Unto us a child is born

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be callèd Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

A very blessed Feast of the Nativity of our Lord to all!

Enjoying Lewis

I am presently making up for the sin of not having read The Chronicles of Narnia in my childhood by attempting to read the first three novels before heading home to Belfast for Christmas. It's a task that I must say has been rather pleasant, particularly because of Lewis's quotability and wonderful turn of phrase. Indeed, I am now finally reading years of quotations that I've heard in sermons in context! Anyway, I'm coming near the end of this mini-aim (I do intend to read the rest soon, but we want to go and see "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" in the cinema when in Ireland, and I didn't want to do that without reading the books...), and came across what is my favourite so far:

"In our world," said Eustace, "a star is a huge ball of flaming gas."

"Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of."

Just a wonderful way of putting it. I do feel a desire to revisit a lot of CS Lewis books past enjoyed in the near future...

The Christian's View on the Law

Some will doubtless dispute this. If that is so, they will say, why did Paul say all those nasty things about the law in Romans and Galatians? Paul was primarily opposing the way people were (mis)using the law; he was battling a misconception about the function of the law. The law can never be in any way to any degree a standard you can meet and so earn salvation. The law can show you how you fail to be or to do what God requires, but it cannot absolve you of the guilt incurred in breaking the law. The can accuse you but cannot justify you. The law is like your back-porch thermometer - it will show you how hot or cold it is outside, but it does not have the power to raise or lower the temperature. That's why my only hope is Jesus, the Law-keeper who suffered the lawbreaker's judgement (Gal 3:10, 13).

Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Samuel: Looking on the heart, pg 110

The Future Focus of the Church

Whereas the God of Israel is not a God of the dead but of the living. For His city, the future is always the touchstone. His city now is not the preserve of the city of yesterday but an anticipation of the city of tomorrow.

Peter J. Leithart, Against Christianity, pg113

Stop whining, Ricky...

It was a great morning for a Brit to wake up and check the cricket scores. It is not often that an Australian score of 245 all out is recorded at the Adelaide Oval (indeed, they haven't scored less than 300 in a first innings there since 1993). Still, I had one cause for being disappointed...

I read that there were two run-outs in the Australian innings, and I desperately hoped that one of them would have taken Ricky Ponting's innings. I may be alone in this (although I'd doubt it), but since his rather vocal moaning over his run out to substitute fielder Gary Pratt at Trent Bridge in the 4th Test of the 2005 series, I don't think a cricket series is complete without a 'genuine' Ponting run-out. Complain about that, Ricky.

Of course, the ultimate "Stop winging, Ricky" moment came at The Oval just over a year ago, but I don't think I'll get fed up of seeing further examples. Saying all that, I'll take a golden duck and run-out for Katich and Doherty. And of course, a 245 all out at the Adelaide Oval. Here's to the hope that the England batsmen actually post something of worth tonight...