Month: August 2016

Fatherhood & Sonship

“And as I read the Gospel of John once more, I found it full of the Father’s love for His Son and the Son’s submission to His Father.

It was everywhere.

I began to realize how helpful it is as a father to meditate on the relationship between the Father and the Son, and I became convinced that one of the most helpful things for fathers to see and fall in love with is the beauty and glory of the Father and the Son, together. Here is the essence of Fatherhood, and every interaction between the Father and the Son in Scripture is like peeling back the veil and peering into high Heaven …

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A Reason for Reason ???

“According to evolution, our brains evolved solely for the task of survival, not for the construction of complex theories that describe entities and events entirely beyond the realm of observation … Now, it’s not impossible that unguided evolution went beyond the call of duty, making us reliable about highly theoretical topics. But sober skepticism suggests that we should seriously doubt it … And yet the question of cognitive reliability has been quietly swept under the rug. Most naturalists — for all their skeptical drumbeating — aren’t interested in this issue. I would have thought that hard-nosed skeptics would be itching to follow reason — along any path. And this particular path seems to lead us to the realization  that we have no independent reason to believe reason — other than the fact that we already do and that we couldn’t help it in any case. (Maybe possession is nine-tenths of the law.)”

how to be an (a)theist, Mitch Stokes

My Soul Among Lions

My Soul Among Lions is a Christian music group from Bloomington, IN that has embarked on an ambitious and glorious project … to set all 150 psalms to music. Psalm singing, singing from God’s hymnal, has a long history in the Christian church but it’s been almost entirely lost today, to the church’s detriment. Below is a link to their website. Their first CD with Psalms 1-10 is available for purchase and I would commend it to you. They’re in the middle of a Kickstarter effort to fund the second CD, Psalms 11-20.

My Soul Among Lions 

People v. Institution

There is a lot being said in this short quote concerning the loss of authority in the modern church …

“In a communal grouping like that of early Christians, the overall leadership of the community governed the people. The heads of the Christian communities functioned in a way similar to the fathers in a family; they did not treat the community members like children, but they did lead and direct them personally. They governed (cared for) the people. They taught them and watched over their lives. When members of the community were in need, the elders saw that the need was met. When the lives of the community members did not conform to the Lord’s way of life, the heads would personally discuss the issue with those members. If a major transgression occurred, the elders would discipline the person. They governed and led the people, not the institution.

By contrast, the leaders of most modern churches concern themselves more directly with the institution than with the people, and their leadership consists primarily of administration, decision-making, and opinion-forming. The people’s lives are a private matter. The leader will counsel someone upon request. The leader will run a program for those who want something enough to sign up and participate. The leader thus provides services for some individuals when they express a personal interest. The authority of church leaders extends over the institution — the common activities — but not the lives of the church members.”

Man and Woman in Christ, Stephen B. Clark

Could Your Child Enter Harvard in 1869?

Interesting article … both considering Harvard’s original mission statement and the entrance exam from 1869. The mission statement reinforces how institutions drift over time without intentionality and vigilance. The entrance exam demonstrates how far educational expectations and standards have fallen.

Could Your Child Enter Harvard in 1869?

Only God is good

“As a father you must teach your children that only God is God. You, their beloved father, most certainly are not God. Nor are you ever to displace God in their love, allegiance, and obedience.

How to teach this precious truth?

Well, there’s no better way than to confess your own sins to your family and ask their forgiveness. Pop the balloon of your great dignity as their Christian father. Or maybe more to the point, pop the myth your dear wife has inculcated in your children, that Daddy is the best daddy in the world and they should adore him. Bunk, and double bunk!

Jesus put it bluntly: only God is good (Lk 18:19) …

Our families — our own brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, fathers mothers, wives — must never come between us and our heavenly Father. He alone is to have first place in our affections. He alone is to sit on the throne of our heart. He will not tolerate any competition because Jealous is His name.”

Daddy Tried, Tim Bayly