“We also request a full and glad readiness
To forgive any others for sins they’ve committed
Against us—our names, reputations, or lives.”
21 Prayers, p. 47
Don’t Do What the Antisemites Do
“Boast not against the Jews. Boast not against the unbelieving Jews. Boast not against the Jews who were plotting against Paul. Any why? Because they still have a role to play. There is a reason why Paul says the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable (Rom. 11:29).”
American Milk and Honey, p. 136
The Rebellious Elect
“So how do you explain the Jews then? They were the elect nation (Is. 45:4), and they were expending more than a little energy trying to kill the apostle Paul, as they had in fact killed the Elect One of God (Isa. 42:1), their own Messiah. It sure seems like something had separated them from the love God.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 135
The Root Does the Supporting
“The Jews had stumbled because of a covenantal and ethnic presumption, and Paul cautions the Gentile Romans against committing the very same sin. What happened to the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem could certainly happen to the See of Rome. And why? Rome did not support the root, but rather the root Rome, and faith alone kept the sap flowing.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 135
What Money Will Do
“We know, our great Father, we cannot prevent
Money from doing what money will do,
But we can, in the meantime, be faithful stewards
With what You have given us, what You’ve bestowed.”
21 Prayers, p. 44
If I Knew How
“If I knew how to do it, I would ask You for more,
I would ask for far more of Your grace overflowing.”
21 Prayers, p. 42
Or Take From Us Now
“Father, I prayer that You might now give the answer
Or take from us now the requesting You gave us.”
21 Prayers, p. 41
On Not Lowering the Bar for God
“We need to believe up to the promises rather than lowering the promises down to our levels of quasi-unbelief.”
American Milk and Honey, p. 128
A Lot Classier
“My first argument against the preterist view of Romans 11 is that it is necessarily pretty bleak. The words of the promise are glorious, and fill us with hope. ‘Life from the dead.’ ‘Fullness of the Gentiles.’ ‘All Israel shall be saved.’ ‘God will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.’ To be told that this has already been fulfilled in history, and in such a way that nobody noticed it, or remarked on it, or wrote it down, and that it made no kind of a dent at all, is kind of small beer fulfillment. It really is thin soup. It is profoundly anticlimactic. It is as though a preacher read out this glorious text from Isaiah—‘And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well-refined’ (Is. 25:6)—in order to present his argument that this was to be fulfilled at the first introduction of the chocolate fountain for the Sunday brunch at the Golden Corral. It makes me think of that old Gahan Wilson cartoon, with a group of men standing around in nondescript robes, with halos stuck on the backs of their heads, a whiskey bottle on the ground, plaster falling off the wall, the E of HEAVEN over the gate fallen over—and the caption was, ‘Somehow I thought the whole thing would be a lot classier.’”
American Milk and Honey, pp. 127-128
Why Not Now?
“It is Your declaration, and these are Your purposes,
To bring the whole world to Your gracious salvation.
Why would You give such good promises to us
And chafe when Your servants ask You to fulfill them?
All of this now is already in motion—
Why not more rapidly? Why not more quickly?”
21 Prayers, p. 40