reasonable theological concern, or overly picky?

I was thinking through some songs that we haven’t sung for a while in church, and this issue came to mind, so I thought I’d share it here. One of my main criterion when selecting songs for the church to sing (and I plan the music for almost every week) is that they be theologically sound. This manages to disqualify a substantive number of modern praise songs, and a surprising number of older hymns from our hymnal. I might go so far as to say that this is my primary criterion. Certainly there are others; singability is right up there. But theological correctness has got to be at the top of the list.

So we come to today’s topic: the old chorus “Create In Me A Clean Heart”. The text is pretty much straight from Psalm 51:

Create in me a clean heart oh God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart oh God,
And renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from Thy presence oh Lord,
And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,
And renew a right spirit within me.

My theological nit is with the fifth and sixth lines. When David penned these words some 1500 years before Christ, the threat of having the Holy Spirit taken from him was quite a real one; he had seen a similar thing happen to Saul when Saul rebelled against God. At that time the Holy Spirit didn’t indwell all those who believed in God, but God specifically directed the Spirit to rest on certain people at certain times. But now we’re after Pentecost, and so those that believe are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit remains as a seal of our salvation. We’re not in danger of having God take it away.

So on to my theological question. While I love the submissive attitude of the first part of this chorus, I have real questions about singing those two lines, because I think they represent a fear or concern that we shouldn’t have. Is this an appropriate distinction to make? Or am I being overly picky? Your thoughts are appreciated.

home again, home again...

I got back last night about 10:30 from another quick trip to Wichita, this time for DER Orientation. I can now officially function as a DER Candidate, which is, essentially… well, nothing from an official standpoint. I just get to review lots of stuff with the hope that as I learn and become more proficient, I can be appointed a full DER. It’ll likely be at least a year.

One upside to the trip was the time to do some reading. I should do full BookJournal posts on each of these, but I’ll summarize here now just to summarize. (Helpful, no?)

On the way down, I finished reading Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead. Brilliant. Maybe even better than Ender’s Game. That man knows how to write. (More on that later.)

After that, I finished up N.T. Wright’s What St. Paul Really Said. I thought it was also brilliant. His interpretation of Paul’s themes of justification, the righteousness of God, and the Gospel make a lot of sense. I went back and read through Romans after finishing Wright, and there were several places where lightbulbs went on. I’ll have to ponder this some more. One thing that bothers me a bit is his conclusion (and I’m putting it very roughly here) that Christ’s being Lord will result in the Church working to establish His kingdom here on earth. As I understand it, this is a pretty typical amillenial Reformed view of the end times, and I guess I just can’t get my dispensational brain around it. If any of my readers could suggest some good reading in that area, I’d be grateful.

The reading list isn’t done yet, folks. After N. T. Wright, I headed back for some fiction. So I read The Bourne Legacy, which is a new novel by Eric Lustbader written around Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne character. It was a pretty good book. The writing style was more like a contemporary spy thriller and much less like Ludlum, which was weird. But otherwise the story was good and appropriately muddled. Finished that book as we were pulling up to the terminal in Chicago on the way home.

Then I went back to non-fiction. Some time ago, Keith had recommended Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card as an excellent volume on how to write fiction. He was right, it is excellent. I’ve always had fleeting thoughts of doing some writing, but never really applied myself to it. (Who has the time?) But if I ever were to start, this book would become a primary text for me in helping develop good characters and plots. Card has good insights into what makes fiction work, and he expresses them fairly simply and with some good examples.

Now I’m back home and trying to catch up from missing a day and a half of work. Good times.

ain't it just like Mediacom...

It’s not unusual, in my experience, to receive calendars as gifts around Christmas-time from companies you do business with. We always get a desk calendar from our insurance agent which fits nicely on the desk downstairs. We receive a pretty one with Bible verses and inspirational sayings from a missions agency that we support. We got one from the Christian radio station this year that had pictures taken by listeners. Kinda cool. I’m sure we got a couple of others as well, I know we gave a Norman Rockwell one away to my Dad.

