Making Disciples of All Peoples, Including Your Own

The other evening, I was talking with Steve on the phone, or should I say trying to talk, while his sweet one year old daughter, Hannah, was offering her unintelligible commentary in the background. But don’t get me wrong, Hannah is rapidly mastering that muscle between her teeth. Nearly every time Steve and I talk, Hannah has added to her reservoir of gibberish more and more comprehensible verbiage. Fanny and I are fourteen years removed from the joy that Steve and Stacy are experiencing with teaching Hannah her first words and concepts.

As much as I love sharing in the wonder of all this with Steve, nothing has struck me like what I heard the other night. Hannah is not only learning words for their own sake and practicability; Hannah is doing catechesis!

Steve held the phone between himself and Hannah and asked her, “Who made you?”

Hannah immediately shot back, “God.”

“What else did God make?”

“Aw tings!” (trans. “All things!”), she responded.

This caused me to think of the words of the Master, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise” (Matt 21:16). How wonderful for Hannah to be blessed with parents who labor to nurture her in a gospel-centered life!

Our daughter Israel has a journal wherein she is transcribing the ecumenical creeds, Reformed confessions and catechisms. She just finished the Westminster Shorter Catechism and will be starting the Heidelberg tomorrow. She plans to hand this on to her own children and, Lord willing, their children.

Catechesis is a tether cord that binds us today to the elect throughout the ages, back to the apostolic patriarchs who died to hand down the faith once for all.

Dr. R. Scott Clark, Professor of Church History and Historical Theology at Westminster Seminary California, has a fine article on Why We Memorize the Catechism.

Election

Steve Galt has published a short but great post on “Objections to the Doctrine of Election.” The following is a paragraph that I found to be quite insightful.

“Many people object to the idea of election. Some object that election is fatalistic. In this they fail to understand the difference between fatalism and determinism. Fatalism is deterministic, but determinism does not have to be fatalistic. The reason for this is that fatalism is inherently meaningless. Determinism need not be meaningless. God’s election is purposeful, not capricious. God is understood to have sovereignly decreed all that will come to pass. This includes the election of some to salvation. But this is not something that is without meaning. God’s purpose in this is His own glory.”

I recommend reading the rest. Steve follows this post up with another great survey of various views of the atonement of Christ’s cross-work.

Reading to the Glory of God

I was talking with my dearest friend, brother and co-laborer in Christ, Steve (see his blog, “All Things New,” in my blogroll), yesterday, and he shared a new endeavor that is worth repeating and emulating.

Steve joined a book club at his local public library. Perhaps you’re thinking that “Being Nerdy to the Glory of God” would have been a more appropriate title for this entry. No. The book club membership is not an end, but a means that Steve has chosen to shine the light and glory of Christ in his neighborhood.

Typically, the club selects a particular title; they spend an allotment of time reading, and then converge again to discuss the work in a reasonably sized group. I assure you, Steve’s intended reading list is too long and his life too busy to chisel out the time and energy necessary to read and dialogue about recent titles in pop-culture. However, he is willing to spend and be spent for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is precisely why he’s joined the group.

Steve’s desire is to hear the culture through the literature and conversation, understand the writers’ perspectives, and then interpret each book through the Christian worldview. All this, to the end of sharing with the group the Christian perspective of not only the book as a book, but also the often personal (and/or cosmic) issues that it may raise. Strategically, Steve’s wisely decided to use the tried and true Creation/Fall/Redemption paradigm to classify each books content, evaluating the material: “affirming the good, correcting the bad, and presenting the gospel.”

I found Steve’s idea fresh and imaginative. Certainly worth sharing and imitating.

The Lord bless you, Steve, joining him in the missio Dei, right where you are! Keep us updated!