• Your life is temporary. The things of this life (the “life immediate”) are temporary
• The life you are looking forward to is eternal. So are the things of that life.
• Consequently the wise thing to do is to focus on the life to follow.
• The God who has made a way for you to enter into the life to follow has every desire that you succeed.
• When you think that he is disapproving of you because you are focusing on the life immediate, you are wrong.
• This is because you think that while you are focusing on the life immediate, God is as well. The reality is, God is always focused on your life as a whole: your immediate life and your future life, and how they relate to each other.
• This is the tip of the iceberg that is an uncomfortable reality: many of the things you belief about yourself are lies.
• You come to believe these lies through reinforcement by dwelling on them; lies like “I am not worthy.” “I am not redeemable.” “I have gone to far to come back again”
• The hard thing to remember is that these lies are not overcome and replaced by reminding yourself that they are, in fact, lies, but rather by focusing on the truth: “I am worthy.” “I have been redeemed because I was redeemable.” “I am never too far to go back, in fact I can go back now, this moment.”

Consider, meditate. Rinse, repeat.

Tom Gilson of Thinking Christian has posted a review of Michael Novak’s new book No One Sees God.

The book seems to be a call to both atheists and believers to put aside the polemics and try to find common ground; to remember that we are all human and all share the trait of not being able to “see God.” It would be nice if such collaboration was likely, however I forsee many falling back on the old question begging standpoint: “Why should I deign to comport with someone who is wrong?”

Hopefully that’s just the cynic in me.

First Things writer R.R. Reno has an excellent article on progressive politics, what it actually is, and how it is dangerous. He especially draws some excellent quotes from Edmund Burke’s writings regarding the French Revolution.

I liked what he had to say here very much:

“Nonetheless, conservatism and progressivism have fundamentally different tendencies as ruling principles. Conservatism wants to protect, nurture, and perfect aspects of the social norms we already have. Drawing its strength from what exists, it has room for dissent. Progressivism pours Agent Orange on the cultural landscape to make space for something new, something it imagines to be better. Seeking what is ideal, it often excludes dissent as a matter of moral principle.”

David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page sets the stage in the following way:

Charles Dickens has probably had more influence on the way that we celebrate Christmas today than any single individual in human history except one. At the beginning of the Victorian period the celebration of Christmas was in decline. The medieval Christmas traditions, which combined the celebration of the birth of Christ with the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia (a pagan celebration for the Roman god of agriculture), and the Germanic winter festival of Yule, had come under intense scrutiny by the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell. The Industrial Revolution, in full swing in Dickens’ time, allowed workers little time for the celebration of Christmas.

The romantic revival of Christmas traditions that occurred in Victorian times had other contributors: Prince Albert brought the German custom of decorating the Christmas tree to England, the singing of Christmas carols (which had all but disappeared at the turn of the century) began to thrive again, and the first Christmas card appeared in the 1840s. But it was the Christmas stories of Dickens, particularly his 1843 masterpiece A Christmas Carol, that rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain and America. [em. mine]

If you have been alive in the United States or Britain for, let’s say, at least 12 years, then chances are you have been exposed to the classic short story A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. The work continues to be an enduring classic; even after 160 years we see it revisited again and again through theatre, television, cinema, and other mediums.

But did you know that Dickens wrote other Christmas books after A Christmas Carol? Indeed, he wrote several. My suggestion for this Christmas season is to read A Christmas Carol if you haven’t already. The actual text is incredibly charming. If you are one of the lucky ones that has read it, then have a go at one of these (titles link to online texts):

• The Chimes (wiki): “Toby “Trotty” Veck, a poor working man, loses his faith in human nature and comes to believe that he and his fellow poor are naturally “vicious”. Then he is afforded a nightmare vision of his loved ones’ future after his death. The spirits or goblins in his local church bells show him how anyone, however good, may descend into degradation and ruin if sufficiently driven by circumstances. The chimes teach Trotty that nobody is born wicked, that crime and vice are man-made conditions, and that poor people have the same right to seek improvement and happiness as the rich.” [1]
• The Cricket on the Hearth (wiki): “The story centers on John and Dot Peerybingle whose marriage is threatened by a wide difference in their ages. When confronted with the possibility of Dot’s infidelity John consults the spirit of the Cricket on the Hearth whose chirping Dot has said brings luck. The cricket assures John that all will be well. In the end the misunderstanding is cleared up and the couple’s happiness is restored. The story also features the Scrooge-like conversion of hard-hearted toymaker Tackleton.” [2]
• The Battle of Life (wiki):

“The Battle of Life centers on a change of heart, but this time without the aid of supernatural beings. Doctor Jeddler’s daughters make sacrifices in love which convert their father’s cynical view of life.” [3]


• The Haunted Man (wiki): “Mr. Redlaw is a chemistry professor tormented by painful memories. He is visited on Christmas Eve by a phantom, a double of himself, who bestows the gift of forgetting these painful memories. The catch is that others who come into contact with the professor also lose remembrance of past hurts and sorrows.” [4]


1. “The Chimes.” Wikipedia. 8 Dec. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_chimes>.
2. “Dickens Christmas Books.” David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Bage. 8 Dec. 2008 <http://charlesdickenspage.com/christmas_books.html>.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.

Mark Roberts has his Advent calendar going again. Following Advent is a great way to prepare yourself for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus.

He also has some advent resources, including an introduction to Advent.

Go here for his Advent calendar blog entry for today, December 8th, 2008.