One Sentence

"Men who do not know God must always lurch and wobble." ~Douglas Wilson

One Sentence

"All the books out there, all the articles, are simply an enormous conversation." ~ Douglas Wilson

One sentence

"You have to think about language, what it can do, what it cannot do, and how a disciplined approach to language is a disciplined approach to being human." ~ Douglas Wilson

Others' Thoughts

Articles, posts, etc., that have helped me think things through this past week.

The Gospel is More Than a Story: Rethinking Narrative and Testimony In this article from Christianity Today, Leslie Leyland Fields discusses (at some length) the growing interest in living a better story and some of the pitfalls of living solely by narrative theology. "It [the Bible] is not a safe or simple story. Yet the story is for all of us to hear and to heed. We are invited into these pages, not as editors with red pens in hand, but as supplicants seeking understanding and truth. We are invited to live into this narrative, but not to rewrite it, either to gut it of its offense or to reshape it for short attention spans and better sales."

No, Thank You Another post by Ginger Cimenello (from last Tuesday's post). In this guest post at Singleroots.com, Ginger discusses the importance of being honest and saying no when it's time to say no (especially in terms of dating relationships). No, I'm not at such a stage in life, but my own girls will be soon. And, Ginger's honesty and insight is helpful for the young Christian woman. 

Finitude, Creation, and a Well-Mowed Lawn Douglas Wilson discusses God's delight in creation and how we are imitative of that action and ought to be imitative in that delight. "God does not fault us for our finitude — indeed, we are to glory in it. It was chafing under finitude that actually helped precipitate the fall (Genesis 3:5). When we, as Adam’s descendants repent of this aspect of our fall into sin — which we can only do in the second Adam — we have to do it by embracing that finitude, and not resenting it. There will always be more work to do. Under the sun, this reality is vanity and shepherding wind. But when we’ve been there ten thousand years, we’ve no less days to work God’s praise than when we’d first begun. The very first lesson that a bright eternity in front of us will teach us is how to exult in finitude."

Before You Decide to Leave In this brief post, Tim Challies summarizes Mark Dever's recommended thoughts to consider before leaving a church. This advice is apt in an age when many of us are looking for what we can get out of church or what satisfies us more than we are looking for ways we can contribute to our local body of Christ.

One Sentence

"Faith is not wishful thinking; faith apprehends the promises of God found in Scripture." ~ Douglas Wilson

Got to have faith

Douglas Wilson introduces his book Future Men with a discussion of faith. He says, "Boys take a lot of faith."

We all do, which Wilson knows, but his focus is obviously raising boys into men. Even so, what he says in his second full paragraph about faith is worth considering in full:

"...Unbelief is always anchored to the present, while faith looks at that which is unseen. But even here we only get half the picture. Too often we think that faith only looks at heavenly things, but this truncated approach is really the result of an incipient Gnosticism. In the Bible, faith includes the ability to see that which is unseen because it is still future. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ, not the day when he, Abraham, would go to heaven. Faith conquers kingdoms, faith stops the mouths of lions, faith turns armies to flight, and faith brings boys up to a mature and godly masculinity."

He continues further, but I hope you see the future-looking, hopeful, nature of biblical faith. We do not want to live by a "truncated" faith; we do not want to live by a wistful faith that sees the world in merely abstract, ethereal wonder and longing. Biblical faith is assertive and active, standing on the promises of God and reaching toward what will be, toward the God who holds the future itself.

One Sentence

"A carpenter has to think about the hammer sometimes, and not just the house." ~ Doug Wilson