Hey, my wife and I are soon flying to North Carolina in order to speak in a missions conference. But I have noticed today that the conservative Christian website, Sharper Iron, has posted my short book review on Craig Harline’s, Sunday (Doubleday, 2007).
Check it out. I noticed that Craig is not too fond of Puritan, Calvinistic preachers. Would you think it right of me in saying that Mormonism is the direct antithesis?
The movie was filmed in Utah. Beautiful place, indeed. But who would have ever thought that this cheesy melodrama with awkward dialogue and worse special effects than “Little House on the Prairie” could strike such a powerful chord in my heart. I just watched this flick with my three older children.
What is the sin-eater’s name?
His name is Jesus.”
My heart ran, soared, and sang with Cadi and the little angel, Lillybet, along that Appalachian mountain ridge, knowing the personal experience of the complete forgiveness of sins, past, present, future – every dark stain on my soul removed forever!
As a youngster, I remember the deep anguish. How was I to pay for the actions, words, and the iniquitous thoughts that plagued my mind? I saw God in all glory contrasted to my heartless seeking of personal glory. For I knew . . . I sought personal gratification. I reveled in self-pleasure. I desired and took at the expense of others. I enjoyed seeing others suffer who hurt me. I pouted. I sat in depression when angry at my own limitations and loss. I lashed out. I hid from wisdom. I would be postured wrongly, stubbornly for hours, days on end. I had a high opinion of my self. I sought praise. I sought glory that belonged to Jesus Christ alone.
In a nutshell, the puritan Owen pegged my heart . . . “unintelligent, unfaithful, unnatural, unappeasable, and unmerciful.”
Frankly, I strain over how to properly express my own past undoing and unhappiness. Raw. Gnawing. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.
I thought others had done worse than me. I was the church boy. Others even praised me for being such a good boy. Pride filled me. But I also knew what others didn’t know. I was the outward angel but the inward rebel. I truly knew my own heart. I knew the scriptures said I was worthy of the pain of Hades. And it rankled me.
How could I have been so senseless in seeking that which belongs to the Savior alone? I couldn’t muster up perfect love, perfect obedience, perfect faith, perfect holiness. Who I was kidding? I walked enslaved to the prince of the power of the air. But I didn’t want to believe it. Not me . . . stubbornly entrenched Todd Wood. Yet my continual self attempts at trying to meet my personal best rather than being obedient in faith to the gospel insulted both the all sufficient work of the Son and the matchless love of His God. I deserved hell. (more…)
1. Kaimi at Times and Seasons delivers a winner on evening sunsets. How often the Creator of all paints the most beautiful masterpieces. To see such extraordinary canvasses should cause anyone to turn “from vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.” I was with Paul yesterday in the book of Acts. Yes, there are beautiful places in Turkey. But Paul would have gaped with mouth wide open if he were to live and see the beauty that we enjoy quite frequently in the American West. The big skies testify that God is no chimera. (more…)
This post “Conversion Into” is written by the bishop’s wife (laughing) in Ammon, Idaho. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Kristie Wood. (more…)
Ann Romney, wife of presidential candidate Mitt Romney, on her conversion to Mormonism:
I’m still adjusting because I don’t like going to church for three hours every Sunday. That’s rough!
World magazine (November 3, 2007), p. 16.
Actually, our church has three hours (Sunday School and morning worship) in the morning, not counting the pre-SS prayer meeting. We also have a Sunday evening service.
I invite Mitt and Ann to come visit the next time they are in Idaho Falls. Do many LDS like many evangelicals think three hours is rough? 🙂
Sometime, I will post my thoughts on Craig Harline’s new book, Sunday (2007).
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther initiated discussion by submitting 95 theses for the Roman Catholic Church to consider. Today, 490 years later, as one who was born and has lived in Mormon country for most of my life, I earnestly submit my 95 theses for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) to consider. The religious leaders of the intermountain West need to completely rethink the foundational undergirdings that hold up the well-oiled, seasoned superstructure.
Governor Mitt Romney, a man who intrigues me, is seeking the presidency of the United States of America. The LDS religion is a topic of discussion throughout many parts of the country. In observing some of the conversation in the corridor, I am at least aware of many undercurrents in popular LDS thought and action. As a Bible preacher who considers himself a latter-day saint living within the I-15 Corridor, the stretch of interstate from the top of southeastern Idaho to St. George, Utah, I offer frank and honest propositions for LDS in 2007. I am sure that for each earnest and regenerated Christian, as he lives in and observes his particular cultural environment in America, thoughts of conviction from time to time will arise to the surface that need to be expressed. Here are some of mine:
I went to the headquarters of our local newspaper, the Post Register. I wanted to pay for a small 2 x 4 advertisement to be placed tomorrow. It would have these words:
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther issued his 95 theses to the Roman Catholic Church. Today, 490 years later, a Bible pastor is respectfully submitting his 95 theses to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. See here, www.heartissuesforlds.org “
The newspaper has decided not to place this ad anywhere in the paper.
Hmmm. I don’t currently receive the local paper. Sometime, I might get back on the list. I do like to regularly stay in tune with what is going on locally.
