Charles Finney, the grace of God, and comfort November 8, 2007
Posted by Anya in : I won't keep things purposely vague , 1 comment so farCharles G. Finney has not been on my list of popular theologians since… about… fifth grade. Anyway, this year I finally was assigned his autobiography. It’s… interesting. And I’m quite irritated with the Presbyterians for licensing him to preach when he hadn’t even read the Confession of Faith and catechisms, much less agreed with them.
Anyway. Finney believed, and taught, that the only thing that held sinners back from being converted was their own stubborn will. Now in a way, this is true. Sinful humans do choose to go on sinning. However, Finney also taught that “God was trying to gain their unqualified consent to give up their sins and accpet the Lord Jesus Christ…” [Ibid]
I’m reminded of James Ward’s song I Am the Door…
He must be weak, if He could speak,
He’d say, “Accept Me if you please.”
We create a God we hate in our petty minds so lame
So very wise in our own eyes
How could Jesus back up His claims?
He said, “I am the Door –
“I am the Door — no one comes to the Father but by Me
“No one knows the Son except the Father
“No one knows the Father like I do
“To those I choose to reveal good news
“I am the Door for you.”
Where, in this theology, is the God Who chases and redeems His unfaithful Bride — because it is His good pleasure to delight in her?
Finney again: “Sinners were not encouraged to expect the Holy Spirit to convert them while they were passive…”
What else can a dead man be?
[Jars of Clay]
There’s something in my veins,
But I can’t seem to make it work… won’t work
So carry me,
I’m just a dead man
Lying on the carpet
Can’t find a heartbeat
Make me breathe,
I want to be a new man
Tired of the old one
Out with the old plan
Can you find a beat inside of me?
Any pulse?
Getting worse?
Any pulse?
Getting worse?
Inside of me, can you find a beat?
Carry me,
I’m just a dead man
Lying on the carpet
Can’t find a heartbeat
Make me breathe,
I want to be a new man
Tired of the old one
Out with the old plan…
How it cheapens the grace of God to assume that we can work our own salvation. How extremely precarious it makes the whole thing, if it rests on us.
I wrote in a song I was working on [thinking of John 6:67-69 and Michael Kelly Blanchard’s one old song] “Where would we go, what would we do? We have no hope outside of You.” There is nothing left for us without Christ — absolutely nothing that we can do for ourselves. That is not a comfortable thing to know, but…
Luther: “Comfort? Your Grace, I’m not interested in comfort. Comfort is not the issue.”
Cardinal Cajetan: “So you consider your discomfort more important than the survival of Christianity?”
Luther: “I’m interested in the truth!”
[from the movie Luther]
As Christians, what are we interested in? Our comfort? Or the truth? Do we really think that we can find comfort outside of the truth, or the truth outside of Christ?
How we quiz… November 6, 2007
Posted by Anya in : spontaneous degeneration, smiling is good for you , add a commentThe subject kind of came up last night at quiz practice when Samwise was trying to come up with an acronym for “Ruler of the Kingdom of the Air” and I pointed out that it was Ephesians 2:2, not 2:3, and that his acronym looked like something a future chemist would come up with and find helpful, so he changed it to look even more that way (we go to some lengths to humor each other and drive everyone else crazy)…
So, anyway, some serious methods of study and some not so serious.
The original one
The new and improved chemistry-looking one. I think the little dude-thing under E2:3 must be some sort of guy gratifying the cravings of his sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.
What we do when we ought to be studying… Marah scribbled the Chinese, Josh wrote the “translation”, and I couldn’t live with that and translated it more properly. 
The multi-purpose Sharpie performing one of its less orthodox, but more useful, functions.
Dune being helpful, as it was taking up dresser space anyway.
Writing quote verses (I didn’t write them sideways, though)
Listening to it. Or listening to classical music while reading it.
And, of course, the ever-trusty highlighters. I think they’ve been helping me quiz as long as I’ve been quizzing. They probably deserve to be recognized for that.
