Notes on *Plastic Donuts*

Plastic Donuts: Giving That Delights the Heart of the Father, Jeff Anderson (Multnomah, 2013)

Main Idea/Takeaway

• Discerning the kind of giving that delights the heart of the Father.

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. The Plastic Donut

II. What is Acceptable?

III. Does the Amount Matter?

IV. Rule #1 There Are No Rules

V. A Two Percent Perspective

VI. Because You Can

VII. All the Difference

VIII. That Chair

Postscript

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Introduction

• "When you start to see giving from God's perspective, the lights will come on." (3)

I. The Plastic Donut

• "I didn't see it coming, but at that moment it occurred to me: this is how our giving must feel from God's perspective. Our gifts to Him are like Plastic Donuts. God does not need our gifts or our money. But like a child's gift that moves her father, our gifts can really get God's attention." (8)

• "For years I had thought a lot about the receivers of my gifts: my church, my neighbor, my chosen charities.

  And I had studied the benefits that come to me as a giver. But I hadn't given much thought to my gift from God's viewpoint. Could it be that God desires a similar Plastic-Donut experience when I give to Him?" (9)

• "Remember, we all need personal clarity from Scripture when a question arises." (14)

• "...when your questions about giving can be answered with confidence, your connection with your heavenly Father will grow stronger." (16)

• "I saw more clearly why the joy of giving can seem so elusive. It's hard to experience it without looking up to the Father. Often, instead of looking up with my gift, I was looking down. Instead of pondering God's reaction to my giving, I was occupied with my own feelings on the subject. Instead of giving to the One unseen, I'd been giving to what I could see." (19)

II. What is Acceptable?

• "Still today, people are curious about Cain and Abel's gifts. For a story with so few details, theologians have many ideas. This much is clear: in the very begin-ning, God showed great interest in the gifts from His children." (23)

• "...perhaps the most significant lesson is this: Not all gifts are the same to Him. Not all gifts are acceptable." (24)

• "But when it comes to our pleasing God, bad doctrine often gets in the way. Some people view it as a performance or a way to appease God-or maybe to satisfy His demands. Of course, this is wrong. Others react negatively to the idea of pleasing God because of their past inability to please the people who are most important to them: a parent, a spouse, a boss, a friend. This is unfortunate. We may carry baggage from ruptured relationships on earth, but our relationship with God is different. It is pure! We can please God, and

  for the right reasons. Our greatest aim in life should be to please Him, whether we are on earth or in heaven (see2 Corinthians 5:9). The thought of pleasing God should be comforting to us, and our gifts are one tool that help us please Him."(26)

• "One of the most surprising to many of us is this: our gifts can delight the heart of the Father, bringing a smile to His face. These are acceptable gifts. (30)

III. Does the Amount Matter?

• "When it comes to our gifts, the amount matters. When the gift amount matters to us, it can matter to God too. When the amount doesn't matter to us, it doesn't matter to God." (35)

• "The question is, what are the amounts that matter to you? Do your gifts to God fit in this category? Are you as diligent in making careful provision for your gifts to God as you are in making other financial decisions?" (35)

• "In my discussions with Christians about giving, no opinion has been more frequently expressed than this one: "The amount doesn't really matter. It's all about the heart." I understand the good intentions behind this statement. The problem is, the message is wrong. Often we pull the heart card to avoid deeper questions about the amount we give."(37)

• "In fact, it's the amount that helps engage the heart."(38)

• "Much of my time and attention were spent considering other things to do with the 90 percent. I spent very little time thinking about the 10 percent I was giving away and zero time imagining a life of giving more than that."(40)

• "What I didn't realize was that my lifestyle had frozen my giving at the 10 percent level. When it came to my finances, my lifestyle had all the influence."(40)

• "Do your gifts engage your heart in worship? Do your gifts influence your lifestyle? Do your gift amounts matter to you? From God's perspective, the amount matters." (41)

IV. Rule #1 There Are No Rules

• "It's our next Acceptable Gift truth: When it comes to our gifts, we determine the amount." (44)

• "In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus provided instructions on giving, praying, and fasting. For each, He focused on the heart standard but did not provide an amount standard (see Matthew 6:1-18)."(45)

• "The bottom line is this: we determine the amount of our gifts. There is tremendous God-given freedom in that— and responsibility too."(60)

V. A Two Percent Perspective

• "If you've spent any time studying giving statistics, you likely know about the 2 percent. That's the percentage of income people give, on average, to charitable or religious causes. I agree it's a disappointing stat—not the measurement, but what it means. It falls well short of the 10 percent standard that has been held up as a minimum level for biblical giving."(64)

VI. Because You Can

• "God desires everyone to give according to their abilities. It's a simple plan."(74)

• "Even though she was poor, the widow had a benchmark for a superior gift-it was her ability."(77)

• "Instead of asking why give more, we began to ask why not? Giving decisions became easier."(82)

• "Tapping your true giving ability will require countercultural lifestyle choices-such as debt-free living or a reduction in your spending."(84)

• "When it comes to our gifts, we know the amount matters. And when selecting our gifts, we determine the amount, in order to delight our Father.

  In measuring whether our gift is the acceptable kind, God measures it according to our ability. He understands our ability and takes it into consideration, not as a celestial bill collector, but as a loving Father."(90)

VII. All the Difference

• "In the end, it is the condition of the giver's heart that makes the gift pleasing to God."(95)

• "On one hand, God doesn't want our gifts without our hearts being clear. On the other hand, we have seen that without gifts, our hearts cannot fully express love for God or others."(96)

• "Just because more than one thing is desired- and one is more highly sought than the other-does not mean that the other is not desired. Make sense? Without a heart that pleases God, our gifts have limited value. And without gifts that please God, our heart expression is limited."(96)

• "That means that a primary way we speak from our hearts is through our gifts."(97)

• "The gift helps your heart speak what it really feels. And the heart makes your gift count for what it's really worth. The gift and the heart—they work together."(98)

• "Look up. Give your heart and soul to God. Then sense His smile. Sense His pleasure in you. Feel His embrace."(104)

VIII. That Chair

• "So bring your gifts to Him. May they be pleasing and acceptable in His sight. And may your face light up as you imagine the joyful approval of your Father as He receives you in one arm...and your Plastic Donuts in the other."(108)

Notable Content

"The next time you give a gift, remember the Acceptable Gift truths:

• The amount matters.

• We determine the amount.

• We give according to ability.

• The heart makes the gift count."(108)

Notes on *Redemption Accomplished and Applied*

Redemption Accomplished and Applied, John Murray, (Eerdmans, 1955)

Main Idea/Takeaway

The atonement, central to the Christian faith, has its source in the free and sovereign love of God.

Interaction

• "Lamb and Priest" (28)

• "Faith is not a work" (85)

• "On mystery" (167)

• "On union" (168)

Table of Contents

Part I: Redemption Accomplished

I. The Necessity of the Atonement

II. The Nature of the Atonement

III. The Perfection of the Atonement 

IV. The Extent of the Atonement

V. Conclusion

Part II: Redemption Applied

I. The Order of Application

II. Effectual Calling

III. Regeneration

IV. Faith and Repentance

V. Justification

VI. Adoption

VII. Sanctification

VIII. Perseverance

IX. Union with Christ

X. Glorification

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Part I: Redemption Accomplished

I. THE NECESSITY OF THE ATONEMENT

• “No treatment of the atonement can be properly oriented that does not trace its source to the free and sovereign love of God.” (9)

• “God was pleased to set his invincible and everlasting love upon a countless multitude and it is the determinate purpose of this love that the atonement secures.” (10)

• “The reason resides wholly in himself and proceeds from determinations that are peculiarly his as the "I am that I am." The atonement does not win or constrain the love of God. The love of God constrains to the atonement as the means of accomplishing love's determinate purpose.” (10)

• “In a word, while it was not inherently necessary for God to save, yet, since salvation had been purposed, it was necessary to secure this salvation through a satisfaction that could be rendered only through substitutionary sacrifice and blood-bought redemption.” (12)

• “The more we emphasize the inflexible demands of justice and holiness the more marvelous become the love of God and its provisions.” (18)

II. THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT

• “The real use and purpose of the formula is to emphasize the two distinct aspects of our Lord's vicarious obedience. The truth expressed rests upon the recognition that the law of God has both penal sanctions and positive demands. It demands not only the full discharge of its precepts but also the infliction of penalty for all infractions and shortcomings. It is this twofold demand of the law of God which is taken into account when we speak of the active and passive obedience of Christ. Christ as the vicar of his people came under the curse and condemnation due to sin and he also fulfilled the law of God in all its positive requirements.” (21)

• “We must interpret the sacrifice of Christ in terms of the Levitical patterns because they were themselves patterned after Christ's offering.” (27)

• “That Christ's work was to offer himself a sacrifice for sin implies, however, a complementary truth too frequently over-looked. It is that, if Christ offered himself as a sacrifice, he was also a priest. And it was as a priest that he offered himself. He was not offered up by another; he offered himself.” (28)

• “The propitiation of the divine wrath, effected in the expiatory work of Christ, is the provision of God's eternal and unchangeable love, so that through the propitiation of his own wrath that love may realize its purpose in a way that is consonant with and to the glory of the dictates of his holiness.” (31)

• “Thirdly, propitiation does not detract from the love and mercy of God; it rather enhances the marvel of his love. For it shows the cost that redemptive love entails. God is love. But the supreme object of that love is himself. And because he loves himself supremely he cannot suffer what belongs to the integrity of his character and glory to be compromised or curtailed. That is the reason for the propitiation. God appeases his own holy wrath in the cross of Christ in order that the purpose of his love to lost men may be accomplished in accordance with and to the vindication of all the perfections that constitute his glory.” (32)

• “The wrath of God is the inevitable reaction of the divine holiness against sin. Sin is the contradiction of the perfection of God and he cannot but recoil against that which is the contradiction of himself. Such recoil is his holy indignation.” (32)

• “To deny propitiation is to undermine the nature of the atonement as the vicarious endurance of the penalty of sin. In a word, it is to deny substitutionary atonement. To glory in the cross is to glory in Christ as the propitiatory sacrifice once offered, as the abiding propitiatory, and as the one who embodies in himself for ever all the propitiatory efficacy of the propitiation once for all accomplished.” (32)

• “Reconciliation presupposes disrupted relations between God and men. It implies enmity and alienation. This alienation is twofold, our alienation from God and God's alienation from us. The cause of the alienation is, of course, our sin, but the alienation consists not only in our unholy enmity against God but also in God's holy alienation from us.” (33)

• “Redemption from the power of sin may be called the triumphal aspect of redemption. In his finished work Christ did something once for all respecting the power of sin and it is in virtue of this victory which he secured that the power of sin is broken in all those who are united to him. It is in this connection that a strand of New Testament teaching needs to be appreciated but which is frequently overlooked. It is that not only is Christ regarded as having died for the believer but the believer is represented as having died in Christ and as having been raised up with him to newness of life? This is the result of union with Christ. For by this union Christ is not only united to those who have been given to him but they are united with him. Hence not only did Christ die for them but they died in him and rose with him (cf. Rom. 6:1-10; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15; Eph. 2:1-7; Col. 3:1-4; I Pet. 4:1, 2).” (48)

III. THE PERFECTION OF THE ATONEMENT

• “If we once allow the notion of human satisfaction to intrude itself in our construction of justification or sanctification then we have polluted the river the streams whereof make glad the city of God. And the gravest perversion that it entails is that it robs the Redeemer of the glory of his once-for-all accomplishment.” (51)

• “In a word, Jesus met all the exigencies arising from our sin and he procured all the benefits that lead to, and are consummated in, the liberty of the glory of the children of God.” (58)

IV. THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT

• “The question is: on whose behalf did Christ offer himself a sacrifice? On whose behalf did he propitiate the wrath of God? Whom did he reconcile to God in the body of his flesh through death? Whom did he redeem from the curse of the law, from the guilt and power of sin, from the enthralling power and bondage of Satan? In whose stead and on whose behalf was he obedient unto death, even the death of the cross? These are precisely the questions that have to be asked and frankly faced if the matter of the extent of the atonement is to be placed in proper focus.” (62)

• “Christ did not come to put men in a redeemable position but to reedem to himself a people.” (63)

• “Christ did not come to make sins expiable. He came to expiate sins " when he made purification of sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3). Christ did not come to make God reconcilable. He reconciled us to God by his own blood.” (63)

• “The very nature of Christ's mission and accomplishment is involved in this question. Did Christ come to make the salvation of all men possible, to remove obstacles that stood in the way of salvation, and merely to make provision for salvation? Or did he come to save his people?

  Did he come to put all men in a salvable state?

  Or did he come to secure the salvation of all those who are ordained to eternal life? Did he come to make men redeemable? Or did he come effectually and infallibly to redeem?” (63)

V. CONCLUSION

• “Here we are the spectators of a wonder the praise and glory of which eternity will not exhaust. It is the Lord of glory, the Son of God incarnate, the God-man, drinking the cup given him by the eternal Father, the cup of woe and of indescribable agony. We almost hesitate to say so. But it must be said. It is God in our nature forsaken of God. The cry from the accursed tree evinces nothing less than the abandonment that is the wages of sin. And it was abandonment endured vicariously because he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. There is no analogy. He himself bore our sins and of the people there was none with him.” (78)

Part II: Redemption Applied

I. THE ORDER OF APPLICATION

• “God justifies the ungodly who believe in Jesus, in a word, believers. And that is simply to say that faith is presupposed in justification, is the precondition of justification, not because we are justified on the not ground of faith or for the reason that we are justified because of faith but only for the reason that faith is God's appointed instrument through which he dispenses this grace.” (85)

• “Salvation is of the Lord in its application as well as in its conception and accomplishment.” (87)

II. EFFECTUAL CALLING

• “We do not call ourselves, we do not set ourselves apart by sovereign volition any more than we regenerate, justify, or adopt ourselves. Calling is an act of God and of God alone.” (89)

• “The sovereignty and efficacy of the call do not relax human responsibility but rather ground and confirm that responsibility.” (92)

III. REGENERATION

• “God's call, since it is effectual, carries with it the operative grace whereby the person called is enabled to answer the call and to embrace Jesus Christ as he is freely offered in the gospel.” (96)

• “It has often been said that we are passive in regeneration This is a true and proper statement, For it is simply the precipitate of what our Lord has taught us here. We may not like it. We may recoil against it. sIt may not fit into our way of thinking and it may not accord with the time-worn expressions which are the coin of our evangelism. But if we recoil against it, we do well to remember that this recoil is recoil against Christ.” (99)

• “The regenerate person cannot live in sin and be unconverted. And neither can he live any longer in neutral abstraction.” (104)

IV. FAITH AND REPENTANCE

• “The gospel offer is not restricted to the elect or even to those for whom Christ died. And the warrant of faith is not the conviction that we are elect or that we are among those for whom, strictly speaking, Christ died but the fact that Christ, in the glory of his person, in the perfection of his finished work, and in the efficacy of his exalted activity as King and Savior, is presented to us in the full, free, and unrestricted overture of the gospel. It is not as persons convinced of our election nor as persons convinced that we are the special objects of God's love that we commit ourselves to him but as lost sinners.” (109)

• “Faith is knowledge passing into conviction, and it is conviction passing into confidence. Faith cannot stop short of self-commitment to Christ, a transference of reliance upon ourselves and all human resources to reliance upon Christ alone for salvation. It is a receiving and resting upon him.” (111)

• “The specific character of faith is that it looks away from itself and finds its whole interest and object in Christ. He is the absorbing preoccupation of faith.” (112)

• “It is not our responsibility to regenerate our-selves. Regeneration is the action of God and of God alone.

  It is our responsibility to be what regeneration effects.” (112)

V. JUSTIFICATION

• “Justification is both a declarative and a constitutive act of God's free grace. It is constitutive in order that it may be truly declarative. God must constitute the new relationship as well as declare it to be. The constitutive act consists in the imputation to us of the obedience and righteousness of Christ. The obedience of Christ must therefore be regarded as the ground of justification; it is the righteousness which God not only takes into account but reckons to our account when he justifies the ungodly.” (125)

• “Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. Justification is not all that is embraced in the gospel of redeeming grace. Christ is a complete Savior and it is not justification alone that the believing sinner possesses in him. And faith is not the only response in the heart of him who has entrusted himself to Christ for salvation. Faith alone justifies but a justified person with faith alone would be a monstrosity which never exists in the kingdom of grace. Faith works itself out through love (cf. Gal. 5:6). And faith without works is dead (cf. James 2: 17-20).” (131)

VI. ADOPTION

• “By adoption the redeemed become sons and daughters of the ford God Al mighty; they are introduced into and given the privileges of God's family.” (132)

• “God becomes the Father of his own people by the act of adoption. It is specifically God the Father who is the agent of this act of grace. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God, and we are" (I John 3: 1).” (137)

VII. SANCTIFICATION

• “Sanctification is a work of God in us, and calling and regeneration are acts of God which have their immediate effects in us.” (141)

• “This deliverance from the power of sin secured by union with Christ and from the defilement of sin secured by regeneration does not eliminate all sin from the heart and life of the believer. There is still indwelling sin (cf. Rom. 6:20;7:14-25; 1 John 1:8; 2:1). The believer is not yet so conformed to the image of Christ that he is holy, harmless, unde-filed, and separate from sinners. Sanctification is concerned precisely with this fact and it has as its aim the elimination (of all sin and complete conformation to the image of God's own Son, to be holy as the Lord is holy.” (143)

• “All sin in the believer is the contradiction of God's holiness.” (144)

• “Remaining, indwelling sin is therefore the contradiction of all that he is as a regenerate person and son of God. It is the contradiction of God himself, after whose image he has been recreated.” (144)

• “Lest there should be any disposition to take sin for granted, to be content with the status quo, to indulge sin or turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, John is jealous to summon believers to the remembrance that everyone who has hope in God "purifies himself even as he is pure" (1 John 3:3).” (144)

• “Indeed, the more sanctified the person his, the more conformed he is to the image of his Savior, the more he must recoil against every lack of conformity to the holiness of God. The deeper his apprehension of the majesty of God, the greater the intensity of his love to God, the more persistent his yearning for the attainment of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the more conscious will he be of the gravity of the sin which remains and the more poignant will be his detestation of it.” (145)

• “It is God who sanctifies (1 Thess. 5:23). Specifically it is the Holy Spirit who is the agent of sanctification.” (146)

• “We must rely not upon the means of sanctification but upon the God of all grace.” (147)

VIII. PERSEVERANCE

• “The truth is that the faith of Jesus Christ is always respective of the life of holiness and fidelity. And so it is never proper to think of a believer irrespective of the fruits in faith and holiness.” (154)

IX. UNION WITH CHRIST

• “A mystery is, therefore, something which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath entered into the heart of man but which God has revealed unto us by his Spirit and which by revelation and faith comes to be known and appropriated by men.” (167)

• “Union with Christ is mystical because it is a mystery. That fact that it is a mystery underlines the preciousness of it and the intimacy of the relation it entails.” (167)

• “Believers are called into the fellowship of Christ and fellowship means communion. The life of faith is one of living union and communion with the exalted and ever-present Redeemer.” (169)

• “The life of faith is the life of love, and the life of love is the life of fellowship, or mystic communion with him who ever lives to make intercession for his people and who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. It is fellowship with him who has an inexhaustible reservoir of sympathy with his people's temptations, afflictions, and infirmities because he was tempted in all points like as they are, yet without sin.” (170)

• “Union with Christ is the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation.” (170)

• “There is no truth, therefore, more suited to impart confidence and strength, comfort and joy in the Lord than this one of union with Christ. It also promotes sanctification, not only because all sanctifying grace is derived from Christ as the crucified and exalted Redeemer, but also because the recognition of fellowship with Christ and of the high privilege it entails incites to gratitude, obedience, and devotion. Union means also communion and communion constrains a humble, reverent, loving walk with him who died and rose again that he might be our Lord.” (171)

• “It is union, therefore, with the Father and with the Son and with the Holy Spirit that union with Christ draws along with it.” (172)

• “It is the mysticism of communion with the one true and living God, and it is communion with the one true and living God because and only because it is communion with the three distinct persons of the Godhead in the strict particularity which belongs to each person in that grand economy of saving relationship to us.” (172)

• “Believers enter into the holy of holies of communion with the triune God and they do so because they have been raised up together and made to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6). Their life is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3: 3).” (173)

X. GLORIFICATION

• “Glorification is the final phase of the application of redemption. It is that which brings to completion the

  process which begins in effectual calling. Indeed it is the completion of the whole process of redemption.” (174)

• “This truth that glorification must wait for the resurrection of the body advises us that glorification is something upon which all the people of God will enter together at the same identical point in time.” (175)

• “Glorification is an event which will affect all the people of God together at the same point of time in the realization of God's redemptive purpose.” (177)

• “Glorification is glorification with Christ. Remove the latter and we have robbed the glorification of believers of the one thing that enables them to look forward to this event with confidence, with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” (178)

• “The biblical doctrine of "immortality," if we may use that term, is the doctrine of glorification. And glorification is resurrection. Without resurrection of the body from the grave and the restoration of human nature to its completeness after the pattern of Christ's resurrection on the third day and according to the likeness of the glorified human nature in which he will appear on the clouds of heaven with great power and glory there is no glorification.” (181)

• “Glorification has cosmic proportions. "We according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (2 Pet. 3: 13).” (181)

Notes on *Deeper*

[Editor’s note: Deeper is my favorite I’ve read this year. I found it profoundly encouraging, repeatedly leading me to worship.]

Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners, Dane Ortlund (Crossway, 2021)

Main Idea/Takeaway

The way that Christians grow- or progress in sanctification- is not by putting their heads to work, but by opening their hands to receive all that God is for us in Christ. We must keep our eyes on Jesus.

• "The basic point of this book is that change is a matter of going deeper. Some believers think change happens through outward improvement-behaving more and more in accord with some moral norm (the biblical law, or the commands of Jesus, or conscience, or whatever). Others chink change happens mainly through intellectual addition--understanding doctrine with greater breadth and precision. Others think it comes centrally through felt experience-  sensory increase as we worship God. My argument is that all three of these elements are included in healthy Christian development (and if any is missing, we are out of proportion and will not grow), but real growth transcends them all.Growing in Christ is not centrally improving or adding or experiencing but deepening. Implicit in the notion of deepening is that you already have what you need. Christian growth is bringing what you do and say and even feel into line with what, in fact, you already are." (16)

• " The primary emphasis I have wanted to give is that we grow specifically by going deeper into the gospel, into the love of Christ and our experienced union with him." (153)

• "My goal in this book has simply been to coach you into that single, simple, all-determining impulse of the heart: looking to Jesus. If you look to him, everything else is footnotes." (172)

• "This is a book with one point: Be astonished at the gracious heart of Jesus Christ, proven in his atoning work in the past and his endless intercession in the present. Receive his unutterable love for sinners and sufferers. Stop resisting. Let him draw near to you. Gaze upon him." (173)

Table of Contents

I. Jesus

II. Despair

III. Union

IV. Embrace 

V.  Acquittal 

VI. Honesty

VII. Pain 

VIII. Breathing 

IX. Supernaturalized 

Conclusion: What now?

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

I. Jesus

• "Let me suggest that you consider the possibility that your current mental idea of Jesus is the tip of the iceberg. That there are wondrous depths to him, realities about him, still awaiting your discovery." (22)

• "This supreme reign holds true not only for the cosmos and for world history but also for your own little life. He sees you. He knows you. Nothing is hid from his gaze. You will be judged one day not according to what was visible to others but according to what you really were and did." (24)

• "Have you reduced the Lord Jesus to a safe, containable, predictable Savior who pitches in and helps out your otherwise smoothly running existence? Have you treated what is spiritually nuclear as a double-A battery? Might one reason we stall out in our growth in Christ be that we have unwittingly domesticated the expansive authority and rule of Jesus Christ over all things?" (25)

• "And in our ongoing walk with the Lord now, do we functionally believe that the healthy Christian life is basically a matter of our efforts, baptized with a little extra push from Jesus?" (25)

• "Every human is five hundred denarii in debt. The point of the parable is that we tend to feel only fifty denarii in debt. The more obvious failures of a given culture sense their sinfulness more readily than others and are therefore readier and more eager for a deliverance that sweeps them up out of death with a full and total salvation." (27)

• "But if this is a Savior who draws near to us, who is repelled only by self-righteousness but never by acknowledged shame and weakness, there is no limit to just how deep a transformation is possible in us. It is at our point of deepest guilt and regret that his friendship embraces us most assuredly, most steadfastly." (28)

• "We will not grow in Christ if we view his presence and favor as a ticking clock, ready for an alarm to go off once we fail him enough. We can flourish into deeper health only as the truth settles over us that once Jesus has brought us to himself, he will never be looking for an off-ramp. He will stick by us to the end. In that knowledge we calm down and begin to flourish." (29)

• "Jesus is not bored in heaven. He is fully engaged on our behalf, as engaged as ever he was on earth. He is interceding for us. Why? Because we continue to sin as believers. If conversion so changed us that we never sinned again, we would not need Christ's intercessory work. We would only need his death and resurrection to pay for our pre-conversion sins. But he is a comprehensive Savior. His present intercessory work applies his past atoning work moment-by-moment before the Father as we move through life desiring to please the Lord but often failing." (31)

• "We will grow in Christ only as we recognize the ally Jesus Christ is to us, now in heaven. He did not die and rise again on our behalf back then only to stand now with arms crossed seeing how we'll do in response. He continues to work on our behalf-he goes "to the uttermost" for us--advocating for us when no one else will, not even we ourselves. He is more committed to your growth in him than you are." (31)

• "Our growth in Christ also draws strength from a vivid heart sense of his imminent return. It is hard to move forward in the Christian life if we allow ourselves to be lulled into the monotonous sense that this world will simply roll on forever as it currently is." (31)

• "He is the most open and accessible, the most peaceful and accommodating person in the universe. He is the gentlest, least abrasive person you will ever experience. Infinite strength, infinite meekness. Dazzlingly resplendent; endlessly calm." (32)

• "Peer down into the deepest recesses of Jesus Christ and there we find: gentleness and lowliness." (33)

• "What we must see is not only that Jesus is gentle toward you but that he is positively drawn toward you when you are most sure he doesn't want to be." (33)

• "Determine today, before God, through the Bible and good books explaining it, that you will spend the rest of your life wading into the unsearchable riches of the real Christ." (35)

II. Despair

• "Fallen human beings enter into joy only through the door of despair. Fullness can be had only through emptiness. That happens decisively at conversion, as we confess our hopelessly sinful predicament for the first time and collapse into the arms of Jesus, and then remains an ongoing rhythm throughout the Christian life. If you are not growing in Christ, one reason may be that you have drifted out of the salutary and healthy discipline of self-despair." (38)

• "Christian growth is, among other things, growth in sensing just how impoverished and powerless we are in our own strength- that is, just how hollow and futile our efforts to grow spiritually are on our own steam." (39)

• "The old British preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains: "You will never make yourself feel that you are a sinner, because there is a mechanism in you as a result of sin that will always be defending you against every accusation. We are all on very good terms with ourselves, and we can always put up a good case for ourselves." (40)

• "To the degree that we minimize the evil within, we lower the ceiling on how deeply we can grow. We take a painkiller and go to sleep when we think we have a headache; we undergo chemotherapy when we know we have a brain tumor. The severity of our condition dictates the depth and seriousness of the medicine we know we need. If you view your sinfulness as a bothersome headache more than a lethal cancer, you will see tepid growth, if any. You won't see yourself as needing to grow all that much." (40)

• "When we see how desperately sick we are and how profoundly short we fall of the glory for which God intended us, we have already taken the first decisive step in bridging that vast gulf between who we are and who we were made to be." (41)

• "The point in all this is chat we must come face-to-face with who we

  really are, left to our own steam. Christian salvation is not assistance.

  It is rescue. The gospel does not take our good and complete us with God's help; the gospel tells us we are dead and helpless, unable to contribute anything to our rescue but the sin that requires it. Christian salvation is not enhancing. It is resurrecting." (42)

• "You cannot feel the weight of your sinfulness strongly enough. I never met a deep Christian who did not have a correspondingly deep sense of his or her own natural desolation." (43)

• "The pattern of the Christian life is not a straight line up to resurrection existence but a curve down into death and thereby up into resurrection existence.? And one thing that means is that we go through life with an ever-deepening sense of how reprehensible, in ourselves, we really are." (44)

• "If you plunge down only a little into self-despair, you will rise only a little into joyous growth in Christ. "The index of the soundness of a man's faith in Christ," writes J. I. Packer, "is the genuineness of the self-despair from which it springs." (45)

• "Healthy despair is an intersection, not a highway; a gateway, not a pathway.

  We must go there. But we dare not stay there. The Bible teaches, rather, that each experience of despair is to melt us afresh into deeper fellowship with Jesus." (47)

• “As you despair of yourself agonizing over the desolation wrought by your failures, your weaknesses, your inadequacies- let that despair take you way down deep into honesty with yourself. For there you will find a friend, the living Lord Jesus himself, who will startle and surprise you with his gentle goodness as you leave Self behind, in repentance, and bank on him afresh, in faith.” (49)

III. Union

• "The old writer Jeremiah Burroughs put it this way: "From Christ as from a fountain sanctification flows into the souls of the saints: their sanctification comes not so much from their struggling, and endeavors, and vows, and resolutions, as it comes flowing to them from their union with him." (51-52)

• "When Jesus went down into the grave to die for our sins, we too went with him down into that grave to die to our sins." (52)

• "This fourth approach is "God in me." God does everything to save me, and then by his Holy Spirit (more on that in another chapter) he unites me spiritually to his Son. The result is that in our growth in holiness (as Edwards put it) "we are not merely passive in it, nor yet does God do some and we do the rest, but God does all, and we do all. . .. We are in different respects wholly passive and wholly active." This approach, in other words, holds together both human responsibility and divine sovereignty in how we move forward spiritually." (54)

• "Our Christian growth takes place in the sphere of a wonderful inevitability, even invincibility. I am united to Christ. I can never be disunited from him." (56)

• "The New Testament uses the language of union with Christ in basically two ways. We could call them the macro and the micro realities to union with Christ, or the cosmic and the intimate, or the federal and the personal." (57)

• "The alternative to being in Christ is to be in Adam. One or the other. No third option.

  Every human being alive today is either in Adam or in Christ. And that is the fundamental defining reality about each of us." (58)

• "To be united to Christ as your new federal head is to be placed in that new realm. If you are a Christian, you have been swept up by divine grace into the new order that the prophets foretold. The new creation has already begun to dawn." (59)

• "The glory of Christian redemption is that it is in union with Jesus that we are given back our true selves. We finally begin becoming who we were truly created to be." (61)

• "At this point you may be wondering how union with Christ fits with the other great and glorious pictures of our salvation- justification, adoption, and so on. The answer is that union with Christ is the umbrella doctrine within which every benefit of salvation is subsumed. When we are united to Christ, we get all these benefits." (62)

• "And union with Christ, the organic or spatial metaphor, is the master-picture. If you are in Christ, you get all these benefits." (63)

• "If you are in Christ, you have everything you need to grow. You are united to Christ: by the Holy Spirit, you are in him and he is in you. He is your federal head, and he is your intimate companion. You cannot lose. You are inexhaustibly rich." (64)

• "Every atom in the universe is managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian, every particle of air or every ray of the sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy." (65)

• "Therefore: nothing can touch you that does not touch him. To get to

  you, every pain, every assault, every disappointment has to go through him. You are shielded by invincible love. Everything that washes into your life, no matter how hard, comes from and through the tender care of the friend of sinners. He himself feels your anguish even more deeply than you do, because you're one with him; and he mediates everything hard in your life through his love for you, because you're one with him. Picture yourself standing in a circle with an invisible but impenetrable wall surrounding you, a sphere of impregnability. But it's not a circle you're in. It's a person--the person. The one before whom John fell down as he grappled for words to describe what he was looking at as one whose "eyes were like a flame of fire ... and his voice was like the roar of many waters" (Rev. 1:14-15) has been made one with you. The might of heaven, the power that flung galaxies into existence, has swept you into himself." (66)

IV. Embrace 

• "What I want to say in this chapter is that the love of God is not something to see once and believe and then move beyond to other truths or strategies for growing in Christ. The love of God is what we feed on our whole lives long, wading ever more deeply into this endless ocean. And that feeding, that wading, is itself what fosters growth. We grow in Christ no further than we enjoy his embrace of us. His tender, mighty, irreversible embrace into his own divine heart." (70)

• "What exactly is Paul praying for? Not for greater obedience among the Ephesians, or that they would be more fruitful, or that false teaching would be stamped out, or that they would grow in doctrinal depth, or even for the spread of the gospel. All good things, things we should and must pray for. But here Paul prays that the Ephesians would be given supernatural power not power to perform miracles or walk on water or convert their neighbors, but power, such power, the kind that only God himself can give, power to know how much Jesus loves them. Not just to have the love of Christ. To know the love of Christ." (71)

• "Here in Ephesians 3, Paul is praying that believers would taste the love of Christ. Drink it down." (72)

• "The love of Christ is his settled, unflappable heart of affection for sinners and sufferers- and only sinners and sufferers. When Jesus loves, Jesus is Jesus." (72)

• "Paul is saying that the love of Christ is as expansive as God himself.

  We can underestimate it. We always do. We can never overestimate it. "His essence being love," Jonathan Edwards preached, "he is as it were an infinite ocean of love without shores and bottom, yea, and without a surface." (73)

• "And as this love of Christ becomes real to us not just something we assent to on paper, but vivid to us -we are, according to the Bible, "filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19). With the possible exception of Colossians 2:9-10-_"in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him" -- this is, to me, the most astonishing claim in the Bible." (74)

• "Knowing Christ's love is the means, and being filled with divine fullness is the purpose. We are infused with divine plenitude, fullness, buoyancy, joy, as we experience the love of Christ. We don't go out and attain divine fullness. We receive it. This is the surprise of the Christian life. We get traction in our spiritual lives not centrally as we get down to work but as we open up our hands." (74)

• "But we cannot receive what God has to give when our fists are clenched and our eyes shut, concentrating on our own moral exertion. We need to open up our fists and our eyes and lift both heavenward to receive his love." (75)

• "And so what I want to say in this chapter is that your growth in Christ will go no further than your settledness, way down deep in your heart, that God loves you." (75)

• "So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in him, and no more. Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from him; but if the heart be once much taken up with this the eminency of the Father's love, it cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto him. ... If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will?" (76)

• "We tend to think we're in danger of overstating God's love for us as we receive it as his children. We hold back, not wanting to be too bold, careful to be sure we don't overdo it." (76)

• "We experience the love of God as we look at Jesus and God pours the Holy Spirit, who is himself divine love, into our felt experience." (77)

• "...affections. By that they meant the felt inner enjoyment of the heart, the soul throb that only God gives, the joyous calm that blankets those who look upon him.

  And as we see more clearly the second person of the Trinity_-who he is and what he has done--the third person of the Trinity creates in us an experience of divine love." (77)

• " But where do we look to see Jesus so that the Holy Spirit can be poured afresh into our actual experience? We open a Bible." (78)

• "It's precisely our messiness that makes Christ's love so surprising, so startling, so arresting and thereby so transforming." (79)

• "Your life doesn't disprove Christ's love; his life proves it." (80)

• "The wraparound category of your life is not your performance but God's love. The defining hallmark of your life is not your cleanness but his embrace." (83)

V.  Acquittal 

• "And in this book on sanctification, this chapter is on justification. Sanctification is lifelong, gradual growth in grace. Justification, however, is not a process but an event, a moment in time, the verdict of legal acquittal once and for all." (85)

• "...the process of sanctification is, in large part, fed by constant returning, ever more deeply, to the event of justification." (86)

• "We could put the point of this chapter in three sentences:

  1. Justification is outside-in, and we lose it if we make it inside-out.

  2. Sanctification is inside-out, and we lose it if we make it outside-in.

  3. And this inside-out sanctification is largely fed by daily appropriation of this outside-in justification." (86)

• "The great teachers of the past understood how heart-contrary we are to accepting wholesale the surprise of justification. This is why the Scottish pastor Robert Murray McCheyne said, "For every one look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ." It's why John Newton said that a single view of Christ "will do you more good than poring over your own wounds for a month." (87)

• "Our growth in godliness, in other words, works in an inverse way to justification, both in how it works and in how it gets ruined. In our justification the verdict of legal acquittal must come wholly from heaven, landing on us as something earned by someone outside us, in no way helped out by our contribution. But that has to do with our standing. That is the objective result of the gospel. Sanctification, however, is change with regard to our walk, our personal holiness, the subjective result of the gospel. This must happen internally." (88)

• "Edward Fisher, in his famous Puritan treatise on sanctification, explained that external conformity to rules without an internal reality fueling it is akin to watering every part of a tree except its roots and expecting it to grow. The internal realities of the Christian are what define true growth in Christ." (90)

• "The gospel is what changes us, and only it can, because the gospel itself is telling us what is true of us before we ever begin to change, and no matter how slowly our change comes. (ln saying this I do not mean to collapse all that the gospel says into the one category of justification; the gospel is broader than justification, including other glorious doctrines such as adoption, reconciliation, redemption, and so on. But justification is the sharpest edge of the gospel because it is the doctrine where the sheer gratuity of the grace of the gospel stands forth most clearly.)" (91)

• "...in line with the broader point of this whole book: we grow by going deeper into the justification that forgave us in the first place." (91)

• "Richard Lovelace puts it in his classic work on spiritual renewal:

Much that we have interpreted as a defect of sanctification in church people is really an outgrowth of their loss of bearing with respect to justification. Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons--much less secure than non-Christians, because they have too much light to rest easily under the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God and the righteousness they are supposed to have." (91)

• "Reformed stalwart Herman Bavinck defined real faith as a practical knowledge of the grace that God has revealed in Christ, a heartfelt trust that he has forgiven all our sins and accepted us as his children. For that reason this faith is not only needed at the beginning in justification, but it must also accompany the Christian throughout one's entire life, and also play a permanent and irreplaceable role in sanctification." (93)

• "Paul identified Peter's conduct as being out of step with the gospel (2:14) and in violation of the doctrine of justification by faith (2:16) because Peter had allowed the approval of people to erode his grasp of the approval that the gospel gives and the settled status that justification provides." (96)

• "What we all end to do is walk through life amassing a sense of r who we are as an aggregate of what we think everyone else think of us. We walk along, building a sense of self through all the feedback. pinging back at us. We don't even realize we're doing it. And when others are critical, or snub us, or ignore us, or ridicule us, that builds our sense of who we are. It inevitably shapes us. And so we muse constantly hold the gospel before our eyes. And as the gospel becomes real to us, the need for human approval loses its vice-like grip on our hearts, because we're no longer putting our heads down on our pillows at night medicating our sense of worth with human approval. The doctrine of justification frees us not only from the judgment of God in the future but also from the judgment of people in the present." (98)

• "Diagnostic questions to expose our idols are questions such as:

• What does my mind tend to drift back to when I lie awake in bed?

• What do I spend disposable income on?

• What in other people do I tend to envy?

• What is that one thing that, if God were to appear to me today and tell me I would never have it, would make life feel not worth living?

• If I'm married, what would my spouse say I tend to give myself to that makes him or her feel neglected?

• How would my heart--not my theology, but my heart--phrase the hymn, "When _________________it is well with my soul"?

• What do I find myself praying for that is nowhere promised in the Bible?" (100)

• "Every idol is man-made. Every false justification is generated by us. But God himself has come to us with a justification of his own doing. It is the atoning verdict of Jesus Christ. We can only receive it. To add to it is therefore to subtract from it. We simply breathe it in with a heart posture of trusting faith. And thereby God justifies us--God himself." (102)

• "Do you want to grow in Christ? Never graduate beyond the gospel. Move ever deeper into the gospel. The freeness of your outside-in justification is a critical ingredient to fostering your inside-out sanctification." (110)

VI. Honesty

• "I'd like to focus in this chapter on one particularly important teaching from the New Testament, the most important corporate reality for our growth in Christ: honesty." (112)

• "Walking in the light in this text is honesty with other Christians." (113)

• "Here is what I want to say in this chapter: You are restricting your growth if you do not move through life doing the painful, humiliating, liberating work of cheerfully bringing your failures out from the darkness of secrecy into the light of acknowledgment before a Christian brother or sister. In the darkness, your sins fester and grow in strength. In the light, they wither and die. Walking in the light, in other words, is honesty with God and others." (114)

• "Walking in the light breeds depth of communion with fellow Christians."(117)

• "The gospel answers that. If you are in Christ, heaven has bathed you.

