Letter to the Editor: You mentioned in your wedding homily that, unlike humans, animals were made male and female at the same time. This runs completely contrary to a poem I recently wrote ...
New Year’s Letter Launch!
Look Up. Look Ahead.
“We glory in tribulations, not because we are masochistic, but because we know that the rocky pathway winds up to the great mountaintop city. Still, we somethings look at the immediate landscape, which can be pretty grim, instead of looking at what is really happening. We look at how hard the path is, instead of where the hard path goes.”
Mines of Difficulty, pp. 30-31
Cockeyed Responsibility
“We have gotten to the point where we define vile behavior as any behavior that provokes someone else into behaving in a vile fashion. We look at rioters and blame the people who never riot.”
Mines of Difficulty, pp. 29-30
Maybe They Tried Everything Else
A Sly Spin
“Notice that there are two elements here that Paul is concerned about. The first is the trial itself, and the second is the devil’s interpretation of it. Having a toothache is bad enough, but the suggestion that it is happening because God hates you is much worse. The deeper concern is the second one, the spin the devil puts on any trial.”
Mines of Difficulty, p. 29
A Fifteen-Dollar Yard Sale Violin
“Sermons are not sacraments, but I think it is fair to say that they are sacramentals. A sermon is not a lecture, or a talk. It is not a chat about the things of God. It is a declaration. But unless Christ picks it up and uses it for His intended purposes, a sermon makes the hollowest sound any mortal has ever heard. Christ speaks with authority, and not as the scribes (Matt. 7:29). But He has so much authority that he can even pick up a scribe and do wonderful things through him. Every mortal preacher is in this position, and needs to keep it in mind at all times. Remember how Paul once cried out in a holy despair: ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ (2 Cor. 2:6). The best preacher in the world is nothing more than a fifteen-dollar yard sale violin. But when Christ picks that thing up, He still astonishes the world with the music He can make.”
Mines of Difficulty, pp. 24-25
Year End Letters, As Sometimes Happens
Letter to the Editor: What is the difference between tattle-tailing and tale-bearing? Any practical pointers on how to teach kids the difference?Thanks. Josh Josh, in ...
On Not Flexing in the Pulpit
“The ministry is not to be used as a means of impressing the girls.”
Mines of Difficulty, p. 18
More Gay Than the Pope’s Pajama Bottoms
Introduction: If you don't zoom out too far, Ben Shapiro had some really good things to say at the Heritage Foundation recently. Here you go, check it out at this link. [Huh. I linked to it ...
The Big Three
“When ministries go astray, it is very common for the problem to be located in one of three areas: glory, gold, and girls. And because sins are like grapes—they come in bunches—it is not unusual to find some ministries that shipwreck because of all three.”
Mines of Difficulty, p. 17