Terry Pruitt's Blog

Theology Matters: D. A. Carson on the Intent of the Atonement

Recently Christianity Today had some articles on music for the worship service. Notice that if one simply says worship music, it might refer to a contemporary style of music which may or may not be used during a worship service. The article that has given me the most to think about is Pop Goes the Worship . Author T. David Gordon mentions in the interview that music for the worship service should be folk music in the sense the it should be singable by the people, rather than music designed for performance. I grew up singing in a choir, not that I excelled at music, but I learned to love the hymns, though I also like much in the contemporary Christian music. A point that Gordon makes though is that we of sing contemporary Christian music with just words, though it is often more sophisticated and difficult to sing. We sing hymns with notes written out. Another article about hymns is in on the webzine By Faith Online which discusses Indelible Grace's recent documentary .

The Heart Of The Matter: Another Look At The New Perspective On Paul By Terry L. Pruitt Table Of Contents * Introduction * Method of Study * Syllogism: The Method Of Systematic Theology * Description: The Method Of Biblical Theology * Questions Asked and Answered * Issues of the New Perspective * Who Are The Judaizers? * What Does Paul Mean By Justification? * Conclusion Introduction An anachronism is something or an idea that is placed outside its time. In recent years, re-enactors of medieval history have developed an organization called the Society for Creative Anachronisms. This society purposely creates hand made items and events (i.e. jousts) from another time. At other times people stumble in writing a story and place an anachronism in it unintentionally. Some classical scholars believe that some of the cultural items written in Homer's Odyssey are anachronisms. One history scholar claims to find it difficult to enjoy the mystery books and...

3 Minutes from Ross Ching on Vimeo .

I had a dream last night regarding my calling. It has been an ongoing tension most of my adult life. Here are single sentences that summarize times of my walk. 1982 - I am called by God and I am invincible. 1985 - I am called by God and I have a hope for future ministry. 1990 - I am called by God but I am not able to fulfill it now. 1992 - I have a call but how can I fulfill it? 1995 - I have a call and I will prepare for it. 2005 - I am cursed with a call that I am not able to fulfill. 2011 - I am called by God.

I did a Sunday School class this summer on worship using John Frame's book called "Worship in Spirit and in Truth". It was a good class but in the end, I felt like I was just starting. My musical training is that I learned to read music by playing the saxophone in a school band. I later learned to sing music in a church choir. My music is really tied to the notes on the page and I really miss it, but I am not really sure how to reconnect with my music. I do find myself singing more for meaning in church these days, but I am still on a quest for more of God in worship which includes music but also prayer, Scripture reading, preaching and the sacraments. I just want more of God. Tomorrow is a day of worship. Bifrost Arts from josh franer on Vimeo .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8cAU475dQo

I'm working on my paper on preaching sin in a postmodern age. I ran across this article by Tim Keller on the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). His main point seems to be that the PCA is pluralistic. Really. Not pluralistic in the sense of there being no truth but in the sense that the Reformed tradition brings the emphasis from a lot of different perspectives. A paragraph that caught my attention: The best systematic theologies (here I’m thinking particularly of Herman Bavinck’s) are conscious of how the doctrinalist, pietist, and culturalist impulses all grow out of the same basic Reformed theological soil. The richness of Reformed theology inevitably inspires vigorous evangelism and sound doctrine; subjective spiritual experience and the ‘great objectivities’ of the sacraments; building the church and serving in society; creative cultural engagement and rootedness in historic tradition. In actual practice, however, these emphases are very difficult to combine in a local ...

The following is a partial thread on a discussion on the question, "Can you legislate morality?" My original position stated that we can't help but legislate morality. That is explained further in my response to Steve W. Personally think that the law is, from a pragmatic stance, more effective at encouraging good behavior than prohibiting poor choices. The bad moral choices, I've found, tend to be dissuaded by community opinion, not by law--more people refrained from drunkenness because their neighbors disapprove than because of prohibition, for example. I do agree that the law always has a moral component to it, but on the whole, I'm an advocate of shame (public opinion) rather than punishment as a restraint on human evil. -- Steve W. Steve, As I look at your post, I appreciate your nuanced thoughts, and I do agree with the idea that shame can bring a restraint on individuals in a society. I'm posting my response in my blogspot account since it i...

O for a thousand tongues to sing My great Redeemer’s praise, The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace! Terry's Comments: Our capacity to praise God does not equal his glory. I'm not sure if Wesley is saying he desires 1,000 different languages or 1,000 organs of speech to praise God. Either way, the human capacity to praise God is only giving partial glory to the wondrous God. My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim, To spread through all the earth abroad The honors of Thy Name. Terry's Comments: Since God's glory is so great, we actually need divine assistance to do that proclamation justice. It is not just enough to praise God in the USA or England, every nation of the earth just needs to praise God. Jesus! the Name that charms our fears, That bids our sorrows cease; ’Tis music in the sinner’s ears, ’Tis life, and health, and peace. Terry's Comments: The name of Jesus brings wholeness to our broken soul. He breaks the power o...

