Edwards on separation and the humble Christian

Jonathan Edwards wrote this in his Thoughts on the Revival, speaking of the importance of “separation,” while emphasizing the humble Christian’s deportment therein:
But, on the contrary, the eminently humble Christian is ready to look upon himself as not worthy that others should be united to him—to think himself more brutish than any man, and worthy [...]

Read Full Post »

Tammy Faye on talking about God

Without meaning to show disrespect to those recently departed, I could not help providing a section of the interview with Tammy Faye Messner NPR’s Fresh Air just rebroadcast. This seems to me indicative of the way many evangelicals look at talking about God. In fact, this is philosophy is not at all much different from [...]

Read Full Post »

Hash, NPR Classical Style, for 7/23/07

NPR has some good (or at least interesting) audio about classical music lately.
This small recital of Mozart sonatas by Anne-Sophie Mutter with Lambert Orkis is definitely worth 25 minutes of your time.
Here is an interesting interview with Santiago Rodriguez dubbed “inside the world of piano competitions.”
Alan Gilbert has been slated as the new music director [...]

Read Full Post »

Lord, teach us how to pray aright

by James Montgomery (1818)
Lord, teach us how to pray aright,
With reverence and with fear;
Though dust and ashes in Thy sight,
We may, we must draw near.
We perish if we cease from prayer;
O grant us power to pray;
And when to meet Thee we prepare,
Lord, meet us by the way.
God of all grace, we come to Thee
With broken, [...]

Read Full Post »

JCM

Listen to this.

Here are some of questions that arise when I listen to this kind of music:

Is this irreverent? What makes it reverent or irreverent?
Does this music speak well of the deity the Jewish people purport to worship, or of the piety of the individuals performing this music?
How is this any different from popular Christian [...]

Read Full Post »

C. S. Lewis on ordinate affections

Until quite modern times all teachers and even all men believed the universe to be such that certain emotional reactions on our part could be either congruous or incongruous to it–believed, in fact, that objects did not merely receive, but could merit, our approval or disapproval, our reverence, or our contempt. . . . “Can [...]

Read Full Post »

Hash for 7/19/07

Though NPR intended this to be yet another pity piece, I took this to be a good reminder of the dangers of debt for ministers. How prudent is it for pastors to amass large sums of debt in obtaining their degrees? And should we assume it to be the government’s responsibility to subsidize in any [...]

Read Full Post »

Jonathan Edwards on how to avoid doubting your salvation

From An Humble Inquiry (Works 12:298):
No, it is not owing to God, nor to any of his revelations, that true saints ever doubt of their state; his revelations are plain and clear, and his rules sufficient for men to determine their own condition by. But, for the most part, it is owing to their own [...]

Read Full Post »

John Calvin on Isaiah 14 and Satan

John Calvin, in his commentary on Isaiah 14, had this to say about the question of whether or not Isaiah 14 is speaking of Satan:
“The exposition of this passage, which some have given, as if it referred to Satan, has arisen from ignorance; for the context plainly shows that these statements must be understood in [...]

Read Full Post »

On the strangeness of eschatology

Evangelical Christians have of late been quite fond of domesticating their theology to the cool rationalism and academic standards of contemporary scholarship. Perhaps this is most clearly seen in recent trends in the realm of eschatology. If you interact with evangelical New Testament scholarship at any level, you quickly come to realize how “out of [...]

Read Full Post »

An Open Letter to Fundamentalistic Bloggers

CAVEAT: For those outside the fundamentalistic blogging world, please pardon a little “family discussion.”
Dear Fundamentalistic Bloggers,
You, like me, probably recently received an email en masse from the former fundamentalistic person __________. This is a desperate attempt at attention. If you child does something in order to gain attention, the wise parent knows it is best [...]

Read Full Post »

Hash for 7/10/07

At Orchard Keeper, Chuck Bumgardner wrote a good post offering a different take on “train up a child in the way he should go” (Prov 22:6).
S. M. Hutchens does it again with his response to a NYT article on “hip librarians.” He says at the end, “Serious library users have the same opinion of hip [...]

Read Full Post »

Now come, clown, into the holy place

I was listening to Tozer recently. The sermon was called Presence–Manifest Presence.* His text is Hebrews 9:1-14, and he was trying to show that the tabernacle prefigured different elements in the church. I suppose that there will be some who disagree with the parallels he finds between the tabernacle and the church. I am more [...]

Read Full Post »

Hark, my soul, it is the Lord!

by William Cowper (1731-1800)
Hark, my soul, it is the Lord!
’Tis thy Savior, hear His Word;
Jesus speaks, and speaks to thee,
“Say, poor, sinner, lov’st thou Me?”
“I delivered thee when bound,
And, when bleeding, healed thy wound;
Sought thee wandering, set thee right,
Turned thy darkness into light.
“Can a woman’s tender care
Cease toward the child she bare?
Yes, she may forgetful [...]

Read Full Post »