Now I don't want to get off on a rant here...

An Insomniac’s Dream

The first rays of light were just beginning to peak out over the hotel and the cool breeze blowing off the ocean before him was now growing warmer. He had been sitting on the beach all night listening to the waves crash in the darkness and enjoying the depths of the night sky. There was peace and tranquility that consumed his heart as he absorbed the beauty of creation and became lost in thought. The sand beneath his feet was cool and ran between his toes like liquid silk.

Colors of day began to bleed into this harmonious scene, but with that brought the joy of morning, the joy of watching the perfect placement of the sun in the sky. There is no better way to take pleasure in a sunrise than to have been privileged with the acquaintance of a full night. It is a daily reminder to us of our creation and the eternity of our Almighty, Infinite Creator; for out of the darkness everything was made and in the Light came the Son. Oh, how warm the touch of day can be!

Future Endeavors

As I say good-bye to my business contacts, thanking them for their hard work and conveying how much I enjoyed working along side them. I think the most popular phrase I hear is, “Good luck with your future endeavors!” It’s almost so reliable that I will hear this phrase that I am beginning to wonder if there is a handbook out there with this standard reply.

I don’t mind hearing it (not a jab at you Kimberly), in fact, I’m quite certain I’ve it said to others as they embarked upon some future endeavor. It is just mildly humorous to me at the consistency at which this expression is repeated. So I thought I would use a handy thesaurus to suggest some of my favorite alternatives…

Good luck with your future…

• pursuits
• ventures
• aspirations
• adventures
• gambles
• shakedowns
• rackets
• crusades

Knowing God – Week 1: Introduction

Our college and careers ministry, Spectrum, is going through JI Packer's, Knowing God. Here are my notes from our first discussion.

JI PACKER
James Innell Packer was born July 22, 1926 in Gloucester, England. He is an ordained a priest in the Church of England, a Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia and he served as general editor of the English Standard Version of the Bible. Some of the major influences on his life were Calvin, Spurgeon and C.S. Lewis. Packer has been described as Orthodox, Reformed, Anglican and Ecumenical/Unifying. It has been said that, "Knowing God, sums it all up for us - conservative Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists.”

In the Preface of Knowing God, Packer outlines some reasons for why he wrote this book. He writes, “Now this is a book for travelers, and it is with travelers’ questions that it deals.”

What do you think it means to be a traveler?

He continues, that the main reason for the book is "Ignorance of God – ignorance of his ways and the practice of communion with him". There are two specific trends towards this ignorance 1) Christian minds have been conformed to the modern spirit (great thoughts of man – small thoughts of God); 2) Christian minds have been confused by the modern skepticism.

What are some examples that you see?

WHAT IT IS TO KNOW GOD?

As Creator/Redeemer

Calvin - “First, the Lord shows himself to be simply the Creator. Then in the face of Christ he shows himself the Redeemer.”

Narnia Creation Story - “In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it.”

Through General Revelation

Cornelius Van Til
Van Til’s starting point is the historic doctrine of creation: God is the creator; the world is his creation…He would draw two circles on the blackboard: a large circle representing God and a smaller circle below it representing creation. The two were connected by lines representing providence and revelation…for Christianity, God is the sovereign Creator and Lord; the world is in no sense equal to him.

Analogical Knowledge vs. Open Theism

Analogical - Van Til, “God is the original and man is the derivative. Man must think God’s thoughts after him; but this means that he must, in seeking to form his own system, constantly be subject to the authority of God’s system to the extent that this is revealed to him.”

Open – Chuck Swindoll, “Because bad things are happening to good people, then God, because he is good, did not know they were going to happen and therefore would never have allowed such to occur. And so, depending on how we respond, God determines what he will do next. Let me clarify here, that is heresy. Omniscience doesn’t learn…it doesn’t discover.”

What is the difference between the two?

Through Special Revelation

Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion I, Chapter VI – Scripture is needed as guide and teacher for anyone who would come to God the Creator
3. Without Scripture we fall into error – “For we should so reason that the splendor of the divine countenance is for us like an inexplicable labyrinth unless we are conducted into it by the thread of the Word”

What is the implication here for those without a Bible or those with one that do not read it?

WHAT IS GOD KNOWN BY?

