...observations and ramblings from a learner and traveler...

27 September 2011

Sonship leads to natural living

We should be so one with God that we don’t need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child’s life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (Nov 14th)

This is a rather gripping thought which is elaborated on throughout the rest of the November 14th devotional.  There are also a number of other helpful thoughts in that essay.

11 September 2011

D. A. Carson's Commentary on John, with sample

  As I've been studying for my sermon tomorrow from John, I have referenced D. A. Carson's The Gospel According to John which is part of the Pillar commentary series.  It is one of the most helpful commentaries I remember reading in (right there with Spurgeon's Treasury of David and Hoehner's Ephesians).  The background and study which went into it is quietly apparent, while the content is insightful in a way that shows meditation and Christian sensitivity to what the text is saying.  (The fact that I am reading it as a Kindle book on my computer makes me like the whole experience even better.)

  Anyways, a sample or two from the section on John 20:21-22 which will be a major portion of the sermon tomorrow.

There is sufficient comprehensiveness both here and elsewhere to make Christians aware that they never have an excuse to rest on their laurels, or to define their task too narrowly; perfect obedience to the Son, modelled on Jesus’ perfect obedience, is as daunting a challenge as the command to teach others to obey all that Jesus has commanded (Mt. 28:20). 
[...]
Just because he ascends to his Father does not mean he is no longer the ‘sent one’ par excellence (cf. 9:7). Thus Christ’s disciples do not take over Jesus’ mission; his mission continues and is effective in their ministry (14:12–14). ‘The apostles were commissioned to carry on Christ’s work, and not to begin a new one’ (Westcott, 2. 349–350; cf. Schnackenburg, 3. 324).

Carson, D. A. (1991-01-01). The Gospel According to John (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (p. 649). William B Eerdman Co. Kindle Edition.

08 September 2011

in a moment of lunacy

An Address about Me

One score and seven years ago, my mother brought forth upon this continent a new baby conceived in misery and dedicated to the proposition that all men have inflated egos. Now we are involved in a great inner war testing whether that baby, or any baby so conceived ad so dedicated, can long endure.

Seems unlikely...