The Dirtiest Job

Meditating on the Incarnation During Christmastide

For the last three years, I've had the blessing to preach the last Sunday of the year at Grace. I love getting the opportunity to meditate on the Christmas season during this Christmastide; this time allows us to reflect with a little less stress than is often present prior to Christmas (see my post on a Twelve Days of Christmas devotional booklet). This year, my message was from John 1:9-13, looking at Jesus's determination to save us that is demonstrated by his birth. You can listen to the message and find a fill-in-the-blank outline below.

Bound for Promise

God's Ultimate Promise of Restoration Gives Us Hope As We Wait

I concluded the series Chapel at Lunch homily series “Bound” (and the final Chapel at Lunch) with a message from Revelation 21:5-8.

Bound

God's Promises from the Beginning Point to Our Future

This message started the series “Bound,” a four week journey through the promises God gives us in his Word. This series served as the 2015 pre-Advent series for Chapel at Lunch.

Waiting for Opening Day

God's Cultivation of Patience in Our Lives

This is a message from the series “Freshly Picked” on James 5:7-9. Throughout “Freshly Picked,” we looked at the different Fruit of the Spirit and in this message we look at God's desire to bring out the fruit of patience in our lives.

Tilling the Field

Understanding How God Works Good Through Us

I opened the series on the Fruit of the Spirit entitled “Freshly Picked” with this message from Galatians 5:19-23. This series began on August 26 as part of Chapel at Lunch at Lindenwood and September 9 as part of Grace4all.

A Firm Foundation

Like Abraham, We Must Look to the Heavenly City

I shared this message on Hebrews 11:8-12 as part of our 2015 Opening Chapel Service at Lindenwood University. As we begin a new academic year — or face any sort of new calling — we find an important question arises: what foundation are we building our efforts upon?

Rumors of My Demise...

…have been greatly exaggerated. Again. I'm still here, I've just been very busy on a web development project. I'm hoping to find time to blog on some theological topics soon. Particularly, “mystery,” the term “practical theology” and other odds and ends. One of these days, I need to return to my attempt to define what the word literature means too.

Rumors of My Demise...

…have been greatly exaggerated. Again. I'm still here, I've just been very busy on a web development project. I'm hoping to find time to blog on some theological topics soon. Particularly, “mystery,” the term “practical theology” and other odds and ends. One of these days, I need to return to my attempt to define what the word literature means too.

Joining the Local Chapter

Well, as long as Jason is doing it, I might as well too.

Hi, I'm Tim. And I'm a Calvinist.

I think Jason makes an astute observation about the inconsistencies that can occur in theology when one rejects total depravity. It strikes me that every theologian that comes to my mind that has actually created a systematic, consistent understanding of the Christian faith has generally had to accept the basic understandings of the state of humans and election that the Reformed faith eventually claimed as its own. I myself struggle at times with parts of TULIP, and have only in recent years accepted that I am clearly unable to will my own way out of Calvinism (that's a joke, folks), but in the end, the things I cannot explain in Reformed doctrine are not nearly as difficult as those things I would need to deal with should I reject this stream of theology.

Total depravity is probably the easiest of the five points to accept for me. It may be that humans are capable of mortal good, or the appearance thereof, but I thoroughly believe that humanity is capable of absolutely no spiritual good without the inner working of the Holy Spirit.

So, Jason, did you bring the donuts for the meeting?

New Look

Well, it was not intentional, but asisaid celebrated its fifth birthday with a new look. Last night I was feeling rather worn out, and so decided I needed to do something different — doing a little web design hit the spot. As I was finishing up, I realized it was a perfect thing to be doing to recall that my personal web site became blogified on February 21, 2002.

Yes, the internet somehow has put up with me opining for five whole years here. Open for Business celebrated its fifth year last October. I'm starting to feel like a regular internet fixture!

Let me know if you see any bugs in the new design. I'm still tweaking it, and it may adjust a bit more, but after two years with the last look it was time for something new. About every year or two I alternate between a green and a blue design, and staying true to that trend (which I do not follow on purpose) we are in the blue era again.