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  • My Sung Ode to the Outer Banks

    (Tune:  the old Latvian SSR anthem, by A. Lepina)

     

    1.

    From Blackbeard’s haunt to Hatteras Light

    Through Pea’s Refuge to Wrights’ Hill of First Flight

    The Outer Banks rose from th’azure main

    And gave Carolina her seaborne crown

     

    Curfa:

    God graced these wond’rous Banks with Mercy and Beauty,

    far more than is ever deserved from Him!

     

    2.

    Through stormy gale and fierce hurricane

    The islands stand though tempest has raged

    God sheltered her brave citizens through trial

    Even when Isabel made a new inlet.

     

    (Curfa)

     

    3.

    (3rd verse in process)

     

    (Curfa 2X)

     

    Tune link:  http://folk.ntnu.no/makarov/temporary_url_20070929kldcg/anthem-ssr-latvian-instr-1968.mp3

     

     

  • The loss of a good friend (my grandfather)

     I am already experiencing a heavy week. My grandfather Billy passed last night (Sunday night). I have a lot of good memories of him and am very grateful to the Lord for his life as he a Christian was a devoted family man and true gentleman often to the point of sacrificing of his own time and possessions and was very physically active until he turned 80. One memory was Sunday lunch as a child when he would take one or two of my grandmother's homemade biscuits, put a delicious butter-syrup (King's Syrup) mixture on it, and give it to his grandchildren (my sister, my 2 cousins, and I) as a special after-dinner treat. Then of course, there was the time he let me drive his truck around the block when I was 12, and I accidentally took out the neighbor's mailbox.

  • Two great testimonies on God and America

    Seen on the back of a Ford Van while driving home last week:

    "God HAS BLESSED America.  America, Bless God."

    Sen. Fred Thompson after the opening prayer of a NASCAR race:

    "God Bless America, and America, Bless God."

     

    (We have indeed enjoyed God's Blessings even though we as a wicked nation do not deserve His Blessings.  Isn't it about time that America starts blessing God?!)

  • Transferring churches (update - 6/10/07)

    (Dates are in d/m/y format.)

    Pastoral meeting (30/9/07):

    Last Saturday, I met with my immediate pastor and was accompanied by a few of my truest friends, those friends from small group (called "Care Groups" in my church) that care for what matters most, the salvation and sanctficiation of souls to the glory of God.   We discussed doctrinal differences, Care Group involvement, and how I was doing spiritually.   No agreement was had on the doctrinal differences except Discipleship, but the dialogue was very useful in understanding more clearly where CLC is headed and where CLC and I stand.   We open and honestly disagreed without losing focus on our fundamental unity in the Gospel and without sacrificing charity.   They especially the pastor exhorted me to ensure that the new church will care for my soul especially regarding a struggle with particular, besetting sin I currently have.  From that, it is clear that I will remain at CLC for a little while longer while I ask more questions of the new church regarding care of souls, and I made a commitment to the meeting group to make further investigation into the new church.   CLC is supporting of my transfer only as long as the new church is adequately caring for souls.

    Care Group Men's meeting (2/10/07):

    The topic of transferring churches along with my business venture was discussed for the majority of the meeting.   To say the least, it was a strong test of humility on my part since with what was said amongst us, it put me on the strong defensive and strongly wondered if I had a bullseye on me.   Unfortunately, I failed the test of humility by compromising charity at one point when I verbally shot at one brother with countering words motivated mainly by prideful anger.  The brothers did give me a few good things about which to think.   Although the last time I lost my cool in a discussion was 2004 (long victory by God's Grace), I still need to grow in humility and charity especially when a group of people start interrogating me.   Immediately after the meeting, I reconciled with my offended brother-friend who patiently reassured me that the Care Group is not against me but alongside me and helping me to put off sin and put on Christ.

  • Bleeeh.....

