the remedy

Q: How do you prevent or recover from a cold?
A: Ginger tea!!

It will...
1. clear your sinuses
2. fight bacteria in your throat
3. taste good
4. make you feel better (as a result of 1-3)

so for all those students who will be getting sick as they return from thanksgiving break - stock up on this beautiful root (or on drinks made of this beautiful root) and enjoy!

for those who are interested, i have a box of ginger tea packets :D

Somehow...

...I think this may have happened if whether or not the Phillies won.

This Election May Require a Cold Shower Afterward

What I’m about to write is going to come off as very stream-of-conscious. It’s pretty much a couple of random thoughts I’ve had about the election, and I’m not quite sure how to structure it together. Essentially, however, I don’t think I’ll be able to step out of the voting booth on Election Day and not feel dirty.

The issues:

• The Vile & Shameless Campaign
• Courti...er...Taking Advantage of the Evangelical Vote
• Obama is the Messiah?
• Abortion & Third Party Candidates
• The Proper Perspective or Why I Really Shouldn’t Feel Dirty at All

1.) The Vile & Shameless Campaign

The ads, the mailings, the robocalls—the attacks have been pretty shameless. Were Presidential campaigns always this vile, or am I just becoming more aware of it? The mud has been flying back and forth nonstop between both parties, and we’ve been caught in the crossfire. I’m going to need a shower (and probably a new change of clothes as well).

2. ) Courti...er...Taking Advantage of the Evangelical Vote

I think it’s been the media’s joy to play up how the candidates are “courting the evangelical vote”. We’ve had the Saddleback forum (which was actually quite respectable). We’ve also had Donald Miller “praying” at the DNC (along with every other “emergent” Christian running to support Obama). We’ve also had John McCain choose Sarah Palin as his running mate (and it appears she has begun to go off script).

For awhile there, we had Huckabee. Truth be told, I like Huckabee and was initially hoping he would have won the Republican primary. However, I’m actually glad he didn’t win, for his own sake. Considering how vile this campaign has been, Huckabee has the ability to finish this election season with his dignity in tact.

3.) Obama is the Messiah?

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Barack Obama is not the second coming of Jesus Christ our Lord. The large quantities of people claiming that he is, however, are actually quite scary. Take a look at this:

If this weren’t serious, it would be hilarious (ok…the execution of the song still is sort of funny, but the message is not—the message is blasphemy).

4.) Abortion & Third Party Candidates

I think I’ve already made myself pretty clear that I won’t be voting for Obama. However, I’m not sure if I can vote for McCain either.

Barack Obama is most certainly not pro-life (even though some are claiming otherwise). However, McCain isn’t exactly pro-life either. He supports embryonic stem-cell research and the like.

There is, however a third-party candidate, from the Constitution Party, who is completely pro-life. Chuck Baldwin (the name of the candidate), could be a viable option. However, he doesn’t have chance of getting elected. If I would vote for him, I’d be taking a vote away from McCain, and essentially be voting for Obama.

Should I vote for the lesser of two evils and hope McCain wins, or vote for the most truly desirable candidate, knowing that he’ll lose?

If I vote for McCain, I may have sacrificed some of what the Bible has taught me, and I will feel dirty. If I vote for Chuck Baldwin, I may have thrown my vote away and towards Obama, and will feel dirty. If I don’t vote at all, I will have thrown my vote away and towards Obama, and will feel dirty. In any case, I’ll need a cold shower.

5.) The Proper Perspective or Why I Shouldn’t Feel Dirty at All

Despite these feelings, John Piper has come around to set things in their proper perspective. In a recent article (HT: JT), he says this about voting:

We should do it. But only as if we were not doing it. Its outcomes do not give us the greatest joy when they go our way, and they do not demoralize us when they don’t. Political life is for making much of Christ whether the world falls apart or holds together.

And this:

There are losses. We mourn. But not as those who have no hope. We vote and we lose, or we vote and we win. In either case, we win or lose as if we were not winning or losing. Our expectations and frustrations are modest. The best this world can offer is short and small. The worst it can offer has been predicted in the book of Revelation. And no vote will hold it back. In the short run, Christians lose (Revelation 13:7). In the long run, we win (Revelation 21:4).

And this:

There are joys. The very act of voting is a joyful statement that we are not under a tyrant. And there may be happy victories. But the best government we get is a foreshadowing. Peace and justice are approximated now. They will be perfect when Christ comes. So our joy is modest. Our triumphs are short-lived—and shot through with imperfection. So we vote as though not voting.

And this:

We do not withdraw. We are involved—but as if not involved. Politics does not have ultimate weight for us. It is one more stage for acting out the truth that Christ, and not politics, is supreme.

