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July 28, 2007

Can you make a movie with your cell phone? I just did!

New vlog posted on YouTube.

Posted by aaronlord at 12:52 PM | Comments (1)

July 27, 2007

Lego stop-motion Millennium Falcon

This is just about the coolest thing ever.

Posted by aaronlord at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2007

Hello, World (or, I posted my first ever videoblog)

By the way, if anybody's wondering why they aren't getting notification emails when I post a new blog, due to the recent upgrade I did to MovableType 3.35, the email settings are a little jacked up at the moment. Hopefully I'll get them taken care of within the next week.

Update 7/26/07 9:41 PM: Looks like I got notifications working!

Posted by aaronlord at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)

Clichés are so cliché...

I was watching the ABC World News Webcast on my Apple TV and David Muir keeps using the phrase "sea change". I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, so I Googled "see change" and "seed change". My "seed change" query turned up a blog that linked to an interesting article by famous sci-fi author Ray Bradbury complaining about how we have become frozen with our concrete freeways and have lost our imagination about exploring space. Finally, I discovered that "seed change" is an eggcorn for "sea change", which is a cliché inspired by a passage from Shakespeare's Tempest in which good-old Willy was simply describing what happens to someone when they've been in the water for a long time (as in dead, with coral growing on your bones, etc.). Please, people, can't we think of more creative, original ways to express ourselves?

Posted by aaronlord at 2:33 PM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2007

Check One Two...

I just upgraded MovableType from 3.14 to 3.35. This is a test post while I continue overhauling the stylesheet to work with the new class names, but I might go ahead and leave some helpful information in here in case anyone should happen upon it:

Because MovableType is written in Perl and intended for Unix servers, you have to hack it in order to get it to run on Windows (in my case, IIS 6). Here are the hacks:

  1. I had to open each cgi file in WordPad instead of Notepad, because Notepad did not properly translate line breaks.
  2. I had to go through all of the cgi files and replace "#!\usr\perl -w" with "#!C:\perl -w" on the first line.
  3. I had to have the support people at Millennium Systems create a virtual directory pointing to my /mt/ directory, and then I changed the CGIPath in mt-config.cgi to point to that new virtual directory. (Also the static path.)
  4. I had to re-upload everything using the Transfer Queue feature of SmartFTP, because FileZilla was bugging out.
  5. When logging in to MovableType, I have to type in the url to the new virtual directory in order for things to work properly.

I heard that these newer versions of MT have Captcha built right in, so I won't have to require people to sign in to TypeKey in order to comment (a measure I had to take in order to avoid all the comment spam). I'm really looking forward to using this feature! Historically, most people who have created TypeKey accounts to comment on my blog have forgotten their logins and passwords almost immediately after commenting...

Update: Looks like Captcha won't be available on MovableType until version 4, which is currently in beta. Sorry, guys!

Update 2: I haven't finished updating all of the blogs yet, so for some of them, posting comments won't work. So, if you are unable to post a comment, use the comment form on lorddesign.net to send me a note, and tell me which blog you're trying to comment on, and I'll try to fix it. Thanks!

Posted by aaronlord at 5:30 PM | Comments (4)

July 10, 2007

Happy Birthday John Calvin

Where would we be today if God had not sovereignly chosen John Calvin to be a light in the darkness and help lead the Protestant Reformation?

James White has a tribute and a quote from the Institutes on the Alpha and Omega Ministries website.

Posted by aaronlord at 8:47 PM | Comments (1)

July 9, 2007

Some thoughts on Particular Redemption

This is what Scripture says:

For to this you have been called, because 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. (1 Peter 2:21-25, ESV)

Particular Redemption is the historic reformed doctrine that attempts to answer the question: "Who did Jesus die for?" In 1 Peter 2:21, the Holy Spirit, speaking through Peter's hand, says "Christ...suffered for you", and in verse 24, that he "bore our sins in his body on the tree." Who is signified by "you" and "us" in those verses? If you look at Peter's salutation in 1:1, you see he's writing to the "elect exiles of the dispersion", and in verse 2, that they are elect "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood." In verse 3, we see that Christ, in his "great mercy", "has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." This is the same "us" as those whose sins Christ bore on the tree in 1 Peter 2:24. It is the group that includes the author (Simon Peter) and the people he's writing to (the elect exiles): namely, believers. (And when Peter says that he "suffered for you", he is in no way denying the fact that Christ suffered for Peter as well.)

So when he says, Jesus "suffered for you" and that he bore the penalty for "our sins" on the cross, he's talking about a specific group of people, already known to God. Judicially (it says God is a just judge, v. 23), you cannot be punished twice for the same crime. Jesus bore our punishment, so we cannot be punished again.

Rob Bell, who is one of the leaders on the forefront of the "emergent" movement, says

Heaven is full of forgiven people.

