The Rod of God

During a combined Sunday school today I presented my research on the future of Islam to about 70 people. I was pleased to get some more "mileage" out of my school project, and I think it was well received.

I adapted the presentation for today's audience by teaching on the great Islamic threat in the days of Luther. In his time Christians in Western Europe faced the very real possibility that they would soon live under the rule of Islamic law. He wrote several treatises refuting Islam and, surprisingly, was instrumental in publishing an updated Qu'ran.

Luther was unwilling to advocate any form of "holy war" and got into big trouble for teaching that the Islamic threat was the well-deserved rod of God for the transgressions and unbelief of Western Europe. We explored some parallels to the Islamic threat of our day, and if it is a "rod of God" then what is it for?

This was our last Sunday with our Lutheran friends. We look forward, Lord willing, to stopping in at Heritage PCA in Oklahoma City next Lord's Day and worshiping with our pastor friend, Mark Balthrop, once again.

June 18, 1994 

Move over, Mapquest

Next week we'll make our longest road trip. Kristin and the children will be in one car and I and the animals in the other. A frustrating part of past road trips was the difficulty in picking good resting points along the way. Whether we were ready for a hotel (that allows pets) or a McDonald's with an indoor playland, we'd often waste time exiting the Interstate hoping and not finding what we needed.

Thankfully, it appears that TravMatix has gone a long way towards fixing that problem. Based on our route and our hotel and eatery preferences this free product lists, by Interstate exit, every place that meets our criteria. They even claim to tell you who has the cleanest restrooms along the way!

Breaking Down

We've been pretty busy this week preparing for the packers to come on Monday. I had hoped to visit a couple more fun family places before leaving this area, but my 14-year old car was falling apart and it's taken more time (and money) than I thought to get it ready for the 1,400 mile trip to Albuquerque. At home, our air conditioner has also been on the blink for a few days and has kept me tied up.

But what really is troubling is my waning passion for God over the last few months. My Bible reading has suffered, I cover only a fraction of what I used to. I've intentionally read more this week, but it feels too much like drudgery. My prayer life is in the same slump. I have a hard time paying attention to the Preached Word. Family prayer time sounds canned.

Is this spiritual slump because we've been without the Lord's Supper for several months while sojourning in a Lutheran church? Or perhaps a lack of fellowship here has something to do with it? We're envious of Valerie and want what she has.

The stress of a move easily results in spats and coldness between Kristin, the children and I. We're not strong enough to resist that temptation on our own. I need to set a good example for my family, and earnestly pray for the fruit of the Spirit as we move.

Adoption Update

The adoption process is ripe with perplexing decisions that keep you in prayer and Proverbs. Readers of this blog have seen us wrestle with race and health already. Every adoption opportunity comes with a unique set of risks and consequences.

Should we celebrate over the news that after many months of trying we have been matched with a bi-racial girl due in November? This is wonderful news for us -- a birthmother likes us! She likes us!! -- but we aren't popping open the wine bottle just yet.

This is a private adoption, not through an adoption agency but a lawyer, which means that we pay monthly support to the birthmother throughout the pregnancy. If she surprises the lawyer and us by deciding to parent then we would loose a significant amount of money.

After several hour-long conversations with the Bados--a Christian husband and wife adoption law firm in Oklahoma City recommended by Special Link--we have decided to go through with this risky venture. We plan to visit with them and the birthmother in OKC during our move out West in a couple of weeks.

The Horse and His Boy

One of the many great things about the Dayton, Ohio area is the metroparks. Each one has their own appeal; the children have enjoyed farm chores at a restored 1800s farm, I've nearly drowned in the Mad river, and Eli has done two week-long horse camps. Here's a picture from today's end-of-camp show where Eli and Garth (the hairy one) cantered and even did a little barrel racing.

 

Update: Beat-the-Buzzer Evangelism

Today I met with a classmate who wanted to understand my faith. We had a lengthy, in-depth conversation about the Christian gospel.

About a year ago my friend was teaching at a Mormon church on the history of that faith and while doing his research lost all confidence in the Latter Day Saints. Regrettably, he rejected more than just the Mormon faith, he dismissed all forms of Special Revelation. Today he is a Deist, reading their anti-Christian websites. His "apostasy" from Mormonism threatens his marriage and has alienated him from extended family.

