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Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Book Club

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Today I’m thankful…

…for whichever friend it was who “liked” MIQRA’s Facebook Page, making it show up on my newsfeed

…for God’s providence that had me “like” MIQRA despite my general abhorrence for “liking” things (on Facebook)

…that I saw the book club announcement and “just happened” to save it

…that Evan directed me to the videos that convinced me to go

…that the Barnes and Noble in Omaha had a copy of the book–which I drove up to buy, which then locked me in to attending even when I was tired and starting to second guess my decision the first evening.

…for Jake’s familiar face that first night

…for Chad’s affirmation of my contributions (and of my writing)

…for Brian and Emily’s concern that I get to my car safely, walking me there or giving me a ride

…for walking and talking with Julie about homeschooling

…for Randy asking me about the week I missed book club

…for Nate’s passionate articulateness–so different and so similar to my own

…for Tom’s thoughtful observations and carefully reasoned comments

…for Jason’s baby :-) and a wee bit of fellowship with a real-life blogger (I’m the only really regular blogger of my “real-life” acquaintances until Jason)

…for the comfort of knowing that I wasn’t the only one who had a hard time wrestling with Christian involvement in the military–thanks so much, Jason H, for sharing

…for the others whose names aren’t coming to mind now, but who welcomed me, engaged my mind, and didn’t roll their eyes when I opened my mouth yet one more time.

…for the book itself, The Myth of a Christian Nation, which challenged and stretched me–and expanded my vision of the kingdom of God

…for the curly headed barista who prepared my Italian Soda, no cream, every Monday night

…for the discussions that brought me from bad mood to good

…for the genuine acceptance, questions, and offers of help that so many extended when I shared about “off-topic” parts of my life

…for the amazing God who has allowed me, at least for this season, to know Him with such marvelous comrades.

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Categories Reflections

If you love…

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“How did one find joy? In books it seemed to be found in love–a great love….So, if he wanted the heights of joy, he must have, if he could find it, a great love. But in the books again, great joy through love seemed always to go hand in hand with frightful pain. Still, he thought, looking out across the meadow, still, the joy would be worth the pain–if, indeed, they went together. If there were a choice–and he suspected there was–a choice between, on the one hand, the heights and the depths and, on the other hand, some sort of safe, cautious middle way, he for one, here and now chose the heights and the depths.”
~Sheldon Vanauken, A Severe Mercy

Love is intrinsically dangerous. It is a giving away of one’s heart that opens one up to the ecstasies of love’s return and the torments of love’s rejection. Some might carefully wall off their hearts, seal them against love, in order to preserve the cautious middle way with neither heights nor depths.

I choose to love.

“The best way to confront the traditional view of the impassibility of God, however, is to ask ‘what meaning there can be in a love which is not costly to the lover.’ If love is self-giving, then it is inevitably vulnerable to pain, since it exposes itself to the possibility of rejection and insult.”
~John Stott, The Cross of Christ

But love is not merely the initial giving away of one’s self, the captivation with another, the heady emotion of shared joy. Love is the continued giving, even when joy seems unlikely, even impossible.

Love looks like the cross.

Love is giving of oneself when it provides no rapture, only pain. Love is choosing the pain; if by the pain, the beloved’s joy can somehow be increased.

I have been offered a choice.

If you love… you rejoice when the beloved rejoices, even if his rejoicing is your sorrow.

If you love… you pray for the beloved’s peace, even if his peace means your turmoil.

If you love… you must be willing to die.

This is not romantic, butterflies-in-the-stomach, shivers-up-and-down-my-spine love. This is cross-love, God’s love. And I pray one day, I should truly learn to love this way.

Categories Homemaking, Tutorials

Tutorial: Produce Bags

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I like to pretend I’m eco-friendly and I do what I can to reduce waste (I hate to throw things away–I’d much rather just not bring them into my house in the first place.)

