Category: Random

Garth Rosell in The Surprising Work of God:

“The time has arrived,” Ockenga argued, “when the people of this nation must ‘think deeply or be damned.’ We must examine our direction, our condition and our destiny. We must recognize that we are standing at the crossroads and that there are only two ways that lie open before us. One is the road of the rescue of western civilization by a re-emphasis on and revival of evangelical Christianity. The other is a return to the Dark Ages of heathendom which powerful force is emerging in every phase of world life today.” There is a ‘now or never’ urgency in this matter. The time to strike is here. The iron is hot. The door is open. The need is great. Indeed, the world is waiting “for the clear cut, definite, sane and progressive leadership which can inaugurate a new era for Christian influence and effectiveness.”

Seth Godin:

In a race to go faster, cheaper and wider, it’s tempting to strip away elegance, ornamentation or subtlety. If you want to reach more people, aim for average.

The market, given a choice, often picks something that’s short-term, shoddy, inane, obvious, cheap, a quick thrill. Given the choice, the market almost never votes for the building, the monument or the civic development it ends up being so proud of a generation later. Think about it: the best way to write an instant bestseller is to aim low… Continue reading Pandering Is a Waste of What’s Possible

If you want to write, stay off of social media. There is a fallacy that people keep repeating about writers and communicators: you have to be everywhere.

Really?

You can’t be reacting and writing at the same time. If you mean to write, you can’t be responding to everything happening on Facebook. Multi-tasking is a myth. Either you create or react. But you can’t do both. You have to make a choice.  Continue reading You Want to be a Writer? Stay Off of Social Media

Jeff Goins on writing:

Whether you’re starting to tackle writing for the first time or a life-long veteran, rest assured. There is better work you’ve yet to create. If you will make one important choice: Stop writing for accolades, and start writing for passion.

Once I stopped trying to please people, I found an even larger audience. I fell back in love with writing. And it made all the difference.

Every time I read Ray Ortlund, I’m always pushed towards godliness.

True preaching is more than preaching truth.  It is also deeply personal.  It rises from within a man.  He is fully aware and engaged and intelligent.  But he is forced to speak, compelled not by the expectations of others around but by the power of God within.

A man can preach the word, but still the word is not in him.  It has not yet become interior to him, experientialized to him, a part of him.  Such preaching is mere wind.  True preaching is brewed within, as the gospel enters into a man, floods his awareness, rearranges his own interiority, and surges out of him as something divine and yet still his own.

—Ray Ortlund

Justin Taylor’s post on the five distinguishing marks of evangelicalism, drawn from Garth Rosell’s book The Surprising Work of God:

At the center is the cross…

Around the cross, and flowing out from the historical teachings associated with it, are four additional convictions that more any others have characterized the evangelical movement throughout its history:

(1) a shared authority (the Bible);
(2) a shared experience (conversion);
(3) a shared mission (worldwide evangelization); and
(4) a shared vision (the spiritual renewal of church and society). Continue reading Five Distinguishing Marks of Evangelicalism