Upon His Holy Mountain

Of all the days to consider the words of Isaiah chapter 11, this may seem the most ridiculous. On this day exactly a hundred years ago, young men from Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand battled the Turks in what became known as the Gallipoli campaign. A failure from the Allied perspective, this battle cost between 470,000 to 503,000 (Turkish records are not terribly precise) young men, some with wives and children and some who did not yet have either of these blessings. So often we read these types of statistics and don't really think about what it means. One death is tragic. 500,000 deaths are staggeringly horrific or, at least, it should be. And it was all for nothing- petty rivalries, greed and everything else that is part of human depravity and wickedness. All for nothing. So why on this day of all days do I want to bring to our attention this prophecy? Because on this day of all days, the promise is sweeter than ever. The prophecy reads: "The wolf sha

Alright, time for the next part of this series on Individualism or "Lone Ranger Christianity" (LRC). In this post, I'll look briefly at the ancient creeds, namely the Apostles and Nicene Creed. Now, the Apostles Creed has two phrases on the subject within a larger sentence, so I'll quote the whole line: "And I/we believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen." The Nicene Creed says: "And I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church." Let's break this down, first considering the Church and then "communion of Saints" One The Church is one. Not institutionally or organizationally but in the eyes of Her Beloved, Ecclessia is one united body with "One Lord (Christ), one faith (Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ ascended and Christ returning), one birth (regeneration by the power of the Spiri

 It's coming. It's coming in vigor and determination. It's coming to a Social Media network near you.  It's time to get real and serious on this blog. As my Blog description says, I always encourage my readers, that brave and hardy few who dare to put up with my liturgical and theological rants and ravings to remember this is outlet for working out these issues with myself really. Putting my thoughts and positions in writing helps me think them through and better formulate them. But today, we're getting real. So get ready for a rough ride the next few days if you want to read this series. Get your flashlight, your security blanket, your  twinkies survival pack and your emergency copy of The Institutes and have your car keys and cell phones ready. Individualism. It pervades the current Chrisitan scene in multiple areas. But what exactly  is individualism? Funk and Wagnell's defines it as: 1- Personal independence in action, thought etc. 2- The

(This post is to be read in an Irish accent. Thank you for your cooperation.) Top of the morning folks! Faith and begorrah it's that time o' year again is it now? What time you ask? Why Saint Paddy's a 'course! Wha else wood I be taukin aboot? Now thars an big fuss an' all made each year by Protestant folk aboot wearing orange instead o' green, ta show that they be good protestants and not papists!  But now, why should we hae to choose between them, when can wear 'em both? Green, like all colors, belongs tae the One who made it, not the Bishop o' Rome. Sae does orange. God saw fit tae clothe the hills and valleys with a carpet of beautiful green grass, and the evening sunset He tints with orange.  So,on Saint Paddy's day, wear 'em both in 'anor o' the One Saint Paddy's sarved, the one all good Christian folk worship, the Triune God who made heaven and 'arth by the power o' His ward, who made green and

So earlier this year, I ran across an article called  "Let's Stop Singing These 10 Worship Songs"  which I agreed with, for the most part. I do think we can and ought to use God's covenant name of Yahweh (or Yahveh) since Scripture does but that's about it. However, I'm mildly annoyed at how there are a lot of people taking current praise songs to task for shallowness or bad lyrics but no one bothers to look at some the things we sing in  "traditional" services. A lot of "gospel songs" were written after a certain experience and thus feature emotional tendencies rather than, as hymns of old, being musical embodiment of Biblical doctrines. So here is my list of 10 Gospel Songs we should stop singing: 1. In The Garden If this song did not say at one point, "The Son of God discloses" it would be a good love song for some lead actress in a romantic movie to sing about her lover. Observe,  I come to the garden alone, While t