Several years ago, I made myself some fantastic canvas grocery bags, and I use them faithfully whenever I go shopping–but I still found myself bringing home way too many plastic bags.

Why? Because I still had to use those little produce bags for my produce and my purchases from the bulk bins. Never mind that the first thing I do when I get them home is transfer everything from the bags to bowls or storage containers–I still end up with all those little bags in my house. What’s more, these bags are doubly annoying because they can’t really be reused (except in a really tiny trashcan.)

I’ve seen half a dozen hundred little tutorials for produce bags online–and have quite a few of them bookmarked. But then, rather than using one of those, I just whipped up a modified version of my own in an afternoon. (I was able to make a dozen bags in under 2 hours using this technique.)

Several produce bags full of stuff

Here’s how I did it:

Step 1: Select fabric

I used a sheer fabric that I already had on hand–and an old sheer curtain. You could also use netting or tulle (tulle can be purchased very inexpensively.)

Step 2: Cut to appropriate size

There are a few options for cutting.

  1. You can cut two rectangles approximately the size of your finished bag (so for a 12″ wide by 15″ long bag, you would need two pieces of fabric approximately 12″ by 15″)
  2. You can cut one rectangle so that the “fold” will be along a side of the bag (so for a 12″ wide by 15″ long bag, you would need one rectangle 15″ long and 24″ wide)
  3. You can cut one rectangle so that the “fold” will be along the bottom of the bag (so for a 12″ wide by 15″ long bag, you would need one rectangle 30″ long and 12″ wide)

I used all three of these methods at different times in order to best use the fabric lengths I had. You can, of course, adjust the dimensions to make bags of different sizes.

Cutting sheer fabric for produce bag

Step 3: Overlock stitch a two inch length in the top corner of your fabric.

Stitching produce bags

I have prepared a little diagram that shows where to stitch (in red) based on the cutting method you chose in step 2.

Stitching diagram

Step 4: Sew side and bottom seams.

Now you will want to align your already stitched edges so that they overlap, with the right side of the fabric together.

Stitched edges aligned

The following diagram shows where folds should take place with each cutting method (folds are indicated by dotted lines and arrows).

Folding diagram

Now you will want to sew together the sides and/or bottom using overlock stitch. The sides you will stitch are indicated using blue in the diagram above. (Note that you will not restitch over the area stitched in the previous step.)

Step 5: Fold down top casing and press.

You should fold down approximately one inch (or one half of the approximately two inch length you stitched in Step 3) of fabric and press it into place

Pressed casing

Step 6: Sew casing down along bottom edge using overlock stitch.

Casing sewn down

You can see how this leaves a nice casing with a finished edge at a corner.

Step 7: Turn bag inside out and thread ribbon through casing.

Completed produce bag

I used leftover ribbon from my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding. You can use ribbon, twine, yarn, whatever you’ve got. Tie or sew ribbon together at the end to make a loop and you’re done!

The finished result:

Produce bag on grocery scale

It’s difficult to see, but I weighed this bag at my grocery store to see if it would be adding too much weight to my produce or bulk purchases. This bag weighed .02 lbs. I don’t think I’m too concerned! (Of course, if you used string or lighter weight ribbon, you could probably reduce that weight.)

Categories Book Notes, Theology

I could never myself believe in God

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Notes on John Stott’s
The Cross of Christ
Chapter 13: Suffering and Glory

“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross.”

This quote is found on the back of my library’s copy of The Cross of Christ. I’ve seen it every time I grab the book to read it–and, quite frankly, it has always mystified me.

Sure, if it were not for the cross, God would be a very different God than the God of the Bible, since the cross is the crux of all Scripture (pun partially intended!) But does that mean that I could not believe in Him? I don’t know. I mean, He would still be powerful and in control and creative and so on and so forth. Surely I could still believe in Him. Couldn’t I?

As I said, that quote puzzled me.

