If
the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that
it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe . . .
we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
--C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book 2, chapter 1
If you believe that life has no meaning you would have never found out
it has no meaning. So the very fact that you think life has no meaning
reveals that you have rejected the meaning life offers. So you know
there is meaning.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Monday, April 28, 2014
OSCAR PETERSON Medley: Love Ballade / If You Only Knew - Live At The Blue Note
One of my all time favorite songs I have listened to this a thousand times
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Friday, April 25, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
C. S. Lewis, 'On Forgiveness'
C. S. Lewis, 'On Forgiveness'--
"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single person great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life--to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son--how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say our prayers each night 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves."
Keep on forgiving do not allow resentment to build inside you, do not dwell on the wrongs others have done to you, do not rehash hurts, wounds, unkind words or past offences. Never forget God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single person great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life--to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son--how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say our prayers each night 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves."
Keep on forgiving do not allow resentment to build inside you, do not dwell on the wrongs others have done to you, do not rehash hurts, wounds, unkind words or past offences. Never forget God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Earth Day Stupidity - They Got It Wrong 44 Years Ago and They are Still Wrong
Over the last 44 years Earth Day has often been hijacked by political opportunists and faux scientists, but it is great fun to look back and see just how wrong the original Earth Day (March 21, 1970) environmental experts were about the science and the future:
- “Air pollution… is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.” Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University biologist
- “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years. If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.” Kenneth Watt, Ecologist
- “Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” Sen. Gaylord Nelson
- “We have about five more years at the outside to do something.” Kenneth Watt
- “Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.” George Wald, Harvard Biologist
- “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.” Paul Ehrlich
- “By… [1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.” Paul Ehrlich
- “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation.” Denis Hayes, chief organizer for Earth Day
- “Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions… By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.” Peter Gunter, professor, North Texas State University
- “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support… the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution… by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half.” Life magazine, January 1970
- “At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.” Kenneth Watt
- “By the year 2000, if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate… that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say,`Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say,`I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’” Kenneth Watt
Despite this gloom and doom, virtually none of the projections of the original Earth Day from 44 years ago have come to pass.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
When Christians Sin
"Let
us say that I have been living in the light of what God has been giving
us for the present life. As a born-again child of God, I have been
practicing the reality of true spirituality, as Christ has purchased it
for us.
And then sin reenters.
For some reason my moment-by-moment belief in God falters--a fondness for some specific sin has caused me at that point not to draw in faith upon the fact of a restored relationship with the Trinity. The reality of the practice of true spirituality suddenly slips from me. I look up some morning, some afternoon, some night--and something is gone, something I have known: my quietness and my peace are gone. It is not that I am lost again, because justification is once for all. But . . . there is no exhibition of the victory of Christ upon the cross. Looking at me at this point, men would see no demonstration that God's creation of moral rational creatures is not a complete failure, or even that God exists. . . .
At this point a question must arise: Is there a way back? Or is it like a fine Bavarian porcelain cup, dropped to a tile floor so that it is smashed beyond repair?
Thank God, the gospel includes this. The Bible is always realistic; it is not romantic, but deals with realism--with what I am. There is a way back, and the basis of the way back is nothing new to us. The basis is again the blood of Christ, the finished work of the Lamb of God: the once-for-all completed work of Christ upon the cross, in space, time, and history."
--Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality (Tyndale House, 2011), 86-87; italics original
This is worth reflecting on, not only for yourself when you sin but in helping other Christians when they sin.
And then sin reenters.
For some reason my moment-by-moment belief in God falters--a fondness for some specific sin has caused me at that point not to draw in faith upon the fact of a restored relationship with the Trinity. The reality of the practice of true spirituality suddenly slips from me. I look up some morning, some afternoon, some night--and something is gone, something I have known: my quietness and my peace are gone. It is not that I am lost again, because justification is once for all. But . . . there is no exhibition of the victory of Christ upon the cross. Looking at me at this point, men would see no demonstration that God's creation of moral rational creatures is not a complete failure, or even that God exists. . . .
At this point a question must arise: Is there a way back? Or is it like a fine Bavarian porcelain cup, dropped to a tile floor so that it is smashed beyond repair?
