The Faith of Our Fathers

If you are anything like me, the last time you read or recited the Gettysburg Address was in elementary school. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that when I recited it before my peers, I was rather dispassionate. I'm sure it sounded more like a child trying to recall something he had only just managed to memorize in time. Other than a few lingering expressions, I can't recall much of it today. I recall it primarily as one more piece of American Scripture in the religion that is Democracy. It resides in my memory alongside the Preamble to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. This faith is so closely aligned with the Christian faith in the minds of Americans that the hymnody of the Christian faith is often used in our National faith. The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Faith of Our Fathers, This is My Father's World...for some reason these exist in my patriotic memory. In fact, as a child growing up, I thought the fathers to which we were referring in "Faith of Our Fathers" were the founding fathers of our nation!

Despite the thoughts I have often expressed in other forums regarding the separation of church and state, I do not think it inappropriate to pause today and remember those that have given their lives for this country, and for the cause of freedom.

As we returned from church this morning we listened to Garrison Keillor on NPR as he recited, perhaps much as Lincoln himself would have, the Gettysburg Address. I was struck not only by its majesty (which I mangled in the 4th grade), but also how appropriate it is for today's observance. I leave you with the speech and encourage you to read it aloud and with the appropriate inflection. Recall that this was a speech for which Lincoln had traveled out from Washington DC. Having come all that way, it is a rather short speech. Lincoln would not have rushed through it. Read it carefully and deliberately, and recall that it is about real human beings that had lives and experienced love.

The Gettysburg Address, first delivered at Gettysburg, PA on November 19, 1863:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

More on the service oriented nature of the 'net

OK...one more recommendation and I'm done!

For all you pastor types out there (or anyone that does any public speaking for that matter), I've found another very helpful site. Think LibraryThing only for organizing your quotes. I've stumbled around for years not doing a good job of managing my quotes. I run across something and think, "That would work well for an illustration!" or "I could use that in a sermon sometime!" only to lose it or forget it. Not anymore! This site allows me to record all my quotes and their sources as well as organize them by any title I choose to give them. I can also tag all my quotes and search them according to tag. Writing a sermon on some aspect of sin? Just look up your "sin" tag and every quote you've ever cataloged is there. Create a tag (for example) "Sunday Sermon" and tag all your quotes for this Sunday's sermon. Then it prints out in large font in an easy to read format to take into the pulpit with you!

I know the suspense is killing you, so I'll point you over there now: Manage My Quotes

Check it out!

Of making many books...

I have added a few features to my blog here both for my benefit and the benefit of several of those with whom I work.

First, you will notice above my reading list on the right hand side of the page a link to my Amazon.com wishlist. This I offer out of the kindness of my heart to anyone struggling with what to get me for my birthday, or Christmas, or father's day, or pastoral intern day, or...well...you get the idea. The thought of people out there in the cold and dark of the world, struggling with what to get me as a gift was keeping me awake at night.

Second, I found a website at the end of last year that has just knocked my socks off! For all of you fellow bibliophiles, this is a great resource! It is called "library thing" and can be found at librarything.com. This website allows you to catalog your library with incredible ease. you simply enter a partial title or ISBN number and it goes out to one of more than 70 libraries and retrieves the book with full biblio data. If it gets the info from Amazon, it usually has a picture of the book cover as well. Once you have found the book you are looking for, simply click on it and it adds it to your library. Once you have begun to develop your library, you can search your library, organize it by title, author, publisher, LC Call #, etc. You can also assign multiple tags to your books in order to organize them however you like. Not sure where to place that book on the shelf? Does Preaching Christ from the Old Testament go in your preaching section or your OT section? Let the LC decide! And with this you have the LC at your fingertips.

I'm still entering my books and getting things organized, but I've already added my library to the blog. You can find it at the icon to the left.

To my fellow interns: Want to borrow a book? You can find out if I own it and if it is at the office or at my house...even if I'm not around to figure it out. Just go to my library thing and check the tags for home library or office library. If I have it at the office, help yourself.

And one final note to all my wonderful book collecting friends. Have you ever considered how you would prove the contents of your library if it was ever lost in a fire? If not librarything.com, at least find something and make sure you are cataloging those books!

Matt

Flashback

In Sunday School last Sunday the teacher opened with a dramatic reading from the opening chapter of Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness. I recalled reading this book in high school and enjoying it. So I dug out my old copy and re-read it this past week.

I had to keep reminding myself that this book spent years on the Christian best seller's list. According to wikipedia more than 2.5 million copies have been sold. There are so many things to find fault with in this work. I'd categorize my complaints as literary and theological.

