Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Man's Desperate Need Of A Teachable Spirit
“Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who
hates correction is stupid” (Prov.12:1 NIV)
“That
irritable pride that hates reproof. As if it were an affront to be told our
faults, argues not only want of grace but want of understanding - brutish
folly. Like the horse which bites and kicks at the man, who performs a painful
operation upon him; though absolutely necessary for removing a dangerous
distemper. He is surely a brute and not a rational creature, who has swallowed
poison and will rather suffer it to take its course than admit the necessary
relief of medicine, lest he should be obliged to confess his folly in exposing
himself to the need of it. O, for a teachable spirit to sit at the feet of our
divine master and learn of him.”
Charles
Bridges commentary on Proverbs
Monday, July 30, 2012
A Matter Of Objective Fact
C.S. Lewis said “Christianity
was first of all, a matter of objective fact, even though Christianity is
sometimes difficult to understand, it is of utmost importance and for this
reason it is worth fighting for”. In the Weight
of Glory he said, “If our religion is something objective, then we must
never avert our eyes from those elements in it which seem puzzling or
repellent; for it will be precisely the puzzling or the repellent which
conceals what we do not yet know and need to know”. (C.S. Lewis Companion &
Guide by Walter Hooper, pg.27)
Friday, July 27, 2012
Ain’t No Man Righteous No Not One - Lyrics by Bob Dylan
Ain’t No Man Righteous No Not One
Song written by Bob Dylan
When a man he serves the Lord, it
makes his life worthwhile
It don’t matter ’bout his position, it don’t matter ’bout his lifestyle
Talk about perfection, I ain’t never seen none
And there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
It don’t matter ’bout his position, it don’t matter ’bout his lifestyle
Talk about perfection, I ain’t never seen none
And there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
Sometimes the devil likes to drive
you from the neighborhood
He’ll even work his ways through those whose intentions are good
Some like to worship on the moon, others are worshipping the sun
And there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
He’ll even work his ways through those whose intentions are good
Some like to worship on the moon, others are worshipping the sun
And there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
Look around, ya see so many social
hypocrites
Like to make rules for others while they do just the opposite
Like to make rules for others while they do just the opposite
You can’t get to glory by the
raising and the lowering of no flag
Put your goodness next to God’s and it comes out like a filthy rag
In a city of darkness there’s no need of the sun
And there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
Put your goodness next to God’s and it comes out like a filthy rag
In a city of darkness there’s no need of the sun
And there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
Done so many evil things in the name
of love, it’s a crying shame
I never did see no fire that could put out a flame
I never did see no fire that could put out a flame
Pull your hat down, baby, pull the
wool down over your eyes
Keep a-talking, baby, ’til you run right out of alibis
Someday you’ll account for all the deeds that you done
Well, there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
Keep a-talking, baby, ’til you run right out of alibis
Someday you’ll account for all the deeds that you done
Well, there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
God got the power, man has got his
vanity
Man gotta choose before God can set him free
Don’t you know there’s nothing new that’s under the sun?
Well, there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
Man gotta choose before God can set him free
Don’t you know there’s nothing new that’s under the sun?
Well, there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
When I’m gone don’t wonder where I
be
Just say that I trusted in God and that Christ was in me
Say He defeated the devil, He was God’s chosen Son
And that there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
Just say that I trusted in God and that Christ was in me
Say He defeated the devil, He was God’s chosen Son
And that there ain’t no man righteous, no not one
Copyright © 1981 Special Rider Music
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Eternally Swallowed Up
Jonathan Edwards, reflecting on
seeing Christ in the next life, while preaching on 2 Corinthians 5:8 at the funeral of David
Brainerd:
The nature of this glory of Christ
that they shall see, will be such as will draw and encourage them, for they
will not only see infinite majesty and greatness; but infinite grace,
condescension and mildness, and gentleness and sweetness, equal to his majesty
. . . so that the sight of Christ's great kingly majesty will be no terror to
them; but will only serve the more to heighten their pleasure and surprise. . .
