looking into the mirror

What does James have in mind when he speaks about looking in the mirror (James 1:23)? Is he wanting us to see our sins and come away from the mirror humbled and deflated?

The person who doesn’t do what the word says is equated to the person who forgets what he saw in the mirror (v.24). What that person saw in the mirror is not repeated and worked-out in obedience to the word.

It seems to follow, then, that looking into the perfect law of liberty (v.25) is seeing something other than their own sinfulness. I suggest they’re seeing Jesus and they’re seeing who and what they are in union with him.

No doubt they also, therefore, see their imperfections but they see them atoned for, they see them as antithetical to who they now are in Christ. And, so, in that liberty, they’re to go into the world not forgetting who they are and, thus, be equipped for keeping the word.

eyes to see

Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty.

John Calvin, Institutes 1.1.3

Why the church?

The Holy Spirit formed it to be a colony of heaven in the country of death…Church is the core element in the strategy of the Holy Spirit for providing human witness and physical presence to the Jesus-inaugurated kingdom of God in this world. It is not that kingdom complete, but it is a witness to that kingdom.

Eugene H. Peterson, Practise Resurrection, p.11f

The decline of fascination and the rise in ennui

The decline of fascination and the rise in ennui

I often find Seth Godin stimulates thought about ministry, albeit unintentionally. His conclusion in this piece - to eschew the rush for the new and to build longer arcs and to focus on what really produces long-term change - is surely appropriate and resonates well with the kingdom parables of Jesus.

Leaders Tell the Truth

Leaders Tell the Truth

Al Mohler on leadership and why he’s written a book on it.

thanksgiving and gratitude

thanksgiving and gratitude

Matthew Lee Anderson writes really well and thoughtfully. His latest piece on Thanksgiving is no different.

Wasted kindling (Seth Godin)

Wasted Kindling (Seth Godin)

You could apply this to thinking about pastoral ministry.

The Joy of Sects (Carl Trueman)

The Joy of Sects (Carl Trueman)

Carl Trueman ruminates on reactions to the CofE vote on women bishops.

mind the gap

There is a gap between our love for the gospel and our love for godliness. This must change. It's not pietism, legalism, or fundamentalism to take holiness seriously. It's the way of all those who have been called to a holy calling by a holy God.

Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in our Holiness, p.21

the sermon of a man who stayed up all night praying

Preparing to speak on Jesus' 'sermon on the plain' in Luke 6. It's hardly a model to follow by today's standards of what makes for an effective sermon - no neat illustrations, no clever introduction and no technology to help the wandering mind. But it had this (and this is what challenges me most): "It is a sermon of a man who has stayed up all night praying." (Michael Card)

Did Paul have a mission strategy?

The point of this post–and Schnabel’s point–is not to overstate Paul’s strategy. For the most part he didn’t have one. He went where people were, where people needed to hear the gospel, and where he had opportunity to share the gospel. That led him to cities, but also smaller towns and villages too.

Kevin De Young (citing the work of Eckhard Schnabel)

How will you help those who follow?

There is always a sense in which every minister must finish his life's work in the same position as Moses: on top of Mount Pisgah, overlooking the promised land but not having entered it. I don't mean to suggest that ministers conclude their lives outside God's Kingdom (that would be somewhat discouraging) but rather that our ministries will mostly conclude before Jesus' return in glory and, hence, before the fullness of God's kingdom is known. We will end our ministries with more work still to be done.

Given that is so, what help and encouragement do those that remain need from those whose work is done? Moses reminds Joshua, "You have seen with your own eyes all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. The Lord will do the same to all the kingdoms over there where you are going. Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you" (Deut 3:21f). And the LORD's instructions to Moses are to "commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him" (Deut. 3:28).

