Quite a good little video – check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxup3OS5ZhQ
Archive for March, 2008
Here’s something quite interesting about the current moods in L’Abri. The Post-Schaeffer period seems to have left a certain consequence at L’Abri. This report was a little saddening to read actually, but had some interesting insights into what’s happening at the Swiss L’Abri. It seems that UK L’Abri is fairly different from Switzerland, but it’s interesting nonetheless…
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/march/36.60.html
If any of you have been to L’Abri, I’d love to hear about your experiences…
In case anyone else out there likes reading Jamie Smith’s writings, have a read of this:
http://www.wrf.ca/comment/qa.cfm?ID=13
I’ve just finished a short little college assignment about how to approach the study of theology. I’ve actually really found it a great little reminder about some of the temptations of the study and of the vocation I’m purusing. So since it was quite a short essay and I couldn’t fit in all the quotes I really enjoyed, I thought I’d share them with you!
“People think they can know everything by simply listening to a sermon. Zwingli also made the mistake of thinking that he knew everything, that theology is an easy art. But I know that I have yet to comprehend the Lord’s Prayer. No one can be learned without practice.” Martin Luther’s Experience Alone Makes the Theologian
“The devil is a greater scholar than you and a nimbler disputant.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Grace of God and Student Frailty
“One bright benison which private prayer brings down upon the ministry is an indescribable and inimitable something, better understood than named; it is a dew from the Lord, a divine presence which you will recognise at once when I say it is an ‘unction from the Holy One’. What is it? I wonder how long we might beat our brains before we could plainly put into words what is meant by preaching with unction… the mystery of the spiritual anointing.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Grace of God and Student Frailty
“Sometime we hear it said that ten minutes on your knees will give you a truer, deeper, more operative knowledge of God than ten hours over your books. ‘What!’ is the appropriate response, ‘than ten hours over your books, on your knees?’” B. B. Warfield, The Religious Life of the Theologial Student
“Always keep before your mind the greatness of your calling, that is to say, these two things: the immensity of the task before you, the infinitude of the resources at your disposal.” B. B. Warfield, The Religious Life of the Theologial Student
“Only by his qualification as a learner can he show himself qualified to become a teacher.” Karl Barth, The Intellectual Task Set for the Theologian
“True theologians don’t rely on know-it-all dogmatism, but solely on the forgiveness of sins.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, What Should the Student of Theology Do Today?
“The reality is that God’s transcendence demands that we admit that our discourse about God is at best approximate. Our interpretation may be accurate, but if we grasped the full perspective it would literally blow our minds.” Brian Rosner, Lost for Words (in The Trials of Theology)
“Theologians must never forget that the task of theology is to know the unknowable and to describe the indescribable. Students do well to remember that the goal of our theological study is not to figure out God, but rather, awestruck incredulity and joyful confidence in God. It is to be blown away in wide-eyed transfixed adoration. The aim is not accurate eloquence, but a loss for words. To miss this is to miss everything and to fail to glorify God in our studies.” Brian Rosner, Lost for Words (in The Trials of Theology)
have a s(quiz) at this: http://buildingchurchleaders.com/assessments/individuals/hermeneuticsquiz.html
i somehow turned out a 55 mark which means i’m a moderate… hmmm, got to love those boxes. would love to hear what you got too! (and if you found those OT questions begging for more options!)
At college, we’re reading through some short papers in a booklet entited: The Trials of Theology: Becoming a ‘proven worker’ in a dangerous business which is edited by Andrew Cameron and Brian Rosner. Here’s a good quote by Martin Luther (from his Experience Alone Makes the Theologian) that I thought was so helpful and good, that I thought I’d share it with you:
“If, however, you fell and are inclined to think you have made it, flattering yourself with your own little books, teaching, or writing, because you have done it beautifully and preached excellently; if you are highly pleased when someone praises you in the presence of others; if you perhaps look for praise, and would sulk or quite what you are doing if you did not get it – if you are of that stripe, dear friend, then take yourself by the ears, and if you do this in the right way you will find a beautiful pair of big, long shaggy donkey ears. Then do not spare any expense! Decorate them with golden bells, so that people will be able to hear you wherever you go, point their fingers at you, and say, ‘See, See! There goes that clever beast, who can write such exquisite books and preach so remarkably well.’ That very moment you will be blessed and blessed beyond measure in the kingdom of heaven. Yes, in that heaven where hellfire is ready for the devil and his angels. To sum up: Let us be proud and seek honour in the places where we can. But in this book the honour is God’s alone, as it is said. ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’ [I Peter 5:5]; to whom be glory, world without end,
Amen.”
