“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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Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Letters from the Best Man (7)
The following is
absolutely fictional and increasingly common. There is no Brad and definitely
no Jill, in case that is not obvious. There are, however, way too many people
in their position.
I haven’t had much of a chance to work through what you
shared with me in your email, nor an opportunity to pray about it the way I
intend to, but I figure it’s better to get back to you sooner than later.
You’re right, I must confess: I never in a million years
expected to hear from you. I’m almost positive the last time we saw each other
was at Brad and Jill’s wedding, which makes it over a decade now. And I agree:
discussing my best friend’s failing marriage with his mother-in-law puts me in
almost as awkward a position as it puts you to discuss your daughter’s current relationship
problems with me. I expect neither of us will be at our best as we are both
working with understandable biases and with only partial information. But I
think if we are careful and Christian about it we may be able to do some good
for two people we love without breaking any confidences or meddling in their lives.
Deal?
Labels:
1 Corinthians
/
Divorce
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Gossip
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Letters from the Best Man
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Marriage
Monday, August 28, 2017
Poking the Bear
“A soft answer turns away wrath”, says the writer of Proverbs. I learned that as a child,
though I didn’t always use it to my advantage. Still, it’s a good bit of wisdom
to have up your sleeve in a confrontation, and too few people today know much
about how to de-escalate a conflict.
But what if it’s not
your objective to defuse anger? What if you’re looking to provoke a strong
emotional reaction?
Labels:
Esther
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Paul
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Provocation
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Stephen
Sunday, August 27, 2017
A Different Package
Yonatan Zunger is a former Distinguished
Engineer at Google, a product of Stanford and a very smart guy, so it’s a
little surprising to find him making spectacularly unrealistic generalizations
like this one: “Anyone can
learn how to write code.”
The context of the comment is unimportant
and would take way too long to explain, but having spent a significant portion
of the last 20 years troubleshooting other people’s rather sad attempts
at writing code — or even at manipulating existing code — I almost laughed out loud when I read it.
Still, we should probably cut Mr. Zunger some slack
and assume he didn’t mean to make such an absurd and utterly unsupportable
claim.
Labels:
Bible
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Bible Study
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Reading
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Calls and Feelings
Two weeks ago I posted
some thoughts on the “gift of singleness” that didn’t conveniently fit into an earlier post (the one in which John Piper gives advice about marriage to a single mother).
There was another
interesting thought-thread associated with the woman’s question, and since
Piper hasn’t addressed it, I think it’s time to take a whack at it. It’s this
statement I’m referring to:
“Now,
as I attempt to wrap my head around the overwhelming task of raising this boy
into a man by myself, I do not feel called to marriage.”
“Feeling called” may
be a very common evangelical trope, but ask yourself this: Exactly how biblical
is it?
Labels:
Calling
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John Piper
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Marriage
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Will of God
Friday, August 25, 2017
Too Hot to Handle: The Christian View of Premarital Sex [Part 1]
In which our regular writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
In an article appropriately entitled “Premarital Sex: Is It A Sin Or Not?” Charles Toy of TheChristianLeft.org contends it’s … not:
“There is no passage of the Bible that references premarital sex as a sin against God. The association between sin and premarital sex is a new Christian idea. The only possible reference to premarital sex being a sin in the Bible is in the New Testament. This premise although, is generally dismissed by theologians because the Greek word pornei, or sexual immorality is commonly incorrectly translated into the English word fornication.”
Tom: Immanuel Can, what say you?
Labels:
Interpretation
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Premarital Sex
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Recycling
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Sexuality
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, August 24, 2017
The Positives of Negatives
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Stewardship
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Fatal Friends: Dawkins and Calvin
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Determinism
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Neo-Calvinism
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Richard Dawkins
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Freedom: The False and the True
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Character of God
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Freedom
Monday, August 21, 2017
Do Christians Hate Science?
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Faith vs Science
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Science
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Why Are We So Unsatisfied?
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Commitment
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Spiritual Gifts
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Friday, August 18, 2017
Too Hot to Handle: Eternal Insecurity
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Age of Book of Job
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Eternal Security
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Faith
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Too Hot to Handle
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Works
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Dismembering the Church
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Body of Christ
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Membership
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Hooray for the Hypocrites
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
David Platt
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Limited Atonement
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Neo-Calvinism
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TULIP
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Monday, August 14, 2017
The Trouble with the Truth
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Relativism
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Truth
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Witnessing
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Tom Takes Another ’Nother Breather
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.
Labels:
Coming Untrue
Saturday, August 12, 2017
The Gift of Singleness
This is the first of two
extended lines of thought that wouldn’t fit conveniently into my post from two days ago.
You may remember that one: John Piper was giving advice to a single mother who wondered if she should be looking for a husband.
A couple of common
evangelical catchphrases were bandied around in the exchange and caught my
attention. First, Piper referred to the “gift of singleness”. Later, the young
woman declared she did not feel “called to marriage”. You have probably heard
people say things like that. You may have said them yourself.
Both phrases
sorta-kinda employ the language of the New Testament, but both do it in ways
that can mislead us if we’re not paying attention to the way they are used.
Labels:
Determinism
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John Piper
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Marriage
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Singleness
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Will
Friday, August 11, 2017
Too Hot to Handle: Bad Reasons to be
Non-Denominational
The most recent version of this post is available here.
Labels:
Denominationalism
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Revelation
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Too Hot to Handle
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Shooting from the Lip
“Pastor John” Piper is answering his mail again, which nearly always ends up, well ... interesting,
to say the least.
This time he’s responding to the single mother of a
three-year-old boy who wants to know whether the Bible teaches she should be
looking for a husband.
Piper is rarely reluctant to engage with questions the Bible
doesn’t directly answer, and this one is no exception.
Labels:
John Piper
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Marriage
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Premarital Sex
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Sexuality
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