The Repertorium

2012-01-09T17:01:00.000Z

More of Jonathan Edwards Resolutions

22. Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.
23. Resolved, frequently to take some deliberate action, which seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs and ends of it; and if I find it not to be for God’s glory, to repute it as a breach of the 4th Resolution.
24. Resolved, whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then both carefully endeavor to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.
25. Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.
26. Resolved, to cast away such things, as I find do abate my assurance.
27. Resolved, never willfully to omit anything, except the omission be for the glory of God; and frequently to examine my omissions.
28. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
29. Resolved, never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a petition of a prayer, which is so made, that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession, which I cannot hope God will accept.
30. Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.
31. Resolved, never to say anything at all against anybody, but when it is
perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said anything against anyone, to bring it to, and try it strictly by the test of this Resolution.
32. Resolved, to be strictly and firmly faithful to my trust, that that in Prov. 20:6, “A faithful man who can find?” may not be partly fulfilled in me.
33. Resolved, always to do what I can towards making, maintaining, establishing and preserving peace, when it can be without over-balancing detriment in other respects. Dec.26, 1722.
34. Resolved, in narration’s never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.
35. Resolved, whenever I so much question whether I have done my duty, as that my quiet and calm is thereby disturbed, to set it down, and also how the question was resolved. Dec. 18, 1722.
36. Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it. Dec. 19, 1722.
37. Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself: also at the end of every week, month and year. Dec.22 and 26, 1722.
38. Resolved, never to speak anything that is ridiculous, sportive, or matter of laughter on the Lord’s day. Sabbath evening, Dec. 23, 1722.
39. Resolved, never to do anything that I so much question the lawfulness of, as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or no; except I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.
40. Resolved, to inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking. Jan. 7, 1723.
41. Resolved, to ask myself at the end of every day, week, month and year, wherein I could possibly in any respect have done better. Jan. 11, 1723.
42. Resolved, frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism; which I solemnly renewed, when I was received into the communion of the church; and which I have solemnly re-made this twelfth day of January, 1722-23.
43. Resolved, never henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God’s, agreeable to what is to be found in Saturday, January 12. Jan.12, 1723.
44- Resolved, that no other end but religion, shall have any influence at all on any of my actions; and that no action shall be, in the least circumstance, any otherwise than the religious end will carry it. Jan.12, 1723.
45. Resolved, never to allow any pleasure or grief, joy or sorrow, nor any affection at all, nor any degree of affection, nor any circumstance relating to it, but what helps religion. Jan.12 and 13.1723.
46. Resolved, never to allow the least measure of any fretting uneasiness at my father or mother. Resolved to suffer no effects of it, so much as in the least alteration of speech, or motion of my eve: and to be especially careful of it, with respect to any of our family.
47. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a good, and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peace able, contented, easy, compassionate, generous, humble, meek, modest, submissive, obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable, even, patient, moderate, forgiving, sincere temper; and to do at all times what such a temper would lead me to. Examine strictly every week, whether I have done so. Sabbath morning. May 5,1723.
48. Resolved, constantly, with the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, that I may know whether I have truly an interest in Christ or no; that when I come to die, I may not have any negligence respecting this to repent of. May 26, 1723.
49. Resolved, that this never shall be, if I can help it.
50. Resolved, I will act so as I think I shall judge would have been best, and most prudent, when I come into the future world. July 5, 1723.
51. Resolved, that I will act so, in every respect, as I think I shall wish I had done, if I should at last be damned. July 8, 1723.
52. I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age. July 8, 1723.
53. Resolved, to improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer. July 8, 1723.
54. Whenever I hear anything spoken in conversation of any person, if I think it would be praiseworthy in me, Resolved to endeavor to imitate it. July 8, 1723.
55. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments. July 8, 1723.
56. Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.
57. Resolved, when I fear misfortunes and adversities, to examine whether ~ have done my duty, and resolve to do it; and let it be just as providence orders it, I will as far as I can, be concerned about nothing but my duty and my sin. June 9, and July 13 1723.
58. Resolved, not only to refrain from an air of dislike, fretfulness, and anger in conversation, but to exhibit an air of love, cheerfulness and benignity. May27, and July 13, 1723.
59. Resolved, when I am most conscious of provocations to ill nature and anger, that I will strive most to feel and act good-naturedly; yea, at such times, to manifest good nature, though I think that in other respects it would be disadvantageous, and so as would be imprudent at other times. May 12, July ii, and July 13.
60. Resolved, whenever my feelings begin to appear in the least out of order, when I am conscious of the least uneasiness within, or the least irregularity without, I will then subject myself to the strictest examination. July 4, and 13, 1723.
61. Resolved, that I will not give way to that listlessness which I find unbends and relaxes my mind from being fully and fixedly set on religion, whatever excuse I may have for it-that what my listlessness inclines me to do, is best to be done, etc. May 21, and July 13, 1723.
62. Resolved, never to do anything but duty; and then according to Eph. 6:6-8, do it willingly and cheerfully as unto the Lord, and not to man; “knowing that whatever good thing any man doth, the same shall he receive of the Lord.” June 25 and July 13, 1723.
63. On the supposition, that there never was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true luster, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do, if I strove with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time. Jan.14′ and July ’3′ 1723.
64. Resolved, when I find those “groanings which cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26), of which the Apostle speaks, and those “breakings of soul for the longing it hath,” of which the Psalmist speaks, Psalm 119:20, that I will promote them to the utmost of my power, and that I will not be wear’, of earnestly endeavoring to vent my desires, nor of the repetitions of such earnestness. July 23, and August 10, 1723.
65. Resolved, very much to exercise myself in this all my life long, viz. with the greatest openness I am capable of, to declare my ways to God, and lay open my soul to him: all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and every thing, and every circumstance; according to Dr. Manton’s 27th Sermon on Psalm 119. July 26, and Aug.10 1723.
66. Resolved, that I will endeavor always to keep a benign aspect, and air of acting and speaking in all places, and in all companies, except it should so happen that duty requires otherwise.
67. Resolved, after afflictions, to inquire, what I am the better for them, what good I have got by them, and what I might have got by them.
68. Resolved, to confess frankly to myself all that which I find in myself, either infirmity or sin; and, if it be what concerns religion, also to confess the whole case to God, and implore needed help. July 23, and August 10, 1723.
69. Resolved, always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it. Aug. 11, 1723.
70. Let there be something of benevolence, in all that I speak.

Aug. 17, 1723

2012-01-02T06:49:00.001Z

New Year's Resolutions - Jonathan Edwards

BEING SENSIBLE THAT I AM UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING WITHOUT GOD’ S HELP, I DO HUMBLY ENTREAT HIM BY HIS GRACE TO ENABLE ME TO KEEP THESE RESOLUTIONS, SO FAR AS THEY ARE AGREEABLE TO HIS WILL, FOR CHRIST’ S SAKE.

Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.
1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’ s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever.
2. Resolved, to be continually endeavoring to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the aforementioned things.
3. Resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.
4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.
5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.
9. Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.
10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.
11. Resolved, when I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances do not hinder.
12. Resolved, if I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.
13. Resolved, to be endeavoring to find out fit objects of charity and liberality.
14. Resolved, never to do any thing out of revenge.
15. Resolved, never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.
16. Resolved, never to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.
17. Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
18. Resolved, to live so, at all times, as I think is best in my devout frames, and when I have clearest notions of things of the gospel, and another world.
19. Resolved, never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trump.
20. Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance, in eating and drinking.
21. Resolved, never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.

2011-12-27T09:00:00.002Z

My Top Dozen for 2011

1. Owen Barfield: Poetic Diction
2. Robert Farrar Capon: The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection
3. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
4. A.N. Wilson, Dante in Love
5. C S Lewis: The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature
6. Kevin Belmonte: Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life & Impact of G.K. Chesterton
7. Nancy Pearcey: Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning
8. Stratford Caldecott, Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education
9. Paul K. Helseth, "Right Reason" and the Princeton Mind: An Unorthodox Proposal
10. Norman Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
11. C S Lewis: That Hideous Strength
12. Marilynne Robinson, Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self

2011-12-14T21:56:00.005Z

(My) Best Books of 2011
Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth - Garth, John
The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes - Rose, Jonathan
J.R.R.Tolkien - Shippey, T.A.
The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition - Lewis, C.S.
The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan - Leithart, Peter J.
Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry - Barfield, Owen
Poetic Diction Barfield, Owen History in English Words - Barfield, Owen
King's Cross Keller, Timothy
The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion - Challies, Tim
Romantic Religion: A Study of Owen Barfield, C.S.Lewis, Charles Williams and J.R.R.Tolkien - Reilly, R.J.
Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms - McCann, J. Clinton
Story as Torah: Reading Old Testament Narrative Ethically - Wenham, Gordon J.
Fern Seed and Elephants - Lewis, C.S.
Leepike Ridge - Wilson, N.D.
Present Concerns - Lewis, C.S.
The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection - Capon, Robert Farrar
The Four: A Survey of the Gospels - Leithart, Peter J.
Pride and Prejudice - Austen, Jane
Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age - Wolfe, Gregory
The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction - Jacobs, Alan
The Thank You Economy - Vaynerchuk, Gary
Johann Sebastian Bach - Marschall, Rick
Everything Bad is Good for You - Johnson, Steven
The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution - Hannam, James
Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches - Jankovic, Rachel
What I Learned in Narnia - Wilson, Douglas
Dante in Love - Wilson, A.N.
The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature - Lewis, C.S.
Galileo - Stokes, Mitch
Isaac Newton - Stokes, Mitch
The Rhetoric Companion - Wilson, N.D.
Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life - Duriez, Colin
Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life & Impact of G.K. Chesterton - Belmonte, Kevin
Purgatory - Alighieri, Dante
Writing Ancient History - Morley, Neville
Boys Adrift: Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men - Sax, Leonard
Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning - Pearcey, Nancy
Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education - Caldecott, Stratford
The Name of the Rose - Eco, Umberto
Serendipities: Language and Lunacy - Eco, Umberto
Rework - Fried, Jason
How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One - Fish, Stanley
Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves: Book I of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene - Spenser, Edmund
The Elfin Knight - Spenser, Edmund
The Heart of Anger - Priolo, Lou
"Right Reason" and the Princeton Mind: An Unorthodox Proposal - Helseth, Paul K.
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science - Doidge, Norman
Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child - Esolen, Anthony
Rescuing Ambition - Harvey, Dave
The Rituals of Dinner - Visser, Margaret
That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, #3) - Lewis, C.S.
Dominion and Dynasty: A Biblical Theology of the Hebrew Bible
Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self - Robinson, Marilynne
I Drink Therefore I Am: A Philosopher's Guide to Wine - Scruton, Roger
G.K. Chesterton, Theologian - Nichols, Aidan A
Jane Austen - Leithart, Peter J.
Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World: - N D Wilson

2011-10-08T19:30:00.001Z

Romantic Religion: A Study of Owen Barfield, C.S.Lewis, Charles Williams and J.R.R.Tolkien by R.J. Reilly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Whilst written over 30 years ago , this is a really thoughtful exploration of the theology of the Inklings. It is particularly useful on Barfield and Williams who are the more opaque of the Oxford circle. Add Humphrey Carpenter's biography of the Inklings and one has a good picture all round.

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2011-10-08T19:29:00.001Z

The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion by Tim Challies

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Without being technophobic or techno-adoring this book does a great job of navigating the whole Internet/new media debate by balancing the opportunity with the downside. Biblically thought through and theologically framed, Challies does a good job.

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2011-08-17T18:57:00.002Z

Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age by Gregory Wolfe

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this because of its message that the truth needs to be shown and seen as beautiful, in other words, that a raw, ideological message will not win the day. The clue is if you are preaching in fatigues and heavy boots (+ dark glasses), then you are probably off of the mark!

There are specific chapters on Evelyn Waugh, Russell Kirk, Wendell Berry,as well as a list of lesser known writers and artists. The general thrust is Catholic in the Roman sense, but there is plenty here for robust protestants.
View all my reviews

2011-08-15T21:10:00.004Z

Real Education
In the controversial BBC interview with Dr David Starkey regarding the riots of last week, one of the co-presenters pointed how how she was using rap to teach kids literacy and language, or something along those lines.

This makes one thing very clear: real substantive learning is off the menu. Children are being separated from genuine learning, a mile at a time. In fact, the solution to the problem is consistently to dispense more of the problem and in larger doses. All in the name of progress.

The Old Oaks Academy (http://www.theoaksacademy.org/) has just the right picture of what is required (above). A stack of interesting books, ones that have been enthralling, challenging and engaging to a multitude of generations of all races and classes and backgrounds.

2011-08-14T18:49:00.001Z

Giving money & power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys - P.J. O'Rourke

2011-08-03T19:46:00.001Z

"Resentment is like taking poison and hoping the other person dies."
St. Augustine of Hippo

2011-07-19T18:38:00.003Z

The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great book. A celebration of reading that is not priggish or fussy, but realistic and cheerful.
Listen to the author below....

2011-07-19T18:36:00.002Z

Alan Jacobs discusses 'The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction' from The New Atlantis on Vimeo.

2011 Emmanuel Family Conference | Emmanuel Evangelical Church

2011-07-02T06:20:00.000Z

2011 Emmanuel Family Conference Emmanuel Evangelical Church

2011-07-01T18:10:00.004Z

Wordsmithy | Why Christians must write, and what they must write about | Doug Wilson from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.

2011-06-24T18:18:00.004Z

2011-04-15T17:09:00.004Z

SERMON: Prov. 23:3-7. The Christian Household
IntroductionWhy are we returning to the subject of home and family life again?
There are a few reasons:
1. family and married life is troubled in our time;
2. family and married life is confused as to what they are, Biblical definitions etc;
3. if you are a family you spend much of each day as a family;
4. As you live out the faith at home, you are doing so as the Kingdom of God, the people of God and the Church of Jesus Christ.

Building a Home
vv3-7. By wisdom a house is built,/ and by understanding it is established;
by knowledge the rooms are filled/ with all precious and pleasant riches.

The proverbs here are about building and establishing a house, a household, a home and therefore a family.
But it is a house that is being built and established. There aren’t separate words in Hebrew for “household”, “home” or “house”. There is basically one word: house. So there isn’t a big distinction between your home, household and house – they are all bound up together.

When you think about it, we do tie these closely together: home = people+place. Because when you rent a cottage in the country for a week in the summer, you don’t move home, you are away from home. Home is home when you are not there. When we think about home are we are talking about a place, not an idea.

What does an established “house” mean?
In Proverbs 9 this points us to the House of Lady Wisdom, v the seduction of Madame Folly(chap 7). The competition of two households:-

1. Wisdom has built her house;
she has hewn her seven pillars.
2She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine;
she has also set her table.
3She has sent out her young women to call
from the highest places in the town,
4 "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!"
To him who lacks sense she says,
5"Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
6Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight."
7Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse,
and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
8 Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
9Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser;/ teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning.

What is Lady Wisdom’s household like?
1. it is built and established v1– it is stable and ordered according to Wisdom, i.e. Biblical teaching.
2. it is hospitable and open (vv2-5)- the purpose of being established is to serve those outside the household. The Christian household reflects the invitation of the Household of God in the gospel.
3. it is place of instruction, wisdom and correction (vv6-9).

But there is a warning…
14:1. The wisest of women builds her house,/ but folly with her own hands tears it down.
Why does Solomon place the wife/woman in such a key position? Why not mention both husbands and wives?
C. F. Kiel: “A wise mother can, if her husband be dead or neglectful in his duty, always keep the house together; but if the housewife has neither understanding nor goodwill for her calling, then the best will of the house-father cannot hinder the desolation of the house...” (1: 289)

So as wives you are so crucial and central to the well-ordering of your home and family life, you have a great power for good, or otherwise.
So the question is: what kind of home, culture, place are you building and establishing?
What are the things that you must build with to make a stable household?

