An invitation to a new blog

Hey, all you Tolkien fanatics! (I know, I know, not you Kate--but who knows, maybe someday!)

I made my morning stop at Challis.com and learned that Mike Russell has launched a new blog, The Lord of the Kingdom. He will be analyzing the Biblical underpinings in the Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The purpose of this blog is to draw from the wealth of wisdom and depth of insight in Tolkien’s covertly Christian book in order to shed additional light on the Christian life and the struggle against, not flesh and blood, but spiritual forces that oppose all that is good. Characters and events elaborate and shed additional light on the unseen realities of life.

I was relieved to read in his first post that he does NOT consider LOTR an analogy.

There is no one-to-one correspondence to be found - this is not allegory, after all - but that which is revealed and transpires in the Ages of Middle-earth points the way to the One true Lord of the Kingdom while warning us of the lord of the kingdom who seeks to enslaves us in rebellion against the One God.

I love to "be there" at the launching of a new blog, don't you--to watch it develop and grow. If you're a Tolkien fan, today would be a good day to go visit The Lord of the Kingdom. Oh, and tell Mike I sent you. I'd sort of like to have a link in his side bar someday! :)

God's Minute 3/13

God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.--James 4:6

OUR Gracious God and Father, we praise Thee for constant access to Thee in Jesus Christ. We bless Thee for Thy gifts day by day for spirit, soul, and body. We thank Thee that Thou art ever the same in Thy unchanging love and grace and we rejoice that we may draw from Thy fulness each moment according to our needs. Grant to us a deep and increasing consciousness of the preciousness of Christ as our Divine Redeemer, and a growing assurance of the constant supply of Thy Holy Spirit for daily living. Teach us by that Spirit how to depend continually upon Thy grace, and how to receive that grace by simple faith, and how to appropriate for our life the rich provision Thou makest for us. Then may Thy love be reflected in our daily conduct and may it constrain us to live to Thy praise, and to be the means of helping others as Thou art helping us. We desire to show "Whose we are and Whom we serve" and to be a channel of blessing at home and abroad.

Bless our relatives and friends, with all needful grace, and give to them and to us such a deepening sense of Thy love, that we may do our utmost to make known the Gospel to those in far off lands. And so for our loved ones, for our friends and acquaintances and for Thy whole Church, we seek the fulness of Thy blessing, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

W.H. Griffith Thomas, D.D.,
Toronto, Canada

Biological sketch from the sermon link, Priest or Prophet:

W. H. Griffith Thomas (1861-1924) was born and raised in England. He received his B.A. from King’s College, London and his D.D. from Oxford (in England Doctor of Divinity is an earned, not an honorary degree). He numbered T. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") and his brothers among his Greek students at Oxford, where he taught till coming to the New World. In Canada he taught at Wycliffe Hall, Toronto. Moving to Philadelphia as his headquarters, he maintained a wide writing and preaching ministry in North America, Britain, and elsewhere. He was a prime mover in the founding of Dallas Theological Seminary in 1924, the year he died.

Last one. . .

I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.

No pictures, please

An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.

No time to blog

Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.