Mountain Oysters...Yum!

Nathan and I are hunting down in SE Kansas. One of the great corollaries to our hunting escapades is staying with our dear friends, the Blythes.

LeeBelle can cook some good grub, not the least of which is the latest batch of "Mountain Oysters"- fresh "picked" today!!! I like mine with ketchup (0f course) and some diet coke to wash 'em down.

Herd Management by Reepicheep continues

I harvested another doe this morning. Wackin' and stackin' is fun!!

After I arrowed the doe, I had a great encounter with a large, mature deer. I took too long to decide if I wanted to take him, then realized (after he was out of a clear shooting lane) that I made a mistake. He was old and gnarly. His rack was very wide, 7 main heavy points with lots of "junk" around the bases. Easily a 250 pound deer. I should have shot.

I'll be hunting hard between Nov. 9 and Thanksgiving. I hope I'll get another chance at a big boy!

For real?

In a new category of "Things you'll never see at Redeemer" I just read this on the Aquila Report:

Churches Going to the Dogs
Wednesday, 04 November 2009 14:25

LOS ANGELES - (AP) To attract new members, the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles has turned God's house into a doghouse for one service each Sunday.

The 30-minute "Canines at Covenant" worship service features individual doggie beds, canine prayers and an offering of dog treats.

The church's pastor, the Rev. Tom Eggebeen, says many Christians love their pets as much as human family members, but churches have been slow to recognize that love as the work of God. Eggebeen believes, "When we love a dog and a dog loves us, that's a part of God and God is a part of that."

Laura Hobgood-Oster, a religion professor at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, says she has heard of half-a-dozen other congregations that hold dog-friendly worship services, including one in a Boston suburb called Woof 'n Worship.

World Champions

Unless you live under a rock, you know the Yankees have won their 27th World Championship.

Time to Hunt

November is the greatest and best month of the year. I have almost 2 weeks of vacation coming up and I'm trying to spend as many mornings in a tree stand as possible.

Harvested a nice doe this morning.

Making the best of it

Here's a great clip where Castleton is playing away and scores a nice goal. There are no fans to cheer, so what do you do? Check it out:

Two Passions

I can't get out to hunt again until Tuesday morning so I took a break from sermon prep to get some practice in. This picture reveals two specific things I am passionate about this time of year!!

Texas Football

Football is religion in Texas. After a recent loss to a mediocre Texas A&M team, Coach Mike Leach of Texas Tech lashed out at his players for not listening to the coaches.

Get a load of who Leach blames for the Red Raiders miserable play!!!!

Best Reformation Celebration Costume(s)

We had our annual "Reformation Celebration" at church last night. There were many excellent, creative, and elaborate costumes devised and worn.

My favorite, however, was very simple, yet profound. Here are the Branson kids wearing shirts that capture Luther's historic statement at Worms-

Reformation Day

Today we remember Martin Luther's posting of the 95 protests against the Roman Church in 1517.

The above picture is Luther's "trial" at Worms. Below is the 2003 rendering of the same in a decent movie about Luther. A funny little story about this movie- when it came out a bunch of us Redeemer guys went to see it, 10 or so of us. The theater was relatively empty, but when Luther made his final stand as depicted below, we all stood in unison and cheered as though Rocky had just knocked out Apollo Creed. Great stuff!



Also, there has been a great discussion going on under my earlier post. Check it out here. It will give you a good picture of the main differences between Roman Catholicism and Reformed Christianity.

