David Allen in Getting Things Done (paid link) has some very useful things to say about organising the things you need to do.
For all of that, however, it is salutory to be reminded that being better organised does not help if we do not know why we are here. Which god am I serving? What is my life for? Which direction is my life, as a whole, travelling in?
Here is CS Lewis, talking about why it is that people like to undermine St Paul whilst maintaining that they follow Christ.
A number of us heard an extremely helpful talk this morning from Hugh Palmer, rector of All Souls Langham Place in London. He reminded a group of us, all in church leadership or pastoral ministry of some kind, to keep first things first.
Ed Clowney (paid link) makes a brilliant comment on 1 Peter 2:18-20. Peter is teaching slaves how to react when they are punished, or suffer, for no fault of their own. Indeed, they may be suffering because they have done something good. Clowney says this:
After a tip-off from Steve Jeffery, I really enjoyed reading Toby Sumpter's Good Friday sermon from last year.
It's entitled My Song is Love Unknown.
I tried to think how to sum it up to encourage you all to go and read it, but I can't. I simply commend it to you.
I think I've finally worked out what is going on in Ruth 4. I'll make a note here as a place where I can come and find this again when I need it. Do comment below if I've missed something.
There are 3 Old Testament laws in play here.
Leviticus 25:23-28 says that, because all the land is really God's, should someone sell part of their land to alleviate their poverty, the buyer cannot regard it as theirs absolutely. A relative of the person they bought it from must be allowed to redeem, or buy back, that land, and the price for that is to be calculated fairly.
Psalm 95:1-7c inverts the categories of creation and salvation. Roughly, the pattern of the Psalm goes like this:
- Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord, the rock of our salvation (1-2)
- For, he is a great God who holds, owns and formed everything (3-5)
- Come, let us bow and kneel before our maker (6)
- For he is our God, and we are his people, under his care (7a-c)
I'm greatly heartened to read Richard Perkins' recent post: 5 ways to profit from a rubbish sermon.
(Mercifully,) a sermon can fall far, far short of what it should be, and people can still profit from it. That doesn't mean it's OK not to try, but for me just to settle for preaching badly. But isn't it good to know that preaching badly also doesn't mean it's OK for the hearer to have to settle for hearing nothing? In patnership, as the preacher unfolds the text as well as he can, the congregation can seek to hear the voice of God as clearly as they can. And then they will.
Go on, read it! He has some excellent suggestions.
(paid link)
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