Session 6 - Tommy Ice

My battery died a cruel death before Dr. Ice took the stage, and I didn’t have any paper to take notes the way the ancients used to.

So, I shall summarize.

Basically, I was impressed with Dr. Ice’s presentation - but then again, I have always liked him. He’s pretty cool for a Baptist.

Yes, Telos; that was a joke.

Many still don’t like that Calvary Chapel stands solidly and unapologetically on the Blessed Hope; too bad.

One of the things I very much appreciated was the sampling of pre-Darby immanence statements; for those of my fellow brothers-in-arms who didn’t get to make it this year (and are still okay with being part of “our tribe,” whatever that’s supposed to mean), get the DVDs and watch this presentation.

He’s not the scholar that Walvoord was but - who is?

The “busload” graphic, though, was worth the price of admission.

I very much also appreciated that Ice stayed for the afterglow. Very impressed.

 

Before I forget…

Now, how lame is this:

I’m walking out of one of the sessions - Damien’s I think - and I see one of my idols a man I worship from afar a dude I think is super-spiffy - David Guzik, whose online print and audio commentaries I have shamelessly copied into my study notes all but plagiarized used a bit…and he says to me, “Hi, Mike!”

I felt like a teenaged girl in a Menudo show. (Menudo is still groovy, right…?) He knew me! He said my name! I’m never washing these eyballs again! I–

–oh, no wait…I’m wearing a nametag.

D’oh.

What’s the saddest of all is that I thought for sure I was immune to hero worship.

Stupid flesh…

 

Session 5 - Mark Hitchcock

I have never heard Mark Hitchcock speak. I was honestly a little apprehensive about this session, since a proper critique of Preterism is very, very difficult to do fairly in one hour, and honestly my fellow dispies tend to not do their homework very well on this subject.

But given the obvious time constraint, I thought Mark did remarkably well.

• Primary eschatologies:
  • Preterism
    • Full
    • Partial
  • Historicist
  • Idealist
  • Futurist
• Hitchcock does differentiate between Full & Partial Preterism
• Full Preterism is heretical
  • Caveat: you can hold to F.P., & not necessarily be a heretic, though the tendency is very much there.
• Partial P. are brothers
  • They believe in a literal Second Coming
• Hanegraaff is an example of a P. Pret./Idealist
  • He denies it, but hey…
• (Hitchcock is an engaging speaker)
• “If you don’t label yourself, others will label you.”
• Some very articulate & influential brothers are actively promoting Pret. (Sproul, DeMar, Hanegraaff)
• Many people are just tired of date-setting & sensationalism among inconsistent dispies
• Grammatico-Historical hermeneutic is an indispensible cornerstone of good eschatology
• Pret. use Matthew as the “timing key” for Rev.
  • 10:23 - the “Coming” was judgment on Israel in A.D. 70
  • Mat. 16 (answered by ch.17, xfiguration)
  • Mat. 26, (but Caiaphas died approx. A.D. 48, per evidence from ossuary)
  • Mat.24:34 -> Cornerstone of Preterism
    • All hinges on “this generation”
    • Did every eye see Him when He came in supposed judgment?
      • No.
      • Ooops. (for the Pret.)
    • Dr. Walvoord: the fig tree was a natural figure
      • Beware of date-setting!
    • “This generation” is the one alive when these things begin to be fulfilled.
• One question by the disciples: when will this be, & what events signal them?
• “You will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
  • Implies a gap in time
  • Implies ethnic Israel will cry out for Him before 2nd Coming
• Didache regards 2nd. Com. Was future to it
• Pret. is primarily/essentially about the dest. of the Temple, end of the Old Covenant, divorce of Israel
• Preterists: small numbers are literal, but large numbers are literal
  • …unless it becomes too inconvenient, then small #’s are symbolic, too
• Rev. is the bill of divorcement of Israel to Preterism
• Nero is the Beast of Rev.13
  • …according to Pret.
• The Achilles’ Heel of Pret. is the dating of the Book of Rev.

I was doubly-blessed this session…in that though I was still consigned to the overflow, I got to hang with Chik Chikeles, Eric Cartier, and Sandy Adams. Eventually Bill Desrocher came by, too.

…but Chik apparently didn’t have quite the same opinion about Mark’s session that I did…

…I’m just saying, is all…

 

Session 4 - Damien Kyle

This conference just keeps on getting better and better. After sitting with Tom Stipe in the overflow room during Roger Wing’s first workshop, getting to ask him some questions, then a great lunch of BBQ out under God’s glorious (if somewhat hot - thank God He called me to Michigan) sky, I had my non-existent socks blown off by Damien “The 21^st Century’s Chucky Spurgeon” Kyle.

Oh.

My.

