A Wonderful Definition Of Pietism

Today’s quote of the day comes from a friend of mine over at Facebook:


___________ Pietism: making people feel guilty for doing things that God has not forbidden, and making them feel guilty for not doing things that God has not commanded.

There is nothing more I could add to this brilliant and succinct description of pietism except to say amen!

So, Is It Finished Or Not?

For the past few weeks I’ve been working on remodeling my master bedroom. This is no small task and is the reason for my lack of posting over the last month or so. How big of a job was this? well, the missus and I tore the walls down to the studs to replace the aluminum wiring (which isn’t the best stuff to running in your walls!) and to insulate the walls for the first time since the house was built back in 1938.

As I finish up with installing all the electrical outlets, light fixtures, and painting I’m taking the opportunity to catch up on all the podcasts that had been accumulating on my iPod. Last night as I was shimming doors and painting the shelving that is going into the closets I listened to a bunch of Table Talk Radio episodes and heard this week’s quote of the day.

Today’s quote of the day is from Pr. Bryan Wolfmueller commenting on the ridiculousness of thinking that humans can make a decision for Jesus as expressed on a bumper sticker that said “Give Jesus A Chance, He Died For The Opportunity”:

“this is the whole Arminian sorta unless you do something you’re not going to be saved, Jesus makes salvation a possibility but now you have to make it a reality; the devil cast a vote for you, God cast a vote for you, now you got to tie the vote, this is, I mean, when Jesus says “it is finished”, He should have cried out on the cross: “it’s almost finished!, because now you’ve got to finish it!”

Pr. Wolfmueller is one of my absolute favorite preachers and would be one of my favorite bloggers but unlike many of our Calvinist brothers, he only has one blog: World Wide Wolfmueller and not the ten blogs as required by the Institutes (That’s an inside joke. If you want hear the setup, you’ll need to listen to Table Talk Radio) Pr. Wolfmueller does a wonderful job in refuting this misguided notion that Jesus just needs our decision to finish up His glorious and salvific work on the cross.

Table Talk Radio is always entertaining and could easily be described as a whole series of soundbites or quotes of the day just strung together, one right after another. The show is a hoot and I encourage everyone to listen and give it a shot. If you really feel that you have to or want to make a decision, then make a decision to listen to Table Talk Radio! Who knows, you might even earn a few Table Talk Radio points in the process.

When Peaceful Sikkhs Bring A Knife To A Nerf-Gun Fight…

It’s just plain weird that in our western society couples are prevented from getting on an airplane because their child a doll with a three inch plastic gun and deemed a safety threat and Nerf- Guns are banned as if they were weapons used by SEALs teams as part of a zero tolerance policy but bringing a knife to school as long as it is done by certain religious groups is just hunky-dory.

From the news story over at Fox:

The decision by the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools reverses a ban put in place in December after a fourth-grader at a Canton Township elementary school was found with a dull, 3- to 5-inch kirpan. The kirpan represents a commitment to fight evil in the Sikh tradition. The dagger is a religious symbol that baptized Sikh males are expected to carry. The principal initially let the boy keep the kirpan, but the school board instituted a ban because of parental concerns and conflicts with the district's rules against bringing weapons to school.

So, as long as you belong to a minority religious sect it is OK to bring a knife to school. Wonderful.