Ouote of the week

Ministers of the gospel should expect their teaching to have transformative power over the course of years and decades. Gospel proclamation is not like the coach's half time talk in the locker room, where the exhortation is all about now, and the application, all the application, immediately follows... You might see a man do the right thing today, and not know that it could all be traced back to a sermon heard by his great grandmother on his mother's side in 1932.

via Doctrinal Leaven

Thieving Prime Minister?

Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, "What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you who does it with a great fleet are styled emperor."

via The City of God (Book IV) St Augustine

Amazing to think that Augustine understood how wicked regimes can get and me thinks that our leaders (in the Church and State) would do well to ponder this quote before embarking upon their work tomorrow so if you see any of them will you please point to them this most phenomenal of African theologians...

Love Him first

CS Lewis illumines how foolish it is to put God second

"(Sensual love) ceases to be a devil when it ceases to be a god. So many things—nay every real thing—is good if only it will be humble and ordinate." (from a 1940 letter)

“When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” (from a 1952 letter)

"Ok" is not good enough

Whilst at theological college, we had an array of visiting speakers come and lead our meditations at the Lord's Supper service. For us Anglicans, there was always some nervousness whenever a Bishop or other senior clergyman turned up. What would he be like? What new fad would he commend? Would we have to undergo the inevitable wince as heresy was slyly mixed up with the heavenly manna on the Lord's table? Thankfully in most instances, we would get general platitudes and more often than not the visiting Bishop would do their best to present themselves as a friend unto Evangelicals.

Now that I'm an ordained clergyman - with hopes of soon making it to Archbishop, I've been wondering if this is the sort of thinking is really all that helpful when evaluating the ministry and preaching of our elders, presbyters, bishops. Rather than thinking a Bishop, Minister, lay preacher, Cornhill apprentices is "good" because their sermon was "ok" and wasn't heretical, shouldn't we be applying a more biblical standard? Verses such as Ezekiel 3:16-21; Acts 20:26-27; 1 Timothy 4:16; James 3:1

Perhaps one way of visualizing this issue personally is to consider the question below that one of my college tutors posed on this subject of how to assess a preacher...

If I had full pastoral charge of a congregation and was therefore responsible to give an account to God of the nurture, nourishment and protection of these 50 or 500 people in their life as disciples of Jesus, would I, when taking a three month sabbatical, cheerfully call in X to be my stand-in pastor-teacher, confident that the congregation would be outstandingly taught, prayed for, and discipled under his ministry?

Or, the same thing put differently consider this quote from Doug Wilson

"Miss Realistic is quite a seductive little thing, but she always has ugly babies. When the cancer of corruption is well-advanced in a commonwealth, believers can easily be maneuvered into festooning themselves with the campaign buttons of the less corrupt. Such relative comparisons between 'horrible' and 'not quite so bad,' can appear quite stark, and they do give political campaigns a high entertainment value, but they still do not reflect the standards of the law of God" (Joy at the End of the Tether, p. 116).

May we abhor the "not so bad" and "ok" preaching rife in the Church and strive for preachers who will fearlessly Preach the Word, in season and out, correcting, rebuking and encouraging, with great patience and careful instruction. Amen.

Nouveau man

It has been quite a month for me-

newly married,
newly ordained,
new home,
new year (as t'was my birthday at the end of June)

Now begins the adventure of settling into and properly administering the many roles and responsibilities that God has brought my way - scary thought but with one that will be accomplished by looking constantly to the Rock our God. Join me in praying that I'd be

a faithful husband
a fearless minister
a fruitful husband
a fun-filled nouveau man

Do it, Do it, Do it!

Was Martin Luther's advice to a young man seeking guidance on marriage. Rather intriguingly his answer to the young chap, incluided the line that "It is best to comply with all our senses as soon as possible and give ourselves to God's Word and work in whatever He wishes us to do." Wow - Embarking on Marriage as being an expression of God's Word and work! Can you imagine your local minister responding like this to a young man seeking counsel on whether to ask for a young maiden's hand in marriage? Well, if ever you need to urge someone (as I surely will be) here is the quote in full

"I fancy that human fear and timidity stand in your way. It is said that it takes a bold man to venture to take a wife. What you need above all else then, is to be encouraged, admonished, urged, incited, and made bold. Why should you delay, my dear and reverend sir, and continue to weigh the matter in your mind? It must, it should, and will happen in any case. Stop thinking about it and go to it right merrily. Your body demands it, God wills it, and drives you to it. There is nothing that you can do about it...It is best to comply with all our senses as soon as possible and give ourselves to God's Word and work in whatever He wishes us to do."

Let us not try to fly higher and be better than Abraham, David, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, and all the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, as well as many holy martyrs and bishops, all of whom knew that they were created by God as men, were not ashamed to be and be thought men, conducted themselves accordingly, and did not remain alone. Whoever is ashamed of marriage is also ashamed of being a man or being thought a man or else he thinks that he can make himself better than God made him.

Martin Luther’s letter to Wolfgang Reissenbusch, March 27, 1525, Library of Christian Classics, Vol. XVIII Philadelphia: Westminster Press

The right time

With marriage so nearly upon me, I've been pondering if ever there is a "right" time to get married. We were chatting recently with my soon to be wife (the lovely Rachel) and I instinctively said that I think folks should be getting married much much younger than they are now. When Rachel asked me for my reasons, I waffled on for a bit, with my only vaguely useful response being that women reach their reproductive peak in the late teens. Today, I read an article which makes this case fairly persuasively and rather eloquently. Read it here Let’s Have More Teen Pregnancy and then-dare I say it-egg someone on...