Saturday, June 30, 2012
Bob Dylan - Trying to Get to Heaven
Everyday your memory grows dimmer, it doesn't hunt me like it did before. I've been walking through the middle of nowhere, trying to get to heaven before they close the door.
Bob Dylan Disease of Conceit
Profound song about a worldwide condition
"Conceit is a disease
That the doctors got no cure
They’ve done a lot of research on it
But what it is, they’re still not sure "
Friday, June 29, 2012
Why Must We Keep Saying the Gospel is for Christians?
One answer I don't hear articulated often:
Because of the faulty premise widespread in the evangelical consciousness that believing the gospel at conversion sets a permanent, invariably sustained trajectory of gospel-believing for the whole of one's life.
Following conversion, do we believe the gospel, looking to Christ alone for our righteousness and joy, the rest of our lives?
Yes and no. We need to discern a distinction.
At conversion, we trust in Christ, believe the gospel, at two levels: the doctrinal level of mind-assent, and the existential/psychological level of heart-trust (what the old saints called fiducia). The snare is that we naively collapse the sustainability of the latter into that of the former. We think that because we believe the gospel doctrinally the rest of our lives, we believe the gospel psychologically the rest of our lives. But au contraire! One belief-level is static, the other dynamic.
I'm a soteriological Calvinist. At the most fundamental level, I am an irreversible 'believer' the rest of my life, by the grace of God. But at another level I move from believer to unbeliever (from faith-in-Christ-exercising to faith-in-Christ-forsaking) dozens of times, hundreds even, each day. At the doctrinal level we look to Christ with sustained, consistent permanence. But at the existiential level we keep faltering, keep swiveling away from Christ and looking to other saviors--even Christian saviors like theological erudition or Bible memory or service in the church or spiritual reputation.We can forsake heart-level gospel-trust in the very moment of defending it theologically. (Haven't you ever heard an evangelical theologian defend atonement or some related subject with self-justifying defensiveness? What's going on there?)
If we discern this distinction--if we perceive that while on one level we see the gospel in a once-and-for-all way (doctrinally) but that on another level we keep lapsing time and again into gospel blindness (existentially/psychologically)--we find one more reason the gospel is for Christians.
Dane Ortlund
Because of the faulty premise widespread in the evangelical consciousness that believing the gospel at conversion sets a permanent, invariably sustained trajectory of gospel-believing for the whole of one's life.
Following conversion, do we believe the gospel, looking to Christ alone for our righteousness and joy, the rest of our lives?
Yes and no. We need to discern a distinction.
At conversion, we trust in Christ, believe the gospel, at two levels: the doctrinal level of mind-assent, and the existential/psychological level of heart-trust (what the old saints called fiducia). The snare is that we naively collapse the sustainability of the latter into that of the former. We think that because we believe the gospel doctrinally the rest of our lives, we believe the gospel psychologically the rest of our lives. But au contraire! One belief-level is static, the other dynamic.
I'm a soteriological Calvinist. At the most fundamental level, I am an irreversible 'believer' the rest of my life, by the grace of God. But at another level I move from believer to unbeliever (from faith-in-Christ-exercising to faith-in-Christ-forsaking) dozens of times, hundreds even, each day. At the doctrinal level we look to Christ with sustained, consistent permanence. But at the existiential level we keep faltering, keep swiveling away from Christ and looking to other saviors--even Christian saviors like theological erudition or Bible memory or service in the church or spiritual reputation.We can forsake heart-level gospel-trust in the very moment of defending it theologically. (Haven't you ever heard an evangelical theologian defend atonement or some related subject with self-justifying defensiveness? What's going on there?)
If we discern this distinction--if we perceive that while on one level we see the gospel in a once-and-for-all way (doctrinally) but that on another level we keep lapsing time and again into gospel blindness (existentially/psychologically)--we find one more reason the gospel is for Christians.
Dane Ortlund
What Would it Look Like if You Put a Camera on Top of a Golden Eagle and Set it Loose in the Scottish Highlands?
