Aug/Sep Photos

A Humorous Old Testament Write-Up

Every week at Emmaus, the school which attend, in my Old Testament Survey class, we're required to turn in a written report on a question pertaining to the text we read that week. My beloved professor posed this question:

" Write a personal response to Psalm 15 as it gives instruction for your life as a student at Emmaus."

I, being the unfortunate Puritan influenced smart aleck that I am, responded as follows:

"How indeed shall I remain steadfast and ere immovable at this the swan song of my Emmaus sojournings? Further still, how ought I indeed to dwell in the tabernacle of the Lord? How indeed shall I ever rest in His holy mountayne? Or, to put it simply, how shall I thus enter heaven? Psalm 15 answers these basic inquiries with a most sure and certain response. As I have long tarried ere on the Emmaus properties I have surely found a most troubling thing: when I act in the secret counsels of life in a way aberrant to the holy Scriptures (and the holy handbook) my bed is oft drowned in tears for the pains which I do indeed suffer at mine own hands. For this reason doth David exclaim that, “he that walketh uprightly,” shall be the man who doest enter into the Lord’s holy Tabernacle. I shouldst likewise infer, he that walketh uprightly with the Holy Scriptures as they pertain to the holy handbook firm in his mind shall be a happy man. He that doeth all in accordance with the Law of Glock in his secret counsels, and worketh towards holiness in working righteousness while attending this beloved institution, and alway sayeth the truth of God to himself in his dailie doings shall be a happy Emmaus student, or so thus I have found in my various experiments and thus I believe shall carry me onwards to the end of, not only my Emmaus sojournings, but to the end of all life and breath. But David dost not only address the outward positive workings of righteousness but also the outward ceasing of sin. Indeed, while tarrying at Emmaus I have found that those who, “slandereth with the tongue,” behind the backs of their acquaintances oft come to a nasty end. This simply shall not do for a devout saint of Christ or Emmaus attendee. To graduate, or truly to enter heaven, one must not, “doeth evil to his neigbour,” for indeed this shall thus prove us finally vain and outside of the Tabernacle and holy mountayne. Finally, David doth give the most wise counsel to wisely endeavor in choosing those who shall be with you al the days of his (Emmaus) life. We shall not, sayeth David, commend that most evil and profane man who walkest not in the counsels of the Almighty. Rather, sayeth he, we shall giveth our honour, affection, and acquaintance unto the godly who “feareth the Lord.” One must not, likewise, squander one’s finances upon that evil gayne of gambling and trifling with the wanton pleasure of robbing his fellow man from a bet. Not only is this contrary to the Law of the Lord but it is a most vile abomination of the Law of Glock and, shouldst one deign to invest in such an unwise endeavor, he shall thus rightly find himself before that most feared committee of student judicial affaires.

Thus shall the student of Emmaus dwell and prosper."

My wife's exact quote was,

"Wow, it's sure a good thing that he knows you!"

"Wow" is right...

Enjoying the serious moments and the humorous ones with you brethren,

soli deo gloria

R.D. Thompson

Calvin on Satan

I sure do love Calvin's Institutes and they have been a balm to my soul and a sweet pleasure which I have been delightedly getting college credit for! How awful is that?

I love to share what I read, it is probably my number one "ministry," primarily for the fact that I am in no way original in my theology and could certainly not articulate these things as well as my predecessors or as well as our fathers.

So, like a hungry man leading another man to bread, let me share with you Calvin's Scripture saturated view of God, Satan, and the believer's assurance of victory:

"Satan is clearly under God's power, and is so ruled by his bidding as to be compelled to render him service . Indeed, when we say that Satan resists God, and that Satan's works disagree with God's works, we at the same time assert that this resistance and this opposition are dependent upon God's sufferance. I am not now speaking of Satan's will, nor even of his effort, but only of his effect. For inasmuch as the devil is by nature wicked, he is not at all inclined to obedience to the divine will, but utterly intent upon contumacy [a stubborn refusal to obey authority] and rebellion."

Further,

"But because with the bridle of his power God holds him bound and restrained, he carries out only those things which have been divinely permitted to him; and so he obeys his Creator, whether he will or not, because he is compelled to yield him service wherever God impels him."

So what good does this to the Christian?

"As far as believers are concerned, because they are disquieted by enemies of this sort, they heed these exhortations: 'Give no place to the devil' (Eph. 4:27). 'The devil your enemy goes about as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour; resist him, be firm in your faith' (I Peter 5:8-9), and the like. Paul admits that he was not a free man from this sort of strife when he writes that, as a remedy to tame his pride, he was given an angel of Satan to humble him (II Cor. 12:7). Therefore, this exercise is common to all the children of God."

And here is where it gets sweet and becomes laced with joy,

"But because that promise to crush Satan's head (Gen 3:15) pertains to Christ and all his memebers in common, I deny that believers can ever be conquered or overwhelmed by him. Often, indeed, are they distressed, but not so deprived of life as not to recover; they fall under violent blows, but afterward they are raised up; they are wounded, but not fatally; in short, they so toil throughout life that at last they obtain the victory."

It is as my friend (through his books, not in person) John Piper says,

"Satan can rough us up but cannot damn us. I do not take lightly the threats, but they are not ultimate. They are limited. You can always say, Jesus is superior in strength and he died so that no accusation can hold against his people. The great accuser, liar, murderer has been exposed. He has been defanged. He can hurt us by gumming us, but his poison is gone. We cannot die. We cannot lose the battle that God fights for us with the death and resurrection of his Son. All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Jesus. Lay hold on him. Speak his sovereign name. Trust his power and mercy and blood and righteousness implicitly."

This is one of those startling, astounding, and beautiful truths of the gospel. Satan has a whole lot of power to beat on us, to hurt us, to maim us, and to just bully us around in general, but he cannot win.

Jesus won and now I'm ultimately safe and free from Satan in Him.

Hallelujah,

R.D. Thompson

Calvin on Providence

Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion is a gold mine that I think we belittle and ignore too much. Just listen to Calvin on Providence,

"Yet, when that light of divine providence has once shone upon a godly man, he is then relieved and set free not only from the extreme anxiety and fear that were pressing him before, but from every care. For as he justly dreads fortune, so he fearlessly dares commit himself to God. His solace, I say, is to know that his Heavenly Father so holds all things in his power, so rules by his authority and will, so governs by his wisdom, that nothing can befall except he determine it. Moreover, it comforts him to know that he has been received into God's safekeeping and entrusted to the care of his angels, and that neither water, nor fire, nor iron can harm him, except in so far as it pleases God as governor to give them occasion."

People bash the doctrine of the sovereignty of God but I say that sovereignty is an eminently practical and wonderful doctrine to rest in because it means that ultimately God is genuinely in control. No Open Theist or Arminian (not equating those two don't worry) has this comfort so deeply or so joyously.

Loving Our Wonderful God With You,

R.D. Thompson