Former Muslim's thoughts // Not the Kingdom of Eisenhower // Stage Two of the Church's Exile

1.
World spotlights a former Muslim working with Ravi, now.
4 questions and answers.
I most enjoyed how we should view Muslims amidst all the fear.  After pointing to a Biblical view of all men as sinners, he says "the ultimate answers come from not fearing the other, but seeing ourselves in the other."

He also gives a good brief for religious liberty. When we want to defeat Islam in the battle of ideas, that can lead to stifling and marginalizing them, as they tend to do with Sharia when they gain the upper hand. But it's the wrong road.  Instead of circling wagons and keeping them out, we need more interaction and discussion to bring them the message of grace in Jesus.


2.
Here's a paragraph that reminds me why I read Doug Wilson:
"Centuries ago Augustine wrote his great work The City of God. He did this because Rome had been sacked by Bernie supporters, and many Christians who had too glibly equated Rome with the kingdom of God needed some encouragement. The United States of America, as it was in the times of the good Dwight Eisenhower, is not the same thing as the kingdom of God. The disappearance of the former is not the same thing as the disappearance of the latter. The kingdom of God is doing very well. The America I grew up in, not so much. Idolaters are always discouraged when the idol falls, but Christians serve the living God of Heaven."


3.  The Gospel Coalition has a great article up about the cultural exile to which Christianity has been relegated.
"Babylon is not interested in trying to out-think us, merely overpower us. Apologetics and new ways of doing church don’t cut it in Babylon. Only courage under fire will."

SING to Him!!

I found this on vacation a month ago, and just unearthed it on my desk now...


From Great Verses from the Psalms, by Charles Spurgeon

"Sing unto Him a new song: play skillfully with a loud noise." - Psalm 33:3

"Sing unto Him a new song.  All songs of praise should be unto Him.
Singing for singing's sake is worth nothing.  We must carry our tribute to the King, and not cast it to the winds.  Do most worshippers mind this?  Our faculties should be exercised when we are magnifying the Lord, so as not to run in an old groove without thought.  We ought to make every hymn of praise a new song.  To keep up the freshness of worship is a great thing, and in private it is indispensable.  Let us not present old worn-out praise, but put life, and soul, and heart, into every song, since we have new mercies every day, and see new beauties in the work and word of our Lord.

"Play skillfully.  It is wretched to heart God praised in a slovenly manner.  He deserves the best that we have.  Every Christian should endeavour to sing according to the rules of the art, so that he may keep time and tune with the congregation.  The sweetest tunes and the sweetest voices, with the sweetest words, are all too little for the Lord our God.  Let us not offer Him limping rhymes, set to harsh tunes, and growled out by discordant voices.  With a loud noise.  Heartiness should be conspicuous in divine worship.  Well-bred whispers are disreputable here.  It is not that the Lord cannot hear us, but that it is natural for great exultation to express itself in the loudest manner.  Men shout at the sight of their kings.  Shall we offer no loud hosannahs to the Son of David?"

Trinity Controversy // Orlando Pinned on Christians // People Pleasing Preachers

[The first two of these are older - from before vacation!]


There's been a theological dust-up over the relationship of the Father to the Son in the Trinity.
Is this relationship a model for the relationship of men to women? Women in the church?
Here's a summary - not sure how helpful all the links will be.


It's happening.  Christians are being blamed for the Orlando shooting, because of their resistance to the gay agenda.  David French chronicles it well.
"American Christians are responsible for things they don’t believe. Sharia-observant Muslims, by contrast, aren’t responsible for the things they do believe."


Paul Tripp writes pointedly about the fear of man in preaching.