friday night spotify: sound affects

The Jam's penultimate album and from the height of their popularity and prowess. The only shame is it didn't include the single, Going Underground, from a few months earlier - possibly their best moment ever.

powerpoint is dangerous

This article is an interesting read, but for more than just its comments on powerpoint. It was commented that it is dangerous "because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control...Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable." And the problem with bullet lists is that they "take no account of interconnected political, economic and ethnic forces."

I think that's also a salient warning against bulletized theology. We want to be in control but grasping after it we fail to see the problem for what it really is, we miss the connections that would make us pastorally more helpful to others. We forget that life is too complex for neat solutions, even biblical ones.

sons of korah: psalm 23

keller: on proverbs

More from the 'pen' of Tim Keller on handling the book of Proverbs.


I especially appreciate his emphasis on the cumulative interpretation of Proverbs - without that, the understanding and application of material from Proverbs can be very two dimensional.


He also writes helpfully on a way to discern and appropriate the riches of Proverbs: in community with others.

ferguson: on grace

A (brief) interview with Sinclair Ferguson on the topic of his new book: grace.

a flavour of koester

This small extract might give some idea of why I'm enjoying Koester's work on the theology of John's gospel. In many ways it's the perfect complement to Riddderbos' theological commentary.

The prologue sets the ministry of Jesus in a cosmic framework. The narrative that follows will tell of Jesus encountering people in Galilee, Samaria and Jerusalem. But in light of the prologue readers can see that the story of Jesus encountering particular people is also the story of God engaging the world. Note that the prologue does not offer a complete summary of the Gospel.Its themes of belief and unbelief, the world, glory and truth are played out at length, but the passion and resurrection remain implicit. Rather than actually telling the whole story, the prologue establishes a perspective on the whole story. It gives readers a transcendent vantage point, enabling them to see things about Jesus that are hidden from the people described in the Gospel. Readers know of Jesus' heavenly origin at the outset, and from that perspective can chart a course through the debates and misunderstandings that emerge during his ministry.

Craig Koester, The Word of Life: A Theology of John's Gospel

lions!

I can't remember where I saw this but it's a great line:

If you’re getting chased by a lion, you don’t need to run faster than the lion, just the people running with you.

(TIC)

the end of the line

A bus with the printed destination, 'Nowhere'? A coffin with the slogan, 'Too fast to live, too young to die'? It can only be the funeral of Malcolm McLaren.

divorce & remarriage

I think we all realise it's a tricky subject, biblically-speaking (& otherwise, too). Dick France has, imo, given a great summary of the subject in his little commentary on Mark in the People's Bible Commentary series (it qualifies as being termed 'little' when you compare it to his huge tome in the NIGTC series).


Commenting on Mark 10:10-12, he says:

"Mark therefore offers us an unqualified and total rejection of divorce by Jesus. Marriage is 'till death us do part.' But divorces do in fact happen, and Moses had already provided legislation to deal with what follows from a divorce. Are we then to say that Moses was wrong even to countenance the possibility? According to Jesus he provided for divorce 'because of your hardness of heart' - and human hearts are still hard, and marriages do break down. Should those who follow Jesus simply close their eyes to this reality? Or should they sadly accept that Jesus' ideal teaching, wonderful as it is, simply does not fit the way things are?


There is a way between these two extremes, but it is a difficult one to define and to practise without inconsistency. It is to insist both that God's standard is absolute and that divorce can never be good, and also that in a world which is characterized by human weakness and failure it must be possible to find ways of coping with a broken marriage (as Moses found that he had to). In that case divorce and remarriage, while it can never be good, may be the least bad of the options available. It may thus be the right thing to do in the circumstances, but can never cease to be a cause for regret and sorrow that God's standard for marriage has been violated."

(page 133)

koester: the theology of john's gospel

I can't speak highly enough of the Kindle app's sample chapter facility (I know you know that, faithful reader). There are times when it really comes into its own and here's another instance:

Having read a review of Craig Koester's The Word of Life: A Theology of John's Gospel, I downloaded the Kindle sample and will shortly be making my way over to the Kindle store to get the full book - it's a wonderfully promising read: richly suggestive, very well-written (not the least of my considerations) and illuminating.


