Thoughts and Notes
-
Eucharist
From David Chilton’s Days of Vengeance: The Eucharist is at the center of our life, and all of life flows out of this central liturgy. The “shape” of the Eucharistic liturgy, therefore, gives shape to the rest of life, the daily liturgy we follow as we pursue our calling to exercise dominion over the earth.…
-
The will of God
From David Chilton’s Days of Vengeance, regarding Revelation 17:17: The sovereign Lord is thus not at the mercy of the Beast and his minions; rather, all these events have been predestined for God’s glory, through the execution of His decrees. For God has put it into their hearts to execute His purpose by having a…
-
Boasting
A mighty boast got me thinking: “I deal with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around the world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation.” – Eddie Long, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, GA Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw…
-
The death of death
From Athanasius’ On the Incarnation: “All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take theoffensive against it and, instead of fearing it, by the signof the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as onsomething dead. Before the divine sojourn of theSaviour even the holiest of men were afraid of death,and mourned the…
-
Enjoyment and entertainment
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He could have left it without form, without color or variation. He could have made it without hills and mountains and valleys. Without streams and lakes and oceans. Without trees and birds and leafy sea dragons. All those colors in the sunset really aren’t necessary.…
-
Church discipline
The church in Rome wrote to the Corinthians: Every sedition and every schism was abominable to you. Ye mourned over the transgressions of your neighbors: ye judged their shortcomings to be your own. (1 Clement 2:6) This is profound by itself. They had such love for one another that they counted each other’s failings as…
-
Liturgy of ascension
From David Chilton’s book The Days of Vengeance: “The early Christians realized that in order to become the temple of the Holy Spirit they must ascend to heaven where Christ has ascended. They realized also that this ascension was the very condition of their mission in the world, of their ministry to the world. For…
-
Lady Wisdom
In Proverbs 9, Solomon contrasts the Lady Wisdom and the foolish woman, Folly. Together they cry out to the simple from the high places in town, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” After the invitation to come in, Wisdom instructs, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.…
-
Marriage
I’m borrowing heavily from Doug Wilson’s Reforming Marriage. A great book. You can buy it or read it online. It will be helpful to start with a brief grammar lesson. There is a difference between indicative and imperative statements. An indicative is a statement of fact; there is no ought in it. The chair is…
-
John 6 chiasm
John 6:53-57 A. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. B. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. C. For My…