“All true needs—such as food, drink, and companionship—are satiable. Illegitimate wants—pride, envy, greed—are insatiable” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 107).
Careful . . .
“Although a firm believer in predestination, he did not fall into the errors of those who get hold of only one end of a truth, and who then wave it around until they hurt themselves” (For Kirk and Covenant, p. 105).
Enough Troubles
Hamartano is used a number of times in 1 Corinthians, but hamartia doesn’t come up until chapter 15. Paul first tells believers to flee from fornication because every other sin is outside the body, while sexual sin is a sin against one’s own body (6:18). But to marry is not to commit a sin (v. …
So Spit on Your Hands, and Throw Your Necktie Over Your Shoulder
“If we are not zealous, neither will they be. It is not in the order of nature that rivers should run uphill, and it does not often happen that zeal rises from the pew to the pulpit” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 306).
And It Encounters a Lot of Realities
“Envy cannot be assuaged any more than cancer can be; they are both pathologies whose very being requires expansion to their neighbor’s territory. There is no fence that will ever be respected, no limitation that will be recognized as legitimate, no sense of proportion or humility sufficient to smother a sense of inferiority. By its …
A Bountiful Eye
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 138 “He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor” (Prov. 22:9). The duty of almsgiving is assumed in this text, and it is reinforced with the promise of blessing for …
God’s Garage
I graduated from Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1971. Just to get you oriented, this was the same high school that Bob Seger graduated from. But I didn’t know him, and he was a few years ahead of me. He had to have been a few years ahead of me because he …
Lickspittles in the Entourage
Terrorism is back in the news, at least in a way that requires us to revisit our definition of it. Jimmy Carter is apparently comfortable with meeting with the head of Hamas, and Obama is now tagged with his friendship with William Ayers, one who has admitted his role in various bombings of public buildings …
A Reformed Mead Hall
In my previous Auburn Avenue post, which had to do with the concept of merit, a good discussion broke out. But in the course of the comments a couple stray points were raised near the end that I really wanted to get Lane’s response on. And because the recently re-published work of Robert Rollock had …
Our Bodies as Sinstruments
Sin is one of the great themes of Romans. The word hamartia occurs 48 times in this book. Jews and Gentiles are both of them under sin, which Paul has proven (3:9). No one shall be justified by the deeds of the law because the law brings knowledge of sin (3:20). This being the case, …