Tantalizing If True

In Michael Spencer’s article, A Contrarian Manifesto for the Church Growth Debate, he says, “I don’t care about the Purpose-Driven Church, the Emergent Church, the Seeker Church, The Church-Growth Church or any other trendy moniker. I’m into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. If baby boomers want their own church, with everything done their way so they don’t have to share with the rest of Christianity, fine. Go have your play date. I’m hanging with the big dogs of Christian history and passing on the hot dogs of American evangelicalism.”

But any criticism cuts both directions. (more…)

You can’t drive north by always driving south. It doesn’t matter how quickly or carefully you drive. You can’t drive both east and west. You can’t drive north by always driving west. The residents of Helena, Montana, would love to have you visit, but you won’t get there if you never take the road to Helena. If you sincerely want to visit Helena but drive 100 miles to the east of it, you won’t arrive where you want to go, and it’s nobody’s fault but your own. In the same way, God doesn’t want to lose you, but if you go everywhere but to him, you shouldn’t blame him for what eventually happens to you.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is not for the well-meaning: it is for the desperate.”

- James Denney

James Ferrenberg, an Eastern Orthodox “sinner and extremist” who writes Paradosis, offers this personal story:

A couple of nights ago while praying over our meal, I flubbed the Lord’s Prayer:

“Give us this day our daily bread, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

It occurred to me later that I am going to starve.

“It is now all over, I soon shall have conquered my last enemy… Oh my dear sister, how glad I was that I had kissed you once more.”

- Janneken Munstdorp, Martyrs Mirror, p. 990

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.

– Abraham Lincoln

When she received a touching story via email from her daughter, Elva said:

“You young people with your e-mails! (laughs) I’m elevated and happy that they can send such beautiful things. (laughs) When they talk about e-mails, I don’t understand what they’re talking about. They’re talking Greek to me.”

“The Lord Christ compels no one to come to His glory…”

- Felix Mantz, Martyrs Mirror, p. 415

I recently created a website to share pictures of my grandmother going for a walk, since my relatives live out of state and can’t visit as often as they’d like. I also set up an email address for my grandmother.

The other day my aunt sent Grandma her first email.

Here’s my 93-year-old grandma’s response.

My uncle, who is politically-attuned (read: fanatical to the point of insanity and I still love him), just found out that his favorite former Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is a Vegan. Vega is a bright star in the constellation Lyra, 25 light years away. Possibly John Dean is an Andromedan.