7 ways to be a greater lover

Doug Wilson on fine fine form with his first post of the year, detailing how we to are love the LORD better. He sets the scene with this verse:

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil

    and perverted speech I hate (Proverbs 8:13)

Then makes this striking observation:

We should be able to immediately see that there is no virtue or vice to be found in a transitive verb. By themselves as verbs, love is not good and hatred is not bad. Everything rides on the the direct object. If you love your mom, that is great, but if you love child porn - same verb and everything - you are being wicked. In order to honor God, the right verb has to be lined up with the right direct object. Genuine love lines up with certain things so does true-hearted hate.

So what are the 7 things to be a greater lover/better hater. In summary, they are:

1)  Learn to love properly e.g. delighting in God's word, actively loving our spouse, children, grandchildren etc.

2)  Learn to hate hypocrisy i.e. don't hate other people's sins more than your own

3)  Learn to hate jargon, buzzwords, cant and Kant. No solid examples given here but I guess he has in sights things like 'edgy', 'missional', 'gospel-centred' etc.

4)  Learn to hate every form of egalitarianism, feminism, metrosexuality [...] and androgyny. In other words, ever since our division as a race into male and female, the true believers have responded with a hearty vive la différence.

5) Learn to hate every attempt to turn the Scripture on itself. That is, we are to remember that the Scriptures are coherent. One good step towards this is to say No! No! No! to red letter bibles.

6) Learn to hate every form of coercion that is not mandated by God Himself. Cameron, Barak Obama, The EU beware!

7) Learn to hate the suggestion made by some Christians (some evangelicals even!) that we are to take no prisoners. But what of Matthew 28:19-20?

Read the full thing here - it will stir you soul and set you up to be a better lover in 2014.

To a new thing in 2014

One of the most encouraging things about new years, new weeks, new days, new places, new jobs, is that word ‘new.’ Consciously or not, it offers us the hope of being able to start all over again. I wonder whether that’s why the Scriptures are full of God doing new things. For example, He makes a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert; He empowers the weak and shames the strong; He vindicates the foolish and humbles the wise. Perhaps most remarkable of all, He, the King of Heaven chooses for His precious Son to be born in the muck and filth of a stable, attended by goats and asses and impoverished shepherds. The wonderful hope of this beautiful season that we’ve been celebrating is that God has done a new thing—He has made a home among a people who have a hard time feeling at home here themselves. In the midst of the ambition and striving and disappointment and homework and housework, it all seems very unlikely that God really cares. And yet… God is now among us. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. Or as Chesterton put it, “our peace is put in impossible things.” So rather than enfeeble our expectations this New Year, rather than try stage-manage what the next 12 months will bring, let’s all remind each other what we often forget: God is forever at work, bringing wild impossibility to bear on the things we struggle to keep under our own control. Here’s to something new, even impossible this season and in the New Year.

The people who challenged my atheism most were prostitutes and drug addicts

A recent article in The Guardian, acknowledges the intellectually bankruptcy of Atheism. It begins thus:

I've been reminded that life is not as rational as Richard Dawkins sees it. Perhaps atheism is an intellectual luxury for the wealthy.

Of the many honest (and surprising) insights, my favourite is the line:

In these last three years, out from behind my computers, I have been reminded that life is not rational and that everyone makes mistakes. Or, in Biblical terms, we are all sinners.

Read the full thing here

Dickens on Christmas: even pagans 'love' it

We had our carol service last night. It was beautiful (and no that's not our church - just a lovely pic I picked up somewhere). Anyway our church was completely full and the singing boisterous and I'm sure that's not just because of the well known hymns and the beautiful candlelit setting. I think the *fact* of the incarnation cannot but move even the hardiest pagan. Dickens has it absolutely right when he says:

Christmas time changes our hearts, its seems, whether we wish it so or not. There is a power the coming of Christ has over even the most obdurate unbeliever that simply cannot be escaped. Amen and Amen.

Calvinism v Arminianism - an illustration

It is the difference between the man who manufactures life vests and the man who pulls drowning people out of the water, between the man who makes a scalpel and the man who uses it to cut out a cancerous tumour to save a patient’s life. Creating a system to do something is a fundamentally different thing from actually doing it. Thus, saying that Jesus creates a salvation system rather than saving us gives us a  fundamentally different perspective on the cross and the empty tomb.”

Greg Forster, The Joy of Calvinism, p. 54-55

Chandler v Hitchens - Chandler cornered, not a pretty sight

Chandler from Friends (aka Matthew Perry) was in a debate yesterday with Peter Hitchens (who knows a thing or two about drugs). The debate starts of gently but by the end there is blood on the studio floor! I'll leave you to work out whose...

Understanding suffering is like reading Hebrew

Some providences, like Hebrew letters must be read backwards.

—John Flavel, Puritan (1627/8-1691)