I have a new system for collecting material for my blogs which may result in more collections of not-necessarily-related items in a single post, such as this one.
I’ve noticed more recently than I am bugged by worship leaders whose physical expressions seem to be directly related to the music style (and not the lyric content). I struggle to suppress the thought that maybe too much of their interest is in the melody about God and not to the God of the melody. I think that this guy struggles with the same thing, except with worshippers in general. I think his point is very worthy of consideration. You can also read a response by Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace.
Sometimes the people that affect you the most do so from a distance and you wonder what they’re really like. Usually their kids know best. John Piper’s son recently introduced his father before a message about Piper’s own father. I found it interesting and humorous. You can read or watch it here.
That intro was part of the recent Desiring God Pastor’s Conference, which you can listen to in its entirety here. I have heard that it was good, but haven’t had a chance yet to listen.
And to wrap up this post, here’s a quote that I came across recently in a commentary on Matthew by R. T. France, concerning Matthew 10:29: Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
The pregnant phrase ‘without your Father’ has been variously translated as ‘without your Father’s knowledge’ or ‘consent’ or ‘will’ or ‘care,’ depending on the view of divine sovereignty and providence which the translator holds: does God simply know about the death of the birds (and therefore also of his people), or does he allow it, or does it happen because he has decided on it, or is the point that even in their death they are not outside his loving concern? The issue can hardly be determined by exegesis of this text, with its cryptic ending–the theology needs to be imported from elsewhere (France 2007: 404).
Todd – I look forward to the hodge-podge posts. Would you mind sharing your system?
Abraham’s intro for his dad was tremendous – humanizing and honoring at the same time. It was something I’ll definitely remember from that conference.
I agree with Gilbert’s thoughts on music, though he’s obviously overemphasizing one side very strongly to make a needed point. Another thing that I think makes us so dependent on our own preferred musical styles is our ability to listen to any type of music we want at the click of a button. If you listen to your 30 favorite praise songs on your iPod and in your car throughout the week and grow dependent on choosing the songs and styles that really get you going, it may be more difficult when you show up at church on Sunday and sing four songs chosen by someone else with 100 people and a piano, played with far less perfection and skill than a studio-mixed recording. I love good songs as much as the next guy, and praise the Lord for their availability, but I have to be careful.
Same thing with preaching. We can listen to Piper, Mahaney, MacArthur, Begg, Mohler, etc. whenever we want, but when we show up on Sunday we’re listening to someone who we’re not as impressed by (whether rightfully or wrongfully). I think we have to be careful that our technology doesn’t replace the local church, and that we don’t grow discontent with the gifted and devoted people God has given to minister to us while being starstruck with those who seem to be the best of the best speaking to us through our earbuds.
Gunner – thanks for your comments. Very perceptive (but do you ever say anything that is not?)
As for my “system,” now that you ask, it’ll seem very basic. I use MS Live Writer for blogs; it’s very handy for saving drafts, adding pictures, and interfacing with both of my blogs (one Blogger and one WordPress). I simply started a “Misc” post which I can drop stuff into throughout the day/week. That’s better than leaving browser windows open or saving pages as bookmarks or copying urls into text documents, all of which I’ve done before. We’ll see how it works out.
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