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Flotsam and jetsam (5/16)

May 16, 2012 in Flotsam and jetsam with 2 Comments

Good Read

  • Homosexuality and the Quest to Be the New Normal: This is such an epidemic in evangelicalism; we aim to justify the church and sanctify the world. The world is not going to keep the Ten Commandments, walk in the Spirit, or glorify Christ…they can’t! They are unbelievers and they will act like it. This should not surprise us.
  • Robust Christianity in a Post-Christendom World: The great project of our generation is to reclaim biblical Christianity as the Church.  (Please re-read the last sentence about three times before going on).  This will inevitably involve standing up and articulating with far more precision exactly what Christianity actually is.
  • Is It Biblical To Ask Jesus into Your Heart?: A younger generation of pastors look out at the state of evangelicalism and are rightly concerned that many people with cultural Christianity in their background cling to assurance they are saved despite an overwhelming lack of evidence of genuine conversion. It’s no surprise that some pastors are blaming the methods and terms that became prevalent in the previous generation.

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Flotsam and jetsam (5/14)

May 14, 2012 in Flotsam and jetsam with 0 Comments

Good Read

  • A Critical Mind vs. a Critical Spirit:I wonder at what point our appreciation for insightful analysis turns into a celebration of critique that leads to an unhealthy elevation of the critic.
  • Should Cultural Expectations Shape Christian Views of Masculinity?: The point is that we have to live out our gender roles in the culture that we find ourselves in. The apostle Paul probably never wore trousers. But that doesn’t mean that he was less masculine for wearing something that would probably have looked more like a dress to us. His own culture informed the way he obeyed God, even though the creation norm remained an ever-fixed mark. He had an eye to his culture’s impressions about masculinity and femininity. I don’t think we can do any different.
  • Seven Key Ideas from C.S. Lewis: I have heard it said that many well-known thinkers have only two or three key ideas that they develop from various angles throughout their lives. It might be asked: What are C.S. Lewis’s key ideas? I have chosen seven to summarize in this essay.

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A Prayer for Sunday (Karl Barth)

May 13, 2012 in Prayers with 3 Comments

Karl Barth’s birthday was earlier this week (May 10, 1886), so this week’s prayer comes from him:

Lord our God, we praise you and thank you that you, in your dear Son, in mercy beyond understanding, would humble yourself so much for our sakes, in order that in him we may be so highly exalted for your sake. We praise you and thank you for his mighty decision regarding your people Israel and the pagan nations from which you called our ancestors. We praise you and thank you for all of your gracious election and calling, that you are also the God of the rejected and the uncalled, and that you never cease to deal with each one of us in a fatherly and righteous manner. Let us never tire of recognizing you and praying to you in all of these mysteries, that we may in faith lay hold of your Word, through which you magnify your honor and give us, with eternal blessing, peace and joy, even in this life. We pray for your church here and in all nations, for the sleeping church, that it may awaken; for the persecuted church, that it may continually rejoice and be assured of what it has in you; and for the confessing church, that it may live not for its own sake, but for your glory.

We pray for the rulers and the authorities all over the world: for the good ones, that you may preserve them; and for the bad ones, that you may either turn their hearts or put an end to their power, all according to your will; and for everyone, that you may advise them that they are and must remain your servants.

We pray that all tyranny and disorder may be fended off, and that all oppressed nations and people may be granted justice.

We pray for the poor, the sick, the prisoners, the helpless, and the troubled, for all who suffer – perhaps from something only you know – that you yourself may comfort them with the hope of your kingdom. Amen’.

Flotsam and jetsam (5/11)

May 11, 2012 in Flotsam and jetsam with 5 Comments

Good Reads

  • Success That Exceeds Sanctification: And so I ask the Lord not to give me success that exceeds my sanctification. And then I ask that he will make me increasingly holy, that he will grow my Christian character, sanctify me in greater measure, that I may have more success and steward it wisely and for his glory.
  • Evolution Is a Lousy Story: While admitting that human existence is bursting with plot and story, the grand scheme of scientific naturalism is plotless, or perhaps better the plot is anchored in futility. We exist as sentient beings constrained by the laws of physics and in some 7 or 8 billion years the earth will die as the sun dies.  More than this, the expansion of the universe will eventually reach a point where life anywhere will be completely impossible. Not only will each individual die along the way, but life itself will simply vanish – no more sentient beings to wonder about the plot.
  • Desmund Tutu: ‘We need to be able to listen’: Because we live in a pluralistic, global world we need to be able to listen to other viewpoints, place ourselves in the shoes of others, and respond fairly, magnanimously and pragmatically.

