In Light of Today's Automotive News . . .

This picture just cries out for a caption, and I'm sure several of you can supply one!

Who Said That?

"As we’re about to do that, let us remember what we are doing. We not only celebrate that death and that promise of return, but we’re feeding by eating God, which is what we’re doing here, by eating the body and blood of our God, we are feeding the God within us. For as we take those elements, the Spirit also feeds within us, and is reinvigorated as he, or she, or it is by our faith.”

Please leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please, no google searches or cheating.  Answer to follow next week.

Update on Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 02:51PM by Kim Riddlebarger

This drivel is from Phyllis Tickle, who was speaking at Rob Bell's church about the 'feminine attributes' of the Holy Spirit.

Congratulations to the Class of 2009

Thought you might enjoy a couple of shots of Westminster Seminary California's 2009 graduation.  The graduation was held at Emmanuel Faith Church in Escondido.  The seminary chapel is no longer large enough to hold such an event, so nearby Emmanuel Faith makes their facility available.

Here I am with Dr. Dennis Johnson (Academic Dean) and President Godfrey.

Had to take at least one photo with Mike Horton and Dr. Godfrey!

Congratulations to the class of 2009!

Pomp and Circumstance

Westminster Seminary California will hold their twenty-eighth annual commencement this coming Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 10 a.m. at Emmanuel Faith Church in Escondido, CA.

I am honored to be delivering this year's commencement address. Please pray for me and those who will be present. My address is titled “To Him Who Is Able” and is based on Jude 17-25.

The graduation reception will be on Friday, May 29, 2009 at 7pm on the WSC campus. The reception is an opportunity for graduates, families, and friends to witness President W. Robert Godfrey’s charge to the graduates, reflect on their time at WSC, and enjoy food and fellowship.

For more information, please visit the Commencement 2009 webpage

When Environmentalists Rule the Earth

We'll all live in 144 square foot "eco-houses" (like this one--designed by a Yale graduate student, and which closely resembles the fort I built in my backyard when I was twelve).

Before your 144 square foot eco-house is completed by the government housing corporation (and you are assigned to your new address), you'll need to paint your roof white (actually, that is not a bad idea).

We'll all drive "Obamamobiles" purchased from GM (government motors), or State-Owned Chrysler motors.  We'll save gas, and that's a good thing.  But more of us will die in traffic accidents in these unsafe plastic Obamamoblies than will die from any aspect of global warning or climate change.  My good ole American muscle car gets well over 20 MPG--why can't I keep that?  Because the state of California will no longer allow me to register it . . .  If you own an SUV you'll be fined and publicly humiliated

Since no one will want to own or buy a GM (Government Motors) product or State-Owned Chrysler product, the environmental oversight group will raise gasoline taxes and find new ways to shut down all domestic drilling, driving up gas prices.  You'll buy an Obamamobile, and you'll like it!  The prices shown here reflect the good ole days of 2008 when gas was cheap.

We'll even be forced to put our pets to work . . . The government will give a tax deduction to those who own cats.

This is the view out the back window (slit in the wall) of your new 144 square foot eco-house.  Never mind the dead bird carcasses below them.

This is your daily allotment of food, since virtually all grains and especially corn are now used for making fuel for your Obamamobile.  It won't take long for PETA to ensure that meat is a thing of the past.  But you'll live longer, right?

Most farm animals will be destroyed because the huge volume of methane they produce is deemed destructive to the environment.  Those few which remain will live in zoos and all dairy products will be replaced with soy . . . because it is good for you.

"O Lord God, Please Remember Me" -- Judges 15:1-16:31

The Sixteenth in a Series of Sermons on the Book of Judges

In the days of the judges, the nation of Israel had become so thoroughly Canaanized that even though the people living in the southern part of Israel were forced to endure forty years of oppression at the hands of the dreaded Philistines, we read not a word of the Israelites crying out to YHWH for deliverance. In fact, the Israelites were living side by side with the Philistines, one of Israel’s traditional enemies and fiercest foes, who are described throughout the Old Testament as the “uncircumcised,” a reference to their godlessness. Because YHWH loves his people, he refuses to allow the Israelites to assimilated by the pagan Philistines. Even though the people of Israel are so comfortable living in the midst of the Philistines that they do not cry out to be delivered, YHWH intervenes by sending the angel of the Lord to an unnamed women from the tribe of Dan. The angel informs her that even though she is barren, she will give birth to a son (Samson), who will live as a Nazirite–he will not drink wine, nor strong drink, nor cut his hair. God will use this child to disrupt the cozy relationship between Israel and the Philistines. Samson is a man who is given God’s Spirit, but who struggles with his temper and narcissistic personality, the lusts of the flesh, and who becomes one of the most tragic figures in all of redemptive history.

