Catching Up with a Great Christian Blogger

Somehow I've managed not to notice one of the finest Christian blogs out there, Ray Ortlund's Christ is Deeper Still. I've been scanning his pages this morning, and he's managed to put a real charge into my faith. Ray likes to pass along to his readers the words of the wise (and isn't that one of the best services any blogger can perform?). Here are a few examples. I hope these bless you as much as they blessed me:

• "No man can give at once the impressions that he himself is clever and that Jesus Christ is mighty to save." James Denney, quoted in James S. Stewart, Heralds of God, page 74.
• "Spiritual death means hell. Now suppose both death and hell were utterly defeated. Suppose the fight was fixed. Suppose God took you on a crystal ball trip into your future and you saw with indubitable certainty that despite everything -- your sin, your smallness, your stupidity -- you could have free for the asking your whole crazy heart's deepest desire: heaven, eternal joy. Would you not return fearless and singing? What can earth do to you if you are guaranteed heaven? To fear the worst earthly loss would be like a millionaire fearing the loss of a penny -- less, a scratch on a penny." Peter Kreeft, Heaven, page 183.
• "Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, 'I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.' Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross." John R. W. Stott, The Message of Galatians, page 179.
• "We are all prodigal sons, and not disinherited; we have received our portion, and misspent it, not been denied it. We are God's tenants here, and yet here, he, our landlord, pays us rents; not yearly, nor quarterly, but hourly and quarterly; every minute he renews his mercy." John Donne, quoted in Thomas C. Oden, Classical Pastoral Care, III:285.
• "Law can be mastered. A man may acquire merit by conforming to it. He knows the precise requirements that are demanded of him. But grace is always an adventure. No man can say where grace will lead him. Grace means an ever deepening experience of the presence and the blessing of God." Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, page 111.
• "Low-sunk life imagines itself weary of life, but it is death, not life, it is weary of." George MacDonald, quoted in C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald: An Anthology, page 63.

And finally, these words, which have been whispering in my soul ever since I first heard them, some years ago:

"Weary, working, burdened one, wherefore toil you so?
Cease your doing; all was done long, long ago.

'Til to Jesus' work you cling by a simple faith,
'doing' is a deadly thing, 'doing' ends in death.

Cast your deadly 'doing' down, down at Jesus' feet;
stand in him, in him alone, gloriously complete."

James Proctor, "It is finished"