Cream of Wheat

Christian music, originally called Jesus Music, once fearlessly sang clearly about the gospel. Now it yodels of a Christ-less, watered down, pabulum-based, positive alternative, aura-fluff, cream of wheat, mush-kind-of-syrupy, God-as-my-girlfriend kind of thing.

-Steve Camp, thesis 41, "A Call for Reformation in the Contemporary Christian Music Industry"

Reducing Jesus

To those fundamentalists and evangelicals who singularly focus on giving invitations, the image of Jesus standing and knocking on the doors of hearts, drawn from Revelation and not from the Gospels, assumes iconic status. To evangelicals of a pacifist stripe, Jesus turning the other cheek reigns supreme. To the socially conscious, Jesus embodied in the poor becomes the rallying point. To just about all American evangelicals Jesus becomes the best friend, the Savior next door. All of these are biblically based images. The problem comes when such a focus on a particular episode in the Gospels or a particular characteristic or trait of Jesus leads one to downplay or even dismiss other episodes of the biblical narrative and other aspects of his character. Jesus comes to us as a complex figure, and reducing him does an injustice to the Gospel accounts. Reducing him does an injustice to Jesus himself.

-Stephen J. Nichols, "Jesus: Made in America" (p. 88)

2 x 2 = 4 ?

What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert - himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt - the Divine Reason... The new skeptic is so humble that he doubts if he can even learn... There is a real humility typical of our time; but it so happens that it's practically a more poisonous humility than the wildest prostrations of the ascetic... The old humilty made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humilty makes a man doubtful about his aims, which makes him stop working altogether... We are on the road to producing a race of man too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.

-1908, G. K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy" (pp. 31-32)

God is Love

God's love for us is not mainly His making much of us, but His giving us the ability to enjoy making much of Him forever. In other words, God's love for us keeps God at the center. God's love for us exalts His value and our satisfaction in it. If God's love made us central and focused on our value, it would distract us from what is most precious; namely, Himself. Love labors and suffers to enthrall us with what is infinitely and eternally satisfying: God. Therefore God's love labors and suffers to break our bondage to the idol of self and focus our affections on the treasure of God.

-John Piper, "Pierced by the Word" (p. 13)

The Object of our faith... not the Example.

Here is found the most fundamental difference between liberalism and Christianity—liberalism is altogether in the imperative mood, while Christianity begins with a triumphant indicative; liberalism appeals to man's will, while Christianity announces, first, a gracious act of God. [...] Liberalism regards [Christ] as an Example and Guide; Christianity, as a Saviour: liberalism makes Him an example for faith; Christianity, the object of faith.

-J. Gresham Machen, "Christianity and Liberalism" (pp. 47, 96)

Cozy Theory Into Troubling Experience

Paul had heard horror stories about sin all his life. He had seen countless bony fingers waving in his face to warn him of sin's power. But in Romans 7:21 he moved from cozy theory into troubling experience: he found this law. It is one thing to sit in a group and critique dissertations on original sin; it is something else to find yourself subdued by its strength and madness. It is one thing to listen to a lecture about AIDS - how it spreads, what it does to a body, how invincible it is; it is another thing to hear your doctor say to you, "HIV- positive - I'm sorry."

-Kris Lundgaard, "The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin"

The Gospel According to Ezekiel, Part 2

37:1-14
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.
And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.
And he said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."
Then he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.
Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.
And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD."
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live."
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Then he said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.'
Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.
And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it," declares the LORD.