Time For Another Batch!

Tonight, Sam and I bottled our second batch of beer: "Father Brown Ale". This time we brewed an English Nut Brown Ale from another recipe that Sam found. The brewing procedure was fairly similar to the first batch, but with a shorter fermentation time of about 7 days. Also, this time we used a mixture of black patent malt and crystal malt to create a sort of "barley tea" in the wort before adding a darker malt extract, which of course will give the ale a darker color and richer, nuttier taste. Our second batch produced 53 bottles. For those of you who still haven't tried a bottle from our first batch, there are only a few remaining so stop by soon!

The Blessing of Parents

The other day I was sitting in the living room when I got a phone call. I answered it, had a short conversation and then hung up. My roommate looked at me and asked me who it was. "My dad," I replied. His smile twisted a little, and then he remarked that it sounded more like I was just talking to a good friend, not my dad. "I was talking to a good friend, though," I told him.

God has been merciful. God has been even more gracious. It wasn't that long ago that I can remember it being hard to call my parents once every two weeks, or drive home to see them once every few months; but it was my Christian duty, right? Whatever! I remember even before that, never confiding anything in my parents, always avoiding them except for when it seemed respectable to be with them.

I remember later in college, finally growing "theologically" as a Christian and the annoying, arrogant attitude I would always cop with my parents because of it. At first the Arminianism gave me a self-righteous concern for my parents. Then the Calvinism of course gave me an intellectual elitism towards my parents (the kind that makes you proud of not being proud); but at least I saw them as Christians again.

Everything has now begun to finally settle and is beginning to find its proper place. Praise the LORD for sanctification, I just wish it wasn't such a painful process. The last year of my life has had its events, its trials, its successes . . . and it has definitely been one of the greater adventures I have embarked on yet. Through all of it, my parents have never left my side. When they could see a fall coming, they warned me; and when I fell anyway, they helped me back up, and laughed with me about it when I was ready to. When I was blockheaded, they were patient. When I was cruel, they were kind. When those I counted on deserted me, they rescued me. When I was willing to give up, to quit trusting, they encouraged me to continue, to persevere. When I fail to be faithful in honoring them, they loved me all the more anyway. In the last year of my life, no one has revealed the sacrifices, the love, and the work of Christ to me more than my parents.

I am no longer in school, I have finally moved to a new town, begun a career, and started my life so to speak; but I also talk to my parents once, twice, sometimes three times a week now, and I usually have the blessing of seeing them two or three times a month now, too. God is good. Thank you Mom and Dad, I love you!

The Church Then & Now

I had a conversation with a friend earlier this week on being "baptized with the Holy Spirit." Of course the "fruits" of this are speaking in tongues, miraculous healing, etc. Which of course becomes a discussion of how we view these "gifts of the Spirit." We did both agree on the popular explanation of these gifts coming as a blessing at a time when the Church was just beginning, the full sense of the Gospel was being taken to the Gentiles, and these gifts were ways of edifying, encouraging, and growing the Church during its beginnings. But also, as the Church grew and became stable, these gifts were no longer needed, and so they began to "disappear."

I also want to point out how we see God's "presence" or communication with Israel change throughout the Old Testament. In the Garden, God walks with Adam; God talks to Cain, Abel, Noah, etc.; Christ appears before Abraham, Jacob, etc. Then, when God leads His people out of Egypt, He literally goes before them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. But after awhile, once Israel is established in the promised land, we see God's presence begin to change form. The LORD rarely "appears" to anyone anymore, and He begins to speak only through the profits. Once God establishes His people, He makes them strong, He makes them numerous, He sets up a weekly Sabbath for them; the people now begin to work out their faith a little bit differently.

