We've been letting Oswald Chambers into our lives in the men's and women's groups at New Hope for the last few weeks. His classic "My Utmost for His Highest" has been around since 1935, and yet the application of his writings is as sharp and cutting as ever to any pretense of perfection the reader might hold.
After getting whipped again this morning, I started scanning the blog feeds (thanks Google Reader) for some relief. I got this instead:(from Between Two Worlds: Mark Driscoll by JT)
From D. A. Carson's Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians:
I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please.
Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted.
I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust.
I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture.
I want ecstasy, not repentance;
I want transcendence, not transformation.
I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell.
I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged.
I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please. (pp. 12-13)
Two whippings in the same day?
Was it something I said? Or thought? Or wrote? I do believe that Chambers and Carson are ganging up on me. What's that? Oh... it was the Holy Spirit?
Then forgive me, Lord.
Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy.
Amen.
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