Deus Misereatur

  (That's me in the reddish shirt, redheaded, and an attitude. This was ninth grade) Someone asked about my story. Many of the details need to stay in the shadows and darkness from whence they arose, but I will give some of my early life and how I came to be a Christian below. I sprouted up in red dirt country (Oklahoma) in 1961. My people came to Northeast Oklahoma in the early 1900s from Missouri and Arkansas. I remember my maternal great-grandmother sitting in her log cabin, describing her trek from Arkansas in a covered wagon, and many of the events of her early days. I'm a redheaded, freckled red dirt man from the get-go. My parents raised me in church, my mother was even a church secretary for a season. Dad worked part-time and went to the University of Oklahoma part-time, finishing his bachelor's in Civil Engineering when I was about ten years old. We were in church all the time, until I turned 10. Then, at 10 years old is when things changed. We moved from Tulsa, to...

  There are already plenty of evaluative reviews on this work, “Knowing Sin: Seeing a Neglected Doctrine through the Eyes of the Puritans, ”so I’ll simply go to things I think are worth a little extra focus. The book is easy-to-read. Ideal for teens and twenty-somethings and twilighters. Very fitting for personal devotional reading, adult classes, and seminary material. It is a book I highly recommend. Though the subject is sin, and it’s many facets, nevertheless, it is Gospel driven and Gospel developed. From one end to the other Jones circles back around to the good news of who Jesus is, what he has done, is doing, and will do for his people. Bruised hearts will find themselves held in the nail-pierced hands of the Great Physician. And it’s because of the good news about Jesus they will be guided in diving deeper into the sneakiness and sinisterness of their sin. One of my favorite topics the author gets into is “Sin’s Pride”. For anyone who has read Augustine’s “The City of God”...

  I’m out camping in Southeastern Oklahoma. It’s been cold and nippy. But the stars - oh, the millions and billions of stars - are plentiful. The mornings are dark and quiet, and perfect for morning devotional reading and prayer.  This morning one of my readings was through 1 Timothy 4. Paul’s words to Timothy about what it means to be a good minister. His words turned my heart toward prayer. Here is the prayer that arose: A good diakonos of Christ Jesus: Trained in the words of the faith, Trained in the words of good doctrine (contra 1:3 and 6:3), Followed by the diakonos of Christ Jesus, himself, And trained in godliness, himself. Lord, aid me in being a good diakonos. Seminary and reading widely and the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (and other Confessions) have trained me in the words of the faith and good doctrine. Help me to persist in them. But following them, training myself in godliness, setting an example before the believers - Lord, I need your speci...

  How would you tell your story, especially the tale of God pursuing you into his family? An ancient North African pastor, Aurelius Augustinus (St. Augustine) told his as one extended prayer. Recently, Garrett Craw, Senior Pastor of King’s Cross Reformed Church in Buda, Texas, recounted his story as a personal memoir in a 234-page paperback “Doxology in the Mist: Confessions of an Inevitable Convert”. Easy-to-read and engrossing, this tale takes the reader through many back alleys and dark streets around the globe. A reader may well join the author at the “sense of wonder at how I got here” (vii). But it will be a wonder well worth having. Craw, “a hapa boy - half Asian, half white” (10), grew up around military bases until he graduated High School. Many of his exploits happened on, or around, military establishments. He felt, first-hand, the bigotries of the 1970s, as well as the rootlessness that comes with constant family moves, and the unsettledness arising from his mixed ances...

  Praise the LORD! Thank you that you have made us a crown of beauty and a royal diadem in your hand, O LORD. Thank you that we shall no more be termed Forsaken or Desolate but shall be called My Delight Is in Her and Married . Thank you, LORD, that you delight in us and that as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride you rejoice over us (Isaiah 62:3-5)! We pray, Lord, that you would have mercy on all of the nations of this earth. O God, you reign over the nations; you sit on your holy throne. May all of the princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to you, O God; you are highly exalted (Psalm 47:8-9)! We pray, Lord, that you would have mercy on these United States of America. We pray, God, bless America , but not her sin and immorality. God, bless America , but not where she is unjust and prejudiced. God, bless America , but not where she opposes and resists you. God, bless America , where she seeks to fairly, and ...

  (I gave this charge to a ministerial candidate at the 11 October 2022 meeting of Hills and Plains Presbytery) I’m doing something a bit different today. I’m presenting this charge to you from a passage that is disputed by all textual critics. It’s that portion of the Lord’s Prayer that ends in a doxology: “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.”   Right now, I’m going to give you two reasons for continuing to use this verse, and then at the end I will give you two more. First, it is a summary of Scripture, specifically, 1 Chronicles 29:10-13. There, after the people have given lavishly and generously for the building of the Temple, David breaks out in that prayer, “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as he...

  (You can find the book here: Aggressively Happy ) Some people are like sparklers on the 4 th of July. They glitter, sizzle, snap, and pop. And sometimes they annoy those around them who get singed by one of their sparks. To use a few Winnie the Pooh analogies, I am a Tigger, with a raging inner Eeyore, and I know that I normally set off the Rabbits and Piglets in my circles. I used to take it personal, though no longer. So, I was delighted when my oldest daughter sent me a gift-copy of “Aggressively Happy: A Realist’s Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life”. I thought, “Oh boy! A fellow Tigger has written a book!” And I was pleasantly surprised how Joy Marie Clarkson, author, podcaster and PhD recipient in Theology, Imagination and the Arts, pulled together the beautiful, enjoyable and sensible aspects of Tigger, Pooh, Rabbit, Eeyore, Piglet, and Christopher Robbins in this 244-page softback. I had so much fun tripping through its pages and think older and younger alike will...