When Character Was King

When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan by Peggy Noonan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Noonan is a great writer. She captures the spirit of the man and his motives very well.

She often takes on a sentimental tone, with lots of inside jokes and obscure people. (Noonan is an insider herself, so has a penchant for name dropping, and letting us know she is in the know, it seems.) You have to let some of this go over your head, and just grab what you can.

The book is light on policy – what was Reagan actually trying to do? It’s in there now and then, mostly indirectly, but the author seeks to depict the man more personally. (Reading Noonan lately, I wonder if she has drifted away from his agenda and policy goals.)

If you appreciate Reagan, this book is worth your time.

3 stars



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What Did You Expect?

What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage by Paul David Tripp

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Paul Tripp puts out a lot of books, and they are all good.

He holds up a mirror to normal people’s lives and how sin is messing us up.
He targets the heart – our desires are off base and need recalibrating.
He uses Scripture well to offer real solutions that aren’t simple or cliché.

Here he addresses the marriage that has moved past the honeymoon stage into some significant problems, possibly even wondering if it is over. This can be a huge opportunity to grow spiritually, more so than the honeymoon phase.

Tripp can be wordy, but that can help slow you down and really consider, which is hard for us to do these days.
He also focuses almost solely on the heart, making it quite individualistic in application. Seldom does he mention the church or mentoring couples as substantively helpful. This is the biggest oversight in his writing. But what he does – apply to the heart – he does well.



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Knowing Christ

Knowing Christ by Mark   Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve read three of Mark Jones’ books now, and have yet to be disappointed.
Here he brings his extensive knowledge of the puritans to bear on a devotional treatment of Christ’s attributes. Each chapter is about 8 pages, for easy reading in one sitting. Solidly orthodox, Jones covers His birth, death, resurrection, offices, etc. as expected. But he isn’t afraid to give a little creative touch, too, with chapters on Christ’s emotions, His growth, and His reading.

One recurring and helpful theme is that Jesus had faith in His Father, and practiced that faith in normal ways as we are called to do: reading Scripture, praying, obeying His parents, etc. Christian authors today tend to focus on how Jesus is uniquely different from us, to preserve that divine uniqueness. But Scripture also calls Him our example, and we follow in His steps. How can we if He only did things none of us can do (healing, dying for the sins of others, etc.)?

Another theme is that the Psalms are written ABOUT Jesus. Not just in a prophetic, predicting the Messiah to come kind of way, but all the time – in His suffering, bearing the sin of His people, ruling as King, etc.

Full of insight and encyclopedic referencing of Scripture, Knowing Christ exalts Christ highly, as Scripture does, explaining how in fresh ways. This is an important read for anyone seeking to know Jesus more.

4 stars!


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Something Wicked This Way Comes

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Best known for his Martian Chronicles or Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury is an excellent writer – pretty easy to read, yet stretching vocabulary and compelling prose at times.

“The stuff of nightmare is their plain bread. They butter it with pain. They set their clocks by deathwatch beetles, and thrive the centuries. They were the men with the leather-ribbon whips who sweated up the Pyramids seasoning it with other people's salt and other people's cracked hearts.”

He evokes the looming sense of dread quite well, that something wicked this way is coming. He depicts friendship between the two boys beautifully.


Bradbury’s worldview is sad. Pathetic. The basic message seems to be that we make too much of death and evil, and give it its power by our own fears. If we would just smile, sing and dance, evil would vanish in a puff of smoke, and death would be undone. This is literally what happens at the end. It’s a ridiculous counterfeit savior from death, evil and hell.

1 star for content; 3 for writing skill. 2 stars over all.

Good reading for high school boys who can spot inadequate secular solutions to real spiritual problems.



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Overton Window // Federal Vision // Is Christmas Pagan?

I haven't read Doug Wilson much recently, but the last section of this post is excellent.
He explains there why he blogs like he does.  He believes evangelicals have placed too high a priority on being winsome and gaining (or maintaining) influence with normal people.

I'm partially convinced, but also think it depends greatly who you're talking to.  Not everyone responds well to being shocked and provoked into considering the truth.  But Wilson's right that the way things are going, simply stating biblical truth - as blandly, calmly or winsomely as possible - is itself shocking and unacceptable now.


Speaking of Wilson, this was an extremely clarifying conversation on Federal Vision between James White and Doug Wilson.  I was a bit taken aback on one point.  A couple years ago Doug said he no longer wanted to be considered a Federal Vision guy, but here (I assume this video is more recent) he gives his older line that he sees himself as a light version of Federal Vision.
[Update: Doug says he was describing his past view there - he does not call himself FV at all anymore.]


Finally, Jeff Meyers has a series of essays answering questions of whether Christmas is a syncretistic compromise with our culture.

