Good.

TX can require the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools. 

So can, and should, every other state.

Preaching on the Ninth Commandment

When I said a long while back that I had a dream that one day preachers across the country would all preach on the Ninth Commandment, this was the sort of thing—one of many such—that I had in mind: organizations that take advantage of people's best intentions by alleging with false accusations and psychological projection the very hatred they purport to stand against. Lex talionis, BTW, means that false accusers are meted the same sentence they attempt to call down on others. 

Christians, before they rush to strike a moral pose, need to practice self-awareness and ask themselves whether their attitudes toward other people—family, (former) friends, neighbors, people of the opposing party—arise from what might boil down, in the eyes of God, to a false witness. I have seen some of the most lionized theologians on social media pronouncing certain public figures non-Christian because of how they pray or what they pray for in public, never mind the courage it takes to pray in public, never mind bothering to ask what biblical texts the prayer might have in view. Paul teaches a better way when he tells us to consider others as better than ourselves. That is the positive corollary to the negative prohibition in the Ninth Commandment.

Related.

Also related.

Very important poll

 ... that concerns medical freedom, therefore, freedom generally, which is a matter of not only the human body, but also the mind and spirit. "Where the Spirit is, there is freedom."

Because Year D is concerned with making the Word of God fully known — for the glory of God and for the well-being of his beloved world — I am linking this here. 

"House Lights Up [Postlude]"

Here is the final, final track from the Revenant Psalms project.

Revenant Psalms, Vol. V is streaming (in full)

Here is the full YT playlist, but without 1000 subscribers, YT pays literally nothing. Please visit your favorite streaming service to download this and other records. Why stream when you can own it and access it anytime, ad free?

Meanwhile, here is the latest track with video and lyrics/paraphrase:

"Psalm 110 [Quaternary Resignation]."

Thanks for your support.

Revenant Psalms, Vol. V (in progress)

 Here is just a partial playlist so far. Releasing Vol. V of this series one track at a time. Look for it in 2026.

Revenant Psalms, Vol. V 

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZZ9pVHWq-xZFAb3CcondvBf2TljkTzn3&si=KebPkh9b0Nh8oRtP via

@YouTube

"New and Full"

The polymath John Ruskin once famously defined the sermon as "30 minutes to raise the dead." Let's see if — relying on the good grace of the Word and the Spirit — perhaps six minutes will do. 

This is a song that brings a lot of old threads together: 

• a short (2:25) excerpt from "Those Who Hear Will Live," an unpublished Easter sermon on John 5; in which ...
• the kerygmatic real presence of Christ is invoked;
• along with the phrase "from the beginning" (the title of the ELP song that has haunted me from my youth);
• some chord changes that have been with me for a long time, even from when I first picked up a guitar, but more specifically, from tracks on the first and second albums ("The Call" and "Grace Upon Grace," respectively), and those are just in the bridge, which I could play until the kingdom comes;
• the Psalms, and in this case some overlooked verses that I think have prophetic bearing on ...
• eschatology (the doctrine of Christian hope);
• everything coming together as the calendar turns to the season of Advent, with the traditional Gospel reading coming from the Olivet discourse: "one will be taken and one will be left." 

The video also includes a simple, old charcoal sketch from 1996 that finally sees some daylight here.

I should acknowledge other influences, like certain songs of Bruce Cockburn, Andy Thornton, and others that — short of collapsing into rap as such — do not shrink from issuing a similar battery of words to describe the depravity of the human condition (don't ask me to name the songs, as the titles elude me at the moment); others like those of Nick Cave and Doug Gay that draw on apocalyptic themes; a renewed conversation about matters of first importance with a treasured friend who is also an extraordinary poet; and, of course, my own (sometimes actually righteous) indignation at the "progress" of recent human affairs. As Ernst Kasemann said, "Apocalyptic is the mother of theology." It is also the hopeful stuff toward which we gravitate as conditions in church and society deteriorate.

For the record, "New and Full" was written on the 12-string, which only arrived last Friday. After messing about with another song that day, the musical setting came Saturday, which I recorded and edited on Sunday (recorded on both 6 and 12-strings, but the 6 sounded better for the bulk of it; I only added the 12-er at the end for the big, heavy chorus effect), the words came between Sunday and Monday; vocals were recorded and edited Monday, the old sermon excerpt was added either late Monday or early Tuesday, with almost no edits, apart from snipping the sample itself. I think I excised one stammered syllable, but otherwise all the changes in the cadence of the sermon aligned perfectly with the musical changes. It is as if the old recording had waited two decades to find its soundtrack and be re-released into the world. 

Ultimately, "New and Full" is a total gift, one that came very gradually, then suddenly. People often quote Hemingway's twofold description of how he went bankrupt to note how disasters often materialize, but — believers, take note — apparently gifts can come that way, too! 

Soli Deo Gloria. Come, Lord Jesus.

Every state capital has a dome, right?

 This is how to use it.