Breakfast Links (2/2)

Doug Groothuis, everyone's favorite curmudgeon, suggests some constructive alternatives to watching the Super Bowl. By the way, I'm pleased to see that he has finally caught up with other Christian ministries and is now taking reservations for the first ever Curmudgeon Cruise.

The Probabilist.com lists the ten most misspelled (actually, misused) words in blogs (HT: Tim Challies)

Over at The Point, Catherine Claire shared this great quote from William Wilberforce on the necessity of mental effort in the Christian life:

How criminal, then, must this voluntary ignorance of Christianity and the Word of God appear in the sight of God. When God of His goodness has granted us such abundant means of instruction, how great must be the guilt, and how awful must be the punishment, of voluntary ignorance!

And why are we to expect knowledge without inquiry and success without endeavor? Bountiful as is the hand of Providence, it does not bestow its gifts to seduce us into laziness. It bestows gifts to arouse us to exertion. No one expects to attain to the heights of learning, or arts, or power, or wealth, or military glory without vigourous resolution, strenuous diligence, and steady perseverance.

Yet we expect to be Christians without labor, study, or inquiry! This is the more preposterous because Christianity, a revelation from God and not an invention of man, shows us new relations with their correspondent duties. It contains also doctrines, motives, and precepts peculiar to itself. We cannot reasonably expect to become proficient accidentally, as one might learn insensibly the maxims of worldly policy or a scheme of mere morals.

Melinda Penner pinpoints the problem with trying to reduce Christian truths to bumper sticker-sized slogans.