The Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ

Having finished the marvelous After You Believe by my good friend N. T. Wright, I moved into my next summer read, The Kingdom of God, a collection of sermons about just that by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I would highly recommend both books (though I have yet to finish the latter).

Today, in The Kingdom of God, I read the following passage. The Biblical passage that Lloyd Jones discusses (Luke 11:14-20) and perhaps more clearly its counterpart in Mark (Mark 3:22-30) show us that Jesus, in ushering in the kingdom, binds Satan in his first coming. Although though Satan still works in this world, God in Christ has ultimate power over him. Consequently, we long for the final coming of the kingdom of God in full power and the abolishment of all evil. At the same time, we work for the kingdom, seeing how through Jesus' life and death Satan has been bound.

"The kingdom of God comes, and came, with the very presence and power manifested by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. There is a wonderful illustration of that in Luke 11:14-20: 'And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelsebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.'
Now that is what I mean. The kingdom of God came when the Son of God was in this world. The kingdom of God is a manifestation of the power of God; a manifestation of the fact that God is superior to the elements of nature, that He is superior also to the devils and to everything that is evil. The kingdom of God is God's reign and when Christ was here on earth, and when He worked His miracles and manifested His marvelous powers, He said: 'This is the kingdom of God.' Not legislation, not one army conquering another, but the manifestation of the power of God. And did you notice what Christ did? He could calm a storm at sea; He could heal the blind, heal the lame, heal the deaf. He could even raise the dead! He was the Master of creation; He was the Master over all the devils, and He said that that was proof positive that the kingdom of God had come." -Lloyd-Jones, 57

No I won't be no runaway 'cuz I won't run.

So I will never enter Professor Harper's basement lab to work on lipid biophysics again. On the plus side, three students are replacing me. Though the most logical explanation for such a phenomenon would be that Professor Harper has greater funding than most years, I chalk it up to the need to replace me with three people. That's how good I was...yeah right. But walking out of the lab on Thursday, I realized that I will miss biophysics work.

Now is where I, in rare form, get sentimental about the parts of college I will miss. I guess I can allow myself this as I pick up maintenance work at Wheaton College tomorrow and start a new mini-chapter in my life before going to Seminary at SBTS in the fall!!

For one, I will miss being a Sunday School small group leader with Sam Haist for three years in Discovery Village at Ada Bible Church!! We have taught many of the same boys for two or three years and yesterday was bittersweet as I said goodbye to several of them. What a blessing and privilege it was to serve God and to serve those families for three years!

I will also miss volunteering at ICCF. For those yearning for enlightenment, ICCF stands for Inner City Christian Federation and is an organization in Grand Rapids helping with mortgage foreclosure prevention and placing families in homes or shelters. I have volunteered this past year, working heavily with the foreclosure prevention counselors. They have been so much fun to work for and I will greatly miss them.

I will miss several wonderful opportunities I have had to engage with my major (physics) at Calvin within the context of helping other students. This includes tutoring, grading, and lab-assisting.

Finally, I am going to miss my friends. Especially my housemates this past year (Micah, Grant, JJ, and Samikins). But also all you others who made Calvin such a wonderful and enjoyable time. I hope to see many of you again! And, of course, I will miss 80's night with the Ridge and other friends. But I know I will go to an 80's night again...sometime when I visit G-Rap.

As this summer dawns on y'all, do yourselves a favor and get one of these epic albums that have recently been released:
Together by the New Pornographers (indie-rock at its finest)
This is Happening by LCD Soundsystem (electronic/dance)
So Runs the World Away by Josh Ritter (rock and roll with a lot of words)
High Violet by The National (abnormal, but beautiful vocals overlaying great rock and roll)

Nice Chatting, Eat the Pizza!

Working at John's Christian Stores in high school, I worked a fair number of various in-store events and concerts. Perhaps the highlight of these experiences was when Joy Williams came and I got to be her bodyguard for a little while (It's really not that glamorous; I just stood by her table while she signed autographs). But the crowning moment of the night was when I was on break in the back eating the dinner I had packed for myself, while there was pizza for the band on the table. Joy came back and we struck up a brief conversation, which ended with her asking why I wasn't eating the pizza. After saying it was for her and her crew, she said I was more than welcome to eat the pizza. At the end of the evening, I got her to sign a poster for me on which she wrote "Nice chatting, eat the pizza!"

Well, like most CCM artists, Joy Williams was nothing special musically. So I quickly forgot her. Since my high school days, Joy has left CCM and moved to Nashville, working on various music projects there. Tonight I stumbled upon her latest, a duo she's formed with John Paul White called the Civil Wars. You can check out their uber-hip myspace here. And their music is some of the most beautiful, refreshing music I have heard in a while. Their voices flow together marvelously, creating gems such as Tip of my Tongue. I implore you to do yourself (at least) two favors. One, watch the video for Poison & Wine. Two, download their FREE live album from their myspace. If this whets your musical palette, please support them and download their EP.

They have been compared to The Swell Season, the couple from the movie Once, whose newest album Strict Joy is incredible.