Speed Art

I am not sure of the significance of this, but it is my bro's latest time lapse creation!

Jesus is Lord of Maths

Two articles that I have discovered on the web and look forward to reading are by Vern Poythress:

A Biblical View of Maths


What does God have to do with numbers?

Which do you need to hear today?

Take no heavier lift of your children than your Lord alloweth.

Give them room beside your heart,
but not in the yolk of your heart, where Christ should be;

 for then they are your idols, not your bairns. 

Are your sexpectations right?

Face the Book

This seemed to be a good way to recap Ruth 1-3 after a few weeks 'off' ... the boys enjoyed making up e-mail addresses especially! Mmmm.

Tyranny in Triplicate

already on the continent, where governmental organizations are more elaborate and coercive than here, there are chronic complaints of the tyranny of bureaucracies—the hauteur and brutality of their members. What will these become when not only the more public actions of citizens are controlled, but there is added this far more extensive control of all their respective daily duties? What will happen when the various divisions of this vast army of officials, united by interests common to officialism—the interests of the regulators versus those of the regulated—have at their command whatever force is needful to suppress insubordination and act as ‘saviours of society’?

“The fanatical adherents of a social theory are capable of taking any measures, no matter how extreme, for carrying out their views: holding, like the merciless priesthoods of past times, that the end justifies the means.”

Herbert Spencer, “From Freedom to Bondage,” in A Plea for Liberty, ed. Thomas Mackay (New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1891!!), p 22-23, 29

Audio Now Available

That was quick. The talks from the Family Under Siege? Day are already up on the web here.

From what I did pick up, and from Jane's feedback, the day was superb with lots that is well worth chewing on. I am looking forward to catching up on what I missed (as I spent an excellent day in the hall next door helping Simeon get some steps closer to walking!).

Thanks to all who made it possible!

Fit for a King

When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it. John 18:1 

The whole countryside wept aloud as all the people passed by. The king also crossed the Kidron Valley, and all the people moved on towards the desert.    2 Samuel 15:23

But David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up.       2 Samuel 15:30

Family & Friends

We are here today! 

Context is King

I thought this was fantastically funny!
 I got it via Glen and he makes some excellent points with it!

But you can just laugh if you want.

The ditch on the other side of the road

If you want a really pitiful critique of Christian schools and home schools, says Joel Belz, try this. 

There Rev. Don Wilkey offers a wild bunch of accusations against Christian education. But if you really want to put down Christian schools and homeschools,  we should all come to him for ammunition: Confessing our weaknesses. Lots of food for thought.
HT: Doug Wilson

Glad to be Gay?

I was very challenged in reading this article by Martin Hallett of the True freedom Trust, and this quote in particular, in which he makes a clear distinction between sex and sexuality (celibate homosexuality, I guess, or holy homosexuality?): 

Many liberal Christians claim to find freedom and acceptance when they embrace their sexuality, which for them also involves sex. They then say, "I thank God for my sexuality." I cannot agree with their sexual moral choices, but perhaps our more conservative Christian response would be taken more seriously and even be a more positive witness, if we can say, "Yes, I can thank God for the gift of my sexuality!" 

Sexuality - a gift from God? by Martin Hallett (June 2000)

When Jesus said 'I AM'

Commenting on John 18:1-11: 

We do not need to hesitate to see in this incident an instructive type of all our Saviour’s dealings with His people, even at this day. He will not suffer them ‘to be tempted above with that which they are unable to bear.’ He will hold the winds and storms in His hands, and not allow believers, however sifted and buffeted, to be utterly destroyed. He watches tenderly over every one of his children, and, like a wise physician, measures out the right quantity of their trials with unerring skill. ‘They shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of his hand.’ (John x. 28). For ever let us lean our souls on this precious truth. In the darkest hour the eye of the Lord Jesus is upon us, and our final safety is sure. (Expository Thoughts on John, JC Ryle, p237)

The True Man is a Jew

Below are some highlights from a very helpful (and short) article sketching an answer to these important questions: 

• Why do some churches teach that the Jews permanently lost their right to the land? 
• What about all these Old Testament “forever” promises and prophesies made to the Jews?
• How should we understand the passages that seem to imply that the Israelites have a secure place in God’s plan forever?

 I have chosen a few quotes as representative of the main thrust of the article, but it really is worth a look at as a whole here. At its heart lies the contention that the incarnation is central to biblical theology.

Every promise and prophecy given to Israel has a very literal, material fulfillment.

I mean that if one is worried about the recipients of these promises really being Jews, genealogical sons of Abraham, then Jesus himself literally fits the bill. Jesus is literally and physically a bloodline son of Abraham and David (Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38). All the promises made to physical Israel are for him. He is the recipient of all of these promises. He lives today. He now literally owns the land of Palestine. Since Jesus rules the world, the land of Palestine is included in his kingdom. It is all his. 

That’s why there’s no need to “spiritualize” the Old Testament promises and prophecies originally made to Abraham or Israel. That’s also why the presence or absence of genealogical Jewry has no religious significance after A.D. 70.

In electing the Jews God had one purpose in mind–namely, the coming of the Messiah. Once the Messiah comes, descended from Abraham and David (Matt. 1 and Luke 3), then genealogical Israel’s purpose ends. Jesus is the final Israelite. He is Israel reduced to one. .... When he hangs on the cross, everyone else has apostatized. He is the last and only faithfully Jew. And in him, then, the whole world is renewed. As Paul says over and over again in his letters, the only election that matters now is that which takes place “in Christ.” God’s election of Israel was indeed vindicated in the life, death, and resurrection of Joshua Messiah.

If we take this seriously, then we must conclude that nothing else need happen concerning the modern-day Jews. Once Jesus died and rose again, the last generation of Jews that were in covenant with God by means of the old system were given an opportunity to repent and be incorporated into the Messiah’s body. This is what the ministry of Peter and Paul “to the Jew first” is all about. After that first-century offer, physical, cultural, and religious Judaism had no claim on or special place in God’s purposes for the world. The resurrected, ascended Lord Jesus, the ever-living Jew is the only Israelite that now matters.

Forever Means Forever: God’s Promises to the Jews by Jeffrey Meyers