Tim Keller About The Lord of the Rings

Just read this quote regarding JRR Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, in a recent interview of Timothy Keller.

Tolkien has helped my imagination. He was a devout Catholic—and I am not. However, because he brought his faith to bear into narrative, fiction, and literature, his Christianity—which was pretty ‘mere Christianity’ (understanding of human sin, need for grace, need for redemption)—fleshed out in fiction, has been an inspiration to me.

What I mean by inspiration is this: he gives me a way of grasping glory that would otherwise be hard for me to appreciate. Glory, weightiness, beauty, excellence, brilliance, virtue—he shows them to you in some of his characters.

When people ask: how often have you read Lord of the Rings?, the answer is: I actually never stop. I’m always in it.

(Via)

A Brilliant Quote on Preaching

 I'm preaching at my church this week. I love this quote. I don't think my manuscript is even good enough to qualify as "pitiful":

“How utterly dependant we are on the Holy Spirit in the work of preaching! All genuine preaching is rooted in a feeling of desperation. You wake up on Sunday morning and you can smell the smoke of hell on one side and feel the crisp breezes of heaven on the other. You go to your study and look down at your pitiful manuscript, and you kneel down and cry, "O God, this is so weak! Who do I think I am? What audacity to think that in three hours my words will be the odor of death to death and the fragrance of life to life (2 Cor 2:16). My God, who is sufficient for these things?"

John Piper in  The Supremacy of God in Preaching

Cold orthodoxy and Emotionalism

"Cold orthodoxy is the result of absorbing doctrine without gratitude.
Emotionalism is the result of gratitude without doctrine. We need both.
the former tendency leads to an obsession with intellectual data with-
out expression  in love, humility, charity, goodworks, and genuine wor-
ship. The latter is like saying “Thank You“ 142 time without knowing
exactly why."    
(Michael Horton)

Public Schools: A Tyrannical Intellectual Stagnation?

I just read this and found it worth sharing. French schools are a living-proof of Machen's statement. Why are French Private schools better than the heavily funded Public schools? Read one:

"The only way in which a state-controlled school can be kept even relatively healthy is through the absolutely free possibility of competition by private schools and church schools; if it once becomes monopolistic, it is the most effective engine of tyranny and intellectual stagnation that has yet been devised."

J. Gresham Machen (from Desiring God blog)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener #6: Suffering, difficulties and bereavement

Continued from my reading. I hesitated before posting this. I know many that are suffering this very instant and I am in no way dismissing them. But still supposing Jesus to be the gardener, can we complain of our sufferings?

"The Lord has been pruning you sharply, cutting off your best boughs, and you seem to be like a thing despised that is constantly tormented with the knife. Yes, but "supposing him to be the gardener," suppose that your loving Lord has wrought it all, that from his own hand all your grief has come, every cut, and every gash, and every slip: does not this alter the case? Hath not the Lord done it? Well, then, if it be so, put your finger to your lip and be quiet, until you are able from your heart to say, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord.""

Page 23, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Previous Spurgeon entries:
Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener #5: Regarding succession of leadership

Continued from my reading. Still supposing Jesus to be the gardener, must we worry when key people of our ministries leave? It's a rather long quote, but its worth the read for those who take the time. Remember, read out loud. It's beautiful.

"And then, again, there is that succession in the garden which we can not keep up. Plants will die down, and others must be put into their places or the garden will grow bare, but we know not where to find these fresh flowers. We say, "When yonder good man dies who will succeed him?" That is a question I have heard many a time, till I am rather weary of it. Who is to follow such a man? Let us wait till he is gone and needs following. Why sell the man's coat when he can wear it himself? We are apt to think when this race of good brethren shalt die of it that none will arise worthy to unloose the latchets of their shoes. Well, friend, I could suppose a great many things, but this morning my text is, "Supposing him to be the gardener," and on that supposition I expect that the Lord has other plants in reserve which you have not yet, seen, and these wilt exactly fit into our places when they become empty, and the Lord will keep up the true apostolical succession till the day or his second advent. In every time of darkness and dismay, when the heart sinks and the spirits decline, and we think it is all over with the church of God, let us fall back on this, "Supposing him to be the gardener," and expect to see greater and better things than these. We are at the end of our wits, but he is not at the beginning of his yet: we are nonplussed, but he never will be; therefore let us wait and be tranquil, "supposing him to be the gardener."

Page 21, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Previous Spurgeon entries:
Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Remarkable Spurgeon: Supposing Him to be the Gardener #4

Continued from my reading. A quote from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon. This one speaks of working without seeing fruit.

"While this relieves us of anxiety it makes labor for Christ very sweet, because if the garden does not seem to repay us for our trouble we say to ourselves, "It is not, my garden after all. 'Supposing him to be the gardener,' I am quite willing to work on a barren piece of rock, or tie up an old withered bough, or dig a worthless sod; for, if it only pleases Jesus, the work is for that one sole reason profitable to the last degree. It is not mine to question the wisdom of my task, but to set about it in the name of my Master and Lord. 'Supposing him to be the gardener,' lifts the ponderous responsibility of it from me, and my work becomes pleasant and delightful."

