Shelby Murphy

Sin isn’t only doing bad things; it is more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God. Whatever we build our life on will drive us and enslave us. Sin is primarily idolatry. – Timothy J. Keller With [...]

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. – Romans 1:20 The entire universe is built around communicating to you that you’re tiny and you’re fragile and you control [...]

How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it. – G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy Following God’s lead is always good but never safe. When you commit yourself to do whatever God tells you to do and to go wherever God tells you to go, you inevitably experience ups and downs; [...]

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his [...]

The following are excerpts from an essay I recently wrote on Ludwig van Beethoven and his Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, op. 55, “Eroica.” How does your worldview affect your art? The concept of what a man believes affecting his work is clearly exemplified in the life and music of one of the [...]

Thanks be to God for sending someone to protect this church. I don’t believe He sent me. My son, of course He did. – Cardinal Strauss to Robert Langdon in Angels and Demons Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. – Ephesians [...]

If it is true that there are sudden conversions whereby in men, thinking of nothing less than of lifting themselves above the finite, in a moment, as by an immediate, inward illumination, the sense for the highest comes forth and surprises them by its splendour, I believe that more than anything else the sight of [...]

Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul. – Johann Sebastian Bach In 1747, Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia, patron of Enlightenment rationalism, and military strongman, invited Johann Sebastian Bach, now an old man three years from his death, for an audience. Frederick [...]

Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots [...]

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. – Jesus in Luke 6:40 Advent is one of my favorite times of the year. The word itself comes from the Latin “adventus,” meaning “coming,” referring to the coming of Christ. On the calendar, it is [...]