I think that I'm the only guy in the world (well..besides Peregrin) who has a bookshelf right above the toilet.

For those of you wondering about how it went last Saturday at the conference on Saturday, well it went great. I found Dr. Godfrey to be an engaging speaker who really had an intimate knowledge of his subject. Back in the day, when I was contemplating seminary, I narrowed it down to Westminster West (because of Godfrey) or Calvin College (because of Richard Muller). As you could probably tell my major was going to be Historical Theology. Thank God that I didn’t go through with it though. While HT still holds a great deal of interest for me, I couldn’t see doing grad; post-grad and Ph.D. work in it. I’d still be in college amassing great amounts of debt (not that I’m debt-free now mind you). But I digress.

Anyhoo, I got to the RP church in L.A. at 9 A.M. Interesting place to have a Covenanter church by the way, in the seedy part of Eagle Rock (you So Cals will know what I’m talking about). I get to the door and I’m greeted with hearty handshakes all around by the pastor and the elders. I mention that I used to go to the OP church in La Mirada and they all mentioned my former pastor and we recollected fondly. Pretty soon I was breaking away from the group I came with and making new acquaintances gladly (not hard for me to do according to my wife). It was a pretty good turnout, about 50 people, not too big.

We get inside and we get the party started by singing Psalms 1 & 119E. Beautiful four-part harmonies filled the air (the RP’s don’t use instruments in worship) and I could feel the pleasure that comes from worshipping God in His beauty. Then Dr. Godfrey came up and gave a very interesting, well-rehearsed overview about the life and times of Calvin. Now mind you most of the stuff I’ve heard before, but it’s nice to get a refresher from time to time.

FACT: By the way did you know that Calvin suffered from kidneystones? When advised to go horseback riding in order to get rid of them, he said that he couldn’t because of his hemorrhoids (Too much information perhaps?)

FACT: Calvin converted at 23 or 24 and wrote the first edition of the Institutes at 25…sigh I’m 27.

We concluded the session with a Q & A. I asked Dr. Godfrey to expand on Calvin’s view of the relationship between the Sacraments and the preaching of the Word, and I can’t recall all of what he said (wow…great review Rob) but I found it interesting how he (Godfrey) came to the conviction of weekly communion through his study of Calvin. We concluded by singing Psalm 148 and broke for lunch at about 12 P.M.

At lunch I sat with a RP pastor who was manning a church plant in Orange County and an elder from the L.A. church. We spoke about many things: Theonomy, Post-theonomy, what James Jordan is up to now, the RCUS and the whole Framework/Six-Day Creation controversy in the OP and PCA congregations. We also talked about liturgy in the PCA and exclusive psalmody. He seemed amazed that a guy with such a strong affinity for Covenanter worship would be in a congregation that still sings praise tunes. Ah but such is the body of Christ eh? He then asked me about Josh’s education and I told him about the CC school we had started. He seemed very interested, especially when I told him about the Latin and eventually Greek and Hebrew instruction he would receive. Lord willing, once NCA is more settled, we can go out and either plant or advise people how to plant a classical, Christian school. I think Orange County would be a great place for one.

I then spoke with an elder at the L.A. church who looked EXACTLY like Hal Lindsey. It took everything I had to keep from saying something. We got into a conversation on child-rearing and he then told me about his youngest boy who used to be zealous in his faith but has since apostatized. He really poured out his heart to me. This has been something that has been happening to me a lot lately. People (mostly elderly men) have been telling me about their children who have rejected Christ and the pain they have went through. For me there can be no greater fear or greater pain than for either of my boys to tell me that they want nothing to do with Christ and His church. It encourages me to continue to be in constant prayer for my boys as well as constantly admonishing them that they are not their own, they belong to Christ.

Before the 2nd session opened, I got a chance to briefly speak with Dr. Godfrey. I asked him about Wallace’s book “Calvin’s Doctrine of the Word and Sacrament” and what he thought of it. He said it was good but was neo-orthodox. I then asked him about Keith Mathison’s forthcoming book on Calvin’s view of the Lord’s Supper. He confessed that while he had received a copy of it, he had not read it, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he had written a “back of the book blurb” for it. Ah the life of a scholastic.

