Bayly Blog: Out of Our Minds, Too

A Christmas gift...

(Tim) This past week, I heard about a young man who, about two weeks ago, dared to give a speech that was pertinent to the lives of those listening in his public school classroom. He spoke against the slaughter of the little ones in their mothers' wombs in his speech class and got a 'D' for his good and brave efforts. I wrote his Dad and asked for a short account to encourage all of us to visit the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and break the jaw of the wicked, snatching his victims from his mouth to safety.

His father...

A psalm for Christmas Eve...

Praise God for Christmas

Praise Him for the Incarnation

for Word made flesh.

I will not sing

of shepherds watching flocks

on frosty night

or angel choristers.

I will not sing

of stable bare in Bethlehem

or lowing oxen

wise men

trailing distant star

with gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Tonight I will sing

praise to the Father

who stood on heaven’s threshold

and said farewell to His Son

as He stepped across the stars

to Bethlehem

and Jerusalem.

And I will sing

praise to the infinite eternal Son

who became most finite

a Baby

who would one day be executed

for my crimes.

Praise Him in the heavens.

Praise Him in the stable.

Praise Him in my heart.

-Joe Bayly

"We'll go ahead and take him..."

(Tim, w/thanks to Taylor) Shortly before his team meets up with the Colts, Jets Coach Rex Ryan had this to say about Peyton Manning: "Shoot, if (the Colts) want to get rid of him, we'll go ahead and take him."

Ryan opened his daily news conference: “We’re going to start with the injury report, obviously: Manning, Clark, Addai, Reggie Wayne, Freeney, Mathis, Brackett—all those guys will not play.”

Grinning ear to ear.

Then he said: “Oh, hold up. That was my wish list for Santa Claus.”

Christmas voices...

Christmas Voices

by Joseph Bayly IV

Joseph

It’s cold and drafty. She’s cold. Why couldn’t the boy have been born while we were still in Nazareth, instead of here, alone, no one to help. Only me, and I’ve never delivered a baby.

Fear not, Joseph.

I do believe God. I take him at his word. A baby. But not mine.

Take unto thee Mary.

Mary—how I love her. I love you, Mary. Here. Hold my hand. I’ll see that nothing goes wrong. No, God will see to that, he’ll take care of you. He’s got to—it’s his baby. Don’t be afraid.

She shall bring forth a son.

He’ll work beside me, help me smooth a yoke, build a house. I’ll get him a little saw, the boy and I will work together...

First they came for the babies, then the cats and dogs...

(Tim, w/thanks to Jiho) For those still inclined to jump on the bandwagon of anthropogenic global warming, take a look at the latest call for repentance. Turns out pets are as bad as cars--SUVs even. So we must repent of our dogs and cats--even our goldfish.

A medium-sized dog has an annual footprint of 2.07 acres, which is about the same carbon footprint as driving an SUV 12,500 miles. John Barrett of the Stockholm Environment Institute was asked to "calculate eco-pawprints," and he summarized his very scientific findings:

"Owning a dog really is quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat," Barrett said.

Showing how serious a problem pets are, further calculations revealed cats have an eco-footprint slightly less than driving a Volkswagen Golf for a year, two hamsters are about the same as a plasma television, and even a goldfish burns energy equivalent...

The pope with rouge, mascara, and a perm...

(Tim, w/thanks to David L.) Priceless. Brilliant. MSNBC.

Check out the first few comments...

New Year's resolutions for your congregation...

(Tim) One young mother in our church has been encouraged by several lists of resolutions she's been reading. Among resolutions written by believers, the granddaddy of them all is the one written by Jonathan Edwards...

Snow does a wonderful job cleaning up the capital...

(Tim) My friend, Kevin Offner, sent a link to a bunch of pics taken in our nation's capital during the recent blizzard. The pics are by his friend, Joshua Nelson. Beautiful!

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

Christmas cheer for my dear brother...

(Tim) My brother, David, just led his congregation through an intense period of giving towards their first church-house and I'm thinking he may be feeling poor and discouraged right now. You know how leading a building program can take it out of you, right?

So, to encourage him, I wanted to suggest our good readers consider buying him a gift certificate he can use as he sees fit. Any amount would be appreciated, I'm sure...

Lo! He abhors not the virgin's womb...

(Tim) Christmas has always been babies. It started with two babies in their mother's wombs, One with an eternal weight of glory and the other, recognizing that Glory, preparing His way by proclaiming His presence to the only one listening--His mother, Elizabeth.

Think of it! John the Baptist beginning to do the work of His calling when he was still in his mother's womb. What a man! What a child! A faithful prophet, he couldn't open his mouth and speak, so in his mother's womb he rolled and jumped and kicked and turned somersaults! His mother got the message...

