Obedience: Possible, Prescribed & Precious

Kevin DeYoung's article on obedience is being linked-to all around the blogosphere - and rightly so. It highlights the fallacy of thinking every act of Christian obedience is still 'a filthy rag' to God. Theologically satisfying and pastorally wise. Go read it!

So: what are you, saint or sinner?

A very helpful, pastoral ask by Michael Bird:

I often set my students this essay question: "What better describes the state of Christians: (a) Sinners saved by grace; or (b) Saints who sometimes sin?" You could say that both are true, but there are slightly different nuances to them. Is it our pre-gospel state that defines our identity and behavior, or our post-gospel state that defines our identity and behavior. I favor the latter. I am no longer who I was nor will I ever be that person again. He is dead, crucified, buried, and raised to new life. Yes, the old me steeped in sin tries to resurrect itself, and when it does I try my hardest to put it to death, for I know it pleases my Lord to do so.

preaching when you're dry

In a piece on Preaching Living Water When Your Well Has Run Dry (Part 2), Mark D. Roberts concludes with this:

Thus, ironically, we may be more effective channels of living water when we are spiritually dry than when we are spiritually hydrated. Admitting our thirst, we are ready for God's refreshment. Confessing our neediness, we are open to God's help. When we're dry, our illustrations may not be as polished, our prose not as poetic. But in our dependence upon the living water of the Spirit, we may actually be better able to offer this water to those who are thirsty.

Billy Graham chatting to Woody Allen

From some years back, clearly. But worth watching.

HT: Out Of Ur

on being creative (brian eno)

The difficulty of always feeling that you ought to be doing something is that you tend to undervalue the times when you’re apparently doing nothing, and those are very important times. It’s the equivalent of the dream time, in your daily life, times when things get sorted out and reshuffled. If you’re constantly awake work-wise you don’t allow that to happen. One of the reasons I have to take distinct breaks when I work is to allow the momentum of a particular direction to run down, so that another one can establish itself.

Brian Eno (via 99%)

On Time Management

Some helpful thoughts from Doug Wilson. Worth a gander and a ponder.

HT: Justin Taylor

It's really not about you

Foundations: The Theological Journal of Affinity

...is now available online - the current issue is made up of the papers from the Affinity Study Conference held in February on the doctrine of scripture.

Worth downloading. And reading.

Pastoral Listening

Pastoral listening requires unhurried leisure, even if it's only for five minutes. Leisure is a quality of spirit, not a quantity of time. Only in that ambiance of leisure do persons know they are listened to with absolute seriousness, treated with dignity and importance. Speaking to people does not have the same personal intensity as listening to them.

Eugene H Peterson, The Unbusy Pastor

Herman Dune: Strange Moosic

From Paris, so it says. Quirky. Intriguing. Playful and enjoyable, in a minor way.

And you can listen to it at The Guardian.

So: you don't want an iPad?

The reservoir of will and discipline

Researchers have suggested that "Choice, active response, self-regulation, and other volition may all draw on a common inner resource."


They conducted four experiments: "In Experiment 1, people who forced themselves to eat radishes instead of tempting chocolates subsequently quit faster on unsolvable puzzles than people who had not had to exert self-control over eating. In Experiment 2, making a meaningful personal choice to perform attitude-relevant behavior caused a similar decrement in persistence. In Experiment 3, suppressing emotion led to a subsequent drop in performance of solvable anagrams. In Experiment 4, an initial task requiring high self-regulation made people more passive (i.e., more prone to favor the passive-response option)."


They concluded that, "These results suggest that the self's capacity for active volition is limited and that a range of seemingly different, unrelated acts share a common resource."


Fascinating, methinks.


(HT: Tony Schwartz)

Free of Charge

(The Best Books - no.6)

Miroslav Volf has produced a great read here - stimulating, thoughtful and well-worthy of its accolade from Rowan Williams (but don't let that put you off......). He interacts a lot with Luther as he explores the notions of giving and forgiving and, for my money, gives a stunning account of life lived 'in Christ'.

Here Comes The Rain Again (Hall & Stewart)

ereaders: using and losing

Alan Jacobs makes some good points here.

Risen

A (fairly) new album by the Sovereign Grace Music folks is available for listening on Spotify.

Francis Chan on Hell

Did you know

that The Masked Badger is also posting a series of 'best books'? We've been twinned in our mid-life crisis lists of books, records etc (the mid-life crisis was his, not mine, just so we're clear on that).

Anyway, here's his latest.

the scale of the universe

Wow, check this out!

Micah 6:8 (Peter Craigie)

There is no mystery as to what God requires, and it has nothing to do with sacrifice and offering. God requires three things of Israel, Micah affirms, and the three are as pertinent today as they were in Micah's time.

(i) Do justice. No amount of frenzied temple activity could fill the vacuum of justice. While injustice ruled in Israel, every moment of temple worship was a mockery of Israel's faith. God was just and had always acted in justice with his people; in return he required them to act and live in justice. And, as Micah's earlier preaching had indicated, justice was notable by its absence in Israel. Yet justice is a paramount virtue, without which human beings cannot live together in the manner that god intended.

(ii) Love kindness. Kindness, or loving-kindness as the Hebrew word is frequently translated, is again one of the principal attributes of God in the Old Testament. As God always acted toward his people in loving-kindness, so too he required them to act thus toward one another. Loving-kindness, though intimately related to justice, goes beyond the first virtue; it gives, where no giving is required; it acts when no action is deserved, and it penetrates both attitudes and activities. It is a part of the virtue extolled by St Paul in his extraordinary hymn to love (1 Cor. 13:1-13).

(iii) Walk humbly with your God. It is the daily walk in relationship with God that lies at the heart of religion; the ritual of the temple could give expression to the vitality of that walk, but it could never replace it as the centre of Israel's faith. And the humble walk with God went hand in hand with the practice of justice and the love of kindness. The triad of virtues forms the foundations of the religious life; this was what God required of Israel.

Although we may learn deeply from each of the three parts of the prophet's message, it is the collective whole which is most vital. And when we sense ourselves, in moments of introspection, to be in God's court and wonder what he requires of us, it is to these three foundations that we must return. There is a human tendency within us, when faced as was Israel with the catalogue of our shortcomings, to turn to intense forms of religiosity. We should be in church more; we should spend hours in agonising prayers of repentance; we should give all that we have to God; and so it goes on, until the fanatic is produced within us, but still without the heart of true religion. "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." At first it does not sound like much, but it is more than enough for one lifetime.

(Peter C Craigie, Twelve Prophets Volume 2, Daily Study Bible)