But then finally, in the very last chapter of the book, I found the quote’s origins. And then I understood.

“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross’. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples…and stood respectful before the statue of the Buddha…a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering.”
~John Stott, The Cross of Christ

Stott is not speaking of whether or not he could believe that God exists without the cross but of whether or not he could believe in Him–that is, whether he could place his trust in this God.

A God who is incapable of pain, who is merely a detached observer, cannot be trusted. A God who cannot be touched by suffering is a God who can heedlessly cause all sort of suffering. And we would be right to rail at Him: “What are we,” we might say “but pawns in a game, moved about to suit your purposes without any regard for our suffering.”

But the God of the cross is ultimately worthy of trust. For He has experienced our pain, has borne our pain, has drunk the full dregs of God’s wrath. He has suffered at man’s hand and at His own father’s hand. And it is He, who has for our sakes experienced pain beyond our comprehension, who now calls us through the pains of this world to take heart for He is using these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, to work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (II Cor 4:17).

I could never myself trust in God, if it were not for the cross.

Yet because of the cross, I can make no better choice than to entrust my all to Him who bore my suffering.

(See more of my notes on The Cross of Christ.)

Categories Tiny Talk Tuesday

TTT: Excuse me, What’s Your Name?

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“Can anyone watch 3 kids tomorrow without having to take off work?”

It didn’t take a mind reader to sense the desperation in J the Mom’s brief Facebook status. And so, despite not having seen or talked to anyone in the J family for probably a year, I replied: “I can if you still need somebody. I don’t have any other plans for the day.” If she didn’t mind how long it had been since we’d chatted, I wouldn’t either.

So I enjoyed a day of play with J the First (age 7), J the Second (age 5), and J the Boy (age 3).

Portrait of Me by J the FirstPortrait of Me by J the Second
Left: Portrait of me by J the First; Right: Portrait of me by J the Second
Do I really look as tall as J the First made me? ‘Cause if so, that’s crazy!

The kids, having not seen me for quite a while, had probably forgotten entirely about me. If any memories remained of me, my name was not one of them.

This didn’t bother J the Second or J the Boy, both of whom had no problem calling me “Hey You” or getting my attention some other way. J the First, on the other hand, wanted to call me by my name.

So we had the following conversation about once every fifteen minutes over the course of the almost ten hours I spent at their house:

J the First: Excuse me. What’s your name?

Me: Rebekah

J the First: Oh yeah. Rebekah?

And then she’d say whatever she wanted to tell me:

“Oh yeah. Rebekah? I like having you as our babysitter.”

“Oh yeah. Rebekah? the Boy just hit the Second.”

“Oh yeah. Rebekah? do you want to see the glass slipper that was on my birthday cake?”

And so on and so forth–until J the Mom got back home and was writing a check.

J the First: Excuse me. What’s your name?

Me: Rebekah

Tiny Talk Tuesday J the First: Oh yeah, Rebekah?

J the Mom enjoyed that little exchange–all the more so when I explained that I’d already been enjoying it all day.

Check out more Tiny Talk Tuesday posts at Not Before 7.

Categories Reading My Library

Bird Books

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As I continue my path through Eiseley library’s children’s picture book section, I become pickier and pickier about children’s books. So much is monotonous pages of empty words accompanied by bright splashes of illustrations that are equally empty. The rhythms start to grow old, the archetypes tedious. I get worn out.

So when I discover a book that is sweet without being saccharine, educational without being pedantic, and illustrated artistically without trying to be avant-garde, I get excited.

Dianna Hutts Aston wrote two such books that I thoroughly enjoyed coming across this month.

Mama outside, Mama insideMama Outside, Mama Inside tells the story of two mamas preparing for their coming children. The mama outside is a bird, preparing a nest, sitting on the eggs, bringing her hatchlings food, and teaching them to fly. Mama inside is a woman, preparing a nursery for her baby, knitting a blanket, feeding her baby, and taking her new baby to the window to see the baby birds learn how to fly.