    All I want right now is to have a nice cup of soothing tea, hot shower, and go to bed.   Since Sunday, I've had a scratchy throat.  Went to doctor yesterday and received antibiotics.   Coming home from work, I felt worse (headachy, low energy, loss of appetite).   I normally don't loose my appetite when sick.    Perhaps it is a cold; if it is, I hope it is short.

  • Transferring churches (update)

    My decision is 95% firm.   I've chosen to wait until I meet with my immediate Elder and my Care Group (church small group) leader late this month to see what wisdom they may impart.  

  • Addendum to "Transferring"

    Headcoverings (last Sunday's sermon at CLC) and hair length

    My belief:

    11.  1.Corinthians 11:1-16 gives the Scriptural warrant and hence perpetual command for women to wear headcoverings during worship.   Just as with the claimed abrogation of infants from the Covenant (and covenant signs and seals), there is no Scriptural abrogation of women wearing headcoverings.  

    On short hair on women, I admit that I am confused on verse 6 since I don't know what Paul is saying in verse 6 or with what mood (sarcasm, situational self-contradiction on the shaver's part, etc.) he's saying it.  Not sure if God is saying short hair on women is allowed or not.   I am not worried about it since one can still be saved regardless of hair length and headcovering.

  • The Re-establishment of Stormont in Northern Ireland: Repugnant to Christ's Crown (2nd ed.)

    New Title: "Stormont, Irish Republicanism, and the Bible"

     

    Having European ancestry, I tend to take a keen interest in the culture and affairs of my ancestral homelands especially Ireland, UK, the Commonwealth of Nations, and Spain.  

     

    Relatively recently, the Stormont legislature was re-established a few years after Sir Dave Trimble crashed it the first time (by God’s Providence).  (He should not have been made a Life Peer in the House of Lords by Her Majesty, but that is another matter.)     

     

    Succinctly, the re-establishment of Stormont is very contrary to Scripture and the subordinate Westminster Standards (including the Covenants to which the UK and her current and former colonies are bound) secondarily.   First of all, a Government is ordained of God and commissioned by God to uphold true Christianity, to encourage and protect those that do good, to threaten and punish those that do evil, and to suppress any heresy against Christ and His Church (from Rom. 13 and other passages).    Romans 13 calls public officers as a minister of God (not be confused with the office of minister in the Church).   Also elsewhere in Scripture, it mentions not to be unequally yoked together, and that has been further reinforced in the past when God in the OT warned Israel to not mix with unclean and evil nations or causes external or internal to Israel and also when God warned the Church (and nations I think) not to take part in adultery lest we would become one with the harlot.  

     

    Stormont has an administration that reflects varied spiritual and political interests.   The public officers are a mixture of Catholics and Protestants as well as Unionists and Irish Republicans.    Any Presbyterian or Dutch Reformed, who holds to the original Westminster Standards or Three Forms of Unity respectively, would know that Catholicism is a false religion, represents a false Gospel, and is led by AntiChrist.     (Even my non-Presbyterian Elders at CLC know that!)   I don’t know what to think of Unionism yet; it has its Scriptural and non-Scriptural points.    Being a former supporter of the Irish Republican cause until 2006, I have a good handle on what goals Irish Republicanism has.   Yes, the UK has done egregious things toward Ireland and should make restitution to the Irish Republic.    Whether UK should give the northern 6 counties back to the Irish, the answer depends on what government the new united Ireland wants to establish.  (This principle also applies to the USA’s Independence in 1776.)  Enter the 2 goals of Irish Republicanism:   a 32-county united Irish Republic (vs. the current 26-county Irish Republic) and a heavily socialist form (read Communist) of government.    Communism is undoubtedly evil and is a self-contradicting form of government.   It still creates classes of people (the Communist have’s and the non-Communist have-not’s) with special bonuses for the faithful Communists.    It promotes the worldly ideal of feminism, and by Government bureaucratic nonsense, Communism stifles technology.    Then, as we have seen in the Khruschev era, they sacrifice safety to play technology catch-up.   It praises man and forgets and abandons God for any success the Communist nation may experience.   Communism is God-less and at best, spiritually pluralistic.  (These and other things are the reasons why I rejected and renounced Irish Republicanism in 2006.)    Simply, Communism is contrary to God’s Word.