• El – supernatural provision or power
• El-Shaddai – God Almighty
• Elohim – God of eternity; God the everlasting; God for ever;
• Adonai – Lord par excellence or Lord over all
• YHWH (Jehovah) – I AM, to be, existence, LORD

o Exodus 3: 13-17 (v17 - he remembers his covenant promise)
o Exodus 6: 2-8 (he tells them what he will do to keep this covenant)
v7 - “You are my family”
“This is my Gospel”
o Exodus 34: 6-7 (he tells them how he will keep this covenant)
Calvin - Here let us observe that his eternity and his self-existence are announced by that wonderful name twice repeated. Thereupon his powers are mentioned, by which he is shown to us not as he is in himself, but as he is toward us: so that this recognition of him consists more in living experience than in vain and high-flown speculation

How is he toward us?
Compassionate/merciful, gracious, patient, loving, faithful, forgiving, just

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS KNOWLEDGE?

• Worship
Calvin – “pure and real religion: faith so joined with an earnest fear of God that this fear also embraces willing reverence, and carries with it such legitimate worship as is prescribed in the law.”

• Obedience
Psalm 145: 17-21

• Draw us close to the God of the covenant – the God of hope
Calvin - “The most suitable order, is not for us to attempt with bold curiosity to penetrate to the investigation of his essence…but for us to contemplate him in his works whereby he renders himself near and familiar to us…Knowledge of this sort, then, ought not only to arouse us to the worship of God but also to awaken and encourage us to the hope of the future life."

• Become Holy as the Lord

Jeremiah 9:24
“but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,”

Is that easy to do? Is there a contradiction here?

Kindness/Mercy – salvation by grace alone
Justice/Righteousness/Judgment – order is persevered and “we are most tenderly nourished”

Which of these do you find most difficult to exercise? Why?

Calvin – “If, finally, “all his paths are mercy”, judgment, justice, in these also is his holiness visible.”

Our cure for the “Ignorance of God – ignorance of his ways and the practice of communion with him” Knowing God

THE APOSTLE’S CREED
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Amen.

Are we really that important?

Admittedly, part of my silence on my blog has been attributed to not paying too much attention to the news lately. I enjoy politics and knowing about what’s going on the world, which inevitably leads me to speak my mind on issues. It is one of my passions, one of my affections.

Last night I caught a few minutes of CSPAN and heard a snippet of a press conference being led by Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden, who served as the Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service (NSA/CSS), Fort George G. Meade, MD, from March 1999 to April 2005. He was talking about the “wiretap controversy”.

Amidst a general defense of the President’s authority, the Attorney General’s consent and the NSA’s support of this defense against terrorism, General Hayden stated that the NSA hasn’t the resources, the time or desire to investigate anyone that is not linked in someway to the jeopardy of our national security. It is humorous to think or concern oneself with the exalted opinion that so many outraged by this apparent illegal action have.

That is not to say that our Constitution doesn’t mean anything. But this is a knee-jerk reaction and another example that “President Bush can do no right”. Some will say that my comments here are a knee-jerk reaction that, “President Bush can do no wrong”. What I see is the government on all levels – with exception of some Congressmen, agreeing this was legal and an outrage of constitutional boundaries by those with an exalted view of their importance to the world. Are we really that important? The NSA doesn't think so.

Blogio, Blogio…

Blogio, Blogio, where for art thou Blogio? To blog or not to blog, that is the question...

Since I could come up with no wittier introduction to my first post in a while, that is all you get. Quite frankly, I miss writing and thought it was time for an update of some sort. So here are some MAJOR EVENTS IN PRICE FAMILY HISOTRY (at least for the last month or so).

On Halloween night, as I sat in on a Board of Directors conference call, I learned that our fearless leaders had decided to outsource our whole office to a management company and that they believed that process could be completed in the next 2 months. What they hadn’t taken into consideration was the fact that they had no idea what any of us did in the office and thus had no way of determining what exactly to outsource?! Nevertheless they boldly proclaimed that they knew what they were doing – it was quite the Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas present everyone was looking for!!!

Everyone began a job search, some more vigorous than others, and I start my new job in a week or so. Now it appears that the company may decide not to outsource everyone after all, but I wasn’t taking any chances. So I get a new job plus an outside consultant contract!!

My office was scheduled to close on January 1st, and by the shear grace of God, He delivered me a new job before then. Despite our office being given a stay of execution until at least March; I was very thankful for the faithfulness of God Almighty.

The next major event is that I was elected to serve as a Deacon at my church. This is not a boastful proclamation of an accomplishment, but the joy of a new ministry opportunity that I am greatly looking forward to serving as. There is so much untapped potential in our community for our church to serve and I am greatly looking forward to some outreach opportunities to let God’s light shine.

2005 was a very tumultuous year or at least the last quarter of it was. 2006 is looking better and better and I am excited about God’s plan for us this year. Amy will be getting closer and closer to graduating seminary, I have new opportunities, and we have weddings and births to celebrate. God’s rich blessing never fails on this journey of life, as we move forward to a greater and greater knowledge of Him who created and redeemed us.