• Men and Hospitality?

    May 21, 2013 By in Christian Living, Home Life

    230px-Schweizerhaus18 Last week I reviewed a book on hospitality for someone. It was good, but like most books on hospitality, it seemed to be directed at women. That’s not all bad; we need help! But Scripture’s command to practice hospitality is not merely to women. In fact, when we look at Scripture, it is almost always the men – the husbands – who are directing the hospitality. This is true from Abraham (Gen. 18:6-7) to Manoah (Judges 13:15)  to Boaz (Ruth 2:14) to Gaius (Rom. 16:23), with a few notable exceptions, such as Abigail’s husband, the harsh and unkind Nabal (1 Sam. 25:3). Women like Lydia (Acts 16:15) stand out as examples of women leading their families in this area.

    And yet today in the church, we treat hospitality as though it’s largely the woman’s job–unless the man happens to love cooking. Perhaps part of this is because, unlike thousands of years ago, men today work outside the home; very few guys are on hand to slaughter fattened calves hours before a dinner party. But perhaps another part of it is be an unhealthy mix of unthinking abdication on the man’s part, and unthinking dominance on the woman’s.

    Regardless of a husband’s working hours, cooking abilities, or social preferences, there are things that husbands can do to lead in showing hospitality. Continue reading →

  • Augustine and Rape

    May 15, 2013 By in Christian Living, Pastoral Counselling

    buttercupOver at Reformation21, Carl Trueman provides an initial assessment of the testimony of Elizabeth Smart, who argues that abstinence teaching made her awful ordeal even worse. Trueman astutely notes the troubling implications of this, both as an argument in the public square and reflective of ongoing cultural shift/decline in America. Of course, the pastoral angle is also crucial. Smart was reared with a Mormon abstinence teaching which was devoid of a Christian doctrine of sin and grace: this misses a coherent delineation between personal pursuit of sin, and abuse suffered unwillingly at the hands of others. Understanding these doctrines and delineations is desperately needed in the face of not only personal sin, but also when we are sinned against.

    One helpful response to rape comes to us from church history. In the fourth century, Augustine wrote his famed City of God, shepherding Christians through the collapse of the western Roman Empire and answering pagan critics of Christianity. As a pastor, Augustine addressed the realities Christians faced in his generation: physical violence and emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of invading barbarians. Continue reading →

  • The Hole in our Holiness

    May 7, 2013 By in Book Reviews, Holiness, Sermons (Audio)

    holeinholiness Kevin DeYoung’s book, The Hole in Our Holiness, came out last year. I read it a couple weeks ago, because I listened to a series of conference talks that DeYoung gave at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC. The talks whetted my appetite for more of the same; I wasn’t disappointed by the book, which thoughtfully unpacks the topic of holiness, grounding the exposition in Scripture.

    After discussing what holiness is and why we should pursue it, De Young tackles some of the apparent contradictions inherent in the topic: My heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9); how can I say that I am holy? If we believe that it’s grace alone through Christ alone and there’s nothing we can contribute to salvation, why is it biblical to pursue holiness? Continue reading →

  • Taking Sin Seriously

    May 2, 2013 By in Gospel, Holiness

    Too often we think little of God, his perfect holiness, righteousness, and justice, and as a result little of what our sin really is and does. Reflecting on this perennial reality of the human heart, Thomas Boston (1676-1732) warned his congregation:

    “Let no man think lightly of sin, which lays the sinner open to the wrath of God. Let not the sin of our nature seem a small thing in our eyes. Fear the Lord because of His dreadful wrath. Tremble at the thought of sin, against which God has such fiery indignation… Admire the matchless love which brought you out of the state of wrath… it was no easy work to purchase the life of the condemned sinner, but He gave His life for your life. He gave his precious blood to quench the flame of wrath, which otherwise would have consumed you.” Continue reading →

  • Dove Ads, Ambrose, and Christian Women

    April 22, 2013 By in Culture, Women

    160px-Grace_Kelly_-_High_SocietyThe social experiment that Dove released last week is fascinating. It has a clear message: “You are more beautiful than you think”.

    Apparently, it’s not new for women to think that they are ugly. Hence the early invention of make-up, which has been around at least since the ancient Egyptians started the eyeliner trend about 4,000 years ago. Ambrose of Milan, writing in the fourth century, commented:

    “[Women] erase that painting [of God] by smearing on their complexion a color of material whiteness or by applying an artificial rouge. The result is a work not of beauty, but of ugliness; not of simplicity, but of deceit. It is a temporal creation, a prey to perspiration or rain. It is a snare and a deception which displeases the person you aim to please, for he realizes that all this is an alien thing and not your own. This is also displeasing to your Creator, who sees His own work obliterated. Continue reading →

  • Water, Wine, and Milk

    April 16, 2013 By in Gospel, Scripture

    fountainThe following article is a guest contribution by Dale VanDyke, pastor of Harvest Orthodox Presbyterian Church. It was originally part of the sermon preached in the evening service on April 14, 2013, and is published here with the kind permission of the author.

    “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” It is the great glory of God that he calls not the righteous but sinners to repentance. Here in this great invitation God calls out to the thirsty. But why are God’s people so thirsty?

    Jeremiah 2:13 gives us the answer, as God grieves the tragic choice of his rebellious children: Continue reading →

  • The PK Parishioner (4)

    April 11, 2013 By in Church Life, Pastoral Ministry

    church doorsAlthough there can be hard things about being an adult pastor’s kid in a church not pastored by your father, being a pk in different congregation can also be a blessing. Here are some of the perks I’ve discovered.

    First, you know what the ministry is like. You understand what life is like for your pastor’s family like few other people can and so you can pray for them accordingly. You might not even talk to them much, but you pick up on vibes, clues, or just common pk knowledge, and pray in a more informed way than you would be able to if you had not grow up in a pastor’s home. It will be a blessing to their ministry even if they are unaware of it.

    And hard as it can be to have to earn the trust of a congregation, it’s good for you. When you are the new member and nobody knows your dad, you can’t rest on your pk laurels. Continue reading →

  • The PK Parishioner (3)

    April 10, 2013 By in Church Life, Pastoral Ministry

    firstpresI never thought too much about it at the time, but growing up, I sort of assumed that once I moved out of the house, I would effectively stop being a PK: someone else would be my pastor, I would not play board games in the basement while Dad counseled an engaged couple upstairs, and I would not hear the phone ring in the middle of the night. Wrong.

    It’s true, my dad is no longer my pastor, I don’t play board games much, and though I’m married to a pastor, he’s serving as a professor and students don’t tend to call at 2 A.M. But being a pastor’s kid never stops. Continue reading →