Joshua is to draw strength and hope from the Lord's previous dealings with his people and is to proceed with courage, trusting in the Lord. It is all so very general, so imprecise, so indistinct. But maybe precisely and distinctly so. Joshua does not need a detailed strategy; he needs a vision of hope. He doesn't need tactical insight but strength and resolve. There will be time enough for the Lord to direct him in detailed terms for the work he calls Joshua to do; for now, he needs what the LORD and Moses offer him.

church & numbers

Kevin deYoung has an interesting piece here on numbers in church (people, not the OT book). It includes some helpful observations by Leslie Newbigin and concludes with these words by DeYoung:

We love to see more people loving Jesus and living in greater accordance to his commands, but we should not think church size, when judged by the only Judge that really matters, is a reliable measure of a church’s success or a pastor’s faithfulness.

you need to waffle

Well, sort of...Seth Godin identifies that most issues are both simple and complex and, somewhere along the line, nuance is necessary. Substitute 'gospel' or 'the Christian life' for 'issues' and you've got some wisdom we all need.

Viewed from 10,000ft they are indeed simple and we need to be able to communicate that simplicity of vision to others, as well as hold it before our own eyes. But we will never pastor well unless we know that what looks simple at a distance is complex when nearer and learn to apply the requisite biblical nuances to the vision.

my first book has just been published!

OK, I'll admit that sounds rather grand, so I'll come clean and humble: it's a self-published book, available on Kindle only (don't forget, you only need a Kindle app, not a Kindle device, to buy it...) and it's only an experiment - to see how easy or otherwise it is to publish that way.

But in case you want to go ahead and buy it......

Living the Gospel

It's just some Bible study questions on Paul's letter to the Philippians - no Bible text included, just the questions. In 18 sessions. If you buy it and find it helpful, I'll be glad. If you buy it and find it rubbish, I'll refund you. If you don't buy it and simply laugh at me, I'll......retire.

don't go to sleep angry

Why not? Well, the Bible encourages you not to do so. And now science is chiming in, too...

Their take-away point? "Sleep strongly 'protects'...negative emotional response(s)".

how to kill your mission

In this interview, John Dickson was asked about how to effectively engage the broader culture. His remarks, although pertaining to Australian society, have much to say to the needs of the church in the UK:

What advice do you have for church leaders in America about how to engage the broader culture effectively?I think the very first thing is to do is adopt a stance of mission instead of admonition toward the world. Here's an example. In the Australian context, there are church leaders who remember the glory days when about 20 percent of the nation went to church. They look at how Australia is secularized today, and their stance toward the world is basically admonition, the way you would talk to a backsliding Christian. How dare you slide away? How dare you legislate against Christian morality? I call that the admonition paradigm.
What's wrong with this approach?
I reckon that's how you kill your mission, because if you speak with a sense of entitlement, you won't be flexible, you won't be humble, and you won't take hits and just bear it. You'll want to strike back. And people will think you're arrogant. Quite rightly, probably.
What do you recommend instead?
When you move out of admonition into mission, you realize Australia is no longer Jerusalem; it's Athens. Then you instantly adopt a humbler approach to non-Christians. You don't expect them to live Christian lives if they don't confess Christ. You don't expect Parliament to pass Christian-specific laws. But as a leader, you try to persuade the nation with winsomeness, with gentleness and respect, as Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15.

how the song functions (leithart)

(from this article by Peter Leithart, on the Song of Solomon)

The Song helps us relearn what nearly every civilization before ours already knew: Sex is allegory, and as allegory it is metaphysics and theology and cosmology. For Christians, sexual difference and union is a type of Christ and the church: How could an erotic poem (and in the Bible!) be anything but allegory? From the Song we relearn that poetic metaphor does not add meaning to what is itself mere chemistry and physics. Nor is erotic poetry a euphemistic cover for Victorian embarrassment. Poetry elucidates the human truth of human sexuality, and it seems uniquely capable of doing so. Only as allegory does the Song have anything to teach us about sex. Only as allegory can the Song play its central role in healing our sexual imaginations.

the justification for reading novels

This piece might be all you need to convince yourself it's a valid, pastorally-wise, humanity-enhancing activity. And it is.

the effects of stress in utero

This is a helpful insight into how the experience of stress in the life of a pregnant mother can have ongoing implications for her child in their response to stressors.