Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection. Made for joy, we settle for pleasure. Made for justice, we clamor for vengeance. Made for relationships, we insist on our own way. Made for beauty, we are satisfied with sentiment. But new creation has already begun. The sun has begun to rise. Christians are called to leave behind, in the tomb of Jesus Christ, all that belongs to the brokenness and incompleteness of the present world. It is time, in the power of the Spirit, to take up our proper role, our fully human role, as agents, heralds, and stewards of the new day that is dawning. That, quite simply, is what it means to be Christian: to follow Jesus Christ into the new world, God's new world, which he has thrown open before us.
- Written by: Rich Lusk
- Category: Men & Women
"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."
- Marcus Aurelius
This is a follow up to my sermon for men who want to hear more on their duties as husbands and fathers.
My sermon Sunday on the pair of family psalms, Psalm 127 and Psalm 128, deserves a bit more comment. I will focus here especially on Psalm 128. (Video of the sermon is available here -- the sermon starts about the 17 minute mark; audio is available here.)
The first part of the sermon focused on the man in these psalms and that's what I want to look at further here. If we want to know what it means to be a blessed man, perhaps we need to start with manhood itself. What does it mean to be a man? How are men different from women? How does a man's masculinity feed into his duties/roles as a husband and father? What shape should a man's rule over his home and in the world take?
- Written by: Rich Lusk
- Category: Quotes
"Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of western civilization. To this day, we have no other options [besides Christianity]. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter."
--- Jurgen Habermas, a German philosopher/theologian
- Written by: Rich Lusk
- Category: Men & Women
Have you seen reports on this new Netflix show Cuties? Looks like soft pedophilic porn. It's sick. Maybe with Ghislaine Maxwell behind bars, some on the left are trying to normalize pedophilia before a bunch of them get busted for it. Maybe they can get it legalized before they go to jail. Let's hope not.
What’s interesting to me here is the plot line of Cuties and the way this movie is being defended by progressives, especially given the way Netflix has marketed it.
The New Yorker tweeted this: “Cuties, which has angered scandal-mongers on the right, is the story of a girl’s outrage at, and defiance of, a patriarchal order.”
- Written by: Rich Lusk
- Category: Culture
Argue your case with your neighbor himself,
and do not reveal another's secret,
lest he who hears you bring shame upon you,
and your ill repute have no end.
-- Proverbs 25:9-10
Last week, the Atlantic published a story which claimed Trump made disparaging comments about American soldiers according to four anonymous sources. Not surprisingly, the story quickly fell apart as many sources were willing to go on record by name disputing the account and the story's author gave a pretty pathetic excuse for why his sources wanted to remain unnamed. What is disappointing is that some Christians who should know better (such as David French) decided to traffic in this anonymous story. My point in this post is not political and has nothing to do with Trump. It has to do with personal relationships, unsubstantiated rumor/gossip, due process, and our obligation to rely on multiple named trustworthy sources when passing along potentially damaging reports. Anonymous reports can be used to damage presidential candidates, but they can also be used to damage relationships and communities. They are a form of gossip, and thus forbidden by biblical law.
- Written by: Rich Lusk
- Category: Quotes
From N. T. Wright: