man crush

I think it is perfectly ok to have a "man crush." Mine for 2007 and probably of 2008 is Tim Keller. He is the pastor of Redeemer Pres in NYC. If you have not read some of his stuff or heard from him, I highly recommend it. He is doing some of the best thinking on the gospel and our culture.

But I also think that his article on all of life is repentance is one of the best things that I have read on the subject. It is pretty short and an important read. I recommended it to someone a few weeks ago and they said that it has radically transformed their view of repentance and the spiritual life.

Here is one quote from it: "In religion our only hope is to live a good enough life for God to bless us. Therefore every instance of sin and repentance is traumatic, unnatural, and horribly threatening.... But in the gospel the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed. Our hope is Christ's righteousness, not our own -so it is not so traumatic to admit our weakneesses and our lapses."

Enjoy.