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The Blogroll is a collection of blogs that are often of interest and help to SI readers. SharperIron does not create the content of these blogs and the views expressed in them are those of their respective writers.
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There isn’t a single thing that the birds at my feeder do to deserve the largess that I bestow on them. I bought the feeders that contain the seed, I continue to buy seed to fill them. My grandson and I take turns filling the feeders. When a feeder needs repair, I repair it. Everything—everything is done for those birds; it’s pure grace! Yet, it’s interesting to see a Dove chasing four others away from the food that falls on the ground as the sloppy eaters (largely Finches) spill it in large quantities. He acts like he owns the territory. Perhaps he thinks he does!
And when it’s hummingbird time, and we hang out the sugar water feeder, you can be absolutely certain that one bird will claim it as his own and defend it to the end of the season. Indeed, you can see him sitting on a bare branch, watching it, daring any other to approach the jar. If they so much as get near, he’ll zoom down on them at mach speed and chase them away with his long, pointed beak. There are always star wars when the hummers return for the summer!
But think of it...
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The modern church doesn’t lament well. The churches in which I grew up tended to omit “downer” Psalms in favor of those that we consider to be more “uplifting.” If we’re honest, we’re almost embarrassed by the negativity of Psalms of lament, Psalms of imprecation, and books like Ecclesiastes and Lamentations. You might think that’s just […]
The post Groaning Grace appeared first on Church Works Media.
Do your kids ever manifest symptoms of First World Syndrome? Recent generations of young people have been groomed to have a certain sense of entitlement about them. That something is owed them. That they deserve more. An expectation of accolades, convenience, and ease. It is grievous and unkind to cultivate this. Suspect there are some kids in your circle of influence who have this condition? Here are some practical questions to help you decide:
Sometimes it takes people with the skeptical eye provided by a minority viewpoint to see things the majority cannot, comfortable as it is in its unquestioned worldview. Who questions what all “sane” people believe? We actually need a few conspiracy theories out there, and a few Cassandras. (Actually, a lot of Cassandras, I think.)
My recent post charging KJV defenders with sin because they 1) repeated the claim that the NKJV includes critical text readings and yet 2) never produced any evidence for that claim—that post has been answered by someone holding a minority viewpoint. It was KJV-Only leader Kent Brandenburg, someone who is (shall I say) skeptical of the mainstream views of textual criticism and Bible translation. My spam filter...
My company offers incentives to employees every year to read business books. By this means I have gotten through some self-helpy stuff I admit I would have disdained otherwise. To be honest, I feel icky when I read books that purport to lead you to a successful life and yet omit to mention the God of eternal power and divine nature that, Romans 1 says, the books’ authors can’t not know is there—and is not silent. Maybe I’m the weaker brother here; but I just have a hard time stomaching the secularism and implicit Pelagianism. And yet I’m a firm believer in common grace, so I’m eager to acknowledge that 1) nearly anyone who writes a business book knows more about the topic than I do and 2) I’ve gotten some bits of genuine wisdom worth having from these books. Recently I read two such books which, no surprise, led me back to a specifically Christian truth about love.
AlchemyRory Sutherland in Alchemy tells story after story showing that humans don’t have complete access to their own motivations, their “...
Spurgeon quotes one “Dr. M’Cosh” in The Treasury of David, and he has eloquent and insightful things to say, centuries ago, about the war between science and religion, reason and faith:
We have often mourned over the attempts made to set the works of God against the Word of God, and thereby excite, propagate, and perpetuate jealousies fitted to separate parties that ought to live in closest union.
In particular, we have always regretted that endeavours should have been made to depreciate nature with a view of exalting revelation; it has always appeared to us to be nothing else than the degrading of one part of God’s works in the hope thereby of exalting and recommending another.
Let not science and religion be reckoned as opposing citadels, frowning defiance upon each other, and their troops brandishing their armour in hostile attitude. They have too many common foes, if they would but think of it, in ignorance and prejudice, in passion and vice, under all their forms, to admit of their lawfully wasting their strength in a useless warfare with each other.
Science has a foundation, and so has religion; let them unite their foundations,...
I’m in the midst of a short series answering objections to my viewpoint in Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible, objections that for various reasons didn’t make it into the book already. (Most objections I hear I already addressed.) Last Monday, we looked at Objection 1: The modern versions are copyrighted; a.k.a., they’re all in it for the money. Last Wednesday, we looked at Objection 2: Not all false friends are false friends to all readers. Last Friday, Objection 3: I am pushing a new Onlyism to replace the old. On Monday, Objection 4: the NKJV uses critical text readings. Today, the too-long-awaited conclusion.
5. We retain the KJV solely for practical reasonsI’ve had several church leaders tell me that they see and even perhaps agree with my viewpoint, but that it’s extremely important to retain the KJV for practical reasons. Everyone in a church should be using the same Bible translation, they say. This is the only way the church can have Scripture memory programs and corporate reading. They fear the confusion that arises when someone says, “Well, that’s not what my Bible says...
I’m in the midst of a short series answering objections to my viewpoint in Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible, objections that for various reasons didn’t make it into the book already. (Most objections I hear I already addressed.) Last Monday, we looked at Objection 1: The modern versions are copyrighted; a.k.a., they’re all in it for the money. Last Wednesday, we looked at Objection 2: Not all false friends are false friends to all readers. Last Friday, Objection 3: I am pushing a new Onlyism to replace the old. This coming Wednesday, Objection 5: We retain the KJV solely for practical reasons.
4. The New King James Version uses critical text readings.Nearly every critic of my work on the KJV has insisted that I was sidestepping the real debate, the debate over textual criticism of the Greek New Testament. It must be said that I gave two pages of argument as to why I shouldn’t have to engage this debate, and to date, none of my critical reviewers has mentioned this fact or answered the arguments I made there.
So I won’t repeat them,...
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