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When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.Before The Throne of God Above - Charitie L. Bancroft, 1863.
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.
Psalm 130:3-4
Devil Music
Bad early 80’s music
Horrible plastic smiles
Hohner headless guitar
Fake drum track
What’s not to love?
True evidence of God’s sovereignty in salvation: that anyone was saved in the 80s…
Some Great Financial Advice from ING
Found some great financial advice in a e-newsletter from ING Direct in my inbox today. Wrote about it on mattheerema.com (where I will probably be writing more frequently).
A letter to my future self from my past self…
Today I recieved a letter in the mail… from myself… age 13. No, seriously.
Vote your conscience not your… wait what?
I’ve been a little perplexed by a sentiment I’ve seen rolling around the intarwebs recently… “Vote your conscience, not your religion.”
I wholeheartedly agree with the statement “Vote your conscience.” That is how we are to vote. Not by party lines, not according to media hype, not according to a resigned sense of “if ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”, not according to what anyone else tells you to do, but according to your conscience.
If your religion does not affect your conscience, then you have an impotent religion and may I suggest that you are wasting your time on your religion.
Of course I know that what is meant by “vote your conscience, not your religion” is that you shouldn’t simply vote according to how your church tells you to. I agree here (partially), see above. However, there are worse ways of determining how to vote, and I might submit that if you don’t let your church affect how you vote at least slightly, then you are in fact going to vote the way someone else tells you. (I really need to get around to writing that post on my feelings on free will… someday…). You might also be wasting your time in that church.
I also believe that a church should not mandate a particular voting direction. HOWEVER, a church SHOULD educate itself (i.e., the people in the church should eductate themselves) on what scripture has to say about various issues, let that sink into your “conscience”, and then vote accordingly.
Sad fact is, most churches don’t take the time to teach this thoroughly and so simply state one candidate is God’s man, and the other is obviously the anti-christ.
Interestingly, I’m not hearing that (yet) in this election. Probably because most church leaders are rather baffled by the (lack of) good options.
I also find it interesting that the most likely candidate for the anti-christ I’ve seen in awhile is running and no one is saying anything (oh, snap.)
“Conservative” book makes it into Boston U. classroom
I was pretty much shocked to read this article from the Sovereign Grace blog about how Joshua Harris’ “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” has been used in classwork at a liberal school like Boston University to discuss modesty as a virtue. Then again, I have to think that there is a chance that a least a few are starting to notice the devastating results of the “hook-up” culture that seems to be prevalent today. In her article in the Wall Street Journal, Donna Freitas says of her students after reading Harris’ book,
“They seemed shocked that somewhere in America there are entire communities of people their age who really do “save themselves” until marriage, who engage in old-fashioned dating with flowers and dinner and maybe a kiss goodnight.”
I could probably just rehash everything that CJ Mahaney wrote in the article, but he probably says it better himself :)
Abstinence and Temperance
Abstinence is the virtue of the weak, temperance is the virtue of the strong. - A.B. Bruce - The Training of the Twelve
Picking songs for your 8GB iPhone.
I got an iPhone
I have roughly 30GB of music. My iPhone contains 8GB of data. How to choose, how to choose…
Step 1: Create a folder in iTunes called “top ten best songs”
Step 2: Go through your playlist and add songs to that folder.
Step 3: Roughly 5GB of music later, you should have about enough.
Step 4: Sync.
What Flavor Is Your Theology?
How would you describe your theology? That is, if you’ve even ever thought about that question. Have you ever considered how you would label your theology?
The correct answer, of course is “biblical.” If you are a Christian, hopefully you would say that your theology is “biblical.” You’d say to me: “Come on, Matt, we don’t need labels, we simply need to figure out what the Bible says and do it.” (At least that’s what you SHOULD say…) However, have you ever stopped to think about what that means? How do you KNOW that your theology is biblical?
Christian Theology comes in many different flavors it seems. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Reformed, Armenian, Open, Liberal, Emergent, Charismatic, Anabaptist, Adventist, Congregational, Pietist, Puritan, this list could take up several pages. Where do you fit? Have you given it any thought? All of the above (and all the rest, many of which are utterly contradictory) consider themselves to be “biblical.” At least biblical in the sense that we all mean it when we say it: most true to what the bible would teach us to be.
How do you know that your theology is biblical? Which school of theology would you say you ascribe to? Why? By the way, you probably do fit into one. There’s very little escaping it. I submit that in order to correctly understand scripture, you NEED to go with one (or several, rather.) Understanding scripture is such a HUGE and COMPLEX pursuit that we need guidance.