And this:

We deal with the system. We deal with the news. We deal with the candidates. We deal with the issues. But we deal with it all as if not dealing with it. It does not have our fullest attention. It is not the great thing in our lives. Christ is. And Christ will be ruling over his people with perfect supremacy no matter who is elected and no matter what government stands or falls. So we vote as though not voting.

By all means vote. But remember: “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

Thabiti Anyabwile has also had a series of thoughts on the election.

Hollywood, the Gospel, and Pyromaniacs

Team Pyro has an interesting article on a recent episode of E.R.

Key quote:

As I've often observed and remarked: the most gifted screenwriters can concoct believable monsters, deviants, heroes, regular-joes, atheists, agnostics, all sorts of characters. But the believable depiction of a full-orbed Christian character is simply beyond them. Evidently they have never known (much less understood nor liked) even one credible, practicing, Biblically-faithful Christian. It's the one color missing from their palate — as starved for ideas as they are.

"The Pirate"

This is an old, but interesting, article from Boundless on online piracy. And so I ask (based on Justin Taylor's comment), has this become an acceptable sin to most Christians?

(HT: JT)

Cups

One of the books I’m currently reading is The Cross He Bore: Meditations on the Sufferings of the Redeemer by Frederick S. Leahy. What I have appreciated about it is that for the size of the book, the author helps show how even some of the details I would be prone to overlook are of the utmost importance to the suffering of Christ, and how that fulfilled the Father’s wrath.

Such an example comes from the 11^th chapter, where Leahy explains how important it was for Jesus to refuse the wine and myrrh/gall mixture offered to him while hanging on the cross.

First he explains how the cup of wrath needed to be kept pure.

Not only would the Saviour drink the cup of divine wrath, with its steadily increasing bitterness, but also, in terms of his suffering, he would drink no other cup, nor would he accept any admixture. He would drink the cup that the Father had given him unmixed. Not a solitary drop of any other potion must blend with that prepared by the Father. That cup must be kept pure.

He continues:

Dilute that cup with a single extraneous drop and it is no longer the cup of God’s wrath. For that matter, add one foreign ingredient to the cup of God’s mercy and it ceases to be such. God’s wrath and God’s mercy alike are unmixed.

Leahy then explains how the myrrh/gall was typically used to dull the pain of those being crucified. Christ refused the drink, because he needed to feel the full pain and suffering of the cross. As Leahy says, “Nothing must be allowed to insulate his spirit from the reality of the situation.”

He must suffer to the utmost. He must feel the full ‘sting’ of his death. No anesthetic was permissible.

Leahy continues by saying how by refusing the cup the soldiers offered, he was also refusing a cup Satan himself offered and then considers what would have happened if Jesus had drank the mixture.

Then, with a befuddled brain, he could not have prayed for the soldiers who were waiting to nail him to the cross. Then those seven great sayings on the cross would never have been uttered. Then his obedience would at last have been broken and all would have been lost. How much was at stake as they pushed the rim of that cup towards the Saviour’s lips! Everything! All of the divine decree, all of prophecy, all of redemption was at stake as that appealing cup was offered to the suffering one again and again.

Leahy concludes the chapter by pointing to Matthew 26:29, where Christ refused another cup, the sacramental cup, until the consummation. The sacramental cup we drink at communion as a relationship between “‘…commencement and fulfillment.’”

As we take the sacramental cup in our hands, may we be profoundly conscious that this is a foretaste of that heavenly banquet. Our thoughts might well be of the cup Christ drank, the cup he refused, and the cup from which he will drink with us in glory.

Abe Lincoln & Providence

John Piper offers some interesting insights on Abe Lincoln, and how, though skeptical about God through his 40s, his suffering drew him to God. I'd say more, but I'd rather let the article speak for itself.

JMac

Calculators & Discernment

Is it just me, or does Tim Challies seem to think discernment is important? My first clue was his book review website, and my second--that he wrote a book about it. Today, Mr. Challies offered some insights on what he hopes people will get from his book. He compared cheating on the discipline of discernment to cheating on long division with a calculator. He says, “Just knowing that discernment is an expectation for all of us is valuable knowledge and something many Christians really do not understand.”

Here are some of his thoughts:

And second to that, I want people to realize that discernment is something we are responsible for as individuals. We cannot simply leave discernment to the experts. Rather, we each need to learn to discern and we each need to grow in the skill of discernment. Like using a calculator for division, we can rely on others to give us the bottom line. But like doing long division, it is far better to do the work ourselves and to ensure we understand how to discern. The theological equivalent of using a calculator may be just Googling what John Piper or John MacArthur says about a certain topic and taking that word as law. It may be asking a parent or pastor and accepting what they say without further thought. We are all prone to want to get to the final tally without going through the intervening steps.