The illustrations by Susan Graber are soft and realistic. I was excited to see that Gaber chose to portray Mama inside breastfeeding her child (discretely) while Papa brings a pillow. The image of an infant being fed a bottle has become iconographic–but I’d much rather have the normative image portray breastfeeding! Artists like Gaber deserve kudos for subtly working towards re-establishing breastfeeding as a normative practice.

An Egg is Quiet

The Second Dianna Aston book I was impressed with was An Egg is Quiet, illustrated by Sylvia Long. The book starts with the simple words “An egg is quiet. It sits there, under its mother’s feathers…on top of its father’s feet…buried beneath the sand. Warm. Cozy.” And on it goes, telling about the features of different eggs–their colors and shapes and sizes and patterns and textures. The main text is in large script, with only a short sentence or phrase per page. The bulk of the page is composed of naturalistic illustrations of different eggs, labeled for easy identification, and more detailed descriptions of whatever principle the main script is discussing in smaller (but still not small) print.

This is a delightful book that is sure to have children pouring for hours over its illustrations and dreaming about seeing all the different birds (and a few reptiles) and eggs. Parents could easily read just the large script to their youngest children, while exploring the smaller print in more detail with their slightly older children. I can see this title holding the attention of preschoolers all the way through middle-elementary school children. (It held my attention pretty well too–and I had to go back to check out Sylvia Long’s illustrations in better detail.) This is the nature book I wish I had in my home growing up.

Reading My LibraryFor more comments on children’s books, see the rest of my Reading My Library posts or check out Carrie’s blog Reading My Library, which chronicles her and her children’s trip through the children’s section of their local library.


Categories Book Notes, The Week in Words, Theology

Does the cross promote pacifism?

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Notes on John Stott’s
The Cross of Christ
Chapter 12: Loving Our Enemies

Those of you who’ve been following me for a while know that I’m in a book club that’s reading Greg Boyd’s The Myth of a Christian Nation (our last meeting is tonight, boo-hoo.) Well, Boyd, who appears to be from an Anabaptist tradition, seems to be a pacifist (I’m reading the last chapter, about violence, right now).

If you’re at all familiar with my family, you know that I have two brothers in the Marines (currently, they’re “poolies”.) John leaves for training in October. Tim’ll leave in January.

And a few of you know that, over the past year, I’ve developed friendships with several people who ascribe to a basically pacifist or nonviolent position on the basis of their faith–in Christ.

It’s been an interesting process, sorting out my own thoughts in relation to pacifism and the cross and how the two relate–or if they relate.

I definitely don’t have it all figured out. I don’t have any problem with personally being non-violent (I don’t have any desire to join the military, etc.)–but I’m not sure if I’m ready to suggest that others should also subscribe to non-violence, or that I should promote non-violence as national policy, etc.

Of course, those are merely side issues compared to the big question that I’m wrestling with, that is: How does the cross inform a Christian’s involvement or non-involvement, support or opposition, approval or disapproval of war and other acts including violence? Or, to put it more simply: Does the cross promote pacifism?

Many of those within my book club (who tend towards non-violence) have said that they do believe in some concept of justified violence–that states have some authority to “wield the sword” (a la Romans 13) which results in violent acts of justice. The question, then, is whether Christians can and/or should be participants in this just violence. This has been my primary struggle.

John Stott addresses Christian involvement in state administration of justice (including via violent means) in The Cross of Christ:

“It is important to note that Paul uses the same vocabulary at the end of Romans 12 [‘do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath’] and at the beginning of Romans 13 [‘he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath’]. The words ‘wrath’ (orge) and ‘revenge/punishment’ (ekdikesis and ekdikos) occur in both passages. Forbidden to God’s people in general, they are assigned to God’s ‘servants’ in particular, namely officials of the state. Many Christians find great difficulty in what they perceive here to be an ethical ‘dualism’. I should like to try to clarify this issue.