1. A clear determination to seek Wisdom and Understanding.
We have said before that these words are not merely intellectual categories – they are concerned with taking the fear of the LORD and applying it to life.
It is these things that enrich the home: v4 ..by knowledge the rooms are filled/ with all precious and pleasant riches.

• In our culture people are spending more time and effort on elaborate weddings, and less and less on a lasting marriage;
• In our culture we are obsessed with decorating and furnishing, but then will fill the place with folly, rebellion, discord and neglect.

This is pivotal to establishing a solid and stable home, life and marriage.

vv5-6. A wise man is full of strength,/ and a man of knowledge enhances his might,
for by wise guidance you can wage your war,/ and in abundance of counsellors there is victory.
Whilst this is a different topic, do you see how it works: wisdom strengthens, counsellors (i.e. advice and fellowship) brings “victory”.

You are aiming to think like a Christian in everything you do. Because you have set wisdom and understanding, knowledge and insight as clear goals for you and your family.
What would have to go, to stop, to cease to achieve that?

2. This means teaching and instruction.
Your home cannot be established on ignorance and an uninformed “love”. You need more than hugs.
Our culture is telling you that you don’t need to think you just need to feel. The hearts wants to lead the head. You need to learn how to think like a Christian in everything.

Fathers and mothers therefore need to lead shape and form their households through instruction:-
1. as family at worship on Sunday;
2. daily in family bible reading and discussion;
3. dinner table conversations that build up;
4. in everyday things and to every day things.

What does an untaught person look like?
v7. Wisdom is too high for a fool;/ in the gate he does not open his mouth.
Wisdom is just out of reach for a fool. He does not even try to attain to it.
The gate is where the elders sit and judge the hard cases, but the fool is not fit to become a wise counsellor.

Learning, instruction and wisdom set the tone, through Bible instruction, good conversation, the books v. entertainment culture. The music? What sets the tone in your house?

3. Your “house” means we are building a culture at home.
But what kind of culture? Is it a wisdom-centred culture?
- Are you selective? Do you make choices or do you flow? Is it TV-centred?

The relationships are right:
• Husbands, are you loving your wife?
• Wives are you are respecting and honouring your husband?
• Children are you loving and obeying your parents?
• Parents are you clear in the love and discipline of your children?

Are you active and decisive in shaping and setting direction for your family? Or do you operate passively?
Conclusion
What kind of household are you building and establishing? What is it like? What could it be like? What does God want it to be like?

2011-04-06T17:17:00.001Z

Boys Adrift: Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really very good, diagnosing the problem with boys:

1. Changes in Education (treating boys and girls the same in Kindergarten)
2. Video Games (passive, alt reality over real life outdoors)
3. Endocrine Disruptors (hormonal impact of some plastics)
4. Failure of example (male role models)
5. Failure to Launch (i.e., to have any real ambition)..

Great book View all my reviews

2011-04-02T05:33:00.002Z

Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education by Stratford Caldecott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a book about education and about education in the liberal arts. Education has been reduced to training and stripped enchantment. There are some really great chapters that show how the enchantment applies to the sciences, astronomy and how the Trinity is rflected in different aspects of that order.

Really very good indeed.

"> The Way we educate is the way we pass on or transform our culture. It carries within it a message about values, priorities, and the way we structure the world. The fragmentation of education into disciplines teaches us that the world is made of bits we can use and consume as we choose. This fragmentation is denial of ultimate meaning. Contemporary education therefore tends to the elimination of meaning - except in the sense of a meaning that we impose by force upon the world.

> The keys to meaning are (and always have been) form, gestalt, beauty, interiority, relationship, radiance, and purpose. An education for meaning would therefore begin with an education in the perception of form. The "re-enchantment" of eduaction would open our eyes to the meaning and beauty of the cosmos.

> Education begins in the family and ends in the Trinity. Praise (of beauty), service (of goodness), and contemplation (of truth) are essential to the full expression of our humanity. The cosmos is liturgical by its very nature". (p.17)

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2011-03-04T15:29:00.000Z

Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning by Jacques Barzun

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a selection of 15 of Barzun's pieces on education. barzun crashes through the sepulchre of modern educational pieties, over turning the tables and driving out the money-changers as he goes. Look-say, trendy education theory, TV, entertainment, the flight from the classics, all suffer at his hand.

As education is a result and teaching is the process towards the formation of an educated person, the book is about teaching and how we teach. Home educating parents will find a great deal to restore sanity and balance in what they do.

In short, education now focuses on the "self" rather than the subject, the current rather than the permenant. The real value of classics, according to Barzun is that they are difficult. They are difficult because they expose us to the minds of those who havbe thought and written ina different context and in a different age. "The great works do not yeild their cargo on demand. But if one reads them with concentration..., the feccte gives us possession of a vast store of vicarious experience.."
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2011-02-26T17:02:00.005Z

Emmanual Evangelical Church

SERMON: Revelation 5:1-14. Music, Worship and Life
(LISTEN HERE)
Introduction
In the Magician's Nephew C S Lewis describes the creation of the world like this,

“In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing.……Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars. They didn’t come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness; next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out – single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had seen and heard it, as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves which were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing”(p. 120)

Music at the creation. Music at the beginning. Maybe Lewis was picking up on Job 38:4-7.

.."Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
..when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

The angels sang as they witnessed the creation of the universe. Music and song announce the beginnings…

We want to improve our singing and our music. Just as we want to work on our fellowship and life together, our evangelism and our living in the home and more, why would we not want to improve our musical life together? But to do that we must understand what our music is.

What is the scene in Revelation 5?
We are in heaven, before the throne of the Father, and Christ, the slain Lamb, has ascended: but there is a problem. There is a scroll, but it is sealed with seven seals and no one is worthy to open it. So John starts to weep. But an elder assures John, “Weep no more; behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David , has conquered so that he can open the scroll and it’s seven seals” (v5). You know who this is: it is the triumphant ascended Messiah.

The scroll is the purpose of God, the covenant; because when the seals are opened things start to happen on earth (chap 6 onwards): judgment on Israel.

A slain, but living Lamb appears, with seven horns and seven eyes (which represents the Holy Spirit), he takes the scroll. (Note: no sweet, gentle lamb, this!). Christ will unfold the covenant purposes of the Father.
Look what happens next: vv8-10.

“And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying...”

The four creatures and the 24 elders (old covenant [12 tribes] + new covenant church [12 apostles]) bow down with harps and sing,

"Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth."

Moreover the song of heaven describes a great deal:
1. it tells us that Christ has complete control of everything that is going to happen;
2. that the world is going to be saved, as the church is drawn out of all peoples;
3. that the new people of God are Kingdom and Priests, fulfilling what OC Israel was to have been (Ex 19:6);
4. and that they reign on earth.

Then the song unfolds: vv11-14,

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!" And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Note the fact that they “say” these words does not mean they are not sung – look at v9, “They sang a new song, saying..” You “say” songs by singing them.
So there are three songs in this chapter:
• the elder’s song: v10. "Worthy are you to take the scroll..
• the angels’ song: v12. "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.. (note the angels are not singing about their experience , but what God has done).
• the song of all creation: v13. "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!"

What about music?
So what have we got, that will help us understand music?

1. Music transcends life on earth;
Music begins in God’s presence, in heaven, in our worship and is reflected out into the rest of our lives.
As the image of God we make music,… but there is more than that.
• God sings. Zeph 3:17. The LORD your God is in your midst,/ a mighty one who will save;/ he will rejoice over you with gladness;/ he will quiet you by his love;/he will exult over you with loud singing.”
• Angels sing (5:11).
• Creation sings: Ps 96:11-12. “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;/ let the sea roar, and all that fills it;/let the field exult, and everything in it!/ Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy”
We tend to think of music as an adornment, an add-on, a side-order. In the Bible it is more basic and fundamental than that.

2. Music is at the heart of worship;
What we have in Revelation 5 is worship. God acts in Christ, and His church, the angelic host, all respond in song – with harps and voices.
Historically, in the church there have been two opposite tendencies with music in worship: (1). those who argue for a controlled use of singing and musical accompaniment in worship; (2). and the more “spiritual” groups who argued for no-singing as the actions of the heart do the job well enough.
John Calvin in his preface to the Psalms says,

“..there is hardly anything in the world with more power to turn or bend this way and that, the morals of men, as Plato has prudently considered. And in fact we find by experience that it has a secret and almost incredible power to move our hearts in one way or another.”

The Reformers knew the power of music and revived a more rhythmic and vibrant form of worship music.

• Often We make a big distinction between Church/worship music and music for the rest of life. And when we don’t make that distinction it is usually in the wrong direction.
• If all of life flows out of the presence of God into the world and all of life, then music ought not to be the exception.
• What would that mean? Lots of lost ground. We used to have a worship centred music that flowed into the streets. Now we trawl the street corners for a good looking tune on Sunday morning.

3. Music is a response to the expanding and unfolding of God’s purposes and Christ’s conquest!
At the beginning we saw that music, in some way, announces the works of God.
Music is responsive, before it is creative. Rather than be obsessed with originality, we need to be obsessed with responsiveness.

This happens over and over again in Scripture:
• Israel comes out of Egypt and sings: Ex 19,
• Messiah’s birth: Luke 1-3, the Mary’s song and Zechariah’s, then Angelic Song (2:14), and Simeon’s in 2:29-32..

Qu: so to what purpose are these songs? What are the songs of the Bible sung meant to do to us?
As modern people we say, “Because they are away to express our worship!” Yes, but how?
This is where St. Athanasius (5th century) is helpful. He wrote pastoral letter to Marcellinus on how to the use Psalms:

“..the reader takes all its words upon his lips as though they were his own, and each one sings the Psalms as though they had been written for his special benefit, and takes them and recites them, not as though someone else were speaking or another person's feelings being described, but as himself speaking of himself, offering the words to God as his own heart's utterance, just as though he himself had made them up.”

Athanasius says that we are “taught in it the emotions of the soul”.

Why do we sing psalms and pray Bible prays? Because we want our response to God to be disciplined by the Bible.
But too often, as modern people, what happens is we are looking for a way to express ourselves. We are told that to be authentic, we must be who we are, everything must align with me. The opposite is the case.

Conclusion
• Let’s work on our music, in worship, in everyday life, so as to glorify Him, and reflect the glory of heavenly worship.

2011-02-03T20:23:00.000Z

Head Scratching
"The Church is puzzled by the world's indifference. She is trying to overcome it by adapting her message to the fashions of the day. But if, instead, before the conflict, she would descend into the secret place of meditation, if by the clear light of the gospel she would seek an answer not merely to the questions of the hour but, first of all,to the eternal problems of the spiritual world, then perhaps, by God's grace, through His good Spirit, in His good time, she might issue forth once more with power, and an age of doubt might be followed by the dawn of an era of faith."

Christianity & Culture by J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) )

2011-02-02T20:19:00.001Z

Religion out in the corridor..
"Our whole system of school and college education is so constituted as to keep religion and culture as far apart as possible and ignore the question of the relationship between them. On five or six days in the week, we were engaged in the acquisition of knowledge. From this activity the study of religion was banished. We studied natural science without considering its bearing or lack of bearing upon natural theology or upon revelation. We studied Greek without opening the New Testament. We studied history with careful avoidance of that greatest of historical movements which was ushered in by the preaching of Jesus. In philosophy, the vital importance of the study for religion could not entirely be concealed, but it was kept as far as possible in the background. On Sundays, on the other hand, we had religious instruction that called for little exercise of the intellect."

(Christianity & Culture by J. Gresham Machen (1881-1937) )

2011-02-01T22:02:00.002Z

"Right Reason" and the Princeton Mind: An Unorthodox Proposal by Paul K. Helseth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Superb. Argues more continuity between and old Princeton and Machen and Van Til.

"When Old Princeton's religious epistemology is interpreted within a context that acknowledges the soul is a single unit that acts in all its functions- its thinking, feeling and willing - as a single substance , it becomes clear that Princeton theologians were not Enlightenment rationalists whose confidence in the mind led them to ignore the importance of the subjective and the centrality of experience in religious epistemology." (p. 5)

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2011-01-26T06:24:00.003Z

TEN WAYS TO DESTROY THE IMAGINATION OF YOUR CHILD by Anthony Esolen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

By the translator of the Divine Comedy, this is a tremendous attack on the erosion and dismantling of the imagaination of our children. Here are the ten ways:

1. Keep your children in doors as much as possible;

2. Never leave children to themselves;

3. Replace the fairy tale with political cliches and fads;

4. Keep children away from machines and machinists;

5. Cast aspersions upon the heroic and the patriotic;

6. Cut all heroes down to size;

7. Reduce all talk of love to narcissism and sex;

8. Level distinctions between men and women;

9. Distract the child with the shallow and the unreal;

10. Deny the transcendent.

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2011-01-11T21:10:00.002Z

"The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own are not enough for me, I will see through the eyes of others. Reality, even though through the eyes of many is not enough. I will see what others have invented. Even the eyes of all humanity are not enough. I regret that brutes cannot write books. Very gladly would I learn what face things present to a mouse or a bee; more gladly still would I perceive the olfactory world charged with all the information and emotion it carries in a dog".

"To see things as a poet sees them the reader must share his consciousness and not attend to it; I must look where he looks and not turn around to face him; I must make of him not a spectacle but a pair of spectacles: in fine... I must enjoy him and not contemplate him".

2011-01-09T20:17:00.004Z

The Spirit and Beauty
In the Institutes (I XIII. 14) Calvin writes of the work of the Spirit:

".."the Spirit of God was over the deeps" [Gen 1:2], or formless matter; for it shows not only that the beauty of the universe (which we now perceive) owes its strength and preservation to the power to the Spirit, but that before the adornment was added, even then the Spirit was occuped with tending that comfused mass".

The important point here is that the Spirit brings form and therefore beauty to the creation, thus "the beauty of the universe (which we now perceive) owes its strength and preservation to the power to the Spirit". Beauty is the work of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is not ugly or incoherant. But also, we have some hints as to what constitutes beauty, or rather that "form" is a vital ingredient of Spirit-filled beauty. Shape, order, sequence, proportion and coherance all make for beauty. A formless void is not beautiful. If we then want to know what form looks like, the answer lies all around us and in us: look at the created order.

2011-01-03T09:26:00.007Z

Reading from Christmas...

2010-12-25T02:52:00.002Z

Of Christmas..
"Its unique note is the simultaneous striking of many notes; of humility, of gaiety, of gratitude, of mystical fear, but also of vigilance and drama."

G. K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man.

2010-12-24T14:56:00.001Z

"A dead thing can go with the the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."

G. K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man.

2010-12-24T09:11:00.012Z

De Descriptione Temporum: Cambridge, 1954.
In 1954 C. S. Lewis was inaugerated to The Chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University. On the day of his inaugeration he gave the address "De Descriptione Temporum", where he aimed to elucidate the phases and transitions of culture, whilst, at the same time, distancing himself from current views.

Early on in the lecture, Lewis stated,

"From the formula "Medieval and Renaissance”, then, I inferred that the University was encouraging my own belief that the barrier between those two ages has been greatly exaggerated, if indeed it was not largely a figment of Humanist propaganda. At the very least, I was ready to welcome any increased flexibility in our conception of history. All lines of demarcation between what we call "periods" should be subject to constant revision. Would that we could dispense with them altogether!"

