February 2004

Sunday Reflection

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/15/04
  • 0

THIS DAY IN JESUS' NAME WE MEET

This day in Jesus' Name we meet,
Our Lord, Redeemer, King;
This day around Thy mercy seat
We all Thy praises sing;
Thou gavest us this day of rest,
Of holiness divine;
Lend comfort to each troubled breast,
And make us ever Thine.

Oppressed with earthly toil and pains
The weary week did close;
Yet God's own day of peace remains
When spirits seek repose.
Let Sunday's sweet refreshing dew
All with'ring cares dispel;
Let Sabbath joys our strength renew,
Help us Thy goodness tell.

Be with us, as Thy servant asks,
Thy mercies to prolong;
Grant that by prayer we know our tasks,
Let incense rise with song.
O may this be a day of light
To nations far and near;
Let all men see Thy visage bright,
Thy loving message hear.

Words: Frederick R. Daries, 1916

Valentine's Wisdom

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/14/04
  • 2

My reading in Proverbs today seemed to fit nicely with Valentine’s Day. Proverbs 12:4 reads “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.” Naturally my thoughts today tend towards my wife anyways and this seemed to be confirmation of what I already felt. I then turned to the very end of the book where we find a poem dedicated to the virtuous wife. We do not get the full impact of this poem when reading it in english as in the original language it is an acrostic with each verse beginning with the next letter of the hebrew alphabet.

In Proverbs 31 I read “[the worth of a virtuous wife] is far above rubies…the heart of her husband safely trusts her…she opens her mouth with wisdom and on her tongue is the law of kindness…she shall be praised.” Her reward shall be this: “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her: ‘many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.’”

I am blessed to have a wife that is worth the world to me. I trust her with all my heart and look to her for wisdom and kindess. Though my children are young, they already praise her for being a wonderful, godly mommy. Her love keeps our family cemented together and I do believe that of “many daughters” she truly does excel them all. I thank God for Aileen continually - for her godliness, wisdom, industriousness and love.

I Love What I Hate

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/13/04
  • 4

I love television. I love to be able to turn my mind off at the end of a hard day's work and just lie back on the couch with nothing more to think about than who will be the next person voted off the island. I love following the lives of fictional characters whose lives seem so much more interesting (and funny) than my own. I love a good whodunit, trying to determine which of the good guys is actually a bad guy. I love football, hockey and baseball - some of the best forms of entertainment available.

I hate television. I hate how it makes me turn my mind off, causing me to stop thinking about the important and interesting things I have learned during the day. I hate telling my kids to shush because I don't want to miss the punch line of a great episode of a sitcom. I hate following the lives of people who don't exist whose lives are so immoral and godless. I hate seeing my son watching an almost-naked body on television or having him see a dead child on the screen. I hate watching hours of football, hockey and baseball - some of the most mindless entertainment available.

I love what I hate. I love to watch television, though I know most of it has no redeeming value whatsoever. I profess to know that what goes into a mind comes out in a life, yet don't think I can be affected by filling my mind with garbage. I want my son to be raised with a respect for what is right and wrong, yet continually justify what is wrong because I don't want to turn off my show. I know that a mind is a terrible thing to waste, yet love to turn mine off. I am a hypocrite.

Why does television have such a hold on me? Why do I not have the self-control to just turn it off? To just walk away? All I can determine is that turning off my mind is addictive. I like to be amused. The word "amuse" comes from Greek words meaning "not thinking" and that is exactly what I seem to enjoy. I enjoy not having anything deep or exciting to think about. I enjoy mindlessness. And perhaps even worse, if I did open my mind I would see all sorts of behavior that contradicts my beliefs.

That is a sobering thought. Where God tells me to fill my mind with purity and holiness, I prefer either to turn it off altogether or fill it with trash.

I have invested a lot of time and consideration into the places where Christian's lives disconnect from their faith. Or said differently, where the walk disconnects from the talk. For me, I know this is one of those areas. I say one thing but consistently contradict what I say with what I actually do.