• Paul was in Thessalonica only three Sabbaths
  • Despite that brevity, a healthy church was established
  • The believers were living & thinking as if Jesus could return any minute
    • There is a direct correlation between the one & the other
• Paul believed that the doctrine of the Rapture had/has a very powerful influence on the Church
  • Does this expectation dominate my thinking…?
• One of the most important influences of the doctrine: a concern for practical holiness
• Purity begins with knowing God’s standard:
  • V.3 -> abstain from sexuality
    • Includes fornication
    • Adultery
    • Prostitution
    • Etc.
  • Paul purposefully uses a very broad term in porneia
• I must, as an act of my will, continually choose to make God’s standard my standard
  • And I must cultivate a desire to live a holy life
  • Gotta bring the “want to” to the table
    • It’s not enough to know what to do
• God is the source
  • He gives the desire and the power to live holy
• Do I hold the commitment to live after God?
• My desire to live pure must come from a realization that my life is not my own - Jesus bought
  me at terrible price
  • And so my life is set apart for Him - for His pleasure & use
• I need to remember - my God has the right to demand whatever He wants from me
  • A commitment to sustained holy living was the mark of the Apostles & great men of faith
• There is a price to pay
• Seemingly harmless things, that I think I can control
  • I may have a technical right to engage in things that are not expedient to holiness & purity
• When I no longer view my life as sanctified - I set myself up for a fall
  • I never come to the point I can say I’ve “paid my dues” and can “relax”
• Pastors aren’t called because they’re so holy
  • Instead, because our Lord knows if He doesn’t keep us busy with spiritual things, we’d booger it
    • AMEN.
• I must become wholly a slave of righteousness
  • Otherwise I’ll become a slave of sin
• I must maintain a commitment to this
  • I must willingly & purposefully sow to the spirit
• The fear of the Lord - especially in this - is good
• Do I really realize the cost of sexual sin?
  • To me? My witness?
  • My wife?
  • My son?
  • The church I get to pastor?
• Fear God’s retribution to shepherds who fall in this!
  • The fear (terror, dread) of God is clean (and cleansing)
• My ultimate motive for pure living: to please my God.
  • He’s been so good, so gracious, so longsuffering
• Maintaining of a love relationship with God that means more to me than the temptation
  • It takes a passion to conquer a passion
  • Do I love my God more than I hate my sin?
• Daily “quiet time”
• The “how”:
  tho power of the Holy Spirit
  • The baptism, & then the continual re-filling

 

Between Sessions

So most of my brothers-in-arms are in the workshops currently.

I can wait for the MP3s for the workshop sessions for today.

So I head back, drawn like Mark “Blankety-Blank” Driscoll to controversy, to the Overflowing Cup.

Robert Hall (who was once a Lieutenant on my ship, the USS Horne - also here - but long before I came onboard in 1992) pretty much literally knocked me out of line just as I reached the front and was ready to order…and then cruelly absconded with my bill, paying for me.

The cad.

I sit down to check e-mail,
upload my notes for David Rosales’ session (which, by the way, blew my mind - this is one that the servanthood at CC Lakeshore will listen to, definitely), enjoy my Lieutenant-bough-mocha, realize that MySpace is blocked here so I can’t update that until I get back to the lodge, and see, sitting across from me, also skipping school the workshop sessions, Tim “Doulos” Burns.

Sitting at the table directly to my left is Dennis Agajanian, encouraging a young lady who wants to get into professional music. He doesn’t know the meaning of the phrase “inside voice,” so I can’t help but to overhear…and be tremendously blessed.

Other than the fact that I miss my wife & son something fierce, and that I can’t believe I haven’t gone into the hot pools yet, it’s a pretty good day so far…

 

Session 3 - David Rosales

• We all go through tough times But it’s what God shows us through the tough times that really matter
• Emphasize the (written) Word of God - it points infallibly to the (living) Word of God
• “I am eternally grateful to you.”
  • That’s what’s in the balance
• “We’re not in it for budgets & bodies.”
• “My people can watch the news if they want that - what they need from the pulpit is the Word of God.”
• I need to model the Word, not just teach it.
  • I must impart my life to the people
  • They can read my notes if it’s just about Bible study disconnected from a life that reflects it
• Common question I’m going to hear: “Do you also want to go away?”
• Affliction & anguish bring that into my life
  • But they’re an indispensible part of discipleship
  • A part of being conformed to Jesus’ image
  • “the saw & chisel are cruel tools, but are needed to take crude stone & make it what it needs to be.”
• Tozer - not a megachurch pastor, but very influential - pshaw with numbers.
  • It’s more about living it
• Psalm 119:71
• Spurgeon: “if we would be scholars, we must be sufferers. God’s word is best read by wet eyes.”
• “To whom shall I go? You only have the words of life”
• Afflictions purify
  • They help me center on the eternal
  • They can authenticate my ministry
    • I’m obviously not in it for the money & fame!
• What have I done to prepare the church for my eventual removal?
  • I must prepare Elishas, Joshuas, & Timothys
• Regular discipleship is critical
  • Dave takes his men with him on ministry visits & trips
• Paul discipled Timothy
  • Build the ministry on the foundation that God has given
• I don’t want somebody who wants to just teach…I want somebody who loves the sheep
• Shepherds love the sheep - not use or abuse them

 

 

A Fragile Hope

My pastor just sat down and showed me this video…this is by some of the kids in his fellowship.