.
The souls of departed saints with Christ in heaven shall have Christ as it were unbosomed unto them, manifesting those infinite riches of love towards them that have been there from eternity. . . . They shall eat and drink abundantly, and swim in the ocean of love, and be eternally swallowed up in the infinitely bright and infinitely mild and sweet beams of divine love.
The souls of departed saints with Christ in heaven shall have Christ as it were unbosomed unto them, manifesting those infinite riches of love towards them that have been there from eternity. . . . They shall eat and drink abundantly, and swim in the ocean of love, and be eternally swallowed up in the infinitely bright and infinitely mild and sweet beams of divine love.
--Jonathan
Edwards, 'True Saints Are Present with the Lord,' in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 25: Sermons and
Discourses, 1743-1758 (Yale University Press, 2006), 233
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
White Freightliner : VA - Townes Van Zandt Tribute
From 2000. In order of taking lead , Peter Rowan, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Emmylou Harris. Also there Willie Nelson, John Van Zandt, Jack Clement and Guy Clark
What Idolatry Hath Wrought at Penn State
What eluded Paterno, and what is crystal-clear from the Freeh report, is that the quasi-religious reverence with which the football program was held within the culture of the university, and in particular the secular godlike authority granted to Paterno, made this horrifying scandal possible. When the perceived good of the institution (Penn State football) is taken as the absolute end to which everything must direct itself, this is what you get.You can read the whole post here.
If not for the exaltation of Penn State football, Sandusky wouldn’t have had access to his victims. If not for the exaltation of Penn State football, the leadership who discovered his crimes wouldn’t have covered them up and turned a blind eye to them. It was the status of football at Penn State that enabled these crimes and their cover-up. To ignore or to deny that is to willfully fail to deal with reality.
Justin Taylor
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
The Real Jesus
A January 1959 letter from C. S. Lewis to Edward Lofstrom. At one
point Lewis responds to something Lofstrom had asked him about by
saying--
'Gentle Jesus', my elbow! The most striking thing about Our Lord is the union of great ferocity with extreme tenderness. (Remember Pascal? 'I do not admire the extreme of one virtue unless you show me at the same time the extreme of the opposite virtue. One shows one's greatness not by being at an extremity but by being simultaneously at two extremities and filling all the space between')Add to this that He is also a supreme ironist, dialectician, and (occasionally) humourist. So go on! You are on the right track now: getting to the real Man behind all the plaster dolls that have been substituted for Him. This is the appearance in Human form of the God who made the Tiger and the Lamb, the avalanche and the rose. He'll frighten and puzzle you: but the real Christ can be loved and admired as the doll can't.
--Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, 3:1011
Dane Ortlund
Bob Dylan - It's All Right, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Here is a sample of some of the lyrics:
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their marks
Made everything from toy guns that sparks
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.
While preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the President of the United States
Sometimes must have
To stand naked.
An' though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it.
The Byrds - Mr Tambourine Man (Remastered) Dylan Cover
When I first heard this in 1965 I had not heard Bob Dylan and didn't know he wrote this song. It took me a few years but I became a lifelong Dylan fan.
The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn!
A song from My past, I was listening to this in 1965 when I was 15 years old, I didn't know the words were from the Bible.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Eric Clapton Layla 2008 High Quality Live TV Recording
Played by a 63 year old Clapton at the Hard Rock Calling Festival on 28th June 2008 in Hyde Park, London. Clapton is on fire in this pro shot video clip with excellent audio quality.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Myth Became Fact
In his fascinating essay “Is Theology Poetry?” C. S. Lewis spoke of the incarnation as 'the humiliation of myth into fact.' He wrote that
He became a man. The one true man. All that you and I experience Jesus experienced, with the exception of sin. I am increasingly thinking that to question whether Jesus led a normal life as we do is to put the whole point backward. His was the only normal life the world has ever seen. We are the abnormal ones.
