Welcome to “New City,” a blog dedicated to handling the individual life in the secular city in a new way with the Lord, based on the Lord’s grace of the Gospel.  Particularly, this blog is dedicated to upholding the church as a counterculture of the Gospel for the secular city with the Lord.  God loves to raise up His people to new faith and new sonship in the Gospel.  God calls lost and broken sinners to be new sons and daughters to Himself based on the believer’s trust in Jesus, the life of justifying faith in Jesus, the Author of a new beginning and new faith for a peculiar people.

God especially raises up His people to new citizenship status in the Gospel, in God’s setting apart of His people as a new city of the Gospel, a city that speaks a better word than the fallen words of fallen secular cities.  And God wants His people to speak the countercultural message of the Gospel into the fallen lives of the fallen secular city.  God wants His Gospel to be a renewing word for every aspect of the secular city, in politics and economics and family relationships and sexuality.

Applying the Gospel onto the secular city with the Lord means applying the personal life, every aspect of the personal life in the secular city, to renewal in the Gospel with the Lord, and upholding the church as the new city of the Gospel for fallen secular cities with the Lord, in supporting the church to speak the Gospel into the personal home city and in the outer cities of the nations with the Lord.

“And the LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, ‘Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.  And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.’ “  (Gen. 13:14-16)

The context for Abram’s inheritance of the city of Canaan is Abram’s dedication of an altar to the LORD as a memorial to the beginning of Abram’s journey and Abram’s faith.  “And he went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar, which he had made there formerly; and there Abram called on the name of the LORD” (Gen. 13:3-4).  God shows Himself as the God of new beginnings for His people.  God speaks His Gospel as a new word shaping new reality into the lost and broken lives of sinners, in God’s setting apart of these sinners as new believers and new sons and daughters to Himself.  And God sets apart Christians to speak the Gospel message into the spiritual Canaans of the world, the prosperous cities that also have very dysfunctional and broken relationships, in sinners’ alienation from God and from each other.  Upholding the Gospel with the Lord means upholding the body of fellow Christians, the church, as a new city of the Gospel for fallen secular cities with the Lord.

Who am I?  My name is Rick Palma, a life-long resident of Arlington, VA.  I am a professing evangelical Christian and communing lay member of Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, and in the denomination the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).  My goal with this blog, from a layman’s standpoint, is to focus on edification for my own life out of the Gospel of Scripture, in knowing Jesus as the Chief Shepherd of the new Jerusalem for my own delight in sonship with the Lord, and my speaking of the Gospel message into my home city of Arlington with the Lord.  I also want to support fellow lay Christians to their own edification and evangelization of the Gospel onto secular cities with the Lord.

I don’t want to be a head-butting sheep causing divisions in the church.  Rather, I want to build up the church to corporate witness of the Gospel with the Lord.  And I want to support pastors for their preaching and teaching of the Gospel and their direction of the church for the secular city with the Lord.

“Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them, ‘Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.  Because you push with side and with shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, until you have scattered them abroad, therefore, I will deliver My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; I will judge between one sheep and another.  Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd.  And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.’ “   (Ezek. 34:20-23)

And so I dedicate this blog not to divisiveness in the church from a layman, but rather to edification of the church for the cause of the Gospel with the Lord.  Likewise, my blog does not represent the views of the PCA; rather, my blog is meant to support the PCA, and the greater confessing catholic visible church at large.

I plan to lay out the course of this blog by the following dynamics.

Bible study.  If you want to know real deep relationship with the Lord, you have to look at the Lord’s Word as covenant instruction, the Lord’s commandment, for walking in sonship with the Lord.  God loves to lead His people by His commandment in Scripture.  God shows them Himself as their true Chief Shepherd and their true Father, so that their abiding by the inscribed Word with the Lord means following as sheep after their Shepherd, and putting their hand in the Father’s hand to walk with the Father.

And God blesses His relationship with His people as a righteous relationship by His inscribed Word.  God instructs His people to dwell with Him and walk with Him, and He counts His believers as blameless in His sight, in the Father’s bearing of His children’s burdens on His own reputation through the Father’s righteous sacrifice of the Son.  Abiding in righteousness and sonship with the Lord means dwelling in the pages of Scripture for walking by the Gospel of Scripture with the Lord.  “The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes”           (Psalm 19:8).  I hope to incorporate my quiet time Bible study lessons into this blog for giving glory out of sonship in Christ to the Lord, in singing with enlightened eyes and a rejoicing heart in Christ to the Father.  And I hope to use these Bible study lessons for edifying the church, the body of believers and joint-heirs in Christ, with the Lord.

