Thought Exercise on Clarity

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Clarity vs. Trust

Author

Keywords

When John Kavanaugh, who was a noted and famous ethicist, went to Calcutta, he was seeking Mother Teresa … and more. He went for three months to work at “the house of the dying” to find out how best h...

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In the sixteenth century the Reformers declared

Author

R. C. Sproul

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:1–3 , Exodus 20:1–17, Daniel 6:16–23, Luke 10:25–37, Romans 3:21–26, Psalm 119:105

In the sixteenth century the Reformers declared their total confidence in what they called the perspicuity of Scripture. What they meant by that technical term was the clarity of Scripture. They maint...

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Void for Vagueness

Author

Gary A. Haugen

Keywords

Scripture

James 1:27, Romans 12:17-19, Zechariah 7:9-10, Psalm 82:3-4, Proverbs 21:3

In his 2008 book, Just Courage, Gary Haugen, a lawyer by training, describes an interesting legal precedent known as “void for vaugeness.” Haugen used the precedent to illustrate how vague ideas of Bi...

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“A Picture Paints a Thousand Words”

Author

Shelly Miller

Keywords

Reflection

In photography, a still image communicates meaning. Sometimes referred to as freeze frame, these images provide details that lead to greater insight. Use of space, body language, facial expression, an...

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Codifying Beauty

Author

Irwyn L. Ince Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Revelation 21:22-27, Psalm 8:, Psalm 96:6, Isaiah 33:17, Psalm 147:3, Genesis 1:31, 2 Corinthians 4:6

In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas codified beauty as being directly connected to Jesus Christ with three characteristic features. He wrote, “Species or beauty has a likeness to the property of...

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The Story of David: Seeking God in Times of Trouble

Author

Eugene H. Peterson

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 3:, Psalm 7:, Psalm 18:, Psalm 34:, Psalm 51:, Psalm 51:, Psalm 54:, Psalm 56:, Psalm 57:, Psalm 59:, Psalm 60:, Psalm 63:, Psalm 142:

Of the seventy-three psalms that are linked to David’s story, thirteen refer to specific incidents in his life. These references pull into focused clarity various parts of the story of this person who...

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The Faithfulness of a Few

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

Proverbs 28:20, Revelation 2:10, Matthew 5:10-12, Matthew 10:22, 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, 1 Peter 4:12-14, Romans 8:35-37, John 15:18-20, Psalm 31:23, Matthew 25:21, 1 Corinthians 4:2, 1 Timothy 6:12, Matthew 24:45-46

Pliny, a Roman Governor serving around 112 AD, faced a challenging situation regarding Christianity. Many Church historians believe that by his time, it had become illegal to profess the Christian fai...

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Mystery and Revelation

Author

Darren Pollock

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 3:8-10

Karl Barth wrote that, “God is always a mystery. Revelation is always revelation in the full sense of the word or it is not revelation” ( CD I.8.2). God’s revelation, to Barth, always exists in a dia...

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The Justice and the Mercy of the Judge

Author

Frederick Buechner

Keywords

Judgment

We are all of us judged every day. We are judged by the face that looks back at us from the bathroom mirror. We are judged by the faces of the people we love and by the faces and lives of our children...

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The Gloryscope

Author

Paul David Tripp

Keywords

Glory

Sadly, many of us live this way every day even though God has designed the world in which we live to be a gloryscope. What does this term mean? Just as a telescope points you to the stars and magnifie...

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The Shower Provides Great Ideas

Author

Clay Scroggins

Keywords

Why do my best ideas come to me in the shower? I feel like my IQ is at least twenty points higher while lathering up than at any other time of the day. And I’m not alone in finding my light bulb momen...

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Struggling with Vision

Author

John Piper

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Right around six years into what would become a thirty-three-year ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church, John Piper was stuck. His board wanted to enact some significant changes and he felt like he had...

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The Origin of the Term “Gaslighting”

Author

Chuck DeGroat

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In His book When Narcissism Comes to Church, Chuck DeGroat describes a common tool employed on social media, gaslighting: Gaslighting is a form of emotional abuse that draws its name from a 1938 Bri...

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If Ambiguity Keeps you Up at Night

Author

John C. Maxwell

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 18:13-23, 1 Kings 3:5-12, Esther 4:13-16 , James 1:5, Psalm 25:4-5 , Acts 15:6-21

Ambiguity may keep people up nights, but anyone seeking exquisite simplicity in his or her career ought to look for a non-leadership position. Leaders, by definition, have followers. Followers need di...

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How Good to Center Down!

Author

Howard Thurman

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 46:10, Psalm 62:1, Isaiah 30:15, Psalm 25:4-5, Lamentations 3:40, Matthew 6:19-21

How good it is to center down! To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by! The streets of our minds seethe with endless traffic; Our spirits resound with clashing, with noisy silences, While some...

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The Virtue of Simplicism

Author

Jeff Myers

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Bumper stickers—and their counterparts on social media—make Simplicism seem virtuous: “Look at me! I’m a good and brave person for distilling this complex issue down to its essence and righteously tak...

