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In Case You Missed It…
…”How Great Thou Art” is not just indicating sequence but causation. When this one thing happens, THEN SINGS MY SOUL. I always liked this song, but it took me far too long to pick up on this. O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder Consider all the works Thy hand hath made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee; How great Thou art, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee: How great Thou art, how great Thou art! When through the woods and forest glades I…
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How the World Works
Reading Proverbs this morning and it struck me how familiar all of it sounded. Be honest. Be generous. Be humble. Be of good character. But the funny thing to me is that each of these instructions is couched in the language of how the world works. Not perfectly, of course—sometimes the wicked do get ahead. But that’s the exception. These are the rules. Christianity is about redemption. Part of this means subverting the way the world works because it’s broken. But quite often it also means embracing the part of the world that is still good. I’m very good at seeing how the world doesn’t measure up, and that’s helpful.…
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Rhymes with Justification
Growing up Baptist, justification was a really big deal. Because like good Protestants (even though we weren’t always sure we were Protestants… long story) our teaching emphasized salvation by grace through faith alone. But I have to confess that ever since I started seminary (5 years ago) I’ve had another kind of justification on the brain. This kind of justification is where you have to defend yourself to other people. I’m not just talking apologetics, although this definitely has application there. I’m talking about defending whole fields of inquiry and their use in biblical studies. See, as a Baptist, I was taught to just focus on the Bible. Church history…
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On Blueprints
The man who wants to build a house begins with blueprints. Without instructions, he is playing a dangerous game trying to construct something exceedingly complex by more or less shooting from the hip. If house-building is your thing, all you have to do is find a set of suitable blueprints and work from there. The same holds true for the man who would master a theological system. If his whole point is to end up with a workable system, there are many to choose from. The blueprints you choose for your theological system will have different strengths and weaknesses, as well as a broad range of costs. The man with…
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On Gardening
If you would, stroll across the lawn with me. I have something I’d like to show you. It’s just around this corner here. I’d like to give you a tour of my soul. What’s that you say? “It’s just a garden”? Of course it looks like a garden! What else would you expect a soul to look like? But it’s not “just” anything. It’s one of the most precious things on earth. I’m not out to compare gardens or even to show off what I’ve done with mine. My garden isn’t all that special, I just mean that every garden is sacred. You gaze upon hallowed ground. For this earth…