**Relocation**

I've been trying out the Wordpress format for a few days and I dig it. I think from now on I'll be blogging over there.

Here's the new address: www.seekingonething.wordpress.com

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You are not your sanctification.

1 Corinthians 1:30 "And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us . . . sanctification . . ."

How is it that Christ is our sanctification? Of all the Christian "-ions" (i.e.: redemption, justification, sanctification, glorification, et al) being sanctified seems to be the one that we are in charge of. Sure, we say it's grace at work in us, but don't we usually act like we have to do the reading, praying, and self-control at we associate with being made holy?

So, why is it then that Bible teaches that just as much as Jesus is our wisdom, our righteousness, and our redemption, He is also our personal holiness? No Christian would claim that their life alone would stand as righteous, or that they could redeem themselves through good works. But I sure often think of daily living like the onus is on me.

Several verses earlier, the Christians at Corinth are called "those sanctified in Christ Jesus." His life made them holy, not their daily devotions. It's a great blessing to think, "Jesus is my righteousness. I trust Him." With this new lesson, I'm glad to tell myself, "Jesus is also my good works. His life is mine."

Be happy; turn off the TV.

Live Science:

Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people.

The finding, announced on Thursday, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults conducted between 1975 and 2006 as part of the General Social Survey.

In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often than their less-chipper counterparts.

Read the entire thing.

This reminds me of a friend of mine who decided as a teen to not watch TV. His premise: you can either live life, or you and watch someone else living life for you. He's a fairly happy guy, too.

Hope Academy

A great model for Christian schools:

Fun at Supper

Fast for the Unborn Today

I encourage you to spend the day- or part of it- in fasting for the unborn children of America. Just in your short lifetime, millions of pre-born babies have fallen prey to abortion.

May the pain of hunger remind you of the pain of tiny children who are terminated. May your empty stomach remind you to pray for mothers with empty arms and hurting souls.

Spend your mealtime praying to God and also thanking Him for giving you the breath of life.

A Psalm of Life - Longfellow

I've been sincerely enjoying poems lately and here's one of the best I've come across.
I suggest reading it aloud.

A PSALM OF LIFE

WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN
SAID TO THE PSALMIST

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream ! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act,— act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

(first published in the Knickerbocker Magazine in October 1838; also in Longfellow's Voices in the Night)

Bonus- neat video:

Malaki is 1!

Happy Birthday to Malaki. It's been a really happy year with him in our family. These past months have come and gone so quickly. Kassie and I are looking forward to celebrating many more happy birthdays with him.

He's definitely in my "Top 2" list of favorite people.

Screwtape Letters in Chicago

A week ago, we went to Chicago to visit Kassie's sister.
I had a few notable experiences:
1) visiting Wrigley Field (which, as usual, was inactive in late October)
2) watching The Screwtape Letters (a play version of C.S. Lewis's great book)
3) after #2, consuming the world's greatest smoothie at Julius Meinl

Regarding The Screwtape Letters: it was certainly the highlight of our weekend. Max McLean played the title character wonderfully. To borrow the old phrase, he really made the book come to life.
In a lot of ways, the play was semon-esque. (Too long to be a homily).
Screwtape's character served as a great reminder of the unseen battle going on in the world. To top it off, the play was also a cutting mockery of the devil.

A few quotes from the playbill:

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.
-C.S. Lewis

The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts
of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear Scorn.
-Martin Luther

The devil . . . the prowde spirite . . . cannot endure to be mocked.
-Sir Thomas More

If you're near Chicagoland, it's worth your time and price of admission.

Are the students ignorant or are you a bad teacher?

Many teachers - like myself - are tempted to blame the students when they fail. "Well, he didn't study." "They never do their homework." "I went over this in class."

Sometimes we even put the blame on previous teachers. "What did they teach them last year?!" "I know you learned this in middle school."

One good lesson that I learned from a college professor is this: Usually, teachers are more responsible than they'd like to acknowledge for their students' failures. Guaranteed: If every student misses the same question on a test, it wasn't taught in a comprehendable way. It's amazing how good teachers can get results from students who no one else can motivate.

It's not my fault when a student fails, unless I'm a crappy teacher.

Christians under attack in India

It's also scary that people get what they want.

Sir Clive Barnes on the topic of television:

"It is the first truly democratic culture, the first culture available to everyone and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want."

(New York Times, December 30, 1969)

People usually need a friend, not a preacher.

God tells us to "rejoice with those who rejoice," and "weep with those who weep."
He does not tell us to rejoice with those who weep and weep with those who rejoice.

Very often, I am inclined to remind my happy friends why they should be thankful and encourage my down-trodden friends that things will get better. Usually, though, people don't need my (or your) advice. If they did, they'd ask for it. Most of all, rejoicers want someone to rejoice with them and weepers want someone to weep with them.

Spurgeon on Faultfinding

Mark Driscoll shared these thoughts from Charles Spurgeon at the DesiringGod National Conference last weekend. As someone who is prone to pride and faultfinding myself, this is a very apt quote.

“Many hearers lose much blessing through criticizing too much, and meditating too little; and many more incur great sin by calumniating those who live for the good of others. True pastors have enough of care and travail without being burdened by undeserved and useless fault-finding. We have something better to do than to be for ever answering every malignant or frivolous slander which is set afloat to injure us….there are tender, loving spirits who feel the trial very keenly, and are sadly hindered in brave service by cruel assaults. The rougher and stronger among us laugh at those who ridicule us, but upon others the effect is very sorrowful…

As ministers we are very far from being perfect, but many of us are doing our best, and we are grieved that the minds of our people should be more directed to our personal imperfections than to our divine message ….

Filled with the same spirit of contrariety, the men of this world still depreciate the ministers whom God sends them and profess that they would gladly listen if different preachers could be found. Nothing can please them, their cavils are dealt out with heedless universality. Cephas is too blunt, Apollos is too flowery, Paul is too argumentative, Timothy is too young, James is too severe, John is too gentle…

Well then, let each servant of God tell his message in his own way. To his own Master he shall stand or fall…

Judge the preacher if you like, but do remember that there is something better to be done than that, namely, to get all the good you can out of him, and pray his Master to put more good into him.”

- from Eccentric Preachers by C.H. Spurgeon

Kids say the darndest things.

We were discussing elements of Edgar Allen Poe's poetry in class today when this conversation happened:

Me: "What's assonance?"

Student: "Ain't that where you don't have sex?"

I think he meant abstinence.