Justin Taylor's Blog, page 324

Dads and Disabilities

John Piper:

John Knight is the director of development here at Desiring God. He blogs at www.theworksofGod.com, and, with his wife, loves Jesus, and trusts the sovereign wisdom and goodness of God.

But it has not always been so.

My aim in this interview is to hear what it was like for John and Dianne to hear that their son "has a problem," what it was like to crash spiritually, and what it was like to see God rebuild their lives.

We hope many of you, who have endured great loss and sorrow, will be strengthened by John and Dianne's story.

Their faith has been a huge encouragement to me.

Their faith has been an encouragement to me as well.

Not unrelated is the testimony of Greg Lucas, author of Wrestling with an Angel: A Story of Love, Disability and the Lessons of Grace:

Finally, Timothy Darymple has some thoughtful entries from the dad I highlighted in the post about 99 Balloons.

A Front-Row Seat for Frontier Missions

I cannot recommend too highly these DVDs from the ministry Dispatches from the Front. Who knows what might happen if churches and small groups and families were to watch these videos together, open to God's leading for going and sending? It is a risk to watch them. But the motivation is gospel grace, not guilt.

Below are some trailers and excerpts. I hope many churches in particular will choose to motivate and encourage their people with these excellent films.

Some endorsements:

"Are you afraid to open your eyes and see death and destruction in the world? Dispatches from the Front will open your eyes to the great needs of the lost, enflame your heart to go to the nations, and give you the courage to carry on the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God. This is a bold call to action."

—Burk Parsons, pastor, author, editor of Tabletalk magazine

"Dispatches offers a potent reminder that in the darkest places, the gospel shines brightest. It should come with a warning label. Danger: Graphic scenes of mission reality that will disrupt your comfort and ignite your heart for God's work on the frontlines. Pray, watch and act!"

—Dave Harvey, Sovereign Grace Ministries – Church Planting & Missiology

"Frontline Missions is perhaps too modestly named. Its ministry often reaches behind the frontlines to those areas and peoples that are in greatest need of hearing the soul-saving gospel of Christ and receiving the compassionate assistance of God's people. These ministries aren't carried on in 'hit and run' fashion. Care is taken to train Christian leaders and to raise up and nourish responsible churches that will carry the work forward into the otherwise uncertain future of unreached and unbelieving peoples all around the world."

—Dr. David J. Hesselgrave, Emeritus Professor of Missions, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, co-founder and past president, The Evangelical Missiological Society

"Paul tells us that the gospel comes to people (Colossians 1:5-6). The gospel, in a manner of speaking, searches people groups out in every corner of the world, and when it comes to them, it wonderfully bears fruit and grows among them (v. 6). Dispatches from the Front provides us with an inside look at the gospel doing its life-changing work in the forgotten places of the world. If you want to expand your vision of what God is doing in the world through the gospel, Dispatches from the Front will serve you, your family, and your church family extremely well."

—Dan Cruver, Director of Together for Adoption

"Now That I'm a Christian": A Discipleship Introduction

A new resource (DVDs and workbook) from the good folks at Credo House Ministries:

How do you grow as a disciple of Jesus? How do you develop deep roots and a fruitful life? The Discipleship Program is designed to help set you on a course toward becoming a fully-devoted follower of Christ. This 10-week program focuses on both Orthodoxy (correct thought) and Orthopraxy (correct action). The Discipleship Program is designed to be an ideal study for small groups.

The following is a brief video introduction, followed by the first 45-minute session:

A Taxonomy for Seminaries

Some helpful advice from William Evans on choosing a seminary:

The main thrust of this article, however, is that prospective students choosing a seminary need to recognize that schools differ, that there is no such thing as "generic seminary education." Just as students need to be concerned about "fit" when they choose a college or university, so also they need to pay close attention to the distinctives of the seminaries they are considering. But how does one identify and appraise these differences?

After attending two seminaries and a university divinity school myself and after sending many of my students off to seminary, I have concluded that the ethos of a theological seminary, the soul of a school if you will, can be characterized in terms of its response to three sets of polarities, each of which is to be viewed as involving two poles on a continuum. Bear in mind that no school will match these categories completely. These three sets of polarities, in turn, form an interpretive grid that some of my students seem to have found useful. These three sets of polarities are:

(1) the graduate school of theology vs. the school for pastors,

(2) catechetical vs. critical, and

(3) ecumenical vs. confessional.

Though this grid arose out of reflection on the current state of conservative Reformed theological education in the United States, it is probably applicable to a much broader range of schools.

You can read the whole thing here.

Cautions on Mirror Reading the Bible

Andy Naselli points to a couple of good thoughts on "mirror reading" (the idea that we can/should seek to discern the implicit situation to which the biblical authors are responding).

Seven Thoughts on Time Management

Wise thoughts from Doug Wilson.

The outline:

The point is fruitfulness, not efficiency.
Build a fence around your life, and keep that fence tended.
Perfectionism paralyzes.
Fill in the corners.
Plod. Keep at it. Slow and steady wins the race.
Take in more than you give out.
Use and reuse. State and restate. Learn and relearn. Develop what you know. Cultivate what you have.

