Whom will you believe?

“So now, turn from your conscience and its feelings to Christ, who is not able to deceive. My heart and Satan, however, who will drive me to sin, are liars. . . . You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord, who receives sinners, preaches to you. . . . Therefore, you are able to fight with your conscience by saying, ‘You lie. Christ speaks the truth, and you do not.’”

-- Martin Luther

To Live for Happiness...or Meaning?

"Victor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist who survived three years in the Nazi death camps, observed how some of his fellow prisoners were able to endure the horror and pass through it while others could not. The difference came down to what Frankl called meaning. The problem is that contemporary people think life is all about finding happiness. We decide what conditions will make us happy and then we work to bring those conditions about.

"To live for happiness means that you are trying to get something out of life. But when suffering comes along, it takes the conditions for happiness away, and so suffering destroys all your reason to keep living. But to “live for meaning” means not that you try to get something out of life but rather that life expects something from us. In other words, you have meaning only when there is something in life more important than your own personal freedom and happiness, something for which you are glad to sacrifice your happiness."

-- Timothy Keller,. "Walking with God through Pain and Suffering" (pp. 70-71). Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.

"God Moves in a Mysterious Way"

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

(author unknown)

Eternity

"Eternity shall be at once a great eye-opener and a great mouth-shutter." ~ Jim Elliot

Surprised by Suffering?

“Why should we be surprised, then,... that our lives are often filled with darkness and pain? Even God himself in Christ did not avoid that. But though God’s purposes are often every bit as hidden and obscure as they were to Job and to the observers at the foot of the cross, we— who have the teaching of the Bible and have grasped the message of the Bible— know that the way up is down. The way to power, freedom, and joy is through suffering, loss, and sorrow.”

-- Timothy Keller, "Walking with God through Pain and Suffering"

Enlist Under the Banner of Christ

"If you wear the livery [i.e., servant's uniform] of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains. There never was his like the choicest of princes. He is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also. If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea lavish and superabundant in love, you always find it in him. His service is life, peace, and joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus Christ!" -- Charles Spurgeon

Jim Elliot's brother, Bert....

...the missionary hero you don't know.

"A time to be resolute..."

A timely word from R. Albert Mohler.

Orthodoxy in Community

“One cannot explain the explosive dynamite, the dunamis, of the early church apart from the fact that they practiced two things simultaneously: orthodoxy of doctrine and orthodoxy of community in the midst of the visible church, a community which the world could see.  By the grace of God, therefore, the church must be known simultaneously for its purity of doctrine and the reality of its community.  Our churches have so often been only preaching points with very little emphasis on community, but exhibition of the love of God in practice is beautiful and must be there.”

-- Francis A. Schaeffer, The Church before the Watching World (Downers Grove, 1971), page 62.
HT:  Ray Ortlund, Jr.

The Cross As the Way to Peace

"Look steadily at Jesus on the cross, if you want to feel inward peace. Look to anything of your own, and you will never feel comfortable. Your own life and doings, your own repentance and amendment, your own morality and regularity, your own church-going, your own Bible-reading and your prayers, your own almsgiving and your charities, – what are they all but a huge mass of imperfection? Rest not upon them for a moment, in the matter of your justification. As evidences of your wishes, feelings, bias, tastes, habits, inclinations, they may be useful helps occasionally. As grounds of acceptance with God they are worthless rubbish. They cannot give you comfort; they cannot bear the weight of your sins; they cannot stand the searching eye of God. Rest on nothing but Christ crucified, and the atonement He made for you on Calvary. This, this alone is the way of peace."

~ J.C. Ryle

The Great Exchange

"This is what happens when we become Christians. Christ assumes our liabilities and graciously gives us his assets."

— Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp
"How People Change"

"Crack, Meth, Addiction, and the Puritians"

A fascinating, intriguing and against-the-grain blog post and "New York Times" article.

The Story of God -- the Restoration of Creation

"If you read the Bible from cover to cover you realize that it narrates (proclaims!) a true and cohesive story: the good news that through Jesus Christ God has entered history to liberate and renew the world from its bondage to sin and suffering.

"This is the story of God, who pursues the restoration of his creation at the cost of his own life. He is making all things new (Rev 21:5)! That’s the simple and yet profound, life– and world-altering plotline of the Bible."

— Michael R. Emlet
CrossTalk
(Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2009), 41

Interview with Tim Keller regarding suffering

"Tim Keller Wants You to Suffer Well"

Borrow a Song from Tomorrow

"Is there nothing to sing about today? Then borrow a song from tomorrow; sing of what is yet to be. Is this world dreary? Then think of the next." -- Charles Spurgeon