Well might Professor C. F. D. Moule issue his challenge: “If the coming into existence of the Nazarenes, a phenomenon undeniably attested in the New Testament, rips a great hole in history, a hole of the size and shape of the resurrection, what does the secular historian propose to stop it up with?” The actual historical effect is inconceivable without the resurrection of Jesus as its objective historical cause. —j.i. Packer
“The story of Christmas is not a cozy fairytale, but an exhilarating romance about a king who came to claim his rightful throne and rescue his beloved” Ryan Whitaker Smith
“Think about this: What was the most important political event of the first century AD? Far and away the most important event, the most important political event, was the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The destruction of the temple was vastly more significant for the future of Western civilization and Western politics than any of the petty struggles between emperors. Yet, not a single media outlet would have caught it – not the conservatives, not the liberals. They would not have thought these events were significant because all of them – right and left – are in the grip of the idolatry of power.” (Leithart again)
“History is not driven by power. History is shaped and guided by a sovereign God, and this sovereign God responds to His people. When we focus all our attention on wars and rumors of wars, on nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, or when we think that elections and lobbying determine the direction of the political world, we are in the grip of an idolatry of power.” Peter Leithart
‘In Hamlet’s Blackberry, William Powers likens our digital age to a gigantic room. In the room are more than a billion people. But despite its size, everyone is in close proximity to everyone else. At any moment someone may come up and tap you on the shoulder—a text, a hit, a comment, a tweet, a post, a message, a new thread. Some people come up to talk business, others to complain, others to tell secrets, others to flirt, others to sell you things, others to give you information, others just to tell you what they’re thinking or doing. This goes on day and night. Powers calls it a “nonstop festival of human interaction.” ‘ —Kevin DeYoung (“crazy busy”)
James Sire proposes that a worldview answers eight basic questions:
(1) “What is prime reality—the really real?”
(2) “What is the nature of external reality (that is, the world around us)?”
(3) “What is a human being?”
(4) “What happens to a person at death?”
(5) “Why is it possible to know anything at all?”
(6) “How do we know what is right and wrong?”
(7) “What is the meaning of human history?”
(8) “What personal, life-orienting core commitments are consistent with this worldview?”
#advent
Beautiful afternoon ride and 44°
#advent 
Accordion, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.
'the devil's dictionary'
“What makes Christmas ‘utterly unsuited’ to the modern world is what makes it so worthy of recognition. Christmas is gloriously out of step with the times, for it outlast the times. It champions obscurity over visibility. Humility over hubris. Mercy over human effort. Today, let us raise our glasses and our voices and our trees and our stockings in honor of the glorious unsuitability of Christmas.” -Ryan Whitaker Smith
#advent
#catechism 
#advent 
#advent 