Bitsy at Jack Of All Trades is giving away Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World: An Exposition of Matthew 5-10 by D.A. Carson.
Drawing rules:
The Sermon on the Mount is one of my favorite parts of the Bible and this book has been on my list already.
Deuteronomy 6:5
And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
Matthew 22:37-38
Jesus replied, ” ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
How seriously do we take this? I know there are a lot of people who say that we love God by doing things for others etc. which is obviously important. But why does it seem to be easier for some people to “do things” than it is to get to know God better? How can we really love God without knowing Him? How can we know Him without knowing the Bible? We are in a seriously Bible illiterate Christian culture. Just the the other day I was thinking about how I sometimes get Esther and Ruth mixed up. That’s pretty embarrassing.
Here is yet another quote by D.A. Carson from A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Priorities from Paul and His Prayers:
When it comes to knowing God, we are a culture of the spiritually stunted. So much of our religion is packaged to address our felt needs–and these are almost uniformly anchored in our pursuit of our own happiness and fulfillment. God simply becomes the Great Being who, potentially at least, meets our needs and fulfills our aspirations. We think rather little of what he is like, what he expects of us, what he seeks in us. We are not captured by his holiness and his love; his thoughts and words capture too little of our imagination, too little of our discourse, too few of our priorities.
This isn’t to lay a guilt trip on myself or others. Those familiar with this blog know I’m not into that. This is to spur us on to know Him better so that we can do what we were created to do which is truly fulfilling and pleasing to God so that we can live in the reality of His Kingdom instead of the veneer of this world.
(This post was prepared before I was sick. Proverbs 30:25)
When Jesus asked that the cup (of wrath) be taken from Him, God answered no (Mark 14:35-36). When Paul asked for the thorn to be taken from his side, God answered no (2 Cor. 12:7-9).
But there are more in the life of Paul that I wasn’t aware of or had forgotten.
Romans 15:31 NIV
Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there,
Acts 28:17 NIV
Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
Paul also desired to go to Spain. As far as we know, he never got there.
Did they not have enough faith? Were they not “tithing”? Was there sin in their life? Were they not using the right formula? These are more often than not ridiculous questions to ask.
According to D.A. Carson in A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Priorities from Paul and His Prayers:
Suppose, for argument’s sake, that every time we asked God for anything and ended our prayers with some appropriate formula, such as ‘in Jesus’ name,’ we immediately received what we asked for. …
[T]his is not true religion. This is magic, not worship; it is another power trip, not hearty submission to the lordship of Christ. It is superstition, not a personal relation with the Father God who is wise, good, and patient.
I know I’ve been quoting from him a lot lately. And I have a few more coming.
This goes along with a previous quote by D.A. Carson.
We quickly learn that God is more interested in our holiness than in our comfort. he more greatly delights in the integrity and purity of his church than in the material well-being of its members. He shows himself more clearly to men and women who enjoy him and obey him than to men and women whose horizons revolve around good jobs, nice houses, and reasonable health. He is far more committed to building a corporate ‘temple’ in which his Spirit dwells than he is in preserving our reputations. He is more vitally disposed to display his grace than to flatter our intelligence. He is more concerned for justice than for our ease. He is more deeply committed to stretching our faith than our popularity. He prefers that his people live in disciplined gratitude and holy joy rather than in pushy self-reliance and glitzy happiness. He wants us to pursue daily death, not self-fulfillment, for the latter leads to death, while the former leads to life.
–D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Priorities from Paul and His Prayers
There has been a lot of buzz in the biblioblogosphere about the book Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament, D. A. Carson & G. K. Beale.
Some blog examples:
etc.
Here is an interview in Christianity Today with the editors of the book:
Two Testaments, One Story
Top evangelical scholars team up for landmark commentary on New Testament use of Old Testament.
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