My Sunday sermon is posted on sermonaudio.com. I would appreciate it if anyone who listens to those sermons might tell me how the sermonaudio service compares to the way I used to do it, on the church web page. Thanks!

The link to our page on sermonaudio.com is providencercus.sermonaudio.com.

We’re webcasting again. If you’d like the notes, email me and let me know. We’re also going to try Instant Messenger again, on a different machine, so you can send instant messages to mattpowell74@hotmail.com if you want. We’re continuing in Revelation 2.

I’m back from the RCUS Synod meeting of last week. Actually, I got back on Friday, but I’ve been pretty wiped out between recovering from that and getting ready for Sunday worship. So today’s the first time I feel like I’m starting to get back into the routine.

It was a really good meeting. I felt a spirit of unity and brotherhood in a way I haven’t before. Not that I never felt it before, but there have been some pretty fractious debates in the past that really tested the bonds of brotherhood. And there really wasn’t much contention at this meeting at all.

For those of you who don’t know, a synod is a broader judicatory in the Reformed church. We have the consistory, which is the local governing body, the local elders, deacons and pastors of a particular church; the classis, which is a regional governing body and which oversees churches and pastors; and the synod, which is made up of a group of classes (classis plural). It is a higher court of appeals and the body which has original jurisdiction in matters which affect the whole church- foreign missions, denominational positions, etc.

We had a committee erected to study the Federal Vision, and they presented their paper at this last meeting. The paper ended up being recommitted to the committee for further work, a vote that as I recall was about 2/3 in favor of recommitting and 1/3 against. There were some that were worried we might be sending the wrong message, that we weren’t decided where we stand on the FV, so I thought I’d tell you what my understanding of the vote was, for the benefit of posterity and all that.

There was about a third of the body (about 85 delegates, elders and pastors) that felt the paper was strong enough, that it made the case sufficiently well. Another third of the body did not feel it was strong enough- felt it needed some additional scholarship to really make the case. They felt the conclusions were good but the paper did not sufficiently support the conclusions. Finally, there was about a third that I felt thought the paper was OK, but really wanted unanimity on it, and so voted to recommit. This was my interpretation, and the proportions might be off some, but I think these were the basic three positions represented in debate.

We have done two previous papers on other issues, on the New Perspectives On Paul of N.T. Wright, and on Norman Shepherd, both of whose teachings are closely related in many ways to the Federal Vision. Both of the votes on those papers were unanimous, and many people really wanted to have a unanimous vote on this too. There was simply not a word spoken in favor of the teachings of the Federal Vision, which was very encouraging to me. Given the mood of the body, a person with such sympathies might have been afraid to voice them. But I’m fine with that. Anyone who had such sympathies needs to feel that their beliefs are unwelcome in the RCUS, and in fact in any orthodox denomination, and be lovingly rebuked to turn back to orthodoxy.

I have uploaded my most recent two sermons from the Gospel of John. These last three cover the prologue of John.

I am trying out SermonAudio.Com. That’s where these last two are posted, and the first one on John as well. You can go here- providencercus.sermonaudio.com to hear them. If you go there, let me know what you think of that as opposed to the system we were using before at providencercus.com.

We will webcast tonight’s Bible study. If anyone would like to receive the notes ahead of time, just email me and I’ll send them to you. It will be at 7:15. Go to providencercus.sermonaudio.com and wait for the webcast button to the right of our name to say “live” and then click on it- then you select low or high bandwidth and pick a server- that should be it.

UPDATE: We will not be able to do IM during the webcast- that apparently caused us some performance problems last time.

I’m really really sick of the Republicans. I remember an old poli sci joke- “If the Democrats proposed a bill to burn down the capitol, the Republicans would offer a counterproposal to phase it in over three years.”

We’ve had both the White House and Capitol Hill for six years and what do we have to show for it? Domestically, almost nothing. The biggest thing is the tax cut, which is likely to be undone soon because of the out-of-control spending. Otherwise, the best argument you could make would be, “Think how bad it would be if the Republicans weren’t in power”. But I can think how bad it would be- 1994-2000, when power was split. Internationally it was a disater, but domestically, I really can’t say it was any worse. A Republican congress that acted a lot more like Republicans because there was a Democrat to fight in office, restrained the worst of Clinton’s liberal tendencies, kept him ineffective by impeaching him, and in general just got out of the way of one of the best economies we ever had. We still have a good economy, but it seems largely in spite of anything the Republicans have really done.

Yes, the tax cut. I like the tax cut. But what’s it going to do to us if we lose the tax cut over pressure about our deficit?

