Moving to Wordpress

Yup, I'm packing my posts, boxing up your comments, and heading over to Wordpress.com. I have just found that they have some better options and more unique templates to offer for their blogs.


Please update your RSS feeders and the links on your blogs (if you link to me).

My new blog address is http://engineerambassador.wordpress.com/

Stop It!

Tim Challies posts a funny video with Bob Newhart and then adds some great advice at the end.

Challies writes:

"In the case of this video, though, every time I see it I can’t help but think he’s just a little bit more than funny—he shares some advice that is surprisingly valuable, even if it is both abrupt and hilarious. I keep the video around and watch it every now and again. I think it’s good for me to do so. Sometimes I think that, as a Christian, I can go looking for cures for sin that are long and involved and a little bit mysterious. I can go to friends or pastors or books for counsel and, like the woman in this video, I’m looking for a cure that I can jot down in a notebook and follow step-by-step. I want something I can do twice a day for ten days and watch the sin magically fall away. I want a five or ten step program. Sometimes such strategies work. Often they do not.

In Mark Driscoll’s book Confessions of a Reformission Rev he shares a late-night conversation with a member of his church. This video reminded me of Driscoll’s tale. The man called him in the middle of the night crying and begging for help because he had committed a certain sexual sin yet again. Though Driscoll’s answer was a tad vulgar I think he essentially gave the guy the right one: Just stop it! His counsel to the man was probably exactly what he needed to hear: shut up, grow up, man up and stop sinning. The guy called his pastor looking for a shoulder to cry on but what he got was a lesson in growing up. I hope it wasn’t lost on him.

Some time ago I spoke to a friend about an ongoing sin in his life and tried to show him that the essence of his problem was this: he hates his sin just a little bit less than he loves it. Sure he wants to stop sinning, but even more he wants to keep sinning. And I think he came to agree. My advice was pretty well what Newhart offered the woman in this video: “Stop it!” Are you fighting sin? I’ll pray for you—really, I will. And I’ll recommend that you memorize some Scriptures, some fighter verses, that will help you battle that sin by bringing to mind the promises of God. But I’ll also challenge you to just stop it and to stop it now. You stop sinning by turning your back on it. You do not sit back and wait for God to change you while you remain in your sin. Rather, you join him in the fight, joining your will with His strength. And together you go to war.

I can memorize Scripture from Genesis to Revelation and I can have the whole world pray for me. But there comes a time when forsaking sin, truly putting it to death, requires a decision of the mind and an act of the will. Sooner or later I need to just stop it. And God can give me the strength to do so."

GF Recommendations

Since I'm off from work today, I wanted to post a little more. Here are some helpful tools as you think about the death of Christ in preparation for celebrating His resurrection on Sunday:

A Good Friday Meditation: Christ and the Meaning of the Universe (by John Piper)

The Intensity of Christ's Love and the Intentionality of His Death (by John Piper)

Later, I hope to listen with my wife to a sermon by D.A. Carson entitled "The Ironies of the Cross." I highly recommend this sermon!

O Come and Mourn

Words by Frederick Faber (1814-1863)
Performed by Sandra McCracken on Indelible Grace 3: For All the Saints (streaming music)

1. O come and mourn with me awhile,
O come ye to the Savior’s side
O come, together let us mourn,
Jesus our Lord is crucified.

2. Seven times He spake seven words of love;
And all three hours His silence cried
For mercy on the souls of men;
Jesus our Lord is crucified.

CH: O love of God! O sin of man!
In this dread act Your strength is tried;
And victory remains with love;
Jesus our Lord is crucified!

3. O break, O break, hard heart of mine!
My selfish love and guilty pride
His Pilate and His Judas were:
Jesus our Lord is crucified.

4. A broken heart, a fount of tears,
Ask, and they will not be denied;
A broken heart love’s cradle is:
Jesus our Lord is crucified.

TAG: And victory remains with love;
Jesus our Lord is crucified!

An Awfully Good Friday

1 Peter 2:21-25, 3:18
"Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls...For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God."

Martin Luther once said that the death of Christ was so real to him; it was as if He died only yesterday.

The above words are powerful, and I am trying hard to do more than read them, instead marvel at them; more than just believe them, but feel them; more than just speak them as truth but to worship because they are true. Such things for me are taking a great amount of effort tonight.

Join me in thinking of Luther's words (with Peter's words in the backdrop). Christ died for my (your) sins yesterday. Because I have deceit on my tongue; because when I am reviled, I revile back; because when I suffer, I threaten and seek to protect myself (just in case God really isn't all that great of a judge); because of my sin Jesus had to die and be separated from God. Because of my lack of righteousness, He had to come and be righteous for me.

In a sense, I crucified Christ because if I wasn't so sinful, He wouldn't have had to suffer and die in order to ransom me.

Because of my selfish decisions, the Son of God had to leave paradise and enter a ghetto, trade His throne for a manger, exchange his glorious appearance for the likeness of sinful rebels, leave the melodies of angels in order to listen to the lies of his newfound "friends," be accused for things he never did, be spit upon, be flogged, beaten and nailed to a cross, and ultimately be forsaken by the very Father who had done nothing but love him from eternity past.

Jesus had to do all of that so that I could take pride in the fact that I stick up for myself when my boss points out one of my mistakes. He had to do all of that so that I could enjoy that lustful look. He had to do all of that so that I could complain about that one guy at my church.

If Jesus had died for me only yesterday, could I dare sin again today?

Why Europeans Refuse to Reproduce

Peter Robinson:

With just a single exception, the non-Muslim population of every country in Europe now has a birth rate at below replacement levels. (The exception is Malta, and God bless it.) Why, I ask Bruce Thornton today on Uncommon Knowledge, do Europeans so steadfastly refuse to reproduce?

Because, replies the author of Decline and Fall: Europe’s Slow-Motion Suicide, “children are expensive. They require you to sacrifice your time and your interests and your own comfort. If your highest good is pleasure, if your highest good is a sophisticated life, then children get in the way. Why would you spend so much money and so much energy on children if your highest good is simply material well-being? That's sort of the spiritual dimension of the problem."

“The spiritual dimension of the problem.” There are so few children in Europe, in other words, because there are so few believers.

There’s more. (Look for Chapter 4 of 5).

[HT: Justin Taylor]

Spiderwick Chronicles

Jenn and I snuck out for another date this weekend (thanks to my parents for watching Noah for us this time). We went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles, and I thought it was excellent!

The movie's good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes piqued my interest, and the trailers, along with the favorable rating (PG), sold me.

Spiderwick has the feel of a children's fantasy movie but without the immaturity or simplicity. I was delightfully surprised at the author's creativity and cleverness in developing the characters, the plot (scary and suspenseful at times), and the resolution.

I highly recommend this movie.