Daniel, the senior pastor of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky, says his vision statement is, ”Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.”Wilderness Fandango: 3 Things
That justification, "... we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present," has application to every area of knowledge and, once said, seems obvious — and yet is resisted in practice. There seem to be a great many people who honestly [and ignorantly] believe that there can be something new under the sun..... C.S. Lewis noted: “We need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present.” For the present can become imperial, seducing us into imagining that the assumptions that reign today have always defined what it means to be reasonable, sensible, and mainstream. Against the tendency toward presentism, Lewis observed that “a man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village: The scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.”
We can suffer from a biblical presentism. It is all too common to think of biblical interpretation as answering the question “What is the Bible saying to us now?” This approach, which one finds both in liberal mainline churches and in conservative evangelical ones, owes a great deal to the liberal Protestant theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher. ....
Faithful interpretation of Scripture requires a trinitarian hermeneutics. The rule of faith demands that Scripture be read as a coherent dramatic narrative, the unity of which depends on its principal actor: the God who has forever known himself and who, in the history of redemption, has revealed himself to us, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Athanasius and the other fathers who struggled against the Arians for the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity were embroiled in serious exegetical arguments. How could the Old Testament affirmation, “God is one,” be reconciled with the New Testament confession, “Jesus is Lord”? What was the relationship of the eternal and unchanging God to the Logos who became flesh, Jesus Christ? Among many other things, the struggle for the doctrine of the Trinity was a debate over the meaning of the Bible.Reading the Bible with the Reformers
At the time of the Reformation, the doctrine of the Trinity once again emerged as a major point of dispute, especially between the mainline reformers and certain evangelical rationalists among the radicals. The doctrine of the Trinity could not be surrendered because it had to do with the nature and character of the God whom Christians worship. This God, the triune God of holiness and love, was not a generic deity who could be appeased by human striving but rather the God of the Bible who had made himself known by grace alone through the sending of His Son, Jesus Christ, “for us and for our salvation.” To enter into the mind of Scripture with a trinitarian hermeneutic is to come to know this God and not another. As Todd Billings puts it, “The Bible is the instrument of the triune God to shape believers into the image of Christ, in word and deed, by the power of the Spirit, transforming a sinful and alienated people into children of a loving Father.”.... (the bold emphasis is mine) (the essay)
O GOD, whose blessed Son was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil, and make us the sons of God, and heirs of eternal life; Grant us, we beseech thee, that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves, even as He is pure; that, when He shall appear again with power and great glory, we may be made like unto Him in His eternal and glorious kingdom; where with Thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Ghost, He liveth and reigneth ever, one God, world without end. Amen.BEHOLD, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
[BoCP]
Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run;
Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise,
To pay thy morning sacrifice.
Lord, I my vows to Thee renew;
Disperse my sins as morning dew.
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with Thyself my spirit fill.
Direct, control, suggest, this day,
All I design, or do, or say,
That all my powers, with all their might,
In Thy sole glory may unite.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
[Thomas Ken, 1674]
Christianity is not instinctive to anyone, nor is it picked up casually without effort. It is a faith that has to be learned, and therefore taught, and so some sort of systematic instruction (catechumenate) is an essential part of a church’s life.Catechism: A Final Word (for now) | internetmonk.com
In the first Christian centuries there was a steady stream of adult converts and enquirers, and catechetical instruction took the form of lectures, given at their level. The Reformers’ strategy for revitalizing a Christendom that was ignorant of Christianity led them, however, to concentrate on systematic instruction for children. During a century and a half following Luther’s pioneer Little Catechism of 1529, literally hundreds of catechisms were produced, mostly though not exclusively for the young. Some of these were official church documents, others the private compositions of individual clergymen. The English Prayer Book catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism are among the best known. Probably most Protestants today associate catechisms and catechizing exclusively with nurturing children and would not think of presentations like C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, or Billy Graham’s Peace With God, or John Stott’s Basic Christianity, or G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy, as catechetical, because they are written for adults. But inasmuch as they are intended to instruct outsiders and establish insiders in the fundamentals of the faith, catechetical is their proper description.
