Worth the .50 Cents I Guess!

I picked up, among 200 or so other titles, a commentary by Andrew Murray on the book of Hebrews at the Emmaus book sale today (softcovers .25, hardcovers .50, special books $1-$2). Usually my book sale books wait for another day but I had never realized that Murray had written commentaries and because Hebrews is so close to my heart I picked it up to flip through it.

The next couple quotes made it worth my money and the 3.5 hours of sleep I got before I had to wake up to be first at the door,

"What the Hebrews needed is what we need. Not in ourselves or our efforts is salvation, but in Jesus Christ. To see Him, to consider Him, to look at Him, as He lives in heaven, that will bring the healing...It is Christ Jesus we must know better. It is He who lives today in heaven, who can lead us into the heavenly sanctuary, and keep us there, who can give heaven into our heart and life. The knowledge of Jesus in His heavenly glory and His saving power; it is this our Churches and our Christians need. It is this the epistle will bring us, if we yield to that Spirit who speaks in it, to reveal in us. It is therefore, with great confidence that I invite all who long for the rest of God, for a life in the holiest of God's love, for the [sic] fulness of faith and hope and love, to take up the study of the epistle, with the confident assurance of finding in its revelation of what Christ and His salvation are, the deliverance from sin and sloth, the joy and strength of a new life."

And further,

"God hath spoken! When man speaks it is the revelation of himself, to make known the otherwise hidden thoughts and dispositions of his heart. When God, who dwells in light that is inaccessible, speaks out of the heights of His glory, it is that He may reveal Himself. He would have us know how He loves us and longs for us, how He wants to save and to bless, how He would have us draw nigh and live in fellowship with Himself."

And again,

"God hath spoken! The words of men have often exerted a wonderful and a mighty influence. But the words of God--they are creative deeds, they give what they speak. 'He spake and it was done.' When God speaks in His Son, He gives Him to us, not only for us and with us, but in us. He speaks the Son out of the depth of His heart into the depths of our heart. Men's words appeal to the mind or the will, the feelings or the passions. God speaks to that which is deeper than all, to the heart, that central depth within us whence are the issues of life."

And finally,

"God hath spoken in His Son! The living Jesus, come forth from the fiery furnace of God's holiness, from the burning glow of everlasting love, He Himself is the living Word...In the beginning God spake: 'Let there be light! and there was light.' Even so now He speaks with creative power in His Son, and the presence and the light of Christ become the life and the light of the soul."

I suppose I'll read this book I paid 50 cents for if I must. How did I not know Murray wrote about more than prayer?

Loving the Glorious Christ with you friends,

R. D. Thompson

Why I Listen to Techno Music

I was really frustrated the other day in class. I was also very unimpressed. A teacher whom I hold the utmost respect for made the unfortunate comparison between John Cage, whose music is intended to convey total chaos and meaninglessness, and modern techno. While I certainly don't deny that some techno has surely grown out of the deconstructionist movement and is, therefore, making a blatant point against a Christian worldview of order and meaning, I think that there are some very good reasons why a Christian can enjoy (good) techno as an art form.

Keep in mind: I don't think someone who has left the club scene or who has experimented with certain forms of trance and drugs mixed together or who has been deep into house and hardcore styles as a part of their depravity should necessarily be listening to techno music. The thing is, there are many people who come out of prostitution, or being a corporate monster, or being a lying politician, or being a pornographer who will never touch those things again and yet that does not make the basic form of those things (sex, business, politics, photography) necessarily bad in and of themselves. Anything that is turned over to the lordship of Jesus Christ (in its basic God given form and not its twisted forms) can be used for good and can be used to glorify God. Sex can be used to glorify God in its God given form. Business can be used to glorify God. So likewise can art be used to glorify God.

I firmly think that listening to techno/electronic music is useful because it is beautiful.

Now, there are some things that still need to be said in justifying (not rationalizing) the above statement.