The price will work-out the same as getting a paperback copy ordered but I'm at least as happy to have a book like this in electronic form. And to have it in a jiffy, rather than a jiffy bag.

paul's theology

Tom Wright (according to Michael Gorman) has suggested that Paul's theology is a

"christologically re-shaped and pneumatologically re-energized Jewish monotheism."

Seems good to me.

gentle; uplifting; healing

is the album, The Breaking of the Dawn, by Fernando Ortega.


You'll not regret giving it a listen.

mark dever's advice to pastors

Your main job - in order to reach the world for Christ - is to know God yourself, to know his Word, to faithfully preach and teach that Word to your people and, so, be used by God to create a community that does far more than you can ever do just by a cleverly-planned service - you know, the people that I preach to every Sunday are going to see far more non-Christians than we could ever fit in our building, so if I can equip them, if we can create a culture of evangelism where we're not trying to have an event that draws non-Christians to our gathering....

(And there the tape ran-out - argh!!)

themelios 35-1

Here ya go.


Public Service Post No.329

the great albums (vi) - on the beach

One of the hardest things about this list has been which Neil Young album to put on it - maybe I ought to just give in and fill it with his work? This could easily be After The Goldrush, Harvest, Comes A Time, Rust Never Sleeps, Freedom, Sleeps With Angels and so on. Even something like Landing On Water is impressive, despite coming during one of his leaner decades.


Anyway, I've opted for On The Beach. Released after the nightmare recording of Tonight's The Night (which still awaited release) and the events that birthed it, this album still sounds desperately sad and cynical, and yet it does have notes of optimism, buried deep under its weight of sorrow and anger. Well, maybe optimism is too much to claim - perhaps the defiance that preceeds optimism is about as far as the album can go. But at least he was back to caring enough to defy.

The world is turning
I hope it don't turn away

Some lovely guitar work, too. What's not to like about it?

how transformation occurs...

Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, complete my joy and be of the same mind...
continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.

Philippians 2:1,2; 12,13

depeche mode: violator

I remember their arrival onto the New Romantic/synth pop scene of 1981; they were duly poppy and synthy. Then Vince Clarke left (for the glories of Yazoo) and, whilst they continued to figure in the charts, I never took them seriously. Then it sounded like they went all dark and strange and - well, who needs that?


But they've lasted and often to great acclaim. So I've decided to give a listen to one of their most vaunted albums, Violator.


And I have to say it's rather good - yes, dark & strange it is but with a certain something that demands a more sustained hearing.

But their own original version of Personal Jesus isn't a patch on Johnny Cash's version.

looking in the mirror

What does James have in mind when he speaks about looking in the mirror (James 1:23)? Is he wanting us to see our sins and come away from the mirror humbled and deflated?


The person who doesn't do what the word says is equated to the person who forgets what he saw in the mirror (v.24). What that person saw in the mirror is not repeated and worked-out in obedience to the word.


It seems to follow, then, that looking into the perfect law of liberty (v.25) is seeing something other than their own sinfulness. They're seeing Jesus and they're seeing who and what they are in union with him.

No doubt they also, therefore, see their imperfections but they see them atoned for, they see them as antithetical to who they now are in Christ. And, so, in that liberty, they're to go into the world not forgetting who they are and, thus, be equipped for keeping the word.

a heart for the people who sinned

Numbers 16 is a fascinating anatomy of a rebellion and a sober account of judgement. It holds so much that is worthy of prolonged reflection, but I just want to point to one aspect here: the heart of Moses (& Aaron) for the people who sinned.


The rebellion was a personal slight on Moses and he was rightly angered (v.15) by the refusal of Dathan and Abiram to face the issue they had created. Yet on two occasions here, Moses pleads for God to be merciful (v.22 & v.45) and directs Aaron to make atonement for the people.


When he could be indignant with the community's repeated arrogance and folly, he places their security above his own feelings of betrayal and justice.


