Thoughts Concerning Scantily-Clad Young Ladies

I ran across this article this afternoon and found it to be an honest and telling piece of thought. I appreciate the writer's candidness, but I certainly regret that she leaves us hanging without ideas for either containment or correction. Perhaps, she herself doesn't know the answer to the all-evasive question, "Okay. So, now what?"

In the pale-turquoise ladies' room, they congregate in front of the mirror, re-applying mascara and lip gloss, brushing their hair, straightening panty hose and gossiping: This one is "skanky," that one is "really cute," and so forth. Dressed in minidresses, perilously high heels, and glittery, dangling earrings, their eyes heavily shadowed in black-pearl and jade, they look like a flock of tropical birds. A few minutes later, they return to the dance floor, where they shake everything they've got under the party lights.

But for the most part, there isn't all that much to shake. This particular group of party-goers consists of 12- and 13-year-old girls. Along with their male counterparts, they are celebrating the bat mitzvah of a classmate in a cushy East Coast suburb.

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On the Importance of Study as a Spiritual Discipline

I am currently involved in a small group which meets on Sunday evenings in the home of a family in our church. We are currently studying Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster, and each week, we share and discuss our answers to questions I have developed related to the chapter at hand.

The following is an answer I wrote in response to the question, 'How does study contribute to the fulfillment of the purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines?'

The purpose of the Disciplines is the total transformation of the person, having been made in the divine image, also being remade in said image (i.e., conformity to the image of Xp). Our transformation particularly pertains to the renewal of the mind, us being called to share the mind of Xp, study being used by God as the primary vehicle through which we encounter those thoughts, or ideas, which bring the mind of God (Phil. 4:8; cf. truth, goodness, beauty).

A Brief Critique of Part 1 from an Interview with Ayn Rand (1959)

This is very interesting and quite telling. Where I think she's missing the conception of self-giving love in Christian thought is in that love -if it is to be LOVE- is in it's very nature free and uncompelled. What's more: the Christian Faith certainly recognizes varying degrees, origins, and characteristics of love. There is certainly erotic love, love for one's self (i.e., the lover) to be satisfied by the object of love (i.e., the beloved). There is common love (i.e., brotherly love), by which there is a unity of interest and intention. There is, further, self-giving (as she'd call it, self-sacrificing) love, which is free and personal, rooted certainly in the value of the other, whether it'd be a virtuous sort or (as in the case of the imago Dei) an intrinsic sort.

Some Thoughts on John 3:22-36...

"While John the Baptizer affirms the superiority of Jesus over himself, I find it interesting what he then says about eternal life, belief, and obedience...

"Those who believe in the Son have eternal life, while those who neglect obedience neither have nor will have --so long as they disobey-- eternal life. But, so long as they willfully remain in disobedience to the Son, they remain under the judgment of God.

"Interesting juxtaposition, to say the least. Theologically, this is a profound thought by John, and I'm reminded in it of Bonhoeffer's call to quit giving lack of faith as an excuse to be negligent in regards to obeying Xp: Obey Him and you will trust Him."

"Behold the Savior of Mankind"

Below is one of the few surviving hymns penned by Samuel Wesley, father of John, Charles, and their siblings. Most of his hymns were destroyed in the fire at Epworth.

Behold the Savior of mankind
Nailed to the shameful tree!
How vast the love that Him inclined
To bleed and die for thee!

Hark, how He groans, while nature shakes,
And earth's strong pillars bend!
The temple's veil in sunder breaks;
The solid marbles rend.

'Tis done! the precious ransom's paid!
"Receive my soul!" He cries;
See where He bows His sacred head!
He bows His head and dies!

But soon He'll break death's envious chain,
And in full glory shine;
O Lamb of God, was ever pain,
Was ever love, like Thine?

Scripture Readings for Lent

Below is a schedule of readings through the Gospel according to John for the duration of Lent. While fasting on Sundays is theologically faux pas, it's always more than appropriate to read the Scriptures on Sundays, right? That being the case, the following schedule includes readings on Sundays and, of course, the greatest Sunday of them all: Easter.



I put this schedule together for the benefit of our congregation, Faith Methodist Church, so that we might together walk through John's record of the Gospel. In my sermons, the plan is to walk through Mark's account. My thinking is that hearing these two dialects of the word of God might be both interesting and beneficial to those who are able to join us for worship on Sunday mornings during the Lenten season.