Sancta Musica: "In Christ Alone" acapella

Simply superb!

Why sex really matters

The thesis:

1) The Scientific world is 'blinkered' in that it views/presumes that men and women are 99.9% equal

2) Men and women are not equal

3) The study of disease, because it treats the sexes as equal, is flawed. This widespread presumption (of male/female equality) cannot for example account for why some conditions/illnesses are more widespread in women more than men (and vice versa). For example why is that lupus occurs in about 6 times more women than men? And why is that Autism spectrum disorder occurs in about 5 times more boys than girls? David Page argues that the Scientific world has ignored the issue of male/female distinction to the detriment of patient treatment/care. Watch his illuminating talk below...

What they left and what they kept - life lessons on what's valuable

Art of Manliness posts a list of things that Shackelton and Co. left back + what they took when that dreadful moment came for them to abandon their ship (ironically named Endurance) So what did they leave behind?

- Money/Jewellery/Gold

- Clothes

- Scientific instruments

- Books

- Suitcases

And what did they take?

- Toothbrushes

- Religious items (Shackleton took with him the Bible he'd been given by Queen Alexandra)

- Photographs

- Medical supplies and instruments

- Banjo

- Diaries

Interesting that they opted for the Banjo and not the Books but on reflection this kind of makes sense (singing/music/The Psalms are guaranteed to lift up the soul when one is downbeat and discouraged). The thing that took me most by surprise though was that they prioritised toothbrushes but again this makes complete sense when you think of it. There was no chance of a root canal or a scale + polish out in the dreary wild of the Antarctic. These guys from a different age where valour, honour and courage ruled, point us (men especially) to consider what matters and what shatters. Read the AoM post in full to glean what these wise men of yonder can teach us.

Relationship advice for teens: shuffle while you wait

This was one of my main points to our church teenagers regarding boy/girl relationships - to shuffle while they waited. In other words to think of the kind of husband/wife they'd like to be come marriage in 5-10 years and then to start working on it. No one ever donned a wedding ring, suddenly to be transformed into a hard working, elegant, polite, articulate, charming man/woman. It all takes time. If you hope to be a remarkable/impressive husband or an adorable/praiseworthy wife you had better be on the case for it now, today, wherever you are! If for example good manners and a sharp wit are not being 'practised' currently in the hope that when the right time comes (e.g. when Miss Beautiful/Mr Charming turns up) then you can be rest assured that when you try them then they will be a very bad fit. For boys this means acquiring habits like opening the door for your mother/sisters/grandma, not dressing like One Direction, only roughing it/play-fighting with other boys and not bolting your food. For girls this means working on your modesty, cultivating elegance, honouring your fathers and loving little children. Getting good at these things take a lot time and ye teens therefore had better get practising now. As someone once said good morals, like good taste is acquired and built.

Size of New Testament books

I like this kind of imagery for the fresh way it presents the Bible (and a big hat-tip to Mark over at Visual Unit for producing it). One question that it raises is whether our preaching/teaching should have a similar emphasis/weighting. I suspect that for most Evangelicals the high points would be St Paul's letters rather than the Gospels.

Why did Jesus chose men to lead the Church?

Because He planned for them to die. Every. Single. One. The apostles were chosen to be martyrs. They were chosen to lose their families, to lose their reputations, to lose their homes, to be mocked and misunderstood, beaten and rejected and killed.

......

To lead the Church is to follow on the heels of Jesus who was lied about, betrayed by a friend, rejected by family, constantly misunderstood, and ultimately convicted of crimes He didn’t commit, beaten to a bloody pulp, and executed naked on a Roman cross.

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In other words, if we want to insist that ordained ministry and leadership in the church is something for men, we need to prove it by doing the hard and dangerous work of following Jesus. For some that means spending a lot more time in prayer. Pray like it’s your job. Pray like it matters. Pray for hours. Pray like a man. Some need to get out of their offices and preach the gospel. Go find unbelievers. Go talk to them. Go to the LBGTQ luncheons and preach Jesus. Go find a street corner. Go next door. You’ll be misunderstood. You’ll be laughed at. You’ll be ignored. You’ll be rejected. You’ll begin to be a man. Some need to address actual sin in their congregations. Name it, explain it, condemn it, and point to Jesus who frees us from all sin. People might misunderstand. People might leave. There might be a church split. Good, then maybe you can learn to be a man.

Totally superb post. Read the full thing here

Why the Church exists

May I come back to what I said before? This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden— that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952; Harper Collins: 1997) 164.