Commonplace Monday #29

"The closer you get to what makes Christianity ghastly, the closer you get to what makes it glorious."
John Piper

 Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Subscribe to the Stopping to Think newsletter:

Popular posts from this blog

Why We're Moving

I hate when people say that their motivation behind something is, "God told me to do it." Or that they "had a peace" or they "felt God wanted them too." Not because there is anything wrong with those statements so much as most people using them come off as completely disingenuous. I want to do something and don't want you to question my actions or motives, thus I will claim God's leading. Who are you to question God? Now that I that out there, I want to tell you why we're moving. Because God said to. Not written in a book, or in an audible voice. But there is no doubt in my mind that God wants us to move to Iowa. The question you may ask is, why is that important? It is important if for no other reason than that people don't think my wife is dragging me away from Idaho. Three years ago, when we were in that long-distance dating, trying to figure out where this thing is going stage, I had full intent to move to Iowa. It was prett obvio
Read more

A quick thought on Christian thought.

Okay, so it's late, so I'm gonna keep this short.  But I'm gonna ask you a few questions and ask you to think through them critically, because I believe your answers to them will radically affect your beliefs...let me rephrase, they do  radically affect your beliefs, this will simply aid us in identifying this circumstance.  When we read the Bible we often come up with questions.  This is good, and healthy.  Questions encourage thought and when we question and subsequently find answers our thoughts are more firmly established, faith is built, etc.  But there are times when we come to Scripture and are troubled by what we find.  Times when God exercises speedy justice and we question His fairness.  Times when we see something go unpunished and question His justice.  Times when we come up against a doctrine (eg, predestination) that seems to contradict our view of who God is and/or how He operates.  In times like these it is of extreme importance to keep in mind that things s
Read more

Posers

Last night over in Harrison, I had the privilege of listening to Wayne Eve speak on Christian "posers." That is to say, those people who are so called "nominal Christians." He went over what a poser looks like, and contasted that with what God has actually called us to.  And as I lay in bed last night afterward, I couldn't get the topic out of my mind, and my thoughts were churning relelntlesy.  I had to get up and open the Word, and God pointed me to Hebrews 10, and what I saw there is what I'm going to write. You see, in Scripture there isn't anyone who could be called a "nominal" Christian. The term really is an oxymoron. Claiming the name of Christ without a willingness to lay aside all earthly things is of no lasting value. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart you will be saved. It sounds so incredibly easy. But then if you turn back to John 3:36 you will see the unmistakable link between belief
Read more