First, most modern techno is not a reflection of chance happenstance and deconstruction. Even bands who are overtly "deconstructionist" in their music, like Justice, Trentemoeller, or an indie artist like Farben, can't actually live up to their title and worldview even inside of the medium they are using to convey that worldview. Why, you ask? This is where the comparison between Cage and modern techno made me just a little frustrated. The original men who were attempting to communicate that everything was a chance occurrence literally put a completely and totally random amalgam of sounds and instruments (or no sounds at all e.g. Cage's 4'33) into their deconstructed "music." Cage made his music without any beat or rhythm. You could never have set up a metronome to his music...ever. However, most modern techno does not make a random amalgam of sounds and for most of it you can set up a metronome which will keep a perfect beat. Even the seemingly "random" sounds that an artist like Trentemoeller inserts every so often are all inserted on beat in proper rhythm, and in the proper harmonizing key, to the rest of the song. All decent techno and dance music, that people actually like, has a common underlying rhythm that is catchy and attractive. It is fun to listen to and in many cases has an almost otherwordly quality to it. This rhythm denies chance and it denies the idea that there is a world of disorder and randomness. Any music that is ordered, even if it is stripped down to basic rhythm, contradicts a worldview of chance and deconstruction. People should think about these things before they condemn techno based on its supposed worldview.

Second, Techno can be beautiful art and should not be anathematized just because it has a catchy beat. So many Christians talk about a "devil's beat" but such a thing does not exist. God made music. Period. What you do while you are listening to that music does not make the music bad. Does techno music in itself drive you to drugs or speeding or sex? I doubt it seriously. In my personal experience I have been more likely to go towards worldliness when the music has overt sexual themes or ideas in it lyrically than when there has been a driving beat. Just because it makes you want to move doesn't mean that it's from Satan (unless it means you move into a bump-n-grind...not good)! I want to move when I listen to Bach. I want to move when I listen to Gregorian chant. I want to move when I listen to any classical artist. I want to storm a castle when I listen to Prokofiev. I want to go and see the mountains and be a cowboy when I listen to Aaron Copland. However, most Christians would be ok with that music because it is wordless and played on a string instrument. I advise you go listen to good techno. You'll find that most of it is wordless. You will also find that most of it is beautiful.

Third, and finally, many Christians would then object to my saying it is beautiful. It would go something like this, "Just because it is beautiful and otherworldly doesn't make it good. In fact, it makes it, possibly, even worse." Well...quit listening to all music then. Music is made to be enjoyed simply because it is beautiful and enjoyable. Techno satisfies a primal urge for stripped down beat and rhythm (just like any set of bongos or a djembe would). It often transports the listener to that almost separate realm where good music often takes us. BUT...so does classical, indie, rock, jazz, and any other decently made music. If you are going to object to the inherent and driving rhythmic beat found in techno music then you'd better be ready to defend why you yourself listen to any kind of music ever penned.

Techno is an odd style, no doubt, but I personally have fallen in love with the outstanding rhythms of Andy Hunter and Trentemoeller. I have very carefully analyzed why I listen to techno and have ultimately arrived at the decision to continue listening to techno for two reasons: it is beautiful and, ironically contradicting what some of it is meant for, it conveys a world of order and consistency that very few genres convey. The beauty found in (some) techno and electronic is obvious and the ugly and depraved things people may do while listening to it shouldn't drive us away from listening to it. God made beautiful things. Thus, I think it right that we at least give this genre an ear.

Note: there is a decent reason NOT to listen to techno. If you simply don't like it, don't listen to it. I personally abhor country music but that doesn't mean I am about to condemn someone else who may like good country (not the stuff where all they talk about is sex and murder :). Further, if your conviction is that techno music raises in you the desire for depraved things: avoid techno music. It is that simple. Don't rationalize, don't try and find a way to listen to techno, don't take this post and make it your banner to do what ruins your conscience. Really, these things ultimately depend on the heart and where your heart is at. If you think it's a sin or it is causing you to sin (or you if you don't even care and just listen to it because you think it's cool): AVOID AND REEVALUATE WHY YOU ARE LISTENING TO IT!

Do keep in mind though that God never gave a form for beautiful music to fit!

Loving God With You Brethren,

R. D. Thompson

Jesus: Power Over All Realms

One of the greatest truths that has made the greatest impact on me for the duration of my salvation (2187 days so far) has been the magnitude and grandeur of the supremacy of Christ.

I recently had the opportunity to open the breaking of bread at my assembly and shared the following truths which have made a serious indent in my thinking about Christ and have drawn me to love Him more.

