Janae Epp > Recent Status Updates

Wow. So many well-intentioned but only partial truths about singleness, marriage, and the purposes of both that have crept into the church, leading to unnecessary isolation and unfair expectations. Good balanced counters in historical, theological, and exegetical evaluation. NOT fluffy - yay! So far, I truly think that everyone would benefit from reading, married and single.

“Disciples will never rise to an expectation the church does not set.”

“Doctrineless disciples cannot love God because they do not know him…Doctrine does not lead to displeasure but to delight. Knowledge of God leads us deeper into God, not further away from God.”

“Truly great teachers do not create distance between themselves and their students; they are set on removing that distance by helping their students learn.”

“Christian’s believe that the canon contains the heart of the matter, sufficient for the salvation of humanity - not everything, but enough.”

“I suggest a simple test for showing that the innocent words “new” and “change” actually function like potent magic words in our current vocabulary, and with particularly surprising force in ordinary conversations: Accurately count the number of times “new” and “good” are used as synonyms.”

“[Herod] grasped the principle that if you are to destroy the Word, you must do so before it has time to communicate itself. Crucifixion gets there too late.”

“If [Jesus] was an idealistic founder of a religion…my sin is not forgiven, God remains angry and I am still in the power of death. Then the work of Jesus drives me to despair about myself, because I cannot follow his example. But if Jesus is the Christ, the Word of God, then I am not primarily called to do the things that he does; I am met in his work as one who cannot possibly do the work he does.”

“From within a culture that suffers under the weight of a surfeit of information and a distinct lack of deep and thoughtful reflection, do films like Cars promote the cultivation of wisdom, or do they simply present us with something more easily digested but far from enduring?” Author advocates for meaningful use of film (including other Pixar films) where music invites engagement, not mindless reception.

“Interestingly, each of Pixar’s films in some way addresses the bleak or more menacing side of our lived experience…Yet especially in the studio’s earlier films, music often works to undermine or mitigate the stark (and perhaps all-too-real) narratives. Indeed, the music often anesthetizes the brutality of the images and narratives we witness.” E.g., Toy Story, Monsters Inc, etc.

“The images…offered us an invitation to remember our loss and, in an important sense, functioned as an embodiment of our pain. But it was the music that expressed something that even the most explicit visual or narrative reference to our pain-filled story could not contain: the redemptive power of hard-won hope.”

“You don’t have control over the impact your work will have, but you can make the decision to wake up each day as a servant who faithfully cultivates a little corner of God’s garden to bless the people, places, and problems he’s put in front of you. Your work may be forgotten in history, but it will never be forgotten by your Father.”

Pleasantly surprised by this book so far! Rather than viewing mission as uprooting one’s life, the authors invite readers to invest in their current spheres through good work for God’s glory. It casts a beautiful picture that invites readers to participate in God’s in-process restorative work in the world.

“Christian higher education is a uniquely academic form of Christian discipleship that builds on and extends the formation that happens in local congregations, directing it’s application into many of the disciplines and professions to which believers are called…our schools are part of the mission of the triune God to redeem the lost and restore the created order to its…ultimate intention to glorify him.”

“Christian higher education is a uniquely academic form of Christian discipleship that builds on and extends the formation that happens in local congregations, directing it’s application into many of the disciplines and professions to which believers are called…our schools are part of the mission of the triune God to redeem the lost and restore the created order to its…ultimate intention to glorify him.”

Very helpful overviews of various kinds of criticism (historical, source, form, redaction, tradition, and narrative) in relation to Gospel studies found in Part 2.

While a technical read, the overview of the political history of Israel in chapter 3 provides extremely helpful context for why rulers, religious leaders, and people responded the way they did during the time of Jesus.

“[T]he use of classics as identifying badges tends to produce sects rather than open intellectual communities. The badges tend to become boundaries rather than guides.” - quoting Stinchcombe

“It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the Kingdom of God that any day may be taken from us….Let him thank God on his knees and declare: It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren.”

Powerful, especially with Bonhoeffer writing in the midst of WWII in Germany while leading an underground seminary.