Then having explained why he rejects some of the phases and divisions that have be current at different times, these were "Antiquity and the Dark Ages", "Mark Ages to the Middles Ages" and "towards the end of the seventeenth century", with the work of Descartes and the new Copernician science, he moved to state his own view.

Whilst these were all important transitions, they are not the ones Lewis wanted to draw attention to and were not the most, in his opinion, significant:

"But roughly speaking we may say that whereas all history was for our ancestors divided into two periods, the pre-Christian and the Christian, and two only, for us it falls into three-the pre-Christian, the Christian, and what may reasonably be called the post-Christian. This surely must make a momentous difference. I am not here considering either the christening or the un-christening from a theological point of view. I am considering them simply as cultural changes."

The Christian to post-Christian transition is hard to pinpoint exactly,

"It is by these steps that I have come to regard as the greatest of all divisions in the history of the West that which divides the present from, say, the age of Jane Austen and Scott. The dating of such things must of course be rather hazy and indefinite. No one could point to a year or a decade in which the change indisputably began, and it has probably not yet reached its peak. But somewhere between us and the Waverley Novels, somewhere between us and Persuasion, the chasm runs. Of course, I had no sooner reached this result than I asked myself whether it might not be an illusion of perspective. The distance between the telegraph post I am touching and the next telegraph post looks longer than the sum of the distances between all the other posts. Could this be an illusion of the same sort? We cannot pace the periods as we could pace the posts. I can only set out the grounds on which, after frequent reconsideration, I have found myself forced to reaffirm my conclusion."

There are four aspects of this change that lewis drives home:

1. Changes in the political order. The change here is "government by advertisement". Opinion and campaigning have become major aspects of political life.

"If I wished to satirise the present political order I should borrow for it the name which Punch invented during the first German War: Govertisetnent. This is a portmanteau word and means “government by advertisement”. But my intention is not satiric; I am trying to be objective. The change is this. In all previous ages that I can think of the principal aim of rulers, except at rare and short intervals, was to keep their subjects quiet, to forestall or extinguish widespread excitement and persuade people to attend quietly to their several occupations."

2. Changes in the arts "I think it towers above every possible rival." Lewis stated boldly, "I do not think that any previous age produced work which was, in its own time, as shatteringly and bewilderingly new as that of the Cubists, the Dadaists, the Surrealists, and Picasso has been in ours."

3. Religious Change, or "the un-christening." This is not the same, in fact it cannto be, a reversion to paganism,

"What lurks behind such idle prophecies, if they are anything but careless language, is the false idea that the historical process allows mere reversal; that Europe can come out of Christianity "by the same door as in she went" and find herself back where she was. It is not what happens. A post-Christian man is not a Pagan; you might as well think that a married woman recovers her virginity by divorce. The post-Christian is cut off from the Christian past and therefore doubly from the Pagan past."

4. "The birth of the machines". Here Lewis says, "I play my trump card". With this comes the desire for the pursuit of the modern, the lates and the newest as automatically the best. Lewis compains,

"Conversely, our assumption that everything is provisional and soon to be superseded, that the attainment of goods we have never yet had, rather than the defence and conservation of those we have already, is the cardinal business of life, would most shock and bewilder them if they could visit ours."

In conclusion Lewis drives home two points in defence of his interpretation. This "study of a dead period",

"To study the past does indeed liberate us from the present, from the idols of our own market-place. But I think it liberates us from the past too. I think no class of men are less enslaved to the past than historians. The unhistorical are usually, without knowing it, enslaved to a fairly recent past. Dante read Virgil. Certain other medieval authors evolved the legend of Virgil as a great magician. It was the more recent past, the whole quality of mind evolved during a few preceding centuries, which impelled them to do so. Dante was freer; he also knew more of the past. And you will be no freer by coming to misinterpret Old Western Culture as quickly and deeply as those medievals misinterpreted Classical Antiquity; or even as the Romantics misinterpreted the Middle Ages. Such misinterpretation has already begun. To arrest its growth while arrest is still possible is surely a proper task for a university."

And to conclude, Lewis cleverly reminded his audience "I myself belong far more to that Old Western order than to yours. I am going to claim that this, which in one way is a disqualification for my task, is yet in another a qualification." Lewis closes,

"Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you somewhat as that Athenian might stand. I read as a native texts that you must read as foreigners. You see why I said that the claim was not really arrogant; who can be proud of speaking fluently his mother tongue or knowing his way about his father's house? It is my settled conviction
that in order to read Old Western literature aright you must suspend most of the responses and unlearn most of the habits you have acquired in reading modem literature. And because this is the judgement of a native, I claim that, even if the defence of my conviction is weak, the fact of my conviction is a historical datum to which you should give full weight. That way, where I fail as a critic, I may yet be useful as a specimen. I would even dare to go further. Speaking not only for myself but for all other Old Western men whom you may meet, I would say, use your specimens while you can. There are not going to be many more dinosaurs."

This lecture expressed the summation of Lewis's case against modernity, secularism and his defence of tradition, legacy and the past. Not surprisingly, this speech did not endear him to the Cambridge establishment. For a long time, Lewis had stood against the tide of the new criticism and the new poetry. Now, from this elevated platform he was to state his intentions as the first occupant of The Chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University.

2010-12-23T14:54:00.000Z

"The statement that the meek shall inherit the earth is very far from being a meek statement".

G. K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man.

2010-12-22T14:48:00.000Z

"The effect of this staleness is the same everywhere; it is seen in the drug-taking and dram-drinking and every form of the tendency to increase the dose. Men seek stronger sins or more startling obscenities as stimulants to their jaded sense.. they try to stab their nerves to life, if it were with the knives of the priests of Baal. They are walking in their sleep and try to wake themselves with nightmares".

G. K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man.

2010-12-21T14:45:00.001Z

"..there is something slightly odd about despising and dismissing the doctrine of the Trinity as a mystical and inimical contradiction; and then asking us to adore a deity who is a hundred million powers in one God".
G. K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man.

2010-12-20T14:44:00.000Z

"Art is the signature of man".

G. K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man.

2010-12-19T14:42:00.002Z

"Man is not merely an evolution but rather a revolution"
(of the supposed evolution of man form apes..)
G. K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man.

2010-12-10T19:58:00.008Z

Books of 2010
If you want to see what I enjoyed reading this year, then look HERE.
But here are my favourites

Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited
G. K. Chesterton: The Everlasting Man
Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design.
Nicholas G.Carr, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains.
David Hicks. Norms and Nobility
C S Lewis, The Four Loves and The Great Divorce
Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace
Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary.
Robert Letham, The Westminster Assembly: Reading Its Theology in Historical Context.
Christine D. Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality As A Christian Tradition.
Andrew A. Tadie, G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis: The Riddle of Joy &
Permanent Things: Toward the Recovery of a More Human Scale at the End of the Twentieth Century.
Owen Barfield, History in English Words
Nick Davies, Flat Earth News: An Award-winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media.
Theodore Dalrymple, Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality.

2010-12-08T21:07:00.001Z

Against the Machine: Being Human in the Era of the Electronic Mob by Lee Siegel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Siegel gives a warning about the social change that an uncritical welcoming of internet culture has brought. The private sphere and the public have been made one. The role of the accomplished and the expert is despised in favour of the wisdom of the crowd. The exhibitionism, the new YOUniverse of the internet feeds our modern pre-occupation with self-expression and "me".

Very worthwhile, alongside "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr.

A few quotes...

"Now our interior lives can be sold like merchandise and all under cover of Bobo's seemingly outlaw energy"

Of American Idol, "Walking echo chambers of many pieces of famous styles, they have acheived a land of spectacular anti-achievement."

"Welcome to the Youniverse".

"We find it harder to accept the immutable limitations imposed by identity, talent, personality. We start to behave in public as if we are acting in private and we begin to fill our private world with gargantuan public appetites. In other words, we find it hard to bear simply being human".

2010-11-29T20:15:00.002Z

FORUM: 5. Competition

Introduction
Moving from ambition to competition is a short step. No sooner have we established the answer to “what do you want”, than we find that there are other people in the world too, and some of those people are about the same business. Moreover, lots of them are very good at it.

Competition is more than a free market or economics debate.

Qu: What are the different types of competition?

sports, fighting, war, business, selling, education, racing, team sports, games, playing, examinations, interviews/employment, annual reviews, competitions, performances, elections,..

As soon as there are two people doing similar or the same kinds of things, there is the potential for competition. As soon as there are two people running, kicking a ball, or selling shoes, etc... there is competition. Competition is inevitable.

But that is not the end of it: the underlying fact is there is competition and there is competition. Not all competition is the same, and again, the direction of our hearts is key.

As you can imagine there are a spectrum of views amongst Christians:

“Many [competitive] sporting and leisure activities would be close to meaningless without competition. It provides the challenge, the fun, the motivation, and the reward for achievement. Competition forces people to extend themselves, to scale greater heights, to run faster, to hit harder, in short, to excel.”( Sadler, Royce D., “Competition and the Christian Ethic,” Journal of Christian Education (Vol. 39, No. 1, April, 1996), p. 45.)

“Competition produces aggression, rivalry, conflict, cheating and discrimination which are anathema to the Christian conscience. For the Christian, the ideal is not competition but cooperation, which by comparison produces mutual benefits, modesty and harmony.”( Griffiths, Brian, The Creation of Wealth: a Christian’s Case for Capitalism (IVP, 1984), p.70.)

I. Principle of interpretation
The way that God directs our lives is different to the way our culture/society/State does. God does not give us a list of things we are permitted to do, He tends to give us a list of “don’ts” – which is liberating. If God has not forbidden it, then it is permissible.

So if competition was inherently evil, wrong etc, then we would expect to find a prohibition somewhere in the Bible. If it’s harmful, God usually tells us.

That is not an invitation to switch of our heads, and conform to everyone else’s, least of all our culture’s, idea of competition, but it is a starting point.

II. The Apostle Paul speaks in competitive, athletic terms:
If competition was inherently wrong, then this might get tricky. In fact Paul urges competition:

I Cor 9:24-27. 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Here not only presses the sporting analogy into service, but points to the competitive elements as a valid motivation, “only one receives the prize”. The Isthmian Games were held in Corinth, so everyone knew what Paul was getting at. If competition was inherently wrong, then there would be plenty to say here – but it is not said. Paul points to racing, boxing and fighting ( “beating the air”). (See: Gal 5:7; Phil 2:16; 3:14; Col 2:18; Heb 12:1; 2 Tim 4:7).

Paul’s athletic, competitive striving is all of that, but it contains the twist: humility, preferring each other, Rom. 12:9-11,

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour. 11Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord.

Literally, “going before, taking precedence” – but the twist, “in showing honour”. In other words, it is possible to have a genuine competitiveness in the spirit of humility, grace, and brotherly love etc.

III. There are great blessings (all round) associated with competition.
We all have been given different gifts and therefore have different strengths and weaknesses. We have all done different things with our gifts, opportunities and strengths.
But with valid competition there are many blessings:-

• Competition motivates us to push ourselves more than we might if rewards weren’t available or if we weren’t racing to be better, faster, more successful, etc.
Phil 3:14. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
• Competition promotes excellence, not just for the “winner”, but for all participants. E.g., in a piano competition everyone improves in the process of competing.
• Competition forces us to be productive because we live in a scarce world, and God has built a connection between striving and goals; laziness and poverty.
Heb 12:1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ..
• Competition protects us from the greed and complacency which inevitably emerges when a firm or business has a monopoly.
Col 2:18. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,
• Competition means everyone benefits: customers benefit, suppliers are stretched to perform.

Conclusion
Humility calls for gratitude and grace in winning, being the best, but also rejoicing in the gifts of others, their strengths; the complement; the provocation to grow and improve.

2010-11-27T07:16:00.000Z

Abel - WKO 207 per viola da gamba - Nima Ben David

2010-11-25T18:38:00.000Z

Abel - WKO 205 per viola da gamba - Nima Ben David

2010-11-23T19:06:00.001Z

Jordi Savall,
Hespèrion XXI - Pavana&Gallarda, Inozzenzo Alberti (1535-1615)

2010-11-18T22:54:00.001Z

Textbooks or Real Books?
"Modern education depends on textbooks. Instead, teachers should demand that our older students struggle with difficult arguments from a wide range of original documents and great literary works. The author or team of authors of a textbook have sorted through standard references and consulted educational associations to determine what basic information should be included in their volume. The authors and editors do the hard work of summarizing the most important information relating to a subject instead of letting students research and summarize the information. "

The CORE (P. 31)

2010-11-18T19:01:00.001Z

The power of reading...

Backstage Interview - Ben Carson from GiANT Impact on Vimeo.

2010-11-14T18:00:00.000Z

FORUM: Ambition and Competition (3)

Introduction
Today we are going to concentrate on applying what we have accumulated over the last two weeks.
Where do these things fit, indeed, how do they fit, into a Christian understanding of life, on the ground?

We have seen that we are trying to address two related but opposite problems:-

1. Low ambition: lack of drive and direction; poor discipline; neglect of gifts and strengths; missed and wasted opportunities;
2. Misdirected ambition: ambition is directed toward the wrong things for the wrong reasons; self-promotion; glory; praise of men; sense of worth; wealth and comfort etc…

We have seen that the resolution lies in God Himself revealed in Christ and the fact that we are created in the image of God to serve in His kingdom.

I. The Gospel as Ambition
Rom. 2:6-11
6 He will render to each one according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. 9There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.

• So the whole purpose of God can be described as a pursuit of the right ambition: our final assessment will be on the basis of “what ambition did you seek?”

1. Paul is addressing Romans and therefore to talk about glory, honour, and immortality (v7b)in that classical world is very significant;
2. But it is re-interpreted in Biblical terms: they describe the resurrection-future of God (I Cor 15:42-54).

II. Applying the principles…
It is biblical to address the cases of different kinds of people at different stages of life (e.g. Eph 5:22–6:9; 1 Jn 2:12-14). So that’s what we will do:

1. How do we nurture the right ambitions in our children?
 Be demanding without being unreasonable… don’t exasperate, but don’t under utilise either!
 Protect them from the world, but not from responsibility;
 Regularly talk about the future, plans, gifts and opportunities;
 Nurture godly objectives and challenge selfish and unworthy ones, when they appear;
 Remember: what’s important to you will be important to them...
 Introduce reality: how will you earn a living?
 Teach them that life will be tough, but that is good for us – God has made it that way;
 Always address the heart, not just behaviour: motivation, “What were you thinking….?”
 Assign real work and service. Expect it to be done to the right standard.
 Don’t nurture a partitioned life: sacred v. secular; evangelism v. work…

2. What do Men need to think about?
 Always challenge a lack of drive or determination – this is a lesson in self-control;
 Young men look for marriage and grasp growing responsibility;
 Our culture (and Evangelical culture) has contributed to the loss of robust masculinity – resist it;
 Men are fundamentally a bit lazy: so cultivate self-discipline and self-control. Have a plan, a regime and stick to it;
 Love and faith “cast out fear” and also a lack of confidence. Justification by faith in Christ is the basis for confidence.
 Cultivate “vision”. What do you want to do? Be involved in of the kingdom of God?
 Nurture and strengthen a sense of service and calling;

3. What Women need to remember?
 The fact that different roles are assigned to women for men, does not imply less ability or responsibility. E.g. the woman of Prov. 31:1-31 is obviously superior to many men ;
 In our culture women need to be encouraged to be godly women without embarrassment, with the intense pressure to work outside the home (mothers); plan a career that works against marriage and family; …
 Serving is good, home is a good place (biblically defined)... despite what our culture says...

