11:03 AM
Matthew
This past Saturday we taped our first ever podcast. We used the pastor's laptop, a 4-channel mixer from radio shack, four microphones plus a backup, four table microphone stands, and of course windscreens for the mikes to keep from popping the p's. It went well, although pastor felt that we wandered around too much... We had some good stuff come up in the conversation, and there's a lot there to edit and make good use of.We used Audicity to record the show. I didn't used to think too much of audacity as an editor, and indeed I still don't. But audacity has a few tricks up it's sleeve. Apparently, while we were taping the show, there was some interference that caused a low level buzzing noise in the recording. My heart sank when I auditioned...
10:56 AM
Matthew
This week, the boys at the inn take on the question that Jesus asks us all: Who Do You Say That I Am? Of special note is Rod Rosenbladt talking about how the Jesus of protestant liberalism would never have been crucified. To protestant liberals, Jesus was just going around telling people to do right and be good rather than pointing out people's sins and proclaiming he was God... The would have given him the keys to the city!Click here to listen to the sh...
6:24 AM
Matthew
My mother and I didn't get along very well. I really don't want to get very deep into why, since she is dead. She's been gone since August of 1995, in fact. There is a lot that I could say about her, but most of the time it's very difficult to think of anything positive... There were some good times here and there but most of the time there was trouble.Either way, the reason I'm doing this post is because of the guilt I carry concerning my relationship with her. Yesterday my church, like many others around the world, was doing a service based around mother's day. Had I remembered what day it was I might not have gone to church. There was a children's message about mother's day, and the sermon consisted of one of our member pastor's asking people...
6:32 AM
Matthew
This is a video shot in the Philipines of a Piano Concerto Competition. The winner in the under twelve catagory was eight year old Hannah F. Hua playing Mozart's Concerto number 1 in F major. The orchestra needed some tuning, but little Hannah is amazing.What strikes me is two things. One is how incredibly far behind we are here in the US in terms of education. How so? Apparently most of the world still believes there's merit in teaching kids classical music, and studies show that studying music makes for better grades...But the second thing that strikes me is the Philipines is a high ranked destination for men from the US to go and have sex with underage kids. How did our culture get into this me...
7:56 PM
Matthew
I've been struggling. As a result, I stopped posting to this blog for the last seven days (among other things). What am I struggling with?One is an old man/new man struggle inside me concerning people hearing the Gospel. I've been working on two projects for our church, the most pressing of which is the radio program. This has involved both technical issues and programming issues. The program will, at first, be a podcast, which will be recorded in house using cheap but good equipment, which includes a mixing board, four headset microphones, a laptop, mixing software, and storage. There's still a couple of interface issues, both unforeseeable, but they can be worked out. In the programming area, I've worked up a schedule of topics, and...
7:27 AM
Matthew
This past Sunday evening, John Warwick Montgomery, author of How Do We Know There Is A God? (Minneapolis: Bethany Fellowship, 1973), and Where is History Going? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1969), joined Host Todd Wilken on issues etc for a discussion on "the new atheists". The number one and two arguments that today's atheists make are, respectively, that the "God of the bible is (insert ad hominem attack here)", and it would seem the age old accusation of antinomianism. The argument goes "God likes to forgive, I like to sin... let's go kill some infidels". Both arguments are nonsense, of course, but "field marshal" Montgomery makes short work of both of these and other arguments used by today's atheist.I find it to be very important to...
6:54 AM
Matthew
I have to highly recommend this book. Not only is it authoritative, highly detailed, and a good read, it's also a great reference book. The chapter on Luther is very good, although not exhaustive.Moments of revelation in this book include how the black plague had a lot to do with the innovation of the "sacrifice of the mass", and the number of churches all around Europe with many alters where the Eucharist was performed several times a day as many times as possible to appease God. Also, the author gives us quite a vivid picture of the politics of the times, including Jacques Lefèvre d'Etaples, who published commentaries on Paul's epistles in 1512, using language that described human works as "irrelevant" in God's salvation of humanity,...
6:27 AM
Matthew
This week, Discussion at the inn concerns Christ's view of Scripture. I just love Rod's take on John 2:22: "After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken." Now, it's not that they didn't believe the scriptures before Jesus was raised from the dead, but after he was raised, THEY REALLY BELIEVED! Also, for those who say Jesus didn't say he was God in any other gospel but John's, Jesus puts his own words on par with scripture by saying "heaven and earth may pass away, but my word will never pass away". No wonder they wanted him dead.Click here to listen to the show....
the big test
Since someone, somewhere, has seen fit to deprive the world of Issues etc and take a huge bite out of confessional Lutheranism at the same time, I will not take up the mantle of working to see that those who did it answer for their actions.
