December 2009
11 posts
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Why Require Unregenerate Children to Act Like... →
Piper gives three affirmative reasons (with additional explanation and qualifications):
1) For children, external, unspiritual conformity to God’s commanded patterns of behavior is better than external, unspiritual non-conformity to those patterns of behavior.
2) Requiring obedience from children in conformity with God’s will confronts them with the meaning of sin in relation to God, the...
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Some People Are Just Too Easily Amazed →
A response to J.I. Packer’s interview in WORLD Magazine that included this comment:
I’m amazed at the amount of time people spend on the internet. I’m not against technology, but all tools should be used to their best advantage. We should be spending our time on things that have staying power, instead of on the latest thought of the latest blogger—and then moving on quickly...
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fan•tod
noun — [fan-tod]
definition: usually, fantods. a state or attack of uneasiness or unreasonableness, extreme nervousness or restlessness.
synonyms: the willies; the fidgets
example usage:
In my previous post on this, I got a little into the theological weirdness that is pervasive in this Twilight business. This time, I would like to explain why this whole phenomenon gives me the...
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“Lust is not a sin that afflicts one half of the human race, leaving the feminine...”
– Doug Wilson, Twilight #6
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Watch
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Criticism, Cheerleading, and Negativity →
Money quote:
The reason a person is critical of a thing is because he is passionate about that thing. In order to have a critical opinion, you have to love something enough to understand it, and then love it so much more that you want it to be better. Passion breeds critical thinking. It’s why criticism as an academic practice comes out of deep research and obsession, and why criticism as a...
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“Study yourself to death, and then pray yourself alive again.”
– Adam Clarke, quoted by Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, 316
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November 2009
21 posts
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“To complain that I could only be married once was like complaining that I had...”
– G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, 103
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Branded →
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“Whenever people begin to ask, “Does it fit our rules,” rather than, “Does it...”
– Matt Perman, How Do You Know When You Have a Bureaucracy?
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“So Thanksgiving is not what we fight for. Thanksgiving is what we fight with....”
– Doug Wilson, Deep Peril, Deep Thanksgiving
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“[B]efore we think about getting a job, we need to train the next generation how...”
– Doug Wilson, College as a Counter-Revolution
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“A man who is to do much with men must love them and feel at home with them. An...”
– Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, 169.
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“[T]rue fruitfulness requires constant, year round attention. It requires taking...”
– Rachel Jankovic, Heavy Branches
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“[W]e each have a container of a different size, and we can only take in so much...”
– Nancy Wilson, Large Hearts
Originally sent to me by hobbsandbean on 2008-10-08. Though aimed at wives and mommas, the application spills over for anyone, including me, trying to live in community.
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All Suffering in One Pot? →
One last question: I have lumped all affliction in one pot and used it everywhere I saw suffering in the New Testament. Is this right? When Paul talked about suffering did he mean cancer or being treated badly? I have them in one pot because I think the Bible has them in one pot. Here are three reasons why I lump all affliction in one pot:
Paul seems to do this. In 2 Corinthians 12:10,...
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Agassiz and the Fish
from Justin Taylor
It was more than fifteen years ago that I entered the laboratory of Professor Agassiz, and told him I had enrolled my name in the scientific school as a student of natural history. He asked me a few questions about my object in coming, my antecedents generally, the mode in which I afterwards proposed to use the knowledge I might acquire, and finally, whether I wished to study...
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New Technology: The Book →
Introducing the new Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge device, trade named: BOOK.
BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It’s so easy to use, even a child can operate it.
BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits...
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Decorating Camels →
This is a good summary of the church’s options for approaching culture from Doug Wilson, Decorating Camels.
Your options are: decorate camels pointlessly, abandon camels, or turn the camels into stallions.
There are other good things in his post too, and he reduces the options toward the reasonableness of postmillennialism. But, while I’m thinking hard about what my...
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“While I was thus afflicted with the fears of my own damnation, there were two...”
– John Bunyan, Grace Abounding, #85
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How Firm a Foundation
Written by “Keen,” 1787.
Based on the text: Isaiah 43:1-7
Online by Fernando Ortega
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said
Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?
In every condition, — in sickness, in health,
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth,...
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It Is Well with My Soul
Written by Horatio G. Spafford, 1873.
Includes Psalm 146:1
See Wikipedia for the background.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials...
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October 2009
38 posts
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Blogging and the Task of Teaching →
Now a teacher ought to believe that he has something worthwhile to say. He might be mistaken about this, which would mean he is also mistaken about his calling to teach in the first place, but so long as he believes he is called to teach, the belief that he has something worth saying follows from the first belief. And if it is true, and ought to be advanced, a teacher’s job is to advance...
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“[S]ons, who are more generously and candidly treated by their fathers, do not...”
– John Calvin, Institutes, 3.19.5
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ἐγ•κα•κέ•ω
verb — [eng-ka-keh-oh]
definition: to lose one’s motivation in continuing a desirable pattern of conduct or activity, lose enthusiasm; lose heart; be discouraged (of pursuing some goal); tire of, grow weary; give up. Stated positively, it means keep on; continue.
example usage:
Διὰ τοῦτο, ἔχοντες τὴν διακονίαν ταύτην καθὼς ἠλεήθημεν, οὐκ ἐγκακοῦμεν… (2 Corinthians 4:1)
Most...
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“Temptations, when we meet them at first, are as the lion that roared upon...”
– John Bunyan, Grace Abounding, preface
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flac•cid
adjective — [flak-sid]
definition: (of part of the body) soft and hanging loosely or limply, especially so as to look or feel unpleasant; not firm. figurative: lacking force or effectiveness
history: Latin flaccidus, from flaccus meaning “flabby.”
synonyms: soft, loose, limp, flabby, drooping; or, lackluster, lifeless, uninspiring, vapid.
example usage:
Flaccid church...
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“[C]onversion to God is not so easy and so smooth a thing as some would have men...”
– John Bunyan, The Acceptable Sacrifice, VII, answer to the third objection
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“Today hardly one in a hundred considers how difficult and arduous it is...”
– John Calvin, quoted in William J. Bouwsma’s John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Biography, 220
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“[L]egalism is not whether you strive to obey the commands of God, but which...”
– John Piper, The Anatomy of Legalism and the Discipline of Prayer
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“[E]very husband is constantly speaking about Jesus, whether he wants to be or...”
– Doug Wilson, Porn as Liturgical Corruption
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“My congregation needs me to be humble before they need me to be smart. They...”
– Kevin DeYoung, Reaching the Next Generation: Hold Them With Holiness
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“If we listen to people patiently and give people the gift of our curiosity we...”
– Kevin DeYoung, Reaching the Next Generation: Win Them With Love
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“A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but...”
– John Owen
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“Reaching the next generation—whether they are outside the church or sitting...”
– Kevin DeYoung, Reaching the Next Generation is Harder and Easier Than You Think: Grab Them With Passion
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“[L]iving in community is what takes the rough edges off, but before it takes the...”
– Doug Wilson, Living with Actual People
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How We Say It
In The Preacher on Preaching, Danny Akin made the point,
What we say is more important than how we say it, but how we say has never been more important.
He used Ecclesiastes 12:9-12 (especially verse 10) to emphasize that dull words are not delightful.
Other thoughts I had while listening to this message:
The preacher’s passion is different than the preacher’s polish.
If...