As we near the end of our series on the Book of Judges, we come the account of Samson, the sixth and final Judge recounted in this book. When we left off last time in Judges 14, Samson had been born to Manoah and his unnamed wife, he had killed a lion with his bare hands, and despite the objection of his parents, had taken a Philistine wife. Although the angel commanded Samson live as a Nazirite, he broke his vow by touching the corpse of a dead animal, and by participating in week-long drunken bash at his new bride’s home. Although Samson was feared by the Philistines because of his great strength–so much so that they posted thirty security guards to keep things from getting out of hand during the wedding–Samson’s response was to mock the guards with a riddle about the lion he had killed, making a bet that they would not be able to come up with the answer to his riddle.

But the Philistines in her home town of Timnah, pressured Samson’s new wife to get her husband to reveal to her the meaning of the riddle. When Samson refuses to tell her what the riddle means, his wife spends the honeymoon week crying, pleading with her husband to tell her his secret. When Samson finally gives in to her at the end of the week, his wife immediately tells the Philistines, who now mock Samson with the answer to the riddle. Samson has lost his bet. In a rage, Samson kills thirty men from a neighboring town, and then gives the thirty security guards in Timnah their countrymen’s clothing and weapons as a payoff for coming up with the correct answer to the riddle. Still in a rage, Samson angrily returns to his father’s house and abandons his wife, leaving her with his best man. Such is the man (Samson) whom God uses to rescue his people (Israel).

To read the rest of this sermon, click here

Keep Your Eyes on This One

Although WorldNetDaily can be suspect with stories like this one (in terms of accuracy), this could be a very serious matter.

Apparently, officials in San Diego County are demanding an expensive "major use" permit for a local pastor to continue hosting a weekly home Bible study.  Perhaps noise, complaints by neighbors, and traffic are issues, but there is no mention of this in the story.  But this is a matter of concern, especially since one of the ways many Reformed churches get started is through similar home "Bible studies" which eventually become churches.  Click here: Home: No place for Bible study

Speaking of Kalifornia--king of the nanny states--a recent editorial in the L. A. Times condemns Kalifornia voters for turning down the recent ballot initiatives in which the citizens dared to demand that the state legislature actually do its job and approve a balanced budget.  How dare we!!!!  Click here: California voters exercise their power -- and that's the problem - Los Angeles Times

I thought atheists hated "organized religion" and religious assemblies.  So why is it that a group of atheist parents (Parenting Beyond Belief) gather every Sunday morning for mutual support and to share their free-thinking ways.  I guess they have nothing else to do on Sunday mornings . . . Click here: Parents gather to nurture nonbelief - Faith & Spirit - Ledger-Enquirer.com

The Southern Baptists offer advice to their pastors and churches on how to deal with the media.  How come the URCNA doesn't do something like that?  That is because no one in the URCNA has ever been asked a question by the media!  And that is not a bad thing.  Click here: Q&A: Working with the news media

And Then There Was One . . .

Mr. Buckles is the last known veteran of World War I.  He's 108!  And there's still no World War I monument in DC? 

Thanks to all of you who served your country and kept us free!

Who Said That?

"The work of salvation is first of all the illumination that all of us are loved by God with the greatest love we can imagine -- the love that loves us not in spite of who we are but because of who we are . . . address[ed] not to a sinner but to the beloved . . . [who is] not evil but loving wrongly."

Leave your guess in the comments section below.  Please, no google searches or cheating.  Answer to follow next week.

Update on Sunday, May 24, 2009 at 04:47PM by Kim Riddlebarger

This comes from feminist theologian Sallie McFague's Models of God:  Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age (1987), 144.

Academy Audio Posted

Here's the link to Rev. Compton's final Academy lecture (05/22/09) in his series "Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Part 2" Current Trends in Old Testament Studies.

http://links.christreformed.org/realaudio/A20090522-TrendsOTStudies.mp3