When you encounter pain...

...think of agony endured by the martyrs OR of the unending torment that will befall those who will be sent to hell! (Adapted from Jonathan Edwards Resolutions. Resolution 10: Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.)

"Arise, Sir Knight!"

History is littered with awe-inspiring individuals who by their courage and conviction have altered the course of human civilisation - for good or ill. Examples are too many to name but think for instance of Martin Luther, William Wilberforce, Herr Hitler, Christopher Colombus, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, William Tyndale, Albert Einstein, Henry VIII, William the Conqueror and so on. One could also argue that on this weekend (as we celebrate Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee) the abdication by Edward VIII was a courageous act that altered the course of British/world history. The power of one person (or a group of persons) to impact the course of history is something we find time and time again in the history books. All this said, we would be fools to ignore/fail to recognize, the one King, whose reign has had the most impact on the life of mankind on earth...

He was born in an obscure village, 
            the son of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another village, 
            where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty. 
Then for three years he became a wandering preacher.


He never wrote a book. 
He never held an office. 
He never had a family or owned a house. 
He didn't go to college. 
He never visited a big city. 
He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. 
He did none of those things one usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself.


He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. 
His friends ran away. 
He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. 
He was executed by the state. 
While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, 
           the only property he had on earth. 
When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.


Twenty centuries have come and gone, 
and today 
          he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind's progress. 


All the armies that ever marched, 
all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliaments that ever sat, 
all the kings that ever reigned, put together, 
have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.

The antidote to Rome

“Biblicist, liturgical, sacramental, ecumenical Protestantism is the antidote to Roman fever, not the cause.”


Via @PLeithart

The vanity of money

In other words, money can't buy happiness. A few quotes from some greats - ancient and recent - that testify to this. First, King Solomon:

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity (Ecclesiastes 5:10)

Second, Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the US:

Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of it filling a vacuum, it makes one. If it satisfied one want, it doubles and trebles that want another way. That was a true proverb of the wise man; rely upon it: “Better a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasures.

Third, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th US President:

Financial success is purely metallic. The man who gains it has four metallic attributes: gold in his palm, silver on his tongue, brass in his face, and iron in his heart.

John D. Rockfeller:

I have made many millions, but they have brought me no happiness. I would barter them all for the days I sat on an office stool in Cleveland and counted myself rich on three dollars a week.

It's good therefore to know that God has promised all His children a lasting inheritance with benefits both in this life and the next. Paul puts it well by asking:

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 

Queen to the rescue

Currently looking for illustrations for the sermons to be preached during the Jubilee weekend and came across this:

Awkward conversation was being made at Buckingham Palace during the State Visit of General de Gaulle and his wife. Somebody asked Madame de Gaulle what she was most looking forward to in her retirement which was imminent. With great elaboration, not speaking English much at all, she replied, 'A penis'. Consternation reigned for some time but it was the Queen herself who came to the rescue. 'Ah happiness'!

The ugliness of Darwinism

From a tweet a read today:

"Show me one hospital or soup kitchen named after Charles Darwin."

Earth and heaven in a cosmic kiss

Whilst I completely disagree with NT Wright's take of Genesis 1 & 2, it is hard to watch the video below and disagree that he is a great story-teller (and incredibly talented scholar).