Proverbs and sayings: 2012

20121221

Regeneration - Monergistic 2

"We are not to be complacent about salvation, but we must recognise that only God can regenerate."

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 22

20121220

Shakespeare and the Bible

My dad was not given to quoting the Bible or Shakespeare. He would occasionally say, if a joke fell flat,

"Some fell on stony ground". See Mark 4:5.

More rarely we would get

"There's method in my madness" based on a line in Hamlet - 'Though this be madness yet there is method in it'.

Regeneration - Monergistic

"Certain aspects of becoming a Christian involve our co-operation but being born again is something God does alone"

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 20

Regeneration - True of all Christians

"Being a Christian is more then merely saying you are one."
"The phrase 'born again Christian' is really tautology ...."
"To be a Christian in the New Testament sense, there has to be a real change of heart within, a new birth."

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 20

Regeneration - Importance

"We dare not think of regeneration as a mere preliminary to the Christian faith, something that need not long detain our attention."

From my book What the Bible teaches about being born again, p 18

20121218

Was Marconi mad?

My mother used sometimes to say

"They said Marconi was mad".

Guglielmo Marconi is often thought of as the inventor of radio and shared the 1903 Nobel prize for physics due to his work in this area. The point of the saying is that general opinion is not always right.

I'm not sure how common a saying it was or is but the phrase did feature in a Marx brothers skit.

Groucho: "They said Edison was mad! They said Einstein was mad! They said Marconi was mad! They said my uncle Herbert was mad!-"
Chico: "Your uncle Herbert? Nobody ever hoid of your Uncle Herbert!"
Groucho: "That's because he was mad!"

The term applies especially to Marconi as after inventing his wireless telegraph he wrote to the ministry of Post and Telegraphs, which at the time was under the direction of the honorable Pietro Lacava, explaining how the machine worked and asking for funding. He never received a response to his letter which was eventually dismissed by the minister who wrote "to the Longara" on the document, referring to the insane asylum on via della Lungara in Rome.

20121210

Preaching

Don't assume that anyone who hears you preach
Will get the opportunity again

20121207

Thinking and doing

To think a thing may take a moment
To do it a lot longer than that.

In the time it takes to let a thing go round your mind a few times
You could already have it done.

20121130

Keep it short and to the point

A great book is a great evil

That is to say, a long book is likely to be verbose and badly written. The saying is recorded in English from the early 17th century but is found earlier in Greek in the writings of the Hellenistic poet and scholar Callimachus (c.305–c.240 BC) as ‘the great book is equal to a great evil.’ [Méga Biblion, méga kakón]

It reminds of that saying "Brevity is the soul of wit" (from Hamlet).

20121027

Squeezing out prayer

The easiest thing to squeeze out of a busy day is prayer - Don't!

20121020

Against blanket condemnation

Because a man is found to say
At some point something wrong
To say he's wrong in every way
Is really far too strong.

20121019

Easy option

Switching on the TV or computer is always the easy option

20121011

The outsider

Knowing yourself. Some of us are natural outsiders not because we are necessarily odd or people are unfriendly - it's just how we are. Remember this.

20120929

Watch!

Watch! Watch! Watch
A moment's slumber can mean disaster.

Retrace your steps

As soon as you're aware things have gone awry
Trace your steps backwards to see the reason why

Rush goalie

I was thinking recently for some reason of kick abouts as a kid. We used to play three-and-in usually. We would each be "teams". I was usually Chelsea (Peter Bonetti and Peter Osgood). If both Paul Meredith and Cameron McCormack were there (two more different boys it is hard to imagine) they'd both want to be Manchester United. If Cameron got in first (Alec Stepney and George Best) Paul Meredith would insist on being Man United Seconds (Jimmy Rimmer and Bobby Charlton) which really used to annoy me for some reason.

If not three-and-in it would be knock out or, rarely, sides. We were never very many for sides so rush goalie was de rigueur. I also heard it referred to as back 'n' and. I think the two terms betray quite a different idea with regard to tactics. Back 'n' 'and is conservative - you're playing as a back but have the handling option when necessary. Rush goalie on the other hand suggests all out attack and a mad rush back if something goes wrong! Rush was my approach.

20120831

Ministers and September

September - the minister's back to it month

20120615

Negative feelings

Negative feelings can lead to positive actions

A fresh start

There is always opportunity for a fresh start in Christ

Getting things done

Doing a thing often takes a lot longer than thinking about it.

