As a gardener, I’m notorious for only planting what can be eaten. My family, however, is fond of pear-less pear trees. They are called “ornamental pears.” They have nice white blossoms, but they have been carefully bred not to produce any fruit. Ornamental fruit trees have become quite popular. So have ornamental Christians.
The rabbi of Congregation Shomer Negiah
In my little town, where the local theater is called the Monoplex because it only shows one movie (“The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T“), I’ve become good friends with the rabbi at Congregation Shomer Negiah, whose synagogue is off the expressway behind a grove of trees. Continue reading “The rabbi of Congregation Shomer Negiah”
O world, o treacherous sea
It was long enough, world, that I floated about in you, oh treacherous sea. You deceived me long enough. You detained me. While I was a slave to sin, and wronged God, you loved and honoured me. But now you hate me.
— Christoph Bauman, Switzerland, Ausbund 76
Salvation is a secular concept
Our culture is poorer for having segregated some useful ideas into a religious ghetto, isolated from society’s mainstream. One such concept is salvation. For most Westerners, the word “salvation” conjures up images of sweating American preachers in tent revivals. But “salvation” is simply the noun form of the verb “to save.” Continue reading “Salvation is a secular concept”
Getting to know yourself
It is difficult for the one who loves to talk to get to know himself. If he would think of who he is, he would not have so much to say. Look at yourself! Leave the rest.
— Othmar Roth, Sankt Gallen in Switzerland, 1532, Ausbund 58
The Stanislavsky Method of Biblical Interpretation
The originator of “Method acting,” Russian theatrical director Constantin Stanislavsky (1863–1938), taught his actors not to ask, “How should I position my eyebrows, hands, and mouth to express this line?” but rather, “If I had a domineering father, an ambitious wife, and coarse underwear, how would I express this line?” Continue reading “The Stanislavsky Method of Biblical Interpretation”
On a more personal note…
Tuesday night I asked my best friend to marry me, and she said yes. She’s from southeast Illinois and works in international student ministry. My grandmother loves her too.
Just thought I should mention this. You don’t need to be as excited about it as I am.
Marionettes without a puppeteer
More than anyone else, I guess, I’m concerned for people who seem to have no motivating force in their lives. They remind me of marionettes without a puppeteer. In the hands of a master, nearly every string of a marionette is taut, ready for action, ready for movement. In the bottom of his box, every string of a marionette is slack, not only unmoving but unready to be moved. People who are empowered by the Holy Spirit seem ready to respond to their master’s slightest motion, without the slightest warning.
You are not in the Bible.
It’s good to claim the Bible’s promises, but most of them are conditional: either explicitly conditional, (“If we confess our sins” I John 1:9) or implicitly conditional (“and the peace of God… will guard your hearts” Phil. 4:7)
A Bible promise for which we have not met the conditions is not a Bible promise that applies to us. Continue reading “You are not in the Bible.”
Reducing the Kingdom to its least denominators
We have not rejected the Kingdom. We have reduced it.
— E. Stanley Jones, The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person