GroshLink

Please destroy any letters or anything I have written.
— to Picachy, April 1959 

Could Time and the Church have the integrity to respect Mother Theresa's wishes?  I've wondered about the release of journals and supervisor coorespondence after one's death, possibly more difficult (or on the other hand financially advantageous) for those with family and children.  What constitutes private, sacred dialogue?  What personal, spiritual conversations does one have verbally and in written form when they may very well become public? One must burn one's own materials, which some have done, and be willing to investigated to one's honor and/or critique.  Yet each person and institutional structure must take responsibility for their action.  I chose to read the piece.  While meditating upon it, I prayed for the Father's Presence to be with me and enable me to follow Jesus every step of the way in all aspects of my life. 

Related piece Blogging vs. Journaling 

[Update 8/29/07 Brief NY Times Op-Ed A Saint’s Dark Night by James Martin, Jesuit priest and the author of My Life With the Saints.

The writings of John Piper have been a blessing to me and it is with great joy that I pass along that a number of them are posted in their entirety (or at least significant elements of them) in the Desiring God resource library.  Ones which I've read and particularly commend to you are Desiring God, Future Grace, A Hunger for God, Let the Nations be Glad, and The Passion of Jesus Christ.  I've mentioned before the value of The Gospel in 6 minutes, but a new piece I've come to enjoy is Noel Piper's Treasuring God in our Traditions.

PS. It was brought to my attention that a number of R.C. Sproul's audio pieces can be found at Ligonier Ministries

Still reflecting upon Barry R. Glassner, Executive Vice Provost at the U. of Southern California's April 20, 2007 piece Protect Your Perceptions: If you haven’t already done so, start a diary — not a blog but an old-fashioned diary that you write for yourself to preserve your private observations, feelings, and questions about what you have experienced these past several weeks. No one else possesses these, and they will slip away from you faster than you can imagine.

When I started groshlink, I moved a number of dairy/journal items to the public domain. But I have not always been able to share as much in this venue and I've noted a growing desire for more consistent journaling of my walk with God. I've placed some thoughts on-line, but at other times material has stayed in the paper/laptop journal (note:  I still have various papers which assmbled make a paper journal for sermon reflections, as I haven't started bringing my laptop to our local assembly, but as time permits, I prefer to transfer the material on my laptop). Anyone else have some similar ruminations?  Any recommendations or articles you've come across which give thoughts on the topic?

I remember very vividly, some years ago, that the question which perplexed me as a younger Christian (and some of my friends as well) was this: what is God's purpose for His people? Granted that we have been converted, granted that we have been saved and received new life in Jesus Christ, what comes next? Of course, we knew the famous statement of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: that man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever: we knew that, and we believed it. We also toyed with some briefer statements, like one of only five words – love God, love your neighbour. But somehow neither of these, nor some others that we could mention, seemed wholly satisfactory. So I want to share with you where my mind has come to rest as I approach the end of my pilgrimage on earth and it is – God wants His people to become like Christ. Christlikeness is the will of God for the people of God.  -- The model – becoming more like Christ (More)

Lots of interest in Cut God Some Slack. I came across the post through the Chronicle's Who Buys Anti-Religion Books?. Yes, it's a hot topic and a lot of people read these books for a complex set of reasons.  If I would say something like Steven D. Levitt, maybe I'd get more comments:

Let me put the argument another way: I understand why books attacking liberals sell. It is because many conservatives hate liberals. Books attacking conservatives sell for the same reason. But no one writes books saying that bird watching is a waste of time, because people who aren’t bird watchers probably agree, but don’t want to spend $20 in order to read about it. Since very few people (at least in my crowd) actively dislike God, I’m surprised that anti-God books are not received with the same yawn that anti-bird watcher books would be.

Well, maybe you have to be known first.  No thank-you to both of those, I'll just keep press on in the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service . . . those who know that their source of purpose must rise above the highest of self-help humanist hopes and who long for their faith to have integrity and effectiveness in the face of all the challenges of the modern world (Os Guinness. The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life.  (Nashville, TN:  W Publishing Group, 1998, p.4-5).

For those with interest in reading further, I'd recommend The Dawkins Confusion: Naturalism 'ad absurdum by Alvin Plantinga.  Also, Chuck Colson recently wrote Overheated Rhetoric: What should we make of bestselling books blasting Christians? (note: related pieces given at the bottom of the article). 

True forgiveness deals with the past, all of the past, to make the future possible. We cannot go on nursing grudges even vicariously for those who cannot speak for themselves any longer. We have to accept that what we do we do for generations past, present, and yet to come. That is what makes a community a community or a people a people--for better or worse.

The above is today's daily asterisk, taken from Desmond Tutu's No Future Without Forgiveness. A powerful word, a significant book regarding a specific moment of reconciliation and grace in our time. If you haven't already, read and meditated upon it, I encourage you to do such. When I finish composing book reviews for the Emerging Scholars Network, I intend to return to another powerful piece on forgiveness: Miroslav Volf's (systematic theologian and Director of Yale Center for Faith and Culture) End of Memory.  Another piece on the vital topic of forgiveness which I would commend to you as you seek to follow Christ in this fallen world, shedding the light, life, and transforming reality of the age to come.

Attempt on life of Bishop Ben Kwashi of Jos greeted me in my email box this morning. The author shared some stories of the Anglican Bishop who received his DMin from Trinity Episcopal School of Ministry: [Bishop Ben Kwashi] is a great brother in the Lord, and has stood up for the Gospel not only in his Muslim-Christian conflicted country of Nigeria but our country as well. My three favorite stories about him are:

1) One time going to a wall street church in NYC, they asked him “Bishop, why should we give you our money over other requests?” “Oh, I’m sorry.” He replied. “Had I known it was your money I would not have bothered to come. I thought this was God’s money I was asking for. I only want God’s money for God’s work.” He got the grant. (More)