A Two-Week Break from Blogging

I'll be taking a couple weeks off from the blog as my family and I enjoy a bit of summer vacation together. New posts will resume on Monday, July 3.

A Prayer from the Venerable Bede

I implore you, good Jesus,

That as in your mercy you have given me

To drink in with delight the words of your knowledge,

So of your loving-kindness you will also grant me

One day to come to you, the fountain of all wisdom,

And to stand forever before your face.

Amen.

Podcast Interview

In lieu of another church history lecture (which we'll get back to in a couple weeks), here's a link to one of the interviews I did recently on my new book, Missionary Motivations. I was interviewed by Dave Jacob of the Gospel Mobilization Podcast, and I was really impressed by the work that he and his team do. It's worth a listen (and worth checking out their website, too). Click the picture to be taken to the podcast site:

Photo of the Week

We thank Thee, Lord, for this fair earth, the glittering sky, the silver sea;

For all their beauty, all their worth, their light and glory, come from Thee.

Thine are the flowers that clothe the ground, the trees that raise their arms above, 

The hills that gird our dwellings round, as Thou dost gird thine own with love.

- from a hymn by George Cotton

Quote of the Week

It is our part to seek,

His to grant what we ask;

Ours to make a beginning,

His to bring it to completion;

Ours to offer what we can,

His to finish what we cannot.

- Jerome

A Prayer from Nicholas of Cusa

Thank you, Jesus, for bringing me this far. 

In your light, I see the light of my life. 

You persuade us to trust in God;

You command us to love one another.

You promise everything to those who obey your teaching;

You ask nothing too hard for a believer,

Nothing a lover can refuse.

Your promises to your disciples are true,

Nothing but the truth. 

Even more, you promise us yourself,

The perfection of all that can be made perfect.

Church History: Trinitarian Debates (4th century)

(Click here for the church history series page)

Lecture audio: Trinitarian Debates

(click here to listen or right-click to download)

Trinitarian Debates: On Christ and the Holy Spirit
     - Arianism’s resurgence
     - The Cappadocian Fathers
          - Basil the Great
          - Gregory of Nazianzus
          - Gregory of Nyssa
     - The Council of Constantinople (381 AD) – the second ecumenical council

- The three worlds of Christendom by the end of the fourth century:
     - Greek-speaking East of the Roman Empire
     - Latin-speaking West of the Roman Empire
     - Aramaic-speaking churches of East Syria & beyond

Photo of the Week

Sweet the rains new fall, sunlit from heaven,

Like the first dewfall on the first grass.

Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden,

Sprung in completeness where His feet pass.

- from a hymn by Eleanor Farjeon

Quote of the Week

"We need to repent of the haughty way in which we sometimes stand in judgment upon Scripture and must learn to sit humbly under its judgments instead. If we come to Scripture with our minds made up, expecting to hear from it only an echo of our own thoughts and never the thunderclap of God's, then indeed he will not speak to us and we shall only be confirmed in our own prejudices. We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior."

- John Stott

A Prayer from Thomas Cranmer

Blessed Lord,

who hast caused all holy Scriptures

to be written for our learning: 

Grant that we may in such wise hear them,

read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word,

we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Church History: From Persecution to Christian Empire (3rd-4th centuries)

(Click here for the church history series page)

Lecture: From Persecution to Christian Empire

(click here to listen or right-click to download)

Lecture Notes Outline

The Age of Persecution (mid-3rd – early 4th century)
     - Decian persecution
     - Rapid growth of Christianity in all social classes
     - Developments in Christian worship & practice
     - The Great Persecution

The Constantinian Revolution
     - Constantine’s conversion & rise to power
     - Christianity’s initial growth as a legal religion
     - The roots of monasticism

The First Trinitarian Debate: On the Son
     - The challenge of Arianism
     - Athanasius’ defense of orthodoxy
     - The Council of Nicaea (325 AD) – the first ecumenical council

The Global Spread of the Gospel
     - Persecution in the Persian Empire
     - The conversion of Armenia & Georgia
     - Ulfilas’ mission to the Goths
     - Christianity becomes a majority religion in the Roman Empire