Benjamin > Recent Status Updates

“You were always by me, mercifully hard upon me, and besprinkling all my illicit pleasures with certain elements of bitterness, to draw me on to seek for pleasures in which no bitterness should be. And where was I to find such pleasure save in You O Lord, You who use sorrow to teach, and wound us to heal, and kill us lest we die to You."

This is one of my favorite books and I’m very much looking forward to this re-read. Two quotes from today that stand out:

1. "For Thou has made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee.”

2. "Let me see Thy face even if I die, lest I die with longing to see it."

"the magnitude of man's sin consists in the fact that he used God-given powers in the service of Satan."

This book is answering so many questions that I’ve held for so long.

So far, this is interesting. The authors are trying to explain how what we think of as “contemporary praise and worship” came to be. They do this by asserting that two different strains of thought, both arising in the 1940s, merged into the single movement in the 1990s. Essentially, one group wanted to restore biblical praise and worship and the other wanted to be relevant. Now, it’s one movement that’s everywhere.

Two quotes today:

"When we choose the fleeting pleasures of comfort and security over the sacrifices and sufferings of missions and evangelism and ministry and love, we choose against joy.”

"How many Christians do you know who could says, "The lifestyle I have chosen as a Christian would be utterly foolish and pitiable if there is no resurrection"?"

- “There are three levels of how to live with things. You can steal to get. Or you can work to get. Or you work to get to in order to give. Too many professing Christians live on level two.”

- "For self-interest is not the same as selfishness. Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of others. Love seeks its happiness in the happiness of the beloved."

"God is not looking for people to work for him so much as he is looking for people who will let him work for them. The Gospel is not a "help wanted" ad.... He will not surrender his glory of being the giver."

"No one is a Christian who does not embrace Jesus gladly as his most valued treasure and then pursue the fulness of that joy in Christ that honors him."

"I find in the bible a divine command to be a pleasure seeker--that is, to forsake the two-bit, low-yield, short-term, never-satisfying, person-destroying, God-belittling pleasures of the world and instead to sell everything with joy (Matt. 13:44) in order to have the kingdom of heaven and thus "enter into the joy of your master" (25:21)."

Did I listen to half the book in the car today? Maybe. And I have thoughts.

- I’m engaged

- I like the world building. It’s logical and satisfying.

- Sanderson likes world building too much and forgets to keep the story going

- It feels aimed at a younger audience than me

- oh look, a protagonist and older mentor trying to take down “the empire” with a mighty evil emperor… again

Currently this feels like Star Wars with more rules, less lightsabers, and a more depressed protagonist

Quite good so far.

Shockingly good

It’s 530 pages, so this is going to take me a minute. So far so good. It prompted a deep dive and I finally answered the question, “Does the Council of Trent contradict Vatican II?"