Animal lover Steve Leonard explains the secret behind the spectacular footage of birds of prey in flight used in this short video. Take a flight with a Golden Eagle in Scotland with the help of the ultra lightweight animal camera. Great short video from BBC wildlife show Animal Camera.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
The Purpose Of The Law
“Jesus saves us. He does all the work of salvation. But he uses the
law… and the law is called the hammer of God. What is the purpose of the
law? The purpose of the law – oh, I hope you get this! The purpose of
the law is to reveal to you how deep your hatred of God is… that it is
so deep that the law finally led you to kill God himself. You couldn’t
commit a greater sin than that, for all goodness comes from God. And if
you could succeed… well, how can you do that? That’s why [Jesus] came in
the flesh, so it could be done! But why? It’s hard to believe a
doctrine unless there’s some reason for it. Well, the reason for it is
this: by coming in the flesh, coming to His own people and getting
murdered, and then declaring forgiveness… you know that your
sins – no matter how big, no matter how many, no matter how persistent –
they cannot be greater than the love of God in Christ. The only way you
could establish this was for God to come in the flesh and be murdered,
and then forgive us. Because it had to be the greatest sin
possible. And if you don’t think that’s right, Paul says in Romans: the
law increases sin.
So what is the gospel? The proclamation: your sins have been forgiven. “Well, don’t I have to do something?” NO! You don’t have to do anything. The minute you say ‘I have to do something,’ you are spitting in the face of God. You’re saying, ‘[I’m] gonna do it! God, you’re not in charge. Get off the throne, I wanna get there!’ And that was the original sin in the garden, of Adam and Eve… You know, I tell my granddaughters, ‘If you fall down that’s not so bad, we can always pick you up. But if you fall up, we’re in trouble… how will we ever get you down again?’ And that was the original sin, it was the sin to be like God. I’m always a little afraid of those who sing ‘Be like Jesus, oh my soul.’ I think that a little heresy could come in there very easily.”
Herb Loddigs, Bondage of the Will, sermon notes.
So what is the gospel? The proclamation: your sins have been forgiven. “Well, don’t I have to do something?” NO! You don’t have to do anything. The minute you say ‘I have to do something,’ you are spitting in the face of God. You’re saying, ‘[I’m] gonna do it! God, you’re not in charge. Get off the throne, I wanna get there!’ And that was the original sin in the garden, of Adam and Eve… You know, I tell my granddaughters, ‘If you fall down that’s not so bad, we can always pick you up. But if you fall up, we’re in trouble… how will we ever get you down again?’ And that was the original sin, it was the sin to be like God. I’m always a little afraid of those who sing ‘Be like Jesus, oh my soul.’ I think that a little heresy could come in there very easily.”
Herb Loddigs, Bondage of the Will, sermon notes.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Jeff Beck - Nadia - (Live at Ronnie Scott's)
Jeff Beck - Guitar, Vinnie Colaiuta - Drums,Tal Wilkenfeld - Bass
Jason Rebello - Keys
Salvation is by Grace
Jesus said, "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father and no one the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Matthew 11:27) Jesus reveals himself as the all-sufficient mediator. Martin Luther said of this verse, "Here the bottom falls out of all merit, all powers and abilities of reason or the free will man dreams of, and it counts as nothing before God, Christ must do and must give everything."
Jesus alone both has and knows what the sinner needs. from start to finish salvation is based on grace.
Jesus alone both has and knows what the sinner needs. from start to finish salvation is based on grace.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Freddie Hubbard - Mr. Clean (original 1970 version)
Album: Straight Life (1970). Freddie Hubbard, trumpet / Joe Henderson, sax / George Benson, guitar / Herbie Hancock, keys / Ron Carter, bass / Jack DeJohnette, drums / Richard "Pablo" Landrum, auxiliary percussion.
Freddie Hubbard - I Remember Clifford
With Art Blakey and the All Star Jazz Messengers, 1984. (Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller, Walter Davis Jr, Buster Williams)
The Secret to Imitating Christ: Know You Can't
Oscar Cullmann (1902-1999), German New Testament scholar who helped a
generation read the whole Bible as telling an objective history of what
God has done in our real time and space (as opposed to the
de-historicized existentialism of Bultmann)--
Dane Ortlund
An imitation of Christ is possible only when we are first of all aware of the fact that we are not able to imitate him.
