HARMLESS THOUGHTS

Furthermore, the field of Christianity is the world. The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of all connection with Christianity. Christianity must pervade not merely all nations, but also all of human thought. The Christian, therefore, cannot be indifferent to any branch of earnest human endeavor. It must all be brought into some relation to the gospel. It must be studied either in order to be demonstrated as false, or else in order to be made useful in advancing the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom must be advanced not merely extensively, but also intensively. The Church must seek to conquer not merely every man for Christ, but also the whole of man. J. Gresham Machen (Quoted by Douglas Wilson in The Case for Classical Christian Education )

  source:  https://x.com/uribrito 

 

Ok. I have an educational challenge for you. Here are the stipulations of that challenge... and I would like to see if anyone can come up with an ongoing, workable solution to this challenge.  (This challenge is purely theoretical. Any resemblance to actual challenges -- persons, places, or schools -- is purely coincidental.) Teacher Stipulations:  You must teach Geometry to a new group of students (or new groups of students) every year for 25 years.  You must gradually decrease the amount of material you cover over the next 25 years, so that you are covering no more than 40% of the original material. You must do this in such a way that it will still be considered a course on High School Geometry.  You must cover all of the material in the 180 days of school allotted to you. In those 180 days, your class time can range from 50 minutes to 45 minutes on average, with multiple days in the school year limited to around 15 minutes.  You may assign the student's pract...

I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.”   Psalm 116:10–11  (ESV)

 

Below is a clip from the Light and Truth Podcast from Desiring God. It is a clip from a sermon that was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church by John Piper on December 1st, 1996.  The clip should start at 5:31. If it doesn't, I encourage you to forward to that time. (Obviously, you can go back and listen to the first 5 minutes of it later.) I share this clip, because I believe it needs to be heard. ... Really heard.  Transcript from 5:31 to about 7:18...  Now let's just get this real clear and real straight because I have the feeling we live in such a kind of touchy-feely day that Christianity is being so psychologized and so therapeutized that we really do believe this book was written for our mental health. It wasn't.  It was written to help us get right with a wrathful God.  God is one great massive fire of Holiness. He hates sin and cannot abide it. We are little ant-like sinners of sin. And if we got within 10 trillion miles of this God we'd be c...

Psalm 140 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. [1] Deliver me, O LORD, from that evil person; preserve me from their violent thoughts, [2] preserve me from the one who planned evil things in their heart and stirred up war with me continually. [3] They made their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips was the venom of asps.  Selah. [4] Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of that wicked one; preserve me from violent thoughts, that would love nothing better than to see me trip. [5] That arrogant one would have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they would have spread a net; beside the way they wished to set snares for me.  Selah. [6] I say to the LORD, You are my God; give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O LORD! [7] O LORD, my Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle. [8] Grant not, O LORD, the desires of that wicked one; do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted!  Selah. [9] As for the head of tha...

Amos 3:6 b (ESV) "... Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?"

 Grant, Almighty God, that as you constantly remind us in your word, and have taught us by so many examples, that there is nothing permanent in this world, but that the things which seem the firmest tend to ruin, and instantly fall and of themselves vanish away, when by your breath you shake your strength in which men trust -- O grant that we, being really subdued and humbled, may not rely on earthly things, but raise up our hearts and our thoughts to heaven, and there fix the anchor of our hope; and may all our thoughts abide there until at length, when you have led us through our course on earth, we shall be gathered into that celestial kingdom which has been obtained for us by the blood of your only begotten Son. Amen.  John Calvin (Quoted in Be Thou My Vision )

Matthew 7:6 (ESV) Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.   I find it to be of great interest that this passage in Matthew, this passage, which is near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, is immediately preceded by the passage that says, "Judge not..." (Mt. 7:1-5). How can one "Not judge" and then be discerning enough to identify "dogs" and "pigs" in order to not present those "holy pearls" to them?  Is there not a measure of, what one could call "judging"... Is Jesus not referring to people as the "dogs" and the "pigs"?  And then to refrain from presenting words, words that could be called "pearls" or "what is holy", to refrain from presenting these words to people we've deemed to be, well, doglike or piggish in the way they would receive these words: does this not require a level of judgment? ...

  Psalm 109 -- To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love. Appoint a wicked man against them; let an accuser stand at their right hand. When they are tried, let them come forth guilty; let their prayer be counted as sin! May their days be few; may another take their office! May their children be fatherless and motherless and their spouse a widow or widower! May their children wander about and beg, seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit! May the creditor seize all that they have; may strangers plunder the fruits of their toil! Let there be none to extend kindness to them, nor any to pity their orphaned children! May their posterity be cut off; ma...

I don't know where to start. I'm not sure what to say.  Abandoned Danville Church Burns to the Ground That link will take you to the WCIA news story about this old abandoned church in Danville that burned down. But it was more than an old building or an old abandoned church to me. This is... was the Old Edgewood Building with the attached Hope Christian School. From the middle of the building, looking toward the sanctuary.

