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This morning, Kristi and I welcomed David Peter Gallant into the world at 7:13 a.m. He’s a healthy 9lb 4oz and 20 1/2″ long. Mama and baby are well and resting after a night-long labour.

David Peter is named in honour of my brother Peter David, whom the Lord took to be with Himself at birth. Kristi always wanted a David, and every generation on my mother’s side except my own has had a David for probably hundreds of years, so everything came together for this one.

This was the first birth I have witnessed. It was an amazing experience, and I am overwhelmed with delight, praise, wonder, and joy.

I’ve been listening to Edenbridge’s Shine album the past couple of days and mulling over again why I haven’t found them as compelling as I would have thought. I do like this sort of musical approach (melodic, symphonic metal). I’ve concluded that it’s because Sabine Edelsbacher’s vocals are too “bloodless.” Her voice is beautiful and her execution is excellent, but she sounds almost uninterested (at least on the albums I have)….

If Sabine sang with a bit more passion, I think this would be one of my favourite bands.

Today was Mother’s Day, and as my mother lies tonight in a hospital bed, I am aware that there is a good chance that she will never be seen by the grandchild(ren) the Lord gives her through Kristi and me. Her lap will not likely hold a baby again; her arms will not wrap themselves around a toddler; and her sweet – and sometimes peculiar – grandmotherly gifts will appear no more.

But the truth is that my mother will touch the life of my child, because she has touched my life. She taught me love and affection and subtle strength in all sorts of ways, and her impact will outlive her.

This is the heritage of the saints of God.

I love you, Mom.

More specifically, I have no esteem for belief in and of itself. I detest the recent habit of considering the act of belief as having a value in itself, independent of its content. And I mistrust those who attempt to discover connections between “believers,” even to lump them together, without asking themselves what they believe in. One can believe in flying saucers, after all! There were sincere Nazis and convinced Leninites. And the Carthaginian fathers who had their sons burned alive as a sacrifice to the god Moloch (the scene is narrated by Flaubert, but the facts are true) must have “believed in it” strongly. For me, a belief is as good as its object, neither more nor less.

It hasn’t happened yet, but Mom and I will be moving within the next 1-2 weeks. Our new mailing address will be:

R.R. 1
Grande Prairie, AB
T8V 2Z8

My cell number (780-876-1102) remains the same. My business landline number (830-1125) will be cancelled as of the end of the month; Mom’s phone line has not been operational for some time, and I have no immediate plans to get a new “land line.” Mom does not hear well enough to talk on the phone, anyway, and when Kristi gets here, I anticipate she will primarily be using a cell phone. Given the cost of hooking up a conventional phone line to a new acreage, I just don’t see it happening for the foreseeable future.

… you emailed me from my contact form and told me to write ya back… but you put my email address into the box instead of your own, so I have no way of knowing how to contact you.

Blessings!

Stina’s son Tym Van Braeden has informed me that her memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. this Saturday at the Gospel Light church in Debolt.

May the Lord continue to bring comfort and hope to His people.

A longtime friend, Stina Van Braeden, has passed away. I have long been very close friends with two of her sons, Roger and Tym, and in my early adulthood I rented a room in her home.

Tym informs me that there will likely be a memorial service Saturday in Debolt. I will try to post here when I get further word.

Please pray for the family, giving thanks for God’s faithfulness to one of His own children.

Our official wedding web page is now online:

http://www.timandkristigallant.com/

Both Kristi and I have given accounts of how this whole thing came about.

Do remember to pray for us!

I can’t receive email at the moment (unfortunately, this also means that my web clients can’t do so either). The mailserver where I host everything has crashed. If you need to contact me personally, try leaving me a message on Facebook. I’ll try to check it when I get home from work, although obviously I hope the hard drive will be replaced long before then.

Okay, it’s official. Over the past couple of weeks I have been putting together a new business site that better represents the spectrum of my creative work.