  You have been rinsed clean and are now "un-dirty-able." It doesn't matter what you feel. That doesn't define you. Jesus was defiled to free you from your defiled status and your defiled feelings. That doesn't mean we will never battle feelings of defilement. But it does mean that one aspect of growing in Christ is bringing our subjective feelings of defilement into line with that objective, decisive, invincible, true-for-all-time-and-eternity cleansing in the blood of Christ." (122)

• "When you trust God enough to speak your sinfulness to another human, the channels of your heart are opened to feeling forgiven. This is because the same pride that stops us from confessing our sins to a brother or sister also hinders our felt belief in the gospel. Pride hinders fellowship both horizontally and vertically. Evading honesty before another Christian is more fundamentally a rejection of the gospel itself. Refusing to be honest with another is works righteousness in disguise; we are believing that we need to save face, to retain uprightness of appearance." (123)

VII. Pain 

• "Your natural instincts tell us that the way forward in the Christian life is by avoiding pain so that, undistracted, we can get down to the business at hand of growing in Christ. The New Testament tells us again and again, however, that pain is a means, not an obstacle, to deepening in Christian maturity." (125)

• "Misery and darkness and anguish and regret and shame and lament color all that we say, do, and think. The reality of nightmares shows that this pain and futility even reaches into our subconscious and our sleep. We can go nowhere to escape the futility and pain of life in this fallen world. This is true for all believers." (127)

• "Throughout the course of our discipleship to Christ we all need to build a deep and strong foundation of understanding how to process and even redeem the anguish of our lives. Without this foundation our growth in Christ will be severely limited." (128)

• "We who are honest with ourselves recognize how intractably entwined the vines of our hearts are with this world. That's not to say we should refuse to enjoy the good things of the world--a favorite meal, a beautiful sunset, the intimate pleasures of a spouse, gratification at a job well done. To resist such pleasures absolutely is, according to the apostles, demonic (1 Tim. 4:1-5). Rather, we should acknowledge that our hearts will latch on to anything in this world short of God himself and will seek to draw strength from that created thing instead of the Creator and his love.

  The biblical category for this perverse inclination of our hearts to look to the things of this world to quench our soul thirst is idolatry." (130)

• "When pain washes into our lives, we immediately, instinctively feel as if we are losing. Something is happening in the debit category. We are going backward. This is bad, we think. Understandably so. In the economy of the gospel, however, we are united to a Savior who was himself arrested, crucified, put in a grave, and left for dead, only to rise in a triumphant glory not possible apart from that death. Pain seeds glory?" (131)

• "When insults send us reeling backward, when life hurts, our eyes are being lifted off of the unstable things of the world onto the stable God of the Bible. We are being given back our true selves. We are being beckoned, as Lewis put it, "further up and further in.' When pain comes, it is not simply to hurt us, to teach us a lesson, to whip us into shape; it is from a tender Father, for our healing." (132)

• "When life hurts, we immediately find ourselves at an internal fork in the road. Either we take the road of cynicism, withdrawing from openheartedness with God and others, retreating into the felt safety of holding back our desires and longings, lest they get hurt again, or we press into greater depth with God than we have ever known." (132)

• "If you want to be a solid, weighty, radiant old man or woman someday, let the pain in your life force you to believe your own theology. Let it propel you into deeper fellowship with Christ than ever before. Don't let your heart dry up. He is in your pain. He is refining you. All that you will lose, Sibbes reminds us, is the dross of Self and misery that in your deepest heart you want to shed anyway." (133)

• "Let yourself cry as you grow. Don't stuff your emotions down. Growing in Christ isn't all smiles and laughter. Let your tears, and the wounds they reflect, take you deeper with Christ than you could ever otherwise go." (135)

• "Right now, every one of us who is in Christ is either killing sin or being killed by sin. Either getting stronger or getting weaker. If you think you're coasting, you're actually going backward. There's no cruise-control spiritually. It may feel as if you're currently in neutral, but our hearts are like gardens: if we aren't proactively rooting out the weeds, the weeds are growing, even if we don't notice." (135)

• "The trouble is that the whole message of the Bible is that if we're going to add a cherry of self-contribution on top of Christ's work to really be okay, we have to provide the whole sundae. All or nothing. And the tragedy is that though we assent theologically to the truth that we can't add to Christ's work, we try to put ourselves emotionally at ease by helping the Lord out a bit. Yet adding something to seal the deal is precisely what will create uneasiness about whether the deal ever really is sealed." (138)

• “Killing sin is a strange battle because it happens by looking away from the sin. By "looking away" I don't mean emptying our minds and trying to create a mental vacuum. I mean looking at Jesus Christ.” (139)

• "We feed sin by coddling it, pining after it, daydreaming about it, giving vent to it. We suffocate sin by redirecting our gaze to Christ.

  When I say "redirecting our gaze," I mean looking on him with "the eyes of your hearts" (Eph. 1:18)." (139)

• "But when our hearts redirect their gaze to the Jesus of the Bible in all his glorious gentleness and dazzling love, sin gets starved and begins to wilt. As we enjoy the truths this book has been reflecting on--realities such as our union with Christ and his unshakable embrace of us and God's irreversible acquittal of us--then, right then, spiritual life and vigor begin to have the ascendancy, and the grip of sin loosens."(140)

VIII. Breathing 

• "I want to consider just two ordinary, predictable, wondrous, vital practices: Bible reading and prayer. And the way to think about these two practices is by the metaphor of breathing. Reading the Bible is inhaling. Praying is exhaling." (143)

• "The Christian life-our growth in Christ--is nothing other than the lifelong deconstruction of what we naturally think and assume and the reconstruction of truth through the Bible." (145)

• “In this shifty, uncertain world, God has given us actual words, Concrete, unmoving, fixed words. We can go to the rock of Scripture amid the shifting sands of this life. Your Bible is going to have the same words tomorrow that it does today. Friends can't provide that-they will move in and out of your life, loyal today but absent tomorrow. Parents and their counsel will die. Your pastor will not always be available to take your call. The counselor who has given you such sage instruction will one day retire, or maybe you'll move out of state. But you can roll out of bed tomorrow morning and, whatever stressors slide uncomfortably across your mental horizon as you groan with the anxieties of the day, your friend the Bible is unfailingly steady. It lies there, awaiting opening, eager to steady you amid all the unanswered questions before you that day. It will give you what you need and not evade you. Our truest wisdom and only safety is to build our lives on its words (Matt. 7:24-27)” (146)

• "In fact, we should not be saying "it" but "he." Through Scripture God himself addresses us." (146)

• "Read the Bible asking not mainly whom to imitate and how to live but what it shows us about a God who loves to save and about sinners who need saving." (149)

• "The right way to read the Bible is the gospel approach. This means we read every passage as somehow contributing to the single, overarching storyline of Scripture, which culminates in Jesus." (150)

• "Make the Bible your central daily ritual. Make it your habit without which you have not lived a normal day." (152)

• "As we now think about prayer, here is what we are doing; we are reflecting on the way our souls must go out to God in Christ to desire, to long for, to receive, to dwell in, to thank him for his endless love. The gospel comes to us in the Scriptures, and in prayer we receive and enjoy it?" (153)

• "...to connect prayer with Scripture reading is simply to acknowledge that God is a real person with whom believers have an actual, moment-by-moment relationship. The Bible is God's speaking to us; prayer is our speaking to him. If we do not pray, we do not believe God is an actual person. We may say we do. But we don't really. If we do not pray, we actually think he is an impersonal force of some kind, a kind of Platonic ideal, distant and removed, powerful but abstract. We don't view him as a Father." (153)

• "Move through your day praying. Let God be your moment-by-moment Father. Hear his voice in Scripture in the morning, and turn that Scripture into prayer and then let that time with him, that back-and-forth communion, send you off into your day communing with him all day long." (155)

• “So I propose to you, as you grow in Christ, that you form the vital habit of making the book of Psalms your lifelong companion. Befriend the Psalms deeply. Never go too long without making them your own prayers. They give voice, sacred voice, to every circumstance, every emotion, every distress we walk through in this fallen wilderness of a world.” (155)

IX. Supernaturalized 

• "The natural inertia of all our Christian ministry and living is to proceed out of our own resources, asking God to add his blessing to our efforts. It's how we all tend to operate without even realizing it, even as born again believers. But it is backward." (159)

• "The Father ordains salvation, the Son accomplishes salvation, and the Spirit applies salvation. In other words, there is no Christian life without the Spirit. The Christian life is purely theoretical if there is no operation of the Spirit. Everything that we experience of God is the working of the Spirit. That is true at conversion, as the Spirit opens our eyes to our sin and Christ's saving offer. And it is true of our growth." (160)

• "The Holy Spirit is how God gets inside you. If you are a Christian, you are now permanently indwelt by the Spirit, and if you are permanently ind welt by the Spirit, then you have been supernaturalized." (160)

• "...the Spirit is the continuation, so to speak, of Jesus himself. Jesus spoke of his departure being necessary so that the Spirit could come John 16:7; cf. 14:12-17). In the Spirit, we have something more wonderful than those who spoke and ate with Jesus himself. And this Spirit's arrival marks the dawning new creation." (163)

• "To grow as a disciple of Christ is not adding Christ to your life but collapsing into Christ as your life. He's not a new top priority, competing with the other claims of reputation, finances, and sexual gratification. He is asking you to embrace the freefall of total abandon to his purpose in your life." (166)

• "In brief: the Spirit effectually causes us to behold Christ in such a way that transforms us." (169)

• "Be so radically Spirit-led that you are therefore radically Christ-centered.

  Christ and Spirit, the incarnate Son and the indwelling Spirit--this is your double gift." (169)

Conclusion: What now?

• "The final conclusion, the deepest secret, to growing in Christ is this: look to him. Set your gaze upon him. Abide in him, hour by hour. Draw strength from his love. He is a person, not a concept. Become personally acquainted with him, ever more deeply as the years roll by." (171)

• "I do not have nine things to say. I have one thing to say. Look to Christ. You will grow in Christ as you direct your gaze to Christ. If you take your eyes off of Jesus Christ and direct your gaze to your own growth, you will prevent the very growth you desire." (171)

• "I have asked the question: what must happen in the individual human heart, most fundamentally, most deeply, for a man or woman to get traction and grow? And the message of this book is that the way we grow is receiving the heartful love of Jesus. The gospel of grace not only gets us in but moves us along." (173)

• "Learn much of the Lord Jesus. For every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. He is altogether lovely. Such infinite majesty, and yet such meekness and grace, and all for sinners, even the chief? Live much in the smiles of God. Bask in his beams. Feel his all-seeing eye settled on you in love, and repose in his almighty arms." (174)

Notable Content

• Seven facets of Christ (23-34)

  1. Ruling

  2. Saving

  3. Befriending

  4. Persevering

  5. Interceding

  6. Returning

  7. Tenderness

• Four different ways Christians understand growth: (53)

1. God then me

2. God not me

3. God plus me

4. God in me

• Nine common but wrong ways to read the Bible: (150)

1. The warm-fuzzies approach - reading the Bible for a glowing, subjective experience of God, ignited by the words of the text, whether we understand what they actually mean or not. Result: frothy reading.

2. The grumpy approach - reading the Bible out of nothing but a vague sense that we're supposed to, to get God off our backs for the day. Result: resentful reading.

3. The gold-mine approach- reading the Bible as a vast, cavernous, dark mine, in which one occasionally stumbles upon a nugget of inspiration. Result: confused reading.

4. The hero approach -reading the Bible as a moral hall of fame that gives us one example after another of heroic spiritual giants to emulate. Result: despairing reading.

5. The rules approach -reading the Bible on the lookout for commands to obey to subtly reinforce a sense of personal superiority.Result: Pharisaical reading.

6. The Indiana Jones approach -reading the Bible as an ancient document about events in the Middle East a few thousand years ago that are irrelevant to my life today. Result: bored reading.

7. The magic-eight-ball approach_-reading the Bible as a road map to tell me where to work, whom to marry, and what car to buy. Result: anxious reading.

8. The Aesop's Fables approach- reading the Bible as a loose collection of nice stories strung together independently, each with a nice moral at end. Result: disconnected reading.

9. The doctrine approach reading the Bible as a theological repository to plunder for ammunition for our next theology debate at Starbucks. Result: cold reading.

• What did the Old Testament anticipate taking place at the end of the world? (161)

1. The ruinous fall into sin at Eden wrought by Adam would be undone

2. God would make a new creation.

3. Sin and evil would be judged.

4. God would triumph once and for all over his enemies.

5. God's people would be vindicated.

6. The nations of the world would flock to Jerusalem

7. Messiah would come.

8. The latter-day kingdom would be launched.

9. The dead would be raised.

Notes on *Gentle and Lowly*

Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, Dane Ortlund (Crossway, 2020)

Main Idea/Takeaway

The heart of Jesus, according to his own testimony, is gentle and lowly to all who cry to him for help, which cannot be over-celebrated or too exaggerated.

• “Gentle and lowly" This, according to his own testimony, is Christ's very heart. This is who he is. Tender. Open. Welcoming. Accommodating. Understanding. Willing. If we are asked to say only one thing about who Jesus is, we would be honoring Jesus's own teaching if our answer is, gentle and lowly." (21)

• “This is the one whose deepest heart is, more than anything else, gentle and lowly.” (24)

Interaction

• "Miracles are the only truly natural thing in a world fallen to unnatural, demonized." (31)

• "Jesus has felt the full force of our temptation because he endured it unto purity whereas we give in. Jesus endured temptation all the way to purity, thus enduring temptation longer, more fully." (48)

• "This truth changes everything in our experience of pain." (50)

• "I see the grammatical similarity, but what is the implication? Co-suffer/restrained passion?" (52)

• "Our places of most severe brokenness are the places where Jesus is most strongly drawn." (83)

• "'Most humble' In what moment was he most humble? The cross. Humility is not a virtue for tranquility, but for chaos." (97)

• "We must understand anger as a form of love- a defense of our loves against threats." (109)

• "God with us became God in us." (124)

• "His anger requires provocation." (148)

• "What are the implications here for how to treat fellow Christians who differ on convictions? We may disagree with them, but they are so loved by God. Tread carefully with God's beloved." (173)

• "Best page in the book!" (179)

• "Oh to see the brethren this way!" (187)

• "Good Friday meditation" (200)

• "Crucial qualification" (204)

• "All good things do not come to an end, because the best of things will last forever and only get better throughout eternity." (213)

• "On applying to life." (215)

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. His Very Heart

II. His Heart in Action

III. The Happiness of Christ

IV. Able to Sympathize

V. He Can Deal Gently

VI. I Will Never Cast Out

VII. What Our Sins Evoke

VIII. To the Uttermost

IX. An Advocate

X. The Beauty of the Heart of Christ

XI. The Emotional Life of Christ

XII. A Tender Friend

XIII. Why the Spirit?

XIV. Father of Mercies

XV. His "Natural" Work and His "Strange" Work

XVI. The Lord, the Lord

XVII. His Ways Are Not Our Ways

XVIII. Yearning Bowels

XIX. Rich in Mercy

XX. Our Law-ish Hearts, His Lavish Heart

XXI. He Loved Us Then; He'll Love Us Now

XXII. To the End

XXIII. Buried in His Heart Forevermore

Epilogue

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Introduction

• “This is a book about the heart of Christ. Who is he? Who is he really? What is most natural to him? What ignites within him most immediately as he moves toward sinners and sufferers? What flows out most freely, most instinctively? Who is he?” (13)

• “We are not focusing centrally on what Christ has done. We are considering who he is. The two matters are bound up together and indeed interdependent. But they are distinct. The gospel offers us not only legal exoneration--in-violably precious truth! -it also sweeps us into Christ's very heart.” (15)

I. His Very Heart

• “One thing to get straight right from the start is that when the Bible speaks of the heart, whether Old Testament or New, it is not speaking of our emotional life only but of the central animating center of all we do.” (18)

• “The point in saying that Jesus is lowly is that he is accessible. For all his resplendent glory and dazzling holiness, his supreme uniqueness and otherness, no one in human history has ever been more approachable than Jesus Christ. No prerequisites. No hoops to jump through.” (20)

• “You don't need to unburden or collect yourself and then come to Jesus. Your very burden is what qualifies you to come. No payment is required; he says, "I will give you rest." His rest is gift, not transaction.” (21)

• “This is not who he is to everyone, indiscriminately. This is who he is for those who come to him, who take his yoke upon them, who cry to him for help.” (21)

II. His Heart in Action

• “But the dominant note left ringing in our ears after reading the Gospels, the most vivid and arresting element of the portrait, is the way the Holy Son of God moves toward, touches, heals, embraces, and forgives those who least deserve it yet truly desire it.” (27)

• “The Jesus given to us in the Gospels is not simply one who loves, but one who is love; merciful affections stream from his innermost heart as rays from the sun.” (27)

• “This is deeper than saying Jesus is loving or merciful or gracious. The cumulative testimony of the four Gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world all about him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it.” (30)

• "When Jesus, the Clean One, touched an unclean sinner, Christ did not become unclean. The sinner became clean." (31)

• "We are so used to a fallen world that sickness, disease, pain, and death seem natural. In fact, they are the interruption." (31)

• "The New Testament teaches that we are united to Christ, a union so intimate that whatever our own body parts do, Christ's body can be said to do (1 Cor. 6:15-1). Jesus Christ is closer to you today than he was to the sinners and sufferers he spoke with and touched in his earthly ministry." (33)

III. The Happiness of Christ

• “He drew near to us in the incarnation so that his joy and ours could rise and fall together-his in giving mercy, ours in receiving it.” (37)

• “We tend to think that when we approach Jesus for help in our need and mercy amid our sins, we somehow detract from him, lessen him, impoverish him. Goodwin argues otherwise. Jesus surprises us in "exercising acts of grace, and from his continual doing good unto and for his members ... from his filling them with all mercy, grace, comfort, and felicity, himself becoming yet more full, by filling them."4 As truly God, Christ cannot become any more full; he shares in his Father's immortal, eternal, unchangeable fullness. Yet as truly man, Christ's heart is not drained by our coming to him; his heart is filled up all the more by our coming to him.” (38)

• “When we today partake of that atoning work, coming to Christ for forgiveness, communing with him despite our sinfulness, we are laying hold of Christ's own deepest longing and joy.” (40)

IV. Able to Sympathize

• “The reason that Jesus is in such close solidarity with us is that the difficult path we are on is not unique to us.” (47)

• “That enticing * temptation, that sore trial, that bewildering perplexity- he has been there. Indeed, his utter purity suggests that he has felt these pains more acutely than we sinners ever could.” (48)

• “One is that Jesus's sinlessness means that he knows temptation better than we ourselves do. C. S. Lewis made this point by speaking of a man walking against the wind. Once the wind of temptation gets strong enough, the man lies down, giving in-and thus not knowing what it would have been like ten minutes later. Jesus never lay down; he endured all our temptations and testings without ever giving in. He therefore knows the strength of temptation better than any of us. Only he truly knows the cost." (49)

• “He himself is not trapped in the hole of sin with us; he alone can pull us out. His sinlessness is our salvation.” (49)

• “Not only can he alone pull us out of the hole of sin; he alone desires to climb in and bear our burdens. Jesus is able to sympathize.” (49)

• “If you are in Christ, you have a Friend who, in your sorrow, will never lob down a pep talk from heaven. He cannot bear to hold himself at a distance. Nothing can hold him back. His heart is too bound up with yours.” (50)

V. He Can Deal Gently

• “What elicits tenderness from Jesus is not the severity of the sin but whether the sinner comes to him. Whatever our offense, he deals gently with us. If we never come to him, we will experience a judgment so fierce it will be like a double-edged sword coming out of his mouth at us (Rev. 1:16; 2:12; 19:15, 21). If we do come to him, as fierce as his lion-like judgment would have been against us, so deep will be his lamb-like tenderness for us (cf. Rev. 5:5-6; Isa. 40:10-11). We will be enveloped in one or the other. To no one will Jesus be neutral.” (54)

• “This very care, this gentle dealing with all kinds of sinners, is what is most natural to him. Owen goes on to say that Christ "does not, in his dealings with us, more properly or more fully set out any property of his nature than he does his compassion, long-suffering, and forbearance."4 In other words, when Jesus "deals gently" with us, he is doing what is most fitting and natural to him.” (56)

• “Our sinfulness runs so deep that a tepid measure of gentleness from Jesus would not be enough; but as deep our sinfulness runs, ever deeper runs his gentleness.” (56)

• “Contrary to what we expect to be the case, therefore, the deeper into weakness and suffering and testing we go, the deeper Christ's solidarity with us. As we go down into pain and anguish, we are descending ever deeper into Christ's very heart, not away from it.” (57)

VI. I Will Never Cast Out

• “So with Christ. We cling to him, to be sure. But our grip is that of a two-year-old amid the stormy waves of life. His sure grasp never falters. Psalm 63:8 expresses the double-sided truth: "My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” (65)

• “We have come, more deeply, to the doctrine of the perseverance of the heart of Christ. Yes, professing Christians can fall away, proving that they were never truly in Christ. Yes, once a sinner is united to Christ, there is nothing that can dis-unite them. But within the skeletal structure of these doctrines, what is the beating heart of God, made tangible in Christ? What is most deeply instinctive to him as our sins and sufferings pile up? What keeps him from growing cold? The answer is, his heart.” (66)

VII. What Our Sins Evoke

• “But the grace of God comes to us no more and no less than Jesus Christ comes to us. In the biblical gospel we are not given a thing; we are given a person.” (69)

• “If you are part of Christ's own body, your sins evoke his deepest heart, his compassion and pity. He "takes part with you"-that is, he's on your side. He sides with you against your sin, not against you because of your sin. He hates sin. But he loves you. We understand this, says Goodwin, when we consider the hatred a father has against a terrible disease afflicting his child--the father hates the disease while loving the child. Indeed, at some level the presence of the disease draws out his heart to his child all the more.” (71)

• “God is not a platonic ideal, immovably austere, beyond the reach of meaningful human engagement. God is free of all fallen emotion, but not all emotion (or feeling) whatsoever--where do our own emotions come from, we who are made in his image?” (74)

• “The Bible says that when God looks at his people's sinfulness, his transcendent holiness-

  -his God-ness, his very divinity, that about God which makes him not us--is what makes him unable to come down on his people in wrath.” (74)

• “The sins of those who belong to God open the floodgates of his heart of compassion for us. The dam breaks. It is not our loveliness that wins his love. It is our unloveliness.” (75)

VIII. To the Uttermost

• “It is the most counterintuitive aspect of Christianity, that we are declared right with God not once we begin to get our act together but once we collapse into honest acknowledgment that we never will.” (78)

• “And the present manifestation of his heart for his people is his constant interceding on their behalf.” (79)

• “What then does it mean for Christ to intercede? Who are the parties involved? God the Father, on the one hand, and we believers, on the other. But why would Jesus need to intercede for us? After all, haven't we been completely justified already? What is there for Christ to plead on our behalf? Hasn't he already done all that is needed to fully acquit us? In other words, does the doctrine of Christ's heavenly intercession mean that something was left incomplete in his atoning work on the cross? If we speak of the finished work of Christ on the cross, does the doctrine of intercession suggest that the cross was actually left unfinished? The answer is that intercession applies what the atonement accomplished. Christ's present heavenly intercession on our behalf is a reflection of the fullness and victory and completeness of his earthly work, not a reflection of anything lacking in his earthly work. The atonement accomplished our salvation; intercession is the moment-by-moment application of that atoning work.” (79)

• “Intercession is the constant hitting "refresh" of our justification in the court of heaven.” (80)

• “The Son's intercession does not reflect the coolness of the Father but the sheer warmth of the Son.” (80)

• “But the Father's own deepest delight is to say yes to the Son's pleading on our behalf.” (80)

• “To the uttermost" in Hebrews 7:25 means: God's forgiving, redeeming, restoring touch reaches down into the darkest crevices of our souls, those places where we are most ashamed, most defeated. More than this: those crevices of sin are themselves the places where Christ loves us the most. His heart willingly goes there. His heart is most strongly drawn there.” (83)

• “This is the explicit acknowledgment that we Christians are ongoing sinners. Christ continues to intercede on our behalf in heaven because we continue to fail here on earth. He does not forgive us through his work on the cross and then hope we make it the rest of the way.” (84)

IX. An Advocate

• “To come to the Father without an advocate is hopeless. To be allied with an advocate, one who came and sought me out rather than waiting for me to come to him, one who is righteous in all the ways I am not--this is calm and confidence before the Father.” (89)

• “Your salvation is not merely a matter of a saving formula, but of a saving person. When you sin, his strength of resolve rises all the higher. When his brothers and sisters fail and stumble, he advocates on their behalf because it is who he is. He cannot bear to leave us alone to fend for ourselves.” (91)

X. The Beauty of the Heart of Christ

• "Everything that is lovely in God is in Christ, and everything that 15 or can be lovely in any man is in him: for he is man as well as God, and he is the holiest, meekest, most humble, and every way the most excellent man that ever was." (97)

• “In our churches today we often refer to the glory of God and the glory of Christ. But what is it about God's glory that draws us in and causes us to conquer our sins and makes us radiant people? Is it the sheer size of God, a consideration of the immensity of the universe and thus of the Creator, a sense of God's transcendent greatness, that pulls us toward him? No, Edwards would say; it is the loveliness of his heart. It is, he says, a "sight of the divine beauty of Christ, that bows the wills, and draws the hearts of men. A sight of the greatness of God in his attributes, may overwhelm men.” (97)

• “Seeing only his greatness, "the enmity and opposition of the heart, may remain in its full strength, and the will remain inflexible; whereas, one glimpse of the moral and spiritual glory of God, and supreme amiableness of Jesus Christ, shining into the heart, overcomes and abolishes this opposition, and inclines the soul to Christ, as it were, by an omnipotent power." (98)

• “In other words, when we come to Christ, we are startled by the beauty of his welcoming heart. The surprise is itself what draws us in.” (98)

• "There is no love so great and so wonderful as that which is in the heart of Christ." How might we, in our own way and time, do the same?” (100)

• “But at the center, our job is to show our kids that even our best love is a shadow of a greater love. To put a sharper edge on it: to make the tender heart of Christ irresistible and unforgettable. Our goal is that our kids would leave the house at eighteen and be unable to live the rest of their lives believing that their sins and sufferings repel Christ." (100)

• “But there's something he has shown me that runs even deeper than truth about God, and that is the heart of God, proven in Christ, the friend of sinners. Dad made that heart beautiful to me He didn't crowbar me into that; he drew me in.” (101)

XI. The Emotional Life of Christ

• “The Son of God clothed himself with humanity and will never unclothe him-self. He became a man and always will be. This is the significance of the doctrine of Christ's ascension: he went into heaven with the very body, reflecting his full humanity, that was raised out of the tomb.” (103)

• “One implication of this truth of Christ's permanent humanity is that when we see the feeling and passions and affections of the incarnate Christ toward sinners and sufferers as given to us in the four Gospels, we are seeing who Jesus is for us today.” (104)

• “Our emotions are diseased by the fall, of course, just as every part of fallen humanity is affected by the fall. But emotions are not themselves a result of the fall. Jesus experienced the full range of emotions that we do (Heb. 2:17; 4:15).” (104)

• “Yes, Jesus pronounced searing denunciations on those who cause children to sin, saying it would be a better fate if they were drowned (Matt. 18:6), not because he gleefully enjoys torturing the wicked but most deeply because he loves little children. It is his heart of love, not a gleeful exacting of justice, that rises up from his soul to elicit such a fearsome pronouncement of woe.” (109)

• “What we are saying is that, yes, Christ got angry and still gets angry, for he is the perfect human, who loves too much to remain indifferent. And this righteous anger reflects his heart, his tender compassion. But because his deepest heart is tender compassion, he is the quickest to get angry and feels anger most furiously- and all without a hint of sin tainting that anger.” (110)

• “While Christ is a lion to the impenitent, he is a lamb to the penitent--the reduced, the open, the hungry, the desiring, the confessing, the self-effacing. He hates with righteous hatred all that plagues you.” (111)

• “As you consider those who have wronged you, let Jesus be angry on your behalf. His anger can be trusted. For it is an anger that springs from his compassion for you. The indignation he felt when he came upon mistreatment of others in the Gospels is the same indignation he feels now in heaven upon mistreatments of you.” (112)

XII. A Tender Friend

• “The very two groups of people whom Jesus is accused of befriending in Matthew 11 are those who can't stay away from him in Luke 15. They are at ease around him. They sense something different about him.” (114)

• “In Jesus Christ, we are given a friend who will always enjoy rather than refuse our presence.” (115)

• “To be sure, Christ is indeed our ruler, our authority, the one to whom all allegiance and obedience are reverently due. Sibbes reminds us of that explicitly as he reflects on the friendship of Christ ("As he is our friend, so he is our king."). But equally, and perhaps less obvious or intuitive to us, the condescension of God in the person of his Son means that he approaches us on our own terms and befriends us for both his and our mutual delight.” (119)

XIII. Why the Spirit?

• “The Spirit takes what we read in the Bible and believe on paper about Jesus's heart and moves it from theory to reality, from doctrine to experience.” (122)

• “What is the advantage of the Spirit coming? The natural reading is that he will rectify something that is wrong. And what is wrong? "Sorrow has filled your heart" John 16:6). Apparently the coming of the Spirit will do the opposite: fill their hearts with joy. The Spirit replaces sorrow with joy.” (123)

• “The Spirit is the continuation of the heart of Christ for his people after the departure of Jesus to heaven.” (123)

• “All that we see and hear of the gracious heart of Jesus in his earthly life will, during his ascended state, enter into the consciousness of his people as experiential reality.” (125)

XIV. Father of Mercies

• “The key is to understand that at the level of legal acquittal, the Father's wrath had to be assuaged in order for sinners to be brought back into his favor, but at the level of his own internal desire and affection, he was as eager as the Son for this atonement to take place. Objectively, the Father was the one needing to be placated; subjectively, his heart was one with the Son. We err when we draw conclusions about who he is subjectively based on what needed to happen objectively.” (128)

• “What should come into our mind when we think about God The triune God is three in one, a fountain of endless mercies extending to, meeting, and over-flowingly providing for us in all our many needs and failures and wanderings. This is who he is, Father no less than Son, Son no less than Father.” (132)

• “He is the tangible epitomization of God. Jesus Christ is the visible manifestation of the invisible God (2 Cor. 4:4, 6).” (133)

• “When we see the heart of Christ, then, throughout the four Gospels, we are seeing the very compassion and tenderness of who God himself most deeply is.” (133)

XV. His "Natural" Work and His "Strange" Work

• “Jesus provides new sharpness to who God is, but not fundamentally new content.” (135)

• “But when he comes to show mercy, to manifest that it is his nature and disposition, it is said that he does it with his whole heart. There is nothing at all in him that is against it. The act itself pleases him for itself. There is no reluctance in him.” (139)

• “Theologians speak of God's simplicity, by which we mean that God is not the sum total of a number of attributes, like pieces of a pie making a whole pie; rather, God is every attribute perfectly. God does not have parts. He is just. He is wrathful. He is good. And so on, each in endless perfection.” (140)

• “God is unswervingly just. But what is his disposition? What is he on the edge of his seat eager to do? Ir you catch me off guard, what will leap out of me before I have time to regain composure will likely be grouchiness. If you catch God off guard, what leaps out most freely is blessing. The impulse to do good. The desire to swallow us up in joy." (140)

• “For God to be merciful is for God to be God. Left to our own natural intuitions about God, we will conclude that mercy is his strange work and judgment his natural work. Rewiring our vision of God as we study the Scripture, we see, helped by the great teachers of the past, that judgment is his strange work and mercy his natural work.” (144)

XVI. The Lord, the Lord

• “When we speak of God's glory, we are speaking of who God is, what he is like, his distinctive resplendence, what makes God God. And when God himself sets the terms on what his glory is, he surprises us into wonder.” (147)

• “The bent of God's heart is mercy. His glory is his goodness. His glory is his lowliness. "Great is the glory of the LoRD. For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly" (Ps. 138:5-6).” (147)

• “But not once are we told that God is "provoked to love" or "provoked to mercy." His anger requires provocation; his mercy is pent up, ready to gush forth.” (148)

• "Keeping steadfast love for thousands." This could equally be translated "keeping steadfast love to a thousand generations," as is explicitly stated in Deuteronomy 7:9: "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations." This does not mean that his goodness shuts off with generation number 1,001. It is God's own way of saying. There is no termination date on my commitment to you. You can't get rid of my grace to you. You can't outrun my mercy. You can't evade my goodness. My heart is set on you.” (149)

XVII. His Ways Are Not Our Ways

• “So God tells us in plain terms how tiny our natural views of his heart are. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. And not because we're just a few degrees off. No, "as high as the heavens are above the earth"-a Hebrew way of expressing spatial infinitude-_-"so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts" (v. 9). In verse 8 God says his ways and ours are different; in verse 9 he gets more specific and says his thoughts are higher. It's as if God is saying in verse 8 that he and we think very differently, whereas in verse 9 he is saying precisely how, namely, his "thoughts" (the Hebrew word doesn't merely mean 'passing mental reflection" but "plans," " devices," "intentions," "purposes") are higher, grander, enveloped in a compassion for which we fallen sinners have no natural category.” (158)

• “There is indeed a great distance between God and us; we think small thoughts of God's heart, but he knows his heart is inviolably, expansively, invincibly set on us.”(159)

• “He intends to restore you into the radiant resplendence for which you were created. And that is dependent not on you keeping yourself clean but on you taking your mess to him. He doesn't limit himself to working with the unspoiled parts of us that remain after a lifetime of sinning. His power runs so deep that he is able to redeem the very worst parts of our past into the most radiant parts of our future. But we need to take those dark miseries to him.” (161)

XVIII. Yearning Bowels

• “Whom do you perceive him to be, in your sin and your suffer-ing? Who do you think God is-_-not just on paper but in the kind of person you believe is hearing you when you pray? How does he feel about you? His saving of us is not cool and calculating. It is a matter of yearning not yearning for the Facebook you, the you that you project to everyone around you. Not the you that you wish you were. Yearning for the real you. The you underneath everything you present to others.” (166)

• “Out of his heart flows mercy; out of ours, reluctance to receive it.” (166)

• “If the intensity of love maps onto the intensity of misery in the one beloved, and if our greatest misery is our sinfulness, then God's most intense love flows down to us in our sinfulness. Yes, God has hatred, Goodwin says--toward sin. And the combination of love for us plus hatred for sin equals the most omnipotent certainty possible that he will see us through to final liberation from sin and unfiltered basking in his own joyous heart for us one day.” (168)

XIX. Rich in Mercy

• “It means the Christian life is a lifelong shedding of tepid thoughts of the goodness of God. In his justice, God is exacting; in his mercy, God is overflowing.” (172)

• “But if he is essentially merciful, then for him to pour out mercy is for him to act in accord with who he is. It is simply for him to be God. When God shows mercy, he is acting in a way that is true to himself.” (173)

• “Perhaps you carry a pain that will never heal till you are dead. If my life is any evidence of the mercy of God in Christ, you might think, I'm not impressed. To you I say, the evidence of Christ's mercy toward you is not your life. The evidence of his mercy toward you is his--mistreated, misunderstood, betrayed, abandoned. Eternally. In your place. If God sent his own Son to walk through the valley of condemnation, rejection, and hell, you can trust him as you walk through your own valleys on your way to heaven.” (179)

• “To you I say, do you know what Jesus does with those who squander his mercy? He pours out more mercy. God is rich in mercy. That's the whole point.” (179)

• “That God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes but homes in which divine mercy abides. It means the things about you that make you cringe most, make him hug hardest.” (179)

XX. Our Lawish Hearts, His Lavish Heart

• “There are two ways to live the Christian life. You can live it either for the heart of Christ or from the heart of Christ. You can live for the smile of God or from it.” (181)

• “A healthy Christian life is built on both the objective and the subjective sides of the gospel--the justification that flows from the work of Christ, and the love that flows from the heart of Christ.” (183)

• “As the gospel sinks in more deeply over time, and we wade ever deeper into the heart of Christ, one of the first outer shells of our old life that the gospel pierces is the doing of works unto approval.” (185)

• “There is an entire psychological substructure that, due to the fall, is a near-constant manufacturing of relational leveraging, fear-stuffing, nervousness, score-keeping, neurotic controlling, anxiety-festering silliness that is not something we say or even think so much as something we exhale.” (185)

• “The felt love of Christ really is what brings rest, wholeness, flourishing, shalom-that existential calm that for brief, gospel-sane moments settles over you and lets you step in out of the storm of of-works-ness.” (186)

• “And the Christian life is simply the process of bringing my sense of self, my Identity with a capital "I," the ego, my swirling internal world of fretful panicky-ness arising out of that gospel deficit, into alignment with the more fundamental truth. The gospel is the invitation to let the heart of Christ calm us into joy, for we've already been discovered, included, brought in. We can bring our up-and-down moral performance into subjection to the settled fixedness of what Jesus feels about us.” (187)

• “In the gospel, we are free to receive the comforts that are due us. Don't turn them off. Open the vent of your heart to the love of Christ, who loved you and gave himself for you.” (188)

XXI. He Loved Us Then; He'll Love Us Now

• “Perhaps, as believers today, we know God loves us. We really believe that. But if we were to more closely examine how we actually relate to the Father moment by moment-_-which reveals our actual theology, whatever we say we believe on paper--many of us tend to believe it is a love infected with disappointment.” (189)

• “God didn't meet us halfway. He refused to hold back, cautious, assessing our worth. That is not his heart. He and his Son took the initiative. On terms of grace and grace alone. In defiance of what we deserved. When we, despite our smiles and civility, were running from God as fast as we could, building our own kingdoms and loving our own glory, lapping up the fraudulent pleasures of the world, repulsed by the beauty of God and shutting up our ears at his calls to come home--it was then, in the hollowed-out horror of that revolting existence, that the prince of heaven bade his adoring angels farewell. It was then that he put himself into the murderous hands of these very rebels in a divine strategy planned from eternity past to rinse muddy sinners clean and hug them into his own heart despite their squirmy attempt to get free and scrub themselves clean on their own.” (191)

• “In Christ's death, God is confronting our dark thoughts of him and our chronic insistence that divine love must have an endpoint, a limit, a point at which it finally runs dry/Christ died to confound our intuitive assumptions that divine love has an expiration date. He died to prove that God's love is, as Jonathan Edwards put it, "an ocean without shores or bottom. God's love is as boundless as God himself. This is why the apostle Paul speaks of divine love as a reality that stretches to an immeasurable "breadth and length and height and depth" (Eph. 3:18)-the only thing in the universe as immeasurable as that is God himself. God's love is as expansive as God himself.” (192)

• “What's the ultimate point Paul is driving at in Romans 5:6-11? Not God's past work, mainly. Paul's deepest burden is our present security, given that past work.” (193)

• “Conversion isn't a fresh start. Conversion, authentic regeneration, is the invincibilizing of our future.” (193)

• “We will be less sinful in the next life than we are now, but we will not be any more secure in the next life than we are now.” (195)

XXII. To the End

• “This is not who Christ is indiscriminately. The text says it is "his own" whom he loves to the end.” (203)

• “To those who are not his own, Jesus is a fearful judge, one whose wrath cannot be assuaged or dampened; the Bible teaches that Jesus will one day be "revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus" (2 Thess. 1:7-8)." (204)

• "That passage goes on to say those who do not belong to Christ "will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction" (1:9). But for his own, Jesus himself endured that punishment. He set his heart on his own. They are his. "There is not the meanest, the weakest, the poorest believer on the earth," wrote Owen, "but Christ prizes him more than all the world." (204)

XXIII. Buried in His Heart Forevermore

• “When we live to glorify God, we step into the only truly humanizing way of living.”(205)

• “The creation of the world, and the ruinous fall into sin that called for a re-creative work, un-dammed the heart of Chris, And Christs heart food is how God's glory surges forth further and brighter than it ever could otherwise.” (207)

• “The creation of the world was to give vent to the gracious heart of Christ. And the joy of heaven is that we will enjoy that unfettered and undiluted heart forevermore.” (208)

• “The point of unending eternal life in the new heavens and the new earth is that God "might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (209)

• “The very point of heaven and eternity is to enjoy his "grace in kindness." (209)

• “That thing we've done that sent our life into meltdown-that is where God in Christ becomes more real than ever in this life and more wonderful to us in the next. (And those of us who have been pretty squeaky clean will get there one day and realize more than ever how deeply sin and self-righteousness and pride and all kinds of willful subconscious rebellions were way down deep inside us, and how all that sends God's grace in kindness soaring, and we too will stand, astonished, at how great his heart is for us.” (210)

• “He sends his grace to us, personally, individually, eternally. Indeed, he sends himself--there's no such "thing" as grace (remembering that such a view is Roman Catholic teaching). He sends not grace in the abstract but Christ himself. That's why Paul immediately adds "in Christ Jesus." (211)

• “If are in Christ, you have been eternally invincibilized.” (211)

• “For those in Christ, for whom Ephesians 2:7 is the eternal vista just around the next bend in the road, this life is the worst it will ever get.” (212)

Epilogue

• "The Christian life boils down to two steps: (216)

  1. Go to Jesus.

  2. See #1."

• “Whatever is crumbling all around you in your life, wherever you feel stuck, this remains, un-deflectable: his heart for you, the real you, is gentle and lowly. So go to him. That place in your life where you feel most defeated, he is there; he lives there, right there, and his heart for you, not on the other side of it but in that darkness, is gentle and lowly.” (216)

Notable Content

• “As we zero in on the affectionate heart of Christ, how do we ensure that we are growing in a healthy understanding of the whole counsel of God and a comprehensive and therefore proportionate vision of who Christ is?" (29)

  1. First, the wrath of Christ and the mercy of Christ are not at odds with one another, like a see-saw, one diminishing to the degree that the other is held up.Rather, the two rise and fall together.

