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
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 ...
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
In Which Heidi Przybyla Shows Us the Way
Introduction: The world of Christian X was all in a doodah over something that Heidi Przybyla said last week. Now this was fully appropriate, but Christian worldview thinking demands that we ...
Not Really the Same
“In the old days, defenders of the faith used proclamation, argumentation, and apologetics. These days, the defenders of the faith use all the bureaucratic levers they have hidden under the desk . . . In the old days, the prophets of God would thunder the word. These days, they resort to Machinations and Back Room Deals.”
The Auburn Avenue Chronicles Vol. 2, p. 529