Now please don't think that I am against television altogether and am advocating putting a hammer through your (or my) TV. And don't think that I watch ridiculous amounts of TV. I just know that this is an area in my life that I am holding back, unwilling to let God change me. I am stubbornly refusing to give up this addiction, denying God the right to use that time for His purposes.

This & That

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/12/04
  • 0

I have an article nearly written but it seems that real life continues to get in the way of blogging. I have about 10 Web projects underway at the moment, not to mention a family, friends and a church that all seem to want a bit of attention! I will post the article tomorrow and try to do some good writing on the weekend so I can actually put some worthwhile content on this site again! I have a friend who would like to write an occasional guest column, so that should be fun. I am thinking of starting an area for occassional guest writers, especially those without blogs of their own who have something they would like to say to the world (or the few hundred people in the world who choose to drop by here on a daily basis).

Mel Gibson recently said in an interview that he does not believe that there is salvation outside of the Roman Catholic Church. When pressed he had to admit that this even applies to his wife who is non-Catholic. This quote is suddenly appearing in articles all over the place. I wonder how the Protestant world will reach to this since he is definitely a hero to most Christians at the moment. I suspect most people will not care. It will be interesting to see if this is a topic that will come up in his interview on Primetime this Monday.

Jeremy Hoover sent me a link to this article. It is the beginning of a “Scholarly Smackdown” where “a liberal professor and a conservative professor debate the movie, the Bible, theology and more.” It is going to be an ongoing debate. The first session opens with interesting discussions regarding the appropriateness of showing sadistic acts of violence and possibly leading people to think that Jesus’ suffering was what saves us. This promises to be an interesting discussion!

Dove Award Nominees Announced

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/11/04
  • 5

Today the nominations were announced for the 35th annual Dove Awards. It seems that the Doves will maintain their reputation of nominating popular albums over good albums. The top nominees are Steven Curtis Chapman (as usual), Third Day (as usual), Cece Winans (as always) and Stacie Orrico. Let's look at some of the categories:

Song of the Year:

  • “All About Love”; Steven Curtis Chapman; Sparrow Records, Peach Hill Songs (BMI)
  • Child of Mine”; Mark Schultz, Chris Eaton; Word Music, Here's to Joe Music, West Lodge Music (ASCAP)
  • “Everything to Me”; Chad Cates, Sue Smith; New Spring Publishing (ASCAP)
  • “Great Light of the World”; Bebo Norman; New Spring Publishing, Appstreet Music (ASCAP)
  • “He Reigns”; Peter Furler, Steve Taylor; Ariose Music Group (ASCAP), Soylent Tunes (SESAC)
  • “If We Are The Body”; Mark Hall; Club Zoo Music, Swecs Music (BMI)
  • “Lord Have Mercy”; Steve Merkel; Integrity's Hosanna! Music (ASCAP)
  • “Meant to Live”; Jonathan Foreman, Tim Foreman; Sugar Pete Songs, Meadowgreen Music (ASCAP)
  • “Three Wooden Crosses”; Doug Johnson, Kim Williams; Mike Curb Music, Sweet Radical Music, Sony/ATV Tunes (ASCAP), Sydney Erin Music (BMI)
  • “Word of God Speak”; Pete Kipley, Bart Millard; Songs from the Indigo Room (SESAC), Simpleville Music (ASCAP)

I cannot comment too much on this category since the music comes from a diverse group of genres while I mainly listen to pop and rock. I would like to see Switchfoot take the award, but have not heard all the songs so that is just based on the fact that I like them more than the other bands listed.

Group of the Year

  • Jars of Clay
  • MercyMe
  • Newsboys
  • Switchfoot
  • Third Day

No surprises in this category. Jars of Clay and Third Day receives a nomination every year and MercyMe and Switchfoot both had success in the mainstream market which assures them a nomination. The Newsboys pick up a nomination for their worship album. I would consider them a longshot with MercyMe being the favorite.

