Sunday, April 01, 2018
What Difference Is the Resurrection Making in God's People?
"The problem, after all, is not belief in the resurrection, but whether we live lives that would make no sense if in fact Jesus has not been raised from the dead." Matthew Hauerwas via Alan Hirsch
Thursday, April 28, 2016
CS Lewis Compares Wisdom & Virtue Vs Magic & Technology
"There is something which unites magic and applied science [=technology] while separating both from the “wisdom” of earlier ages.
For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue.
For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men; the solution is a technique."
C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (reprint: New York: HarperOne, 2001), p. 77 via Justin Taylor
Thursday, April 21, 2016
The Importance of Risk in Doing Anything Worthwhile
"He who makes no mistakes never makes anything."
English Proverb
English Proverb
Or as Chesterton once said: ¨Anything worth doing well is worth doing poorly (first).¨
Far too often our society rewards hyper-safety and punishes healthy risk. I'd much rather try to succeed in something worthwhile and make some mistakes than never try anything in order to avoid making mistakes. Seems Biblical (Matthew 25).
Far too often our society rewards hyper-safety and punishes healthy risk. I'd much rather try to succeed in something worthwhile and make some mistakes than never try anything in order to avoid making mistakes. Seems Biblical (Matthew 25).
Saturday, October 25, 2014
The Trap of an Affair
If you are married, this is a must-read article...
http://www.chadbird.com/blog/2017/7/6/the-affair?rq=the%20Affair
From the article:
"What we term “falling in love” is stumbling into a state of emotional bliss with another person. True love, on the other hand, is the willful choice to act selflessly for another person, to commit yourself to that person, regardless of the emotional ups and downs. A man and woman who commit adultery together cannot love each other. It’s impossible. That’s like saying two people who are stabbing each other are giving life to each other. If they loved each other, they wouldn’t be harming each other through adultery, harming their spouses and children, and living a lie. Adultery begins in selfishness, continues in selfishness, and breeds yet more selfishness. It is not, and cannot be, a relationship of love. They may mouth the words, “I love you,” but what they really mean is, “You are meeting my selfish emotional needs and I am meeting yours. We are using each other.”
http://www.chadbird.com/blog/2017/7/6/the-affair?rq=the%20Affair
From the article:
"What we term “falling in love” is stumbling into a state of emotional bliss with another person. True love, on the other hand, is the willful choice to act selflessly for another person, to commit yourself to that person, regardless of the emotional ups and downs. A man and woman who commit adultery together cannot love each other. It’s impossible. That’s like saying two people who are stabbing each other are giving life to each other. If they loved each other, they wouldn’t be harming each other through adultery, harming their spouses and children, and living a lie. Adultery begins in selfishness, continues in selfishness, and breeds yet more selfishness. It is not, and cannot be, a relationship of love. They may mouth the words, “I love you,” but what they really mean is, “You are meeting my selfish emotional needs and I am meeting yours. We are using each other.”
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
You Become What You Love
"You become what you love." St. Augustine via Scott Sauls. Or as Calvin reformed Augustine...we take on the characteristics of whatever we love and worship.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Rules, Repentance, and God
“Legalistic remorse says, ‘I broke God's rules,’ while real repentance says, ‘I broke God's heart'." Keller
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
How do you perceive God?
"Religious people find God useful. Christians find God beautiful." Tim Keller
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
The Beauty Behind All Beauty
"God is so beautiful, and so patient, and so loving, and so generous that he is the heart and soul and rock of every love and every kindness and every gladness in the world. All the beauty in the world and in the hearts of men, all the painting all the poetry all the music, all the architecture comes out of his heart first. He is so loveable that no heart can know how loveable he is - can know only in part. When the best loves God best, he does not love him nearly as he deserves, or as he will love him in time." George MacDonald - Scottish writer who God greatly used in C S Lewis' life via Scotty Smith
Friday, June 07, 2013
Friday, April 06, 2012
What Jesus's Suffering Gets You
"Jesus Christ did not suffer so that you would not suffer. He suffered so that when you suffer, you’ll become more like him. The gospel does not promise you better life circumstances; it promises you a better life." Tim Keller
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Our Conditions for Seeking God vs. Jesus’ Conditions for Discipleship
“I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
…or a snooze in the sunshine…
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.”
— Wilbur Rees
I heard this 18 years ago from a sermon by Joe Novenson and it haunted me for the church then. My sense of concern has only grown since then. But as one of my friends has sad: “Sadly, I think this is the outline for some who are “hunting” for a church today.” While our hearts are pre-programmed to pursue the Kingdom of self, the church has over the last 30 years conditioned people that this should be their list to look for in a church, rather than to seek to cure by going to an all-in, discipleship-minded church.
I would urge you don’t waste your life on the Kingdom of self….don’t waste your opportunity for discipleship as part of the church by going to a Waste-Your-Life church. Find one that will help to propel you whole-heartedly towards Christ and that you can join hands with propelling others to this end that alone satisfies the hungers of our hearts (John 6:35).
Whole-hearted discipleship is the only real option for those who truly belong to Christ:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Jesus (Luke 14:26-33)
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
…or a snooze in the sunshine…
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.”
— Wilbur Rees
I heard this 18 years ago from a sermon by Joe Novenson and it haunted me for the church then. My sense of concern has only grown since then. But as one of my friends has sad: “Sadly, I think this is the outline for some who are “hunting” for a church today.” While our hearts are pre-programmed to pursue the Kingdom of self, the church has over the last 30 years conditioned people that this should be their list to look for in a church, rather than to seek to cure by going to an all-in, discipleship-minded church.
I would urge you don’t waste your life on the Kingdom of self….don’t waste your opportunity for discipleship as part of the church by going to a Waste-Your-Life church. Find one that will help to propel you whole-heartedly towards Christ and that you can join hands with propelling others to this end that alone satisfies the hungers of our hearts (John 6:35).
Whole-hearted discipleship is the only real option for those who truly belong to Christ:
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Jesus (Luke 14:26-33)
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Love & Holiness
"If we stress the love of God without the holiness of God, it turns out only to be compromise. But if we stress the holiness of God without the love of God, we practice something that is hard and lacks beauty. And it is important to show forth beauty before a lost world and a lost generation." Francis Schaeffer (HT: Scotty Smith)
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Texas Tilsens in Cajun Country: Why I'm grateful today
This explains a lot about our church... The Tilsens are moving due to job changes... but I wanted to post this before I forget about the encouragement. We will deeply miss Emily, Lucas, Aiden, and Balin!
Texas Tilsens in Cajun Country: Why I'm grateful today
Texas Tilsens in Cajun Country: Why I'm grateful today
Saturday, July 25, 2009
An Essential Mark of a Sound Conversion
An Essential Mark of a Sound Conversion by Joseph Alleine
"We turn from our own RIGHTEOUSNESS. Before conversion, man seeks to cover himself with his own fig-leaves, and to make himself acceptable with God, by his own duties....
An Essential Mark of a Sound Conversion
"We turn from our own RIGHTEOUSNESS. Before conversion, man seeks to cover himself with his own fig-leaves, and to make himself acceptable with God, by his own duties....
An Essential Mark of a Sound Conversion
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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