When we come to this Table, we are not just coming to it, but rather learning how to come to it. This is particularly true of your children. The law of prayer is the law of belief. Lex orandi, lex credendi. The way we worship shapes the way we think. And the way we grow …
Rocking Back and Forth in His Name
When we come before God, when we gather our families together to worship Him, we are doing something that we have been summoned to do. God speaks and we respond. We are to respond in the words He has given us, and with the heart He has given us. We do this submissively, and this …
Resenting the Disaster
“This inner sense of confidence helped imbue Muslims with an unparalleled loyalty to their religions. Added to this internal confidence was the fact that Muslims enjoyed outstanding success during their first six or so centuries. To be a Muslim meant to belong to a winning civilization. This pattern of success started right at the beginning: …
How Do You Solve a Rose?
“Take a rose. How will you proceed to solve a rose? You can cultivate roses, smell them, gather and wear them, make them into perfume or potpourri, paint them or write poetry about them; these are all creative activities. But can you solve roses? Has that expression any meaning?” (Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the …
Tolerating the Wrong Things
“We think that it is good simply for a man to love, for example, forgetting that it depends entirely upon what he loves. After all, John told us to love not the world, or the things in it. We believe it is a sin to hate, forgetting that this depends on what we hate. Is …
Some Headway, Maybe
Green Baggins is reviewing a new book on the Federal Vision, and, if you check out the comments section of this entry, you will find that an ecumenical dialogue of sorts has broken out. Well, not exactly, but I think the exchange was more productive than not.
The Wicked Limber Up Their Bow
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! In the Lord I trust, How can you talk to my soul like that? How can you taunt, saying, “Fly like a bird To your mountain home?” The wicked limber up their bow, They set the arrow on the string, To shoot …
The Farmer Scratched His Chin
One day two theologians were traveling to a conference together and their car broke down on a country road. They began the long walk back to the nearest town together, which was about five miles away and, as they walked, they fell into a deep and profound conversation. To pass the time as they walked, …
No Morbid Fascination
In Exodus 16, when manna first fell from the sky, the people called it manna for, as it says, they did not know what it was (Ex. 16:15). This is the way of the fleshly heart. God feeds us; He surrounds us with food, but we do not know what He is doing. We do …
Not Exactly Joy Upon Joy
The third essay in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministy is by Iain Duguid, and is entitled “Covenant Nomism and the Exile.” It is really quite good overall, and my critical comments will not be extensive at all. There is one place where he has a superb interaction with N.T. Wright’s confusion about courtroom imputation. In …