As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
On Thomas Brooks (d.1680): “Brooks characterized this strategy as ‘making the soul bold to venture upon the occasions of sin.’ Like many of the devil’s lies, it distorts a truth, namely that temptation is not sin. The Christian who is tempted only sins when he surrenders to the temptation; being outwardly tempted is not a sin.
“Lately, hobbies have become a metric of personal success. But their core purpose is to help us pause and praise.” - Christianity Today
James 1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. 27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
The beginning of a year is a good time to purpose anew to practice pure and undefiled religion before God our Father. To do so, we must keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
“Anxiety disorders have real physical symptoms (rapid heart rate, tensed muscles, shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain, etc.) brought on by identifiable physical things like the hormone epinephrine. However, anxiety also reveals the intimate connection between the mind and body.” - Ref21
“I have read several white supremacists who deny that they are racist. They say that they are just trying to maintain a certain culture and history. This fails to understand that ethnicities have history and ethnicity, races do not. Calling it a ‘white’ culture and history, then placing that culture in opposition to other races, has the effect of undermining our unity in Adam.” - Jesse Johnson
“ ‘Hate’ has become another all-purpose term of opprobrium, like ‘Nazi.’ If you oppose someone for any reason, you are a ‘hater.’ If you disapprove of some idea or practice, you ‘hate’ the people who hold that idea or follow that practice.
“The Bible is silent on the subject of marijuana (but not intoxication). It is not the fruit from the tree of the garden in Eden, and it would be clever but mistaken to see a veiled reference in John 6:10: ‘Now there was much grass in the place.’” - TGC
“A major catalyst for division was the decision of the Cincinnati School Board in 1869 to end Scripture reading in classrooms. Having long objected to Bible study in the city’s schools, Catholics had established their own system of parochial schools.” - The Conversation
“These are novel living machines,” said Joshua Bongard, one of the lead researchers at the University of Vermont, in the news release. “They’re neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It’s a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism.” - CNN
“Meditation stands between the two ordinances of reading and praying, as the grand improver of the former, and the high quickener of the latter, to furnish the mind with choice materials for prayer, and to fill the heart with holy fervency in it.” - Ben Ciavolella looks at Nathanael Ranew (d. 1677)
Discussion