The Boar's Head Festival

I'd heard of this custom, but again, didn't know much about it.

Recently I got to attend the whole show, with dozens of cast, a large choir and orchestra, in a packed and beautiful chapel.

The first half acts out a medieval feast, with good King Wenceslas as host, while the choir sings Christmas carols.

Here's the cool part: the name comes from the centerpiece of the feast, and the core meaning of Christmas.  In England, the main hostile creature is not a serpent or a lion, but a boar in the forest.  Bringing in his head on a platter signifies the defeat of evil, the serpent's head crushed.  Time to feast!

"The mightiest Hunter of them all
We honor in this festal hall...
He hunted down through earth and hell
The swart boar death until it fell.
This mighty deed for us was done.
Therefore we sing in unison"

The second half acts out the nativity story, and at the end the revelers from the first half all return and bow down to baby Jesus.  The climax comes on the last verse of Let All Mortal Flesh, as good King Wenceslas approaches and bows to the Christ Child.  Concluding with O Come All Ye Faithful invites the audience to take part in worshiping our God.

I noticed an important subtle action at the end.  All the cast who were looking at baby Jesus and singing praise to Him, at one point looked up beyond Him, giving thanks to God the Father for giving this gift.  This is a much needed and bracing cure for the sentimentalism that can infect our holidays, where we only look at the nativity scene for how nice it looks.  No, this was God's gift to us, and we should look from the gift (the scene and baby Jesus) to the Giver.

Fum, Fum, Fum

So we sang this one caroling yesterday afternoon.  I'd heard it a time or two, but didn't know much about it.  I thought it was pronounced with a short u (rhymes with bum), but it's from Spain (Catalonia) originally.

Fum appears to refer to smoke, like from a chimney (think winter cottage scene).  For a familiar related word, think of no smoking signs in Spanish - no FUMar. 

Or it might mean "strum," or to sound like a strum. 

Either way, the song is 200-300 years old.

Knowing Christ - chapters 23-24

Chapter 23 - Christ's People

We cannot love Jesus without loving what He loves: His church.
Jesus loves the church because:
1. The Father calls Him to.
2. The Spirit enables Him to.
3. It glorifies Himself as the Son, and He seeks His own glory properly, as God.

The church in the New Testament is called by the same names as Israel in the Old Testament.
Chosen, elect, beloved.

The church is the fullness of Christ, which means that in some way He is incomplete without us.
[He has voluntarily made it so; God is all-sufficient in Himself, of course.]

The church is made like Christ.
In His faith in God, we should imitate Him.

One day the church will be pure, as Christ is pure (1 John 3:3).
God "tolerates the world for our sake."


Chapter 24 - Christ's Wrath
Jesus knows the wrath of God more than anyone, experiencing it on the cross.
He will also execute it on the ungodly in the end.

When God appeared to judge in the Old Testament it was usually Jesus.
The angel of the Lord was Jesus.  (Genesis 22:11-18; Exodus 3:2-12; Revelation 10)

Jesus spoke of the reality of Hell more than anyone in the Bible.
He Himself divides people, because He put Himself between God and sinners at the cross.
Some cling to Him; most "leap over" Him.

God appoints Jesus as judge.  (John 5:27)
He has perfect knowledge of our works (Heb. 4:13; Rev. 3:1).

We don't emphasize Hell and the wrath of the Lamb as we ought.
"Hell glorifies Christ.  If it did not, it would not exist."

Knowing Christ - chapters 19-21

Chapter 19 - Christ's Death

The Son willingly went to His death.  John 10:17-18.

The Father definitely appointed Him to it.
 - "Not Judas for money, not Pilate for fear, not the Jews for envy, but the Father for love!"
God's will is one, not contradictory.

When Jesus asked for the cup to pass from Him, in Gethsemane:
 - it shows He knew the horror of Calvary to come:
 - He endured the cross, for the joy set before Him (Heb. 12:2).

If the Son wasn't willing, His death wasn't just.

His sacrifice was a sweet smell in God's nose (Ephesians 5:2).
 - because of who He was as the Son of God.

Remember the Son's willingness and the Father's acceptance, of Jesus' sacrifice.


Chapter 20 - Christ's Resurrection
Essential to our faith [though Lewis missed it??]
Jesus predicted it.
The Father vindicated His Son by it.
The Spirit brought it about (Rom 1:4).
The Son raised Himself - John 10:18.
His Body:  the same, but different...
 - a firstfruits of our own.


Chapter 21 - Christ's Exaltation
His resurrection began His exaltation, and they are connected.
His ascension was not getting away from earth.
His res. shows Him to be Lord of all (Matt. 28:18).
His ascension was His path to glorification.
His arrival in Heaven, His reception by His Father, must have been glorious!
His enthronement as prophet, priest and king.