This is (sort of) the third post in a series.  The First Post: Geometry and How to Think The Second Post: Canyons vs. Crannies Theology I am sure that there are a few people who've had their toes stepped on from my posts. If not these two, then any number of previous posts I've done, may have stepped on toes. I can admit that from time to time I've posted some things with the express purpose of toe-stepping. I can admit that. Though it was never meant to be overtly mean, I can admit that there have been a few times where I phrased things knowing that whether or not it stepped on any toes, it would still be received about the same way that a stray Lego piece is when encountered on the floor in the middle of the night... when barefoot. I could argue that some people just need to put shoes on (i.e. not be so sensitive), but that wasn't my main concern when typing these things out. Even though I can admit this with some previous posts, I want to stand by my claim that these...

Please don't be offended by this post. If you read anything here that you find offensive, please just talk with me.  Anyone and everyone that believes that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, is a theologian on some level.  I absolutely believe this to be true. A person doesn't always have to be a professional theologian to be a theologian. Theology is simply the study of God, so one could be a professional theologian, investing their time and energy into this study, but they might also be a lazy theologian, deeming the study of the Word to be not all that important, at least not as important as Sports Center or their Facebook feed, but both ends of the spectrum depict theologians none-the-less. If a person believes something... anything... about God, they are a theologian. And if they also believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, then to some degree those beliefs are shaped by their reading, or their lack of reading, the scriptures. 

I know that anyone that comes across this will most likely find it a bit on the boring side. I get that. I'm not trying to build an audience here, I gave up on that dream long ago. At the same time, what I am going to say, I believe has relevance. I believe it is important. I believe that it borders on essential. And so I write it, not thinking that it is a statement that will sweep the nation or the educational system or even the 5 people I know online. I write it instead, as an actual exercise in thinking, which is the core topic of this post. So I encourage you to read it, to think about it, and to communicate with me about it, not for social media hype, but for community and dialogue and for thinking...  Geometry The longer I teach Geometry, the more I believe that the real purpose of Geometry is not how to find angles and identify shapes and compare congruent triangles... No. All of those things are secondary to, what I believe is, or ought to be, the real purpose of a Geometr...

This is just an old table.  At some point in the fall of 1986, I sat at an old table in an art class at Hope Christian School and scratched out a message from God to my future self.  I was a freshman in high school. My teacher's name was Mrs. Clingman. Since it was already an old table at the time, it was covered with scratches, indentations, stains and drops of paint. I can remember scratching the bubbles out of the dried paint drops. You can see that in this picture:  I also remember sitting at the other end of the table and noticing a little indentation that looked like an eye. I was probably supposed to be working on some other project or listening to my teacher give instructions on the next project we were to be working on or an art technique that I was going to need to use, but instead, I was doodling on that eye. And I can actually remember thinking to myself, I am going to write "I see you!" for someone else, someone who would come along after me and see this litt...

The clockwork boy dreamed.  To the clockwork boy, it seemed, That all the books he’d read With boys and men of whom its said They dared to reach beyond their state And out of need, fulfilled their fate Doing deeds, that were great So maybe clockwork boy could be More than clockwork, he would see.  The clockwork boy waited.  He dared to dream a time was fated For him to reach beyond his state And do a deed considered great So wait he did for proper time In meantime reading prose and rhyme Dreaming big he hoped to shine So maybe clockwork boy could do A thing that poets will write too.  The clockwork boy observed.  Watched for needs where he could serve Based not on gifts he bore innate But hoped that gifts were born of fate So plunging in when need arose Not a dipping of the toes A head-first plunge is what he chose So maybe clockwork boy could trust That though he lacked, it’d be enough.  So clockwork boy acted.  And gears and springs were all impacted...

To my wife on our anniversary I loved you when Our journey began. I love you now and I'll love you then. And when this journey comes to its end, I'll listen to the story told Of love... ... and love again  ( Written 20 years ago for our 8th anniversary. )

I found a carving in the wood,    a pedestal where something stood.  A statue must have been right here,    its placement had been very clear. But now this pedestal was bare    and statue which was carved with care was now cast off and on the ground    under leaves and grass around its form so it was barely seen.     I stooped down now and tried to clean debris away so I could see    what had been and what will be. Dead leaves, wild grass, pulled and plucked    brushed away so I now looked at stone now in the light of sun,    its lines and grooves forming some image now in my mind    of fingers that were intertwined.  I brushed off more and saw an arm,    its wrist embraced with carven charm. The form now clear a woman lay    framed by grass and roots that stay clinging to her female form    in ways that seemed now to adorn, like woven garments, nature m...

 “A Song of Ascents.  In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.  What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? A warrior's sharp arrows, with glowing coals of the broom tree!  Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar! Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace.  I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!”  (Psalms 120:1-7, ESV)

Not an Ideal but a Divine Reality (pp. 26-27, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer) Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves.   By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, beg...