“The philosophers wanted life in Euclidville, my nickname for the pristine realm of the mind, named after the Greek father of geometry. And even Euclidville had strict building codes — the lines had to have no width, the points no length, and the planes no height. It was life on the chalkboard, with no chalk …
Real Rest
“The Bible does not say that we are to work for six days, and then on the seventh day, we are to, well, work at these other three jobs. Rather, we are commanded to rest” (A Primer on Worship and Reformation, p. 66).
Thwarting the Presbyterian Rabbis
“So we see that the sabbath can be broken, not only by those who walk away from it in contempt, but also by those who swing it around in such a way as to bloody the noses of others. The problem of sabbatarian sabbath-breaking can begin very subtly. It has taken hold when the first …
And Broke His Crown
“Of course, pride goeth before the tumble down the geo-political slope” (5 Cities, p. 60).
Like the Two Boys in the Parable
“The nature and limits of our sabbath convictions are very important, because there is more than one way to break a commandment” (A Primer on Worship and Reformation, p. 65).
Music Into the Breach
“The psalter is a battle hymnal. If we are serious about conquering the world with the gospel through biblical worship, we will soon discover that it cannot be done without the psalms” (A Primer on Worship and Reformation, p. 64).
Compared to What?
“So we must beware of the false dilemma. It would be far better to sing five intelligible words (accompanied with three chords) that ten thousand unintelligible Latin or German words borne along by glorious cantatas. It would be better to sing a Scripture chorus to a humming guitar than to sin an old psalm in …
Audio Reading of Post
A Dirge at God’s Funeral
“One of my favorite hymns today is Holy, Holy, Holy, but when I waas a boy I hated that song. In the church where I grew up, the hymn was sung like dirge at God’s funeral. When I first encountered contemporary worship music, it was like a spring day after a long winter. But simple …
Becoming What We Eat
“We partake of Him by means of faith, which means that we do as we are told. We take and eat by faith. We take and drink by faith. As we do this, we are becoming what we eat. And since what we are eating is a new humanity, resurrected and alive, never to die …
Sermons and Sacraments, Not Lectures and Mnemonic Devices
“What does this ministry do? It causes the whole body to be fitly joined together. And faithful pastors do not have the authority to dispense with instruments thought by the apostles to be essential to this process. Simply put, we do not have the authority to turn sermons into lectures and sacraments into options” (A …