In the meantime

Guys, I am just finishing up reading  Knowing God , by J. I. Packer, and it is absolutely. fantastic. Similar to Knowledge of the Holy  by A. W. Tozer, this book will make you want to do just that: know God. Knowing God  deserves a more-detailed post in the near future, but for now, I'll leave you with a quote to make you want to read the book for yourself (because you can't just take my word for it!)   On the believer's  adoption  and being sons of God, Packer says:  "This free gift of acquittal and peace [justification] won for us at the cost of Calvary, is wonderful enough, in all conscience—but justification does not of itself imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge. In idea, at any rate, you could have the reality of justification without any close fellowship with God resulting.  "But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family  idea, conceived in terms of love , and veiwing God as ...

 “[God’s unfailing love] is true whether we believe it or not.  Our doubts do not destroy God’s love, nor does our faith create it.  It originates in the very nature of  God, who is love, and it flows to us through our union with His Beloved Son.  “But the experience of that love and the comfort it is intended to bring is dependent upon our believing the truth about God’s love as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures…” “The only way in which the sufferings of the present time may seem to come between the Christian and the love of God and Christ, is when he falls before them as a temptation or in unbelief sinks under them.  Then a cloud comes between him and the light of his Father’s countenance.  But the cloud is not the affliction, but the sin, and it is a merciful arrangement that it is so.  The want of comfort tells him that something is wrong.” ~John Brown From Trusting God , by Jerry Bridges, page 167.

"If we want to live less stressful lives, we must learn to live with a single agenda: God's agenda....  We tend to live under two agendas: ours and God's, and that tension between them sets up stress...."   [emphasis mine] ~From Trusting God,  by Jerry Bridges, pg. 72

“…just as we must learn to obey God one choice at a time, we must also learn to trust God one circumstance at a time .  Trusting God is not a matter of my feelings but of my will .  I never feel like trusting God when adversity strikes, but I can choose to do so even when I don’t feel like it .  The act of the will , though, must be based on belief, and belief must be based on truth .”   ( Trusting God , by Jerry Bridges, pg. 52.) (I’m slowly making my way through this book.  One person recently highly recommended I read it; he described it as "a dissertation on the sovereignty of God."  I'm only a couple chapters into the book, and already I can tell that he’s right. If you ever struggle with asking “why?” when it comes to those hard things in life, you need to read this book.)

“If we learn to read the Bible down (into our hearts), across (the plot line of Scripture), out (to the end of the story), and up(to the glory of God in the face of Christ), we will find that every bit of the Bible is profitable for us.  To affirm the sufficiency of Scripture is not to suggest that the Bible tells us everything we want to know about everything, but it does tell us everything we need to know about what matters most.  Scripture does not give exhaustive information on every subject, but in every subject on which it speaks, it says only what is true.  And in its truth we have enough knowledge to                                                           turn from sin, find a Savior, make good decisions, please God, and get to the root of our deepest problems.”  ( Taking God At His Word , by Kevin DeYoung...