Cheerful Labor

Tony Reinke C.H. Spurgeon, Joy

Charles Spurgeon said the following in sermon #537 delivered on October 18, 1863:

Labor is light to a man of cheerful spirit!

You can work all day and almost all night, when the spirits are right. But once let the heart sink and your soul lack encouragement, and then you grow weary, and cry, “Would God it were evening, and the shadows were drawn out, that we might rest from our toil.”

Success waits upon cheerfulness.

The man who toils, rejoicing in his God, believing with all his heart, has success guaranteed.

He who sows in hope shall reap in joy.

He who trusts in the Lord and laughs at impossibilities, shall soon find that there are no impossibilities to laugh at, for to the man who is confident in Jehovah, all things are possible. It is thus of paramount importance that the spirits of the Christian should be constantly kept up.

The Sublime Song of the Universe

Tony Reinke Death, Music, Sovereignty of God

From Augustine’s letter to Jerome (AD 415), as translated and quoted in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1:527–528:

Not in vain has the prophet, taught by divine inspiration, declared concerning God, “He bringeth forth in measured harmonies the course of time” [Isa. 40:26]. For which reason music, the science or capacity of correct harmony, has been given also by the kindness of God to mortals having reasonable souls, with a view to keep them in mind of this great truth. For if a man, when composing a song which is to suit a particular melody, knows how to distribute the length of time allowed to each word so as to make the song flow and pass on in most beautiful adaptation to the ever changing notes of the melody, how much more shall God, whose wisdom is to be esteemed as infinitely transcending human arts, make infallible provision that not one of the spaces of time alloted to natures that are born and die — spaces which are like the words and syllables of the successive epochs of the course of time — shall have, in what we may call the sublime psalm of the vicissitudes of this world, a duration either more brief or more protracted than the foreknown and predetermined harmony requires! For when I may speak thus with reference even to the leaves of every tree, and the number of the hairs upon our heads, how much more may I say it regarding the birth and death of men, seeing that every man’s life on earth continues for a time, which is neither longer nor shorter than God knows to be in harmony with the plan according to which He rules the universe.

Ethics and New Creation

Tony Reinke Eschatology, Ethics

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NRSV)

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: A Contemporary Introduction to New Testament Ethics (HarperOne, 1996), page 20:

The apocalyptic scope of 2 Corinthians 5 was obscured by older translations that rendered the crucial phrase in verse 17 as “he is a new creation” (RSV) or — worse yet — “he is a new creature” (KJV). Such translations seriously distort Paul’s meaning by making it appear that he is describing only the personal transformation of the individual through conversion experience. The sentence in Greek, however, lacks both subject and verb; a very literal translation might treat the words “new creation” as an exclamatory interjection: “If anyone is in Christ — new creation!”

The NRSV has rectified matters by rendering the passage, “If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation.” Paul is not merely talking about an individual’s subjective experience of renewal through conversion; rather, for Paul, “creation” refers to the whole create order (Rom. 8:18–25). He is proclaiming the apocalyptic message that through the cross God has nullified the kosmos of sin and death and brought a new kosmos into being. That is why Paul can describe himself and his readers as those “on whom the ends of the ages has met” (1 Cor. 10:11). The old age is passing away (cf. 1 Cor. 7:31b), the new age has appeared in Christ, and the church stands at the juncture between them.

On C.S. Lewis

Tony Reinke Alan Jacobs, C.S. Lewis, N.D. Wilson, Narnia

If I could invite three guys over for dinner to talk C.S. Lewis it would probably be Douglas Wilson, the author of What I Learned in Narnia, Nate Wilson, the author of The Great Divorce screenplay, and Alan Jacobs, the author of The Narnian, by far my favorite book on Lewis. It just so turns out that a while back these men gathered to chat about Lewis for 80 minutes, a conversation was filmed and is now available for viewing online. If Lewis interests you, and if you can find the time, I highly recommend it:

Pilgrim Musical Performance Package

Tony Reinke John Bunyan, Video

A while back on the blog I commended a wonderful DVD of the musical production Pilgrim that was filmed at Covenant Life Church, featuring the high school talent in the church. The Pilgrim DVD is a two-hour long modern interpretation of Bunyan’s classic The Pilgrims Progress set to music. Pilgrim is a brilliant and theologically rich adaptation. My entire family enjoyed the production and I commend the DVD to you.

Pilgrim was originally developed with the goal of adapting Bunyan’s story to modern culture. Christian Theatre Publications, the folks who wrote and produced the original musical and DVD, have now released a performance package for churches and schools. The package includes a reproducible script, piano score, 30 vocal books, a music CD with full vocals, and an optional accompaniment CD/backing track. The original production DVD is also available. The script can be shortened as needed and can accommodate various cast sizes. I’m told the first step in bringing Pilgrim to your church or school is to apply for a performance license. You can do that here.

It’s worth checking out.

Related:

You can read my original review of the Pilgrim DVD here.

Even better, you can read Justin Taylor‘s review of the Pilgrim DVD here. Writes the überblogger extraordinaire: “I give the whole thing a high recommendation!”

And you can watch the Pilgrim DVD trailer here:

Photo Caption Contest

Tony Reinke Contest

Happy Labor Day weekend to all my fellow laborers. I hope your extended weekend is restful and full of good football.

While laboring recently in Australia our friends at DG snapped this picture. It’s too good not to share.

This photo needs a caption, doesn’t it?

Please leave your caption in the comments (unlimited entries). The best/funniest caption will win a prize, although I’m not exactly sure what would be fitting. Perhaps a 12-pack of Buffalo Bob’s Kangaroo Outback Jerky?

We’ll figure something out.