Travis Seitler: Web Designer

Wow. Somehow I lost 20 minutes and I have nothing to talk about! I really wasn’t planning on making this many posts. It’s not like *I* signed up for this and *I* have tons of great ideas to share with you. ::glares snarkily at the door, wishing husband would walk through it:: I don’t even know who my audience is, other than the fact that you know my husband. Oh, my.

I thought of something. Here’s a link to one of his favorite meals, White Chili, on my good friend Tammy’s blog. You can think about that for a few minutes while I think of something worth writing now that the baby’s alseep.

Wow… a whole week without posting. Yes, I’ve been bad again, but at least I have a decent excuse this time. Even if I’m not writing much, I’m still reading a lot in the blogosphere! Taking a cue from Adrian Warnock, I’d like to direct your attention to some interesting posts I’ve read over the past few days…

The House of Degenhart » You May Be Right…

When ill-behaved children lose an argument, they say “SO WHAT!” or “Oh yeah? Well you’ve got a big nose!” Grown-ups say, “You may be right, but in the grand scheme of things your solution would represent a misallocaiton of resources.” Christian grown-ups say, “Yeah, but what’s really important is telling people about Jesus.” You know Jesus – he’s apparently the guy that doesn’t really care about the truth very much, or how people live their lives, so long as people sing happy clappy songs about him and don’t judge each other.

Pyromaniacs: How to deal with posts you don’t like—and the flip side

I’ve noticed a pan-internetal phenomenon you’ll all recognize. It’s how different people deal differently with posts, articles, essays they don’t like. (Now, I suppose I have to add “and pictures.“)

You can not like a post for many reasons, reasons which will vary in part due to the post’s content, and in part due to where you are, spiritually, intellectually, temperamentally, and time-wise (schedualically?).

Maybe the post in question is really stupid. Maybe it’s palpably wrong. Maybe it’s wrong and stupid.

JOLLYBLOGGER: Fathers do not exasperate your children

“Do not be harsh with your children but be gentle.” So this writer does not exhort fathers to exercise their authority. Instead, he presupposes that authority and then sets the bounds for its use. He also presupposes that children are not just property over whom the father has legal rights. They are owed dignity as human beings in their own right.

Challies Dot Com: The Tyranny of Quiet Time

Johnson wrote about something I had only recently realized myself. “That half hour every morning of Scriptural study and prayer is not actually commanded in the Bible.” Imagine that. He goes on to say, “As a theologian, I can remind us that to bind the conscience where Scripture leaves freedom is a very, very serious crime. It’s legalism rearing its ugly little head again. We’ve become legalistic about a legalistic command. This is serious.” We have somehow allowed our quiet time, in its length, depth or consistency, to become the measure of our relationship with God. But “your relationship with God—or, as I prefer to say, God’s relationship with you—is your whole life: your job, your family, your sleep, your play, your relationships, your driving, your everything. The real irony here is that we’ve become accustomed to pigeonholing our entire relationship with God into a brief devotional exercise that is not even commanded in the Bible.” So what, then, does Scripture command? It commands that the Word of God be constantly upon our hearts. We are to pray, to read the Scripture and to meditate upon it, but we are to do so from a joyful desire, and not mere performance-based duty. We are to do so throughout our whole lives, and not merely for a few minutes each morning. Like Johnson, I came to realize that the “goal isn’t that we pray and read the Bible less, but that we do so more–and with a free and needy heart.”

So do not allow quiet time to become performance. View it as a chance to grow in grace. Begin with an expression of your dependency upon God’s grace, and end with an affirmation of His grace. Acknowledge that you have no right to approach God directly, but can approach Him only through the work of His Son. Focus on the gospel as the message of grace that both saves and sustains. And allow quiet time to become a gift of worship you present to God, and a gift of grace you receive from Him.

…because she never comments here anymore. (Courtesy of Cute Overload.)

I’ve been observing as Adrian Warnock continues his God-killed-Jesus series, and so I was delighted to see The Daily Duck: Thoughts on Adrian’s Sermon, a response from the waterfowl who first called Godbloggers to the carpet on this issue. The Duck made some really good points, especially as to how justification and sanctification work out. I’ve included a (rather lengthy) quote from his post, and my own comment is included afterward:

Read the rest of this entry »

“If you believe that the holy appointment to preach is the most important function of the leader, Paul has let you down so far. He has not just let you down, but he has left you swinging in the breeze! Of the first two chapters, only in two places has he even vaguely called for doctrine, much less preaching. In verse 1:9-11, Paul has recommended that doctrine be used to shut up gainsayers – hardly what I would call a Sunday sermon. In 2:15, Paul calls Titus to speak ‘these things,’ but ‘those things’ were that people should live with high character and sound works.

“Paul has yet to lay ‘feed Christ’s sheep’ on Titus. He keeps talking about caring for people, and teaching them to care for each other.”

Thus we are introduced to the final post in Codepoke’s study on Church Leadership based on Paul’s Epistle to Titus. Here’s a quick summary of the posts, if you haven’t read them already:

1. Titus and the things that matter in a leader (Titus 1) />“First, Paul was willing to leave Crete without appointing elders. …second, a church should not live without elders for long. …third, Paul has a term for leaders in the church – old men.”
2. Titus and responsibilities (Titus 2) />“Paul does not tell Titus to give the Cretans sound doctrine. Titus is to teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. The Cretans appear to have enough sound doctrine. They need no more. Now, they need to know the things that spring from sound doctrine.”
3. Intermission (Titus 3:12-15) />“No time last night to write on Titus 3, but I had enough time to put together a quick word about the last 4 verses of the book.”
4. Titus and the tone of the church (Titus 3:9-11) />“In the proportion that Paul gives it in his letter to Titus, preaching is a glorious and wonderful thing. Preaching should be a wonderfully important 1/46th of our total Christian experience in the church. And preaching should lead to people devoting themselves to doing what is good.”

For an ecclesiastical egalitarian, Kevin’s alright.