You may have noticed I
like doing a “retrospective” post once a year, usually on a Sunday in the summer
just as I am about to disappear somewhere far away for a couple of weeks and
totally ignore the Internet.
It gives me a chance to
preview what’s coming for the next week or so, which in 2015 was a Top 10 of our most-read posts, and in 2016 was Worship Week. It also gives me a chance to let our readers know how things are going
generally, to say thanks to a few people, and to take stock.
All good things, so
let’s have at it.
The Inexhaustible Christ
I usually close with
this, but I’m going to say it up front this time:
“Thanks most of all to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not only utterly inexhaustible but the only subject in this universe genuinely worth writing about every single day of my life.”
If I’m honest, when I first wrote this it
was probably more aspirational than anything. I knew it to be true
intellectually, so I could say it confidently, but I can’t claim to have really
felt much about it at the time.
Since then, well, let’s just say I’m
overwhelmed at the sheer scope and depth of the both the written word of God and
the Word Incarnate. Inexhaustible is right. Smaug’s lair, if you know your
Tolkien, had nothing on the unsearchable riches of Christ. We’re up over 1,300 posts
in four years, some of them lengthy and heavily researched, and we haven’t
scratched the surface of the Word AT ALL. The treasures to be found in Christ are not mere fact-baubles
but deep, rich, eternal, joy-producing veins of living truth that have been
mined by enthusiastic believers for generations upon generations and will
never, NEVER be tapped out. I’m not saying we even remotely do these truths
justice, but the material is certainly there.
In the course of writing these posts, I’ve
had to come back to a few of the same verses, not merely because my own
imagination is limited, but because I’ve seen so much more in them in only a
couple of years of study that I have to share those thoughts too.
I am more conscious than ever before of the
incredible worth of our Saviour and the immense value of knowing him as glorious Lord and intimate friend. What a privilege to be able to share him
across the world.
Numbers ’n Stuff
This is post number 1338.
Yowza.
154 of these have been
our Friday Too Hot to Handle
discussion posts, which seem to remain favorites, so we keep writing them. Not
all of them are controversial anymore: really, IC and I just touch base and
chat about something interesting to both of us.
Our “recycled” posts
are up to a hair over 10%. One in ten’s not bad, especially since our
readership has pretty much doubled in the last calendar year, which means there
are lots of people now reading regularly who, I guarantee, will never go back
and parse our earlier posts. Who has the time? So, once every week and a half
or so, I will probably continue to dredge the ComingUntrue basement for old stock and disinter something for your
consideration. We trust that, unlike Martha, you will not need to use the words
“already stinketh”.
I think it’s fair to say
we have readers in every corner of the world. This morning, for instance, both Grenada and Bosnia & Herzegovina checked in. I may move to a different tracking
system or even a different platform this year to better quantify that, because Blogger only
regularly shows the ten countries from which we are getting the most visitors at any given point in time. So
welcome one and all!
Negativity?
If there is a
negative, I’d say it’s in our ongoing inability to get any kind of regular discussion
going in the comments (unless Qman does a drive-by).
Partly, I think, this
is because many of our readers are serious Bible students themselves, as well
as insanely busy people. When they take the time to write something, it usually ends up in a sermon.
Partly it’s because a
good number of these receive our posts via RSS feeds and email delivery, so
they don’t see other people’s comments or have an easy way to comment back.
Maybe it’s our moderation,
which, while rarely heavy-handed, creates a time lag between commenting and
posting that may discourage kneejerk responses. (Then again, does anyone really
want to read kneejerk responses, including those who make them?)
Partly it may be that,
as a couple of our Mac readers and those using certain versions of Android have found out, their comments disappear into
the ether and never reach us. The source of that problem remains mysterious.
In any case, we love hearing
from you, even if it’s to say, “Eh, not so much.”
The Next 10 Days
After wracking my
brain for a couple of months trying to come up with a theme for the next
week-and-a-half (and receiving zero assistance from IC on that score), I decided
to take my revenge by reprising ten of IC’s posts that newer readers are less
likely to have come across.
Immanuel Can has spent
a lifetime as an educator so it’s not surprising that some of his blog posts read
like formal essays (I think at least one was actually a repurposed treatise).
It also helps explain why he regularly starts explicatory clauses with the word “for”.
His contributions remain among the most popular things we publish despite the
fact that his work schedule only permits a new solo post once or twice a month.
So I doubt anyone will express massive irritation at the prospect of yet more IC.
In order to avoid
redundancy, I’ve eliminated from consideration (i) any IC posts that have
already been recycled once, (ii) anything relatively recent, (iii) anything
that made our Top 10 Posts list in
2015, (iv) anything that is sitting in the left sidebar on the main page getting
free advertising already, and (v) anything to do with Calvinism …
just because. (Alright, maybe I slipped up just once. Or twice. Maybe. Fine, if you’re so smart, YOU try to find ten IC posts that don’t reference Calvinism!)
Uh, enjoy. I know I do.
Thankfulness
Finally, thanks to all
our readers for continuing to stop by, and especially to those of you who have
taken the time in the last year to comment, email, or say something to me
personally. Your encouragement and thoughtful criticism are greatly appreciated.
And thanks to the Lord
for continuing to enable this. As always, I think I probably benefit the most.
Love in Christ,
Tom
Enjoy your break...we enjoy your posts... but more importantly ...Enjoy your time with the Lord. God bless.
ReplyDeleteI swing by because this is definitely one of the better takeouts, considerably better than Burger King ;O).
ReplyDeleteParticularly for a vegetarian.
ReplyDeleteKeep on keeping on brothers! Your encouragement, edification, and exhortation in this ministry have been such a blessing. To God be the glory!
ReplyDelete