  2. Second, in speaking specifically of the heart of Christ (and the heart of God in the Old Testament), we are not really on the wrath-mercy spectrum anyway. His heart is his heart.

  3. Third, we are simply seeking to follow the biblical witness in speaking of Christ's heart of affection toward sinners and sufferers.

     In other words, if there appears to be some sense of disproportion in the Bible's portrait of Christ, then let us be accordingly disproportionate. Better to be biblical than artificially "balanced."

  4. In short: it is impossible for the affectionate heart of Christ to be over-celebrated, made too much of, exaggerated.

Notes on *The Preacher’s Catechism*

The Preacher’s Catechism, Lewis Allen (Crossway, 2018)

Main Idea/Takeaway

• The single most important thing for preachers is to be overcome by the gospel they proclaim. 

• "Our first calling is not to preach him, but to love him and to walk with him." (13)

Table of Contents

1. Preaching, above All

2. Enjoying God

3. The One We Preach

4. By the Book

5. Preaching Christ

6. All Our Days

7. Confident of This

8. Called to Preach

9. For God, for People

10. Not a Square Inch

11. Sin

12. Weakness

13. Knowing Jesus

14. For His Name's Sake

15. Rewarded

16. This Solid Ground

17. Lavish Love

18. Holiness

19. Journey's End

20. The Grace of Law

21. Obedience

22. Love's Choice

23. Image Rights?

24. Our Honor or His?

25. Stop!

26. Respect

27. Servant-Hearted Servants

28. Faithful Attraction

29. Give

30. True to His Word

31. Resist

32. The Heart of the Law

33. Trusting Ministry

34. At the Cross

35. The Courage of Our Convictions

36. Ministering Sacraments

37. Take Them to the Water

38. To Supper

39. Seek First

40. Praying, for His Glory

41. Trust Issues

42. Confession Time

43. All for the King

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Introduction

• "Skills have an essential place, but more essential to our calling are a heart and mind captivated by God and his gospel." (17)

• "A fruitful ministry comes from the heart of a contented preacher. It's not about getting your life circumstances right (be that church, salary, peer recognition, or work-life balance). Some of the most impacting ministries have been carried out through truly wretched situations, filled with years of stress and opposition. So many preachers have stood firm and persevered with fruit owing to their deep heart contentment in the God of the gospel. Christ must be a treasure of ever-deepening worth to us." (18)

• "A preacher whose pulpit freshness comes from a living relationship with Jesus is a great blessing to the church."(19)

• "The Devil love a discouraged preacher, and his infernal crosshairs are always trained on us." (20)

• "Those who keep going in their preaching ministry do so only as they learn to nurture their own souls. Even the strongest of us are fragile men. It's not enough to preach grace; we need it ourselves." (20)

Preaching, above All

• "Above everything else, those of us who are called to preach need to know that God is love (1 John 4:8)." (27)

• "God loves, and shows that love, because he is love. Love is of God's essence. And so the source of all reality is a God of ardent, consuming, and delighting love. This is who he is." (28)

• "Our infinite happiness, as saved sinners, consists in enjoying the Son of God. Delight in Jesus is distinctly godlike, and is God's redemption purpose for the world. The Father is redeeming sinners to be delighters in his Son." (29)

• "What is your heartbeat? Do you love to preach, or do you love the One you preach? Do you love to prep your sermons, enjoying the hard mental and spiritual work, or do you love the One you are discovering more about." (30)

• "We must teach others that God is love, and that life on earth is an invitation from heaven to know that love and to live in the light of it." (30)

• "You can only preach what you love. You can only truly love if you know and are daily fed by the love of God. God is always preaching himself, as the God of love. He has no greater message, no other gospel, and no greater purpose. Neither do we."(30)

Enjoying God

• “God loves a cheerful preacher. Our ever-blessed, ever-joyful God wants to be proclaimed by those who are brimful of the joy his grace in Christ brings. He calls us to delight in him and, out of that joy,

  to call others to the feast. Preacher and sermon must be filled with gospel joy.” (31)

• “Why single out joy when joy is so often crowded out by almost anything else? The reason is that joy, like nothing else, shows whether we really believe the gospel. Joy is gospel authenticity. Joy is not an emotional buzz, an escape from the difficulties we face. To know Jesus Christ means to taste, and to want to taste more, the delights of peace with God the Father, who cares for and smiles on us, the Son, who journeys with us, and the Spirit, who empowers us.” (32)

• “Life in Christ is not, above all, a set

  of commands to obey externally but the inward work of the Holy Spirit to remake our minds and hearts.” (32)

• “The Christian life begins with hearing the Word of God in the power of the Spirit and responding to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith. Christian maturity is an ongoing experience of the same:

  we see Christ in his Word, and we worship him, gladly giving our hearts to his lordship.” (33)

• “God designs that his church be served by Word-soaked, joy-seeking, and joy-sharing

  preachers of his delightful gospel.” (34)

The One We Preach

• “Preachers have a single calling, to express who and what God is. This is our mandate, to declare what God has revealed about himself.” (35) 

• “The preacher must teach people of God so that they can worship him with all their might. He must preach God so that they learn to adore the God who loves lost people because he chooses to, with no compulsion whatsoever, except the compulsion of the overflowing love of the Trinity.” (37)

By the Book

• “Why is the Bible such a thrilling and powerful book? Simply because it is all about Jesus Christ.” (40)

• “The Bible is Jesus's book, all that God has to show us about his Son, and all that we need to come to his Son and to be transformed by him. Make the Bible anything less than the discovery of Jesus, and no wonder we can so easily be dull preachers and disciples.“ (40)

1. Preaching Christ

• “Preaching, though, is ultimately divine activity. J. I. Packer says that it is "the event of God himself bringing to an audience a Bible-based, Christ-related, life-impacting message of instruction and direction through the words of a spokesperson.” (44)

• “The Emmaus road gives us a vital principle (Luke 24:25-27, 45): hearts that hear Christ in his Word and are opened to him are burning hearts.” (44)

All Our Days

• “Self-pity is as much out of place in Christian ministry as self-promotion is. Worship him because of who he is, the Lord of heaven and earth.” (49)

• “The life of a Christian, and of a Christian preacher, is a moment-by-moment giving of all his heart to God and God's grace, in the power of the Holy Spirit.” (50)

• “Get your heart pulled in its deepest impulses to God in Jesus Christ, and your preaching ministry, however difficult, will be a fitting expression of your life's worship.” (50)

Confident of This

• “The question we must face, and which our post-sermon activities betray, is this: can we find heart peace as we trust that God is at work? Whether we're jogging off our adrenaline or collapsed on the sofa, is there trust in our hearts? Do we really believe that

  our preaching will achieve God’s work?” (54)

Called to Preach

• “John Calvin identified the two aspects of a call of God to ministry: the individual's inner compulsion ("I have to do this") and the church's recognition of the man's necessary godliness and gifts in handling God's Word.” (56)

• “Only the servant-hearted are called to be servants of the Word.” (59)

For God, for People

• “You cannot honor God unless you are ministering the fullness of the gospel with gospel love for the good of the lost and the saved. Preaching to the glory of God is all about helping others to grasp and delight in the truth of the gospel. God's glory revealed in the cross of Christ and declared in preaching is the good of grace-hungry people. "The eternal salvation of the human soul, through the presentation of divine truth, is the end of preaching," William Shedd wrote. That is what God wants from you, and that is what your hearers need from you, regardless of whether they currently understand that or actually want it. Anything less is just bad preaching.” (62)

• “Preaching must always be an exercise in self-effacement, not self-promotion, or even self-fulfillment. Jesus says, "Feed my sheep,"not "Feed your ego." People must be led to Christ, and led on with Christ through preaching.”(62)

• “Our goal is to deepen the joy of our hearers in Jesus Christ.” (64)

• “Ministry is the battle against mistrust and misapplied confidence, in our own lives as well as in the lives of those we preach to.” (64)

• “God has invested his glory in his children seeing and delighting in the saving grace of his Son in his proclaimed Word.” (64)

Not a Square Inch

• “It's no good being convinced that the Lord wants you in the pulpit if you're not really sure about his involvement in the world beyond your allotted few square feet of activity each Sunday.” (65)

• “You are preaching into a universe ruled by King Jesus. This life-changing truth must be the solid ground for all your preaching. Believe it, and preach it.” (66)

• “Our calling is to speak gospel words in what often appears to be the chaos of our lives and the lives of our congregations. “Our God reigns" must never sound trite. It must always be heard for what it is, a uniquely hope-filled and peace-bringing claim.” (66)

• “Preachers are, by most measurements, believers with a good deal of faith. Because of that, it's

  all too easy to fail to appreciate the struggles many of our hearers have in believing. There again, time spent with fellow Christians who suffer, or time spent in our own trials, brings home the fact that faith is anything but natural or straightforward.” (67)

Sin

• The last Adam was a preacher as fearless as he was sinless. He always spoke God's Word in obedience to his Father and in the service of his listeners. His loyalty to God's Word took him to another tree, the cross, to die there as our Sin-Bearer (1 Per. 2:24).” (73)

Weakness

• “Perhaps we feel so low on Mondays precisely because we are low. Mondays have lessons of grace to teach us. We need the Monday gospel. Left to ourselves, we are all without hope.” (77)

Knowing Jesus

• “So if we want to find our strength again, we need to go back to Jesus, look to him, and live.” (80) 

• “With a daily walk with Jesus those fears don’t vanish, but they are brought under his control.” (82)

• “So, put Christ before you. Study him and speak to him. Give him your heart.” (82)

For His Name's Sake

• “Endure hardship" is the motto of apostolic ministry (see 2 Tim. 2:3; 4:5). Endure hardship. Not because it is good for you, like a diet or exercise, but because Jesus did, and our calling is to be transformed in the image of his holiness.” (84)

• “Self-sacrifice brought Christ into the world.

  And self-sacrifice will lead us, his followers, not away from but into the midst of men. Wherever men suffer, there will we be to comfort.” (85)

Rewarded

• “The gospel makes no sense and has no power unless judgment is real and heaven’s reward is eternal.” (88)

• “The Lord of the harvest alone can give the increase; but he has given us the mandate of wielding prayer and the Word in order to see people brought to Christ and built up in him.”(90)

This Solid Ground

• "Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption." We preachers can never get enough of this truth. It must master us, subduing our pride in success, and lifting and comforting us in disaster.” (92)

• “We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul." (94)

Lavish Love

• “Most of us who preach lurch between pride and despait, often in the same day. We puff ourselves up, delighted to be preachers. Says Spurgeon, «The pride of knowing replaces the humility of being known." And then, we fail in our task and are in the depths.

  The remedy is never that we should seek some stoic resignation in the highs and lows of ministry--never too up, never too down. The remedy is in the gospel, and especially in the gospel truth that in Christ we are adopted into God's family. The doctrine of adoption is vital for the preacher. We are not preachers first; we are not primarily servants, called to a round of preaching and teaching. Those things are secondary at best. Above everything else, we are sons, the adopted sons of God. We are children, with all of God's people. The Father has lavished his great

  love upon us to make us the children of God (1 John 3:1). The Son has given us the right to become those children John 1:12), and declares his delight in us as his brothers (Heb. 2:12-13).” (96)

• “Hard work for his sake is the privilege we get to do as

  an act of worship. It is the natural activity of children who know their Father's smile.” (97)

Holiness

• “In the light of God's Word we must identify

  our sins and repent of them; in their place we must think through new habits of godliness; we must pray specific prayers with discipline; we must put ourselves right into the fellowship of God's

  people, serving, sharing, and learning; we must learn to live out our baptism, take the Lord's Supper, and sit under good preaching.” (100) 

• ”Preaching is the commitment to showing our hearers from the Word that Jesus is powerfully real. Our growth in grace must not only back up our words; it must also display the real and powerful Jesus in our lives.” (100)

• “We must be holy. If we neglect this calling, we may well end up preaching ourselves, or getting in the way of our Master. If so, our unholiness will actually obscure the glory of Christ. If we are dull, if we are unmoved by the truths we handle in the pulpit, if

  an illustration we use is self-promoting or inappropriate for some other reason, if our words aren't conveying love and tenderness

  (the list could go on), then we are getting in the way of the beauty of Jesus.” (101)

• “The Lord might not give us crowds, but as M'Cheyne himself prayed, our longing should be to be as holy as a pardoned sinner can be. Only as we grow to be like Jesus are we effective in showing him to others in our lives and through our proclamation.” (101)

Journey's End

• “Even if we have sixty years of preaching behind us and have led thousands to a closer walk with Christ, it will be Christ alone who acquits us. We will never earn our salvation.” (105)

The Grace of Law

• “Preachers of Jesus must be like Jesus. No one will listen to a man to learn Christ if they cannot look at him and see Christ.” (109)

Obedience

• “Christ alone keeps the law for us in his obe-

  dience for our sakes, and he alone dies for us under the penal sentence of God for our lawbreaking. Slaves are redeemed and adopted into God's family, and a new nature is given to us.” (115)

Love's Choice

• “Will you really believe that your God can and will

meet all your needs, so that you will bring him all of the love and trust he is so very worthy of? He wants all of your heart, preacher, and unless he has that, he is satisfied by none of your ministry.” (122)

Image Rights?

• “The opposite of love is not hatred; it's indifference-

  "I don't care." But love does care. God will have us for himself. And that is the call, and the power,

  of the gospel?” (125)

Stop!

• “We are to enjoy our Sundays, not as anxious performers but as Christ-satisfied disciples.

  We give ourselves to God in worship and to our church families in fellowship. And we refuse to try to justify ourselves by our preaching. We yield to Jesus, surrender to his righteousness, and rest in his love.” (135)

Respect

• “Church members live in a secular environment of disrespect. Backbiting, disloyalty, and worse are the everyday hazards of their workplace. When they come to church, they must discover the freedom and peace of being in an utterly different culture. Respect

  and honor must be the tone of all relationships in the body of Christ. So it is with the preacher.” (139)

Faithful Attraction

• “Keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 1:21). If you are this loved through Christ, then explore it, stay in it, allow it to satisfy you. ‘Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (Prov. 4:23).” (147)

Give

• “Giving suffcient time each week to preparing sermons is an act of will. It is a commitment to self-discipline, and when we decide to do it, it will put pressure on the rest of our schedules. It is,

  though, supremely an act of love.” (151)

True to His Word

• “Obedience to the commandment "Do not lie

  does not mean "tell the truth regardless of whom you crush under it," but it means "tell the truth in order to serve others in love.” (154)

• “The truth of God, the whole truth, with Jesus at the center, will become a chore, because it doesn't achieve your appointed goals. The Word preached faithfully deeply inconveniences you as well as your hearers with its demands. Your pride won't allow that

  for very many years. In time, you'll preach less of the Word and more of yourself.” (156)

• “If your ministry is a journey in self-love, then no one gets served, you least of all. If by grace you lay your heart and work before the King of kings, then your words will be filled with truth and love. Only then do preachers truly serve the King.” (156)

• “If your ministry is a journey in self-love, then no one gets served, you least of all. If by grace you lay your heart and work before the King of kings, then your words will be filled with truth and love. Only then do preachers truly serve the King.” (156)

Resist

• “One of the greatest psychological pressures for any preacher is being content with our current experience of God's grace and managing our longings for so much more blessing.” (157)

• “Coveting, at root, is a refusal to recognize God as God.” (158)

The Heart of the Law

• “Preachers are ambitious. At least, we should be. If we don't long that people will meet the risen Christ through our ministry, then what do we want to achieve through preaching?” (163) 

• “You and I must strive for excellence as we preach, without ever losing sight of the excellence the Lord calls for: ultimately, loving him and our neighbors is all that counts. That's our highest calling, in the pulpit and out of it.” (163)

Trusting Ministry

• “Salvation is of the Lord, and that includes the gift of faith in order to receive the saving work of Christ (Eph. 2:8; cf. 1:19). True saving faith is nothing less than the work of the Spirit of Christ in our hearts.” (169)

• “And the more you grow in the Spirit's power in response to the Word, the deeper your confidence in this Word will be, whether privately read or

  publicly preached.” (170)

• “Jesus offers himself through his Word in the gospel. Stand on the rock of this truth.” (170)

At the Cross

• “The gospel we preach must be the gospel we consciously rely on. And what we rely on, we love. Our greatest need, then, is a sight of our sins, and serious repentance at the cross for them. As we bring both our sin and our sorrow for it to the cross, we discover again the life Jesus died to bring us. There worship flows as we see our Savior in his life-bringing glory?” (172) 

• “Repentance isn't the soul wallowing in its muck (leave that to the pigs), it is the soul forsaking everything to find forgiveness and life in Jesus?” (174)

• “Commenting on Galatians 3:1, John Calvin said,

  ‘Let those who would discharge aright the ministry of the Gospel learn not merely to speak and declaim, but to penetrate into the consciences of men, to make them see Christ crucified, and feel the shedding

  of his blood.’ Preachers who know their own need of Jesus can do so, and will?” (174)

The Courage of Our Convictions

• “Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing

  which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.” (178)

Ministering Sacraments

• “We must also recover our belief, then, that the pulpit needs to share its message with the baptistery and the Table, and that they must be given their rightful places in the drama of redeeming grace.” (181)

• “If your preaching is mediocre at times, or worse than that, don't indulge in despair: the Lord is

  near in his sacraments.” (181)

• “The sacraments are to show us the gospel and to strengthen our gospel faith, as we've seen. They teach us who belongs to Christ and who doesn't. And so, they call us to renewed trust in Christ and to enduring obedience to him, by his grace. We have

  been washed by Christ, and we are feeding on him. Could we need anything else? So finish your sermon on time, preacher. Don't weary your hearers. They've heard the gospel from you. And now, in water, bread, and wine, let them see it and celebrate it.” (182)

Seek First

• “If you wait until your day is less busy, your heart is less burdened, your moods make it feel exciting, or your sin takes wings and flies away, you will never pray.” (192)

• “The Westminster Shorter Catechism states that prayer is "an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies." (193)

• “Only a living, honest relationship with God nurtured and expressed in prayer, will keep us from hellish hypocrisy and fill us with the life of Christ.” (193)

• “Prayer is recapturing a Christ-centered worldview,

  in which we celebrate again his loving rule. Problems might not go away, but they regain their God-ordained perspective.“ (195)

Praying, for His Glory

• “Preaching easily falls into a default setting of "Yours be the glory, O Lord; and a little to me, too, please." We need to root out that spirit of pride, that clawing, grasping, insecure longing for the praise of men. We do so with prayer. Pray that the Father would set a delight in his glory in Christ deep in your affections

  so that the thought of even trying to snatch a hint of the glory due God alone would disgust you.” (199)

• “You are praying and working not to grow a big church but to serve a church so that people will increasingly yield their lives to Jesus Christ.” (200)  

Trust Issues

• “His presence can still racing thoughts, give hope

  for despairing preachers, and bring back restless, wandering desires to him. You believe that for your congregation, don't you? Believe it for yourself. And experience it as the gift of God to his praying children, including his preachers.” (203)

Confession Time

• “The preacher who repents will live and thrive. Try it. And the ministry that is bathed in repentance and enjoying renewing grace will be a truly gospel one, and will bear the hallmarks of authenticity.” (208) 

All for the King

• “When our hearts bow joyfully to the King, then, and only then, will our preaching have any integrity and impact.” (210)

• “Love only the work, and the work will crush us. Of course it will; the needs of a struggling church and a broken world are completely overwhelming. And while we effectively forget who God is in his gospel love, we will think that he achieves some satisfaction

  (some glory, even) in our being overworked and beaten down.”(210)

• “Preaching is the declaration of the God we know. Preaching is one broken sinner saying to others with exactly the same struggles, "This is the grace I'm discovering, which I long for you to know with me." (210)

• “You can see and you can hear when people are contented. The church can see and hear when those in the pulpit are delighting in Christ and satisfied

  in him. True contentment is as powerful as it is visible.” (211)

• “And so we dare to pursue contentment in God. We dare believe that there is such a place of settled joy and peace in Jesus. We really can make him our treasure when life and ministry are painful, as much as when they are exciting. We can, and we must. To him be the glory, forever.” (211)

Notable Content 

Six questions to help asses whether sin has crept into your preaching. (73)

1. What happens in my heart when people thank me for my preaching? Do I straight away silently thank God that they were blessed? Or do I thank myself for my skills as a preacher?

2. When I preach a terrible sermon, why does it devastate me? Is it because I don't think that Christ's sheep have been fed? Or is it because my ego hasn't been stroked?

3. Do I preach to serve my hearers or to scratch my own preaching itches? Do I choose passages for the pulpit because I know they will serve where my hearers are in need or because I prefer them and think I preach them well?

4. When someone says something critical that is true but painful about my preaching (to me or to someone else, and it has gotten back to me), is my first response angry self-pity, or do I give God thanks for this Spirit-given opportunity to grow in my preaching?

5. Should I adopt a different preaching tone and style or perhaps preach shorter sermons in order to reach my hearers more effectively? Or do pride and fear tie me to preaching as I always have?

6. Do I ever have the courage to ask those closest to me (my wife or the church's leaders) about my preaching? Am I prepared for honest and loving feedback, or do I wish to keep justifying my ministry exactly as it is?

Ten Commandments, re-written: (116)

1. Put nothing in the place of Jesus.

2. Make nothing which gets in the way of your love for Jesus.

3. Honor Jesus' Name in all you do.

4. Seek your soul's rest in Jesus.

5. Honor your parents, as a love-expression for Jesus.

6. Do not murder, as Jesus brings life, never death.

7. Keep sexually pure, because Jesus has won your body, as well as your heart.

8. Do not steal, because Jesus is enough.

9. Do not lie, because Jesus is the truth, and loves the truth.

10. Don't set your heart on anything, because Jesus really is enough.

    Four pointers to obey the commandment concerning contentment: (159)

    1. Believe that God is who he is.

    2. Identify your discontentment, and starve it.

    3. List your blessings, and celebrate them.

    4. Knowing Jesus is contentment. 

Notes on *The Contemplative Pastor*

The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction, Eugene Peterson (Eerdmans, 1993)

Main Idea/Takeaway

• The vocation of a pastor is determined by God in Scripture, not the secular-shaped demands of people- and our vocation, biblically, is deeper and slower than you'd think.

Interaction 

• "Psalm 131!" (25)

• "Imperturbable as = "Poised harpooner", "Well-differentiated self", "Men with chests" (CSL), "Trained emotions and stable sentiments by which our minds govern our appetites." (JR). (25)

• "When dealing with secularists. (not talking about Christians here)." (32)

• "Patience for the pastor, perhaps more than anything else, requires him to believe that Jesus is real, that we need Jesus to do his work, that we don't do Jesus's work for him." (49)

• "Let us talk about God like we believe he's real, and the world like he has entranced it with himself "re-mythologize". (79)

• "What local churches say to pastors, truly." (139)

• "Peterson closes with several wonderful poems that celebrate the gospel and various seasons within the church's life." (155)

Table of Contents

Foreword

I. The Naked Noun

II. The Unbusy Pastor

III. The Subversive Pastor

IV. The Apocalyptic Pastor

V. Ministry amid the Traffic

VI. Curing Souls: The Forgotten Art

VII. Praying with Eyes Open

VIII. First Language

IX. Is Growth a Decision?

X. The Ministry of Small Talk

IX. Unwell in a New Way

X. Lashed to the Mast

XIII. Desert and Harvest: A Sabbatical Story

XIV. Poets and Pastors

XV. Poems

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Foreword

I. The Naked Noun

• "if I, even for a moment, accept my culture's definition of me, I am rendered harmless." (16)

• "The essence of being a pastor begs for a redefinition. To that end, I offer three adjectives to clarify that noun: unbusy, subversive, apocalyptic." (16)

II. The Unbusy Pastor

• "How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works id I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?"(17)

• "The word busy is the symptom not of commitment but of betrayal. It is not devotion but defection. The adjective busy set as a modifier to pastor should sound to our ears like adulterous to characterize a wife or embezzling to describe a banker. It is an outrageous scandal, a blasphemous affront. Hilary of Tours diagnosed our pastoral busyness as irreligiosa sollicitudo pro Deo, a blasphemous anxiety to do God's work for him." (17)

• "I (and most pastors, I believe) become busy for two reasons; both are ignoble. 1. I am busy because I am vain. 2. I am busy because I am lazy." (18)

• "But if I vainly crowd my day with conspicuous activity or let others fill my day with imperious demands, I don't have time to do my proper work, the work to which I have been called. How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion?" (19)

• "I know it takes time to develop a life of prayer: set-aside, disciplined, deliberate time." (20)

• "I need a drenching in Scripture; I require an immersion in biblical studies. I need reflective hours over the pages of Scripture as well as personal struggles with the meaning of Scripture. That takes far more time than it takes to prepare a sermon." (20)

• "I want the people who come to worship in my congregation each Sunday to hear the Word of God preached in such a way that they hear its distinctive note of authority as God's Word, and to know that their own lives are being addressed on their home territory. A sound outline and snappy illustrations don't make that happen.mThis kind of preaching is a creative act that requires quietness and solitude, concentration and intensity. "All speech that moves men." contends R. E. C. Browne, "was minted when some man's mind was poised and still." I can't do that when I'm busy." (21)

• "Pastoral listening requires unhurried leisure, even if it's only for five minutes. Leisure is a quality of spirit, not a quantity of time." (21)

• "The trick, of course, is to get to the calendar before anyone else does. I mark out the times for prayer, for reading, for leisure, for the silence and solitude out of which creative work prayer, preaching, and listening - can issue." (23)

• "The pastor is not, and should not be, exempt from the hundred menial tasks or the administrative humdrum. These also are pastoral ministry. But the only way I have found to accomplish them without resentment and anxiety is to first take care of the priorities. If there is no time to nurture these essentials, become a busy pastor, harassed and anxious, a whining, compulsive Martha instead of a contemplative Mary."(23)

• "To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil." (24)

• "The metaphors Jesus used for the life of ministry are frequently images of the single, the small, and the quiet, which have effects far in excess of their appearance: salt, leaven, seed. Our culture publicizes the opposite emphasis: the big, the multitudinous, the noisy. It is, then, a strategic necessity that pastors deliberately ally themselves with the quiet, poised harpooners, and not leap, frenzied, to the oars. There is far more need that we develop the skills of the harpooner than the muscles of the oarsman. It is far more biblical to learn quietness and attentiveness before God than to be overtaken by what John Oman named the twin perils of ministry, "flurry and worry." For flurry dissipates energy, and worry constipates it!" (25)

III. The Subversive Pastor

• "I am undermining the kingdom of self and establishing the kingdom of God. I am being subversive." (27)

• "Yes, I believe that. I believe that the kingdoms of this world, American and Venezuelan and Chinese, will become the kingdom of our God and Christ, and I believe this new kingdom is already among us. That is why I'm a pastor, to introduce people to the real world and train them to live in it." (28)

• "In general, people treat us with respect, but we are not considered important in any social, cultural, or economic way. In parody we are usually treated as harmless innocents, in satire as shiftless parasites." (29)

• "It's hard to maintain a self-concept as a revolutionary when everyone treats us with the same affability they give the grocer. Are these people right? Is their way of life in no danger from us? Is what we say about God and his ways among us not real in the same way that Chevrolets and basketball teams and fresh garden spinach are real? Many pastors, realizing the opinion polls overwhelmingly repudiate their self-concept, submit to the cultural verdict and slip into the role of chaplain to the culture. It is easy to do. But some pastors do not; they become subversives in the culture." (30)

• "The kingdom of self is heavily defended territory. Post-Eden Adams and Eves are willing to pay their respects to God, but they don't want him invading their turf. Most sin, far from being a mere lapse of morals or a weak will, is an energetically and expensively erected defense against God. Direct assault in an openly declared war on the god-self is extraordinarily ineffective. Hitting sin head-on is like hitting a nail with a hammer; it only drives it in deeper. There are occasional exceptions, strategically dictated confrontations, but indirection is the biblically preferred method." (31)

• "Prayer and parable are the stock-in-trade tools of the subversive pastor. The quiet (or noisy) closet life of prayer enters into partnership with the Spirit that strives still with every human heart, a wrestling match in holiness. And parables are the consciousness-altering words that slip past falsifying platitude and invade the human spirit with Christ-truth." (36)

• "Words are the real work of the world - prayer words with God, parable words with men and women. The behind-the-scenes work of creativity by word and sacrament, by parable and prayer, subverts the seduced world. The pastor's real work is what Ivan Illich calls "shadow work" - the work nobody gets paid for and few notice but that makes a world of salvation: meaning and value and purpose, a world of love and hope and faith - in short, the kingdom of God." (37)

IV. The Apocalyptic Pastor

• "With the vastness of the heavenly invasion and the urgency of the faith decision rolling into our consciousness like thunder and lightning, we cannot stand around on Sunday morning filling the time with pretentious small talk on how bad the world is and how wonderful this new stewardship campaign is going to be." (39)

• "Pastors are the persons in the church communities who repeat and insist on these kingdom realities against the world appearances, and who therefore must be apocalyptic." (41)

• "Apocalypse is arson- it secretly sets a fire in the imagination that boils the fat out of an obese culture-religion and renders a clear gospel love, a pure gospel hope, a purged gospel faith." (41)

• "How can I keep from settling into the salary and benefits of a checkout clerk in a store for religious consumers How can I avoid a metamorphosis from the holy vocation of pastor into a promising career in religious sales? Here is a way: submit my imagination to St. John's apocalypse the crisis of the End combined with the urgencies of God- and let the energies of the apocalyptic define and shape me as pastor." (41)

• "He is an alert and alive pastor. He reads and assimilates the Scriptures; he reads and feels the impact of the daily news. But neither ancient Scripture nor current event is left the way it arrives on his doorstep; it is all turned into prayer." (42)

• "The praying is a joining of realities, making a live connection between the place we find ourselves and the God who is finding us?" (42)

• "People would rather talk to the pastor than to God. And so it happens that without anyone actually intending it, prayer is pushed to the sidelines. And so pastors, instead of practicing prayer, which brings people into the presence of God, enter into the practice of messiah: we will do the work of God for God, fix people up, tell them what to do, conspire in finding the shortcuts by which the long journey to the Cross can be bypassed since we all have such crowded schedules right now. People love us when we do this." (43)

• "Prayer is the most thoroughly present act we have as humans, and the most energetic: it sockets the immediate past into the immediate future and makes a flexible, living joint of them." (44)

• "People are uncomfortable with mystery (God) and mess (themselves). They avoid both mystery and mess by devising programs and hiring pastors to manage them." (48)

• "Apocalypse convinces us that we are in a desperate situation, and in it together. The grass is not greener in the next committee, or parish, or state. All that matters is worshiping God, dealing with evil, and developing faithfulness." (48)

• "Impatience, the refusal to endure, is to pastoral character what strip mining is to the land - a greedy rape of what can be gotten at the least cost, and then abandonment in search of another place to loot. Something like fidelity comes out of apocalyptic: fidelity to God, to be sure, but also to people, to parish - to place." (49)

• "Apocalypse ushers us into the long and the large. We acquire, with St. John and his congregations, fidelity to place and people, the faithful endurance that is respectful of the complexities of living a moral, spiritual, and liturgical life before the mysteries of God in the mess of history." (49)

V. Ministry amid the Traffic

• "Sundays are important - celebrative and essential. The first day defines and energizes our lives by means of our Lords resurrection and gives a resurrection shape to the week. But the six days between Sundays are just as important, if not so celebrative, for they are the days to which the resurrection shape is given." (54)

VI. Curing Souls: The Forgotten Art

• "Until about a century ago, what pastors did between Sundays was a piece with what they did on Sundays. The context changed: instead of an assembled congregation, the pastor was with one other person or with small gatherings of persons, or alone in study and prayer. The manner changed: instead of proclamation, there was conversation. But the work was the same: discovering the meaning of Scripture, developing a life of prayer, guiding growth into maturity." (57)

• "This is the pastoral work that is historically termed the cure of souls. The primary sense of cura in Latin is "care," with undertones of "cure." The soul is the essence of the human personality. The cure of souls, then, is the Scripture-directed, prayer-shaped care that is devoted to persons singly or in groups, in settings sacred and profane. It is a determination to work at the center, to concentrate on the essential?" (57)

• "The cure of souls, is the essential pastoral work It is not a narrowing of pastoral work to its devotional aspects, but it is a way of life that uses weekday tasks, encounters, and situations as the raw material for teaching prayer, developing faith, and preparing for a good death. Curing souls is a term that filters out what is introduced by a secularizing culture." (59)

• "Pastors who devote themselves to the guidance of souls must do it among people who expect them to run a church." (59)

• "The cure of souls is not indifferent to the realities of human lethargy, naive about congregational recalcitrance, or inattentive to neurotic cussedness. But there is a disciplined, determined conviction that everything (and I mean, precisely, everything) we do is a response to God's first work, his initiating act. We learn to be attentive to the divine action already in process so that the previously unheard word of God is heard, the previously unattended act of God is noticed!" (61)

• "Running-the-church questions are: What do we do? How can we get things going again? Cure-of-souls questions are: What has God been doing here? What traces of grace can I discern in this life? What history of love can I read in this group? What has God set in motion that I can get in on?" (61)

• "The primary language of the cure of souls, therefore, is conversation and prayer." (63)

• "Life is not something we manage to hammer together and keep In repair by our wits; it is an unfathomable gift. We are immersed in mysteries: incredible love, confounding evil, the creation, the cross, grace, God." (64)

VII. Praying with Eyes Open

• "Witness is the key word in all this. It is an important biblical word in frequent contemporary use. It is a modest word saying what is there, honestly testifying to exactly what we see, what we hear. But when we enlist in a cause, it is almost impossible to do it right: we embellish, we fill in the blanks, we varnish the dull passages, we gild the lily just a little to hold the attention of our auditors. Sea lion stuff. Important things are at stake - God, salvation -and we want so much to involve outsiders in these awesome realities that we leave the humble ground of witness and use our words to influence and motivate, to advertise and publicize. Then we are no longer witnesses, but lawyers arguing the case, not always with scrupulous attention to detail. After all, life and death issues are before the jury." (79)

• "Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God, for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act to smithereens. Week after week, Christ washes the disciples' dirty feet, handles their very toes, and repeats, 'It is all right, believe it or not, to be people." (84)

VIII. First Language

• "That the central and shaping language of the church's life has always been its prayer language." (89)

• "This is my essential educational task: to develop and draw out into articulateness this personal word, to teach people to pray. Prayer is Language I. It is not language about God or the faith; it is not language in the service of God and the faith; it is language to and with God in faith." (93)

• "But I have determined that the language in which I must be most practiced and for which have a primary responsibility for teaching proficiency in others is Language I, the language of relationship, the language of prayer - to get as much language as possible into the speech of love and response and intimacy." (94)

IX. Is Growth a Decision?

• "Real work always includes a respect for the material at hand. The material can be a pork loin, or a mahogany plank, or a lump of clay, or the will of God, but when the work is done well there is a kind of submission of will to the conditions at hand, a cultivation of humility." (100)

• "Real work, whether it involves making babies or poems hamburger or holiness, is not self-expression, but its very opposite. Real workers, skilled workers, practice negative capability the suppression of self so that the work can take place on its own. St. John the Baptist's "I must decrease, but he must increase" is embedded in all good work." (101)

• "I will to not will what I am already good at in order that what is more than me and beyond me, the will of God, can come into existence in my willing work." (102)

• "We neither manipulate God (active voice) nor are manipulated by God (passive voice). We are involved in the action and participate in its results but do not control or define it (middle voice). Prayer takes place in the middle voice." (104)

• "At our human and Christian best we are not fascists barking our orders to God and his creatures. At our human and Christian best we are not quietists dumbly submissive before fat At our human and Christian best we pray in the middle voice at the center between active and passive, drawing from them as we have need and occasion but always uniquely and artistically ourselves, creatures adoring God and being graced by him, "participating in the results of the action." (105)

• "Gospel reverence, Christ reverence, spouse reverence is a vigorous (but by no means presumptuous) bold freedom, full of spontaneous energy. This is the contextual atmosphere in which we find ourselves loved and loving before God. We are more than ready to bow down before Christ unafraid that we will be tyrannized, for Christ has already laid down his life for us on the cross, pouring himself out and holding nothing back. Willed passivity." (107)

• "Humble boldness (or, bold humility) enters into a sane, robust willing - free willing - and finds its most expressive and satisfying experience in prayer to Jesus Christ, who wills our salvation." (109)

X. The Ministry of Small Talk

• "Pastoral work, I learned later, is that aspect of Christian ministry that specializes in the ordinary. It is the nature of pastoral life to be attentive to, immersed in, and appreciative of the everyday texture of people's lives - the buying and selling, the visiting and meeting, the going and coming." (112)

• "Most of us, most of the time, are engaged in simple. routine tasks, and small talk is the natural language. If pastors belittle it, we belittle what most people are doing most of the time, and the gospel is misrepresented." (115)

• "Pastors especially, since we are frequently involved with large truths and are stewards of great mysteries, need to cultivate conversational humility. Humility means staying close to the ground (humus), to people, to everyday life, to what is happening with all its down-to-earthness." (115)

IX. Unwell in a New Way

• "These two views- the pastor's theological understanding of people and the people's self-understanding - are almost always in tension." (118)

• "So sinner becomes not a weapon in an arsenal of condemnation, but the expectation of grace. Simply to be against sin is a poor basis for pastoral ministry. But to see people as sinners - as rebels against God, missers of the mark, wanderers from the way that establishes a basis for pastoral ministry that can proceed with great joy because it is announcing God's great action in Jesus Christ "for sinners." (120)

• "Pastoral ministry increases in effectiveness as it discerns and discriminates among the forms of sin, and then loves, prays, witnesses, converses, and preaches the details of grace appropriate to each human face that takes shape in the pew." (121)

• "Pastoral discernment that sees grace operating in a person keeps that person in touch with the living God." (124)

X. Lashed to the Mast

• "But professions and crafts are different. In these we have an obligation beyond pleasing somebody; we are pursuing or shaping the very nature of reality, convinced that when we carry out our commitments, we benefit people at a far deeper level than if we simply did what they asked of us." (132)

• "Am I keeping the line clear between what I am committed to and what people are asking of me? Is my primary orientation Gods grace, his mercy, his action in Creation and covenant? And am I committed to it enough that when people ask me to do something that will not lead them into a more mature participation in these realities, I refuse?" (134)

• "There are many other things to be done in this wrecked world, and we are going to be doing at least some of them, but if we don't know the foundational realities with which we are dealing - God, kingdom, gospel - we are going to end up living futile, fantasy lives. Your task is to keep telling the basic story, representing the presence of the Spirit, insisting on the the biblical words of command and promise and invitation." (139)

Notable Content

• "I have no interest in "delivering sermons"." (20)

• "The pastor as the 'Poised Harpooner'." (24)

• The Assumptions of Subversives: (34)

  1. One, the status quo is wrong and must be overthrown if the world is going to be livable.

  2. Two, there is another world aborning that is livable. Its reality is no chimera. It is in existence, though not visible. Its character is known. The subversive does not operate out of a utopian dream but out of a conviction of the nature of the real world.

  3. Three, the usual means by which one kingdom is thrown out and another put in its place- military force or democratic elections- are not available. If we have neither a preponderance of power nor a majority of votes, we begin searching for other ways to effect change. We discover the methods of subversion. We find and welcome allies.