     

    On restitution by the UK, I believe the UK should NOT give the 6 counties of Northern Ireland to the Republic until the Republic forms a Government that upholds Christ’s Crown and Covenant lest Christ’s Crown would lose ground to a communist civil government if the Irish Republican goals were attained.   (Irish Republicanism with its Communist goals should be thwarted and killed.)

     

    Stormont (in addition to the US Government), in addition to having Christians in public office, has adherents of religions and political causes that are clearly contrary to God’s Word.   Those adherents are people who are Catholic or Irish Republican.   Though Stormont may aid in relieving longstanding tensions between the North and the South, it is a spiritual catastrophe since it is an unequally yoked and spiritually pluralistic Government due to the adherents of the false religion Catholicism and the evil Irish Republican cause.  In short, Stormont is uniting itself politically and spiritually with a harlot.    If a Government has adherents of false religions or evil causes (Catholicism, Mormonism, Arminianism, Atheism, or whatever false religion) to govern a people, how can that Government be true to God’s commission as civil ministers of God per Romans 13?    

     

    The UK, Eire, and the USA have failed to be faithful to God’s commission on Government.   The Republics of Eire and the USA introduced spiritual pluralism, pantheism, and atheism since their beginning (USA – 1776 and Eire – 1920’s) through the US’s Declaration of Independence and their respective Constitutions.  (Given the Government that the United States wanted to establish and has established, the USA was wrong to declare independence from His Majesty George III despite the unfair taxation of the colonies.)  The US also has adherents of false religions in Government (a Catholic Justice on the Supreme Court, a Mormon Senator of Utah, etc.).    I am grateful for the UK’s establishment of the Protestant Reformed Christianity (per the Westminster Standards) by their Britannic Majesties and Parliament since 1649 and the Glorious Revolution and again in 1953 when Her Majesty swore a coronation oath (before God, lords, and commons) to uphold Protestant Reformed Christianity.  

     

    With the poor spiritual health and great national sins of all 3 nations, the only solution is to return the nations back to God, and that can only happen through the Gospel and secondarily the Covenants (the National Covenant of Scotland and the Solemn League & Covenant).    Yet even now, our God is merciful to us in that He does not treat us as our sins (national and individual) deserve.   He continues to pour Grace on the nations and begs them with open arms to come to Him.

  • Transferring churches....

    Our church is still very strong in living, teaching, and sharing the Gospel although there have been various administrative and sacramental changes in the church.   In the past, Baptisms have taken place on Lord's Day afternoons after the main Public Worship services.   The Elders have very rightly made changes to include Baptism in Public Worship because the Sacraments set the Gospel visibly before our eyes (as Paul said, our old self buried with Christ in Baptism and raised to newness of life as a new creation).   Not only are the Sacraments a visible representation and seal of the Gospel, they are an expression of unity with other believers in the church.   To strengthen the Unity of the Church as a local expression of God’s family, the Elders are now requiring all future member to go through Believers-Only Baptism and will eventually require all current members to do the same as a Term of Membership (not to be confused with Terms of Communion).     The error of Believers-Only Baptism notwithstanding, the Elders requiring that as a Term of Membership is indeed right and Scriptural since it builds Church Unity (as Paul said, being of the same mind and walking by the same rule of faith).  

     

    Also, the Elders of CLC have chosen to think more about hedging the Table more than their current practice of Latitudinarian Communion, that is, where any repentant Christian may approach the Table without an examination/interview by the Session/Elders.   As long as CLC continues to preach Christ and Him crucified (as it has done since 1977 and DV will continue to do), it is and will continue to be my strong testimony that CLC is a true church (and hence, its members my dear brethren) that both believes, teaches, and passionately lives the Gospel. 

     

    Also, the Elders of CLC have chosen to think more about hedging the Table more than their current practice of Latitudinarian Communion, that is, where any repentant Christian may approach the Table without an examination/interview by the Session/Elders.  

