Category: Engaging the Culture

“The Jewish War would ‘fill up’ the sins of Israel (Matt. 23:32). That event would begin the ‘times of the Gentiles,’ a period that would eventually be completed. I take that completion as being marked by the conversion of the Jews, an event that has not yet happened (Rom. 11:15). This means we are still living in the times of the Gentiles.”

Mines of Difficulty, p. 52

“Loving more and more means gathering more and more, which means minding the store, and then being generous with what you have gained. We give in order to get, in order that we might be able to give even more.”

Mines of Difficulty, p. 45

“Now the great Pauline principle here is ‘mind thine own business.’ Tend to thine own knitting. You do this, not because you are telling the rest of the body to get lost, but rather because you need to acquire something before you can give it. You cannot give what you do not have, and cannot have something to give unless you came by it honestly.”

Mines of Difficulty, pp. 44-45

“Something is transfat, for example, when a baby carrot identifies as salty grease on the inside.”

Mines of Difficulty, p. 41

“And remember there are also times when the two kinds of wills intersect. When Jesus died on the cross, it was the will of God (Luke 22:42; Acts 4:26-28) even though it was accomplished by wicked hands (Acts 2:23). The violation of God’s preceptive will by Judas, Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the Sanhedrin was the instrument God used to accomplish His decretive will. We must always remember that God is God, and we are not.”

Mines of Difficulty, p. 40

“Catechized by our digital world, we think we have conquered distance when we really haven’t. Our letters have gotten much more sophisticated than they were in Paul’s day, but our ‘face-to-face’ communication is not really the equivalent of being there. Our texting, and Zoom meetings, and online sermons, and POD books, and blogs, and phone calls, are just souped-up letters. They are not an adequate replacement for in-person community. Paul would have used them all, but he still would have yearned to be with the Thessalonians, in the same room, breathing the same air, and not through a mask either.”

Mines of Difficulty, p. 36

“So the diamonds of the promise can only be found in the mines of difficulty—and some of those mines go very deep. But there are other mine shafts that are filled with nothing but useless rocks, and many thousands have spent their lives down in those holes.”

Mines of Difficulty, p. 32