Theology That Bites Back
“I pray that Your kingdom would continue to grow,
Silently, steadily, confusedly, gloriously,
I pray that this service, our worship this morning,
Would release a great deal of carbon dioxide
Into the loaf and thus make it rise.”
21 Prayers, pp. 115-116
“I speak as a close observer of some conservatives whose worldview is made out of cinder blocks and cheap cement . . . That is a problem, sure enough, but in our age, it is not a huge one. The intellectual life of our age is characterized by a squishy goulash of subtleties all the way to the bottom of the pot, a farrago of pomothot, and the purveyors of this pomothot are often quite clever—they don’t hate labels because they can’t follow arguments. They hate labels because they can follow them, and those arguments get in the way of their lusts. Remember that the devil is a dialectician.”
“Help us to learn how to fail in grace forward.
Help us to falter toward Your great glory.
I know we must stagger, but help us to stagger
From one grace-promotion to the next one You give.”
21 Prayers, p. 113
Introduction A few days ago, when the news about that huge Hindu image of Lord Hanuman was first going around, my friend Joe Rigney inquired if anyone knew whether @MichaelCassidy had anything ...
“And so I pray to be able to preach
With the fearful noise of Ezekiel’s wheels
Coming up from behind, overtaking us all.
I pray I would preach while standing rock-firm
In the glow of Your amber and terrible crystal.”
21 Prayers, p. 111
Letter to the Editor: You published a letter from a man who objected to his wife reading romance novels. Your response was for him to talk to her, with the implication that he should scold ...
“In Your grace, You use nothing but unsuitable instruments
And here we are now, assembled for service.
I qualify as just such an unworthy servant,
So use me, I ask You, according to grace,
In line with Your goodness, in line with Your purposes.”
21 Prayers, p. 110
“Those who are in favor of smaller government are, when this is translated, in favor of a smaller capacity for coercion. Those who are in favor of bigger government are in favor of increased opportunities for coercion.”
“Jesus hates socialism. He hates statism. He hates crony capitalism. Why? Because it doesn’t run on love. Love is obligatory, but it is not coercive. Coercion, masked as it is by the lies of modern statist theory, is their great counterfeit of love.”
“But we want to see You glorified now.
And deliverance that comes like a bolt from the blue
Would also be glorious, and Your name would be praised in it,
But I pray we might see this grace as its building.
Father, I pray for a gathering crescendo
That then reaches in glory a climax of wonder.
I pray that Your glory comes in like a thunderclap,
So that we might try to match an amen.”
21 Prayers, p. 106