I have been operating for a little over five years under the moniker of Pactum Web Services, a title borrowed from my publishing company that I formed in order to release Feed My Lambs. But that stopped making sense over the course of time; for one thing, I’m one person, and I would rather do creative work under my own name. At least as important, I do a lot more than web development now – I have designed logos; drafted print work such as letterhead, business cards, and even lawn signs; and I’ve jumped into custom imagery such as 3D characterization.

This little venture, begun as a small side income in January 2005, has grown a bit every year. As my mother has deteriorated and construction work has become unpredictable, I have more and more sought to make this primary for my income. It would be so beneficial for Mom if I can work from home full-time. Please pray that in 2010 this can happen.

So anyway: Pactum Web Services is no more. Tim Gallant Creative is at timgallantcreative.com. Take a look, join the mailing list, become a Facebook fan….

Simple rules… lead to complex behavior. Complex rules, as with the tax law in most countries, lead to stupid behavior.

For a couple weeks, I’ve had a few friends helping me beta test a new web site for Grande Prairie believers (adults 20 and up). Now it seems ready to go live:

http://grandeprairiechristian.com/

The idea here is to help local believers expand their social circles and get to know fellow Christians from the neighbourhood. Introduce yourself online with a profile, get to know one another by participating in forums and chatrooms – but don’t leave it there; once you’ve made new friends, since the whole constituency will be local, you can make arrangements to get together in real life.

So if you’re (1) a Grande Prairie area resident; (2) at least 20 years old; and (3) a Christian – please join up and join in!

Interesting application for adding pie graphs to your web page without building your own graphic.

Dear _______,

Thank you for your concern regarding HTN1, which is apparently a Technological variant of H1N1 (also dubbed “influnetza”). We assure you, the pandemic is of grave concern to all of us.

We have been in contact with our host, and have been assured that all of the component parts of each server are taken out daily and scrubbed with soap and water. This has had only a minor affect on uptime.

You asked whether we could provide a numerical IP address in case parts of the internet shut down. You should know that IP addresses are in fact most vulnerable to the pandemic, moreso than domain names. This is because there are only ten numbers, while there are twenty-six letters; thus the pandemic spreads easier. We have been lobbying the U.S. government for some time for a larger spectrum of numbers to resolve this issue.

Meanwhile, we are  extensively masking domains. Unfortunately, this still leaves the problems of domain propagation undealt with, and there is always the threat of proliferation due to the common practice of “forwarding.”

To date, we do not believe our sites have been affected, although it can be hard to discern, as computer use invariably involves headaches at the best of times.

We prepare for the worst case scenario, of course. We are aware that hacking is very hard on the system, and once that level is reached, a “hands-off” approach is no longer appropriate.

Thank you once again for your concern. Please be assured that, as long as we are healthy, we will do all we can to keep our corner of the internet running.

Yours sincerely,
_____________

Yes, a Christmas Day launch (of sorts – my official launch took place rather late in the evening).

http://www.changeinthewind.ca

For various reasons, I have recently had occasion to start thinking about matters related to sociopolitical issues.

On a couple earlier occasions in my life, first as a late teen (when I actually contemplated going to university to major in Political Science) and then later when I was in my Reconstructionist period, politics were very high on my interest list. But when, for exegetical/biblical-theological reasons, I moved away from Reconstructionism/theonomy about a decade or so ago, I largely stepped away from those concerns.  I suppose part of that was due to the fact that, upon moving away from a directly theonomic approach, I wasn’t entirely sure how to think about politics.

I certainly do not claim now to have all the answers, but this new site is aimed at becoming an educational/discussion resource to help Canadian (in particular) Christians work through what we should be aiming for on a sociopolitical level,  as well as to help stimulate ideas for how we can serve our country on a less directly political level.

The site features four main sections: (1) Articles section dealing with various matters of principle, policy, values, etc; (2) Special features section for focusing on current events; (3) Categorized links library to help Christians find valuable articles etc around the web, as well as other web sites; and (4) a blog for keeping up conversation and commenting on current events or whatever. I am hoping to draft a few more contributors, as well.

At this point, the articles section has four articles available, dealing with foundational matters as well as economics and a summary piece on marriage/family/sexuality. There are a couple of substantive posts on the blog, and the links library has a modest beginning. As of yet, there are no special features on current events.