Modern Rock Recorded Song of the Year:

  • "Beautiful Day"; In The Name Of Love: Artists United For Africa; Sanctus Real; Paul Hewson, David Howell Evans, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, Jr.; Sparrow Records
  • "Breaking Me Down"; So Much for Substitutes; downhere; Marc Martel, Jason Germain, Glen Lavender; Word Records
  • "Go"; Exodus; Andy Hunter; Tedd T., Andy Hunter; Sparrow Records
  • "I Am Understood"; Two Lefts Don't Make a Right…But Three Do; Relient K; Matthew Thiessen; Gotee Records
  • "Savior"; Collide; Skillet; John Cooper; Ardent Records

    I have not heard Sanctus Real's version of Beautiful Day, but can only hope it does not win. Frankly I am not very enthusiastic about any of these songs. "Savior" and "I Am Understood" are mediocre at best. Breaking Me Down would probably be my choice here.

Modern Rock Recorded Album of the Year

  • 2; Apt Core; Will Hunt; Rocketown Records
  • A Beautiful Glow; Rock 'n' Roll Worship Circus; Gabriel Wilson; INO
  • Beautiful Lumps of Coal; Plumb; Jay Joyce, Jimmy Collins, Tiffany Arbuckle Lee, ShaunShankel, Jeremy Lee, Bryan Stewart; Curb Records
  • Perfect Change; Dakona; Rob Cavallo, Arnold Lanni; Maverick Records
  • Two Lefts Don't Make a Right…But Three Do; Relient K; Mark Lee Townsend; Matthew Thiessen; Gotee Records

I would definitely choose Perfect Change for this award. Dakona's album is very good and deserves some wider recognition. I would love to see them take this award.

Rock Recorded Song of the Year

  • "All About You"; Inside Out; Nate Sallie; Nate Sallie, Chris Estes; Curb Records
  • "Ammunition"; The Beautiful Letdown; Switchfoot; Jonathan Foreman; Sparrow Records
  • "Dirty"; WorldWide; Audio Adrenaline; Mark Stuart, Will McGinniss, Bob Herdman, Tyler Burkum, Ben Cissell; ForeFront Records
  • "Free"; Beautiful Lumps of Coal; Plumb; Tiffany Arbuckle Lee, Matt Bronleewe; Curb Records
  • "Get This Party Started"; Momentum; tobyMac; Toby McKeehan, Pete Stewart, Michael Anthony Taylor; ForeFront Records

Though I really like Audio Adrenaline's album I do not consider Dirty one of the better songs on the album. Get This Party Started is good, but my choice here is Ammunition.

Rock Recorded Album of the Year

  • Believe; Big Dismal; Jack Joseph Puig; Wind-up
  • Lose This Life; Tait; Mark Heimermann, Michael Tait, Matt Bronleewe, Chad Chapin; ForeFront Records
  • Phenomenon; Thousand Foot Krutch; Aaron Sprinkle, Steve Augustine, Joel Bruyere, Trevor McNevan, Latif Tayour; Tooth + Nail
  • Picking Up the Pieces; Seventh Day Slumber; Juan "Rhino" Alvarez; Jeremy Holderfield, Joseph Rojas, Joshua Schwartz, Crowne Music Group
  • Say It Loud; Sanctus Real; Pete Stewart; Sparrow Records

I do not understand the nomination for Tait's album as it was a pretty sad effort. Say It Loud was solid but I would choose Phenomenon. It had a great sound, was well-produced and featured some interesting song writing.

Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year

  • "Gone"; The Beautiful Letdown; Switchfoot; Jonathan Foreman, Tim Foreman; Sparrow Records
  • "Meant to Live"; The Beautiful Letdown; Switchfoot; Jonathan Foreman, Tim Foreman; Sparrow Records
  • "Sing a Song"; Offerings II - All I Have to Give; Third Day; Mac Powell, Tai Anderson, Brad Avery, David Carr, Mark Lee; Essential Records
  • "This Fragile Breath (The Thunder Song)"; Grace Like Rain; Todd Agnew; Todd Agnew; Ardent Records
  • "You Are So Good to Me"; Offerings II -All I Have to Give; Third Day; Don Chaffer, Ben Pasley, Robin Pasley; Essential Records

    There are some good songs nominated in this category, but if Gone does not take the award I will forever lose the little confidence I have in the Dove Awards.

