The Good Portion

(This week we continue our reading together of the Jonathan Edwards' classic, Charity and Its Fruits. We have just concluded the reading of the "Application" portion of Lecture Three. We will continue with the "Doctrine" portion of Lecture Four in next week's reading. This is the pattern we will be using for the entirety of the reading. The notes below follow Edwards' outline directly, with all direct quotes from the text in italics. My goal is to make each post edifying on its own, even for those who are not reading along with us. I will welcome your questions or comments in the form below.) Charity and Its Fruits Lecture III. Part Two - Application The Greatest Performances or Sufferings in Vain Without Charity According to Edwards, the doctrine of our previous week of study should be applied... 1.  In the way of self-examination. "Doubtless, if we examine ourselves, we may see much of hypocrisy.  But is there any sincerity?  God abomi...

As faith without works is dead so are works without faith. (This week we continue our reading together of the Jonathan Edwards' classic, Charity and Its Fruits. We have just concluded the reading of the "Doctrine" portion of Lecture Three. We will continue with the "Application" portion of Lecture Three in next week's reading. This is the pattern we will be using for the entirety of the reading. The notes below will follow Edwards' own outline directly, with all direct quotes from the text in italics. My goal is to make each post edifying on its own, even for those who are not reading along with us. I will welcome your questions or comments in the form below.) Charity and Its Fruits Lecture III. Part One - Doctrine The Greatest Performances or Sufferings in Vain Without Charity "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 1 Cor. 13: 3 All ...

If you've been following along with our study through Jonathan Edwards' Charity and Its Fruits, you know we are just wrapping up a hiatus of a few weeks.  With the New Year stretched out before us, and no pregnancies at work in our Chico study group, we should from here on out be advancing forward at a more steady pace, Lord willing.  In yesterday evening's class we picked up where we left off - at the application portion of Lecture Two.  Since I already posted the class notes for this particular section before the hiatus, I'd like to take some time this week to focus on one question that arose during this week's discussion. In our reading, Edwards makes this key point: "Hence these two kinds of privileges are not to be confounded, by taking things that have some appearance of an extraordinary miraculous gift of the Spirit, for sure signs of grace."   Rather: "All the fruits of the Spirit, which we are to lay weight upon as evidential of grace, ...

As I hinted in a previous post , the loss of my mother has left me a bit at a loss for words while I process the experience of her death and seek some perspective on her life and suffering. But that is not all that keeps me from writing.  The loss of a close family member brings on a lot of strange and unexpected (for one as inexperienced as me anyway) yet necessary activity. There were phone calls to be made, forms to fill out, accounts to be closed, an apartment to empty and clean, personal possessions to distribute in the process, and on top of all that, room had to be found in my crowded little house for the portion of her belongings that will remain with me. I quickly found myself filling the hours I'd previously spent tending to my mom rearranging my life for her absence. Suddenly I wanted just the right place to put this or that thing to remember her by - and I had all this extra time to make it happen. So, the grief over my mother has led to a catharsis of sorts of rearrang...

To all of you following and/or participating in our online study through Jonathan Edwards' Charity and Its Fruits, I'd like to offer my thanks for your patience during this somewhat unplanned hiatus. Among our local church study group we've experienced the birth of a son and the illness and death of a mother. The mother being my own, I've had to set this study aside for a few weeks, but am about ready to resume, with a slight change in schedule to accommodate the needs of our Chico group.  We plan to resume our meetings on Wednesdays instead of Mondays and beginning on the 13th of this month.  I will try to have the study and discussion notes posted here that evening before my bedtime.