First, Paul is not distinguishing between two entities, church and state, as in Luther’s well-known doctrine of the two kingdoms…

Secondly, Paul is not distinguishing between two spheres of Christian activity, private and public, so that (to put it crudely) we must love our enemies in private but may hate them in public….

Thirdly, what Paul is doing is to distinguish between two roles, personal and official. Christians are always Christians (in church and state, in public and private), under the same moral authority of Christ, but are given different roles (at home, at work, and in the community) which make different actions appropriate. For example, a Christian in the role of a policeman may use force to arrest a criminal, which in the role of a private citizen he may not; he may as a judge condemn a prisoner…and he may as an executioner (assuming that capital punishment may in some circumstances be justified) kill… This is not to say that arresting, judging, and executing are in themselves wrong (which would establish different moralities for public and private life), but that they are right responses to criminal behavior, which however God has entrusted to particular officials of the state.”

~John Stott The Cross of Christ

This makes a lot of sense to me–but still leaves the question open in my mind: But should a Christian seek out “official” roles in which they must perform actions that are not permissible to them in their “personal” roles as private citizens and members of the body of Christ?

The Week in WordsSince bulk of this post is an extended quote from Chapter 12 of John Stott’s The Cross of Christ, I’m linking it up in lieu of my regular Week in Words post. Collect more quotes from throughout the week with Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”.

(See more of my notes on The Cross of Christ.)

***I’d also like to clarify that we should attempt to keep our comments Christ-honoring. I know that this is a topic that can get people riled up (I do, after all, belong to a military-ish family, and you know those pacifists :-P) But let’s try to be respectful.****

Categories Recap

Recap (August 8-14)

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On bekahcubed

Book Reviews:

  • The Best Apron Book Ever by Julie Johnson

    Rating: ***
    Category: Sewing Instruction
    Synopsis: Thirteen adult-sized apron patterns ranging from vintage smocks to half length tea aprons.
    Recommendation: Browse to make sure this is going to be useful before purchasing.

    Read the rest of my review.

Recipes:

On the web

Books for the TBR list:

  • Fragile by Lisa Unger (reviewed by Dawn at 5M4B)
    A mystery that’s character-driven? And is reminiscent of certain television crime dramas? And is in my library? I’ll put it on my list!
  • Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary by John Collins (mentioned by Kevin DeYoung)
    I’ve read quite a bit on the scientific arguments for one or another interpretation of the Genesis narrative, but haven’t read much from a strictly theological and exegetical point of view. I have a great deal of respect for Kevin DeYoung, and since he recommended it, I’m trusting that this work will exhibit thoughtful and faithful scholarship.
  • A Matter of Character by Robin Lee Hatcher (reviewed by Barbara H.)
    I’m getting close to closing the couple of Christian fiction authors I’ve been working on for the past several months (Janette Oke and Nancy Moser) and am ready to stick my feelers out for new authors. This review makes me think Robin Lee Hatcher might be a good one to stick on my list.

News to take note of:

  • Walmart is Raising Prices
    This wasn’t really a surprise for me–they stopped selling $1 a yard fabric and upped everything to at least $1.50-2.00 per yard almost a year ago. But it’s a useful reminder to not just assume that one store has the cheapest prices–it’s worthwhile to compare prices from store to store.
    HT: Instapundit
  • Is technology is getting in the way of parent-child conversation?
    Parents think so. I agree.
    My advice? Prioritize family mealtimes and make them a media-free event. Family mealtimes can help your family be healthier–physically, socially, mentally, and (dare I say?) spiritually. Choose to make intentional time to tune out all the other voices clamoring for your child’s attention. Choose to make time to talk with your child.

Projects to try:

Thought-provoking posts:

  • On Setting Low Goals:

    We should never despise small beginnings or slow journeys. Everything great begins with one tiny, unglorious start.