While I’m on the whole postmodern thing in the last few posts, this is worth a read also. One of my favourite guys to read over the last year has been James Smith from Calvin College, author of the book, Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism: Taking Derrida, Lyotard and Foucault to Church.
Here’s a good article recently put online, entitled The Secret Lives of Saints. It’s a devotional study on Doubting Thomas (John 20:24-31) well worth reading. I found it a helpful and real reminder about the nature of living a life of faith in a broken and fallen world, so I hope it’s something you’re helped by too.
Here’s a bit of it for you to read:
“Notice carefully how the narrative moves forward in verse 26: “A week later. . . . ” A week later! Kierkegaard says that when we read the story of Abraham taking Isaac up Mount Moriah, we fast forward across the little remark that it took three days. Having been shaped by ESPN highlights, we sometimes underestimate the slow-motion nature of real life.
So we need to slow down and note that a whole week passes in which Thomas is left in this state. What must he have experienced during that time? Some of you know.
But what does Jesus do with Thomas’s doubt? Jesus shows up; Jesus meets Thomas where he is. Jesus comes to Thomas, speaks peace into his life, then invites him to wrestle with his doubts—in a way, to wrestle with God the way Jacob did. So Jesus invites Thomas to touch his wounds, to put his hand into Jesus’ broken side and so enter into the grosteque. I think there are a couple of important lessons embedded here:” (you can read these for yourself!)
Link here: http://www.thebanner.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=1455
I’m not really trying to say anything profound here, but the last post reminded me of something I heard the other day. I was listening to an old band I used to love and heard a cover of Bad Religion’s song, “We Only Gonna Die From Our Own Arrogance”. It’s a short old track from an 80-90′s punk band who made a big impact on the international punk music scene.
Early man walked away as modern man took control.
Their minds weren’t all the same, to conquer was his big goal,
So he built his great empire and slaughtered his own kind,
Then he died a confused man, killed himself with his own mind.Go![x3]
We’re only gonna die from our own arrogance. [x4]
… Pretty succinct, pretty spot on. Sadly, I don’t know is whether they could have written a song to remedy this despair. Gladly, those in Christ have a song written in their hearts which remedies that problem of despair and death.
Here’s an interesting little article which you might find interesting… Jason from The Church and Postmodern Culture takes a quick look at the word machine from a pre-modern architectural perspective, and gets us thinking about why we load the word with certain connotations… here’s the first paragraph:
“Everyone these days seems so annoyed at the machine. “Organic” is all the rage: “organic” leadership structures, “organic” food (which somehow implies the opposite of “mechanical” food, lol, I guess), “organic” architecture (the famous Frank Lloyd Wright, whose buildings were actually quite mechanical, btw), “organic” church services, and a bunch more “organic” stuff that I’m probably forgetting at the moment. The point is, everyone seems to love “organic.” And on top of that everyone seems to have a deep mistrust and even hate for the machine. There’s a famous band called “Rage Against The Machine”, for goodness sakes! But I have a sneaking suspicion that this is often at least somewhat of a knee-jerk reflex against a misunderstood presence and history of the machine in our society.”
Read the full article here: http://churchandpomo.typepad.com/conversation/2008/03/the-machine.html
Sorry for my lack of posts lately – i’ve been flat out! … But this is important, so i’ll quickly post it up.
Read this article here: http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/sydneystories/lambeth_lifeboat/
And watch J.I Packer comment here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EERVCxkdnZg
And please pray.
