“But whenever we talk about religious ‘duty,’ we must be careful lest we get tangled up in the law and gospel business. The promise precedes the law, Paul argues, and is the foundation for it. All duty must arise from the gratitude for redemption, and this includes the duty of educating our covenant children. But …
Getting It Straight
“With the air of a Solomon, he gives instructions: ‘Keep the men well apart from each other for I want to question them.’ I suppose one could call this the birth of due process. The circumstances in which it is born remind one of a memorable remark Girard has made. We didn’t stop burning witches …
So Check Out the Story
Last week I mentioned that Nate has had a short story published in The Chattahoochee Review. For those of you interested in that story, “Conversations with Tod,” the folks there have now posted an excerpt on their website. It is not just the father in me that thinks this story is going places. Well, actually …
We Insist You Come
Different churches have different approaches to the Lord’s Supper when it comes to how visitors from other believing communions are received. Some practice closed communion, where no one from outside that communion may partake. Some practice close communion, where you may partake under certain conditions. Others practice open communion, where the Table is open to …
Grievances In Perspective
Disagreements are healthy only because they give us opportunity to obey the Scriptures as we strive together for like-mindedness. But some have taken the fact that disagreement is healthy in this limited sense, and twisted it into disobedience. They believe that we are supposed to strive for disagreements, because they are healthy. But the Scriptures …
Boats Don’t Make Water Float
“Here I must say emphatically: art must never be used to show the validity of Christianity. Rather the validity of art should be shown through Christianity” (H.R. Rookmaaker, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture, p. 228).
Content With Our Discontents
“Our doctrine always comes down to action, and that action reveals our true doctrine. We do not understand the relationship between fear, hunger and love. Our great problem is that we do not want enough from God. Ironically, we content ourselves with our discontents in the wilderness when before us a promised land awaits. Why …
Not A Problem of Distance
“Mimetic desire is always kindled in those whose social situations most closely approximate that of the one whom they envy” (Gil Bailie, Violence Unveiled, p. 187).
A Much Needed Intrusion
“The nineteenth century made music into a kind of refined, cultural, almost pseudo-religious revelation of humanism, composed by the great heroes and prophets of mankind . . . Into this world burst jazz and blues” (H.R. Rookmaaker, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture, p. 186).
Love Hungry for Blessing
“Therefore, to understand the fear of the Lord rightly, learn to see that fear as love hungering for blessing” (The Case for Classical Christian Education, p. 224).