Nate has received his box of author’s copies of Notes From the Tilt-a-Whirl, which means that I now have a published copy to read through and mark up. I have read it in manuscript in its various incarnations, but this is different. This is official. The fact that my comments whooping this book can easily …
Become Less to Matter More
For reasons I don’t need to go into here, I have been mulling this last week on godly ambition, and the desire to make a difference in the world. For, of course, there is a dangerous counterfeit here. Wanting to change the world is one of the most predictable and worldly things we can do. …
The Point of Affliction
Book 3/Chapter 8 Bearing the cross (section 1) 1. If we have been adopted by the Lord, what should we be prepared for? 2. Was the Lord exempt from this in His life? Leading us to trust (section 2) 1. Why does God subject us to this kind of thing? Learning endurance (section 3) 1. …
Nethaniel and Emily
If you look around for a moment, you should see at once that we worship and serve a God who delights. He delights to create and make, and He delights to create and make beautifully. When we learn the nature of the divine majesty from that which is made, as Paul indicates, we learn much …
A Bouncy Little Ragtime Piece
Every week as we say the Apostles Creed, we confess that we believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. This refers to the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, creation from nothing. Only God can create from nothing; it is one of the characteristics of deity. But Genesis does not say that …
Quiet Your Fears
If a misguided father, in the interests of preventing pride from taking root in his children, offered criticism after criticism, the results would not be what he anticipated. Instead of rearing humble children, he would bring up neurotic and jumpy children. “What is it now?” would be their constant internal question. But another father who …
Running from Words
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father, we confess that as a people we have not wanted …
Lungs Full of Mountain Air
Living in community means that the very nature of the case requires that we submit to demands from outside our selves. These demands encompass every aspect of our lives, and this means that our use of money is included. No man is an island, as Donne put it, and so we don’t have the right …
Faith in Adversity
Book 3/Chapter 7 True sincerity (section 7) 1. For Calvin, are loving actions sufficient? 2. How can liberal actions be made reprehensible? 3. When we give to the downtrodden, what must we experience? Devotion to his will (section 8) 1. When we learn self-denial, what two things form in us? 2. Our fear of what …
The Lord’s Placeholder
Book 3/Chapter 7 Right toward others (section 4) 1. What relation does self-denial have to our fellow men and to God? 2. What happens when we rush into self-love? 3. What does each person find within his breast through self-flattery? Helpfulness (section 5) 1. What will keep you from accomplishing anything in this life? 2. …