"The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth." Chesterton

To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. (Philippians 3:1) “The lack of the presence of good things in our mind lays us open and makes us fit for all companies and occasions of sin.” (Richard Sibbes) Wonderful sentence. We must read Christ-exalting things non-stop. We must listen to truth non-stop, if we would avoid sin.

“It’s sad to watch someone continually look for something where it simply can’t be found. But we all do it. The deceptiveness of sin causes us to look horizontally for what will only ever be found vertically. We look to the creation to give us what only the Creator can. We try to turn people into little messiahs. We look to material things to supply spiritual needs. So we end up discouraged, disappointed, hurt, angry, sad, and without hope.” Paul Tripp

“A piece of cheese, a bottle of beer, and a twenty minute nap would solve more of the problems of industry, politics, and the church than all the pretentious martini-logged luncheon meetings in the world.” Robert Farrar Capon

the USD is designed to debase

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies!

Imagine spending even 8 seconds of your preciously scarce time listening to bill Maher talk about any topic

“whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” —BIBLE

"The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred proof Grace–bottle after bottle of pure distilate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the Gospel–after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps–suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started…Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case." ROBERT CAPON

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? (Romans 9:17–21)

If you seek happiness, you won’t find it. Seek righteousness. Happiness is a by-product of being right with God. Matthew 5:6

“Only miracles are simple; nature is a mystery.” Robert Farrar Capon

“You must make your choice. Either [Jesus] was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.” —C. S. Lewis

“In his Confessions, Augustine states, “O God, thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.” Augustine gets to the heart of the matter. The murderer Cain was condemned to wander in lostness. We are all under that sentence of restlessness unless our root relationship to our Creator is restored. The Christian vision is that humanity has a reason to be, a “chief end” in the terminology of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. What is that ultimate, satisfying purpose? The Catechism answers: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” The connection is between glorifying God and joy. Conversely, when we dishonor God and fall short of his glory, we experience restlessness. Only obedience brings joy. The pursuit of happiness, beyond momentary pleasure, is impossible in the humanist scheme, because the humanist philosophy retreats from obedience to God.” RC Sproul

The Rivendell Platypus...coming in October. What a beauty