In not so exact words and after reading Mark 4:35-41:

"We come together to worship the Lord Jesus at this meeting for what again? To remember His death and what his propitiatory sacrifice has done for us. So why am I reading a portion of Scripture that has seemingly little to do with the actual cross of Christ? Because dear friends, I simply could not hinge my eternity on Christ and His sacrifice at the cross of Calvary if Jesus Christ was just a man and not the Supreme Ruler of the universe. He was a man, no doubt there, and if He was not a man I certainly have no hope. But He was also God, and Mark is bent on making that absolutely clear to us here. Just look at the three realms over which Christ reigns in this and the following passages.

First, Christ is the ruler over the natural realm. Here they are, all in a boat going over to the 'country of the Gerasenes' and a vicious storm kicks up. After Jesus is woken up to come and help them and with the mere three words, "Peace! Be still!" everything comes to a head. The disciples look at him in total astonishment and say, "Who then IS this, that even the wind and sea obey Him?" It is wise to note the context here. In Psalm 107:23-29 which I will only briefly reference the Psalmist makes clear that only God can calm a storm. In reference to God the Psalmist says in verse 29, "He made the storm be still, and the waves and the sea were hushed." Further, in Psalm 89:9 the Psalmist says of God, "You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise you still them," and again of God says in 65:7, "By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation...who stills the roaring seas, the roaring of their waves..." What do you think Mark is getting at then when he shows Jesus calming the seas? Jesus is God. Period. Why do you think that the sailors were so freaked out? Jesus is God. But Mark doesn't end there. He wants to make absolutely certain that we get it. So he writes down the question of the apostles when, completely astounded, they say, "Who then IS this?" and that is the question Mark plans to answer. Not only is Jesus the Ruler of all things natural he is the ruler over all things spiritual.

Second, Christ is the ruler over the spiritual realm. So they get over the sea and here is this nutso demon possessed guy. It is a fairly familiar story but Mark makes it plain that Christ rules this realm. The demon possessed guy runs up to him and knows exactly who He is, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!" (5:8). Again, Jesus, with a simple act of permission, denoting that he rules the demons, allows Legion to go into the pigs. Jesus is God. Why? Because only God rules the spiritual realm with such power.

But Mark does not end there. Third, Christ is the ruler over the physcial realm. Now we come to this fellow Jairius who comes to Jesus begging, "My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well" (23). Mark gives us a double whammy with his sandwich technique as on the way to Jairus' house a woman who has a euphemistic "discharge of blood" says simply, "If I touch even his garment I will be made well" (28). Mark is pretty clear here too, "Immediately the flow of blood dried up" (29). After this astonishing revelation that Christ is exuding power we get to Jairus' house where th situation is bleak, "You daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?" (35). Mark shows us, without any shadow of a doubt, that Jesus Christ is the supreme ruler of the physical realm when, with the two words, "Talitha cumi!" Jairus' daughter, "immediately...got up and began walking" (41-42). Jesus is God because only God could raise a dead girl with two words.

Jesus is God because only God could calm the storm with three simple words, signifying His supremacy over the natural realm, give permission to a demon to go into pigs instead of torture them, signifying His supremacy over the spiritual realm, and exude and control the power to heal any ill and raise a dead girl with two simple words, signifying His supremacy over the physical realm.

Once again, what has this to do with the cross? With salvation?

No one but God would have laid His own life down of His own will and taken it right back up again! None but God Himself could have saved us from God Himself! We have no hope, no hope at all, if Jesus is not God!

What does this mean? We can praise God, we have something to praise Him for, at the foot of the cross on Sunday morning because it was pure and sheer divinity, in fact, THE Divinity, that got up on that cross to absorb God's wrath on our behalf. Praise God that He is God and thus we can rest and glory and joy in His sin-bearing sacrifice on the cross!

Amen and Amen!"

So anyway. That was a couple Sundays ago. I love Jesus, because Jesus is God!

Loving Christ with you friends,

R. D. Thompson

The Last Month

I have been incredibly worn out and on the edge of burnout with a side of serious fatigue.

Example, I have been sleeping 7-8 hours a night and within 4 hours of waking up I need another 2-3 hour nap and have a complete inability to keep my eyes open...and then I sleep 7-8 hours again at night. I don't think it's habit, I think it's stress...which I have quite a lot of.

So pray for me.

No time for blogging seriously unfortunately.

I'll be back soon. I've been inspired to write a whole bunch of things but exhausted and without time. I get spring break soon so I will probably get something up then.

Missing the blog scene :(

R. D. Thompson

Paperbackswap!

