Trackback Test

This is just a Trackback Test...

I've moved.

...to arongahagan.com.

(thanks, RD!)

Joe and Sarah (photo test)

Just a quick photo test. (More photos here.)

John Owen: On Mortification

After two years or so of reading a paragraph every few weeks, I've finally made it through John Owen's (87-page) Of the Mortification of Sin in the Body of Believers, etc.. I took Edwards' advice and read with pen in hand (er, laptop on desk) to record anything that came to mind or thoughts to pursue, etc.

I could've just copied this entire book down. Owen certainly doesn't misuse any words; they're fine tune so that he packs into a single sentence what in today's literary currency would fill 2 volumes. The more Owen and Edwards (et al) I'm exposed to, the more verbal inflation (too many words expressing not much depth) I see everywhere. (Including here.)

I would commend this book to anyone. Banner of Truth puts out a smaller version than this ancient copy I read for about $6. Order it here.

In other news, I'm half way through David Allen's Getting Things Done (and I actually am getting things done), and Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. More on those later (maybe).

Come and Well Come

well, it's official.

I've made this blog public. Not sure how you found it, but welcome. There isn't any candy coating here; I've been through some dark days and some glorious days--it's all here. Feel free to browse the archives (some of them aren't all that bad, actually!), leave comments, challenge me, etc.

Welcome to some thoughts!

Kierkegaard and Purity of Heart

In his recent book, Dr. Sam Storms quoted from Soren Kierkegaard's Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing. I haven't read it, but from the passage quoted in the front of his book, I'm pretty sure that I disagree.

I do so because no one wills one thing. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." [Gal. 5:17] Every one wills more than one thing (even God), but everyone also wills one thing most. God is not willing that any man should perish, yet many of us will--because God has a higher will (for the Arminian, the higher will is that men choose him without his intervention, for the Calvinist, the higher will is that God aims to display the full range of his character in the next age: both justice and wrath on the vessels of wrath, and grace, kindness, and mercy on the vessels of mercy--but either way, there are two wills in God in operation). Surely God is the 'wholly other' example of purity of heart?

I submit that purity of heart is not to will one thing, but to will the correct thing, most. Kierkegaard was no doubt a smart and devout man--smarter and more devout that I am--but I don't think he got this right. Romans 7 may also be in support of this.

So, I think purity of heart is to will the correct thing most.

just a thought.

Restoration

I have neither the time nor the words to express what happened this past weekend. The Lord spoke to me and through me. The illustration and imagery I 'received' just before speaking knocked me to my knees and I literally streamed tears as I praised my saviour--my rescuer, my hero. It was as it should be.

The title of this post is probably a bit much, but I feel a strong sense of restoration beginning. I have walked in so much peace and joy and warmth of love--all that I had been missing--a fullness just of life bursting from reality, time itself warm and alive and reaching out to comfort me. An utter closeness; praise the mighty name of Christ Jesus!! Thank you, Lord, thank you for the unthinkable privilege of speaking about you, and of exhorting your church.

On Relationship

Ask a man about his relationship with his wife and, hopefully, he doesn't point to a marriage license or a picture on the wall. Hopefully he pulls his wife into his side, and kisses her on the cheek. "I know I'm married, and I know I'm in love, because my beloved is right here."

It wasn't a "transaction." It wasn't an "agreement." It is a covenant relationship.




If only I felt in my heart what I know in my mind.

Albert Mohler: The Revolt Against Human Nature

I imagine this, with the inherent longing in each (most?) of us to discover we're superhuman [how jealous were you when you watched x-men??]; how many of us didn't want to wake up one day and be a friendly neighborhood webslinger? Just as Eve's curse was a disposition to usurp the headship of Adam, so also the second eve (and humans in general) are disposed to usurp the headship of the second Adam--Christ Jesus. In other words, we want to be little gods. We want supreme unhindered volition, and we want it our way, at the click of a button, and infinitely customizable to my own wants. "You shall be like God; knowing both good and evil."

"As it was in the days of Noah...[He] will not strive with man forever."

"Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus."

See article here.