• Three Types of Language: (90)

  1. Language I is the language of intimacy and relationship.

  2. Language II is the language of information.

  3. Language III is the language of motivation.

Notes on *Repentance*

Repentance: A Daring Call to Surrender, Jack Miller, (CLC Publications, 1975, 2009)

Note-taker’s Preface: The resurgence of gospel-centeredness over the last 20+ years is owed in large part, humanly speaking, to the ministries of men like Tim Keller. But behind his ministry is the influence of Jack Miller and Richard Lovelace, among others, who helped shaped Keller during his days at Westminster Seminary. You can see traces of the influence in the primary sources of Miller and Lovelace. For example, consider these words from Lovelace in Dynamics of Spiritual Life (1979):

The beginning place for personal renewal is a preaching and teaching ministry that emphasizes depth proclamation of the gospel. …We must first make real to them the grace of God in accepting them daily, not because of their spirituality, but because of the perfect righteousness of Christ. (211)

Have you ever heard a sermon from Tim Keller? This is precisely what Keller does, and it’s worth emulating, by God’s grace. As for Jack Miller, his work is as relevant for us now as it was 50 years ago. I think of A Faith Worth Sharing and Outgrowing the Ingrown Church. And, of course, there is his small book Repentance. This book is one that I’ve read and reread for years, together with other men. I will let it speak for itself:

Main Idea/Takeaway

• A life of daily repentance is vital for centering the gospel of God's undeserved grace in Christ.

Interaction 

• "Not to undermine asiety, but to emphasize the humility of covenant." (12)

• "Our works- for self-justification- are actually a criticism of God." (21)

• "Isaiah saw God!" (22)

• "Point to Christ as our only Mediator." (27)

• "Priesthood of believers." (27)

• "Consider repentance in light of new creation." (33)

• "Repentance is hearing again and again, "You're wrong and you're loved." (37)

• "Spirit-filled life: Love (affection & obedience); Humility (repentance everyday)." (41)

• "When the stress is experienced, the focus becomes more external, not of the heart." (42)

• "Spirit-filled life is repentant, not 'perfect'." (43)

• "cf. CSL on forgiveness: We are often harsher with other people's sin than we are our own."(43)

• "Which can only happen if we care more about what He thinks than we do what others think. If we care about what other's think, we'll only "repent" when our performance suffers, not our heart motives." (43)

• "I'm not. I can't. I won't. You are. You can. You will." (47)

• "God commands repentance." (61)

• "Far worse than we ever imagined, far more loved than we ever dared dream." (66)

• "How have we seen the power of guilt play out in people's lives? Our own?" (70)

• "Penance, self-reliance, guilt in 'gospel-centered' guise?" (77)

• "Counseling as expository in one-on-one...find those places to go." (79)

• "Consider the tonic of silence before God." (82)

• "So much of prayer is navigating through trifles (which is why it's hard)." (85)

• "Devil's tactic in you praying with fluency." (85)

• "Why collision matters: 1.) power of testimony; 2.) the tonic of silence before God, not prayerlessness. 3.) Compassion is a fruit of repentance. 4.) Because there is where we remember Jesus is real." (83)

• "Wash their feet." (86)

• "Beware the self-righteousness of gospel-centeredness. We're addicts at self-congratulations, (i.e., work progress)." (87)

• "Epilogue by Jack's widow , 1996." (98)

Table of Contents

Foreword

A Note to the Reader

I. Repentance: The Foundation of Life

II. Repentance and Its Counterfeit

III. What Is True Repentance?

IV. Repentance and the Spirit-filled Life

V. Repentance and the Carnal Christian

VI. Repentance and God's Mercy

VII. Repentance and Counseling

VIII. Repentance and Sharing Christ

Epilogue

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

I. Repentance: The Foundation of Life

• "What we all desperately need to see is that the love of a holy God is manifested covenantally at the cross. In the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the Father promises to receive contrite sinners on a daily-no, hourly-basis." (11)

• "The Father, in the gift of His Son, has put Himself under eternal obligation to returning children. Having satisfied the demands of His own holy law, the Father/must open His mighty arms and embrace every returning child." (12)

• "To be near God and to have God near us is the whole purpose of human life. But without sincere repentance there can be no face-to-face fellowship with the Father of lights." (12)

• "Once tasted, repentance would speak to them of communion with Christ and of self-forgetting fruitfulness and of Kingdom power (Mark 1:15)." (13)

• "In our pride we would never think of ourselves in connection with Ananias and Sapphira. But our sin bears a very close resemblance to theirs. They wanted to pretend to be near God when they were not." (14)

• "The world of humanity in our generation has been dominated by lies, broken promises, shattered illusions and just general sham. People are sick and tired of role-players and plastic goods, slickly turned out and calculated to deceive. Therefore, if we wish to be effective, we must see that our own pharisaic pretense will eventually be discovered by the people we meet and rebuked by our own consciences." (15)

• "Ask the Holy Spirit to make you willing to be searched by God (Ps. 139:23-24). Do not expect the process of searching to be always painless and pleasant. No, hardly. But you will begin to have the joy of a clear conscience and a deepening fellowship with Christ." (16)

II. Repentance and Its Counterfeit

• "Penance is not merely a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church. Rather, it is a religious attitude deeply rooted in the human heart which prompts people to attempt to pay for their own sins by good works and sufferings. Self-justification is the goal of this effort." (17)

• "So long as we look within ourselves for the source of our life, we know nothing of Christ." (18)

• "What these people seek from God is enough grace to be strong in themselves. They do not need or want a constant flow of water from heaven." (19)

• "For truly repentant sinners have discovered, through the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, that all their doing is full of sin. Their doing is the source of their wretched emptiness, their black depression and their self-despising. But now they have come undone. They turn from their sinful doing and trust in what Christ has done." (20)

• "Penance is centered in human emotions and perceptions. But repentance to life is God-centered." (20)

• "As a natural consequence, those doing penance will God as owing them a debt; living in self-pity, they become almost unshakably convinced that if there is any forgiving to do, they must forgive God for making them such rotten sinners." (21)

• "Humanity has an immense pride. This is the basis of the self-pity which leads people to condemn God for what seems to them bad management of human affairs. But one real meeting with the living God puts all this self-righteous junk into its true perspective. You just don't argue with holy fire. You submit to it." (23)

• "For the sure mark of authentic repentance is boldness and joyous enthusiasm for the things of God." (23)

• "We are not to make men and women our own disciples, but to make them disciples of the Lord. Therefore, repentance means that people must turn from trusting in empty cisterns like ourselves and thirst and drink from Christ alone (John 7:37-38). Pastors and Christian workers are not merely to accept l believers this as an interesting insight which is mildly relevant to their work. It is, in fact, a matter of spiritual life and death." (27)

III. What Is True Repentance?

• "This motivation for changing one's mind and life-direction is the lordship of the crucified Savior." (31)

• "In the presence of this exalted Lord, self-defense is foolishness, but self-examination aided by the Holy Spirit is everything. Stated practically, our self-examination before the Lord must deal with two kinds of sins. For the purpose of easier understanding, we shall call one kind branch-sins and the other root-sins." (33)

• "Be encouraged then, fellow believer. In calling you to daily repentance, the Lord Jesus is not simply giving you good advice. He is saying, "If you are mine, you must continue to repent.'" (37)

• "Take care not to rob someone of "godly grief" over sin. For if you rob them of the grief, you will also rob them of the joy which comes as a consequence of a hearty repentance." (39)

IV. Repentance and the Spirit-filled Life

• "I want to set down two closely related criteria for the Spirit-filled life: The first is sincere love to the Lord Jesus Christ as the gift of the Father's love, and the second is a genuine repentance which causes us to be broken down before God." (43)

• "For to have the Holy Spirit in you is to have more of Christ in you, to be more like Christ and to bear the fruit of the Spirit which comes through faith in Christ and His merits (Gal. 5:22-23)." (46)

• "There must be a daily conversion of the heart to God (Col. 2:6). And the more you deepen your repentance, the more room you have in your heart for the rivers of living water. The more you know that you are stained to the bone with selfish impulses, the more you see how you hold out against the will of the Lord, then the more you will go to Christ as a thirsty sinner who finds deeper cleansing, more life and greater joy through the Spirit." (47)

• "Repentance prepares the way so that the Lord of glory can enter into the spirit and be adored as the new center of heavenly life. Before, such people were consumed by self-love, but once the Spirit convicted them of sin and turned them to the cross, self-love was crowded out by love to the Lord Jesus Christ." (47)

V. Repentance and the Carnal Christian

• "Backsliding is not a category or a stage in Christian development, but it is living, unrepentant, in a state of sin on the part of those who know better." (51)

• "Definitely, elements of carnality still plague the new Christian. The same can be said of the mature believer. But so long as God's people continue to repent and cling to Christ for growth in grace, they are not carnal in the Pauline sense. They are going forward- sometimes only creeping on hands and knees- but they are not sliding backward like stubborn brute beasts." (52)

• "It should, therefore, be fully understood that in the New Testament the lordship of Christ is the basis of evangelism. It underlies the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20), it stands at the center of Paul's great definition of the gospel (1 Cor. 15:3-5), and it is a truth heralded with flaming power at Pentecost (Acts 2:36). With respect to evangelism, G. Campbell Morgan says, "To preach the living lordship of Christ is to create the necessity for His cross.""(53)

• "But, as has been stressed in this study, repentance has nothing to do with what we have done. Rather, it is our coming undone in respect to all human righteousness, followed by going outside ourselves in faith to Christ alone for salvation." (53)

• "There is no greater stumbling block to the salvation of pseudo-Christians than the insistence of believing relatives and friends that the unsaved loved one is already in Christ." (56)

• "I do not mean to imply for a moment that every believer's religious life should be modeled along the same lines. Christian piety can take many different forms. But whenever there is genuine life, this life will produce the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:2)." (56)

• "It is the nature of the authentic Christian to respond with repentance and deeds of righteousness when corrected by the Word." (57)

• "If people are really carnally minded, they are lost and yet in their sins." (57)

• "It is exceedingly important that we do not allow anything to blur the radical difference between the old and the new creation. To do so is to obscure the glory of the Christian hope and the transforming power of grace. We must give all the energy of faith to preaching that Christ of God who gives a totally new life with fullness of spiritual being." (59)

VI. Repentance and God's Mercy

• "God has entered into history, and this gives people everywhere a powerful, unprecedented reason for repenting." (61)

• "What can be done for sinners like these? They are dominated by an iron self-assertion which prefers their own glory to the glory of God (John 5:39-47, 12:41-43). Even more, what can be done for us, since we all participate in that spirit of unbelief which sent the Lord of glory to the cross? The answer is the cross itself. We have all sinned against the law of God, and now this rebellion has come to climactic expression in our sinning against the ultimate gift of God. But the cross includes in it payment for this worst sin of all--the scorning of it." (64)

• "Unbelief is the supreme transgression of the world. and as your sin too, it is most dangerous to your spiritual life. Specifically, unbelief kills our love and feeds our pride." (65)

• "Jesus then teaches us that repentance for the worst of sins is freely given to believers on the basis of the greatest of gifts. Thus, it is not just the sight of my unbelief that makes me wish to repent, but my seeing the magnitude of the heavenly love." (66)

• "Repentance thus is the more negative side of conversion, the overturning of the idols and the turning to God; saving faith is the more positive side of conversion." (67)

VII. Repentance and Counseling

• "But to evade God's condemnation, people erect about themselves a protective wall of self-righteousness." (69)

• "No matter how hard people try, they cannot finally escape from this inner torment by moving rapidly through the outer physical spaces though this is a favorite device adopted by those who live in a self-energized speed culture." (70)

• "The mystery is that Christ's sacrifice includes in it payment for our despisal and indifference- and you repent of such a sin by trusting in Jesus blood for cleansing." (77)

• "It points up the danger which constantly faces both new believers and long-time Christians. It is the temptation to think of the first conversion as everything and to forget that repentance and faith include a continuing, radical reorientation of the life toward God. Hear what John Murray says: "Christ's blood is the laver of initial cleansing but it is also the fountain to which the believer must continuously repair. It is at the cross of Christ that repentance has its beginning; it is at the cross of Christ that it must continue to pour out its heart in the tears of confession and contrition." (77)

• "Our work is to teach and preach the gospel in a searching manner, to lay the basis for repentance by showing sinners how much they need the Lord of glory as Savior from their guilt and filth. It is a solemn fact that God has ordained that men and women be saved through preaching." (78)

• "Effective counseling is principally a carrying forward in private of specific applications of the preaching ministry in the church! The gospel message is announced boldly in a public context, then given added effectiveness by a one-to- one follow-up in dealing with particular idols which Christ wants removed from each of our lives." (79)

• "The gospel message is a mirror in which all repentant sinners behold the image of Christ and are being transformed from glory to glory through the power of the Spirit. Do not underestimate it. For the gospel enables those who are new creations to face their own sins squarely, confess them and forsake them. Do not underestimate it. For the gospel brings forgiveness to us through Christ's death." (82)

VIII. Repentance and Sharing Christ

• "Until we have experienced the breaking down of pride by the Holy Spirit, we do not understand what witnessing is all about." (83)

• "The awareness of great weakness paves the way for a thoroughgoing repentance that results in a filling with the Holy Spirit's power. Your conviction of sin is used by the Lord to bring you to claim the victory of grace in Him." (84)

• "These wiles of Satan are countered by honesty in prayer. Honest prayer unmasks your real need and puts you in the presence of a rich Christ who wants to meet you as you really are-"wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked" (Rev. 3:17). (85)

• "So in your confession to God you fight to name your sin-and to give your sin its right name. Then you hand it over to Christ by faith and taste the happiness of guilt forgiven (Ps. 32:1) and find the deliverance from hypocrisy which comes through honest confession (Ps. 32:2-5)."(85)

• "God loves you where you are, not where you have been pretending to be. There is a natural transition now to start loving other sinners where they are, not where they pretend to be- or where you think they should be." (86)

• "Humility and sincere love appeal in any age. But in ours these qualities become especially magnetic."(87)

• "As their repentance deepens they learn to see other people compassionately. They know that God broke through their own thick shell, and that all good in themselves originated with a sovereign invasion from without." (89)

• "You find witnessing power only by going to the throne of grace and coming to Christ to get yourself clean and under the blessing of God. From there you go forth to share what you have received firsthand from the Father. This is the beating heart of Christian witness. In evangelism everything depends upon a humble, self-forgetting boldness before God and humanity. Pray boldly and you will witness boldly (Eph. 6:18-20, 1 Thess. 1:5, Acts 4:29-31). Confess your sins freely before God, and you will have freedom to confess Christ before others." (90)

• "John Calvin says, "Fear hinders us from preaching Christ openly and fearlessly, while the absence of all restraint and disguise in confessing Christ is demanded from His ministers. The remedy for this timidity is to carry the sin directly to God in prayer until He fills the penitent heart with an ongoing love that refuses to be stopped by the resistance of sinners to the gospel." (91)

Epilogue

• "My hope and prayer is that God will continue to use this small book to teach the joy of repentance, humility and a life lived in service to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ." (98)

Notable Content

• Root-sins: pride, unbelief, lust. (15)

• Branch sins and Root sins. (33)

• Reasons for praying privately in coming to Christ: (82)

  1. First, prayer in private makes it more difficult for people to use the counselor as a priest and hopefully brings them to rely on Christ on Christ alone for salvation.

  2. Secondly, prayer alone brings the glory of Christ into sharp focus by moving the counselor out of the sinner's line of vision.

Notes on *Spurgeon on the Christian Life*

Spurgeon on the Christian Life: Alive in Christ (Theologians on the Christian Life), Michael Reeves, (Crossway, 2018)

Main Idea/Takeaway

• The legacy of Spurgeon's theology of the Christian life is Christ-centered joy rooted in the gospel of grace, and very much alive.

• "This is a book about Spurgeon's theology of the Christian life, and those were the concerns that lay at the heart of it. Spurgeon was unreservedly Christ-centered and Christ-shaped in his theology; and he was equally insistent on the vital necessity of the new birth. The Christian life is a new life in Christ, given by the Spirit and won by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross." (16)

• "Rooted in glory, and gravitating to glory: that, according to Spurgeon, is the nature of the Christian life." (180)

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: Charles Spurgeon

I. A Man Full of Life

Part II: Christ the Center

II. Christ and the Bible

III. Puritanism, Calvinism, and Christ

IV. Christ and Preaching

Part III. The New Birth

V. New Birth and Baptism

VI. Human Sin and God's Grace

VII. The Cross and New Birth

Part IV. The New Life

VIII. The Holy Spirit and Sanctification

IX. Prayer

X. The Pilgrim Army

XI. Suffering and Depression

XII. Final Glory 

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Introduction

• "Spurgeon concretely lived out his belief that the Christian life is not a dull, ethereal existence on some higher, invisible plane. It is being more full, more human--brighter, more involved and more lively." (17)

• "Brethren, we should cultivate a clear style. When a man does not make me understand what he means, it is because he does not himself know what he means. ... If you look down into a well, if it be empty, it will appear to be very deep; but if there be water in it, you will see its brightness. I believe that many "deep" preachers are simply so because they are like dry wells with nothing whatever in them, except decaying leaves, a few stones, and perhaps a dead cat or two. If there be living water in your preaching, it may be very deep, but the light of the truth will give clearness to it." - CHS (19)

• "Some preachers seem to be afraid lest their sermons should be too rich in doctrine, and so injure the spiritual digestions of their hearers. The fear is superfluous. ... This is not a theological age, and therefore it rails at sound doctrinal teaching, on the principle that ignorance despises wisdom. The glorious giants of the Puritan age fed on something better than the whipped creams and pastries which are now so much in vogue." -CHS (20)

• "That combination of concerns, for theological depth with plainness of speech, made Spurgeon a preeminent pastorally minded theologian." -CHS (21)

Part I: Charles Spurgeon

I. A Man Full of Life

• "And while he surely struggled, it would be wildly misguided to think of Spurgeon as a fragile pushover. It would be far better to say that tenderness saved him: it kept his robustness of character from steamrolling those weaker than himself, and channeled it for their benefit." (27)

• "Spurgeon was an unmistakably and deliberately earnest man. With a deep concern for the glory of Christ and the fate of the lost, he believed that Christians should be able to say with our master, "Zeal for your house will consume me" (John 2:17; cf. Ps. 69:9)." (29)

• "But perhaps it is Spurgeon's cigar smoking that best reveals his sunny playfulness as well as his vivacious willingness to enjoy created things." (30)

• "Humor, he believed, is normally the fruit of something deeper. Sometimes it can come from no more than high spirits--and this, he admitted, was a temperamental challenge for him.

• We must-some of us especially must-conquer our tendency to levity. Agreat distinction exists between holy cheerfulness, which is a virtue, and that general levity, which is a vice. There is a levity which has not enough heart to laugh, but trifles with everything; it is flippant, hollow, unreal." (31)

• "Most essentially, though, Spurgeon's sunny manner was a manifestation of that happiness and cheer which is found in Christ, the light of the world. The "levity" he found in himself, and questioned, was inextricably related to his clear refusal to take himself-or any other sinner-too seriously." (32)

• "Rather like Jonathan Edwards, Spurgeon believed that it is right to "read" creation as a book full of testimony to the Creator and his ways." (34)

• "Christ is the logic and the light of the world; the gospel is the sum of all wisdom; the Scriptures are able to make us wise-and not just for salvation. Christians should therefore be wise and omnivorous people of comprehensive intellect." (36)

Part II: Christ the Center

II. Christ and the Bible

• "It is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned upon Scripture models, and, what is better still, your spirit is flavoured with the words of the Lord. I would quote John Bunyan as an instance of what I mean. Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He... cannot give us his Pilgrim's Progress--that sweetest of all prose poems,-without continually making us feel and say, "Why, this man is a living Bible!" Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God." -CHS (39)

• "There is a peculiar majesty, a remarkable fulnes, a singular potency, a divine sweetness, in any word of God, which is not discoverable, nor anything like it, in the word of man. ... It is God's inspired teaching, infallible, and infinitely pure. We accept it as the very word of the living God, every jot and tittle of it, not so much because there are external evidences which go to show its authenticity, -a great many of us do not know anything about those evidences, and probably never shall,-but because we discern an inward evidence in the words themselves. They have come to us with a power that no other words ever had in them, and we cannot be argued out of our conviction of their superlative excellence and divine authority." -CHS (41)

• "The book is the revelation of Christ, who is the eternal Word and revelation of his Father; as such, it cannot be considered apart from Christ. The book is living and active because Christ is living and active. And just as Christ cannot be left out of Scripture, so Scripture cannot be apart from Christ." (42)

• "He treasured the Bible and held it to be entirely trustworthy because he treasured Christ and held him to be entirely trustworthy." (42)

• "The fact that scripture is the Word of Christ, that its purpose and mail theme is Christ, served as a strong melodic line throughout Spurgeon's thought and ministry." (43)

•  "In this way, Spurgeon saw theology much like astronomy: as the solar system makes sense only when the sun is central, so systems of theological thought are coherent only when Christ is central. Every doctrine must find its place and meaning in its proper relation to Christ." (44)

• "Christ himself is the truth we know, the object and reward of our faith, and the light that illumines every part of a true theological system." (44)

• "Jesus is the Truth. We believe in him,- not merely in his words. He himself is Doctor and Doctrine, Revealer and Revelation, the Illuminator and the Light of Men. He is exalted in every word of truth, because he is its sum and substance. He sits above the gospel, like a prince on his own throne. Doctrine is most precious when we see it distilling from his lips and embodied in his person. Sermons are valuable in proportion as they speak of him and point to him. A Christless gospel is no gospel and a Christless discourse is the cause of merriment to devlis." -CHS (45)

• "You cannot taste the sweetness of any doctrine till you have remembered Christ's connection with it." -CHS (45)

• "True Bible reading thus requires wakeful, attentive study and deep reflection on what is written." (47)

• "Scripture is the Spirit-breathed Word of God: we read it to know him, and we need his help." (47)

• "We are begotten by the word of God: it is the instrumental means of regeneration. Therefore love your Bibles. Keep close to your Bibles." (49)

III. Puritanism, Calvinism, and Christ

• "The rise of theological liberalism and Anglo-Catholicism in his day tended to make Calvinistic Puritanism look quaintly olde worlde and not a little pea-brained. More remarkable still was the unbigoted way in which he held this theology. Being so out of step with the theological climate of his day could easily have made him prickly and clannish, yet for all his unbending theological resolution, Spurgeon was strikingly broad-minded. " (51)

• "Yet even more than all the Bunyan references and imagery in Spurgeon's sermons and writings, Bunyan helped shape the very way Spurgeon spoke and wrote. Spurgeon instinctively disliked the flowery pretentiousness of Latinate words, but it was from Bunyan more than any other that Spurgeon learned the power and the simplicity of plain and homely Anglo-Saxon." (53)

• "He was emphatic that the purpose of his Pastors' College was to raise up pastors who would be thoroughly "Puritanic." (55)

• "In Puritan hands, deep and thoughtful theology was never allowed to become a game for the intelligentsia: it fueled worship and it built up the church. This concern he shared with them, for a heartfelt knowledge of the truth--beyond mere intellectual assent to the doctrines of the gospel-entirely shaped his vision for the Pastors' College." (55)

• "Calvinism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things. I look at everything through its relation to God's glory." -CHS (57)

• "Calvin's theology, in contrast, is the system of doctrine which most clearly magnifies Christ as a Savior and ascribes all the glory to God, and thus best captures the truth we shall sing for eternity as we gather around God's throne and praise him." (57)

• "God's glory being what it is, Spurgeon argued that Calvinistic theology is that in which Christians will find the greatest joy. Calvinism's deep view of sin and high view of God's grace are not harsh dogmas, except to those who would rather not think of themselves as sinners. They are liberating, joy-giving truths." (57)

• "For, to preach this "Calvinism" is really just to preach the gospel: justification by faith, without works; the sovereignty of God; the eternal, all-conquering love of God; the effective redemption of Christ; and the fact that God is powerful to save and keep to the uttermost." (57)

• "In part, Spurgeon's catholicity reflected a generosity of spirit and a humanity that preferred to treat people as people rather than theological specimens. He had a distaste for bigotry and what Philipp Melanchthon called the rabies theologorum that drives theologians, like dogs, to treat doctrines as bones to bark over." (62)

• "He wanted Christians to have more than a formal confession of faith, however orthodox and Christ-centered. For Spurgeon, healthy theology must involve an earnest and warm affection for the Christ who stands above and before all/Christ must be central, but he is truly central only when he is supremely adored." (63)

IV. Christ and Preaching

• "The special work of our ministry is to lay open Christ, to hold up the tapestry and unfold the mysteries of Christ." (66)

• "Since Christ's great and eternal purpose- and the very reason for his death-is to win for himself a bride, the preacher's purpose is, as it were, to woo for Christ. Preachers are called to make Christ known in all his goodness, beauty, and truth, that his people might yield themselves to him, delight in him, and be one with him." (66)

• "In the pulpit he sought not merely to inform his listeners about the Word of God but also to draw both believers and unbelievers to Christ. His aim was to see people transformed at the very deepest level, their affections and desires turning away from their naturally cherished sins to Christ." (66)

• "The object of all true preaching is the heart: we aim at divorcing the heart from sin, and wedding it to Christ. Our ministry has failed, and has not the divine seal set upon it, unless it makes men tremble, makes them sad, and then anon brings them to Christ, and causes them to rejoice." -CHS (66)

• "As well as distinguishing preaching from mere data-dumping, Spurgeon was clear that "to preach" is not the same thing as "to moralise." "Remember," he told his students, "you are not sent to whiten tombs, but to open them." The transformation he longed for in his listeners was not merely at the superficial behavioral level (though he wanted to see godly behavior), but also at the very core of their being. Through preaching the gospel, he wanted to see the spiritually dead come to new life in Christ, and the living to become more gloriously Christlike and alive." (67)

• "First, the preacher must clearly and faithfully preach Christ. He is "Scripture's great theme" and the bridegroom that the servants are sent forth to make known." (71)

• "'to preach Christ' involves preaching all the doctrines that set him forth. It is a stretching and not a limiting mandate for the preacher. Christ must, after all, be preached for who he is and what he has done in his entirety." (71)

• "Spurgeon was emphatic that keeping Christ central, prominent, and clear was the reason for the fruitfulness of his ministry." (74)

• "Next, if he is to be preached faithfully, the Christ who is the light and glory of God must be preached both clearlyand beautifully." (76)

• "Preachers who woo for Christ, aiming at divorcing hearts from sin and wedding them to Christ, must view themselves as standing in Christ's stead." (78) 

• "In order to serve as a faithful ambassador of Christ, and to dare to stand in his stead, the preacher must embody the new life Christ offers. He should both know and enjoy the truth he seeks to share if he is to share it successfully." (79)

• "Not only must the preacher generally embody new life in Christ; he must, more specifically, embody the actual text he expounds. Spurgeon himself always preached best, he found, if he managed to "bathe" or "soak" in his text, to let the text soak into him." (80)

• "All this advice was summed up in an address he gave at the Pastors' College in 1881, titled "Preach Christ in a Christly Manner." His students were all expecting him to urge them to preach Christ, and he did not disappoint: "Ministers of the gospel, let Christ be your subject, and let Christ be your model: find in him not only the truth you utter, but the way and life of your utterance." (80)

• "As we share the gospel with friends and neighbors, Spurgeon reminds us that it is Christ--in all the multifaceted glories of his person and work-who must be the focal point of our message and the treasure we offer. And as we do that, we will properly adorn our message as we share Christ's own zeal, Christ's own courageous meekness and simplicity, and Christ's own love for both God and neighbor." (82)

Part III. The New Birth

V. New Birth and Baptism

• "He remained a stalwart and passionate Baptist for the rest of his life. What matters for us here, though, is that his Baptistic convictions were not a mere matter of his having to choose a denominational alignment: they were an integral part of his theology of the Christian life." (88)

• "The particular doctrine adhered to by Baptists is that they acknowledge no authority unless it comes from the Word of God. ... If we could find infant baptism in the Word of God, we should adopt it. It would help us out of a great difficulty, for it would take away from us that reproach which is attached to us, -that we are odd, and do not as other people do. But we have looked well through the Bible, and cannot find it."-CHS (88)

• "Spurgeon's passionate commitment to baptistic theology was part and parcel of his commitment to the importance of the new birth and faith in Christ." (91)

• "Regeneration was something he always expected to see as he preached the gospel. A friend of his once came to him, depressed because for three months of ministry he had not seen a single conversion. Spurgeon slyly asked, "Do you expect the Lord to save souls every time you open your mouth?" Embarrassed, the man answered "Oh, no, sir!" "Then, Spurgeon replied, "that is just the reason why you have not had conversions: 'According to your faith be it unto you." (92)

VI. Human Sin and God's Grace

• "The desires of our hears, which should incline us to Christ, incline sinners away from him to anything else." (94)

• "I believe the Eternal might sooner forgive the sin of ascribing the creation of the heavens and the earth to an idol, than that of ascribing the works of grace to the efforts of the flesh, or to anyone but himself."-CHS (98)

• "While God uses his truth, his final object is not the head but the heart. Through his Word he enlightens minds in order that hearts might be healed and won to himself. Preachers, therefore, must avoid vacuousness in their preaching, and they must avoid heartless intellectualism. The object of all true preaching, after all, is the heart, and preaching has failed "unless it makes men tremble, makes them sad, and then anon brings them to Christ, and causes them to rejoice. Sermons are to be heard in thousands, and yet how little comes of them all, because the heart is not aimed at, or else the archers miss the mark." (98)

• The cross-that deepest revelation of the glory of God- is the great weapon that breaks down the heart's defenses. Where the good news of Christ crucified is passed over, preaching must lack the power of God to save sinners." (99)

• "The gift of a"new heart" means the radical transformation of our affections and desires. "The affections are the most powerful part of our nature, they to a great extent mould even the understanding itself, and if the heart be defiled all the mental faculties become disturbed in their balance. God, therefore, commences at the heart."- CHS (101)

• "Here again Spurgeon inserted a helpful pastoral lesson. We must not mistake natural tenderness for this "heart of flesh." Some people are born constitutionally sensitive, but that does not mean they are spiritually sensitive. It may well be that they are simply impressionable and can be influenced quickly for evil as well as good." (103)

• "Regeneration is a work of pure grace- and those the Lord regenerates, he will indwell." (103)

VII. The Cross and New Birth

• "In the end, all talk of the centrality of Christ would, for Spurgeon, be inaccurate if we separated Christ from his work and failed to mention his crucifixion." (105)

• "The cross is the pinnacle of Christ's work and the clearest window into his identity: it was the key and the plumb line for Spurgeon as he contemplated Christ and the new life he offers." (105)

• "The most educated must find their wisdom in the cross, or die fools." -CHS (106)

• "All good things lie within the compass of the cross, its outstretched arms overshadow the whole world of thought; from the east even unto the west it sheds a hallowed influence; meanwhile, its foot is planted deep in the eternal mysteries, and its top pierces all earth-born clouds, and rises to the throne of the Most High." -CHS (106)

• "The cross being so pivotal, Spurgeon made it the emblem of his Pastors' College, surrounding it with the motto Et Teneo Et Tenor, "I Hold and Am Held (fig. 2): "I hold" because Christ crucified is the saving and sanctifying truth we must hold out to all people; "I am held" because the blood of Christ is what attracts us to Christ and what holds us safe in Christ." (107)

• "Spurgeon taught that the minister's "great object of glorifying God" is mainly achieved through the preaching of "Christ and him crucified." There the true wisdom, power, holiness, goodness, love, and sovereignty of God are revealed in all their surprising beauty, winning the hearts of those who look to him." (116)

• "When the glory of God is displayed in the cross, we get to see all God's perfections. We see that God is not merely helpful to the weak but also long-suffering and infinitely merciful to great sinners. We see the riches of his grace, his sovereign power to save, his holy justice, and his love. And never does one attribute clash with another." (117)

• "At the heart of the cross, then, was a work of penal substitution, and Spurgeon would be both persistent and outspoken in teaching and defending this theme." (119)

• "Christs substitutionary sacrifice  is essential to the gospel and to faithful preaching, Spurgeon believed. It is the only message which allows-yes, and demands-us to put all our trust in Christ and none in ourselves for salvation. After all, if Christ is our perfect substitute-if our sin is imputed to him and his righteousness to us--then no merit of ours can be necessary. A penal substitutionary atonement means that we can accept by simple faith (and faith alone) what Christ has done for us."(120)

Part IV. The New Life

VIII. The Holy Spirit and Sanctification

• "Growth in the Christian life is not, therefore, something very different from the initial experience of conversion. It is, first and foremost, about turning to Christ in faith and love. It is, consequently, about increasing likeness to Christ." (126)

• "When considering the work of the spirit in believers, Spurgeon liked to speak of how the Spirit of life makes lively people. As the Son of God is dynamically and fully alive in the Spirit, so he makes the children of God spiritually active and energetic. This is what life means. The idea of a passive Christian, content in sin, content not to know God better, was simply anathema to this understanding of the Spirit." (130)

• "In order to make us holy, the spirit animates us to a particular sort of love above all: that love which finds its joy in God. Spurgeon wrote and preached a good deal on joy." (135)

• "What is the gospel?" he once asked. "Glad tidings of great joy." And why? For the gospel reveals a happy God. The happiness of God was a theme Spurgeon returned to again and again. He held that it "enters into the essential idea of God that he is superlatively blessed. We cannot conceive of a God who should be infinitely miserable." Being infinitely full of happiness, God is a God who delights to share his happiness, and who created us for that very reason. "He is the happy God; ineffable bliss is the atmosphere in which he lives, and he would have his people to be happy... for a joyous God desires a joyous people." (136-137)

• "The Christian life, then, is one of entering into what Spurgeon called"the noblest and truest immortality," whereby we "live as God liveth, in peace and joy, and happiness."'S By rejoicing in the Lord, we "commence our heaven here below." (137)

• "Above all, though-above all the blessings of salvation and adoption--it is God in himself who is the great object of our joy. Thus when our hearts or circumstances leave us feeling that we cannot rejoice in anything else, we can still rejoice, for we rejoice in One who is unchangeably joy-giving." (137)

• "Man cannot please God without bringing to himself a great amount of happiness."- CHS (138)

• "True Christlikeness involves desiring to enjoy God ever more." (138)

• "As Spurgeon saw it, joy in God is part of the very fiber of Christian vitality, and thus he would connect it to every other aspect of holiness." (139)

• "Since we are made to be happy in Christ, joy is an essential part of human health. When a person is full of joy, "it shines out of his eyes, it sparkles in his countenance.. it quickens the flowing of the blood in the veins; it is a healthy thing in all respects." (139)

• "Joy in the Lord has the power to strengthen believers against temptation, for when we find our happiness and satisfaction in him, we will not seek it elsewhere. Joy has a medicinal power to cure the ills that come from grumbling. It therefore has the ability to drive away quarreling and promote peace. It is the cure for fretfulness and anxiety. And it is a contagious good, as cheer in one quickens cheerfulness in others, so spreading its own benefits." (140)

• "Christians must, then, fight for joy, and fight for that intimacy with God that fosters joy." (140)

• "So take care that you rejoice in the Lord when you have other things to rejoice in. When he loads your table with good things, and your cup is overflowing with blessings, rejoice in him more than in them."- CHS (140)

• "The spirit's enlightening work over the years that follow is thus quite bittersweet, for enlightening means not only knowing God better but also knowing self better. The Spirit enables us to see ever deeper into our own darkness, the depths of which would simply overwhelm the young believer. Mature Christians therefore feel themselves to be greater sinners than do young Christians. It is not that they are; rather, the Spirit has made them more sensitive to sin and more averse to it. Those sins we once ignored as petty and worth no attention become to us a source of ever-deeper pain." (141)

• "I do not know, beloved, when I am more perfectly happy than when I am weeping for sin at the foot of the cross." -CHS (142)

IX. Prayer

• "Prayer is communion with God, which is the very nature of eternal life. It is faith in action. It is a taste on earth of the everlasting life of praise Christians will enjoy before the throne of heaven." (144)

• "The habit of private prayer, and the constant practice of heart fellowship with the Most High, are the surest indicators of the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart." (144)

• "Prayer must not only be the living breath of the new life: it must also be the breath of any faithful ministry. Because of what prayer is, no amount of talent or education--wonderful gifts though they may be to the church-can substitute for it." (146)

• "As a rule, we ministers ought never to be many minutes without actually lifting up our hearts in prayer. Some of us could honestly say that we are seldom a quarter of an hour without speaking to God, and that not as a duty but as an instinct, a habit of the new nature for which we claim no more credit than a babe does for crying after its mother."-CHS (147)

• "To come before God as our Father means that we can pray with boldness, assurance, and even joyful familiarity. It means we are not approaching a stranger or an enemy." (151)

• "It is when we do not feel fit to pray that we most need it. In such times we must pray for prayer--or, as Spurgeon liked to put it, "pray till we pray." And in those times when we do not feel fit for prayer, we must strike quickly, for that is the Devil's hour." (152)

•  "If you cannot speak, cry; if you cannot cry, groan; and if you cannot even groan to God, "let thy prayer be at least a breathing, a vital, sincere desire, the outpouring of thine inner life in the simplest and weakest form, and God will accept it. In a word, when you cannot pray as you would, take care to pray as you can."- CHS (153)

X. The Pilgrim Army

• "Two of Spurgeon is favorite books were by john Bunyan: The Pilgrims Progress and The Holy War; and together they represent two key aspects of the Christian life as Spurgeon saw it." (155)

• "Machismo is a distorted, cartoonish caricature of the human flourishing of manhood Spurgeon promoted. What he longed to see was more strength exercised (and restrained) in the name of love for Christ. In other words, he wanted believers to have a backbone to their faith." (158)

• "The Christian life is one of sharing the self giving life of God. l must then be a proactively generous life committed to blessing others. And it is then that we experience more richly God's own joy." (160)

• "Faithful activism for Christ is a manifestation of affections that have been reordered to share Christ's passions. Thus Spurgeon held that earnest zeal for the glory of God is the most essential quality in a Christian minister." (162)

• "Only with such heartfelt love for God can the Christian truly share the life of Christ, who was consumed by zeal for God's house John 2:17). Only that way can they be faithful and resolute for him.'s Only that way can they be most truly joyous and alive, for to "live entirely for the Lord is to live indeed, all else is mere existing." (162)

XI. Suffering and Depression

• "Knowing by most painful experience what deep depression of split means, being visited therewith at seasons by no means few or far between, I thought it might be consolatory to some of my brethren if gave my thoughts thereon, that younger men might not fancy that some strange thing had happened to them when they became for a season possessed by melancholy; and that sadder men might know that one upon whom the sun has shone right joyously did not always walk in the light." -CHS (164)

• "The gods of other religions might give ease to the good and health to the worthy. Not so in Christianity, where "goodness" is Christ himself, and conformity to him. God will not therefore simply reward believers with ease in this life, for that would make ease, rather than Christ, the greater prize. Suffering is therefore a "covenant mark," a proof that God is our Father and therefore cares enough about us to do everything necessary to mold and clip us into the likeness of his happily holy son." (165)

• "When a pastor patiently endures difficulty and affliction, and keeps rejoicing in God, it powerfully commends the gospel as glad tidings of great joy. The pastor-or, indeed, any Christian who ministers to another--can prove the comfort that is to be found in God in such times. God therefore often leads his under-shepherds through trials, "not so much for their own benefit as for the sake of those to whom they may afterwards minister." (168)

• "Christian ministers should therefore expect a special degree of suffering to be given to them as a way of forming them for Christlike, compassionate ministry." (169)

• "Just now, when anguish fills the heart, and the spirits are bruised with sore pain and travail, it is not the best season for forming a candid judgment of our own condition, or of anything else; let the judging faculty lie by, and let us with tears of loving confession throw ourselves upon our Father's bosom, and looking up into his face believe that he loves us with all his infinite heart." (172)

• "In suffering then, it is not only the case that we get to draw neater to Christ, becoming more like him and leaning more fully on him. In such times Christ draws near to us to walk with his people in the furnace. And not only to walk with us, but to bear us through." (174)

XII. Final Glory 

• "Spurgeon clearly saw that the Christian hope is to enjoy both communion with God and communion with the people of God." (176)

• "Heaven is heavenly precisely because it is the place of communion with Christ, where his glory is enjoyed. And hell is hellish because it is the place of cast-out Christlessness." (177)

• "Spurgeon's theology of the Christian life was one compassed about on all sides by the glory of God. We have life and new life because of the glory of God, and the glory of God is what we live, hope, and aim for. It is our whence, our whither, our where, and our why?" (179)

• "God's greatest glory is that he is good. The brightest gem in the crown of God is his goodness." (179)

• "The glory of the living God is a self giving, fertile glory. He rejoices to give and share his eternal happiness and life, and he has proved this on the cross." (179)

• "The outgoing, self-giving nature of God's glory is the reason for all created life, and it is the reason we have a gospel of grace. But there is a gracious undertow to God's expansive glory: as God in his glory gives out, so in that same glory he draws his creation in to enjoy his life-giving presence." (180)

• "The Christian life blooms and flourishes in the light of God's glory, where God both gives out and draws in. Having received new life in Christ from God's glorious grace, we find ourselves drawn in to enjoy him and to long for more of him." (180)

Notable Content

• How to Read the Bible: (46-48)

  1. The reader must understand what is written.

  2. The reader must seek out Scripture's meaning and intent. 

  3. Scripture reading is profitable.

• Advice for Preachers: (71-82)

  1. Preach Christ 

  2. Preach Clearly and Beautifully

  3. Stand in Christ's Stead

  4. Seek to Embody the Text

  5. Preach Christ in a Christly Manner

• Two essential reasons for opposing infant baptism: (90-91)

  1. First, to give even the impression that dropping water on a head can save a soul undermines entirely the gospel's call for people to be born again.

