Stephen Covey wrote of keeping “first things first.” C.S. Lewis warned that would be impossible unless we kept “second things second.” In our world today, we must fight to keep trivial things trivial.
When we give time, energy, and undo attention to trivial things, they do not move up to become important.
I wrote this on a Saturday night while trying to think of an excuse for not going to church the next morning. I don’t like church. And I’ve finally figured out why. There are people there!
They mess up my intimacy with God. They arrive late, leave early, don’t turn off their cell phones, sing off
Am I the only one who tires quickly (after only the second repeat) of praise songs that go on and on and on and on and….? You get my point. I find it ironic that we live during a time when truly masterful worship songs are being composed and disseminated but also at a time when some worship experiences seem far from Christian.
Integration Points is all about thoughtful faith. But we must concern ourselves with more than just what we think about. Thoughtful faith also considers to whom we address our thoughts. We need to develop the important life-skill of thoughtful self-talk. What we tell ourselves can transform us – for good or for ill.
C.S. Lewis on the difference between forgiveness and excusing – from his essay, “On Forgiveness.”
“I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself very carefully) asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking him not to forgive
With the goal of taking “a step toward clarifying what the ancient enterprise of relating faith and learning might mean in the academy today,” George Marsden’s landmark work, The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship (1997, Oxford University Press) is worth rereading every so often to remind us (or acquaint us for the first time) of what it could mean for Christians to engage the world of academia
I’m sure you’ve noticed the crop of new books aimed at addressing another crop of new books. Christians have produced an enormous arsenal of literature to counter the claims of the new atheists that say God is not good, a delusion, or the cause of everything bad in the world. Just one example, and an excellent one at that, is Greg Ganssle’s A Reasonable God: Engaging the New Face of Atheism.
This won’t be a thorough treatise about such a complicated topic. It can’t be. But I have wrestled with the balance between evangelism and social justice for a while and I’d like to offer a way to think about the relationship because this is becoming a frequent topic of discussion.
First, I choose the term “Mercy
Certain articles take on the status of cultural landmarks. Several years ago, an Atlantic Monthly cover article entitled, Dan Quayle was Right, achieved that ranking. People on both sides of the debate about the family pointed to that article for ammunition for or against various points.
Another article has just appeared which may
In George Marsden’s excellent biography of Jonathan Edwards, the author tells of his having numerous “theological mentors from across the ages” (502). The idea is intriguing, isn’t it? Obviously, Edwards is one of Marsden’s favorites.
It’s one thing to say you might have a favorite or two (or more) historical figures. Perhaps you have read