Just finished Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? by James K.A. Smith. In some ways this was a very helpful book, but at the center, the place where the door moves on the hinge, this door squeaks in as annoying and exasperating a way as all the others. The tone is set in the introduction to the …
Jesus, Nazareth Synagogue High, Class of 0014
“Education reform cannot occur apart from a love of particular things — children, towns, books, subjects, music, and on and on, to the end of one’s life and into the next. Why? God has given us salvation through Christ, who took on His incarnate form during the reign of Caesar Augustus. He grew up in …
Yet Another Reason to Be Concerned About Global Warming
“But not all languages are equally musical. The musical-poetical language Rousseau discusses arose in the south, where the bountifulness of the climate made survival relatively easy. As a result, southern languages express the yearnings of the ‘heart,’ specifically the longing for romantic attachment to a person of the opposite sex” [Carson Holloway, All Shook Up: …
Why Some Listen
“Besides, since it is not at all fitting for us to be upset every time our doing well brings bad reports to our ears, so it is only those who are troubled by their own guilt who show themselves unduly credulous by listening to whispers and false accusations” (Calvin, Concerning Scandals, p. 90).
Ratcheting It Up
“There are some acts whereby men have accession to the raising and heightening of division, and oftentimes they are mutual: As . . . some men’s doing of some inconsiderate act, or writing some inconsiderate expresssion upon the one hand, and other too passionately and vehemently exaggerating such a fact, and condemning such an expression …
Calvin Got Around Some
“Besides, men like that are afflicted by an almost incurable disease. For although it makes them feel ashamed not to know something, yet they cannot bear to learn anything” (John Calvin, Concerning Scandal, p. 25).
Bow Down in Gratitude
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Our God and Lord, we come into Your presence in order to glorify and worship Your name. We know that we have no ability to do so in our own right, and so we seek to praise You through the name of …
A Chemical Reaction
Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace, but rather a sword. He taught that He Himself was the embodiment of scandal, the stone of stumbling, the rock of offense. This should not be taken as though the Lord Jesus brought scandal with Him in the same way that He brought holiness or …
Some of the Other Riff Raff
One of the most important aspects of this Table is the guest list. The food on the Table is bread and wine. The Lord of the Table is the host, the one who set the Table, and who offered His body and blood in the heavenly places in a miraculous way, such that we could …
Worldview Wheel V
Introduction: We come now to the fourth spoke of our “worldview wheel.” We are not using this illustration for the sake of some sort of mandatory hokiness, but rather to fix the point in our minds, and, more importantly, in our lives. A worldview consists of far more than the thoughts a man thinks. …