Meditative Preparations

“Each one of your teenagers today is walking around with Bourbon Street in his pocket, or in her purse. And in many cases, always downloaded. You are driving off to church, and your (inexplicably sullen) teenager is in the way back, AirPods in, preparing his heart for worship by listening to “effin’ on the blim blam, n-word in the vocative plural!”

No Such Thing, pp. 110-111

And It Will Come About

“The chaos of the deep upon which the Spirit moved was brought out of nothing by the Word (Col. 1:17). The protons at the center of every atom, the position and velocity of every asteroid in the great darkness beyond Mars, and the awesome intricacy of the double helix . . . all of it, spoken into existence by the Word and sustained by that same Word . . . And that Word is always driving in the same direction—the formation of the world that will come about as a result of the Word’s authority.”

No Such Thing, p. 103

Melted Butterscotch

“The people always have an earnest desire to have a messenger who is willing to prophesy smooth things for them (Is. 30:10). ‘Prophesy deceits unto us’—they want deceits, boy, and they want them layered on thick. They want to heap up teachers who will stroke their felt needs (2 Tim. 4:3). If a man of wind comes prophesying wine and beer, he would be just the right spokesman for this people (Mich. 2:11). They want prophets who will speak to them in terms of affirming and melted butterscotch. They want pumpkin spice sermons.”

No Such Thing, p. 98