Month: February 2017

On My Table:<BR> Life & Books with Brian Douglas

On My Table:
Life & Books with Brian Douglas

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 26, 2017

This month’s On My Table comes from Brian Douglas, Associate Pastor at All Saints Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho and chaplain at the Wyakin Foundation. He was previously a teacher, sold books and outdoors gear, and was a security guard. He grew up near Miami, but his mom raised him to love Detroit Tigers baseball. What book(s) are you currently reading? Throughout 2017, I’ll be reading Calvin’s Institutes with a bunch of friends. Wilbourne, Union with Christ. Soren Kierkegaard, The Present Age. Re-reading Keller, Reason for God in anticipation of reading Making Sense of God. And I’m slowly cooking my way through Peláez & Silverman, The Cuban Table. Next in the queue: Taunton, The Faith of Christopher Hitchens, and Gjelten, Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba.…

Wednesdays on the Web (22/02)

Wednesdays on the Web (22/02)

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 21, 2017

Please Stop Saying “God Told Me” Unless this kind of language is immediately followed by Scripture, it’s a big red flag. Josh Buice discusses why (oh, and I agree with him). Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility ‬This post is a little longer than normally keeps my attention span, but John MacArthur has been doing this a long time. His words are carefully chosen and they’re well worth your time. For Better Conversations Here’s some insight into the lost art of conversation from the President of Christian Communicators Worldwide. Off the back of Barnabas Piper’s new book: The Curious Christian this is a fascinating, valuable read. Keep your focus on the other person as you talk to each other. Look at him or her, probe…

The Temple and the Tabernacle

The Temple and the Tabernacle

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 19, 2017

To be honest I think what initially attracted me to J. Daniel Hays’ The Temple and the Tabernacle: A Study of God’s Dwelling Places from Genesis to Revelation was the fact that it boasts over 60 full colour images in its almost 200 pages. Many pages of Scripture are filled with events taking place in or around a tabernacle or temple, and I was hoping to get a better handle on the particulars of each of these structures which played such a large role in the life of God’s people. Hays delivers an accessible, enjoyable survey of how these structures came to be, but he also demonstrates how the prominent biblical motif of “temple” weaves its way through Scripture from Genesis to Jesus, and the implications for the…

Marvel at the Jewels

Marvel at the Jewels

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 16, 2017

Humans were made to wonder. Built into each of us is a curiosity about things and a capacity to pause and ponder. When it comes to meditation, it shouldn’t surprise us that the world has taken hold of this means of grace that God designed to aid our spiritual journey and turned it into a human-centric self-help endeavour. Whereas world religions (and other groups) would define meditation as the act of stilling your thoughts, emptying your mind, and focusing on nothing outside of yourself, Christian meditation is different. Almost the complete opposite in fact. God designed us to hear his voice, primarily through the reading of his written word. Moreover, he not only wants us to hear but also to reflect on what we’ve heard. In his…

Wednesdays on the Web (15/02)

Wednesdays on the Web (15/02)

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 14, 2017

Marital Love Must be Sexual In the last of a four part series on the Puritans’ theology of marriage, Joel Beeke makes a solid case from scripture (and the Puritans) as to why marital love absolutely must be sexual. While the Puritans would never be seen as reducing marriage to sex, they emphasized that sexual intimacy is the “due benevolence” that married people owe to their spouses, and in this way they demonstrate God’s design for marriage as the fullest, most intimate form of love on earth. An Intro to the Institutes More and more lately I’ve become convinced that I need to get into Calvin’s Institutes. Karl Barth once said: “I could gladly and profitably set myself down and spend all the rest of my…

You and Me Forever:<BR>Marriage in Light of Eternity

You and Me Forever:
Marriage in Light of Eternity

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 13, 2017

Having recently reviewed Dave Furman’s excellent book about the most important things to do (and not do) when it comes to showing true love for someone who is hurting, and how to ensure you take care of yourself in the process, Francis and Lisa Chan’s book on marriage in light of eternity overlaps in many wonderful places. Their first chapter Marriage isn’t that Great is Francis’ usual provocative style in which he reminds us that while we should be invested in nurturing, growing, and protecting our marriages we must always remember that our worship is to be directed only to God. In firmly fixing our gaze first and foremost on the all-satisfying God, we plant ourselves by the stream of living water from which we draw…

