the normal christian blog

twits

2009-11-11T13:10:00.000-06:00

Great thoughts on twitter from Skye Jethani. Applicable to more than just twitter: Why I Don't Tweet...

HT: Reclaiming the Mission

...and beyond

2009-11-06T15:19:00.001-06:00

The subtitles don't exactly add. But it's still a great scene.

scarcely fill a cup

2009-11-04T15:12:00.000-06:00

"The world is full of dark shadows, to be sure both the world without and the world within ... But praise and trust him too for the knowledge that what's lost is nothing to what's found, and that all the dark there ever was, set next to light, would scarcely fill a cup."

Frederick Buechner
(emphasis mine; online source)

2009-11-03T15:24:00.003-06:00

forch (forch). verb.
1. being roughly forced. ex. "They really forched me on that subway!"
1.1. related: being forked with something hot. ex. "Thankfully, I was forched instead."
1.2. related: a style of preaching. ex. "You didn't preach tonight, brother, you forched!"
2. opening the skin by itching. ex. "Stop itching that bite or you'll forch it!"
3. slang: rural, mid-American euphemism for 'pitch forked.' ex. "Why ain't youse-guys get that stuff forched upindere?"
4. ?????? (contributions welcome)
also, forch (n.), forcher (n.), forchy (adj.)

(HT: Strong Odor's love of language.)

enemy. jack johnson

2009-11-02T09:36:00.000-06:00

just in case...

2009-10-31T20:27:00.000-05:00

you haven't heard: Bon Iver, "Flume," from For Emma, Forever Ago.

Action...not intention.

2009-10-28T10:17:00.000-05:00

"Assurance is not to be attained so much by self-examination as by action." (123)

"Godliness consists not in a heart which intends to do the will of God, but in a heart which does it." (348)

from Religious Affections, by J. Edwards.

NASA = The Tower of Babel

2009-10-26T10:38:00.002-05:00

Cost of NASA in today's dollars: $806.7 billion. (wikipedia: NASA Budget)
Cost ending world hunger: $30 billion per year. (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)

NASA = The Tower of Babel.

More:
from the above FAO article:

in 2006 the world spent US$1 200 billion on arms while food wasted in a single country could cost US$100 billion and excess consumption by the world’s obese amounted to US$20 billion.

and consider this:
Cost of the 2009 U.S. "bailout": $7.5 trillion. (ABC) That's 200 times the amount needed to end world hunger.

driscoll on idolatry

2009-10-21T19:36:00.000-05:00

Very good video: Mark Driscoll on idolatry.
Key quote: "When a good thing becomes a god-thing, it becomes a bad thing."

i'm owed, baby, i'm owed

2009-10-20T21:14:00.001-05:00

It doesn't get much better than this: (from here)

HT: Kinnon.tv

2009-10-18T09:01:00.000-05:00

Would it be too much to ask all the loyal followers of this blog to put their resources together in this time of hardship and hook-a-brother-up?
Cowboy at Cross Bible Cover.

Deep Exegesis

2009-10-16T21:48:00.000-05:00

Peter Leithart has published a new book called Deep Exegesis. If these two quotes (One and Two) are indicative of the kind of fresh perspective this book contains, it will be a joy to read.

More:
Peter Leithart's blog
Buy me a copy?
Writing in the Dust

Teddy Bear's Picnic

2009-10-14T12:45:00.000-05:00

Our family really enjoys the singer's dance moves.

Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy

2009-08-08T21:58:00.002-05:00

Update: hulu.com lost the video. Here's a link to it on youtube: Everything's Amazing but Nobody's Happy.

MOVE THE AFFECTIONS!!!

2009-07-20T09:48:00.000-05:00

"If it be so that true religion lies much in the affections, hence we may infer that such means are to be desired as have much of a tendency to move the affections." (Jonathan Edwards, RA, 50)

Interesting quote, don't you think? What means should we use in the church to communicate the Gospel? "Such means...as have much of a tendency to move the affections." Hmm. Sounds like someone interested in spreading the Gospel, deeper and further. You know, this guy's alright.

Maybe you like more reading, yes? Sinners in the Hands of the Emergent Church.
Tall Skinny Kiwi offers thought-provoking suggestion. Hmm.

Church-Seminary conversation

2009-07-16T10:50:00.000-05:00

Many young pastors and young seminarians (like me) struggle with relating the Church with the Seminary.
Here are some helpful thoughts from Will Willimon, author writing in From Midterms to Ministry (at Amazon and Google Books), reproduced on William Willimon's blog:
Advice for New Pastors,
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Food, etc.

