HeadTheology

I don’t know if you saw the CNN special God’s Warriors but they had a myriad of pastors discussing their view of mixing Christianity and politics. They had Jerry Falwell, John Hagee, Greg Boyd, and a few others. Certainly all the pastors I picked were not on my top ten theologians list but of all the messages that I heard Greg Boyd’s agreed with me the most. He states that “America is not the Kingdom of God” on the broadcast in seeming opposition to Falwell’s and Hagee’s message. I think in a lot of American churches there is this hubris which agrees that America is God’s nation and just maybe a little less than Israel in the OT and that is dangerous to say that.

Boyd also states that Christianity should have more to say in politics than just that homosexual marriage and abortion is wrong. Christians should speak out against greed corporations that have sweat shops in third world countries and have more to say about fighting poverty and other ‘life issues’.

I only wish they could have gotten someone who was not a heretic to espouse the political views that Boyd did.

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I’ve read four Puritan Paperbacks in my life and intend to read them all before my life is done Lord willing since they are such inspirations to holiness and having an abiding joy in God. So far The Doctrine of Repentance, by Thomas Watson, has to be my favorite, or maybe it convictingly spoke to me when I needed it at a time in my life. Nevertheless, whenever someone wants me to recommend a book to them this is usually one of the first ones I mention. Not only is it an easy read (at least much easier than reading John Owen) but the content is pure gold. I can’t see why Christians would want to feed their life with all of the fluff that overflows most Christian bookstores when they can have something so nourishing as The Doctrine of Repentance. This book goes well with Owen’s The Mortification of Sin since there can be no mortification of sin without repentance. Here are my favorite quotes from The Doctrine of Repentance.

“It is better to go with difficulty to heaven than with ease to hell” (8)

“A woman may as well expect to have a child without pangs as one can have repentance without sorrow. He that can believe without doubting, suspect his faith; and he that can repent without sorrowing, suspect his repentance.” (19)

“We are to find as much bitterness in weeping for sin as ever we found sweetness in committing it.” (24)

“The Christian has arrived as a sufficient measure of sorrow when the love of sin is purged out.” (24)

“The more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we shall taste in Christ.” (27)

(more…)

I’ve picked up The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter again partially because I finished another Puritan Paperback (if you don’t know what I am talking about check them out here) and because I am going to start leading a Community Group at my church this fall. I am about a third through it and all I can say is Baxter provides such a warmth and warning to those who would dare lead in the church at all. The warmth comes from a God centeredness, in statements like,

“As you may render him more service, so you may do him more disservice than others. The nearer men stand to God, the greater dishonor hath he by their miscarriages; and more will they be imputed by foolish men to God himself.” (78)

and the warning to live holy lives because people are watching all the more,

“Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine, and lest you lay such stumbling-blocks before the blind, as may be the occasion of their ruin, lest you unsay with your lives, what you say with your tongues; and be the greatest hinderers of the success of your own labours.” (63)

I hope in the future to post my favorite quotes from The Reformed Pastor as I did from the The Mortification of Sin.

I finally finished The Mortification of Sin by John Owen for the second time. I must say that it is a book that gets much richer the second time around. I can’t say though that of all the Puritans I have read it transformed my Christian walk like J. I. Packer’s, The Doctrine of Repentance by Thomas Watson holds that place. Nonetheless, The Mortification of Sin is a superb book well worth its arduous read and worth apply to one’s Christian sojourn.

One of the things that I wish more book reviews had in them were more quotes from the book. I know that pulling quotes out of context can be deadly but I’d rather those of you who have not read the book get the highlights from Owen himself. I want you to taste this work itself to inspire you to read it, not to tell you what it tastes like. So without further ado, here are my favorite quotes from The Mortification of Sin.

“the vigor, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depend on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh.” (p.24)

“Be killing sin, or it will be killing you” (p.26)

“When sin lets us alone, we may let it alone: but as sin is never less quiet than when it seems to be the most quiet, and its waters are for the most part deep when they are still, so ought our contrivances against it to be vigorous at all times, in all conditions, even where there is least suspicion.” (p.28)

“[Sin] is modest, as it were, in its first motions and proposals; but having once got footing in the heart by them, it constantly makes good its ground, and presseth on to some degrees in the same kind.” (p.31)

“Not to be daily mortifying sin is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace and love of God, who hath furnished us with a principle of doing it.” (p.32)

“Let not that man think he makes any progress in holiness, who walks not over the neck of his lusts.” (p.34) (more…)