REAL MARRIAGE

I had the great privilege of attending the Real Marriage conference this weekend with my wife (thanks Tim & Michelle).  There was a firestorm on the blogosphere surrounding Mark & Grace Driscoll coming to speak at Liberty University  (The University founded by the late Jerry Falwell) due to the “provocative” nature of their book, among other things. 

I have to be honest and say that this conference was a blessing to my wife and I and will be an impetus for needed conversations between us.

While at the conference I was able to pick up a copy of Real Marriage, The Truth about Sex, Friendship and Life Together.  Mark and Grace have set out to write a book that is, “ biblically faithful, emotionally hopeful, practically helpful, sociologically viable, ad personally vulnerable.”  In looking through the book I would say that they have done just that. It is refreshing to have a couple in Christian leadership who speak honestly about their own struggles and triumphs for the edification of the body. Moreover, speak to those things that are happening in marriages that most pastors/churches are not speaking to at all.

It is rare to find people brave enough or wise enough to speak into the shame of others with an unwavering commitment to scripture and the gospel.  It is hard to find someone speaking biblically, articulately, and humbly, to the confusion and brokenness of others.  This weekend Mark and Grace exemplified these qualities.

I am thankful for not only this conference but Mark Driscoll’s bold engagement of some of, what I would say are the biggest issues facing modern culture – masculinity, pornography, and marriage, to name a few.   I would assert that pastor Driscoll is doing this better than most.   I am thankful for his ministry, I am thankful for the conference.

Chuck Colson

Chuck Colson, beloved evangelical leader and the founder of Prison Fellowship and the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, has died at age 80.  Read the story here.
I had the privilege of hearing Chuck Colson speak at my RTS commencement.

Peter Leithart: On Not Being Afraid of Becoming Episcopalian

A stranger coming into our church might be forgiven for mistaking our liturgy for an Anglican or Lutheran one.  Yet I’m not afraid of becoming Episcopalian because our liturgy is not “essentially the same” as an “Episcopalian” (that is, a squishy, Scripture-avoidant mainline)  liturgy, any more than Luther’s Deutsche Masse was the “same” as the Catholic Mass because they shared structural similarities.  For Luther and for us, this isn’t  merely a matter of fresh wine in old wineskins, fresh “content” that leaves old “forms” intact.  The new “content” of the Lutheran divine service made the liturgy a different event.  As Catholics recognized at the time, something different was being done in the Lutheran Mass: What was being done was Word and Table, God speaking to His people and the Father feeding His people His Son by the Spirit.  So, if he sticks around, that stranger who mistakes us for Episcopalians will soon enough learn otherwise, and if he never actually recognizes the differences it won’t matter.  God will be speaking to Him and God will be feeding Him whether he understands what’s happening or not.  And soon enough he will lose all his fears of becoming “Episcopalian.”


Read the full article here.

Weekly Communion

I am currently attending a church where I partake of the Lord's Supper weekly. I can definitely say that this has been a deeply enriching experience in my worship. I find it sad that many churches are somewhat opposed to weekly communion due to being a bit romaphobic. Bellow is an argument for weekly communion from Ryan Van Neste:

Of course the longest discussion of the practice of the Lord’s Supper is in 1 Corinthians. Many issues can be raised here, but the fact that abuse of the Lord’s Supper was such a problem in Corinth strongly suggests the Supper was held frequently. Could it have been such a problem if it only occurred quarterly? Is this the sense that arises from the passage? Notice the wording of 1 Corinthians 11:20: “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat.” It is widely agreed that the terminology “come together” here is used as a technical term for gathering as the church. This wording suggests that when they gathered they ate a meal which they intended to be the Lord’s Supper.[1] Though they are abusing the Supper, their practice (which is not considered odd by Paul) is to celebrate each time they gather. Even the wording in 1 Corinthians 11:25, “As often as you drink,” which is often used to suggest frequency is unimportant, in context actually suggests frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Commenting on this verse, Gordon Fee notes, “This addition in particular implies a frequently repeated action, suggesting that from the beginning the Last Supper was for Christians not an annual Christian Passover, but a regularly repeated meal in ‘honor of the Lord,’ hence the Lord’s Supper.”

See another argument from Neste here.

Is Facebook Making us Lonely?

An Article from The Atlantic:

Social media—from Facebook to Twitter—have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic)—and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill. A report on what the epidemic of loneliness is doing to our souls and our society.

Click Here to read the article.

British Library acquires St Cuthbert Gospel

The oldest European book to survive intact.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17738163

Co-opted

Do we give much thought to art? Do we appreciate art for its intrinsic value? Do we appreciate its value to point us to an ideal? Do we give much thought to the importance of art as it relates to culture making or character shaping?

Most of us "use" or engage art daily. We engage art primarily or exclusively as consumers. Art has for most of us become another commodity to consume for recreational purposes. Historically art had use, use to point its viewers, hearers, readers, to the transcendent, to God. What does art point us to today?

As I came home today I heard a song I like from Johnny Cash, and thought, "I really like this song." Only to find out it was being used to promote a new video game. Today the telos of good art is to get me to purchase a video game. Somethings is wrong.

Discover Q

http://www.qideas.org/information/new.aspx

Pipe Smoking

Back before fundamentalism caused much of American Christianity to go off the moral deep end and get caught in up in a fevered attempt to demonize a whole series of behaviors that are morally neutral, pipe smoking was seen as a very decent and proper thing for a theologian (& anyone else) to do. In many Christian communities which successfully fought off the tendency to condemn everything, pipe smoking has always and continues to be appreciated for the benefits it brings to moments of relaxation, conversation, and mental clarity. –James Stambaugh