe after another twenty years pass I might just wonder what on earth I enjoyed to listen to back in 09?

I am going to try to make this list somewhat scientific. Using iTunes I discovered that there is a discrepancy between what I think I like the most, and what I actually listen to the most. So I am not going to make this a list of what I "think" I liked the best, but rather a list of those I actually spent the most time listening to. It makes more sense to me to do it that way.

This little experiment turned out a little weird. First, for some reason some artists I really like, such as the Gettys didn't even make my great eight albums list this year. Then the odd thing is that there are only two genres on the list, Christian Rap, and Christian Rock. And Rap has seven of the eight places.

That is really strange.

It's odd for many reasons. For one, I listen to Classical music almost every day, and throughout the week some country, various contemporary Christian, worship, even country music. Yet, somehow these reformed rappers seemed to have stole the show for 2009. That is especially significant since before last year, listening to Christian rap had never even crossed my mind.

I credit the new change to their strong messages, coupled with heavy emphasis on theology in the lyrics. Starting there, the beats kind of grew on me.

Note: not all the albums were released in 08 or 09, but rather represent the albums I started listening to this year.



Great Eight List 2009



1. Lecrae: Rebel (Reformed Rap, Southern, 2008)


2. G-Notes: Bright Lights Magic City (Christian Rap, Techno-Hip Hop, East Coast, 2009)



3. Katalyst: Death By Design (Reformed Rap, Midwest, 2009)


4. The Ambassador: The Chop Chop From Milk To Meat (Reformed Rap, East Coast, 2008)


5. Tedashii: Identity Crisis (Reformed Rap, Southern, 2009)


6. Flame: Rewind (Reformed Rap, Midwest 2005)


7. House Of Heroes: The End is Not The End (Christian Rock, 2009)


8. Flame: Our World Redeemed (Reformed Rap, Midwest, 2008)

Dabbling In The Sea of God's Wonders

So Close, Yet So Far Our Children's Home Kids one foot from glory

This quote reminds me of a time about a month ago when we took the Children home kids down to the sea. The riptide was dangerous so we wouldn't let them go in. It took everything the wardens could do to restrain them. They practically went crazy just standing there in front of the ocean getting their feet wet, subdued from going in any further.

“This is my endlessly recurrent temptation: to go down to that Sea (I think St. John of the Cross called God a sea) and there neither dive nor swim nor float, but only dabble and splash.” C. S. Lewis, “A Slip of the Tongue,” in The Weight of Glory, page 187.

But how crazy would it have been if we had told them to go in and enjoy the sea to their hearts content, and they decided that enjoying the water wouldn't be as much fun as collecting garbage on the beach?

That is the bondage of our desire. Until the Holy Spirit comes in.





[HT: Ray Ortlund]

Making Progress

George Mueller 1805-1898

A short word from George Mueller;

"Now . . . I would give a few hints to my younger fellow-believers as to the way in which to keep up spiritual enjoyment. It is absolutely needful . . . we should read regularly through the Scriptures, consecutively, and not pick out here and there a chapter. If we do, we remain spiritual dwarfs. I tell you so affectionately. For the first four years after my conversion I made no progress, because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly read on through the whole with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. Then my peace and joy continued more and more. Now I have been doing this for 47 years. I have read through the whole Bible about 100 times and I always find it fresh when I begin again. Thus my peace and joy have increased more and more."

A Plethora of Leadership Positions

Lovely

This week I spent some time reading The Institutes of the Christian Religion. By God's grace I made it to the fourth book. According to the author it's about,

"the church and the communion of saints, or of the external means or helps by which God invites us to fellowship with Christ, and keeps us in it."

A few chapters deep in the book, he begins an examination of the government of the Christian church. He duly notes that Scripture makes mention of five offices; Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers. (He also mentions a few other offices that scripture reveals.)

However, at some point not long after scripture was written it seems the church decided to create some new offices, and break those which were already instituted by God into smaller increments. After a few pages of reading about them, I really started to think for the first time about just how many offices have been created. It's simply staggering...

After taking some serious thought, I came up with a list of offices.

[Note: Sometimes there are several names for a single position. The offices in this list could be classified as biblical, essential, heretical, comical or even historical. But all have been used at one point or another. Oh, and I readily admit that I probably missed a lot of obvious ones, this is anything but exhaustive, which is more proof of the point.]

Here goes... enjoy!

Group 1

Archbishops
Archpresbyters
Presbyters
Bishops
Priests
Ministers
Prelates
Curates
Clerics
Elders
Rectors
Pastors
Padres
Reverends
Teachers
Schoolmen

Beneficiaries
Parsons
Canons
Chaplains
Abbots
Priors

Mercenaries (The ultra-spiritual who so utterly renounce the world that they have to steal food to live)

Group 2

Archdeacons (if your church doesn't have at least ten arch deacons, you've got problems)
Deacons (divided into those who care for the poor and those who disperse alms)
Subdeacons
Readers (they can read, use them)
Monks
Friars

Group 3

Acolytes (assist bishops)
Clerici (doorkeepers, I am partial to the name Clerici)
Tyros (assist bishops?)


