“One of the greatest injustices we do our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity is not conservative, but revolutionary … We must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo.”

- Francis Schaeffer

That’s a quote that needs to be carefully understood (i.e., ‘revolutionary’ doesn’t simply mean liberal/progressive), but it’s also one that is desperately needed.  We don’t need to teach our kids the merits of conservatism (and I am, by and large, a political conservative), we need to teach them to follow Jesus, and then to see their world through the lens of the Gospel and live in light of that.  Sometimes, that may look very ‘conservative.’  Sometimes, though, it may be anything but.

HT: Tim Challies

“I realized then that sermon length is not measured in minutes; it is measured in minutes-beyond-interest.”

- T. David Gordon

HT: Doug Wilson

“I don’t care if you buy a truck or play some video games or rock out on your guitar. But the problem is when those are prevalent, predominant, and preeminent in your life. Some of you guys would argue and say, “It’s not a sin.” No, but sometimes it’s just dumb. You got fired because you were up trying to get to the next level and become a guild leader. That’s dumb. You work one part-time job so you can play more guitar or Frisbee golf. That’s dumb. You spend all your money on a new car or truck, or toys, or gear, or clothes, or gambling, or fantasy football. Dumb. Some of you say, “Well, it’s not a sin.” Neither is eating your lawnmower. It’s just dumb. There are a lot of things that Christian guys do that aren’t evil, they’re just dumb and childish.”

- Mark Driscoll

Read the rest.

“If you’re not boring when you emerge from Bible College, you probably didn’t learn anything. Your head will be full of theology, Greek phrases, the latest ideas on running a service, and whatever else has grabbed your intellectual fancy.

Five years out of College, if you’re still boring, you have a problem.”

- Phillip Jensen

Check out the full article for some more tips.

HT: Justin Taylor

“A valiant and brave soldier seeks rather to preserve one citizen than to destroy a thousand enemies, as Scipio the Roman said.  Therefore an upright soldier begins not a war lightly or without urgent cause.  True soldiers and captains make not many words, but when they speak, the deed is done.”

- Martin Luther

“When that envious, poisoned spirit, the devil, plagues and torments us, as is his custom, by reason of our sins, intending thereby to lead us into despair, we must meet him in this manner: ‘You decietful and wicked spirit!  How darest you presume to persuade me to such things?  Knowest you not that Christ Jesus, my Lord and Savior, who crushed your head, has forbidden me to believe you, yea, even when you speakest the truth, in that he names you a murderer, a liar, and the father of lies?  I do not admit to you that I, as your captive, shall be condemned to everlasting death and hellish torment by reason of my sins, as you falsely suggest.  But you, yourself, on the contrary, long since, by Christ my Lord and Savior, were stripped, judged, and with everlasting bonds and chains of darkness, are bound, cast down, and delivered to hell, reserved to the judgment of the great day, and finally with all the ungodly, shalt be thrown into the bottomless pit of hell.  Further, I demand of you, by what authority you presumest to exercise such power and right against me?  Whereas you have given me neither life, nor wife, nor child; no, not the least thing that I have; neither are you my lord, much less the creator of my body and soul.  Neither have you made the members wherewith I have sinned.  How, then, you wicked and false spirit, are you so insolent as to domineer over that which is mine, as if you were God himself?’”

- Martin Luther

As only Martin Luther could put it…

“We tell our Lord God plainly, that if he will have his church, he must maintain and defend it; for we can neither uphold or protect it. If we could, indeed, we should become the proudest asses under heaven. But God says: I say it, I do it. Only God speaks and does what he pleases.”

- Martin Luther

Dr. Henning asked, “Is reason to hold no authority at all with Christians, since it is to be set aside in matters of faith?”

Dr. Luther replied, “Before faith and the knowledge of God, reason is mere darkness; but in the hands of those who believe, ’tis an excellent instrument.  All facilities and gifts are pernicious, exercised by the impious; but most salutary when possessed by godly persons.”

- Martin Luther, Table Talk, LXXVI

“A life of prostitution with repentance is far to be preferred than a life of theology without it.”

- Douglas Wilson

“Let us not lose the Bible, but with diligence, in fear and invocation of God, read and preach it.  While that remains and flourishes, all prospers with the state; ’tis head and empress of all arts and faculties.  Let but divinity fall, and I would not give a straw for the rest.”

- Martin Luther