Vulture v. Windmill

I can't figure out how/why someone was filming this-

Excellent Post concerning "returning" to Rome and Sola Scriptura

Pastor Jay Bennett's blog alerted me to a very insightful critique of Francis Beckwith's recent book about his "return" to the Roman Catholic Church from a Baptist/Evangelical affiliation (he was president of Evangelical Theological Society). It deals with the matter of Sola Scriptura that is so often discussed here. A sample excerpt from the Guy Davies post:

Increasingly Beckwith struggled with the Protestant teaching of sola scriptura, finding the Catholic teaching where God reveals himself through Holy Scripture and the traditions of the Church more appealing. Of course, if Church teaching is a source of continuing revelation alongside Scripture, then it doesn't matter that certain Catholic dogmas can't be found in the Bible. On that basis the primacy of the Pope, purgatory, the Marian doctrines and so on may be accepted simply as the authoritative dogmas of the Church. The fact that they have no evident biblical foundation is besides the point. The Church has infallibly pronounced that these dogmas must be accepted by the faithful and that's that. However, it might be objected that Beckwith has not properly understood what the Reformers meant by sola scriptura. He seems to have had a rather biblicist understanding of the doctrine that excludes the role of the church as reader and teacher of Holy Scripture. By sola scriptura, the Reformers did not mean to separate the Bible from the Church. Rather they insisted that the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture is the supreme authority in the Church. The Church has ministerial authority to interpret and bear witness to the message of the Bible, but the Church and her traditions remain under the critical authority of God's written Word. The Church may restate the teaching of Scripture using other than biblical language in order to make its message plain, but she cannot add to God's self-revelation in Holy Scripture.

New Cross at Redeemer

Galatians 6:14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

There were several parts of the new sanctuary design that were saved for future generations to add. Eventually we would love to see beautiful stained glass added and a pipe organ placed in a balcony from which the choir could sing. Another element that was planned for but not immediately placed was a cross. As God’s providence would have it, a specially designated gift was given to provide a cross for the sanctuary. It is a simple Celtic design that brings a sense of completion to the sanctuary.

An empty cross is a symbol of Christ’s finished, redemptive work, plain and simple. The cross is not a symbol of Jesus Himself, but rather what He did for us. The cross is not an object to be worshiped or otherwise venerated in any way. Early Reformed churches removed crucifixes (crosses with Jesus being crucified) from sanctuaries in the 16th century because of their misuse. Many Reformed folk still object to a cross in a worship area. I respect such a conviction, but don't personally share it. Now, some 500 years after the Reformation, without the same idolatrous Roman baggage, the symbol of the empty cross serves as a reminder and declaration of what we believe and is affirmed in the Apostle’s Creed - “Who (Jesus) was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried”.

May the whole of Redeemer’s worship space help us to reflect upon the holiness and grace of our God, for His glory alone.

1 Corinthians 2:2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Sarah's song for "Mr. B"

I had the distinct pleasure to officiate the wedding of my little brother in law Brett yesterday.

I started dating Shari when Brett was nine years old. It's been a total thrill to watch him grow physically and spiritually over these past 17 plus years. Brett began teaching at our school, Westminster Christian Academy, four years ago. Three years ago a lovely, sweet, godly woman named Sarah came to teach also. Long story short, they fell in love and got married Saturday.

During the ceremony Sarah surprised Brett with a cute little song about how they met and what she looks forward to. "Mr B." is what the students call Brett, it's shorter than Mr. Busenitz.



Needless to say, we are ecstatic that God has brought Brett and Sarah together.

Should struggling with sin cause a lack of assurance?

In preparation for preaching on Galatians each week I try to read several sermons on the particular passage in focus for that week. I want to share a wonderful observation by Dr. Kim Riddlebarger who is senior pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim, California. This excerpt comes from one of his sermons on Galatians 5:16-26 with specific reference to "walking by the Spirit":

Many times Christians are told that the struggle with sin and any perception of lack of victory, or lack of continual progress, are reasons to doubt the assurance of their salvation, or God’s favor towards them. But as Paul makes very clear, it is only the Christian, indwelt by God’s spirit, who experiences a struggle between the Spirit and the flesh or “indwelling sin.” Non-Christians are only “in the flesh,” hence God’s Spirit is not provoking such internal conflicts. Thus the struggle with sin is perhaps the clearest sign that one is actually converted! Non-Christians do not have the intense struggle between the sinful nature and the indwelling Spirit. This is why we must draw our assurance of salvation and God’s favor toward us primarily from the promises given to us in the Scriptures, rather than attempting to draw assurance from our own progress in holiness. Some of those who have progressed the farthest in sanctification are also those most dissatisfied with the progress they are making in the Christian life. Assurance should be drawn primarily from the promise in Scripture that God will save sinners, from the witness of the Spirit to those promises, and only secondarily from our progress in the Christian life. While we will indeed make progress, it is at times very difficult to gauge it.

