Websites to Check Out

Here are a few websites that you should check out right now... what are you waiting for... go... now... you'll thank me later....

Lutheran Hymn Revival

Hymnoglypt

Lutheran Public Radio

and of course Esgetology

Baptismal Hymn

Just today I finished writing the hymn for my sweet little girl. I have written a few hymns (none of which are probably worth anything) and I have noticed that writing a doxology stanza seems to be the most difficult writing that I do. Maybe it is because the content of that stanza is so very specific, or maybe I am just not very good at writing. Either way, I find it a real challenge. I powered through it, and now the editing process begins...

Here is stanza 1 as it is right now:

Sin infects me. Since my first days,

Even since my conception,

Sin has driven my thoughts and ways,

And I am fully corrupted.

My view of life is always curved

Inward, and I only think

About myself -what I’ve deserved-

Without a care for anyone.

So much has sin corrupted me

That my eyes are now blind

To the awful reality

That what I deserve is death.

"Dad is Great..."

Preparation for fatherhood...

Durer and The History of Salvation: Part 8

He Is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Durer and The History of Salvation: Part 7

The Passion Of Our Lord According To St. Matthew

Durer and The History of Salvation: Part 6

Durer and The History of Salvation: Part 5

Durer and The History of Salvation: Part 4

Durer and The History of Salvation: Part 3

Durer and The History of Salvation: Part 2

Durer and The History of Salvation: Part 1

A Lawyer's Case for Christianity

Craig Parton defends the faith in Birmingham, AL. Listen to it here.

Cheerful He to Suff'ring Goes?

The fifth stanza from the hymn My Song is Love Unknown states "Yet cheerful He [Jesus] to suff'ring goes." While this seems innocent enough, I do not think it serves the Christian well to underestimate the severity of what happened to our Lord during His passion. It is entirely possible that our Lord could do His work without sin while still understanding the severity of that work. Let me illustrate this with a modern example.

This picture shows a man who had experienced hell. He had seen things and done things that we do not like to even think about. He knew that his work could be deadly, and that it would not be finished until his enemy was destroyed. In this picture is a man who knew what had to be done and would do it willingly, but he also understood the gravity of the situation.

Read the account of Jesus in the time immediately before His betrayal.

"He knelt down and prayed, saying 'Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.' Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

Our Lord knew that His work would be deadly. He knew that scourging, fatigue to the point of collapse, starvation, thirst, torture, and death were before Him. He also knew that He would be mocked, spit upon, tried in a kangaroo court, and convicted regardless of His innocence. He knew that He was not only man but also God. He knew that He could have legions of angels tend to Him at the utterance of a word. This account shows us a man who knew what had to be done and would do it willingly, but He also understood the gravity of the situation.

"Cheerful He to suff'ring goes?" Hardly.

True Art

"It has become a commonplace to say that the arts are in a bad way. We are in fact largely given over tot he entertainers and the spellbinders; and because we do not understand that these two functions do not represent the true nature of art, the true artists are, as it were, excommunicate and have no audience. But here there is not, I think, so much a lapse from a Christian esthetic as a failure ever to find and examine a real Christian esthetic based on dogma and not on ethics. This may not be a bad thing. We have at least a new line of country to explore that has not been trampled on and built over and fought over by countless generations of quarrelsome critics. What we have to start from is the Trinitarian doctrine of creative mind and the light that that doctrine throws on the true nature of images.

The great thing, I am sure, is not to be nervous about God - not to try and shut out the Lord Immanuel from any sphere of truth. Art is not he - we must not substitute art for God; yet this also is he for it is one of his images and therefore reveals his nature. Here we see in a mirror darkly - we behold only the images; elsewhere we shall see face to face, in the place where image and reality are one."

-Dorothy Sayers, "Toward a Christian Esthetic," The Whimsical Christian.