"Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith. I don't agree at all. They are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the Passion of Christ. For the beginning of the Passion -- the first move, so to … Continue reading Quote of Note #51: Anxieties and Guilt
Job is a tricky book to use. The book is a debate among Job and some friends over how to understand suffering and what God is doing in the midst of that suffering. We should not assume that everything that Job or the others say is correct. The only one who speaks infallibly in the … Continue reading Bible Note #35: Compassion for the Weak — Job 29:14-17
"As you contemplate the cross of Christ, you should be overwhelmed with the oceans of grace you have received from the Lord. Even when others commit pools or even lakes full of sin against you, you should be gracious to them because of those oceans of grace you have received. 'Be kind to them,' Jesus … Continue reading Quote of Note #50: Graciousness to Others Because of God’s Graciousness to Me
There is an essential irony in this verse. It is essential in that it touches the very essence and fabric of reality. It is a state of affairs that is woven into the very fibers of existence. "Evil will slay the wicked." (Psalm 34:21 NIV) Evil is self-consuming. The evilness of that which is evil … Continue reading Bible Note #34: Evil Will Slay the Wicked — Psalm 34:21
"There is nothing, surely, which exhorts us more than the Sermon on the Mount to be what we are meant to be and to live as we are meant to live; to be like Christ by being a complete contrast to everyone who does not belong to Christ." Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on … Continue reading Quote of Note #49: A Contrast Community
"Happiness is the great question confronting mankind. The whole world is longing for happiness and it is tragic to observe the ways in which people are seeking it. The vast majority, alas, are doing so in a way that is bound to produce misery. Anything which, by evading the difficulties, merely makes people happy for … Continue reading Quote of Note #48: Finding Happiness
"'The first thing to do in responding to God's presence and Word,' [Basil Pennington] repeatedly told me, 'is to notice what God is doing and to keep out of God's way. The second is to align ourselves with and participate in God's transformational actions in the world.' God is active and present in the world. … Continue reading Quote of Note #47: Being Part of What God Is Doing
This event – the reconciliation of Esau and Jacob – has long captured my imagination. The rupturing of their relationship was overflowing with emotion. So, it should be no surprise that the reconciliation here is also full of emotion. There is also a large measure of raw, burly physicality in the reconciliation of these two … Continue reading Bible Note #33: The Hairy Arms of Esau and the Embrace of God’s Grace — Genesis 33
"The question to ask about such things -- the identification of the Bible with England in the nineteenth century or American foreign policy in the twenty-first -- is 'What does this do to the reach of the gospel and the church?' The answer is simple: It creates a dividing line in the church, which is … Continue reading Quote of Note #46: Christ is Lord, Not Party or Nation
"The strength of humility is that it builds a spiritual defense around your soul, prohibiting strife, competition, and many of life's irritations from stealing your peace." Francis Frangipane, The Three Battlegrounds: An In-depth View of the Three Arenas of Spiritual Warfare: the Mind, the Church, and the Heavenly Places. Cedar Rapids, IA: Arrow Publications, 2006, … Continue reading Quote of Note #45: Humility and Personal Peace
