Creaturely limitations are not defects to be overcome.
A right heart, a holy heart consists in valuing and treasuring things appropriately.
The loss of good gifts, whether willingly given up in the cause of love or painfully taken in some tragedy, is a test of where our ultimate treasure truly lies.
A mind set on the things above [Colossians 3:1-4:6) spends an awful lot of time thinking about things on the earth. Family, neighbors, church, job, earthly responsibilities-the person governed by heavenly things intentionally and deliberately considers and engages them. The heavenly mind-set is profoundly earthly, but it is fundamentally oriented by the glory of Christ.
Idolatry begins with with a false separation of gift and giver.
Demons love to depict God as miserly.
Biblical self-denial is always the giving up a lesser, legitimate joy for the sake of a greater one.
Biblical self-denial is glad-hearted...[it] cannot be gloomy. [Rigney then quotes II Corinthians 12:15 where Paul says, "I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls."]
Open handed generosity flows from glad-hearted reception.
We ought not to give reluctantly. We ought not to give under compulsion. We ought to give cheerfully, gladly, willingly. There is a qualitative element to our giving that must be present. The absence of this quality ruins the gift.And one:
Death takes away our earthly delights, and then resurrection restores them in spades. Nothing good will ever be finally lost. It not just that all the best joys here point to joys there, but that many of the best joys will actually be there, only glorified, transfigured and heightened beyond our imagination.A Son for Glory by Toby Sumpter
Escape from Reason by Francis Schaeffer
Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung
Making Gay Okay by Robert Reilly
Christ Crucified by Donald Macleod
Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God by John Calvin
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