Thank God, the gospel includes this. The Bible is always realistic; it is not romantic, but deals with realism--with what I am. There is a way back, and the basis of the way back is nothing new to us. The basis is again the blood of Christ, the finished work of the Lamb of God: the once-for-all completed work of Christ upon the cross, in space, time, and history."
--Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality (Tyndale House, 2011), 86-87; italics original
This is worth reflecting on, not only for yourself when you sin but in helping other Christians when they sin.
Monday, April 21, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
"That's My King" - Do You Know Him? - by S. M. Lockridge - Easter Realties
Shadrach Meshach Lockridge (March 7, 1913 – April 4, 2000) was the Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, a prominent African-American congregation in San Diego, California, from 1953 to 1993. He was known for his preaching across the United States and around the world.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Monday, April 14, 2014
Friday, April 11, 2014
Are You Looking For Community?
The biggest problem people have in searching for community is just that. You don't find community; you create it through love. Look how this transforms the way you enter a room full of strangers. Our instinctive thought is, "Who do I know? Who am I comfortable with?" There's nothing wrong with those questions, but the Jesus questions that create communities are, "Who can I love? Who is left out?"
Here are two different formulas for community formation:
1. Search for community where I am loved: become disappointed with community
2. Show hesed love: create community--Paul Miller, A Loving Life: In a World of Broken Relationships (Crossway, 2014), 100; italics original
If you're looking for community where the focus is on you, you will never find it. But if you're willing to love others you will create the community you are looking for. I have meet many Christians who are disappointed with church and have a trail of broken relationships behind them, who will never admit the problem is their own self-centeredness. They cry and complain 'if only I could find a place where I will be loved' and they never find it because they can't get the focus off themselves.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
By The Grace Of God I Am What I Am
In
spite of all the talk about grace and how many Christians say they
believe in and understand grace there do not seem to many in our
churches who actually believe in grace. J.I Packer says "there have
always been some who have the thought of grace so overwhelmingly
wonderful that they could never get over it. Grace has become the
constant theme of their talk and prayers. They have fought for it,
accepting ridicule and loss of privilege if need be as the price of
their stand ... with Paul their testimony is "By the grace of God I am
what I am" (1 Cor 15:10) and their rule of life is "I do not frustrate
the grace of God" ((Gal 2:21). Knowing God pg 128-129
Is your testimony "By the grace of God I am what I am"? Is your rule of life "I do not frustrate the grace of God"? Whatever I am its only by the grace of God that I am it. I am going to avoid everything that frustrates the grace of God in my life. I am pressing into grace its amazing.
Is your testimony "By the grace of God I am what I am"? Is your rule of life "I do not frustrate the grace of God"? Whatever I am its only by the grace of God that I am it. I am going to avoid everything that frustrates the grace of God in my life. I am pressing into grace its amazing.
Monday, April 7, 2014
"Going Down" - Freddie King
From his 1971 record, "Getting Ready," which was largely written and produced by Leon Russell and features Duck Dunn on bass. Russell wrote "Going Down," as part of an attempt to introduce Freddie to more of a "rock audience" through this record.
Friday, April 4, 2014
We Are Not Justified By Sanctification
"One
is unlikely to assert that we are justified by sanctification, but,
whether done intentionally or not, that is what happens when we allow
the teaching of Christian living, ethical imperatives, and exhortations
to holiness to be separated from and to take the place of the clear
statement of the gospel. We can preach our hearts out on texts about
what we ought to be, what makes a mature church,
or what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives, but if we do not
constantly, in every sermon, show the link between the Spirit's work in
us to Christ's work for us, we will distort the message and send people
away with a natural theology of salvation by works. Preaching from the
epistles demands of the preacher that the message of the document be
taken as a whole even if only a selection of texts, or just one verse,
is to be expounded. Every sermon should be understandable on its own as a
proclamation of Christ. It is no good to say that we dealt with the
justification element three weeks ago and now we are following Paul into
the imperatives and injunctions for Christian living. Paul wasn't
anticipating a three-week gap between his exposition of the gospel and
his defining of the implications of the gospel in our lives. Nor was he
anticipating that some people would not be present for the reading of
the whole epistle and would hear part of its message out of context."
Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching The Whole Bible As Christian Scripture, p. 237
Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching The Whole Bible As Christian Scripture, p. 237
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
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