Christmas babies...

(Tim, w/thanks to one dear woman who loves babies) This clip is a good way to celebrate Christmas. Our Lord may very well have had a goat drinking out of his bath water.

Married couples choose between birth control or prison...

(Tim, w/thanks to Michael) If anyone still needs to be convinced that every aspect of life is in bondage to feminist ideology today, look no further. And by the way, don't you love that phrase, "fall pregnant while active?"

A third way?

(David) This review of Deep Church: A Third Way beyond Emerging and Traditional by Jim Belcher was written, I'm proud to say, by a friend and fellow presbyter in the new Ohio Presbytery of the PCA, David Wallover. Based on David's review I'm going to avoid the book, but it's nonetheless a great piece and I commend it to you.

The Goodness of God in 2009

(David) This was the scene at last Friday's reunion of the Pathway which met at our home Sunday evenings for many years. We no longer meet weekly--instead, two of the couples in the picture now lead Pathways in their own homes. But God blessed our group richly in 2009, and it's only right to tell of His goodness. That's Asher and Malina Smith on the left with two-day-old (at the time of the picture), Jameson (their fourth child and first son). Second from left are Kevin and Jennifer Clark with Joaquin, their second son and third child. Third from left are Matthew and Sarah French with Peter, their fourth child and second son. And on the right are Jason and Emily Wiltse with their three-week-old twins, John and Ava.

Four couples, five children and one joyously blessed year. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Please don't turn a blind eye to the Molech post...

(Tim) No one's reading the "Molech" post below. Or should I say, no one's reading the news account that post links to, about the murder of a newborn child and the refusal of the prosecutor to prosecute the woman who suffocated the child. Everyone, please read it. It's fitting content for this season of sentimental thoughts about babies.

Tim Keller, my hero...

(Tim) Speaking of honor to whom honor is due, I was very pleased yesterday with Tim Keller's expressed distaste for video worship. In the piece that ran on the front page of USA Today yesterday (I guess that's how you say it?) concerning multi-site megachurches, he was profiled and several times given the opportunity to sign on to the world of video-worship-sermons inhabited by many, but most sadly our dear brothers John Piper and Mark Driscoll.

He demurred, and because of his demurral I'm proud to be PCA. Seriously.

Thank you, Tim Keller.

Now, if someone will just write a jeremiad against the corruption of the church and worship and pastoral care these idolatrous video screens are solidifying among us, I can die in peace.

* * *

And while I'm commending Tim Keller, here's a helpful article he did a couple days ago on the role doctrinal criticism has in our sanctification. It's a good read, pastoral and quite true.

Hard fathers who raise soft sons, and what to do about it...

(Tim, w/thanks to Jody) Actually, I should have exempted Doug Wilson from my criticism of Reformed pastors just below. One could almost imagine the Roman Catholics granting him an honorary membership. (For the monotones, that was a joke.)

Anyhow, here's an absolutely superb short essay on one of the most tragic failures of fatherhood in our churches, today. Read and copy and give it to those men. Pastors, make yourself useful by promoting Doug Wilson. You could have written it, but you didn't. So credit where credit is due.

Really, Doug Wilson is so endlessly helpful. Sometimes I think of J. C. Ryle.

Molech is alive and well in Christian Lynchburg...

(Tim, w/thanks to Craig) Back a couple decades ago, I was talking to Sam Moffett of Princeton Seminary about the slaughter of unborn children in these United States. He spoke of years ealier, when he had been a missionary to China and regularly saw the little babies abandoned by their mothers and fathers on the banks of the rivers where they died. Who could imagine we'd all live to see the day the courts of America would allow a mother of a newborn to murder her child without fear of prosecution?

Apparently, that day has arrived.

Loveless, bland, and left behind...

Jesus said: "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. (Matthew 5:13).

(Tim) Explaining to a friend the other day that I've found Roman Catholics writing about almost anything other than the five solas of the Reformation infinitely more interesting and helpful than Protestants, I lamented the inability of Reformed men to go against the flow. Why is that?

We went against the flow in the Reformation; and for years after, critical thinking under the Word of God belonged to us. But now, the only ones doing good critical (and often Biblical) thinking about ethics and war, sex, medicine, politics, art, demographics, culture, fertility, and the list goes on are almost exclusively Roman Catholic. About the only thing Protestants, and particularly Reformed Protestants, today are able to think about in an interesting way is how best to trim the coin of the doctrines of Scripture in such a way as to lower the hurdle barring entry to the Church for pomos who hate light, authority, meekness, humility, and truth. All our creativity goes toward church growth. Which is to say, all our creativity goes toward perfecting the idolatry Vernon Grounds warned against when he pointed out that the evangelical world worships at the altar of "the bitch goddess of success."

