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lunes linkage is a weekly post that I'm resurrecting in my latest attempt at restarting the blog. The title stuck from when I was taking Spanish classes and every Monday (lunes) would list all the tabs that were open on my computer

The Annual Book Reading Challenge

Politichicks on "the Great Reset"

Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum launched the initiative by proposing wealth taxes, additional regulations, and massive Green New Deal government programs. He said, “Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed.” “In short,” he wrote,” we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”

How Far will Democrats go to loosen election procedures in order to ensure continual victory?

A person doesn’t even have to believe that such fraud did occur to realize how dangerous such a situation is. I am deeply disturbed that our media (a big part of the problem anyway) has no interest in fairly reporting on the allegations of fraud, and that our judiciary is punting. But I’m afraid that’s what we’re facing.

On President-elect Biden's Health and Human Services nominee, Xavier Becerra (from the National Catholic Register...and analysis from Get Religion.)

On Monday, President-elect Joe Biden tapped California attorney general Xavier Becerra to head the Department of Health and Human Services. If appointed, Becerra will lead an agency that has been at the epicenter of the “culture wars” in the U.S.—and many Catholic groups will now be bracing for those fights to intensify.

Becerra’s record in California shows that he, perhaps more than any other state attorney general, has been willing to wield the power of the state to enforce pro-abortion policies against religious and pro-life groups.

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O Come, All Ye Faithful

O come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold him
Born the King of angels;

O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
O come, let us adore him,
Christ the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels;
Sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above;
Glory to God in the highest;

Yea, Lord, we greet thee,
Born this happy morning:
Jesus, to thee be glory given;
Word of the Father,
Late in flesh appearing;

And our call to worship is Psalm 101

101 I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
    to you, O Lord, I will make music.
2 I will ponder the way that is blameless.
    Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
    within my house;
3 I will not set before my eyes
    anything that is worthless.
I hate the work of those who fall away;
    it shall not cling to me.
4 A perverse heart shall be far from me;
    I will know nothing of evil.

5 Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
    I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
    I will not endure.

6 I will look with favor on the faithful in the land,
    that they may dwell with me;
he who walks in the way that is blameless
    shall minister to me.

7 No one who practices deceit
    shall dwell in my house;
no one who utters lies
    shall continue before my eyes.

8 Morning by morning I will destroy
    all the wicked in the land,
cutting off all the evildoers
    from the city of the Lord.

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The shut-down

What a year for church and COVID-19. When COVID shut-down first happened in March, our church did shut down.

We watched the Easter Service on our patio. I discovered that it is too difficult for me to sing along with a live-stream. Emotionally, I *need* to hear the voices of the saints around me and watching on TV is too much like the performance-based concert method of "worship".

-By the way, what Phil and I are calling the "COVID series" of sermons (March shut down) were some of the best sermons that I've heard *EVER* If I have readers, use the contact form and I'll send you the link.-

Our elders took the decision, shortly after Easter, that we would follow Biblical instructions and begin meeting in person. We typically have Sunday School, a main service, lunch together and then a second (afternoon) service and all are different.

The elders wanted to stay as close to the State mandates as they could, while still obeying God. There would be no Sunday School, no lunch, and no afternoon service. We would have two identical services, one is the Sunday School time slot and one in the regular time slot. The congregation was divided in half by alphabet and assigned to a service and the rows of seats were either pink or yellow. One service sat in yellow rows, the other in pink rows. Mask were a matter of conscience.

The opening

A couple of months ago, it was announced that we were going back to the regular schedule and so we did. It was good.

Then, this latest "surge" - we noticed it in the prayer requests, and kept pace with the general public. Near the beginning of November, Phil and I decided that due to travel and visitors here, that we should stay at home until this all sorted itself out. Dismay is a good word for our feelings as we watched the daily numbers.

The elders, in wisdom, put a hold on the afternoon service and lunch - and the congregation sits in every-other row.

The "us"

Spiritually, we need the body of believers. We need to join together in worshiping God. To that end, we are wavering on the "stay at home" - at least for church. I'm not going to the gym, classes, studies.