Conclusion
Ambition is a core subject: it addresses what we are as the image of God, it challenges our deepest desires and motivations; and it calls us to the richness of Trinitarian, Christ-like ambition wrapped in service, sacrifice and self-giving.

HouseBlog: Ten Great Books about Books

2010-11-10T23:03:00.000Z

HouseBlog: Ten Great Books about Books
"Not only do I love books and reading, but I love reading books about books and reading. This post will survey some of my favorites. A few key books have been left off. Any of you readers are free to add your own choices. " Ben House

2010-11-10T22:55:00.001Z

Darwin or Design?

A chance to hear Michael Behe in London

All of us are interested in the question of origins. Ever since Darwin’s landmark book On the Origin of Species, the question of design has been controversial. Didn’t Darwin’s theory settle the design question once and for all? Isn’t design in the natural world merely apparent rather than real?

Not all scientists agree with this view. Professor Mike Behe is one of the most prominent among those who have questioned whether random mutation and natural selection really do have the fabulous creative power usually attributed to them. His carefully-argued work in Darwin’s Black Box and The Edge of Evolution has proved controversial, but it has by no means been refuted as is often claimed.

So where does the truth lie in this important matter? Is it Darwin or Design? Rather than rely on second-hand opinions about this fascinating field, we invite you to come along to one of Professor Behe’s lectures - and find out for yourself.

2010-11-10T22:45:00.003Z

Early Music Festival
Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London SE10 9LW
12th - 14th November 2010
Don't miss it - Early Music Festival
Instruments, music, concerts, period instruments, makers and performers....

2010-11-09T21:09:00.000Z

Glacier boffins rubbish IPCC apocalypse claims
UN doom prophecy 'does not pass closer examination'

Glacier and climate boffins have issued a stinging poohpooh to recent alarmist pronouncements on climate-change-driven glacier melt - in particular from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“In the last few years numbers have been named that do not pass a closer examination,“ says glaciologist and climatologist Georg Kaser of Innsbruck uni. “It is an exaggeration when it is claimed that the melting of glaciers endangers the water supply of two billion people.”

Read the rest Here

2010-11-07T22:11:00.001Z

FORUM: Ambition and Competition II (Notes)

Introduction
We are trying to understand ambition, but that is a part of our attitude to the future. Ambition is formed by our view of the future. In other words, ambition is an eschatological question: what will happen in the future? Where will I fit in that future?
If we understand that God is active in the world, because Christ has ascended as the new King of the world, then we must allow this to determine our ambitions.

We are answering the question: where does ambition fit, in a worldview that is shaped by the fruit of the Spirit: self-control, kindness, generosity, kindness etc?

We cannot “switch off” these virtues in the world of work and career thinking, or Christian calling.
We head in one of two directions:

1. Low ambition: lack of drive and direction; poor discipline; neglect of gifts and strengths; missed and wasted opportunities;
2. Misdirected ambition: ambition is directed toward the wrong things for the wrong reasons; self-promotion; glory; praise of men; sense of worth; wealth and comfort etc…

Last week we saw that God is ambitious: He has a purpose (Rom 11:36), and a sovereign will (Eph 1:11-12), but God’s ambitions reflect the self-giving life of the Trinity.

The Son's purpose and prayer is the Father's glory – not His own (Jn 12:28); but God the Father glorifies the Son, and is glorified in the Son (13:31-32). The Spirit glorifies the Son (16:14). The purpose of glorifying the Son is to glorify the Father (17:1). God glorifies Himself through service, humility and honouring the other person. Jn 14:9-11.

We also saw that ambition is not something you can get away from: it is inevitable – where it is directed is what counts.

Now, let’s understand the workings of ambition in more detail: Proverbs

1. Ambition in the right direction.
Prov. 3:13-18.
13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
and the one who gets understanding,
14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
and her profit better than gold.

Look at the terms: “finds”, “gets”, “gain” and “profit”. These are commercial terms, all ambition words: they imply an objective, a drive and a benefit.
But the ambition is pointed towards the pursuit of wisdom. Are we ambitious for wisdom?

The result of this pursuit is described:

15 She is more precious than jewels,
and nothing you desire can compare with her. 1. Better than wealth
16 Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honour. 2. Longevity
3. Wealth
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace. 4. Peace
18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;
those who hold her fast are called blessed. 5. Tree of life and blessing.

In Proverbs long life, wealth and peace are not directly to be strived for, wisdom is to be strived for, rather these things are the by-product.
The world makes the prosperity the objective, bypassing wisdom and the fear of the LORD.

Prov. 6:6-11. How looking at the ant, addresses ambition?
6 Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
8 she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.

1. You need to take initiative;
2. You need to act on the opportunity;
3. Don’t take the wrong kind of rest;
4. Shun laziness;
5. Lack of godly ambition brings poverty.

Prov. 11:1-8. Ambition in detail: applying wisdom
11:1-8. What does this say about ambition?
1 A false balance is an abomination to the LORD,
but a just weight is his delight.
This is the desire to gain no matter what.

2 When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with the humble is wisdom.
Pride is too often our driver – but humility is the link to wisdom.

3 The integrity of the upright guides them,
but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
Integrity - guidance.

4 Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
but righteousness delivers from death.
Righteousness over riches, as a source of protection.

5 The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight,
but the wicked falls by his own wickedness.
Pursue righteousness, and God straightens out the way.

6 The righteousness of the upright delivers them,
but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.
Treacherousness – lust

7When the wicked dies, his hope will perish,
and the expectation of wealth perishes too.
Hope beyond death

8 The righteous is delivered from trouble,
and the wicked walks into it instead
Foresight

Conclusion
Ambition is inescapable. You can have more or less, but we usually want something. The key is to align ourselves with God’s great purposes in Christ and for His church.

2010-11-06T06:53:00.000Z

FORUM: Ambition and Competition I (notes)

Introduction
Continuing in the very broad theme of work, life and living, we come to the topics: ambition, aspiration, and therefore competition..

Ambition:
Where do these things fit, indeed, do they fit, into a Christian understanding of life: ambition has a negative ring, “Oh, he’s ambitious!”, which is another way of saying, “Watch out!” It has a tinge of self-driven, sacrificing others, trampling over or expending other people on my route to my goals.

Definitions (Oxford)
“something that you want to do or achieve very much” or “the desire or determination to be successful, rich, powerful, etc”

On the other hand, what does a person with no ambition look like? What is achieved? Someone who is not concerned to achieve anything or have a role, is that godly? Sometimes it’s mistaken for humility, meekness.. Or is it just a lack of godly drive and energy?

How does ambition fit with grace, self-control, kindness, gentleness, love, self-sacrifice….?

Maybe the problem is not ambition itself, but what kind of ambition...
The test is, what do you put after the word “ambition”? I.e. ambitious for _________. You can apply that “test” to anything: love, hatred… None of these are automatically good, or bad!

What do the following passages say about ambition? What kinds of ambition can you find there?

Rom. 15:20. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation.

Gk: philotimeomai: ambitious of honour, here endeavour earnestly..

Gal 5:20. idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions

Gk: epithia: factions, party spirit, strife..

Phil 1:17. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.

Phil 2:3. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

1 Thess. 4:11. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you,

Jas 3:14. But if you harbour bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.
Jas 3:16. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
Note: When we talk about ambition, it depends what you mean.

First, this week, a theological walk through…

1. Is God ambitious?
Is there any sense in which we can say that God is ambitious?

Rom 11:36. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Rom 16:27 …to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Eph 1:11-12. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory…

Jn 12:28 "Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”

The Son's purpose and prayer is the Father's glory – not His own

13:31-32. So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, ....

But God the Father glorifies the Son, and is glorified in the Son

16:14. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

The Spirit glorifies the Son

17:1. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,..

The purpose of glorifying the Son is to glorify the Father

14:9-11. Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? ....it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ... I am in the Father and the Father is in me..

God glorifies Himself through service, humility and honouring the other person.

2. Is Christ ambitious?

Jn 4:33. "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

Jn 5:30. "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Jn 6:38. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

3. Man has to be ambitious!
For this go back to Gen 1:26ff and look at the goals set by God for man – the goals that drive ambition.
It’s always your goals that drive your ambitions, as always, it is an issue of the heart…

1. We are created to be like God - v26. “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. So if God is ambitious (has a goal and drives towards it), then so will men and women...
2. We are created with responsibility: “And let them have dominion… over all the earth …”
3. We are created to achieve something: v28f. “And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion …”
Therefore our ambitions work out in 2 fronts:
a. Family and Children- home
b. Dominion/rule - world

4. We are redeemed as human beings, as Jesus adds, "seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness ….”

Conclusion
Ambition is a created drive in us, in it we image God who works, aims towards His great purpose sin Christ and His church. This is perverted and twisted when it is reduced to a selfish drive to self-promotion and glory.

2010-11-04T17:26:00.003Z

SERMON: Prov. 1:1-7. How to become wise (listen here)

Introduction
How many times have you heard this? “He knows it in his head, but not in his heart”. Or, “We want heart knowledge, not just head knowledge”.
What does this do? It sets up a stark contrast between head/mind/understanding or heart/feelings /emotions/experience/ life.
It implies a criticism of head over heart, and that we have two components (one up here, the other down there) – some speak of the “head-heart drop”.

We can see the difficulty: “but doesn’t the Paul say that “knowledge puffs up”? Yes, but it also says that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).
Rather the Bible draws the contrast, not at head-heart, but, with James, between a living and dead faith (Jas 1:22 “.. be doers of the Word and not hearers only”.)

Proverbs offers us a different way of seeing knowledge and wisdom and life that avoids these unhelpful contrasts.
• In fact, the head-heart antithesis, I expect, really harks back to the Enlightenment and it’s exaltation of reason/mind, followed by the reaction of Romanticism, which lifted up the “heart”.
• Since then those words have been loaded with those meanings rather than Biblical contents.

This leads us in all the wrong directions:
• firstly, it degrades “understanding” and the mind in favour of the “heart”;
• secondly, by equating the heart with feeling/emotion over mind and reason, exalts experience.
• The result is yet another unhelpful antithesis or contrast that plays off two friends as opposites.

I. Look at the breadth and scope of Biblical wisdom..
v1. “ The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:..”
Solomon asked God for wisdom: what did he receive? I Kings 3:9-14:

Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people,
that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this
your great people?"
and then in I Kings 4:29f:
v32-34. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
Do you see the scope of Solomon’s wisdom? Righteous rule, but also biology, botany,…!!
This is reflected in the fact that Proverbs (see Ch 10 onwards) is concerned with everything: farming, sex, households, children, work, wealth, death etc….

Look at vv2-7: How many wisdom words are there?

2 To know wisdom and instruction,
to understand words of insight,
3 to receive instruction in wise dealing,
in righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to give prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth—
5 Let the wise hear and increase in learning,
and the one who understands obtain guidance,
6 to understand a proverb and a saying,
the words of the wise and their riddles.

7 The fear of the LORD is the
beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Wisdom, in the Bible is very broad and full: the “knowledge words” are moral, e.g. instruction is correction or discipline. They are concerned with the whole life not just passing information. In short, biblical wisdom is covenantal, relational and fully integrated.
When we think of “knowledge” we think of brains, but the Bible sees “hands”.

This is seen in how the chapter immediately unfolds: don’t align with the wrong friends (v10) ”My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent…”

II. You learn Biblical wisdom through the Proverbs-process..
Wisdom is not inherent, it does not come pre-loaded, and it is bound up with growth and maturity. We start out “simple” and want to become “wise”.

What is the process of becoming wise?
• Wresting with proverbs – riddles in v6 means obscure sayings. The very obscurity of the proverbs (and the wisdom books) is the wisdom education you need.
• Why isn’t the Bible plain and simple and straight forward – why is it like this? That is part of the wisdom process. You have got to wrestle, unpack, mull-over, and chew to obtain the good stuff!

III. It recognises different people in different states:
Fool – the opposite of the wise, who does not fear the LORD and is headed towards destruction and death.
Simple – in v4 this is paralleled to the “youth”. He is the inexperienced, slightly naive, easily-taken-in.. He needs to learn prudence or better craftiness or shrewdness.
To be naïve and simple is not an ideal! He needs to grow into wisdom and maturity.
Wise – shaped by discipline, insight, understanding, and growing obedience.

IV. Biblical wisdom is personal.
1. It is the wisdom of God.. 1:7. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. In other words, Biblical wisdom is rooted in faith.
What is the fear of the LORD? Charles Bridges: “..that affectionate reverence, by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law”.
2. Wisdom is personified as the ideal women in (1:20f; 4:6-9; 9:1-12), as opposed to the seducer, Madame Folly. God wants us to think of the pursuit of wisdom as pursuing the right women.
3. It is transmitted personally – 1:8 Hear my son, your father’s instruction... 2:1. My son if you receive my words…

Conclusion
The change we need is not from head to heart, but from folly and simplicity to wisdom, from any empty faith to a loving trusting faith. Someone greater than Solomon is here (Lk 11:31) and He is the wisdom of God. Because wisdom is a matter of faith, there is no wisdom but through Him.

2010-11-02T20:58:00.002Z

C. S. Lewis: On Being Human

Angelic minds, they say, by simple intelligence
Behold the Forms of nature. They discern
Unerringly the Archtypes, all the verities
Which mortals lack or indirectly learn.
Transparent in primordial truth, unvarying,
Pure Earthness and right Stonehood from their clear,
High eminence are seen; unveiled, the seminal
Huge Principles appear.

The Tree-ness of the tree they know-the meaning of
Arboreal life, how from earth's salty lap
The solar beam uplifts it; all the holiness
Enacted by leaves' fall and rising sap;

But never an angel knows the knife-edged severance
Of sun from shadow where the trees begin,
The blessed cool at every pore caressing us
-An angel has no skin.

They see the Form of Air; but mortals breathing it
Drink the whole summer down into the breast.
The lavish pinks, the field new-mown, the ravishing
Sea-smells, the wood-fire smoke that whispers Rest.
The tremor on the rippled pool of memory
That from each smell in widening circles goes,
The pleasure and the pang --can angels measure it?
An angel has no nose.

The nourishing of life, and how it flourishes
On death, and why, they utterly know; but not
The hill-born, earthy spring, the dark cold bilberries.
The ripe peach from the southern wall still hot
Full-bellied tankards foamy-topped, the delicate
Half-lyric lamb, a new loaf's billowy curves,
Nor porridge, nor the tingling taste of oranges.
—An angel has no nerves.

Far richer they! I know the senses' witchery
Guards us like air, from heavens too big to see;
Imminent death to man that barb'd sublimity
And dazzling edge of beauty unsheathed would be.
Yet here, within this tiny, charmed interior,
This parlour of the brain, their Maker shares
With living men some secrets in a privacy
Forever ours, not theirs.

