I Have Released an Album of Music.

Most of you will be happy to know that my original music is now available on www.noisetrade.com. You can download "Of Guinevere (or Shadows of a Wedding Feast)" from this site by naming your price or get it for FREE by referring 5 friends to listen to my music. It's a great deal for penniless poets such as myself who can't even afford to finish an album, much less mass-produce it. After years of pretending like I would get around to completing this work, I've decided to release it as-is. It's a hot tasty mess, but I think it's better released than kept to myself. Maybe it's moving on; maybe it's creating momentum. You decide. You can go here to get it:

www.noisetrade.com/joshuasmith --->

Thank you for all you've done and have yet to do in bringing my dreams to fruition.

Soli Deo Gloria

Joshua Smith

Stupid Car Names

Aviator - This car will not leave the ground without serious consequences.

Armada - That word is plural. And refers to boats.

Protege - What's it trying to be like? Why not just buy that car?

And in Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord

Here we are introduced to the second Person in Whom we profess belief. His resume includes four titles, each expressing a powerful aspect of His identity.

Jesus - This is a man. His name means "God saves," but this was given to an embodied and finite individual by human parents at a particular limited time in a particular location on earth. Jesus is a fully human son of Adam.

Christ - In Hebrew, the word is"messiah." It's Greek for "anointed one." But this isn't just any anointing. This word comes with baggage in its context. God had been promising a son of David who would come and crush the head of the Enemy. An oppressed people had waited for thousands of years for this promised one to receive his anointing.

His Only Son - It's necessary to know that in context, this is a royal title. Son of God means that He is the fully divine heir to the Kingdom of God. He is the only heir, and therefore the only way to inherit anything at all is through Him. We can only share in the kingdom as the Bride of Christ, adopted as God's children by way of our marriage to His Son.

Our Lord - Jesus Christ, God's only Son is the Church's Husband. Her submission to Him is compulsory, and His affectionate provision for Her is eminent. There can be no more true, good, or beautiful way. Indeed, there is no other way at all.

The Great Co-mission

Matthew 28:18-22 - "And Jesus came and said to them [the eleven]: 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'" - ESV

Our ultimate mission is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. In this present age, however, we have another temporary mission. A co-mission, if you will: We are to make disciples. A disciple is one who thinks, feels, and behaves the same way his Master does.

Who - all Jesus' followers
What - make disciples of all nations - this is the only imperative command, grammatically
When and Where - as you are going in the present age
How -  ultimately by His power and presence, but also the 3 participles (go, baptize, teach) 

• Go (Incarnation) - embody the Word in community, sharing life as you go - John 1:14
  
• Baptize (Initiation) - Lead them into complete functionality within the body - Hebrews 5:14
  
• Teach (Indoctrination) - teach the essentials, expecting transformation and multiplication - 2 Timothy 2:2
  

Why - all authority is His

Christmas in October

Lowe's and Walmart already have their displays up. Is anyone else groaning at the mere thought of the upcoming season(s)? For me, fall is the best possible nickname for autumn. It feels like an intense gravitational pull toward the bottom of social and financial exhaustion. Halloween, otherwise known as the new Christmas Eve, will launch us into the great high holiday season of Western Consumerism. We are weary at the thought of the immensity of our Christmas gift list and try to pretend that we will be able to stress-gorge without weight-gain. I'd rather not have to be reminded about those things for three months...

We really can't blame the secular world for the creation of a super-long runway for Christmas. We started it. The church has traditionally celebrated the season of Advent, (or "the coming"), for a solid month before Christmas. All the world did was embellish it and change the focus. That's what they do. So why so long a period of fixation? I think it's to remind us that all of humanity waited, groaned, for a very long time to be redeemed from its great Fall. We're a resurrection people, living on the better side of God's incarnation, and it's easy for us to take our position for granted. God's birth into the world is still a big deal! And so is His ability to take all of our worldly anxieties and frustrations and make them seem very, very small. God came to earth and gave us all-surpassing hope and power!

I'm going to try and remind myself every time I see a Christmas Tree on sale next to the clearance bathing suits that I need as much time as I can get to think about how humanity (myself included) is in deep need of its Redeemer. He's coming again. Are we thankful that our reasons to groan are really a reminder to rejoice in His completed work and long for His return?

Maker of Heaven and Earth

The temptation would be to run with this toward an uninteresting debate between Christians of varying historical commitments. We're going to remain ecumenical here, because to do otherwise would be to ignore the purpose of the creed. I believe the problem arises when we separate "Maker of Heaven and Earth" from "The Father Almighty." Never has the distance between two adjacent lines of poetry been so wildly exaggerated. When we separate His creative action from His loving unction, we begin to focus more on the "how" of creation than the "why." Many would say that their focus on the "how" of creation can credit Scripture as historically and scientifically authoritative, thus making the spiritual "why" arguments valid as well, thus saving the souls of all those facts-based scientists out there. Because it's science that's keeping people from repentance. Let me know how that turns out for you.

