Recently in Faith Category
Ed Stetzer - Why I Have No Difficulty Helping "Issue Christians" to Move On
For some Christians who are obsessive about a particular issue or point of doctrine, the best thing for the church is to encourage them to find another church home.
The Daily Spurgeon: Even so has He loved us
"It is quite certain, my dear brethren, that you who believe in Jesus are personally the objects of the love of the Triune Jehovah. You are loved as much as you love your children, or as the bridegroom loves his bride -- nay, those are very feeble images, for you are loved by God infinitely. The heart of God never does anything weakly; his love is strong and powerful, for it is the affection of an omnipotent spirit. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus -- 'As the Father hath loved me even so have I loved you.' Do you know how much the Father loves his Son? Can you form any conception? Are you not baffled in the attempt? 'Even so,' saith Jesus, 'have I loved you.'"
John Piper: John Stott, The Expositor, Sent at a Crucial Point in My Life
The revolutionary brilliance of expository preaching: "'Exposition' refers to the content of the sermon (biblical truth) rather than its style (a running commentary). To expound Scripture is to bring out of the text what is there and expose it to view. The expositor [pries] open what appears to be closed, makes plain what is obscure, unravels what is knotted, and unfolds what is tightly packed."
Challies Dot Com: John Stott (1921-2011)
I had the privilege of hearing Stott preach at All Souls, Langham Place, on several occasions in 1989 and 1991, including a New Year's sermon on the "already" and the "not yet" of Christ's saving work.
When You Can't Quite Figure Out How to Live Your Best Life... ~ Holy Experience
"Do we give up what makes us really happy --- farming, restoring tractors, writing, study, whatever we are good at it--- a lifetime of happiness--for a few days of happiness at the end? Do we sacrifice what makes us really happy day in and day out, for a few days of happiness with the people at the end? And there's no guarantees with the people." (Via Shannon Lowe on Facebook.)
GetReligion on Hobby Lobby's Green family and their Bible collection.
GetReligion looks at a New York Times business piece on the Green family and the collection they're building of ancient Bibles. This is the Green family that owns Hobby Lobby and Mardel and has given millions to pay off the debts of Oral Roberts University.
Pyromaniacs: Was Spurgeon KJVO?
Charles Spurgeon didn't believe the King James Version to be inerrant. (For that matter, neither did the King James Version's own translators.)
challies.com: The New Shape of World Christianity
Tim Challies reviews Mark Noll's new book, The Shape of World Christianity, listing some of the startling facts in the book: "This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined--and the number of Anglicans in church in Nigeria was several times the umber in those other African countries. This past Sunday more Presbyterians were at church in Ghana than in Scotland, and more were in congregations of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa than in the United States."
RELIGION; A Man of the Cloth - The New York Times
Making cloth kosher is a growing industry:
"Little-known outside the Orthodox Jewish community, the law of shatnez prohibits the wearing of any garment that has a mixture of lamb's wool and linen. These days, the testing of clothes, rugs and even upholstery is on the rise as more people adopt the Torah's prescribed regulations....
"On his desk sits the primary tool of his trade, a microscope, which is used to examine microfibers. Like an excitable child playing with a chemistry set, Rabbi Aronovitch placed a fiber from Mr. Coleman's collar on a slide, then squeezed a droplet of olive oil on the fabric to separate the threads."
(Via Ron Coleman, who is quoted in the story.)
The Americans know this will end in schism | Tom Wright - Times Online
The Anglican Bishop of Durham, N. T. Wright, says that the Episcopal Church in the US has broken with the Anglican Communion. "Ways must be found for all in America who want to be loyal to [the Anglican Communion], and to scripture, tradition and Jesus, to have that loyalty recognised and affirmed at the highest level."
"We all have all kinds of deep-rooted inclinations and desires. The question is, what shall we do with them? One of the great Prayer Book collects asks God that we may 'love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise'. That is always tough, for all of us. Much easier to ask God to command what we already love, and promise what we already desire. But much less like the challenge of the Gospel. "