I didn't intend to take an "Evangelism Explosion" approach, but my friend said that when he appears before God he'll say that God didn't make it clear enough what to believe; it's too hard to tell which prophet (Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Buddha, or Jesus) to believe. I mentioned the uniqueness of the Resurrection and a Gospel of grace. I wished I would have thought of C.S. Lewis' Liar, Lunatic, or Lord question.

I also took a Van Til tactic, talking about what his "final authority" is for deciding what to believe--reason or the Scriptures. I also informed him of the trustworthiness and authenticity of the Scriptures compared to other historical documents.

In the end what he wanted was a personal vision, direct revelation, or a miracle to tell him what to believe. I explained from Hebrews why the first two weren't going to happen, but the third very well may (referring to the miracle of the New Birth). I offered to give him my copy of C.S. Lewis' Miracles. He has read Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters, and told me he'd read it, too.

I offered to follow-up with him at his convenience. Perhaps he'll call or write after we move. Overall I feel I presented the Gospel clearly, pleaded with him earnestly, and provided him with reasonable responses to his questions. Yet I don't have any chummy feelings about this conversation; here is a man who has heard the Gospel and doesn't believe. I pray that will change.

Graduation Dinner

Here's a picture of us at last night's Air Force Institute of Technology graduation dinner. It was held at the National Museum of the Air Force where we dined between wonderful, restored military airplanes, feasted off a 10-station buffet, and were entertained by a military band. It was a grand time--a rewarding end to a year of brute force learning.

 

Does Theology Have to Make Sense?

Martin Luther knew it was absurd to believe such things as "God is man, the son of a virgin, crucified, sitting at the right hand of the Father." A reasonable man cannot stomach such contradictions. Reason always attacks theology that is faithful to the Bible, and so Luther retaliated.

Luther, according to The Foolishness of God, lambasted reason as "a big red murderess, devil's bride, a damned whore, a blind guide, the enemy of faith." He defended the sole authority of Scripture in all matters of faith; reason must yield to faith.

He fires more than a few broadsides at Calvinism for its desire to "play carpenter with God's Word; whittling away at it until all the pieces fit." Luther sought to maintain the paradoxical nature of Christian doctrine. I'll summarize just one area (election) in this space.

Reformed theologians often say that a man must be either a Calvinist or an Arminian -- that is, he must find the answer to why some are converted and others aren't, either in a difference in God or a difference in man. A true Lutheran can only say, "A plague on both your houses!" Luther says without reservation that the will of God cannot be hindered, and just as firmly he asserts that man can resist the will of God. We should not tear ourselves to pieces over this mystery; the Lord simply wants both truths to stand.

This provocative book claims that Calvinism remains true to the law of non-contradiction in doctrines such as election, perseverance, conversion, and the Lord's Supper, while Lutheranism doesn't see how you can do that and be faithful to all that the Scripture says. Lutherans simply resolve not to explain apparent contradictions, resisting the pressures of reason to act as judge over God's truth.

This was an interesting read and reminded me of Dr. Rayburn's lecture on "Preaching the Poles".

Which is Worse in a Church: Worldliness or Pharisaism?

Our pastor's bold sermon yesterday reminded me of some comments I've heard in the past from homeschoolers when looking for a church. They show up Sunday morning for worship, take a look at the congregation's appearance (especially the mothers and teenagers), and automatically know if this is the place for them.

Here's the quote from yesterday's sermon that brought this to mind,

The conservative churches of today, and we are one of them, are in greater danger than ever of falling into the idolatry of Pharisaism. Pharisaism is the chief idolatry because it is all about circling the wagons to exclude the unclean and maintain moral values. When you are worshipping the false pharisaic god, you exclude those who do not pass the latest moral acid test. In some churches that acid test is drinking, smoking and dancing. For others the acid test is your political persuasion, your stance on abortion or how loudly you denounce homosexuality. We are investing too much of our time in passing legislation designed to make our country more moral and not enough time practicing mercy.

The pastor has a point. When I look around a church body and see immodestly dressed women, wild-looking teenagers, and bored men I label that church as "worldly" and move on to a place that's "safer" for my family. This approach probably does lead us to churches that have circled the wagons to exclude the unclean.

But there is a counterpoint. If those worldly-looking people in the church have been there for years, perhaps even raised there, and yet they still look, think, and act like the world then it's clear that in not circling the wagons the church went too far and gave away the farm.

Parenting the Poles

Our children are basically perfect. This is what the grandparents say when they spend time with one child at a time. But when the Bailey children are grouped together, watch out! Their behavior swings violently between two poles; they're either cruel to each other, or annoyingly goofy with each other.