Show me any evangelical who's written on the place of vampire flicks in the sodomization of the Western world as...

Garrison Keillor: "Nonbelievers, please leave Christmas alone..."

(Tim, w/thanks to Gary) As I remember it, Garrison Keillor became a different kind of humorist back around the time of his first or second divorce. Once, back in the late seventies, he sent Dad a note telling him he'd been a fan of Dad's writing when he was a college student. In the early nineties when I edited a compilation of Dad's "Out of My Mind" pieces from Eternity, I asked Mr. Keillor if he'd write a short intro, and he was quite gracious to do so.

But I must say I've seen a hardening of the conscience in Mr. Keillor's humor and have largely lost my appetite. Then tonight, David and I had this piece forwarded by our dear brother, Gary Knapp. Yes, it's a little bit caustic, but I had to chuckle. Also to rejoice that Mr. Keillor still confesses Christ. He grew up a Covenant child. Pray for him, will you?

By the way, the most amazing part of this piece is Mr. Keillor's complaint...

The Reformed doctrine of reaching down...

(Tim, w/thanks to Ben Cr.) One of the more hidden members of Good Shepherd Band is Aaron Jones, an early music keyboardist who serves the Lord by "reaching down." What's the reference?

Check out his myspace Radio Friendly: American Pirates page--particularly his song, "Reach Down." (I also appreciated "I Shall Be Satisfied.")

Knowing many of our readers are forthrightly Reformed, I can anticipate objections to a Reformed man putting "the least of these" to song...

"I am the mother of aborted children--four to be exact..."

(Tim, w/thanks to Michal) Our daughter, Mrs. Ben (Michal) Crum, forwarded this article from Relevant. It's a good piece to pass on to your youth leaders and college ministers.

Michal pointed out this line where the article's author, a Christian woman who murdered four of her unborn children, says this about the church's witness against abortion, today...

Oh, the Logos Yuletide largesse....

(David) Logos Bible Publishers has a "12 Days of Logos" Christmas extravaganza going. Among the crazy-making specials is this: Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol for $0.95.

But, sadly, if you missed the discounted price on December 9, you're back to Logos's undiscounted price of $4.95.

For a public domain book! In electronic format! I suspect if Logos could charge for the air you breathe while running their program they'd do so without the slightest compunction.

Ministers of the environment and the Gospel...

Sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has seized the godless. “Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?”

He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, he who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; he will dwell on the heights, his refuge will be the impregnable rock; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure. (Isaiah 33:14-16).

(Tim) At the top of Google's news page this morning appeared a headline beginning: "Environment ministers try to..." And directly under that headline, this one: "Houston elects first openly gay mayor."

The salvation of the earth will not come from environment ministers, but...

Does the Indiana Supreme Court consider the First Amendment helpful? Pertinent? Binding?

(Tim, w/thanks to a brother) Wondering if and where there are violations of the First Amendment in these United States? Look no further. Here's an entirely believable account of the method used to bar Roman Catholic attorney Bryan Brown from practicing law in the state of Indiana. If even partially true, this is a sordid tale. But I'm betting it's all true being quite similar to accounts I've heard privately of intimidation and persecution for the Faith.

Seeking to evaluate Brown's psychological fitness, representatives of the Indiana Supreme Court asked him these questions:

Do you believe that you should be punished for your sins?

Christmas evangelism and worship...

(Tim, w/thanks to Luke and a host of others) Last night, Church of the Good Shepherd was filled with unbelievers who came to our third annual Christmas Sing-a-Long and heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed through words and music. Like twenty minutes of Scripture and preaching and forty-five of Scripture in song. My heart, like all believers there, was filled with joy. Thank you, Jody, Phil, Jim, Andrew, and Aaron (and yes, you too, Mick). Thank you makers of cookies and cocoa. Thank you publicists/marketers/advertisers. Thank you, members of the choir. Thank you, orchestra. Thank you, sound men. Thank you, young men at the projector. Thank you, set up and tear down men. Thank you, Luke, for taking pictures. Thank you, Ben, for the graphics. Thank you, Ali, for serving us all. Thank you, Dave, for helping Jody with his sermonettes. Thank you, wives and husbands of the band and choir and musicians, for sacrificing your loved one for many hours over many weeks. Thank you everyone!

I'd say close to half the congregation was not from Church of the Good Shepherd, many of whom were unbelievers invited by believers who love them and asked them to come with the prayer that they'd hear the Gospel, repent, and believe. May God answer our prayers.