2010-10-25T21:28:00.002Z

Download these talks: HERE

(1) Reformed Catholicity - 3 October 2010
Speaker: Ian Hamilton

(2) Reformed Ecclesiology - 3 October 2010
Speaker: Robert Letham

(3) Reformed Sacramentology - 3 October 2010
Speaker: Robert Letham

(4) Reformed Piety and Godliness - 3 October 2010
Speaker: Ian Hamilton

2010-10-24T20:37:00.002Z

"You know that Father Mowbray hit on the truth about Rex at once, that it took me a year of marriage to see. He simply wasn't all there. He wasn't a complete human being at all. He was a tiny bit of one, unnaturally developed; something in a bottle, an organ kept alive in a laboratory. I thought he was a sort of primative savage, but he was something absolutely modern and up-to-date that only this ghastly age could produce. A tiny bit of a man pretending he was the whole." (Evelyn Waugh, "Brideshead Revisited" Book 2 Chap 2)

2010-10-21T22:13:00.003Z

"Hooper had no illusions about the Army - or rather special illusions distinguishable from the general, envelopping fog from which he observed the universe. ...He had not as a child ridden with Rupert's horse or sat among the camp fires of Xanthus-side; at the age when my eyes were dry to all save poetry- that stoic, redskin interlude which our schools introduce between the fast-flowing tears of the child and the man- Hooper had wept often, but never for Henry's speech on Crispen's day, nor for the epitaph at Thermopylae. The history they taught him had but few battles in it, but, instead, a profusion of detail about humane legislation and recent industrial change, Gallipoli, Balaclava, Quebec, Lepanto, Bannockburn, Roncevales, and Marathon- these, and the Battle in the West where Arthgus fell, and a hundreed such names whose trumpet-notes, even now in my sere and lawless state, called to me irresistably across the intervening years with all the clarity and strength of boyhood, sounded in vain to Hooper." (Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh)

2010-09-24T16:53:00.002Z

"From words to worlds... "

"During the antbellum era, classical scholars and other educated Americans turned from the love of Rome and a focus on classical grammar to a new focus on ancient Greece and the totality of society, art and literature. This shift from Rome to Greece and from words to worlds was at the most basic level a pivotal tranformation in the American college curriculum. For the first time a recognizably modern canon - with new texts of old authors and a new way of reading them - appeared in higher education, gradually changing the old college of mental discipline into the post-Civil war college of liberal culture..." (4)

2010-09-09T18:30:00.004Z

Nicholas Carr: The Shallows: How the Internet is changing the way we think, read and remember.
Carr quotes Richard Foreman, as follows,
"I come from a tradition of Western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and 'cathedral-like' structure of the highly educated and articulate personality - a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed unique version of the entire heritage of the West...
..I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self - evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the "instantly available"." (see p 196)

Carr's thesis is that too much internet browsing changes our reading habits, it makes us into hoppers and grasers, rather than deep readers. It substitutes mutiple simultaneous media for contemplation and thought.

There is a great chapter on Google and how they view the mind as a computer. The author explains how the brain is not just more complex than that, but the mind works in a non-mechanistic way, so that all mechanistic imitations are analogies rather than replicas.

And finally for presuppositionalists: technologies in and of themselves bear a message and change (1). how we live and think in new ways; (2) and how we view and use the old methods (e.g. internet reading has an impact on traditional reading). In other words the tools are not neutral, they are loaded with meaning and in themselves shape us. The "media is the message"

2010-09-05T20:34:00.002Z

Wedding Sermon: Emily Pike & Andre Brown

Heb 11:1-7 Marriage by Faith
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen… And without faith it is impossible to please him…”

Introduction
Wendell Berry , the American novelist, essayist, and poet, sets out eight misunderstandings about marriage:
1. “That people in love ought to conform to the fashionable models of physical beauty; and to be unbeautiful by these stands is to be unlovable.
2. That people in love are, or ought to be, young – even though love is said to last “forever”.
3. That marriage is a solution… (i.e. marriage is happiness).
4. That love, alone, regardless of circumstances, can make harmony and resolve serious differences.
5. That “love will find a way” and so finally triumph over any kind of practical difficulty.
6. That the “right” partners are “made for each other”, or that “marriages are made in Heaven”.
7. That lovers are “each other’s all” or “all the world to each other”.
8. That monogamous marriage is therefore logical and natural, and “forsaking all others” involves no difficulty.” (Berry: “The Body and the Earth” in “The Art of the Commonplace” p.112-3)

Marriage is not a fashion show, the bringing together of perfect couples, people “meant for each other”, neither is it the end of all your troubles.

Contrary to all this..
Rather marriage is by faith. Not some general faith, a sort of cross-fingered, wishful thinking, or bouncy optimism, based upon the fact that “we believe in each other”, “everything will turn out well in the end”. But, rather trust in the ever-living God and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Marriage is by faith because:-
1. You do not know the future and cannot know it;
2. You do not really know each other (but you might just think you do);
3. You have made this covenant together before God, when you are young, naive, immature and inexperienced...

Marriage is by faith because all the things you would like to know up front are not there.
Heb 11 is the great description of faith and the faith-full in the Bible:

1. You need to remember that the unknown is in God’s knowledge
vv1-3. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
We can only know the origin and beginning of all things by faith. We were not there, no one was there. Richard Dawkins was not there. But by faith we rest on the fact that the unknowable things are known to God.
So, how does this help with marriage? Your unknowable future together is known to God. It is planned and ordained by Him and that’s how you can live with confidence, not cowed by doubts and fears.

2. Being worshippers God matters.
v4. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices, Abel from his flocks the Cain from his crops, one offered in faith and was accepted. That was Abel. But he died for his faithfulness at the hand of his brother Cain, the unfaithful worshipper.

So, how does this help with marriage? You need to remember that basically you are worshippers of the living God and His Son Jesus Christ. Everything else flows out of that. That needs to shape your priorities, your decisions, and your direction. It needs to drive sacrificial living.

3. Pleasing God is what matters.
vv5-6. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Enoch is remembered for his God-pleasing. By faith we can please God, without faith it is impossible. Faith is “trustful reliance” on God that works out in willing obedience and submission to God and His Word. Faith is the lifeline that links every one of us to our Creator.

So, how does this help with marriage? Your reliance is not upon each other – neither of you can bear the weight – but upon God. You are not the key to each other’s life and future. Your goal, ultimately, is not to please each other but God. When you aim to please Him, only then are you able to please each other.

4. You are to build God’s future, by faith.
v7. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Noah chose God’s interpretation of the future and acted accordingly – he built an ark when there was no rain. He built for 100 years when there was no sign of it happening. Thus he stood against the world of his day. He acted for his household.

So, how does this help with marriage? You marry in the light of what God says about the future, not what the world says about the future. You know that Christ is the new King of the world, that His Kingdom cannot fail and that it will grow and flourish until it covers ever nation on earth.. You also know that Christ will return one day to raise the living and the dead. Build a household in the light of that fact.

Conclusion
Marriage is by faith. And by this marriages stand or fall.

2010-08-27T05:35:00.003Z

Misunderstanding Marriage

Wendell Berry gives us eight misunderstandings about marriage:

“That people in love ought to conform to the fashionable models of physical beauty; and to be unbeautiful by these stands is to be unlovable.

That people in love are, or ought to be, young – even though love is said to last “forever”.

That marriage is a solution… (i.e. marriage is happiness).

That love, alone, regardless of circumstances, can make harmony and reolve serious differences.

That “love will find a way” and so finally triumph over any kind of practical difficulty.

That the “right” partners are “made for each other”, or that “marriages are made in Heaven”.

That lovers are “each other’s all” or “all the world to each other”.

That monogamous marriage is therefore logical and natural, and “forsaking all others” involves in difficulty.”

(Wendell Berry: “The Body and the Earth” in “The Art of the Commonplace” p.112-3)

2010-08-24T05:45:00.002Z

What we like liking...
Amusing. Insightful. Tongue-in-cheek. But true.
150 things that "white people" are in to.. i.e., trendy moderns he means.

Heres some of them:

#77 Musical Comedy
#76 Bottles of Water
#75 Threatening to Move to Canada
#74 Oscar Parties
#73 Gentrification
#72 Study Abroad
#71 Being the only white person around
#70 Difficult Breakups
#69 Mos Def
#68 Michel Gondry
#67 Standing Still at Concerts
#66 Divorce
#65 Co-Ed Sports
#64 Recycling
#63 Expensive Sandwiches
#62 Knowing What’s Best for Poor People
#61 Bicycles
#60 Toyota Prius
#59 Natural Medicine
#58 Japan
#57 Juno
#56 Lawyers
#55 Apologies
#54 Kitchen Gadgets
#53 Dogs
#52 Sarah Silverman
#51 Living by the Water
#50 Irony
#49 Vintage
#48 Whole Foods and Grocery Co-ops
#47 Arts Degrees
#46 The Sunday New York Times
#45 Asian Fusion Food
#44 Public Radio
#43 Plays
#42 Sushi
#41 Indie Music
#40 Apple Products
#39 Netflix
#38 Arrested Development
#37 Renovations
#36 Breakfast Places
#35 The Daily Show/Colbert Report
#34 Architecture
#33 Marijuana
#32 Vegan/Vegetarianism
#31 Snowboarding
#30 Wrigley Field
#29 80s Night
#28 Not having a TV
#27 Marathons
#26 Manhattan (now Brooklyn too!)
#25 David Sedaris
#24 Wine
#23 Microbreweries
#22 Having Two Last Names
#21 Writers Workshops
#20 Being an expert on YOUR culture
#19 Traveling
#18 Awareness
#17 Hating their Parents
#16 Gifted Children
#15 Yoga
#14 Having Black Friends
#13 Tea
#12 Non-Profit Organizations
#11 Asian Girls
#10 Wes Anderson Movies
#9 Making you feel bad about not going outside
#8 Barack Obama
#7 Diversity
#6 Organic Food
#5 Farmer’s Markets
#4 Assists
#3 Film Festivals
#2 Religions their parents don’t belong to
#1 Coffee

2010-08-23T05:33:00.001Z

FORUM: 4. Disciplines of the Christian Life: Prayer

Introduction
We have talked about the Christian Life as discipline and training and how Paul uses the “gymnastic” words in Greek to bring across the fact that training means: discipline; exertion; focus training; drive.

The discipline of the Christian Life is a broad category:
What are the disciplines?
Prayer, Bible reading, witness, fellowship,
encouragement, self-restraint, conversation,
reading, meditation, feasting,
fasting, retreat, service, sabbathing, weekly worship…

Traditionally the disciplines of the Christian Life have been thought of in rather “pious” and individualistic terms: personal devotions, quiet time, retreat, spiritual formation...

How are we to pray?

1. Pray every day, and ,..
2. Pray as a couple and/or a family daily (if possible);
How do we get started and how do we sustain it?
• Be realistic – better to do 10 mins every day, than an hour once a month.
• Make a list of prayer items– be specific (1 Tim 2:1) “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people”.. Lots of prayer words here!
Let the Bible shape your prayers (1):
Matt 6:5-9. Jesus tells us how to pray: “Pray then like this, ‘Our Father...”
• When Jesus wants to teach us to pray he gives a model prayer, a template to work from..
• We have to “kick” the idea that spontaneity and no planning or structure is better or more spiritual and authentic than thought-out, planned and structured approaches. That idea is not neutral.
• There is a basic order:
1. God
2. His Kingdom
3. Our needs
4. Getting along with others
5. Dealing with temptation and sin
6. Doxology

Let the Bible shape your prayers (2):
Use the Psalms to shape your praying and express…

How? Look at Psalm 1
“Blessed is the man - pray for blessing, from God
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers; "Lord keep me from living by the views and advise of an ungodly culture.. "
but his delight is in the law of the LORD, "Help me to delight in your word as I read it daily.. " Pray for those who teach us your word… "Help us to instil that delight in our children.. "
and on his law he meditates day and night. "Lord I need to become a more thoughtful reader of your Word… "

3. Pray all the time
Rom 12:12. “be constant in prayer.”
Eph 6:18. ” take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints”
Phil 4:6. ” ..do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Col 4:2. ”Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
1 Thess. 5:16-18. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

How do you pray all the time? (Do I have to give up my job…!!)
Theologian R. J. Rushdoony ended his Systematic Theology with a chapter on prayer (Vol II p. 1999f). This is what he said about this kind of informal, “chatty” prayer..

“..my concern is the prayer that is most basic, our talking to God. By this I mean our one-sentence prayers all day long, by which we silently but continually communicate with God. We thanks God for our night’s rest and our day’s joys. When we face a difficult situation, we ask, “Lord, give us patience to deal with this problem.””

Then he adds,
“..when we delight in the Lord. we talk to Him all day long. Is it a beautiful day? “Lord, how glorious is Thy creation!” When I go fishing, the first one to hear about the results if the Lord. Of course He knows before I do. But talking to Him is life itself.”

Conclusion
Prayer is not a technique, a process, a means of self-improvement, but life with God.

2010-08-22T05:09:00.001Z

Classical Education

Here is an essay that digs deep into the roots and purposes of classical education. This is not a replication exercise, i.e. how can we re-create the educative methodology of the ancient world, plonked down in our school or classroom. Rather it is a thought-out application of classical and Biblical principles from a seasoned practioner. Replete with quotable insights, the main threads are clear:-

The teacher is a model not just a conveyer belt for data;

Analysis is not the method of a classical approach. Analysis has too much of a scientific skew. Rather we want to learn how to ask the right questions, not supply a photocopy of the correct responses. How to think, not what to think.

Method over data. Classical education inculcates a method life-long inquiry, not the mastering of a pile of information, or exam fodder.

Education is after virtue, not a fuller curriculum vitae.

There's loads more and it's all very good. It takes more than one read though..

2010-08-21T05:01:00.004Z

How to read the Bible...

Here is a really good book to open up the whole Bible in a very fresh way. How do we get a grasp on the whole message, without reducing it down to simplistic themes, themes that then remove other lines of inquiry, perspectives and angles? The answer is that the Bible gives it's own thematic structure.

Michael Bull leads us through a process or journey that unfolds and exposes the native structures and themes inherent in the text. These are the sevenfold structures of the days of creation, man's dominion and the festival sequences of the old covenant. Bull uses these to then expose the flow, structure, architecture, sequences and history of other passages and texts, whole books etc.

Get it and read it slowly. Why not use it in family dvotions of family bible study to start to gte INTO your Bibles?

2010-08-18T21:25:00.002Z

Sermon on Psalm 125 - LISTEN HERE

A Song of Ascents.
1Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be moved, but abides forever.
2As the mountains surround Jerusalem,
so the LORD surrounds his people,
from this time forth and forevermore.
3For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest
on the land allotted to the righteous,
lest the righteous stretch out
their hands to do wrong.
4 Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,
and to those who are upright in their hearts!
5But those who turn aside to their crooked ways
the LORD will lead away with evildoers!
Peace be upon Israel!

2010-08-17T18:43:00.002Z

FORUM 3. Disciplines of the Christian Life

Introduction
We have seen that we live in a God-created space in a God-created time of days, weeks, months and seasons. God took that seasonal pattern and overlaid His calendar- the calendar that in every aspect pointed to and is fulfilled in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

The OT/OC has a pattern of prayer and worship that maps onto the pattern of creation:

Read Nums 28:1-29:40: what pattern of offerings and worship is found?
daily: morning and evening;
weekly
monthly
annually
Seasonal: feasts of weeks, trumpets, atonement.

Now take the “morning” as an example and let’s explore it more deeply:

1. in Gen 1:5 “..and there was evening and there was morning, the first day..”. The new days begins in the morning;
2. now look at what the psalms say about the meaning of the morning: 5:3, 55:17, 59:16, 65:8, 90:5-6, 14; 92:2, 130:6, 139:9.

Read the Psalm selections and comment on what you learn about “morning” as a time of devotion and prayer.
5:3 prayer and offering are linked
55:17 evening, morning and noon
59:16 wake up and sing..
65:8 God puts joy into those times...
90:5-6, 14; in vv5-6 morning and evening are compared to newness and death... v14 new start...
92:2 praise morning and evening – faithfulness in the evening...
130:6 night watchman waiting for the dawn... hope, new beginning

Mornings are fresh starts, a new opportunity, a position from which to pray, praise and start out... Why would we not start the day with prayer and Bible-reading...?

This provides the setting for the drama that is the discipline of the Christian Life.

