my burg

Here are a few more quotes in line with my post earlier today... "Technology is good, as a means for the human spirit and for human ends.  But technocracy, that is to say, technology so understood and so worshipped as to exclude any superior wisdom and any other understanding than that of calculable phenomena, leaves in human life nothing but relationships of force, or at best those of pleasure, and necessarily ends up in a philosophy of domination.  A technocratic society is but a totalitarian one ."  ( Jacques Maritain, Education at the Crossroads , 1943 , quoted in The Year of Our Lord 1943) "The severance of ethics from fixed values and standards, ardently promoted by John Dewey and the naturalists, has brought moral chaos.  Theological sanctions discarded, the modern man covets only social, and sometimes only individual, approval of his behavior .  The sense of ethical imperative is evaporating from one range of life after another.  The obligation...

"In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."  (Judges 21:25 ESV)  "Liberalism", as a term, has been used in a wide variety of ways over the past two hundred years, whether referring to political, social, or religious  spheres.  Politically, the more classical view of being "liberal" was rooted in a morality outside of and higher than ourselves, and is not identical  with the modern view of being merely "progressive".   The former is shaped by an eternal, moral order and tends to favor a republican form of  government over a pure democracy.  The latter is more shaped by the values of one class of people -- usually an elite, being the educated, the scientists, the politicians, etc. -- and tends to favor, at least at first, a more purely democratic form of government.  Both views are idealistic, but the ideals are rooted in different places.  Many of these issues are discussed in Al...

Nations in need of prayer.   Venezuela (Amazonas Territory above) is a land of stunning beauty and great contrasts.  We spent an unforgettable week there among the Yanomamo in 1990.  All the people of Venezuela at this time need prayer and intervention.   Also pray for Christians in Burkina Faso   and for the children of North Korea .   Are Your Prayers Like Paul's Prayers? "Praying about health (which, if we had the chance to listen in on the prayers of Western Christians, would likely come in at number one) is rare—almost non-existent—in the Bible. So why are we praying about it so much?"  (Alistair Begg) David Brooks’s Journey Toward Faith "I can't unread Matthew."  (David Brooks) It's Time to Teach our Children to Stand Up for Life    "It’s not enough to teach our children that life is sacred from the moment of conception until natural death. We must also teach them to declare the truths of our faith in the ...

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  (Galatians 2:20 ESV)  For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  (Romans 6:10-11 ESV) "Thus, if you do not see your complete mortification in him, sin will reign in you. No sin can be crucified, either in heart or life, unless it be first pardoned in conscience, because there will be lack of faith to receive the strength of Jesus, by whom alone it can be crucified.  If it be not put to death in its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power.  If the believer does not see his perfect deadness to sin in Jesus, he will open a wide door to unbelief.   And if he be not persuaded of his completeness in Christ, he giv...

Above, No Compromise was the second album by Christian singer/song-writer Keith Green, released in 1978. WHY STUDY CHURCH HISTORY? "For the past two-thousand years of our history, Christians have wrestled with Scripture. They have preached sermons, written commentaries,  defended orthodoxy (right belief) against heresy (false teaching), and articulated biblically faithful statements of doctrine in form of the historic  confessions of the faith.  If we disregard all this, choosing instead to remain ignorant of this treasure-trove of spiritual wisdom, is that not arrogant  of us?"   REDISCOVERING FORGOTTEN CLASSICS Here's a treasure trove of lesser known works that you may want to investigate. PASTORAL CONCERN ABOUT EVANGELICAL PROPHECY "The belief that God continues to grant special revelation through personal experience fosters unhealthy experientialism." THOMAS MORE'S ANTIDOTE TO MODERN IDEOLOGIES "By now, the recipe is sadly famil...

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he  was going.  By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same  promise.  For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God."    (Hebrews 11:8-10 ESV)  We are at that time of the year in our town, a university community, that folks begin moving away.  Perhaps everyone in transition can identify  with these words about Abraham: "and he went out, not knowing where he was going" (11:8).   There are new living arrangements to make, new situations to learn, new  friends to make, and new challenges to master.  The vital thing that sustained Abraham, as he packed up to move out in faith and obedience, was that he was "looking forward to the city that ...

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."  (Romans 1:18-20 ESV)  "Here [Paul] is saying that the universe and its form and the mannishness of man speak the same truth that the Bible gives in greater detail.  That this God exists and that he has not been silent but has spoken to people in the Bible and through Christ was the basis for the return to a more fully biblical Christianity in the days of the Reformers.  It was a message of the possibility that people could return to God on the basis of the death of Christ alone.  But with it came many other realiti...

"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his  people in the forgiveness of their sins..."  (Luke 1:76-77 ESV) "And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."  (Jeremiah 31:34 ESV) There is no true, saving knowledge of God apart from personally experiencing the forgiveness of our sins.  The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah foretold that knowing the Lord -- knowing, as in trusting, loving, and obeying him -- would come about only  when sins were forgiven .  The priest Zechariah (Luke 1) prophesied of his son, John the Baptist, that he would give people the knowledge of salvation in the forgiveness of sins .  Forgiveness .  There ...