The most recent version of this post is available here.
“Love often manifests itself in giving people what they can’t appreciate and don’t want, and
in demanding from them precisely what they most want to retain for themselves.” — Tom
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Friday, August 21, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
A Fulfillment That Isn’t
Now he is consistent. He does not change his nature from one day to the next. His character is immutable. But he is also
endlessly creative, as the world around us and the cosmos well demonstrate.
So when we study the
Old Testament prophets we should not be surprised to find that the Lord uses
consistent, repeated themes throughout history. It is in his nature. We should
also not be surprised at the occasional unexpected and creative twist. That
also has ample precedent.
Labels:
Acts
/
Joel
/
Prophecy
/
Revelation
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Would You Sign This?
MEMBERSHIP
COMMITMENT
I couldn’t.
Sign, or you’re not a “member”. Even if you
do sign, that’s only Step 1. There’s a “Procedure for Membership” to which
each candidate for “membership” (as this church defines it) must submit themselves,
including having their name posted at church or placed in the church bulletin
for two weeks, after which “those who remain as candidates will be
welcomed into membership”.
Those who don’t make it presumably remain
outside the camp.
Labels:
Church
/
Membership
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Be Careful What You Wish For
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Corinthians
/
Hosea
/
Israel
/
Psalms
Monday, August 17, 2015
When Analogies Fail
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Figurative Language
/
Inspiration
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Quote of the Day (7)
Idolatry is fundamentally the worship of self.
When we think of the ancients grovelling before groves and
altars, we may be inclined to envision them as essentially religious people
with errant theology. That is easier to do when we picture pagans with no
knowledge of the true God beyond that which they might intuit from nature and
the cosmos.
But then how do we explain the nation of Israel after the exodus?
Labels:
Idolatry
/
Israel
/
Quote of the Day
/
Self
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Recommend-a-blog (11)
For a regular newsletter, this is grim stuff, no getting around it. It’s not light Sunday afternoon reading before tea.
Which, given the subject matter, is
probably what we should expect.
Professing Christians throughout Asia and
the Middle East are dying for their faith daily and the Gatestone Institute has the details, if you want them. Many, perhaps most, are our brothers and
sisters in Christ.
Labels:
Christianity
/
Persecution
/
Recommend-a-blog
Friday, August 14, 2015
Too Hot to Handle: Globalism and Censorship
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Evangelism
/
Globalism
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Internet
/
Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, August 13, 2015
“I Looked for a Man …”
The Bible is filled with the stories of people who we would fairly call ‘servants of God’ — men and women who did great things at pivotal moments and who are forever enshrined in both the Old and New Testaments as examples and stalwarts.
Biblically-undocumented servants fill the annals of secular history too — people who gave their lives in the pursuit of God’s work; men like George Mueller or Jim Elliot come to mind. But there are thousands of others who bore the title ‘servant of God’ with distinction by changing the course of nations and standing for God at needful times.
Then there are those of us who are Christians today and aspire to be worthy of the grand title ‘servant of God’ in our generations.
Biblically-undocumented servants fill the annals of secular history too — people who gave their lives in the pursuit of God’s work; men like George Mueller or Jim Elliot come to mind. But there are thousands of others who bore the title ‘servant of God’ with distinction by changing the course of nations and standing for God at needful times.
Then there are those of us who are Christians today and aspire to be worthy of the grand title ‘servant of God’ in our generations.
Labels:
Christ
/
Faithfulness
/
Recycling
/
Servant
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
The Truth Is Out There
We live at what is arguably the most privileged moment in human history with respect to the revelation of God. Nobody seeking knowledge of the Creator and his will for mankind has ever had more to work with than we do.
It is tempting to pity those who lived before the earliest recorded books of scripture. What did those poor savages really intuit about God? Without clear direction, wandering around in a fog of unknowing, what were their chances of avoiding the natural negative consequences of their actions during this lifetime? And as far as heaven is concerned, without revelation it’s difficult to make a case that man before the Law (or even under it) could think of eternal life as much more than pipe dream.
It is tempting to pity those who lived before the earliest recorded books of scripture. What did those poor savages really intuit about God? Without clear direction, wandering around in a fog of unknowing, what were their chances of avoiding the natural negative consequences of their actions during this lifetime? And as far as heaven is concerned, without revelation it’s difficult to make a case that man before the Law (or even under it) could think of eternal life as much more than pipe dream.
If we didn’t know better, I suppose we might assume God was unfair to them.
Labels:
Age of Book of Job
/
Morality
/
Recycling
/
Revelation of God
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Monday, August 10, 2015
The Time of Their Visitation
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Jerusalem
/
Luke
/
Reconciliation
/
War
Sunday, August 09, 2015
Colorblindness, Privilege and Inspiration
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Inspiration
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Prejudice
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Privilege
/
Rachel Held Evans
/
Racism
/
Slavery
Saturday, August 08, 2015
When the Holy Spirit is Silent
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Acts
/
Barnabas
/
Interpretation
/
John Mark
/
Paul
Indirect Evidence for Inspiration
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Christ
/
Inspiration
/
Paul
/
Peter
/
Scripture
Friday, August 07, 2015
Too Hot to Handle: Nonsense That Remains Nonsense
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Theologian
/
Too Hot to Handle
/
Worship Leader
/
Worship Teams
Thursday, August 06, 2015
Go Big, Then Go Home
Frank Schaeffer’s latest book is called “Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God: How to
give love, create beauty and find peace”.
The “find peace” part is
more than a little ironic. Since turning his back on Christianity in the late ’80s,
Shaeffer has written 17 books (including a few bestselling novels) to go
with the five he wrote while still claiming to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
He’s penned novels, gone Hollywood, directed occult horror films and comedies, has been a
Republican and a Democrat, has endorsed John McCain and Barack Obama, has gone
by “Francis”, “Frank” and “Franky”, has been pro-life and pro-choice and today cannot decide from one moment to the next whether he believes in God or not.
With all these ricochets
and u-turns in his track record, it’s at least faintly possible Frank Schaeffer
is not the most qualified man in the western world to advise others on how to
find peace.
Labels:
Churchianity
/
Frank Schaeffer
/
Hosea
Wednesday, August 05, 2015
Quote of the Day (6)
“The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love,” said the psalmist.
It may be argued that in a fallen creation the “steadfast love” of God that fills
the earth is easier to recognize at some moments than at others. But contrast that with a
materialistic universe, where genuine love is absent by definition.
Someone got Catholic novelist John C. Wright going on the
subject of the atheistic vs. the theistic worldview and their respective
implications, in particular for the possibility of love as opposed to mere
sentimentalism.
Labels:
Atheism
/
Christianity
/
John C. Wright
/
Love
/
Quote of the Day
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
Do You Want to Go Out?
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Christ
/
Persecution
/
Reproach
Monday, August 03, 2015
The Immature Christian
I don’t know a lot about modern Judaism, orthodox or
otherwise. But I was intrigued by this opinion piece in The Jerusalem Post. Of all the things
that might tick Jews off about Christians, the one that particularly sticks in
the craw of writer Bat-Zion Susskind-Sacks is that we’re ... well ...
immature.
Now let’s face it, almost nobody in this century or the
last much likes the idea of a religion that claims a monopoly on truth. But
the one completely untenable, utterly illogical position to be taken is that
all religions are therefore simultaneously true, or even contain substantial truth. The
Law of Non-Contradiction declares
that contradictory statements cannot be true in the same sense at the same
time, and contradictory statements about the nature of God are no exception. Some ideas about God, the universe and morality are simply more accurate (and therefore more truthful) than others.
Labels:
Christianity
/
Judaism
/
Maturity
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