Read, ponder, pray, enjoy!
“[W]hen was the last time you took a risk to obey Christ? When was the last time you diminished your future–socially, financially, professionally–for his sake? When was the last time your life looked obviously different from the life of someone who does not trust Jesus at all? If you never surprise an unbelieving friend by your sacrifices for Christ, it is probably because what you are living for is the same earthly payoff he is living for. But if you trust the Lord entirely, you will also trust him exhaustively, across the whole of life” – Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., Proverbs: Wisdom That Works, Preach the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 65.
Yes! And amen to the following quote! – “Despite all of our fables and legends about the dangers therein [concerning pride] . . . we grow accustomed to thinking of self-exaltation, at least to some manageable degree, as a ‘normal’ part of leadership and drive. . . . Often even in Christian ministry the same tendencies are present and covered over in a pretense of humility. Self-promotion and egotism are rewarded because the more a Christian crows about his superior prayer life or his cutting-edge research or his ability to grow churches or movements, the more an audience tends to believe it. Genuine Christian humility often seems mousy or nonassertive by contrast. Sometimes the complaint ‘he lacks ambition’ can simply be translated as ‘he doesn’t worship himself, and he doesn’t expect us to either.’ When so many leaders are proud, it becomes very difficult for the Spirit-convicted psyche to discern, ‘Am I prideful, or am I leader?’” – Russell D. Moore, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 144.
“Closely allied with the tendency to see what you want in the complex patterns of objective reality is the tendency to be furious about whatever you imagine they reveal. Whether it involves the regulatory capital requirements for equity derivative trading platforms, the estimated reproduction rate of a respiratory virus, or the rate at which carbon molecules are being absorbed into the atmosphere, the default position of talk-show hosts and Twitterati with upward of 50,000 followers can be summed up as: ‘I don’t understand what’s going on, but I know it vindicates everything I’ve ever said, and I’m absolutely outraged about it’” – Gerard Baker, “In Our Hyperpartisan World, Everything’s an Inkblot,” Wall Street Journal (February 2, 2021): A17.
Herman Bavinck on the love of God: “[T]his love is not the essence of God in the sense that it is the center and core of God’s being and the other attributes are its modes, for all the attributes are equally God’s being. In him there is no higher or lower, no greater and smaller. Still, love is most certainly identical with his being. It is independent, eternal, and unchangeable, like God himself. It has its origin in him and also—by way of creatures, returns to him” – Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 2, God and Creation, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 216.
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