Kyle is not afraid of Freud.

I hesitate to write this because it’s such a common thought, but then I am a simple man, so if I rule out the common thoughts I won’t write about anything.

Last night, I heard a developing leak in a pipe beneath my kitchen. I’ve had a leak in that pipe twice before, so fixing it today will not convince me that something is not wrong with my water heater or something else that is causing this particular pipe to spring leaks. Of course, I tried to cast that care on the Lord and avoid worrying about it. This morning, I turned off the water main before leaving the house for a small group meeting.

At the meeting, we read a devotion by Frederick Buechner about hearing God’s voice in everyday living and hearing him in silence. It ran along the lines of considering the lilies.

Buechner writes, “God speaks to us, I would say, much more often than we realize or than we choose to realize. Before the sun sets every evening, he speaks to each of us in an intensely personal and unmistakable way. His message is not written out in starlight, which in the long run would make no difference; rather it is written out for each of us in the humdrum, helter-skelter events of each day . . .” Continue reading Why Do We Take So Much for Granted? →

As I understand it, we’re still waiting for a final word on the motives of the man who murdered Dr. George Tiller, the noted late-term abortionist. But indications seem to be that the killer was motivated by his anti-abortion (I won’t say pro-life) beliefs.

I’m appalled by this wicked, perverse and un-Christian act. The perpetrator, if and when convicted, should be punished to the full extent of the law.

I don’t know what else there is to say.

From Dennis Ingolfsland of The Recliner Commentaries:

Five university law professors and the legal council for the American Jewish Conference have sent a letter to a New York Assemblyman warning of the potential consequences of a New York same-sex marriage bill. Below is a summary of the likely consequences:

Read the rest here.

More than one way to slice it

What is culture? Is there a difference between people and culture? If someone argues that Jesus calls to redeem people but not culture, are they really saying anything, or is the difference inconsequential?

It seems to me people make up culture; to reach people would be to reach their culture, and you can’t reach a culture as such because it’s a concept, a description. You reach people who think and act in patterns we describe as cultures, and if we apply the gospel to the making of art or business, then we are reaching people within their cultural context.

Or am I missing something?

The iMonk talks about our brokenness before our Lord:

How can someone who has the answers for everyone one moment, have no answers for themselves the next? Why are we, after all that confident talk of “new life,” “new creation,” “the power of God,” “healing,” “wisdom,” “miracles,” “the power of prayer,” …why are we so weak? Why do so many “good Christian people,” turn out to be just like everyone else? Divorced. Depressed. Broken. Messed up. Full of pain and secrets. Addicted, needy and phony. I thought we were different.

…

You people with your Bibles. Look something up for me? Isn’t almost everyone in that book screwed up? I mean, don’t the screwed up people- like Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Hosea- outnumber the “good Christians” by about ten to one?

Jared has a good list on parishioners who should come with warning labels:

2. The young guy who likes it when you rant against stuff or preach angry. Beware of pleasing young men too much. Young men are notoriously stupid. (I know, ’cause I am one.)

3. The guy or gal who doesn’t like it when you rant against stuff or preach angry. Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. If you’re sincerely and reliably preaching the Word, toes are going to be stepped on from time to time. If you’re not being self-indulgent about it and you are speaking the truth, beware those who think you should be more “positive” like those fellows on TV.

This may go along with Ori’s link in the previous post. Atheists don’t appear to be more rational than their opponents, just more angry. Maybe they had bad Sunday School experiences. But then “a fool says in his heart, ‘There is no god,'” so we may be talking about complete irrationality here.