“But always remember—where there’s smoke, there’s a smoke machine.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 560
Variations on a Theme
Book of the Month/March 2024
This month’s selection is Joe Rigney’s Leadership and Emotional Sabotage. I just finished reading it on the plane, and I am hastening over here to tell you all about it. A few years ago, Joe created no small stir when he appeared on Man Rampant, where he and I discussed the hazards of empathy. For …
Diligent-Guardians-Though
“Truth is absolute, but it does not ‘keep’ in the way some people assume. The truth as God knows it is obviously timeless, but the truth as it is entrusted to us is affected by the attitudes and faith of the trustees. Truth is wine, and certain keepers of the cellars do what they do in such a way that it makes them guardians of vinegar.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, pp. 539-540
Content Cluster Muster [02-29-24]
This is one of those Leap Year Cluster Musters. Watch your step.: Still Impressive: Something I Have Mentioned From Time to Time Over the Years: Many times I have thanked God for the caliber of my friends. I have also had occasion to thank God for the caliber of my adversaries . . . Unless, …
Few Return
“Somewhere in the meanwhile, a memorial from another presbytery and complaint from within the Louisiana Presbytery made their way to the PCA’s Standing Judicial Commission, from which there is no appeal, and out of which few return to the sunlit lands.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 537
Okay to be White
Dear Gavin, It was really great meeting you in person last week. Thanks for making the trek over our way, and it was great worshiping together with you. Our conversation after church really helped ...
Audio Reading of Post
A Crucial Distinction
“There is a vast difference between a law/gospel hermeneutic, which I reject heartily and with enthusiasm, and a law/gospel application or use, which is pastoral, prudent, and wise.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 532
Letters To Help While Away the Time
N.B. Before anyone writes in to correct "while away" to "wile away," please know that while away is the older usage, and the newer and formerly incorrect wile away shouldered its way in, such that even ...
Law and Grace Hearts
“The Scripture is what it is, and it contains both promises and imperatives. For the one who reads the Scriptures in evangelical faith, he sees all the imperatives in the context of a larger grace. For the one who reads the Scripture in unbelief, he can sound out the promises, but they are always trumped by what he thinks is the larger demand of ‘do this and live.’ The former contextualizes everything as a subset of God’s grace. The latter contextualizes everything as a subset of law. For the believer, even the Ten Commandments can be understood as gracious. The preamble reminds the Jews that these words were coming from the one who brought them out of the house of bondage. For the unbeliever, even the message of the cross is foolishness, an intolerable demand. So that, in a nutshell, is what I think is going on with law and gospel.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 529