Round the Sphere Again

Bible Study
Thabiti Anyabwile on putting “what it means to me” in its proper place.

A premature “what it means to me” takes the pen out of God’s hand and dips it in the ink of our puny intellectual, emotional, social, psychological and usually idolatrous wells.

There’s more and you should read it. (Pure Church)

What to Read
Speaking of idolatry: I read Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods back in November. I didn’t review it here, not because I didn’t like it (I did!), but because I can’t review a book unless I make my many marks in it, and this copy belonged to my church library. But not to worry: I agree with everything in this review by Erik Raymond. Says he, “I highly recommend this book for Christians of all stages.” Me too, although the picture it’ll paint of your own heart probably won’t be pretty. (Irish Calvinist)

Michael Haykin has compiled love letters from 12 couples from church history. The Christian Lover “is a celebration of marriage, an intimate window into the thoughts of men and women who were deeply in love with both God and one another.” You can read the introduction and two witty letters from Martin Luther to his wife Katharina here (.pdf). (Just think, if they’d had phones and email 500 years ago we wouldn’t have these little glimpses into Luther’s heart.)

Defining our Mission
It’s popular to put all the virtuous deeds that Christians do in the category of mission, but is that right? (Kevin DeYoung)

Doctrine and Life
“[T]here is an evangelical impatience with theory, doctrine, intellect, anything that seems academic, for fear that it encourages mere speculation and proves to be unrelated to life,” says Martin Downes. But “the cry for application is, in reality, just a sound, unless there is something to apply. And for that we need truth, doctrine, knowledge.” Read the rest at Against Heresies.

Sew It Up
If I had a grandson I’d sew up a pair of these boy pants. If I had a granddaughter, I’d just change the lining print to make them little girly. (ikat bag)

Sun Shots
They call it “the best eclipse photo ever.” It is pretty cool, don’t you think? (mental_floss Blog)

We had 3 hours more daylight today (8h 41m) than we had on December 21 (5h 37m), and we’re gaining 5.5m per day. I considered saving this tidbit for my Thankful Thursday post, but I do occasionally have things other than warm weather and more sunshine to be thankful for. Just the same, the upside of darkness is a blessed place to be.