One great need today is a renewal of systematic Christian instruction—catechetical teaching—for adults. It need not be called that, nor need it take the form of rigid drilling in preset formulae, which is how old-time Protestants taught their children; but somehow or other, opportunities must be given for folk in and just outside the churches to examine Christian essentials, because there are so many for whom this is a prime need. Preaching often does not help them, for preaching ordinarily assumes in both speaker and hearers confident certainty about the fundamentals of the faith, and where this is lacking, sermons are felt to be remote and even irritating because of what appear as their unexamined assumptions. But the proper place for examining, challenging, and testing the intellectual ABCs of Christianity is not the pulpit, but rather the systematic instruction given in catechetical teaching—at least, so Christian history suggests.
"I am inclined to think " said I.Michael and Mollie Hardwick, The Sherlock Homes Companion, 1962.
"I should do so," Sherlock Holmes remarked, impatiently.— The Valley of Fear.
"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion. It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers."— The Naval Treaty.
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."— A Scandal in Bohemia.
"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."— The Beryl Coronet.
Inspector Gregory: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime."
Inspector Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the nighttime."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."— Silver Blaze.
Henry Darcy Curwen, A Johnson Sampler, Harvard UP, 1963To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by Faith and Hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and by the salutary influence of example. (Lives of the Poets, 1779-1781)
To do the best, can seldom be the lot of man: it is sufficient if, when opportunities are presented, he is ready to do good. How little virtue could be practised if beneficence were to wait always for the most proper objects, and the noblest occasions; occasions that may never happen, and objects that may never be found? (Introduction to Proceedings of the Committee...for Clothing French Prisoners of War, 1760)
Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practise; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory, as a man may be confident of the advantages of a voyage, or a journey, without having courage or industry to undertake it, and may honestly recommend to others those attempts which he neglects himself. (The Rambler 1750-1752, No. 14)
Piety practised in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to the winds of Heaven, and delight those unembodied spirits that survey the works of God and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendour of beneficence. (The Adventurer 1752-1754, No. 126)
All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it. (Boswell's Life of Johnson, 15 April 1778)
In essentials, unity.
In non-essentials, liberty.
In all things, charity.
This concept of “essentials” and “less-essentials” is clearly set forth in one of the best chapters in the book, Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way, by J.I. Packer and Gary A. Parrett. They call this part of their book, in which they urge a renewed ministry of catechesis in the evangelical church, “Drawing Lines and Choosing Sides.”By drawing lines, we mean, first, that good catechesis helps believers distinguish primary doctrines from those that may be considered secondary or tertiary. Not all things that the church teaches are equally important. Simply making this point is, in and of itself, a potent act of teaching. A second sort of line drawing that catechists engage in is pointing out that what we believe at each level of importance—primary, secondary, and tertiary—needs to be distinguished from what others have taught. We believe this as opposed to that. Hence, our line drawing also involves choosing sides.They offer a wise and irenic way of teaching believers that can help us pursue unity with all believers while at the same time recognizing that our unity is a harmonious oneness that includes a great amount of diversity.Drawing LinesPacker and Parrett suggest that the teaching ministry of the church (its catechesis) should be recognized as having four layers:
- Christian Consensus: This the Faith, that which others have called, “Mere Christianity” or the “Great Tradition”—the Good News of the Story of our redemption and the basic contours of the Christian way.
- Evangelical Essentials: The authors, as evangelical Protestants, define this second level as those distinctives which set us apart from the other historic Christian traditions (Roman Catholic, Orthodox, etc.). An example of this would be the so-called Five Solas of the Reformation.
- Denominational Distinctives: These are the doctrines and practices that distinguish various Protestant groups from one another.
- Congregational Commitments: Even within a specific tradition or denomination, particular congregations will have a “vision, values, and practices” specifically shaped by their own unique callings, giftings, and cultural settings.
