“Love God and do as you please.” Or, “Love God and do as you wish.” Or, “Love God and do what you will.” This famous quote from Augustine of Hippo (534-430) is commonly interpreted to mean if we love God, then what He wants will become what we want—and what we want will invariably be what He wants. Thus, …
Rock of Ages
Augustus Montague Toplady, clergyman and writer, was born in 1740, at Farnham, about 20 miles southwest of Windsor, England. He studied at the prestigious Westminster School for a short time, but was sent to Ireland in 1755, the same year as his conversion—he had been greatly influenced by the teachings of John Wesley. Toplady received his degrees of Bachelor of …
Origami Trick
Amidst the flash and the hype, Matrix folding round like an origami trick, A raw metal sound, And smells of burning circuitry You have to wonder if it’s all Only apparently real. Still the cry arises Wafting sweet in the night “Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away.” Tristran Gylberd by Dr. George Grant
The Cultural Mandate and the Great Commission
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over …
Justice, Mercy, and Christian Charity
Exhausted from his Herculean labors as a journalist, educator, statesman, theologian, pastor, and social reformer, Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) came to visit Vienna shortly after his first term in the Dutch parliament had come to an end on this day in 1876. Even as it does today, the city presented him with a jumble of contradictory impressions. The railways, roads, and …
Wilberforce and Clapham
No man in all of history fought as hard or as long to abolish slavery as William Wilberforce did throughout his life. A member of the British Parliament, he introduced anti-slavery measures year after year for 40 years until he retired in 1825. On this day in 1833, as he lay dying, word was brought to him that the bill …
Of Parish Life
The smiling little cottage, where at eve He meets his rosy children at the door, Prattling their welcomes, and his honest wife, With good brown cake and bacon slice, intent To cheer his hunger after labor hard: Such is the heart, the soul, the very essence, Of parish life: the hearth, the home, domesticity. Thomas Chalmers
My Utmost for His Highest
Oswald Chambers, Scottish Bible teacher, missionary, and author was born on this day in 1874. His best-selling book, My Utmost for His Highest, was published shortly after his death in 1917—he had been serving British troops in Egypt during the First World War. The book, taken from his chapel services, still remains the most popular daily devotional guide in print anywhere. by …
The Cause of Right
“There is little extraordinary about the achievements of a genius, a prodigy, or a savant. Inevitably, a great leader is someone who overcomes tremendous obstacles and still succeeds. That is the essence of courage. It is the ability to maintain, in the face of grave perils, a kind of incognizance of the consequences of doing right. It is the ability …
One Giant Leap
Apollo Eleven astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon as they stepped out of their lunar module on this day in 1969. Armstrong’s first words still echo across all the years and all the miles: “One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.”
More P Logomorphs
Paedophobia: An oddly modern antipathy toward children. Perversiarchy: A reprobate society governed by those committed to concupiscence. Peterpantheism: An environmentalist dogma that refuses to face facts or to grow up. Pharmer: A drug lord. Piccasso Porn: The images from scrambled adult cable channels. Pietoid: An adherent of Pietism; the opposite of someone committed to true piety. Pluriscuity: The promiscuous vision of radical pluralism that claims an equal …
O Logomorphs
Obaminable: Declaring as right what is undeniably wrong; post-modern bully pulpit. Obstropulous: Seeming to be helpful while really making things more difficult. Ohnosecond: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a big mistake, like accidentally sending a personal e-mail to everyone in the office. Olibarky: Cranky, patronizing, and oh-so-pious sermonizing from the modern politically-correct elite. OMG-iddy: Effusive enthusing on …
Right and Wrong
“Right and wrong are defined by God, and not by mutual consent, or by feminine insecurities, or feminist compromises, or by masculine insecurities, or by zeitgeist-riddled cultural observers, or by evangelicals desperate to be accepted with the cool kids, or by chin-stroking, Bible-surrendering academics.” Douglas Wilson
Nothing by Mere Authority
When the Royal Society was chartered by Charles II on this day in 1662, it was the first scientific society in history. Interestingly, devout Christians, with their interest in God’s creation, were most responsible in bringing it into existence. In fact, its membership was overwhelmingly Puritan in makeup. The Society originally grew out of the meetings of the so-called …