In that, he is clearly a (pale) reflection of what Jesus would himself do, especially when he prays that the Father forgive his enemies, who knew not what they were doing. But he is also a model for all leaders whose service is undermined and challenged.

self-condemned

Paul writes to Titus of people who are divisive, that they are wilful, sinful and "self-condemned" (Titus 3:11).


I've never really stopped to think what 'self-condemned' (αὐτοκατάκριτος) might mean. I guess I imagined it to mean something like 'their own conduct has brought them condemnation'.

Then along comes the NET translation: "such a person is twisted by sin and is conscious of it himself".


That seems to me an interesting - and helpful - translation.

gina welch & what's expected of us

Maybe you've heard of Gina Welch - she pretended to be an evangelical Christian, spent time with a church and then wrote a book about her experiences. I think she's a-theist.

Well, Trevin Wax has interviewed her (great interview, TW) and in response to his asking if there things about evangelical belief she'd like to be true, she replied:

There are plenty of ideas in evangelical Christianity that appeal to me. It would be nice to know that even the most hideous acts of violence and destruction happen for a reason. It would be nice to know that this short life isn’t the end, that there’s something better on the other side, and that when I lose someone it’s only temporary. It would be nice to know what’s expected of me. It would be nice to know when I have dark thoughts or do something I know I shouldn’t it’s because that’s my natural sinful wiring, that I shouldn’t feel guilty about it. I think that’s why evangelical Christianity is such a popular formula–because it answers our common longings.

What really struck me were her words, It would be nice to know what's expected of me. The need for boundaries, for purpose, for structure, for significance - all testify to a Creator who has made humanity in his likeness and for displaying his image in the world.

a pauline epistemology?

No one in military service gets entangled in matters of everyday life; otherwise he will not please the one who recruited him. Also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he will not be crowned as the winner unless he competes according to the rules. The farmer who works hard ought to have the first share of the crops. Think about what I am saying and the Lord will give you understanding of all this.

(2 Timothy 2:4-7)

resurrection letters

A nice album by Andrew Peterson (a group, not a guy - although the group contains a guy called...Andrew Peterson).


Anyway, you might like to listen to Resurrection Letters Volume 2.

credit where it's due

I am thankful to God, whom I have served with a clear conscience as my ancestors did...

(2 Timothy 1:3)

the truth within creation (john 4)

Jesus asks for a drink, then speaks of a deeper thirst and living water. The disciples come back and talk about food - and Jesus speaks of better food: doing the will of God.


Food and drink: just handy illustrations? Or maybe the whole created order points us, inexorably, to the Creator and to our need of him, as the one from whom every good and perfect gift comes down.

the epicentre of church

Fried & Hansson make the point that the epicentre of your business is what really matters, To locate the epicentre, they suggest you ask the question, "If I took this away would what I'm selling still exist?"


So: church. What is the epicentre? What can you can take away and it's still church? What can you not take away because it ceases to be church?

at the well: salvation-history being fulfilled

This previous post mentions aspects of the salvation-historical themes present in Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well. Especially striking is the repeated disclosure that, in Jesus, salvation history finds its fulfilment (see vv.21-23 in particular).


Preparing to preach on vv.27-42, it struck me that the harvest note that Jesus sounds is entirely suited to the fulfilment motif that has been present throughout this incident.

what 'glorifying God' looks like

Here's what Jesus says:

I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

(John 17:4)

(cf. worship in Spirit and truth)

tom wright: easter sermon

If you remember little else about this morning, you will probably remember it as the day you got up at half past three in the morning to go to church. I hope you remember a lot more than that, but that’s a good start: because the whole point of Easter, and of baptism and confirmation, is that it’s all about getting up ridiculously early, being splashed with water to wake you up, and perhaps, in old-fashioned houses at least, lighting a fire somewhere so that the house can warm up for everyone else. Then, when all that’s done, you can think about some breakfast. Well, that’s what we’re about this morning – the water, the fire, and the breakfast: and all because Easter is about waking up ridiculously early while everybody else is asleep. That’s why, at the first Easter, everyone was shocked and startled – the women perplexed and terrified, the men disbelieving and amazed. This was all wrong. Things shouldn’t happen like this. The world was surprised and unready. It was still asleep. And it still is.