1. But, note that this is not a set of rules, a programme or a series of techniques that enable us to improve ourselves. We must not reduce these things to a form of legalism, or self-transformation.
2. We live in the age of the Self-Help manual – this is not it. Self-help manuals abound when people relinquish faith in God.

So where do we begin?

1. The wrong stuff...
l Tim 4:1ff. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”
So, here we have the wrong approach: abstinence, rejection of marriage and food as a spiritual action.
These verses probably address Judaizers – those who wanted to enforce the Pharisaical interpretation of the OT law on gentile Christians.
It also covers all pagan attempts at “spirituality”: denials of the body, suspicion of the material world.

2. The right way.
I Tim 4:7-8. “Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
Paul counters the temptation to a false piety with a call to true discipline:
train: this is the one from which we get the term gymnastic; Paul makes the link with physical gymnastics.
Heb. 5:11-14. “13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
What is it about physical exertion, gymnastic or sport that helps us understand better the discipline required to live Christian?

discipline
exertion
focus training
drive
competition

Is that how you think of living as a Christian: training, practice, exertion?

Conclusion
Next week we will explore the disciplines of prayer, daily and family devotions and how we might go about those things.

2010-08-11T04:44:00.002Z

Psalm 125. Faith and the Kingdom

Introduction
Ascents.. We are going up to Zion, to Jerusalem to worship, on the one of the three compulsory times of the year- this is what we sing.
But it’s during the Exile or just after, maybe in the time of Nehemiah, and an oppressive enemy is occupying the land – the Babylonians have ravaged the city, the walls are broken down, the Temple is in ruins.. Zion does not look glorious at this moment.
So what are the temptations? Doubt. Lose of heart. Apostasy, to fall away from the faith, to lose faith and hope, even to join the “victors”. In short, to look down and not to look up!
The modern church looks small and ineffective, weak and over run by the secular culture, shrinking before the rise of Islam: what are you going to do? Look up - look at God and His Kingdom.

What your faith is like..
v1. Those who trust in the LORD are like mount Zion, which cannot be moved and abides forever...
When the enemy oppresses, the land is occupied and over run, when judgement has been measured out, recall what trusting the LORD means. This is not a “sunny” psalm of the good life, but one of trial, difficulty and challenge.
• When we trust the LORD, Yahweh, we learn that faith looks up. Doubt and fear look down. Faith looks up. Where are you looking?
• When we trust the LORD, Yahweh, we become like God’s kingdom, Zion. You become like the Kingdom you belong to by faith. Which Kingdom are you becoming like?

Kingdom of God: firm/unmoved; abides forever;outward – looking up.

Kingdom of the World: vulnerable/uncertain; temporary, swinging form one fad to the next, looks inward.

• The Psalm takes on a call for the community to look to the LORD, “Those who trust in the LORD”.
Instead we are exhorted here to trust in the LORD who: the One who Himself is faithfulness, all-truth, constant, all-wise, merciful, kind... Who created us and made us; who redeemed us at His own cost; who is utterly faithful.

v2. As the mountains surround Jerusalem,/ so the LORD surrounds his people,/ from this time forth and forevermore.
Now we switch: “look around you” – you are surrounded by the LORD – forever – as the Church.
Stay with “His people”, that is where safety and protection is. Outside of the “church” is the “world”. The Christian Life is not an individual walk with Jesus, “me and my saviour”, it is being His body, being the church, the people of God.
Don’t look at the imposter, look at the Kingdom, look at the permanent things.

Persecutors and oppressors don’t last…
v3. For the sceptre of wickedness shall not rest/ on the land allotted to the righteous,/lest the righteous stretch out/ their hands to do wrong.
The land is under foreign, invading rule – “the sceptre of wickedness”. key phrases:
“the sceptre of wickedness” - this is the rule of ungodly people;
“shall not rest”- settle down, abide.
“allotted” – this is the word used in Numbers and Joshua to describe how God apportioned the land to each tribe. God has given the land to His people – that determines ownership.
“lest the righteous stretch out” - we must not grasp it sinfully (Ex 22:8,11).
God cuts short the oppressors of His people, our trials, for our sake - “He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear..” (I Cor 10:13).

Let’s think about what this all means for our situation. We could respond to the secular dominance in our society and culture in a number of ways:-

Revolt: this is stretching out the hand lawlessly; or to address our troubles sinfully;
Principled pluralism – this view say that ungodly people have a point! They too have a right to a place at the table. So we rationalise it.
The rule of Christ: God has “allotted” the nations to His Son - look at Psalm 2.
a. the wicked rulers rage against God and His order – God laughs and says, “"As for me, I have set my King/ on Zion, my holy hill" (v6);
b. The LORD speaks to His son and says, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,/ and the ends of the earth your possession.” (v8). The Father has given the world, the nations to His resurrected Son. So..
c. Kings and rulers – kiss the Son! (vv10-12).

Much of the modern church thinks that the nations belong to that older pretender, Satan. Who owns the world? Christ and His people.
The whole basis for the great commission is what? “all authority on heaven and earth has been given to Him, therefore….”

The Place of Blessing..
v4. Do good, O LORD, to those who are good,/ and to those who are upright in their hearts!
v5. But those who turn aside to their crooked ways/ the LORD will lead away with evildoers! Peace be upon Israel!
This prayer looks to God to bless. God looks at the heart: upright hearts, v. turn aside, crooked ways.. Not behaviour, not appearances, but at real motivations – where your heart is.
The phrase “ lead away” is the word used to describe how God led His people through the wilderness.. now ironically it describes the wicked. The oppressors are going to become led by God! Don’t join them! Stay where the blessing is, where peace rests.

Conclusion
Life is lived by faith in the unchanging God who is faithful, under His all-surrounding care and protection – seek His blessing.

2010-08-01T21:08:00.004Z

Forum – The Rhythms and Disciplines of Life – 1st August 2010

2. Festival Time and Christ
Introduction
We were made to live within the times, rhythms and seasons that God has created.
How did this work in the OC and how do we live this “in Christ” under the NC?
Gen 1:14. …for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,..
These “appointed times” cover human occupations, crops and vegetation, animals breeding, migrations, navigation, as well as festivals and celebrations.

Old Covenant Festivals and Feasts.
God gave His people, under the Old Covenant, a strict calendar and Law to govern it. We must understand their purpose: Paul says that this was preparation and it was childhood.

Gal 3:23-29. “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”
Hence elsewhere Paul warns against those who want to impose the OC calendar on the NC people of God.

Col. 2:16-17. “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

So what do these festivals and feasts teach us? We know it is not appropriate to implement OC feasts in the NC situation – Christ has come! Childhood is over. Shadows are passed, the Light is here! But at the same time, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,..”(2 Tim 3:16).

How does this relate to Messiah?

What can we learn?
So, what principles can we draw out of the feast/festival/calendar? We still live in a created, rhythmic, seasonal world..
1. Special times: special times are unavoidable: birthdays, anniversaries, national holidays, memorial days etc. Our times are not meant to be one flat, continuous, undifferentiated span of time.
2. Feasting: celebration, feasting and rejoicing reveal the Kingdom of God. Matt 8:11. “I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven..,” Also, Matt 22:1-14; Lk 14:13-24; Rev 19:9.
3. Community: all of these feasts involved “holy convocation” – gatherings of the people of God. These are not private observances.
4. Holiday: how many extra days of rest or holiday. All of these feast involved extra Sabbath days. God wants us to rest, as well as work.
5. Church Calendar: the (moderate) church calendar cannot be mandatory, but it is an attempt to shape the year according to the Christ and the Gospel-fulfilment of history.

2010-07-28T05:56:00.003Z

Forum – The Rhythms and Disciplines of Life – 25th July

1. Sun, Moon, Stars and Seasons

Introduction
In this short series we want to explore the Christian Life as “life on earth”. Not as a rarefied spiritual walk, a pursuit of other-worldliness, but as created people in a created place under the Creator-Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
• What are the structures and disciplines of life that help us understand how God wants us to live?
• What are the disciplines of the Christian Life: prayer, feasting, song, work, self-control? What “on earth” do they mean?
• In the modern world, it might be true to say, we live further from the rest of creation. But the world is our environment; it is “creation” like we are. We need to understand that environment, how it works and our place in its times and rhythms.

Look through Genesis 1 for anything to do with times, seasons, structures of life.
• Gen 1:1. ..in the beginning.. Time is created by God.
• Gen 1:3-5. ..light.. darkness.. The day-pattern.
• Gen 1: 5b. ..evening and morning.. The day-pattern
• Gen 1:14. "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so.
• Gen 1:16-18. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
• Gen 1:1-2:1 “.. the seventh day..” The weekly sabbath.

The patterns of life are built into creation for man, because of the use of the words like: time, days, Sabbaths, weeks, seasons, sun, moon and stars…
1:14. …for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,..
Literally, “appointed times” shapes human occupations, crops and vegetation, animals breeding, migrations, navigation, as well as festivals and celebrations.
1:16. “the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.”
Sun, Moon and stars are like rulers – we are meant to make the connection.

This means a number of things:
1. Days, weeks, Sabbaths, times, seasons and years are important markers in our lives..
In our 24*7 culture we need to recognise that and re-orient our lives to God’s patterns and pace. What would a life be like that was less paced by the culture, than by God’s creation-purpose?

2. The creation is just creation, not “god”.
Deut. 4:19. “And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven”.
What is our cultural equivalent? Naturalism is faith in the material world and man to resolve all issues.

3. It means that the sun, moon and stars have a typological role to play in our lives: they symbolise rulers and authorities..
Is 13:1, 9-11. For the stars of the heavens and their constellations/ will not give their light;/ the sun will be dark at its rising,/ and the moon will not shed its light.(see Is 34:4)
What and who is being described here? The end of Babylon. So the fall of rulers and authorities is like the collapse of sun, moon and stars..
Rev 1:20 says that the rulers of the church are like stars, and Jude v13 says that apostate teachers are “wandering stars .“

4. As lights they are glory bearers, they reflect God’s glory and majesty..
The sun, ruler of the sky and of the day, is used to symbolize the Lord in Ps 84:11, “The Lord God is a sun and shield.”
Ps. 8:3. “When I look at your heavens, the work of your finger, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place..”
Ps. 19:1-6. “The heavens declare the glory of God,/ and the sky above proclaims his handiwork./ Day to day pours out speech,/ and night to night reveals knowledge.”
1 Cor 15:40-41. “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory”
Rev 1 :16b “His face was like the sun shining in its strength”.

5. Seasons relate to festival times. At least under the Old Covenant
(Next week we will explore the OC Festivals: Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles and how that relates to Christ.)

How does this relate to Messiah?
Messiah is described in terms of Sun and Stars:
Num 24:17. “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob,and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.”
Mal 4:2. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. Sun of Righteousness.
Matt 2:1-2. “"Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him."”

Application
1. We were made for times and seasons.
God has given us natural patterns, times and seasons to frame and structure our lives. When we try and break out of them, problems appear. What problems can you see?
Our cultures wants to transcend all barriers. We must be cautious and careful.

2. The Bible presents an integrated worldview of real things and symbolic/typological meaning combined. This is part of seeing the world biblically.
• moon and stars are meant to recall rulers..
• the bright sunrise is the Sun of Righteousness..
• how can these connections be real? Because they are determined by our Creator/Redeemer!

2010-07-24T23:06:00.000Z

"If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come."

C. S. Lewis, "Learning in War-Time"

2010-07-23T21:40:00.000Z

C. S. Lewis: The Abolition of Man.

"The head rules the belly through the chest - the seat, as Alanus tells us, of magnanimity, of emotions organised by trained habit into stable sentiments. The Chest - Magnanimity - Sentiment - these are the indispensable liaison officers between cerebral man and visceral man. It may be said that by the middle element man is man: for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal." (19)

2010-07-23T05:41:00.001Z

Jesse's Blogg.. Picturae de horto is my son's new blogg on gardens and gardening...
Visit here: http://www.dehorto.blogspot.com/

2010-07-21T21:23:00.002Z

Education as Apprenticeship..

Andrew Kern writes:
"We must return to something approaching an apprenticeship model,

in which the Wise mentor and equip the young,
in which teaching is an art, not a set of specialized techniques and methodologies,
in which the mature hand on the tradition in which the wisdom of the ages is found (but only by those who soak their souls in it),
in which the goal is to cultivate wisdom instead of merely to produce experts,
in which each class is taught according to its nature (known according to the degree of precision with which it can be known) instead of with a text book that honors neither the nature of the science/art nor the nature of the student, nor the nature of the teacher,
in which the beginning, end, and sustaining energy of teaching is love,
in which the modes of assessment sustain the soul rather than distracting it with vanity or bitterness,
in which our Lord is honored in the way we treat His children,
and in which He is discovered to be truly the One in whom all things consist, the One in whom the Father really does “make all things one” (including the curriculum), the One in whom students really could find all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

(source here)

2010-07-21T20:20:00.001Z

Wendell Berry reads his own Sabbath Poem..

2010-07-20T20:28:00.001Z

Richard Weaver : Traditional Education v. Methodology
"First, we may turn to the objects of learning. Traditional education has always been based on the assumption that there is a world of data, a fixed reality, which is worth knowing and even worth reverencing. The content of education therefore reflected the structure of an antecedent reality. This in fact was education…. The world is there a priori [i.e. it comes first]; the learner has the duty of familiarizing itself with its nature and its set of relations.

Now all of this has been reversed. The main concern of modern educationists is not knowledge of an existent reality, but rather the mastery of a methodology. The aim of the methodology is to “grow through experience.” These are key terms requiring some examination."

(from http://quidditycirce.wordpress.com/2010/07/03/weaver-on-educational-gnostics/)

2010-07-19T21:17:00.002Z

Great new book on Classical Education

If you are looking for an introduction that covers getting started, what it's all about and so on, then here is a great primer. Clear, inspirational and home educationally friendly!

2010-06-21T16:26:00.000Z

Imagine if our 17th-century Reformed forefathers could be transported to a 21st-century British evangelical church. What would they think? What would surprise them about our faith and practice? Would they be delighted or dismayed?

How much have we remained true to our Reformed heritage? Have we grown in maturity, or drifted from our theological moorings? Do we need to recover The Faith of our Fathers?

Saturday 2 October 2010 · 10am – 4pm · The Welsh Chapel, Cockfosters

Individuals £15 · Students / unwaged £10 · Couples / families £20

To book, email conferences@northlondonchurch.org · Pay on the door

Car parking available · 5 minutes’ walk from Cockfosters Tube Station

Refreshments provided. Please bring your own lunch. Sandwiches can be bought locally.

Speakers
Ian Hamilton was appointed as Minister of Cambridge Presbyterian Church in 1999, after serving as Minister of Loudoun Church of Scotland, Ayrshire for almost 20 years. He has written numerous articles on Reformed theology, and Christian Focus Publications has recently re-published his post-graduate thesis on The Erosion of Calvinist Orthodoxy, significantly updated and developed. Ian and his wife Joan have four children.

Robert Letham teaches systematic theology at Wales Evangelical School of Theology. He previously served as Senior Minister of Emmanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, and his books include The Holy Trinity (P&R, 2004) and The Westminster Assembly: Reading Its Theology in Historical Context (P&R, 2009). He and his wife Joan have three children, and his interests include cricket, music and walking.

The Faith of Our Fathers will be hosted jointly by Emmanuel Evangelical Church and Ecclesia Reformanda.

2010-06-20T17:54:00.001Z

SERMON: Psalm 128(or listen HERE)
Introduction
Stop people on the streets of Southgate and ask then the question: “What is most important to you and why?” And the answer almost invariable comes back my family and happiness. Family and happiness. Family and blessing. That is Ps. 128.