I was afforded the opportunity to preach this morning. My church was a blessing to me. The sermon was on 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. The sermon can be heard on Sermon Cloud . Follow the link.

I am going through a iTunes university course on Worship from Liberty University. One of the lecturers mention the " The Odes Project ". It is an interesting look at ancient Christian hymns. Below is an embedded video of Ode 13, there are 42 in all. (Disclaimer: I wish the fellow who did this wonderful reading had not said "the word of the Lord.")

Talking to a friend, we were discussing mentorship and training. I'm on my second internship for ministry that is formal. I have been mentored a number of times in less formal settings and in other formal settings. I see a lot of mentorships fail to meet the development goals. Often they get side tracked. Often people are recruited to be a mentor, but they don't know what to do. They know what a teacher does, but what does a mentor do? So they try to teach and often what they teach are procedures to do a job. In that way people mistake On the Job Training (OJT) for mentoring someone. OJT involves doing tasks that are supervised. A good OJT method is "I do, we do, you do." What that means is that first someone watches the trainer do the task. They talk about it. There is healthy discussion about the task. Then the trainer and the trainee do it together. Lastly the trainer watches the trainee do it. This is good OJT. OJT is training. Mentoring on the ot...

May 28th and we have been eating from our garden a few weeks. It has not been unusual for me to plant the garden after May. Because one does not harvest before he plants, I have never had May crops before. Spring gardening has been fun and I hope I never go back to planting in June. The blackberry (not BlackBerry) hedge is blooming. We have been eating the lettuce and trying to give it away. We have made a couple salads for church. My wife like broccoli but I have never been successful at growing it. Maybe it was the late planting cycles. They seem to like the cool spring. We have peaches starting to form. Our peaches are usually best in a pie and not great slicing peaches. I'm looking forward to cinnamon peach cobbler.

Love is valuing someone from the heart. It is recognizing what is special in the other person. Philia love is valuing a friend. Eros is valuing someone with whom you have a romantic relationship or desire to have a romantic relationship. Agape love is valuing someone but there is no apparent benefit to loving the other person, you just see why he or she is special, nifty, and cool. When people talk about unconditional love I think what they mean is love without transactional benefit. Friendship often involves mutual benefit. Romance often assumes mutual benefit. Love that comes from our heavenly Father did not look for a benefit. He sent his One and Only Son into the world when we were his enemies. Love is not merely being polite to someone. It certainly isn't being mean either, but polite is just shy of love. Love goes beyond just treating someone fairly. Love is not merely not being at war with someone. Apathy does not communicate love, it may communicate hate...

Listening to a speaker this past Thursday at a worship service, I noticed a strange dichotomy articulated. It was the concept that emotions are unreliable and that the Word of God is reliable. The man took the Scripture as factual but saw emotions as unreliable. I would define emotions as responses to one's value judgments. Those value judgments may be misguided or be an accurate assessment of the facts. Certainly one's emotions may be manipulated by others or ourselves. Emotions may also be influenced by one's health and environmental factors. Interactions with others influence one's emotions also. When the Scripture commands one to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might", it includes the emotions. An emotionless response to the Word of God would mean that one would fail to embrace the value judgments discussed therein. Worship is meant to engage the whole person. That does not mean one should eng...

This morning I was studying Isaiah 7, reading about the prophet asking the unbelieving king to find faith and if he lacked faith that God was willing to give him a miraculous sign. For years I have listened to message that I must pull myself up by my own boot straps, that it all depended upon me for success. If I failed, it would be because I did not try hard enough, I did not work enough, that I was a failure. Indeed, I should work hard. Certainly, I should not give a half effort. Surely, I must try, try again. However, I heard the ancient prophet say to Ahaz, and also whisper to me, "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’” As someone else paraphrased it, "Trust or bust." Ahaz was thinking that he was a clever politician, that he knew what to do. His solution to threats from his northern neighbors was to seek refuge in one of the superpowers of the day. He did not trust so in the end, he was busted. The kingdom was not ripped from his fam...

I'm not sure. What I mean by that is that the issue is not cut and dry. It depends what you consider the essence of the NIV to be. Some helpful links come from the NIV Bible Update website and Zondervan's blog . These sites explain how they are updating the NIV version of the Bible. I believe the question comes down to whether the updates will cause the same issues to resurface that the TNIV brought. I am in a wait and see attitude.