No seriously, if you haven't signed up for PBS yet you really must.

List of books I have pulled from there so far (after three weeks!):

• The Meaning of the Millenium: Four Views - Robert Clouse
• Dialogical Apologetics: A Person-Centered Approach to Christian Defense - David K. Clark
• Letters of Francis A. Schaeffer
• The Communicator's Commentary: Acts - Larry J. Oglivie
• The Communicator's Commentary: 1, 2 Thessalonians; 1,2 Timothy; Titus - Gary Demarest
• Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life - Robert Calhoun
• Reasons for Faith - John Gerstner
• The Essential Calvin and Hobbes - Bill Watterson
• The Calvin and Hobbes Lazy Sunday Book - Bill Watterson
• The Second Coming: Signs of Christ's Return at the End of the Age - John Macarthur
• The Little Flowers of St. Francis - Raphael Brown
• Francis A. Schaeffer: Portraits of a Man and His Work - Lane T. Dennis

Yep...for approximately $2 a book that sounds like a good deal to me :) Especially since books like The Communicator's Commentary by Demarest (hardcover, lists at $20), Reasons for Faith by Gerstner (out of print and $25 minimum) and Calhoun's Longfellow (a 2005 title!) are no easy come-by for $2.

I think you'll notice too that you can even find Calvin and Hobbes! Something that I am beginning to realize is integral to the sanity of any serious student (I must laugh or I tend to degrade into gray unfeeling clouds every day!)

So, thanks Graeme for all the recommends to this place and if all of the rest of you aren't in yet YOU SHOULD BE!

Praising God in All Things!

R. D. Thompson

Sam Storms Interview

I got to sit in (and photograph!) an interview with Sam Storms that DG did this morning. I have no idea when the interview will be available but you can least see some photos :)

Minneapolis This Week

Kuyper on Calvinism and Art

I Found a gorgeous quote in some of Abraham Kuyper's lectures.

"That artistic ability, that art capacity, as such, can have room in human nature, we owe to our creation after the image of God. In the real world, God is the creator of everything; the power of really producing new things is His alone and therefore he always continues to be the Creative Artist. As God, He alone is the original One, we are only the bearers of His image. Our capacity to create after Him and after what He created, can only consist in the unreal creations of art. So we, in our fashion, may imitate God's handiwork. We create a kind of cosmos, in our architectural monument; to embellish nature's forms, in sculpture; to reproduce life, animated by lines and tints, in our painting; to transfuse the mystical spheres in our music and poetry. And all this because the beautiful is not the product of our own fantasy, nor of our subjective perception, but has an objective existence, being itself the expression of a Divine perfection."

I love the part about "In the real world, God is the creator of everything." That is important because, historically, Kuyper was dealing with a hardcore Modernism that believed in the real world but totally divorced God from it and believed only in the real world. They divorced art, relationship, sex, and everything else that is so important to life, from God and from the supernatural. Thus, for Kuyper to say, "In the real world, God is the creator of everything," and then connect art to God was unthinkable in a Modernist mindset. This is why I like Kuyper so much, he genuinely believed that, in the words of Francis Schaeffer, "Christianity is truth for all of life," and refused to foolishly divorce Christianity from the surrounding culture, understanding that art is a gift of God and real engagement with the real problems and questions of the culture was necessary and must not be shirked. In fact, after reading about Kuyper and hearing some of what he has said, I am near convinced that Schaeffer didn't say anything new and "borrowed" everything he learned and said from Kuyper. I have always thought he was a prophet with a fresh message but most of what he said I have found in Kuyper. Interesting really...there is nothing new under the sun.

Soli Deo Gloria

R. D. Thompson

How To Build a Library

This weekend our library reached 1,000 books. This is fairly surprising since I used to hate books and avoided them at all costs. Since the spiritual revival in my life in 2005 I have been on a Bible and book reading/buying tear and have seen this massive growth from one baby bookshelf of around 30 volumes. Truthfully I probably haven’t spent over $3,000. Also, I have finally given in and allowed myself to be coined a collector. However, this is not like a stamp collector or a coin collector. I am collecting a reference library for the spiritual benefit of myself and those around me. It’s a collection that is meant to be used and battered not protected under glass. That said, if you want to borrow a book, send me a line and see if I have it and if I do I’ll loan it to you. My library is meant to be used :)

Now, let me just give some brief advice on how to build a library.

