Oklahombres

Here’s another quote from Respectable Sins. The thing that continues to amaze me about this small book is the powerful messages that emerge out of such simplicity. It’s not just that it is an easy read, which it is. The marvel to me is that Bridges is writing about things we all know, yet sadly, we fail to apply.

Our speech, whether it is about others or to others, tends to tear down or build up. It either corrupts the minds of our hearers, or it gives grace to them. Such is the power of our words. If I gossip, I both tear down another person and corrupt the mind of my listener. If I complain about the difficult circumstances of my life, I impugn the sovereignty and goodness of God and tempt my listener to do the same. In this way, my sin “metastasizes” into the heart of another person.

Jerry Bridges, Respectable Sins, (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2007), p. 24.

he spring rains are past, and the later rains have failed to come. I haven’t watered the front yard border as I should have, leaving the floral show a bit puny here lately. I decided to focus in on a couple of drought-hearty troopers this week.

Garden phlox, or tall phlox has been in home flower borders since before there were picket fences around them. I wonder why they are such an old standard, since they are quite prone to powdery mildew. Since they are two-foot-ish in stature, they fit nicely toward the back of a flower border. If that happens to be just in front of a fence, wall, or shrubbery, then you can bet they won’t be happy. We have only one little clump in the corner of our yard, up against a wire fence with nothing else around, and they seem to do just fine. I believe the trick to preventing powdery mildew on any plant material is to provide plenty of ventilation all around it. Garden phlox thrive in full sun, but ours is positioned just under a Chittamwood tree where it gets light shade most of the day. There are some varieties bred specifically for powdery mildew resistance, but I don’t think this is one. I do not even recall where I got this start, but I bet it was given to me by a friend or relative.

Liatris is commonly called Blazing Star, or Gayfeather. There are about fourty species in this genus, so nailing this one down is going to be guess work. We grew ours from seed quite a few years ago, and I guess I could dig into my books and records and find the species name. You probably don’t care anyway, so it doesn’t matter, and isn’t worth the bother. I think it is L. spicata, but don’t hold me to that. This isn’t a real good specimen shot, but there it is.

The interesting feature concerning all in this genus is that, contrary to the nature of most other spiked flowers, the individual blossoms of a Liatris spike open from top to bottom.

Have a safe 4th-of-July weekend. If you don’t hand crank it this week end, it isn’t real ice cream. Remember to be thankful for your freedom, and I hope to see you in the house of the Lord on Sunday.

(Second Part: Of Man’s Redemption—Questions 12-85)

72. Is then the outward washing with water itself the washing away of sins?

• No; for only the blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sin.

73. Why, then, doth the Holy Ghost call Baptism the washing of regeneration, and the washing away of sins?

• God speaks thus not without great cause: namely, not only to teach us thereby that like as the filthiness of the body is taken away by water, so our sins also are taken away by the blood and Spirit of Christ; but much more, that by this divine pledge and token He may assure us, that we are as really washed from our sins spiritually, as our bodies are washed with water.

74. Are infants also to be baptized?

• Yes. For since they, as well as their parents, belong to the covenant and people of God, and both redemption from sin and the Holy Ghost, who works faith, are through the blood of Christ promised to them no less than to their parents: they are also by Baptism, as a sign of the covenant, to be ingrafted into the Christian Church, and distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old Testament by Circumcision, in place of which in the New Testament Baptism is appointed.

The righteousness of God is that righteousness which His righteousness requires Him to require.

(From Thom Smith, years and years ago.)

Happy 500th birthday, John Calvin. All this week Renewing Your Mind has been airing lectures of various aspects of John Calvin’s ministry. Catch the audio at the Ligonier web site, and look for air dates in the “Audio Archive” section labeled from 7/6/09 to 7/10/09. The archives only go back a couple of months, so if you find this post in September, you will be out of providence. And for those of you who think Calvin was the devil incarnate, study up and read something by him before you draw your conclusions. You do know that bearing false witness is a sin, don’t you?

o this is not a post about Barney Fife.

Magnolia ‘Jane’ is a lovely small tree, one that fits well in the residential landscape. Topping out at around twenty-five feet it will not dwarf a single-story dwelling. The leaves are large and leathery, creating a solid shade. The bare gray scaffolds in winter create an interesting contrast with whatever else is near in the landscape. The blossoms are quite striking, measuring four or five inches across. Not only does it bloom in spring, around the time of its cousin, the star magnolia, but it will often produce a light bloom period later in the summer. For some reason this year most of the blossoms of this second flush have had blemished petals once fully open, so I have chosen to show this tight bud for my Friday Floral. Enjoy. (Remember to click on the thumbnail if you would like to see the pic a bit larger.)

Have a blessed weekend, and give God the glory for it, and everything. See you in his house this Lord’s day.

(Second Part: Of Man’s Redemption—Questions 12-85)

75. How is it signified and sealed unto thee in the Holy Supper that thou dost partake of the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross and all His benefits?

• Thus; that Christ has commanded me and all believers to eat of this broken bread, and to drink of this cup, and has joined therewith these promises: First, that His body was offered, and broken on the cross for me, and His blood shed for me, as certainly as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me, and the cup communicated to me; and further, that, with His crucified body and shed blood, He Himself feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life as certainly as I receive from the hand of the minister, and taste with my mouth, the bread and cup of the Lord, which are given me as certain tokens of the body and blood of Christ.

