INTRODUCTION: Thus far, we have considered the context of all child-rearing, the attitude underneath all child nurture, and the mechanics of discipline. We will finish this short series on loving little ones by addressing a miscellaneous collection of remaining issues. THE TEXTS: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that …
The Bride and the Whore
A word translated as filthiness is found one time in the New Testament, in Revelation 17:4. The word is akathartes, and is applied to the great whore of Babylon — she in her turn is an image of unbelieving Israel, the Jerusalem below. She had in her hand a golden cup that was full of …
Brother Charles Nails It
“Sensible persons do not expect a garden to yield them herbs from year to year unless they enrich the soil; they do not expect a locomotive to work without fuel, or even an ox or an ass to labour without food; let them, therefore, give over expecting to receive instructive sermons from men who are …
Behind the Painted Scenery
“Real people are never cool; only their projected identities are. Smooth guys far too often have child support to pay. Fine dressers are often broke, party animals look a whole lot better at midnight than at four, and a lot of world-traveling backpackers are really just hiding from their parents” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the …
William F. Buckley, R.I.P.
William F. Buckley went to be with the Lord yesterday, and I cannot let the moment pass without acknowledging, however inadequately, my many obligations to him. I attended high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan from 1968 to 1971, and those were, as some of you no doubt recall, zany times in a zany town. I …
Christ the Lord of Song
Our motive for all that we do is to be the glory of God — even if it is something as mundane as eating or drinking (1 Cor. 10:31). How much more should we be seeking the glory of God when we are in the act of worshiping Him? Certainly, most Christians would agree that …
Unclean in Different Ways
The word unclean is a translation from the word akathartos. The overwhelming number of times the word is used in the New Testament, it is to describe the unclean spirits that Jesus would cast out (Matt. 10:1; Mk. 1:23; Luke 4:33, and many others). It is used several times in Acts this way, and also …
Fling Away the Stilts
“I am persuaded that one reason why our workingmen so universally keep clear of ministers is because they abhor their artificial and unmanly ways. If they saw us, in the pulpit and out of it, acting like real men, and speaking naturally, like honest men, they would come around us . . . The vice …
And Is Catnip for Consumers
“Cool is the most powerful spiritual environment possible for advertisers” (Paul Grant, Blessed Are the Uncool, p. 18).
The Caricatured Puritan
One of the things I like to do is stick up for Puritans. If there is ever a contest for “most misrepresented” groups within the history of Christendom, the Puritans will certainly be in the final four, and would probably win the championship. Caricatured as stuffy, priggish, censorious, prim, prudish and more, the Puritans have …