1. Get friendly with your local librarian (probably at your local seminary bookstore, bible college, or just plain library). By this I mean, make friends. A real librarian already has all the connections you could possibly ever want to make and having them as a friend means you have immediate access to a wealth of knowledge you don’t have and a person who knows how to get books inexpensively and easily.

   
   
2. Try out www.paperbackswap.com. This hasn’t been of much use to me because you get out of it what you put into it and I haven’t put much into it. However, Graeme Pitman has raked books in this way and they haven’t just been measly paperbacks. $2 a book sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
   

3. Check www.half.com and www.abebooks.com. Sometimes, on a good day, you can find exactly what you’re looking for incredibly cheap. Shipping is fairly expensive though and doesn’t make some books worth it.

   
   
4. Find your local used bookstores and all used bookstores within a hundred miles. Now, there are a few kinds of these. The ideal is a bookstore that doesn’t believe the books they have are pure gold. I hate these kind. I mean, these books are USED not brand new. That means: avoid a bookstore that has the word “rare” in it’s description of itself. Also, look in the major metropolis near you. Inevitably, someone has a used bookstore and usually, especially in the downtown areas, they are very good.

   
   
5. Find the book sales in your area (or really anywhere in the continental states) and figure out how you can get to them. Colleges are pure gold if you can figure out when they have their sales. Garage sales are sometimes pretty good too. Check your classifieds to see if any sales specifically mention books and go there.

   
   
6. Go to Goodwill or any other local donation facility. I know, you think, “Wait, those dumps have books?” Yes. They often have very, very good books for the cost of a gum ball. I have been astounded at what people virtually throw away at these places. Recently I pulled Josephus’, “Jewish War,” and Roland Bainton’s “Here I Stand: Martin Luther,” for a quarter and a dollar respectively in excellent condition. There is gold in those places and that’s no joke. Sure, you have to touch each and every book in that mess title for title but it’s worth it in the end since you pay $15 for a load of books that would have cost $200 brand new.

   
   
7. Have fun and don’t get snobby. Josephus’ “Jewish War” may not be in rare hardcover form with no markings in it but it’s still Josephus’ “Jewish War.”


Have fun searching and if you have any advice for me, please give it. I’m always looking for cheap books!

R. D. Thompson

The Song of Hiawatha

I read Evangeline this month and fell immediately in love with Longfellow. He is dramatically overlooked. Frost gets too much credit as the premier American author. No one, no one I have ever read, conveys the spirit and sense of the American idyllic landscape like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I would not know or care about poetry if it were not for this man.

This is a spiritual blog right? So why am I talking about poetry? Christians need to reclaim good poetry and song-writing. We, of all people, should know and have the deepest and most dramatic feelings for the things God has made. We should love the creation and be fluent in praising God for it, because it was His idea. Good verse, for some reason I don't understand yet, communicates the beautiful and the terrible stronger even than does good prose.

This said, I just finished The Song of Hiawatha. It is a poem I heartily recommend. It is a beautiful and intricate introduction into the idolatrous workings of the American Indians and, in a way, communicates the tragedy of our having destroyed them. It is also a masterpiece of idyllic writing taking place next to Lake Superior (Gitche Gumee) and basically throughout America. Passages like this are what made me fall in love with poetry,

"By the shore of Gitche Gummee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.
All the air was full of freshness,
All the earth was bright and joyous,
And before him, through the sunshine,
Westward toward the neighboring forest,
Passed in golden swarms the Ahmo,
Passed the bees, the honey-makers,
Burning, singing, in the sunshine.
Bright above him shone the heavens,
Level spread the lake before him;
From its bosom leaped the sturgeon,
Sparkling, flashing in the sunshine;
On its margin the great forest
Stood reflected in the water,
Every tree top had its shadow,
Motionless beneath the water."

Incredible. This reflects every sense and every emotion I have ever felt in the wilderness of the Great Lakes and pushes down into my deepest thoughts with its beautiful meter and rythmic explanations. I have seen the fish glisten in sunshine, the bees buzz through the forest, and felt the summer morning fresh in its new dawning. We ought to re-embrace poetry of this sort and claim it for the glory of God. We ought to write poetry that makes people say, "I've been there," and long to be there again.

Soli Deo Gloria,

R. D. Thompson