Why do we go to church?

The funny poem below was published by a vicar back in the 19th century. I am sure that I've been all of these people at one time or other (allowing of course for some modification here and there) but I now pray God that I might be more the last on the list...

 SOME GO TO CHURCH

Some go to church just for a walk,

Some go to stare and laugh and talk,

Some go there to meet a friend,

Some their idle time to spend,

Some for general observation,

Some for private speculation,

Some to seek or find a lover,

Some a courtship to discover,

Some go there to use their eyes,

And newest fashions criticise,

Some to show their own smart dress,

Some their neighbours to assess;

Some to scan a robe or bonnet,

Some to price the trimming on it,

Some to learn the latest news,

That friends at home they may amuse,

Some to gossip false and true,

Safe within the sheltering pew,

Some go there to please the squire,

Some his daughter to admire,

Some the parson go to fawn,

Some to lounge and some to yawn,

Some to claim the parish doles,

Some for bread and some for coals,

Some because it's thought genteel,

Some to vaunt their pious zeal,

Some to show how sweet they sing,

Some how loud their voices ring,

Some the preacher go to hear,

His style of voice to praise or jeer,

Some their sins to vanish o'er,

Some to sit and doze and nod,

But few to kneel and worship God.

Why do you go to church?

Here's when you should refuse going to heaven

We want HIM! I should refuse heaven if Christ were not there. Take Christ away from heaven and it is but a poor, unheartsome, dark, waste dwelling. Heaven without Christ would look like the direful Land of Death. Ah, saith Christ, your joy must full, John 14:3, then I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. I confess, mansions are but as places of briars and thorns without Christ. I want heaven in order to have Christ, not Christ in order to have heaven.

— Samuel Rutherford, Christ dying and drawing sinners to Himself  

Even the worst can be woven into God's purposes

As Jeremy Begbie beautifully illustrates through music...

Research shows working mums outperform kiddie free women

That's the conclusion of recent research cited by the Washington Post. Here is one of the key paragraphs:

For men, fathers of one child and those without children similarly throughout much of their careers. But men with two or more kids were more productive than both groups. The effect for women was even more dramatic. Using their own method for analyzing research publications, the authors found that within the first five or so years of their career, women who never have children substantially underperform those who do. (The difference in productivity between women with one child and those with no children is more muted using a different ranking for research. But in both cases, mothers with at least two children perform the best.)

One of the reasons given by the Washington Post for such surprising data is that mums with multiple children tend to be hyper-organized. Whilst agreeing with this, pastor-theologian Peter Leithart adds another important factor - the effect parenting has on settling people:

The research may be “counterintuitive,” but anyone with kids knows it’s accurate. Like marriage, parenthood focuses attention and forces efficiency in time management. Probably more importantly, parenthood, like marriage, settles, and no one is less productive than the unsettled.

That intiuitively makes sense to me and as we are expecting the third kipling I'm off to share this with the lovely Mrs K.

Gender agenda - a funny guide

You can't be 'gay' and a Christian

So say Anthony Esolen and S. M Hutchens:

The basis of that belief is exemplified in St. Paul's assurance to the Corinthian church that what some of its believers used to be—and here he recited a catalog of sins that included arsenokoitai ("sexual perverts") — they no longer were, because they had been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God.

Later they spell this out, pointing out that this does not mean Christians never sin:

Let us be especially careful here, to obviate misunderstanding. Referring to our lives in time, and in a spirit of mortification, we may say, with St. Peter, "I am a wicked man."We may say, "I am a thief," "I am a harlot," "I am a liar," meaning that I have committed these sins, they weigh upon my shoulders, they are the splinters of my self-hewn cross, which I bear under my flesh. We say so in shame. But we do not thereby express an ultimate or God-ordained identity. Quite the contrary. We mean, "This is what I am in a distorted sense, because of what I have done, and because of the evil that I am still fearfully tempted to do." 

Thus they helpfully conclude:

There are Christians who are thieves, because there are Christians who are sinners. But there can be no such thing as a Christian thief. We are ourselves at last when we can say, in glory, "It is not I, but Christ who lives in me." And Christ is no sinner.

Lots there to think and pray about...

You can’t declare war and insist that you mean it nicely

This from Toby Sumpter

...when an innocent sounding man insists with tears in his eyes that all he’s asking for is the right to be with his lifelong partner in his final moments in the hospital as his legal spouse, Christians must insist that this is not all he is asking for. No, he is also asking that we toss out justice and mercy. He is insisting that we help him defy the God of heaven. Whatever social, emotional, psychological, and cultural factors are at play (and there are likely many), the bottom line is that institutionalizing sin as a human right is a declaration of war on God. And you cannot declare war on God and insist that all you want is to be able to file joint tax returns. That’s like a jihadist landing at JFK Airport loaded with TNT insisting that he’s just here to visit his mother for her birthday, honest. That’s certainly very sweet, son, but, um, no.

A similar case could be argued regarding abortion and the pursuit of women's lib. When feminists say that all they want is to be allowed the choice to do as they please with their bodies, they are often being unwittingly wily.

For more of Toby's incisive argument go here