This is the first Tim Keller sermon I’d ever heard, and it transformed my understanding of one of Jesus’ best-known and best-loved parables. Recently, I listened to it again for the third time. It’s roughly 38 minutes and worth every second, every time.
It is a powerful reminder of what it means to love God (rather than the blessings of God), and what it cost (God) for Him to love us.
For the past two weeks, the PCC Youth Group has been watching science videos and thinking about creationism, Intelligent Design, evolution, and such. It all reminds me of this joke I once heard…
Nine days ago, a friend passed away very suddenly. I have been praying daily for her family and friends. I have spent hours looking over her photographs, barely comprehending what has happened to this beautiful, talented, passionate young woman. I have even dreamed that she was alive again, joking and laughing like before. But such things will not bring her back.
And yet, a burning hope in my heart tells me that she is alive now, in the loving embrace of her Maker, and one day, I hope to see her again and tell her how dearly she has been missed in the meantime.
Not that I’ve seen that many, but one of the more interesting horror movies that I’ve survived is the 2003 Korean film, A Tale of Two Sisters (the US remake is slated for release later this year), an artfully twisted, psychologically unsettling, ambiguous and menacing tragedy–in other words, a carnival for nerdy masochists who like to over-analyze things.
In particular, I remember being freaked out by one scene when Su-mi wakes up from a nightmare only to find the bloodied, broken-necked ghost of her mother limping grotesquely at far-from-break-neck speed toward the bed, where it/she appeared to give birth to a hand.
What I found most disturbing about this scary scene was that it occurred in broad daylight–and right after we all thought the worst was over! What perversity is this?–that a girl can’t even wake up from a nightmare and seek safety in the morning sunshine?–that the viewer can’t even take a second to catch her breath before getting assailed by more morbid madness?
Evangelism: it’s not imposition, not personal testimony, not social action and public involvement, not apologetics, and even conversion, says Mark Dever in a recent article published by Christianity Today.
Notable quote:
“When our eyes fall from God to humanity, social ills replace sin, horizontal problems replace the fundamental vertical problem between us and God, winning elections eclipses winning souls.”
For the longest time, I had one of my favorite quotes by St. Augustine copied as the following: “In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, clarity.”
In actuality, that quote should read: “In essentials, unity. In nonessentials, liberty. In all things, charity.”
Oops! Well, it’s good to have both clarity and charity now, isn’t it?
Three years ago, I submitted a statement in which I reflected on some commonalities between my English and Religion majors. In the statement, I claimed that religion shows us “to whom [we] belong.”
Unfortunately for me, the statement was rejected, and during a meeting with my advisor, he looked at me quizzically and exclaimed, “Your definition of religion is repugnant!–you make it sound like slavery!”
“On my door there’s a cartoon of two turtles. One says, ‘Sometimes I’d like to ask why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice when He could do something about it.’ The other turtle says, ‘I’m afraid God might ask me the same question.’” – Peter Kreeft
Ethics is the study of what is good, right, and worthy of pursuit. It deals with what human beings ought to desire, do, and be. In one of my favorite survey classes at Amherst College, I got to examine the nature, methods, and purposes of Christian ethics.
This is my final paper for that class: Gospel Ethics
The emblem of Calvin College (Grand Rapids, Michigan) depicts a person’s right hand, raised heavenward, holding up his heart as an offering to the Lord. The Latin version of the inscription is prompte et sincere cor meum tibi offero Domine.
