Austin Preuss > Recent Status Updates

"Therefore, whenever we are undergoing pain and suffering, we need to be clear that God is primarily concerned about our heart attitude, not with providing instant answers or relief according to our whims or desires." (MacArthur, 116)

"God often sends suffering our way to drive us to Him and compel us to look away from ourselves. We have all seen Him do so, if not in our lives then in the lives of others who have endured major trials or physical suffering and have grown in their faith as a result." (MacArthur 93)

Have recently felt convicted to deepen my understanding of this topic. Hopefully a quick read.

"The path to blessing is often through suffering but always through obedience" (MacArthur, 39)

"Hitler, although an unusual name, is not unheard-of in South Africa [...] Hitler was so powerful that at some point black people had to go help white people fight against him [..] If you want your dog to be tough, you name your dog Hitler"

How peculiar...

"The history of colored people in South Africa is, in this respect, worse than the history of the black people in South Africa. For all that black people have suffered, they know who they are. Colored people don't."

"British racism said, "If the monkey can walk and talk like a man, then perhaps he is a man." Afrikaner racism said, "Why give a book to a monkey?"

"Church and covenant intersect in three chief areas: reading the Bible, professing the faith, and living the Christian life"

"Though death the destroyer was once a burial shroud covering all people, death itself will be destroyed. Christ will trade the shroud of death for the robe of righteousness"

"The Word, baptism, and the Lord's Supper are meant to be intrinsic to the life of the local church, practiced as shared expressions of our faith. In a hyper-individualistic age, these markers of our faith have sometimes been reduced to being primarily or entirely about the experience of the individual, rather than about that individual's connection to the church community."

"Christian, here is good news: there is no such thing as 'you in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.' To be a believer is to be in relationship with both God and His church."

"Sometimes we need to do the right thing whether our liver quivers or not. Our feelings matter, but they are not necessarily reliable indicators of the Spirit's presence or work. The Spirit is not a feeling—He's a person!"

"Once God's enemies, the cross declares us friends. Once hostile to God, the cross declares us holy. The death of Jesus defeats death on a cosmic level."

"Self-determination is fundamentally a denial of our Creator-creature relationship. It believes identity is achieved, not received."

"The Bible is not just a text that informs us but a text that transforms us. [...] The living and active Word shouts what the creation whispers: there is a God, and you are made to commune with Him."

"Theology and worship are not adversarial. They are two sides of the same coin. Theology is loving God with our minds."

"Not only are we all theologians, but we are so by design. We were created to think and speak words about God that represent Him rightly. We are built for theological thought and discourse—every last one of us."