Identify This Quote!

Who said it and when?

"A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals.  We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God.  We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar."

For the answer, drag your mouse and select the blank area below:

From "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer in 1948!!! 

Righteously Ticked Off?

Making the rounds yesterday was the story of George Will's son Jon, who has Down Syndrome.  It really is a beautiful story (written by George), and worth five minutes of your time.  Part of it made me angry, though.  I mean it really ticked me off.  But the part that made me mad was only tangentially connected to John's story, a brief commentary on our society and the cruelty of sinful mankind.

I'll quote it here in a second, but first I'll add the context.  George explains how, near the time of Jon's birth, prenatal testing that could pinpoint Down Syndrome was coming into vogue.  Also, Jon was born just months before Roe v. Wade would open the door for the "casual destruction of pre-born babies." (Well put, George)

Here's the quote where my ire was exercised:

  "This era has coincided, not just coincidentally, with the full, garish flowering of the baby boomers’ vast sense of entitlement, which encompasses an entitlement to exemption from nature’s mishaps, and to a perfect baby. So today science enables what the ethos ratifies, the choice of killing children with Down syndrome before birth. That is what happens to 90 percent of those whose parents receive a Down syndrome diagnosis through prenatal testing."

90 PERCENT! Did that just state that 90% of pre-born babies "diagnosed" with Down Syndrome are aborted???  The judgment that will one day be meted out on that evil terrifies me.

All sin is evil and an affront to our holy God and He is perfectly just in whatever fashion He determines that sin should be punished ... but it just feels like for some things, that wrath will be especially hot.

My Birth Certificate

"We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit..." Romans 8:23

Near the top of the list of "cool things I've read recently" comes from the book How The Gospel Brings Us All The Way Home by Derek W. H. Thomas:

"The word translated 'firstfruits' (Greek, aparche) was also used to describe the birth certificate of a free man.  The Spirit serves as our 'birth certificate' testifying that we belong to the family of God and, more especially, that we belong to the Father."

Just another nuance of meaning that reinforces the incredibly cool guarantee that the Holy Spirit represents in the life of the believer.  I have proof I'm a citizen of heaven and that God is my forever Father: the Holy Spirit, my birth certificate! (And there's no question of His authenticity...)

The Truth About Bible Translations...

...is that you oughta pick up a Bible and read it, for cryin' out loud!

(If you want my opinion on the best translations, ask me.  In the meantime, get in there and read.)

Not So Fast...

You only think you know me.  If you know me personally, you probably think I'm a nice fella.  Decent family, good character, funny, plays guitar and sings.  You might know me just by the words on this blog, much like how I "know" a lot of other people.  Really, none of all that would be inaccurate, but it wouldn't be the complete picture.  Sometimes that troubles me a bit.  You know, to think of how other people are perceiving me because of the things I do and am involved in, yet knowing all too well the parts of me they don't see.  If people knew me, like really knew me, would they feel the same way?  What if they knew about my clever use of passive aggression, my loathing for people, my tainted imagination, and my depressive tendencies?

Of all the other humans on earth, my wife knows me best: the good as well as the bad and the ugly.  But even she doesn't know me as intimately as I do.  Not a day goes by anymore that I'm not struck by the realization of where I'd be if the Father hadn't found me, if Christ hadn't saved me, and if the Holy Spirit wasn't doing His sanctifying work in me.  If anything worthwhile comes out of my writing or ministry or living...it's just Jesus, and that's all it can ever be.

 

Pining For The Fjords (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

What an incredible thing to be brought to life by the Spirit of God!  When there was no possibility of self-resuscitation, God, through His Spirit, by the work of Christ, called me out of darkness and into life.  I wasn't just unconcerned about God before that day, it wasn't that I hadn't gotten around to getting saved yet - the problem was that I was "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).  As Dan Phillips puts it in The World Tilting Gospel (while cleverly alluding two classic cult films - can you name them?):

"Paul says that we are dead. Not 'resting.'  Not 'pining for the Fjords.'  Not 'getting better.' Not 'only mostly dead.'"

When you're dead, he adds, "that's it.  The music swells, the credits roll, the movie is over....There are not degrees of death.  Death is an absolute.  It is a toggle switch, not a dimmer."

Consider where you would be, believer, if the "wind" of the Spirit had not revived you to repentance.  Now go worship, and work to see others brought to life.

Praying More Accurately

Ever notice how selfish our prayers are at times?  Ever realize how often we totally miss the point in prayer?  Without denying the fact that we need to pray for wisdom and guidance, Derek W. H. Thomas helps us think more clearly and accurately about the content of our prayers in his book How The Gospel Brings Us All The Way Home:

"Instead of a preoccupation with issues of guidance (the preoccupation of our era), we should be concerned to ask the Lord:  'How can I live in a way that reflects the holiness of my Savior?', 'Will You show me how to deny myself?', 'Which sin, or part of a sin, am I to kill today?' "