Read the whole thing to see each point expanded and explained.

Memorial Day: Remembering the Fallen and Remembering Christ

A letter from Navy Chaplain Barrett Craig, currently serving the Marines in Okinawa, Japan, to his home church of Clifton Baptist in Louisville:

On behalf of all of us who have gone from you to serve our country in the military, I thank you. I thank you for praying for us, encouraging us, loving us, worrying about us, writing us, and rejoicing with us when we return. Your influence on our lives for the sake of the gospel has directly impacted how we engage our fellow military members with the love of Jesus, from the desert to Afghanistan, to the shores of Camp Pendleton, to the region of Bahrain, to the island of Okinawa, and to the ends of the earth. Praise God.

As those in uniform regularly surround me, holidays like Memorial Day become more meaningful. Today we consider and remember the men and women who have died in military service to secure the freedoms we so love and enjoy as United States citizens. Many of these deaths were of young men and women in their late teens and early twenties, never having tasted the fruit of their sacrifice. And what is even more sobering is considering the mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, children, and friends who have been impacted by the loss of these unknown warriors. Their loved ones, gone.

Even this year, we have already lost 173 US military members in our War on Terror—6 just yesterday. So the ones we are memorializing today are not those in a distant past, but those who even now may be paying the ultimate sacrifice.

As we remember today, many, I'm sure, are asking themselves why these deaths have to happen? Why war? Why did my buddy die in that firefight rather than me? Their questions are understandable. I hear these questions by the very men and women I serve. Their pain elicits tears, anger, and shouts of outrage—again, understandably so. "It's not suppose to be this way," they cry.

Why then? Why war? Why these deaths? My answer to them is to weep with them. And to hug them and say I am so sorry. Then when the time is right, I gently explain to them how our world is broken. Our world is fractured at its foundation. And the brokenness is why there are wars. And wars exist because the world is full of rebels, not merely rebels against foreign governments and people they don't like, but rebels primarily against a good and holy God. Like Satan, these rebels want to be number one. And so they hate and murder and vie for power—to be, well, if it were possible, in control of the universe. These rebels who wage war, then, fundamentally do it not to overpower the opponent, but to overpower God.

I ask, how can this brokenness be undone? How can the fractured foundation be repaired? The how is in a Person. The question is better posed as Who can undue and repair this bloody mess? But, before answering the Whom, I gently ask these troubled souls to be honest with themselves. Something is not right within them, either. They struggle themselves with depression, intoxication, outbursts of anger, anxiety, pride, fear, lust, and regret. The brokenness is not only in the thick of war, but in their own hearts as well. The world needs mending, but so do they.

So who can save us from this bloody mess? His name is Jesus and he is God's Son. Jesus knows war. He left not the unstable boundaries of the U.S., but the impenetrable strongholds of heaven to face a million, a billion, enemies who hated him. All odds were against him, but he won—he conquered. He died. He rose again. His death ultimately undid the world's brokenness and his death also provided a way to mend the brokenness of our own heart. We don't ultimately see war and death done away with yet, but we will. Jesus resurrected after his death by crucifixion, and he ascended back to the impenetrable strongholds of heaven. We now await for his return to ultimately do away with this broken world and usher in a peaceful everlasting kingdom of unimaginable joy!

So why doesn't he just come now? Because, I say, he wants you to be apart of his kingdom when he comes. The mending you need in your own heart is required to be a citizen of heaven. And the problem with your heart is that you too are a rebel, a foe, against God, like me, like the rest of the world. Maybe you aren't as rebellious as others, but we are all still rebels from one degree to another against God. And like a just nation, God does not tolerate rebels—even in the very slightest. The smallest act of rebellion has made us enemies. The punishment? Death.

But the death Jesus died was a death to make us death-deserving rebels God's friend. Jesus' death fully paid the punishment, and God accepted his sacrifice. Jesus rose from the dead to prove his death works, that it can make us rebels friends with God. And we receive his friendship, his salvation, his heaven, not by negotiating peace and making promises of a changed life or being willing to go in the battle to die. We receive his friendship by laying down our weapons of hostility against Jesus and saying I, too, am a rebel against God and his kingdom and only Jesus can save me, forgive me, make me right before God, mend the world, and heal the utter hurt and brokenness of my soul.

As I memorialize and remember those who have made the greatest sacrifice, along with their families, to secure the freedoms I enjoy, I am comforted to know God is not far removed from all of this—in fact, he is more intimately near than we probably know. God does know something about war. God does know something about sacrifice. God does know something about pain. Yet God does know and God does have the remedy—Jesus Christ. We genuinely have a hope-filled answer for those who pain this day. Praise God that we do! So let us thank and weep and remember and pray and reach out to our military members today with love and the glorious news of the God who saves and who will make all things new.

Father, we come with heavy hearts for the men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to secure the freedoms we enjoy here in America. In many ways, we live because of their deaths. We come with heavy hearts for the families of the fallen. What pain. What sadness. How we break for the great loss they feel. Be with them.