Guidance from The Holy Spirit (first and foremost), guidance from each other (a close second), and guidance from field experts (in theology, the original languages, linguistics, hermeneutics, exegetics, literature, history, archaeology, paleontology, philosophy, and others) in order to get at exactly WHAT the Bible says. We would do well to stand on the shoulders of people who have gone before and done hard work for us.
Whose shoulders do you stand on? Why?
Movie Review: The Dark Knight
The Batman. My favorite comic book character of all time. Followed secondly by The Daredevil, then the usual suspects (X-Men, Superman, Spiderman, etc…)
I wrote an excited review of Batman Begins. When I heard they were making another movie in this series, I knew I had to see it. All the hype surrounding Heath Ledger made it all more interesting. The Joker was brilliant, as good as Nicholsen’s. Seriously, who among you did not raise at least one eyebrow upon hearing that he was cast in the role? I was skeptical. His performance, however, was award winning. As good as it was, the further development of the Batman character was what won me over on this movie.
July = vacation time!
Most of us have probably at one time arrived home from “vacation” feeling exhausted physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually. This post by C.J. Mahaney (who I had the privilege of hearing at a conference eight years ago) from the Sovereign Grace blog on leadership in family vacations addresses the father’s role in planning vacations that refresh instead of drain, but I think that the content can be easily applied to anyone seeking R&R.
I know that I have definitely fallen into some of the traps of “me-focused” time…forgetting to be grateful to God and picking up an “it’s all about me” attitude. I really appreciate how Mahaney brings a Christ-centered focus into something that we can tend to separate from our spiritual lives.
(Note: The link above is to the post with a complete .pdf of the article. If you prefer to not read it as a .pdf, part 1, part 2, and part 3 can be read separately.)
Wife In The Fast Lane
One of my favorite blogs, ReFem, recently featured this post entitled, “Wife In The Fast Lane.” (I wish I could have been the one to come up with such a catchy title for a post, but, nope, can’t take credit for this one. ;)) I originally just forwarded it to a few close friends who I knew would share my viewpoint and appreciate the content, but perhaps there’s someone else out there that could benefit from it.
I see my role as teammate, #1 cheerleader, a support, and helper to Matt as the most important part in my life. I know that to a lot of people this idea just sounds plain crazy, but because I believe what the Bible says about my life this is the first priority in my life, second only to my relationship with God. I think I could probably write for about a decade about all of my thoughts on this because I’d really like to thoroughly explain them, but I guess I’ll just have to do that in little chunks :)
Because this is such a large part of my life, I’ve grown to deeply appreciate articles and books on the topic. I’ve posted links to other ReFem articles before, but I think this is the first one I’ve posted on marriage. The author of this particular article has been through some major difficulties in life, and I know that I respect her thoughts even more so because of that.
In church/Christian circles, it seems that women (me included) to whom God has given a husband can often get super-involved in book studies, relationships with other women, helping to meet various needs in the church (which are all excellent things to be involved in), but this articles reminds us that our primary God-given ministry is to our husbands. This plays out in many different ways in different women’s lives, but it’s something that I believe we need to carefully consider.
Oh, dear…I think I could just rehash the whole article, but I’ll just let you go ahead and read it :)
Religion is a Problem in the World
Great explanation on one of the main problems with religion (INCLUDING CHRISTIANITY) in the world.
Meditate on this.
Elena’s big news
Elena says:
“I’m gonna be a big sister!”
(First I have to figure what “big sister” means, but Mom and Dad seem to think that I’ll like it :) And they said that I have until October to figure it out :) )
Saturday Night at The Heeremas
(Matt and Nancy sitting across from each other at the dinner table, each messing with their computers…)
Matt: humming annoying song
Nancy: “If you’re trying to impress me, that song isn’t helping.”
Matt: “What if I tried a different one.”
Nancy: Rolls eyes
Matt: sings “You never close your eyes, anymore whe…”
Nancy: interrupting “Okay, THAT makes me want to close my laptop and hit you over the head with it!”
Matt: laughs “Can I blog this?”
Potty Humor
Today was a big day for us. Elena used the potty for the first time (and she did it four times at different points throughout the day.)
This lead to no end of discussion of pee-pee and poo-pee (as we have affectionately termed it in our household.)
Tonight on our date, which is when we have most of our important family discussions, Nancy asked me if we should come up with a nicer term for… you know.. number one… than “pee-pee”. Something more polite, more delicate. Naturally, I asked why. Apparently the word “pee” is looked down on as a bit of a crude word in some households. “You’re kidding.” I replied. She wasn’t.
So I thought for a moment, and (being in a rather mischievous mood, and it being a private conversation (that I am now sharing with the world)) offered: “How about ‘piss’?”
Shocked gasp from Nancy. Slight rib jab.
“No! I’m serious! It’s a biblical term!”
More shocked gasping. Disbelief.
