The · Sylvan · Sanctum

The following epistle was found on the doorstep of the Sylvan Sanctum, though the owner is no longer in residence. We have seen fit to post it on the door for your perusal.

Dear friends,

In former times, I had one response to all political conversations:
"Don't bother me." I hated politics: the unintelligent arguments, the
character attacks, the lack of objectivity; it seemed a hopeless mess,
and I was lazy.

This year, I have two things to say about politics:

One, Ron Paul is the only candidate I'm aware of who understands and
values the liberty of the American people. His truly conservative
position (consistent for more than thirty years) returns the federal
government to its limited historic constitutional duties: securing
borders, defending the nation, and regulating trade. We, the people,
gave it those powers; all others we retain as individuals or sovereign
states. However, we've come to expect the government to be our
savior; and politicians are quick to promise what "their" government
will do for us (play nursemaid, vending machine, or big brother). By
accepting their "solutions," we too willingly give up freedoms that
others gave everything to get.

Two, the loss of political liberty is only indicative of the slavery
embraced by rejecting God's Word. "Where there is no revelation, the
people cast off restraint" (Proverbs 29:18). It has been said that a
people unable to restrain themselves will not be restrained by any
government. The solution cannot be reached by politics, legislation,
military strategy, or economic manipulation. The destructive excesses
we glimpse now will only increase. Ron Paul's "Hope for America" -
based as it is on the Christian principles underlying the Constitution
- will not be sufficient to check our descent into black chaos. The
only real hope for America (or the world) is the Word of Life held out
by the church. What liberating truths have we stifled in fear,
embarrassment, or unbelief? What responsibilities (like caring for
the needy) have we abdicated to the government? What loving
restraints do we neglect to put upon ourselves, our children, our
neighbors, our elected officials? Jesus wasn't just a gentle guy who
wandered around doing nice things for people; he preached the gospel
which means he told the truth about sin - and salvation. And the
truth will set us free!

In Hope for America and the world,
Keith D. Knowlden

Dear old Bilbo. He'd been sent off on his great adventure and experienced and learned and gained a great deal. But one of his valuable findings had too much power over him, and he knew he needed to part with it. So he had a grand birthday party and gave away lots of things that didn't matter much, hoping, in the end, to make it easier to give up that one thing that mattered too much. Even then it took a bold and loving friend to hold him to his purpose, and he himself left the Shire forever.

( My own loving wizard... )

So, like old Bilbo, I have three Purposes! First of all, to tell you that four years is too short a time to share life with such dear friends. I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve. (If you'd like to find me in real life, check my profile.) Second, to celebrate my blog's fourth birthday (give or take a week). Third, this is the END. I am leaving NOW. GOODBYE!

No motorcycle but I did spring for this last Saturday:

link
It's a Beretta 85F - 9mm short (.380 Auto). Nice and small to hide on a small guy like me. My concealed carry-permit should arrive in a few weeks. If the weather warms up, I'll actually be able to try it out.

Television is one of the greatest life-wasters of the modern age. And, of course, the Internet is running to catch up.... TV still reigns as the great life-waster. The main problem is not how much smut is available, though that is a problem. Just the ads are enough to sow fertile seeds of greed and lust, no matter what program you're watching. The greater problem is banality. A mind fed daily on TV diminishes. Your mind was made to know and love God. Its facility for this great calling is ruined by excessive TV. The content is so trivial and so shallow that the capacity of the mind to think worthy thoughts withers, and the capacity of the heart to feel deep emotions shrivels. Neil Postman shows why.

What is happening in America is that television is transforming all serious public business into junk.... Television disdains exposition, which is serious sequential, rational, and complex. It offers instead a mode of discourse in which everything is accessible, simplistic, concrete, and above all, entertaining. As a result, America is the world's first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death.

-John Piper Don't Waste Your Life

I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel.
I focus on the pain, the only thing that's real.
The needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting.
I try to kill it all away, but I remember everything...

(link)

Only Christianity has the answer to pain, grief, death. Unless experiencing Death drives us to cry out to God, the best we can do is cope by hiding from it or denying it. But God turns Death into Resurrection! May I weep at death daily and be ever quicker to run to my Comforter.

Doug Wilson blogs prolifically, but scanning through is often worth it. This excerpt relieves some guilt about not witnessing in the door-to-door salesman-like method (not that it lets me off the hook in any way...). Full article here.

AN EVANGELICAL PITFALL: But there is a different kind of pitfall, unfortunately common in the evangelical world. This is the idea that evangelism is a means of grace for the individual Christian, rather than an overflow of grace from the Christians to the non-Christians. In this view, "witnessing to someone" is as much a spiritual discipline and individual duty as prayer, Bible reading, or church attendance. Because the Bible never says that every Christian must present the gospel explicitly to an unbeliever at specified intervals, the legalistic burden this places on the average Christian is intolerable, and eventually provokes a reaction.

THE CHURCH IS MISSIONS: Evangelism is not something the Church does on the side. Missions is not an adjunct activity of the Church; the Church is missions. We can summarize the two great tasks of the Church as birth and growth. Disciple the nations, baptizing them (birth), and teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded (growth). But this is a corporate duty, one that the Church will be doing by its very nature, whenever the Church is healthy.

Interesting article on Regulative Principle.

Team Pyro writes on youth ministry

And the functions of the tithe: "Support ministers of the gospel, the relief of the poor, and celebration before the Lord.... [This] last, a wonderful boon to uptight modern Christians, the tithe should be used to buy beer for the great ecclesiastical Thanksgiving bash . . . (Deut. 14:22-26) . . . Done right, it would be the talk of the community, as we try to put the fun back into fundamentalism" (Mother Kirk, pp. 233-234). - via Doug Wilson

"At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Ps. 16: 11)

Growing Dominion, Part 131

"There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man spendeth it up" (Prov. 21:20).

This is also a commonplace in Proverbs. The ability to say no to yourself is an ability to enjoy. The inability to say no is an inability to enjoy--because you don't have anything on hand to enjoy any longer. In the house of a wise man, there is plenty to enjoy and it is enjoyed in moderation. In the house of a fool, the larders are empty, and everything good is long gone. This is a simple function of the ratio between consumption and production, and is not necessarily a matter of how much money is involved. If you earn a hundred dollars a week and spend 98, you will do all right. If you earn ten thousand and spend eleven thousand, you are not doing all right.

I knew it was a hoax...

The master list from the Errantry project.