Got Carson?

"The world needs to be reminded that all human ills are not curable by legislation, and that quantity of statutory enactment and excess of government offer no substitute for quality of citizenship."

- Clarence B Carson

Pray for Rome

Okay, if you're like me, you're a pretty Protestant Protestant, but I want to encourage the rest of you to add your prayers to mine and the countless others being offered up around the world for the Cardinals gathered today who will be electing the next Pope.
I am much more nervous about this election than I ever was for the race [so-called] between Obama and Romney.  The Roman Church, for all its problems, has been an unflinching pillar of prophetic strength in defense of the unborn as well as a stalwart testimony to the fact that God has made men and women different and that these differences have- according to HIM - ramifications for differences of ministry and restrictions of ordination.  It has also been uncompromising, in a way that no mainline Protestant denomination can claim to have been, by officially upholding a more or less Biblical standard of human sexual ethics.  In the face of so much fierce social and political pressure, the ramifications for this appointment, the potential to shift cultures in the direction of unrighteousness and sinful compromise as well as to further mar the name of Christ in the world is truly significant.

At the start of this meeting, the Cardinals prayed for the Holy Spirit's guidance in their deciding.  May He indeed be pleased to appoint a righteous, brave, and holy man.

All right, now because you're worried about how non-Protestant I sound, here is a great quote from Carl Trueman:

Rome has chronological priority over any Protestant denomination. Thus, Protestantism was and is a movement of protest. We are by definition protesting against something: the claims of the papacy, the burying of the gospel under garbage, the denial of assurance to ordinary Christian believers. We must never forget these things. We should respect our Roman Catholic friends; we should rejoice in the great doctrine we hold in common; but we must not minimize that which divides us from each other.

A Lenten Meditation from Lewis

"The attempt [to marry Heaven and Hell; right and wrong] is based on the belief that reality never presents us with an absolutely unavoidable "either-or"; that, granted skill and patience and (above all) time enough, some way of embracing both alternatives can always be found; that mere development or adjustment or refinement will somehow turn evil into good without our being called on for a final and total rejection of anything we should like to retain.

This belief I take to be a disastrous error. You cannot take all luggage with you on all journeys; on one journey even your right hand and your right eye may be among the things you have to leave behind. We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision. Even on the biological level life is not like a pool but like a tree. It does not move towards unity but away from it and the creatures grow further apart as they increase in perfection. Good, as it ripens, becomes continually more different not only from evil but from other good."

 [Go ahead ... click below - keep reading - you really should - it's only one more paragraph -  and I promise it's worth it.]

Book List [what I've been reading/listening to lately]...

You are what your mind eats ...

Lent, Virtue, and Maturity

"Lent teaches us that Satan’s gifts are easy to master. They come with first grade instruction manuals. They are made to be mastered quickly and enjoyed rapidly (fornication, drugs, alcohol; various temptations). God’s gifts are a little harder to master. They require self-control and patience. They anticipate spiritual growth; they demand a kingly attitude to grasp kingly wisdom. God’s instructions mean you have to seek others in the community to understand them properly. You have to exercise and express a theology of patience built into a theology of blessings."

- Uri Brito, in Lent, Ligon Duncan, and Legalism

Of and For this World ...

"While many have supposed Christ's coming to be something that changes people's hearts but makes no difference to the public order.  This was not the hope of the Jews.  Had they expected that kind of a kingdom, Herod may not have lifted an eyebrow when the news reached him that the Messiah had been born in Bethlehem.
As is was however, Herod knew what Zecharias knew and had prayed about, that when the Messiah came, the game would be up for the tyrants like himself and a new order of justice and peace would be introduced."
"Christ's kingdom is  a reality for this age which touches every area of life.  It is a public, tangible, visible reality that transforms the world ... People will quote John 18.36 where Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world...".  It's helpful to realize that a more accurate translation of the Greek is: "My kingdom is not from this world...".  Wright points this out in one of his excellent articles on Paul.  While Christ's kingdom does not arise from this world, but from Heaven, it comes to the earth.  So Christ's kingdom is very much of and for this world.
That's how our Lord taught us to pray!  They kingdom come they will be done on earth!"

- Robin Phillips, author of Saints & Scoundrels: from King Herod to Solzhenitsyn

Hard work, Character, and ... Fun?

After reading Jerry Apps' interesting and touching memoir of growing up on a Wisconsin dairy farm during the WW2 years, I propose that we make this the new cliche for kids' pee-wee soccer teams everywhere:

"Listen, what matters most is not whether we win, but whether we all have ... a chance to work very hard at a very difficult task for a very long time."