The Blog Of Dysfunction

Haven’t shared any link love in a long time. here is some (g)old stuff.

Preparing for Christams (series)

There is joy at Christmas – holy, beautiful joy which ought to blow our pride and our smallness to pieces, and make us, as Paul wrote, even in a severe test of affliction coupled with extreme poverty, overflowing with a wealth of generosity. We ought to be people who are crazy about giving to others because of what we celebrate at Christmas.

But hear me: the joy comes not from mere emotional inflation, or from having a nice Christmas goose, or from having family together, or God forbid that is comes from being wealthy and warm. The joy comes from the fact that whatever happened on that silent night, it happened in the face of, and as a herald of, and as a direct purpose of the wrath of God

In the eye of the beheld (Cerulean sanctum on appriciating beauty)

I’m not sure that we cherish our young Christian woman as much as we should. Few of us men stand in the gap for them. We don’t pray for them and their families. We don’t keep a watch out for them. We don’t build them up as we should.

Oh! sorry you are in hell cerulean sanctum again

Where is our zeal for evangelizing the lost? Why are we so dead to the reality that people we know are cruising toward an eternity filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth?

Hell is a real place. Time for us to start living like we believe it.

33 Things. Links from evangelical outpost

23. Alan from The Thinklings asks, “Homeschooling: Does God Oppose It?”
22. Top 10 Best Presentations Ever
20. Top 15 Finds from Biblical Archaeology (HT: Between Two Worlds)
19. Arnold King on the leadership myth and democracy: “Democracy does not lead to particularly good choices. Most successful institutions in society are not democratic.” (HT: Outside the Beltway)

Signs of spiritual matuarity

* The embracing of paradox.
* The love of mystery in the presence of unanswered questions.
* The acceptance of your small place in reality.
* The willingness to engage in spiritual exercises without knowing how they will work or even what it would mean for them to work.
* The increase of the love, grace, forgiveness, and patience visible in your life.

Between two worlds

“Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue, but of the life; John Calvin,Institutes of the Christian Religion, III. VI. 4.

All you need is love, but.   Sharper iron

The idea that the closer one approaches the center of a religion, the more general and universal it becomes, is undiluted hogwash, the antithesis of the truth. The closer one approaches the center of a religion, the more particular and specific it becomes.
So what about the particulars of love in Christianity? What does Christianity say about love that other world religions simply cannot say? Would John, Paul, George, and Ringo, still sing the same song if the Bible defined “love”?

Signs of a gracious Person.  Jim martin

# A gracious person desires to say what is appropriate. He doesn’t just say what is on his mind or whatever he might be thinking. (There is no redeeming value in emptying one’s mind of whatever fleeting thought has happened to land at the moment.)
# A gracious person looks out for the comfort of others. “Would you like a cup of coffee? What about a coke? Can I get you a newspaper while I’m out?” etc.