Tuesday, 22 September 2020

Feminism robs women twice!

“A society in which conjugal infidelity is tolerated must always be in the long run a society adverse to women. Women, whatever a few male songs and satires may say to the contrary, are more naturally monogamous than men; it is a biological necessity. Where promiscuity prevails, they will therefore always be more often the victims than the culprits. Also, domestic happiness is more necessary to them than to us. And the quality by which they most easily hold a man, their beauty, decreases every year after they have come to maturity, but this does not happen to those qualities of personality—women don’t really care two cents about our looks—by which we hold women. Thus in the ruthless war of promiscuity women are at a double disadvantage. They play for higher stakes and are also more likely to lose. I have no sympathy with moralists who frown at the increasing crudity of female provocativeness. These signs of desperate competition fill me with pity.”

Written as his last word but oh how prophetic from C.S. Lewis

Feminism hasn't sold out even if it's being used as a marketing tool

Wednesday, 16 September 2020

The church must prepare for war

The church of the present and the future must be a wartime church. The days of peace are over, whether you want them to be or not. Prepare.

Rod Dreher warns us of what is coming

The points Dreher makes are more the case for the Church in the West but if those of us in other parts of the world think that the battle is not ours to fight, we are rather deluded. We all - the body of Christ - need to prepare for war always remembering of course that He will win every battle.

 



On why the Church is failing to produce manly men

If the church largely neglects the task of dominion and the development of truly Christian forms of power and mission in the wider society and mostly focuses on the internal concerns of its communities, it is unlikely that it will be a place that produces mature Christian manliness.

For more on this read Alistair Roberts' excellent piece

Tuesday, 18 August 2020

Covid = a crisis + an opportunity for the Church

We're living through a crisis of faith, love, and hope. The coronavirus didn't create the crisis, but it has shone a spotlight on it and made it worse. 

Healthy societies thrive when guided by recognized, trusted authorities. Whom do we trust? Science? Have you seen the models? Bureaucrats? The media? Experts? Institutions of higher education? Sports heroes or celebrities? Politicians? You're joking! Try to think of any authority recognized and respected by everyone?

With no common objects of trust, it's no surprise we're divided. Some of us trust some experts, others trust other experts. Some watch CNN and read the New York Times; others watch Fox and read Breitbart. More than anything, we're united by our cynical distrust. 

Scattered like sheep without a shepherd, we lose hope. Will the centre hold? Will things ever return to "normal"? Hopelessness is dangerous, as we're tempted to latch onto the first person who tells us he can lead us to green pastures. 

This leaves the church with an immense mission challenge and mission opportunity: To be truthful and trustworthy so as to gain trust, to love without hypocrisy, to hope against hope as we serve the God who raises the dead

Are we up for it? I don't know. I pray we will be.

Slightly adapted from Theopolis

Monday, 29 June 2020

Neither happy-clappy nor liberal progressives will survive Corona

More wisdom from Dreher:
The happy-clappy entertainment-focused Christianity won’t survive this test. Neither will Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Only a hard charity, based on deep repentance, self-sacrifice, prayer, and spiritual discipline will.
Read the full thing here

Friday, 26 June 2020

The end of coronavirus is either condemnation or consolation

Coronanvirus is going to be costly at many levels. There is going to be deep pain ahead but the end will be one of two options:
“Remember, there is no way to avoid walking this road. It will either lead us to God, or to condemnation. It’s the same road, but the destination at the end depends on us.”
From Rod Dreher which even though it is a few months old is spot on.

Saturday, 25 April 2020

God is the One who shut down the world

It really is marvelous to stand back and see what God has done. God closed down the world. The mighty modern nations of the earth have been shut down. 91% of the population of the world is under some kind of restrictions, with somewhere between a third and a half of the world’s population in some kind of lockdown. God closed down the world because He can, because He is the Lord.

However, it appears that the primary switch God used to shut everything down was fear. And what is it that people fear? People fear death. Why? Because they are guilty, and they fear the judgment of God for their sins.

But Christ died in order to deliver us from the fear of death and our slavery to that fear. And He did that by taking our sin, dying in our place for our sin, and thereby disarming the devil’s power of death – His power to accuse us for our sin.

So then, are you fearful? The same God who shut the whole world down, numbers the hairs on your head. Our Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades, and there is no condemnation in Him.    





Monday, 20 April 2020

He tasted death that I might drink wine

Love is that liquor sweet and most divine,Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine.
From George Herbert's poem, The Agonie. You can listen to it here

Wednesday, 15 April 2020

Trying to remove God from His position

Modern technocratic man does not object to predestination at all. He objects to predestination by God. He wants to remove God from His divine position in such a way as to create a job opening. 
That is deep!

HT: DW

Corona versus Christ? We know how this battle ends


Monday, 13 April 2020

God rules over coronavirus

Nature is not sovereign. Satan is not sovereign. Sinful man is not sovereign. God rules them all (Lk 8:25; Job 1:12; 2:6; Acts 4:27-28). And so we say with Job, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). Therefore, God not only comprehends the coronavirus; he has purposes for it. God does nothing, and permits nothing, without wise purposes. Nothing just happens. Everything flows from the eternal counsels of God (Eph. 1:11). All of it is wisdom. All of it is purposeful. For those who trust Jesus Christ, all of it is kindness. For others, it is a merciful wake-up call: “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price” (Rv 22:17)

Monday, 30 March 2020

Saturday, 28 March 2020

1 thing a pastor must do!

The pastor’s vocation is to minister the Word and Sacraments, which give what they promise. He must carefully distinguish guilt and shame in those whom he treats. Almost always we are both sinning and sinned against, but it is harmful to confuse these and to produce a false guilt or fail to deal with a sense of shame, however unjustified that might be.

Pastors must listen carefully enough to differentiate shame and guilt. The medicine for the 2 are very different.