But like the kid who cheats by using a calculator, we cheat ourselves if we do not do the difficult work of discernment. As we discern what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, we train ourselves to think as Christians and we train ourselves to really understand what discernment is. We make sure that we understand the difficult business of discernment—not only the end result but the process of getting there.

All Due to Grace

This hymn has helped focus my heart on resting in grace alone--that I contributed nothing to my salvation--that it was the work of God alone who rescued me from my sin.

All that I was, my sin, my guilt,
My death, was all mine own;
All that I am, I owe to Thee,
My gracious God, alone.

The evil of my former state
Was mine, and only mine;
The good in which I now rejoice
Is Thine, and only Thine.

The darkness of my former state,
The bondage--all was mine;
The light of life in which I walk,
The liberty--is Thine.

Thy grace that made me feel my sin
It taught me to believe;
Then, in believing, peace I found,
And now I live, I live.

All that I am, e'en here on earth,
All that I hope to be,
When Jesus comes and glory dawns,
I owe it, Lord, to Thee

Horatius Bonar, 1856

The Crown of Thorns

“Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting a together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of Jews!” (Matthew 27:27-30 ESV)

“And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him.” (Mark 15:17-19 ESV)

Brutal, terrible, vicious…but just how important was Christ’s crown of thorns? Frederick S. Leahy puts it this way in The Cross He Bore: Meditations on the Sufferings of the Redeemer:

If we are to receive the crown of life, Christ must receive the crown of thorns. He cannot be our Saviour any other way. That is what Krummacher means when he comments that in the crown of his deity alone, Christ could only say to a dying thief, ‘Be thou accursed’; but in the crown of thorns he can say, ‘This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.’ In the crown of his deity alone, he can only say to a Magdalene or a publican, ‘Depart from me’; but in the crown of thorns he can say, ‘Go in peace, your sins are forgiven you.’ It is in his diadem of thorns that he stoops low in humiliation and shame and sorrow to seek and to save sinners. It is only by the sharp torn of his suffering that the poisonous thorn of our sin is drawn. In other words, apart from the cross God cannot forgive sin.

Leahy continues:

In this apparent weakness he is the mighty conqueror of Satan and sin and death, the overcomer of this world. The cross appears as foolishness to the world, but to God’s redeemed people the cross is victory, salvation, the power of God.

Preparing Ourselves to Hear the Word of God

Donald Whitney makes a great comment in Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life about where our heart should be as we are about to hear the Word of God preached on Sunday mornings. While not the main point of his chapter on Bible intake, he makes a fruitful digression.

If you enter the typical evangelical church two minutes before the start of the worship service, it sounds almost like you’ve walked into a gymnasium two minutes before a basketball game. Part of my pastoral heart appreciates the good things represented by people who are glad to see and talk with each other. There is a spirit of family reunion in the air when the family of God gathers together. But I think a larger part of my heart longs for reverence and a spirit of seeking God among those who come to hear His Word. (pg. 31)

Whitney continues, relating a story of a congregation of Korean Christians using his church building for their services.

I was impressed by the way they entered the worship center. Whether they were first to arrive or came in after the service had already started, they immediately bowed in prayer for several moments before arranging their belongings, unbuttoning their coat, or acknowledging the presence of anyone else. This served as an effective reminder to their own hearts and to everyone else of their main purpose for that time. (pg. 31)

Oh, how often I neglect to prepare my heart for corporate worship and the hearing of God’s Word on Sunday mornings. Oh, how easy it is for me to converse with others, or to even twiddle my thumbs aimlessly, instead of spending a few minutes with God in reverent prayer before the morning’s service begins. May God continue to pour out His grace on me so that I can approach his Word with more awe and reverence and thanksgiving!

I Am Not an Engineer

I am not an engineering student. Yet, I go to Drexel University. In fact, I am not studying a technical field at all, but am a lowly communication major. How in the world did I end up at a school known for its engineering and co-op program?

I could cite many earthly reasons as to why I ended up at Drexel. I could easily say I came because Drexel sent me mailings relentlessly from the time I took the PSATs my sophomore year of high school onward. I could say I came because my visit to Syracuse was rushed (and cold). I could say I came because of the school’s co-op program. I could even say I came simply because I like cities. You get the point.

Ultimately, however, God brought me to Drexel. God providentially brought me into a wonderful Christian community where I could grow, fellowship and mature in the faith.

Psalm 137:16 says, “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

For a little while during my first year of college, I had doubts and wondered if I had made the wrong choice in going to Drexel. Now, however, I am forever grateful to God that He brought me to this campus and plugged me in at a wonderful church, so that I could become conformed more into the image of my Savior!