  2. Second, infant baptism not only conceals our need to be born again; it also draws people to trust in something other than Christ.

• "Third Nature" see footnote 34. (101)

• Sermons on joy. (135)

Notes on *Heaven on Earth*

Heaven on Earth: A Treatise on Christian Assurance, Thomas Brooks, 1654, (Banner of Truth)

Main Idea/Takeaway

• Assurance is the gift not of having grace but of knowing you have grace, and though it is not required for salvation, it is the highest experience of salvation this side of heaven. 

Interaction 

• Brooks' dedication. (9-13)

• Assurance is explained in short. (14)

• “State of grace” “Reflex act of gracious soul” Assurance is not to have grace but to be sure you have grace. This assurance is not required for salvation, it is the highest experience of salvation this side of heaven. (15)

• The believer prays Rom. 8:15 not on the basis of his strong faith, but because it’s just true. God is "Abba Father”. (30)

• See Owen on waning analogy.(36)

• But does it? What is meant “living purely upon Christ””Holy art” contentment. (38)

• In this way, when we preach the glory of Jesus we are preaching for the assurance of his people.(39)

• Only ultimately is this the case. If a lash is something other than a lash in its moment then it's not a lash. Lashes become lessons. (82)

• So assurance should be pursued, but not as a thing itself. Not in a shortcut kind of way. We must pursue it through holiness, i.e., "grace & holiness for communion with God and conformity to God. (87)

• How is the experience of acting grace different from the experience of assurance? (150)

• What is the "actings of grace?" Availing oneself to the means of grace? Appropriating the grace of God in experience? That is, to live in the knowledge of grace, that I am loved by God because of God alone? (150)

Table of Contents

Epistle to the Saints

Preface: The Nature of Assurance

I. Proofs that Believers May in This Life Attain Unto A Well-Grounded Assurance Of Their Everlasting Happiness and Blessedness

II. Weighty Propositions Concerning Assurance

III. Hindrances and ImpedimentsThat Keep Poor Souls From Assurance; With the Means and Helps to Remove Those Impediments and Hindrances

IV. Motives to Provoke Christians to be Restless Till They Have Obtained A Well-Grounded Assurance of Their Eternal Happiness and Blessedness

V. Ways and Means of Gaining a Well-Grounded Assurance

VI. The Differences Between a True and a Counterfeit Assurance, Between Sound Assurance and Presumption

VII. Answers to Several Special Questions About Assurance

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Epistle to the Saints

• "I could wish it better for your sakes, yet such as it is I do in all love and humility present you with, desiring the Lord to make it an internal and eternal advantage to you." (10)

• "Assurance is a believer's ark, where he sits, Noah-like, quiet and still in the midst of all distractions and destructions, commotions and confusions." (11)

• "The life of a Christian is rather via (journey) than vita (life), a step towards life rather than life." (12)

• "Books may preach when the author cannot, when the author may not, when the author dares not, yea, and which is more, when the author is not." (12)

Preface: The Nature of Assurance

• "The being in a state of grace will yield a man a heaven hereafter, but the seeing of himself in this state will yield him both a heaven here and a heaven hereafter; it will render him doubly blest, blest in heaven, and blest in his own conscience." (14)

• "Now assurance flows from a clear, certain, evident knowledge that I have grace, and that I do believe. Now this assurance is the beauty and top of a Christian's glory in this life." (14-15)

• "To have grace, and to be sure that we have grace, is glory upon the throne, it is heaven on this side of heaven." (15)

I. Proofs that Believers May in This Life Attain Unto A Well-Grounded Assurance Of Their Everlasting Happiness and Blessedness

• "The Bible is a Christian's magna charta, his chief evidence for heaven. Men highly prize, and carefully keep their charters, privileges, conveyances, and title-deeds of their lands; and shall not the saints much more highly prize, and carefully keep in the closet of their hearts, the precious Word of God, which is to them instead of all assurances for their maintenance, deliverance, protection, confirmation, consolation, and eternal salvation." (18)

• "Faith, in time, will of its own accord raise and advance itself to assurance. Faith is an appropriating grace; it looks upon God, and saith with David, "This God is my God for ever and ever, and he shall be my guide unto the death," Ps. 48." (21)

• "We must not only strive after assurance, but we must strive and shew all diligence to the attaining of that rich and full assurance which will scatter all fears and doubts, which will make a soul patient in waiting, courageous in doing, and cheerful in suffering, and which will make a heaven in a man's heart on this side heaven, and make him go singing into paradise, in despite of all calamities and miseries." (25)

• "How can they rejoice and glory in God, that do not know whether he will be an everlasting friend or an everlasting enemy to them, whether he will always breathe out love or wrath upon them?" (28)

• "Christians, are not your mercies greater than your miseries? Yes. Are your greatest sufferings comparable to the least spark of grace or beam of glory revealed in you or to you? No. Will not one hour's being in the bosom of Christ recompense you for all your trouble and travail? Yes?"

• "Joy and rejoicing is a consequent and effect of assurance." (29)

• "How can they rejoice and glory in God, that do not know whether he will be an everlasting friend or an everlasting enemy to them, whether he will always breathe out love or wrath upon them?" (29)

• "Joy and rejoicing is a consequent and effect of assurance." (29)

• "Luther: " The whole Scripture." saith he, " doth principally aim at this thing, that we should not doubt, but that we should hope, that we should trust, that we should believe, that God is a merciful, a bountiful, a gracious, and a patient God to his people." (32)

II. Weighty Propositions Concerning Assurance

• "Christians, this you are always to remember, that though the enjoyment of assurance makes most for your consolation, yet the living purely upon Christ in the absence of assurance, makes most for Christ's exaltation." (38)

• "Now though this full assurance is earnestly desired, and highly prized, and the want of it much lamented, and the enjoyment of it much endeavored after by all saints, yet it is only obtained by a few. It is a mercy too good for most men's hearts, it is a crown too weighty for most men's heads. Full assurance is optimum maximum, the best and greatest mercy; and therefore God will only give it to his best and dearest friends." (39)

• "It is one mercy for God to love the soul, and another mercy for God to assure the soul of his love." (39)

• "It is one thing to be an heir of heaven, and another thing for a man to know or see himself an heir of heaven." (39)

• "It is one thing to be an heir of heaven, and another thing for a man to know or see himself an heir of heaven." (39)

• "Assurance is requisite to the well-being of a Christian, but not to the being; it is requisite to the consolation of a Christian, but not to the salvation of a Christian; it is requisite to the well-being of grace, but not to the mere being of grace. Though a man cannot be saved without faith, yet he may be saved without assurance." (41)

• "God loves to act in such ways of grace towards his suffering ones, as may stop the mouths of their enemies, and cause the hearts of his friends to rejoice." (70)

• "This soul will never be quiet, till it sees God face to face, till it be quiet in the bosom of God. The more a saint tastes of God in an ordinance, the more are his desires raised and whetted, and the more are his teeth set on edge for more and more of God." (78)

• "Afflictiones benedictiones, afflictions are blessings. God's corrections are our instructions, his lashes our lessons, his scourges our schoolmasters, his chastisements our admonitions!" (82)

• "Prayer crowns God with the honor and glory that is due to his name; and God crowns prayer with assurance and comfort. Usually the most praying souls are the most assured souls." (84)

• "Praying souls, remember this. It is but weakness to think that men shall reap as soon as they sow, that they shall reap in the evening when they have but sowed in the morning." (90)

III. Hindrances and Impediments That Keep Poor Souls From Assurance; With the Means and Helps to Remove Those Impediments and Hindrances

• "The only ground of God's love is his love. The ground of God's love is only and wholly in himself." (96)

• "If thou has anything to say, say it to my Christ; he is my comfort and crown, my joy and strength, my redeemer and intercessor, and he shall plead for me." (105)

• "Why, then, O doubting souls, will you make your sense and feeling the judge, not only of your condition, but of the truth itself? What is this but to dethrone God, and to make a god of your sense and feeling?" (109)

• "A heart that is full of the world, is a heart full of wants." (115)

• "The pleasure and sweetness that follows victory over sin is a thousand times beyond that seeming sweetness that is in the gratifying of sin." (120)

• "It is not a man's whining and complaining over sin, but his mortifying of sin, that will make his life a paradise of pleasure." (120)

• "He that shuns not the occasions of sin, tempts two at once, Satan and his own heart; he tempts Satan to tempt him to taste of forbidden fruit, and he tempts his own heart to feed upon forbidden fruit." (125)

IV. Motives to Provoke Christians to be Restless Till They Have Obtained A Well-Grounded Assurance of Their Eternal Happiness and Blessedness

• "Assurance is that heavenly crystal that quickens souls, and that casts a beauty and a glory upon souls; and this makes the devil mad." (132)

• "Ah! were their souls fully assured that God had loved them freely, and received them graciously, and justified them perfectly, and pardoned them absolutely, and would glorify them everlastingly, they could not but love where God loves, and own where God owns, and embrace where God embraces, and be one with every one that is one with Jesus." (147) 

V. Ways and Means of Gaining a Well-Grounded Assurance

• "Seeing that God looks not for any penny or pennyworth, for any portion or proportion in the creature to draw his love, but he will justify, pardon, and save for his name's sake, Isa. 55. 1, 2; seeing all the motives that move God to shew mercy are in his own bosom; seeing they are all within doors, there is no reason why the vilest of sinners should sit down and say, There is no hope, there is no help, Deut. 7. 7, 8; Ps. 68. 18." (155)

• "Remember, reader, that a little heart-knowledge, a little experimental knowledge, is of greater efficacy and worth than the highest notions of the most acute wits. He doth well that discourses of Christ, but he doth infinitely better that, by experimental knowledge, feeds and lives on Christ. It was not Adam's seeing, but his tasting, of forbidden fruit that made him miserable; and it is not your seeing of Christ, but your experimental tasting of Christ, that will make you truly happy. As no knowledge will save but what is experimental, so let no knowledge satisfy you but what is experimental, Ps. 34. 8." (183)

• "I can live only in Christ, who is my life, my love, my joy, my crown, my all in all. Oh, the hearing of Christ affects me, the seeing of Christ affects me, the taste of Christ affects me, the glimmerings of Christ affect me; the more I come to know him in his natures, in his names, in his offices, in his discoveries, in his appearances, in his beauties, the more I find my heart and affections to prize Christ, to run after Christ, to be affected with Christ, and to be wonderfully endeared to Christ." (184)

• "The more I know him, the more I like him; the more I know him, the more I love him; the more I know him, the more I desire him; the more I know him, the more my heart is knit unto him." (184)

• "Divine and heavenly knowledge brings a man near to God; it gives a man the clearest and fullest sight of God; and the nearer any man comes to God, and the clearer visions he hath of God, the more low and humble will that man lie before God. None so humble as they that have nearest communion with God."(188)

• "No man that is saved is saved upon the account of the strength of his faith, but upon the account of the truth of his faith. In the great day Christ will not bring balances to weigh men's graces, but a touch-stone to try their graces; he will not look so much at the strength as at the truth of their graces." (215)

• "The work of repentance is not the work of an hour, a day, a year, but the work of a life-time." (225)

• "The daily mercies and experiences that they have of the love of Christ, of the care of Christ, of the kindnesses and compassions of Christ working more and more towards them, cannot but raise their affections more and more to him. As fire is increased by adding of fuel unto it, so is our love to Christ upon fresh and new manifestations of his great love towards us." (243)

VI. The Differences Between a True and a Counterfeit Assurance, Between Sound Assurance and Presumption

• "A well-grounded assurance doth always beget in the soul an earnest and an impatient longing after a further, a clearer, and a fuller enjoyment of God and Christ." (289)

• "A well-grounded assurance of a man's own eternal happiness and blessedness will make him very studious and laborious to make others happy." (292)

• "So when Christ and assurance come to be set up in the soul, all the idols of Satan and a man's own heart are cast down, and cast out as an abomination." (294)

• "It is impossible for a soul not to love Christ, that knows he is beloved of Christ." (296)

• "Ah! this assurance causes the strong waters of consolation to overflow the soul. Assurance raises the strongest joy in the would." (296)

VII. Answers to Several Special Questions About Assurance

• "Humility is both a grace, and a vessel to receive grace. God pours in grace into humble souls, as men pour liquor into an empty vessel." (309)

• "Therefore, as you would have your assurance strengthened and maintained, walk humbly with your God; I say again, walk humbly, walk humbly with your God, and you shall wear the crown of assurance to your grave." (310)

• "Your happiness lies in your union with God, in your communion with God, in your interest in God, and not in your seeing and knowing your interest; your joy and comfort lies in your seeing and knowing your interest in God, but your everlasting happiness lies in your being interested in God. The welfare and happiness of the child lies in the interest that he hath in his father, but the joy and comfort of the child lies in his seeing, in his knowing, of his interest in his father."(312)

• "Happiness lies not in any transient act of the Spirit, as assurance is, but in the more permanent and lasting acts of the Spirit." (312)

• "But this is the believer's blessedness, that his condition is always good, though he doth not always see it to be good; that his state is always safe, though it be not always comfortable." (313)

• "Assurance is a peculiar mercy; it is a flower of paradise that God sticks only in his children's bosoms. Assurance is a mercy-sweetening mercy; it is a mercy that puts the garland upon all our mercies." (318)

• "Holiness differs nothing from happiness, but in name. Holiness is happiness in the bud, and happiness is holiness at the full. Happiness is nothing but the quintessence of holiness." (319)

• "The holy soul is happy in life, and blessed in death, and shall be transcendently glorious in the morning of the resurrection, when Christ shall say, Lo, here am I, and my holy ones, who are my joy; Lo, here am I, and my holy ones, who are my crown; and therefore, upon the heads of these holy ones will I set an immortal crown. Even so, Amen! Lord Jesus." (320)

Notable Content

• Nine special seasons when assurance is enjoyed: 1.) At conversion 2.) Before engaging in hard or dangerous service 3.) During times of waiting 4.) During times of suffering 5.) During “hearing” and “receiving” times 6.) During times of personal afflictions 7.) During seasons of prayer 8.) Before conflicts with Satan 9.) After conflicts with Satan.

• Brooks on experimental knowledge. (183)

Notes on *The Pilgrim’s Progress*

The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan, 1678, (Banner of Truth)

Note-taker’s Preface: John Bunyan’s classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress, is a book unlike any other. Originally published in 1678, it has sold more than any other book in the English language at around 250 million copies. It’s popularity is due to its profundity. The relevance of Bunyan’s allegory for Christian discipleship, even so many years removed from when he wrote, is simply stunning. I hope that these notes can be a quick-reference guide to some key parts of the story, and that you can consult these notes for illustration helps. My personal goal is to eventually be so acquainted with the novel that I can use Christian”s journey as a field guide for my own, and for those I shepherd.

Lastly, my favorite edition of the book is a recent release from Banner of Truth. It is an elegant, 7x5 hardcover with the original etchings by William Strang.

Interaction 

• "The two children: Patience and Passion" (28)

• "The fire burns hotter and brighter" (30)

• "At the Palace Beautiful = the local church" (46)

• "The effect of Christian fellowship." (58)

• "How the church's fellowship builds us up" (58)

• "Would that this be enough for my rest!" (62)

• "Faithful is murdered by the jury in Vanity Fair." (110)

• "After the death of Faithful, Hopeful steps up to befriend Christian." (112)

• "Christian and Hopeful mutually encourage one another, each for the other at different times." (158)

• "What a sinner's prayer!" (164)

Characters 

Part I

• Christian

  Husband and father stricken by spiritual crisis. Christian is told by a messenger to leave his doomed city and begin a journey of progress toward spiritual achievement.

• Evangelist

  The messenger carrying the Gospel, or word of Christ, to Christian. Evangelist spurs Christian on his journey to the Celestial City.

• Obstinate

  A neighbor of Christian’s in the City of Destruction who refuses to accompany him.

• Pliable

  A neighbor of Christian’s who accompanies him for a while. After falling in the Slough of Despond, Pliable is discouraged and returns home, only to be mocked by the townsfolk.

• Help

  Fellow pilgrim who helps pull Christian from the Slough of Despond.

• Worldly Wiseman

  A reasonable and practical man whom Christian encounters early in his journey. Worldly Wiseman tries unsuccessfully to urge Christian to give up his religious foolishness and live a contented secular life.

• Formalist

  A traveler whom Christian meets along the wall of Salvation. With his companion Hypocrisy, Formalist sneaks over the wall, instead of following the strait and narrow as Christian did.

• Hypocrisy

  Formalist’s travel companion.

• Discretion

  One of the four mistresses of the Palace Beautiful. Discretion takes Christian in and feeds him.

• Piety

  One of the four mistresses of the Palace Beautiful. Piety asks Christian about his journey so far.

• Prudence

  One of the four mistresses of the Palace Beautiful. Prudence tries to understand Christian’s purpose in traveling to Mount Zion.

• Charity

  One of the four mistresses of the Palace Beautiful. Charity asks Christian why he did not bring his family, which causes him to weep.

• The Interpreter

  Spiritual guide who shelters Christian. The Interpreter instructs Christian in the art of reading religious meanings hidden in everyday objects and events, which he houses in his Significant Rooms.

• Apollyon

  Fierce monster with fish scales, bear feet, and dragon wings. Apollyon threatens Christian and fights him with sword until Christian defeats him.

• Shining Ones

  Three celestial creatures who clothe Christian with new garments and give him the certificate. The Shining Ones act as guardians throughout Christian’s journey.

• Faithful

  Fellow pilgrim from Christian’s hometown who reports on the city they both left behind. Faithful loyally accompanies Christian until he is executed in the town of Vanity for the crime of disrespecting the local Satan-worshipping religion.

• Talkative

  Fellow pilgrim who travels alongside Christian and Faithful for a while. Talkative is spurned by Christian for valuing spiritual words over religious deeds.

• Mr. By-ends

  A user of religion for personal ends and social profit. Mr. By-ends accompanies Christian briefly after Christian escapes from Vanity.

• Hopeful

  Pilgrim who replaces Faithful as Christian’s travel companion and confidant after leaving Vanity, all the way to the Celestial City. Hopeful saves Christian’s life in the river before the gates to Mount Zion.

• Giant Despair

  Master of the Doubting Castle. Giant Despair imprisons Hopeful and Christian for trespassing on his domain and is later killed by Great-heart and Christiana’s sons.

• Diffidence

  Giant Despair’s wife. She encourages the harsh punishment of Hopeful and Christian in the Doubting Castle.

• Demas

  Gentlemanly figure who tries to entice Christian and Hopeful with silver and dreams of wealth.

• Temporary

  A would-be pilgrim whom Christian speaks of in a cautionary way, warning of Temporary’s backsliding before his spiritual progress was complete.

Part II

• Sagacity

  An elderly man who visits the narrator in his dream. After the narrator asks after Christian’s family, Sagacity offers to take the narrator’s place as the storyteller and recount Christiana’s journey.

• Christiana

  Christian’s wife and the titular pilgrim in Part II. As a spiritual voyager and a guide to her children, Christiana shows remarkable strength and resilience on the journey.

• Mercy

  Christiana’s neighbor employed by her as a servant on her pilgrimage. She later marries Matthew, Christiana’s eldest son.

• Matthew

  Christiana’s eldest son, who eventually marries Mercy. After stealing fruit from the devil’s garden, Matthew must be healed by Dr. Skill.

• Joseph

  A son of Christiana.

• Samuel

  A son of Christiana.

• James

  Christiana’s youngest son.

• Ill-Favored Ones

  Two strangers who attempt to harm Christiana and Mercy.

• Reliever

  Fellow pilgrim who rescues Christiana and Mercy from the two Ill-Favored Ones.

• Mr. Great-heart

  The Interpreter’s manservant. He protects and guides Christiana and Mercy on their way up the hill of Difficulty and toward the House Beautiful.

• Watchful

  Porter of the House Beautiful.

• Grim

  Master of the lions, who threatens Christiana and Mercy on their way to the House Beautiful.

• Maul

  A giant killed by Great-heart. He accuses Great-heart of kidnapping the pilgrims.

• Mr. Brisk

  Mercy’s suitor. He ends their affair because she is too involved in charity work.

• Old Honest

  An elderly pilgrim. While accompanying Christiana and her group, he relates the sad demise of the pilgrim Fearing.

• Mr. Fearing

  A pilgrim who accompanies Honest for some time. Mr. Fearing is courageous in the face of physical danger but insufficiently certain about his desire to reach the Celestial City.

• Gaius

  A homeowner and host who welcomes Christiana and her group. Two of Gaius’s daughters marry two of Christiana’s sons.

• Giant Good-Slay

  A giant slain by Gaius, Great-heart, and others. He almost devours the pilgrim Feeble-mind.

• Heedless

  A pilgrim who falls asleep near the end of his pilgrimage and talks in his sleep, showing his basic failure to understand pilgrimage.

• Too-bold

  Heedless’s cohort.

• Madam Bubble

  A tall, attractive, dark-skinned temptress. Madam Bubble offers Standfast herself and her money if he will stay with her.

• Standfast

  The last pilgrim met by Christiana. Standfast is found kneeling on the ground and praying in thanks for having been delivered from the temptation of Madam Bubble.

• Mr. Feeble-Mind

  A mentally slow pilgrim captured and nearly killed by the giant Good-Slay. Mr. Feeble-Mind is rescued by Gaius and joins Christiana’s group of pilgrims.

• Mr. Ready-to-Halt

  A handicapped pilgrim who joins Christiana’s group on crutches.

• Mr. Mnason

  Pilgrim with whom Christiana’s group lodges. Two of Mnason’s daughters are married off to Christiana’s sons.

• Contrite

  Friend of Mnason’s, who says that the locals feel a burden of guilt after the unjust execution of Christian’s friend Faithful.

• Valiant-for-truth

  A strong, sword-wielding pilgrim. Valiant-for-truth drives off three attackers single-handedly and joins Christiana’s group at the end of their journey.

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

The Author's Apology for His Book

• "Which way it pleases God: For who knows how, Better than he that taught us first to Plough, To guide our Mind and Pens for his Design? And he makes base things usher in Divine." (xiii)

Part I: The Pilgrim's Progress: in the similitude of a dream

• "I dreamed, and behold I saw a Man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a Book in his hand, and a great Burden upon his back." (1)

• "So I saw in my dream that the Man began to run; Now he had not run far from his own door, but his Wife and Children perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the Man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on crying, Life! Life! Eternal Life! So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the Plain." (5)

• "World. Wilt thou hearken to me if I give thee counsel? Chr. If it be good, I will; for I stand in need of good counsel." (13)

• "Chr. Why, Sir, this Burden upon my back is more terrible to me, than are all these things which you have mentioned" (14)

• "The man that met thee, is one Worldly-Wiseman, and rightly is he so called; partly, because he savoureth only the doctrine of this world; (therefore he always goes to the town of Morality to church) and partly, because he loveth that doctrine best; for it saveth him from the Cross; and because he is of this carnal temper, therefore he seeketh to pervert my ways, though right." (18)

• "So he had him into a private room, and bid his man open a door; the which when he had done, Christian saw the picture of a very grave Person hang up against the wall; and this was the fashion of it, It had eyes lifted up to Heaven, the best of Books in his hand, the Law of Truth was written upon his lips, the World was behind his back; it stood as if it pleaded with men, and a Crown of Gold did hang over its head." (26)

• "The man whose picture this is, is one of a thousand; he can beget children, travel in birth with children, and nurse them himself when they are born. And whereas thou seest him with eyes lift up to Heaven, the best of Books in his hand, and the Law of Truth writ on his lips; it is to shew thee, that his work is to know and unfold dark things to Sinners; even as also thou seest him stand as if he pleaded with men; and whereas thou seest the World as cast behind him, and that a Crown hangs over his head; that is to shew thee, that slighting and despising the things that are present, for the love that he hath to his Master's service, he is sure in the World that comes next, to have Glory for his reward." (26-27)

• "Chr. Then said Christian, Now I see that Patience has the best Wisdom, and that upon many accounts. 1. Because he stays for the best things. 2. And also because he will have the Glory of his, when the other has nothing but rags." (29)

• "The Interpreter answered, This is Christ, who continually with the Oil of his Grace maintains the work already begun in the heart: By the means of which, notwithstanding what the Devil can do, the souls of his people prove gracious still. And in that thou sawest, that the Man stood behind the wall to maintain the Fire; this is to teach thee, That it is hard for the Tempted to see how this Work of Grace is maintained in the soul." (30-31)

• "Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with releases us of our Guilt and a merry heart, He hath given me Rest by his Sorrow, and Burden, we Life by his Death. Then he stood still a while to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him, that the sight of the Cross should thus ease him of his Burden. He looked therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks." (38)

• "Chr. I walk by the Rule of my Master, you walk by the rude working of your fancies." (40)

• "Sometimes he sighed, sometimes he wept, and oftentimes he chid himself for being so foolish to fall asleep in that place which was erected only for a little refreshment from his weariness." (45)

• "Fear not the Lions, for they are chain'd, and are placed there for Trial of Faith, where it is, and for Discovery of those that have none: Keep in the midst of the Path, and no hurt shall come unto thee." (47)

• "Piety. But did you not come by the House of the Interpreter? Chr. Yes, and did see such things there, the remembrance of which will stick by me as long as I live: Especially three things, to wit, How Christ, in despite of Satan, maintains his Work of Grace in the heart; how the Man had sinned himself quite out of hopes of God's Mercy; and also the dream of him that thought in his sleep the Day of Judgment was come." (50)

• "Prud. Can you remember by what Means you find your annoyances at times, as if they were vanquished? Chr. Yes, when I think what I saw at the Cross, that will do it; and when I look upon my 'broidered Coat, that will do it; also when I look into the Roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that will do it." (52)

• "The name of the chamber was Peace, where he slept till break of Day, and then he awoke and sang,

Where am I now! Is this the Love and Care

Of Jesus; for the men that Pilgrims are,

Thus to provide! That I should be forgiven,

And divel already the next door to Heaven!" (56)

• "Whilst Christian is among his godly friends, Their golden mouths make him sufficient 'mends For all his griefs; and when they let him go, He's clad with northern steel from top to toe." (58)

• "Chr. All this is true, and much more, which thou hast left out; but the Prince whom I serve and honour, is merciful and ready to forgive: But besides, these Infirmities possessed me in thy Country; for there I sucked them in, and I have groaned under them, been sorry for them, and have obtained Pardon of my Prince." (62)

• "And I thought again, this Shame tells me what men are; but it tells me nothing what God or the Word of God is. And I thought moreover, That at the Day of Doom we shall not be doomed to Death or Life, according to the hectoring spirits of the world, but according to the Wisdom and Law of the Highest. Therefore, thought I, what God says, is best, though all the men in the world are against it: Seeing then that God prefers his Religion; seeing God prefers a tender Conscience; seeing they that make themselves fools for the Kingdom of Heaven, are wisest; and that the poor man that loveth Christ, is richer than the greatest man in the world that hates him; Shame, depart, thou art an Enemy to my Salvation; shall I entertain thee against my Sovereign Lord? How then shall I look him in the Face at his Coming? Should I now be ashamed of his Ways and Servants, how can I expect the blessing?"(82)

• "Faith. Oh! a great deal: A man may cry out against Sin, of Policy, but he cannot abhor it but by virtue of a godly antipathy against it. I have heard many cry out against Sin in the Pulpit, who yet can abide it well enough in the Heart, House, and Conversation." (91)

• "They therefore brought him out, to do with him according to their Law; and first they scourged him, then they buffeted him, then they lanced his flesh with knives: after that they stoned him with stones, then pricked him with their swords; and last of all, they burnt him to ashes at the Stake. Thus came Faithful to his end." (110) 

• "Now I saw in my dream, that Christian went not forth alone; for there was one whose name was Hopeful, (being made so by the beholding of Christian and Faithful in their words and behaviour, in their sufferings at the Fair) who joined himself unto him, and entering into a brotherly covenant, told him, that he would be his companion. Thus one died to make testimony to the Truth, and another rises out of his ashes to be a companion with Christian in his Pilgrimage." (112)

• "Hope. My Brother, said he, remembrest thou not, how valiant thou hast been heretofore?" (135)

• "Hopeful comforts him again by calling former things to remembrance." (135)

• "Now, a little before it was Day, good Christian, as one half amazed, brake out in this passionate speech; What a Fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty? I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will I am persuaded open any lock in Doubting-Castle. Then said Hopeful, That's good news, good brother, pluck it out of thy bosom and try." (136-137)

• "Let us lie down here, and take one nap. Chr. By no means, (said the other) lest sleeping we never awake more." (158)

• "Hope. Another thing that hath troubled me even since my late amendments is, that if I look narrowly into the best of what I do now, I still see Sin, new Sin, mixing itself with the best of that I do; so that now I am forced to conclude, that notwithstanding my former fond Conceits of myself and duties, I have committed Sin enough in one duty to send me to Hell, tho' my former life had been faultless." (162)

• "God be merciful to me a Sinner, and make me to know and believe in Jesus Christ; for I see, that if his Righteousness had not been, or I have not Faith in that Righteousness, I am utterly cast away. Lord, I have heard that thou art a merciful God, and hast ordained that thy Son Jesus Christ should be the Saviour of the World; and moreover, that thou art willing to bestow upon such a poor sinner as I am, (and I am a sinner indeed) Lord, take therefore this opportunity, and magnify thy Grace in the Salvation of my soul, through thy Son Jesus Christ. Amen." (164)

• "Now I further saw, that betwixt them and the Gate was a River, but there was no bridge to go over, and the river was very deep."(181)

• "They then addressed themselves to the Water, and entering, Christian began to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said, I sink in deep Waters; the Billows go over my head, all the Waves go over me. Selah. Then said the other, Be of good cheer, my Brother, I feel the bottom, and it is good." (182)

• "Then I saw in my dream, That Christian was as in a muse  a while. To whom also Hopeful added these words, Be of good cheer, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: And with that Christian brake out with a loud voice, Oh, I see him again! and he tells me, When thou passest through the Waters, I will be with thee; and through the Rivers, they shall not overflow thee. Then they both took courage, and the Enemy was after that as still as a stone, until they were gone over." (184)

• "Now, just as the Gates were opened to let in the men, I looked in after them; and behold the City shone like the Sun, the streets also were paved with Gold, and in them walked many men with Crowns on their heads, Palms in their hands, and Golden Harps to sing praises withal." (188)

Part II: The Pilgrim's Progress: from this world to that which is to come

• "Then said the Visiter, Christiana! the Bitter is before the Sweet. Thou must through Troubles, as did he that went before thee, enter this Celestial City." (210)

• "The Bitter must come before the Sweet, and that also will make the Sweet the sweeter."

• "Rel. It is not always necessary to grant things not asked for, lest by so doing, they become of little esteem; but when the Want of a thing is felt, it then comes under, in the eyes of him that feels it, that estimate, that properly is its due, and so consequently will be hereafter used." (230)

• "the Interpreter takes them apart again, and has them first into a room, where was a Man that could look no way but downwards, with a muckrake in his hand: There stood also one over his head, with a Celestial Crown in his hand, and proffered to give him that Crown for his muckrake; but the man did neither look up, nor regard, but raked to himself the straws, the small sticks, and dust of the floor."(234)

• "Give me not Riches, is scarce the prayer of one of ten thousand. Straws and sticks, and dust, with most, are the great things now looked after." (236)

•  "It was fine Linen white and clean. When the women were thus adorned, they seemed to be a terror one to the other; for that they could not see that Glory each one on herself, which they could see in each other. Now therefore they began to esteem each other better than themselves. For you are fairer than I am, said one; and you are more comely than I am, said another."

• "Pilgrims should watch, and remember what they have already received under their greatest enjoyments; but for want of doing so, ofttimes their rejoicing ends in tears, and their sun-shine in a Cloud." (258)

• "Jos. That Sin is so great and mighty a Tyrant, that none can pull us out of its clutches, but God; and that God is so good and loving to Man, as to pull him indeed out of this miserable state. Prud. What is God's design in saving of poor men? Jos. The glorifying of his Name, of his Grace, and Justice, and the everlasting Happiness of his Creature." (268)

• "Pray how fareth it with you in your Pilgrimage? (331)

• "Hon. It happens to us, as it happeneth to wayfaring men; sometimes our Way is clean, sometimes foul; sometimes up hill, sometimes down hill; we are seldom at a certainty: The wind is not always on our backs, nor is every one a Friend that we meet with in the Way. We have met with some notable rubs already; and what are yet behind we know not; but for the most part we find it true, that has been talked of of old: A good man must suffer trouble."(331)

• "My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me, that I have fought His battles, who now will be my Rewarder." (373)

• "The waters indeed are to the palate bitter, and to the stomach cold; yet the thoughts of what I am going to, and of the conduct that waits for me on the other side, doth lie as a glowing coal at my heart." (375)

• "I heard one say, that they were yet alive, and so would be for the increase of the Church in that place where they were, for a time." (376)

Notable Content

• Four Reasons for Backsliding (176-178)

Notes on *Tech-Wise Family*

The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place, Andy Crouch (Baker, 2017)

Main Idea/Takeaway

• The parental calling to cultivate wisdom & courage in their children is the grid through which we assess the use of technology. 

Table of Contents

Preface: The Proper Place

Introduction: Help!

Ten Tech-Wise Commitments

Part 1: The Three Key Decisions of a Tech-Wise Family

I. Choosing Character

II. Shaping Space

III. Structuring Time

Part 2: Daily Life

IV. Waking and Sleeping

V. Learning and Working

VI. The Good News About Boredom

VII. The Deep End of the (Car) Pool

VIII. Naked and Unashamed

Part 3: What Matters Most

IX. Why Singing Matters

X. In Sickness and in Health

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Preface: The Proper Place

• "The pace of technological change has surpassed anyone's capacity to develop enough wisdom to handle it. We are stuffing our lives with technology's new promises, with no clear sense of whether technology will help us keep the promises we've already made." (17)

• "If we don't learn to put technology, in all its forms, in its proper place, we will miss out on many of the best parts of life in a family." (17)

• "The proper place for technology won't be exactly the same for every family, and it is not the same at every season of our lives." (19)

Introduction: Help!

• "An awful lot of children born in 2007, turning ten years old as this book is published, have been competing with their parents' screens for attention their whole lives." (26)

• "There is a better way...and this better way is radical." (28)

• "It requires making choices that most of our neighbors in church aren't making. Let me put it this way: you don't have to become Amish, but you probably have to become closer to Amish than you think." (29)

• "This better way involves radically recommitting ourselves to what family is about- what real life is about. Our homes aren't meant to be just refueling stations, places where we and our devices rest briefly, top up our charge, and then go back to frantic activity. They are meant to be places where the very best of life happens." (29)

• "We benefit from all kinds of devices, but we don't build our lives around them. We haven't eliminated devices from our lives by any means, but we go to great lengths to prevent them from taking over our lives."

