20pluscommunitydigestion
There is a great difference in excellency, usefulness, and comfort between people of clear, digested knowledge, and confused, undigested apprehensions. -Richard Baxter’tis the season
Eccl. 3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
Eccl. 3:2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Barstools and bottom lines
I’m no economist, but this may be more elucidating (and counter-intuitive) than you think–all provocative
metaphors aside: a distilled (ha) explanation of how tax-breaks operate.
can something self-serving be God-honoring?
Here’s one way it can: a request from pastors for pastors.
David Foster Wallace: words of life from a man dead too soon
Several of you asked for the article in full to which I referred this morning from David Foster Wallace.
Here you are, from the Wall Street Journal of Sept 19 of this year.
A member of our church (and our neighbor here in the Cliff!) passed the article along to me. In addition to Wallace’s winsome prose, his insight into the human condition is remarkable. He seemed to understand so much, and yet seemed to disallow the possibility that the very means by which we are liberated from the idolatries to which we are so prone does not exist in us naturally.
Consumers vs. disciples: a more adversarial relationship than perhaps we thought
Jim Dennison is the pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church and writes a daily devotional entitled Godissues.org. Click there to subscribe.
This morning he speaks, I think, most aptly to our condition:
Consumers don’t make good disciples
Yesterday we began thinking about the folly of fighting your Goliath in your strength. As we saw, Alan Wolfe’s The Transformation of American Religion warns that many of us are consumers more than we are disciples, self-reliant rather than God-sufficient Read the rest of this entry »
new thread on an old subject: the baptism of babies
You’re a member (or at least a visitor) of a Reformed Church, a designation having an historical dimension
(The Reformation of the 16th century) as it relates to its theological dimension (salvation is by faith alone). In this Reformed church you see the monthly practice of baptism, and usually the baptism of infants. That is what you find here.
But as one located in the “buckle” of the Bible Belt, you find yourself surrounded primarily by churches of a Baptistic nature. If in a baptistic church, then baptism is reserved for those who can make a personal profession of faith; it is therefore not to be extended to infants or children who cannot enunciate their profession of faith because they do not know that profession. Read the rest of this entry »
state of the economy for dummies
the flood of commentary on the state of the American economy in recent weeks can lead one to believe that
we’re talking about another Enron-kind-of-complicated matter here. The folks at Between Two Worlds have done us the favor of pointing us to a brief on this labyrinthine issue.
To understand the financial matters afoot is not merely a matter for economists or pundits. What’s happening in the highest echelons of commerce and government is an issue worth the consideration of Christians, too. Read the rest of this entry »
More vérité about cinema
If Sir Heffner has gotten you thinking about what film requires of you, here’s some more wisdom that will serve
you: a book review of Tony Watkins’ Focus: The Art of Soul and Cinema.
Before you plunk down another $10-spot on a film at NorthPark, you might plunk down $15 (or less if you use addall.com) on his book.
20pluscommunitydigestion 