Tim Keller does the White Horse Inn

A lot of people seem to see Tim Keller as a breath of fresh air on the theological scene, opposed to what they see as rather pedantic, uptight Calvinism as one might find represented at the White Horse Inn. Or perhaps people take the opposite view, that Keller is too liberal (whatever that means). Anyways, Tim Keller was the guest on this week's show, which I've linked up below (and which you can also download it from their website)

What kind of statements aren't considered grounds to have a judge removed from a case?

Here's what one judge got away with saying in his courtroom at the start of a hearing in which a father was aiming for the visitation rights to his child. The bid to have him removed from the case was denied:

Before we get started on this, I want everybody to understand I don’t
set visitation. If I do, I specifically make it so absolutely ridiculous
that nobody can adhere to it. And I hold people in contempt and put
them in jail for it.

I’ve been doing this for 22 years and I’ve set visitations five times.
All five times both parents have ended up in jail for contempt. If I’m
forced to set it, I will set it. But it will be so absolutely ridiculous that
nobody can adhere to it and people will go to jail. That’s a promise.

So, if you all would like to get together to try to settle this visitation
issue, it might be advantageous.

Source: Judge Andrew Jackson, as cited in the State of Tennessee Court Ruling

See also a news article covering this story.

Obese? Perhaps you're not cooking enough.

... Cutler and his colleagues also surveyed cooking patterns across several cultures and found that obesity rates are inversely correlated with the amount of time spent on food preparation. The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female participation in the labor force or income. Other research supports the idea that cooking is a better predictor of a healthful diet than social class: a 1992 study in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that poor women who routinely cooked were more likely to eat a more healthful diet than well-to-do women who did not.

So cooking matters — a lot. Which when you think about it, should come as no surprise. When we let corporations do the cooking, they’re bound to go heavy on sugar, fat and salt; these are three tastes we’re hard-wired to like, which happen to be dirt cheap to add and do a good job masking the shortcomings of processed food. And if you make special-occasion foods cheap and easy enough to eat every day, we will eat them every day. The time and work involved in cooking, as well as the delay in gratification built into the process, served as an important check on our appetite. Now that check is gone, and we’re struggling to deal with the consequences.

Source: Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch in the New York Times

Fear

But make no mistake; there still is a certain fear in the fear of the Lord. Notice, for example, what people do when they know they are in the presence of God. Job said, "I am unworthy - how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth." (Job 40:4). "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5).

Isaiah cried out, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty" (Isa. 6:5). Ezekiel fell facedown (Ezek. 1:8). The disciples, after witnessing that Jesus was also the Creator God who could calm the sea with a word, were terrified: "Why is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (Mark 4:41).

Lest we think that such behaviour is spiritually primitive, unable to comprehend the grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ, consider the apostle John. If anyone knew the love of God, he did. He even wrote, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18). But when he was unexpectedly ushered into heaven's throne room, he sounded just life Isaiah: "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead" (Rev 1:17).

Each of these men knew the love of God, and each one was shown it in these encounters. Those who were mute spoke. Those who were on the ground and near dead arose and were sent on missions by the King. God said to them, "Do not be afraid" (Rev 1:17). But they all understood that one of the proper postures in the presence of God is to be bowed low, very low.

C.S. Lewis teaches about the fear of the Lord through the lion Aslan, who was good but not tame. The apostle Paul says, "Consider both the kindness and sternness of God" (Rom 11:22). He is both our Father and our Lord; he is not to be trifled with.

- Ed Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest, p. 193

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