Travis Seitler: Web Designer

• Able to keep you from stumbling

  Do you–like me–need to be reminded of this? So many times, my dogged pursuit of the truth is (or later becomes) driven by my lack of faith in this area. I live a life that reflects Ben Franklin’s (unbiblical) adage, “God helps those who help themselves.” Instead of trusting God to keep me from stumbling, I rely on my own efforts and, ironically enough, this is itself a sort of stumbling.

• present you blameless… with great joy

  He’s speaking of God’s great joy, not ours. It’s easy to think of my own joy being great when I’m finally presented “blameless before the presence of his glory,” but I’ll admit that I usually see God as an exhausted parent who’s just barely tolerating me. It’s unnatural for me to think of him as being filled with “great joy” at my final blameless presentation; instead, my tendency is to think if him collapsing in his throne and thinking, “finally, that’s over!”

• the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord

  Isn’t is so easy to see God (the Father) as the big, mean disciplinarian and Jesus as the kind, forgiving one (like a cosmic “good cop/bad cop”)? But no, the Father himself is our Savior.

• to God… be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever

  This isn’t a request, it’s a declaration: all glory, majesty, dominion and authority have been, are, and will forever belong to God! He even has dominion over our souls, which is how he can “present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.” The ESV got it wrong; this should end with an exclamation mark!

I’m restarting the ESV Daily Verse program, but I’m tired of the old style. Here’s what today’s verse looks like in my original layout:

And after playing around a bit, I came up with this one:

I think it fits the iPod better, for a few reasons:

1. The verse reference is based on the iTunes sidebar.
2. It’s easier to read in an iPod’s photo thumbnail screen.
3. The blue gradient is pretty snazzy.

So if you’re wondering why the new images look different, that’s why!

It looks like those posts still get quite a bit of traffic. I slacked off on it a while back, and I’m thinking I should pick it back up again. Thoughts? Anyone?

What I mock is exactly the same thing that we find mocked in the pages of the New Testament—ecclesiastical stuffed-shirt pretentiousness, and an inability to maintain a sense of godly proportion. You know, camels and gnats, gold and altars, and justice and mercy and tithing from the spice rack.

(Source: Douglas Wilson, Reformed Catholicity)

A buddy of mine pointed me to this house-church website, and I found quite the funny (because it’s so true) paraphrasing of the meeting regulations in :

How is it then, brethren? When ye come together, the pastor hath a doctrine, and the minister of music hath psalms. Let all things be done unto edifying. If anyone besides the pastor hath a doctrine, let him not speak; let him hold his peace. Let him sit in the pew, and face the back of the neck of the person which sitteth ahead of him. Let the people keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith church tradition. But if they will learn anything, let them ask their pastor after the service, for it is a shame for a layman to speak in the church. For the pastor, he hath a seminary degree, and the layman, he hath not so lofty a degree. If any man desire to remain a church member in good standing, let him acknowledge that what I write to you is the command of the denominational headquarters. But if any man ignore this, he shall be promptly escorted out the door by the ushers. Wherefore brothers, covet not to speak in the church. Let all things be done decently and in the order in which it hath been written in the church bulletin.

How to Have a New Testament Church Meeting