“It is certain the man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ.” – Martin Luther
The Central Problem
The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism … nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat.
The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them.
[Francis Shaeffer, "The Lord's Work in the Lord's Way," No Little People (p.66).]
Hope
Inez Embleton, Olive Hope Polinder, Matt Chandler, and a host of other myriad sufferings in the world, like the recent Haiti earthquake, have all combined to present before my fragile heart a theme that has become well-worn and always welcome: What is the nature of Christian hope? More on this later.
Over the last several years I’ve benefitted from Matt Chandler’s preaching – probably I’ve benefited from his heart of passion and his mind of clarity. Here’s Scott Thomas’ post. I appreciated it very much.
Carolyn Biggs sent me Pastor John Piper’s message, “Don’t Waste Your Cancer,” which also has added comments by Dr. David Powlison. I commend it for reflection and prayer.
Love and Pain are Inextricable
“Pain is inextricably woven into the fabric of love. Can’t you see its threads, thin and delicate, lying just beneath the surface? To isolate ourselves from pain is to isolate ourselves from true love, true happiness. It hurts so much when someone you love dies, because that person brought you so much happiness.”
Ken Gire, Windows of the Soul (p. 122).
Olive Hope Polinder
Lynette posted several videos recently that I thought some of you may find meaningful.
The first video was shown at the memorial service.
The second is Lynette’s letter that she read to Olive at the service.
Solzhenitsyn on Art and Literature
In his “Nobel lecture on literature,” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said that art and literature “both hold the key to a miracle: to overcome man’s ruinous habit of learning only from his own experience, so that the experience of others passes him by without profit. Making up for man’s scant time on earth, art transmits between men the entire accumulated load of another being’s life experiences with all its hardships, colors, and juices. It recreates—lifelike—the experience of other men, so that we can assimilate it as our own.” [Quoted in Ken Gire’s, Windows of the Soul (p.121)]
What are some broader applications of what Solzhenitsyn is saying here?
