“The most powerful weapon for silencing the mouth of the world is not brilliant theological apologetics, but the practice of a holy life that resembles Jesus Christ.” “Now it happened, as Jesus went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they were watching Him closely. And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, ‘Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?’ But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. Then He answered them, saying, ‘Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?’ And they could not answer Him regarding these things” (Luke 14:1–6). (1) As I meditated on today’s passage, Luke 14:1–6, the phrase that first caught my attention was: “they were watching Him clos...
“Be saved from this perverse generation” [Acts 2:37-41] Dallas Willard states in his book "Renovation of the Heart" that efforts to change behavior without inner transformation are in vain. However, it seems that we are more focused on changing behavior rather than inner transformation. For example, nowadays many churches are putting more emphasis on hardware rather than software. In an internet article titled "The 'Plate' Has Shifted" on the Church Communication Research Institute website (July 11, 2002), Eui-yong Lee talks about ten ways the world is changing. The third change is described as follows: ‘The third change is a shift from hardware to software. If we consider the piano as hardware, then the sheet music can be considered as software. Until now, it was important how big and high-performing the piano was. But now, how to play the piano, similar to the sheet...