As a work of literature, this book actually falls short of the quality represented even by the Left Behind series. Characters are shallow and too often predictable. Several times in the book I also found myself thinking I had already read such and such a section. It turns out I had. Peretti seems to recycle ideas on occasion within the book. In short, if it weren't for the fact that this is such a quick read, I'd feel pretty guilty about having spent my time reading it.

As for theology, I recognize that it is a work of fiction and so is not claiming to be an attempt at factual representation. The fact that many have used this book to inform their view of spirituality and spiritual warfare says more about them than it does about Peretti, I suppose. However, in the end, it has some glaring problems. First, the angels derive their ability to fight the demons from the prayers of the saints. As the saints are more or less faithful in prayer, the angels are correspondingly more or less capable of fighting evil. At one point, in the climactic scene between the lead angel and the lead demon, the angel is losing (the saints think the fight is over and have stopped praying). The angel tells God the name of the demon (as if God isn't aware) and asks him to communicate this to the faithful so that they can pray. Alongside this problem is an overall sense that God is not truly sovereign. One final problem - Most of the people doing evil things in this book are doing them because of the direct influence of a demon. There is little to no indication that the people are morally responsible. To the contrary. In several passages the preacher casts demons out and the person effected goes from complete evil to near sainthood before the reader's very eyes. Where is original sin? Where is the flesh with which we all struggle? It seems we should instead be arguing, "the devil made me do it."

As I was checking wikipedia (trying to see if I could find the number of weeks on the bestseller list) I noticed that one of the people that goes after the book for being soft on personal sin is Dr. Burns at DTS! He made me proud! Nice to see they are on their game.

I could pick on other things, but this should suffice. While I certainly believe in spiritual warfare, I don't think Peretti's ideas about it are congruent with Scripture. And even if you feel compelled to ignore the doctrine and just pass the time with a good book, I don't think this one qualifies on that score either.

So in short, "just say no" to This Present Darkness. Your time would be better spent any number of other ways. (Praying for those poor beleaguered angels?)

The Next Chapter

I have recently received an invitation from Park Cities Presbyterian Church to spend the coming year as a pastoral intern on staff at the church! To all who have been praying for us in this I want to say thanks! I start on Wednesday (just two days from now!).

The coming year will be an exciting one as I learn more about what it means to be a pastor in the PCA. The few shorts weeks we have been attending PCPC have already been encouraging with regard to how Leslie and the boys, particularly Ian, have responded. It is refreshing to hear him talk about the things he is learning about God and the Bible through his time in Sunday School. Leslie and I are enjoying Christ-centered worship and the liturgical bent that the PCA observes in their worship of the Triune God.

I'm sure there will be trying times in the coming year, but that is the nature of ministry and life in general. I have, at times, put the PCA on a pedestal that didn't reflect the truth. I know that this denomination has its own struggles, just as any other. However, I am looking forward to being part of a denomination that still regards God and His Word as the focus of our life. I am encouraged at the prospect of joining in ministry with men that I have come to know, love, and appreciate over the past few years.

This coming year is made all the more sweet by the fact that a close friend of mine was also accepted into the program. He has always been one that challenges me in my thinking and encourages me in my faith, so the coming year is that much more full of promise.

A Mighty Wind

For all the dire forecasts we have received in the Dallas area in the past 6 years, it was the moderate forecast that finally brought us the worst damage. On Wednesday afternoon we were sitting in the living room (Leslie and Xavier and I...Ian was at Awana at a local church) when the breeze and drizzle suddenly turned to incredible gusts and driving rain in just a matter of a minute or so. As I watched out the window overlooking the backyard, I saw the covering over our back patio simply disappear into the air. I immediately began yelling for Leslie to get into the closet (an interior closet in our home). After a few minutes it seemed clear that there was no tornado bearing down on us, but the wind and rain persisted. I went to the front window in our dining room to see if the porch roof was on our cars in the drive way. It wasn't, but the tree in our front yard had split down the middle with half upright and half laying across the yard toward the street. In the midst of all this we lost power to our house. Within 10 minutes the weather had calmed enough for me to pick up Ian. Other than some fences and trees that were knocked down, I saw very little damage on this short drive. Just a lot of leaves and shingles all over the place. The covering over a nearby gas station's pumps was blown over. The uprights remained in the ground, but they are now bent at ground level. That was some wind!

As I write this on Friday, we are still without power and not sure when we will get it back. We're staying with my parents in the next town over. Everyone is fine and as soon as we get power back, things should get back to normal. In the meantime, here are the pics of our damage...(above and below this article).

Last minute edit: The power has just returned! Woohoo!