If you'd like a recording of the evening's worship, please send Ali an e-mail.

Why I didn't sign the Manhattan Declaration...

(David) Unlike R.C. Sproul Sr. or Douglas Wilson I can't claim to have declined to add my signature to the Manhattan Declaration as a matter of principle. The truth is, I wasn't asked.

At least, I wasn't asked to join the group of 184 "religious leader signatories" to this "call of Christian conscience" on issues of life, marriage and religious freedom.

I suppose I'm now invited to sign along with the rest of rank-and-file American Christianity. But I probably would not have signed even had I been asked in the initial go-round. Why? For two reasons:

Two nights a-jousting...

(Tim) Just a reminder to come to our Christmas Sing-a-Long this Friday evening--now just two nights away. Don't miss it and invite everyone you love! There will be lots of cookies and cocoa as we take joy in, and glorify, our Lord Jesus Christ. See you there!

Skin diving in the sewage treament plant...

(Tim, w/thanks to Matt) Given a choice between watching Oprah or skin diving in a sewage treatment plant, I'd choose the sewage treatment plant. Still, this article gets it about right.

From our "It's just a flesh wound!" department...

(Tim) For those wondering, Aussie Dave is alive and well. He keeps sending comments (which work their way into our spam filter), and they're very loooooong!

So why do I note this on the blog? Because defying the authority of God's Word, the authority of Adam over Eve, of husband over wife, and of pastor and elder over woman of the church is of a fabric with defying the authority of blog owner over commenter. I've never allowed someone to defy our rules as often as Dave, but I thought Dave's defiance a perfect object lesson to our readers.

Anyhow, the latest comment Dave tried to post to this blog was 663 words long and included the following...

Stranded between boyhood and androgyny...

(Tim, w/ thanks to my dear wife, Mary Lee) Thought you'd all enjoy this one. Kindness of Ben Crum--he of the beautiful design of our Christmas Sing-a-long broadsheet--here's a link to the other ads in this campaign.

Three days a-counting...

(Tim) Only six days from now, next Friday evening beginning at 6:30 PM, the Good Shepherd Band, Good Shepherd Choir, Good Shepherd Symphony Orchestra (no kidding), and Good Shepherd Cookie Crums with special guest Hot Cocoa will be putting on the Third Annual Christmas Sing-a-Long.

It will all start with a bang when a composition of our own choirmeister, Phil Moyer, receives its world premier. Right here at Church of the Good Shepherd across from Karst Farm Park and just down the street from our very own SuperWalmart. (Eat your hearts out, Oxford and Cambridge.)

It won't be "saving the best for last" this year. Rather, "the early bird gets the worm."

Come one! Come all! Bring every last one of your roomates and friends and relatives and neighbors and co-workers!

Come as you are! And don't be late!

The fools have put up their billboards saying...

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,” (Psalms 53:1a)

I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. (Isaiah 45:5a)

(Tim, w/thanks to Lucy C. and Dave C.) A small piece on page A27 of Wednesday's New York Times carried the headline, "Approaching Holidays Prompt Atheist Campaign." God-haters across the country are mounting an ad campaign selling themselves as moral crusaders who don't need God to be good. You know, good as in their feminist moral crusade which has born the fruit of 50,000,000 unborn children slaughtered each year around the world.

Some morality. Some good. Leaves one thinking The One they hate must be good and loving and just for them to hate Him so.

Anyhow, the article reports on past responses to God-haters' ad campaigns and only one place in these United States of America is mentioned for defacing their billboards carrying the message "Don't believe in God? You're not alone."

Where? Roll the drums and turn the page...

Hot air gods...

(Tim) This from an elder of our congregation, Jeff Moore. He sent me "Hot Air Gods" by Curtis White, taken from a 2007 issue of Harper's Magazine. After reading it, I asked Jeff to provide readers of Baylyblog some context for the piece. Jeff writes...

But it's really his sin, too...

(Tim) This from a godly mother repenting of the sins of her feminist youth. As I see it, she was so much older then, she's younger than that now. Anyhow, she reports this conversation between her children as she read to them:

"After hearing the Grimm's tale "The Fisherman and His Wife" (about a discontented wife and an emasculated husband) my four-year-old daughter said, "She does NOT have a gentle and quiet spirit, does she? I don't think she loves Jesus at all." Then my eight-year-old son replied, "but it's really his sin too, because he isn't telling her NO to all the silly things she wants!"

Planned Parenthood funded by Bloomington taxpayers, once more...

(Tim: This excellent letter by my friend, Scott Tibbs.)