• "For now, I can almost always settle for simply sitting where no screens are in sight. It's a simple, low-friction decision that has made countless hours at friends' homes and at restaurants much more meaningful and memorable than they would have been otherwise. You might call it a nudge." (33)

• "Nudges are small changes in the environment around us that make it easier for us to make the choices we want to make or want others to make." (33)

• "They don't focus so much on changing anything about out own preferences and ability to choose well; they simply put the best choice right in front of us and make the wrong choice harder." (33)

• "We are continually being nudged by our devices toward a set of choices. The question is whether those choices are leading us to the life we actually want. I want a life of conversation and friendship, not distraction and entertainment; but every day, many times a day, I'm nudged in the wrong direction. One key part of the art of living faithfully with technology is setting up better nudges for ourselves." (35)

• "The central disciplines of the spiritual life, as taught by generations of Christian saints, have stayed the same for twenty centuries now: solitude, silence, and fasting. Each of them pushes us beyond our natural limits, and all of them give us spiritual resources for everyday life that we can't gain any other way." (36)

• "The most powerful choices we will make in our lives are not about specific decisions but about patterns of life: the nudges and disciplines that will shape all our other choices. This is especially true with technology. Technology comes with a powerful set of nudges- the default settings of our "easy-everywhere" culture. Because technology is devoted primarily to making our lives easier, it discourages us from disciplines, especially ones that involve disentangling ourselves from technology itself." (37)

Ten Tech-Wise Commitments

• See Notable Content

Part 1: The Three Key Decisions of a Tech-Wise Family

I. Choosing Character

• "Increasingly, our lives have been colonized by things that don't just help us accomplish a task but do the task for us." (49)

• "Now, technology is everywhere. I don't mean just glowing screens and digital services; I mean the whole apparatus of "easy everywhere" that has come into existence in just over the span of one human lifetime." (49)

• 'In its early days, the internet was more lie a tool. People would "go online." It was someplace you had to "go." And it was finicky- slow and complicated. Now it just works. And it's not somewhere you go. It's like air. It's everywhere." (50)

• "We are in the midst of the greatest revolution in easy everywhere the world has ever known and it may just be getting started." (52)

• "Family is about the forming of persons. Being a person is a gift, like life itself- we are born as human beings made in the image of God." (52)

• "Family helps form us into persons who have acquired wisdom and courage. (53)

• "Wisdom is not just knowledge--mastering information about particular aspects of the world. Wisdom is understanding. It's the kind of understanding, specifically, that guides action. It's knowing, in a tremendously complex world, what the right thing to do is--what will be most honoring of our Creator and our fellow creatures." (53)

• "Because we need not just to understand our place in the world and the faithful way to proceed- we also need the conviction and character to act." (56)

• "Life is difficult. In fact, if you do life properly- with wisdom- life gets more difficult as you go." (56)

• "And even though it's incredibly hard simply to know what we should do, it's even harder to actually act on what we should do. Because almost all the time, the most faithful, the most loving, and the wisest thing to do is scary, hard, and painful- even, in some ways, dangerous." (56-57)

• "How can we become the kind of people who have wisdom and courage? The only way to do it is with other people." (57)

• "As a Christian, I actually don't believe the biological family is the main place we are meant to be known and loves in a way that leads us to wisdom and courage." (60)

• "The first family for everyone who wants wisdom and courage in the way of Jesus is the church- the community of disciples who are looking to Jesus to reshape their understanding and their character." (60)

• "If our families are to be all that they are meant to be- schools of wisdom and courage- they will have to become more like the church, households where we are actively formed into something more than our culture would ask us to be. And if our churches are to be all they are meant to be, they will have to become more like a family--household-like contexts of daily life where we are all nurtured and developed into the persons we are meant to be and can become." (62)

• "So here's where we have to start if we are going to live as flourishing families in an age of easy everywhere: we are going to have to decide, together, that nothing is more important than becoming people of wisdom and courage. We are going to have to commit to make every major decision, and many small decisions, on the basis of these questions: Will this help me become less foolish and more wise? Will this help me become less fearful and more courageous?" (67)

II. Shaping Space

• "Fill the center of your life together- the literal center, the heart of your home, the place where you spend the most time together--with the things that reward creativity, relationship, and engagement. Push technology and cheap thrills to the edges; move deeper and more lasting things to the core." (71)

• "So here is a simple test of whether your home is a tech-wise space: find the place that is its emotional center-the place where your family spends the most time and the most energy- and take an inventory of what you see there?" (73)

• "So if you do only one thing in response to this book, I urge you to make it this: Find the room where your family spends the most time and ruthlessly eliminate the things that ask little of you and develop little in you." (79)

• "This is the central nudge of the tech-wise life: to make the place where we spend the most time the place where easy everywhere is hardest to find."(80)

III. Structuring Time

• "Work is the fruitful transformation of the world through human effort and skill, in ways that serve our shared human needs and give glory to God." (83)

• "If toil is fruitless labor, you could think of leisure as fruitless escape from labor. It's a kind of rest that doesn't really restore our souls, doesn't restore our relationships with others or God. And crucially, it is the kind of rest that doesn't give others the chance to rest. Leisure is purchased from other people who have to work to provide us our experiences of entertainment and rejuvenation." (87)

• "There is one thing most of us can do- and all of us are meant to do. It is to rediscover rest: real rest, in harmony with one another, our Creator, and all of creation. The biblical word for this kind of rest is Sabbath." (92)

• "A life of abundance, gratitude, rest, and quiet. It will only happen if we choose it, but if we choose it, the experience of our family and many friends has been that God blesses it." (97)

• "So I suggest a simple, minimal pattern of Sabbath: we choose to turn our devices off not just one day every week but also one hour (or more) every day and one week (or more) every year."  (98)

• "In this area, as in all of life, the path toward real freedom- including the freedom to actually choose freedom, rather than imprisoning ourselves in our too-small substitutes for real life-is to embrace disciplines." (102)

• "One hour a day, one day a week, one week a year-set it all aside." (105)

Part 2: Daily Life

IV. Waking and Sleeping

• "God's unsleeping care is good news: we sleepy creatures can trust that our needs will be provided for while we can do nothing on our own behalf." (112)

• "Nothing about our lives at home has been so thoroughly disrupted by technology as sleep." (114)

• "Under the covers, as alerts light up the night, anxieties and fantasies are fed as often as they are allayed-for parents as much as children. And we lose out on what we were really made for: the deep rest that would make us more cognitively, emotionally, physically, and spiritually fit for the challenges the next day will bring. The lilies of the field close up their blooms at night and rest patiently for the next day, but we, 

  cloaked in ghostly light, make tomorrow's troubles today's and tonight's instead. The devices we carry to

  bed to make us feel connected and safe actually prevent us from trusting in the One who knows our needs

  and who alone can protect us through the dangers and sorrows of any night." (118)

V. Learning and Working

• "The last thing you need when you are learning, at any age but especially in childhood, is to have things made too easy. Difficulty and resistance, as long as they are age appropriate and not too discouraging, are actually what press our brains and bodies to adapt and learn." (127)

• "The truth is that our children, just like us, will spend far too much of their lives tethered to glowing rectangles. We owe them, at the very minimum, early years of real, embodied, difficult, rewarding learning, the kind that screens cannot provide." (131)

• "The less we rely on screens to occupy and entertain our children, the more they become capable of occupying and entertaining themselves." (133)

VI. The Good News About Boredom

• "In the history of the human race, boredom: is practically brand new- less than three hundred years old." (139)

• "Boredom is actually a crucial warning sign-as important in its own way as physical pain. It's a sign that our capacity for wonder and delight, contemplation and attention, real play and fruitful work, has been dangerously depleted?" (146)

• "We are not bored, exactly, just as someone eating potato chips is not hungry, exactly. But overconsumption of distraction is just as unsatisfying, and ultimately sickening, as overconsumption of junk food." (147)

VII. The Deep End of the (Car) Pool

• "All true conversations, really are risks, exercises in improvisation where we have to listen and respond without knowing, fully, what is coming next, even out of our own mouths." (157)

• "A conversation interrupted several times before the seven-minute mark does not get deeper more slowly; it stays shallow, as each party makes room for the other to opt out and return to their device. What might be on the other side of the seven-minute mark, we never find out." (158)

• "We solve the immediate problem of how to keep small, squirmy children from going ballistic in the backseat, but we also teach our children, sometimes before they can talk, that the car is a place to be entertained, one more boring spot where, thanks to technology, you don't have to notice how bored you really are." (159)

VIII. Naked and Unashamed

• "There is nothing in our society that has surrendered more completely, and more catastrophically, to technology's basic promise, easy everywhere, than sex." (165)

• "With sex dissociated so completely from the family, it is perhaps not surprising that family itself, so totally the opposite of easy-everywhere life, is being reconfigured."(168)

• "We rob the easy-everywhere world of its power to seduce us not so much by the rules we put in place as by the dependence on one another we cultivate- depending on one another to help us be our best selves, growing in wisdom and courage and serving one another, in a world that wants to make us into shallow slaves of the self." (178-179) 

Part 3: What Matters Most

IX. Why Singing Matters

• "The reorientation of our musical lives around consumption is robbing us of something deeper; it is robbing us of a fundamental form of worship." (186)

• "Every family that cares about wisdom and courage needs to be part of a community larger than itself- a community that takes us deeper in our understanding of the world's beauty and brokenness, and that calls us to greater character than we would ever muster on our own." (187)

• "And the most distinctive thing the church does- the thing that most directly develops wisdom and courage in us, from childhood through old age--is call us to worship the God who made us in his image." (187)

• "Worship calls us out of the small pleasures of an easy-everywhere world to the real joy and burden of bearing the image of God in a world where nothing is easy, everything is broken, and yet redemption is possible." (189)

• "And so worship is the most important thing a family can do. It is the most important thing to teach our children and the most important thing to rehearse throughout our lives." (190)

X. In Sickness and in Health

• "Early in our marriage, Catherine and I made a commitment that has in turn dictated a hundred other decisions over the years. We decided that every time we were invited to a wedding or a funeral, unless circumstances made it truly impossible, at least one of us would go." (197)

• "Only by showing up in person can we feel and grasp the full weight, joy, and vulnerability of the most important experiences in human life." (199)

• "We will put love into practice in the most profound possible way, by being present with one another in person at the greatest and most difficult moments of life." (203)

• "We are meant to build this kind of life together: the kind of life that, at the end, is completely dependent upon one another; the kind of life that ultimately transcends, and does not need, the easy solutions of technology because it is caught up in something more true and more lasting than any alchemy our technological world can invent." (204)

• "We are meant to die in one another's arms, surrounded by prayer and song, knowing beyond knowing that we are loved." (204-205)

• "We are meant for so much more than technology can ever give us- above all, for the wisdom and courage that it will never give us. We are meant to spur one another along on the way to a better life, the life that really is life." (205)

Notable Content

• Six guides to know that technology is kept in its proper place. (20-21)

• "The Ten Commitments begin with three choices that are especially fundamental:

  1. The first and deepest is to choose character- to make the mission of our family, for children and adults alike, the cultivation of wisdom and courage. 

  2. The second is to shape space- to make choices about the place where we live that put the development of character and creativity at the heart of our home.

  3. And the third is to structure time- to build rhythms into our lives, on a daily, weekly, and annual basis, that make it possible for us to get to know one another, God, and our world in deeper and deeper ways." (38-39)

• "Ten Tech-Wise Commitments" (41-42)

  1. We develop wisdom and courage together as a family.

  2. We want to create more than we consume. So we fill the center of our home with things that reward skill and active engagement.

  3. We are designed for a rhythm of work and rest. So one hour a day, one day a week, and one week a year, we turn off our devices and worship, feast, play and rest together.

  4. We wake up before our devices do, and they "go to bed" before we do.

  5. We aim for "no screens before double digits" at school and at home.

  6. We use screen for a purpose, and we use them together, rather than using them aimlessly alone.

  7. Car time is conversation time.

  8. Spouses have one another's passwords, and parents have total access to children's devices/

  9. We learn to sing together, rather than letting recorded and amplified music take over our lives and worship.

  10. We show up in person for the big events of life. We learn how to be human by being fully present at our moments of greatest vulnerability. We hope to die in one another's arms. 

Notes on *Making Faith Magnetic*

Making Faith Magnetic: Five Hidden Themes Our Culture Can't Stop Talking About... And How to Connect Them to Christ, Daniel Strange, (Good Book Company, 2021)

Main Idea/Takeaway

• The gospel of Jesus Christ answers the basic longings of the human heart represented in at least five themes found throughout culture. 

• "This book is about five themes that, consciously or subconsciously, our culture and every culture is talking about...these are five themes that are both subverted and fulfilled in Jesus Christ" (13)

Interaction 

• "D.A. Carson: Intolerance of Tolerance" (46)

• "God gets all the blame and none of the credit." (66)

Table of Contents

I. The Way Ahead

II. The Cosmic Game of Hide-and-Seek

Part 1: The Magnetic Points

III. Totality: A Way to Connect?

IV. Norm: A Way to Live?

V. Deliverance: A Way Out?

VI. Destiny: A Way to Control?

VII. Higher Power: A Way Beyond?

Part 2: The Magnetic Person

VIII. Joining the Dots

IX. Jesus: The Way We Connect

X. Jesus: The Way We Live

XI. Jesus: The Way Out

XII. Jesus: The Way of Control

XIII. Jesus: The Way Beyond

XIV. The Magnetic People

Appendix

Conclusion: The Way From Here

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

I. The Way Ahead

• "Yes, Christians are told to live as "foreigners and exiles" in this world (1 Peter 2 v 11). But we're also called to be the "salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" (Matthew 5 v 13-14)— distinctively different to everyone around us but, to those whom God is calling, magnetically attractive." (12)

• "I'm going to show you five of these points of contact — five hidden themes that our culture can't stop talking about, and how they connect to Christ. We'll call them "magnetic points", because they're ideas to which people are irresistibly drawn over and over again." (14)

• "I've increasingly recognized that to siphon off and compartmentalize evangelism and apologetics from Christian discipleship and ministry is artificial and even unhelpful. What Jesus in the Great Commission calls disciple-making is nothing other than allowing the gospel to transform every part of our lives." (15)

• "If my whole life is connected to the gospel, and if I'm growing as a disciple in every part of my life, then the task of connecting the gospel to other people's lives becomes more natural, because we all face common struggles." (15)

• "lf I'm connecting the dots in my everyday story, then I'll be much better equipped to connect the dots in your everyday story."(15)

II. The Cosmic Game of Hide-and-Seek

• "God has made it clear in everything that has been made that he is present and we are dependent, and that he is present and we are dependent, and that he is personal and we are accountable." (21)

•  "Being made in God's image means we are instinctive worshippers. So when we try to smother reality, we end up making new twisted "realities" which we are devoted to instead. Often we imagine that these realities are less powerful and less personal, which means that we are less dependent, more in control and less accountable. Again, we are extremely creative in the things we consider, commit to and worship as "ultimate".(23)

Part 1: The Magnetic Points

III. Totality: A Way to Connect?

• "The idea of totality is centered around connection. It asks questions like: Who are we as human beings? What's our place in the universe?" (34)

• "In the "above us, only sky" world, romantic relationships often bear the weight that communion with God, as the transcendent being, used to bear." (39)

• "At a deep, subconscious level, people know they have been created for close communion with another - and they seek to find it in romantic human relationships." (40)

IV. Norm: A Way to Live?

• "This second magnetic point is called norm and asks whether there is a way to live — and how we know what that is. As human beings, we know there are rules to be obeyed. We accept that there are "norms"-moral standards and codes- which come from outside of us but to which we must adhere." (44)

• "I'm not the first person to comment that tolerance used to mean the idea of "bearing with" or "putting up with" someone with whom you disagreed. Now tolerance has become, frankly, an intolerance towards anyone who disagrees with me. "Bearing with" has become "bearing down", and "putting up" has become "shutting up". (46)

V. Deliverance: A Way Out?

• "There is more — there must be more. Something is broken and it needs fixing. Such songs are just another example of what has long been labelled in literature and psychology as Sehnsucht: a sense of mystical longing and yearning for happiness and fulfillment in the face of a reality which does not provide it."(54)

• "If loss of identity is the problem, then nationalism will bring deliverance. If loneliness is the problem, then community will bring deliverance. If discrimination is the problem, then justice is the answer — or is that education again?" (55)

• "Death is the final confirmation of our sneaking suspicion that all is not right in the world." (61)

VI. Destiny: A Way to Control?

• "When it comes to the magnetic points, I have a favorite and it's this fourth one. It's called destiny and it asks whether there is a way we can control our lives." (64)

• "What a way to put it: we both "lead" and "undergo" our lives. Isn't that a description of so many people we know or how we ourselves feel?" (65)

• "There's no good power responsible for quiet shifts or pleasant customers, just bad ones." (66)

• "I think it's the irresistible power of destiny that explains our fascination with semi-scientific solutions that promise to "explain" us and give us a prophet-like knowledge of the future." (71) // Culturally, we have an infatuation with “data” for this reason.

VII. Higher Power: A Way Beyond?

• "Remember, our magnetic points are what is left after human beings have suppressed and idolatrously substituted the knowledge of God in creation." (74)

• "...as we tear away and sift through our damaged response to God (seen through the magnetic points), we reveal our point of origin: the revelation of God's eternal power, implying human dependency, and God's divine nature, implying human accountability (Romans 1 v 20)." (74)

• "The fifth and final point is called higher power. It asks whether there is a way beyond the realm of our normal experience — a way to connect with someone or something higher than ourselves. Another word for this is transcendence." (75) 

• "So Western culture today is not "dis-enchanted" but "differently-enchanted". It may not be the case that people believe in "God" or "gods" —  at least, certainly not a personal one." (78)

Part 2: The Magnetic Person

VIII. Joining the Dots

• "the gospel of Jesus Christ does not bypass the magnetic points, but is the subversive fulfilment of the magnetic points." (88)

• "Second, the gospel message is the subversive fulfilment of the magnetic points, but our hope is not in a "what" but in a "who"." (89)

• "all this stuff is not about looking sophisticated, or winning an argument; it's simply about getting better at offering people the person of Jesus. We offer Jesus." (90)

• "Third, in offering Jesus as the subversive fulfilment of the magnetic points, we demonstrate both his magnetic appeal and how appalling idolatry is." (90)

• "The more we show people Jesus, the more- we pray, by God's Holy Spirit- they will see the bankruptcy of any alternative worldview.  And the more they see the shortcomings of idolatry, the more beautiful Jesus is shown to be in contrast." (91)  

• "We've said that when it comes to evangelism, we are persons offering other persons the person of Jesus; so let's not miss that the people we're engaging with are people. That means communicating holistically and humanely." (93)

IX. Jesus: The Way We Connect

• "The aim is to use our words to paint a compelling portrait of Jesus, and invite others to stop and look and consider him for themselves." (99)

• "Through Christ we enjoy connection and communion with God, but also connection and community with each other. After all, if I am connected to Jesus, and you are connected to Jesus, then in a very real way we are connected to one another." (104)

• "In his offer of identity, communion and community, Jesus Christ shows himself to be the subversive fulfilment of the magnetic point of totality." (105)

X. Jesus: The Way We Live

• "We've decided to follow our own script and make our own rules. But we can never escape our need for a standard and a sense of accountability, even if it's only to ourselves. It's hard-wired into us." (109)

• "When it comes to the norm, Jesus doesn't just reveal that there is a standard, he says, I am the standard." (110)

• "Everything that God had revealed in the Old Testament about what makes for human flourishing and for shalom(peace) in our communities was fully realized in Jesus' teaching and in his person." (110)

• "And because Jesus is the standard and the one who is the perfect authority over us, we no longer have to live in fear of tyranny of any kind- we need not be oppressed by anyone else's expectations." (115)

• "Jesus is the standard we all want, and Jesus is the Savior we all need. But here's the thing: you can't have one without the other." (115)

• "although the water is quickly running out of the bath, our Western culture still lives off the capital of a Christian worldview." (116)

• "Our culture's norms and conventions are still related to Jesus' norms written in the Bible, but with a diminishing view of our need for the cross." (116)

XI. Jesus: The Way Out

• "Call me a cynic, but I'm afraid that a stadium rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Ariana Grande, however heart-felt, is not going to deliver us from the war on terror." (121)

• "The certainty of death has been shattered and transformed by Jesus; this was previewed in Lazarus' resurrection and undeniably declared in Jesus' own." (124)

XII. Jesus: The Way of Control

• Lewis: "There is something which unites magic and applied science [i.e.  technology] while separating both from the 'wisdom' of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men; the solution is a technique." (130)

• "although in the 2020s I have access to more information than ever about my personality type, my ancestry, my ethnicity, or the oppressive regime over me, I don't feel more liberated but instead more trapped by my character, my heritage, my genes and my economic status." (131)

• "As our good shepherd, Jesus' control over our lives is neither impersonal nor tyrannical. Our obedience to him is not akin to throwing our hands up and submitting to fate. Instead, we obey in the context of a relationship of love. With Jesus I don't have to choose between powerless love or loveless power." (135)

• "Christians are not those who deny the supernatural realm or the existence of superpowers, but rather those who proclaim Christ's supremacy and reign over them both." (136)

• "In Jesus Christ's sovereign control and tender care we find the subversive fulfilment of the magnetic point of destiny." (138)

XIII. Jesus: The Way Beyond

• "As the theologian Lesslie Newbigin memorably put it, "Christ is the clue to all that is"63 We do not worship a "thing" or an "it" but a someone-someone maximally absolute and maximally personal, who is both transcendent and immanent. We worship one who has reached down to us in grace, the Word made flesh." (140)

• "Jaroslav Pelikan's statement that "Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost twenty centuries. If it were possible, with some sort of super magnet, to pull up out of that history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left?" (140)

• "With Jesus we're not left wondering about how to connect with God (totality). He comes to be the way that we should follow (norm). He is the one who offers true and final deliverance. He is the one who is Lord of the universe but also the serving Shepherd (destiny)." (143)

XIV. The Magnetic People

• "We are either being formed by Christ or are being deformed by someone else. If we are not being drawn to Christ, we are being drawn away by something else." (148)

• "Our attitude toward God's word is an index of our love for Jesus."(153)

• "Open the Bible with the same sense of expectation you would have were Jesus to come through your front door and sit on the sofa next to you. because in a very real sense, he is. What might change if you came to God's word each day with a prayer for that kind of eagerness." (154)

• "We experience the humble confidence and security in knowing who we are — in knowing we are his. So whatever life throws at us — when we're crushed by criticism, or threatened by danger, or feel like we don't belong — we can remember that we belong to Christ: treasured, safe, secure." (158)

• "And once we are magnetized each week, we are then sent out and scattered into the world to be a magnetic presence. Let me ask you: in the places where God has called you to live your life- your home, your place of work, your places of play- what would it look like to do all things fully magnetized by Jesus and for Jesus?" (160)

Appendix

• "For those of us given the responsibility to teach and preach God's word, our goal, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is to offer Christ to people, both Christians and non-Christians." (165)

• "The magnetic points can be extremely helpful scaffolding in our desire to construct messages that connect and confront people with the offer of Christ. It's there to help people look at him." (168)

Notable Content

• "Bavinck discerns five of these magnetic points- these themes to which humans are repeatedly drawn:

1.Totality: A way to connect?

2.Norm: A way to live?

3.Deliverance: a way out?

4.Destiny: a way we control?

5.Higher power: a way beyond?

• These scholars argue that as a society we have become disenchanted/enchanted as ever. (77)

• Four practical steps to engaging faithfully and fruitfully with culture:

  1. Entering: Stepping into the world and listening to the story. 

  2. Exploring: Searching for elements of grace and the idols attached to them. 

  3. Exposing: Showing up the idols as destructive frauds.

  4. Evangelizing: Showing off the gospel of Jesus Christ as subversive fulfilment.

• Roger Scruton: "An Apology for thinking" (108)

• We all have authorities in our lives and we regard them with differing levels of importance, trust and obedience, based on at least three questions: (111)

  1. First, do they have the knowledge?

  2. Second, what about their ethical character?

  3. Third, are they effective?

• All of these three things have to be in place in order for someone to have our trust, respect and obedience. Someone can have all the knowledge but be totally ineffective. Someone can get things done but be taking the wrong course of action entirely. Someone can have great integrity but now know what they're talking about." (111)

• Let's consider what being pulled away might look like, using the framework of the magnetic points:

  • "In terms of totality and the way to connect, we can be pulled back into thinking that there is no big plan for God to bring "all things together" 

  • "When it comes to the norm and the way to live, perhaps we see God's standards as rules that constrict us for rules' sake, rather than as rules that liberate us for our good." (149)

  • "For deliverance and the way out, perhaps we subtly and almost imperceptibility start to think that we are delivered by our routines and our purity." (150)

  • "In terms of destiny and the way we control, perhaps even as Christians we can feel like victims. God's sovereign plan for our lives feels more like that infamous fickle finger of fate rather than loving fatherly care." (150)

  • "Finally, in terms of the higher power and the way beyond, we experience the culmination of all the "pulls" I've just mentioned. In our daily words, actions, habits and rituals we gradually demonstrate that there are "loves of our lives" that are higher and deeper than our love for Christ." (151)

• "How do we become these kinds of fully magnetized followers of Jesus?"

  1. Loving Jesus

  2. Loving Our Identity in Jesus

  3. Loving Jesus' Body: the Church

Notes on *Gospel-Driven Ministry*

Gospel-Driven Ministry: An Introduction to the Calling and Work of a Pastor, Jared C. Wilson (Zondervan, 2021)

Main Idea/Takeaway

• The practical matters of pastoral ministry must be undertaken with the conviction that pastoral ministry is mainly intentional, careful stewardship of the gospel.

• "Christian ministry is not built on religious know-how or leadership strategies. Christian ministry is the overflow of the mystery of God in Christ coming to bear on your soul and, through yours, on the souls of others. pastoral ministry is the intentional and careful stewardship of the mystery of the gospel." (227)

Interaction 

• "Between elders and deacons" (13)

• "He preacheth not mightily to his people who prays not fervently for them." Baxter (69)

Table of Contents

Introduction: On This Mysterious Stewardship

I. The Pastor

II. The Power

III. Worshiping

IV. Preaching: Part 1

V. Preaching: Part 2

VI. Caring

VII. Leading

VIII. Fighting (and Making Peace)

IX. Living

X. Dying

Conclusion: On the Readiness to Pastor

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Introduction: On This Mysterious Stewardship

• "That God would entrust this power to ordinary mortals like you and me is utterly astounding. As if only to further demonstrate the supernatural power of the foolish message of the cross, he gives it freely to fools to proclaim. We ponder a great mystery: ordinary sinners like you and like me are entrusted with the tending of Christ's little lambs." (6)

• "Of course, all Christians are called to know, enjoy, and center on the gospel. But the bar of maturity is set higher for pastors (1 Tim 3; Titus 1; 1 Peter 5). The accountability for pastors is also heightened (James 3:1; 1 Peter 5:3). And pastors share a unique responsibility for "keeping watch" over the Christians entrusted to them (Heb.13:17). Thus, the call upon the lives of pastors to know and preach the gospel is more pronounced." (7)

I. The Pastor

• "In order to be fueled by the gospel rather than the world, we must look to Scripture to define what a pastor is, outline the pastoral job description, and determine which candidates are eligible for the job." (10)

• "the division of labor is between authoritative leadership and assisting servanthood. To put it another way, elders serve by leading and deacons lead by serving. And the primary way pastors serve by leading is by proclaiming the Word of God and by selling an example in godly living." (13)

• "What Paul affirms is male headship/authority in the church, and the teaching that is in accordance with that. And Paul roots his declaration in the creation order, making it a foundational guideline not a cultural one?" (16)

• "A man may be creative, entrepreneurial, theologically excellent, a real "people person," a born orator, and a visionary leader; but if he is not qualified according to the apostolic record, he shouldn't be a pastor." (17)

• "What the call is primarily aimed at is not a title, nor even an office in the church, but a qualification of the heart! In other words, you don't have to be qualified (yet) for ministry to be called to it; but, in such cases, the call to ministry should be taken as a call to pursue qualification for that ministry." (20)

• "There is an ecclesial commissioning, a "stamp of approval" that serves as a sign from the congregation of its conviction that a person is qualified. By commissioning, I mean a confirmation of pastoral qualifications by a congregation or a congregational representation." (23)

• "The pastoral office is undeniably connected to a local congregation. It is certainly appropriate to sometimes speak of "pastoring" as a kind of ministry that can be conducted outside a church context military and hospital chaplains do pastoral work, campus ministers do pastoral work, etc.), but the role of pastor is inextricably connected to a particular people for whom and to whom the pastor is covenantally responsible." (23)

• "The bottom line is this: someone who wants to serve over a church should be a product of a church."(24)

II. The Power

• "To be a pastor often means to subject one's self to the weaponized disappointments of others." (27)

• "And there is only one place the pastor can find supernatural power- the Spirit of God working through the message of the gospel, the finished work of the Son of God." (28)

• "Your basic ministerial task in every context is to say to people both near and far from the Lord, "Behold your God!" (31)

• "Pastor, everything your people need is bound up in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone." (31)

• " A regular preaching of practical application, moral inspiration, and religious do-goodism-detached from the central and empowering reality of the finished work of Christ-_-is a subtle and seductive means of leading people into condemnation." (34)

• "The point of the whole Bible is Jesus. So it is possible to preach the Bible in an unchristian way, even if we ourselves are Christians preaching to Christians in a Christian church. If we do not preach Christ from the text, we are not preaching a Christian sermon." (37)

• "I cannot simply berate people into centering on grace; I need to hold it up for them to see. I can't simply tell people to be awed by Christ, I need to hold up Christ's glory so that they can be. If we want people to be more changed toward the image of Christ, we will center on the only power for this change- the gospel of Christ." (39)

• When outside is all conflict or chaos, and inside is all confusion and concern, Christ is upholding the pastor with his powerful word.(42)

III. Worshiping

• "We are ambivalent about God's Word because we don't hallow him. We succumb to the prosperity gospel because we don't know him. We surrender to political idolatry because we don't trust him. Our desire for truth, provision, and power is directed elsewhere. Disordered worship is the major disease threatening every local church. It may not manifest itself in any of the ailments listed above, but the churches we pastor will, regardless, be infected with it. And so will we." (46)

• "Devoted pastors are not those who have come to place their trust in vague spiritual platitudes; they are those who have come to place their trust by the real Spirit in the real Savior, Jesus, as proclaimed in the specific words of the powerful gospel." (50)

• "Adorational study of God's Word deepens not just our knowledge of God, but also our love for him. The more we read, study, meditate on, and prayerfully apply the Word of God, the more we will find ourselves in awe of him." (51)

• "The power you need to pastor is not derived from within. It is a gift from the alien righteousness of Christ. It comes from God's Spirit. Thus our attention to God's Word must be drenched in prayerful surrender." (52)

• "Prayer is essentially acknowledged helplessness, the act by which we recognize that everything we need must be graciously given by God." (52)

• "Faith is an empty hand and prayer is a confession of need." (52)

• "The worshiping pastor is a praying pastor. He is a prayer-full pastor." (53)

• "The aim of the sermon is no different from the aim of the rest of the service: leading sinners to worship God." (54)

• "Study yourself hot. Pray yourself full. Preach Christ passionately and gratuitously." (54)

IV. Preaching: Part 1

• "Christian preaching, especially preaching in the Lord's Day worship gathering, isn't synonymous with teaching a lesson. Getting information across is important and necessary, but it's not the main point." (58)

• "The Christian church needs constant reevangelization, and thus the Christian church needs preaching." (59)

• "Preaching is proclamation that exults in Christ, through the Word, over his grace. The sermon is an act of worship and has worship as its aim- that hearers would come to enjoy Christ more or for the first time." (59)

• "Christian preaching, then, doesn't simply provide a running commentary on a Bible passage; preaching provides, through the text, a hearing of the gospel in the hopes of a seeing of the glory of God in Christ." (60)

• "The primary task of the pastor is to preach and teach the Bible. Preaching is in fact a vital work of pastoral care." (61)

• "Authentic Christian preaching comes with conviction about who God is, what God has done, and what this means for you and me." (62)

• "Whether he says it or not, every preacher should begin his sermon as if he has a message from the very throne room of God to deliver. It is urgent. It is important. It is authoritative. It is a matter of life and death. This doesn't mean the preacher must always be somber. Remember to exult! But it does mean the preacher feels the gravity of the glory of God and the souls at stake in the hearing about it. Don't entertain us; bring us a word." (62)

• "Many preachers engage in a kind of passionate preaching. Rarer is compassionate preaching. This is the kind of passion that erupts from love for souls. For souls, generally, but also for the specific souls in our congregations. This question for our sermon evaluation is simply asking, Are you preaching out of love?" (64)

• "To preach with compassion, then, is to preach with a pervasive concern for the expansion of the glory of Christ, a deep affection for the church, and a sincere and thorough desire for lost souls to be rescued from their sin." (65)

• "It is the gospel that chiefly distinguishes Christian preaching from unchristian preaching." (65)

• "The ministry of preaching cannot be divorced from the ministry of soul care; in fact, preaching is actually an extension of soul care. Pastoring isn't preaching, but preaching is pastoring." (67)

• "Preacher, don't take to your text without carrying the real burdens of your people in your heart." (69)

• "A pastor who commits to showing Christ week after week through book after book rewires the short attention spans of modern congregants to the Spiritual fruit of patience, the Christian virtue of endurance, and the church's mandate to be "people of the book." (75)

V. Preaching: Part 2

• "The gospel-driven pastor isn't simply seeking to explicate grace in his content. We want to employ grace in our work, our organization, our construction."(80)

• "It's important to say that gospel-centrality does not mean imperative-denial. We want to keep the commands of Scripture (law) in the context of the announcements of Scripture (gospel), but we don't need to avoid, spin, or dismiss them." (88)

• "The points of your sermon are best thought of not as permanent reminders but as temporary handholds through the sermon. They help explicate the meaning of the text, yes. They are vitally important truths about the ultimate truth of God's Word, yes. But they mainly serve to help people in the moment understand the Word and "track" through your message." (93)

• "Remember that the hearts of people are not won to Christ by our well-spun stories or images, but by the Spirit working through the very Word of God. Our illustrations are meant to adorn the gospel, not help it. The gospel doesn't need any help." (97)

VI. Caring

• "Jesus did not say simply to go out into the world and make converts of all peoples; he said to make disciples. And this means the pastoral enterprise cannot begin and end with public proclamation and private planning- it must be applied in personal care." (113)

• "The work of pastoring is sheep work- tending, feeding, nurturing. Preaching may be the most important thing a pastor does, but if he does not do the relational work of pastoral care, he will find fewer and fewer listening in the end." (114)

• "Pastor, do not look at your church primarily as a recruiting station, an event center, or a spiritual production but as a pasture where the sheep are nourished." (116)

• "Godly pastoral care means taking the uncomfortable risk of self-giving." (116)

• "Godly pastoral care is the overflow of nurturing, self-giving love." (117)

• "The heart of ministry is a heart that doesn't see people as the interruption to your ministry, but sees the interruptions as the ministry. The posture of pastoral care is inclined toward the church." (121)

VII. Leading

• "Leadership is intentional influence. Gospel-driven leadership is intentionally influencing others from a heart of grace toward the heart of Christ." (142)

• "A 'next level" pastor is one who is engaged in the trenches and foxholes, yes, but who is also able to keep an eye on the big picture. He measures ramifications of actions. He is not pushed into passivity or impotence by setbacks or negativity; he expects them, assesses them, and factors them into his planning." (145)

• "Good leaders don't wait for someone else to do their job or make it easier for them to do. They get up, suit up, and do the next right thing (to borrow a phrase from an old pastor of mine). Passivity isn't good for any Christian, but it can be debilitating and toxic for a leader in pastoral ministry." (147)

• "The bottom line is that if you do not love people, you ought not be a pastor." (148)

• "If we are regularly communing with Christ, reading the Scriptures devotionally in a daily and disciplined way, and praying without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17), the instincts of grace will be natural -which is to say supernatural." (150)

• "Perhaps the reason so many pastors who engage in all the right gospel stuff still struggle to lead in gospel patterns is because they are not in regular communion with the Christ who is the center of the gospel." (150)

• "When you know who you are in Christ and adequately meditate on your union with him (and thus your security in him), you will be bold to take appropriate leadership steps." (154)

• "If we are happy to receive credit when things go right but are always passing the buck when things go wrong, we have implicitly prioritized our glory over God's." (154)

• "One of the most important components of Christian leadership is the passing of the baton to others, the developing and empowering of others to replicate and increase the work of ministry." (155)

• "Aspiring leaders go where they know they will be discipled and trained." (157)

VIII. Fighting (and Making Peace)

• "Pastor, do not immediately equate a difficult ministry with a lack of calling. It is quite likely that God, in his wisdom, has chosen exactly you for exactly this moment. He has stewarded this church, with all of its problems, to you." (167)

• "When you're a pastor, you discover that you disappoint some people just by being." (173)

• "My two biggest critics in my ministry started out as two of my biggest fans. The hostility became clarifying about where their true interests were, what they were really about. Hostility is clarifying." (174)

• "Discipline doesn't begin when someone must be excommunicated from a church. It begins long before and is seeking to avoid that end. It begins with the regular preaching of the gospel. This is a training of the church to cherish Christ and his work and to believe all the doctrine that emerges from it."(180)

• "Different situations may call for different approaches, but the direct approach is almost always best. Proverbs 4:24 tells us to avoid "crooked speech" (ESV), by which we may interpret it to mean avoiding dishonesty but also talk about others that is circuitous around them."(188)

IX. Living

• "The first habit that we must adopt to ensure that we are well fed is to pray as if our lives depended upon it. I know this is the umpteenth time I've urged prayer in this book, but there is a reason for that. When the book is finished, I still will not have emphasized it enough. We need an honest and open dialogue with God. He speaks to us in his Word. You speak to him in prayer. How on earth do you expect to see a relationship sustained where there is no communication?" (194)

• "Too many pastors are gospel-centered in idea or paradigm but not in person. They have a relationship with the ideaof Christ. They deny themselves the profound joy and extraordinary power in the simple privilege of knowing Christ and being his friend." (198)

• "You have, by the gospel, not just a relationship with Christianity but a relationship with Christ, a communion with the living God." (199)

• "Do you have a third place where you can be a regular? The coffee shop, the cafe, the corner store, the gym, etc.? Be active be present, and be friendly." (207)

• "No matter the ministerial trials or congregational strife you have to endure, joy can be a dominant experience in your ministry." (209)

• "Biblical joy is not about "putting on a happy face." But the fruit of our mystical connection with Christ through faith becoming our foundation is not the fruit of misery but of settled, persevering, all-flavoring joy." (209)

• "Yes, you serve him, but not to earn his pleasure. He already delights in you. He already rejoices over you. His smile is already upon you. Christ has measured up on your behalf. Christ has made the sacrifice required for you to be square with God, so there's no need to keep paying down a debt with your ministry. the debt has been paid." (213)

• "There is so much joy to be had in the simple privilege of knowing Jesus and being his friend." (213)

X. Dying

• "I used to think that pastoral ministry was about helping people live, Then I learned it was actually about helping people die." (217)

Conclusion: On the Readiness to Pastor

• "When you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good and it has ruined you for everything else, you are ready. When you have been hijacked by grace, you are ready. By his grace, then, brothers, you are ready to pastor when weakness and fear and trembling actually make sense to you." (226-227)

Notable Content

• "The idea at work among these disqualified men is that a sense of calling trumps everything. This is unbiblical and dangerous." (20)

• "Proclamation that exults in the exposing of God's glory in Christ." (59)

• "We now turn to consider the components we should look for in the finished product as a way of determining not just if our sermon is "good" but if it is fundamentally Christian." (60)

• Eight Reasons for Expositional Preaching: (72-75)

  1. Enduring Exposition is Thoroughly Biblical

  2. Enduring Exposition Helps People Learn Their Bible

  3. Enduring Exposition Spiritually Stretches the Preacher and Deepens His Understanding of God

  4. Enduring Exposition Puts Controversial or "Hot Topic" Issues in Their Proper Place

  5. Enduring Exposition Helps Christians See the Full Story Line of Redemption

  6. Enduring Exposition More Greatly Magnifies the Glory of Jesus Christ

  7. Enduring Exposition Fosters Congregational Endurance

  8. Enduring Exposition Creates a Longer Pastoral and Congregational Legacy

• Four Components of Gospel-Driven Leadership: (153-155)

  1. Decisiveness

  2. Responsibility

  3. Humility

  4. Delegation

• Four Pastoral Rhythms for Healthy Ministry: (195-199)

  1. Meditate on Your Qualifications

  2. Fast from Being Needed

  3. Commune with Jesus as an Actual Person

  4. Return to the Gospel for Your Validation

• Three Ways to Avoid Burnout: (201-202)

  1. Rest

  2. Boundaries

  3. Margin

• Being a Good Citizen: (207-208)

  1. Be Involved In Your Community

  2. Evangelize

  3. Be Charitable

  4. Be Circumspect Online

• There are at least three kinds of joy to be found in the work of pastoral ministry: (210-212)

  1. Resting in God's Sovereignty over Your Ministry

  2. Knowing that Normal Ministry will Produce Fruit

  3. Knowing Christ and Being His Friend

Notes on *Reading Scripture Canonically*

Reading Scripture Canonically: Theological Instincts for Old Testament Interpretation, Mark S. Gignilliat, (Baker Academic, 2019)

Main Idea/Takeaway

• How and why should we read the material of Scripture — words, sentences, paragraphs, books, and so forth — in conjunction with Scripture's theological subject matter? (xiv)

Interaction 

• "Has Sailhamer (JS) described this best in his Old Testament theology on text vs. event"? (15)

• "Revelation is in the text." (18)

• "Note how JS places canonical reading along criticisms" (21)

• "Not less than historical, but absolutely more, and when understood as witness, the question on what to preach is clear. Final form!" (31)

• "In short, the canonical approach places highest focus on the text as God has given it to us. And we should preach this way!" (31)

• "LXX as a kind of commentary." (71)

• "Yes, only because we know that God is the ultimate author of Scripture." (94)

• "Intertextuality- relationship between various books of OT; Innertextuality- book's own textual composition; Contextuality- final shape of canon" (100)

• "See Michael Reeves, 'Delighting in the Trinity.'" (101)

• "But does YHWH 'reveal' himself 'personally' if no particular person should be in view. (see fn.29)" (112)

• "We believe God is the ultimate author of Scripture." (113)

• "We believe the Bible is ultimately about God and is by God." (113)

• "Instincts and Expectations." (116)

• "Sounds like reader-determinate meaning which is a slippery slope?! How does this not also open us up to reader response? The answer it seems, is Scripture's subject matter, God. That he is the ultimate author. KJV speaks of canonical fittingness." " (97)

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Scripture's Material Form

I. Scripture and Canon

II. Sanding with the Grain: Final Form and Canonical Shape 

III. Canonical Intentionality

IV. Canon and Textual Criticism: The Search for the Christian Bible

Part 2: Scripture's Subject Matter

V. God as Triune, and Exegetical Metaphysics

VI. The Trinity and the Old Testament

Epilogue

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Introduction

• "The posture, expectations, and (dreaded word) "methods" that one brings to the Holy Scripture will either serve or obstruct Scripture's reason for existence." (xii)

• "The New Testament authors and early church theologians read the Old Testament as a Christian witness. This kind of reading instinct and strategy has always been with the church."(xii)

Part 1: Scripture's Material Form

I. Scripture and Canon

• "A "canon consciousness" is actually embedded in the literature itself, and it exerted pressure on various religious bodies in the creaturely act of canonization or the forming of set lists." (7)

• "While the human and institutional agents attached to the writing, editing, and preserving of the biblical books should never be diminished, Christians around the world today and from the church's inception dive headlong into the Scriptures for the sake of hearing the word of God." (9)

• "As this book hopes to demonstrate, the confession of faith regarding Scripture's nature (or ontology, "what it is") impinges on the interpretive approach taken. In other words, the subject matter being studied shapes the interpretive methods used to understand it." (10)

• "God's self-determination to be a God in fellowship with humanity. On this account, Scripture is the loving gift of God to his people so they may continually seek him and order their lives toward him, while resting in the confidence that God has not left our desire to know him within the realm of human self-achievement." (11)

• "As Webster puts the matter, "Holy Scripture is a function of God. Therefore, Holy Scripture's canonical role as the normative guide for Christian thought and life derives its authority from the loving rule of God. Its textual character remains a dynamic means of continued divine self-disclosure. It is not a static "textual deposit."(11)

• "God as object and Scripture as approach are determinate within the redemptive economy for how God orders the goal and means of our theological pursuits." (12)

• "The differentiated-though-fitting relationship between God and Scripture demands the church's continued giving of itself to the exegesis of Holy Scripture. Because Scripture is not God, while at the same time remaining a sanctified means for apprehension of God, it follows necessarily that the exegesis of Holy Scripture continues as a never-ceasing activity of Christ's church." (13)

• "The prophetic word of God continues to effect repentance in the hearts of hearers around the world." (17)

• "The cognitive principle of Scripture, with God as its object of inquiry, shapes the intellectual approach and method of inquiry. While all the elements of a humanly authored document are true of Holy Scripture, the ontological principle will not allow our method of reading to be hemmed in by its creaturely status." (18)

