According to Lilies
The Blog of Joshua Hughes, Worship Minister at Four Oaks Community Church.
RSS FeedDecember 04, 2008
Cornelius Plantinga: characteristic sins of the age
If we know the characteristic sins of the age, we can guess its foolish and fashionable assumptions – that morality is simply a matter of personal taste, that all silences need to be filled up with human chatter or background music, that 760 percent of the American people are victims, that it is better to feel than to think, that rights are more important than responsibilities, that even for children the right to choose supersedes all other rights, that real liberty can be enjoyed without virtue, that self-reproach is for fogies, that God is a chum or even a gofer whose job it is to make us rich or happy or religiously excited, that it is more satisfying to be envied than respected, that it is better for politicians and preachers to be cheerful than truthful, that Christian worship fails unless it is fun.
- Cornelius Plantinga
quoted by D.A. Carson
in “Worship by the Book”
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November 29, 2008
Team member #2
The second member of my team to whom I would like to draw your attention is Matt Robinson. He is a man of many talents; by day he teaches science at Lincoln High School, and from January to August he is a highly sought-after baseball coach and hitting instructor. He somehow finds time in the midst of these responsibilities to work nearly full-time running the technical elements of our service. He is our primary audio engineer, and of late has begun getting his hands in and providing leadership to other technical aspects of our production (lighting, recording, setup and breakdown, etc.).
Matt excels in the gift of service. He is a diligent and steadfast worker who, along with his wife Kathy (see my last post) is present for every event and is ready to serve anywhere there might be a need. It is not unusual to find him at all hours of the day or night hidden away in a corner where the sound equipment is stashed, headphones on refining his craft. When he started mixing, he had no experience or training; he has developed into a wonderful audio engineer with a great ear and a great touch on the board. But as grateful as I am for his skill, I am even more grateful for his humility and his eagerness to serve. If we are one body with many members, he is a backbone type. While you might not think about him too often, you certainly are glad he’s there, diligently doing the work to which he has been called.
Thank you, Matt, for your faithful service! 1 Peter 5:5 says, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” You are a wonderful example of others-centered humility.
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Link to this Postposted by Joshua Hughes
November 29, 2008
Rushing headlong…
“Mingled vanity and pride appear in this, that when miserable men do seek after God, instead of ascending higher than themselves as they ought to do, they measure him by their own carnal stupidity, and neglecting solid inquiry, fly off to indulge their curiosity in vain speculation. Hence, they do not conceive of him in the character in which he is manifested, but imagine him to be whatever their own rashness has devised. This abyss standing open, they cannot move one footstep without rushing headlong to destruction. With such an idea of God, nothing which they may attempt to offer in the way of worship or obedience can have any value in his sight, because it is not him they worship, but, instead of him, the dream and figment of their own heart. This corrupt procedure is admirably described by Paul, when he says that ‘thinking to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:22).’”
- John Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion
Book First, Chapter 4
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Joshua is the pastor of worship at Four Oaks Community Church. View My Complete Profile