• Equipper Verse

  One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple (Psalm 27:4).

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A Christian is a human being who seeks permanent residence in a distant Homeland though he intrinsically lacks right or title to it. There is a legal outrage to making sinners into citizens of the Kingdom of God, to seating outcasts around the table of Christ. As believers we are all illegal immigrants, welcomed Home [...]

Here’s an excellent list of questions designed to tactfully turn discussion toward Jesus.
Charles Wesley, author of the hymn text O For A Thousand Tongues, had the same kind of question that he used to direct attention to the Savior. Same, yet different. Here is an excerpt about Charles Wesley from Whitefield’s biography by Arnold Dallimore [...]

Christians who are very anxious about the fate of God’s truth must have forgotten the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, which implies that God does not send his truth into history like a ship that is launched and then forgotten.  He is the source at once of the truth human beings face and of the [...]

In just over a month the Greater Columbus Gospel Coalition (GC Squared or GC2) will be hosting its first meeting at Grace Bible Church in Canal Winchester.  The purpose of this gathering is to give thought and action to the task of gospel dissemination and living in central Ohio.  A longing for effective gospel proclamation [...]

This past weekend our Sunday School class reviewed five different Bible story books for children. In approximate order of age-appropriateness (with the youngest first), the books were as follows:
1. The Big Picture Bible
2. The Jesus Storybook Bible (Here also are two excerpts from the audio book version: “The Story and the Song,” & “A New [...]

Wittgenstein says that when the eye sees something beautiful, the hand wants to draw it.  Beauty brings copies of itself into being.  It makes us draw it, take photographs of it, or describe it to other people. Sometimes it gives rise to exact replication and other times to resemblances… (Elaine Scarry in On Beauty and [...]

“Wanting something for its beauty is wanting it, not wanting to do something with it….Wanting [something] for its beauty is not wanting to inspect it: it is wanting to contemplate it–and that is something more than a search for information or an expression of appetite.  Here is a want without a goal: a desire that [...]

William Edgar commenting on Elaine Scarry’s work On Beauty and Being Just writes…
Drawing on the ancients, particularly Plato and Dante, she makes the point that a person gazing on a beautiful object is vulnerable, even weak.  Think of Dante as he moves higher and higher toward the Paradisio.  Think of his account of contemplating Beatrice.  [...]

“When our interest is entirely taken up by a thing, as it appears in our perception, and independently of any use to which it might be put, then do we begin to speak of its beauty” (Roger Scruton in Beauty).
And so the Psalmist writes…
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that [...]

We may be tempted to search for what is always most beautiful, but in our search for the towering masterpiece and its effect upon us, we miss the wonder of ordinary beauty. We are so awestruck by the vaulting spires of the cathedral that we overlook the order and charm of the shops arranged neatly [...]

“It is well and good for philosophers, poets and theologians to point towards beauty in its highest form.  But for most of us it is far more important to achieve order in the things surrounding us, and to ensure that the eyes, the ears and the sense of fittingness are not repeatedly offended” (Beauty, Roger [...]

I never went to see “The Passion of the Christ” preferring not to limit my imagination’s boundaries as I thought on the last days of the Lord.  Even as I listen to Fernando Ortega sing these lyrics I let the music play while moving to another open window on the desktop.  I am more interested [...]

A recent blog post on the Gospel Coalition website introduced me to Nancy Guthrie.  Clicking on a link at the end of that piece led me to her family’s story.  Take the time to read it.  The death of one child in infancy is a hard burden to bear.  The death of a second under [...]

A careful hand will weave just the right amount of history into the weekly liturgy to give a congregation a sense of the ancient landmarks without thinking they are on an archeological expedition.  For example, this past Sunday we used a few questions from the Belgic Confession in place of the Apostle’s Creed.  This enabled [...]

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