II. Sanding with the Grain: Final Form and Canonical Shape 

• "But because the canonical approach insists on the character of Israel's Scriptures as witness rather than source, the final form of the biblical text is the privileged form." (25)

• "The problem with this newer redactional analysis is that under the guise of diversity the biblical text is subjected to the criteria of rigorous, conceptual coherence which has been defined according to modern rational categories." In other words, a modern account of conceptual coherence may be an imposition onto the authors and shapers of the biblical material." (36)

• "Childs had no misgivings about the ends toward which critical tools are used: as an aid to hearing the final form of the text well. Childs's clarity on the goal of such critical utilization comes from his commitment to reading the Old Testament as witness to God's identity and ways with his people." (37)

• "Christopher Seitz says it best when he identifies the canonical approach this way: "Canonical reading is therefore not an exact science, but a theological decision about what the proper parameters for interpretation are: the final form presentation and the arrangement and sequencing that it exhibits, over against the simple history of the text's development as this is critically reconstructed." (40)

III. Canonical Intentionality

• "The canonical approach, on the other hand, conceives of intentionality more broadly as it identifies the authorial voice of the text with its final form, along with its privileged arrangement and deployment of texts, traditions, or prophetic oracles whose initial intention(s) may have had a more narrow range of effects. One could construe intentionality of this kind as "thick" rather than "thin." A thin account locates intentionality within a narrow frame of individual authorship. A thick account takes into view a providentially constructed understanding of history where a wide range of historical figures and inspired words are deemed relevant to the texts as they come to their full form. The term associated with this particular understanding is canonical intentionality?"(44)

• "The recognition of the canon's intention, as a theological understanding of the text's ability, to render God's identity and will for future generations has exegetical warrant." (48)

•  "Does the canon expect its readers to come to it with a set of assumptions and anticipations about the text and the reading process? Can one decision about a reading strategy claim a superior status to others? The canonical approach, in accord with the received reading practices of the church, says yes. When believers read Israel's canon in the anticipation of hearing an authoritative word whose source is the communicative action of God, they read Scripture according to its own intention." (51)

• "The glory of the Christian canon is its ability to do this kind of work continually in the life of Christ's church, requiring a robust doctrine of the Holy Spirit to fuel its fire."(55)

• "The gap between text and interpreter is not bridged by more refined hermeneutical tools, helpful as these may be. The gap is bridged by a Person." (56)

• "John Webster is right to claim, "Whether done well or ill, theology and the study of Scripture are spiritual tasks, and the conditions for their flourishing include spiritual conditions." (56)

IV. Canon and Textual Criticism: The Search for the Christian Bible

• "If, however, Scripture functions canonically as the rule of faith for Christian life and doctrine despite questions at the margins regarding the canon's scope, then the settling of the canon's scope is not determinative of the canonical role that Scripture plays even when levels of uncertainty at the margins remain." (75)

V. God as Triune, and Exegetical Metaphysics

• "Freewheeling hermeneutical reflections apart from the nitty-gritty details of textual engagement run counter to the material sufficiency of Scripture. Texts and their language matter. At the same time, biblical texts cannot be separated from their subject matter." (86)

• "Modern biblical criticism is a rich and varied thing, whose results provide important avenues of inquiry and appreciation for Scripture's linguistic, poetic, and historical depth. But somewhere lurking in the shadows, or perhaps dancing in full view, is the historicist resistance to metaphysics as a critical tool for reading historical texts. Brian Daley does not dance around the issue when he claims that historical criticism often operates "methodologically atheistic." (89)

• "When Isaiah or Moses or Jeremiah utter a prophetic word, do not their language and verbal expressions say more than they could grasp?" (93)

• "Does the whole Christian canon as a two-Testament witness pressure us to see the Old Testament's subject as our Triune God, with the Tetragrammaton (the divine name YHWH) as best predicated on the essence of God revealed In the tripersonal naming of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit more of this in the next chapter)?" (93)

• "Therefore, the prophetic word of the Old Testament is an extension of Yhwh's own revealed self, fitted as it is to the singularity of the divine being in tripersonal relation." (94)

• "The source of the Bible's language is the infinite plenitude of the divine being, revealing himself by means of the Word's agency." (94)

VI. The Trinity and the Old Testament

• "Moreover, if as Christians we affirm the triune character of our God, then a question regarding the identity of Yhwh in the Old Testament follows. Is Yhwh a persona of the divine essence or the ousia itself? Put in other terms, is Yhwh the Father or the divine essence of three personae?" (101)

• "Yhwh's proclamation of his own name is the revelation of his glory. The thirteen middot (attributes) of God listed by Yhwh himself (34:6-7) reveal the character of the divine name and in so doing reveal the character of Yhwh." (106)

• "Yhwh's mission to create and redeem does not exhaust the scope of God's being. As various episodes within the Old Testament attest, the being of God resists domestication of any sort."(107)

Epilogue

• "The church's long-term health and faithful witness rests on its commitment to seeking after God's Word in Holy Scripture. Of course, other ecclesial matters are important. But a doctrine of Scripture's sufficiency means that the church's access, to what gives it life, the person and work of Jesus Christ, is through the front doors of Holy Scripture." (115)

• "Still, it is the open Bible that sustains and energizes every component of pastoral ministry and, for that matter, Christian existence. People need Jesus. And Jesus Christ stands at the door of his own Word and knocks." (117)

Notable Content

• Defining Terms. (6)

• Canon and Scripture Ontology. (10)

• The Canonical Approach in Modern Guise:

"While drawing on the resources and instincts of the church's premodern reading of Scripture, the canonical approach makes judicious use of modern criticism's literary engagement with the text's compositional history. The key term is judicious because the canonical approach makes appreciative use of critical tools while at the same time resisting modern criticism's interpretive goals and methodological hegemony." (25)

• Textual Final Form: 

"The final form also leaves an interpretive imprint on the text, rendering the whole as more than the sum total of its parts; it is the culmination of God's revealed word in time, and renders an authoritative frame of reference for the parts leading to the whole--a witness to God's revelation rather than a source for critical reconstruction." (27)

• Canonical Intentionality: 

"The canonical approach conceives of the text's intentionality in the authorial voice of the text's final form. While the religiohistorical phenomena producing the various canonical voices are not denied, the canonical approach understands the text's intentionality as "loosened" from these historical forces for the sake of an enduring witness to divine self-revelation." (46)

• See John Sailhamer categories. (48)

• Textual Pluriformity/Uniformity: 

"The plethora of text and text types discovered in the twentieth century complicates the text-critical pursuit of an "original" Old Testament text. A standard view of the Old Testament's textual history is that a pluriform text type--multiple and divergent texts and text types-in time yielded to a uniform text associated with rabbinic Judaism of the era after AD 70. This chapter makes a different claim: uniformity and pluriformity existed on parallel historical tracks, rather than pluriformity leading genetically into uniformity." (63)

• Hebrew or Greek or Both?:

"The translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek remain a significant historical and theological phenomenon. Undoubtedly the Septuagint (LXX) played a formative role in the shaping of the New Testament and early Christianity. The evidence suggests that this historical accident tells much about the translatability of the Old Testament, but it does not necessarily place the Septuagint translation above its Hebrew parent text." (76)

• Fixity: 

"The verbal character of the Old Testament in its literal sense opens up to the future: much like the literal sense of Cézanne's life opens up to the future of his work. Yet in this opening up, the Old Testament's "life" or literal sense or given verbal form is not left behind for greener New Testament pastures. As Cézanne's paintings provide a necessary entry point to the fixity of his life, so too does the trinitarian subject matter of Scripture provide an entry point to the fixity of the Old Testament's verbal character." (98)

Notes on *Possessed by God*

Possessed by God: A New Testament Theology of Sanctification and Holiness, David Peterson (IVP, 1995)

Main Idea/Takeaway

Moral holiness in the Christian life, typically called "progressive sanctification" is better understood and practiced in the biblical terms of renewal, transformation, and growth — expressions of our definitive sanctification.

• "I will argue that definitive sanctification is a more important theme in the New Testament than has generally been acknowledged. Rightly understood, this doctrine is a key to holy living and a way through the impasse created by much previous debate. God calls us and enables us in Christ to live as those possessed by God and empowered by his Holy Spirit. This is the theme of the first three chapters of this book. The fourth chapter then examines New Testament exhortations to pursue holiness and considers the sense in which sanctification is a process of 'becoming' and 'acting'."(14)

• "The overall aim will be to hear afresh God's challenge to holiness, encouraged by the promises on which it is grounded and guided by the teaching with which it is associated." (16)

• "Sanctification is commonly regarded as a process of moral and 'spiritual transformation following conversion. In the New Testament, however, it primarily refers to God's way of taking possession of us in Christ, setting us apart to belong to him and to fulfil his purpose for us. Sanctification certainly has present and ongoing effects, but when the verb 'to sanctify' (Gk. hagiazein) and the noun 'sanctification' (Gk. hagiasmos) are used, the emphasis is regularly on the saving work of God in Christ, applied to believers through the ministry of the Holy Spirit." (27)

• "It would be more accurate to say that renewal and change flow from the regeneration and sanctification that God has already accomplished in our lives." (136)

• "Instead of speaking in terms of progressive sanctification, the New Testament more regularly employs the language of renewal, transformation and growth, to describe what God is doing with us here and now." (136)

• "In New Testament terms, we are to live as those who have been brought from death to life, discharged from the law to belong to Christ, led by the Spirit in a continuing struggle with the flesh. We are to live with a confidence in what God has already done for us and trust in him to continue his transforming work in us until we see him face to face." (137)

Interaction 

• The holiness of God, cf. Webster. (16)

• "But they are unable to effect such living" (21)

• On mission: "Mission is clearly the goal of sanctification in John17." (30)

• "Are you living by your assessment of your life or God's?" (49)

• "Believe the gospel. Embrace your identity in Christ. Live by God's assessment of your life." (49)

• "Think in terms not of measurable maturity, but trajectories of current devotion & practice. The "Pilgrim's Progress" allegory is again masterful." (91)

• cf. Beale article: relation between new creation and reconciliation in 2 Corinthians. (133)

• Present experience of glorification. (133)

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. The biblical starting-point

II. Sanctified in Christ

III. Sanctified by word and Spirit

IV. Pursuing holiness

V. Living between the cross and the resurrection

VI. Transformation, renewal, and growth

Appendix A: The meaning of hagiasmos in the New Testament

Appendix B: Sanctification and God's law

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Introduction

• "Considering the passion for holiness expressed by writers and preachers in former generations, James Packer may be right to claim that 'holiness is a neglected priority throughout the modern church generally' and 'specifically a fading glory in today's evangelical world' (1984: 99)." (11)

• "Despite the significant work of Packer and others, there is room for a fresh look at the subject, with a particular focus on what the New Testament teaches about the way holiness is achieved and expressed."(12)

• "The assumption is generally made that sanctification is simply the process by which we become more and more holy." (13)

• "It obscures the distinctive meaning and value of the terminology in the New Testament, confusing sanctification with renewal and transformation." (13)

• "Sanctification is a state in which believers find themselves because of the work of Christ and the operation find themselves because of the work of Christ and the operation of his Spirit in their lives. They are called to remain in that state 'by living in correspondence to their given holiness' (614)." (14)

• "In sum, sanctification in the New Testament is seen as 'a one-time event and as a process, the believers being and becoming holy and acting correspondingly' (614)." (14)

I. The biblical starting- point

• "Even though the holiness of God cannot be adequately conveyed in vision or word, angelic beings declared that it could be encountered in our universe, which is like a vast temple dedicated to his use and the display of his glory. God's glory is his holiness revealed."(18)

• "The covenant relationship established by God contained at its heart the assurance that he would be their God and they would be his people (e.g. n. 17:7-8; Ex. 6:7). Consequently, he would be uniquely with them, to fulfil his purposes and bring blessing to them (e.g. Gn. 28:13-15; Ex. 3:7-8)." God's sanctifying presence would continue to mark them as a holy people and demand holiness of living as a response." (21)

• "Holiness cannot simply be acquired by human effort. It is a status or condition which God imparts to those whom he chooses to bring into a special relationship with himself through covenant and redemption. But it is a status that carries with it particular responsibilities."(23)

• "Just as Israel was made holy by God's saving activity in the time of Moses, and again in the restoration after the Babylonian Exile, so sanctification in the New Testament is an integral part of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. It is regularly portrayed as a once-for-all, definitive act and primarily has to do with the holy status or position of those who are 'in Christ'." (24)

• "Christians are sustained in holiness by the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit and the trust that he gives in the finished work of Christ. The essential work of the Spirit is to enable belief in the gospel, so that the blessings it offers may be continually enjoyed by God's people." (24)

• "Christians are called to live out the practical consequences of knowing God in Jesus Christ and of being consecrated by his saving work. Everything that is said about moral change and personal transformation in the New Testament is to be related to God's sanctifying initiative in Christ." (25)

• "...sanctification in Christ has to do with a profound re-orientation of values and behavior. Beginning with the 'heart' and reaching out to touch the life and witness of God's people at every level, God's word and God's Spirit bring change and transformation. In us and through us, something of God's holiness is revealed to the world." (25)

II. Sanctified in Christ

• "At the heart of the revelation that Jesus brings is the proclamation of God's redemptive achievement in the death of his Son. In his death, Jesus demonstrates the love which God has for the world and which he desires to see reflected in the life of his people. With the gospel message about Jesus and his work, God imparts his Spirit to us and binds us to himself in love. That same word keeps us in holiness and love, enabling us to share in his mission to the world." (33)

• "By his sovereign action in Christ, God sets apart and binds to himself those who have been purified from the defilement of sin. This objective, consecrating work of God has profound implications for the attitude and behavior of those who believe." (34)

• "Although Israel under the Old Covenant was able to draw near to God through the mediation of priests and the operation of the sacrificial system, the people were not 'perfected' in their approach to God (gf. 7:11; 10:1-2). However, with Jesus, 'a better hope' has been introduced by which we may draw near to him (7:19; 10:14)." (36)

• "This better hope is based on the 'better covenant', which has been enacted through 'better promises' (8:6). Here and now, we are 'qualified' to draw near to God with the certainty of sins forgiven and the confidence that we are in an eternally secure relationship with God (c/. 7:19; 9:9; 10:1-4, 14-23; 12:22-24). Our hope is also to meet God face-to-face, in the glory of his eternal kingdom (c/. 2:10; 4:9-10; 12:14, 22-24; 13:14), and so perfection in Hebrews involves ultimate glorification. Even so, what we have yet to experience is only an unfolding of what has already been achieved for us by Christ's sacrifice." (36)

• "The terminology of perfection is used to proclaim the fulfilment or consummation of men and women in a permanent, direct and personal relationship with God."(36)

• "Jesus' death brings about a cleansing from sin and a definitive consecration to God in the present. It also secures for us a share in the future that God has promised. We can draw near to God now with the directness and certainty that belong to the final state of his people (cf. 4:16; 10:19-22: 12:22-24). The perfecting of believers involves all of that. Our sanctification or consecration to God is only a part of the process of eschatological perfection, achieved through the perfecting of Christ (2:10; 5:9; 7:28)." (37)

• "The New Covenant promise of a renewed 'heart' is fulfilled when people are set free from the burden of unforgiven sins through trusting in the effectiveness of Christ's sacrifice (9:14; 10:22). They are thus renewed in faith and sincerity towards God. Only the cleansing provided by Christ can definitively free us to worship or serve the living God (9:14, Gk. latreuein) in a way that pleases him and truly honors him." (39)

• "Sanctification means being appropriated by God and dedicated to him by the saving work of his Son. The terminology is associated with the beginning of the Christian life and highlights the corporate dimension to sanctification in Paul's thinking. Sanctification has to do with the identity and status of those who are 'in Christ'. It also points to the lifestyle that is consistent with God's calling." (40)

• "The next clause, 'to those sanctified in Christ' (Ck. hegiasmenois en Christo), amplifies what it means to be God's church. The Corinthian Christians were a holy and distinct people in that corrupt and godless city. This was so because of God's initiative, drawing them into an exclusive relationship with himself.? What he had done for them "in Christ Jesus' had made them part of his eschatological community. Here the perfect passive participle "sanctified' should be understood as another way of speaking about their conversion and incorporation into Christ. It can hardly refer to their holiness of character or conduct, since Paul spends much time in this letter challenging their values and their behavior, calling them to holiness in an ethical sense. He does this on the basis that they are already sanctified in a relational sense, but need to express that sanctification in lifestyle." (41)

• "Jesus delivers us from the dominion of sin and death (redemption). By his righteousness he also makes it possible for us to be counted righteous by God (justification). At the same time, he establishes us in a distinct and exclusive relationship with the Holy One (sanctification). In the great Christological statement of 1 Corinthians 1:30, redemption, justification and sanctification are overlapping, but distinct theological concepts. This judgment is confirmed by the argument in 1 Corinthians 6:11." (44)

• "The Spirit's work is to empower the preaching of the gospel about Jesus, enabling those who hear to understand and believe (2:4-5; cf. 2:6-16). So the Spirit is the means whereby God in the present age 'effects the work of Christ in the believer's life' (Fee 1994: 219)." (47)

• "Sanctification is about being possessed by God and expressing that distinctive and exclusive relationship by the way we live." (48)

III. Sanctified by word and Spirit

• "Here it is important to note that everything in the Christian life, from beginning to end, is made possible by Jesus' self-giving in death (Eph. 5:25), previously described as 'a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God' (5:2). Only those who are sanctified by Christ now can be presented to him in glory then. Transformation is implied by the notion of glorification (cf. Rom. 8:29-30; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Jn. 3:2), the present work of the Spirit anticipating the ultimate transformation associated with the resurrection of our bodies." (54)

• "By faith in the gospel, we continue to be united with Christ, which is the heart of sanctification. By faith, we rely on his promises and grasp the power of his Spirit, so that we can resist sin and live for God. This theme will be particularly developed in chapter five. Faith is 'not only a receptive organ but also an operative power." (56)

• "When God sanctifies us as individuals, he establishes us as members of a holy fellowship, enabling us to play our part in maintaining and expressing the holiness of the church, in doctrine and lifestyle." (67)

IV. Pursuing holiness

• "So the challenge is to pursue practical expressions of the holiness or sanctification that is ours in Christ." (75)

• "Those who are cleansed and consecrated by Christ, and who look forward to sharing the perfection of holiness in his presence for ever, will pursue holiness as a lifestyle." (77)

• "Indeed, the Spirit he gives to Christians is the Spirit of holiness; and nothing unholy can be tolerated in the lives of individuals or communities where the Holy Spirit dwells (gf. 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19-20; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1)." (84)

• "The promises about God dwelling in the midst of his people, and welcoming as his sons and daughters those who separate themselves from everything unclean (6:16-18), are the motivation for a holy and separated life." (87)

• "From a positive point of view, the secret of a holy life is reflecting the character of God, knowing that his Spirit is at work amongst his people to make that separate and distinct lifestyle possible, and thus walking in the Spirit's ways. When they ignore these imperatives, believers dishonor the one who called them into an exclusive relationship with himself and compromise the holiness of the church as 'the temple of the living God' (6:16; cf. 1 Cor. 3:16-17; Heb. 12:15)." (88)

• "No Christian should doubt the need to give practical, everyday expression to the holiness that is our status and calling in Christ. Only those who trust in his sanctifying work on the cross, and take seriously the warning to 'pursue holiness', will 'see the Lord'." (91)

• "On the other hand, it is possible to be so zealous for 'progress' that one's attention shifts from God's grace to human effort. Moral growth and development will be God's gift to us at different stages of our lives, but spirituality must not be measured in terms of the rate of change. We are to go on exhibiting what we know of God's character and will, motivated by the certainty of his acceptance, cleansing and enabling in Christ, together with the promise of entire sanctification when we meet him, face to face. Progress may be seen as we exercise ourselves in that godly devotion which issues from a true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ." (91)

V. Living between the cross and the resurrection

• "When he moves to consider how justification by faith can lead to holiness of life, Calvin emphasizes the role of repentance. Repentance not only follows faith but is born of faith. Repentance means the true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and honest fear of him' (Inst. 3.3.5). It consists in 'mortification of our flesh and of the old man' and in 'vivification of the Spirit'." (93)

• "In this chapter, I want to explore the idea that moral renewal proceeds from our union with Christ in his death and resurrection." (95)

• "Baptism into union with Christ is the way we identify with him in his epoch-changing death and draw on its benefits. Of course, conversion and water baptism are often separated in Christian experience. But Paul's point is that genuine initiation into Christ means trusting in his death as our death and his risen life as our life. In this respect, baptism is presented as our 'funeral rite' and a decisive break with the life and values of this present age." (97)

VI. Transformation, renewal, and growth

• "What makes me a new person in Christ is essentially faith in God and his promises. The Spirit's ongoing task is to renew my "mind' through the gospel and give me a new 'heart' to serve God in faith and obedience. Renewal of mind and heart transforms character and behavior because of the central place that the mind has in the orientation, attitudes and beliefs of the human personality. Renewal is not simply at the rational level, though this is foundational to the whole process of moral renewal and change that is effected by the Spirit. In the final analysis, renewal is the present experience of glorification through the Spirit, anticipating the glorification that will come with the resurrection of our bodies. It is being conformed to the likeness of Christ, who is himself the image of God."(133)

• "If we are definitively sanctified by the work of Christ and the gift of his Spirit, 'growth' in holiness will mean increasing and abounding in practical expressions of that status calling and commitment which is already ours by God's grace." (136)

Notable Content

• Definitive Sanctification explained. (14)

• "To what extent are we urged by Scripture to progress in holiness and in what manner? How should we pray for one another in this regard? How might we expect God to answer our prayers?" (71)

• Understanding Hebrews chapter 12. (75)

• Four senses in which Christians die to sin. (97)

• Brief comments on the concept of growth in the New Testament. (134)

Notes on *Ploductivity*

Ploductivity: A Practical Theology of Work and Wealth, Douglas Wilson (Canon Press, 2020)

Main Idea/Takeaway

Technology in all its forms is a type of wealth, and we are called to steward it well- which means productivity.

• "Technology is a form of wealth; progress is a form of wealth."(57)

• "And so here is my central thesis, stated yet again: technology in all its form is a type of wealth." (99)

Table of Contents

Part I: A Theology of Productivity

An Introduction to Technofullness

I. A Theology of Work

II. A Theology of Wealth

III. A Theology Tools

IV. A Theology of Media

V. A Theology of Missions and Media

VI. A Theology of Markets

VII. A Theology of Progress

VIII. A Theology of Glad Suspicion

Part II: Learning Ploductivity

IX.The Finitude of Work

X. Ambition is a Good Thing

XI. The Master Key

XII. The Power of Plodding

XIII. Work at a Pace You Can Maintain

XIV. Progress and Depravity

XV. Eschatology

XVI. New Media

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

An Introduction to Technofullness

• "As Peter Drucker said, "Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things."(7)

• "But I sincerely hope, at least for a number of you readers, this will be the last productivity book you read. Not because I have discovered the Lost Technique that once made Atlantis great and which I am about to share with you all for a modest fee, but rather because I hope this book will help you deal with the issues surrounding productivity in such a way as to help you mortify that most peculiar lust." (8)

• "If we get the theology of the thing right, then it should be something that our great-grandchildren can apply fruitfully fifty years from now when they are trying to incorporate who-knows-what into their daily lives. It probably won't be the iPhone 92." (10)

• "We have a perennial temptation to locate sin as resident in the stuff. Some refuse to see sin in the stuff, and therefore conclude that there must not be any sin. These are the technophiles. Others see clearly that there is sin, and so they conclude that it must be in the stuff, though maybe it is not in the earlier stuff. These are the technophobes." (10)

• "Technology is therefore a form of wealth. The reason this is important is because the Bible says very little about technology as such, but it gives us a great deal of blunt and pointed teaching on the subject of wealth. If we learn how to deal with wealth scripturally, then we will have learned how to deal with technology." (11)

• "This is what I mean by ploductivity. This is deliberate faithfulness: working in the same direction over an extended period of time. Our electronic servants may be super fast, but we should be as deliberate as ever." (11)

I. A Theology of Work

• See Notable Content for "What does good work look like?"

• "We are saved by grace, but grace works."(19)

• "We are not saved by good works (Eph. 2:8-9), but we are saved to good works.(Eph. 2:10)" (20)

II. A Theology of Wealth

• "Wealth- monetary, technological, or otherwise- is simply and solely a good thing, a gift of God. The sin enters in when the means of self-sufficiency are placed in the hands of someone who has entirely the wrong attitude about autonomous self-sufficiency." (21)

• "The arrogant human heart is the source of the sin concerning wealth, and the arrogant human heart sins this way in the proximity of wealth. Wealth is not the locus of the sin, but the presence of the wealth is the locus of the temptation." (23)

• "The solution to self-sufficiency is not to banish the goods that we used to forget God, but rather to make a point of remembering God in and through the abundance He gave to us." (25)

• "We are not only tempted by wealth, we are tempted to blame wealth. It can be a sin to misunderstand the nature of sin. In other words, we are tempted to locate the sin in the stuff, and then we try to solve the problem (when and if we do try to solve it) by putting some kind of respectable distance between us and the stuff. If people sin with alcohol, tobacco and firearms, and they do, then we think we must regulate the substances (or the tools) themselves." (25)

• "If I were to make a decision to throw my old heart away, that decision would have to be made by my old heart. And if my old heart could do something as wonderful as throwing my old heart away, what is the need for a new heart?" (25)

III. A Theology Tools

• "In order to evaluate a tool, we have to account for the telos, the end, the purpose. Hammers are used to build both brothels and barns." (29)

• "When we sin with a material object, or in near proximity to a material object, the most obvious thing to occur to us is to blame that material object." (29)

• "Tools enable us to widen our reach. Tools make it possible for our radius of fruitfulness (now there is a phrase for the ages_ to extend much farther than it otherwise would. So when Adam found the beehive-knocking-down stick, he was wealthier than he was before. When a man purchases an app for 99 cents, he is wealthier than he was before. Tools are technology, and technology is a form of wealth." (32)

• "We should regard tools the same way we regard our money- with grateful suspicion. Or perhaps, on alternating weeks, with suspicious gratitude." (32)

IV. A Theology of Media

• "I would define media in this way: working out from and including our bodies, media also include our clothes, other people, and tools, including especially tools for communication and infrastructure." (34)

• "God was the one who told us to multiply. And one of the things that necessarily grows and develops with that multiplication is the largely invisible world of media. When we notice it, which happens rarely, our reflex action is to worry about it- as though getting your news off a smartphone is somehow less "authentic" than getting it from newsprint, telegraphs, or smoke signals." (37)

• "But when we see that tools are a subset of media, and that media were obviously a gift from God, given to us through the mere fact of creation, we should become much more comfortable with the idea of tools as essential to our humanity." (37)

V. A Theology of Missions and Media

• "When Jesus spoke these words, going into the world meant what we would call travel (going from one place to another yourself), and it meant communication across distance (going from one place to another by means of media). Communication media at the same time largely meant letters, or epistles. We still have the same basic options- travel and communications media." (40)

• "So what should we bring with us when we travel? What should we send with our messages when we write? The answer is Jesus, but this must be understood rightly." (40)

• "The fact that we have greatly accelerated the pace of these two functions (travel over distance and communication across distance) is nothing new in principle." (41)

• "Your country can only export whatever it is your farmers are growing. When you go somewhere, or when you send a message somewhere, you are simply projecting what you already are." (42)

• "If you are alive, vibrant, and forgiven, you now live in a world where you can project that in amazing ways." (42)

VI. A Theology of Markets

• "Control of the future is actually a (vain) attempt to control people, with the future as our instrument." (47)

• "Two words that do not go together are control and future. The future, like salvation, is the gift of God, and it must be apprehended by faith alone." (48)

• "The two issues mentioned earlier that underlie economics are first, the need for us to respect the free choices of others, and second, to use our own power of free choice to investigate the fruitful world God gave to us." (48)

• "The free market does not decide the price of the new zippers. That decision is made by the Lord Jesus. A statement like that hits us sideways because we are accustomed to think about the world in a quasi-Diestic terms. Sure, God made everything some time long ago, but things happen now because of impersonal natural laws, right? Gravity pulls things to the floor, centrifugal force pulls them out to the edges, and the law of supply and demand determines the cost of zippers. But the biblical doctrine is actually one of creating and ongoing providence. All of it is personal." (49)

• "We are to put our hand to the work, doing the best we can with it, and we are to keep our hands off the future." (50)

• "My responsibility is, so to speak, whatever is in front of me, there on my workbench or desk or counter. I should do a first-rate job with that, and other things will fall into place. And as they fall into place, it will not be the impersonal doing of Adam Smith's invisible hand. Every blessing a Christian ever receives is from a pierced hand." (50)

VII. A Theology of Progress

• "Wealth is the technical ability to summon the labor of others, either in person or through the application of tools, but the person in possession of that wealth has to have the ability to know how to do it." (53)

• "If you are anything like me, you need to learn how to manage this embarrassment of wealth. In short, you need to learn how to become more productive." (55)

VIII. A Theology of Glad Suspicion

• "The Bible does teach us what our orientation toward health should be- that of glad suspicion, or maybe, on our gloomy days, suspicious gladness." (57)

• "The technophile just assumes that man is the measure of all things, and he plumps his resume in order to get a job with Google, so that he too may become one of the lords of the earth. The technophobe just memorizes the poetry of Wendell Berry, and yearns for the days of yesterday when all our food was eked out under a hot sun by a slow mule and a picturesque peasant staggering behind it. Both are forms of ingratitude; both are grotesque. The only obedient response is to accept that wealth as the gift of God that it is, and to keep it in its proper creaturely place." (59)

• "Although there is a bias toward sin in the possession of such blessings, it is important to emphasize by means of reiteration that sin is not resident within the things themselves. In this respect, it is like the old covenant- God finds fault with the people (Heb. 8:7-8). There is no sin in immunizations, in iPhones, in Google searches, in air travel, or in Lasik eye surgery. To the extent it is progress, it is the result of God's kindness as mediated through our culture as fruit of the gospel." (59)

• "To whatever extent it is not a blessing, it is not progress. If it is progress, then we must thank God for it- He is the one who gives us the power to get wealth, and there is no appropriate or safe response to that wealth other than complete and simple gratitude." (61)

• "It does not profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul, and there is an additional sting when he then loses the world too. Whatever to worship in place of God is another thing you lose. Whatever you surrender gladly to Him is returned to you, pressed down, shaken, and running over." (62)

• "There is not one blessing we enjoy that was not given to us by the hand of Jesus Christ. If we insist on ignoring His lordship, his blood, His authority, and His kindness, then the time is coming, and now is, when He will chastise us by taking it all away. If we seek the Kingdom, then other things will be added. If we don't acknowledge Him, worship Him, or bow down before Him, He takes away that which was blocking the view, which in our case is all our stuff." (62)

An Introduction to Ploductivity

• "Living and working in the presence of God is essential because what constitutes a truly productive person is the fact that they are laboring under the blessing of God." (68)

• "Living in the presence of God means that you are living in such a way as to invite or seek His favor. The Sabbath and the tithe illustrate well the trust we are to display in this. Would you rather work hard for seven unblessed days or work hard for six blessed days? Would you rather try to live on 100% of an unblessed income or on 90% of a blessed income?"(69)

• "Pray that God establish the work of your hands, and not just the work of your heart. This is not a facile "health and wealth" approach because God is not to be treated as some kind of a vending machine. God's blessing includes both temporal victories and temporal defeats, and evangelical faith knows how to handle all of it." (69)

IX. The Finitude of Work

• "Too many people confound our finitude with our sinfulness, but the breach between us and God is one that was caused by our unholiness, not by our size. Before Adam sinned he was just as small as the day after he sinned, but he was still able to walk with God in the garden in the cool of the day. Our size is a feature, not a bug." (72)

• "We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to do, God is up to something big- He has a cosmic project in view- and not one of us knows the fullness of what that is." (72)

• "When God created ex nihilo, He was doing all the work. When we work as sub-creators, to use Tolkein's word for it, we are dealing with pre-existent materials and processes. This is because God is using the miniscule works that we are performing to teach us to trust Him, and to teach us the meaning of work." (74)

• "Remembering the finitude of your labors will keep you humble. Recognizing that your labors have a place in God's cosmic intentions for the universe will keep you from thinking that your tiny labors are stupid labors. They are nothing of the kind. Your labors in the Lord are not in vain (1 Cor. 15:58)." (74)

X. Ambition is a Good Thing

• "The true Christian is characterized, not by a lack of desire, but rather through a desire that is calibrated to its appropriate object, which is ultimately Christ." (76)

• "Many Christians think their problem lies in the verbs, when it actually lies in the direct objects and in the adverbs. They think they are to be faulted because they want , because they desire. But the actual problem is not that we desire, but that we desire the wrong things, or that we desire the right things wrongly." (77)

• "Setting ambitious goals is therefore a good thing, and determining whether or not we are desiring something sinful, or desiring it sinfully, is heart work. We do that heart work by praying to the Lord about it, by reading the Word faithfully, looking to be instructed, and by worshipping God together with Hid people, gathering regularly to be edified by Word and sacrament." (78)

XI. The Master Key

• "It is impossible to read through the Scriptures and come to the conclusion that the Lord thinks slipshod work is good enough." (80)

• "Learn what good work is, imitate it studiously, and do that over time." (82)

XIII. Work at a Pace You Can Maintain

• "The thing to take away is that brief but daily routines are capable of accumulating a large amount of whatever the work product might be. A man could take out the trash every evening, and while out there quietly lay one brick, and after six months present his with with a brick wall along the alley- something she never even knew she wanted." (94)

XIV. Progress and Depravity

• "The birth of the modern age, measured in terms of conveniences, technology, wealth, medical advances, and so on was largely a legacy of the Reformation. But the Bible teaches that whenever a gift is given, there will immediately be a temptation arising in our hearts to steal the glory and gratitude that should go to God alone." (95)

• "A commons worry among modern sophisticates is that technology really is making us stupid. It would be better to say that technology when ignored or mismanaged makes us stupid, but this has always been the case with every form of wealth." (97)

• "The world, this world, is presently going where Jesus is taking it. So we should be wise, and stop worrying." (99)

XV. Eschatology

• My optimism about tools and technology is, at bottom, an optimism that is grounded on the fact that at the darkest point in human history, God in the flesh was crucified by arrogant sinners, by all the important people. Three days after that, the Lord came back from the dead. That means that the world has been overthrown. How could that world not be overthrown? That world is dead because its only power was death, and we serve a Lord who went into death's maw, and then came out again. That is the ultimate plot turn. That is the central fact of all human history." (103)

XVI. New Media

• "When the bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, his reply was "Because that's where the money is." Christians should go with our life-transforming message, and where should we go? Where the people are."(106)

• "We proclaim the lordship of Christ over everything, and we do so, not because we have invited Him into our hearts, but rather because He rose from the dead, ascended into the presence of the Ancient of Days, and was given a universal and cosmic authority Dan. 7:13-14)." (107)

• "Jesus is already Lord of those who recognize it, and He is already Lord of those who refuse to recognize it. This means that the authority of Jesus Christ, right now and not later, currently extends over Facebook, Google, and Twitter." (107)

• "So wherever people are, Christians should be right there, with all our work, talking about the Lord. You know, theLord. The Lord over all of this." (108)

Notable Content

• "I am seeking to stake out an entirely different third position, over against the twin errors of technophobia and technophilia." (9)

• What does good work look like? (17-18)

  1. "First, work is a good thing, and the hard way is actually the easy way."

  2. "Second, the right kind of work- when a particular result is desired- quenches the wrong kind of desire."

  3. "Third, the Bible teaches that diligence and laziness are visible."

  4. "Fourth, the diligent like to have their work speak for them, and unproductive men like to substitute talk for action. Lazy men are good talkers."

• A description of the man hours required in just the manufacturing of a No. 2 pencil. (52)

• "A good example of an erudite worrier would be Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death. But for every book like that, given the propensity of Calvinists to worry excessively about the heart of man, I would recommend that you read three like Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You, Postrel's The Future and Its Enemies, and Herman's The Idea of Decline in Western History." (102)

Notes on *Men and Women in the Church*

Men and Women in the Church: A Short, Biblical, Practical Introduction, Kevin DeYoung, (Crossway, 2021)

Main Idea/Takeaway

Complementarity is the biblical vision of men and women, rooted in God's natural design and good for life in general and the ministry of the church.

• "This book is about the divinely designed complementarity of men and women as it applies to life in general and especially to ministry in the church." (15)

• "Raise up a new generation of cheerful and unflappable Christians who will celebrate a vision of manhood and womanhood that is not only biblical but in a profound sense natural as well." (133)

Interaction 

• Who is the loudest, driven by the most rage, with popular culture on their side? (18)

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Biblical Exploration

I. A Very Good Place to Start

II. Patterns That Preach

III. Revolution and Repetition

IV. Of Heads and Hair

V. A Marriage Made in Heaven

VI. The Heart of the Matter

VII. Leaders, Servants, and Life Together

Part 2: Questions and Applications

VIII. Common Objections

IX. Growing Up as Boys and Girls

X. Following Christ as Men and Women

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Introduction:

• "God decided to make not one man or one woman, or a group of men or a group of women; he made a man and a woman. The one feature of human existence that shapes life as much or more than any other- our biological sex- was God's choice." (13)

• "The whole human race is, always has been, and will be for the rest of time, comprised of two differentiated and complementary sexes." (14)

• "The fact that God created man as a plurality- male and female, a complementary pari- ought to shape not only how we conceive of marriage but how we conceive of ourselves." (17)

• "It's one thing to be convinced that complementarian exegesis is correct; it's another to be sure that it is good." (17)

• "The truest form of biblical complementarity calls on men to protect women, honor women, speak kindly and thoughtfully to women, and to find every appropriate way to learn from them and include them in life and ministry- in the home and in the church." (17)

I. A Very Good Place to Start

• "Every other aspect of creation had its counterpart. The day had its sun, the night its moon, that waters its fish, the sky its birds, and the ground its animals, but the man did not have his helpmate." (24)

• "Whatever "rules" there are for men and women in the church are never mere rules: they reflect the sort of differentiated and complementary image bearers God designed us to be from the beginning." (25)

• "Men and women, as distinct from all else in creation to testify to the world that God has dominion over this place. As image bearers, not to mention coheirs of the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7), men and women possess equal worth and dignity." (25)

• "The opening chapters of the Bible establish the shape of sexual differentiation and complementarity that will be lived out, applied, and safeguarded in the rest of Scripture." (33)

II. Patterns That Preach

• See Notable Content for five patterns in the Old Testament that shape how we think about sexual differentiation and complementarity in life and ministry: (36-41)

III. Revolution and Repetition

• "Jesus, of course, came to save men and women. But in coming as a man he literally embodied what true manliness was meant to be- saving, protecting, rescuing, leading, teaching, and serving. Sot it makes sense that while Jesus honored women and empowered them for ministry, when it came to selecting those for positions of authority, he chose only men. There is no one more pro-woman than Jesus, and no one- by his example and in his very person- who did more to affirm true manhood either." (47)

IV. Of Heads and Hair

• See Notable Content for six key exegetical questions pertaining to male headship and head coverings: (50-59)

• "Paul allowed women to prophesy but did not allow them to join in the weighing of prophesy." (59)

• "Whatever we make of New Testament prophecy in relationship to Old Testament prophecy, it is undoubtedly the case that teaching and prophecy in the early church were not identical kinds of speech. As we will see later, elders do not need the gift of prophecy, but they must be able to teach (1 Tim. 3:2). (60)

• "Teaching- passing on the apostolic deposit while explaining and applying Scripture- was authoritative instruction in a way that prophecy was not." (61)

• "The explicit situation in which women must be silent is where prophecies are being evaluated. Such evaluation would have involved teaching and the exercise of authority (over other prophets), two activities Paul consistently denies to women." (62)

V. A Marriage Made in Heaven

• "It may sound archaic, if not fundamentally sinister, but God's design for the home is a thoughtful intelligent, gentle submissive wife and a loving godly, self-sacrificing, leading husband. Whether we live in the first century or the twenty-first century, Ephesians 5:22-33 is God's good plan for marriage: wives, submit to your husbands; and husbands, love your wives." (64)

• "The commands to submit and love are intended to reverse the curse inflicted in the garden of Eden." (64)

• "The inclination of a sinful wife is to rebel against her husband's authority and try to control him. Paul's commands aims to reverse the effects of the curse and have Christian wives submit rather than usurp. Likewise, men, who are supposed to lead and protect and provide for their wives, now, tainted by sin, treat their wives harshly. The inclination of the sinful man is to exercise ungodly rule over his wife. Paul's commands aims to reverse the effects of the curse and have Christian husbands love rather than domineer." (64)

• "God is trying to show something in our marriages. If we disallow sexual differentiation, we are not allowing to shine forth the very heart of marriage itself. Yes, God created marriage for companionship and for sex and for children, but most of all, he created marriage to reveal the profound mystery of Christ and the church. This is a high calling. His plan is for a watching world to look at husband and wife and see such gentle, joyful submission and such self-denying, loving leadership that it gets a picture of the beauty that is the relationship between Christ and his church. Nothing less than God's full glory is at stake."(74)

VI. The Heart of the Matter

• "Quietness or silence (2:12) is not meant to be demeaning. Both are positive qualities for the learner (see Eccles. 9:17). And as we've seen from 1 Corinthians 11 and 14, silence is not an absolute command encompassing every element of corporate worship. Silence, in this text as well as 1 Corinthians 14, refers to the teaching ministry of the church. In the context of corporate worship, women are not to be teachers, but quiet learners." (79)

• "In the Pastoral Epistles, Paul issues a command or a command-idea (like "I do not not permit") followed by gar twenty-one times, all of which require the casual sense. It is best, therefore, to keep the normal sense of gar and see "for" in verse 13 as introducing Paul's reasons for verses 11 and 12." (84)

• "Adam was supposed to be the head, responsible for loving leadership and direction. But he abdicated his role, and Eve's leadership influenced him for evil. As a result of this role reversal, sin entered into the world. On this understanding, Paul is pointing to the difference between the two guilty persons: Adam sinned openly, but Even was deceived. In highlighting this difference, Paul may be grounding his argument in God's design for men and women, which was tragically supplanted in the fall." (85)

VII. Leaders, Servants, and Life Together

• "Elders should be students of the Bible and men of exemplary character. They will be spiritual leaders. An elder must be able to teach (1 Tim. 3:2), something not required of deacons. Teaching does not have to mean lecturing in a classroom or giving a sermon, but it does mean that elders must know their Bibles, know theology, be able to discern truth from error, and know how to communicate it to others." 