Assortment of Contemporary Positions

Missionaries ( these are now available in short-term, long-term, and life-term options)
Husband and Wife Ministry Teams (Gotta love these, just add a bible, a guitar, and a tambourine...)
Single missionaries (These characters are twice as extreme as Delta force. They don't go on expeditions, they live them)

Assistant Pastors
Youth Pastors
Worship Leaders
Lay pastors and teachers
Itinerant pastors and teachers (Not sure if it's possible to be a faithful pastor if one's an itinerant)
Revivalist
Children ministry leader
...also Christian thinkers, writers, and musicians (These folks might just have the most influence)


Other Archaic/Roman Offices

Collators (sounds like an option on a Xerox photocopier/printer)
Pontiff (aka, The Pope)
Vicars
Deans (Deaneries?) (It's so much more than a university position)
Provosts
Cardinals
Inquisitors (If you're a time traveler, don't mess with these dudes; trust me, it's not a survey. Avoid Spain, Goa, etc.)


Future Offices
Someday when the church becomes even more democratic we will probably create some new offices. In reality there won't be anything 'new' about them, but they will have new names.

President/Prime minister/Secretary General of the universal church (It's the old Pontiff in a new way!)
Note: The former title is already claimed by private ministry leaders
Sheriff (Executes and enforces church justice over a certain district)
Member of Parliament/
Senator/
Congressman (These fellows interpret scripture, and make or repeal church laws, for the universal church)

Can you think of some more?

The Robe

Demetrius sees Jesus for the first time

The Robe is a 1953 Hollywood film centered around a fictional Roman military tribune (Marcellus) who is involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. The tribune has a Greek slave named Demetrius who briefly meets Jesus during His triumphal entry.

The following will spoil some of the plot, so don't read on if you haven't seen it yet.

One of the amazing things about this movie is the fact that while Jesus is in a few scenes, we are not allowed to see His face. Instead, the director skillfully chose to show the facial reactions of the people who are looking at Jesus.

The effect is much more powerful than many other movies which show the face of the actor who is portraying Jesus.

Demetrius arrives at the cross

Demetrius' heart breaks

Tribune Marcellus thoughtlessly leans on the cross

The blood of Christ is on his hands

"It is finished!"

Marcellus is momentarily unfazed by the Crucifixion

Veteran's Day Thoughts

WWII USMC Pilot, Capt. John Lucian Smith (19 kills Pacific Theater)

There are so many Veterans from various engagements that could and should be mentioned here. However, due to time and space, I will mention just one of the less famous heroes from World War two who will take the part of representing them all.

John Lucian Smith was one of six US Marine Corps pilots who received a Medal of Honor for their valiant service during the 1942/43 turning point Battle of Guadalcanal.

It was a terrible battle that for some months looked as though it would swing in favor of the Japanese. However, providentially, the American force had strategically captured the only Japanese airfield on the island at the beginning of the battle. The Japanese would have to fly from their more distant base at Rabaul. The Americans renamed the airfield, Henderson field, quickly repaired it and soon began landing their own planes.

Henderson Field F4 Wildcat fighters (Note: the airfield is still under construction)

After an the initial landing and capture of the airfield the Japanese navy quickly reacted, fought back and managed to drive the American fleet away while they were in the process of landing the first batch of soldiers. They manged to sink several key American in the process. Subsequently the airfield and marines holding it were subjected to a fierce naval bombardment which destroyed and damaged numerous planes and much of their vital equipment.

With the support of the American navy lost, lacking adequate supplies and equipment, the American foothold on the island was precarious and became increasingly dependent on the aircraft and airmen of Henderson field to keep them from being overrun.

US Marine Patrol on Guadalcannal

While the Japanese had an numerically superior air force and slightly better aircraft, they were tenaciously repelled. John Lucian Smith heroically led his squadron to shoot down 83 enemy aircraft in the campaign, downing 19 total himself in the war. By the spring of 1943 the battle was over, and it proved to be a significant turning point in the war.

Smith, and five other airmen from the battle were awarded a medal of honor by President Franklin, D. Roosevelt. Later a movie starring John Wayne revisited their crucial role in turning the tide of the war.

John Wayne Portraying Capt. John L. Smith

Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

He Will Never Leave Us or Forsake Us

Here is a little Sunday special. Stand By Me played on location by a small multitude of artists from countries all around the world.

Watching it, I couldn't help but think of our inability and insufficiency in this life. And thankfully we do have someone who not only stands by us, but stands for us, and carries us through everything.