the horses

I realise this could become a repetitive strain on this blog but, reading through Ted Hughes' first published work, The Hawk in the Rain, I'm being reminded of some great work, first sampled during 'A' level english classes. This one is just terrific.

friday night spotify: ultravox - the collection

Some bands were always better in single doses and, for me, Ultravox were always in that category. But when you stack the singles up alongside each other, they make for a great album. So here's The Collection - enjoy.

work & worry

It’s not the work which kills people, it’s the worry. It’s not the revolution that destroys machinery it’s the friction.

Henry Ward Beecher

(HT: Leo Babauta)

breaking the law

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

(Mark 2:23-28)

What's going on here? Jesus' disciples upset some Pharisees by picking heads of grain on the Sabbath. So this is a sabbath-controversy, right? Yes - and no. Look how Jesus handles it: he refers to an incident from the OT where David and his companions ate some bread that wasn't theirs. What was the problem with that? Was it on a sabbath? No. The problem is that the bread was reserved for the priests.

Jesus answers a sabbath controversy by using an argument that effectively relativises the whole law.

And in doing so, he elevates the importance of a genuine concern for people's needs - seen in David and his men having their hunger met and seen in the feeding of his disciples. The law was never meant to be upheld in such a way as to deny or exacerbate human need: the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. As Paul would say in Galatians 5:23, "the law is not against such things!"

If that is true of the law, how much more so with our church traditions! The key questions to ask ourselves ought to centre upon whether those traditions, rules or whatever, contribute to the alleviating of need, to the expressing of genuine love and care, to the liberating into service of God's people, or do they not.

Because love is the fulfilment of the law, the great end to which it pointed and, finally, expressed and met in the Son of Man, the Messiah.

ted hughes: the hawk in the rain

I drown in the drumming ploughland, I drag up
Heel after heel from the swallowing of the earth's mouth,
From clay that clutches my each step to the ankle
With the habit of the dogged grave, but the hawk

Effortlessly at height hangs his still eye.
His wings hold all creation in a weightless quiet,
Steady as a hallucination in the streaming air.
While banging wind kills these stubborn hedges,

Thumbs my eyes, throws my breath, tackles my heart,
And rain hacks my head to the bone, the hawk hangs,
The diamond point of will that polestars
The sea drowner's endurance: And I,

Bloodily grabbed dazed last-moment-counting
Morsel in the earth's mouth, strain to the master-
Fulcrum of violence where the hawk hangs still.
That maybe in his own time meets the weather

Coming the wrong way, suffers the air, hurled upside-down,
Falls from his eye, the ponderous shires crash on him,
The horizon trap him; the round angelic eye
Smashed, mix his heart's blood with the mire of the land.

what worship 'in Spirit and truth' looks like

The Father is seeking worshippers who will worship in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23). What would it look like for a fully-faithful response to that call?

Maybe being able to say "My food is to do the will of (God)" and to be busy in harvest labour (John 4:34ff).

workaholics

I loved these quotes...

Workaholics miss the point...They try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them. They try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force. This results in inelegant solutions.

If all you do is work, you're unlikely to have sound judgements. Your values and decision making wind up skewed. You stop being able to decide what's worth extra effort and what's not. And you wind up just plain tired. No one makes sharp decisons when tired.

Workaholics aren't heroes. They don't save the day, they just use it up.

(from Fried & Hansson)

the great albums (v) - wha'ppen

The Beat were in many ways embedded within the Ska revival of Two-Tone Records but were always a little bit different, with maybe a slightly harder edge to them.

Wha'ppen was their second album, released in 1981. It lacked some of the energy of their first offering, I Just Can't Stop It, but it was a far more solid affair, with their politics more centre-stage (which makes it a great album to post on the day a general election is called).