He is sinless; we are not. He offers the sacrifice of atoning death; we cannot. It is precisely the decisive act of obedience which effects our perfection which we cannot imitate. In Hebrews and in Paul the connection between our perfection and the perfection of the High Priest can be understood only as happening in faith in the ephapax [Gk: the 'once-for-all'-ness] of the high priestly act.--Oscar Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament (rev. ed.; 1963), 100-101
Dane Ortlund
Monday, June 25, 2012
Late Night Jokes - Jay Leno
* It was so hot Atttorney General Eric Holder was selling water guns to Mexican drug gangs.
* According to federal reports filed yesterday, the Obama campaign spent more money than they raised in the month of May. They spent more money than they raised? Well, that's called being a Democrat.
* A House committee is now recommending that Attorney General Eric Holder be cited for contempt of Congress. Now, don't confuse that for what you and I have. That's contempt FOR Congress.
What Is the Most Important Thing about Us?
A. W. Tozer:
Justin Taylor
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.-A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (New York: HarperCollins, 1978), 1.
The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.
For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.
We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God.
Justin Taylor
Saturday, June 23, 2012
The Gospel Is Good News, Not Good Advice
The heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good programs, good ideas, and good support systems. These drive us deeper into ourselves, to find our inner light, inner goodness, inner voice, or inner resources.
Nothing new can be found inside of us. There is no inner rescuer deep in my soul; I just hear echoes of my own voice telling me all sorts of crazy things to numb my sense of fear, anxiety, and boredom, the origins of which I cannot truly identify.
But the heart of Christianity is Good News. It comes not as a task for us to fulfill, a mission for us to accomplish, a game plan for us to follow with the help of life coaches, but as a report that someone else has already fulfilled, accomplished, followed, and achieved everything for us.
Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life
Friday, June 22, 2012
True Soul's Rest
Evangelista, the wise, gospel-sane Christian in the great Puritan work The Marrow of Modern Divinity:
Dane Ortlund
'Come unto me,' says Christ, 'all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest' (Matt. 11:28).
Truly, my neighbors and friends, believe it, we shall never find a heart's happiness, and true soul's rest, until we find it here.
For howsoever a man may think, if he had this man's wit, and that man's wealth, this man's honor and that man's pleasure, this wife, or that husband, such children, his heart would be satisfied, and his soul would be contented; yet which of us hath not, by our own experience, found the contrary?
For, not long after that we have obtained the thing we did so much desire, and wherein we promised ourselves so much happiness, rest, and content, we have found nothing but vanity and emptiness in it. Let a man deal plainly with his own heart, and he shall find that, notwithstanding he hath many things, yet there is ever one thing wanting: for indeed man's soul cannot be satgisfied with any creature, no, not with a world of creatures.
And the reason is, because the desires of a man's soul are infinite, according to that infinite goodness which it once lost in losing God.The healing alternative:
But when a man once comes to believe, that all his sins both past, present, and to come, are freely and fully pardoned, and God in Christ graciously reconciled unto him, the Lord doth thereupon so reveal his fatherly face unto him in Christ, and so make known that incredible union betwixt him and the believing soul, that his heart becomes quietly contented in God.--Edward Fisher, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (Christian Focus, 2009), 261
Dane Ortlund
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Rotten Nasty P - R - I - D - E
"It is pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began... Pride always means enmity - it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.
In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.
That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God."
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pg.123-124
I wrote a song several years ago called "Rotten Nasty P-R-I-D-E. The first verse says;
"Well theres something I got to tell you
Its so low down you won't believe its true
Its something God says he really hates,
More than all the evil things you do
Chorus - I'm talkin' about pride, rotten nasty P-R-I-D-E pride
You've been flyin so high, comin down goin be a long long ride
all because of your pride."
In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that - and therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison - you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.
That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God."
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, pg.123-124
I wrote a song several years ago called "Rotten Nasty P-R-I-D-E. The first verse says;
"Well theres something I got to tell you
Its so low down you won't believe its true
Its something God says he really hates,
More than all the evil things you do
Chorus - I'm talkin' about pride, rotten nasty P-R-I-D-E pride
You've been flyin so high, comin down goin be a long long ride
all because of your pride."
