So it is obvious that my posting has slowed considerably, and then when I did post they were either video clips or little things. I know that this is a horrible thing for bloggers. I must admit that I have been a bit overwhelmed with life the last several months. Some of you may be thinking that a single man with no kids should not be so overwhelmed with life. I disagree from the observations of my own life. I over commit. I work a full time Monday thru Friday job, on top
of that I was spending on average 4 nights a week participating in something at church. I also began kickboxing at the beginning of October. My home life consisted of me leaving my home in the morning and then stopping in to change clothes or grab this or that. My condo became for of a convenience store stop for me that my home. I was getting burned out.
This became apparent to me around early November. I began to speak to some people whose counsel I trusted about these feelings. Through that counsel and my own thoughts I decided to take a sabbatical from everything. I would take a break from youth work, choir, etc.. I can't tell you the last time I read a good book on theology or even my Bible consistently. I think that I can be held up as the poster child for doing ministry work, without personal growth. So beginning in January I am free. I still attend Sunday morning worship and sing on the worship team when needed, but that is a one morning a week commitment. The rest of the time I am focusing on some things that I have let slip. I am taking two classes this semester to accelerate finishing this degree hanging over my head. I am also looking to dramatically increase my working out and health goals.
I have also decided that I want to write more. I have long had a dream of being a writer of some sort. This means that I need to actually write something. Part of my dearth of blogging is because I want to put well thought out posts up, not just quick quips here and there. You will see more of that going forward. I know that most of this post is driving you English scholars crazy, but I think that writing well is like building a muscle. We'll see if I improve.
So there you have it. I'm going to be blogging more, and here is a list of things that I plan on talking about in the months ahead.
1. I want to decide how I feel about infant baptism. It has long been a topic of conversation between me and a couple of my more theologically interested friends. Some are for it, and some are not. I have always said I don't have to make up my mind since I have no kids, but......I just need to explore this issue and decide.
2. Issues of the modern church and how we "do" church. There is a lot of discussion going on about the emerging vs. emergent vs. traditional churches. I've posted some videos in the past with very little comment, but I want to actually discuss some of these ideas.
3. My goals with my weight loss. My successes and my failures. I have a friend who feels that journaling some of this stuff was vital to her journey. She blogs about it and suggested I try the same. It will be personal and I will need to become more public about some of this, but I think that it can be worth it in the long run. I really feel that there are certain things in my life that I either can't deal with or God is waiting to give me until I deal with this issue. More late...
4. Interesting stories and other odd posts that I think I may have a good angle on.
So I hope I can recapture your readership if I have let you done over the last 6 months, and if your new to my blog, then say hi.
RAV
2 comments:
I haven't exactly made up my mind about the whole infant baptism thing yet, but I would suggest reading James Montgomery Boice's commentary on Genesis. In the section dealing with the chapter where Abraham and all of his household are circumsized, he gives the best "defense" of infant baptism that I have ever come across. (If you do read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it - please blog!)
My best infant baptism catecism came from Matt Morginsky of the Supertones when I was in Germany back in 1999. He's OPC and did a great job of explaining it.
I think the biggest problem that I have with IB is not so much the doctrine itself, but when people take the doctrine too far. Some presume that baptized children are automatically "in" the kingdom. There is a difference between being a child member of the covenant family of God (even pagans could become this in the OT), and being true, regenerate children of God. To say that baptized children are automatically "in" is papist, leaning way too far toward Rome.
That having been said, I think the WCF is pretty good on infant baptism, especially the GI Williamson study manual. Williamson's elaboration on the sign and the seal helps clarify certain wording and phraseology that some scholars have misread in the WCF.
Of course all of this is worth, maybe, $.02.... for what it's worth, Deb
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