Fighting for Time?

"My soul often mourned for want of more time and opportunity to be alone with God. In the spring and summer following, I had better advantages for retirement and enjoyed more comfort in religion. Though indeed my ambition in my studies greatly wronged the activity and vigor of my spiritual life. Yet this was usually the case with me that 'in the multitude of my thoughts within me, God's comforts principally delighted my soul'; these were my greatest consolations day by day."

-The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, Edited by Jonathan Edwards

....

I really resonated with this, and it's always encouraging to know you are not alone in fighting for time to spend with the Lord. I pray that God's promises to us will be the focus and high point of each and every day regardless of the day's events!

The Promises Of God Are Our Foundation

"Our relationship with God should not be defined by our feelings about ourselves at any one moment, but by the eternal promises of God that we know throughout every moment."

-Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

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I often fall into a deceiving and foundationless mindset when I awake in the morning. I am burdened by the "daily doing" that lies ahead of me. My attitude and mood can be entirely dependent on my moral successes and failures of the previous day. I can be filled with so much unrest. I lose sight of where I truly stand with God, and seem to forget the joy of my salvation in the gospel.

But, I am brought back to peace when the scripture is spoken to me. God's word empowers me to believe in someone outside of myself, Christ Jesus. When you look at the person of Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, you begin to see He is the only answer to yourself. His life is the only explicable and powerful being that can deal with me. May we stay reminded that the Bible's truths are personal. They are corporate. They are defining. They are applicable. They are unchanging, and they are transcendent through all of time. If we embrace each and every moment in light of the truth of the Bible, I believe we will see more and more how they prove to be true!

Why Go Through the Drudgery of Memorizing Greek Paradigms

From Dane Ortlund's blog: Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology: Why Go Through the Drudgery of Memorizing Greek Paradigms: 

"Biblical exegesis should be the intellectual enzyme that transforms the stupor of our worldly and futile affections into a deep and glad and living hope. . . . [It is] the cognitive catalyst that triggers a combustion of divine joy in the human heart."

--John Piper, Biblical Exegesis: Discovering the Meaning of Scriptural Texts, 4-5.


A serious reminder to me while I am in the midst of learning Greek. Studying God's Word in the original language should be a joyful exercise that is transformative in nature. 

If Billy Graham Could Do It Over

An excerpt from John Stott's, 'Between Two Worlds'.

"Speaking to about 600 clergy in London in November 1979, Billy Graham said that, if he had his ministry all over again, he would make two changes. People looked startled. What could he possibly mean? First, he continued, he would study three times as much as he had done. He would take on fewer engagements. 'I've preached too much,' he said, 'and studied too little.' The second change was that he would give more time to prayer. Moreover, in making these emphases, he must have been deliberately echoing the apostolic resolve: 'we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.' (Acts 6:4) Because afterwards I commented appreciatively on what he had said, Dr. Graham wrote to me the following day and added: 'I remember that Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse (of Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia) once said: "If I had only three years to serve the Lord, I would spend two of them studying and preparing."'


These are wise words, especially to young men going into the ministry. 

Luther on How to Study Scripture

A quick excerpt from a letter in which Martin Luther expounds advice to George Spalatin on how to read the Scriptures.

"In the first place, it is most certain that one cannot enter into the Scriptures by study or skill alone. Therefore, you should begin by praying that, if it pleases the Lord to accomplish something through you for his glory, and not for your own glory or that of any other man, he may grant you a true understanding of his words. For there is no master of the Scriptures other than Him who is their author. Hence it is written, 'They shall all be taught by God.' You must completely despair of your own industry and ability, therefore, and rely solely on the influx of the Spirit. Believe me, for I have experience in this matter.

Then, having achieved this despairing humility, read the Scriptures in order from beginning to end so as to et the substance of the story in your mind. "