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.

classic Brian McLaren

Brian McLaren has a new book, "A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith." Out of these 10 issues, there are 5 or 6 that must be discussed with biblical sensitivity and freshness. However, it doesn't appear as though he accomplishes that.



His 10 questions are:

1. The narrative question: What is the overarching story line of the Bible? For McLaren, the familiar story line of creation, fall, redemption, consummation (with heaven and hell as a result) is a grotesque Greco-Roman distortion of the biblical narrative. God the creator, liberator, reconciler is the real story line.


2. The authority question: How should the Bible be understood? Not as a constitution, argues McLaren, with laws and rules and arguments about who’s right and wrong. Rather, we go to the Bible as a community library, where internal consistency is not presumed and we learn by conversation.


3. The God question: Is God violent? Believers used to think so, but we ought to grow in maturity from fearing a violent tribal God to partnering with a Christlike God.


4. The Jesus question: Who is Jesus and why is he important? Jesus is never violent and does not condemn. He did not come to save people from hell. Jesus, says McLaren, is peace-loving and identifies with the weak and oppressed.


5. The gospel question: What is the gospel? It is not a message about how to get saved. The gospel is the announcement of a “new kingdom, a new way of life, and a new way of peace that carried good news to all people of every religion” (139).


6. The church question: What do we do about the church? Churches—in whatever form and whatever we call them—exist to form people of Christlike love. This is the church’s primary calling, to form people who live in the way of love, the way of peacemaking.


7. The sex question: Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it? We need to stop hating gay people and welcome them fully into the life of the church. The “sexually other” may be defective in traditional religion, but they are loved and included in a new kind of Christianity.


8. The future question: Can we find a better way of viewing the future? No more “soul-sort” universe where our team goes to heaven and the bad guys go to hell. The future is open, inviting our participation. In the end, God’s mercy will triumph and all shall be well.


9. The pluralism question: How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions? “Christianity has a nauseating, infuriating, depressing record when it comes to encountering people of other religions” (208). There is not us/them, insider/outsider. Jesus accepted everyone and so should we.


10. The what-do-we-do-now question: How can we translate our quest into action? The human quest for God has known many stages. Those in the more mature stages of the quest should gently invite others to grow into fuller maturity, but without being divisive.

Kevin DeYoung has an excellent, healthy, and clear response. Here.

you can't not post pictures of the only SC snow all year

Getting ready.

My pretty lady.

The mighty James, braving the cold.

The youngest family in Dalewood.

the day i felt like the coolest teacher in the world

Sara and I were making the journey to Columbia on Tuesday about lunch. Mr James was sleeping soundly in the back. My phone buzzes and the text was from one of my Honors Systematic Theology students who was making a college visit. It said,

I'm at CIU and just sat in a Romans class. The prof was trying to explain Greek stuff and I already knew all of it, even the vocab!

Call it nerdy. Call it prideful. I call it pure delight in my soul :)

Longing for His appearing. And singing about it.

Here.

Gory Romance

Valentine's Day 2010 with my lovely Sara. Her report :)