In any given day our children fall off both sides of this horse many times. This afternoon I explained this observation to my oldest child (7); based on his response I think he may have got it, "This is what you mean by "self-control?" Right!

Maturity is at least knowing how to stay out of both the meanness and silliness ditches. My children are slowly learning this; as am I. I'm better with self-control now than I was as a new parent. I was better then than I was in college, and so on.

Naturally, children have childish behavior, which is often unpleasant. The difficulty for the parent is to patiently teach the children how to keep out of the ditches they keep falling into.

Gladness from Mourning

I enjoyed an e-mail exchange on transracial adoption with a friend of a friend from Georgia this week. This adoptive mother has a story to tell, here's an excerpt with names removed,

Our little girl is full African American (now 2 1/2 yrs old). We went into our adoption process wanting to provide a covenant home to a child that needed it...seeing race as a rather non-issue. Yes, we'd have things to overcome even in ourselves, but they were based on society rather than the Word so we NEEDED to get over them. We never expected what was to come.

Our daughter's race has not been a non-issue for our family but a radically positive one. As [Pastor] Piper mentions, when bringing one of a different race into your family, you are forced to recognize an individual outside of a lumped-together race. My Mississippi grandfather (who initially had an intense period of mourning regarding our adoption choice) eventually came around with tears in his eyes commenting that our daughter was "the first black girl to ever love him". You can translate that as the first he'd ever loved, or allowed to crawl up in his lap for sure!

Amazingly, graciously, we've been blessed with one positive experience after another, and an almost alarming absence of negative experiences. Black strangers have literally hugged me in the mall "for embracing their race". Socialites in our church have seen their elementary-aged-kids attach themselves to our ever-lovable little girl...even took her to show-n-tell at their predominately white private school since they didn't have a baby sister like their classmates to show off!?!?

In summary, we have realized that transracial adoption is amazing, exciting, and sanctifying in so many ways. We hope to bring at least one more AA child into our family before too long.

Our friend also provided the following links (here, here, and here) to some of John Piper's thoughts on race and the family.

Kristin and I hope that our adoption will be soon; in the meantime we're thankful for our Georgia cheering section!

The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Montgomery County

Kristin says...."talk about gross"; but when young boys are involved I find frogging to be much more satisfying than fishing. Yesterday we caught 7 frogs in about 20 minutes; Saturday's fishing expedition resulted in boredom and no fish.

Catching frogs is also more exciting than catching little fish. The frogs aggressively attack the worms above the water (fun to watch). Frogs are easier to de-hook (no sharp fins and a big mouth). And best of all, once de-hooked you can play with a frog for as long as you like!

Gone Froggin'

The War on Terror As I Understand It

I finished my research project on Islamic Terrorism. My focus was mainly on how information technology (satellite TV, internet, etc) is moving Islamic culture towards extremism.

Many Americans ask "why do they hate us?" The answer: U.S. policy toward the Middle East (e.g. supporting corrupt tyrannies) and especially our policy with the Palestinians. For us the Palestinian problem is just one issue out of many; for the average Arab it is the most important issue of his life.

Most people identify Madrassas (Islamic religious schools) as the main propagator of anti-Western hate. In some cases (Saudi and in the Stan-lands) they are problematic, but by far the larger problem is with the media.

In a land that banned the printing press for several hundreds of years and censors all forms of media, satellite TV is breaking through the information blockade. Up to 90% of homes in some Middle East countries have satellite-TV dishes, and 30 percent of the stations are independent (i.e. uncensored). This is a great opportunity to influence the Arab people.

Regrettably, the Islamic extremists have capitalized on this opportunity, waging a full-scale propaganda war against the U.S. Violent anti-West "values" are inculcated into Arab children at a very early age and saturate the lives of every viewer.

Only 2 percent of homes in the Middle East have internet access but every Islamic terrorist group has their own web site. Why? The internet is their outreach vehicle to Muslim communities and sympathizers around the world. Yahoo! Groups, and other tools, provides anonymous command and control of the terrorist networks in addition to recruitment, training, and fundraising.

The U.S. is a latecomer to this war of ideas. We've made some naive attempts to engage in this battle, but find ourselves at a disadvantage reaching out cross-culturally to an audience that long ago turned against us.

We must find and popularize the moderate, indigenous voices of the Middle East before the mass population moves from what today is mild opposition of the U.S. to militant opposition.

An Alien Nation or is it just Alienation?