We may wear masks (although that won't protect us). COVID doesn't have an expiration date and our spiritual lives are more important that our physical lives. Eternity over the temporal.

I want to go to church. Is it fear or wisdom that would keep me away? What emotion would keep me from wearing a mask?

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Part 1 - We have communion with God, but our communion is specific - we have a distinct fellowship with each Person of the Trinity.

Christians are assured by John that the fellowship of believers (the invisible church) is "and indeed (or truly) our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." (1)

John uses the "indeed" or "truly" to give us the force of his declaration. He doesn't just want us to know this, he wants us to absorb this.

The next paragraph I'm going to do backward:

The world will ask: Why should I want communion with "them" (believers). Communion with them will bring nothing but trouble, shame, mocking and all sorts of bad things.

But believers do invite the world to join them in fellowship, they invite unbelievers to partake with them the precious things of eternity.

To the world, these believers looked like the were the dregs of society, "very mean and contemptible". Their leaders were counted as filth and rubbish. Why would the world want fellowship with them?

The Text of the book: Part 1. Of Communion with each Person distinctly - of Communion with the Father

Chapter 1.That the saints have communion with God — 1 John i. 3 considered to that purpose — Somewhat of the nature of communion in general.

IN the First Epistle of John, chap. 1, verse 3, the apostle assures them to whom he wrote that the fellowship of believers “is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ:” and this he does with such an unusual kind of expression as bears the force of an asseveration; whence we have rendered it, “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

The outward appearance and condition of the saints in those days being very mean and contemptible, — their leaders being accounted as the filth of this world, and as the offscouring of all things, — the inviting others unto fellowship with them, and a participation of the precious things which they did enjoy, seems to be exposed to many contrary reasonings and objections:“What benefit is there in communion with them? Is it any thing else but to be sharers in troubles,reproaches, scorns, and all manner of evils?”

(1) 1 John 1:3

Communion With God, by John Owen, Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Communion with God (my intro)

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So...I've been interested in the Puritans, but not real motivated. Our pastor highly recommended that we read Communion With God by John Owen, so I started doing the book study and was following the text really well, but not retaining.

John Owen Author Biography | Banner of Truth USA

This is going to be tedious, but a good exercise for me. I've taken a student through a segment of "Institutes for Excellence in Writing" and used the concepts with a couple of other students so I'm taking it for a test drive here.

The main idea is to pull key words from the text, step away for a few minutes and then rewrite the sentence using the *three* key words. For students with comprehension issues, this has been a lifesaver!

For the purposes here, with "Communion with God", just highlighting the key words has helped me.

My first issue is that Owen is, let's say...stingy...with paragraph breaks. My brain needs more breaks than that, so I'm taking them in chunks of just a few sentences.

I'm also trying to put the sentences in outline form, just so that I can better organize the thought process.

I'm using a study guide by Ryan McGraw (Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals - Meet the Puritans)

so...here we go.

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In Nevada we've been on COVID-19 "Stay At Home" orders for over a month. Small business owners are beginning to speak up and tell us that they cannot survive much longer. Who knows when federal money will come through?

Among the fear-monger folks, any talk reopening brings the accusation, "so you want people to die!"

They pit the economy against the lives of the vulnerable, and perhaps they're right to an extent.

Pro-abortion folks are giddy at the thought that they can now accuse conservatives of being pro-death, when it comes to those vulnerable to COVID-19.

There's a big difference between an elective abortion and the vulnerable to COVID-19.

The difference

One is an active choice to end a human life. The other is a side effect of trying to heal life to be as normal as it will be.

We cannot think of this in terms of an elective abortion, because we're not choosing death. We must think of this in a Roman Catholic sort of way.

If a woman has uterine cancer and is pregnant, the cancer is at a place where the uterus needs to be removed in order for her to live:

If the progression of the cancer will not allow for that option, and the mother needs surgery immediately if she is going to live, you, as her doctor, have only two choices: You can allow both patients to die or you can save one and lose the other. The moral choice is to save the mother.

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/abortion-and-double-effect

And the COVID-19 situation isn't even that dire! If the young mother has a different kind of cancer that can be treated and the indirect and unintended consequence *MAY* be the death of the child, it's still a moral choice to save the life of the mother.