Rock/Contemporary Album of the Year

  • Furthermore: From the Studio, From the Stage; Jars of Clay; Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Stephen Mason, Matt Odmark; Essential Records
  • Grace Like Rain; Todd Agnew; Jason Latshaw; Ardent Records
  • So Much for Substitutes; downhere; Jimmie Lee Sloas; Word Records
  • The Beautiful Letdown; Switchfoot; John Fields, Chad Butler, Jerome Fontamillas; Jonathan Foreman, Tim Foreman; Sparrow Records
  • WorldWide; Audio Adrenaline; Charlie Peacock, Jason Burkum; ForeFront Records

Audio Adrenaline won the Grammy for Worldwide and perhaps that makes them the favorite for this award. I hope, though, that the Dove voters have heard The Beautiful Letdown as it eclipses the rest of these albums. No contest here!

My biggest disappointment this year is that Derek Webb was overlooked. His album stands with The Beautiful Letdown as the best albums released in 2003. It's a pity that the Dove Awards could not nominate it. I'm sure the snub was based on his harsh words towards the church and Christians in general.

The full list of nominees is posted here. The awards will be given out on the 28th of April.

Newsweek on The Passion of the Christ

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/10/04
  • 0

Newsweek is featuring a cover article on The Passion of the Christ in their current issue. You can read the full text of the article here. From a Christian perspective the article shows terrible theology and a view of the Bible that strips it of its inspired origin. Though deeply flawed, the article makes for an interesting read. An example:

Amid the clash over Gibson’s film and the debates about the nature of God, wheth-er you believe Jesus to be the savior of mankind or to have been an interesting first-century figure who left behind an inspiring moral philosophy, perhaps we can at least agree on this image of Jesus of Nazareth: confronted by violence, he chose peace; by hate, love; by sin, forgiveness--a powerful example for us all, whoever our gods may be.

'Passion' poised for heavenly B.O.

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/10/04
  • 1

An interesting article on Yahoo News which you can read in full here.

Though not a single television ad has aired for “The Passion of the Christ” two weeks before its release, Mel Gibson (news)’s depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus is eclipsing mainstream Hollywood fare in audience interest…Total awareness for “Passion” is 60%, but much higher among men and women over 25, where it tops 80%. First-choice ratings for men and women over 25 is 23%, while it is rated around 10% for those under 25.

Though industry execs anticipate a big opening, they disagree on how it’ll play long term…One exec predicted, “I personally think it’s going to do $100 million-plus.”…Others, though, are more cautious. “I don’t think there will be any repeat business,” said one. “Everybody will say I’ve done my religious duty after they’ve seen it one time.”

Evanescence Makes A Stand for The Truth

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/10/04
  • 9

Evanescence were big winners at the 2004 Grammy Awards, walking away with the awards for Best New Artist and Best Hard Rock Performance. Amy Lee accepted the awards on the band’s behalf since Ben Moody left the band last year.

Of greater interest to me was her time on the red carpet. She was nabbed by Joan Collins who asked her about being a Christian band. Amy responded, “We were never a Christian band, that was something the media made up.” So Evanescence has finally taken a public stand and admitted that they are not and never were a Christian album. Hopefully that controversy can just die away now. Then again, all of the band’s previous comments about not being a Christian band have gone unheeded by the Christian music world, so why should this make any difference?

The Passion of the Christ Article

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/09/04
  • 2

The New Yorker ran a fascinating article on The Passion of the Christ in their September 15 issue. It gives a lot of the background to the movie, focusing on Mel Gibson’s background and beliefs as well as the controversy the movement generated based on its perceived racism. The full text of the article can be read here. Here are some interesting snippets:

I told Gibson that I am a Protestant, and asked whether his pre-Vatican II world view disqualified me from eternal salvation. He paused. "There is no salvation for those outside the Church," he said. "I believe it."