Finally some environmental research worth adhering

Eat a Dog, Save the Earth
(Foxnews/October 22,2009)

SUVs owners are often castigated by treehuggers for their Earth-unfriendly lifestyle. A new book argues that pets are just as bad.

New Zealand authors Robert and Brenda Vale's book, "Time to Eat the Dog: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living" is an exhaustive analysis of the environmental impact of common pets such as cats and dogs. The authors studied the carbon emissions created by pets, including the ingredients in their food and the land required to grow it. And the results don't bode well for Fido, who compares poorly to that SUV.

The Values noted that a medium dog consumes 90 grams of meat and 156 grams of cereals daily in its recommended 300-gram portion of dried dog food. They then determined that Fido wolfs down about 164 kilograms of meat and 95 kilograms of cereals per year.

It takes 43.3 square meters of land to generate 1 kilogram of chicken per year — far more for beef and lamb — and 13.4 square meters to generate a kilogram of cereals. So that gives him a footprint of 0.84 hectares. For a big dog such as a German shepherd, the figure is 1.1 hectares

Meanwhile, a Toyota Land Cruiser driven a modest 10,000 kilometers a year, uses 55.1 gigajoules, which includes the energy required both to fuel and to build it. One hectare of land can produce approximately 135 gigajoules of energy per year, so the Land Cruiser's eco-footprint is about 0.41 hectares — less than half that of a medium-sized dog.

The authors aren't really arguing that we should eat our pets of course, merely that we need to think more about the ecological impact of the things we do on a daily basis, and how we choose to use land.

"Owning a dog really is quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat," Vale told New Scientist magazine. So what's the "eco-pawprint" of your pet?

German shepherds: 1.1 hectares, compared with 0.41ha for a large SUV

Cats: 0.15ha (slightly less than a Volkswagen Golf).

Hamsters: 0.014ha (two of them equate to a medium-sized plasma TV).

Goldfish: 0.00034ha (an eco-finprint equal to two cellphones).

"Religion" can be dangerous to spiritual growth

A very recent discussion with someone who told me they were not very religious made me think again of how I dislike the label "religious". I actually think the bible speaks against "religion" in the way most people mean it today. Here’s an extended dictionary definition given for religion:

Religion - is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that (generally) involve a faith in a spiritual nature and a study of inherited ancestral traditions, knowledge and wisdom related to understanding human life. The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to faith as well as to the larger shared systems of belief.

This definition includes following certain rituals because of what one believes. Concepts like “codified beliefs”, “rituals”, “inherited traditions”, “system of belief”, are all used to describe religion. While it may be true that Christianity is categorized as a religion, I don’t think it’s a precise categorization when you consider what Christianity actually is. I would define Christianity this way:

Christianity is based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as revealed by the Bible. In summary, Jesus taught that union with Him is the only way to have salvation from sin, a peaceful relationship with God, and eternal life. This is based on His living a sinless life, dying an atoning death, and rising again on our behalf. Union with Christ comes by faith (trust) in Him.

Religion can be practiced by anyone- even people who have no relationship with God can be “religious” as religion primarily involves the outward actions.

Christianity, in the biblical sense of the concept, can only be practiced or experienced through a personal relationship with Christ.

Religion, understood the way most understand it today, is dangerous to our spiritual growth as it places undue emphasis on outward rituals and rites and not enough emphasis, if any, on our heart’s devotion to Christ. I am not saying there is no place for outward rituals and rites, on the contrary, the bible commands some (baptism and the Lord's Supper as examples) but rather they are not the substance of our religion but expressions and encouragers of it.

I am taken back to what Paul warns the Colossians (and us) concerning the matter of outward religion and practice.

Colossians 2:16-23 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.