Christ atoned for our sins because He loved us, each of us. That would have been motive by itself and is the motive we talk about. Less frequently we mention His motive of obedience.
But there are other motives. (more…)
Bruce Charlton hit on a pretty meaningful question. Is heaven static or dynamic? The Saint Christian view of heaven is very dynamic–millennia of progression followed by forever of creation–so when I got old enough to digest the scriptures on my own I was surprised that the consistent image of heaven in holy writ was static. Peace. The end is come. Never more to go out. Enter thou into my rest. The gospel, in other words, has the static view and the dynamic view. Our lives have both also. There are sometimes when we want to be out and doing and striving attracts us. At other times we just want to be done.
Some thoughts.
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Elder Christofferson once preached that the aim of the gospel is to draw down “perfect justice and infinite mercy” from heaven. The phrase stuck with me. Perfect justice and infinite mercy. Infinite mercy, sure. But who among us struts so cockily that he wants perfect justice? Who among the wise can know that he is more sinned against than sinning? None.
But the truly wise know, even the justice that condemns you is joyful.
A man will always be judged, full stop. A person will always be judged, full stop. You will always be judged for everything you do for every second you are doing it.
The judges are God, everyone else, and yourself.
Thing is, you want it. You want to be judged and found worthy.
I could hear His Majesty cackling over the paper even before I emerged from the kitchen with his breakfast pancakes and porridge.
Fast Sundays seem to be for puttering.
The heavens declare the glory of God.
It is an old truth that becomes new every time you go out in the twilight, or see the sky on a clear night, or witness the dawn.
I am half-persuaded that urbanization and the indoor life tracks with the rise of atheism.
Love and glory are of the fundamental attributes of God and reality. Love is unconditional whereas glory is earned respect, or conditional love. They are deeply intertwined and complementary. (more…)
The man is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
He says it in the middle of some deeply reactionary stuff about women keeping their head covered in church and such so this particular teaching gets lost. But as with an illusionist’s trick, the part that draws the eye isn’t the important part.
So what does Paul mean?
I don’t know. But sometimes my life as a husband and a father feels like I could say ‘she is my glory.’ I feel like I do a lot of scutwork out in the world and a lot of discipline and order and stabilizing at home to make possible the little circle of domestic intimacy that she creates. Because of what I have to do to make it possible, or because I am the sort of person who does what is necessary to make it possible, I can’t fully be a part of it. But all the same that circle validates all my efforts, it seems to me.
The God who created worlds without number doesn’t seem too averse to grand ambition.
–Thus MC.
Elder Christofferson preached Sunday that the aim of the gospel is to draw down “perfect justice and infinite mercy” from heaven. The phrase stuck with me. Perfect justice and infinite mercy. (more…)
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
This is the time of year for Christmas devotions. This year my thoughts have been on the impulse to serve the needy that we have at Christmas. We don’t have it at Easter. My thoughts have also been on the Christ child. The religious significance of the grown Christ, on the cross and in the garden, is obvious. But what did Christ do for us as a bare baby?
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