Andrée Seu Peterson ☍

On Being Had ☍

• Note well, all ye who take upon yourselves to dialogue with people of this world who with feigned searchings of the soul would plead their case on matters from abortion to aberrant sexuality. Beware the velvet glove that hides the iron fist. The pattern of persuasion will be similar across the board: at first the plaintive cry of suffering and social justice, to enlist your sympathy.

  Then follows, in the blush of victories won, removal of the mask, abandonment of pretense, and the cackle of contempt toward all who thought they cared a whit about their former ratiocinations.

Carl Trueman ☍

What Can Miserable Christians Sing? ☍

• On singing:

  In the last year, I have asked three very different evangelical audiences what miserable Christians can sing in church. On each occasion my question has elicited uproarious laughter, as if the idea of a broken-hearted, lonely, or despairing Christian was so absurd as to be comical—and yet I posed the question in all seriousness.

• On prayer:

  One might also look at the content of prayers—those we speak in private and those at the church meeting. How often did Abraham, Moses, and Paul pray for health, for worldly success, for personal happiness and satisfaction? How do the concerns of these men compare with the content and priorities of our own prayers? Do our intercessions, despite the pious theological padding, unwittingly mimic the blasphemous priorities of the Elmer Gantrys of this world who peddle a pernicious gospel of health, wealth, and happiness?

D. A. Carson ☍

• People do not drift toward Holiness…We slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.

Darryl Dash ☍

Good Firefighters Dont Rush ☍

• You think you want a rushed firefighter, he said. But only rookie firefighters do that. The experienced firefighters know that hurry puts lives at risk. Hurry gets in the way of saving lives. A frantic firefighter is not a good firefighter.

• Bill gates calls busy the new stupid, and s right. Hurry robs us of our ability to love God and others and to think clearly. It makes us irritable. Hurry is the enemy of our souls.

Jeremy Walker ☍

Borrowed Conviction ☍

• A list of gurus is not the same as a developed set of theological convictions.

• Read the Scriptures and pray and study and pray and ask and listen and pray until you know what that means. If you are coming to me, I can tell you and show you what I believe and why I believe it. I will try to persuade you, because these things are important. If you want to check out these things with someone else, that is your call. But don’t come to the conclusion that these things are not important, or you will end up living in a spiritual landscape without definition, in a house without the roof and walls that provide order and security.

• Settle the basics of comprehensive Christian believing and living and then get on with the substance of that convinced life. Listen more - much more - to the undershepherds God has given you that to the ones he has given someone else (and steer clear of the men who claim to be shepherds but have given up on or been legitimately rejected by sheep).

Jonathan Edwards ☍

• I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as highly as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.

Kevin DeYoung ☍

• Sincerity is a Christian virtue, as is honesty about our struggles. But my generation needs to realize that Christianity is more than chic fragility, endless self-revelation, and the coolness that comes with authenticity.

Nathan Eshelman ☍

Christ is Your Heaven ☍

• It is therefore the seeing of Christ that makes heaven; wherefore one said, “If I were cast into any hole, if it could have but a cranny to see Christ always, it would be heaven enough.”

Philip Revell ☍

Do the Psalms Pass ‘Gospel Centered’ Test? ☍

• This psalm talks more about the psalmist than it does about God. It uses phrases that will be written off by many as “Jesus is my boyfriend” language. There’s a lack of the kind of specificity we’d like to see. There’s no mention of Jesus. For many of us, we would have difficulty signing these words today without some kind of qualification or explanation. And if that’s the case—if our responses to the emotive language of the Psalms are a catalyst for concern and fear, rather than praise—something has gone wrong.

Scott Sauls ☍

• The best way to measure your desire to serve is to look at how you respond when someone treats you like a servant.

Thomas Watson ☍

• Without meditation the truths which we know will never affect our hearts.

• Reading without meditation is useless. Meditation without reading is dangerous.

Tim Keller ☍

Get Out! Tim Keller on the Exodus Story ☍

• On the Exodus story being prototypical of the Christian story (attributed to Alec Motyer):

  Think about it. Think of what an Israelite would say on the way to Canaan after passing through the Red Sea. If you asked an Israelite, “Who are you?” he might reply, “I was in a foreign land under the sentence of death and in bondage, but I took shelter under the blood of the lamb. And our mediator led us out, and we crossed over. Now we’re on our way to the Promised Land, though we’re not there yet. But he has given us his law to make us a community, and he has given us a tabernacle because we must live by grace and forgiveness. And he is present in our midst, and he will stay with us until we arrive home.