So here is where I feel like I run into some inconsistencies, and I would very much like this post to be the first comment for a discussion:
In the first statement, we are more than willing to say that the Church is different now than it was in its beginnings, and so "gifts of the Spirit" are no longer needed to help advance the church, but are we willing to hold to that argument in other areas? The main one that comes to mind is selection of deacons, elders, and church leaders. When I urge against selecting a young man for one of these positions who may meet a third of the qualifications, I am always given the argument that the lists of qualifications for these positions are more like guidelines, and it is impossible to find a man that will meet all of the qualifications. I'm okay with that a little bit; but I still ask, "Why not wait till the man is married, has children, and has shown he can raise them faithfully?" And of course the response is, "Paul wasn't married, Timothy didn't have kids, even Christ Himself wouldn't have met all these qualifications. Besides, we really need more leaders in our church right now." Correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems to be a similar argument to the one used by the Charismatic churches for still practicing the use of "gifts of the Spirit"; the same argument we just refuted at the beginning.

The Church today is not the Early Church; it is bigger, grander, and even more beautiful now because Christ in His rule over it has made it so. I would argue that time is in our favor, the numbers are in are favor, again, victory is already ours, and Christ rules as sovereignly today as ever. We have time, so why don't we wait for young men to grow into godly leaders? We are numerous, so why aren't we more patient in finding faithful leaders? Our LORD rules, so why don't we pray, pray, and pray some more and then wait for God's answer?

I also want to know if this theme we see in the Old Testament plays out in the life of the Church after Christ? There seem to be some similarities. And we also wait, as the faithful remnant of Israel did, but with much greater expectation in the next coming of our LORD and Savior. But I also feel like God has delivered us into the promised land and we have just decided to pitch tents and live as nomads until Christ brings us full redemption; instead of realizing that, although Christ will finally establish His people completely, we need to continue building that nation now.

Maybe I Should Have Expected It . . .

About a month ago, I was trying to explain to my growth group why Veggie Tales movies usually make me want to puke. So I put it this way: "Pretend they made a Veggie Tales version of Lord of the Rings and imagine how many people would be outraged by it; then think about how much greater, richer, and deeper the stories within the Bible are and how poorly and disgracefully they are portrayed by the Veggie Tales." This actually resonated with most of the guys, and they could understand right away how foolish it would be to try to make a Veggie Tales version of Lord of the Rings.

I used this example because it seemed far-fetched to me at the time; but alas, the foolishness within the evangelical church still seems to run rampant, and what I thought to be unrealistic I have just found to actually be a reality: Veggie Tales' "The Lord of the Beans".

What also broke my heart was seeing that Wynonna Judd, one of my favorite and one of the best country music singers of all time, had a featured song in the movie.

. . . As I take all this in a familiar line plays in my head: "Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good ol' days."

Why Christians Should Read Music

Below is yet another post from Greg Wilbur's blog. For all of you who ask me about taking voice lessons, here is my answer:

Martin Luther once said, “Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.” He insisted on a prominent role of music in the education of children—especially those training to be pastors. As we see in the time of J.S. Bach, the modern Enlightenment ideals began the erosion of music education in favor of more “academic” subjects.

Ignorance of the basic elements of music is comparable to illiteracy. Not being able to read seriously hampers one’s ability to read Scripture for oneself; not being able to read music hinders one’s ability to worship.

Worship serves to bind a group of people into a community. Utilizing music which can be sung in parts serves as a valuable tool to this end and implies some knowledge of music and its mechanics. Part singing leaves little room for individual self expression, improvisation, or selfishness and thus encourages the growth of the covenantal community by removing the focus from self and directing it to God. Part singing encourages a sense of belonging, community and reliance.

Belonging is encouraged by the very necessity of each of the harmonic parts being sung. The individual has the sense of being an integral component of something beyond just their voice part. There exists the sense of being needed.

Community is developed in the need to incorporate individual singing with the other parts. It develops an awareness of what the other members of the community are singing as well as building bonds between the parts. Reliance on one another contributes greatly to the sense of community.

Reliance is evident in the need to depend upon the surrounding people as the individual parts are sung. This is apparent when physically divided into voice parts and surrounded by people singing the same notes or when standing next to a different voice part and relying on one another for pitch, intonation, and entrances.

From the time of David, music has played a prominent role in the worship of God. Participation in that worship is crucial for the health of the Church. Too often we are “worshiped at” as opposed to being led in corporate worship.

