The Sojourn

Quotes

  • Coffee with Jim

    Alister McGrath

    One of the things [the students at Tyndale] particularly treasured about Packer was his willingness to talk theology over the college breakfast table.

    The students would ask him about the great theological questions of the day—the relationship between divine sovereignty and human freedom, to give one obvious example. Packer did not give them pre-packaged answers; instead, he showed his theological working. In effect, Packer taught them how to theologise—how to do theology, rather than simply presenting them with the outcomes of that process. It was a rare gift, and one that Packer would consolidate over his long career as a teacher.

    Alister McGrath, J.I. Packer: His Life and Thought, 51.

  • Stories are for Putting Darkness in its Place

    Stories are for Putting Darkness in its Place

    Overwhelmingly, in my own family and far beyond, the stories that land with the greatest impact are those where darkness, loss, and danger (emotional or physical) is a reality. But the goal isn’t to steer kids into stories of darkness and violence because those are the stories that grip readers. The goal is to put the darkness in its place.

    — N.D. Wilson, http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/04/why-i-write-scary-stories-for-children/478977

  • Jesus the True Pontifex

    Would you have your Savior to be one who is near to God, so that his meditation might be prevalent with him? And can you desire him to be nearer to God than Christ is, who is his only begotten Son, of the same essence with the Father? And would you not only have him near to God, but also near to you, that you may have free access to him?

    — Jonathan Edwards, The Admirable Conjuction of Diverse Excellencies in Christ Jesus

    (On a side note, did you know that Pontifex was latin for “bridge builder”?)

  • The Shepherd is the Lamb

    Though Christ be now at the right-hand of God, exalted as King of heaven, and Lord of the universe; yet as he still is in the human nature, he still excels in humility. Though the man Christ Jesus be the highest of all creatures in heaven, yet he as much excels them all in humility as he doth in glory and dignity, for none sees so much of the distance between God and him as he does. And though he now appears in such glorious majesty and dominion in heaven, yet he appears as a lamb in his condescending, mild, and sweet treatment of his saints there, for he is a Lamb still, even amidst the throne of his exaltation, and he that is the Shepherd of the whole flock is himself a Lamb, and goes before them in heaven as such.

    Rev. 7:17 . ” For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

    Though in heaven every knee bows to him, and though the angels fall down before him adoring him, yet he treats his saints with infinite condescension, mildness, and endearment. And in his acts towards the saints on earth, he still appears as a lamb, manifesting exceeding love and tenderness in his intercession for them, as one that has had experience of affliction and temptation.

    — Jonathan Edwards, The Admirable Conjuction of Diverse Excellencies in Christ Jesus

  • Our Growing Distrust

    No fact of contemporary Western life is more evident than its growing distrust of final truth and its implacable questioning of any sure word.

    Carl Henry, via Greg Thornbury