I wonder if I'm at a point like this in my life (whether I realize it or not).
“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.
You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.
You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.
Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.
And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.
You died when you refused to stand up for right.
You died when you refused to stand up for truth.
You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Francis Schaeffer's Journey
The way to read my books, then, is to realize that I came through a real struggle in those early days, and I’ve tried to be honest in my study ever since. I try to approach every problem as though I were not a Christian and see what the answer would be.
Later on in my ministry I faced another crisis that equally influenced the writing of my books. It came after I had already been a pastor for ten years in the U.S. and a missionary to Europe for five years. Throughout this period one thing was dinned into my thinking: “Why,” I asked, “is there so little reality among orthodox evangelical Christians? Why is there so little beauty in the way Christians deal with one another?”
This led to doubts about the reality of spiritual things in my own life. I realized that although I had been studying for years and although I had been active in Christian ministry and although I was becoming more and more known in certain Christian circles, the reality of my own spiritual life was diminished. Somehow I had lost what I had when I first became a Christian.
For about two months I walked out in the Swiss mountains. When it rained, I walked in the old hayloft above our chalet. And as I prayed, I went all the way back to my agnosticism. With as much honesty as I could, I asked myself, “Was I right in becoming a Christian as a young man?” The unreality I had found in the Christian world, the ugliness I saw in Christian relationships, the fact that Christians were not able to talk to twentieth-century people—all these things made me ask, “Was I right?”
And finally the sun came out. I saw that my earlier decisions to step from agnosticism to Bible-believing Christianity was right, and I also discovered that I had been missing something vital in my biblical understanding. It was this: that the finished work of Christ on the cross, back there in time and space, has a moment-by-moment meaning. Christ meant His promise to be taken literally when He said that He would bear His fruit through us if we allowed Him to do so, not only in our religious life but in all of our life. Christ meant to be Lord of my whole life. This brought my life to a great shattering moment. What began as struggle ended in a song. Without that crisis, I could never have written True Spirituality, for that book is the outcome of that personal struggle.
—Francis A. Schaeffer, “Why and How I Write My Books,” Eternity Magazine, vol. 24 (March 1973): 64f.
Later on in my ministry I faced another crisis that equally influenced the writing of my books. It came after I had already been a pastor for ten years in the U.S. and a missionary to Europe for five years. Throughout this period one thing was dinned into my thinking: “Why,” I asked, “is there so little reality among orthodox evangelical Christians? Why is there so little beauty in the way Christians deal with one another?”
This led to doubts about the reality of spiritual things in my own life. I realized that although I had been studying for years and although I had been active in Christian ministry and although I was becoming more and more known in certain Christian circles, the reality of my own spiritual life was diminished. Somehow I had lost what I had when I first became a Christian.
For about two months I walked out in the Swiss mountains. When it rained, I walked in the old hayloft above our chalet. And as I prayed, I went all the way back to my agnosticism. With as much honesty as I could, I asked myself, “Was I right in becoming a Christian as a young man?” The unreality I had found in the Christian world, the ugliness I saw in Christian relationships, the fact that Christians were not able to talk to twentieth-century people—all these things made me ask, “Was I right?”
And finally the sun came out. I saw that my earlier decisions to step from agnosticism to Bible-believing Christianity was right, and I also discovered that I had been missing something vital in my biblical understanding. It was this: that the finished work of Christ on the cross, back there in time and space, has a moment-by-moment meaning. Christ meant His promise to be taken literally when He said that He would bear His fruit through us if we allowed Him to do so, not only in our religious life but in all of our life. Christ meant to be Lord of my whole life. This brought my life to a great shattering moment. What began as struggle ended in a song. Without that crisis, I could never have written True Spirituality, for that book is the outcome of that personal struggle.
—Francis A. Schaeffer, “Why and How I Write My Books,” Eternity Magazine, vol. 24 (March 1973): 64f.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
I am drawn to friends for different reasons. With some I share common values and interests, but I also enjoy eccentric friends who encourage me to see things unconventionally. In either case I look for someone who will reward my honesty and not punish it; who will push my introverted self to a deeper level of intimacy. I look for companions along the journey ... I want someone I can count on.
-Phillip Yancey, Prayer I, Brett Ripley, am that eccentric friend :)
-Phillip Yancey, Prayer I, Brett Ripley, am that eccentric friend :)
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Don't tell me what to do!
What I need first of all is not exhortation, but a gospel, not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news? That is the question that I ask of you. I know your exhortations will not help me. But if anything has been done to save me, will you not tell me the facts?"
-John Gresham Machen
-John Gresham Machen
Friday, May 20, 2011
My View on Creation
Ok, so, I really like this page. This is a thoughtful summary of a creation account. I highlight it because it is basically where I stand right now as I read Scripture and learn about the science.
I realize that for some, it may be: "Duh- this is just the definition of Old-Earth Creationism", but for me, I've sort of arrived at alot of these conclusions doing some independent research and thinking, and I guess it was just cool to come across a quick synopsis that doesn't have its head in the sand on the science and also isn't chucking the bible. Also, that was a long sentence.
The article from "Reasons to Believe."
I realize that for some, it may be: "Duh- this is just the definition of Old-Earth Creationism", but for me, I've sort of arrived at alot of these conclusions doing some independent research and thinking, and I guess it was just cool to come across a quick synopsis that doesn't have its head in the sand on the science and also isn't chucking the bible. Also, that was a long sentence.
The article from "Reasons to Believe."
