The Holdfast

This blog has been neglected! As a new year’s discipline, I’m going back to blogging. Perhaps shorter and different, but something, and frequently.

OK, I don’t like these games of tag, OK?  ok.

But my buddy Philip has challenged me to tell eight little known facts about myself. I’m not sure there even are eight facts about myself, but I’ll try.

1. I played football. Yes, it’s true. In the 5th grade. There is actually a picture of me somewhere with a jersey and pads on.

2. My son Evan has not yet had hair longer than mine was in high school.

3. One of my dad’s favorite experiences with me was when I went out with Andy Martin in a sailboat at Scout camp, and we turned the boat over in the middle of the lake. With a storm coming.

4. Meanwhile, I never made Eagle Scout. Never even got close. I think there might have been two merit badges sewn on my sash.

5. My first car was a blue 1966 Ford Falcon. When it hit a 1975 Mercury Monarch in the side (not my fault), it crushed the Monarch but didn’t even break my headlight.

6. I love Lubbock, Texas. Hub of the Plains. I went to school there. I didn’t like the sandstorms though.

7. When I was a student in Lubbock, I had my teeth worked on by a former Republican candidate for Governor of Texas.

8. I’ve been eating Pizza Inn Thin Crust Sausage Pizza for as long as I can remember eating. Which is a a long time. And I still like it.

Well there it is! Now maybe I can think of someone to tag.

I’ve had to disable comments on the blog while I study how you use WordPress to disable comment spam.  I’ve received hundreds of ‘comments’ which are all spam. If anybody is a WordPress expert, let me know how you disable spam comments.

Kim and I are reading Athanasius’s On The Incarnation for our reading group. Today I ran across this passage, in the chapter on the Resurrection. (The quote is taken from this link, if you want to read the whole book.) This attitude, assumed to be true by Athanasius of the weakest Christian, is so far from our American ways!

A very strong proof of this destruction of death and its conquest by the cross is supplied by a present fact, namely this. All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take the offensive against it and, instead of fearing it, by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as on something dead. Before the divine sojourn of the Savior, even the holiest of men were afraid of death, and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the resurrection. But that devil who of old wickedly exulted in death, now that the pains of death are loosed, he alone it is who remains truly dead. There is proof of this too; for men who, before they believe in Christ, think death horrible and are afraid of it, once they are converted despise it so completely that they go eagerly to meet it, and themselves become witnesses of the Savior’s resurrection from it. Even children hasten thus to die, and not men only, but women train themselves by bodily discipline to meet it. So weak has death become that even women, who used to be taken in by it, mock at it now as a dead thing robbed of all its strength. Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and foot the passers-by sneer at him, hitting him and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So has death been conquered and branded for what it is by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing and saying, “O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?”

Well, here we are, hosted on WordPress on my very own web server. This looks a little rough, but I will have complete control now (not Google), and this will also serve as a test bed for learning WordPress for use at my church.

Note that the way I have set it up, the first comment from each email address must be approved manually. Afterwards, your comments should post without manual approval.

I have been praying for the family of an old Texas Tech school mate, Kelly James, who was identified today as being found at the top of Mt Hood. I admire the way Frank James, his brother, has handled this tragedy in public for the families. How different it has been from some of the antics of other families in trouble! God is a life-changing God, and he changes everything about our lives, even how we handle tragedy and death. I would like to have as much maturity as this family has shown.

A blog for the three families is at this site.

As Ricky Skaggs once sang, “It’s the newest craze in town … there’s an old kind of love goin’ round.” I’m so happy for Eric and Jenny. You can also read a poem about it here…

My day was bracketed with depressing news about Islam. It began during my drive to work, where NPR was featuring a story about Turkey and how its “secular” state was putting two men on trial for converting to Christianity. Hmm. Turkey is supposed to be a model for how you can have an Islamic state that is also secular and free. The charge against these two brothers is that they “insulted Turkishness.”

My work day ended (late) while I was putting the finishing touches on a software fix, while listening to two episodes of the White Horse Inn on Islam. I knew Islam was a challenge, but these two radio shows brought its hideous untruth and aggression into much clearer focus. I highly recommend you download the MP3’s and listen to them without delay.

When I was a kid, the fear was that worldwide Communism would take over and erase all our freedoms forever. I believe worldwide Islam is a much greater danger than Communism ever turned out to be.

Our trust is not in the United States military, but in the King of Kings who will appear personally from the clouds. Until then, the brethren must be willing to die, if necessary, preaching the gospel to Muslims and others who will want to kill us, and who will “think they offer service to God” (John 16:2).

It is always dangerous to quote or read Tozer. At some point we actually might believe what he says. It is much easier to applaud what he says while keeping a safe distance.

This is from The Shepherdâ??s Scrapbook:

“Pseudo faith always arranges a way out to serve in case God fails. Real faith knows only one way and gladly allows itself to be stripped of any second way or makeshift substitutes. For true faith, it is either God or total collapse. And not since Adam first stood up on earth has God failed a single man or woman who trusted Him.

The man of pseudo faith will fight for his verbal creed but refuse flatly to allow himself to get into a predicament where his future must depend upon that creed being true. He always provides himself with secondary ways of escape so he will have a way out if the roof caves in.

The faith of Paul or Luther was a revolutionizing thing. It upset the whole life of the individual and made him into another person altogether. It laid hold on the life and brought it under obedience to Christ. It took up its cross and followed along after Jesus with no intention of going back. It said goodbye to its old friends as certainly as Elijah when he stepped into the fiery chariot and went away in the whirlwind. It had a finality about it â?¦ It realigned all lifeâ??s actions and brought them into accord with the will of God.

What we need very badly these days is a company of Christians who are prepared to trust God as completely now, as they must do at the last day. For each of us the time is surely coming when we shall have nothing but God! Health and wealth and friends and hiding places will all be swept away and we shall have only God. To the man of pseudo faith that is a terrifying thought, but to real faith it is one of the most comforting thoughts the heart can entertain.

It would be a tragedy indeed to come to the place where we have no other but God and find that we had not really been trusting God during the days or our earthly sojourn. It would be better to invite God now to remove every false trust, to disengage our hearts from all secret hiding places and to bring us out into the open where we can discover for ourselves whether we actually trust Him. This is a harsh cure for our troubles, it is a sure one! Gentler cures may be too weak to do the work. And time is running out on us.

- A.W. Tozer (source unknown)”

I’ll never get tired of John Newton. I’ve been listening to the Desiring God Conference mp3’s from two weekends ago, and I was greatly blessed by the address by Tim Keller. One thing that he continually did during his lecture was quote John Newton — a sure way to gain MY favor. Here’s one that he quoted in full:

Prayer answered by crosses.

I asked the LORD that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of his salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, his face.

‘Twas he who taught me thus to pray,
And he, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once he’d answer my request;
And by his love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, he made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with his own hand he seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

LORD, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“‘Tis in this way, the LORD replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in me.”