Corollary
Doing a thing often takes a lot less time than you spend thinking about doing it.

20120601

New shoes

It may be superficial, but it's amazing how transforming are a new pair of good shoes

Who pastors the pastor?

Who pastors the pastor? The pastor.
If he can't pastor himself he won't be able to pastor anyone else.

'E 've gone far

I was in South Wales yesterday and I was talking to someone who went to the same school. As we were talking he said by way of self-deprecation "so as you can see I haven't gone far". It reminded me of the way in Wales "to go far" is often used as a synonym for success. The basic idea is that if you leave your home behind then you must be successful or rather that to be successful you need to leave home. Geography and success are intertwined. Firstly, it's not true and secondly, it's probably not a good concept to have either. You can learn a lot when you go far but there is no merit in the move itself.

20120519

Time

Guard your mornings - and your evenings too

Thankfulness

Be thankful for what you have
You may soon have less

Grace and sin

As kind and gracious as God may be
We can still commit sin, so easily.

Things to remember

Remember your duty; Remember your call.
Remember the judgement; remember it all.

Fasting again

You cannot fast if you lack self-discipline
Fasting helps self-discipline

Fasting

Godly people probably fast

Pleasure

The pursuit of pleasure leads nowhere

Living and learning

You live and learn ... well, you live anyway.

(I've been saying this for years and was quite prepared to believe that I'd thought it up myself. Checking it on Google, though, I find some references to the phrase or similar so either I picked it up from elsewhere without realising or great minds think alike)

20120517

Prayer and theology

The elements of true prayer
Match the elements of true theology

Self-centredness

Self-centredness is probably more deep rooted in most of us than we realise

Outward and inward

In this life, often it's true,
Our outward and inward lives do not match up.
It's only up in heaven,
When the inward life will rule, we'll finally catch up.

Mundane focus

It is staggering to think of the extent to which our lives
focus on men and what they think
rather than on God and what he thinks.

Observation by Joni Mitchell

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone (as in her song Big Yellow Taxi)

20120515

Greed and need

Don't be greedy and don't forget the needy

The poor

There should be no poor
There could be no poor
There would be no poor
If not for sin in this world.
But while it remains there will be people who are poor.

Responsibility

If you fail with a little responsibility, you will probably fail with much.

Ten minutes

It's amazing what can be achieved in 10 minutes well spent.

A retreat

Never fail to reckon with the restorative power of a brief retreat

20120514

Repetition

It is a mistake to underestimate the power of repetition

Repetition Repetition Repetition

It is a mistake to underestimate the power of repetition

Babies

Babies - an endless source of fascination

The delight we have in babies is, maybe, akin

To God's delight in us.

When other men laugh

When other men laugh at what you hold dear
It fills you with wrath and dreadful fear.

To do - Prayer

How come prayer is always bottom of the "to do" list?

Reading and Prayer

Reading is feeding
And prayer is air.
Miss one you're bleeding,
Miss both, you're in a snare.

20120512

Back up

It always gets my back up
That I don't get your back up
(But you do!)

20120510

A difficult chair

I have a chair that's difficult.
Difficult - why difficult?
It's wooden - not soft but rather hard,
Not an easy chair at all.

Wisdom

True wisdom is to discover how little you know

Bible Knowledge

None of us know the Bible enough

Fear

Fear can so grip a person that mere words will not calm them.

Ministry Visiting

If you can at least visit one person a week may be you'll get somewhere

Crisis

When there is a crisis to be dealt with
One comes bounding out of bed.
Every day is a crisis.

The Book of Genesis

Ignorance of the Book of Genesis
Is worse than ignorance of your own family history.
Not to get to know its teaching
Is like tying both hands behind your back.

Tidiness

Tidiness saves time and is more efficient
But requires constant effort

20120507

Hymnody

Our English hymnody forms a rich heritage and store

One we can easily and usefully explore

One we'd be mad to ignore.

Before and after worship

What to do immediately before or after corporate worship
It is not easy to know.
It is worth giving thought to, nevertheless.

The means of grace

When we feel dead in making use of the means of grace*
That is the very time when we should especially seek to make use of them.

* ie prayer, Bible reading, the Lord's Supper, etc