As G.K. Chesterton wrote in Heretics, “But if we look at the progress of our scientific civilization we see a gradual increase everywhere of the specialist over the popular function. Once men sang together round a table in chorus; now one man sings alone, for the absurd reason that he can sing better. If scientific civilization goes on (which is most improbable) only one man will laugh, because he can laugh better than the rest.”

We pay people to sing for us, act for us, play sports for us, read for us, and we move farther and farther to the sidelines of life. Educating the people of God in how to sing will encourage the return to the center of worship life with greater understanding and ability in offering our best gifts to the Lord.

Music is the art of the prophets and the gift of God. —Martin Luther

A Credo Worth Repeating

Below is a statement, confession, or credo if you will, from Greg Wilbur's blog at King's Meadow. I am beginning to hear more discussion and even see some action being taken by Christians in the areas of art, but I do believe we still have a lot of work ahead and so let me add to the discussion by repeating Wilbur's post:

"I believe that beauty is an attribute of God and is therefore a theological issue. I believe that beauty and excellence are objective and that the Bible provides the standard for what is beautiful and excellent. I believe that since there is a biblical objective standard for what is beautiful and excellent that this should apply especially in areas of worship. I believe that an understanding of beauty enables a greater understanding of the nature and character of God. I believe that the arts are worldview incarnate. I believe that goodness, truth, and beauty are Trinitarian concepts and that each element requires the relationship of the other two for complete understanding. I believe that the saints need to know how to read music and how to sing for the sake of the worship of God. I believe that we should know, respect, and utilize the arts of the past as we continue to create new art that is historically informed but also biblically creative. I believe that originality is not a biblical notion. I believe that we weaken our understanding of art when we try to apply a narrative structure on all works instead of trying to understand music as music, painting as painting, etc. I believe Philippians 4:8 provides a strident critique of the actions of many modern Christians as they dabble in secular culture. I believe that the Church abdicated its rightful place as the leader of culture. I believe that the Church no longer knows how to train and equip artists because we have adopted a secular view of the arts."

Tjabe's Genesis Ale

Tonight, January 11th, 2006 A.D., Sam Koenen and I bottled our first batch of homebrew. The entire brewing process takes about three and half weeks, and we still have 10 days to go, but the beer is now in its final brewing process. We started the process the day after Christmas and used a simple, beginner's recipe for an American pale ale which Sam got from a friend. The process is a little complicated at first, but exciting every step of the way. There were only a few ingredients needed for this batch: a pale ale malt extract, cascade hops, and California ale yeast. We decided we would name our first batch after Sam's first son who was born two days after we started the brewing (too bad he won't be able to try any of it yet). The batch filled 47 bottles, just over 4 gallons. If you are in the neighborhood anytime after the end of next week, be sure and stop by, say hello, and try a bottle!

"Stop the Presses!"

My roommate (Adam Stordahl) informed me last night that to produce grape juice you actually have to pasteurize it to prevent it from turning into wine! How has this fact escaped me for so long?! When grapes are crushed to produce juice, the juice will naturally ferment and create most of its alcohol content within 7 days! Not too many other fruits even compare to it; it's almost as if grape "juice" was meant to become wine. Another interesting fact: we all know that wine has existed from the earliest times in Genesis, but grape juice wasn't invented till 1869 by none other than Thomas Welch: "a devout Christian and staunch prohibitionist" (sounds like conflicting interests to me). (see article). And (according to the article) as surprising as it may seem, Welch actually created grape juice in an attempt to find an alternative to wine in communion. (I almost wish that whoever had invented the Twinkie would have done so to replace the bread in communion too . . . or maybe not.)

So how do we really justify using grape juice in communion? Is there a true biblical argument for it? Why did it take over 1800 years for someone to think of this? Why is America the only country that seems to be so "blessed" by grape juice?

