t is almost inconceivable that the King of All That Is should have paid a royal visit to our planet. This little story, oddly reminiscent of Madeleine L’Engle, is from J.B. Phillips’ New Testament Christianity:

Once upon a time a very young angel was being shown round the splendours and glories of the universes by a senior and experienced angel. To tell the truth, the little angel was beginning to be tired and a little bored. He had been shown whirling galaxies and blazing suns, infinite distances in the deathly cold of inter-stellar space, and to his mind there seemed to be an awful lot of it all. Finally he was shown the galaxy of which our planetary system is but a small part. As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.

Read more on The Visited Planet…

purgeon wrote this credo, trusting an awesome God in an immense universe:

I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—

Read more on The stars and the chaff too…

Richard Baxter’s book The Reformed Pastor is a book I try to read every few years. He opens with a plea for pastors to examine their own conversions. This gospel passion carries on throughout. This passage about the privileges of full-time pastors is my favourite from the book.

On December 1st, 2010, there will be the opportunity for Christians across the UK to declare that they are not ashamed of Jesus. Often Christians are excluded from public debate or asked to leave religion at the doorstep. But Christianity, which grew up rejecting the Emperor-centric world of the Romans, unabashedly claims the right to speak to all of life.

onfidence about the future is hard to come by. Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, “I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

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George Whitefield was an 18th century preacher at the time of the Great Awakening in North America. He was a man of great personal talents. Benjamin Franklin came to marvel at his charismatic speaking ability, and eminent actor David Garrick longed for Whitefield’s talent at speaking. “I would give a hundred guineas, if I could say ‘Oh’ like Mr. Whitefield,” he said.

Let me heartily recommend a video on lessons to be learned from George Whitefield on Spirit-filled ministry. The speaker is Vaughan Roberts at EMA 2010:

ome wise thoughts on what may underly some of the fervent eagerness to see Christian values defended by political action. This is not to say that political action is ruled out–but it can never be the focus of our hope for a transformed society.

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hanks to Marc Lloyd for pointing me to this interesting summary of Calvin’s metaphors for talking about creation.

Calvin has developed an increasingly rich set of visual metaphors by which to describe the ways in which the invisible God makes [himself] somewhat visible in the universe.

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he gospel is what gives substance and life to Christianity. For a Christian, there is nothing more soul-refreshing than thinking about Jesus’ good news. So let me recommend the aptly named blog Of First Importance whose unambitious promise is to “provide a thoughtful quote to help you remember what’s ‘of first importance’: the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Among the many other things I read each day, I have found the disparate quotes (from different people, times and perspectives) on Of First Importance to be a treat I look forward to.

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nother exceptionally helpful post from R Scott Clark can be found on his Heidelblog. The title is “A Word to Students in the Midst of Controversy,” and the content is excellent. He writes of the situation at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, but his insights will be helpful anywhere. Well worth a read for any theological student!

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