“A man arrives without possessions and he leaves without possessions. In the interval, while he does have all his stuff, he cannot sleep because he worries about it. What a deal. But if he works hard and frets and worries a whole lot, he can make sure that his fine clothes (for the short time …
The Saturday Night Cram
“I’m convinced that so much preaching is so ‘thin’ because the preacher simply cannot bring a rich understanding of Scripture to his work of sermon preparation, and he cannot ‘cram’ sufficiently in a week to compensate for his underlying ignorance” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 195).
The Creed
Here’s a musical setting of the Apostles Creed. We sing this on the first Sunday of the month, and recite it on the others. The sheet music is here, and it has a part for the precentor that is not on the recording. {audio}apostles-creed.mp3{/audio}
Any Previous Garble
In Ephesians 6:4, fathers are told to bring up their children in the “nurture and admonition” of the Lord. This is all very well, and the words underlying this phrase are paideia and nouthesia. Back in the day, I used to say (in print and on audio tapes) that paideia was the word we rendered …
Disobedience in the Warehouse and Almost Ready to Ship
Intimacy without obedience is promiscuous and pathetic. As it turns out, authority and obedience are erotic necessities. But you can’t have either without a covenant — and covenant vows, of necessity, obligate the husband to take responsibility and require the wife to render honor and obedience. This is why the common practice of removing “to …
Small Mission Buildings in San Antonio
I am enjoying James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World. In addition, I have read Andy Crouch’s review of the book in Books & Culture, and have listened to Ken Myer’s interview of Hunter on the most recent Mars Hill publication. At the same time, enjoyment aside, I do think Hunter gets off on the …
A Bear By the Ears
“Men who build empires frequently find themselves holding a grizzly bear by the ears. They more they do, the less they are able to do. The more control they amass, the less control they have. The more power they they acquire, the more powerless they feel. This is because the vanity of increase, the futility …
Well, Tough
“You will be required at times to set before your congregations things that they may not wish to hear — doctrines they don’t agree with, ethical demands they are unwilling to submit to” (Wagner, Tongues Aflame, p. 193).
How Secularists Fence the Table
Sociologists speak of plausibility structures, those shared community assumptions that make shared assumptions make sense. If you grew up Mormon in southeast Idaho, celestial marriage makes sense. If you grew up in Alabama, not so much. This undeniable truth is one of the things that tends to make educated sociologists, and those who love them, …
The Heart of the Law
INTRODUCTION:A very popular mistake among Christians is that of contrasting love and the law, as though we had to pick and choose. Will we live according to love, or according to the law? But if we must love, isn’t that a law, a great commandment? And if we keep the law truly, won’t we realize …