The Far Green Country

Last weekend I traveled to Philadelphia for a ministerial preparation conference.  At several points along the Pennsylvania turnpike, the road travels directly through the mountains in tunnels.  At one point along my eastward journey, I hit one of these tunnels at the exact time that the song “Big Blue Sky” by Sandra McCracken was playing [...]

“We are required to ask how the principle of faith is so rigidly exclusive of and antithetical to works of law in the matter of justification. The only answer is the specific quality of faith as opposed to that of works. Justification by works always finds its ground in that which the person is and [...]

“The saying of Bernard is commonly known: ‘Some desire to know merely for the sake of knowing, and that is shameful curiosity. Some desire to known that they may sell their knowledge, and that too is shameful. Some desire to know for reputation’s sake, and that is shameful vanity. But there are some who desire [...]

“No tendency is stronger than to look as a ground of peace to something in our own hearts, instead of looking outwards to Christ and his finished work; and no skill is of more value than that by which the inquirer is guided to make full use of a completed redemption, and throw himself just [...]

More gems from William Blaikie’s For the Work of the Ministry:
“Revival in the congregation precedes, and indeed promotes, awakening and conversion in the outer world.  The spiritual temperature first rises in the Church, and through the Church in the surrounding world.” (284)
“The most satisfactory and enduring revivals of religion are those which begin with a [...]

“It was not the splendour of his talents alone that made Chalmers the man of power that he was.  A great part of his marvelous strength was got by the common process.  Like Jacob, he wrestled with God, and he became a prince.  The humblest student, if he will but trace his footsteps to the [...]

I finished C.S. Lewis’s The Last Battle on the way to church the other morning.  The ending is tremendous:
Then Aslan turned to them and said: “You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.”
Lucy said, “We’re so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into [...]

This link was provided to me by a lady from church:

Extremely challenging and convicting, to put it mildly.

Since my trip to Greenville in January, I’ve been listening to the unabridged Chronicles of Narnia on audiobook.  I don’t usually get to listen for long stretches: there is a bit here while I’m driving in the car, or a bit there while I’m doing some rote work like memorizing Greek vocabulary.  But little bits [...]

I used to be in favor of some sort of theistic evolutionary view of creation. In fact, I’ve written about it on this blog a few times in the past.  However, somewhere in the last two years my mind was changed - yet I don’t think I ever got around to stating this publicly.  So [...]