Tried With Fire

And the winners of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment are .... Congratulations to SLP and HER Impressions!!!! Please send an email to pilgrim dot mommy at gmail dot com with your contact info, and I will get the books in the mail. Thanks to everyone for entering this month. God willing, there will be another Puritan Paperback giveaway in June, so stay tuned...

He (Christ) teaches him to understand what is the one thing that is necessary, which he never understood before. You know what he said to Martha: 'O Martha thou cumberest thyself about many things, but there is one thing necessary.' Before, the soul sought after this and that, but now it says, I see that it is not necessary for me to be rich, but it is necessary for me to make my peace with God; it s not necessary that I should live a pleasurable life in this world, but it is absolutely necessary that I should have pardon of my sin; it is not necessary that I should have honor and preferment, but it is necessary that I should have God as my portion, and have my part in Jesus Christ, it is necessary that my soul should be saved in the day of Jesus Christ . The other things are pretty fine indeed, and I should be glad if God would give me them, a fine house, and income, and clothes, and advancement for my wife and children: these are comfortable things, but they are not the neces...

I'll be giving away 2 copies of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs .  First published posthumously in 1648, Burroughs describes contentment as "that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition." In addition to unpacking the meaning of contentment, he devotes several sections to its opposite condition, the sin of murmuring.  Finally, the book shows us how we learn this gracious frame of spirit in the school of Christ. On a personal note, the Rare Jewel was another pivotal book in my life. After coming to grips with the sovereignty of God, this book helped me see where true contentment lies in the face of an impending divorce.  It wasn't an easy read at the time, but it was a blessing in my distress by turning the focus away from my circumstances to the bigger picture.  I still go back to the Rare Jewel time and time again. To enter the ...

In the women's meeting last night, we had an interesting discussion about God's sovereignty, specifically accepting the painful providences He ordains for our lives.  Often those providences are seeming contradictions of scriptural promises or statements. If so, what do we do?  Do we still trust the Word?  Do we still trust God? There is a temptation to "get God off the hook" by viewing the circumstance as being caused by man or Satan.  But if you take it to its logical conclusion, you end up with a God who is not completely sovereign. He wants A to take place, but B has happened, and He was unable to prevent its occurrence.  Also the gradation of "allowing" versus "ordaining" still implies, to me, a God who needs a backup because He was somehow prevented from exercising the original plan. Either way, He becomes subordinate to something else, thus making Him less than God. I wrestled with this issue when my ex- walked out on our marriage. Scrip...