They’re just thieves and con-men, the lot of them. There’s the occasional guy like Tom Coburn who apparently thinks that being a congressman doesn’t mean unfettered access to the treasury of the country. But did you hear about this railroad in Mississippi? Trent Lott attached a $700 million amendment to an Iraq funding bill to move a railroad further inland, so they can build casinos on the coast. This for a railroad that the federal government just spent $250 million on repairing after Katrina. And then there’s the Northrup Grummann bailout– $200 million dollars in loss protection, in a special bill, to a company that made a $2.4 billion profit last year, up from the previous two years. This was once again Lott, but there’s enough Republicans to support him that make you seriously wonder where the head of this party is.

Again, what have we got from six years in power? Steel tariffs? Medicare prescription drug benefits? No Child Left Behind? Which one of these exactly has anything at all to do with conservative values? Anything worthwile, like the Social Security reform attempt, wasn’t supported enough to get it off the ground.

We knew from the start what we were getting from Bush- he was a “compassionate conservative”, and anyone who feels the need to put that qualifier on their version of conservatism doesn’t understand or doesn’t agree with traditional conservatism. Reagan knew that being a conservative was compassionate- it’s what freed people to solve their own problems, freeing resources from government control and wastage, freeing businesses from regulatory strangling so they could grow and succeed. I’m glad Bush was there for the war. I think it likely that not many presidents, and certainly not the alternative in 2000- would have handled it with anywhere near his guts and integrity. And this isn’t about Bush particularly, it’s about Republicans.

And then this immigration nonsense. Why the so-called “law-and-order” party can’t get it through their heads that a country cannot survive without law and order blows my mind. Eleven million people in this country whose first act here was to break our laws. And a million of them march in our streets demanding the right to continue doing so. I wish we’d surrounded those marches with tanks, and then kept the marches going right on down to Mexico. Give ’em plenty of Aquafina for the hike.

But if they can’t get control of spending, nothing else matters much. If they succeed in stealing the wealth of this country for all their pet projects, to buy themselves votes, then they will destroy this country.

And don’t think that any of this means I’m considering the Democrats. They’ve got all the faults of the Republicans, plus they’re baby-killers. I’d take a fag-loving, hooker-chasing, swindling, greedy fraudster any day over a baby-killer. It’s kind of like God preferring Jehu over Ahab. He still worshiped the golden calves, but at least he wasn’t a Baal-worshiping baby killer.

But I don’t think I buy it any more- the argument I used to make myself, that I should vote for the Republicans instead of a third party because a vote for a third party is a vote for the Democrats. I’ve come to the realization- so what? Would it be much worse? What would they do? Unfettered abortion? Oh wait, we’ve got that. Gay marriage? A matter of semantics at this point. Ridiculous spending? Check.

There’s the judges, of course. But remember, if the conservatives hadn’t practically shoved Alito down Bush’s throat, we’d have Harriet Myers today. So I’m not sure that even that argument’s worth much. There’s foreign policy- and here’s where it sticks in my throat a little. With a Democratic president, the foreign policy would undoubtedly be much much worse (although it does depend on which Democrat).

I just don’t know anymore. Fact is, if the election were held today between Generic Republican and Generic Democrat, I’d vote for the Republican. I am just really ready for a choice. And I think the Republican Party needs to have some competition for the conservative mantle in this country. Right now, I’m pretty sure the only reason they win elections is because it’s either them or the baby-killers.

I’ve had strep throat for the last week or so. For any of you that hasn’t had it, it stinks, a lot.

Strep throat doesn’t even really do justice to what I had. It was more like strep face. It had spread into my ears and sinuses as well.

I’m here to tell you, if you get strep throat, don’t be a hero. Just go get antibiotics. This is not the time for herbal remedies or stoic character-building. This is the time for penicillin.

There will be no webcast tonight, because there will be no Bible study tonight. Tune in next week, though.

Wow, I can’t believe I just said that. Tune in next week, when we’ll find out who the Phantom really is.

We are now webcasting some of the Bible studies here at Providence. It’s through SermonAudio.com, and the first one will be tonight at 7:15.

To view the webcast, go to www.sermonaudio.com. There is a “Live Webcast” button at the top- click it, and scroll down until you see “Providence Reformed Church”. Click the button to the right that says “view media” or whatever. Then you pick one of their servers (whichever one is green) and then if you want video and audio, or just audio. If you have just a dial-up connection, you probably just want audio. Otherwise pick both.

That should be it. Windows Media Player should launch and you should see the webcast.

If you like, you can either email me questions, or you can log into MSN Messenger and add me as a contact (mattpowell74@hotmail.com). Then send me a note, and I’ll open a conversation with all the remote people so you can ask questions by IM.

I’ve posted my two Easter sermons. The first one is from Ezekiel 37, and shows how Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones was a prophecy of the coming of the gospel, and how the gospel therefore promises us a resurrection, a spiritual resurrection. The second is from Colossians 3, and shows the link between resurrection and forgiveness.

I’ve also posted my first sermon from the book of John. It’s called “The Beginning of the Light” and is taken from the beautiful prologue to the book of John.