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Edwards on Christ's Second Coming
Jonathan Edwards, preaching on Sept. 19, 1746, at the ordination service of Samuel Buell, the dear friend of David Brainerd--
Dane Ortlund
In that resurrection morning, when the Sun of Righteousness shall appear in the heavens, shining in all his brightness and glory, he will come forth as a bridegroom; he shall come in the glory of his Father, with all his holy angels.--Jonathan Edwards, 'The Church's Marriage to Her Sons, and to Her God,' in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 25: Sermons and Discourses, 1743-1758 (Yale University Press, 2006), 183-84
And at that glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ, shall the whole elect church, complete as to every individual member and each member with the whole man, both body and soul, and both in perfect glory, ascend up to meet the Lord in the air, to be thenceforth forever with the Lord. That will be a joyful meeting of this glorious bridegroom and bride indeed. Then the bridegroom will appear in all his glory without any veil: and then the saints shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, and at the right hand of their Redeemer. . . .
Then will come the time, when Christ will sweetly invite his spouse to enter in with him into the palace of his glory, which he had been preparing for her from the foundation of the world, and shall as it were take her by the hand, and lead her in with him: and this glorious bridegroom and bride shall with all their shining ornaments, ascend up together into the heaven of heaven; the whole multitude of glorious angels waiting upon them: and this Son and daughter of God shall, in their united glory and joy, present themselves together before the Father; when Christ shall say, 'Here am I, and the children which thou hast given me': and they both shall in that relation and union, together receive the Father's blessing; and shall thenceforward rejoice together, in consummate, uninterrupted, immutable, and everlasting glory, in the love and embraces of each other, and joint enjoyment of the love of the Father.
Dane Ortlund
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The Complete Anti-God State Of Mind
"The vice I am talking about is pride or self-conceit; and the virtue opposite to it is called humility. Now we have come to the center, the essential vice, the up-most evil, is pride. Unchasity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that are mere fleabites in comparison; it was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice; it is the complete anti-God state of mind."
(C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity pg. 121-122)
(C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity pg. 121-122)
Milt Jackson - For someone I love (what's your story)
From the 1972 album Sunflower. Great musicians, beautiful music one of my all time favorites.
Milt Jackson - People Make The World Go Round
Personnel includes:
Milt Jackson (vibraphone);Freddie Hubbard (trumpet, flugelhorn);
Phil Bodner (piccolo, flute, alto flute, English horn);
George Marge (alto flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, English horn);
Romeo Penque (alto flute, oboe, English horn);
Max Ellen, Paul Gershman, Emanuel Green (violin);
Charles McCracken, George Ricci (cello);Margaret Ross (harp);
Herbie Hancock (piano);Jay Berliner (guitar);
Ron Carter (bass);Billy Cobham (drums);
Ralph McDonald (percussion).
Monday, June 18, 2012
Discipleship Depends on God
The central reality for Christians is the personal, unalterable,
persevering commitment that God makes to us. Perseverance is not the
result of our determination, it is the result of God’s faithfulness. We
survive in the way of faith not because we have extraordinary stamina
but because God is righteous. Christian discipleship is a process of
paying more and more attention to God’s righteousness and less and less
attention to our own; finding the meaning of our lives not by probing
our moods and motives and morals but by believing in God’s will and
purposes; making a map of the faithfulness of God, not charting the rise
and fall of our enthusiasm.
- Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 128-129
Tullian Tchividjian
- Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 128-129
Tullian Tchividjian
Sunday, June 17, 2012
George Benson "California Dreaming" - One Of The Greatest Covers Ever Made
This is a song you need to turn up loud as your crusin down the road
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Cheap Law
In Matthew 5, Jesus shows unambiguously that the greatest obstacle to
getting the gospel is not “cheap grace” but “cheap law”–the idea that
God accepts anything less than the perfect righteousness of Jesus. (By the way, the proper response to the charge of “cheap grace” is not to make grace expensive by adding a thousand qualifications and footnotes, but rather to declare that grace is free!)
Cheap law weakens God’s demand for perfection, and in doing so, breaths life into the old creature and his quest for a righteousness of his own making.
