some thoughts

Francis Schaeffer has been a big name in our family for many years–especially for my parents. So it was only natural that, now that we’re all getting older (”we” being my four [five] siblings and I), he should be a big name at Christmas, too. I bought Joe his trilogy (containing Escape from Reason, The […]

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…those who are inconversant with these objects of faith — whose minds are not delighted in the admiration of, and acquiescence in, things incomprehensible, such as is this constitution of the person of Christ — who would reduce all things to the measure of their own understandings, or else wilfully live in the neglect of […]

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No sooner did the Church of the New Testament begin to arise on this foundation [of Christ], but the whole world of Jews and Gentiles set themselves with open force to destroy it. And all that they contended with the church about, was their faith and confession of it, that “Jesus was the Christ, the […]

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In his Christologia, John Owen writes:
For if Christ be the rock whereon the church is built, whereas he is a living stone, those that are laid and built on him must be lively stones also, as [Peter] assures us, [1 Peter 2:4,5]; they must be like unto Christ himself, partaking of his nature, quickened by […]

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Since I sold out and posted that “you might be emergent if” link a little while ago, I think I owe it to my readers to post this as a follow-up: 25 warning signs you might be obsessing about Calvinism…. It’s hilarious–especially #7!
CAVEAT: I post this only for those of you with a sense […]

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Francis Schaeffer wraps up his must-read essay, titled The Mark of the Christian, with this ever-relevant poem by Evangeline Paterson. It’s called “Lament.”
Weep, weep for those
Who do the work of the Lord
With a high look
And a proud heart.
Their voice is lifted up
In the streets, and their cry is heard.
The bruised reed they break
By their great […]

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Carolyn McCulley shares some wonderful insights gleaned from the animated Charlie Brown Christmas program - highly recommended. I hope a lot of people–men and women–are reading her blog…

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This is hilarious: purgatorio: You Might Be Emerging If…
(HT: Justin Taylor)

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For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find […]

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Regarding the “Essential and Material Character” of sin, Louis Berkhof writes:
The first sin of man was a typical sin, that is, a sin in which the real essence of sin clearly reveals itself. The essence of that sin lay in the fact that Adam placed himself in opposition to God, that he refused to subject […]

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