December 2011
20 posts
3 tags
“Phrases like “radical welcome” and “Christian...”
– Table manners: Unexpected grace at communion | The Christian Century
Dec 30th
4 notes
Dec 28th
17 notes
2 tags
“To serve God with fear is good; to serve Him out of love is better; but to fear...”
– From the sermon The Nearness of the Kingdom by Meister Eckhart. 
Dec 28th
3 notes
“God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in...”
– go read the whole excerpt from one of Bonhoeffer’s prison letters over at Nijay Gupta’s blog (via wesleyhill)
Dec 28th
15 notes
2 tags
Merry Christmas
“who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:6-8
Dec 25th
1 note
1 tag
Dec 23rd
3 tags
Dec 21st
4 tags
Dec 20th
4 tags
Isaiah's Messianic Prophecy
In my dad’s Sunday School class yesterday, we read Isaiah 9: 1-7. I couldn’t help but think about the last two verses: For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government...
Dec 20th
7 notes
Dec 15th
87 notes
5 tags
East of Eden
We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is. John Steinbeck, East of Eden The preceding quote appears about halfway through...
Dec 13th
4 tags
Dec 7th
4 notes
3 tags
Surprised by Oxford →
your purpose here in life is to discern the real thing from the bullshit, and then to choose the non-bullshit.
Dec 6th
6 notes
3 tags
Dec 6th
22 notes
4 tags
Square Discussion: The Hole in our Gospel →
Tomorrow night, I will join the discussion at Oak Hills Baptist Church on the book by Richard Stearns: The Hole in our Gospel. Stearns is the President of World Vision and says that if aren’t being the hands and feet of Christ in the world, then we have a hole in our Gospel.
Dec 5th
7 tags
Dec 5th
5 notes
4 tags
Advent Reading: Isaiah 40:1-11
Tomorrow morning, my daughter and I will share the advent reading of Isaiah 40:1-11 at First Baptist. Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in...
Dec 4th
6 tags
The Meaning of Christ and the Meaning of Hegel →
waterwasntbuilt: Mitchell M. Harris reviews Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank’s The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic? Is the Žižek/Milbank debate, a debate between a “Hegelian, Lacanian, Marxist materialist philosopher” and an orthodox, Western Catholic theologian, the only debate truly capable of moving beyond the deadlock that prevents the discursive intercourse of...
Dec 3rd
9 notes
3 tags
Dec 2nd
5 tags
Long Live the King →
The ink has been flowing all year to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first ink used to produce the King James Bible (see my Storify). There has also been a fair amount of scholarship, much of which is finely presented by University of Notre Dame Historian Mark Noll in Books & Culture. Noll, however, took issue with Wheaton College English Professor Leeland Ryken’s strong...
Dec 2nd
2 notes