Cheap law will never quiet the self-righteous being because it invites him to keep haggling over what he can do apart from Jesus. And that is why law must be costly. It must always get to the heart of the matter. It’s not only murder that deserves death, but hate. It’s not only adultery that condemns, but lust. Not only theft, but coveting. It’s not only what is done with your hands that is judged, but what is done in your heart. And so – it should be clear – this is not “let’s make a deal.” The deals have been cut. The law of Moses is more than you can afford. The Son that God did not spare is priceless. The grace Jesus gives is free. That’s all there is. But cheap law keeps us searching for something to leverage against our poverty.
Cheap law weakens God’s demand for perfection, and in doing so, breaths life into the old creature and his quest for a righteousness of his own making.
Cheap law will never quiet the self-righteous being because it invites him to keep haggling over what he can do apart from Jesus. And that is why law must be costly. It must always get to the heart of the matter. It’s not only murder that deserves death, but hate. It’s not only adultery that condemns, but lust. Not only theft, but coveting. It’s not only what is done with your hands that is judged, but what is done in your heart. And so – it should be clear – this is not “let’s make a deal.” The deals have been cut. The law of Moses is more than you can afford. The Son that God did not spare is priceless. The grace Jesus gives is free. That’s all there is. But cheap law keeps us searching for something to leverage against our poverty.
Friday, June 15, 2012
The Battle and the Prophecies From The Hobbit
My favorite two passages in one of my favorite books, The Hobbit.
The first is as Bilbo Baggins goes down the tunnel in the Lonely Mountain, approaching the dragon Smaug.
Dane Ortlund
The first is as Bilbo Baggins goes down the tunnel in the Lonely Mountain, approaching the dragon Smaug.
It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterwards were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait. (p. 193)The second is at the end of the story, when Balin and Gandalf come and visit Bilbo. Bilbo remarks that the prophecies appear to be coming true.
“Of course!” said Gandalf. “And why should they not prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!” (last page of book)I am reminded that there is a real battle, a real journey, a real Smaug, a real demise of Smaug, a real Home, a real prophecy, a real fulfillment of prophecy, a real role in that fulfillment. Real providence; real hope.
Dane Ortlund
Maggies Farm - Bob Dylan - Newport Folk Festival 1965
Mike Bloomfield guitar, Sam Lay drums, everybody booed at the end
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Disruptive Grace
Grace that is not disruptive is not grace…
Grace, strictly speaking, does not mean continuity but radical discontinuity, not reform but revolution, not violence but nonviolence, not the perfecting of virtues but the forgiveness of sins, not improvement but resurrection from the dead…The grace of God really comes to lost sinners, but in coming it disrupts them to the core. It slays to make alive and sets the captive free.
From Disruptive Grace: Essays in the Theology of Karl Barth
Grace, strictly speaking, does not mean continuity but radical discontinuity, not reform but revolution, not violence but nonviolence, not the perfecting of virtues but the forgiveness of sins, not improvement but resurrection from the dead…The grace of God really comes to lost sinners, but in coming it disrupts them to the core. It slays to make alive and sets the captive free.
From Disruptive Grace: Essays in the Theology of Karl Barth
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Joanne Shaw Taylor - Dead and Gone
Artist: Joanne Shaw Taylor
Track: Dead and Gone
Album: Diamonds in the Dirt
The Band & Bob Dylan - I Ain't Got No Home (Carnegie Hall 1968)
The legendary match-up includes Bob Dylan and his backing group, later to make a name for themselves as The Band, performing Woody Guthrie's "I Ain't Got No Home" live on January 20, 1968 at the Woody Guthrie Memorial Concert, Carnegie Hall, New York City. The concert was Dylan's first public appearance since his motorcycle accident on August 20, 1966. Pictured with Dylan are drummer Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Robbie Robertson.
Bliss Is Not For Sale: Catastrophic Conversion and the Roots of Protestantism
This one comes to us from W.H. Auden,
who included it as the entry on Puritanism in “A Certain World: a
commonplace book,” his collection of alphabetized wisdom. As beautiful a
distillation of the Protestant ‘break-through’ as it may be, the words
are actually not Wystan’s. It’s actually an excerpt from The Oxford History of English Literature, written by none other than Clive Staples Lewis.