Dear Councilors,

I was very disappointed to see that you have chosen to fund a corporation with over $1,000,000,000 in annual revenue when you disbursed social services funds back in October. I was very pleased to see that Planned Parenthood did not even apply for funding from city government over the summer. I was not surprised to see PP ask for funding from county government, with meeting times that are much less open than city government's meeting times. While I approve of the change that has the County Council disburse these funds instead of the County Commissioners, your meeting time necessarily excludes many concerned citizens.

As I have said to the City Council for many years, Planned Parenthood did not come to you for money that they actually need. They came to you for a political endorsement from county government...

You must be born again

(David) May I strongly commend this post by Douglas Wilson to our readers? Read it, I urge you. Until we are willing to confront the reality he ends his post with we are bound to live in the land of endless debate, confusion and despair.

Home births, women in combat, and men in delivery rooms...

(Tim) Yes, I was there at each of our children's births. And yes, I wanted to be with my wife during her hardest work and greatest suffering. Having seen and felt its terrible joy and sorrow, I've wondered how men could be so heartless as to ask women to go to war a second time, on the battlefield. I mean you'd think the suffering and bloodshed of childbirth, followed by perpetual demands of nursing and childrearing, would give our mothers a pass when it comes to defending the homeland. Shouldn't the agony of national defense be born by the sex that escapes childbirth's agony? Maybe I'm a simpleton but it seems only natural to me.

On a related theme, I don't think women should watch war movies like Saving Private Ryan that accurately depict the battlefield's suffering and bloodshed. Men go to war to save women from this obscenity. Why would we want the fairer sex to experience the carnage we bear for their protection?

These thoughts sparked by this article detailing a French obstetrician's argument that the best environment for childbirth is a quiet room with a calm and unobtrusive midwife in attendance. I couldn't agree more, along with a loving mother or her surrogate (a doula).

Back in 1976 after asking the chief pediatric surgeon at Children's Memorial Hospital what he thought of home births, Mary Lee gave birth to our first at home. The good doctor was a personal friend and responded, "It's safer than the hospital," so our parents didn't oppose our plan. After initial skepticism, some of our friends and relatives took to the idea and as the years passed more children were born at home attended by a midwife...

We used to hold these truths to be self-evident...

(Tim, w/thanks to David W.) Breathlessly, the BBC reports our latest neuroscience findings. (By the way, keep track of that whole neuro thing. It's hot and will soon explain everything as a simple question of brain waves. Including theology.)

Brilliant neuroscience researchers have poked around in the electrical brain activity of their subjects' noggins watching for the differences between men and women when subjects were presented with images of, for instance, danger. Turns out...

I made bad choices or I sinned: which is it for you?

(Tim) Here's a good post differentiating between regretting bad choices and Christian repentance written by our dear sister, Kamilla Ludwig. She wrote in response to a recent Sean Hannity interview of Miss California.

Great price on my favorite isolater in-ear earphones...

(Tim) For about five years I've been using the Etymotic Research ER6i Isolator In-Ear Earphones (Black) and loving them so much that, about two years ago, I bought five pair for my sons and one dear missionary friend. Why the missionary friend?

Because these earphones fit in the ear canal and make flying almost bliss. They can be plugged into your iPod or the airplane's headphone receptacle. These headphones work much, much better than those the airlines hand out (or rent) because the Etymotic ER61s cut off all ambient noise. And I mean all. If there's a screaming baby or you're near the whining jet engines, you'll barely hear them.

The reason I'm putting up a link to them today is that Amazon is selling them right now for $48 and that's about half price. It's a great buy that only comes along about once a year...

Redeemer explains its ordination of women: a big, but innocent, mistake...

"...this action is revelatory of underlying commitments. After all, it’s precisely here that Redeemer has staked her position against the PCA. This is the point where Redeemer, like the EPC, is opposed to the Word of God."

(David) Redeemer Manhattan has begun responding to criticism arising from the ordination of a woman deacon in a Redeemer worship service last May.

An email explanation from Senior Pastor Keller—since made public on the GreenBaggins blog—found its way into my email box a week ago. Yesterday I learned via a comment on this site that Redeemer Pastor Scott Sauls, the man who presides over the ordination of women in the recently-discovered YouTube video of the service, emailed an apology to his presbytery for this departure from the Presbyterian Church in America’s Book of Church Order

Comparing presidential Thanksgiving proclamations: from thanking God to thanking ourselves...

(Tim, w/thanks to Eric) Comparing today's Thanksgiving Proclamation by President Obama with last year's by President Bush presents us a study in contrasts. Specifically, one heart that turns in gratitude to God and one that doesn't...