Just so with COVID-19. The intent is to do everything that can be done to protect the lives of the vulnerable, while saving the life of the economy and the livelihoods of millions of people.

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We have moved to a different state - we are now in Northern Nevada, in the high desert.

How different than Silicon Valley!  We went from ambulances and crowded traffic to coyotes and wild horses.

I never thought I'd live in a place where it snowed again, when I left Michigan...but the winters are really mild here.

We've been here nearly a year and a half.  Our closest neighbors are Slim (a dark bay retired rodeo horse), Pacman (a palomino cowboy horse in training) and Sprinkles (the goat)

Our closest human neighbors are a retired couple who have two horses.

We're the only people on the street who don't have livestock.

Our "pets" are wild quail.

We moved to this are, in large part, because of a really solid church.  I didn't want to ever move to a church that was not explicitly Reformed.  We walked into this church and they have five banners in the front with the Five Solas.

It's a "thinking church" and a "preaching church"

and the worship...it had been such a long time since I sang in a church where the congregation overwhelms the folks on the platform.  Being surrounded by the people of God, raising their voices together in praise and worship.

Lots of Townsend and Getty, Sovereign Grace...and hymns.  By number.  From a hymnal.

At first it was so emotional, I cried the whole time (in good tears)

Then, the old hymns...some of them I could only hear in my dad's voice...and I miss him so much.

So...that's life.

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This resonated with me...so here it is...

Worship: Worship Seven Days a Week

But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.—Habakkuk 2:20

So I've got to tell you that if you do not worship God seven days a week, you do not worship Him on one day a week. There is no such thing known in heaven as Sunday worship unless it is accompanied by Monday worship and Tuesday worship and so on....

We come into God's house and say, "The Lord is in His holy temple, let us all kneel before Him." Very nice. I think it's nice to start a service that way once in a while. But when any of you men enter your office Monday morning at 9 o'clock, if you can't walk into that office and say, "The Lord is in my office, let all the world be silent before Him," then you are not worshiping the Lord on Sunday. If you can't worship Him on Monday you didn't worship Him on Sunday. If you don't worship Him on Saturday you are not in very good shape to worship Him on Sunday. Tozer on Worship and Entertainment, 9,24.

"Lord, permeate my whole life with a spirit of worship—all week long, every day. Amen."

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This has been rattling around in my head for a while, and it’s time for me to put it all in one place...into words.  As of May 19, the song "Reckless Love" (by Cory Ashbury) is #1 on the Christian Music Song Chart.  This song is controversial (at best) and worshiping a false god (at worst, and is what I have become convicted of.)

Singing can be an important way of learning...and what we sing when we worship "sticks" - if you don't believe that, try saying the ABC's without singing.

Discerning the difference between right worship and wrong worship is as life-saving as discerning the difference between food and manure.

I'm organized this into these sections:

  • Reckless Leaven - how much falsehood is "too much" when we're singing about a sovereign and holy God?
  • Reckless Theology - Can God be divorced from His love?
  • Reckless History - are all of these examples in the song "reckless?"
  • Reckless "Bibling" - do we dare use a word to describe God that God uses to describe evil?
  • Reckless Portrayal of God - If God's love is reckless, then God is not sovereign.

 

1. Reckless leaven

I had somebody say (not address me *directly* but a sort of side swipe) that it was sad that people “get hung up on” that one word (reckless.)

How much dog s&#t does it take in a batch of brownies to make the whole batch inedible?

Or (using a Bible metaphor) How much leaven does it take to leaven the whole lump?

This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. ~~Galatians 5:8-9

The Bible also says to

“Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16 ESV)

- closely means...pay attention to the little things - because even one word can lead you to false worship.

Getting "hung up" on one word is the difference between "close watch" and "sloppy."

2. Reckless Theology

Below are the words of the writer of “Reckless Love.”

