September 2011
24 posts
“Opinions are like bums. We’ve all got one, but it’s not always wise...”
– Mick McCarthy, Premiership football manager
atheism isn't real life
In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship … is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things - if they are where...
“The work of the cross is a completed one; but the work of intercession is...”
– Richard Cunningham #Forum2011
“Sanctification is not about isolation from the world but about transformation of...”
– Richard Cunningham #Forum2011
“Jesus wants to use friends who can trust him, not self-sufficient know-it-alls...”
– Mark Meynell #Forum2011
“God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.”
– Mark Meynell #Forum2011
The Cross: What was it?
“… the legendary ‘Rabbi’ Duncan concentrated it all into a single unforgettable sentence, in a famous outburst to one of his classes: ‘D’ye know what Calvary was? what? what? what?’ Then, with tears on his face — ‘It was damnation; and he took it lovingly.’”
J. I. Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood (Wheaton, 2007), page 95
“If thy neighbour offends thee, give each of his children bagpipes.”
– Old Scottish Proverb via Jason Clarke #Forum2011
God meant it for good
“Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road, switchback after switchback. And the point of Biblical stories like Joseph, Job, Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and...
“You will be hated by the world if you know that you are loved by the Lord.”
– Jason Clarke #Forum2011
“Show me a professing Christian of whom all men speak well, and I will show you a...”
– Gresham Machen via Jason Clarke #Forum2011
“If painful rejection so characterised Jesus’ ministry, why do you think it...”
– Jason Clarke #Forum2011
1 tag
I need to be forgiven
In recent years, great strides in biblical theology and contemporary canonical exegesis have brought new precision to our grasp of the Bible’s overall story of how God’s plan to bless Israel, and through Israel the world, came to its climax in and through Christ. But I do not see how it can be denied that each New Testament book, whatever other job it may be doing, has in view, one way or...
“Our inadequacy is our first qualification to being a witness to Jesus Christ. ...”
– Becky Manley-Pippert #Forum2011
“This is the lesson of the birth of Christ for evangelism: God is delighted to...”
– Becky Manley-Pippert #Forum2011
The Generous Vine
Mike Reeves #Forum2011:
This is an incredible thing about Jesus: he is a vine (and we are his branches) - and he is all about bearing fruit. He exists not to take but to give. Generous fruitfulness: that is what he is like. That elicits praise.
“True holiness isn’t pretending you don’t have any problems. True...”
– Becky Manley-Pippert #Forum2011
Flying horses
CS Lewis via Becky Manley-Pippert #Forum2011:
Christianity isn’t like training a horse, to make it run a little faster. That is moralism and legalism. Moralism and legalism can make you nice, but they can’t make you new. Christianity is like an operation on the horse, to make it fly.
2 tags
True Grit
“I am more and more persuaded that when we characterise the Bible as a book about spirituality, we do it and ourselves a disservice. The Bible is not a higher-plane tome about some mystical life of spiritual devotion. It does not teach blissful separation from the brokenness of everyday day life. No, the Bible is a book about this world. It is a gritty, honest book. When we read Scripture,...
“The paradox of the cross is that God confronts us with our sin in order to show...”
– Becky Manley-Pippert #Forum2011
2 tags
“On the cross all of the attributes of God win”
–
Tim Keller
“The greatest lie is the doubt that God is good and kind.”
– Tim Rudge, #Forum2011
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the...”
–
US Postal Service Creed
2 tags
Which are but dung!
It is plain which persons prefer to cheapen the forgiveness of sins, and which ones to prostitute the dignity of righteousness. They make believe that God is appeased by their wretched satisfactions, which are but dung (Phil 3:8). We affirm that the guilt of sin is too heavy to be atoned for by such light trifles, that it is too grave an offense against God to be remitted by these worthless...
