table of nations

quote of the day

Charles Spurgeon:

When you are so weak that you cannot do much more than cry, you coin diamonds with both your eyes. The sweetest prayers God ever hears are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in anything but His love.

"He's Alive"

I'm glad Aunt Patty spent $85 on her new Easter hat. I even like Mr Bob's new pastel blazer he got for $45. The little girls plastered in soft yellows and the little boys with bright plaid pants. It's tough to compete with Easter attire.

But I did.

[the inverted text reads "He's Alive"]

There are louder and happier ways to say He has killed death and lives forever, but not many :)

were you there when they rolled the stone away?

Saturday Before New Creation

On the day after Good Friday and before Resurrection Sunday, Scott Clark writes,

Today, God is, as it were, silent but he is not asleep. The tomb is ugly, but it is also sanctus. Today is the in-between time. The first act is finished but the curtain, though torn, is not closed.

ready for spring break

2004 Sara, helping Anna for an art project.

ready for spring

Resurrection

John Updike:

Make no mistake: if he rose at all it was as His body; if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fail. Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping transcendence; making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages; let us walk through the door.

DEAR EPHESUS, WALK iN HiM

Every time I give myself to the book of Ephesians, I'm always floored. Whether it's how bold and blatant grace is in chs 1-2 or how imperative and precise godly living is in chs 4-6, I'm consistently awed by everything in Ephesians.

One of Paul's main themes is that the Ephesian Christians must walk. This is is the word Paul uses to talk about what their lives should look like [2.1, 2.10, 4.1, 4.17, 5.8, and 5.15]. Most of these exhortations to walk come in the second half of Ephesians. One of the predominant ideas in the first part of Ephesians is that we are "in Christ" [esp see 1.3-14]. I sense that these two themes are meant to be understood in relationship to each other. Meaning, all of Paul's "in Him" language sets up the walking he encourages them to later. The "in Him" is the relational sphere in which the walking must take place.

The Bible is Rated "R"

Here.

if you don't enjoy this, we probably can't be friends

Or here.

HUMiLiTY

From Stanley Hauerwas:

Humility derives not from the presumption that no one knows the truth, but rather is a virtue dependent on our confidence that God’s word is truthful and good.

JESUS iS iNEXHAUSTiBLE

Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

Brethren, there is an abiding fullness of truth in Christ. After you have heard it for fifty years, you see more of its fullness than you did at first. Other truths weary the ear. I will defy any man to hold together a large congregation, year after year, with any other subject but Christ Jesus. He might do it for a time; he might charm the ear with the discoveries of science, or with the beauties of poetry, and his oratory might be of so high an order that he might attract the multitudes who have itching ears, but they would in time turn away and say, “This is no longer to be endured. We know it all.”

All music becomes wearisome but that of heaven; but oh! if the minstrel doth but strike this celestial harp, though he keepeth his fingers always among its golden strings, and be but poor and unskilled upon an instrument so divine, yet the melody of Jesus’ name, and the sweet harmony of all his acts and attributes, will hold his listeners by the ears and thrill their hearts as nought beside can do. The theme of Jesus’ love is inexhaustible, though preachers may have dwelt upon it century after century, a freshness and fullness still remain.

Tom Wright to the next generation of ministers

crawling and caffeinated

Tom Wright on the use of the Bible in the Church

Here.

2 Cor 13.11

Brothers,

Rejoice.

Be made complete.

Be comforted.

Be like-minded.

Live at peace.

The God of love and peace will be with you.

the reason i love my wife

Here.

Brian "Head" Welch

My class enjoyed this today. It also provoked some interesting and good discussion.