Chuck Palahniuk says that writing workshops allow a writer to test his or her stories, to “see if it’s a story that creates more energy than it takes to listen to it.”
I think that’s a good thought for a preacher as well; and for a blogger. Ask yourself if your work is going to create more energy than it takes to attend to it.
The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.
-G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles
A couple of Shakespeare quotes come to mind; let’s rip them out of context and use them:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves…
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Here’s one for the commonplace book:
Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly broad-minded.
-G.K. Chesterton, Heretics
Some 11 years ago I bought, and binged on, the works of B.B. Warfield. One of his statements that has held fast in my mind and experience is, “It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith.” That line came to mind this week, so I decided I would record it here with some context:
The saving power of faith resides thus not in itself, but in the Almighty Saviour on whom it rests. It is never on account of its formal nature as a psychic act that faith is conceived in Scripture to be saving,—as if this frame of mind or attitude of heart were itself a virtue with claims on God for reward, or at least especially pleasing to Him (either in its nature or as an act of obedience) and thus predisposing Him to favour, or as if it brought the soul into an attitude of receptivity or of sympathy with God, or opened a channel of communication from Him. It is not faith that saves, but faith in Jesus Christ: faith in any other saviour, or in this or that philosophy or human conceit (Col. ii.16, 18, I Tim. iv.1), or in any other gospel than that of Jesus Christ and Him as crucified (Gal. i.8, 9), brings not salvation but a curse. It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or the nature of faith, but in the object of faith; and in this the whole biblical representation centres, so that we could not more radically misconceive it than by transferring to faith even the smallest fraction of that saving energy which is attributed in the Scriptures solely to Christ Himself…
So little indeed is faith conceived as containing in itself the energy or ground of salvation, that it is consistently represented as, in its origin, itself a gratuity from God in the prosecution of His saving work. It comes, not of one’s own strength or virtue, but only to those who are chosen of God for its reception (2 Thess. ii.13), and hence is His gift (Eph. 6.23, cf. 2.8, 9; Phil. i.29), through Christ (Acts iii.16; Phil. i.29; II Peter i.21; cf. Heb. xii.2), by the Spirit (II Cor. iv.13; Gal. v.5), by means of the preached word (Romans x:17; Galatians iii:2, 5); and as it is thus obtained from God (II Peter i.1; Jude 3; I Peter 1.21), thanks are to be returned to God for it (Col. i.4; II Thess. 1.3). Thus, even here all boasting is excluded, and salvation is conceived in all its elements as the pure product of unalloyed grace, issuing not from, but in, good works (Eph. ii.8-12). The place of faith in the process of salvation, as biblically conceived, could scarcely, therefore, be better described than by the use of the scholastic term “instrumental cause.” Not in one portion of the Scriptures alone, but throughout their whole extent, it is conceived as a boon from above which comes to men, no doubt through the channels of their own activities, but not as if it were an effect of their energies, but rather, as it has been finely phrased, as a gift which God lays in the lap of the soul.
–B.B. Warfield, Works, Vol. 2: Biblical Doctrines (Grand Rapids:Baker), Reprinted 2003, pp. 504, 505, emphasis added
Ver. 7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
The connection is illative; he applieth the former promise, and by a just inference enforceth the duty therein specified: `Submit yourselves therefore to God., But you will say, Wherein doth the force of the reason lie?
I answer—1. It may be inferred out of the latter part of the sentence 357thus: `God giveth grace to the humble, therefore do you submit yourselves;, that is, do you come humbly, and seek the grace of God. The note thence is:—
Obs. That general hints of duty must be particularly and faithfully applied, or urged upon our own souls.
Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow, application is the hitting of the mark. How many are wise in generals, but vain ἐν διαλογίσμοις, in their practical inferences! Rom. i. 22. Generals remain in notion and speculation; particular things work. We are only to give you doctrine, and the necessary uses and inferences; you are to make application. Whenever you hear, let the light of every truth be reflected upon your own souls; never leave it till you have gained the heart to a sense of duty, and a resolution for duty. (1.) A sense of duty: `Know it for thy good, Job v. 27. If God hath required humble addresses, I must submit to God; if the happiness and quiet of the creature consisteth in a nearness to God, then `it is good for me to draw nigh to God, Ps. lxxiii. 28. Thus must you take your share out of every truth; I must live by this rule. When sinners are invited to believe in Christ, say, `I am chief, 1 Tim. i. 15. (2.) A resolution for duty, that your souls may conclude, not only I must, but I will: Ps. xxvii. 8, `When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek., The command is plural, Seek ye; the answer is singular, I will. The heart must echo thus to divine precepts.
-Thomas Manton, A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition, with Notes, on the Epistle of James, Chapter 4, emphasis mine (Read it online HERE).
I came across this quote totally by accident while I was reading an article written by one of my former teachers. This ties in very well to what I have been trying to say about meaning and application HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Notice that, in this analogy, both doctrine and application are necessary and connected. You cannot separate them any more than you can separate the process of drawing the bow to hitting your target with an arrow. It’s one fluid motion. If one part is missing, everything is deficient. Second, Manton makes the point that Christians need to work to become skilled at making application (which would seem obvious from the analogy). He calls upon us to ‘never leave [the truth, or a doctrine] till you have gained the heart to a sense of duty…’ ‘The heart must echo…divine precepts.’
So, we could say that those who know a good deal of doctrine but lack the ability to make application could be likened to someone with an expensive hunting bow who has never shot a deer in his life. The bow looks nice on the wall, but it’s not providing anything for him, or anyone else, to actually eat.
Two quotes for this one. First,
Curtis Almquist oversees the Society of St. John the Evangelist. He once wrote that monks are sometimes seen as eccentric, not merely in the sense that some may seem quirky or odd. He wrote, ‘Rather, I mean eccentric in an etymological sense, as in the Latin eccentricus, meaning “having a different center.”‘
And second,
Ultimately, we cannot rein in technology use with rules, limits, or fences. As Albert Borgmann says, ‘Technology will be appropriated…not when it is enclosed in boundaries but when it is related to a center.’ Elsewhere he notes, ‘The answer is not to find a line, but to remember and invigorate those centers in our lives that encourage our place, our time, and the people around us.’
-Arthur Boers, Living Into Focus, p. 188, 200
That’s another keeper.