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Flotsam and jetsam (5/9)

May 9, 2012 in Flotsam and jetsam with 0 Comments

Remarkably accurate graph of life's stresses over time

Good Reads

  • Why Bible Study Doesn’t Transform Us: Much of what passes for Bible study in Christian bookstores and church resource libraries just isn’t: while it may educate us on a doctrine or a topic, it does little to further our Bible literacy. And left to our own devices, we pursue a host of unsavory (and un-transformative) self-constructed approaches to “spending time in the Word.” Here are several that I encounter on a regular basis.
  • Do as I Do, Not as I Say: It’s election season, and once again Democrats are flummoxed by evangelical voters. They think that “those people” vote against their own self-interest. They cannot believe that same-sex marriage matters so much to so many people. They don’t get why Obamacare is controversial. To them, evangelicals don’t make sense.
  • Feedback Is Scary – But You Need It: The worst person to be leading an organization is a person who is insecure. Yes, we’re all insecure to differing degrees, but there’s a type of leader who is deeply insecure and avoids all feedback in order to not be hurt, threatened, our found out. That is sin. That is pride. And that is incredibly dangerous for the leader and for the people being led.
  • New Form of Christian Civic Engagement: Christian Millennials are now coming of age and recognizing the flawed strategies and broken agendas embraced by their forebears. They’ve seen how the religious right (and the religious left, for that matter) has used the Bible as a tool to gain political power and reduced the Christian community to little more than a voting bloc — and they are forging a different path.

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Get More Out of Google: Tips & Tricks for Students

May 7, 2012 in Misc with 0 Comments

If you haven’t seen this infographic yet, you should definitely check it out. It’s a great resource for helping anyone use Google more effectively, but it’s particularly helpful for students.

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Flotsam and jetsam (5/4)

May 4, 2012 in Flotsam and jetsam with 0 Comments

The Cycle of Life

Good Reads

  • Muscular Christianity: In the drive to make churches more guy-friendly, we risk confusing cultural (especially American) customs with biblical discipleship. One noted pastor has said that God gave Christianity a “masculine feel.” Another contrasted “latte-sipping Cabriolet drivers” with “real men.” Jesus and his buddies were “dudes: heterosexual, win-a-fight, punch-you-in-the-nose dudes.” Real Christian men like Jesus and Paul “are aggressive, assertive, and nonverbal.” Seriously?
  • Fiction and Literature: I’ve found that most people who tell me that fiction is a waste of time are folks who seem to hold to a kind of sola cerebra vision of the Christian life that just doesn’t square with the Bible. The Bible doesn’t simply address man as a cognitive process but as a complex image-bearer who recognizes truth not only through categorizing syllogisms but through imagination, beauty, wonder, awe.
  • It’s a Brain Puzzle: When we look at prayer through the lens of neuroscience, we can make an interesting observation: Talking to God is not really different from talking to one’s friends and neighbors.
  • Were the Church Fathers Universalists? I’ve read more than once the claim that most early Christians were universalists. And this is occasionally supported by the further opinion that several early (first six centuries) theological schools were universalist in their teaching. This seems implausible to me. However, I’m certainly not someone who is a student of the history of the early church. So what am I to do? I’m to look for evidence.

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Flotsam and jetsam (5/2)

May 2, 2012 in Flotsam and jetsam with 4 Comments

Good Reads

  • Is Megachurch the New Liberalism?: Once again, the megachurches are on the leading edge. We must pray that they will lead into faithfulness, and not into a new liberalism.
  • Do Denominations Still Matter?: Denominations are, at their core, structures that help support and enable a diversity of Christians. They are not Christianity; they merely make space for different varieties of faith to flourish. If we can understand denominational labels as descriptors rather than terms of value—who is right and who is wrong—perhaps we can see beyond the walls that separate us and begin to see the beautiful diversity there is among Christians. This may not be easy, but here are some reasons it’s worth trying.
  • The Gospel and Immigration: If you want to disrupt a beautifully harmonious dinner party, all you have to do is bring up the radioactive issue of immigration. There might not be a more heated political topic in contemporary American life.

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What if God is a chicken?

May 1, 2012 in Humor with 8 Comments

I’m in class all day today, so I don’t have anything particularly insightful of my own to post. Instead, let’s all ruminate on this deeply reflective question from Calvin, clearly one of the world’s leading theologians.

By the way, if this happens, I’m in a lot of trouble.

Flotsam and jetsam (4/30)

April 30, 2012 in Flotsam and jetsam with 1 Comment

Good Reads

  • Why Fiction Is Good for You (Boston.com): Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to make us rubbery and easy to shape.
  • Three Types of Christian Scholarship: While most of us will see ourselves as more of one than the others…, we need to be careful. Of course we need to recognize the dangers in our own leanings and listen to the critiques of the others, but more than that, we need to be continually committed to finding balance

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