isaacdowning.com

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Behold, O Lord God, yea, behold patiently as Thou art wont how carefully the sons of men observe the covenanted rules of letters and syllables received from those who spake before them, neglecting the eternal covenant of everlasting salvation received from Thee. …

In quest of the fame of eloquence, a man standing before a human judge, surrounded by a human throng, declaiming against his enemy with fiercest hatred, will take heed most watchfully, lest, by an error of the tongue, he murder the word “human being”; but takes no heed, lest, through the fury of his spirit, he murder the real human being.

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— The Confessions of St. Augustine

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Ethan (2), at his first 3D movie experience: Despicable Me.

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INSPIRATION: “Belief System” by F Hoerr (Los Angeles, CA)

"I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addictions and their shortcomings and I see so little war! “Murmur, murmur, murmur, why am I this way?” MAKE WAR! … If you wonder how to make war go to the manual. Don’t just bellyache about your failures. Make war!"

— Dr. John Piper, How to Kill Sin

thoughts on communion from Nathan Peterson: "Small Bread" →

Then Jesus passed around the smallest most crunchy piece of “bread” the disciples had ever seen along with a quarter-sip of grape juice to wash it down. He instructed them to face forward, ignore each other, to think about how we was going to die for them and how sucky that made them, and then once they had accepted that fact they could down the bread and the juice. (The key here is to wait until you get together, then completely ignore each other. Don’t smile.) Then He instructed them to repeat this process once per week for the rest of eternity.

I’m not complaining about the size of the bread. But I think the size may be indicative of the state of the entire process as it stands in the American Church today.

Maybe it’s time to re-think this.

-np