     

    Since I am a Covenanter (Covenanted Presbyterian), I cannot submit to my Elders and be ana-baptized since I, having been baptized as an infant, will not and dare not dishonor God and His Gospel by being baptized again through Believers-Only Baptism.  Obviously, the implication of that relative to the Elders’ Terms of Membership would be eventually having to relinquish my membership.   

     

    Now, to be clear, Baptism is one of several factors of my leaving my current church home.   Other things being worship, holy days, church government, hedging the table, CLC's supposed "Discipleship Group(s)", and a few others.   The eventual Term of Membership is the capstone.

     

    My contrasting beliefs:

    1.  Public worship is exclusively prayer, Scripture songs, reading of Scripture, and teaching of Scripture.   The songs are only from Scripture and are sung without instruments.

    2.  There is no holy day or season other than the Lord's Day or extraordinary days of Fasting and Thanksgiving prescribed by the Session.

    3.  The Lord's Day is to be kept holy without any worldly entertainment and without any unnecessary work, business, or commerce.  This would exclude professional work, laundry, carwashing, grasscutting, playing games or sports, watching sports or other noble entertainment, shopping, staying at a commerical boarding place, and eating at a restaurant.  (The last two are circumstantial since if you are on travel, staying at a hotel and eating are obviously works of necessity unless there is a kitchenette/microwave and refrigerator in the hotel room.)

    4.  Baptism is for Infants born to a Christian parent and for Christian believers not born to a Christian parent.   If the infant is not born to Christian parent, then that infant is not to be baptised until (s)he makes a credible, examined profession of faith in Christ.  Hence, Reformed Baptism is Infant Baptism AND Believers Baptism.

    5.  The form of Church Government is the Presbyterial form.  Elders are not appointed.  Their calling is affirmed by examination of the Session and a vote of the local church's Christian members.  The final court in the church family/denomination is the General Assembly (or in some circumstances, Synod), not the Session.  

    6.  The Lord's Supper is Close Communion, that is, only repentant Christian members of a local church are admitted to the Table at that church.  Non-members, regardless of their salvation or penitence, are not admitted to the Table.

    7.  Discpleship starts when the person is saved, not when the person has attained a certain level of maturity or shows potential of leadership.

    8.  Prophecy is an extraordinary gift, not ordinary gifts, that ceased with the close of the Canon except at occasional times in history when God was pleased to raise them.  Tongues is not a supernatural language but a human language.

    9.  All church officers and communicant members of a local church should subscribe to and own their respective church's Subordinate Standards or Statement of Belief as a Term of Ordination (officers) and as a Term of Communion (officers and members).

    10.  All churches and civil governments within the UK and her current and former colonies and confederations(the Covenanted lands) should subscribe to the National Covenant of Scotland and the Solemn League & Covenant (and the latter Auchensaugh Renovation of the Covenants and the Acknowledgement of Public Sins & Breach of the Covenant), to which the said states and colonies have been bound since 1649. 

     

    I have dialogued with my Session on most of these things.   As long as CLC continues to preach Christ and Him crucified (as it has done since 1977 and DV will continue to do), it is and will continue to be my strong testimony that CLC is a true church (and hence, its members my dear brethren) that both believes, teaches, and passionately lives the Gospel. 

     

    Starting the first Lord’s Day in October, I will be seeking membership in the Free Church of Scotland – Continuing (FCoS-C).   Though it is not a Covenanter church, it is the one closest to Covenanted Presbyterian Christianity and more importantly, Scripture in the Washington, DC, region.   The FCoS-C is not the same as Ian Paisley’s FPC or the Free Church of Scotland – Residual.   The FCoS-C’s statement of belief is the original and unaltered (1647) Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism, and Shorter Catechism.   My personal belief encompasses the entirety of Westminster Standards, part of which are the three mentioned above this sentence.   (We Covenanters do not subscribe to or follow the Ulster Covenant.)   Though the FCoS-C is small in both the UK and USA and a strict branch of the Presbyterian churches, it is a godly church that encourages and challenges people in their walk in the Lord and has missionary activities in South America.