Read-em and weep. The word “piss” occurs 8 times in the King James Version of the Bible.
* Alright, so I know it’s a crude term. I stopped using it frequently in public a few years ago. (”Aw, piss.” used to be a favorite expression of mine…) Funny story though, right? Don’t worry. We probably aren’t going to teach Elena to say “piss”. Probably.
My New Hobby: Productivity
Oh great. Matt has a new hobby.
Most of you who know me know I have a wide variety of interests and passions. I tend to dive into things I do with a lot of vigor and excitement. Most of you who know me WELL know I tend to have a hard time getting things done, because I have so much to do.
At the SXSW conference I attended a week ago, I got into several conversations around the topic of GTD. I decided I needed a system. I’ve discussed in the past needing a system for finances, diet, and schedule. I’ve found good systems for diet and finances, but had yet to find one for schedule.
Getting Things Done is a sort of system, more of a philosophy, or WAY of doing things that transcends schedules, calendars, and to do lists. Simplifying life, staying organized, keeping accurate schedules (and sticking to them)… it’s more of an approach to life than a scheduling system.
I’ll be writing about my new hobby on my Web Design Blog. Follow along if you dare. :)
Hi, my name is Matt, and I’m creative.
Today, I read a compelling, and surprisingly well-written article in an online magazine that I follow on the topic of Web design. I think I saw a little bit of myself in it. At least, myself as I want to be.
Creativity is an inborn capacity for thinking differently than most, seeing differently, and making connections and perceiving relationships others miss. But most importantly, it is the ability to then extrapolate contextually useful ways of employing that data: to create something that meets a specific challenge. By this definition, creativity is merely a tool; it does not convey skill. For a dedicated few, though, this inborn capacity is then further augmented by certain disciplines, including:
- ongoing curiosity,
- the desire and habit of looking more deeply into things than others care to,
- the habit of comparing stimulus with result, and
- a habit for qualitative discrimination.
It is primarily these disciplines that set top creative professionals apart from those who are merely gifted. It is also these disciplines that help shape a designer’s intuitive senses, which are vital to design craft, processes, and overall success. Being merely creatively gifted is no qualification for design expertise, and the idea that creativity is a magic bullet that anyone or any designer may employ to positive effect is a vacuous notion.
I consider myself to be a creative person. I also like to think that I practice (to some extent) those listed disciplines. I am a “creative professional” but I’m certainly not a “TOP creative professional” (yet). If nothing else, the article was inspiring, and helpful in understanding the appropriate ways of wielding creativity. Give it a read.
On Creativity by Andy Rutledge
Dobson’s Absurdity
Dobson is not going to cast a vote if McCain gets the nomination.
Should Sen. McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life.
Now I am simply astounded. Why would he not, instead, mount a write-in campaign for a more “suitable” candidate?
I wonder how the “If you don’t vote, don’t complain.” axiom will apply here.
Another Political Statement
Be as involved as you possibly can be in politics, without derailing yourself from your mission.
And try to remember that your mission isn’t politics.
Exercise your God-ordained freedom to be a part of choosing (snicker) your next leader.
Be as informed as it is possible to be about the issues.
Be as informed as it is possible to be about the candidates.
Be a Berean about everything any candidate says.
Stop towing (toeing?) party lines. (We are too easily swayed by fine sounding philosophy).
There will never be a savior on capitol hill.
Dan B. makes a wonderful point in the comments of my last post.
Bottomline for me: We’re in a battle being waged by God against the gates of hell. It’s not a political battle, however, and not about prayer in school or amnesty for illegal immigrants or the flat tax, etc. The battle is a rescue mission for people’s souls. So everything should take a back seat to that mission.
Amen brother. I’d like to add:
The battle isn’t even about the government’s stance on Homosexuals entering into a (legal institution that is falsely labeled) marriage.
Abortion… I’m picking that as part of my battle.
“Pray for the rulers that we may live peaceful and quiet lives.”
And that is why I am going to vote for a candidate (even if I have to write one in) that is promising to stay as uninvolved in my life as possible, and to begin the long, revolutionary process of dismantling government systems that meddle with my life, so that I might live in peace and freedom.
The government’s job is to wield a sword to carry out God’s wrath against the wrongdoer. Not to wield a sword to force everyone into a mold.
ALL authority has been instituted by God. Even the authority that convicted, tortured, and murdered his Son… Even several pagan kings who waged war on, imprisoned, and murdered God’s people.
Perhaps history is speaking to us.
I’ll probably have more later.
(Please note that these views are solely held by Matt and Nancy shakes her head, trembles slightly, listens intently, and is generally very intelligent about these things. But she probably doesn’t disagree. I’ll let her speak for herself.)
