According to Acts 14:17, common grace is a source of general (or natural) revelation. So even as God gives grace to the world by sending rain and sun, it accumulates the judgement that will be heaped upon the unbeliever. “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Rom 1:21 ESV). Truely, all men are without excuse.

I remember RC Sproul talking about this topic. He said that if someone asked him that question about the “innocent native” who has never heard the gospel going to hell, he was answer, “No! An innocent person would go straight to heaven! The problem is finding an innocent person.” All men know enough about God from creation for Him to judge them for not worshiping Him. It is amazing to me since I see God’s “fingerprints” all over creation. The order, the laws, the beauty, the cycles, the balance. Why is it that Carl Sagan couldn’t see it? As Calvin said, the “specticals of faith” are required. Praise God that he gave them to me.

Got my Theology I mid-term back and I got a B. I’ve heard from 4 people who all got a B and all right around my percentage. I got 85% and the other folks were within 4 points of that. Shew.

Had a mid-term in ST601 Theology I yesterday. I’m sure I passed but being behind in the reading hurt. My past experience in studying theology helped. One question was on the perspicuity of scritpure and another was on plenary inspiration. I don’t remember him using those words in his lectures (though he did cover those topics quite well). I was aware of them from other contexts.

For those who don’t know and would like to, the perspicuity of scripture is that the meaning is essentially clear. Plenary inspiration touches on verbal inspiration (that God chose each word in the Bible) so that it excludes any defect in the inspired message. Just in case anyone asks. :)

Last night at work I noticed a sticker on the front glass of our deli display case. It says “Warning: Clean only with Windex or Glass Plus or damage to food product could occur.” Is that some kind of threat or something? If they find out I’m using water on a clean rag and drying it with a paper towel are they going to come in and break up all my tofu or something?

Odd Thought of the Day: What if greenhouse gasses are neither the only nor even the primary cause of global warming? Within the past 100 or so years, we humans have started generating a lot of heat. Burning coal, natural gas, petroleum, etc. to generate motion and electricity. All those moving parts turn motion energy into heat energy by friction as well as their combustion. What do we do with the excess heat? Dump it in the air. Car brakes are air cooled and we have radiators to shed the heat our engines create.

Also, think about refrigeration. It works by moving heat out of where you want it. Your refrigerator transports heat from the inside of the box and dumps it in the room. Air conditioners move heat from inside your house and dump it outside. Same with air conditioners in cars. Since you can’t create nor destroy energy, all that heat energy has to pile up somewhere. Normally, the earth sheds it off into space and stuff. If you compound the problem by also creating a lot of greenhouse gases at the same time, we’re hurting. Think about that next time you have a Coke with ice!

Wallace and Gromit have a new short out. It is hosted by the BBC. Check it out. Since I’m using the broadband connexion here at school, I downloaded the best res version to the laptop.

I just finished working on Colossians 1:28 and what a neat passage that is! Paul says some very interesting things. First of all, the verse begins with “whom” referring back to Christ from the previous verse. Next, Paul says it is Him whom he preaches, admonishing and teaching all men. Some commentators take the term “admonishing” to refer to evangelism; admonishing non-believers to trust Christ, the content of Paul’s preaching. Then, he teaches the church and the content of that teaching, I suppose, is undefined in this letter. But as Peter T. O’Brien points out in his excellent commentary, ¹O’Brien, Peter T. Word Biblical Commentary: Colossians, Philemon (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1982). I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who does not know Greek since it relies on Greek pretty heavily. Still, if you’re willing to wade through unfamiliar words, the English packed in between them has some fantastic things to say! the word “admonishing” is used by Paul mostly to explain his work with new Christians. So, the content of Paul’s admonishing and teaching is Christ, whom he preaches.

Next, Paul uses the term “all men” three times in this verse. It is an interesting construction. The term “all” is singular, denoting each and every one and the term “men” is a plural version of the generic term for mankind. What that indicates is that Paul is interested in each and every individual believer without respect of their class, race, social-standing, education, etc. He ends the verse pointing out that he wants to present all men “complete in Christ.” O’Brien sums it up well, “as a true pastor Paul will not be satisfied with anything less that the full Christian maturity of every believer” (O’Brien, p. 90).

Two things come to my mind here. First, how many pastors and teachers would say that they don’t want to present every believer complete in Christ? Not many I’d wager. Yet, when I hear preaching and teaching on the radio, so often the content is “do’s and don’t’s” or “principles” or examples. Let’s take Paul’s lead here and preach Christ and Him crucified because that will lead believers to full maturity (1Co 2:2, 2Pt 1:3). The more you know about Jesus, the more mature you become.

This is even more pointed when you realize that Paul has shifted back to the plural “we” in this verse from the singular “I” he had been using. It is Paul and his companions who are doing this. Let’s follow Paul and his companions. Let’s be concerned for each individual believer under our care, not just that they come to church on Sunday, but that they come to know Christ better and grow in maturity by such knowledge. Let’s pray for believer’s maturity like Epaphras did (Col 1:7-10, 4:12). That is real pastoral care. Not entertaining the sheep but feeding them.

Last week three of the guys I work with got hassled by the police. They’d gotten to work early and were sitting in their car listening to music and hanging out. The cops came by and checked IDs, car registration, etc. This bugged me becasue it was clealry racial profiling; all three of them are young and black. We talked and joked about it at work but we were all obviously bothered. I mentioned that white folks are the ones who do the big crimes; Jeffery Dalmer had human heads in his fridge. Okine said that black folks are usually only guilty of minor crimes. Made me wonder why no one ever called the police on a white, middle-aged, upper class CEO seen loitering around the company balance sheets in a suspicious manner.

Though I am behind in my Bible reading schedule, I am trying to keep up. Yesterday I finished Joshua. What I found fascinating was what Joshua told the congregation of Israel:

Then Joshua said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.” – Josh 24:19-20

I hope we cover this in Pastoral Counceling. :) What he is saying here is that the people should fear and worship God, but if that isn’t “cool” enough for them, then they should pick someone else to worship because God is jealous and will be hard on them if they choose Him and worship someone else. No religious pluralism here! Pick your god and go with it, but don’t play games with the Living God, “for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29 ESV).

Man, do we need this message today. There are so many things vying for our attention and devotion. Today’s idols aren’t silly little wood or bronze statues, they’re TVs (I call them “The One-eyed god”) or jobs or families or theological positions and they all screem for our attention and devotion. Choose for yourself whom you will serve, but don’t forget that being a Christian is not a passive state. LORD, grant that I might follow you more sincerely today, and even more so tomorrow. Amen.