The Puritan is often wrong, but never in doubt. Whatever he believes, he believes absolutely. Whatever he is for, he is for to the nth degree. Whatever he is against, he is against utterly. Whatever he doesn’t understand isn’t worth knowing. And the idea that other people with different ways or ideas might see something he does not, which might enrich his understanding of his own ways or ideas, is unthinkable: someone must be simply right, and all others must be simply wrong.
— Read on aefenglommung.livejournal.com/1653327.html
Month: October 2020
Why Obedience May Not Mean What You Think It Means – Seedbed
We need to grasp the gravity and intensity of Jesus’ words. When Jesus tells us to keep his words or obey his commands and when he tells us how he obeys his Father’s commands, here’s what he means. Go back to the passages above and everywhere we see the term “keep” or “obey” insert these words: Pay close attention to what I say, keep these words in your mind, impress the teaching on your hearts, guard it with vigilance, give all of your energy to applying it to your life, be careful to put it into practice, and treasure it above everything else.
— Read on www.seedbed.com/why-obedience-may-not-mean-what-you-think-it-means/
Hummer EV Sold out!
We had a crane fly hatch of monster proportions this fall. I think it is finally waning.
On growing the movement: aefenglommung
Whether in terms of church leadership or scouting leadership, any strategy for the future which does not explicitly prioritize growth has accepted decline. And growth comes from starting new groups, not merely promoting existing ones.
— Read on aefenglommung.livejournal.com/1652693.html
Alright, who is going to order a new electric Hummer? You know you want one.
A Humbling Message for the Elite Regarding Spiritual Revival – Bible Background
Most of the places experiencing the most profound spiritual revival today are also circles among the poor and the marginalized. As John Wesley noted, God’s Spirit produces diligence and thrift, which leads to wealth, but in time this upward mobility can produce generations dependent on prior generations’ blessings. If God has blessed some of us with upward mobility that our forebears in revival lacked, we must use it wisely (1 Tim 6:17-19); we dare not risk losing the special connection with the poor and broken. We may serve and empower them, but we are also blessed by them; they have something that we too need.
— Read on craigkeener.com/a-humbling-message-for-the-elite-regarding-spiritual-revival/
Brick Corner
Brick Corner
Amo, Indiana, USA
Yes, God does hear our prayers. He sometimes answers prayer in Scripture with spectacular miracles. But here he answers with quiet, ordinary providence—daily living in humble, trusting obedience. Ruth received the blessings of Naomi’s prayer. But what neither Ruth nor Naomi (nor Boaz) ever realized in their lifetimes is that the blessings of Naomi’s prayer (Obed, Jesse, David, and generations on to Jesus) would continue into the twenty-first century and into eternity.
Blanchard, Tom. “God May Providentially Answer Our Prayers … Way beyond Our Imagination!: Ruth 1:8–9.” In Hebrew for Life: Strategies for Learning, Retaining, and Reviving Biblical Hebrew, 44–45. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2020.
How I Tried on Fundamentalist Christianity and Found It Didn’t Fit | Roger E. Olson
So are fundamentalist Christians really Christians, authentically Christian? I would say most of them are because they accept Jesus Christ as God and Savior, have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and embrace all the key doctrines of historical, classical Christian orthodoxy. But many of them are deluded Christians and many of them are mean Christians—especially toward other conservative Christians with whom they disagree about matters like women in ministry, speaking in tongues, the “end times,” biblical inerrancy, etc.
— Read on www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2020/10/how-i-tried-on-fundamentalist-christianity-and-found-it-didnt-fit/
The details are quite different, but I have been on the same journey. At this stage in my life, I just feel sorry for fundamentalists and have no hope of seeing any movement in them.