Word & Spirit
Line Dictionary's List of Chinese New Year Sayings : 新年快乐.
I found this during my study this morning (for a sermon in Chinese, Sunday), and I thought some of you other Chinese students might benefit from it as well.
Example (but Line's site has audio):
祝新年快乐，新年幸福。
Zhù jiérì kuàilè, xīnnián xìngfú.
Wishing you happiness during the holidays and throughout the New Year.
Happy New Year!
How To Manage Your Prayer List in Evernote And Why To Consider It.
The number-in-title system is a helpful idea I've seen before (specifically, I think it was the Secret Weapon).
Though I have slacked off on using Evernote, ideas like this gives me another reason to return to it.
"The Auld Triangle," is an beautiful Irish song about a man in prison. The old triangle, made of metal, rang every morning to wake the inmates. The song was written for a play about a prisoner in Mountjoy prison and occurred in the play just moments before the prisoner's impending execution.
Here, some of Ireland's best singer-songwriters sing together with a great crowd in the Royal Albert Hall, London. Enjoy (or as they might say, "cheers.")
On the benefit of obeying Jesus' words to the rich young man in Matthew 19:
“It is an act of apostolic perfection and of perfect virtue to sell all one has and to give to the poor—thus becoming weightless and unimpeded and flying up with Christ toward heavenly delights.”-Jerome, in Bonaventure, Defense of the Mecidants, ch.7.
And on preaching what we ourselves have not done:
“I exalt virginity to heaven, not because it is mine, but because I more greatly admire what I do not have. Preaching to others a quality lacking in oneself, this indeed amounts to a frank and embarrassing confession. But if I am held down to earth by the weight of my body, is this reason enough not to admire the flight of birds?” (Jerome in letter to Pammachius, qtd in Bonaventure ch.7, p.141)
Source: Bonaventure, Defense of the Mendicants, in The Works of Bonaventure,
trans. José de Vinck, v. 4: Defense of the Mendicants.
"And as for the apostolic epistles, what man who is skilled in literary interpretation would think them to be plain and easily understood, when even in them there are thousands of passages that provide, as if through a window, a narrow opening leading to multitudes of the deepest thoughts?"
-Origen, On First Principles
Jim McGuiggan introduced to me a poem by George Herbert, called "Love (III)." I might've read some Herbert briefly in an English Lit class in college, but none of it stuck with me the way it did after hearing McGuiggan read it in his audio message, "God and Timid Sinners."
I downloaded that file and listened to McGuiggan many times during daily commutes in Hangzhou.
"If you like religious poetry, you may not like George Herbert's work, but if you love it, you'll devour his material...about timid sinners too conscious of their sin to be fully aware of the profound, fathomless love of God toward us."
So please do not let the word "sinners" deter you from savoring this sweet poem. Oh yes, we have sin, and that's the point: some of it is all too real for some of us, and we never forget our moral failures. Something might be said of the benefit of remember our sin. Absolutely. However, the point of this poem, I think is to invite those who can't forgive themselves, to accept the healing and salvation God offers.
***English-to-English translation note: The poem itself is in italics to stand apart from my words on this page. However, I've removed italics for emphasis, actually (which is risky behavior, since its reversed as per usual). I added quotation marks to help clarify the discussion taking place in the poem and emboldened (really, blog-ified) two lines that tell--in a way only poems can--of God's scandalous and matchless will to forgive us (you!): perfectly displayed in the death, burial, and resurrection of His son Jesus the Messiah, our Lord and King.
Without further ado:
by George Herbert
Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew backguilty of dust and sin.But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slackfrom my first entrance in,drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,if I lacked any thing."A guest," I answered, "worthy to be here:"Love said, "You shall be he.""I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,I cannot look on thee."Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,"Who made the eyes but I?""Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shameGo where it doth deserve.""And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?""My dear, then I will serve.""You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat":So I did sit and eat.
Jonah 3 Exegetical Paper - Clint Boyd
Above is a link to my second exegetical paper, written for a course on the Minor Prophets. I chose the passage based on my long-standing interest in God's foreknowledge and immutability (and other topics generally associated with Reformed/Calvinist circles). Jonah 3:9-10 was of particular interest to me in this paper, but the I tried to cover the whole chapter. Of course, this paper only skims the surface, for Jonah is a wonderfully written and deep story, however short it may seem.
Our last blog post was meant to ease the worries of appearing too young--mostly. If you've been at the other side of that spectrum, however, and felt too old, you should read Chaplain Michael Summer's poem and prayer. The rough draft of his book on prayer is almost finished. See his blog for more: http://michaelwaymonsummers.blogspot.com/
Mom, Dad, thanks for having me.
I'm 26 years old today, and I've spent the last three years trying to figure out what it really means to be a man.
[Que Damien Rice or Bob Dylan song.]
Truly, many a good song have been written (by others) in search of the same answer. Something has clicked recently, though, and I'm simply less concerned about it all. Don't get me wrong, young men and women in their twenties should be ambitious, hard-working, and responsible--but that doesn't require the exclusion of fun.
So for my birthday, I asked my wife to get me a pair of shoes from the skateboarding world. (It is a different world, by the way, very fun and outrageously creative.) That's where I resided from around the ages of 13-21; I still take short vacations there from time to time.
I'm feeling younger already.
This morning, I remembered reading C.S. Lewis' words about what it means to be "adult." I hope they encourage you to be comfortable in your own skin and to do your best, however young or old you are:
Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
Dr. Richard Oster has poured lots of energy into his commentary on Revelation. Commentary on the first three chapters already printed. Check out his words here and the songs his students made. Pretty awesome.
