“Finally Alive” – Finally

I just received my copy of Piper’s new book on regeneration and am luxurating in all the wonders of the new birth.  It is a doctrine perfectly suited to our condition. It is a reasonable doctrine, though before one is given eyes to see it seems to work against the very principle of morality itself.  It is so unclear to the man or woman outside of Christ that it must be stated with forcefulness and warm application time and again until that moment when the blessed Holy Spirit “moves upon the face of the waters” and God says, “Let there be light.”

How little is this doctrine preached in its power. Have evangelicals grown tired? Have our fomulations become mathematical and dull? Do we have to move on to other things to get our blood moving again? As I read the biblical text and rehearse the great truths that emanate from Jesus’ teaching to Nicodemus my head wants to bow as if all on its own, my knees bend to a kneel as if all on their own, my hands raise to heaven as if all on their own. I can feel this doctrine in my very body. It has taste, smell and texture. It’s alive and moves among us.

I could reasonably make this alone the great study of my life. Each Sunday I could preach the same sermon and read the same texts all over again and still not be full(though the church might be very empty). It is at such moments as these that I most grieve over the desire of some to muddy up the doctrine of the new birth and mix with it growth in holiness, which is its proper fruit and necessary end point. Is there something in this doctrine that is so displeasing, so incomplete, so disabling that we must add to it our own works, our own obediences, our own righteousness?

Michael Jordan – “Maybe it’s my fault”

Republicans don’t need Limbaugh or Steele

It’s bad for Republicans when Rush Limbaugh is seen as the defacto head of the Republican Party and Michael Steele appears feckless and school-boyish. No matter what one thinks about Rush, he is hurting the conservative movement when he takes a seat at the front of the bus in Republican politics. If Republicans want to get their pound of flesh better Ann Coulter. Rush is too big to get into the mud-throwing, and when he speaks at Republican events it allows the opposition to too closely tie him to what it means to be a Republican. And right now the political landscape is a bout between Obama and Rush. That can’t end up well.

Republicans should be listening more to Romney, at least for a while. He clearly can speak to business. he clearly is an adult. He is not given to satire and low punches. He is sane. He reminds me of one of Ayn Rand’s heroes. (No, I can’t vote for Romney, but that’s another issue-I live in Massachusetts and had Romney as Governor), And after Jindal’s performance last week in response to Obama’s address, I think he will need to take a seat in the back for a while. His staging and the beginning of the speech looked silly and boyish. Gov Mark Sanford looked like an adult and brought some gravitas to the debate. I think Palin’s career at the national level is over, and should be.  Newt Gingrich is ready to give the debate some intellectual backbone. He should be included more and more. In spite of his three marriages and flame out as Speaker of the House, he speaks with the energy of ideas and an understanding of what those ideas might look like when they intersect politics. He is not easily dismissed by the democrats.

I think Obama is showing himself thin-skinned and easily offended. His debates with journalists who criticize him demonstrate a pettiness that will become more and more irritating. Guys like Rush feel this and are calling him out.

In a short two years we have mid-term elections. Any significant shift of seats can put a lot of this slide toward socialism on hold. What the Obama administration wants must be delivered now because in just a few short months they will not be able to get it at all.