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More Bad Ideas
If you like to create things—and why wouldn’t you as an image-bearer of your Creator—then listen to this podcast by Seth Godin: No such thing (as writer’s block). It’s not that he provides the silver bullet, but he certainly hacks at the Excuse Monster that we often hide behind.
Especially for those who regard their work as precious, who hold their ideas inside too long and often squeeze the interesting juices out of the idea before it even has the chance to get out, we should try out trying out more things.
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4 of 5 stars to I Have a Dream and Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
Brief, not perfect, nor written by a perfect man, but powerful. Makes a man want to Matthew 22:39.
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Proverbial Nose Bleeds
How many ways can you have a bad day? I’m not sure, but I know for sure how to make one worse.
Maybe the “bad” is due to your body. It’s not traceable to anything foolish you did, it’s due to something in God’s sovereignty, and it causes you some amount of suffering. Maybe the bad is in your mailbox, or email inbox. Out of what seems like nowhere to you, God sent you a bill, or a criticism, or an “opportunity” that will take you a week just to decide what to do.
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Uncomfortable Blessings
[caption id=“attachment_8779” align=“alignright” width=“300”]Photo thanks to Leila Bowers[/caption] When I give a talk I prefer to build up to a Big Reveal. This time I will tell it to you up front, then go back and explain what I mean and why it’s important and what you should do about it. Here goes: Since the start of ECS I believe that no one has learned more than me. I have reasons for this claim and, if it’s true, I also believe that no one has been more blessed than me either.
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Affections in Maternal Tones
Paul did not have questions about his gender, but he did speak of his affections in maternal tones a couple times. He told the Thessalonians, “we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7). To the Galatians he was even more active:
my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!
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So Not Okay
God hates divorce. God also hates division in the body. He loves unity. Jesus prayed that His people would be one, that they would be one even as He and the Father are one. That’s tight.
But history, which we believe God rules, is filled with conflict and splits between believers, between churches. While Paul climbed all over the Corinthian contentions to correct their petty party preferences, he also told them later that divisions were necessary and part of God’s purpose.
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Knots and Nooses
Give a sinner a knife and he will find knots to cut. He doesn’t want things tied together, he wants things loose. Give a man a rope and he will make a noose. He claims he wants justice, punishment for those who deserve it. A knife is good, but in a culture of lynch mobs, a knife is good for cutting nooses. Rope is good, but in a culture of relativism and emotional goo, it’s good for tying knots that hold things together.
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That Is Really Tired
“Weariness pervaded every sense, including common sense.” —Norman Borlaug, Our Daily Bread
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A liberal arts education equips a man to know how to spend his day off.
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1 of 5 stars to The Stranger by Albert Camus
Blech.
Nihilism into absurdism is not fun, and Camus clearly knew enough about the gospel to be awfully accountable for hating God.
“It was like knocking four quick times on the door of unhappiness.”
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Bitter Would Be a Start
When it comes to the ideal marital state, the point is contentment and satisfaction that matches your condition. Are you single and satisfied? Are you married and enjoying it? Such happiness is gift.
When it comes to the ideal spiritual state, the goal is peace and fellowship with Christ and His people. Not everyone has the same gift that builds up the body. Different persons serve in different ways, but we all enjoy communion.
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5 of 5 stars to Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Taleb
"You want to be the fire and wish for the wind."
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5 of 5 stars to Leepike Ridge by N. D. Wilson
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I aim to post something at least once a week against abortion or for adoption. It’s not because I have a platform. It’s not because it’s trendy. It’s because God hates evil and loves good, and so should all His people.
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A Candle Under Your Hoodie
There is a somewhat famous statement in Christian circles that “it is better to marry than to burn.” That’s a poetic way to talk about passionate, erotic desire for someone else. In itself, there’s nothing wrong with passion, but there is only one safe direction for sexual desires: your spouse.
Remember King David. He was already married, but then he saw Bathsheba, and in many ways his life was undone. It was unlawful desire.
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Great distinction between generals and shepherds:
“Rupert Greeves was no general. Generals spend men. Generals expect sacrifice from those who stand with them. Shepherds do not lead their sheep into battle with wolves. They fight alone.”
—N.D. Wilson in Empire of Bones
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The Valley of the Shadow of Freaking Out
The natural man is surprisingly dumb when it comes to economics. He makes virtually no end of bad deals.
Consider the following, purely fictional, account. A wife expresses a concern to her husband. She’s having a problem, or anticipates that a problem is coming. She’s pretty committed to the fact that it’s bad. She’s walking through the valley of the shadow of freaking out.
The husband has what the wife needs.
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Believing Believers
When Jesus came down the mountain after His transfiguration He met a father who had brought his convulsing son to Jesus for healing. The disciples who had remained in the foothills hadn’t been able to heal the boy, and Jesus lamented over such a “faithless generation.” To the father himself Jesus said, “All things are possible for one who believes,” and the father’s famous response was: “I believe; help my unbelief!
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Look for a Second
On the first day of the week we worship because Christ rose from the dead; the first day changes all the other days for good. Likewise, His resurrection, though only something that happened once, is just the first of many in a different way. He will not rise from the dead again, but because He did many more will after Him.
Paul told the Corinthians,
in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
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Blessed Forever
Since the Sunday of New Year’s Eve I have focused our exhortations to confession around the idea of being blessed. We’ve seen 13 #blesseds so far, and this will be the final one for [this series], though certainly not the last one found in the Scriptures.
The reason for the focus, as you may remember, is rooted in the belief that God will give such great blessing to the church across many nations that will provoke jealousy among the elect unbelievers to cause them to desire salvation and blessing in Christ.
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The Obedience of Cancer
Doug Wilson on The Obedience of Cancer:
"this cancer is right where it is because it is being obedient--and we don’t want to be less obedient than the cancer is being. And that means trusting the Lord who does all things well. He assigns a place to everything, and I need to be more concerned about being obedient in my assigned station than I am distraught at the inconvenience created by something else being obedient in its assigned station.
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Drinking the Purchase Price
We know that we were bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). There have been many people that were born into the world who knew guilt but who never knew that a sacrifice was made for their guilt. Christians are not those people. We have had the gospel preached to us, and many of us have believers in our family tree going back generations. Even if you do not have a long personal history, we live in a time and place dominated by the price paid on the cross.
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Choices as Saints
On the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, when He knew that His hour had come to die, He described the blessed life to His disciples.
Actually, before He described the blessing, He gave a demonstration, by taking up a towel and washing the feet of His guys. It was an act of love. It was an act of humility. It was the way of obedience. And it was an example for them to follow.
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Limbs and Organs
We are limbs and organs of Christ’s body. Each one is a individual unit of the complex and complete unit. We are in Him, He is in us. We are one with Christ, so what we do with our bodies Christ participates in.
It happens at the communion table. Paul contrasted two types of participation when it comes to eating and drinking.
“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
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Cosmic and Concentrated
Blessing runs in two directions at the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We bless God, which is to say that we glorify Him in praise, and He blesses us, which is to say that He gives us favor; He protects and provides and gladdens. We bless because He first blessed us.
The Father’s blessing to us is both cosmic and concentrated. He blesses us “with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.