Brotherly Wisdom

"Most people seem to assume it's God's job to love them. Of course God loves us. What else does he have to do? He is weak, small, and maybe even a little nerdy. He needs us. He pines for us. And if we pay him any attention--go to church, do a good deed, recycle, or maybe meditate while listening to soothing music--then we've done him a really big favor.
The love of God is wonderful news only when we understand his transcendence--when we tremble at his holiness, when we're awed by his perfection and power." -Joshua Harris Dug Deep Down p. 46.

Fatherly Advice

"For now full of what was in fact my punishment, I had begun to desire to seem wise. I did not mourn my ignorance, but rather was puffed up with knowledge. For where was that love which builds upon the foundation of humility, which is Jesus Christ? Or, when would these books teach me this?" -St. Augustine of Hippo Confessions 7.20.26

The books Augustine speaks of are the books of the (neo)Platonists--books he is grateful to have had knowledge of, but books he is even more grateful to have placed under the Holy Scriptures. I used to have this quote framed, setting on my bookshelf.

Fatherly Advice

"Grant me, O Lord, to know and understand whether first to invoke Thee or to praise Thee, whether first to know Thee or call upon Thee. But who can invoke Thee, knowing Thee not? For he who knows Thee not may invoke Thee as another than Thou art.
It may be that we should invoke Thee in order that we may come to know Thee. But 'how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe without a preacher?' Now, 'they shall praise the Lord who seek him,' for 'those who seek shall find him,' and finding him, shall praise him. I will seek Thee, O Lord, and call upon Thee. I call upon Thee, O Lord, in my faith, which Thou hast given me, which Thou hast inspired in me through the humanity of Thy Son, and through the ministry of Thy preacher." -St. Augustine of Hippo The Confessions 1.1.2

Brotherly Wisdom

"The acute sense of the inadequacy of words explains why Augustine at the beginning of the Confessions experiences difficulty in finding any way of addressing God intelligibly, or speaking about God correctly. The answer to the question he finds in the reception of Scripture in the Christian community. The Bible consists of words, human indeed but for the believing community a gift of God so that within the sign there is also the divine reality..." --Henry Chadwick, "Introduction" to The Confessions p. 22.

The believing community receives the Word of God as a gift. A gift. A treasure. In it they find everything necessary for life and godliness. God has spoken and it is sufficient. It pains me to see so many today claiming to be part of this same believing community who are apparently dissatisfied with the Word of God. To say that God has spoken seems so "limiting." They want to say He speaks to them internally and privately. Now, that definitely sounds more exciting, more romantic. But think for a second about what they are saying about God's Word. (Without putting words in their mouths) I hear them saying, "Sure the Bible is useful for teaching, reproof, training in righteousness, etc, but I need more." It seems to me that Paul's concern in the context of that great passage on Holy Scripture is exactly our need for more. He warns "evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and been convinced of. Because you know those from whom you learned it." (2 Tim 3:13-14) The main difference between Paul's opponents and what he is asking his readers (us) to be is continuance in what has been received. This is why he assures us in vs 16 that the Scriptures are sufficient. They are enough. Eat them. Listen to them. Dwell on them day and night. In the words of Ron Heine, "Inhabit them."

Fatherly Advice

"The same thing appears in the nature and design of the sacraments,
which God hath appointed. God, considering our frame, hath not only
appointed that we should be told of the great things of the gospel, and
of the redemption of Christ, and instructed in them by his word; but
also that they should be, as it were, exhibited to our view, in
sensible representations, in the sacraments, the more to affect us with
them." -Jonathan Edwards The Religious Affections 1.2.9

Edwards wants to point out God's design in worship is to have physical actions which engage the mind and the affections. "Affect" or "affections" are Edwards words for the inclinations of our will. The opposite of being "affected" is being indifferent.

Brotherly Wisdom

"Jonathan Edwards, as a defender of the Great Awakening, always insisted that a living spirituality was the one indispensible thing. Yet Edwards also realized how vital it was to struggle toward distinctly Christian views of the world. To him there was no antithesis between heartfelt devotion and the most recondite labors of the mind." -Mark Noll Scandal of the Evangelical Mind p. 77.

You might ask which Brother's Wisdom is this, Jonathan Edwards' or Mark Noll's? History, as little as we like to admit, is always biased. Noll is not offering us an objective account of the demeanor of a Christian figure. He is holding Edwards up as an example of the Evangelical ideal. He even tells us in this quote those specific qualities that make him so venerable. Edwards becomes a vehicle for Noll to communicate the need for Evangelicalism to recapture the vision for critically thinking coupled with hearty devotion.

Fatherly Advice

"Gracious light of the holy glory
of the holy, blessed,
immortal, and heavenly Father,
Jesus Christ!
Having come to the setting of the sun,
seeing the evening light,
we hymn the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit of God.
Worthy are you at all times
to be praised with holy voices
Son of God, the giver of life.
Therfore the world glorifies you."
-A Greek Evening Hymn
(Everett Fersuson, Early Christians Speak: Faith and Life in the First Three Centuries, pp. 149-150)

Brotherly Wisdom

"Sometimes we say and do the silliest things, but one of the silliest things we could possibly imagine, is that somehow within us naturally there dwells, apart from grace, the possibility of being authentically and truly pious." -D. Jeffrey Bingham, The Possibility of Piety (Sermon delivered at Redeemer Church)

Brotherly Wisdom

Everywhere I go I see You
--Rich Mullins, I See You

Fatherly Advice

Think for a moment, and ask yourself if the business of the world could be carried on without the figure of the cross. The sea cannot be crossed unless the sign of victory--the mast--remains unharmed. Without it there is no ploughing: neither diggers nor mechanics can do their work without tools of this shape. The human figure is distinguished from that of brute beasts solely by having an upright posture and the ability to extend the arms; and also by the nose through which the creature gets his breath, which is set at right angles to the brow, and displays just the shape of the cross. It was said of the prophet, "The breath before your face is the Lord Christ." (Lam. 4:20) --Justin Martyr Apologia 1.55.