Even mascara glorifies God

It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, white-washing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in His grace you do it as your duty [or delight?]. To go to communion worthily gives God great glory, but to take food in thankfulness and temperance gives Him glory too. To lift up the hands in prayer gives God glory, but a man with a dung fork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give Him glory, too.  God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should — Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Principle or Foundation.

This is just good/wholesome/faithful application of Scriptures like Psalm 24:1, 1 Corinthians 10:31 & Colossians 3:17 which show us that every thought, word and deed has the possibility to glorify God (or not) right down to the socks you wear (or not)! If ever I get to publish a book (a BIG if...) I think I know what title I'd like: Even mascara glorifies God!

Children born with beards

“I have sometimes met with a deeper spiritual experience in children of ten and twelve than I have in certain persons of fifty and sixty. It is an old proverb that some children are born with beards.”

– C H Spurgeon

Case for marriage in 2 minutes/God bless ye Celts

This covers lots of bases in less than 2 minutes and it's Irish! Good bless ye celts

The problem isn't that we're bad

The problem isn’t that we are bad; the problem is that we are dead. And, no amount of physical effort will bridge the distance from death to life. There is only one way to life and His name is Jesus.

HT: Jump the creek

'Gay marriage' advocate comes clean: "I hate traditional marriage"

Speaking at a recent writer's festival in Sydney, Masha Gessen (a 'gay marriage' advocate) admitted that it was folly denying that the 'gay marriage' agenda was intent on destroying traditional marriage. Here are her words:

“I mean, I agree, it's a no brainer that we should have the right to marry, but I also think equally that it's a no brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist, so that causes my brain some trouble.” 

She continued: “And part of why it causes me some trouble is because fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we're going to do with marriage when we get there. 

“You know, because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change and it should change and again I don't think it should exist. And I don't like taking part in creating fictions about my life, that's sort of not what I had in mind when I came out 30 years ago.”

All credit to Ms Gessen for wanting to distance herself from the mendacious hypocrisy that purports to support homosexual marriage in the name of encouraging traditional marriage (as various panellists did on last week's Question Time). They should all come clean (as Ms Gessen has) and then the wicked truth of calling evil good and good evil will become apparent for everyone to see. Woe!

A Biblical view of democracy

Here's Doug Wilson riffing off C.S Lewis on democracy - tis very good...

Blazer button tips: sometimes, always, never

A Christian ought to dress well! In part, that's because we are to obey the 2nd greatest commandment (to love your neighbour as yourself) and also because of the summons to do everything to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). Below is a simple button rule to help you gents when you wear a blazer.

HT: The art of Manliness

A psalm for mobile addicts: funny but sad

My mobile is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

It makes me lie down in last minute holiday hotels,

It leads me by quiet traffic routes,

It refreshes my email.

It guides me with news of celebrity gossip for their names' sakes.

Even though I walk through the darkest corridor,

I will fear no evil,

for it is with me:

it's ringtone and touchscreen, 

they comfort me.

It prepares an excel table before me

in the presence of my finances.

It anoints my head with music;

my earphones overflow with Tim Keller sermons.

Surely it's goodness and love will follow me

all the days of my battery life,

and I will dwell in the monthly contract until I'm due an upgrade.

You can't beat the original

HT: Andrew Baughen

Sexual sin must be killed

This from a book that everyone is currently raving about - Rosario Butterfield's account of her journey from atheist lesbian to being the wife of a reformed pastor! She writes:

“What good Christians don’t realize is that sexual sin is not recreational sex gone overboard. Sexual sin is predatory. It won’t be ‘healed’  by redeeming the context or the genders. Sexual sin must simply be killed. What is left of your sexuality after this annihilation is up to God. But healing, to the sexual sinner, is death; nothing more and nothing less...  too many young Christian fornicators plan that marriage will redeem their sin. Too many young Christian masturbators plan that marriage will redeem their  patterns.. Too many young Christian internet pornographers think that having legitimate sex will take away the desire to have illicit sex. They’re wrong. And the marriages that result from this line of thinking are dangerous places. . . . Marriage does not redeem sin. Only Jesus Himself can do that” (83).

Fine art is damaging

From Peter Leithart:

The category of “fine arts” damages artists by encouraging them to think of themselves as prophets; it damages others because it discourages them from thinking of their own making as artistic.

Leithart's article is worth every minute's reading in gold - check it out here

Did Jesus ever laugh?

So asks Karl Bath in a letter:

"It is puzzling that in the Gospels there is hardly a passage where one can think of Jesus having laughed. There must be a reason for this but off-hand I could not name it."

So class how would you answer him?