Because it was TRs that first woke up Kristin and I to the twin dangers of evangelicalism and thoughtlessly consuming modern culture, we naturally thought that those outside mainstream-Presbyterianism had the answer. We didn't know that just because someone understands the problem well doesn't guarantee that they also have the right answer. The '60's offer the classic proof text.

A funny thing happened. As our convictions widened (I won't say deepened), the churches that interested us kept getting smaller and farther away. The typical PCA church didn't suit us anymore, and the double-earring wearing male worship leader at the one in this town cemented our feelings. Fortunately, a lack of courage on my part (and the level-headedness of my wife) moderated my impulse to do something really wild.

The Church, as the people of God, is an Alien Nation in some sense. But what we felt as we spent time in TR-ish churches was not belonging but rather alienation. What we wanted was a church that lives together before God in a reverent way, but what we got was more like a weekly club for the misfits of Presbyterianism.

That's too one-sided. I can't explain why the TR-type churches we've seen are the coldest we've ever known. Maybe it's not so much "penal-colony" syndrome as it is how far apart the people of the church live. Or maybe the problem lies with us. We move too often; surely this is at least partly responsible for our feelings of isolation.

It took time but we're finally realizing that it's not just the TRs who are aware of the cultural and ecclesial problems of today. Some mainstream PCA evangelicals get this; they just don't let it define them. When we move next month we so strongly hope to find a warm, friendly reformed church close to where we live. Enough with alienation; life in the Alien Nation shouldn't have to be this way.

Beat-the-Buzzer Evangelism

I had a nice surprise at the gym today. One of my classmates came up to me and wanted to meet before I move to New Mexico to talk about my faith. During the last year he has "let go" of much of what he believed (his background is Mormon) and is basically a Deist at this point. He's curious to know more about what I believe, not because he's ready to embrace it, but simply to understand.

We plan to get together next week. Please pray for God's illumination.

Some Recommendations

Skip McDonald's on your next road trip and enjoy some of the best food in America by looking here before you head out.

Listen to some of America's best speeches here. Several are good for Memorial Day. (HT: www.worldmagblog.com)

Kristin laughed and cried throughout this easy read (HT: Carmon's blog). The children and I really like this ranching story, (HT: Rick's blog).

Roamin' Catholics

I was worried about dinner tonight. I invited a military family over to eat with us who are new to the area; they have 5 young children and eagerly talk of more. They also homeschool. Since this is Trinity Sunday, I had put together a devotion for after dinner on that topic but were worried that the family might be Mormon. But when they offered to bring a bottle of wine my fears were put to rest--they're either Reformational or Catholic!

They are Roman Catholic. This is the first homeschooling Catholic family we've met. We enjoyed dining with them very much. I was able to learn why they homeschool instead of using a Catholic school, who their influences are, and some things about their family catechism time.

They are a great family; someone we'd enjoy spending more time with. The wife is a cradle Catholic, but the husband was baptized in the Methodist church, like me. His understanding of the differences between Roman Catholics and Protesting Catholics lacked a little, and he is such an affable guy, I can't help but wonder what would happen if we had more time together.

And he brings a mighty fine wine!

Amazing Adoption Stories Part 1

A big howdy to the Geaslen family! Thanks for relaying the amazing adoption story to us tonight. Since the mainstream media often relays only horror stories about domestic adoptions, it's good to hear and pass on some good news.

While we wait for our adoption in God's timing, we have opportunities to speak to many people about our experiences. As Kristin spreads the news about the many black American babies that need loving families to adopt them, some extended family of the Geaslens wondered why they have never heard of any as they wait to adopt. They inquired, found out that their agency does not do transracial adoptions, and just recently switched to one that did. Right away the situation changed.

Just a few days ago they received a request to meet for lunch with a birthmother who needed to place her 10 month old child. At the end of the meal the birthmother decided this was the right family to raise the child and placed her in the hands of her new mother right there in the restaurant! Needless to say the adoptive family was surprised to go from childless to parenting a 10 month old in a matter of minutes!

We rejoice that this child now has a loving two-parent home--complete with a special aunt, uncle, and several cousins!

God is Good

The folks in charge of base housing at our next base (Kirtland AFB) called yesterday and offered us a house! We were delighted to accept and very surprised since it was just the day before when they told us everything was booked.

Living on base is great for the family--no commute time, often home for lunch, etc. And in this particular situation, the church we're most interested in is close to the base. It would be great to work, live, and worship in the same community!