2009-07-14T21:44:00.001-05:00

What? You don't have enough to worry about?
Seriously though, the following resources have changed the way I view economics/food/environmental issues.

The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
The Future of Food on Hulu
and trailer for Food, Inc.

At the end of the day, there is good and there is not good.

John Calvin's Birthday

2009-07-12T09:38:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest: I don't really know a lot about Calvin. From all accounts, he's one of the most helpful Bible scholars in the history of the Church. Even apart from the theology bearing his name, his handling of individual texts (in his commentary series) still gets discussed in modern commentaries.
But here's a different angle on the celebration: Thinking of Servetus on Calvin's Birthday. Basically, Calvin had this theological opponent arrested and killed for...his theology!

What did we learn today, children? Um, people are goofy? I mean, screwed? That's right.

It is entirely possible, friends, to be deeply pious, personally holy, biblically faithful, and Spirit-gifted and still kill people, literally (not "in your heart"). Like, murder. For real.
Well, may we all be so blessed to have a legacy of helping the church that far outweighs our contributions to the fall and the spread of the curse.

sadness and prayer

2009-07-11T16:16:00.002-05:00

Friends, should anyone read this post, please whisper a prayer for Curtis Bergman and their three kids. Mommy just went to be with Jesus: Joanna.

neo- who?

2009-07-11T09:52:00.000-05:00

Extremely helpful, nuanced distinction between great, helpful strands of modern evangelicalism:

Deciphering the Nuanced Differences Between Neopuritanism and Neocalvinism
John Piper and Tim Keller
Jonathan Edwards and Abraham Kuyper
Passion Conference and Jubilee Conference
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Calvin College
Mark Driscoll and Gabe Lyons

no further

2009-07-02T09:41:00.000-05:00

"Men will trust in God no further than they know Him." (Religious Affections, Edwards, 104)

humble broken-hearted

2009-06-26T07:06:00.003-05:00

From an Edwards-chomping friend abroad:

"All gracious affections that are a sweet odour to Christ, and that fill the soul of a Christian with a heavenly sweetness and fragrancy, are broken-hearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble broken-hearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires. Their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory, is a humble broken-hearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit, and more like a little child, and more disposed to a universal lowliness of behavior." (266)

At FBC we've been meditating on the story of the Samaritan Woman at the well. How could we read that story, or interact with people like that, that is, everyone, in church and out of it, without feeling a gravitas breaking our hearts and humbling our joys?

HT: dh

more secret and gradual

2009-06-12T09:37:00.001-05:00

"It is true, that for any to expect to receive the saving influences of the appointed means of grace, is unreasonable presumption...It is also undoubtedly true that the Spirit of God is very various in the manner and circumstances of His operations, and that sometimes He operates in a way more secret and gradual, and from smaller beginnings, than at others." (The Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards, 65)

prngrphy

2009-06-08T17:00:00.002-05:00

Pornography is evil in so many ways.
There's the people involved, often there against their will or for lack of better options.
There's the people who spend money on it, who worship worthlessness.
There's the marriages it wrecks.
There's the single people who cannot form normal relationships with the opposite sex because their understanding of gender and sexuality has been misshapen by pornography.
There's the believer who's walk with the Lord and effectiveness in ministry is governed by guilt and shame.

Must Read: Porn-Again Christian, by Mark Driscoll
Get Help: Covenant Eyes
Get Friends: xxxChurch
Other Readings: John Piper material, CCEF material, Gospel Coalition material on Temptation and Sexuality.

Serving the Future You

2009-05-22T13:26:00.002-05:00

Great article by Jason Jaggard in this months Next Wave e-zine: "Serving the Future You."
The thoughts correspond to a long-view perspective on Discipleship that the Lord's been reminding me of lately. In a nutshell:
Sure, you suck now. You do. You suck. But in five or ten or twenty years...how much less could you suck? A lot less.
Take this idea from a variety of angles:
What books do you want to read? Projects finished? Not by next year, but by 10 years out. whoa.
Or think of yourself in thirty years, alone, divorced, estranged, embittered, in poor health. What would you give to be standing beside your beautiful best-friend in front of an orphanage that you helped build with your grown children taking your picture and your grandchildren, named after you, playing happily behind them? Millions? A kidney?
Do now what your then-self would have you do. Read A Christmas Carol. Life is vapor and is far too short to waste it on ourselves. Love and give and fight sin. The long-view gives you context and courage by which you can more calmly and forcefully implement the Divine-will over and against your own.