[HT: Challies]

What Did He Mean By Carry A Cross???

Something tells me this is not the kind of cross Christ said to carry

Over the past few days I have been musing on some of the implications of the gospel and the prosperity gospel.

One though is, where's the cross? The one Jesus said to take up and follow Him with. Where is the part where we walk the Calvary road? Where are the tribulations? Anyhow, that's all the negative side of the argument. I get a whole lot more excited whenever I take a peek at the positive side.

The Positive Side:

The prosperity gospel claims to offer more than the orthodox gospel.

But it's not that the prosperity offers more than the true gospel. It offers less, infinitely less when Christ is de-valued at the expense of material gain.

The prosperity gospel begins with Christ and then leads to other 'greater' things. Things that we can have in this life and the next.

The true gospel begins and ends with Christ who is far greater than anything we can have in this life and the next.

Applied Personally:

I don't believe in the prosperity gospel, but sometimes it might look like I did. Especially when it comes to what it takes to be satisfied. If it's Christ + anything, it's not lookin' good.

I have to ask, what's it going to take for me to be satisfied, cash or Christ?

After all, Jesus said, you can't serve both God and Mammon.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

More on The Prosperity Gospel

Piper on the prosperity gospel in frank, honest, passionate, no-nonsense, biblical fashion.

One of The Worst "Gospels"

The video is thoughtful, fair and well made. It takes you inside Africa to see firsthand what's going on with our exported 'gospel' experiment.

I am afraid this so called gospel makes my stomach sick almost every time I see or hear it preached.

Moving from good news to good advice and calling it gospel is not only an abominable heresy, it's wickedly cruel. I am thankful that God is not and cannot be foiled by wolves, He is actively rescuing his sheep from their hands.

My prayer is that by His grace more believers will see the diversion for what it is and instead discover Christ is their true treasure in the midst of every kind of poverty. In Christ all can find peace and joy in seemingly impossible situations. Let the rich of us say we are poor without Him, and poorest rejoice because they have gained the pearl of greatest price, in this life and the life to come.

[HT: Challies] [Vitamin Z]

Diligence

Chendu Sekhar thoroughly applying himself to his studies (8th grade)

[Click Image to go to our picasa page for a hi-resolution download]


dil i gence 1 |ˈdiləjəns|
noun
careful and persistent work or effort.

I need to write a little bit about how Indian kids study. It's quite amazing, even somewhat entertaining to watch them. The amount of time they spend studying is simply staggering. Some kids start studying at 4am and continue until it's time to go to school about 8:30am. After school ends at 3pm, most will remain at school and continue studying until about 10pm.

Basically the entirety of every day of the week except for Sunday is spent on education.

While our school's level of performance is right up their with the best of them, our strategy has been to utilize better teachers in order to adequately compensate for less study time. Even so, they often study from 6:30-7:30am, and again in the late afternoon from 5-7pm, and finally from 8:30-10pm.

Regardless of how much time is spent studying, diligent is perhaps the word which best describes the ethic and effort of the average Indian student.

Inspired?

Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

What Is The Main Message of Scripture?

St. Augustine A.D. 354-430

The question of the day is, What is the main message of scripture?

There are many routes I could take to answer this question, but I am going to short cut and tell you what I believe the answer is, then go about explaining it.

I believe that scripture above all else, is a book primarily about God, specifically, Jesus Christ. This truth radically changed the way I think about the Old Testament, the way I relate to others, the lost, and especially God.

This truth is certainly the most fundamental change in the way I view the whole of scripture. My own personal discovery of it occurred only when God brought Luke 24 to light for me.

You know the passage, it's the one where Jesus is on the road to Emmaus shortly after his resurrection. He is walking with two men who don't recognize him and he has a powerful, conversation with them. There is a lot of meat there, but the portions which I am focusing on here are found in verses 25-26 and particularly verse 44 when shortly after Jesus appears to his disciples.

Luke 24:44

"And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me."

Augustine sums up this passage well in a concise statement.

“Our whole purpose when we hear the Psalms, the Prophets, and the Law is to see Christ there, to understand Christ there.” Augustine

Well, that's all I have time for at the moment. It's a glorious and liberating truth, well worth looking into deeper if it's new for you. I find it helpful to remind myself as I am reading the New Testament, and especially the Psalms, Prophets, and Law - Christ is there.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

[HT: THE RESURGENCE]

Another Indian Adventure

An unwelcome guest rests on the stairwell

Well this one's a little weird. It happened a few weeks ago and seemed just strange enough that I couldn't pass up posting it. All I can say is that I was hoping for gloves, tongs, anything but bare fingers. After watching the clip I think if you find yourself in the same situation you will think twice before going in barehanded.


(WARNING! Don't try this at home without leather gloves. Better yet, don't try it at all. Call a professional. Call a real batman.)