Want to pick a 'life verse'?

If so, I would probably not pick Jeremiah 29:11. Look deeper at the context, and you will discover that the meaning of this verse is not in line with the promises applied in so many of our greeting cards and graduation speeches...

Hardship - God's mortar in the path to advancing His Kingdom agenda

“Would God allow us to experience a painful situation in order to advance His mission? Would He use hardship to prepare us to play a greater role in accomplishing that mission? We need look no farther than God's only Son, Jesus, to answer these questions. God allowed Him to suffer pain, rejections and humiliation, all culminating in the horrific public death by crucifixion to finish the work and God's mission for His life...[satisfying] the just penalty for our sins..."

- Ron Wagley, Finding Strength in Tough Times

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier."

- The Apostle Paul, 2 Timothy 2:3-4

“Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches."

- The Apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians 11:23-28

Confusion vs. Information

Found this "confusion plot" both amusing and insightful --> Needles and Haystacks

from Jessica Hagy's blog, thisisindexed.com

An Other-Worldly Thought Life

“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."

- C.S. Lewis

Breakers & Waves

Enjoyed this recent post from Dane Ortlund's blog -->Depth With God

Don't Focus on the Family

As one who grew up listening to "Focus on the Family" radio programs in my parent's car, the title of this talk intrigued me. This is one of the best talks that I have heard on the role of the family in a long time.

Seas of blood

“The good bark of the church has had to plough her way through seas of blood, and those who have manned her have been bespattered with the bloody spray; yea, they have had to man her and keep her in motion by laying down their lives unto the death.”

- C.H. Spurgeon

Those who think...

“Those who think too much of themselves don’t think enough"

- Amy Carmichael

AND Gates, OR Gates and Boolean Logic as applied in Marriage

A Leash of Love

Want an illustration for the Christian life? Watch this...

Then listen to this: The Breadth, Depth, Width and Height of Puppy Love..

"Illegitimate Totality Transfer"

No, that's not the name of a band or of a Soviet era military coup attempt. It's a hermeneutical error to avoid...

“The error that arises, when the ‘meaning’ of a word (understood as the total series of relations in which it is used in the literature) is read into a particular case as its sense and implication there may be called ‘illegitimate totality transfer’."

- James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language

It seems we should approach the NT with this understanding: words have a range of meaning. And different Biblical authors can employ a different range of meanings for the same word (or root word). As such, it is a fallacy to take the full, pregnant 'meaning' of a particular word and 'plug' that 'meaning' into a specific instance where it is found. Rather, the context - in conjunction with understanding the author's range of use - must drive our interpretation.