This year we also got one from our cable provider, Mediacom. It was rather audaciously titled “12 months of You”, but it appeared to be more like 12 months of them. There were a few coupons inside for free pay-per-view movies (which we never watch), and then the artwork for each month featured one of their cable channels. Color me less than excited.

But that wasn’t the best part. You see, most gift calendars come in late November or early December. Mediacom’s came on January 27th. January 27th! Apparently their 12 months of me is really only about 11 months… Unbelievable.

The Mediacom calendar is sitting in the recycle bin on my curb this morning, waiting to be picked up by the garbage man. Good riddance.

odds and ends January 2006

I’ve been a bit haphazard in my posting habits lately, so I’ll just dump a bunch of stuff in here in lieu of a real post. I’ve been reading lots of stuff lately, just not posting. I’ll have to make that change.

I’m headed to Wichita tomorrow for my DER orientation. It’s just a one-day session, so I’ll be on the late flight home tomorrow (back to CID at 10:04 PM). So beginning on Thursday, I will officially be a DER Candidate and can start reviewing stuff and recommending approval of TSO items. It’s a fairly significant new chapter in my career here.

Next topic: congratulations to my friends Lee & Amber Adams on the birth of their daughter Adi Grace early Sunday morning! Adi is their first, and I’m sure they will soon come to find just how wonderful daughters are. :-) Now we just need to take a trip down to see them sometime…

Next topic: Last night was the talent show at church. I did two songs, opening the show with Randall Goodgame’s Susan Coats’ Pants and finishing up the show with Andy Gullahorn’s Holy Flakes. Becky noted afterwards that most people’s response to the former was “huh?” She said it’s mostly a “Chris song”, which I think means that my weird sense of humor appreciates it, but most (normal) people won’t. Oh well, that’s what talent shows are for. The most frequent question after the talent show was “where do you find these songs?” I take great pleasure in knowing that I can dig up songs that nobody’s heard of but that people really like. Of course, I really only get away with it because I’m the only one at the church that listens to all of the Square Peg types.

I guess that’s it for now. I promise I’ll try to write a sensible post soon.

I still feel the same...

I thought I’d feel different by now.

I remember sitting in a recliner in the living room of a quiet house after the boys I was babysitting had been sent to bed. I remember thinking what a nice scenario it was: a house, a wife, children, stability. I remember being that high-schooler sitting there, leaning back and trying to imagine, for a moment, what it would be like to be in that position someday. I remember thinking that it would be a great quiet confident feeling to sit back, survey my domain, and relax in the peace that came from such stability. I remember thinking how wonderful it would feel to be that different person.

That was 1993, nearly half a life ago. I’m married to a wonderful woman. I own my own home. (No recliner yet.) I have a daughter that is the sweetest little girl that has ever walked the earth. Another child on the way. I have a job that I like, and that likes me. All those things I had wished for, I now find I have. But I still feel like I’m the same person. I still have internal conflicts, fears, and doubts. I’m still imperfect. (Why did I think that would ever change?) I still worry. I still feel guilt, frustration, and anger. I still wonder about the future. There are still times when I am happy to just crank up my iPod and let the music block the world out for a while.

This is probably my biggest surprise about growing up: that while everything around me has changed, and I undoubtedly have changed, I don’t feel like I’ve changed. Maybe I lack perspective. Maybe if I compared snapshots instead of the continuum, I’d see the differences more starkly. Maybe I’m just forgotten what it felt like to be a teenager. But maybe not.

A person twice my age will read this, shake their head, and think I could’ve told him that, and it’s likely that 20 years from now I’ll say the same thing. But today I’m not willing to write it off quite that quickly. It means something that the desires of a dozen years ago are still wandering around in me today. There’s something to be learned from the knowledge that home, wife, and child haven’t fully satisfied them. I know some of the answers, but for today I think I’d rather just sit back and ponder the questions. Maybe I need to go find a recliner…

and it comes around to me... "4 things"

I’ve kinda been waiting for this one… Thanks Stephanie for tagging me!

