Our Take

(after Lindsay hit Conner in the head with a wooden egg) Me: Lindsay! What do you need to say? Lindsay: Sorry for hitting Daddy. Amen.

After burping: "I just tooted on mine tongue!"

I know I struggle with I'm-not-that-bad-itis. This arrogance is perhaps the biggest roadblock to fruitful prayer without ceasing. Since I naturally assume my offenses are few and small, I am slow to make any legitimate confession of sin. Yet confession is the only way to practice the Gospel truth that we are both miserable sinners and adopted children of God; without hating our sin, we aren't repenting of it. The Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it thus: "Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, doth with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience." (Note the Westminster Puritans emotional emphasis.) Well, this poem is about what confession looks like for people who don't have that "true sense" of their sin. People like me. ---------------------------------------- The Modern Evangelical at Confession, an Autobiographical Account O So...

Every preacher has his hobby-horses. I have tried to stay away from some of the geekier fascinations I have with the Bible (angels and demons as "gods," ancient cosmologies, Old Testament Lord's Supper moments, the divine plan for predatory animals, who is Qohelet, etc.), with about 80 percent success, and have tried to be true to my calling as a minister of Christ. Have I faithfully served up Christ alone each Sunday? I doubt it. But looking back over my sermons in Buffalo, I trace some Christ-centered themes I have harped on over and over. To wit: 1. Jesus is the eternal Word of the Father (mediated by the Spirit). 2. Jesus is the Christ, anointed as our Priest, King, and Prophet to bring God to Man and Man to God. 3. Jesus has already struck the fatal blow against the kingdom of darkness ("It is finished.") and freely forgives those men of darkness who cry out for mercy. 4. Jesus takes all who trust in him into his holy, new creation body. 5. Jesus still...

Me: Go brush your teeth.  Darby: Awww. I don't like brushing my teeth  Me: I didn't ask if you liked to do it. I just said to do it.  Darby: I wish I didn't have these. I wish I didn't have teeth.  Me: Well, then you would look like this and have a hard time eating your food.  Darby: I wish I didn't have teeth. Would that hurt? Me: Yeah, it would! Darby: Can you take my teeth out?  Me: No! That would be a terrible, horrible thing to do to you. It would hurt. And you wouldn't get new teeth for a long time. And you would have to drink all your food.  Darby: Can I eat like Hailey?  Me: Haha. No!