New Saint Andrews College

  In this, the 18th episode of “What Have You”, Bekah and Rachel discuss floor looms, potential mothering pitfalls, and get absurdly cracked up about hurricane machines in the mall. To keep up with every episode of “What Have You” subscribe below on iTunes or Google Play, or go to the “What Have You” home page at www.nsa.edu/what-have-you-podcast and see more of Bekah and Rachel’s work over at feminagirls.com   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  Episode 4: Free Men/Free Markets Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow ID., lectures on the topic of economic liberty in the life of the Christian. For the complete Christ and Economic Liberty series visit: http://www.nsa.edu/christ-and-economic-liberty-podcast/   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  In this, the 17th episode of “What Have You”, Bekah and Rachel discuss freezers and women who are relationship bookkeepers. To keep up with every episode of “What Have You” subscribe below on iTunes or Google Play, or go to the “What Have You” home page at www.nsa.edu/what-have-you-podcast and see more of Bekah and Rachel’s work over at feminagirls.com   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  Episode 3: Fair Trade? Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow ID., lectures on the topic of economic liberty in the life of the Christian. For the complete Christ and Economic Liberty series visit: http://www.nsa.edu/christ-and-economic-liberty-podcast/   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  In this, the 16th episode of “What Have You”, Bekah and Rachel discuss the vital importance of listening to both sides of the story. To keep up with every episode of “What Have You” subscribe below on iTunes or Google Play, or go to the “What Have You” home page at www.nsa.edu/what-have-you-podcast and see more of Bekah and Rachel’s work over at feminagirls.com   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  In this, the 15th episode of “What Have You”, Bekah and Rachel discuss why “Merkle” is a verb and the potency of high achieving, unthreatened homemaking. To keep up with every episode of “What Have You” subscribe below on iTunes or Google Play, or go to the “What Have You” home page at www.nsa.edu/what-have-you-podcast and see more of Bekah and Rachel’s work over at feminagirls.com   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  In this, the 14th episode of “What Have You”, Bekah and Rachel chat about the changing of the seasons and then tackled the ever-explosive topic of modesty. But we promise that they were incredibly reasonable about it.

  Episode 2: Mass Affluence Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow ID., lectures on the topic of economic liberty in the life of the Christian. For the complete Christ and Economic Liberty series visit: http://www.nsa.edu/christ-and-economic-liberty-podcast/   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  Episode 1: Introduction to Christ and Economic Liberty. Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow ID., lectures on the topic of economic liberty in the life of the Christian. For the complete Christ and Economic Liberty series visit: http://www.nsa.edu/christ-and-economic-liberty-podcast/   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  Episode 33 of 33. Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow ID., lectures on Chapter 33 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Of the Final Judgment. For the complete Westminster Confession of Faith with proofs, and the suggested reading for this chapter please visit the Westminster Confession of Faith series homepage at: http://www.nsa.edu/wcf-podcasts/   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  In this, the 13th episode of “What Have You”, Bekah and Rachel sit in the car in a wind storm and talk about summer break and loyalty to your people. To keep up with every episode of “What Have You” subscribe below on iTunes or Google Play, or go to the “What Have You” home page at www.nsa.edu/what-have-you-podcast and see more of Bekah and Rachel’s work over at feminagirls.com   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  Episode 32 of 33. Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow ID., lectures on Chapter 32 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Of the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead. For the complete Westminster Confession of Faith with proofs, and the suggested reading for this chapter please visit the Westminster Confession of Faith series homepage at: http://www.nsa.edu/wcf-podcasts/   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  Episode 31 of 33. Pastor Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow ID., lectures on Chapter 31 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, Of Synods and Councils . For the complete Westminster Confession of Faith with proofs, and the suggested reading for this chapter please visit the Westminster Confession of Faith series homepage at: http://www.nsa.edu/wcf-podcasts/   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

  In this, the twelfth episode of “What Have You”, Bekah and Rachel discuss general “May”hem and self identity. To keep up with every episode of “What Have You” subscribe below on iTunes or Google Play, or go to the “What Have You” home page at www.nsa.edu/what-have-you-podcast and see more of Bekah and Rachel’s work over at feminagirls.com   Listen or subscribe on:  Google Play iTunes   

This is a transcript of Joe Rigney’s graduation address delivered at NSA’s 2017 commencement ceremony on May 11. You can listen to the full address at the bottom or by visiting NSA’s podcast on iTunes or Google Play   Graduates, family and friends, as an alumni and friend of this institution, I want to offer my deepest congratulations on finishing this portion of the course of life. Making it this far is no small feat, and your presence here is a testament both to the grace of God and your hard work, and, for some of you, to the kindness and generosity of your professors. As I understand it, it is customary at such events for the speaker to offer an exhortation. A natural choice this evening would be to extol the value of a liberal arts education for life. But you’ve been studying here, in the Mecca of Christian Liberal Arts. I know your professors. I count many of them as my friends (I’ll let you guess which ones I’m excluding). You’ve read Shakespeare with Grieser, studied Augustine with Appel, learned Latin with Griffith. You’ve been “Quid est-ed?” and “Quid agit-ed?” until you dream in Latin stick figures. Dr. McIntosh has introduced you to some of the greatest thinkers in history. Men like Anselm, and Anselm, and Anselm, and Aquinas, but really Anselm. Before you came here you did not know that it was possible for anyone to be as excited about Herodotus, Thucydides, and medieval progymnasmata as Dr. Schlect is. Some of you men have tried to get a girlfriend by using those Anglo-Saxon pickup lines that Dr. Merkle taught you (“Hey girl, do you ofermeod? Wyrd.”) You’ve sung psalms with Erb, read the gospels with Edwards, and seen the glories of mathematics with Stokes (though the first time you walked into class, you did wonder if he was going to teach physics by bench-pressing you). You learned mimetic desire from a Wilson, creative writing from a Wilson, and the mating habits of the western rattlesnake from a Wilson. Wilson, Wilson, and Wilson—it sounds like a law firm. Or, in case any of our Truly Reformed brethren are listening in, it’s really a Law and Gospel firm. No, if, after spending four (or more years) here in Moscow, you still don’t know the value of a liberal arts education, then, as the sage Rooster Cogburn once said, “I can do nothin’ for ya, son.” Which, incidentally, is also what Professor Escalante told some of you after your Rhetoric final. (Imagine him with an eyepatch and the stache? The freshmen wouldn’t know where to look.) So though extolling the Christian liberal arts would have some value, for this address, I’ve chosen to offer an exhortation, not from the Great Books, but from the Greatest Book. That’s how we talk at my institution. We study the Great Books in the light of the Greatest Book. Indeed, in light of the Person at the center of the Greatest Book.   Do the Word To that end, my exhortation if very simple: Do the word. Or as James says “Be a doer of the word.” Here’s the full passage from James 1: But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25) James contrasts doing the word with being a mere hearer. Hearing without doing is like looking at your face in a mirror and then walking away and forgetting what you look like. Hearing = looking in the mirror. Not doing = walking away and forgetting. Simply hearing the word is not the same as obeying the word. If all you do is hear, with no doing, you’re kidding yourself. You’re self-deceived. There must be something more. What’s the more?