The album on spotify kicks off with a track that wasn't on the album (Too Nice To Talk To). It was probably their strongest ever single (how I wish I could find the 12" version of it!) but never really belonged on this album.

In terms of the album's themes, they're maybe best expressed on the song Cheated - an almost prophetic portrayal of Thatcherite Britain, years ahead of its time. If the album was looking to portray the darkness descending, they would surely want to say that the gloom had yet to reach its deepest.

It isn't just politics, it's relationships and their rocky ground (no wonder the album fuses so many musical styles). It could easily have been an incoherent mess and, whilst not every track works, they largely succeed.

It's one of the great by-passed albums of all time.

gospel coalition: book reviews & previews

This is a great new resource from The Gospel Coalition folks - a section of their site that handles book reviews and book previews (sample chapters of certain books).

Well worth adding to your RSS feed.

why knowing what you believe (foundationally) is important

Well, it's important for all sorts of reasons, of course, not least of which is the simple matter of truth. But in terms of inter-personal & organisational dynamics, Fried & Hansson put their finger on it:

When you don't know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.

(Fried & Hansson, Rework, p.44)

sinclair ferguson: praying for our dispositions

it's so important for us to pray that our dispositions, as well as our minds, will be sanctified. Otherwise the disposition in which we teach the scriptures can actually have the function of distorting the very scriptures that we teach.

from The Pastor & His Heart

apps that make iPad desirable

I've already mentioned the free ESV app but of course there's so much more to come in terms of Bible software (think Laridian, Olive Tree and Logos).

But here, for me, is a huge draw to the iPad: the Evernote app. Fabulous. Almost peerless.

And if the iBooks experience is one you hanker for, then this announcement of material from Zondervan will only deepen the desire.

C'mon, keep this ball rolling you guys!

a bible for your iPad

You know you want one.

Now you'll want one even more.

Free ESV Bible app for iPad.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

ono: nobody sees me like you do

I wanna quit moving
I wanna quit running
I wanna relax and be tender
I wanna see us, together again,
rocking away in our walnut chairs

(from the album Season Of Glass, 1981)

a book of the conference - for free

Talks from a recent Desiring God conference are now available as a pdf, free to download.

Looks like it's chock-full of good stuff.

Go here.

well said, john ortberg

Reflecting on the search process for a church leader, John Ortberg writes:

But I do have a conviction that when it comes to getting leadership right, 98 percent of the ballgame is relationship. I believe where there is a relationship of joy and commitment and mutual submission and trust and authentic love—then the division of labor issues can flow freely and effectively. But where the relationship is broken, all the org charts in the world can't save it.

Well said, says I.

john stott: the cross of Jesus

There is wonderful power in the Cross of Christ. It has power to wake the dullest conscience and melt the hardest heart, to cleanse the unclean, to reconcile him who is afar off and restore him to fellowship with God, to redeem the prisoner from his bondage and lift the pauper from the dunghill, to break down the barriers which divide [people] from one another, to transform our wayward characters into the image of Christ and finally make us fit to stand in white robes before the throne of God.

from The Preacher's Portrait

don't plan

Fried & Hansson recommend that we downgrade our planning for the future into guessing about the future - that way we're freed from obsessing over it and able to improvise along the way. They make a number of helpful points and conclude with these words:

Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan that has no relationship with reality is even scarier.

(They're talking businesses but you can think 'church' too and find their work stimulating and helpful. The above example put me in mind of James 4:13ff.)

judgement: the return to chaos

I linked a few weeks back to some posts by Peter Enns in which he mentions that in both the flood and the exodus plagues, judgement is seen as a return to primordial chaos. The point was well made and securely-grounded.

I think the same is also seen at the cross when the sun is darkened - it's Genesis 1 in reverse: the sun is (effectively) blotted-out and the earth returns to the chaos of darkness.

Maybe those instances help to clarify the nature of God's judgement upon sin, that it results in de-creation, in chaos and an absence of meaning and order and vitality and the associated anguish of such a state.

step outside, posh boy

A deeply perceptive article in The Guardian, laying bare the British electorate's underlying sympathies with 'the hard man'.