"When I used the phrase, 'the reckless love of God,' when we say it, we're not saying that God Himself is reckless, He's not crazy. We are, however, saying that the way He loves, is in many regards, quite so. But what I mean is this: He's utterly unconcerned with the consequences of His own actions with regard to His own safety, comfort and well-being. He doesn't wonder what He'll gain or lose by putting Himself on the line, He simply puts Himself out there on the off-chance that you and I might look back at Him and give Him that love in return." - Cory Asbury.

 

Definition of reckless (merriam-webster)
1: marked by lack of proper caution : careless of consequences

2: irresponsible

Question:  Can a perfect and holy God lack caution?  Can a righteous God be irresponsible?  Is God careless - of consequences or anything else?

If your answer is “no” - then this one word indicates a wrong-headed idea of the nature of God.

2. Can we divorce God from His attributes?

God is love.  To call His love reckless is to call *HIM* reckless, since it is impossible to separate God from His attributes.

Could I say, “it’s not me that reckless, it’s only my driving?”  or...”it’s not me that’s reckless, only my drug use?”

If your answer is no, then if God’s love is reckless...God is reckless.

3. Reckless History

Let’s imagine that you are alone in the house and have a 1 year old and a 3 year old that are playing in the back yard.  The 3-year-old wanders off.  Would it be “reckless” to leave the one at home go look for the other?   Yes.

But...if you had a sister in the house to watch over the one, while you go look for the other...not reckless.  Ask yourself...on the night of Christ’s birth...did the angels appear to one shepherd, or more than one?

If your answer is “more than one,” then the word “reckless” does not apply to "leave the ninety-nine".

4. Reckless "Bibling"

Does the Bible use the word “reckless?”  How?

(ESV)

Proverbs 14:16 One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless.

Luke 13:15 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

2 Timothy 5 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

(CEV)

2 Peter 2:10 The Lord is especially hard on people who disobey him and don’t think of anything except their own filthy desires. They are reckless and proud and are not afraid of cursing the glorious beings in heaven.

(NIV)

1 Peter 4:4 They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.

Even Bible translators understand that to be “reckless” is not a good thing.

HOW DARE WE DESCRIBE GOD WITH A WORD THAT GOD USES TO DESCRIBE EVIL?

5. Reckless Portrayal of God

Let’s look at the song-writer’s explanation (perhaps the most important piece.)  This takes a bit of “connect the dots” but they’re important dots, in order to get what is being said about the nature of God.

Specifically: He doesn't wonder what He'll gain or lose by putting Himself on the line, He simply puts Himself out there on the off-chance that you and I might look back at Him and give Him that love in return."

Question 1: Does an omniscient (all-knowing) God “wonder” (to think or speculate curiously)  about anything?

Can  the God who can number the hairs on my head fail to *know* without any doubt...what He will gain or lose by anything?

If your answer is no...then you do not worship the god of Reckless Love.

Question 2: What does “off-chance” mean?

If I were to ask any person reading “I’m writing this on the off-chance that somebody will read this with an open mind”...

Off-chance = hoping that something may be possible, although it is not likely:

This meaning is vital to understanding Ashbury's god.

  • the god of Reckless Love, died on the cross - on the off-chance that somebody *might* look back and return his love.
  • This  god of Reckless Love does not know the future.
  • The god of Reckless Love does not *hold* the future.
  • This god of Reckless Love hopes that some will come to salvation, but does not hold it likely.

(by the way, this idea that God cannot/does not/will not know the future is a belief called "open theism" - "Decisions not yet made do not exist anywhere to be known even by God. They are potential–yet to be realized but not yet actual." ~~Clark Pinnock)

If God's love is reckless, then God cannot be sovereign.

Does God know the future, including who will turn to Him?

If your answer is yes, then you do not worship Ashbury's god.

The next point is an “internal debate” between Reformed Theology and others.

The God I worship does not *need* to “wonder” about *ANYTHING.*

He does not “wonder” if anybody will love Him back...because He sovereignty elects those who will.

  • It is God who opens the eyes of our hearts.  
  • God who wills us to believe.
  • The God I worship knows the future, holds the future, *makes* the future.

Scripture convicts me...as well as my conscience and the song-writer's own words...that for me to sing “Reckless Love” is to worship a false god.  Here I stand.