President Obama has been diligently doing whatever he can do to stay out of the fracas that erupted in Iran after their elections, and he took this stand because of the history of American interference. The Iranian chokeholders were shooting down protesters in the streets, which our president was pleased to call a “debate.” Perhaps …
Blue Ice Is . . .
. . . a collection of short stories. Some really fun stuff here. I really enjoy books that hold my interest when dealing with a subject I am not really interested in. I have never been to a “for real” hockey game, and have never seen more than a few seconds of a game on television. …
No Preening
Book 3/Chapter 12 Away with preening (section 5) 1. We must consider ourselves without what two things? 2. What is there a need to strip bare? What humility is not (section 6) 1. What does Calvin refuse to identify as humility? 2. What must you do if you want to be exalted with the humble? …
My Old Mentor Bugs Bunny
I need to get a few words down about Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. Two of his disciples now respectively occupy the main seat in the Oval Office and the chair behind the desk belonging to the Secretary of State, and so I thought it was high time to go back in time and …
Orc Music
I can see that I need to add a few extra comments to my last musical exhortation. To cut right to the chase, the answer is that yes, as “pure music,” Schonberg and all his ilk are out. Attempts to create music that fly in the face of how God (clearly) intended for music to …
Standing in the Right Place
Book 3/Chapter 12 God’s tribunal (section 1) 1. What happens when we evaluate ourselves before an earthly tribunal? 2. What do we miss until we come into the presence of God? Righteousness before men (section 2) 1. How may we come out ahead in moral comparisons of ourselves? Devout writers (section 3) 1. Who are …
Two Kinds of Inappropriate Music
As we seek to cultivate our understanding of the kind of music we should be offering to God—and the corollary of what we as a congregation should be learning how to perform—we find that we come up against another challenge. Church musicians come up against a greater challenge than other artists do. Some of this …
Consumption and the Covenant
Our nation’s public economists usually refer to you in your capacity as consumer. This is in contrast to previous and wiser eras, when citizens were thought of as producers, and as savers. But we have departed from the way, and when disaster strikes, one of the things we think to do, is spend our way …
Confessing Conspiracies
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, we bow before You as the one who knows the …
All Sermon on the Mounty
As I have been writing about health care, the point undergirding everything I have been saying against “affordable health care for all” is this: violence in order to achieve such laudable ends is still objectionable. One commenter asked what the point of health care was. Was it to provide health care to those who need …