Awesome…

{{stuipd WordPress won’t embed it…}}

 

Devotions

• David glories in the grace & forgiveness of the Lord - his iniquities were covered
  • His iniquities weren’t accounted to his account
  • How much more am I blessed?
    • Not only are my iniquities not accounted - Jesus’ righteousness is…!
• If David, the man after God’s own heart, could live a lie…how mucu more me?
  • I am capable of living a lie
  • I don’t want to live a lie!!!
• God dealt with Dave - hand of correction - dryness
  • Don’t despise the chastening of the Lord
• Sin translates to spiritual drought
• David confessed - he didn’t make excuses
  • That’s what opened the door for experiencing true renewal & refreshing
• I need to stop making excuses.
• “You are my hiding place…You always fill my heart with songs of deliverance…”
• As David is worshipping & expressing himself to God, God speaks to him (vv.8-9)
  • I’m not here to hear more Bible studies…God desires to speak to me
  • I need to be looking & listening
• I don’t want to be vomitted to get where God wants me to be (Jonah)
• The small things are important to God
  • I want to be led by God’s eye - I don’t want to wait for the bit & bridle
  • What affects the “small” areas of my life will affect the “large” areas
  • “I don’t want you to be wild & unbroken.”
• Abraham got tired of waiting…and then Ishmael came

 

After the session

My lovely and gracious wife was text-messaging me an ongoing play-by-play of the game - I absolutely adore that woman.

Anyway, the Wings just went up 3-2 with 10 minutes left in regulation when I shut off the phone for Bob Caldwell’s session. So you can imagine the cry of anguished fury when the session was over, I turned the phone back on and - the Pens tied it up with 34 seconds left in regulation.

D’oh.

But while I was in the Overflowing Cup, with NHL.COM loaded up and listening to the game online while on the phone with my wife during the last bit of the second and all of the third overtime periods, I did get to hang with Chad Myhre and Centorian, from The Blog Of Which We Do Not Speak.

However, I had to run the gauntlet all the way back to Lakeside Lodge, with loving and gracious pastors (especially the dudes from Colorado - you know who you are…) heckling my every, stunned step.

I did get to chat with Bill Walden on my way back to the lodge, who was marinating in the Roman Spa. He’s a good brother.

It’s all good, though. I really think my wife was more disappointed in the outcome of the game than I was.

Did I mention how much I adore that woman…?

Right now, two of my roomates are synchronized-snoring. I’m fighting the powerful temptation to walk over to one/both of them and put their hands in warm water or dab some shaving cream on their hands or something equally mature and pastorial.

…must…fight urge to…be a…punk…

Lurking on The Blog Of Which We Do Not Speak, and heading to sleep myself.

I miss my wife and son.

Did I mention how much I adore her…?

 

Session 2 - Bob Caldwell

• It’s amazing what an environment of faith, love, and truth can do.
• We limit ourselves to ourselves too much.
• Paul had a heart of great boldness in God, but with great conflict.
  • The people who had wanted his help initially, turned on him & lit into him
  • “The last time I was sent somewhere by God, I got my head kicked in!”
  • …but is it worth it?
  • …it is if you’re called.
• Can’t look back - keep fighting through for the sake of the people God called you to.
• Conflicts are part of the ball game - they don’t go away.
• “If you think about it, most of us (pastors) just aren’t all that sane.”
• The devil would love you to “play church.”
• Satan hates your guts.
• Conflict is a gift - it’s a great purifier - it will either crush us, or draw us to the Lord.
• This isn’t heaven - so get up & fight
• “We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel” - & that’s wat drove Paul on.
• Am I seeking to please God…?
• If I’m seeking to be approved, I will be tested.
  • Everything I want to trust in I want to be tested
  • What’s more powerful, more important than the Gospel?
• Does the Gospel own my heart…?
• My relationship with this Book (the Bible) is a heart thing.
• I would rather teach a small little sermon that had real faith than a fancy one with sophistication that draws men to my imagined greatness.
• Don’t despise the day of small beginnings.
  • That Bible study for 5 people is just as important to God as one for 5000
• What is it that’s holding me back?
  • Does the Lord have my heart, or have I let it grow cold…?
• A local church, to not labor in vain, I must have a mother’s affection for the people.
  • Does my son ever thank me for changing his diapers?
  • …see how this applies to the ministry?
  • It’s not about being appreciated - and I probably won’t be
• Pastors have to be “non-quitters” - but also gentle.
• God would fan the flame of someone who was about to go out.
• There are many bruised people - treat them
  with gentleness, not brutality.
  • We can’t be too busy not to cherish the people & be gentle.
  • Chuck seems to love everybody - even the bruised.
• Give not just the Gospel, but mylife, too
  • When you give your heart to people, you’re going to get hurt.
  • Paul wasn’t a disconnected professional.
  • Many of the people you give your life for won’t like you.
    • Do it anyway.
• Fathers invest in their kids and don’t expect anything in return.
• The Gospel is what it’s about - not me.