A New Year

Last Lord's Day, January 1st, I had the privilege of worshiping with Charlie and his family in Spokane, WA. It is always a special blessing to have the opportunity to sit next to such a friend on Sunday morning. I want to share with you a scripture meditation that was delivered during the service just before confession, in light of the new year from Numbers 13:17-19, 23-30:

"Then Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, 'Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified?' . . . When they reached the Valley of Eschol, they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of Eschol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.
They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: 'We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.'
Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, 'We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

At the beginning of chapter 13, Moses sends 12 men, leaders and representatives from each tribe of Israel, to go and explore the land of Canaan. This was a command that God gave to Moses so that the people might see and know whether or not God's promises about the promised land where true. When the men return they all agree on the report that is given of the land, but they either interpret it through faith or through unbelief. The men all see the richness of the fruit of the land: " . . . it does flow with milk and honey!" Surprise, Surprise. And they see the great nations living throughout the land; they even see giants living there! The men of unbelief see the size of the men, the number of people living in the fortified cities, and they shrink back, content to stay in the desert at the foot of God's bounty. Then there are men like Caleb, who see with the eyes of faith, and they remember the land flowing with milk and honey, they remember a single grape cluster so fat and dense that it took two men to carry it! They remember the promises of God, and Caleb silences the people and announces with confidence, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

We were then asked with what eyes we would see with in the upcoming year, and again persuaded and exhorted to see with the eyes of Caleb, see with the eyes of Joshua, and to know that our God has led us out of our bondage by the work of Christ, and that he has promised us a land flowing with milk and honey; will we sit at the foot of so great a bounty and tremble in fear and unbelief, or will we step forward into the land to fight the giants and take the land for our possession; knowing that our Lord, our Warrior has gone ahead to fight, indeed, He has already claimed victory!

"The enemy boasted,
'I will pursue, I will overtake them.
I will divide the spoils;
I will gorge myself on them.
I will draw my sword
and my hand will destroy them.'
But you blew with your breath,
and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead
in the mighty waters.

'Who among the gods is like you, O lord?
Who is like you --
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glory,
working wonders?
You stretched out your right hand
and the earth swallowed them.

'In your unfailing love you lead them
the people you have redeemed.
In your strength you will guide them
to your holy dwelling."

~ Exodus 15:9-13

Listening Faithfully

"There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, in-attentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person. This is no fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God. . . . But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God." ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

* * * * *

I must confess first that this seems to be a sin I commit more and more frequently through my years as a Christian. I also think refusing to really listen to our brothers and sisters is a great temptation for those of us who are Reformed and believe because of it that we have heard it all already . . . "there is nothing new under the sun." I am beginning to see the source of this sin coming from a wretched selfishness and a haughty spirit. How often we suffer from this nature of the old Adam.

I also see a great opportunity for us to be faithful in this area within the body of believers I am joined to in Bozeman. Bozeman, I have found, is one of the more politically active towns in all of Montana, and opinions are as plentiful as caddis flies on the Yellowstone in early July. Our church has also been blessed with many intellectual minds from all walks of life, and they (we) all bring quite a plethora of ideas on working out our faith in different areas. One of our biggest temptations, and therefore frustrations, is not respectfully listening to each other: being willing to leave our ideas behind in order to hear out our brother . . . this is really an act of humbling ourselves and laying down our life for our brother; it is an act of love. At the same time, when we neglect to listen to our brother we will also be neglecting to listen to the will of our Heavenly Father; so we should not be surprised when our ideas, no matter how biblical or righteous they seem to be, are trampled under foot.

I would also push the argument that when we fail to respectfully listen to our brother's ideas, it will make him even less likely to come to us when he has something to confess or needs to be ministered too. Of course most of us are always willing to be there to minister to a brother in his time of need, but how likely are they (how likely are we) to go seek someone out who has not loved them (us) before this time of need. When we repent, we go to the foot of the cross because we find Him there, who gave up His life for us; we are called and commanded to minister to each other, but we need to prove we are willing to die for each other first in order to do this successfully.

On the subject of listening, I have to add that I hear the sound of crying coming from downstairs . . . the cry from an answer to prayer, from promises being fulfilled, from a source of joy and wonder, from a spring of hope, from a son of Adam, from a child of God, or as he is called by his Christian name: Tjabe Arthur Koenen . . . my newest neighbor who hates taking baths.