Justin Taylor quotes my man Charles Simeon and reminds me that all preaching is theological reflection and that it is impossible to not preach one's system to a certain degree...but at the same time a preacher should labour to let the text speak. Have you ever over-qualified a text, pastor?
Wise words from the English pastor Charles Simeon (1759–1836):
Of this he is [= I am] sure, that there is not a decided Calvinist or Arminian in the world who equally approves of the whole of Scripture . . . who, if he had been in the company of St. Paul whilst he was writing his Epistles, would not have recommended him to alter one or other of his expressions.
But the author would not wish one of them altered; he finds as much satisfaction in one class of passages as another; and employs the one, he believes, as freely as the other. Where the inspired Writers speak in unqualified terms, he thinks himself at liberty to do the same; judging that they needed no instruction from him how to propagate the truth. He is content to sit as a learner at the feet of the holy Apostles and has no ambition to teach them how they ought to have spoken.
Cited in H.C.G. Moule, Charles Simeon (London: InterVarsity, 1948), 79.
Green beer sales mark the globalized celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and for many who are only Irish once a year little more is thought of. But it may be time for St. Patrick’s Day to become an occasion of global awareness for something more than the taste of Guinness, namely the problem of human trafficking.Clint then tells the story of how Patrick became a missionary to this adopted country, and relates his experience to human trafficking today. Well worth the read...find it here.Patrick was only 16 when he was seized by human traffickers. Removed from his family and home in Roman Britain, he was transported across the Irish Sea to the foreign surroundings of Dalriada in what is now Northern Ireland. The traffickers sold Patrick to a local warlord who exploited the young Briton for six years of forced labor.
My book The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion is set to release on April 1. As part of the run-up to the book, the publisher created a trailer or commercial for it. And today I get to debut it here at the blog. The commercial seeks to lampoon our technological addiction and the fact that we tend to think we own our technology while, in reality, it may just own us.And here's the trailer:
The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.
A Story | Tears of Hope from Adam Kring on Vimeo.
I am not what I ought to be.
Ah! how imperfect and deficient.
Not what I might be,
considering my privileges and opportunities.
Not what I wish to be.
God, who knows my heart, knows I wish to be like him.
I am not what I hope to be;
ere long to drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see him as He is.
Not what I once was,
a child of sin, and slave of the devil.
Though not all these,
not what I ought to be,
not what I might be,
not what I wish or hope to be, and
not what once was,
I think I can truly say with the apostle,
“By the grace of God I am what I am.”
—Cited in Letters of John Newton, p. 400.
