The Good Portion

The following is the next installment in Tim Challies' series Reading the Classics Together - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'll try to make each post readable on its own, however I highly encourage your own study of this Puritan classic by Jeremiah Burroughs. The Excellence of Contentment Chapter Seven washed over me like a cool shower at the end of a long hot day. After all those sometimes difficult lessons on how to be content, I was ready for some refreshment. Here Burroughs seemed to invite us to cease our strivings to stand back for a while and admire this grace of contentment in all its beauty, to look at the glorious fruits of contentment in the lives of who've mastered it. Here we’ll find encouragement, and invigoration to continue our quest. By contentment we come to give God the worship that is due to him. "The word that the Greeks have that signifies, 'to worship' is the same as to come and crouch before someone, as if a dog should c...

On this Saturday evening just past, Paul read me a little story written by one of his literary heroes (to whom he also bears a striking resemblance), Alexander Woollcott . I liked it so well I wanted to share it here. Reunion in Paris by Alexander Woollcott This is a story - a true story - of an adventure which befell Anne Parrish one June day in Paris. I mean the Anne Parrish, the one who wrote the Perennial Bachelor , the maliciously surgical All Kneeling , and that uncomfortably penetrating and richly entertaining novel called Loads of Love . Although she comes of Philadelphia and Delaware people and has used their backgrounds and folkways for her books, she herself grew up out in Colorado Springs and it was not until one summer about ten years ago that she first experienced the enchantment of Paris. It was all new to her - the placid sidewalk cafes, the beckoning bookstalls along the river wall, the breath-taking panorama of the city from the steps of Sacre-coeur, the t...

Though Christians are to be marked by their contentedness in all circumstances, they are also be known for a peculiar kind of discontent: "The child of God will never be content to be the slave of his lower impulses, but will ever strive, and with ultimate success, to live on the plane of his higher endowments. The regenerated soul will never abide the remnants of sin that vex his members, but will have no rest until he eradicates them to the last shred." ~BB Warfield "Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." Heb. 12:3-4

Like a girl wandering here and there picking flowers from field and garden, I've been collecting odds and ends in my basket over the last few days to share with my friends. I've enjoyed it so much, I think I may do this every Monday: Glasgow Museum of Modern Art exhibit welcoming guests to interact with the Bible turns ugly. For anyone in the process of seriously evaluating the need for health care reform in America, here is an insurance insider perspective that should be taken into careful consideration. Ever wonder about the eschatology of Islam? Here's a fascinating little overview . It will take about 3 minutes to hear John Piper describe why the kind of Christian I was until the age of forty is at the heart of what's wrong with evangelicalism in America today. I could add a few points of my own, but his point gets to the ultimate heart of the matter: And, well, just for fun, how about another version of the Roller Skate song. I've never yet heard a ve...

The following is the next installment in Tim Challies' series Reading the Classics Together - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'll try to make each post readable on its own, however I highly encourage your own study of this Puritan classic by Jeremiah Burroughs. In Chapter Six we wrap up our these lessons on “How Christ Teaches Contentment.” But before we move on to the final three points, I'd like to make a quick review of Christ’s lesson plan so far: The lesson of self-denial: that we are nothing, deserve nothing, can do nothing, cannot even receive any good because of our vileness, can make use of nothing when we have it, are worse than nothing, and will be no loss if we perish. AND it is by realizing all of the above that our souls come to rejoice and take satisfaction in all of God’s ways. The vanity of the creature: that if we look for contentment in the creature we will fail. To know the one thing needful: that it is necessary to have pea...

"In A Preface to Christian Theology , John Mackay illustrated two kinds of interest in Christian things by picturing persons sitting on the high front balcony of a Spanish house watching travelers go by on the road below. The 'balconeers' can overhear the travelers' talk and chat with them; they may comment critically on the way that the travelers walk; or they may discuss questions about the road, how it can exist at all or lead any where, what might be seen from different points along it, and so forth; but they are onlookers, and their problems are theoretical only. The travelers by contrast face problems which though they have their theoretical angle, are essentially practical - problems of the 'which-way-to-go' and 'how-to-make-it' type, problems which call not merely for comprehension but for decision and action too. "Balconeers and travelers may think over the same area, yet their problems differ. Thus (for instance) in relation to evil ,...

I'm working on another Contentment post, which should be up later in the day. (If you're discontent with my steady stream of posts on contentment...well, it just proves how much you need to read them!) In the meantime, here's something to put a smile on your face: Thanks to my dear Paul for giving me a smile this Monday.

The following is the next installment in Tim Challies' series Reading the Classics Together - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'll try to make each post readable on its own, however I highly encourage your own study of this Puritan classic by Jeremiah Burroughs. In the first part of his chapter "How Christ Teaches Contentment" , Burroughs begins listing a series of lessons Christ teaches His people in order to teach them contentment. The first of these lessons is "the lesson of self-denial." And since our author admits "it is a hard lesson" and I agree; and also says that “Whoever has not learned the lesson of the cross, has not learned his ABC in Christianity”, and then insists this, the strongest statement of all: " ...if you mean to be Christians at all you must buckle to this or you can never be Christians." I thought it was time to put on the brakes and look into this matter more carefully. He's not saying you ...

"Is it not far easier to be an earnest Christian if you confine your attention to the Bible an d not risk being led astray by the thought of the world? Shut yourself up in an intellectual monastery, you will find it easier to be a Christian, just as it is easier to be a good soldier i n comfortable winter quarters than it is on a field of bat tle. You save yourself - but the Lords enemies remain in possession of the field." - J. Gresham Machen

The following is the next installment in Tim Challies' series Reading the Classics Together - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'll try to make each post readable on its own, however I highly encourage your own study of this Puritan classic by Jeremiah Burroughs. How Christ Teaches Contentment You may have thought we'd already made a lot of progress in this business of Christan contentment by now (and I think we have!), but according to Burroughs we are just now, here in Chapter Five beginning our lessons. This is where some difficult lessons begin. We've up till now just installed the new tires, but this is where the rubber starts meeting the road. If I’m any indicator, this is where things start hitting pretty close to home. If you're feeling convicted, like you’ve got a lot more work to do than you ever anticipated, you’re not alone. Just as anyone in this life who has ever become a great scholar began first with his alphabet and worked up...