  • An observation affirming the denegerating morals of our generational successors

    I went to Hershey Park yesterday for our annual company picnic (our regular off-day). It was an enjoyable time on the rides and with colleagues, but it was also a spiritually distressing and grieving time. Being an engineer keen on observation (and also thinking about the mechanically mathematical aspects of the respective ride about which I am to enjoy), I observed people while waiting in the ride queues. It seems that the young people's attitude and/or morals (or rather, their hearts) are reflected in their hair. Currently and even moreso over the last several years, they seem to love the Beatles look (John Lennon or Paul McCartney in the 60's come immediately to mind in describing the look) or a "wild" look (think of a wash mop with frizzed and completely tangled filaments). I think that those styles are shaggy, unkempt, and sloppy (like the degenerating morals of today's young people). Yesterday, I firmly decided that if I marry and have children, I will give my son(s) the choice on the length of hair, but in turn, they must keep it neat and well-kept in a manner worthy of the Gospel. Otherwise, like my paternal grandfather (though an unbeliever) almost did to my father once in his teenage years, I will take a sheep shear to my son's hair if he doesn't keep it neat and godly!

    Not only with the hair, I noticed a lot of immodest dress and inappropriate (i.e, unbiblical) affection between courters.  (Yes, immodest dress includes not only females but also males!)  I also noticed the "laid back" footwear (usually nothing more than flip-flops that the ride attendants require removal) that is unwisely and unhygenic for the person who walks barefoot along the pavement though for a short distance (~12 feet). In waiting for my last ride of the day (the 3rd time on my favorite roller coaster that day), I observed people joking about the sexual orientation of homosexuality. It was nice that a young girl of the group apologized to me since she didn't like the joking either.  (Even if the person was homosexual, it should not be publicized because of the rampant, unScriptural homophobia that is present in today's culture.  Homophobia being not justification of homosexuality but the uncharitable judgment of homosexuals.)  Yet God commands us to be good stewards of our bodies that He created and to portray sin truly as sin by not celebrating or joking about sin!

    All of this is on the surface, but the depths they reveal are unbelief and rebellion toward God and sacrificing covenience or look for godliness. The true solution to this is a solution that will not only address the bad fruit but also the root of the cackerous plant. The only solution, that goes straight to the root, is the glorious, freeing Gospel of Jesus Christ: diligently preaching it to ourselves and sharing it with our neighbors. Otherwise, without the Gospel, a person, regardless of age, will continue in their sin and ultimately reap self-destruction in eternal Hell, a place of forever-lasting physical and spiritual torment completely separated from the Merciful Presence of God.

    I distresses and greives me to observe such ungodly things and moves me to compassion for people.  However, I am grateful to God for the Church and for His Law. After to-day, I am certainly more grateful to God for the neat hair, our sisters' modest dress, and appropriate/godly displays of affection found in Gospel-believing, Gospel-living Reformed churches. That certainly reflects our Reformed brethren's desire to love and honor God in how they present themselves (and their Saviour) to the Church, to the ungodly culture, and especially to their Lord and Saviour. It has certainly taught me what God hates and grieves and what He loves and enjoys. That has enabled me to hate and forsake my own sin more and to flee temptation with greater speed.

    A 100,000 thank you's, Christian parents, that have cared for your childrens's souls and sought to raise them in Jesus Christ and in opposition to the current ungodly rebellious culture!

    A 100,000 thank you's to those godly young people who have desired to follow Jesus and walk blamelessly before Him in presenting themselves (and their Savior) in manner of hair, dress, and affection.

    ("Reformed" also includes Reformed-leaning churches that may be Baptistic or charismatic.)


    Whit R., who is
    Covenanter in Belief and Practice

    Covenant Life Church Member (ex officio, not de facto)

    Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) Occasional Visitor