junk drawer

Dec
21st

Tue

On Acts 15

If God were to do this whole thing by himself, there would be no problem. If we were only pawns (less than that, likely), we couldn’t mess up the works. But God brought us into the partnership of the gospel. He showed us behind the curtain and gave us inheritance in the mystery and ministry. And so the work of the church is in fits and starts. Steps forward, steps back, steps sideways. And falling, often. It’s messy work. Not because of God but because of his business partners. And so we first admit: the work of the church can never be easy, well-paved and well-lit. And second we decide: we will follow Jesus and his gospel forward, overcoming the obstacles we set up, not being discouraged but having confidence. Not because of our genius, but because of our business partner. Who happens to be the king.

Nov
6th

Sat

In all such cases, the intent of the literary construction [of Ps. 114] is to slow down our reading of the poem, making us go over everything twice, forcing the mind to a second and more serious look at the line, prolonging our prayer, obliging us not to go rushing off somewhere. Such poetry is deeply meditative, and the reader who resists its impulse will find himself with acid indigestion of the mind, serious “heartburn” in a most radical and theological sense.

— Patrick Henry Reardon on Psalm 114 in Christ in the Psalms

Aug
10th

Tue

I wonder why are we so eager to chatter and gossip with each other, since we seldom return to the quiet of our own hearts without a damaged conscience? The reason is that by idle chit-chat we seek comfort from one another another and we hope to lighten our distracted hearts. And to make matters worse, we chatter most freely about our favorite topics, about what we would like to have, or about those things we especially dislike. What a mistake! The outside comfort is no small detriment to the inner comfort that comes from God. Therefore, we must watch and pray that we do not waste time. If it is proper to speak, speak of what will benefit others spiritually. Bad habits and neglect of our spiritual progress contribute much to our endless chatter…

—

[A word on facebook from a medieval monk:]

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, pg. 38

Jul
27th

Tue

Godliness consists not in a heart which intends to do the will of God, but in a heart that does it.

— Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections 348

Jul
9th

Fri

O reader, if your heart was right with God and thus did not cheat yourself with a vain profession, you would have frequent business with God which you would be loth your dearest friend, or the wife of your bosom, should be privy to…Religion does not lie open to all, to the eyes of men. Observed duties maintain our credit; but secret duties maintain our life. It was the saying of a heathen, about his secret correspondence with his friend, What need the world be acquainted with it? You and I are theater enough to each other. There are inclosed pleasures in religion which none but renewed spiritual souls do feelingly understand.

— John Flavel, quoted in Jonathan Edwards’ The Religious Affections; (I slightly updated the language)

May
13th

Thu

Rather, if thou desirest to look and find pleasure, look at thine own wife, and love her continually; no law forbids that. But if thou art to be curious about the beauties that belong to another, thou art injuring both thy wife by letting thine eyes wander elsewhere, and her on whom thou hast looked, by touching her unlawfully. Since, although thou hast not touched her with the hand, yet thou hast caressed her with thine eyes; for which cause this also is accounted adultery …

— John Chrysostom (ht: Kairos Journal)

Apr
18th

Sun

[The pastor] needs therefore to become a technical, devotional reader. Every technical skill remains, but he reads like a child, letting the word speak directly to his heart again. He gains what Paul Ricoeur calls a “second naivete.” He is both technically astute and meek. He both receives God’s word and expounds it.In this way, he finds strength to endure trials and to check the growth of sin.

— Dan Doriani on James 1:21

Apr
17th

Sat

Indeed, I sometimes wonder if breathless rhetoric about changing the world is actually about changing the subject—from our own fitfully suppressed awareness that we did not ask to be brought into this world, have only vaguely succeeded in figuring it out, and will end our days in radical dependence on something or someone other than ourselves. If our excitement about changing the world leads us into the grand illusion that we stand somehow outside the world, knowing what’s best for it, tools and goodwill and gusto at the ready, we have not yet come to terms with the reality that the world has changed us far more than we will ever change it. Beware of world changers—they have not yet learned the true meaning of sin.

— Andy Crouch, Culture Making, 200

Apr
8th

Thu

All true Christians are God’s theologians, as the saving light of the gospel has been bestowed upon them all.

— John Owen

No English translation can be both precise and idiomatic.

— Luke Timothy Johnson in commentary on Acts

Mar
26th

Fri

…so observe [the Sabbath] as to keep the golden mean between the two extremes of pharisaic rigor and of Sadducaic laxity: recognizing on the one hand the beneficent ends served by the institution, and doing their utmost to secure that these ends shall be fully realized, and, on the other hand, avoiding the petty scrupulosity of a cheerless legalism, which causes many, especially among the young, to stumble at the law as a statute of unreasonable arbitrary restriction; avoiding also the bad pharisaic habit of indulging in over-confident judgments on difficult points of detail, and on the conduct of those who in such points do not think and act as they do themselves.

— AB Bruce, The Training of the Twelve on Jesus’ re-tuning of Sabbath observation

Mar
19th

Fri

The Broken Society

By David Brooks in the NYT. Sane, clear voices are like a spring breeze sometimes. (ht: Daniel H)

Mar
17th

Wed

Hitchens vs. the Pope

Note: explicit stuff in here…be warned.

What’s fascinating to me is how totally right Hitchens can be in pursuing the cause of justice and moral truth, yet be doing so without a reasonable foundation. For the true atheist, where do the standards of justice come from? Who’s to say that child abuse is wrong? So in this one I’m rooting for Hitchens but am glad to have the Bible to stand on.

Mar
16th

Tue

We’ve become a nation of voyeurs who feed off the offal of ruined lives. Our feeding troughs are the talk shows, books, and magazines that tell shocking story after shocking story about how people have consumed themselves and others. We become consumers ourselves by feeding off the misery these people have wrought, and having eaten, we wipe our mouths and move on.

We have not become better people because none of the shocking stories are weighed against any standard of righteousness. Indeed, we are told there is none. We have not become wiser people because we have not learned to understand cause and effect in the choices these people made. Indeed, we are told that people are victims, helpless in the face of whatever cruel things life brings their way. They must always react, never act.

— Laurie Hall

Mar
2nd

Tue

I believe the roots of clerical sloth are theological rather than primarily psychological. We become lazy and slovenly in our work because we have lost the theological rationale for the work.

— William Willimon, Proclamation and Theology, page 72 (ht: Carl Trueman)