Where are the laborers?

One of the issues I've often discussed here over the years is who we should pray to. Should we pray to saints and angels or only pray to God? And I've sometimes mentioned that the issue of who we should pray to is unusually difficult to discuss, because advocates of praying to saints and angels so often behave so poorly (category confusions, the use of forgeries, poor handling of the dating of sources, etc.). You can find a discussion of some examples here.

But another problem that makes the situation even worse is how apathetic, ignorant, misinformed, and uninvolved the large majority of opponents of prayer to saints and angels are. The people on that side of the argument who even come close to handling it well are few and far between. The neglect of the issue has never made sense to me.

And there are similar circumstances in a lot of other contexts. For example, advocates of baptismal regeneration and opponents of eternal security can make highly inaccurate claims about the historical theology relevant to those doctrines, as they often do, and rarely get much of a response from the other side.

The few people who handle the issues well shouldn't be expected to do more and more. There ought to be more people doing the work.

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest." (Matthew 9:37-38)

"Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8)

The Broader Implications Of 2 Thessalonians 3:10

It's popular to apply the passage to something like a situation in which a man refuses to look for a job and wants to live off of government assistance instead. But the principle in 2 Thessalonians also has a broader application that tells us a lot about why the world is in the state it's in.

Silently Allowing The Master To Be So Insulted

"It is no common zeal for the house of God which ought to penetrate and engross the hearts of believers. When, therefore, the Divine glory was polluted, or rather lacerated, in so many ways, would it not have been perfidy if we had winked or been silent? A dog, seeing any violence offered to his master, will instantly bark; could we, in silence, see the sacred name of God dishonored so blasphemously?...Were a dog to see an injury offered to his master, equal to the insult which is offered to God in the sacraments, he would instantly bark, and expose his own life to danger, sooner than silently allow his master to be so insulted. Ought we to show less devotedness to God than a brute is wont to show to man?" (John Calvin)

Talk About Weird

Since there's been a lot of talk about alleged weirdness in politics lately:

"And we have to fight our way every day through this God-trivializing fog that we live in. We can hardly mention God in polite society. You don't need any reason to talk to a friend about the Atlanta Braves, but you actually have to have a reason to talk about God in a conversation. Think about how wrong that is. Almighty God, who sustains everything every moment of every day, is not front-page news. That's weird. Why? An idol has taken over." (Ray Ortlund, 4:12 in the audio of his April 20, 2003 sermon here)