Father, as this day directly focuses us on the brokenness of this world, we thank you there is a remedy. We thank you for Jesus' sacrifice who secures the heavenly freedoms, eternal life, for those who trust him alone for their salvation. We ultimately live because of his death. God, be active in our military community today. Save. Mend. Heal. And love.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Thank you, God, for those who serve, and especially for chaplains who are ministers of the grace of the gospel.

A Christian Brother Is Missing (Updated)

Update: From @FindMattHill: "As of right now, the only true and confirmed details are A: Matt was found live and unharmed. B: He left under his own volition." Mark Dever: "Praise God, Matt Hill is alive, unharmed. I thank God for the amazing love this congregation has poured out over these last few days." #MattHill It's undoubtedly the path of wisdom here to avoid speculation and to continue to pray.

Matt Hill, a 26-year-old member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church and the campus director for Campus Outreach at Georgetown, has been missing since Tuesday, last seen in D.C.'s Chinatown.

There is a Facebook page, Twitter page, and a donation page at Razoo.

Here's a news report:

From the Christian Post:

Hill works for Capitol Hill Baptist's ministry called Campus Outreach Washington, D.C. The new ministry is currently established at George Washington University, where Hill served as campus director.

The Matthews, N.C., native had moved to the nation's capital in order to do missions work.

He was last seen Tuesday morning near the Verizon Center in Northwest D.C. That was where he dropped off a student, Matthew DeGioia, whom he was mentoring.

According to The Pendulum, Elon University's student newspaper, Hill told DeGioia that he had to be at Capitol Hill Baptist by 11:30 a.m.

He hasn't been seen since.

"He seemed completely fine, wasn't troubled at all," DeGioia told the student publication. "It's completely out of character for him to just leave without telling anybody."

New reports reveal that Hill's car, a black 1996 Honda civic, got a parking ticket outside his apartment in Foggy Bottom at 11 a.m. His credit card was then used about an hour later to buy gas in Arlington, Va.

Both Hill and the car are missing.

Holding out hope, Hill's father, Holger, told MyFoxDC, "God is in control. My son is not alone. My son is not lost."

A Facebook page called "Praying and Searching for Matt Hill * Missing *" has been set up to spread the word and help bring in as much information as possible.

Hill is a 6-ft. white male with blue eyes and dirty blond hair. His DC plate number is DT-2747.

The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction

I started reading Alan Jacob's latest, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (Oxford University Press), and I'm having trouble putting it down.

Trevor Logan has a nice summary of the book at First Things:

It seems a rare accomplishment that a book on the pleasures of reading could actually pull off being pleasurable itself. But Alan Jacobs' newest book, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction, does just that. It is a marvelous manifesto of sanity in an age of jeremiads about the modern predicament of attention loss on one hand, and those proud champions of distraction singing the hallelujah chorus of a world devoid of long-form books on the other. "Read at Whim" is Jacob's advice and motto for a new generation of readers. Read, Jacobs proclaims, for the sheer pleasure of reading; simply for the hell of it. And by all means, don't get bogged down by the authoritarians who smugly look down their noses at those who aren't reading the "right" books on the "list."

Jacobs enlists the wisdom of the great readers for pleasure, from the frolicking G.K. Chesterton to the jocular David Foster Wallace, in his defense of not reading to impress others, but for the sheer joy of losing oneself in another world within the world and thereby becoming more and more a whole self. Jacobs rallies against the "lists" of books proffered by many an intellectual whose methods seem to inhibit the pleasures of reading instead of evoking desire for new worlds and new eyes.

There are those who "read to read" and those who "read to have read." It is Jacobs' desire to give hope to those who have been burnt out by the latter, and to encourage the lost souls' journey into the former.

You can read the whole review here.

A Christian Brother Is Missing

Matt Hill, a 26-year-old member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church and the campus director for Campus Outreach at Georgetown, has been missing since Tuesday, last seen in D.C.'s Chinatown.

There is a Facebook page, Twitter page, and a donation page at Razoo.

Here's a news report:

From the Christian Post:

Hill works for Capitol Hill Baptist's ministry called Campus Outreach Washington, D.C. The new ministry is currently established at George Washington University, where Hill served as campus director.

The Matthews, N.C., native had moved to the nation's capital in order to do missions work.

He was last seen Tuesday morning near the Verizon Center in Northwest D.C. That was where he dropped off a student, Matthew DeGioia, whom he was mentoring.

According to The Pendulum, Elon University's student newspaper, Hill told DeGioia that he had to be at Capitol Hill Baptist by 11:30 a.m.

He hasn't been seen since.

"He seemed completely fine, wasn't troubled at all," DeGioia told the student publication. "It's completely out of character for him to just leave without telling anybody."

New reports reveal that Hill's car, a black 1996 Honda civic, got a parking ticket outside his apartment in Foggy Bottom at 11 a.m. His credit card was then used about an hour later to buy gas in Arlington, Va.

Both Hill and the car are missing.

Holding out hope, Hill's father, Holger, told MyFoxDC, "God is in control. My son is not alone. My son is not lost."

A Facebook page called "Praying and Searching for Matt Hill * Missing *" has been set up to spread the word and help bring in as much information as possible.

Hill is a 6-ft. white male with blue eyes and dirty blond hair. His DC plate number is DT-2747.