• "I'm convinced that in most cases if men behave and lead as godly, humble, self-sacrificing biblical men, then women will happily live and flourish in the responsibilities God has designed for them. The biblical burden of this chapter, this first section, and really this whole book, rests primarily with men." (98)

VIII. Common Objections

• See Notable Content for Common Objections 

IX. Growing Up as Boys and Girls

• "So what I might tell my children about being a man or a woman? I'd try to make it simple as their ABC's: Appearance, Body, Character, Demeanor, Eager Posture." (118)

• "Yes, the cultural winds are blowing stiff and strong against the church on these issues. But the good news is that behind us lies a massive river of divine design in every human person. Ultimately, God's created order cannot be reengineered by sinful human ingenuity. Manhood and womanhood will reassert themselves. The question is whether it will be healthy or unhealthy. God made us as men and women to act like men and women. The more we see in nature (partly) and in God's word (mainly) what it means to be men and women, the better our marriages, our children, our churches, and our society will be." (129) 

X. Following Christ as Men and Women

• "Faithfulness does not mean returning to some supposed golden era rooted in a particular cultural moment, nor does it mean making as many enemies as possible in this cultural moment, but it does mean that for the sake of the good, the true, and the beautiful, we will not shrink from facing opposition when it is impossible to avoid." (132)

• "The Reformed tradition has always been adamant that grace does not eradicate nature or elevate nature, but grace restores nature. God is in the business of returning us to what was once declared "very good." That means that while male and female are nothing when it comes to being justified in Christ, the fact that we were created with a specific sex has everything to do with living as justified Christians." (132-133)

• "Any attempt to recover biblical manhood and womanhood, or any efforts as Christians to recover from the recovering, must start with the recognition that sexual difference is not simply a marker of who may hold the office of elder; it is an indication of the sort of image bearer God wants us to be in all of life." (134)

• "There are differences in the place men and women occupy in the church and in the home. If the husband is called to be the head of the family, then the wife is called to be its heart." (135)

• "No doubt, there may be a cost- personally, vocationally, culturally- when we embrace sexual differentiation and complementarity, but let us never forget that the law of the Lord is perfect, the testimony of the Lord is sure, the precepts of the Lord are right, and the commandment of the Lord is pure (Ps. 19:7-8)." (136)

Notable Content

• Five patterns in the Old Testament that shape how we think about sexual differentiation and complementarity in life and ministry: (36-41)

  1. Pattern 1: Only Men Exercising Official Leadership

  2. Pattern 2: Godly Women Displaying a Wide Range of Heroic Characteristics

  3. Pattern 3: Godly Women Helping Men

  4. Pattern 4: Ungodly Women Influencing Men for Evil, Ungodly Men Mistreating Women

  5. Women Finding Pain and Purpose Associated with Bearing and Caring for Children

• Six key exegetical questions pertaining to male headship and head coverings: (50-59)

  1. Question 1: What does it mean that the husband is the head of his wife?

  2. Question 2: What is the covering?

  3. Question 3: What "head" does the woman dishonor?

  4. Question 4: What does Paul mean by "authority"?

  5. Question 5: What does Paul mean by referring to "nature itself"?

  6. Question 6: How can Paul command women to be silent in the churches in 1 Corinthians 14 when he regulates women praying and prophesying in 1 Corinthians 11?

• Paul's two reasons for verse 11 and 12 in 1 Timothy 2 (84)

  1. Order of Creation

  2. Eve was Deceived

• Common Objections (101-115)

  1. Objection 1: Galatians 3:28

  2. Objection 2: Ephesians 5:21

  3. Objection 3: Slavery

  4. Objection 4: Women in Ministry in the Bible

  5. Objection 5: Gifts and Calling

• The Nature of Things (133)

• See Appendix (139-152)

Notes on *The Art of Pastoring*

The Art of Pastoring, David Hansen, (IVP, 1994, 2012)

Main Idea/Takeaway

Pastors are called to be parables of Jesus — people meet Jesus in our lives when we follow Jesus.

• "I attempt to describe why it is that people meet Jesus in our lives when we follow Jesus. Even more, I have attempted to describe how and why following Jesus is the central principle of pastoral ministry, the comprehensive principle that integrates every task." (13)

• "The thesis of this book is that people meet Jesus in our lives because when we follow Jesus, we are parables of Jesus Christ to the people we meet." (13)

• "Here's what the pastoral ministry is for me: Every day, as I go about my tasks as a pastor, I am a follower of Jesus, I am therefore a parable of him to those I encounter. The parable of Jesus works the power and presence of Jesus in their lives." (31)

• "Pastors who are parables of Jesus Christ change people's minds about Christ and bring the real Christ to people." (145)

Interaction 

• I pray petitionary and intercessory prayers because that grace of God at work within me leads me to desire things I cannot create. God's grace at work in me causes me to want to see things happen that I can't make happen. So I ask him to. (114)

• Difference between parable and symbol. (143)

Table of Contents

I. Beginning

II. Call

III. The Holy Spirit

IV. Temptation

V. Eschatology

VI. Preaching

VII. Prayer

VIII. Friendship

IX. Sacrament

X. Leadership

XI. Leaving

XII. Reward

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

I. Beginning

• "Better to be a follower of Jesus and no expert at that, just a sinner saved by grace, called to love because I have been bought with a price." (22)

• "Pastoral ministry must be following Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ called me to this work, and following him must be integral to realizing his calling." (22)

• "The speakability of God: this is what I want my life to be, a living organism through which God speaks, Not a hero, but a regular guy working away at imitating Christ in my everyday life." (26)

• "My shepherding is an authentic extended metaphor of the Good Shepherd. And as such, my life conveys the surprising presence of the grace of God." (27)

• "But if Jesus is communicated through us because of the likeness we share with him in our everyday life, if the essence of delivering Christ is living like him in our whole life, matching our life's narrative with his life's narrative, then our everyday life counts." (29)

• "An adequate definition of pastoral ministry emphasizes following Jesus as the act of ministry, and particularly following Jesus on the way of the cross." (29)

• "Sexual sin gets the press, but ego press kills the church." (30)

II. Call

• "The gospel is the power of the love of God, and as such it gives the pastor the power of the love of God to give to others. If the gospel is the pastor's bread, the pastor will always have bread to give away." (41)

IV. Temptation

• "I've tried and tried, but I've never been able to mix ambition and love. When I'm trying to be important and I'm plotting my way to the top, I can't love my wife, I can't love my kids, I can't love my friends, I can't love my parishioners. When I'm climbing ladders I cut myself off from the power of the pastoral ministry, which is love. For me to love, for me to follow Jesus, I need to step off the ladder." (76)

• "In our hypertherapeutic milieu, people want professionals to do something to them to make them feel better. Living through life, meeting the demands of following Jesus, living under the lordship of a holy God doesn't appeal to the general public these days." (78)

• "Pandering is a moral problem. We pander to people's desires for shortcuts because we don't want to walk the Way of the Cross with them. We want shortcuts just as much as our people do." (82)

V. Eschatology

• "If we can't teach our people where they go because we don't know ourselves, or if we feel that we cannot teach them what we really believe about heaven and hell, we are poor pastors." (85)

• "The widespread lack of a coherent, biblical eschatology among preachers, and their unwillingness to teach it, leads to toothless, people-pleasing preaching." (86)

• "All I see is people that need Christ. I see people in danger. I feel a fire light in my gut: the message God has given me for this morning is something the congregation needs to hear and respond to. Nervousness about my performance is displaced by concern for the people to hear the Word of God and believe in faith. I see their end. I see their need. I see that there is a decision to be made about Christ, and that decision counts for everything."(99)

VI. Preaching

• "Preaching is a form of aggression. As we preach, Yahweh, the God of war, conducts holy war to conquer territory. The field of conflict is the human heart." (108)

• "Thinking Christocentrically helps me sort through the side issues and leads me straight to the heart of every biblical text and the subject of all sermons: Jesus Christ." (111)

• "This is what renews our hermeneutic: hearing Christ preached and taught by authors and preachers who are unafraid to tell us the truth. And that is the whole point of preaching: to tell the truth boldly and unashamedly." (112)

VIII. Friendship

• "I'm gun-shy of people who like me too much."(137)

• "They thank Jesus but give me the credit. Their speech is think with spiritual lingo, but they treat me like I'm their savior. I don't think they're talking about me or Jesus. They're talking to someone or something I symbolize to them. Psychologists call this transference." (137)

• "What must die in every pastor is the subconscious desire to please people. What must not die is the will to love. There's the risk."(140)

• "There are intelligent steps the pastor can take to avoid the snare. Don't try to be a therapist. When pastors try to be therapists, the danger intensifies."(142)

• "But pastors should never, under any circumstances, attempt to create or enhance transference reactions in parishioners. They do happen, and they can have happy endings, but they should be avoided. The happy endings are rare." (143)

• "How can a pastor be a parable of Christ and not a symbol of God? There is a critical difference between symbols and parables: symbols are durable, parables are impermanent." (145)

• "Pastors, as parables of Jesus, bring Christ to people and then as quickly as possible become unimportant, unnecessary and superfluous to the important thing: the parishioners' relationship with Jesus." (146)

• "Rather, pastors need to allow their personal effect on people to be powerful, but light-handed and brief. This is what it means for a pastor to be humble. Humble pastors don't hang around for adulation, for then they might become an idol. Becoming an idol is the greatest fear of the humble pastor."(146)

IX. Sacrament

• "Sin is not a mistake. Our sin is our willing unlawfulness, our purposeful breaking of God's law. In attitude and in deed, we rebel against God, and we have for that reason forfeited our right to live. We deserve to die for our sins. That's what the death of Jesus is for; our deliberate unlawfulness." (158)

• "God's love is not a theory, nor does it meet an abstract need. God's love is a factual, historic action: the death of Jesus Christ. The purpose of God's act of love is to meet our real need, the forgiveness of our sins." (159)

X. Leadership

• "Jesus Christ is the object of proclamation. Preaching our visions and ideas for the church is cheap leadership, and it is not preaching. But biblical, Christocentric preaching is powerful pastoral leadership." (168)

• "A good sermon is like the breakfast the risen Christ prepared for his bone-weary disciples, fish cooking on coals, and bread." (168)

• "Preaching clever ideas, church programs, politics and heart warming stories is thin soup. But bringing the Word of God faithfully to people week after week is a gourmet feast, good to taste and good for the soul. Christians who hear good preaching learn to "taste and see that the LORD is good" (Ps. 34:8). They develop a taste for the Word. They love to hear the Word of God, thoughtfully prepared, lovingly presented." (169)

• "Whereas the sermon divided the church into individuals, the sacraments unite individuals with the body of Christ." (175)

• "It is simple insight that the traditions of Christianity that place heavy stress on the sacraments tend to view individuals from the perspective of the unity of the church, while the traditions of Christianity that place heavy stress on preaching tend to view the church as a collection of individual disciples."(176)

XII. Reward

• "It's just plain true that the more our world values autonomy and self-realization, the more discouraged and defeated we pastors have become. The more the world around us becomes its own eschaton, the less we will be understood and appreciated for what we do. And to the extent that we pastors accept the world's stance and attempt to become our own destinies through autonomy, the more we will despise our call and demand satisfaction now for our efforts. That's when we start trying to make stones into bread." (195)

Notable Content

• "Reading the text in its original language accomplishes two vital things. Looking at the text in its original tongue is another way to fiddle with it. It is a way of spending unhurried, inefficient time with the text. It forces me to slow down and listen more intently." (104)

• "Whereas morning prayer is praying the Psalms, wandering prayer is praying like the Psalms." (118)

• Chapter 8 delves into the topic of transference. This is one of the most important treatments of this topic I’ve read in regards to pastoral ministry, and it is extremely relevant, especially for younger pastors (129)

• "A pastor is not a symbol of God. A pastor is a parable of Jesus Christ." (143)

• "But the sacraments, whose responsibility is to unite us, become a definite threat to the unity of the church if they are celebrated willy-nilly in small groups." (178)

Notes on *The Care of Souls*

The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart, Harold Senkbeil (Lexham Press, 2019)

Main Idea/Takeaway

Our primary habitus as pastors is to know Jesus and give him to others through Word and sacrament.

• "The classical texts of pastoral care have always called the cure of souls a habitus, a pastoral temperament or character worked by the Holy Spirit through his means."

• "Genuine habitus: doing all you've been given to do in the full realization that you're only an instrument for the Lord to do his work through you."(22)

• "This, I'm convinced, is the sole power for consistent ministry as pastors. We love because we have first been loved- then we in turn love others as we ourselves have been loved. We are, in a very real sense, only channels or conduits for the love of Christ that enfolds us, impels us and compels us for faithful work in service of the Great Shepherd who has laid down his life for us all." (121)

• "Our job is not to usher in perfection, but to bring people to Jesus and him to them." (180)

• "Your job is merely to bring people to Jesus and Jesus to people." (194)

Interaction 

• We are commending the person, Jesus. (14)

• Give them Jesus. (17)

• Guilt is as objective, specific, internal response to sin committed. Shame is something you wear- its the identity you take on in the aftermath of sin that either you committed or was committed against you." (140)

• When it comes to sexual desire, our calling is chastity. There's no neutral ground. It's either virtue or vice. Either fidelity (if married) or abstinence (if single)- the calling to virtue. It is a positive call- "live this way!" Not merely negative against the sin/vice- "don't do that!" (177)

• The liturgy our local church on Sundays is meant to give shape to our whole Christian lives. (188)

Table of Contents

I. The Pastoral Craft: One Farm Boy's Story

II. What is a Pastor? The Classical Model

III. The Cure of Souls: Attentive Diagnosis

IV. The Cure of Souls: Intentional Treatment

V. Sheep-Dogging and Shepherding: The Noble Task

VI. Guilt and Shame

VII. Holiness and the Cure of Souls

VIII. Drawing Near to God: Proximity and Holiness

IX. Invisible PowersL Spiritual Warfare

X. Christ's "Other Sheep": Mission and the Care of Souls

XI. The Shepherding of Shepherds

XII. Always Be Steady: Equilibrium in Ministry

Conclusion: Joy in Office

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Preface

• "This is the secret for sustainable pastoral work: You need to realize that you've got nothing to give to others that you yourself did not receive. Jesus loves you first, then you love him back by loving his sheep and lambs in his name and stead." (xx)

I. The Pastoral Craft: One Farm Boy's Story

• "Pastors do not teach mere ideas or concepts; by their ministrations they bring Jesus himself into the hearts and lives of people ravaged with guilt, burdened with shame, and struggling under a boatload of pain in all its dimensions: physical, emotional, and spiritual."(14)

• "Wherever pastors bring the words and mysteries of Jesus, they bring Jesus himself, and he personally does the comforting." (14)

• "Whenever and wherever pastors do this work of Jesus, Jesus himself is present, even though he remains unseen." (15)

• "So then, effective and faithful pastoral ministry in each succeeding era must remain intimately connected with its essential core- the divinely given presence of Christ Jesus and the truth of his word by which alone we live. The challenge for pastors in every generation is to link the person and work of Jesus to every shifting era by means of his unchanging word- not to contextualize the message, but to textualize people into the text of Scripture, you could say." (17)

• "The essence of pastoral work is to bring the gifts of the Good Shepherd to his sheep and lambs. And here's the well from which you can draw inexhaustible grace every day as a pastor: In the church the Holy Spirit daily and richly forgives all your sins along with the sins of all believers." (19)

• "That's what it means to be a servant of Christ. You get your hands dirty among his earthly- and earthy- people. But you do it because you have life in your hands to give them." (25)

• "So right up front, let's start with this foundational definition: As a pastor you're above all else a true servant of Christ and steward of God's mysteries. Let that identity- that habitus- dictate everything you do and say in ministry. Then you yourself will be well served as you serve others in Jesus' name."(26)

• "What you might consider mundane routine is the very heart of your calling: to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ and to administer his life-giving sacraments. Preaching, baptizing, communing may be ordinary and God-ordained- but they are never dull." (29)

• "Have you come to realize that by your own reason or strength you can accomplish absolutely nothing in the ministry." (29)

• "Christianity is nothing more than the life and truth that God has disclosed and transmitted through the incarnate flesh of Jesus, his eternal Son." (31)

• "Pastors impart teaching that comes from the Holy Spirit of God and they bring that divinely given teaching to people who have received the Holy Spirit by faith." (33)

• "To be an agent and emissary of Jesus energizes and empowers you for active work as his servant. Just think: Christ Jesus, your Savior and your Lord, has called and commissioned you to love and serve the very sheep and lambs for whom he shed his blood and gave his life." (35)

II. What is a Pastor? The Classical Model

• "The text of sacred Scripture is at the heart of all pastoral work; the core of what we do in the diagnosis and sure of souls revolves around the word of God in written and verbal form because these in turn flow from Christ, who is the word of God made flesh." (45)

• "One divine word- incarnate, spoken, written- this is the word that you and I bring to God's people yet today as we go about the care of souls. And in that word there is life- the life of Christ for all humanity. That's why everything we do as pastors we do by means of the word of God." (56)

• "All ministry with the written word is ultimately the ministry of the one word of the Father made flesh for us and for our salvation."(56)

III. The Cure of Souls: Attentive Diagnosis

• "So the process of the cure of souls has two phases: attentive diagnosis followed by intentional treatment." (67)

• "Whenever someone is asking for my help I give them my rapt and undivided attention." (72)

• "Probably the most important skill to acquire is the art of listening to the conscience- listening accurately and spiritually, beneath the surface." (77)

• "Let's interact conversationally, responding to questions naturally and then asking our own questions appropriately." (79)

IV. The Cure of Souls: Intentional Treatment

• "Two things are indispensable, then, when it comes to serving as a spiritual physician: being attentive and being intentional. Faithful diagnosis and cure includes both. First we pay attention in Jesus' name, accurately assessing what threatens faith. Then we speak in Jesus' name, intentionally treating the underlying ailment with his healing word." (99)

• "All prayer is essentially answering speech; we as the children of God repeat back to him the word he has spoken to us. The first step in such word-based prayer is simply to echo what he has told us, repeating back to him what he has promised or commanded in that word." (106)

• "The Lord God, who has (insert his creative, redeeming and sanctifying power here) give you his blessing that you may (find required help, comfort, strength, etc.) for (purpose)- and the blessing of God Almighty: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" be with you now and forever." (109)

V. Sheep-Dogging and Shepherding: The Noble Task

• "There's nothing more important than to know Christ- that is, to believe in him and so receive life eternal in the life still to come as well as like in all its fullness already now. Everything else in all the world is peripheral to that; this alone is central." (125)

• "The New Testament word for conscience is syneidese. From its cognates this word means "to know together with," referring to a soul's perception of its standing before God. Conscience is not so much a moral compass as it is an umpire, or the capacity to see oneself as God sees you. It's conscious sensitivity toward God's judgment and grace." (128)

• "Our task as spiritual physicians is to treat bad consciences, continually delivering the healing balm of the living word of God and his life-giving sacraments." (129)

VI. Guilt and Shame

• "Remember, guilt has to do with behavior, shame has to do with being and identity. Believing himself to be disqualified as a son, he hoped to be hired as a servant instead." (140)

• "Baptism happens only once. But its significance goes on and on. For the rest of their life, every baptized child of God goes on dying and rising every day. Dying to sin but rising to righteousness, the sin addict dies and is raised again and again to live no longer as a slave but as a son within the Father's house." (149)

• "Once hiding in shame and broken by guilt, the soul emerges to live and love in wholeness and purity, made right again and purified by the shed blood of Jesus, the holy, sinless Lamb of God who was made to be sin for us that in him we might be made the righteousness of God." (152)

VII. Holiness and the Cure of Souls

• "In all your work, then, be conscious that you are nothing more- and nothing less- than an emissary of Jesus Christ." (157)

• "Sexual chastity is the gift of God's Spirit by which the powerful force of sex is first contained and then redirected, harnessed, you might say, for godly purposes. So abstinence apart from marriage and faithfulness within it is not the impossible dream, but a blessed reality for the man who in co-operation with the Holy Spirit uses his masculinity in service of God and his neighbor." (175)

VIII. Drawing Near to God: Proximity and Holiness

• "When I speak of liturgical living I mean that everything we have to give as Christians we first receive from God by entering repeatedly into his presence." (188)

• "What's true in Christian worship is also true in Christian living. There's a liturgical shape to the Christian life as well as our worship." (188)

• "Just as you and I cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ our Lord- or even come to him, so we cannot by our own works or effort make ourselves holy. Ours is an inherent, but derived holiness." (191)

IX. Invisible PowersL Spiritual Warfare

• "You've got to pay closer attention to invisible things. Behind every complication and difficulty encountered by pastors and churches, yes by every Christian, lurk the machinations and intentions of the Evil One. The devil is the sworn enemy of Christ and his church." (197)

• "Word and prayer go together for any Christian, but especially for pastors. That's why a rich life of prayer and meditation is essential" (202)

• "Jesus shows us in the Our Father how to pray as he does. He lists all the primary concerns: God's name, his kingdom, his will, our daily bread, and the forgiveness of our sins. Then significantly he concludes with two petitions that focus our attention on the spiritual battle that we're daily engaged in." (204)

X. Christ's "Other Sheep": Mission and the Care of Souls

• "Pastors are increasingly pressured to make a choice. They can either be an evangelist or a shepherd, a missionary or a pastor. Likely you've faced some pressure on this yourself either overtly or subtly, asked to choose between two options that are actually false alternatives." (221)

• "Too many sermons stop short of preaching Jesus; they are content to preach about Jesus instead." (227)

• "Christians are not called to be secret agents operation incognito, but witnesses for their Lord and Savior by their words and example." (230)

XI. The Shepherding of Shepherds

• "Everyone needs a disciplined approach to prayer." (242)

• "First the Spirit instructs us by his word and then he calls forth our reflection, thanksgiving, confession, and intercession in answer to that word." (250)

XII. Always Be Steady: Equilibrium in Ministry

• "Take courage, then, for the task before you. A pastoral habitus brings enduring joy. The work may seem exhausting, but repose awaits: rest eternal, sight unending, love undying, praise eternally resounding." (274)

Conclusion: Joy in Office

• "Love and joy are inseparably bound together in the inscrutable will of God." (279)

• "When God's love is in motion, there is joy even in the midst of sorrow." (280)

Notable Content

• Four Guideposts for Pastoral Conversation: (79-91)

  1. Faith

  2. Providence

  3. Holiness

  4. Repentance

• How to Bless:

  • As a servant of Christ you're authorized to bestow by means of a blessing any promise God makes in his word. Each blessing begins with God because he is always the actor, and the suffering soul the recipient. For example: "The Lord God, who has (insert his creative, redeeming and sanctifying power here) give you his blessing that you may (find required help, comfort, strength, etc.) for (purpose)- and the blessing of God Almighty: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" be with you now and forever." (109)

Notes on *Hearers and Doers*

Hearers and Doers: A Pastor's Guide to Making Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, (Lexham Press, 2019)

Main Idea/Takeaway

Pastors must be theologically rooted to help church members recover the primacy of Scripture in their discipleship.

• "Hearers & Doers is intended to help pastors fulfill their Great Commission to make disciples, with emphasis on the importance of teaching disciples to read the Scriptures." (Preface xi)

• "My hope is that the present book will help pastors recover Calvin's vision for theology as a help to reading the Bible in ways that enliven and encourage disciples to walk its way of wisdom." (Preface xxii)

• "To make disciples is to teach people how to become biblically literate so they can be effective inhabitants and representatives of the city of God, for the purpose of gospel citizenship." (71)

• "Accordingly, this book is a guide for hearing and reading the Bible rightly, as well as a training manual for doing the Bible rightly. The goal is to train disciples to walk around in the strange new world of the Bible even as they live in the familiar old world of the present. It is a pastor's guide for training hearers and doers, faithful followers of Jesus Christ and faithful interpreters of the Word that directs us in his Way." (71)

• "I want to examine the significance of sola Scriptura in making disciples by stressing its role in fostering the Christocentric social imaginary that makes the church a creature of the word." (99)

• "A pastor does many things, but I have argued that most of these things are forms of ministering God's word: either by speaking (preaching, teaching, counseling, praying) or enacting it (celebrating the Lord's Supper, visitation). The particular focus of the present work has been on the pastor as disciple-maker, or what I have described elsewhere as "public theologian"- one who does theology with and for people." (241)

Interaction

• Social imaginary = deep assumptions. (8)

• The negative task of theology. (9)

• What other words are shaping our people? (50)

• Pastors minister by helping people make connections in three key areas. (117)

• What is a pastor-theologian? (123)

• If we don't mature immature Christians into real disciples, who will? The church is where this must happen. This goes for all 'immature Christians' that make up a congregation. The consumers, the feminists, etc. Where do they go to become disciples? It must be the church. And so the stronger brothers must bear with the failings of the weak. (Romans 15:1)." (125)

• Preach the Bible; baptism and Lord's Supper; and people are not part of the church who shouldn't be. (127)

• This is our consumer culture, which is not 1 Timothy 6:8. (146)

• Credo-Baptism see p.218. (150)

• Lord's Supper see p.221. (151)

• "The church is most itself at Table." (221)

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: Warming Up: Why Discipleship Matters

I. The Role of Theology in Making Disciples

II. Whose Fitness? Which Body Image?

III. From Hearing to Doing

IV. Doctrine for Discipleship

Part Two: Working Out: How Discipleship Happens

V. Creatures of the Word

VI. Company of the Gospel

VII. Communion of Saints

VIII. Children of God

Favorite Quotes by Chapter

Introduction:

• "In short: what it means to be biblical is inextricably related to what it means to be Jesus; disciples, and what form this discipleship should take in the twenty-first century." (xviii)

• "Doctrine, like Scripture, teaches disciples who they are "in Christ." Disciples have to understand, and remember, whose Way they belong to." (xviii)

• "Why should pastors study theology? So that they can better know whom they worship, and learn how to form others into true worshipers who know how to worship, and to walk, in spirit and truth (John 4:22-24)." (xxi)

• "Theology is about learning how to live out Christ's life in us (Gal 2:20), a life that includes cruciform wisdom (1 Cor 2:2) and resurrection power (Phil 3:10)." (xxiii)

• "The aim of evangelism is to make converts, people who believe the gospel, repent of their former way of life, a bonfire of the vanities, and face a new direction- Christward." (xxiv)

• "Making disciples involves more (but not less) than informing minds or forming habits. It also involves transforming imaginations, that is, that primary ways they see, think about, and experience life." (xxv)

• "The pastor must be a theologian: someone who can relate life in general, and the lives of his congregation, to what Scripture shows us the Father doing in Christ through the Spirit to renew creation." (xxvii)

Part One

Warming Up: Why Discipleship Matters

I. The Role of Theology in Making Disciples

• "There is probably no more damaging picture distorting our present-day lives, and our understanding of the God of the gospel, than "love." Love is often depicted as a desire to be fulfilled (romanticism) or as accepting people for who they are (inclusivism) or as loyalty to one's own people group (tribalism)." (7)

• " A social imaginary is the picture that frames our everyday beliefs and practices, in particular the "ways people imagine their social existence." The social imaginary is that nest of background assumptions, often implicit, that lead people to feel things as right or wrong, correct or incorrect." (8)

• "The doctrines we hold be they philosophical, political, or theological, feel right or wrong, plausible or implausible, based largely on how well they accord with the prevailing social imaginary or world picture. What I have called above the "negative task" of theology is to critically reflect on the way in which the church embodies the prevailing social imaginaries of the day rather than the biblical imaginary- the true story of the Triune God is doing in the world." (10)

II. Whose Fitness? Which Body Image?

• "Theology helps the church make disciples by exposing the lie- the false social imaginaries that often hold even church members captive (the negative, critical task) - and by redirecting them to the way, truth, and life of Jesus Christ (the positive, indicative task)." (14)

• "Food cults arguably replace what religion once did by prescribing... food rules and rituals. Like religion, they provide meaning in confusing situations, giving us moral guidelines and comfort." (27)

• "Pastors, too, ought to be concerned with the diet of their congregation, particularly if we stretch the term to include what kind of reading and entertainment church members imbibe on a regular basis."(42)

III. From Hearing to Doing

• "Discipleship is about becoming who we are in Christ, and this is entirely a work of God: "Therefore, is anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor 5:17)." (44)

• "Discipleship is essentially a matter of hearing (authority), believing (trust), and doing the truth (freedom) that is in Jesus Christ." (50)

• "As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it: in discipleship, "Jesus is the only content." Disciples do the truth, then, by following his way and living out his life: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20)." (52)

• "To be a disciple is to hear, do, and adore what we see there, in the mirror of Scripture: the lordship of Jesus Christ." (53)

• "True disciples are awake and alert to what is going on in the world, to what is really real, namely, the "real presence" of Jesus Christ. The true story of the world, narrated in Scripture, concerns God's presence and activity." (54)

• "We agree that the imagination is a key factor in making disciples. Yet we become disciples not simply by participating in Christian liturgical practices but by participating in- living into and acting out- Scripture's canonical practices and, yes, Christian doctrine (see 1 Tim 4:16)." (56)

• "To walk in the truth is to live in accordance with the truth of the gospel, that it, the truth of the new reality that has come into being in and through Christ's person and work." (59)

• "Christian discipleship is companionship with Christ. The Christian Way is that of the long-distance walker, a long obedience in the same direction, where day in and day out, with each step we take, we choose to live in a way that follows Jesus and corresponds to the truth- our new life in him. Making disciples is a step-by-step process of helping men and women to walk the Way of Jesus Christ." (60)

IV. Doctrine for Discipleship

• "Discipleship involves waking up to the realization that there is a choice, and we must stay awake to the lordship of Jesus Christ long enough to make the right one: to obey, and thereby to exercise, like Jesus, genuine freedom." (78)

• "Feeding on God's word involves more than tasting or taking a bite; it means making a meal of it, digesting it. Eugene Peterson calls Christians to absorb and imbibe the Bible so that it seeps into all our pores." (79)

• "Reading the Bible theologically, as teaching by God, of God, and leading to God, is our best hope for breaking free of the pictures that hold us captive: consumerism, humanism, transhumanism, nihilism, existentialism, moralism, scientism, and so on- idols all, of heart and mind. Reading Scripture theologically means reading it together, in the church, in ways that lead to its readers' moral and spiritual, and sapiential formation." (85)

Part Two

Working Out: How Discipleship Happens

V. Creatures of the Word

• "Pastors must do everything they can to ensure that Scripture alone, and not some other story, serves as their congregation's essential social imaginary." (94)

• "One such insight is that the church must always be "reforming" its thought and life in accordance with the Scriptures. In particular, the church must always be reforming in order to imagine the world that the Bible imagines." (95)

• "The best way to take captive the imagination of Christians in any age is through the church's proclamation of the gospel in word and deed: in sermon, sacrament and shapes of everyday living." (103)

• "The evangelical imagination alone opens up the real possibility of living along the grain of reality: according to what is really the case "in Christ." (110)

• "As Ephraim Radner says, preaching "is a way of putting us back where we belong: into the text itself...where God's word, in all his creative omnipotence, does its work of self-giving and conformation." (115)

• "Pastors minister this needed understanding by helping people make connections in three areas: between the parts of the Bible and the overarching story; between the Bible and the world in which they live; and between who they are at the moment and who God calls them to be in Christ." (117)

• "The sermon is not a secondhand description of what is happening in a historical galaxy far, far, away. No, gospel preaching proclaims the true story of the world, acknowledging that all things are "from him and through him and to him" (Rom. 11:36). The sermon is the heavy artillery in the pastor-theologian's arsenal, and the best frontal assault on imaginations held captive by other stories promising other ways to the good life." (118)

• "Scripture alone is the ultimate story from which disciples must take their existential bearings." (119)

• "Pastors cannot know everything about everything, but they should be able to know one big thing about everything: whether or not it fosters life in Christ." (121)

• "We read the Bible in order to discern the Way of truth and life that leads to fellowship with God and human flourishing from ways of falsehood and illusion that lead only to the dead end of idolatry and human frustration." (122)

• "The pastor-theologian is a special kind of generalist a generalist who "specializes" in relating all things to the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to make disciples, especially by disciplining their imaginations to conform to the unified biblical narrative with Christ at its center." (123)

• "It takes an imagination shaped by the Bible to see one's congregation as a living temple, with each member a living stone. (1 Peter 2:5)" (124)

• "It takes a biblically formed eschatological imagination to look at a sinner and see a saint." (124)

VI. Company of the Gospel

• "The church is the biblically mandated place to make disciples." (125)

• "The Reformers also wrestled with the problem of how to recognize the tru church, and developed three criteria: the right preaching of the word, the right administration of the sacraments, and the proper exercise of discipline." (127)

• "What pastors have to say that no one else can say is not simply that there is a God bu that God has acted. The gospel is a report of something that has been done. We have news- breaking news that the kingdom of God has broken into our world in the person and work of Jesus Christ. God has acted (creating news to report) and God has spoken (the news is reliable because those who reported it were inspired by God). (129)

• "Christians today are living between the first and second comings of Jesus, in the closing scenes of Act IV, poised between memory and hope." (130)

• "Doctrine does not add content to Scripture, but it does add understanding. Doctrine develops only because the church's understanding of the biblical story and its implications has developed, just as Jesus promised it would: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth." (John 16:13)" (133)

• "So how do we learn to get real? 'By reading Scripture theologically', that is, with the help of doctrine's ministry of understanding, and with a view to participating in the story of Scripture tells, the ongoing drama of redemption." (144)

• "Each part of the church's worship service- spoken or sung word, bath, table, prayer- focuses on some aspect of Jesus' story. Taken together, then, the liturgy is the church's spoken and enacted interpretation of the reality attested in and by Scripture. The liturgy is therefore theodramatic. It is all about rehearsing what the Triune God has done, is doing, and will do to renew creation and form a holy nation to be his treasured possession. Accordingly, the liturgy is a prime training ground for making disciples fit for theodramatic purpose." (145)

• "Everything in which we habitually participate leaves a little mark on our soul, forms our spirits, and trains our loves." (146)

• "Much of the mainstream culture in the modern and postmodern West contributes to the formation of individualist consumers who believe that certain things or experiences will complete their identity and satisfy their desire for happiness." (146)

• "Everything begins with disciples; ability to inhabit the biblical story and thus let Scripture serve as their primary imaginary." (153)

• "The point of liturgical performance is not to give disciples lines but rather to help shape their understanding of the story of Jesus of which they are a continuing part, and to prepare them to be the kind of people who want and are able to continue acting out new scenes of the same drama." (154)

• "What I am calling liturgical formation is the process of helping disciples enter into the drama to the point of becoming story-dwellers, people whose imagination is fixed on the reality of what God is doing in Christ through the Spirit to renew humanity and all creation." (160)

VII. Communion of Saints

• "sola Scriptura means that Scripture alone, as God's own set-apart discourse, is the only wholly reliable, sufficient, and final authority for the church's life and thought (including imagination). (176)

• "Pastors need to help disciples discern which doctrines are essential, requiring unity, and which are nonessential, requiring liberty (and charity)."(197)

• "Mere Protestant Christianity uses the resources of the solas and the priesthood of all believers to express the unity-in-denominational-diversity that local churches have in Christ." (201)

• "The local church, a people with canon sense and catholic sensibility, is the true end of the Protestant Reformation." (202)

VIII. Children of God

• "Christlikeness is the goal of discipleship. It is not only a way of walking but a state of being. To be more precise, it is the state of being-in, and abiding with, Christ." (204)

• "Christ is the image of God and disciples are to be images of Christ." (204)

• "The sobering truth is that much of what is going through our heads is not the story of Jesus but some other story." (209)

• "Pastors need to wake up congregations to the cultural forces that are forming their spirits, and perhaps clouding their vision." (211)

• "Learning Christ is a matter of following- or we could say practicing- Christ. It is by reading God's word, illuminated by the Spirit, that disciples learn to think rightly, see rightly, judge rightly, and act rightly, that is, in a Christlike manner." (216)

• "Wisdom means knowing what to do in particular situations in order to glorify God and follow Jesus in ways that befit faithful disciples. In a word, theological wisdom means knowing how to improvise the mind of Christ at all times, everywhere, and to everyone." (217)

• "To be in Christ is to be in the process of being restored to true humanity, a process that requires our active involvement. To put on Christ means to act out his life in us." (220)

• "The church is most itself at Table, for it is in partaking Christ's body that the church becomes Christ's body: one. In all its activities, especially the Lord's Supper, a local church in its corporate life "puts on" the spectacle of reconciliation in Christ and not only acts out but also becomes a parable of the kingdom of God." (221)

• "To take, read, and preach the Bible in the church, with an ear for the word of God to the people of God, is to read it as testimony to Christ, his person and work, his suffering and glory." (225)

• "This is our ultimate calling, our highest privilege and responsibility: to live into our adoption as sons and daughters of the Father. This is our destiny (and our predestination, Eph 1:5), to be adopted as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ." (234)

Notable Content

• "If you want to know what fuels the present-day social imaginary, follow the money: the GWI estimates that global wellness fuels $3.7 trillion economy, more than three times larger than the global pharmaceutical industry (beauty and anti-aging programs and products alone amounted to almost $1 trillion)." (18)

• See Atul Gawande's, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End , for a well articulated critique of the effects of secularization and medicalization on our concept of what it is to be well. (23)

• See Food Cults: How Fads, Dogma, and Doctrine Influence Diet (27)

• See (72-75) for seven initial theses on reading the Bible theologically.

• The Four Principles of the Protestant Reformation:(96-97)

  1. The material principle: justification by faith (sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus)

  2. The formal principle: "according to the Scriptures" (sola Scriptura)

  3. The dynamic principle: the Spirit who ministers, illumines, enlivens, and unites.

  4. The final principle: a citizenship of the gospel.

• "Scripture alone ought to rule our thinking about what a pastor is and does." See (114-116) for three metaphors that pastors would do well to allow to reshape their vocational imaginations.

• Five-Act Play: World History as a Drama of Redemption

Act I: creation and its subsequent corruption

Act II: beginning from Genesis 12 and running through the rest of the OT

Act III: Jesus: God's definitive saving Word

Act IV: begins with the risen Christ sending his Spirit to create the church

Act V: last judgment and the consummation of all things

• cf. John 13. Case for Community Groups. (139)

• Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. Case for Community Groups. (140)

• Five Premises of sola Scriptura: (172-173)

  1. The Bible is the word of God written in human words inspired by the Holy Spirit.

  2. God both authors and authorizes the Bible.

  3. God's word is God's discourse: something God says about something to someone in some way.

  4. Different types of discourse exercise authority in different ways over different domains.

  5. All divinely authored discourse serves the same ultimate end.

• Prioritizing public Bible reading. (198)