I plan on using old expository commentary books as helpful Bible study tools in writing out my Bible study lessons on this blog with the Lord.  I particularly have the Puritans in mind for expository commentaries; but any era of church history, from the early church fathers to the Protestant Reformation, and even present day Reformed evangelicalism, will do.  I consider the expository commentary a helpful means for giving worship to the Lord.  If you read the Puritans’ working of their minds to the deep things of the Gospel in Scripture with the Lord, you will gain deeper vision for sonship in Christ with the Lord, and you will express deeper thanks to the Lord for His first grace.

Abiding with the Lord as Heavenly Father means applying the instructions of Christian forebears and Christian parents from the Gospel of Scripture for growing into a deeper love of adoption in Christ with the Lord, and rejoicing together with these elder Christians in giving glory to the Lord.  “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.  Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart” (Prov. 4:20-21).  I plan on including some Puritan websites and classical Christian exposition websites to my blog roll as I encounter them on the Internet and examine them with the Lord, in providing my blog readers with helpful resources on Gospel insights with the Lord.

Reading the Bible and reading secular culture.  If you want to apply the Gospel as a relevant foundation onto your life in knowing new authentic relationship with the Lord, then I suggest that you make use of Bible study lessons for examining the ways of secular culture, and the movement of your own heart in secular culture, with the Lord.  I would also suggest getting yourself immersed in secular books and Internet news outlets and music CDs (music albums) and movies.

Reading secular books and getting immersed in secular media outlets in a personal walk by grace with the Lord will lead to understanding the trends of the times for keeping true to the Gospel beyond the trappings of these trends, and for presenting the Gospel as authentic counterculture onto these trends and onto fallen secular culture with the Lord.  ”And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams” (Dan. 1:17).  I plan on making use of secular books and periodicals and Internet news sites and other media ventures for examining the trends of the times, and even the trends of my own home city, in handling my own life in the secular city in a new way with the Lord, and in edifying the church of Christ and in pointing non-Christians to real satisfaction in the justifying grace of the Gospel alone with the Lord.  And regarding books and CDs and other media publications of artistic human expression, I plan on writing reviews on my blog about these books and CDs and movies, and about Christian publications wherever they may be counterpoints to secularity or simply catering to secularity, all in my upholding of the Gospel as a better foundation of grace for the ways of secular culture with the Lord.

I especially plan on making use of old literature, whether old plays and novels or old social commentaries (or present day sociological books on old social norms), for explaining the present times and presenting the Gospel as counterculture with the Lord.  History is not an exercise in blind naiveté.  Every generation has its own idols that were impressed upon their children and their grandchildren.  If you want to understand postmodernity in a fresh way of new grace-rooted relationship with the Lord, do not shut your eyes to the errors of history.  Past generations of erring thinkers have influenced the present generation of erring thinkers.  “Do not say, ‘Why is it that the former times were better than these?’  For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this”  (Ecc. 7:10).  I plan on making use of old social commentaries and old artistic literature, as well as present day sociological books on previous generations of erring social norms, in examining the sins of history and the sins of the present time by the Gospel of Scripture with the Lord.

In reading the Bible and reading secular culture with the Lord, I would have to agree with Augustine: Knowing secular culture and presenting the Gospel onto secular culture with the Lord has to involve examining a culture by its presuppositional biases and bringing these biases to light in the grace of the Gospel with the Lord.  ” ‘In our way of thinking, ‘in disciplina nostra,’ then, we do not ask merely whether a pious soul is angry, but why; not whether he is sad, but for what reason; not whether he feels afraid, but what it is he      fears’ “  (Augustine qtd. in Brown, Augustine of Hippo: A Biography, p. 305).  My hope is that engagement in reading the Bible and reading secular culture with the Lord will bring praise to the glory of the Lord and edify the Christian church, and bring Gospel witness to unbelievers.

Recreation: Culture-conscious and grace-driven.  From time to time, I plan on writing blog articles about my own Gospel-rooted adventures in my own home city of Arlington, or in other cities beyond Arlington, with the Lord.  Engaging the Gospel onto the secular city with the Lord means putting aside personal merit and personal reputation to the cross of Christ and making friends for the cause of the Gospel in every area of the city with the Lord.          ” ‘Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, in order that your opponent may not deliver you to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison’ ” (Matt. 5:25).  If you know justification and a new beginning for your life by the Gospel alone with the Lord, then you will learn to speak the Gospel into other people’s lives from all areas of the city with the Lord.

