So thankful for His righteousness . . .

"I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it." --J. Gresham Machen

Ordination at Kenwood

I had the privilege of being ordained yesterday at Kenwood Baptist Church. Jim Hamilton preached from Acts 20 before the elders and others laid hands and Mike Thompson prayed for Suemi and I.

Jim Hamilton's sermon deserves the ear of every gospel minister and every would-be gospel minster. It was a robust challenge rooted in gospel realities and adorned with rhetorical beauty. As such, it was typical of the sermons by Jim which God has used to establish my marriage and ministry these last few years.

Jim ended by reading this poem which he wrote for the occasion, titled "Commission You Do We This Day."

There is, my friend, no higher call
Than this we send you on with all
Our hearts, our souls, our minds we join
Both to rejoice and also mourn

The moving on of these so dear,
You've loved and served us so well here
That this sweet sadness deepens now
As though the grief is right somehow

We'd love to see your children born
Watch them grow and sing and learn;
And old together we might grow,
But there's a deeper joy we'll know

As you answer the call and go,
Our joy and grief together show
That there's a love worth more than life,
A truth that merits sacrifice,

So join we how the ranks of those
Whose love in leaving deeper grows
Commission you do we this day
Giving God the thanks and praise.

Tone Matters in the Engagement of Beliefs

When confronted with an alternate position, one's tone in engagement should be less ‘How can they believe this?’ and more ‘How did they come to believe this?’


In The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, I think Noll missteps with his tone a handful of times. Perhaps he is seeking to provoke evangelicals to think even as he tips his hand on issues like creationism and politics.

When an evangelical mind like Noll asks me 'How can you believe this?' about doctrine I hold, I certainly am compelled to ask 'How did I come to believe this?' of myself. And for this I'm grateful.

Jim Elliot in a Letter to His Brother Bob

"Sometimes one is conscious of spiritual life only because he is still struggling to maintain it, not at all because he is purposefully living it."

--Jim Elliot

Knowing Theism and Knowing God

"He cannot define theism, but he knows God."

--Jim Elliot of his father

The Value of a Physically Present Community in Learning

"Despite good intentions, it is almost always easier to misconstrue the arguments of others if they are not present." --Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, p. 20.

Eschatological Reservation and Romans 6

"By using this imagery of a transfer of realms, or 'dominion,' with its association of power and rulership, Paul makes clear that the new status enjoyed by the believer (justification) brings with it a new influence and power that both has led and must lead to a new way of life (sanctification).

"This 'must' is very important. For, as decisive and final as is this transfer into a new realm, it would be a bad misinterpretation of Paul to think that the believer is thereby removed from all contact or influence with the old realm of sin. While belonging to a new realm, the believer brings with him into it many of the impulses, habits, and tendencies of the old life, a constant threat to putting into actual practice the realities of our new realm status. It is this 'eschatological reservation'--the fact that not until the resurrection and transformation of the body will the believer be severed from all contact with the old Adamic dominion--that explains the 'indicative/imperative' combinations that are so characteristic of these chapters: 'sin will not rule over you'/'do not let sin reign' (6:13-14); 'you are not in the flesh'/'do not live according to the flesh' (8:9, 12)."

--Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996), 352.