In our teaching ministry, these four layers must be appropriately “weighted” so that believers can learn to discern the relative importance of each level of commitment. .... [more]
.... When the Packers won Super Bowl XLV, I was happy. The journey had been good. The great accomplishment belongs to the men who won the game, but I did something as well. I rooted for them well and faithfullyOn Loving the Packers » Evangel | A First Things Blog
Of all the loves, Packer-love must be the least important, but it is love after all. Doing any love well is a foretaste of heaven where every desire is fulfilled and every dream comes true. [read it all]
The Wall Street Journal reports that "The Hobbit Gets a Date." After a series of delays filming will begin and Peter Jackson is directing.Tolkien fans get ready: The Hobbit is set to start filming March 21, New Zealand production company 3Foot7 Ltd. said Monday. ....The man pictured is Martin Freeman who will be the young[er] Bilbo. I saw him most recently doing a fine turn as Dr. John Watson in Sherlock.
According to reports, a few actors will reprise their Lord of the Rings roles in this installment, including Andy Serkis as Gollum, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel and Sir Ian McKellan as Gandalf. And British actor Martin Freeman, known for his roles in the movie Love Actually and the BBC comedy show The Office, will play the title hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. .... [more]
The conference site:
- What if we were reminded that we’re not responsible for being ‘successful’ in ministry, but we are responsible for being faithful to the calling that God has laid out for us – regardless of the outcome?
- What if we had a conference that was led not by famous pastors who are household names, but by scandalously ordinary ministers and leaders who are faithfully attempting to join with God – even in the midst of glaring obscurity and anonymity?
The Gospel-Driven Church: The Un-Conference?, Epic Fail Pastors Conference :: April 14-16, 2011
I have often said we need to join in prayer to bring protection to the unborn. Prayer and action are needed to uphold the sanctity of human life. I believe it will not be possible to accomplish our work, the work of saving lives, "without being a soul of prayer." The famous British Member of Parliament, William Wilberforce, prayed with his small group of influential friends, the "Clapham Sect," for decades to see an end to slavery in the British empire. Wilberforce led that struggle in Parliament, unflaggingly, because he believed in the sanctity of human life. He saw the fulfillment of his impossible dream when Parliament outlawed slavery just before his death. ....Thanks to Michael Moriarty at Big Peace for the reference.
Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.
Lord, we beseech thee to keep Thy Church and household continually in Thy true religion; that they which do lean only upon hope of Thy heavenly grace may evermore be defended by Thy mighty power; through Christ our Lord. Amen.THE kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
[Thomas Cranmer]
Put not your trust in princes,
Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish.
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the LORD his God:
Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is:
Which keepeth truth for ever...
[Psalm 146]
A few guidelines: These films should be openly Christian. I’m not interested in allegory or even subtlety. “Lord of the Rings” and “Narnia” are terrific, but once the floodgates open to that kind of thing it becomes impossible to draw any kind of line. But that doesn’t mean that the list will only include Biblical epics. There are plenty of mainstream movies, even dark and thematically complicated ones, where a Christian God is central or at least important to the story. Please feel free to nominate any of those and please feel free to nominate entries critical of the Christian faith. There’s nothing wrong with a smart, well-made, respectful story that forces us to think. Also...the Old Testament is an important part of our faith and anything in that arena should and will be considered.You can add your nominations for the list in the comments section at his site.
Finally, please keep in mind that I’m no theologian. Far from it and will never pretend to be. .... All I’m going to do here is express my love for 25 films from the position of an everyday movie fanatic.... [more]
Are we witnessing the death of America's Christian denominations? Studies conducted by secular and Christian organizations indicate that we are. Fewer and fewer American Christians, especially Protestants, strongly identify with a particular religious communion—Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc. According to the Baylor Survey on Religion, nondenominational churches now represent the second largest group of Protestant churches in America, and they are also the fastest growing.Russell D. Moore: Where Have All the Presbyterians Gone? - WSJ.com
More and more Christians choose a church not on the basis of its denomination, but on the basis of more practical matters. Is the nursery easy to find? Do I like the music? Are there support groups for those grappling with addiction?
