On the links

Things I’ve found helpful on the web

Success is not God’s seal of approval

/ David Thomas / Leave a comment

More Monday morning wisdom from Paul Tripp here directed to pastors in ministry but applicable to all Christians.  In particular Tripp writes from experience on his wrong understanding that success in his ministry had to be taken as a sign that God was happy with the way he was living his life.

It’s easy to fall into the temptation of assuming that observable blessings – growth in numbers, commitment, desire for the souls of the lost, must be God’s seal of approval on the way I’m living my life.  In reality we need to continually cry out to God

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! – Psalm 139:23-24

Tripp writes of his own experience,

I confused ministry success with God’s endorsement of my living. Pastoral ministry was exciting in many ways. The church was growing numerically, and people seemed to be growing spiritually. More and more people seemed to be committed to be part of a vibrant spiritual community, and we saw people win battles of the heart by God’s grace. We founded a Christian school that was growing and expanding its reputation and influence. We were beginning to identify and disciple leaders.

It wasn’t all rosy; there were painful and burdensome moments, but I started out my days with a deep sense of privilege that God had called me to do this ministry. I was leading a community of faith, and God was blessing our efforts. But I held these blessings in the wrong way. Without knowing that I was doing it, I took God’s faithfulness to me, to his people, to the work of his kingdom, to his plan of redemption, and to his church as an endorsement of me. My perspective said, “I’m one of the good guys, and God is behind me all the way.” In fact, I would say to Luella (this is embarrassing but important to admit), “If I’m such a bad guy, why is God blessing everything I put my hands to?”

God did not act because he endorsed my manner of living, but because of his zeal for his own glory and his faithfulness to his promises of grace for his people.

7 key themes in Lewis

/ David Thomas / Leave a comment

Over here Art Lindsley lists 7 key themes that shaped and are influential for C. S. Lewis.  The 7 ideas are

  • Chronological Snobbery
  • Desire
  • Imagination
  • Objective Values vs. Relativism
  • Myth
  • Immortality
  • Comprehensiveness

Two great quotes from Lewis himself, first on desire

Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

And then from the final words of The Last Battle, on immortality

And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

Will you be my Facebook friend – Part III

/ David Thomas / Leave a comment

Tim Chester has been keeping busy writing some really engaging stuff on Facebook.  In his next two articles, here and here, Tim deals with the issue of our craving for “digital disincarnation” in cyberspace.  Both articles are really worth reading in their entirety.

We were created to be embodied beings but social networking, and for that matter online gaming, encourage our desire to leave the constraints and problems of our actual circumstances and become someone else – freed from my constraints, freed from the reality of the person God has called me to be.  Tim  says

You are opting for disembodied life over embodied life.

Now disembodied life is easier. But it is less fulfilling, less real and less satisfying.

Embodied life is harder. But it is more fulfilling, more real, more satisfying. It is more substantial – you can touch it, feel it, embrace it!

He concludes with some insightful contrasts between life online and life within the actual, touchy-feely, kick it and it hurts world where God has put you.

Facebook encourages you to live elsewhere. The gospel encourages you to live life here and now.

  • You can tend your Farmville farm or you can get an allotment.
  • You can catch up with friends on Facebook or you can go out on a cold, dark night to see real friends.
  • You can catch up with “Friends” by watching the latest episode on the television or you can serve your neighbours.
  • You can build a new city on Sims or you can be the city of God set on a hill with your Christian community.

Here is the test: Am I using Facebook to enhance real world friendships or to replace them?

The most dangerous prayer

/ David Thomas / Leave a comment

Paul Tripp outlines why a line found in the Lord’s Prayer,  which we’ve all no doubt said perhaps hundreds of times, is probably the most dangerous prayer any pastor could pray.

It’s a thought provoking, heart searching article and I’m sure what Tripp says could apply just as much, not only to pastors but to all of Jesus’ disciples.

“Your kingdom come
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven”

Will you be my Facebook friend – Part II

/ David Thomas / Leave a comment

A while back I posted a link to a couple of articles Tim Chester has written on the good and bad of Facebook.  Tim has been busy – you can now find his third and fourth articles on the subject here and here.

The third article addresses the concern that the medium of Facebook (and indeed online social networking in general) is inclined towards projecting positivity.  Tim asks,

Is your Facebook self more attractive than your real world self?

The real question is: Am I trying to do self-identity or am I finding identity in Christ? Or, Am I looking for approval from others through my words or approval from God through his gospel word?

Classical Christian education

/ David Thomas / Leave a comment

I would recommend to virtually any parent asking one simple question to the person heading their children’s school: “What is your goal for my children when they graduate from this school?”

There is a good article by Bradley Green on the objective and benefits of a classical education here.  For much modern education there is little or no overall philosphy of what we are trying to achieve with our children.

Much of what comes under the label of education merely seeks to get children to an arbitrary, and some would argue ever-decreasing, academic standard.  Given what God has instructed us regarding our responsibilities to our children, Christian parents ought to desire more than this for their child’s education.  Green rightly says,

Classical schools—at their best—hold that education is ultimately about the formation of a certain kind of person. While different schools may disagree on this or that pedagogical theory, or this or that curriculum choice, virtually any classical school desires to reach back and recover the notion that education is about human formation and transformation.

The best Christian education sees this task as a transformative endeavor that prepares students for (1) a meaningful, faithful, wise, virtuous life in the present, and also for (2) our ultimate destiny—to one day see God face-to-face and know him fully. Once we begin to grasp that true education is best construed as a person-forming endeavor, we are able to see more clearly the link between the gospel and education.

How we should pray for more schools like this in the UK.

Creation better than HD

/ David Thomas / Leave a comment

 720p, 1080i, 1080p and if you’ve got the very latest tech you can even watch HD TV in 3D.  Can things really get any better?

Well of course it can.  But it does involve stepping out of the house and revelling in God’s handiwork.

In an amusing post, Trevin Wax relates how finally buying a new hi-tech TV proved to be an excellent reminder of how God has already been there and done that – only much, much better.

And God’s purpose in creating a world  more detailed,  more colourful, fore vibrant than any HD TV?  To encourage us to join with the rest of creation in bowing down and worshipping our glorious Creator.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. – Psalm 19:1

Your preachers and your pastor

/ David Thomas / Leave a comment

“Your parishioners listen to other preachers on the radio, watch them on TV and on the Web, and download podcasts to their iPods. Like it or not, you are not the best preacher that your people have listened to this week. Your congregation has compared and contrasted you with the best-known preachers of the day . . . People in the pews want the electronic perfection projected by the religious superstars of our day. And we cannot give it to them. The electronic media have made it easier to compare preachers today than ever before” (Edwards, Deep Preaching,  p. 6).

HT Doug Wilson