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Is the Gospel in Proverbs?
The book of Proverbs is a gospel book, because it is part of the Bible. That means the book of Proverbs is good news for bad people. It is about grace for sinners. It is about hope for failures. It is about wisdom for idiots. This book is Jesus himself coming to us as our counselor, as our sage, as our life coach. The Lord Jesus Christ is a competent thinker for all times and all cultures. He is a genius. And he freely offers us, even us, his unique wisdom.--Ray Ortlund Jr, Proverbs: Wisdom That Works (Preaching the Word; Crossway, 2012), 16
HT: Kevin Fiske
The Last Idol
Whoever is acquainted with the nature of mankind in general or the propensity of his own heart in particular must acknowledge that self-righteousness is the last idol that is rooted out of the heart. Being once born under a covenant of works, it is natural for us all to have recourse to a covenant of works for our everlasting salvation. And we have contracted such devilish pride by our fall from God that we would, if not wholly, yet in part at least, glory in being the cause of our own salvation. We cry out against popery and that very justly. But we are all papists, at least, I am sure, we are all Arminians by nature. And therefore no wonder so many natural men embrace that scheme. . . .--George Whitefield, 'The Lord Our Righteousness,' as quoted in The Sermons of George Whitefield (2 vols.; ed. Lee Gatiss; Crossway, 2012), 1:262-63
This is the sorest though, alas, the most common evil that was ever yet seen under the sun. An evil that in any age, especially in these dregs of time wherein we live, cannot sufficiently be inveighed against. For as it is with the people, so it is with the priests and, it is to be feared, even in those places where once the truth as it is in Jesus was eminently preached many ministers are so sadly degenerated from their pious ancestors that the doctrines of grace, especially the personal, all-sufficient righteousness of Jesus is but too seldom, too slightly mentioned. Hence the love of many waxeth cold and I have often thought, was it possible, that this single consideration would be sufficient to raise our venerable forefathers again from their graves, who would thunder in their ears their fatal error.
Triune Beauty
The second paragraph of Mike Reeves' excellent new book, Delighting in the Trinity--
This book . . . will simply be about growing in our enjoyment of God and seeing how God's triune being makes all his ways beautiful. It is a chance to taste and see that the Lord is good, to have your heart won and yourself refreshed. For it is only when you grasp what it means for God to be a Trinity that you really sense the beauty, the overflowing kindness, the heart-grabbing loveliness of God. If the Trinity were something we could shave off God, we would not be relieving him of some irksome weight; we would be shearing him of precisely what is so delightful about him. For God is triune, and it is as triune that he is so good and desirable.--Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith (IVP, 2012), 9 (italics original)
Fornication's Pain
A sobering, research-based passage from Christian Smith's Lost in Transition (successor to Soul Searching) that focuses on 18-23-year-olds rather than teens.
Some recent accounts of young adult sexual behaviors seem to want to suggest . . . that all is indeed well. Some writers celebrate young women's sexual license as a way to cheer on the alleged evening of the old double standard for men and women when it comes to sexual adventuring.
Others, in documenting the sex lives of youth, hardly veil their enthusiasm for the spread of serious sexual activity among them. As long as sex is "safe" and consensual, these writers seem happy to expand freedom to larger segments of youth and to increasingly lower ages.
We are less upbeat.
To be clear, we do not raise doubts about these optimistic viewpoints because we are puritanical prudes intent on eliminating pleasure from young people's lives. We raise doubts because we have heard too much directly from the mouths of emerging adults themselves about the major pain and damage that their free pursuit of sexual pleasure has often caused in their lives.Christian Smith, Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood (Oxford University Press, 2011), 149-50
At Home and on a Holiday
Sam, as the company of eight prepares to leave Lothlorien:
Image credit: Stronglite
"I've often wanted to see a bit of magic like what it tells of in old tales, but I've never heard of a better land than this. It's like being at home and on a holiday at the same time, if you understand me. I don't want to leave."--J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book 2, Chapter 7
Image credit: Stronglite