Take up & read

"This is the story of my life, that while I lived it weighed upon me and pressed against me and filled all my senses to overflowing and now is like a dream dreamed."

Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter

I’ve been looking forward to this all week.

April is National Poetry Month…read some.

"We forget that helplessness is how the Christian life works."

Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life

Slow of heart

But I love how you came alongside the Emmaus men, for I am so much like them. I am a foolish, slow of heart man who constantly needs you to preach the gospel to my heart by the Holy Spirit. How I praise you for your tender forbearance, unlimited patience, and grace-full persistence.

As you dealt with my brothers, so deal with me. Continue to reveal yourself as the main character and hero in all the Scriptures. Lord Jesus, don’t let me read the writings of Moses without thinking about you—especially the law. May Moses’ words always drive me to you. For you have fulfilled the demands of the law for me, and you are now fulfilling the beauty of the law in me. I don’t want to forget that good news, even for a nanosecond, lest I lapse into graceless guilt or performance-based pride.

—Scotty Smith

John Piper, The Pleasures of God

John Piper, The Pleasures of God

Key verse for Sermon on the Mount

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Give yourself to prayer, to reading and meditation on divine truths: strive to penetrate to the bottom of them and never be content with a superficial knowledge.

— David Brainerd

Jonathan Edwards, The Life of David Brainerd

“If we come to him thinking he needs our help, we make him look needy. But if we remember that his strength is shown in working for us, then we are motivated to come with new confidence. Okay, Lord, here is my impossible situation. Please show yourself strong. Help me.”