Whenever you build an organization (and this would include mission organizations), there is an inexorable tendency to have the mission shift from the original mission to the maintenance of staff positions. In his recent (very fine) book, David Mamet says something very important. He is not talking about mission organizations per se, but rather human …
Chips In Salsa
“Another mode of baptizing in the New Testament is that of dipping. Dipping is sometimes thought of as ‘quick immersion’ but it can also be seen as partial immersion. In [Matt. 26:23; Jn. 13:26] . . . the word that is used in these passages is bapto, a word related closely to baptizo — and …
Asking Right
“If we become exclusively preoccupied with answering the questions people are asking, we may overlook the fact that they often ask the wrong questions and need to be helped to ask the right ones. If we acquiesnce uncritically in the world’s own self-understanding, we may find ourselves the servants rather of fashion than of God” …
Pouring As Baptism
“God, in baptizing the disciples with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, did so by pouring out His Spirit upon them. Pouring is therefore very clearly described as a biblical mode of baptism” (To a Thousand Generations, p. 102).
The Preacher As Road Engineer
[Speaking of orthotomeo in 2 Tim. 2:15] “Modern versions prefer something like ‘rightly handling’ the Word (RSV), or handling it ‘correctly’ (NIV), but these are too vauge. For the word has a more precise meaning, namely to ‘cut straight’, and the image conveyed is either that of the ploughman or of the road maker” (Stott, …
A Great Big Outbreak of Lucidity
H.L. Mencken once defined democracy as the art and science of running the zoo from the monkey house. Perhaps it need not be that way. There was good news this morning from Wisconsin. The recall elections there were some union push-back, in an attempt to recapture the state senate. If they were successful in that …
Inescapable Eschatology
All human action has eschatological foundations. God created us to face the future, and that is where we are all going, like it or not. This means that any task that we undertake is going to have some eschatology associated with it, either express or implied. If we try to deny this — by pretending …
Judgment from a Distance
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #43 “For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed . . .” (1 Cor. 5:3). Paul is referring to the …
Father of Baptists and Presbyterians
“Uncircumcised believing Abraham is thereby the father of uncircumcised believing Gentiles. Beliving Abraham, circumcised after justification, is thereby the father of believing Jews, circumcised before justification. Abraham was circumcised as a sign and seal of the righteousness he had by faith. That righteousness was not his own personal faith, it was Christ” (To a Thousand …
Standing With the Text
“If we are expounding God’s Word with integrity and honesty, we can be very bold” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 132).