May 2009
35 posts
Only the British...
would set up an event like this.
Find a steep hill, roll some cheese down it, whoever throws themselves down the hill to catch it, gets to eat the cheese.
America look out! One moment your an imperial superpower ruling the world, the next century, you’re chasing cheese down a hill.
More superb photos at The Big Picture photoblog, worth a look.
““If we cannot transcend the vulnerability of belief by positing as accessible a...”
– ~ John Howard Yoder, “The Hermeneutics of Peoplehood,” 44.
“Rightly reading the signs of the times requires a church capable of standing...”
– Stanley Hauerwas, Matthew, 147 - HT: Cramer Comments
A Message to Tumblr
Quit messing around with some strange answers system and install a proper open comments system that can be turned on and off per post. How hard can that be?
“‘What keeps us silent is not spirituality, as with the Friends [Quakers], and we...”
– – Peter T. Forsyth, Intercessory Services for Aid in Public Worship (Manchester: John Heywood, 1896), 6 HT: Per Crucem Ad Lucem
Gmail "African Missionary" Feature →
Guitar tone: Es Bueno reviews finding the right... →
Coldplay - Leftrightleftrightleft Review - Free EP
Many people are bored of Coldplay, In their defence I think this may be due to the fact that certain people turn off from things as soon as they become widespread and popular, but I remember back when the only Coldplay album was parachutes and still think they are a great band.
Coldplay have in a la radiohead gesture released a new album as a free download.
Its mostly filled with live versions...
“I LOOK AT OUR CURRENT SUPERSTARS LIKE LEGENDS IN THE MAKING… LIKE JUSTIN...”
– Kanye West on Music superstars mirroring the status of their forebearers. Kanye West is pretty full of it, and clearly was holds down the caps lock key while typing, but I though it was an interesting thought.
“Barth’s concern is precisely to understand the ancient term...”
– Ben Myers on Karl Barth’s reconsideration of using the term ‘person’ to describe the trinitarian ‘modes of being’ with the disclaimer that it was used in the comments section, so probably wasn’t meant to be quoted, but I thought it was a good summary of this...
“God speaks a free and loving “Yes” to Jesus Christ; the event of this “Yes” is...”
– “It took Barth decades to write the Church Dogmatics; and it takes a couple of solid years to read the whole work through”; here’s a one sentence summary as offered by Ben Myers
Religion vs. Gospel
RELIGION: I obey-therefore I’m accepted.
THE GOSPEL: I’m accepted-therefore I obey.
RELIGION: Motivation is based on fear and insecurity.
THE GOSPEL: Motivation is based on grateful joy.
RELIGION: I obey God in order to get things from God.
THE GOSPEL: I obey God to get to God-to delight and resemble Him.
RELIGION: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or my self, since I believe, like Job’s friends that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life.
THE GOSPEL: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I struggle but I know all my punishment fell on Jesus and that while he may allow this for my training, he will exercise his Fatherly love within my trial.
RELIGION: When I am criticized I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think of myself as a ‘good person’. Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs.
THE GOSPEL: When I am criticized I struggle, but it is not critical for me to think of myself as a ‘good person.’ My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on God’s love for me in Christ. I can take criticism.
RELIGION: My prayer life consists largely of petition and it only heats up when I am in a time of need. My main purpose in prayer is control of the environment.
THE GOSPEL: My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. My main purpose is fellowship with Him.
RELIGION: My self-view swings between two poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel insecure and inadequate. I’m not confident. I feel like a failure.
THE GOSPEL: My self-view is not based on a view of my self as a moral achiever. In Christ I am “simul iustus et peccator”—simultaneously sinful and yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad he had to die for me and I am so loved he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deeper and deeper humility and confidence at the same time. Neither swaggering nor sniveling.
RELIGION: My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work. Or how moral I am, and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral. I disdain and feel superior to ‘the other.’
THE GOSPEL: My identity and self-worth are centered on the one who died for His enemies, who was excluded from the city for me. I am saved by sheer grace. So I can’t look down on those who believe or practice something different from me. Only by grace I am what I am. I’ve no inner need to win arguments.
RELIGION: Since I look to my own pedigree or performance for my spiritual acceptability, my heart manufactures idols. It may be my talents, my moral record, my personal discipline, my social status, etc. I absolutely have to have them so they serve as my main hope, meaning, happiness, security, and significance, whatever I may say I believe about God.
THE GOSPEL: I have many good things in my life—family, work, spiritual disciplines, etc. But none of these good things are ultimate things to me. None of them are things I absolutely have to have, so there is a limit to how much anxiety, bitterness, and despondency they can inflict on me when they are threatened and lost.
HT: Tim Keller via http://www.crpc.org/blog/?p=683
“…it would be a wistful and culpable blindness for us to refuse to recognize how...”
– From David Bentley Hart - (”Christ and Nothing (No Other God)” in In the Aftermath: Provocations and Laments, pp. 16-17) HT: Theology Forum
I’ve started ANOTHER Blog →
WatchBon Iver -
Me vs. Secretary - I really don't care that much...
Me: Oh, I noticed that document still has my old title on it, can you makes the changes before we send it out.
Secretary: I haven't been officially notified of it yet.
Me: Erm, you were copied on the emails from when they confirmed it weren't you.
Secretary: Yes
Me: short silence...OK
Secretary: It hasn't be officially tabled at an office or board meeting which has had its agenda confirmed, until then I can't recieve it as official.
Me: I see. Bye then.
My Brain: I love working in an office, communication takes the most perverse roots bent on longevity instead of efficiency.
Incredible tiltshift →
“The falling value of the pound is significantly reducing the value of donations...”
– Stewardship Christian Finance
A Short Thought on Missions Funding →
“..Christianity is about water: “Everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”...”
– Annie Lamot, Travelling Mercies, pg 231. HT Fernando Gros
“Christ] was not, like a philosopher, interested in the ‘universally...”
– Ethics, Bonhoeffer
“That such incidents have any place at all in a history of the Christian church...”
– (The Age of Reason, p. 160) - Meic Pearse commenting on the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) in which Protestants and Catholic tensions in Europe burst out into terrible acts of violence.
HT: Theological Scribbles
“According to the CDC, the regular flu has killed 13,000 people since January—but...”
– Sean Fallen - Gizmodo
“Personally, the more we look at glossy screens (especially on laptops where they...”
– MacWorld on the Apple negation of matte screens.
End of Week Round Up →
