The Means May Change, But My Lord Does Not

It should be apparent from the lack of activity in this blog for the past few months that I am struggling with blogging. It seems that I have been revisited with that old nagging feeling that I have had since I started doing this in the middle of 2008, relevance. Is what I have to say even worth writing down, let alone reading? I am still not sure and that is why I struggle, from the hiatus I took the summer of last year, the barren desert of blog posts this summer (maybe it is a seasonal thing, I hadn't thought of that until just now).

I have blown up my twitter account (for the second time, this time wiping it out just north of the 16000 follower mark, the first time making just a little over 8000) and now bump along just under 50. I also have limited my tweeting. So it appears I may questioning the effectiveness of the methods I am using. As an aging boomer in my mid-50's, born in the mid-50's (that conjunction of facts will get out of alignment soon), I wanted to explore the methods of communication being used today. I am still unconvinced I have a voice to add to this arena. I am not sure anyone wants to hear me here. I am not sure I want to be hear. Maybe I am better off with an old 8 track and a couple hard copy books (the bible and maybe LOTR by Tolkien).

Maybe I just need to focus on what I do not want to see change: the Gospel message and my saving faith. In the ministry I now work in, we define the Gospel as ten words taken from Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8,

Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead

We also hold that one needs to have saving faith:

Knowledge of who Christ is
Acceptance of His person and work
Trust in Christ alone for salvation

Some really clear and simple concepts to state, yet incredibly broad and complex in how they can change your life and you can change others. So maybe rather than worrying about the method I need to use I should just focus more on the message, and let the Lord take care of the means.

I would say I am back, but based on my beliefs, I was never away. I just might not be here as much, and I need to be OK with that. As long as I am doing the work He puts before me, do I really need to worry about how I go about doing it?



Technorati Tags: Jesus, Tolkien, LOTR, Gospel, EvanTell

A Year With The Institutes - 1.8.1-4

Continuing with my reading of the Institutes, this section from today's reading focused for me the beauty of the Bible:

Now this power which is peculiar to Scripture is clear from the fact that of human writings, however artfully polished, there is none capable of affecting us at all comparably. Read Demosthenes or Cicero; read Plato, Aristotle, and others of that tribe. They will, I admit, allure you, delight you, move you, enrapture you in wonderful measure. But betake yourself from them to this sacred reading. Then, in spite of yourself, so deeply will it affect you, so penetrate your heart, so fix itself in your very marrow, that, compared with its deep impression, such vigor as the orators and philosophers have will nearly vanish. Consequently, it is easy to see that the Sacred Scriptures, which so far surpass all gifts and graces of human endeavor, breathe something divine.

The Institutes of The Christian Religion Book One, Chapter 8.1

I have read through the Bible several times, and I never tire of it. Never will. I cannot say that for any other book I have read, no matter how much I enjoy them. Take The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. I have read it, since college, maybe 5 or 6 times, usually with a several year period between readings. I could not finish it, then start it all over reading it again right away. And I love LOTR.

Put the Bible away for several years and not read it? Are you kidding? As soon as I finish it, I am looking at how I want to read through it again. Only the divine word of God could move me so. No other book could make me eager to come to school, attend a lecture, waiting to mine the next nugget out of an infinite store of wisdom.

If you are not reading the Bible everyday, start. If you have not read entirely through it, either cover to cover or with a plan that hops around but schedules out the entire book, do it. Just Google "Bible reading plans" and see what you get to work from.

You may not agree with Calvin on everything, you may not agree with him on anything. But at the very least, you will have to admit that he got this one right.

Sometimes It Works

And sometimes it does not. I am talking about my IntenseDebate comment system. Sometimes the comments come through on it, sometimes the come in the old Blogger system and once in a very rare while I get an email notification, read the comment, but see it nowhere connected to the blog post.

I am done trying to figure it out. I am getting comments somehow and am able to respond to most as necessary. I installed IntenseDebate using their widget process, so it was pretty basic. But I did something wrong.

The Social Mediot strikes again.

But I am done worrying about. Hey, classes start Wednesday, I got reading to do and paper topics to reflect upon. I am involved in a few ministries and that is more productive and satisfying than sitting here trying not to blow up mt Blogger template.

Someday I will sit down with someone who actually knows how to do all this stuff and clean up anything that needs cleaning. Some day the courage of man will fail him. But today is not that day. (OK, I got that from LOTR-Return of the King, the movie not the book.)

Until then, the Social Mediot rides high. And that height is matched by the depth of his obliviousness.