Tried With Fire

Like a TED talk with a Bible verse:

It's my turn at Out of the Ordinary today, and I'm finally posting my review of No Little Women : When it comes to women's discipleship, there is no shortage of ideas. Most people have an opinion about what it is, what should be taught, and even whether it is necessary or not. There is also no shortage of material that is marketed for this purpose. Some is good but much is not very good at all. What is the average Christian woman to do? Thankfully,  Aimee Byrd  has tackled this often sensitive topic in her latest book,  No Little Women: Equipping All Women in the Household of God .  If you are looking for tips on how to do women's ministry "right," there is helpful and practical advice to be gleaned, but this book is much more than that. Read the rest of the review here ...

I have an uneasy relationship with movies that are made out of books that I love. Maybe I'm not creative enough to understand a director's art, or I'm just a critical wet blanket. But a book purist I will remain, and my standard will be  - "Is it true to the book?" A few months ago, I watched part of the 3rd Hobbit movie. I was disappointed with some of the adjustments that occurred in the older  Lord of the Rings epics. (Okay, Faramir's character assassination was more than just a tweak.) But regarding the Hobbit , was this even the same book? I probably should have just ignored it and gone back to my knitting, but I continued to watch in grim fascination curious to see how far the film makers would go. There were great special effects and all sorts of angst and violence to satisfy a modern audience, but it was a disservice to Tolkien and his beloved novel in my opinion. But what I find even more interesting are so-called Christian movies and books that...

When Christ died He suffered the penalty of death on the behalf of all His people and, therefore, no believer now dies by way of punishment for sin, since we cannot dream that a righteous God would twice exact the penalty for one offense! Death, since Jesus died, is not a penal infliction upon the children of God! As such He has abolished it and it can never be enforced. Why do the saints die, then? Why, because their bodies must be changed before they can enter heaven. “Flesh and blood,” as they are, “cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” A divine change must take place upon the body before it will be fit for incorruption and glory! And death and the grave are, as it were, the refining pot and the furnace by means of which the body is made ready for its future bliss. Death, it is true you are not yet destroyed, but our living Redeemer has so changed you that you are no longer death, but something other them your name! Saints do not die now, but they are dissolved and depart. Death is t...

The following quotes are from  Heal Us, Emmanuel: A Call for Racial Reconciliation, Representation, and Unity in the Church , which contains contributions from various pastors in the PCA. I started reading this in earnest over the weekend and could not put it down. I don't agree with everything, but there is much that I do. Regardless, this book is thought-provoking and uncovers assumptions and unconscious privilege that the Christian majority culture  (white culture)   may be bringing to the table. There is more that I could write particularly in how those assumptions trickle down in application for women, but it will have to wait. My day job is calling me. You may disagree completely that there is any privilege whatsoever in play. Fair enough. My intent is not to point the finger but to  encourage you to listen to a side you may not have considered before. Above all, my motive is for the peace and healing of the Bride of Christ. I told them I was an elder o...

“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” 1 John 3:14. So, brethren, if we can say that we love God’s people, as God’s people, because they are God’s people, that is a mark that we have passed from death unto life. Do you love them for Christ’s sake ? Do you say to yourself, “That is one of Christ’s people; that is one who bears Christ’s cross; that is one of the children of God; therefore I love him, and take delight in his company”? Then that is an evidence that you are not of the world. If you were, you would love the world, but, belonging to Christ, you love those who are Christ’s, and you love them for Christ’s sake. Another is you love them for the truth’s sake . We are but earthen vessels, yet there is the excellence of the treasure of God put within us; so, when you can say, “I love that man because of the truth he preaches, I do not care about his talents, but I do care about his gospel”—when you can say, “I love that woman, I delig...

Star Wars meets the BBC dad ...

“Rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15. What is the right way, then, to handle the Word of truth? It is like a sword and it was not meant to be played with . That is not rightly to handle the gospel. It must be used in earnest and pushed home. Are you converted, my friends? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Are you saved, or not? Swords are meant to cut and hack, wound and kill—and the Word of God is for pricking men in the heart and killing their sins. The Word of God is not committed to God’s ministers to amuse men with its glitter, nor to charm them with the jewels in its hilt, but to conquer their souls for Jesus! Remember, dear hearers, if the preacher does not push you to this—that you shall be converted, or he will know the reason why. If he does not drive you to this—that you shall either willfully reject, or cheerfully accept Christ—he has not yet known how rightly to handle the great “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Now, then, where are you perso...

I miss the Far Side. Click on the pic for a larger view From With Good Reason , 4th Edition, S. Morris Engel, St. Martin's Press, 1990, pg. 118.

I had never heard of a beer flight or wine flight until I read Aimee Byrd's post . Apparently it is a way to sample different beverages by beginning with one that is easier on the palate and then moving on to something a bit more challenging glass by glass. Aimee's friend then suggested - Why don't we this with books? Give readers a starting point for a topic and then recommendations for further reading if they want to learn more. This sounded like a great idea to me, so I went through my shelves and compiled a book flight for logic and philosophy. Logic and philosophy??? In the past, I prided myself on avoiding philosophy like the plague in college. I had a friend in grad school with a PhD in philosophy who was now seeing the light and pursuing something practical like computer science. I did not have a high view of this subject. It was the stuff of academic ivory towers with no meaningful application whatsoever. But I was wrong. There came a point when my Christian...

"Experience without doctrine is an unstable, often mystical, and wholly inadequate tool by which to define a movement. "To repent of sins," "to trust in Jesus for salvation," "to be born again" - the expressions used by evangelicals to describe conversion imply doctrinal content. But if there is no consensus about what constitutes sin or a sinful nature, about who Jesus was and is, about what Jesus did and does, and about what terms like "born again" mean, then the problem of a lack of doctrinal coherence stubbornly remains. Experience without content - or experience about which there is no agreement on the meaning of the words used to describe it - remains incapable of providing any clear identity for evangelicalism." The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind , Carl Trueman, Moody Publishers, 2011, pp. 18-19. [Updated 10:34 for missing word in quote. Corrected book title, too.  Sorry, Dr. Trueman.]

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Isaiah 55:10-13 (KJV) Oh, for hearers who drink in the Word of the Lord! O rain from heaven, would God that you did always find us like plowed fields ready to drink you in! This is how grace works; it enters the soul...

ht: You're All Just Jealous of my Jetpack - Tom Gauld

I am posting at Out of the Ordinary today: "It is no good telling the bereaved mother that Christ still loves and cares for her if she has only been taught to think of Christ in terms of how he works on her own feelings and in her own experiences. She needs to be able to see that God is much greater than her experience of him; she needs to know that, whatever her current feelings of anguish and despair, God is trustworthy and loving; and she needs to know that assurance is not necessarily about emotional highs but about knowing that God is faithful even though the whole world appears to be falling apart around her..."   Carl Trueman She needs to be able to see that God is much greater than her experience of him... This passage by Carl Trueman hits close to home. I was not a bereaved mother but a heartbroken wife wondering where God was when my husband walked out the door. I would never have owned it at the time, but God was pretty much the God of my experience...