This Song is about blessing.. What’s the typical idea of blessing that Christian have? Probably things intangible, spiritual feelings, in some sense heavenly, in summary, hard to define.

Probably lurking in our heads is a OT v. NT division here? Take this example:
“Blessing is overwhelmingly conceived as a spiritual inheritance reserved in heaven for the believer” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. p. 99).
i.e. blessing is up there and not down here. It is “when you die”, not in this life. It is spiritual and not material.

Let’s think about this: why is it reserved in heaven? Who is in heaven? Ans: Jesus. Why? Ans: Because He is the ascended glorified King of kings, Lord over everything. Our blessings are heavenly and spiritual in the sense that they are connected to Christ ruling over everything now for His Kingdom. That frees us up to see OT and NT descriptions of blessing in Christ.

Look at the shape or layout of the Psalm:-
1 Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
2You shall eat the fruit of the labour of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.
3Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
4Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the LORD.

5 The LORD bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life!
6May you see your children’s children!
Peace be upon Israel!

1. verses 1 and 4 bracket the first part with “who fears the LORD”

2. In that section of vv2-4 “blessing” is described in terms of :-
a. work;
b. wife;
c. children.

3. Then vv5-6 are a kind of doxology or blessing where the writer turns round and addresses us and describes how that blessing flows out of a much larger arena: Zion, Jerusalem and Israel. The Kingdom of God and His church/people.

What does Blessing look like?
The word “blessed” occurs here in v1,2,4,5. What does it mean? Happy? That has overtones of “lucky” (14th C), and blessed comes from "supremely happy" (12th C). How about this: our condition of being happy, full, bright, solid, established, not bitter, sour, negative, drab..

Who are the people who are “blessed” like this?
v1. Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! (and v4).
The blessed are those who reverence, respect, honour, and trust the LORD and who obey Him.
One way to fill out the answer to the question is to look at the rest of the Psalm:-

1. Work
v2. You shall eat the fruit of the labour of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.
Seeing the fruits of your labours, the results of your work is an important aspect of blessing: to work hard for no purpose is frustration. To have the results snatched away, is deflating. This is the world of the Gulag or the labour camp (or cleaning the house!).
• It’s rather like the Greek myth, the story of Sisyphus, who “As a punishment from the gods for his trickery, … was made to roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he could reach the top of the hill, the rock would always roll back down, forcing him to begin again”(Wikipedia).
• But God has created a connection between work and results; between work and meeting our needs. It’s a blessing to support yourself and your family and to receive the fruit of your labour. The word is “labour”, or “toil”.
• We have the reverse problem in our culture: give people the results of work without the demands of work – welfarism. Whether it is the wealthy sons of the aristocracy, the Wooster-type, or the welfare dependent. This is bad for people. God has created a connection between our work and results.
• Also what we have here is a picture of simple contentment - not extravagant expectations. Modern people probably associated their happiness with more extravagance, rather than a deeper ground in the ordinary things under God. Illus: C.S. Lewis’ house, The Kilns, in Oxford.. simple, plain,..

2. Wife
v3. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house..
Why are wife and children described as plants?
(1). People are like trees and bushes: Ps 1:3. “He is like a tree planted by streams of water..” Jesus said, “I am the vine..”
(2). Being planted in the house of the LORD is a theme.;
Individuals
Ps 52:8. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
Ps 92:12-14. “..They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God…
Israel
Ps. 80:8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
(3). Vines and olive shoots imply wine and oil. Growing and fruit-bearing.. wine and oil.

• This means wives are to be rooted and grounded in the home – that is where you grow and flourishes (it does not confine her influence to the home (see Prov 31). This Psalms centres it there. it doesn’t limit it there.
• Wives, are your rooted at home? Is that what you want? Don’t be ashamed of your domain?
• Husbands, do you let your wife do this? Is your wife flourishing? Is she wine-producing? A question for when you get home: "are you flourishing?"

3. Children
v4. ..your children will be like olive shoots around your table.
The children are like olive shoots. They are immature, not full grown plants yet. They need cultivation and protection.
• They are around the table because the table is the place of provision and fellowship.
• Do you have a table? Are you making your table a place of fellowship? This is the place to nourish the family in every way.

Kingdom Blessing
v5-6 The LORD bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life!
May you see your children’s children! Peace be upon Israel!
The Psalms turns away from describing a blessed man, to issuing a blessing.
The prosperity looked for is bigger than my life and that of my family – it looks to Zion (God’s worship centre), to Jerusalem (God’s centre of rule) and Israel(God’s people).
It looks to the Kingdom and people/church.
• The life of your family is wrapped up in the Kingdom, it is Kingdom/church life.
But it is not some invisible church, but the real concrete church of Christ with real people, chubby toddlers, gangly teenagers and greys heads..
• It is future-oriented : “May you see your children’s children”
What range is that? About a generation ahead. Just beyond what you can see and plan for – it’s by faith.
How long term are you? I don’t mean in terms of your detailed plans (they will be wrong), but in terms of your vision, your framework... Don’t just think about the next generation but the one after that too.

Conclusion
1. Blessing is tangible;
2. Blessing is in the ordinary;
3. Blessing is kingdom-shaped;
4. Blessing is long-term.

2010-06-19T05:12:00.002Z

Music and Worship
As we think about the Psalms, which are songs, that means we ought to say something about music and about singing. Ordinary people like us are more likely to be consumers of music, rather than players or performers.
Moreover, we have become consumers of music that is not very good music. The music we are bombarded with is just not very good music at all. So when we walk into church our taste has been skewed. Our taste is shaped through MTV, walking through a shopping area, where almost everyone feels obliged to bombard us wherever we are.
So when it comes to our worship we have to be careful that we don’t bring the low standards with us.
Therefore we must cultivate a taste and not adopt the one fed to us by the culture. Who liked olives the first time they had them? Strong cheese? Red wine? The permanent tastes are acquired tastes. The same happens with music.

2010-06-12T09:44:00.002Z

Steve Jeffrey debates an Open Theist
here on Revelation TV

2010-06-12T05:34:00.004Z

SERMON: Psalm 127 (or listen HERE )
A song of ascents for Solomon
If the LORD does not build a house
in vain do its builders labour on it
If the LORD does not watch over a town
in vain does the watchman look out
In vain you who rise up early, sit late,
eaters of misery’s bread.
So much He gives His loved ones in sleep.

Look the estate of the LORD is sons,
reward is the fruit of the womb.
Like arrows in the warriors hand,
thus are the sons born in youth.
Happy the man
who fills his quiver with them.
They shall not be ashamed
when they speak with their enemies in the gate.

(Robert Alter. The Book of Psalms. Norton)

Introduction
God likes poetry - I mean really likes poetry. He not merely toleratete it, by including a token slab in His Word, instead He goes for it in a way that we don’t. About 40% of the Bible is poetry: from Job to Malachi.
But we have a poetic problem: we have lost the truth that poetry is itself a discipline:
• it makes you slow down, because it is tightly packed, full of imagery, symbolism..
• it makes you reflect.. re-read and re-read..
• it helps you connect things..

The Psalms are poetry in song. We’re meant to sing them. And if we just don’t see how or why, we simply need to start doing it by faith. This is why we sing psalms every week. Worship is by faith – you have to trust God …

These songs are “A song of ascents for Solomon”, one of a series from 120 -134. This middle pair is about very ordinary things.
It’s poetry. It’s song. It’s about ordinary things. Why would we sing about ordinary things in worship? We are singing about our life together and that is part of worship.
• It’s actually a misshapen view of our worship that makes us ask, “What’s that doing here?” We think that worship is rarefied, other-worldly; super-spiritual that never touches the ordinary, or the everyday.
• We have a second poetic problem: we have come to think that poetry also has to be about rarefied, abstract, profound things only. Real poetry cannot touch ordinary things can it?
This pair of psalms is an outlook on life, a way to live, and it is so “opposite” to what our culture thinks and promotes. This Psalm reflects upon family, society/social order and work.

God’s Culture: What are we building?
Look at how God acts and we act in vv1-2:-
Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

The fact that is ultimately God who is building and watching does not rub out our duties. We don’t need to say that because God is active, it’s OK for us to head for the sofa. This is God’s project that I am working on, not my project that God helps me with.
What is the “house” in v1? is it the Temple being built, or is it the home/family/marriage? Or both?
The answer is here in the two halves of the psalm:-
v1a. builds the house v3. children are a heritage
v1b. watches over the city v5. his enemies in the gate.
Also the Bible uses “build” in wide range of ways: e.g. Gen 2:22 Eve is “built” out of the rib of Adam. The first marriage is a building project.

Everything ultimately depends on God.. that’s why you work on it!
Therefore, v2 “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”
Here is someone up early, up late, eating late and not even enjoying his food.
It is vain (“nothingness”) to live like that.
Even their meals are fraught: “the bread of anxious toil” - that is a reference to Gen 3:17. “..cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat”
He is experiencing the curse where he does not need to be.

This is important is our 24*7 world:-
1. You are not the key to you.. You need to work hard, very hard, but your working hard is not the key..
2. Work for us must not be based on a anxiety and nervous energy.. We ought to be “driven” people, but not by fear, anxiety and doubt;
3. Rest and work go together, so sleep is good, it’s not a barrier to activity or a consequence of the fall!
4. It’s not relying on God or our exertion, it’s relying on God in our exertion;
5. Sleep is by faith: when you sleep you trust God to manage things, your work, your cares, your responsibilities.

Children as weapons..
vv3-5. “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward…”
Understand your children properly: as Christian children, they are a “heritage” and a “reward”. You are working with blessing- not curse. When it’s hard and exhausting remember that you are working with blessing.
Understand what you are meant to be doing with them: you are preparing them as weapons, arrows.
This is why Solomon talks about children as a heritage, a reward from the LORD.
• Christian Children are being prepared for conflict: the mighty conflict of all the ages.
Here is the test: are your children self-consciously aware of the war?
• They are not to be protected for the world, but prepared to fight it! …and overcome it too!
• Who is training them? It has to be His training, because it is His heritage that you are dealing with. So how you discipline and prepare your children, how they are educated has to be consistent with that.
• Children this is the point: you are weapons, you are dangerous..
• This is why do the Secularist crowd want to redefine the family and define it out of existence: they want to run the arms factory. The idea that we might be raising a new generation that Is potent and dangerous… is a threat.

Lots of children is good. With all of the qualifiers. This is not a general statement about children per se but about covenant children in particular. This is not a guilt-trip for those of you whose child-bearing days are past; it’s a point for the children and the young marrieds!
Early marriage is good: “the children of one’s youth” (v4). As God gives the opportunity, it’s good to marry young and have children.

Conclusion
So, all of this is counter-cultural: and that’s the point. When we think of our worship as pious withdrawal, we cannot understand these psalms.
When we understand our worship as the centre the core for all of life only then can we understand and appreciate these Psalms.

2010-06-04T19:31:00.004Z

Hilaire Belloc's "Essays".

On holiday in Lincoln I picked up a collection of Hilaire Belloc Selected Essays (1948). I pick up Belloc here and there wherever I go, essays, novels, and collections of pieces.

Some pieces are obviously dated, but there were some jewels here:

On Song,

On History in Travel,

Home,

On Milton,

The Higher Criticism,

On Inns,

On Footnotes,

The Absence of the Past,

On Sacramental Things..

and more. I'll be back to Belloc again and again.

2010-06-02T18:20:00.000Z

C. S. Lewis on "English Litertaure in the Sixteenth Century".
Here are some key moments from the opening chapter on New Learning and New Ignorance, where Lewis explains what was going on with the new humanism, emergent puritanism and the so-called "renaissance":

"In reality the puritans and the humanists were quite often the same people." (18)

"To be sure there are standards by which the early Protestants could be called "puritanical"; they held adultery, forunication, and perversion for deadly sins. But then so did the Pope. If that is puritanism, all Christendom was then puritanical together. So far as there was any difference about sexual morality, the Old Religion was the more austere. the exaltation of virginity is a Roman, that of marriage, a Protestant, trait." (35)

"The fierce young don, the learned lady, the courtier with intelllectual leanings, were likely to be Calvinists. When hard rocks of Predestination outcrop the flowery soil of the Arcadia or the Faerie Queene, we are apt to think them anomolous, but we are wrong. The Calvinism is as modish as the shepherds and the godesses." (43)

"The word Renaissance helps to impose a factitious unity on all the untidy and heterogeneous events which are going on in those centuries as in any others. Thus the "imaginary entity" creeps in. Renaissance becomes the name for some character or quality supposed to be immanent in all events, and collects very serious emotional overtones in the process. Then as every attempt to define this mysterious character or quality turns out to uncover all sorts of things that were there before the chosen period, a curious procedure is adopted. Instead of admitting that our definition has broken down, we adopt the desperate expedient that "the Renaissance" must have begun earlier than we had thought. " (55)

2010-06-01T04:59:00.000Z

Travel as History
Hilaire Belloc had this to say about travel and history, a new kind of travel guide:-

"I have sometimes wonderd whether it might not be possible to have guide-books written for the great routes of modern travel - I mean of modern pleasure travel - which should make the whole road a piece of history; for history enlarges everything one sees, and gives a fullness to flat experience, so that one lives more than one's own life in comtemplating it, and so that new landscapes are only new for a moment, but subject to centuries of variesties in one's mind. " "On History in Travel" in "Selected Essays" (J B Morten)

2010-05-31T19:41:00.001Z

Doug says read...
"Read constantly. Read the kind of stuff you wish you could write. Read until your brain creaks. Tolkien said that his ideas sprang up from the leaf mold of his mind. These are the trees where the leaves come from."

Read the rest of it HERE

2010-05-31T19:12:00.000Z

News

"Television is altering the meaning of 'being informed' by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation. Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information - misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information - information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing." — Neil Postman

2010-05-30T19:10:00.000Z

All is Show Business
"Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death." — Neil Postman

2010-05-29T19:08:00.001Z

Orwell and Huxley?

"We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares. But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another - slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions". In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right." — Neil Postman (Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business)

2010-05-28T19:32:00.000Z

Ads
"The television commercial is not at all about the character of products to be consumed. It is about the character of the consumers of products. (128)"

"Television screens saturated with commercials promote the utopian and childish idea that all problems have fast, simple, and technological solutions. You must banish from your mind the naive but commonplace notion that commercials are about products. They are about products in the same sense that the story of Jonah is about the anatomy of whales. "
— Neil Postman

2010-05-27T22:56:00.000Z

TV
"Television is our culture's principal mode of knowing about itself. Therefore -- and this is the critical point -- how television stages the world becomes the model for how the world is properly to be staged. It is not merely that on the television screen entertainment is the metaphor for all discourse. It is that off the screen the same metaphor prevails. (92)" — Neil Postman

2010-05-15T21:23:00.005Z

Belloc on the Very Learned

Belloc's essay on the Higher Criticism has this to say about its exponents. As you can see the problem has not gone away..:-

"..the Very Learned when they desire to fix the date the date or the authenticity or both of a piece of literature, adopt amongst other postulates these,

(1). That tradition does not count.

(2). That common sense, one's general knowledge of the times, and all that complex integration which the sane mind effects from a million tiny data to a general judgement, is too tiny to be worthy of their august consideration.

(3). That the title 'Very Learned' (which give them their authority) is tarnished by any form of general knowledge, and can only be acquired by confining oneself to a narrow field in which any fool could become an absolute maste rin about two years".