As the 2nd session opened, we sang two sections of Psalm 119 then Dr. Godfrey proceeded to speak about Calvin’s use of Psalms in corporate worship. Apparently, the book of Psalms was the only OT book that Calvin ever preached from in his Sunday services. According to Godfrey, Calvin didn’t offer a biblical defense of exclusive psalmody, but instead argued from a pragmatic position. First, they were useful as a pedagogue for Scripture memorization. Second, if we had an inspired songbook at our disposal, why would we seek anything else other than that songbook? Wouldn’t anything other than that be naturally inferior? Though I don’t necessarily agree with that position, I appreciate it far more than a strained attempt at a Scriptural defense.

Then came another Q & A session. The question came up about what Dr. Godfrey thought Calvin did right and what he did wrong. As expected Godfrey mentioned that Calvin held “a different view of the civil state that he (Godfrey) was uncomfortable with”. I asked him about Calvin’s preaching (Christocentric and applicable to the congregation) and what lessons could contemporary preachers learn from him today. While I cannot replicate his total answer, the gist of it was that we need to get back to Christocentric preaching rather than giving moralistic sermons filled with steps on how to live a better life. Now I really agree with this with one caveat, that the sermon not become a history or theology lesson without also expounding to the congregation “what duty God requires of them” (SC Q2).

We closed with a psalm, said our good-byes and went home happy. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.

What? Ancient pagan religions were violent and oppressive? Nahh, get out of here.

As I read Dan's response to my new pro-Angel position, I was reminded of this hilarious article from Baseball Prospectus. It's a user-friendly guide for fans of any of the 24 other teams in MLB on what team to root for in the World Series and why.

Check out who (or what) to root for if you are a Marlins fan...truer words were never spoken.

I think that I just might like R.C. Jr. better than his old man:

"When Jesus calls us out from the world, He calls us to a place of beauty. When we enter into His presence we step out of the jungle and into His garden. He who makes the blind to see, likewise gives us eyes to see and ears to hear, so that we might rejoice in the created order that shouts, in perfect pitch, the glory of the Creator. We alone can see the dance of the stars for what they are, not the smooth working of a machine, not the necessary interaction of time and energy, but the fluid ballet of great balls of light.

And once more, it only happens when we change our thinking, when we are deliberate. This is not a psychological game, a form of self-hypnosis, but is the very waking to the dawn of the new creation. We were dead in our sins. But the Lord of the Dance has bid us to wake. We not only grieve the Spirit, but grieve ourselves when we cover our eyes and ears and demand still more sleep. There is beauty all about us, if we will but accept His invitation to come and to feast in it."

Whew, well finally some time to sit down and blog a few thoughts about the weekend.

1. Guy night on Friday was schweet. My Mom and Dad graciously watched the boys on Friday so I could go to the Calvin conference nice and early on Saturday. My bud Dave came over and we watched the Angels dismantle the Twins, smoked cigars (mine was a DR Cohiba, Churchill) and drank a few bottles of my favorite beer as we played Super Mario Land and Madden 2001.

2. I've come to the realization though that I do not like sleeping alone. Call it a remnant of childhood fears of the dark or my *ahem* dependant nature (see test below), but I found it very hard to get to sleep on Friday night. I had to read and watch TV to the point of exhaustion when I finally went to bed at 1:45 AM. Weird stuff, I don't like it.

3. The Calvin conference was GREAT. I'll blog more about it tomorrow when more awake.

4. Pray for my wife and her/our family. I really can't and won't go into details, but pray that sin will be repented of and harmony will be restored.

5. I've joined a center focus group at work. Basically it's a lot of volunteers sitting around trying to come up with ways to improve customer retention (I work in a call center for a major bank. Like most call centers, employees drop like flies). Anyway I'm in a group that will focus on helping the incoming employees prepare themselves for heavy sales. I like sales and I like training salespeople so this should break up the monotony at work.

6. Went to Archives with my bud Rick on Monday. Stayed for more than 2 hours (don't worry Peregrin we're still going soon). Spent 27 bucks on a book of Christian Verse put out by Oxford and G.K. Chesterton's "The Everlasting Man". I could of kicked it up to about 50 bones with a thinline version of the ESV and a copy of N.T. Wright's "Jesus and the Victory of God" but I thought better of it when I imagined the look on my wife's face when I would of fessed up.

Now that the Giants are in the WS, I'm REALLY an Angel fan now. I'm the biggest, falootin' Angel fan there is.

*cough* *cough* BANDWAGON *cough*

Congratulations to the 2002 Anaheim Angels

My prediction for the WS: Angels in 6