I plan on writing about my experiences of sharing the Gospel with people on subway trains or out-of-town vacations or at the gym.  I also plan on including photo shots of my engagement in Arlington and in other cities, in seeking to love people by the justifying grace of the Gospel with the Lord.  I want to include my recreation experiences on this blog for worshipping out of justification and sonship in Christ to the Lord, and for leading fellow Christians to their own witness of the Gospel in the secular city with the Lord.

However, I have to warn blog readers with the Lord: My evangelism life will not be nearly as dreamy or consistent as you would like it to be.  Many times, I will not engage in evangelism, simply because I bottle myself up in protectionism from other people, my self-perceived opponents at law.  I have to trust the Lord’s sanctification over my life during these struggles of sin, these dead zones of sin in my lack of communication to others.  God loves to set apart His people to holiness through His Son Jesus, and He leads His people to future glory of the new covenant and the new eternal kingdom of Heaven beyond all their spiritual blind spots, based on the Lord’s gift of substitutionary obedience in His Son Jesus.  And God uses His people to bring Gospel witness onto unbelievers for their conversion to Jesus and their ingathering to Jesus, even beyond the Christians’ blind spots.

Growing in sanctification and future glory in Christ with the Lord means trusting the Lord’s perfect drawing grace for the Christian beyond all the Christian’s blind spots, and trusting the Lord’s use of Christians to bring Gospel witness onto lost people’s lives.

“Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.  And afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the LORD had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.  When Moses had finished speaking, he put a veil over his face.  But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone.  So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.”  (Exod. 34:31-35)

The reality of my evangelism life is that as I shut myself off from other people, I will encourage non-Christians to continue on their path of unbelief, and I will lead false Christians to show their true colors, their hypocrisy, and leave the Lord altogether.  And I also have to trust the Lord that He will use my Gospel witness, as inconsistent as it is, to bring non-believers into new saving faith in Christ.  God will make the salvation of the elect and the condemnation of the non-elect clear to Christians at the end of all things, the final judgment and the new kingdom of future glory.  And so I say to blog readers with the Lord: Don’t look to my evangelism as the ideal evangelism.  Look to the Lord’s sanctification of the Gospel for your lives, so that you would trust the Lord’s use of your lives, as broken and inconsistent as they are, to bring Gospel witness onto lost unbelievers’ lives.

Take a rest; let someone else drive.  I don’t want to be a blogger who obsesses with the amount of writing he does on the blogosphere.  That is self-worship.  Rather, I want to make it a point to take my time in writing and preparing articles for publication on this blog with the Lord.  The preparation process could mean days without updated posts on my blog.  Perhaps the process could take weeks or months.  The bottom line is that I want to pursue the blog writing experience in a restful way of the Gospel with the Lord, making time to getting regular sleep or go exercising on my free time or otherwise living a normal human life, and in bringing my human life to dwelling in the Gospel with the Lord.

Accordingly, I plan to occasionally post blog articles of mere quotes from Puritan books or classical Christian books in which the authors draw from the Bible for showing insights on human life and culture with the Lord.  This way, I let Christian thinkers, especially the Puritans, speak for me during the times that I want to take extended breaks from the blog.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.  It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.”  (Psalm 127:1-2)

I have come to believe that seeking happiness in the Gospel with the Lord means seeking rest in the Lord’s care and letting Him do the heavy lifting of burdens from my life, ultimately in the matter of substitutionary atonement in Jesus, but also in a smaller way of letting the Lord provide His people’s voices to build up my new life.  Accordingly, I plan to take little breaks every now and again from writing articles on my blog, and make room for citing Christian commentaries or dialoging with Christians reading my blog in the comments.

Having laid down the aforementioned dynamics for writing on this blog with the Lord, I hope to use this blog to point people to their own exploration of renewal of the mind by the Gospel alone, beyond the power of dead ideas and self-worship, in knowing new relationship with the Lord.  “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2).  I hope you will find this blog to be a help for your own pursuit of spiritual renewal and spiritual rest in Christ alone with the Lord.

Sincerely yours,

Rick Palma