    Make it your goal to get up 5 minutes early and read 1 verse. Do only that for one WHOLE month.

    “But Kat! That’s too easy.”

    Cool, then do it.

    This is not one of my strong points–I tend to set really big goals and not break them down into small manageable chunks. But in the few things that I’ve practiced this “technique”, I’ve seen great success (working on something for just fifteen minutes a day, etc.)

Videos worth seeing:

  • Making fun of both Twitter and Hollywood. Priceless.

    HT: Vitamin Z

Related to previous posts:

  • Dustin Neely cautions the Reformed to not fall into the trap of Justification by Theology:

    “In ancient times, Satan deceived God’s people to prize their knowledge of the Scriptures more than the One behind them. Today, he lures God’s people to fall more in love with their theological system than their Savior—a particular danger for our tribe.”

    I thought this was a good reminder, especially in association with last week’s Critical Calvinist post.

  • Justin Buzzard reflects on the effects of the cross

    “Jesus took the heat so that you could walk in shade.”

    I’ve been exploring the effects of the cross over the past month or so while I’ve been reading John Stott’s The Cross of Christ. See my thoughts in Salvation: A Courtroom View, A Marketplace View, and A Temple View.

Categories Memes

Requiem-Agnus Dei

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It’s the song meme that’s making the rounds in my little group of Facebook friends. You place your MP3 player on shuffle and write down the titles of each of the first twenty songs that come up.

1. What do your friends think of you?
Like Humans Do (David Byrne)

I’m achin,
I’m shakin’,
I’m breakin’
like humans do

2. If someone says, “Is this okay?” You say?
The Lord of the Rings V-Hobbit (Arvika Stadsmusikkår-Instrumental Score)

3. How would you describe yourself?
Beethoven’s Symphony No 9. (Seattle Symphony)

4. What do you like in a guy/girl?
Highway Blues (Marc Seales-Jazz)

5. How do you feel today?
A Delicate Balance (Dan La Maestra-Jazz)

6. What is your life’s purpose?
As Night Falls (David Bach-Jazz)

7. What is your motto?
Larry Brown (Larry Brown-Jazz)

8. What do you think about very often?
Blues for Charlie (Royce Campbell-Jazz)

9. What do you think of your best friend?
Blue Stomp (Gary Smulyan-Jazz)

10. What do you think of the person you like?
Come Rain, Come Shine (Maija)

I’m gonna love you like nobody’s loved you,
Come rain or come shine.
High as a mountain and deep as a river,
Come rain or come shine.

Well I guess when you met me
That it was just one of those things,
But don’t you ever bet me,
‘Cause I’m gonna be true if you let me.

~Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

11. What is your life story?
La Vie en Rose (Danielle Westphal)

When he takes me in his arms
And speaks softly to me,
I see life in rosy hues. (La Vie en Rose)
He tells me words of love,
Words of every day,
And in them I become something.
He has entered my heart,
A part of happiness
Whereof I understand the reason.
It’s he for me and I for him, throughout life,
He has told me, he has sworn to me, for life.
And from the things that I sense,
Now I can feel within me
My heart that beats.

~Translation by Thomas Keyes

12. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me (Bill Harris)

13. What do you think of when you see the person you like/love? Escapade (Stephanie Akasian)

“It was just a summer escapade
A sudden enchanting shore
that happened once or twice before
It wasn’t meant to last
I’m not a child who has to pretend
Let it fade into the glow of waning light”

~Words by William Benton (I think)

14. What will you dance to at your wedding?
Preta Porter de Tafeta (Leonard Lucini-Blues)
Yeah, probably not.

15. What will they play at your funeral?
Fragile (The Dave Anderson Trio-Jazz)
Ditto the above.

16. What is your hobby/interest?
Frenzy (James Bazen-Jazz)
The title says it all.

17. What is your biggest fear?
Gabalot (Michael J. Harris)
Remarkably weird song. I have no idea why I have this, but it’s…strange.

