Always Reforming

I was doing dishes this past Tuesday and, as is a prerequisite, I was listening to some music.  This particular evening I had surveyed my CD collection and selected Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park's groundbreaking album from '00.  Mind you, I hadn't listened to this album in its entirety for at least the better part of a decade, and, I assure you, the nostalgia was strong.  I have never been a huge Linkin Park fan, but I own a couple of their albums and I have always liked them.  I suppose they're one of those bands you don't quite realize just how many of their songs you know and love.  So when I heard that Chester Bennington had passed , I was saddened.  I was more than saddened; to my surprise, I was truly mournful.  Chester, as he was often simply known, had a unique voice, the type of voice that became synonymous with a musical era and formed the soundtrack to so many of our adolescent adventures. Moreover, he was still creating good music and touring ...

If I were asked to identify the greatest danger to the Church in the modern United States, I would have to say materialism.  To be sure, there are many theological errors that threaten her foundation, but materialism goes beyond these to the issue of idolatry.  It is a question of the heart.  More specifically, it is a matter of who owns the heart.  Such heinous crimes as disdaining the Word of God and compromising with the world often find their ultimate cause in materialism.  As the Scriptures say, "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." Jesus was not silent in regards to how the citizens of His Kingdom should spend their money.  If you read through the Gospels, you will find that our Lord spoke about money/possessions as often as almost anything else.  He knew how powerful the lure of lucre can be.  In His Kingdom Manifesto, that homily we commonly call The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus deals with foundational life issues. It is n...

So, we had some rain here in our fair state of Ohio last week.  As the recent purchaser of an old home, rain worries me--especially heavy rain.  Well, it turns out that my basement doesn't allow much water in through the foundation, but it also turns out that none of that matters if your sump pump, which is at least as old as the current homeowner, decides that running continuously for 10+ hours is the straw that breaks the camels back and that dying during a rainstorm is a good idea.  I received a call from my wife that our basement was filled with standing water.  Thankfully my place of employment replaces sump pumps and was able to get it fixed within a couple of hours, but the damage was done.  Did I mention that we just moved in back in September?  Did I mention that we've had sickness and a baby since then and so there were still several boxes of miscellaneous items scattered around the basement floor?  Yeah, that's not a good combo.  Water ...