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The Iliad
4 of 5 stars to The Iliad by Homer
Impressive. Tedious.
Creative. Exhausting.
Poetic. Painful.
Polytheistic. Godless.
Read again with the Omnibus Tenebras class in 2018. I’m increasing my rating from 3 stars to 4 because, even though it is looooooong, I can appreciate its status as a classic.
2015: This is an impressive piece of work, whichever Homer wrote it.
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Likeness Sharers
In creational terms, man is the glory of God and woman is the glory of man (1 Corinthians 11:7). That is God’s sovereign Word, we receive it, regardless of the culture’s hatred of gender distinctions, a misplaced hatred because they really want to do away with the distinction between themselves and God.
In redemptive terms, all believers are being remade in the image of God to share the glory of God; we are brothers and sisters in Christ.
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Sin into a Proper Noun
Sometimes things stick out that make you see from a different angle. It might be a typo. For example, when I type the name Chris, I often need to delete a “t” from the end because my muscle memory first types “Christ.” But, for a Christian named Chris, wouldn’t he appreciate being so easily mistaken for his Christlikeness?
It wasn’t a typo, but I had a different angle on hate this past week.
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Him Who Is Weary
I read a mass of complaints about social media, <irony>many of which come on social media</irony>. I have been on Facebook for over a year now, and it is worse than I imagined it to be. At least on Twitter, the most that anyone can irritate me is with 280 characters (though I would be happy to return to the 140 limit). I have curated my list of subscribed RSS feeds to a smaller number than it used to be.
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All the Pains It Cost
On Rilian’s return home and how the Narnians recognized him, and Jill’s joyful perspective on their previous difficulties:
Pale though he was from long imprisonment in the Deep Lands, dressed in black, dusty, disheveled, and weary, there was something in his face and air which no one could mistake. That look is in the face of all true Kings of Narnia, who rule by the will of Aslan and sit at Cair Paravel on the throne of Peter the High King.
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The Silver Chair
5 of 5 stars to The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
2018: I am really enjoying rereading the series, and this time through The Silver Chair I saw all sorts of grace, plus a narrative reminder to remember and rehearse the rules. They don’t always look the same down on the ground. Also, more about Aslan’s Country (when Caspian gets there) makes me long for our Lord’s Country even more.
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The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses
2 of 5 stars to The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses
A lot of death required by these laws. I guess liberally executed capital punishment is a more likely deterrent than a complex system of fines and other punishments. Ham was trying to make a name for himself by establishing order in his empire. Contrasts to the LORD making a name for Himself by blessing His people with good fruits from obedience.
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The Epic of Gilgamesh
2 of 5 stars to The Epic of Gilgamesh
Weird story about a whiny demigod who wishes for immortality. Crazy that Abram probably knew this story, and even crazier the sorts of saviors that men imagine for themselves. Read this with the Omnibus Tenebras class (2018), and also with Omnibus I (2012).
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Everything Intended
When we make a sacrifice, we are giving up something in the present for sake of something else in the future, something we believe to be worth more than what we’re giving up. We reason inductively, based on experience, that a certain type of sacrifice (i.e., not eating dessert) will result in a certain type of payoff (our belt won’t dig so deeply into our belly). We also may make a particular sacrifice (not eating meat) by faith, without having seen fruit (our brother’s conscience not being ruined), based on our trust that God follows through on His Word.
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Liberating Glory
The command in 1 Corinthians 10:31 is well known. It is short, catchy, and always applicable. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
This is the end for which God created the world: God’s glory. This is the peak of the Reformation alones: soli Deo gloria, to God alone be glory.
This is the kind of talk you expect to hear at church; “glory to God” is churchy talk.
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Too Thankful for the Right Things
Names matter. Part of our image-bearing identity is to name things, and the names we give not only categorize and help us communicate, they also shape our expectations.
Every week we “have” communion, or we observe it, or we celebrate it. Communion reminds us that we are not isolated from the Lord or from one another. This is a meal that reminds us what we share in common. It is also the Lord’s Supper, served at the Lord’s Table.
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All His Commandments
Every week we worship God by confessing our sins. We know that man’s nature is sinful because God reveals it: all have sinned and fallen short of His glory. We also know our own hearts, not perfectly, but what we know is enough to know that this regular time for confession is rarely unnecessary.
And yet, while we understand that sinless perfection will only finally be attainable in our glorified state, the goal of a pastor’s preaching is not that you would be eager to confess, as relevant as that is.
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Ante Lux, Tenebras
Auditing Omnibus for the last six years has done more to shape my worldview than almost all of the formal education I’ve received. If I could only choose between having gone through seminary or Omnibus, that would be a tough call. For realZ. What I’m saying is, Omnibus–the readings and discussions–is really good stuff.
For the first six years of the school a small group of adults audited Omnibus I through VI.
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New Adventures in Letters
Or, Off to Sail in Aslan’s Country
These are my notes for our school’s convocation last week.
As the end of every school year draws closer, it often (for me it always) feels like a ship in a storm. The final weeks of the fourth quarter pound like wet, wild wind that threatens to break the ship apart unless it reaches the harbor of summer break. Such a violent storm hit the Dawn Treader once upon a time, destroying the mast and almost drowning the vessel.
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Substantive Sharing
There have been frequent arguments in church history about what exactly happens at the Lord’s Table. Most of these arguments have come from motivations to value Christ’s work on the cross and in communion, though not all of the arguments can be true.
In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul helps us see the nature of the Supper through his comparisons with two other types of worship meals.
Example one: “Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
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What You Tolerate
In a book about leadership I read this principle: “When it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate” (Extreme Ownership, 54). This applies across many domains, not just in leadership, but in personal sanctification.
Preaching is easy, at least in many contexts. Talk is cheap compared to conduct. Teachers may have the best classroom rules, laminated and taped to the wall in the front of the room, but if they don’t enforce them, they don’t matter.
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Lyrics and Harmony
One of the ways we know if we’ve been born again is our attitude toward those who sit around the Lord’s Table with us.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (1 John 5:1) This meal of communion is only for Christians, those who are born again, and Christians are those with a particular affirmation and with personal affection.
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How Grain Gets Memorialized
When some Greeks came to see Jesus, Jesus said it was the hour of His glory. Then Jesus explained the truth of buried seed bearing abundant fruit.
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:23-24) The way of fruit is sacrifice and burial for sake of life.
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Wise in His Own Worship
Perhaps one of the most response-provoking visits of our trip to the United Kingdom was an unscheduled stop for Sunday morning worship at a church in Coventry, England. Our coach driver had a friend who attends the church there and, though that friend ended up not being there, we enjoyed a different service than most of us are accustomed to.
Everything was different, and similar, all at the same time. Most of our students, however, saw more of the differences than the similarities.
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Scholarship
4 of 5 stars to Scholarship: Two Convocation Addresses On University Life by Abraham Kuyper
Good reminders of our great, and highly privileged, responsibility to study all the world of the Lord.