18. What is your biggest secret?
Gonna Build a Mountain (Ericka Ovette)

Gonna build me a daydream.
From a little hope.
Gonna push that daydream.
Up the mountain slope.
Gonna build a daydream.
Gonna see it through.
Gonna build a mountain and a daydream.
Gonna make them both come true.

~Lyrics by (Does anyone know?–this was performed by Sammy Davis Jr. in the olden days :-)

19. What do you think of your friends?
Adoro te devote (Gregorian Sense)

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas,
Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas;
Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit,
Quia te contemplans totum deficit.

Translated:
Prostrate I adore Thee, Deity unseen,
Who Thy glory hidest ‘neath these shadows mean;
Lo, to Thee surrendered, my whole heart is bowed,
Tranced as it beholds Thee, shrined within the cloud.

~Lyrics by Thomas Aquinas

20.What will you post this as?
Requiem-Agnus Dei (Gregorian Sense)

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem,
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem,
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona eis requiem sempiternam.

Translation:
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
grant them rest,
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
grant them rest,
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
grant them eternal rest.

I think there might be some disadvantages to my remarkably eclectic tastes in music–and my reluctance to actually purchase music while still insisting on not listening to pirated music. Most of these songs are probably completely unfamiliar to the rest of the world, since I got them here and there as one band or another was giving away a free MP3. This particular set is rather heavy on Jazz (and is composed entirely of free music–no purchased titles.)

Nevertheless, a few of them were remarkably apt.

Categories Book Notes, Theology

Self in light of the cross

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I’m three chapters from the end of The Cross of Christ–and I’m going to get it finished! Not that the book isn’t engaging. In fact, I’ve already finished reading the book–and have my notes all on paper. It’s just getting them on the computer that’s the problem. That and trying to figure out when to post them without loading you down with too many “thinking” posts. But I want to get them done by next Wednesday–so here goes!

Notes on John Stott’s
The Cross of Christ
Chapter 11: Self-Understanding and Self-Giving

The ways worldly people look at themselves can easily be divided into two broad categories: self-love or self-loathing.

The cross leaves room for neither.

Rather, the cross calls believers to a life of self-affirmation and self-denial.

It’s strange, isn’t it, to put those two together?

The world’s attitudes, self-love and self-hatred, are mutually exclusive–but they are both rooted in pride. The cross’s attitudes, self-affirmation and self-denial–despite their apparent contradiction–are complementary. Both of these are rooted in humility.

The cross’s self-affirmation is different than the world’s self-love. While the world encourages unconditional acceptance of self (both the good and the bad) as “self-esteem”, the cross affirms both the fallenness of self and its worth to God. The cross says that I have value, not because I am particularly special, but because God has valued me.

“As William Temple expressed it, ‘My worth is what I am worth to God; and that is a marvelous great deal, for Christ died for me.'”
~Quoted in John Stott’s The Cross of Christ

The cross’s self-denial is also different from the world’s self-hatred. While the world loathes itself and engages in self-destructive behaviors, the cross calls us to recognize and identify with Christ–and to “reckon [ourselves] dead to sin” (Romans 6:11).

The world’s view of self leads to self-centeredness. Either one idolizes self, placing self as lord and following its every whim, or one villifies self, making self the enemy and focusing energy on self-destruction.

The cross’s view of self, on the other hand, leads to others-centeredness. One’s self is affirmed–but not in such a way as to inspire self-worship. One’s self is denied–but not with self as its object. Rather, the affirmation of self leads to worship–and the denial of self to service.

It is in the cross that we lose our lives in order to gain them (Luke 17:33).

I love how C.S. Lewis describes the effect of right relationship with God on “self”:

“The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become….It is no good trying to ‘be myself’ without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires…It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own….Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look to Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

(See more of my notes on The Cross of Christ.)