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Luther's 1518 Disputation
Warning: The following if applied to a heart, could yield dramatic freedom. I borrow from Mark Driscoll's blog.
Naked and filthy or clothed and righteous
People stand naked in sin or clothed in the identity of Christ. There's no middle ground in between. We can do good before God but only in a passive capacity. Consider this analogy:
“[As water] can be heated but cannot heat itself, the will is driven by Satan or by God, as it acts in the vertical sphere of life. Instead of trusting the Word of the Lord, we turn to the lie of the Deceptor, and doubt binds our wills as it deafens our ears. Freedom comes only through the new identity given through Christ’s death, that becomes our death to captivity and deception.” – Robert Kolb, Luther on the Theology of the Cross
Do your best and God does the rest?
Claiming we somehow add just a little bit of good to our standing with God through our efforts is what Gerhard Forde coined as human “affrontery.” As if we could simply do our best and have God do the rest.
“The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.” –Thesis 16, Heidelberg Disputation
Still we strive for just a teeny-weenie bit of good deeds to gain God’s favor. This proclivity masks itself as piety, but it’s an affront to God’s perfect work of Christ, on the cross, for our sins. Christ’s death and resurrection is complete (it is finished), not a supplement to our shortcomings.
People have the capacity to do good, but only when God comes onto the scene and makes us alive again.
Death to valiant efforts
Humans are not autonomous beings. We are to image our creator and receive our identity in him. But still we twist this beautiful truth towards our means and make rules for ourselves—rules that highlight our valiant spiritual efforts—in spiritual disciplines, idol-hunting skill, or even belief in our own belief. None of this will do.
“Striving for the standards people set for themselves can convince them that they are not able to reach their goals, but apart from the perspective at the foot of the cross they will not understand that the solution lies not in trying harder but in dying to their sinful identity. At the foot of the cross sinners finally lose the presumption that they simply must stretch a bit higher. They fall to the earth to die to their sinful identity.” –Kolb
The beauty of all this is that we are born anew. Death always comes before a resurrection.
Naked and filthy or clothed and righteous
People stand naked in sin or clothed in the identity of Christ. There's no middle ground in between. We can do good before God but only in a passive capacity. Consider this analogy:
“[As water] can be heated but cannot heat itself, the will is driven by Satan or by God, as it acts in the vertical sphere of life. Instead of trusting the Word of the Lord, we turn to the lie of the Deceptor, and doubt binds our wills as it deafens our ears. Freedom comes only through the new identity given through Christ’s death, that becomes our death to captivity and deception.” – Robert Kolb, Luther on the Theology of the Cross
Do your best and God does the rest?
Claiming we somehow add just a little bit of good to our standing with God through our efforts is what Gerhard Forde coined as human “affrontery.” As if we could simply do our best and have God do the rest.
“The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.” –Thesis 16, Heidelberg Disputation
Still we strive for just a teeny-weenie bit of good deeds to gain God’s favor. This proclivity masks itself as piety, but it’s an affront to God’s perfect work of Christ, on the cross, for our sins. Christ’s death and resurrection is complete (it is finished), not a supplement to our shortcomings.
People have the capacity to do good, but only when God comes onto the scene and makes us alive again.
Death to valiant efforts
Humans are not autonomous beings. We are to image our creator and receive our identity in him. But still we twist this beautiful truth towards our means and make rules for ourselves—rules that highlight our valiant spiritual efforts—in spiritual disciplines, idol-hunting skill, or even belief in our own belief. None of this will do.
“Striving for the standards people set for themselves can convince them that they are not able to reach their goals, but apart from the perspective at the foot of the cross they will not understand that the solution lies not in trying harder but in dying to their sinful identity. At the foot of the cross sinners finally lose the presumption that they simply must stretch a bit higher. They fall to the earth to die to their sinful identity.” –Kolb
The beauty of all this is that we are born anew. Death always comes before a resurrection.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The one great lesson Al Mohler has learned
Ok, so if you've heard me talk about this guy before, you know I'm not his biggest fan. However, what he says here speaks right into where I'm at right now trying to figure out what to do with my increasingly precious time.
Although there are many, is there one lesson the Lord has taught you that you would care to share with us?
I think the one great lesson the Lord has taught me over these years is that the importance of the family and the local congregation supersedes every other relationship to which the Christian is called. Christians demonstrate the glory of God and the power of the gospel by the way we marry and stay married, by the way we raise our children, by the way we love each other, and by the way we live faithfully in the congregation of believers. In the end, I fear that far too much energy is devoted to and far too many hopes are invested in institutions, programs, and projects that will not last. The centrality of Christ’s purpose to glorify himself in His church and the blessings of God that are directed to the precious gift of the family — these far exceed our other allegiances.
-Al Mohler, from an interview with Tabletalk
Although there are many, is there one lesson the Lord has taught you that you would care to share with us?
I think the one great lesson the Lord has taught me over these years is that the importance of the family and the local congregation supersedes every other relationship to which the Christian is called. Christians demonstrate the glory of God and the power of the gospel by the way we marry and stay married, by the way we raise our children, by the way we love each other, and by the way we live faithfully in the congregation of believers. In the end, I fear that far too much energy is devoted to and far too many hopes are invested in institutions, programs, and projects that will not last. The centrality of Christ’s purpose to glorify himself in His church and the blessings of God that are directed to the precious gift of the family — these far exceed our other allegiances.
-Al Mohler, from an interview with Tabletalk
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