2010-05-05T18:09:00.001Z

The Permenant Things
What are the "permenant things" that make up Christian culture, the disciplines, attitudes, postures, frames of mind and habits?

silence
solitude
detachment
self-control
contemplation
awe
humility
heirarchy
modesty
chastity
reverence
authority
obedience
tradition
honour
simplicity
holiness
loyalty
gentlmanliness
maniliness
womenliness
propriety
ceremony
justice
pure passion
holy poverty
respect for old age
positive suffering
gratitude
fidelity
individuality
community
courage
honesty

but also...

conversation
debate
meditation
prayer
deep friendship
imagination
family

(Peter Kreeft in Permanant Things (MacDonald p, 211)

and a few of mine...

feasting
rejoicing
thankfulness
patience
gladness
wine
singing
music-making.

2010-05-04T20:05:00.000Z

Bavinck on Revelation..
"The revelation that Scripture discloses to us does not just consist in a number of disconnected words and isolated facts but in one single historical and organic whole, a mighty world-controlling and world-renewing system of testimonies and acts of God".
(Prolegmena. p. 340)

2010-05-03T19:28:00.003Z

John Milton on Books and Free Speech

"Who kills a man kills a resonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye. Many a man lives a burden to the earth; but a good book is the precious life-blood of the master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. 'Tis true, no age can restore a life, where of perhaps there is no great loss; and revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse."

(Areapagitica)

2010-04-30T22:03:00.002Z

"POETIC LIVING"
The Rora House Conference Talks 2009
These are the six talks I gave in 2009 at the Home Educators Camp, in Devon, England

The Bible is
(1) a book; (2) a story; (3) history; (4) poetry (5) music; and (6) symbol.

Parts 1-4 and
Parts 5-6
all here to download...

2010-04-28T17:23:00.000Z

Sunday, April 25, 2010
FORUM: Work: How it works. 3. How our work-world is changing.
Listen HERE to the whole thing...

2010-04-25T22:03:00.003Z

FORUM: Work: How it works. 3. How our work-world is changing.

Introduction
The world of work is changing…
1. If you are under 20 years, you will probably have multiple jobs… not a job for life.
2. Work/play distinction is breaking down…
3. Third world. China and India change the landscape with off-shoring and outsourcing and cost reduction. Globalisation.
4. The internet changes the way business works forever.
5. Pace of change, work, education, so that the demand to multi-task…
I am especially talking to those of you who are about to embark on your work life, or on some new venture..

1. Jesus the Worker: The New Adam with the New Mandate.
John 4:34. Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
If Jesus work is the model for all work as the new Adam – what does that mean? Look at each phrase:-
• “My food”: work nourishes. Work is good it feeds us and sustains us and causes us to grow.
• “..is to do the will of him..”: work is an act of obedience, firstly to God;
• “..Him who sent me..”: work is a calling from God; more than a job;
• “..and to accomplish..” : accomplishment, achieving a goal is the purpose of work. Work must be purposeful. Low purpose jobs are the hardest to endure!
• “..His work..”: all legitimate work is God’s work. Every calling is valid and good and holy.

These themes are very important:
• nourishment: not just a job;
• calling: more than a worker;
• accomplishment: we are here to achieve something;
• transcendence: you have the big reason.

These are all things have been addressed, in their own way, in some recent books on work and business.

2. What just changed… The Conceptual Age.
Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind, talks about the Conceptual Age. This big change is driven by 3 developments:-
1. Asia: routine work can now be done offshore, and done cheaper. How will we move up the value chain? What change does that call for? How does one not get left behind?
2. Automation. As technology develops more and more mundane activities, as well as resource intensive activities, can be performed by machines. This saves on cost, speeds delivery etc. Pink: “This century, technologies are proving they can outperform human left brains - they can execute sequential, reductive, computational work better, faster, and more accurately than even those with the highest IQs. “
3. Abundance. The fact of abundance and unprecedented prosperity means that customers look for more and expect more. i.e. adequacy is no longer good enough. ”In an age of abundance, consumers demand something more.“

Here is the big background point: the world of work has changed dramatically from that of our parent’s generation. Our parents lived and worked in a world where a job was for life, it was about going through school, finding the right life-long employer, following the boss's direction, keeping your head down and waiting for the final salary pension-moment.
The Conceptual Age is about moving to higher creativity, ability to understand people’s need and wants, to get the “big picture”, not just the detail, and the importance of higher meaning and purpose.

Creative
We have seen that work, in the Bible is more closely linked to the creative work of God. The new situation is calling for more creativity. Seth Godin says, "We need original thinkers, provocateurs, and people who care. ..we need artists." (p. 8)

3. Giving
Seth Godin in Linchpin makes giving a key plank of work success.
Our natural understanding of giving is that by giving I lose something and you gain. Actually this is not the case. If I give you good advice and you use it and pass it on, the net is gain. “ It is more blessed to give, then to receive”. We are never made poorer through giving. So adding that bit extra everyday for our customers or to a colleague, or a project is a gift. Everyone gains, everyone grows.
The internet extends our ability to give widely - "these allow the artist to be far more generous than he could ever have been in an analog world."
In other words, those who are sharing their content on the internet freely, are in high demand for paid work.
The way to look after yourself, is by not putting yourself a no. 1, but by serving and giving.

4. Motivation
Daniel Pink in “DRIVE: The Surprising Truth About what Motivates Us” identifies three elements that make up the new motivation that we need to cultivate:-

AUTONOMY this is about the freedom to create, to produce. The old world said that the boss knew best and all you had to do was deliver it. No creativity, no improvisation, just deliver the spec.
Autonomy suggests that we all have useful inputs to make to what needs to be done. Give people autonomy against clear goals and objectives and then trust people to deliver. Autonomy means that the author of the idea does not claim to have all the answers or all of the insight. There is healthy humility here.
Google gives its employees 20% time to pursue work-related projects that are unofficial. That's how we have Google News and Gmail!

MASTERY. Mastery is our absorption with our goals; it is flow, that timeless moment of concentration. It’s a new level of commitment, not forced from above, but flowing from within us.

PURPOSE. We need a purpose outside of ourselves and one greater than ourselves. A purpose rooted in ourselves is short-circuited, narrow and self-oriented.

5. Domain Knowledge and Community
Gary Yaynerchuk: “Crush It! Why now is the time to cash in on your passion.”
Yaynerchuk runs an internet wine business (www.winelibruarytv.com) and he has successfully used online tools to make this business grow – how? Through social network tools . Low cost, wide reach and community based. The leader of the business talks directly to customers in this way and establishes a following and a link that is personal.

Domain knowledge is basic. You have to know your stuff. We work about 2500 hours per year. But how much do we invest in thinking and building domain knowledge? When did I read a book or research on the web relating to my work?
Passion. Passion drives everything. It could be superficial, it could be hype, or could be a drive that drives us in a way that just “earning a living” cannot account for. Passion is about doing something you love doing.
Recognise the world has changed. The world of one-way relationships is over. Anyone can write about you comment on you, online, for free. Anyone can publish, tweet, blog and broadcast for next to nothing. There is the unique chance to build a following, a community and a network based around common ground and common interest.
Put something out that people want. It’s about great content. Monetise later. Previously, it was all about monetisation up front. In the new world it is about giving. When you give, monetisation will follow. “It is more blessed to give, then to receive.”
Social Networks. It’s not really about the tools, they will change. However, they are enablers. Twitter, Dig, Facebook, Bebo all help us to communicate in new ways. Loads of it will be facile. But these are tools, tools that enable us to build a following and extend our reach and influence.
Are we ready for the new world? It requires a different mindset.

Conclusion
We have to understand the changes in business and work because they are change that God has brought about in His providence.
• nourishment: not just a job;
• calling: more than a worker;
• accomplishment: we are here to achieve something;
• transcendence: you have the big reason.

So here it is:
Don't try and create a future that feels safe
Don't react
Handle disappointment
Develop discernment
Be passionate
Don't whine
Don't be a bureaucrat
Don't get attached to the wrong things

All of these things ought to appeal to us in terms of the Christian worldview: love, generosity, decision-making, community.

2010-04-19T13:42:00.000Z

FORUM Work: How it works. 2. Sabbath, Rest and Leisure
Eccl: 2:24. “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”

Introduction
If we talk about work, we must also talk about Sabbath, rest and leisure.
After six days of work, God rested on the seventh day. Rest and leisure are not the opposites of work (that’s what the culture thinks), but the complement of each other. In one sense work to rest/leisure, and, in another, we rest to work.
How do you work this out in a culture saturated in entertainment?

1. Finding Rest in Work: Ecclesiastes
The Bible does full justice to the frustrations and toil that attend work in a fallen world, together with the joy of work, achievement, progress and the results:

With all of the vexation, frustration and doubts about the abiding value of our work, Ecclesiastes can say: 2:24. “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” (also 3:13.; 5:18.; 8:15; 9:7-9.)

Satisfaction and a measure of joy are possible as we work in this fallen world at the calling God has given us.

Our culture either despise and resents work, or descends into a workaholic spin, striving for success, status, wealth and self-realisation.

2. Finding Rest in Sabbath: Leisure.
Rest and leisure are not about ceasing all activity but a different quality of activity. Leisure is therefore not doing nothing, i.e. idleness, rather it is our non-working time, the time when we have an opportunity to be at new things.

Gen 2:2-3. “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

Ex 20:9-11. “Six days you shall labour, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. …. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

Lev 23:1-3. “..These are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts. "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. … "

Josef Pieper gives us the slue when he titled his book “Leisure: The Basis of Culture”.
This make sense when we understand that leisure is not merely entertainment, amusing ourselves or doing nothing, but rather rest, worship, feasting and celebration; and time to reflect, evaluate, meditate, pray, and appreciate.

Our culture has moved from leisure and entertainment. There is a place for entertainment – but leisure is so much more than entertainment, leisure is the foundation for a culture: worship, art, music etc.

This means that modern entertainment is a barrier to leisure, thus Josef Pieper says, "There does exist something called 'visual noise' which...makes clear perception impossible."
Again back in 1952 Pieper referred to "those inane and contrived, but titillating illusions incessantly generated by the entertainment industry."(Only the Lover Sings. p. 33).
The problem is quality: much of modern entertainment looks for satisfaction in sensuality, comedy, violence and horror. Too often entertainment means filling our lives with banality and stupidity, with the consequent drop in standards of what we allow.
Leland Ryken: The goal of leisure is not to multiply distractions, but to make our life abundant"

3. How do we move away from “entertainment culture” to leisure/rest?

We need to Sabbath: clear the space: one day in seven, be ruthless!. Plan you Sabbaths/ Lord's Days. Worship, fellowship, time to go slow…
We need to regain the disciplines of meditating, contemplating, thinking and reflecting. Over and over we are exhorted to meditate, consider and reflect: (Ps 1:2); to consider the work of [God's] hands (Ps 8); to meditate on [God's] unfailing love.(Ps 48:9); to meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. (Ps 77:12)
Josef Pieper: .. the leisure of man includes within itself a celebratory, approving, lingering gaze of the inner eye on the reality of creation"(Leisure. p.33).
- this means that we are meant to be a thoughtful, reflective people. Without being over-serious, stodgy or lifeless! Not people who rush through life, and never pause to consider, to worship, celebrate or give thanks.
- this is where art fits in: art is a Sabbath celebration – God creates and then appreciates. Therefore, music, literature and poetry are all Sabbatical.
What about entertainment? We need to upgrade. e.g. if you are going to watch a film, then learn to watch with your eyes open – read Brian Godawa's Hollywood Worldviews.
Holidays. Under the Old Covenant God filled His people's annual cycle with holidays, celebrations. Holidays are good and necessary. How can you enrich them?
Sabbaticals? Israel was given Sabbath years – 1 in 7 rest year. Ministers and academics do it, why not other walks of life?
Retirement. Clearly there is a stage in life when we move to less energetic and active things. But retirement implies that we withdraw from active, useful life and enter "eternal rest". How do we re-think this?

Conclusion
The challenge is to move from entertainment to leisure, to embrace work and rest as mutual things.

2010-04-15T03:43:00.003Z

Neutral Technology?
Brad Littlejohn has some great class notes on this subject HERE

"..all technologies that we develop are inclined to work in certain ways, and to force us to use them in certain ways rather than others, if they are to be at all useful. If they are significant enough, they will begin to mold our lives in certain new and fundamental ways, and these will not be “neutral”--they will have, perhaps, certain features that we could call “good,” and others that will certainly be “evil” and lamentable."

2010-04-13T17:35:00.002Z

Thomas Chalmers
“The accumulation of mere stuff is often a dead weight that hampers our freedom to move, to go, to do what we have always know that we should.” (thanks Goerge Grant)

2010-04-12T04:53:00.009Z

FORUM: Work: How it works. 1. How God Works
Gen. 1:1ff. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth....”

Introduction
Think about this: God did not create the world so that you all could spend your time worshipping, praying and studying the Bible all the time.
He did create a world where we all have to work to survive and prosper. He could have made it differently: food could have sprung for the ground, untended and ready to eat; He could have made a world where farming and agriculture were unnecessary; where everything was laid on.
But he didn’t. God created a world that needs work; a life that needs work; a calling to work.
Consequently, the Bible has a lot to say about work, its place in God’s purpose and our lives.

1. God Works
The first thing you notice in Gen 1:1ff is that God works.

There is a pattern in Genesis 1 that helps us understand how God works:

We see more patterns in Genesis 1 and the days of creation:

Days 1 and 4, 2 and 5 and 3 and 6 co-ordinate in that God makes the stucture and the fills it: e.g. light and adrk are "filled" with sun, moon and stars; the firmaments of days 2 are filled with birds and sea creatures (day 5); and the land is filled with land creatures and man (day 6).

What does this teach us about work?
This is how work works:

1. We build structures first : buildings, books, software, design,.. we don’t start with the detail, we start with the structure.
2. We then fill them: we add detail, furnish the house,..
3. We divide: we divide trees into planks, iron into steel, .. cooking..
4. We evaluate: evaluation is key at each stage.. Aesthetics is the art of evluation.

In pagan religions the gods did not work. Read Homer, or Virgil and the gods are on a permanent holiday. In fact, their job is to get in the way of what man is doing. Life is a battle against the conniving gods.
This means that work is fundamentally godly. There is no room in the Bible for the idea that work, whether conceptual or manual, is beneath man. That is paganism.
Moreover, our work is reflecting the image and likeness of God.

2. Man Works
It’s no surprise that we are called to work, because God works
We are created after the image and likeness of God. Gen 1:26-28. “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. …
What are the key motivations about work here? We all struggle with motivation. Look at this:-

1. We are the image and likeness of God. Like God but on a creature-scale.. We are like God the worker. We have to work because of what we are: the imago dei.
2. Dominion: work is rule, it is kingly it expresses the kingly role God has given to us over the rest of His creation. We have the authority to work. This is especially important for men…
3. Mandate: we have a mandate from God – a calling. We have the drive. Drive-less Christianity produces weak, effeminate men. Note: a lack of drive is a problem. Lethargy, apathy, lack of will and “ambition” are a problem.

But work is hard… After the Fall into sin, there is an effect on our work and what work is like: Gen. 3:17-19. “cursed is the ground..”; “.. in pain you shall eat of it..” “thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you”; “ sweat of your face” “ you return to the ground,”, “to dust you shall return."

Conclusion: Jesus is the new worker of the Father’s Work
John’s gospel particularly emphasises that Jesus ministry was working the Father’s work:

Jn 4:34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
Jn 6:29 Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."
Jn 9:4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.
Jn 17:4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Work does not become downgraded, less holy or second-rate with the coming of Christ. he came to work, to sweat, to serve… a as the new Adam he strengthens are sense of calling and our reason to work.