Notes from the Pastor
Wisdom from a Comedian
“It’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent (like thinking). And it’s also easier to do little things that we know we can do than to start on big things we’re not so sure about.” – John Cleese
The fuller context of John Cleese’s ...
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The Answer of Joyful Feasting
“Consciously or subconsciously Christians have accepted the whole ethos of our joyless and business-minded culture. They believe that the only way to be taken ’seriously’ by the ’serious’ – that is, by modern man – is to be serious, and, therefore, to reduce to a symbolic ‘minimum’ what in the past was so tremendously central ...
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John Calvin on Remembering Your Baptism
“…there is no doubt that all pious folk throughout life, whenever they are troubled by a consciousness of their faults, may venture to remind themselves of their baptism, that from it they may be confirmed in assurance of that sole and perpetual cleansing which we have in Christ’s blood.” – Institutes of the Christian Religion, ...
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When Men Want to Play God
“When men want to play God…they can only impose their will over a large area by using implements of force and violence. To get a uniform culture, they have to impose it from above, and this works to nullify all local diversity. In a Biblical society, the larger government sets only general policy, and serves ...
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Mission=Faithfulness
From Lesslie Newbigin’s, The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society:
In discussions about the contemporary mission of the Church it is often said that the Church ought to address itself to the real questions which people are asking. That is to misunderstand the mission of Jesus and the mission of the Church. The world’s questions are not ...
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The Holy Innocents and Life
Today marks the Feast of the Holy Innocents, founded upon the bloody Christmas story recounted in Matthew’s Gospel:
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for ...
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Tiny Tim and Newtown
In Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol, Ebeneezer Scrooge visits the Cratchit family with the Second Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present. Bob Cratchit and his son, Tiny Tim, have just returned from church on Christmas Day, and Mrs. Cratchit asks, “And how did little Tim behave?” “‘As good as gold,’ said Bob, ‘and better. ...
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Peter’s Fall
In his comments on Peter’s denial of the Lord in Matthew 26:70, John Calvin remarks, “In short, as a bold and open confession edifies all the godly, and puts unbelievers to shame, so apostasy draws along with it the public ruin of faith in the Church, and the reproach of sound doctrine. The more eminent ...
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Quoting Calvin
From John Calvin’s comments on Matthew 26:56: “While all things are mingled in confusion, and while the devil, by spreading darkness abroad, appears to overturn the whole order of the world, let us know that the providence of God shines above in heaven, to bring at length to order what is confused; and let us, ...
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Whatever May Be the Madness of Men
Jesus, in Matthew 22:44, quotes Psalm 110:1: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet. John Calvin’s stated the following regarding Jesus’ words.
“The LORD said to my Lord. Here the Holy Spirit puts into the mouth of all the godly a song triumph, that ...
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