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Blurring the Lines

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

1 Kings 3:16-28, Micah 6:8, Proverbs 3:5-7, Matthew 22:15-22 , James 1:5 , Psalm 119:105

Richard Mouw, the former president of Fuller Seminary and a professor of philosophy, shares an amusing anecdote from a lecture by the esteemed Catholic ethicist Charles Curran. During his talk, Curran...

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Excellence vs. Flawlessness

Author

Jon Johnston

Keywords

Excellence

Like so many people, I once associated excellence with flawlessness. The excellent person never makes mistakes, is always consistent and confident, and is continuously applauded by scores of imperfect...

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Crafting Excellence Amid Constant Shifts

Author

Tom Nelson

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 31:1-5 , Proverbs 22:29, Ecclesiastes 9:10 , Matthew 25:14-30 , Colossians 3:23-24 , Psalm 90:17

The wonderful word master used to describe the person who is at the top of his or her craft, whatever the profession. It was a title that one could work toward and with some degree of confidence ascri...

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Singular, Holistic Absorption

Author

David G. Benner

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Presence is experienced as a unitary whole. Think, for example, about the experience of sitting on the top of a hill, far from the polluting lights of a city, gazing at a dark, starry sky. Unless you ...

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Certainty vs. Aiming at Confidence

Author

Travis Dickinson

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 15:1-6, Exodus 14:10-14, Job 1:42, Matthew 14:22-33, Psalm 23:

We should aim for rational confidence in these sorts of pursuits because certainty is a mere will-o’-the-wisp. Finite minds simply can’t pull it off. Though the distinction between aiming at certainty...

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The Crucial Thing

Author

Søren Kierkegaard

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 22:37-39, 1 Corinthians 8:1-3, Ezekiel 36:26-27, Colossians 1:9-10, Philippians 3:10-14, James 1:22, John 14:21

In a journal entry by the Danish Philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, the great existentialist philosopher describes the importance not simply of grasping the truth of the Christian faith, but having the tr...

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Discernment: Distinguishing the Real from the Phony

Author

Ruth Haley Barton

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:1, 1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 Kings 19:11-13 , Genesis 41:15-40 , Isaiah 30:20-21, Matthew 4:1-11, 1 John 4:1-3, Psalm 42:5-11

Scripture also speaks of “discernment of spirits” and encourages us to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” This aspect of discernment helps us to distinguish the real from the phony, ...

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Too Many Choices!

Author

Ashley Hales

Keywords

Scripture

Deuteronomy 30:19–20, Joshua 24:14–15, 1 Kings 18:21, John 14:6, Matthew 11:28–30, Psalm 119:105

When every option is available to us, we don’t actually have freedom; we tend to shut down. I experienced what sociologists call choice overload (or paralysis) and decision fatigue. If you’ve ever tri...

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Permission to Speak Freely

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

1 Thessalonians 5:11, Ephesians 4:15, Proverbs 27:5-6, Colossians 4:6, Proverbs 3:7, Proverbs 25:11, Ezekiel 33:6, Matthew 18:15

If you’ve ever watched a war movie, or a film that takes place in the military, you’re likely to have encountered a specific scene, in which a subordinate will have something to tell a senior officer ...

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The Path of Explaining

Author

Emily P. Freeman

Keywords

Decision-Making

Scripture

John 14:26, Romans 12:1-2, James 1:6, Psalm 119:105, Isaiah 55:8-9, Proverbs 3:5-6

In her book, The Next Right Thing, Emily Freeman describes the difficulty in making decisions, including the decision that would eventually lead to her enrollment in Graduate school. After a prolonged...

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Pragmatism vs. the Pursuit of Truth

Author

R. C. Sproul

Keywords

Scripture

Exodus 1:15–21, Daniel 3:16–18 , 1 Kings 3:16–28 , Matthew 4:1–11, Galatians 1:6–10, Psalm 73:

Pragmatism may be defined simply as the approach to reality that defines truth as “that which works.” The pragmatist is concerned about results, and the results determine the truth. The problem with t...

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Discovering Simplicity

Author

Harvard Stephens

Keywords

Scripture

Philippians 4:11-12, Hebrews 13:5, 1 Timothy 6:6-5, Proverbs 30:8-9, Matthew 6:33

During a retreat at the Taizé compound in France, a young American shared a remarkable discovery. He said: “Back home, surrounded by all my possessions, I often feel uncertain about many things. Here,...

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Pointing to Qualities Hard to Articulate

Author

Gregory Spencer

Keywords

Reflection

In a short story, Jhumpa Lahiri writes about Mr. Kapasi, a man who translates to a city physician what rural Indian people say about their illnesses. When Mr. Kapasi complains to a friend, Mrs. Das, t...

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A Conversation Between St. Francis and a Brother named Leo

Author

Brennan Manning

Keywords

One day Saint Francis and brother Leo were walking down the road. Noticing Leo was depressed, Francis turned and asked, “Leo, do you know what it means to be pure of heart?” “Of course. It means to h...

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