Let them Read their Cake

This is a cake I would love to come home to. But it’d be such a shame to eat.

Reading Plans

I have a found a few posts which will enable the reader to read thru various documents in a year. Sure I’m a little late in composing this list but I’m sure my reader will be able to catch up.

The first is the plan from the ESV Study Bible (an excellent Study Bible, review forthcoming).

The second allows you to read the Three Forms of Unity and the Westminster Standards in the course of a year.

And my final link, is for a blog allowing you to read Calvin’s Institutes in a year, with commentary from the folk at Reformation 21

Enjoy.

Last Sermons of the Year and a Legacy

Our pastor has accepted a call in Houston. The last Sunday of the year was his last Sunday in the pulpit of Desert Springs Presbyterian in Tucson. He concluded an excellent three-part Season of the Incarnation Series. Before I describe the series, let me first describe the man.

Dennis is an amazing pastor. I met him my freshman year (2000) when he was the Campus Minister for Reformed University Fellowship at the University of Arizona. He was very engaging and zealous for the Scriptures and God. Coming out of a fundamentalist/evangelical Baptist church, I had heard of Calvinism but thought the theology to be inconsistent with the Bible. However, I was intrigued and during my first semester I attended one of the RUF Bible Studies. I remember one of our first conversations one evening after the Bible study concluded. Dennis explained he was interested in what Scripture said and that our theology should conform to Scripture. He encouraged me in the study of the Bible and even stated that if we found the Bible was soteriologically Arminian then he would (by his adherence to the text) be compelled to change his position.

Well, from studying the text I came to the conclusion that God is sovereign over salvation and does ordain all things. At first I accepted this position, but didn’t rejoice in it (It was after all a humiliation of man.) Dennis taught that right doctrine leads to doxology and I came to see the glory and freedom of the Gospel.

For my four years in the University, I attended RUF and grew in my Christian faith. Even in my dark times, Dennis loved me and worked to show me the Gospel. He lived in light of the Gospel and tirelessly proclaimed it. He always explained that Christians, just as unbelievers, need to hear the Gospel, and reminded us that we continued in the Christian faith the same way we were inaugurated in it, by the grace of God.

He clearly delineated the Gospel as the news of what God has done for us. God took upon himself all the curses of the covenant; and in the life and death of Jesus Christ he humbled himself and bore the wrath of God for us, that we may be exalted and enjoy restored fellowship with God.

Dennis also expressed the beauty of the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition. Calvin did not stand alone in teaching the sovereignty of God in all things, but he stood upon a previous generation of reformers and was versed in previous theologians going back to the Church Fathers. Many men came after Calvin and the Reformed tradition continued to flourish. God has been gracious to us in history to give us a legacy of godly men throughout the ages (even godly men of other traditions).

Dennis was RUF minister for five years and in 2005 accepted a call to the church I attend, Desert Springs Presbyterian. He faithfully exegeted the Scriptures weekly (in season and out of season) and humbly showed forth what a great God we have, and how great his salvation is. The church was shown the centrality of Word and Sacrament under his leadership. In the service, he often explained the liturgy so it would not become rote. In all things, Dennis emboldened us in the Gospel and God used him to transform our church into a more outward-oriented, missional church.

God has used Dennis mightily in my life and in Tucson; he is a giant among men and although this chapter of Dennis’s legacy is closed, God will use him powerfully in Texas as well. True, it is sad to see Dennis leave, but I believe, however, that God has prepared us for this, and it will be exciting to see the impact of Dennis’s legacy as we call a new pastor.

…Oh, yes, I was going to discuss his last triad of sermons: each of the three focuses on a birth: the birth of Isaac, the birth of Samson, and the birth of Christ. The first two foreshadow the latter, and discuss certain themes which find their fulfilment in Christ. Interspersed between these was a Christmas Eve sermon on Galatians 4:4-7 concerning our adoption as sons; and that God has not forsaken or abandoned us, nor has he left us alone. The Christmas Eve service included readings from all of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation to show the history of salvation.

Without further ado:
Unto Us a Son is Given (Isaac)
Unto Us a Child is Born (Samson)
Christ the Saviour is Born (Jesus)

As a concluding thought: Dennis is a man who is intoxicated with the ale of the Gospel and exhorted us to drink deeply of that draught. I am pleased to count him as my spiritual father.