*drumroll* Youth rally stuff… November 3, 2007
Posted by Anya in : spontaneous degeneration, smiling is good for you , 4commentsSo… we got a little bit lost. But then we found the church. The door opened and a group of kids advanced on our car with enthusiastic greetings from Luke (either he knew what kind of car we had or was mobbing every car…)
A great deal of wandering in-and-out-of-the-church-building which finally got to end when we all went around the campfire to roast hotdogs. *cough* Unfortunately, the sticks were really long (about six or seven feet) and thus really hard to control. My first hotdog fell in the fire, and then when I was roasting a marshmallow, I caught it on fire, and, forgetting that the stick was so long, tried spinning it back towards myself so that I could blow it out. The bad thing about that was that I ended up whacking Jonathan L in the leg with a blazing marshmallow. (His jeans did not catch on fire.)
And… we went inside and played games like pass the Tetzel Pretzel, Pin the Theses on the Door, Diet of Worms and so forth. Mostly grossness. There was also the Anabaptist Apple bob, wherein Luke managed to come up with one in about 0.5 seconds and Justin stood up at exactly the wrong moment and blocked my picture.
Then we had a devotions done by Mrs. L, talking about idol worship in general and
Japan in specific.
And then… care to guess what we did? Notice the Reformation Day theme. Yes. Very smart of you. We watched Luther (hey, I hadn’t seen it for a week!) So Lauren and I got snacks and then Rambo came coasting back into his seat. Coasting is the word which I want, too, since he wore heelies and made full use of them. Rambo’s longer nickname at camp was Rambo the Candy Man, and it has not really worn off… he had about twelve cookies, a can of pop, and… hmm… something else on that plate, I can’t remember what. Then he realized that there was also popcorn and went and got a bowl of that. When I went to get a cup of cider, I brought one back for him too… it seemed like it would save time. So we watched Luther on a lovely huge screen, although a lot of the kids were more interested in checking their cellphones every two minutes than in watching the movie.
Rambo: *an hour or so in* *leans over to me very sleepily* “Is it almost done?”me: “Um… no.”Rambo: “oh.” *tries to stay awake* *is rather unsuccessful* (He’s about 11, by the way, and was on the young end of kids there.)
Everyone loved Prince Frederick. And the only time everyone was actually quiet was when Luther found Greta. :(
Finally, a bit after midnight, the movie was done and we all went to bed. Yay. We girls got some lovely piano music and I went to sleep rather soundly and was woken up at quarter to eight by my massive vibrating alarm, aka the loud guys downstairs who were making the whole floor shake. Oh well…
Sara and I went downstairs, really hoping that it was all clear. Daniel was standing at the bottom of the stairs, and helpfully informed us that the girls were allowed down, the guys just were not yet allowed up.
We had breakfast and then went for a hayride, which was long (35-40 minutes) and rather chilly. A guy named Nate and I talked about languages, and Rambo (he was one of my default people to sit beside this weekend, obviously) and I sat tried not to freeze and were on the quick-wagon-exit program by sliding through the bars on the back. Then we had donuts and cider! Rambo, obviously, had many donuts and much sugar; Daniel asked my advice on both the donuts and the cider. (What am I? The Fall Snacks Expert?)
We had two classes on sanctification, which was really a follow-up to the Missionary Preparedness Test at camp this summer. They were very good but outside the scope of this post, which is about the stuff that happened in general and especially the funny things. ^_^
There was lunch between classes, at which people threw things at Luke and he tried to see if they’d float or if he could catch them in his mouth or what, and Jocelyn and I took pictures, and Ian took pictures, and Dean made a video. It’s going to be a very odd video.
And then after the second class, we took our stuff outside and hung around for a while and people left and it was over too soon. *sadness*
A few quotes…
“Mr. P, you are not a girl yet. So take off your hat.” ~ Pastor M
“Nice, [Anya].” ~ Luke, as I sat down right before they said, “Stand up!”
“Tape is the truth?” ~ Dean, pulling a roll of tape out of the box labeled The Truth.
Laura: “Ack! Why am I so cold?”one of her brothers (?): “It could have to do with being used to living in
South Africa…”Laura: “Hey, it gets cold there in the winter!”him: “Yeah… like 30 degrees!”
Daniel: “I forgot how to smile.” *grins*
Convincing, convincing.So it was fun. Many different kids than I’ve hung out with in the past, but a good time as always.
Goodnight.