I refuse to debate these issues. When we connect the Father Almighty with the Maker of Heaven and Earth, we get a character and a motive, and that's the important part. I know everyone is always dying to know the opportunity and the weapon, but it's the least human part of the story. What's wrong with us that we ignore the truth for the facts? The climax of CSI is always about proving the means of the murder, but I'm always much more fascinated with the person behind the action. Usually the motive for one's act of passion is only mentioned in brief monologue as the guilty party is taken away in handcuffs. Meanwhile, Law and Order pat themselves on the back for sticking to the facts. Forensic science is good, people, but it's not supreme.

One's actions manifest his character. Why fixate on the actions when we can know the character Himself? I want to know the "why" behind the "what." I think it's far more unifyingly fascinating to know that Heaven and Earth were made as a radical act motivated by the passion of an Almighty Father. I almost don't even care how. It's particularly easy not to care how when most of my culture's energy is spent arguing about the facts when the truth is the most important thing. The absence of a single fact can completely reverse a hypothesis. Why do we think we can collect all the pertinent facts needed to form or prove a reasonable theory at all? We are very small. We need Truth to be revealed supernaturally. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.

I Believe in God the Father Almighty

Our faith begins with a Father. The archetypal father is the provider and protector head of the family. In using this image repeatedly to describe Himself, He surely wants us to feel confident that our needs will be met. Interestingly, when Abraham Maslow created his hierarchy of human needs, the foundational levels were provision and security. Jesus' sermon spends almost an entire chapter ensuring us of God's provision for our basic needs. The next level is community - belonging to a family, which is also implicit in the Biblical narrative and explicit in its doctrine. Finally, accomplishment and self-actualization round out the pinnacle of the pyramid. Although we could conceivably have a discussion about whose accomplishments are attained and whose self is to be truly actualized,  Scripture is clear that God's provision covers the gamut of our needs, as a good father is expected to do. I am reminded of John Adams' famous statement regarding the sacrifices a father makes for his children's self-actualization.

 "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy ... and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture ..."

In Matthew, Jesus tells us that if we fathers who are evil are able to give our children good things, how much more will our Heavenly Father do?

He's not just any father, but an Almighty One. I seems to me that any bad taste in one's mouth regarding his father pertains to a weakness in the man. He wasn't strong enough to restrain his anger or his addictions. He wasn't strong enough to stay when it was easier to leave. He wasn't strong enough to protect or provide for his family. He wasn't strong enough to discipline or cherish his children. But not this Father. He is the Almighty God, Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us. He is never weak, and our weakness only makes Him stronger.

PS. I like what iMonk does here with the Creeds.

Thoughts on Symbolum Apostolicum

"I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am. I did not make it; no it is making me. It the very Word of God; not the invention of any man." - Rich Mullins on the Apostles' Creed


 If Mr. Mullins' celebration of the creed lies within the pale of orthodoxy, then it seems a worthy text to excavate. If not, then its prevalence in our faith positions it ripe for reckoning all the same. This is precisely what I aim to do with the next series of posts. Stay tuned for what I think are some insightful ponderings on "God the Father, Almighty."

I believe in God the Father Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord:

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, dead, and buried;

the third day he rose from the dead;

he ascended into heaven,

and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

True Reformation Theology

This is a hymn that may answer some questions regarding the connection between works and faith in a truly reformed theology.









"The Means of Grace"
Charles Wesley

Long have I seemed to serve thee Lord
with unavailing pain
Fasted and Prayed and read thy word
And heard it preached in vain

Oft did I with th' assembly join
And near Thine altar drew;
A form of godliness was mine,
The power I never knew

To please thee thus, at last I see
In vain I hoped and strove
For what are outward things to thee
Unless they spring from love?

I see the perfect law requires
Truth in the inward parts
Our full consent our whole desires
Our undivided hearts

But I of means have made my boast
Of means and idol made
The spirit in the letter lost
The substance in the shade

I rested in the outward law
Nor know its deep design
The length and breadth I never saw,
The height of love divine

Where am I now, or what my hope?
What can my weakness do?
JESU, to Thee my soul looks up,
"Tis Thou must make it new

Thine is the work, and Thine alone
But shall I idly stand?
Shall I the written rule disown,
And slight my God's command?

Wildly shall I from Thine turn back,
A better path to find;
Thy holy ordinance forsake,
And cast Thy words behind?

Forbid it gracious Lord, that I
Should ever learn Thee so!
No - let me with Thy word comply,
If I Thy love would know

Suffice for me, that Thou, my Lord,
Hast bid me fast and pray:
Thy will be done, thy name adored;
'Tis only mine t' obey.

Thou biddest me search the Sacred Leaves
and taste the hallowed Bread:
The kind commands my soul receives,
And longs on Thee to feed.

Still for Thy lovingkindness, Lord,
I in Thy temple wait;
I look to find Thee in Thy word,
Or at Thy table meet.

Here, in Thine own appointed ways,
I wait to learn Thy will:
Silent I stand before Thy face,
And hear Thee say, "Be still!"

"Be still - and know that I am God!"
'Tis all I live to know;
To feel the virtue of Thy blood,
And spread its praise below.

I wait my vigour to renew,
Thine image to retrieve,
The veil of outward things pass through,
And grasp in Thee to live.

I do the thing Thy laws enjoin,
And then the strive gives o'er:
To Thee I then the whole resign;
I trust in means no more.

I trust in Him who stands between
The Father's wrath and me:
JESU! Thou great eternal Mean,
I look for all from Thee.