Mockingbird“Theologically, Protestantism was either a recovery, or a development, or an exaggeration (it is not for the literary historian to say which) of Pauline theology… In the mind of a Tyndale or Luther, as in the mind of St. Paul himself, this theology was by no means an intellectual construction made in the interests of speculative thought. It springs directly out of a highly specialized religious experience; and all its affirmations, when separated from that context, become meaningless or else mean the opposite of what was intended… The experience is that of catastrophic conversion. The man who has passed through it feels like one who has waked from nightmare into ecstasy. Like an accepted lover, he feels that he has done nothing, and never could have done anything, to deserve such astonishing happiness. Never again can he ‘crow from the dunghill of desert.’ All the initiative has been on God’s side; all has been free, unbounded grace… His own puny and ridiculous efforts would be as helpless to retain the joy as they would have been to achieve it in the first place. Fortunately they need not. Bliss is not for sale, cannot be earned. ‘Works’ have no ‘merit’, though, of course faith, inevitably, even unconsciously, flows out into works of love at once. He is not saved because he does works of love: he does works of love because he is saved. It is faith alone that has saved him: faith bestowed by sheer gift. From this buoyant humility, this farewell to the self with all its good resolutions, anxiety, scruples and motive-scratchings, all the Protestant doctrines originally sprang…
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The World Is Too Much Condemned: Martin Luther on the Purpose of Ministry
“There are laws
enough in the world, more than people can keep. The state, fathers and
mothers, schoolmasters, and law enforcement persons all exist to rule
according to laws. But the Lord Christ says, ‘I have not come to judge,
to bite, to grumble, and to condemn people. The world is too much
condemned. Therefore I will not rule people with laws. I have come that
through my ministry and my death I may give help to all who are lost and
may release and set free those who are overburdened with laws, with
judgments, and with condemnation.‘”
Taken from the great Reformer’s sermon on John 3, WA 47:27:
Taken from the great Reformer’s sermon on John 3, WA 47:27:
Monday, June 11, 2012
God Is Love Requires More Than One Person in the Godhead
C. S. Lewis:
All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that ‘God is love.’ But they seem not to notice that the words ‘God is love’ have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love. (Mere Christianity [revised and enlarged edition, HarperSanFrancisco, 2001], ch. 2; pp. 160-161.Richard of St. Victor, a 12th century Scottish theologian ministering in France, put it like this:
One never says that someone properly possesses love if he only loves himself; for it to be true love, it must go out towards another. Consequently, where a plurality of persons is lacking, it is impossible for there to be love. (De Trinitate, III.2)Justin Taylor
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Muddy Waters "Born with Nothing"
Muddy Waters "Born with Nothing" from "The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album".
Friday, June 8, 2012
Luther on Adoption
In John 1:12,
the apostle writes that 'to all who received him, who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God.' On August 25, 1537,
Martin Luther entered a pulpit in Denmark to fill in for a friend and
preached on this text. He said:
Dane Ortlund
No man, no matter who he may be, can ponder the magnificence sufficiently or express it adequately in words. We poor mortals, who are condemned and miserable sinners through our first birth from Adam, are singled out for such great honor and nobility that the eternal and almighty God is our Father and we are His children. Christ is our Brother, and we are His fellow heirs (Rom 8:17). . . .--Luther's Works, 22:87-89
This is a grand and overpowering thought! Whoever really reflects on it--the children of the world will not, but Christians will, although not all of them either--will be so startled and frightened by the thought that he will be prompted to ask: 'My dear, can this really be possible and true?' . . .
The world rates it a much higher honor and privilege to be the son and heir of a prince, a king, or a count than to be the possessor of God's spiritual goods, although by comparison all these are nothing but poor bags of worms and their glory sheer stench. Just compare all this with the ineffable dignity and nobility of which the evangelist speaks. . . . If we really believed with all our heart, firmly and unflinchingly, that the eternal God, Creator and Ruler of the world, is our Father, with whom we have an everlasting abode as children and heirs, not of this transitory wicked world but of all God's imperishable, heavenly, and inexpressible treasures, then we would, indeed, concern ourselves but little with all that the world prizes so highly; much less would we covet it and strive after it.
Indeed, we would regard the world's riches, treasures, glories, splendor, and might--compared with the dignity and honor due us as the children and heirs, not of a mortal emperor but of the eternal and almighty God--as trifling, paltry, vile, leprous, yes, as stinking filth and poison.