Hell is full of forgiven people.

Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for.

Hell is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for.

The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust. (Velvet Elvis, p. 146)

This is very, very bad.

You can't go to hell if Jesus died for you, because he already carried out your sentence! If Jesus died for you, you are forgiven, and God already sees the debt as cancelled! Friends, if you trust in Christ, he has already borne your sins "in his body on the tree," and "By his wounds you have been healed." This is why when Jesus died, he said, "It is finished" (Gr. tetelestai i.e. "paid in full").

What follows is from A.W. Pink's book, The Sovereignty of God:

The very nature of the Atonement evidences that, in its application to sinners, it was limited in the purpose of God. The Atonement of Christ may be considered from two chief viewpoints--Godward and manward. Godwards, the Cross-work of Christ was a propitiation, an appeasing of Divine wrath, a satisfaction rendered to Divine justice and holiness; manwards, it was a substitution, the Innocent taking the place of the guilty, the Just dying for the unjust. But a strict substitution of a Person for persons, and the infliction upon Him of voluntary sufferings, involve the definite recognition on the part of the Substitute and of the One He is to propitiate of the persons for whom He acts, whose sins He bears, whose legal obligations He discharges. Furthermore, if the Law-giver accepts the satisfaction which is made by the Substitute, then those for whom the Substitute acts, whose place He takes, must necessarily be acquitted. If I am in debt and unable to discharge it and another comes forward and pays my creditor in full and receives a receipt in acknowledgment, then, in the sight of the law, my creditor no longer has any claim upon me. On the Cross the Lord Jesus gave Himself a ransom, and that it was accepted by God was attested by the empty grave three days later [the Resurrection is the receipt or proof of purchase that the Father gave to the Son to acknowledge the debt he paid!]; the question we would here raise is, For whom was this ransom offered? If it was offered for all mankind then the debt incurred by every man has been cancelled. If Christ bore in His own body on the tree the sins of all mean without exception, then none will perish. If Christ was "made a curse" for all of Adam's race then none will be finally condemned. "Payment God cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding Surety's hand and then again at mine." But Christ did not discharge the debt of all men without exception, for some there are who will be "cast into prison" (cf. 1 Peter 3:19 where the same Greek word for "prison" occurs), and they shall "by no means come out thence, till they have paid the uttermost farthing," which will never, never be. Christ did not bear the sins of all mankind, for some there are who "die in their sins" (John 8:21), and whose "sin remaineth" (John 9:41). Christ was not "made a curse" for all of Adam's race, for some there are to whom He will yet say, "Depart from Me ye cursed" (Matt. 25:41). To say that Christ died for all alike, to say that He became the Substitute and Surety of the whole human race, to say that He suffered on behalf of and in the stead of all mankind, is to say that He "bore the curse for many who are now bearing the curse for themselves; that He suffered punishment for many who are now lifting up their own eyes in Hell, beign in torments; that He paid the redemption price for many who shall yet pay in their own eternal anguish 'the wages of sin, which is death'" (G.S. Bishop). But, on the other hand, so say as Scripture says, that Christ was stricken for the transgressions of God's people, to say that He gave His life for the sheep, to say that He gave His life a ransom for many, is to say that He made an atonement which fully atones; it is to say He paid a price which actually ransoms; it is to say He was set forth as a propitiation which really propitiates; it is to say He is a Savior who truly saves. (pp. 58-60)

(This paragraph mainly deals with the judicial analysis of the atonement, but in the surrounding pages, Pink lists and explicates on the relevant scriptures that deal with the subject.)

O Christian, God is the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. Let us be eternally grateful that, while we were wandering away like sheep, he came after us, sending his One and Only Son to suffer in our stead, paying the price for our sins, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, to the praise of his glory!

Posted by aaronlord at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)

July 7, 2007

Getting back on the wagon

After all the jadedness I have accumulated over the years due to churches turning out to be complete man-centered disappointments, I have a friend who was rather surprised by my last blog post announcing Sovereign Joy. He said he didn't think I'd ever get back inside the box. Meaning church as a thing with four walls, which is, of course, not the biblical model for church life. What follows is based on my reply to him.

I hope I have never said anything or lived in such a way to communicate other than that the desire of my heart is for church to be done biblically, the way it was meant to be in the first century. I don't hate "church": I hate what it has become in modern America--all about "felt" needs rather than real needs, about entertainment via music, lights, and motivational speaking rather than "worship in spirit and in truth" and preaching biblically; about staring at the back of someone's head for an hour and a half before walking out the door and not having made any personal connection with anyone; about taking lots of money from people to build their earthly kingdoms with expensive facilities and then browbeating their congregants when they can't make the monthly payments, all the while neglecting the needs of the poor and unemployed, while the pastors drive luxury cars and wear silk slacks and patent-leather shoes and take luxury vacations to the Bellagio in Vegas. That is what I hate.

