The Week In Words

Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Here are a few that made me stop and think this week:

I have not read anything by John Piper except the occasional quote, but I agree with this, found on a friend’s Facebook:

We have thankful days and unthankful days. And even our thankful days are not as thankful as they should be. Just think of how joyful and thankful you would be if your heart responded to God himself and his ten thousand gifts with admiration and gratitude of which He is worthy. – John Piper

This was from another friend’s Facebook:

Fight for us, O God, that we not drift numb and blind and foolish into vain and empty excitements. Life is too short, too precious, too painful to waste on worldly bubbles that burst. Heaven is too great, hell is too horrible, eternity is too long that we should putter around on the porch of eternity. — John Piper

I have to admit I am struggling a bit with this one. I’d be interested to know the context from which it came. I don’t think he is calling for a life of asceticism: I don’t think there is anything wrong with playing word games on Facebook for relaxation and brain exercise or watching a video with the family. I think the latter, in fact, can enhance the spiritual — if everything we ever say to others is serious and spiritual, I think they’d turn us off after a while, but just relaxing and having some fun and fellowship can open the gateways for relationships and for other serious conversations. But, yes, by and large we do need to be careful to maintain focus and balance and not let “good” pursuits crowd out the “best.”

And from yet another friend’s Facebook:

In fear-based repentance, we don’t hate sin for itself, and it doesn’t lose its attractive power. We learn only to refrain from it for our own sake. Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves, but joy-based repentance makes us hate sin as we rejoice over God’s sacrificial love …& see what it cost him to save us. What most assures of God’s unconditional love is what most convicts us of the evil of sin. — Tim Keller

I am struggling a bit with this one, too. I think fear has its place and I’d like to understand more what he means by “joy-based repentance.” The Bible does talk about godly sorrow leading to repentance. But to me the value in the quote is the focus that our repentance shouldn’t be just about getting ourselves out of trouble or fearing consequences, but rather it is based on the offense of a holy God and yet His mercy and grace in making a way for us to be forgiven.

Finally, this from F. B. Meyer’s Our Daily Walk for November 10 on gentleness as a fruit of the Holy Spirit struck a chord with me:

It is not easy to cultivate this fruit of the Spirit because it has many counterfeits. Some people are naturally easy-going, devoid of energy and ambition, at heart cowardly, or in spirit mean. Many of us are characterized by a moral weakness and decrepitude that make it easy for us to yield rather than contest in the physical or intellectual arena.

But in gentleness there must be the consciousness of a considerable reserve of force. The gentleness of God is combined with omnipotence…It is the prerogative of great strength to be gentle.

The thought of gentleness as being strength under control rather than just being easy-going and yielding gave me much food for thought.

In that same devotional Meyer quotes Thomas a Kempis:

“If thou wilt be borne with, bear also with another. Endeavour to be patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others, what sort soever they be: for that thyself also hast many failings which must be borne by others.”

Amen.

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below in the comments. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

Note: The Mr. Linky site says: “System is currently down for emergency maintenance.” If it comes back up during the day, I’ll add your links: meanwhile, just leave them in the comments. Sorry about that!