notes 26 may 2012

1. This blogger talks about why she doesn't make her son share.
2. This quote below from Jonathan Dodson via Desiring God encouraged my heart so much. 

 Prayer is about love not about lists. It is about drawing near to God, not about impressing God. It is about enjoying his grace not enduring guilt. In fact, our genuine guilt for loving something altogether more than we love the Father is gone in Christ. God so loved us that he sent his only Son to be cut off in death so that we might be wonderfully united with him in life. Prayer is a response to the Father and the Son; it is a warm reaction to what they have together done for us. Prayer is communion with God, a cementing of souls together in a common delight, in this case, a delight in God and his grace towards us in Christ. It begins and continues with honest words about our loveless lives, our guilt-ridden approaches to prayer, and a shameless embrace of God's reckless love and grace.

3.


I love this definition of and reminder about gospel community. Via Vitamin Z.

notes cinco de mayo

1. Mozart and Vince Gill by Doug Wilson.
2. Fine Culture and Folk Culture from John Piper via Justin Taylor.

Intrinsic vulnerabilities of high culture include elitism and snobbishness. In demanding high levels of intellect and skill, it easily inflates the ego of those who succeed in it, and tempts them to look with contempt on folk culture with its simpler achievements. It easily isolates technical expertise from the larger issues of life and attempts to give it intrinsic value instead of defining its value in relation to other, more important spiritual and personal realities. It is inevitably less accessible to average people and therefore tends toward performance rather than participation, and this performance orientation carries again the tendency toward an atmosphere of aloofness and distance.

 ...

Folk culture keeps the truth clear that elite groups of intellectuals and artists that look with contempt on the common man and his needs and tastes are not admirable persons no matter how accomplished their talents. Folk culture has the potential of reminding us that God must have loved the common people because he made so many of them. Folk culture is by nature incarnational: it clothes its claims with the skin of ordinary people and affirms implicitly the value of getting through to the mind and heart of the masses.

3. How Classical Education Shapes Us as God Intended by Bradley Green.
4. "Stop telling people to 'Be Jesus to people'". Jeff Vanderstelt via Justin Taylor

this is brilliant

the creativity crisis

Just finished reading NurtureShock. Excellent, insightful read. However, I realised that I'm terribly grateful that the Bible is the trustworthy authority! Science can give great insights but findings are often contradictory or unclear because humans are so complex--made in the image of GOD, no less!
Anyways, someone linked to this article on the creativity crisis, by the same authors. Very interesting read.

notes: le 3 mars 2012

1. This post by John Piper to remind us to tell the histories of horror; don't let ourselves or our children forget what atrocities Hitler did. 
2. From this post by Jon Bloom about strengths vs. gifts. 

 We tend to think of our strengths as inherently part of our identity. Strengths are our value-add; our competitive edge. But gifts connote grace. A gift does not originate with us. It’s something we receive from God and steward for his sake. Therefore our gifts are not so much our identity as our offering. And since God has given us these gifts, he’s not obliged to always put us in places where we can use them fully.

kisses from katie

This story is amazing.

it's a girl!

Three words, which, as the following trailer shows, can be deadly.

HT: Justin Taylor

home

Homes are tremendously powerful places, because they are where people come from. There is no more important thing that you could be doing. You do not go home to hide from the world, you go home to change it.

From Homemade People by Rachel Jankovic.

more on motherhood

Gosh, i'm not even a mom yet and i'm convinced it's probably the hardest job in the world. This post by Rachel Jankovic at the Desiring God blog helped convince me of that but offers hope (and beauty?) at the same time, the same hope that applies to all of life: the gospel.