Defiant Barth

As hitler's party cam to power in 1933, Karl Barth wrote:

The decisive things which I seek to bring to these problems today is to carry on theology, and only theology, now as previously, and as if nothing had happened.

Maxwell: desire to change

The desire to change is the key to growth in all areas of life.  Ironically, most people desire improvement, yet at the same time they resist change.  The problem is that you cannot have one without the other.  Change is possible but only if you want it badly enough.

The Difference Maker, John Maxwell, p.49

Fab! Flying car

This is just great: Steve Saint's latest invention for aiding missions and relief work - a flying car!

Wright: covenantal mission

Mission then, as articulated in the Great Commission, is the reflex of the new covenant.  Mission is an unavoidable imperative founded on the covenantal lordship  of Christ our King.  Its task is to produce self-replicating communities of covenantal obedience to Christ among the nations. And it is sustained by the covenantal promise of the perduring presence of Christ among his followers.

But we cannot stop short of the climactic vision of the whole of Scripture, the Book of Revelation.  Revelation is gloriously covenantal and presents the presence of God among His people as the crowning achievement of God's cosmic redemptive mission. Revelation 21-22, indeed, combines imagery from all the covenants of the Scriptures.

Noah is there in the vision of the new creation, a new heavens and a new earth after judgment.  Abraham is there in the ingathering and blessing of all nations from every tongue and language. Moses is there in the covenantal assertion that "they will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God," and "the dwelling of God is with men and He shall live with them".  David is there in the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, and in the identity of Jesus as the Lion of Judah and the Root of David.  And the New Covenant is there in the fact that all of this  will be accomplished by the blood of the Lamb who was slain.

p355-356.

#4...well it had to happen...

It was inevitable really, even though this has kind of appeared in a previous post in another (live) form.

The album that launched both Oldfield and Branson, the latter became a millionaire and the former did OK but had a poor contract and then a breakdown as a result of the global fame.  TB was an ongoing project for the troubled teen, who would resort to his bedroom and hide in the music; sticking bits of card in an old tape recorder to make it a 4-track, he put together patchy demos - whilst supporting himself as a session player in other venues.  Branson liked it (and wanted to call it Breakfast in Bed, which says it all about Branson really) and allowed Oldfield use of the new Manor studio when all the proper bands had gone home.

When it was finished, well - what do you do with a two-track album?  John Peel played it and off it went to mega-selling status (it was still in the top 100 5 years later).  When you think that large parts of it were composed at 17 years of age, and many of the instruments were played by him...welllllll.   THE album of my mid-teens - soak it in.

Book and covers

People frequently ask me how many pages they should give a book before they give up on it. In response to that question, I came up with my “rule of fifty,”  which is based on the shortness of time and the immensity of the world of books.  If you’re fifty years of age or younger, give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up.  If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit.  Since that number gets smaller and smaller as we get older and older, our big reward is that when we turn 100, we can judge a book by its cover!

http://nancypearlbooks.wordpress.com/pearlisms/

Wright: obedient to both testaments

But where do we find any justification for imagining  that by rightly understanding what the NT commands us to do, we are absolved from what the OT commands?  Why should we imagine that doing evangelism in obedience to the NT excludes doing justice in obedience to the Old?  Why have we allowed what we call the Great Commission to obscure the twin challenge (endorsed by Jesus himself) of the Great Commandment?

The Mission of God, p.304

Questions on good and evil

To walk away from one's faith because of unanswered questions about evil is to walk into a storm of unanswered questions about good.

Ravi Zacharias

Separating out the good bits

There is, surely, a wise example to follow in Augustine's sage advice concerning Platonism, "separate these truths from their unfortunate associations, take them away, and put them to their proper use for the proclamation of the gospel." 

John Ross (ref 21)

Chambers: the river and the obstacle

A river is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, then it comes to an obstacle and for a while it is baulked, but it soon makes a pathway round the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, and presently emerge again broader and grander than ever. You can see God using some lives, but into your life an obstacle has come and you do not seem to be of any use. Keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you round the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never get your eyes on the obstacle or on the difficulty. The obstacle is a matter of indifference to the river which will flow steadily through you if you remember to keep right at the Source. Never allow anything to come between yourself and Jesus Christ, no emotion, or experience; nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source. 

Utmost,  Sep.6th