Grace & Peace

My wife and I share a growing interest in photography. Over the past eight years of our marriage, we've owned several cameras. Each time one "dies" usually after considerable use, we modestly upgrade as our budget allows. Our current camera, a Canon S5 IS has served us well as we continue learning the basics of photography.

Recently some friends asked my wife if she would be willing to shoot some pictures of their musical instruments. They want to make enlargements to do some interesting photo-decor in one of the rooms in their house--the practice room. My wife volunteered, "Well Dan can do it--he's more of the still-life guy. He has more patience with the tripod." This gave us both a chuckle, as neither of us has ever actually vocalized this distinction. It's true that she takes most of the people pictures, and I take most of the "thing" pictures. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post a couple of our favorites. I'll post the originals and the "photoshopped" edited versions. You may think this is "cheating," but the truth is that most (if not all) professionals do some simple things in some sort of photo editing software to make their pictures "pop." We currently use iPhoto, but plan to upgrade to Photoshop Elements in the near future.

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This is always a sticky subject. No one likes doing it, but as Calvin points out, church discipline is an absolute necessity to maintain the health of the church:

Accordingly, as the saving doctrine of Christ is the soul of the church, so does discipline serve as its sinews, through which the members of the body hold together, each in its own place. Therefore, all who desire to remove discipline or to hinder its restoration––whether they do this deliberately or out of ignorance––are surely contributing to the ultimate dissolution of the church. For what will happen if each is allowed to do what he pleases? Yet that would happen, if to the preaching of doctrine there were not added private admonitions, corrections, and other aids of the sort that sustain doctrine and do not let it remain idle. Therefore, discipline is like a bridle to restrain and tame those who rage against the doctrine of Christ; or like a spur to arouse those of little inclination; and also sometimes like a father's rod to chastise mildly and with the gentleness of Christ's Spirit those who have more seriously lapsed. When, therefore, we discern frightful devastation to threaten the church because there is no concern and no means of restraining the people, necessity itself cries out that a remedy is needed. Now, this is the sole remedy that Christ has enjoined and the one that has always been used among the godly.

My Greek prof at DTS, Dan Wallace, has a heart for fundamentalists who tend to put all doctrines on equal footing, such that, for one to disagree with a particular theory of Bible translation, for example, is to disagree with all subsequent categories of doctrine. He's known too many students who were raised in strict fundamentalism walk away from the faith when they found that their particular theory of Bible Translation was untenable.

So, in Greek III, he spends a good amount of time talking about the importance of developing one's "Doctrinal Taxonomy" while in seminary. This is essentially a prioritization of doctrines. In other words, through your studies with your guides and peers, you will learn that the doctrine of the Trinity is much more important than one's beliefs about spiritual gifts, etc. (As an aside, if you're thinking about going to seminary, having wise people guide you through the process of thinking out this taxonomy is worth the trip. Before I went to DTS, I had a very vague notion of how to sort out the important questions/issues, from less important or even inconsequential matters. EVERYTHING seemed equally important, which after a lot of reflection, simply isn't the case.)

My close friend and fellow pastor, John Gram, has written an eloquent and succinct post outlining the difference between "Domino Theology" and "Archery Theology." It's Wallace's illustration for being savvy and wise when it comes to "keeping the main things the main things." And/or "How not to despair and give up on Christianity when some postmodern PhD asks you a hard question about the Problem of Evil." The post is easy to understand, and quite helpful. Click here.

I like this photograph my wife took on our recent trip to Indiana. She's getting better both at shooting, and at editing. We're thinking about investing in "the next level" in equipment and software. We'll see....

The HBC Podcast is now available in the iTunes Music Store. Do a search for "Highland Baptist Church" and look for the orange art.

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