Tried With Fire

It's been a while since I've gotten back to blogging regularly. Part of it is I'm still in mourning for my dad. I think grief is going to be a steady stream that flows below the surface. It may rise or ebb, but it's always there. Another part is having too many thoughts in my head to organize in a coherent manner and reading too many books simultaneously. So in lieu of a pensieve, this post will be the repository for the random thoughts that have been swirling in my brain based on my recent reading. I wonder if my lack of concentration is due to my use of social media. I'm halfway through Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf. (Ironically I learned of the book via @scifri on Twitter.) Wolf is a neuroscientist and reading specialist. She is concerned that too much screen reading is impairing our ability to read deeply which impairs our ability to think and feel deeply. She is coming from an evolutionary perspective, so she believes that our reading brains evolved o...

On Sunday, John Freeman from HarvestUSA spoke at the evening service. It was a very encouraging message on the call to holiness in every area of our lives and how the gospel makes this possible. HarvestUSA's ministry specifically addresses issues of sexual brokenness, so this brother has seen what the grace of God can do. When my daughter and I were discussing the service afterward, I mentioned that his talk reminded me of Thomas Chalmer's sermon, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection ,  in which love for God displaces the love for idols. But she surprised me by saying that we need to be careful because this could be misunderstood. I asked her to explain and she replied - Our love for God does not change us. It is the God whom we love who changes us. (Mic drop.) Make no mistake, Chalmers doesn't get this wrong at all, but I can see why she expressed this caution. As a child of Adam, I am hardwired by the covenant of works to "do this and live." But because ...

This statement by R.C. Sproul (1939-2017) changed my spiritual life because the role of imputation in the gospel finally clicked: "In the final analysis, the only way that any person is ever justified before God is by works. We are saved by works, and we are saved by works alone. Don't touch that dial..." "[W]hen I say that we are justified by works and by works alone, what do I mean by it? I mean that the grounds of my justification and the grounds of your justification are the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We're saved by works, but they are not our own. That's why we say we're saved by faith, and we're saved by grace, because the works that save us aren't our works, they're Somebody else's works." From "What is Reformed Theology?." You can watch the lecture here . Don't let the title put you off. Covenant theology is a wonderful doctrine.