Page 20, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Previous Spurgeon entries:
Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Remarkable Spurgeon Sermons to be continued

Spurgeon quotes have ceased all of a sudden (last week). This will be remedied as soon as this weekend is over. I've finished reading the first sermon, "Supposing Him to be the gardener" and found it good. Have several more passages I want you to read. The best thing of course is just to read the whole sermon. You can find it on the previous Spurgeon posts of my blog.

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#3)

Continued from my reading. A quote from a sermon by Charles Spurgeon.

"Supposing him to be the gardener," there is another duty, and that is, let each one of us yield himself up entirely to him. A plant does not know how it ought to be treated; it knows not when it should be watered or when it should be kept dry: a fruit-tree is no judge of when it needs to be pruned, or digged, or dunged. The wit and wisdom of the garden lieth not in the flowers and shrubs, but in the gardener. Now, then, if you and I are here to-day with any self-will and carnal judgment about us, let us seek to lay it all aside that we may be absolutely at our Lord's disposal. […] 
Depend upon it, happiness lives next door to the spirit of complete acquiescence in the will of God, and it will be easy to exercise that perfect acquiescence when we suppose the Lord Jesus to be the gardener. If the Lord hath done it; what has a saint to say? Oh thou afflicted one, the Lord hath done it: wouldest thou have it otherwise? Nay, art thou not thankful that it is even so, because so is the will of him in whose hand thy life is, and whose are all thy ways? The duty of submission is very plain, "supposing him to be the gardener."

Page 18, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#2)

"Supposing him to be the gardener."

John 20:15

“Let your imaginations run along with mine while I say that "supposing him to be the gardener" should be A SPUR TO MANY DUTIES.
One of the duties of a Christian is joy. That is a blessed religion which among its precepts commands men to be happy. When joy becomes a duty, who would wish to neglect it?”

Page 17, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Supposing Him to be the Gardener (#1)

50 Remarkable Spurgeon Sermons (#1)

I've found this first sermon to be most helpful (and beautiful). So here are a few excerpts from it. Remember to read it out-loud, it is the best way to understand the richness of the text.

"Supposing him to be the gardener."
John 20:15

“The wonder is that ever you and I should have been placed among the plants of the Lord. Why are we allowed to grow in the garden of his grace? Why me Lord? Why me? How is it that we have been kept there and borne with in our barrenness, when he might long ago have said, "Cut it down: why cumbereth it the ground?"[…]
I know not how it is that we have been spared, except upon this ground—"supposing him to be the gardener"; for Jesus is all gentleness and grace, so slow with his knife, so tardy with his axe, so hopeful if we do but show a bud or two, or, perchance, yield a little sour berry—so hopeful, I say, that these may be hopeful prognostics of something better by-and-by. Infinite patience! Immeasurable longsuffering! where are ye to be found save in the breast of the Well-beloved? Surely the hoe has spared many of us simply and only because he who is meek and lowly in heart is the gardener.”
Page 16, Supposing Him to be the Gardener ( Sermon #1699 )

Great Spurgeon Quotes Later Today!

Having read the first Remarkable Spurgeon sermon, I just can't keep it for myself. I'll be posting the best quotes without commenting on them. If you think I should comment, I can... 

Remember to read them out loud. Spurgeon MUST be read out loud to get the beauty (and often the meaning!).

First quote: later today. As I've said before, have a great weekend and please be praying for me. Thanks!

The World for Christ

A friend I love deeply shared with me a quote. A missionary to Japan had written on the first page of his Bible. It read:

" I for Japan

Japan for the world

The world for Christ

and All for God."

- Ganzo Uzimura -

My friend then compared the passion Uzimura had for Japan to the affection I have for my country. While I might seem to have a particular heart for the souls of my French compatriots, I cannot say that my heart for them is any stronger than for the Saoudi Arabs or the Berber or any other people group on the face of this earth. Only, by daily living among a people, the heart grows fond and cries out for a nation that is stubbornly refusing to drink water though dying in the desert of unbelief.

May we have a heart for our nations, but may we also have a global passion to see God worshiped among every people group. The greatest expression of love for a people group is not water, medicine, roads or food. If we give all these, but fail to show them the surpassing value of Christ, we have hardly begun to show them love. To love is to tell of God's grace and Jesus' love on the cross of Calvary.

I'm a beggar

February 16, 1546

Martin Luther scribbled his last words on a piece of paper before dying. Reading these words tonight put joy again in my heart. Frankly I am tired. I've been undisciplined (again) and am in serious need of sleep. In this condition I distrust my negative feelings, sometimes even depressive, I ignore them and choose to remind myself of the joy I've known.

"We are beggars! This is true."

Last words of Martin Luther

These words stirred joy in my heart, for I read great truth here. Again and again I am reminded that I don't draw my strength and joy from the right source. I'm a rebellious sinner who has been shown everlasting grace by a great, glorious and holy God. I come without conditions as a beggar to receive grace, grace and ever-abundant grace. To remember from what God saved me and to what I have been saved is enough to eternally fill me with joy, if only I let Him do so.

Fighting the Battle Where Satan is Attacking

 
"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point." -- Martin Luther