When Jesus performed miracles he was not doing violence to the natural order. He was restoring the natural order to the way it was meant to be. People were notsupposed to be blind but to see. People were not made to be lame but to walk. Legs are supposed to work.
Demons did not belong in people. Unlike Adam, who failed to exorcise Satan from the Garden, Jesus did what Adam should have done, exorcising demons from men and women made in God’s image. Adam was supposed to exile Satan from Eden but failed, so he was exiled from the Garden, and Israel later recapitulated that exile corporately. Jesus experienced the curse of exile as the one true and faithful Israelite who didn't deserve to be exiled. The remnant of one. Elijah said 'I, even I only, am left' (1 Kings 19:10), but only Jesus could truly say that in an absolute and ultimate sense.
In this sense Jesus’ miracles were not supernatural. They were truly natural. This fallen world is sub-natural. Jesus is the one truly human being who ever lived. The incarnation does not give us a hypothetical picture of how we would be able to live if only we were divine. It gives us an actual picture of how we are meant to live, and one day will, when we are once again fully human.
Dane Ortlund
what is everywhere and always, imageless and ineffable, only to be glimpsed in dream and symbol and the acted poetry of ritual becomes small, solid—no bigger than a man who can lie asleep in a rowing boat on the Lake of Galilee.The Word, the Logos, the central meaning of the universe, the integrative center to reality, the climax and culmination of all of human history, that which summoned solar systems into instant existence—at just the right time (Gal. 4:4)—became a baby. The night Christ was born in Bethlehem, Chesterton wrote, “the hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle.”
He became a man. The one true man. All that you and I experience Jesus experienced, with the exception of sin. I am increasingly thinking that to question whether Jesus led a normal life as we do is to put the whole point backward. His was the only normal life the world has ever seen. We are the abnormal ones.
When Jesus performed miracles he was not doing violence to the natural order. He was restoring the natural order to the way it was meant to be. People were notsupposed to be blind but to see. People were not made to be lame but to walk. Legs are supposed to work.
Demons did not belong in people. Unlike Adam, who failed to exorcise Satan from the Garden, Jesus did what Adam should have done, exorcising demons from men and women made in God’s image. Adam was supposed to exile Satan from Eden but failed, so he was exiled from the Garden, and Israel later recapitulated that exile corporately. Jesus experienced the curse of exile as the one true and faithful Israelite who didn't deserve to be exiled. The remnant of one. Elijah said 'I, even I only, am left' (1 Kings 19:10), but only Jesus could truly say that in an absolute and ultimate sense.
In this sense Jesus’ miracles were not supernatural. They were truly natural. This fallen world is sub-natural. Jesus is the one truly human being who ever lived. The incarnation does not give us a hypothetical picture of how we would be able to live if only we were divine. It gives us an actual picture of how we are meant to live, and one day will, when we are once again fully human.
Dane Ortlund
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
The Difference Between Calvinism and Arminianism
The difference between these two views, Calvinism & Arminianism is like the difference between a narrow bridge that extends all the way across a valley and a wider one that only goes halfway. Who cares how broad it is if it does not get you to the other side?
This difference is what made Charles Spurgeon argue that Arminianism, much more than Calvinism, limits the atonement of Christ. The Arminian says, “‘Christ has died that any man may be saved if’ — and then follow certain conditions of salvation. Now who is it that limits the death of Christ? Why, you. You say that Christ did not die so as infallibly to secure the salvation of anybody. We beg your pardon, when you say we limit Christ’s death; we say, ‘No, my dear sire, it is you that do it.’ We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ’s death not only may be saved, but are saved, must be saved and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved. You are welcome to your atonement; you may keep it. We will never renounce ours for the sake of it” (Spurgeon’s Sermons, vol. 4, p. 228).
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