Unpop Culture

Below are Charles Spurgeon’s thoughts for the day . Quite an encouragement to me, being the impatient person that I am. ******************** Let Trials Bless Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. (Romans 5:3) This is a promise in essence if not in form. We have need of patience, and here we see the way of getting it. It is only by enduring that we learn to endure, even as by swimming men learn to swim. You could not learn that art on dry land, nor learn patience without trouble. Is it not worth while to suffer tribulation for the sake of gaining that beautiful equanimity of mind which quietly acquiesces in all the will of God? Yet our text sets forth a singular fact, which is not according to nature but is supernatural. Tribulation in and of itself worketh petulance, unbelief, and rebellion. It is only by the sacred alchemy of grace that it is made to work in us patience. We do not thresh the wheat to lay the dust: yet the Rail of tribulation does this upon God's floor. We do ...

My apologies for not posting about this earlier. I really should have. A five-hour ABC movie entitled The Path to 9/1 1 recently aired over two nights of commercial-free broadcasting. It’s a docudrama based on the 9/11 Commission Report, as well as a few other sources. It begins with the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and ends with the events of September 11th. The movie details the numerous failures of both the Clinton and Bush administrations in the investigation of the growing terrorist threats against the United States. The film is outstanding. Kudos to everyone involved on the project, both behind and in front of the camera. John Cameron’s score is especially effective—what little there is of it. (Most of the music in the movie is source music and not original score.) The main theme hauntingly and powerfully accents the film’s final act. As I have said elsewhere , I think this is the best film music theme for 9/11 yet. If you missed the movie, you can v...

I’m becoming more and more familiar with the Biblical doctrine of vocation, especially since I started reading the Lutheran blog Cranach . In the words of Gene Edward Veith : Luther’s doctrine of vocation says that God gives each of us different gifts, interests and capabilities. He also gives each of us an external calling to a particular avenue of service. We are to use all that in love and service to our neighbor and service to God…. In addition, the doctrine of vocation tells me that I don’t have to be a pastor or missionary or always doing church activities to be effective as a Christian. I’m called to live out my Christian faith in my calling in the secular world. The doctrine of vocation helps us see the danger of creating a Christian subculture. For example, what makes a video game “Christian”? Blog poster Pastor Matt has this to say : Where does the doctrine of vocation fall in all of this? I say a first person shooter about a US (or any nation's soldier for that ...