Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:5-6a ESV)

This is the great and glorious theme of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book Spiritual Depression, a collection of sermons delivered before Westminster Chapel dealing with depression in the Christian experience. With the pastoral heart of a true and loving shepherd, he unpacks various causes of depression, doubt, and inordinate fear in the life of the Christian and directs his hearers (and readers) continually back to Scripture and to the marvelous grace of their Savior as their sure anchor and the cure to their condition.

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Jennifer & I have been reading a rather good book lately — They Teach Us To Pray by Reginald E. O. White. It’s a biographical survey of prayer in Scripture, looking at the prayers of such men as Abraham, Moses, Jabez, David, Habakkuk, and several more. With each of these men, he inspects what we can see from Scripture of their prayer lives and has some most excellent insights.

Today, we were reading of David’s prayer of repentance in Psalm 51, drinking in the beauty and honesty of his penitence.

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Earlier this spring, my brother recommended that I read C.S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory. It was well worth the read.

The version I found at the library is a 1965 edition, containing five essays:

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Interesting article on Between Two Worlds.

Last weekend, John Piper talked in his sermon of the historical basis of our faith. Specifically, he was preaching on the role of the Word of God in our salvation, and spent some time talking about the nature of that Word, and how it forms the foundation of our faith. I found it profitable, and thus today’s reflection is based largely on what he said.

That the Word of God is critical to salvation is plain from 1 Peter 1:23 — we have been born again “through the living and abiding word of God.”

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. I’ve been busy lately, though, and writing blog posts hasn’t exactly been a high priority.

Jenn & I picked up a book recently that bears the following text as introduction:

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I’ve been lax in posting lately, and particularly in posting reflections. So here’s a new one.

Our Bible study has recently jumped in to a study of I John. We aren’t using any particular materials, just going through it (using inductive study methods). Outlining it is rather a pain, as it has a stream-of-consciousness structure rather than a more rigid, logical organization. But that’s fine; John is not Paul, and did not write like Paul.

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I think, sometimes, that the epistles to the Corinthians are some of the more difficult portions of the NT (aside from Revelation) to understand. There are a few reasons:

1. We don’t have the whole conversation. We’re "missing" at least one of Paul’s letters to them, and we don’t have the letters they wrote to Paul (or at least they aren’t readily available to the average lay person). This makes it difficult to understand the entire context in which Paul wrote.

   It is worth noting, however, that this ought not to be a roadblock to our endeavors to understand the text. If we needed the rest of the context to understand what God intended to communicate through Paul writing these letters, then He would have seen to it that we got that context.

2. These letters (especially I Corinthians) contain or allude to some teachings which appear nowhere else in scripture, or have at best tenuous connections to doctrines expounded elsewhere. Thus, it is difficult to get clarification from other texts.

   One of the clearest examples of this is the allusion in I Cor 15 to being baptized on behalf of the dead. To my knowledge, this concept is mentioned no where else in Scripture. What were they doing? Why? What does it mean? Is this a practice we should have in the church today? These questions go unanswered.

   Another is the teaching in ch. 10 on head coverings. Specific teaching on this subject is not present in other epistles (although there are other teachings on authority), so there isn’t much information about what other churches in other areas were taught to practice.

3. Then there are things like II Cor 6 and 7. It seems fairly straightforward, but my mind was struggling today to wrap itself around 6:14-7:1. It’s clear enough, but why is it here? Before it, Paul is asking them to enlarge or widen their hearts. After it, Paul is asking them to make room for him in their hearts. What does this middle piece have to do with welcoming Paul in their hearts? It seems to me that the nature of the yoking mentioned in verse 14 would have something to do with the context, but I’m somewhat at a loss to make a connection.

I checked another active book off my list today — The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges.

Bridges wrote a book, The Pursuit of Holiness, a couple decades ago. Later, he wrote Transforming Grace. Some people didn’t see how the same author could write both books. The Discipline of Grace bridges this gap. It explains how God works with us to make us holy.

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One of the blogs I read, the Desiring God blog, had an excellent post today. When you’re in the midst of a storm, trust your instruments (Scripture), rather than your feelings.

Thanks, Jon, for sharing these insights.