Matthew Burden's Blog, page 8

Photo of the Week

 
There's a balm for every sorrow, there's a rose for every thorn,There's a note of joy the wounded heart can sing;There's a stream that brings refreshing to the spirit faint and wornIn the love of our Redeemer and our King.
- from a hymn by Eliza Edmunds Hewitt

Quote of the Week

“The point of course is to be a great saint, to love greatly, rightly, and with passion, until we burn ourselves up in service to God and to others. Our wholeness, our integrity, depends on the health of our friendship with God. It was he who fashioned us from the dust. It was he who breathed his life into our bodies. So when we ignore God’s Word, we violate our own identity.”
- Archbishop Charles Chaput

Update: New Book in the Works!

I'm happy to announce that I've just signed a contract for another book! Like my previous one, this will be a work of historical missiology. It focuses on the story of how the earliest English hymns, through the skill of their writers and the grace of God's providence, succeeded in transforming the entire missional culture of English-speaking churches in less than a century and prepared the way for a global mission movement. We're still a long way from any release date, but I will post that information here when we come to it. Thanks to William Carey Publishing for their continued partnership! (With all this going on, there will be no regular blog posts this week, but I'll try to get back on track next week.)

The Evangeliad (29:22-26)

(Click here for an introduction and previous installments of the Evangeliad)
Section 29:22-26 (corresponding to Luke 16:27-31)
'Then please let him go to my family home,Where my brothers live in my father's abode--I've five brothers there; let them hear and repent,Lest they too go to this place I was sent.'
And Abraham said, 'Yes, let them repent,For to them the law and the prophets were sent.They need not Lazarus, come from the dead,But simply to hear what Moses has said.'
'No, my father!' the rich man exclaimed,'If a man they knew should rise from the grave,Then they would listen, and then they would see,So send them Lazarus, that they might believe!'
But Abraham said, 'If they listen notTo Moses and all the prophets of God,Then even if a man rose from the graveThey would not believe him or follow his way.'

Photo of the Week

O Loveliness supreme, and Beauty infinite,O ever flowing Stream and Ocean of delight,O Life by which I live, my truest Life above,To Thee alone I give my undivided love.
- from a hymn by Alfonso de Liguori

Quote of the Week

“Even if, in order to correct sins or to preserve love, we are directed to do something which seems a little stringent, we shouldn’t immediately fly away in dismay from the way of salvation, because that way is ‘the narrow road,’ and cannot but be narrow. But as we advance in the Christian life and faith, we shall run the way of God’s commandments with expanded hearts and unspeakable sweetness of love.”

- Benedict of Nursia

Sermon

Presence, Power, and Purpose: The Coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) (click here to listen or right-click to download)

The Evangeliad (29:20-21)

(Click here for an introduction and previous installments of the Evangeliad)
Section 29:20-21 (corresponding to Luke 16:25-26)
But Abraham said, 'My son, rememberHow you in your life had wealth beyond measure,With comfort and pleasure in all of your ways,While Lazarus suffered day after day.
Now you are in torment and he is at rest,As you look through fire to the land of the blessed.No, between us now a chasm exists,And one cannot pass across that abyss.'

Photo of the Week

Great God, to thee my evening song with humble gratitude I raise;Oh, let thy mercy tune my tongue and fill my heart with endless praise.My days, unclouded as they pass, and ev’ry onward rolling hourAre monuments of wondrous grace and witness to thy love and pow’r.
- from a hymn by Anne Steele

Quote of the Week

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."
- Karl Barth