This trend is a natural extension of the American evangelical experiment. After all, evangelicalism is about the fundamental message of Christianity—the evangel, the gospel, literally the "good news" of God's kingdom arriving in Jesus Christ—not about denomination building. ....
.... "Being a member of a church doesn't make you a Christian," the ubiquitous evangelical pulpit cliché went, "any more than living in a garage makes you a car." Thus these evangelical ministries tended not to talk about those issues that might divide their congregants. They avoided questions like: Who should be baptized and when? What does the Lord's Supper mean? Should women be ordained? And so on. .... [more]
Simon & Schuster’s Howard Books division announced Thursday that Gift of Rest will come out in August. Co-written by David Klinghoffer, the book is a reflection on Lieberman’s observance of the Jewish Sabbath, a day of rest.Sen. Joseph Lieberman writing book about Sabbath « The Daily Caller – Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
And the post then proceeds to explain how to use Google to find out when sunset occurs where you live. It uses the "Sunrise and Sunset Calculator" at timeanddate.com. This was the result for where I live:As everyone knows sunrise and sunset times vary throughout the year. It is always good to know the time the sun will rise and set because your plans may depend on the natural lighting of the sun. If you are a Jew, a Seventh-day Adventist or a Seventh Day Baptist etc. the start of your Sabbath will depend on the time that the sun sets. What if you do not have a recent newspaper with sunrise and sunset times? Well, you can simply type in what you want to know into your Google search bar....
Matthew 24:37-41 is a key passage some Christians use to justify an escapist theology, approaching this world with a “Why shine the brass on a sinking ship?” attitude. In this passage Jesus likens “the coming of the Son of Man” to the time of Noah, when people “were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.” Then Jesus gives two brief pictures of the effect of his coming: “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.”Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different
These verses have been employed to support the idea that God will one day evacuate, or “rapture,” all the righteous people, leaving behind an evil world destined for annihilation. Therefore, the thinking goes, Christians should focus exclusively on seeking to rescue lost souls rather than waste time trying to fix things that are broken in this doomed world. This perspective is evidenced in a comment I read not long ago from a well-known Bible teacher: “Evangelism is the only reason God’s people are still on earth.”
But a closer look at the context reveals that in those pictures Jesus gave of men in the field and women at the mill, those “left behind” are the righteous rather than the unrighteous. Like the people in Noah’s day who were “swept away,” leaving behind Noah and his family to rebuild the world, so the unrighteous are “taken,” while the righteous are left behind. Why? Because this world belongs to God, and he’s in the process of gaining it all back, not giving it all up. .... [more]
.... Once upon a time in the West, the pursuit of happiness was not the chief end of life. Parents did not lose sleep over their children's prospects for self-fulfillment; instead they raised them to be burden-bearing members of their community. Christian doctrine stressed that human beings inhabited a fallen world in which satisfaction was postponed. Not only were pain and agony not to be avoided, they were, at times, opportunities to come closer to God. ....
.... Mr. Bruckner claims that the Christian attitude to pain contained the seeds of its own undoing. Many Christians naturally desired to hasten the coming of the Messiah, who would deliver them from their earthly torment. During the French Revolution, this urgent desire was secularized into utopian designs—as when idealists like Robespierre tried to eliminate the misery of the ancien regime and remake society in accordance with republican virtue. But for Mr. Bruckner, as much as for Edmund Burke, any attempt to usher in a reign of felicity will be marked by folly—and may well create new forms of misery. ....
Ultimately, Mr. Bruckner himself comes across as neither a stoic who advocates giving up on happiness nor a sentimentalist who thinks pain has some intrinsic or artistic value. We are only happy, he believes, in spite of the suffering around us, and only for rare, unexpected and often inexplicable moments. Happiness, he implies, may not be as important as qualities like lucidity and dignity. But if you really want it, the best way to find it is not to care too much about it. (more)
