In my life, I've only ever had two blogs. The first was from about seven years ago, Musings and Amusements, ill-fated because all I wanted in blogging at the time was to write cool and profound-sounding fluff interrupted occasionally by quotations that actually impacted me. True to form, it fizzled out pretty quick. Except for the Gunsaulus quote (As The Dew Unto Israel); I go back to that every once in a while.
The other blog is Sounding Out The Wonder, my poetry blog, which I started up in late 2018 (there's a link above the copyright at the bottom of the page). I couldn't have dreamed that three years later the number of poems would have grown to almost 60. The difference between the failed first and the successful second is actually having something(s) to say. With that in mind, I've started this third blog (hopefully the charm!) because I have much that I want to say on a variety of topics.
I like humor, if the writing in this post doesn't already bear that out. I like puns and word play, which you'll find if you read some of my poems closely (and since I won't tell you which ones, I guess you'll just have to read them all. Cheers!). As most poets do, I read and like to read other poets. My favorite three are Amy Carmichael, John Piper, and George Herbert. One of the foci of my posts here will be drawing the marrow out of their poems. You're welcome, in advance. :)
I have a reputation for reading a lot of theological books, although truthfully I read portions of a lot of books and remember the things I read well enough to reference them rather easily. I should say, a la John Duncan, that "I am first a Christian, next a catholic, then a Calvinist, fourth a Paedobaptist, and fifth a Presbyterian. I cannot reverse this order. " (Thanks, Dr. Beeke.) So, another of the variety of topics that I will be writing on is the material that I read.
I'll also probably slip in some musings on songs here and there, as well as pour out the melting pot that is my mind on given days, but the most important focus of this blog will be unpacking the truths of God's Word in such a way that they don't remain words on a page but crawl up into our heads, and God willing, down into our hearts, and bear fruit therein.
"Biblical truth at ground level." Ground level is where we live, the street level. Leave the ivory towers for those only interested in filling their heads with information. I want to change! I want the reality of what God says ought to happen and must happen in me to come to fruition in me through the Holy Spirit.
And not just the generic things that characterize Christians. I want to know the nitty-gritty details of the commands and exhortations and injunctions and encouragements and rules and paths of the Law and the prophets and Christ and His apostles. In relationship with your brothers and sisters in your local church, and as sons and daughters of the Father, what does it look like practically, boots-on-the-ground, to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," or to " consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus"? It's my conviction that unless the Word reaches ground level in the church, unless the good news of Jesus Christ becomes to us as oxygen and water, our witness will be weak and superficial, and we will not know the joy of walking in a manner worthy of our calling or pleasing to the Lord who called us.
God knows who will read what I write on this blog. He alone is the source and revealer of everything I say that is true; and, in the words of a man whom I greatly respect, "I alone am responsible for the mistakes and wrongheadedness that remain."