76. What is it to eat the crucified body and drink the shed blood of Christ?

• It is not only to embrace with a believing heart all the suffering and death of Christ, and thereby to obtain the forgiveness of sins and eternal life; but moreover also, to be so united more and more to His sacred body by the Holy Ghost, who dwells both in Christ and in us, that although He is in heaven, and we on the earth, we are nevertheless flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones, and live and are governed for ever by one Spirit, as members of the same body are by one soul.

77. Where has Christ promised that He will thus feed and nourish believers with His body and blood, as certainly as they eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup?

• In the institution of the Supper, which runs thus: The Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said: Take, eat, this is My body, which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of Me. After the same manner also He took the cup, when he had supped, saying: This cup is the New Testament in My blood: This do ye as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.
• And this promise is repeated also by St. Paul, where he says: The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread, and one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.

One meaning of crepe being defined as “a light, thin fabric with a wrinkled surface,” crape myrtle is aptly named. The petals of the blossom are anything but flat and/or thick, not that you can identify an individual petal of an individual blossom. The cumulative effect is what makes the beauty. The effect is akin to hundreds of colorful tissue papers stuffed through chicken wire holes—a parade float. Lagerstroemia indica is the main lineage of crape myrtles, although several other species have been bred into the commercial trade to produce a variety of desirable traits, dwarfing being one of them. The genus for this group of large shrubs/small trees honors a Swedish merchant Magnus von Lagerström, who first introduced specimens of this oriental beauty to the west.

The crape myrtle fills a work-horse role that cannot be replaced by any one plant material. Here in Oklahoma the bloom period lasts from July till frost. Nothing else can do that in the all too often moisture dearth of an Oklahoma summer. I like the tall ones, but pick any size; with modern breeding programs you can find the right size for your specific spot. Colors range from pure white to deep purple, and every shade in between. A couple of years ago we bought a red and white two-tone. The specimen pictured here has no certified pedigree. I snipped a few green slips at a local Sonic Drive-in of a plant growing in the outdoor eating area, so we dubbed it Sonic. Our specimen is about eighteen feet high, and is likely to eventually reach twenty-five or so.

You may remember back in the spring the creamy-white flower clusters of arrowwod viburnum. Well, here is honey bees and other insects will make of such blossoms. This display won’t last long as summer progresses toward fall. The birds will begin to pick this shrub clean as other sources of food dries up and becomes more scarce.

It looks like we will be having a break from triple-digit temperatures this week end, so get out and work in your yard. Enjoy all that God has made, and give thanks. See you Sunday.

(Second Part: Of Man’s Redemption—Questions 12-85)

78. Do then the bread and wine become the real body and blood of Christ?

• No: but as the water, in Baptism, is not changed into the blood of Christ, nor becomes the washing away of sins itself, being only the divine token and assurance thereof, so also, in the Lord’s Supper, the sacred bread does not become the body of Christ itself, though agreeably to the nature and usage of sacraments it is called the body of Christ.

79. Why then doth Christ call the bread His body, and the cup His blood, or the New Testament in His blood; and St. Paul, the communion of the body and blood of Christ?

• Christ speaks thus not without great cause: namely, not only to teach us thereby, that, like as the bread and wine sustain this temporal life, so also His crucified body and shed blood are the true meat and drink of our souls unto life eternal; but much more, by this visible sign and pledge to assure us, that we are as really partakers of His true body and blood, through the working of the Holy Ghost, as we receive by the mouth of the body these holy tokens in remembrance of Him; and that all His sufferings and obedience are as certainly our own, as if we had ourselves suffered and done all in our own person.

ost folks here in Oklahoma probably don’t have a clue who Doug Baker is. You better get to know him, because come August 1 he will take over the reins of our state association’s paper, the Baptist Messenger. The Messenger announced the selection of their new executive editor this last week in two separate articles. I know of Doug Baker from a series of podcast episodes he produced for the North Carolina Baptists. In each of the episodes Baker interviewed a notable pastor or leader on the current SBC scene; men like Ed Stetzer, Johnny Hunt, Tullian Tchividjian, Nathan Finn, Danny Akin, and J. D. Greear. Baker has a clear, distinctive voice, and he knows how to ask the right questions. Go to the link above and check out the interviews. They are all informative and well worth the listen.

As long as I have been reading it, the Baptist Messenger has been a bit on the—how do you say it nicely—mushy side. You know, squishy theology with a generous helping of moralism/legalism, served on an SBC party-line platter. Hopefully that will change with Baker at the helm. Except for a few years as Huckabee’s speech writer, his credentials sure look impressive. Among the men he identifies as having the greatest influence on his life, four of the top five include David Dockery, Timothy George, Danny Akin, and Mark Dever. Does that make him an eighteen-point Calvinist? Needless to say, Baker admires some mighty respectable men.

It sure sounds like change is in the air here in Oklahoma with the arrival of Doug Baker, and I don’t mean just a technological modernization of the Messenger. I smell the real deal here. Maybe the “young and restless” in Oklahoma will have something worth reading before too long. Maybe we old and restless will have something to read too. Keep your fingers crossed. I mean, God willing.