Dane Ortlund
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Joy to a Broken Heart, or, Did the Law Ever Love Martin Luther?
“Did the Law
ever love me? Did the Law ever sacrifice itself for me? Did the Law
ever die for me? On the contrary, it accuses me, it frightens me, it
drives me crazy. Somebody else saved me from the Law, from sin and death
unto eternal life. That Somebody is the Son of God (Who loved me and
gave Himself for me). Hence, Christ is no Moses, no tyrant, no lawgiver,
but the Giver of grace,
the Savior, full of mercy….. Visualize Christ in these His true colors.
I do not say that it is easy. Even in the present diffusion of the Gospel light, I have much trouble to see Christ as Paul portrays Him. So
deeply has the diseased opinion that Christ is a lawgiver sunk into my
bones. You younger men are a good deal better off than we who are old.
You have never become infected with the nefarious errors on which I
suckled all my youth, until at the mention of the name of Christ I
shivered with fear. You, I say, who are young may learn to know Christ
in all His sweetness. For Christ is Joy and Sweetness to a broken heart.
Christ is a Lover of poor sinners and such a Lover that He gave Himself
for us. Now if this is true, and it is true, then are we never
justified by our own righteousness.”
From the great Reformer Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians, pg 155-56
Mockingbird
From the great Reformer Martin Luther's commentary on Galatians, pg 155-56
Mockingbird
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien Debate Myths and Lies
A clip from EWTN's "Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings:' A Catholic Worldview" portraying a debate between C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien on whether or not myths are lies. This debate was ultimately instrumental in C.S. Lewis's conversion to Christianity.
Madeleine Peyroux - Smile (A Nat King Cole Cover) 2006
Madeleine Peyroux is an American jazz singer, songwriter, and guitarist noted for her vocal style, which has been compared to that of Billie Holiday. Peyroux has cited Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Patsy Cline, Édith Piaf, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Mercer, Charlie Chaplin, Serge Gainsbourg and Bob Dylan as influences on her music.
Pinetop Perkins & Madeleine Peyroux - He's Got Me Goin'
From the album "Ladies Man" released in 2004.
Pinetop Perkins (piano), Madeleine Peyroux (guitar, vocals), Jimmy Vivino (guitar), Brad Vickers (bass), Mark Carpentieri (drums)
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
The Gospel Is Power
What is the gospel?Well, you remember the answer of the Apostle Paul, 'It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth' (Rom 1:16).How easy it is to forget that. How easy to preach it as a system, to preach it as a collection of ideas, or just to preach it as a truth. Ah, but you can do that without power. There are people, says the Apostle Paul, who 'have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof' (2 Tim 3:5).
Christianity is primarily a life. It is a power. It is a manifestation of energy.
--Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival (Crossway, 1987), 123
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Treatment for a self-centered heart: Look at Him
"We are all starved for the glory of God, not self. No one goes to the
Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem. Why do we go? Because there is
greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in
beholding self. Indeed, what could be more ludicrous in a vast and
glorious universe like this than a human being, on the speck called
earth, standing in front of a mirror trying to find significance in his
own self image? It is a great sadness that this is the gospel of the
modern world.
But it is not the Christian Gospel. Into the darkness of petty self-preoccupation has shone the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God' (2 Corinthians 4:4). The Christian Gospel is about 'the glory of Christ', not about me. And when it is -- in some measure -- about me, it is not about my being made much of by God, but about God mercifully enabling me to enjoy making much of him forever."
-Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper
all of grace
But it is not the Christian Gospel. Into the darkness of petty self-preoccupation has shone the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God' (2 Corinthians 4:4). The Christian Gospel is about 'the glory of Christ', not about me. And when it is -- in some measure -- about me, it is not about my being made much of by God, but about God mercifully enabling me to enjoy making much of him forever."
-Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper
all of grace
Friday, June 1, 2012
MUDDY WATERS / Strange woman [1971] / Live (At Mr. Kelly's)
James Cotton (Harmonica), Paul Oscher (Harmonica), Calvin "Fuzz" Jones (Bass), Sammy Lawhorn (Guitar), Muddy Waters (Guitar), Muddy Waters (Composer), Muddy Waters (Vocals), Pinetop Perkins (Piano)
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