Anyway, do check it out, and pass on the news.

Another serious security hole has been uncovered, and no patch is currently available:

Read the alert.

… and the workarounds either don’t work or can’t be performed as Microsoft themselves explain them.

Someday, I’ll have to create a list of the handiest free utilities I’ve used. One of these definitely has to be CutePDF. While there is a Pro version (49.95), since I have Acrobat Professional, I just use the freeware. What’s great about it is that you simply use it like an alternative printer, and instead of printing on paper, it saves a .pdf file. (It’s much simpler than Acrobat’s Distiller.)

This convenience came into play again for me today. One of my clients was attempting to send me floorplans. Trouble was, the only image file type their floorplan app would save to was .bmp… and it was doing something to the .bmp file so that, while the bitmap would open nicely in the program itself, the image was just a black box everywhere else.

So I had my client download CutePDF and print from the floorplan app. Bingo. Nicely optimized to send me via email (all the files saved at between 25kb and 70kb each). I opened them up in Acrobat, saved them as PNG files, and presto! I can display them as is.

Here is an introductory set of tips that I am working on for safer, smarter web browsing and email use, including being a good “web citizen.” Many of these ought to be common sense, or would be if we all thought about things. As a web developer and a bit of a “power user,” I’ve had more opportunity to think about them than most. Please check it out and make sure you’re not unwittingly being foolish or even contributing to “the problem.”

My new adventure in business is up and running.

I’m quite excited about this concept. Now for the work of getting the word out.

It’s often been noted that in Revelation, Satan repeatedly counterfeits what God is doing: e.g. the saints are sealed upon their (Rev 7.3; 9.4; 14.1), so in turn the beast requires his mark to be upon the foreheads of his followers (Rev 13.16; 14.9 etc).

There is also an interesting juxtaposition between the devil’s wrath and that of God. When the devil, who is the accuser, is cast down from heaven, he comes upon the earth in “great wrath,” because he knows that his time is short (Rev 12.12). In contrast, Rev 15.7 speaks of the seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. The devil’s wrath is temporary; his time is short. But the eternal God  has authority over the lake of fire, which will have torment “day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20.10).

Satan is a pitiful parody of the Most High God.

A lot of discussion in Pauline exegesis over the past couple of decades is whether this common phrase in Galatians (Greek: pistis Christou) is subjective (“faith of Christ”) or objective (“faith in Christ”).

“Faith of Christ” is the older translation found in e.g. the King James Version, although the translators probably were just being woodenly literal rather than making a judgment call. Most newer translations make the interpretation for us and just have it “faith in Christ.”

For reasons I won’t get into here, several years ago while studying Romans, I became quite convinced of the subjective genitive position. That is, what is in view in the phrase as such is the pistis (faith or faithfulness) of Christ Himself. This pistis of Christ in turn calls forth our responsive faith – hence the gospel is from faith (i.e. Christ’s) to faith (i.e. ours), according to a literal reading of Romans 1.17.

At any rate, while the exact pistis Christou phrase is not used in this instance, it occurs to me that a comparison of Gal 5.6 and 2.20 appears to lend further support to the subjective genitive. In 5.6, Paul says that what counts is not circumcision, but faith working through love, while in 2.20, he has written that the life he now lives in the flesh he lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. The proper understanding of Paul’s exhortations regarding faith and love in chapter 5 seems to have to do with entering into a participation in Christ. And so just as the faith of Christ worked itself out in the greatest embodiment of love – His self-giving unto death – so the believer’s faith is to be worked out through loving service to others (cf 5.13).

Now I come to the passage I’m preaching on this Sunday, so I’ll just share the notes I’ve put together for myself. The result is that the writing is probably sketchier than my earlier posts. Lots of stuff to work with here, so my big challenge is reflecting on how this is to come together homiletically in a way that captures the essence of what is going on in the chapter.

Overall background

The man-meeting-woman-at-well theme is recurring in Scripture and is a marital motif. John has already had the wedding in Cana, but more directly the Baptizer has just finished calling Jesus the Bridegroom in 3.29. Jesus is Yahweh, calling Israel and Judah back from their harlotry, and refashioning them into one Bride, as promised by the prophets.

