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.

The God Whisperers: Catechetical Goodness Wrapped In Bacon

Because ya’ll already have too many things to do and too little time to get it all done… I’d like to recommend that you good folks squeeze in one more thing onto your to do list and subscribe to The God Whisperers podcast.

Pastors Craig Donofrio and Bill Cwirla are an absolute hoot! Their weekly podcast is only about an hour long and is an in-depth study of what it means to be Christian and how we as Christians have historically read and understood God’s Word.

Right now I’m listening to these good earthy Lutheran pastors teach the Christian faith by walking us through the Augsburg Confession; a sixteenth century defense of the Christian faith against a Roman church that looked to indulgences and papal decrees instead of God’s gracious gift of His only son Jesus and Scripture alone to comfort terrified souls.

If such a study sounds uninteresting or tedious, I beg you to give Pastors Donofrio and Cwirla a try and see for yourself how much fun theology can be! What a blessing it is that we have such talented pastors willing to use new media without compromising one iota. Please do yourself a favor and give ‘em a try, I’m certain that you’ll be glad you did.