God delights to feed His saints, and yet His family, like all families, contains children who are fussy about their food. One of the perennial problems that parents have is that is getting children to eat what is set before them, gratefully and simply. It can be discouraging for parents when children won’t eat, or …
Your Law Is Honey
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! My mediation is Your law! I love to contemplate All day the law You gave to us. Through Your commands You made me wise, More than my enemies can know. More than my teachers I have learned, Your laws instruct my heart. …
Art Need Not Be About Ego
“We do not know who designed the dazzling stained glass windows at Chartres, nor do we know who illuminated the Book of Kells or who wrote ‘Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight’” [Gene Veith, State of the Arts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991), p. 32]
Almost Forgot
“The same is true when we encounter figures that relate to God’s knowledge — for example, those figures which represent God as repenting or relenting (Gen. 6:6; Exod. 32:12, 14), remembering (Gen. 9:15-16; Exod. 6:5), or forgetting (Ps. 9:18; Ps. 13:1; Jer. 23:39). ‘The God remembered Noah’ (Gen. 8:1). Does God smack His forehead in …
You Dear Little Fathead
Jesus delivered some hard sayings to His disciples concerning the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood. It says, “from that time many of his disciples went back.” But they went back, not because Jesus told them of the overwhelming works they would have to do in order to be worthy of …
Sons of Belial
The law of God beats us up, but it does this for our edification, not our condemnation. Whenever we hear of His wisdom, His holiness, His righteousness, with humble hearts, it convicts us, but it also encourages us. But if we are exasperated by it, or condemned, or frustrated, or if we chafe under the …
All Good Gifts
Father and God, we thank You now for the arrival of yet another Lord’s Day. We thank You for the company of friends, for wine, for food, for the children. We are grateful to You for all good gifts, which You shower upon Your people faithfully. We look forward to our worship of You tomorrow, …
Not Working Is Such Hard Work
Let the Gentleman Do His Thing
I had made a mental note to post something about N.T. Wright’s comments on the Christian faith of Marcus Borg. Life has been busy, and this might be yesterday’s newspaper by now, but I would like to add my two cents. Those who missed the flap can catch up on it by looking at some …
Whatever the Artist Does
“The purpose is not to give the audience pleasure, but to assault them with a ‘decentering’ experience. Art becomes defined as ‘whatever an artist does.’ As a result, the work of art becomes less important than the artist, a view which encourages posturing, egotism, and self-indulgence instead of artistic excellence. These new assumptions about art …