Gibson talked to him for a while, and convinced him of the purity of his intent. They did business, and just before Gibson left the man pulled something out, and offered it to Gibson as a gift. It was a small, faded piece of cloth. "What is it?" he asked. The man told him that he had a special devotion to a nineteenth-century Augustinian nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich, and that the cloth was a piece of her habit … He says that when he was researching "The Passion" one evening he reached up for a book, and Brentano’s volume tumbled out of the shelf into his hands. He sat down to read it, and was flabbergasted by the vivid imagery of Emmerich’s visions. "Amazing images," he said. "She supplied me with stuff I never would have thought of." The one image that is most noticeable in "The Passion" is a scene after Jesus’ scourging, when a grief-stricken Mary gets down on her knees to mop up his blood.

one of the most dismaying elements of Gibson’s undertaking was his insistence that his film would be accurate. She [Paula Fredriksen, a Catholic Jesus scholar] notes that Gibson relied on an uninformed reading of the Gospels, as well as upon extra-scriptural Catholic literature, such as the writings of two stigmatic nuns.

The Living Word

  • Tim Challies
  • 02/09/04
  • 4

I believe every Christian has had an experience like I had a few days ago where a passage of the Bible I had read many times and even memorized suddenly took on a whole new level of meaning to me. If you are a regular reader of this site you will know that I have been pouring over the five solas of the Reformation, trying to understand what it was that triggered so great an explosion in the understanding of Christianity. I have started at the beginning with Sola Scriptura which affirms that the Bible alone is to be our infallible guide in matters of life and faith. It is the unerring, perfect, inspired Word of God. Of course as I studied this it was only a matter of time before I was led to one of the most clear Biblical expositions of this concept in Hebrews 4. It reads:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Now I have read that passage hundreds of times. I had to memorize it as a child in school and in catechism classes. I have always known that it shows that Scripture is authoritative and special - that it is God's way of speaking to us. Yet as I read it again and really sought to understand what it means, I was suddenly overcome as I began to comprehend some of that verse's depth.

What struck me deepest was the idea that God's word is alive. It is living and active. As I read these words I literally had chills running down my back. I began to think about the Bible and how I perceive it and how I use it. Do I really believe it is alive? I often hear people citing the need for pastors to "make the Bible come alive" for them or looking forward to a movie account of a Bible passage because it will "give the passage new life." But how can this be? The Bible is already living and it is already active! We do not need anyone to make the Bible seem more alive to us - we just need to believe and understand that it already is living.

The Bible is a living book and this is the basis for its power to transform lives and to penetrate a person as deeply as the division of his soul and spirit. The Bible can pierce me to the very core of my being. And certainly there have been times when the Bible has pierced me that deeply. Evidently it must have done so for me to become a believer in the first place. And once again, in this time I write about, the Bible pierced me with a deeper understanding of itself.

I thought about the Reformation and what triggered so great an event. The beginning of the Reformation is commonly acknowledged to be the time when Martin Luther nailed his ninety five theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg. I wonder if we shouldn't go a bit further back to the time when Luther was in a monastery and desperately searching for a way of making himself right before God. He tried all that church had to offer - repentance, contrition, confession and flagellation. Nothing could convince him that he had a right standing with God. Finally a wise monk handed him a Bible, a rare book for that age, and told him to search in there for the answers. That Bible was the match that struck the fire of the Reformation. The living word, when placed in the hands of that man, pierced him to the division of his soul and spirit. The word flowed through him, convicting him of his sin and convincing him of the only way to a right standing before God. The living word brought him to life and actively flowed out into the whole world.

Now that we have the word so freely available to us, do we really appreciate it for what it is? Do we really believe that it has the power to transform lives and to pierce hearts?

I fear that I do not have a proper awe and respect for the Bible. But I do believe that I now have the beginning of an understanding of it that will allow me to see more clearly how incredible a gift the Bible is. I pray that God continues to impress upon me the marvels of His word and that this head-knowledge translates into my life, so I learn to live and breathe the living word.