Calvin: Scripture

Read Demosthenes or Cicero; read Plato, Aristotle, and others of that tribe. They will, I admit, allure you, delight you, move you, enrapture you in wonderful measure. But betake yourself from them to this sacred reading. Then, in spite of yourself, so deeply will it affect you, so penetrate your heart, so fix itself in your very marrow, that, compared with its deep impression, such vigor as the orators and philosophers have will nearly vanish. Consequently, it is easy to see that the Sacred Scriptures, which so far surpass all gifts and graces of human endevour, breath something divine.

Institutes, 1.8.1 (Battles p 82)

After the bus...

In the wake of the bus adverts in some UK cities, Christianity Today just ran this great cartoon.

#1 Five Miles Out

NB. These tracks won't be appearing in any order (a la Fluff Freeman countdowns), as we decided that was too hard to work out and made our brains hurt. We'll also try to link to some online version of the track for further study and academic research....

So here we go....

Well, I thought I would get this over and done with at the start...Mike Oldfield will turn up a lot more often and with more credibility if/when we do Albums. He's not best known for his ability with 3 minute singles, being more at home with 25 minute tracks, but he did occasionally turn out singles (he was being forced to by Virgin) that were really good (INMHO).

'Five Miles Out' musicifies a near fatal plane journey in a light aircraft over the Alps. By this time Oldfield had a band and they were being transported to a venue when they were hit by a terrifying storm. Unlike most of his singles (with lyrics that sound like 6th form poetry) this one describes something real; it also cleverly weaves in themes from side A of the album (the 20-odd minute instrumental; listen carefully, and you can also hear, in the first 20 seconds, the theme from Tubular Bells, which turns up, semi-concealed, in lots of his work).

So, I'm kicking things off with a song that has been stuck in my head for over 20 years. Here's the video which, despite being the beginning of Oldfield's use of early computer equipment - with which he fiddled for years like a teenager in his bedroom on a ZX81 - actually looks like a video made by a teenager fiddling in his bedroom on a ZX81.

Top 25 of two rock dudes

From tomorrow, Minternational and myself will be posting on Tuesdays and Thursdays a track from our personal lists of what we feel is the best stuff ever. Basically we are two middle-aged men recapturing our misspent youths during our coffee breaks. So feel free (dear audience of millions) to watch as we learn one another's tastes and leave edifying comments (= are very rude to each other)...

Augustine: judgment

If now every sin were to suffer open punishment, it would seem that nothing is reserved for the final judgement. Again, if God were now to punish no sin openly, one would believe that there is no providence.

Calvin: creation

...the most perfect way of seeking God...is not for us to attempt with bold curiosity to penetrate to the investigation of His essence, which we ought more to adore than to meticulously search out, but for us to contemplate Him in His works whereby he renders himself near and familiar to us, and in some manner communicates Himself...It is also fitting, therefore, for us to pursue this particular search for God, which may so hold our mental powers suspended in wonderment as at the same time to stir us deeply. And as Augustine teaches elsewhere, because, disheartened by His greatness, we cannot grasp Him, we ought to gaze upon His works, that we may be restored by His goodness.

Institutes 1.5.9 (Battles p 62)

Books

I love books. I love to buy new books, collect old books, and cover my walls with books. Books are the scholarly jolts that begin my day and the literary nightcaps that bring my day to a close. Books are my hot chocolates, my Irish cream coffees, and my hot lattes with extra shots of espresso.

Tony Reinke
http://spurgeon.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/tip-1-capture-reading-time/

Calvin: piety

I call 'piety' that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of His benefits induces. For until men recognise that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by His fatherly care, that He is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond Him - they will never yield Him willing service. Nay, unless they establish their complete happiness in Him, they will never give themselves truly and sincerely to Him.

Institutes, 1.2.1 ( Battles p41)

Christmas culture

A few days before the summer solstice—Stephen Hawthorne's first Christmas in Bolivia—he saw women selling moss in the street, and he bought some for a manger scene. He and his wife arranged their Nativity figures on the moss, put some lights around it, and thought it looked lovely. Soon, members of the evangelical church they attended dropped by. "They were absolutely horrified when they saw what we'd done," says Hawthorne. "We said, 'What's the matter?' They said, 'This is idolatry.'"

