G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936), “Introduction to the Book of Job”:
The modern habit of saying “Every man has a different philosophy; this is my philosophy and it suits me”—the habit of saying this is mere weak-mindedness. A cosmic philosophy is not constructed to fit a man; a cosmic philosophy is constructed to fit a cosmos. A man can no more possess a private religion than he can possess a private sun and moon.
It’s the time of year that we play our Christmas playlists in iTunes, and I’ve been reminded several times how much I love listening to Kathleen Battle sing “Mary, Did You Know?” accompanied by my favorite guitarist, Christopher Parkening. You can download the track for just 99 cents.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new,
And the child that you delivered, will soon deliver you?Mary, did you know that your baby boy would give sight to the blind man?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod,
And when you kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God?The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb.Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy was heaven’s perfect Lamb,
And this sleeping child you’re holding is the great I AM?
Layton Talbert reflects on Job 26:14a: “Behold, these are but the outskirts [“outer fringe,” NIV] of his ways.”
“These are the mere edges of His ways.” The word edges (KJV, “parts”) denotes a termination, a boundary line or coastline, an edge or corner. What we can discern of the infinite God from His works in nature and history are the mere coastlines of the continent of the mind and character of God. Imagine landing for the first time on the seventeenth-century American continent. You have no idea that the sand onto which you step is the fringe of a continuous landmass over 3,000 miles wide and 9,500 miles long. Imagine formulating views of what this whole continent is like based on what you can see from the bay where you drop anchor. Suppose you forge your way five miles inland, or even fifty miles, to get a better idea of what this new country is like. As tangible and verifiable as what you see is, you are experiencing a minuscule fraction of an unimaginable stretch of vast and varied terrain yet to be explored—massive and multiple mountain ranges, trackless prairies, impenetrable forests, mammoth lakes and mighty rivers with deafening waterfalls, swamps and deserts, flora and fauna yet unknown. How much more there is to know about our magnificently infinite God than what we can see from where we are, only eternity can tell.
–Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job (Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 2007), 146.
Related: A few years ago I reviewed Talbert’s book and linked to MP3s of his sermons on Job.
Reflecting on Job 16–17, D. A. Carson observes,
There is a way of using theology and theological arguments that wounds rather than heals. This is not the fault of theology and theological arguments; it is the fault of the “miserable comforter” who fastens on an inappropriate fragment of truth, or whose timing is off, or whose attitude is condescending, or whose application is insensitive, or whose true theology is couched in such culture-laden clichés that they grate rather than comfort. In times of extraordinary stress and loss, I have sometimes received great encouragement and wisdom from other believers; I have also sometimes received extraordinary blows from them, without any recognition on their part that that was what they were delivering. Miserable comforters were they all.
Such experiences, of course, drive me to wonder when I have wrongly handled the Word and caused similar pain. It is not that there is never a place for administering the kind of scriptural admonition that rightly induces pain: justified discipline is godly (Heb. 12:5–11). The tragic fact, however, is that when we cause pain by our application of theology to someone else, we naturally assume the pain owes everything to the obtuseness of the other party. It may, it may—but at the very least we ought to examine ourselves, our attitudes, and our arguments very closely lest we simultaneously delude ourselves and oppress others.
–D. A. Carson, For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word (vol. 2; Wheaton: Crossway, 1999), entry for February 17. (This book is available for free as a PDF from TGC.)
I compiled lists of what to say and not to say to people who are suffering in an address on the logical and emotional problems of evil. Abbreviated forms of those two lists occur at the end of this four-page essay. Would you add anything to those lists?
Bruce Ware preached two superb sermons at my church on Sunday:
1. The morning sermon was on God, primarily as described in Isaiah 40–46: “‘There Is No One Besides Me: Biblical Foundations for the Centrality of God.” Towards the end he insightfully and clearly explains a very hard text: Isaiah 45:7.
2. The evening sermon was on parenting: “How to Bring Big Truths about God to the Young Hearts of Our Children” (outline included). There’s lots of wisdom here to supplement Ware’s Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God, which Jenni and I reviewed last year.
This massive 1,232-page book honoring John Frame is now available (WTS Books | Amazon):
John J. Hughes, ed. Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John Frame. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009.
More information on the book is available here, which includes a 31-page PDF. I’d recommend browsing the 5-page Table of Contents. There are about forty contributors, including J. I. Packer, Vern Poythress, James Grant & Justin Taylor, Paul Helm, Derek Thomas, Bruce Waltke, David Powlison, Wayne Grudem, and John Frame himself.
Last May I listened to seven short sermons by Tim Keller on Luke 15 that convey the message of this book:
Timothy Keller. The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith. New York: Dutton, 2008. 
This weekend I read the book and watched the corresponding DVD. The main feature of the DVD is Keller’s creative 40-minute readers-theater-style summary of the book. Both the book and DVD are first-class. And convicting.
Update: Cf. my brief review.
Last night Jenni and I watched Collision: Christopher Hitchens vs. Douglas Wilson (DVD | stream), an 87-minute film in which two witty public intellectuals debate whether Christianity is good for the world.
As we expected, the debate is fascinating, fast-paced, evenhanded, and edifying. The creative camera angles and other non-verbal aspects of the film make it even more provocative (and kind of strange).
Related:
Updates:
1. John Piper evaluates Doug Wilson in the first 15.5 minutes of this video (early 2013, I think).
2. Doug Wilson reviewed Larry Alex Taunton’s The Faith of Christopher Hitchens: The Restless Soul of the World’s Most Notorious Atheist (Nashville: Nelson, 2016). Superlative review.