“The first is that you must have an explicit covenant surrounding a sexual relationship. Not everyone who is sexually united is married, and not everyone who has exchanged vows is married. The covenant exists when the two elements are there together: covenant vows surrounding a covenant union” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 33).
Fifty-Pound Heads
“He rocked back in his chair and stared thoughtfully at the picture of his family on the opposite wall, just above the sofa covered with multiple stacks of books, all of them written by men with fifty-pound heads” (Evangellyfish, p. 70).
Partaking of One Another
“This means the world is not divided between those who partake and those who do not partake. Rather, it is divided between those who partake righteously and those who partake unrighteously. We cannot go anywhere to opt out of partaking altogether. For example, a man can partake of his wife (Eph. 5:31) or of a …
Literary Dabbling
“‘I mean that you believe that Chad Lester is guilty of every sexual offense a man can be guilty of, except for the one he is actually accused of, and it makes you wonder if there is any justice in the world or, if there is justice, whether it is dabbling too much in literary …
Authority Understood
“Those men who browbeat their wives are setting everything upside down. Authority is the principle of union, not the principle of separation” (For a Glory and a Covering, p. 32).
Pulpit Presence
“He looked severe enough that no one really noticed that he was not severe at all, and this meant that no one had a conscience attack or felt like they were going soft in their Calvinism because he always looked like he was being strict with them. So things were swell at Grace Reformed” (Evangellyfish, …
Which Would Be Pleasant
“Man can name what God has done, but man cannot get God to name what man has done, or is trying to do, in his own name. Legislatures or courts can decree that men can now start marrying men, and those institutions can also, while they are at it, decree that water will start flowing …
All Grace, No Slack
“The sermons were of the ‘all grace, no slack’ variety, and more than a few worshippers were concerned about just how much more grace their families could stand” (Evangellyfish, p. 67).
Poor Choice Indeed
“This is a poor choice indeed, and yet it is the only choice that unbelieving thought can present us. Either we have the monolithic unity of Parmenides or the fractured whirl of Heraclitus. We either have the false unity of modernity or the equally hollow diversity of postmodernity. The only way out of this impasse …
For Additional Emphasis
“The previous three pastors had been there for about a year and a half each, and the last of the three had been the kind of fellow who typed long doctrinal screeds to errant fellow ministers, single-spaced, and with typing up the sides of the margins. Some thought that he had mastered the art of …