Oddly enough, Hawthorne says, when he and his family visited one of the churches that condemned manger scenes, "We in our turn were horrified to see this huge blow-up figure of Santa Claus on top of the church. It was a lesson to us about how people give meaning to symbols."

Susan Wunderink, Christianity Today

At this time of year...

I like to get my t-shirt out. Humour me.

Providence

Understanding and applying the doctrine of divine providence will be absolutely essential for any church leaders...One reason is that an understanding of providence will help them to fight the temptation to despair, or give up, in the face of the challenges ahead.

Reeder, From Embers..., p168-9

Character

Circumstances do not dictate our character. Instead they reveal it and provide the opportunity to refine it. A good leader does not use bad circumstances as an excuse, but as an opportunity for great things to happen by God's grace.

Reeder, From Embers..., p166

Success

As Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones once said, "The worst thing that can happen to a person is to succeed before he is ready." And when we get to heaven, perhaps we will discover that God worked overtime to keep success from us to preserve us.

RT Kendall, A Man After God's Own Heart, p75

Retracing the Bethlehem Road

I think it is probably a device for telling stories of modern life in Israel, but this still looks very interesting at Christmas time.

Stevenson: I know how he feels!

Next day we made a late start in the rain…We had now brought ourselves to a pitch of humility in the matter of weather, not often obtained except in the Scottish Highlands. A rag of blue sky or a glimpse of sunshine set our hearts singing; and when the rain was not heavy, we counted the day almost fair.

An Inland Voyage, by RL Stevenson p.35

Tripp: aging idolatry

So our struggles with physical aging are the struggles between idolatry and grace...

Yes, outwardly I am wasting away, but I have real hope and real joy, because inwardly I am being renewed every day. What my life is really about can never be weakened by age or destroyed by years!

Lost in the Middle, p102

Tripp: being there

I have discovered that a significant part of my job is to stand in the middle of people's lives with them and be used of God to give them eyes to see. My job is to help them come out of hiding and to look through the fog of fear and destruction. My job is to help them see the powerful hand of a loving Redeemer who is not confused, uncaring or inactive.

Lost in the Middle , p.73

Tripp: weak hearts

In times of trial, it is our hearts that are under attack, and it is our hearts that get revealed. It is important to know our hearts, to assess where they are weak and vulnerable to temptation, and to do what we can to guard them. Remember, the decisions we make in moments of difficulty are not forced on us by the situations we are in but by what our hearts think and desire in the middle of them.

Lost in the Middle, p.67

Tripp: bad decisons

This, too, is a danger of the midlife struggle. In moments of disappointment and disorientation, in the grief of regret and the sadness at the death of our dreams, we are very vulnerable to making decisions that will add further trouble to the trouble we are already experiencing.

Lost in the Middle, p.66

Apparant activity

Faced with a player sending the ball towards them at 80 m.p.h. or more, the goalkeeper has only a fraction of a second to decide how to block the shot. It’s a fearful challenge: 4 out of 5 penalty kicks score a goal.

By analyzing data on more than 300 kicks, the researchers calculated the action most likely to prevent a goal being scored. Surprisingly, it is standing in the center of the goal and doing nothing until the trajectory of the ball can be seen. This resulted in a 1 in 3 success rate — far higher than the average.

Yet goalkeepers almost never act in this way. They typically try to guess the ball’s direction before the player’s foot has actually made contact with it, diving left or right to try to be in the right spot when the ball arrives. Neither is a good option. Diving left resulted in success 14% of the time; diving right only 12.6%.

Why then is it so common to act in a way that is even less successful than the average?

The researchers suggest that the answer lies in the goalkeepers’ emotions and the response they meet from others after failing. By taking action — even if it’s neither rational nor likely to be successful — they can at least be seen to have done something.

If they stand and wait until the ball is kicked and then fail to stop it, they feel worse because of their inaction; and others are far more likely to criticize them for not appearing even to try. It’s better to try a poor action than try a better — but seemingly passive — response if both fail; even though the “inactive” response is more rational and based on a better likelihood of success.

Lifehack March 5th 2008