INTRODUCTION: We are fast approaching the five hundredth anniversary of the glorious Reformation. The history of the Church is always tangled, and we can never approach it in a simplistic fashion. But with all such allowances made, the Reformation was a great work of the Holy Spirit, and we are right to remember and celebrate …
Gladness for Sackcloth/Psalm 30
Introduction: In this psalm we find another inspiring pattern for prayer—and it is the kind of prayer that can be offered up by a sinner. David offers up a petition here, and the need for the petition was created by his own spiritual carelessness. But we serve and worship a God who forgives. Text: I …
God of the Wineskins
Our heavenly Father, You are the God of both the wine and the wineskins. You order our affairs in ways that astonish us, and we are sometimes tempted to think that You have forgotten what You ought to be doing. Your wisdom transcends ours. Your thoughts are not our thoughts. Your ways are not our …
Mother Love
Once two women were quarreling, and I am afraid that their quarrel was loud enough to be heard by others at the restaurant where they were having lunch. As it happens, there was a wise woman who attended the same church they did who happened to overhear. Deciding that since they had made the affair …
Objectively Submitting
The table before us is set by God Himself. He invites us to it, and as we sit down with Him (in the person of the Lord Jesus), He deals with us. We cannot prevent this, we cannot manipulate it, we cannot turn it to our own ends. This table means what God says it …
History and the Guild
Objectivity is a false god, and the worship of this idol is particularly pernicious in disciplines like journalism and history. It is not possible to be objective — although of course it is possible to be honest. By pretending to attain to objectivity, a writer’s fundamental faith commitments are not eliminated, but rather submerged — …
Grand Kleegle Archbishop
Chesterton, my favorite papist, once remarked that a man who does not stand for something will fall for anything. Evidence that this is true (as if more evidence were needed) can be found here. Turns out that radical priests and priestettes in the Episcopal church have not been content to be trendy leftists, but have …
Bush as False Teacher
After my post yesterday on the Bush/Kerry thing, here are just a couple of follow-up comments. The first is to note Bush’s qualified support for same-sex civil unions. He now says that such a decision should be up to the states. But anyone who does not see this as a wedge issue is just kidding …
Back Off Man
Dear visionaries, Susannah writes: “But I suspect that ‘attitude’ doesn’t restrict itself only to public school teachers . . . and I am certain it extends itself to many in the religious vocation. As in “back off, man, I’m god’s spokesman”.” The problem with professional educators in the government schools is not that they speak …
Bush and Kerry
So I hear there is an election in a few days. If you all can bear with some amateur punditry, I think that Bush is going to take it, walking away. Such a result would be satisfactory in some respects, but extremely threatening in others. I am not going to vote for the president, and, …