*Article originally published on Desiring God. I often hear about the benefits of silence in our world of sound. Many people — secular and religious — recommend taking time away from television, music, videos, news, and social media to sit in silence and just be. This is all well and good, but it can get confusing as to why. What is the point of silence?
In the collection of writings and letters known as The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence continually urges his readers to consistently seek to recognize God’s presence. On this idea, he writes, “Above all, get a habit of entertaining yourself often with God, and forget Him the least you can”…
Charles Spurgeon, in his book All of Grace, describes the connection of faith and grace. These are two beautiful words and ideas which everyone knows are important in the Christian faith, but many don’t know how they relate, if at all. Spurgeon is a king of using analogy in order to get across an idea clearly, and here is a great example of it. Speaking of faith and grace…
One of Paul’s simplest commands I can think of is his command to “pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:1). It comes as he is writing to a divided church, a church filled with people who are so focused on their own personal gifts, a church that is puffed up in many ways. And in this setting, Paul says simply but powerfully, “pursue love”…
In the first chapter of his book, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer starts by reminding the reader how special it is to have Christian community, to be able to live in this life with other Christians. He reminds us how much it is a gift of God’s grace. He starts by explaining that God has orchestrated it so that the kingdom of God is a scattered people throughout the world, in the midst of the world…
Francis Schaeffer, in his book True Spirituality, discusses what it really means to be a Christian. It is an excellent, well thought out book. His basic idea is that we need to recognize that we live in a total universe, in which God exists and in which Christ’s finished work on the cross is sufficient. And that we are called in this universe to really die by choice to certain attitudes and desires so that we can truly live resurrected lives here and now by faith in Christ…
It is so tempting to think that Christianity (and God himself) is all about rules. That God is just the high and mighty authoritative Being who simply wants us to do certain things and doesn’t want us to do other things. But when we read the Bible, it actually becomes clear that this isn’t the God of the Bible. This isn’t Christianity at all. God is supreme, majestic, and ruling over all. But it isn’t God’s heart at all just to give us rules because he just wants to control us…
In the edited book, Worldliness, C.J. Mahaney explains in the opening chapter why worldliness is so serious. After showing the importance of loving Jesus above all else biblically, and after debunking the idea that fighting worldliness is legalism, he ends the first chapter of the book with a powerful, brief sentence summarizing it all. He writes…
In his book, The Prodigal God, Tim Keller focuses on both brothers in Jesus’ famous parable about the prodigal son. He argues well that Jesus in the parable is purposefully trying to represent the two main ways people decide to seek for meaning and happiness in life. One main way is by self-discovery and autonomy (represented by the younger brother). The other is by morality and being good and right (represented by the older brother). Keller writes…
Leon Morris, the late Australian New Testament scholar, has a short, helpful book on the Holy Spirit entitled Spirit of the Living God (which sadly is not in print anymore!). In it, he helpfully outlines how we can grieve and quench the Spirit of God…
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