December 2010
77 posts
Galatians 5.13
Paul devotes a significant portion of Galatians to discussing the differences between the Law and the new promise we have in Christ. Throughout Galatians 4, Paul argues that we who live under Christ are free and that those who live under the Law are slaves. Clearly, Paul wants the Galatians to live in freedom: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again...
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations,...”
– C.S. Lewis (via intelligentchristianity)
John 15 and Biblical Fruit →
“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”
– C.S. Lewis (via quote-book)
The Pitfalls of Seminary Education →
Sorry, I Have To
“Out of all of Santa’s reindeer, the one that sounds most like a street name for crystal meth is all of them.”
Aww... →
Things Kingdom Kids Say
Trent: [m]y uncle is being a butt
“God loves variety.”
– Milton Lee Jones, Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry
How Quickly Should We Grow?
In Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry, Milton Jones cites several obstacles to discipleship in churches. One was the desire for immediate results. This got me thinking.
As Jones emphasizes throughout his book, Jesus focused on a few people - twelve apostles - in his preparation for world evangelism. According to Jones, this approach sacrificed short-term (and, I would add, unsustainable)...
“The only way for Jesus’ disciples to learn the way of faith is for them to...”
– Milton Lee Jones, Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry
About Matt Damon
Dad: He's a playboy, not a cowboy.
“Christianity without self-death is only an abstract philosophy. It is...”
– Keith W. Phillips, The Making of a Disciple
“Whatever Jesus was, he was not ordinary. He provoked extreme reactions, whether...”
– Richard Thomas France, Jesus the Radical: A Portrait of the Man They Crucified
“Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity
And passing over transgression
For...”
– Micah 7.18-20
“Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
When I fall, I shall rise;
When I sit in...”
– Micah 7.8-9
Faith
Two conversations yesterday reminded me of my lack of faith.
The first conversation I had with a friend of mine who recently began working in campus ministry in the Ukraine after graduating from college (or “uni”) in London. My friend and I were talking about the fact that she had brought none of her fellow students to Christ during her three years in London, but had already baptized...
“[T]he use of all means whatever will never atone for one sin; that it is the...”
– John Wesley, “Means of Grace”
The Message vs. The English Standard Version →
The Message Bible is the devil! No, but seriously.
Kids-In-Mind →
A.k.a. “Disciples in Mind.”
The Office
I love The Office, though I haven’t been able to keep up with it in college because I don’t have cable. That being said, it’s only funny because it’s making fun of the meaningless of life for many American middle-class people. Most of the characters on The Office are lonely, insecure, desperate, or some combination of the three. Sure, they’re over-the-top, but...
“[E]very disciple is a full time minister because everyone has a ministry and...”
– Milton Lee Jones, Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry
Relational Thinkers
I’m reading through Milton Jones’ Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry. Jones distinguishes between terminal thinkers and relational thinkers. In essence, terminal thinkers think short-term and do not relate their daily activities to any ultimate purpose; relational thinkers, on the other hand, think long-term and relate everything to their ultimate purpose.
Here is Jones’...
The impotence of the liturgical year →
And my comment:
“My religious upbringing was not only non-liturgical, but also possibly even anti-liturgical, for the simple reason that modern liturgy does not originate in the practices of the apostolic church (insofar as we can determine that church’s practices from the New Testament), but rather in post-apostolic (and thus dubious) accretions to those practices.
Though I don’t think...
Historic Month in León Guanajuato, Mexico ENGLISH... →
Some great stories, but some not-so-great translation, haha.
“Even Jesus would have failed had He not trained faithful men to be teachers of...”
– Alvin Ray Jennings, 3 R’s of Urban Church Growth
“Christians can only reach the masses if they are part of a plan that multiplies...”
– Milton Lee Jones, Discipling: The Multiplying Ministry
“Activity is no substitute for fruit bearing!”
– Donald Grey Barnhouse, The Love Life
Suffering in Second Timothy →
The Perfect Conservative →
I’m a Christian and pretty conservative, but this is messed up.
“Straight through all the apparently tangled course of human history runs the...”
– John Gresham Machen, The Christian View of Man
Just found out that my great-great-grandparents eloped from the small Sicilian town in which they grew up. Cool.
C.S. Lewis on Sex →
“For the Platonic or Aristotelian philosophy it is of no importance whether Plato...”
– Heinrich Emil Brunner, The Word and the World
After Telling Her How to Google Something
Mom: You mean, in your computer?
I Found My Hat!
It’s kind of a crazy story. Someone turned it in to my dorm’s mail room. (That’s not the crazy part.) There are, to my knowledge, four people in my dorm with connections to South Carolina (out of a few hundred). One of them is my friend Alex. Alex went in to the mail room and the worker in the mail room, somehow randomly knowing that Alex was a Clemson fan (which he sort of is,...
Study Series from a Mainline Church of Christ →
Look familiar?
Of Prayer and Pride →
Recently, a friend and I made a prayer pact: We decided to pray for a certain length of time each day and to hold each other accountable to the pact. I faithfully honored the pact every day - until…
God’s Work Through River City Ministry in the... →
Great idea for a ministry!
Immigrants & Advent →
Sheep and the goats, baby, sheep and the goats.
(Warning: Some censored language.)
Mapping America →
This is really, really cool.
Question to keep in mind: Does your church map up with its area’s ethnic distribution?
Acts 18.8
In Acts 18.8, Luke never explicitly says that Crispus and his household were baptized. He also does not explicitly say that Crispus and his household (or anyone in Corinth, for that matter) repented. But it would be extremely unreasonable to believe that the disciples sometimes baptized new converts and sometimes did not, or sometimes called new converts to repentance and sometimes did not. More...
So, Why Is Incest Wrong? →
A slippery slope?
Spending Too Much Time on Facebook?
Use this Google Chrome extension (or, if you use Firefox, this add-on) to control yourself.
Any questions? Ask me.
(If you still use Internet Explorer…repent.)