Four jobs I’ve had

  • roofer during a hot Texas summer
  • Waiter at “Hennington’s” in Granbury, TX
  • fixer-upper of messed-up data for the BNSF railroad
  • resident computer geek for JW Operating of Longview TX

Four movies I could watch over and over

  • Lost in Translation
  • The Princess Bride
  • Fiddler on the Roof
  • The Thomas Crowne Affair

Four books I could read over and over

  • The Lord of the Rings
  • The Chronicles of Narnia
  • Orthodoxy (Chesterton)
  • the Manifold series (Stephen Baxter)

Four places I have lived

  • Fremont, NE
  • Granbury, TX
  • Longview, TX
  • Hiawatha, IA

Four TV shows I watch

  • House
  • MI-5 (Spooks for you British types)
  • Hustle (a new show on AMC, also by the BBC)
  • pretty much any sports

Four places I have been on vacation (ok, so I haven’t traveled much)

  • Destin, FL
  • Estes Park, CO
  • Chicago, IL
  • Los Angeles, CA

Four websites I visit daily other than email

Four favorite foods

  • Enchiladas
  • Sesame Chicken
  • Pizza
  • a good steak

Four places I’d like to be right now

  • not at work
  • at home with Becky and Laura
  • at my favorite coffeehouse with a good book and my laptop
  • on vacation someplace warm and slow-paced

Four bloggers I’m tagging

You Probably Shouldn’t Lead Worship Anymore If… - purgatorio

It’s a bit image-intensive, but it’s a hilarious post that worship leaders and really all church music types will enjoy. Click the link!

You Probably Shouldn’t Lead Worship Anymore If… - purgatorio

a good weekend to be off

Yesterday was my first Sunday of just taking a break from leading the worship team. David Green did a very respectable job in my absence. The Lord used this weekend to remind me once again that His plans are so much better than mine. He knew I would need this weekend off.

Laura was difficult all weekend. It’s not really her fault; she’s teething, which makes her cranky anyway. It was combined with a cold this time (a cold that I have too), so in addition to the drooling, her sinuses are perpetually clogged, and she’s been running a 103 degree fever. Tylenol or Motrin will bring the fever down for a few hours and turn her back into her bubbly self, but about 4 hours into the 6-hour dosage, the fever comes back and she gets owly again. She’s not sleeping well, either; she’s been in our bed the last two nights, which is a last resort for us. We don’t sleep well with her in the bed; she’s a restless sleeper and snores. However, it’s better to lose sleep to a snoring baby in your bed than to a crying baby in the other room.

Sunday I made it up in time to get to the second service at church, so I did get to hear the sermon and the worship team. Like I said, they were pretty good, David’s got a good musical sense. Mostly they were just lacking a clear leader. Somebody on the WT has to know where you’re going, when you’re going there, and then just grab everybody and take them along. That just takes practice, and time doing it. As long as people are willing, I’ll be happy to provide them opportunities to practice, and any coaching that I can do along the way.

Now it’s Monday. Becky reports that Laura is still feeling bum this morning. Please, Lord, can this teething get done with?

the next album I'll have to buy

Andy Osenga notes today that Ben Shive is going to release his own album. No word yet on when this will happen (Andy intimates maybe sometime this year), but Ben’s website announcing that fact is funny enough to make it worth the read.

Don’t know who Ben Shive is? For shame! The man is a genius, I tell you. Genius.

finally up and running

It’s taken too long, but noelridge.org is finally up and running with real pictures of our people and a color scheme that’s much more readable than the old light green. Now there’s just regular maintenance to do… but that’s fairly easy.

This task has been on my list of stuff to finish for far too long now, so it’s good to get it done.