But I wonder over the refusal by the higher ups. (more…)
I have been sick today. So while sitting in bed, I decided to read this book, The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine(Intervarsity Press, 2007) by Alister McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath.
I read some things that were interesting.
And I reacted to some things that I thought to be a sloppy, careless, unscholarly lumping together of atheist fundamentalism and Christian fundamentalism.
But here is one statement as we approach October 31 that I vigorously agree upon in the book,
Legitimate criticism of religious ideas can all too easily give way to the rather more disturbing and dangerous vilification of a people (80-81).
It is a very valid warning.
On October 31, 1517, a fiery, fearless, tempestuous, monkish man by the name of Martin Luther decided to issue 95 theses in addressing the corruptions he saw within his mother Holy Roman Catholic Church. He despised the selling of indulgences. And he hated the manipulation of the Catholic doctrine of purgatory for the robbing of the poor. He was ready to debate, caring not that his words infuriated others. In every way, St. Peter’s Basilica became the greatest monument to the Protestant Reformation.
As a college student, I can’t recall the number of times that I watched the classic Louis De Rochemont production of the black and white film, Martin Luther. I enjoyed listening to the accomplished Shakespearean and church historian professor, Dr. Edward Panosian, act out in first person the life of the boisterous reformer.
So after seminary days, I decided to take my wife to Germany and hunt down this historical figure.
I will never forget Worms. In the garden of the modern Heylshof House of Art, I personally located all the German plaques that marked the events of that notorious day where Martin Luther stood before Kaiser Karl V. In a blow by blow account on that sunny day in Germany, I reconstructed the explosive events that shook the world.
From there, I examined every detail in the Luther Room, reconstructed in 1983 on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Luther’s birth. And after strolling through the big Catholic Romanesque Church and the Holy Trinity Church (built in honor of Luther), we finally headed to the centralized Luther Monument containing the bronze-cast figures of Friedrich der Weise, Philip the Magnanimous, Johann Reuchlin, Philip Melancthon, Augsburg with the palm of peace, Protesting Speyer, Magdeburg in mourning, Dr. Martin Luther, Petrus Waldus, John Wyclif (Wiclef), John Hus, and the Italian Girolamo (Hieronymus) Savonarola.
To see Martin Luther, towering high in the center of the monument, wearing preacher’s garb, and holding a Bible, is an impressive sight. He is staring at the Bishop’s palace, which once stood overshadowed by the cathedral.
The upper block underneath Luther’s sculpture provides these famous four statements by Luther alongside the portraits of contemporaries (John of Saxony, John Frederick, Justus Jonas, John Bugenhagen, Ulrich von Hutten, Franz von Sikkingen, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli):
“Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”
“Faith is nothing other than the true and real life in God himself. – To really understand the Scriptures one needs the spirit of Christ.”
“The Holy Gospel, given us by the Lord through the mouths of the apostles, is his sword and with it he will strike in the world as though with thunder and lightning.”
“Christianity in its true sense will not be held captive by any human law. – They are free, not according to the flesh, but according to their conscience.”
There are some ideas by Luther, wherein I stand in opposition to him. To carelessly affront the Jewish race is sad. I relished walking quietly through the oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe, the “Holy Sands”, next to the Luther Room. My wife thinks Martin Luther to be ugly in appearance. Well, I would say that some of the things he said were bestial and ugly.
But Martin Luther courageously stood for the soteriological doctrine of justification by grace alone and defended with all his heart biblical authority. Thank God he was not blasé on these fundamentals. Bravura happened to be the need of the hour.
I have neither the cultural shaping nor the scholastic training of Luther. My temperament is both shy and blithe compared to Luther’s bombastic personality. Yet as Luther felt burdened at almost age 34 (birthdate, November 10, 1483) to share his convictions to the greater religious populace of his day, at age 37, I earnestly desire to share my 95 Theses to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints dominating my Intermountain West I-15 corridor. Independent apologist, Blake Ostler, even encouraged me in such a wild idea somewhere on one of those threads on New Cool Thang. Thanks. Some time soon, I will be mailing my 95 Theses to both the first Presidency and the Twelve Apostles.
On the heels of a first ever National Student Dialogue Conference sponsored by Standing Together Ministries in Salt Lake City, involving both evangelical and LDS professors and students, I am trying something a little different. Scholars today, like John Morehead of Salt Lake Theological Seminary and others, would encourage evangelicals and LDS in the dance of dialogue. Some conversations I saw in the conference as beneficial; but other things I saw as unhelpful tip-toeing, leading to theological compromise in the name of not hurting any good friend’s “sacred” feelings. (more…)
Most of you know that our church family has been studying John’s Gospel on Sunday mornings.
A number of you recognize that John’s Gospel quotes Isaiah in powerful ways.
Many of you have observed that our church family is also working through an inductive study of Isaiah on Wednesday nights.
But listen to this uncanny development where I feel like I am on a parallel Bible track with Joseph’s scripture treasure hunting around 170 years ago. (more…)
Jesus in Idaho Falls 