There is intended parallel and antithesis with the Nicodemus meeting in previous chapter. Both meetings are necessary and complementary, which is perhaps why it is now that Jesus “must go through Samaria” (4.4), whereas Jews would normally bypass it by going around, through Perea.  Nicodemus stands in for the Jews (Judah) as “the teacher of Israel” (3.10) and reflects a great deal more knowledge, as “salvation is of the Jews” (4.22); the woman stands in for Samaritans (northern kingdom of Israel). Explains the contrasts: Nicodemus is knowledgeable and respectable and meets Jesus in Jerusalem, while the woman is not privy to Judah’s faith, is not particularly respectable, and meets Jesus in an otherwise unknown location (although it is not very far away from Shechem): this is the present state of Judea and Samaria, respectively. In both cases, Jesus is alone with His conversation partner: Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, and Jesus speaks to the woman while the disciples are away buying food in the town. The times are diametrically opposite: night vs noon (sixth hour).

John 3 is the first encounter between Jesus and one of the Jewish leaders; and John 4 is the first and primary recorded encounter between Jesus and Samaritans. Thus the two passages together constitute the beginning of Jesus’ official/representative program to fulfill the reunion prophecies of e.g. Ezekiel 37 etc. He goes to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (cf Mt 10.6; 15.24), both of Judah and what is left of “Ephraim.”

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John 3 is arguably one of the most misused chapters in the Bible, partly because it is so temptingly quotable that the overall context gets ignored very easily. It is important that one keep in mind the earlier observations I made in connection with chapter 1: the salvation-historical themes are very much at the heart of what Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus is about, and yet most discussion of the chapter ignores them. Not good.

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Am going to be much more cursory here. The primary events in the chapter are the water-to-wine sign at Cana, and the temple cleansing sign in Jerusalem.

Wedding themes are going to recur in John, so we need to be ready for it. The wedding scene in chapter 2 is not merely coincidental; John the Baptizer will speak of Jesus as the Bridegroom in 3.29, and there are also marital themes in chapter 4 that shouldn’t be missed.

The event in Cana is not just a sign in the sense of “miracle” – the Bible doesn’t generally use “sign” terminology that way, and many other miracles occurred in e.g. Elisha’s ministry without getting that label. In fact, Jesus’ temple action is also a “sign,” and it involves no recorded miracle at all.

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I am departing from my usual custom and am actually planning to preach from the lectionary text this Sunday, which is the account of the woman at the well (John 4). In connection with that, I’ve been going through the Gospel of John again from the beginning and am sharing a few scattered thoughts.

One of the first things that we need to unlearn is the unfortunate assumption that what is going on in John is all about our systematic theological category of “regeneration.” Although the Gospel’s themes are related to that, that approach dehistoricizes the events of the Gospel and robs us of much of the richness of the biblical backdrop.

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This post is not an essay, and is not intended to be cohesive in the least. I am preaching on the Lord’s Supper tomorrow (Lord’s Day 28 of the Heidelberg Catechism), and in connection with that I have been going over this passage again in 1 Corinthians. These are thus simply my rough notes on the passage (early on much is not even complete sentences), and I don’t have time or inclination to set them into more orderly form at the moment. Still, I thought someone might find them of benefit even in their present form.

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In mulling over the matter of how AD 70 relates to the final judgment, I think I would go so far as to suggest that Jerusalem was in some senses the capital of the old kosmos (usually translated “world” but often having a strong eschatological sense in Paul, approaching something like “this present age”), and that in certain definitive ways that world was brought to judgment in AD 70.

Remember that in Galatians, Paul speaks of Torah as one of the stoicheia (“elements”) of the kosmos, parallel to idolatry etc. Thus I don’t think it is a stretch to say that the judgment on Jerusalem signifies a wider judgment.

But it is utterly wrong to think that wider judgment was simply accomplished en toto in AD 70. To the contrary, what we learn from Galatians about the stoicheia points in a very different direction. Torah stands alongside idolatry and other “elements” of the world (see e.g. Gal 4.8-10).