The Ugliness of Knowledge without Conviction

The Ugliness of Knowledge without Conviction

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 12, 2017

Even today one of my greatest struggles is refusing to let my knowledge of God stand in the place of genuine faith in God. Sometimes I can barely tell a difference. Am I speaking from conviction or from a head full of knowledge? Am I acting rightly out of a sense of moral obligation and knowing it’s “the right thing to do” or out of a life that seeks to honor Christ? Am I speaking the truth out of love or out of a desire to impress? Motives are rarely clean and pure. It is difficult to delineate, especially since knowledge is part of faith. But the difference shows up in how I feel about my actions. If I find joy in honoring Christ when…

Wednesdays on the Web (08/02)

Wednesdays on the Web (08/02)

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 7, 2017

How to Create a Kingdom Culture in your Home Talking to our family members happens naturally. Having spiritual content to those conversations doesn’t. God knew this and made it a command in Israel. We can talk about the weather all we want, but bring up something spiritual and you get…crickets. Kingdom culture requires kingdom conversations. Not only is it an opportunity to teach our children, but the conversation itself elevates the culture of the home toward the things of God. The Father is Not the Son The theology nerd in me loves conversations like this, and I’ve kept track (from a safe distance) of the ongoing debate that raged in the latter half of 2016 over the functional relationship of the members of the Trinity.…

The Curious Christian

The Curious Christian

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 5, 2017

Barnabas Piper begins The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life by highlighting the critical placement of the suffix “-ish”. Jesus bade people to come to him with faith that was childlike; the wonder and curiosity displayed when everything prompts a question, everything fascinates and excites, and we bubble over with a desire to know. Consider this contrasted with Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13:11 regarding putting aside childish things. Paul is talking about thinking, speaking, and reasoning like a child. In The Curious Christian, Piper laments that the former has been lost to us as we seek “maturity”, and wonder no longer has a place in the version we see. But maturity doesn’t (read shouldn’t) mean growing out of those aspects of childhood that Jesus embraced. Rather, instead of…

Betrayed by My Own Body

Betrayed by My Own Body

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 5, 2017

I’m a terrible runner. I’d like to think of myself as a runner, but the reality is that I’m inconsistent and the fruit of that is evident to every other true runner around me. Don’t get me wrong; like many others I come to the run with energy, enthusiasm, and a strong desire to do better than the time before. However without discipline to back up my determination the result will be much the same; willpower is not enough and I’m inevitably betrayed by my own body. I reach that point in every run when my body begins to tell me that it’s not too happy with the current state of affairs; it would much rather not be moving so fast or working so hard, thanks very much.…

More to Follow

More to Follow

Published by Chris MacLeavy on February 1, 2017

Sometimes loving others is hard. Our own sinfulness means that we’re naturally inclined to be selfish, and our fallen bodies and minds are prone to weariness. When we persevere with those who are harder to love we often find ourselves getting tired, losing patience, or sometimes simply walking away and assigning him or her to the ‘too hard’ basket. The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for us because it reminds us that it is because of God’s unconditional love for us that we can offer unconditional love for others. In his book Being There, Dave Furman writes I read a story of an artist who once submitted a painting of Niagara Falls to an art show but forgot to give it a title. The…

Wednesdays on the Web (01/02)

Wednesdays on the Web (01/02)

Published by Chris MacLeavy on January 31, 2017

Recovering Godly Speech in an Age of Profanity It no longer shocks us when vulgar language appears in movies, on stage, or in our workplaces. For the most part, we flippantly approve of it with statements like “well, that’s why it’s rated M”. But the bible has a very different response to this, and our attitude as Christians is to be increasingly countercultural. Performing a “Time Audit” of Your Life Time is the resource that governs all others. J. D. Greear provides this thought-provoking (even if you don’t actually DO it) perspective to help us all be more self-aware of where our time is actually going, and how the quality of everything else can be positively – or negatively – impacted by how we manage…