As unseemly as it is for officials to be assigning blame (invariably to other officials) before the rescues are even complete, it is happening anyway. We will have plenty of time to sort it all out, but the charges are flying early. The observer should keep in mind that in this debacle there are probably …
What We Really Need
“Those liberals who are sincerely distressed at the increased coarsening of our public life need to be invited, as by an old time hedge preacher or hot-gospeler, to ‘come to Jesus.’ It is never enough to tell people simply to ‘be nice.’ They have no reason to, and they don’t want to. Men and women …
Hypotheticals
“In short, if the case for white supremacy had to be made (for some absurd reason), the people that would be picked to make that case would not be your rank and file white supremacist” (Black and Tan, p. 35).
The Gods of Gray and Off-White
“The gods of synthesis, the gods of gray and off-white, the gods which sidle up next to a man in order to whisper devotional encouragements to him, are altogether something else. These lords of compromise, these gods of soft counsel, are dangerous” (Federal Husband, p. 71).
Harvest and Sons
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 60 “He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame” (Prov. 10:5). In Scripture business is closely related to family. But this is not a ancient truth, relevant …
But Now We See
Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! Father of deliverance, Father of all salvation, we worship You now through the great name of Jesus Christ. When we were blind in our sin, You loved us. When we lived in a way that despised Your ongoing kindness, You showed mercy …
Also An Act of God
When disaster befalls a city, the prophet Amos tells us, the Lord is the one who has done it. What has happened to New Orleans this past week is not something that slipped past God, or somehow got away from Him. He is the divine author of all things, and this truly was an act …
What Faith Does
The Table of the Lord humbles the honest, comforts the distraught, forgives the repentant, nourishes the hungry, establishes the church, preaches the gospel, summons the world, and overwhelms the devil. And of course the Table as a mere set of physical objects does none of those things—any more than the Word of God, considered simply …
Thoughts on New Orleans
The events of the last week on the Gulf Coast have been a gradually unfolding, slow motion disaster. Every day appears to be worse, along with each new day causing the realization to sink in deeper — this is the kind of natural disaster that has not occurred in our nation within living memory. But …
Meat and Potatoes Blues
In the most recent Credenda on the blues, I made this comment in passing. “How are we to make sense of all this as Christians? The blues, just like everything else we try to think about, are not neutral. Nothing is ever neutral. So how are we to evaluate what we listen to? Should we …