And while it is true that AD 70 started a chain of events that abolished idolatry in a lot of places… it didn’t end it. It destroyed Jerusalem… but it didn’t destroy all the other kosmos-cities that resist the rule of the Son.

There was a definitive judgment on the stoicheia in AD 70. Well, there was a definitive judgment on the stoicheia at the cross and resurrection too… but the stoicheia of the old kosmos still remain. The new heavens and new earth which we may enjoy today (for those in Christ, there is a new creation, 2 Cor 5.17) is a tiny earnest/down payment, and is only enjoyed in the midst of the old heavens and old earth. (Cf Rom 8 in context: we’ve been redeemed, but we still await the redemption of the body.)

And therefore, to take AD 70 as the be-all and end-all is to miss the whole point. AD 70 is a real and truly significant event in salvation history. But it is a very small part for a much larger whole that even to this day has not come. The full coming of the new covenant is not completed until all the enemies have been put down – including the last enemy, Death (1 Cor 15.26).

AD 70 is a marker that points directly to the final judgment and consummation.

I’m doing some exegetical work in John 15, and in translating the Greek I paid careful attention to verse 11 for the first time: “These things I have spoken to you, so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

I had always naturally assumed this verse was speaking of fullness of joy in a quantitative sense (full joy, lots of joy), but in considering the passage and its parallels, I’m led in a different direction.

The term full is the Greek plerow, frequently translated “fulfill.” Meanwhile, the context in John 15 is about the benefits of remaining in Christ, the vine, versus failing to remain in Him, and thus being unfruitful, and cast out as branches and burned.

There is a striking correspondence to all of this in the parable of the soils; in Matthew 13.20-21, Jesus says that when the Word falls on stony soil, the hearer responds with joy, but after enduring only for a while (proskairos, temporary – the opposite of remaining), he falls away in the face of tribulation or persecution.

I suggest therefore, that what Jesus is saying is that He has spoken this word of admonition, so that the disciples would indeed remain in Him, and that thus their joy would not merely be temporary, but that it would find its “full fulfillment” in bearing ultimate fruit that remains (Jn 15.16). In other words, the “fullness” of joy is not so much quantitative as telic: that is, that it reaches its proper goal of permanence.

Evangelical defeatism is a failure of Biblical perspective. After all, the risen Lord Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth and has been made head over all things for the Church; he is the ruler of the kings of the earth and he is currently putting his enemies beneath his feet; he has presumably asked the Father for the nations as his inheritance and the ends of the earth as his possession – and so he will receive them. All nations will bow to Jesus and all kings will serve him and his kingdom will grow to become the largest plant in the garden with the nation-birds finding rest in its branches. His kingdom is the stone which crushed the kingdoms of men in Daniel 2 and which is growing to become a mountain-empire which fills the whole earth. He is the firstborn from among the dead and therefore it is right that in all things he has the first place. He has been highly exalted and not only will every knee bow to him but every knee should bow to him.

Evangelical defeatism is a failure of historical perspective. After all, the statistics are out there. It took 1400 years for 1% of the world’s population to become Christians and then another 360 years for that to double to 2%. Another 170 years saw that grow from 2% to 4% and then, between 1960 and 1990 the proportion of the world’s population made up of Bible-believing Christians rose from 4% to 8%. Now, in 2007, one third of the world’s population confesses that Jesus is Lord and 11% of the world’s population are “evangelical” Christians. The evangelical church is growing twice as fast as Islam and three times as fast as the world’s population. South America is turning Protestant faster than Continental Europe did in the sixteenth century. South Koreans reckon that they can evangelize the whole of North Korea within five years once that country opens up. And then there’s the Chinese church consisting of tens of millions of Christians who have learned to pray, who have confidence in Scripture, who know about spiritual warfare, have been schooled in suffering and are qualified to rule. One day in the next century that Church – tens of millions of Christians trained to die – will be released into global mission and our prayers for the fall of Islam will be answered.

David Field, “Samuel Rutherford and the Confessionally Christian State”