An interesting thread broke out after a recent post I made about N.T. Wright and the need to bring genuine discipline to academic debate. The thread (to use shorthand) revolved around private judgment, the priesthood of believers, sola Scriptura, and the ministerium of the Church. How’s that for a summary? I thought I would add …
Valuable Beyond Rubies
The sanctification of the checkbook is extraordinarily difficult for many. We like to tell ourselves that obedience to God’s way is “impractical,“ as though we knew more about it than He does. Always, always, always we must turn to the Word. And on this subject, we have a treasury of doctrine. First, wealth is a …
Part of a Larger Work of Art
“The art world today tends to scorn art that is ‘merely decorative.’ Choosing a painting because it matches the furniture does tend to minimize the work of art. The meaning of the work and its self-contained identity is neglected, giving the object of art no more status than the coffee table or the wallpaper. Decorative …
The Edges of His Ways
“We must not trifle with God. God is not restricted in what He is able to do. Nothing outside His own good purposes, His own nature and character, restricts Him in any way. ‘Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of …
Milestone Screwups
One of the things that Ausgustine did later in his life was to publish his Retractions, a book in which he went back and corrected earlier errors in his teaching. No getting the wrong idea here. As as a neighborhood toddler I am not worthy to come over and play in Augustine’s backyard . . …
I Know How You Feel
A certain black man was visiting a strange city on business, and he had to be gone over the weekend. He was a believer and hated to miss worship at home, and his business was all at the convention center where he was staying, and he did not have a rental car. So he thought …
Fussy With the Food
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 …