Random thoughts on the mind this morning

Some time ago I decided to change the name and address for the blog. This may not have been the best idea, perhaps I should have given the warning or created a new one altogether with the new address attached to the old site. Consequently, the traffic has come to a screeching halt for the most part (though the number of actual readers is hard to tell with most receiving feeds via email or a tool like Google Reader. I rarely ever visit an actual blog that I read, it all comes to my Google account.). Maybe the traffic will pick up soon, or maybe not. Maybe the traffic loss is the result of inconsistent posting and lack of interesting content. This probably has more to do with it than the address change. I've often wondered why I continue this blog and have decided to delete it on more than one occasion. But, for some reason I keep it around. I enjoy writing and keep thinking that one day I will have more time to write. It's nice to have a place to post one's thoughts whether they are read or not. For now the blog continues under a new bat-name and a new bat-channel, so to speak.

When I began the blog in the spring of 2007 I gave it the fitting title "Crying in the Wilderness" which fit well and the site address contained the words all of grace. I had fully embraced the Calvinistic scheme and these words remind me of such a great time in my Christian life of seeing the glory of God's amazing grace in salvation. All of Grace was also a 30 minute internet radio broadcast for a period of time. That was a lot of fun. I still have the audio for all of the episodes but they will remain hidden away for my children to maybe stumble upon for a good laugh after my death.

Thinking back, All of Grace (which also happens to be the title of a C.H. Spurgeon book) was an excellent description for that period of time for me. Not that I have "moved on" to bigger and better things (I have to daily return to the gospel of grace and weekly have it proclaimed to me among Christ's people), but "Norma Normata" is a good title to sum up where I am presently. For the last few years I have been able to better understand what it means to embrace the Reformed label. It is much more than giving assent to the TULIP, though it is at least that much. We have a confession. Ask any random Christian what they believe and the likely response will be "the Bible." Any sect or cult member could give the same answer. The real question is "What do you believe the Bible to teach?" The phrase Norma Normata means "the rule that is ruled." My rule of faith is the Scripture, but my confession of faith is what I believe the Scripture to teach, which is the Reformed confession of the Christian faith bound up in the Westminster Standards or the Three Forms of Unity (in my case it happens to be the Standards, the confession of my particular denomination). The confession is a rule of faith, but it is a rule that is ruled by a higher rule; the Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Given the name of the blog, I hope to have more to say in the future regarding confessions and being confessional. For now, there are a two helpful articles on the sidebar by Carl Trueman and R.C. Sproul (anything I say will probably be taken from them anyway). 

So again, the blog continues for now. I have a couple ideas to try and beef up the content and make it more interesting. We'll see how that goes. It will probably be much of the same; a few days of posting here, a  few weeks of silence there. To the few of you who follow and/or continue to read, thanks alot. I'm going to grab some breakfast.