Bible studies, home fellowships, house churches, whatever you want to call them, are the biblical model. And it doesn't matter where you meet, because church is not about a building. It's about the people of Jesus. As long as the community is small enough where everyone knows everybody and can keep each other accountable. That's why the church is spoken of as one body with many members in passages like Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. There are no dead parts allowed (which is leprosy). All the members have a function (Rom. 12:4). And they all care for each other (1 Cor 12:25-26).

This is the biblical way to do church, whether you meet in a house, a barn, a school lunch room, or a Gothic cathedral.

I have a friend in L.A. who has led a thing we called "group" for many, many years. Not only did we have regular Bible studies, but we were always hanging out, whether to surf or watch movies or eat Johnny's Pizza complete with "shakey cheese" (a.k.a. Parmesan in the little sprinkle jar). I was more than a little annoyed when our shepherd/elder-type started his new church with Sunday morning services in the local community center, whether other churches had gone before. The reason I was annoyed is that I hold the community (which he already had) in high regard. I felt like by moving into this building, it was like he was saying that home/community way of living the body life wasn't good enough, like it wasn't a valid expression of "church". Perhaps that was an unfair judgment. But I did the same thing to my friend Patrick a couple years ago when he moved his home fellowship into the building. Admittedly, it wasn't entirely up to him. But it didn't go very well. At that point I separated from them, because I knew it was wrong. He now tells me he wishes he would have listened to me, because it turned out to be a disaster. But I've told him, if we don't continue to have these home gatherings, I will be very, very sad.

This is our heart: to do things the biblical way, and the rule of thumb being this: if there is anything biblical or beneficial that would naturally disappear when a certain size is reached, then we should split into two smaller communities, and each of those will split when the time comes as well. Personally, I believe this is the biblical model. And I'm going to go ahead and say it: I hate megachurches. There is no biblical justification for their existence.

"If we ever get so big that ___" (fill in the blank).

You could fill that blank in with things like:

  • we have to have 2 services on a Sunday, or
  • potlucks where everyone turns out can't happen anymore because we can't all fit in the same space, or
  • it becomes possible for people to come into a gathering unnoticed and leave without making a connection with anyone.

The list could go on and on.

Posted by aaronlord at 2:33 PM | Comments (1)

July 2, 2007

News about Sovereign Joy Church!

Some of you may know this already: we are planting a new church here in Chico (you can read Pastor Pat's announcement on his LiveJournal). We already meet on Sunday nights, and our tentative start date for Sunday morning services is August 26, and our tentative location is at the home of Patrick and Andi Mathers.

For several years, off and on, I have been a part of a regular weekly home fellowship at Pat and Andi's. I first met Pat in the summer of 2002. I dug his piercings (which are sadly now defunct), and we hit it off right from the start. That fall I enrolled in the Romans class he was teaching at Calvary Chapel Chico's Bible College, which is where I first heard about TULIP. At the time, Pat's day job was working at the Jesus Center. In later years, Patrick was on the pastoral staff at Calvary Chapel Chico when I was working in media ministries. I once--twice--wrote a bio about Pat for the Calvary Chapel Chico website, but it's not there anymore. I will probably repost it on my blog some time soon.

I remember in my first draft of that bio I called Pat a Bible scholar. He denied it and requested that I edit it out, so I did. Unwillingly. Princeton University's WordNet defines a scholar as a "scholarly person, bookman, student (a learned person (especially in the humanities); someone who by long study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines." Pat may not have an advanced degree in divinity, but he is a man of the Word. And that's why I love him. He does not interpret the Bible subjectively, putting it in subjection to human reason and experience, but he is a teacher who strives to come underneath scripture as the authoritative Word of God, conforming his thoughts to it's governing rule. Also, he himself is constantly learning and growing, never content with what he knows. And he reads a lot of books, although he is rather jealous of my reading list at the moment.

Speaking of which--!

Two new books arrived from Amazon today, one of which is The Legacy of Sovereign Joy, by John Piper. It was under the inspiration of John Piper's biographical message on Augustine, which was the basis for one-third of this book, that we chose the name "Sovereign Joy". Both of us, when we listened to that message, were brought to the point of tears, and realized that this "sovereign joy" thing, if we can get it, is the key. It's the key to all ministry. It's the key to all missions. It's the key to our continuing sanctification. It's the key to everything. So, if you're interested in what our church is all about, take a listen. I think you'll like it.

(If you're curious, the other book I got is Augustine's Confessions.)

Also, I don't think we've decided conclusively whether our "full name" would be "Sovereign Joy Christian Fellowship" or "Sovereign Joy Church". I thought I should point that out in case the title of the blog is misleading in that area. But please, come check us out on our first Sunday, if not sooner!

Posted by aaronlord at 9:54 PM | Comments (0)