Between Two Worlds: Should We Really Call It a “Quiet” Time?:

I’ve known many people whose relationship with God was significantly transformed as they started to speak up with their Father. Previously, “prayer” fizzled out in the internal buzz of self-talk and distractions, worries and responsibilities. Previously, what they thought of as prayer involved certain religious feelings, or a set of seemingly spiritual thoughts, or a vague sense of comfort, awe, and dependency on a higher power. Prayer meandered, and was virtually indistinguishable from thoughts, sometimes indistinguishable from anxieties and obsessions. But as they began to talk aloud to the God who is there, who is not silent, who listens, and who acts, they began to deal with him person-to-person. It’s no gimmick or technique (and there are other ingredients, too, in creating wise, intelligent, purposeful, fervent prayer). But out loud prayer became living evidence of an increasingly honest and significant relationship. As they became vocal, their faith was either born or grew up.

Damian Romano has posted a list of the Top 10 R. C. Sproul Quotes.

My favorites from the list:

Every sin is an act of cosmic treason, a futile attempt to dethrone God in His sovereign authority.

If you’re not accountable in life that means ultimately that your life doesn’t count.

HT: Ligonier Ministries blog

The Hiding Place
by Corrie ten Boom, with John and Elizabeth Sherrill.
Bantam Books, 241 pages.
ISBN 0553256696

There are some books that one cannot say that one enjoys, in the normal sense of the word, due to their subject matter. And yet we are greatly enriched for reading them. The Hiding Place is one of those books.

The book, a modern Christian classic, tells the story of the ten Boom family of Haarlem, Holland. They live a simple life as a family of watchmakers, studying Scripture together daily. Then, in 1940, war comes to Holland.

And then, incredibly, Betsie began to pray for the Germans, up there in the planes, caught in the fist of the giant evil loose in Germany. I looked at my sister kneeling beside me in the light of burning Holland. “Oh Lord,” I whispered, “listen to Betsie, not me, because I cannot pray for those men at all.”

The family begins to hide “undesirables” (Jews, the “feeble,” and others) from the Germans when the Nazi occupation of Holland began in 1940. They continue their underground activities for several years until their arrest in 1944, which eventually leads to their placement in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

And yet, this short book is not another story about the Holocaust, or about resistance to Nazi Germany. It is ultimately a story of God’s love, and the love that Christ calls us to show to others, even in the face of great persecution and pain.

Love. How did one show it? How could God Himself show truth and love at the same time in a world like this?

By dying. The answer stood out for me sharper and chiller than it ever had before that night: the shape of a Cross etched on the history of the world.

It is this love that drives the ten Booms to begin sheltering those who have nowhere else to turn, even while praying for their enemies. Eventually, they become part of (and leaders in) a vast underground network. But while hiding others, and facing eventual arrest and life in a concentration camp, Corrie eventually discovers a hiding place of her own.

And this is the real story of The Hiding Place – not the hiding place that the ten Booms create in their house, but the hiding place that Corrie finds through her experiences. And we are blessed to have her light the way by her testimony. It is a testimony of the love of Christ, God’s forgiveness, and the hiding place wherein we can all find shelter.

Psalm 119:114

114 You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in your word. (ESV)

I once heard a preacher say, “Most Christians are ‘betweeners.’ ”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“They are between Egypt and Canaan—out of the place of danger, but not yet into the place of rest and rich inheritance,” he replied. “They are between Good Friday and Easter Sunday—saved by the blood but not yet enjoying newness of resurrection life.”

Are you a “betweener”?

Warren Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary.

Breaking news from the Baptist Press…

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has undergone successful surgery for the removal of a pre-cancerous tumor from his colon.

The surgery was performed in Louisville, Ky., on March 20. Results of pathological testing on the tumor are not yet available, but doctors expect Mohler, 48, to have a full recovery. The tumor was discovered during a routine colonoscopy in February.

The Mohler family has expressed appreciation for all concern, prayer and encouragement.

Pray for Dr. Mohler’s speedy recovery.

I was going to comment last week on the new Ellison Research survey on sin, but I figured I would wait a few days and Al Mohler would step up. He provides an analysis, as well as some useful conclusions for Christian response here.

It is amazing what leaving something out can do to the meaning of an idea.

A great example of this is a new blog, Garfield Minus Garfield. From the description on the site:

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

And what follows are actual Garfield cartoons, with everyone removed but Jon, Garfield’s owner. And what was a comic about a smart-alecky cat, providing a chuckle, becomes positively disturbing.

Yes, leaving stuff out changes ideas. And not just the small ideas, or the ideas that are, in the big picture, insignificant, like comics (sorry, Brett).

It’s also true of Christianity.

Matthew 23:23

23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. (ESV)

You see, Jesus here is lamenting the religion of the scribes and Pharisees. They are very meticulous in the smallest detail of their practice. They even give 10% of the very herbs they grow back to the Temple (“tithe mint and dill and cumin”), in the strictest observance of God’s Law.

But still, they neglected the larger, weightier matters: justice and mercy and faithfulness.

Micah 6:8

8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (ESV)

Note that Jesus is not criticizing them for their adherence to the details (“without neglecting the others”). But he is making it very clear that leaving out the bigger things, is a woe unto them.

And to us if we do likewise.

Like Frank Turk, I am amazed by this article.

But what struck me, in particular, is not only this:

In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in a joint interview they each had intimate relationships with others during a rocky period in their marriage several years ago.

But also this:

The governor flatly denied what he called a “sporadic rumor in Albany that I had a love child” by another woman. “That’s just not true,” he said.

“Don’t you think he’d take care of a child if he’d had one?” Michelle Paterson said, in obvious disgust over that persistent rumor.

In other words, they both freely admit to adultery, but how dare anyone suggest he could ever be an irresponsible father. Other people’s sins are always worse than our own.

And yes, I recognize the irony of writing about someone else’s sins here. But I will not say “that could never be me.” Rather, it is only by God’s loving grace holding back my sinful nature that I am not doing those things, or worse.

…but he don’t fall down.

A coworker is into 3-D photography, including “wobble” pics. These are taken with a 3-D camera, and then run through some software that produces an animated image that simulates 3-D. Click on the picture below to see an example.

Wobble photography is also known as wiggle stereo vision, jigglevision, VISIDEP. Surprisingly, there’s not a single mention of this concept on Wikipedia.

OK, I’ll get back to more serious posts soon…

Here comes Speed Racer. (He’s a demon on wheels.)

Also coming…

A radiation victim…

A professor…

and a new, er, old ship.