MattPerman.com

Benjamin Warfield's Answers to Objections to Giving to the Poor

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Warfield (quoted in Keller’s Ministries of Mercy): Objection 1. “My money is my own.” Answer: Christ might have said, “my blood is my own, my life is my own.” Then where should we have been? Objection 2. “The poor are undeserving.” Answer: Christ might have said, “They are wicked rebels . . . shall I […]

CS Lewis on the Importance of Reading Old Books

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Lewis (from “On the Reading of Old Books,” God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics and quoted in Piper’s God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards): There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the […]

Should We Pursue Obedience to God or Joy in God?

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Piper, from God’s Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards: Sometimes people ask: should we pursue obedience to God or joy in God? Edwards would answer: The question involves a category confusion. It’s like asking: should I pursue fruit or apples? Obedience is doing what we’re told. And we are told to […]

Avoid Overparenting

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From Kevin Leman’s book What a Difference a Daddy Makes: The Indelible Imprint a Dad Leaves on His Daughter’s Life: A dad who overparents will smother his daughter. He is positive he knows just how his little girl should turn out, and he’ll raise her to be like a seal that claps its hands when […]

What Pastors Can Miss About the Bible

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Jonathan Leeman has a good post at the 9Marks blog on why he wrote his latest book, Reverberation: How God’s Word Brings Light, Freedom, and Action to His People. Here’s what he has to say: Wanna grow as a Christian? Then apply yourself again and again to your understanding of God. That’s been the lesson […]

The Great Reversal in the Parable of the Good Samaritan

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Tim Keller explains what Jesus is doing in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) in his book Ministries of Mercy: The call of the Jericho Road. Read carefully. This is very, very fascinating. Most commentaries on the gospel of Luke note that Jesus reverses the lawyer’s original question. He had asked, “Who is […]

Being Proactive is Christian

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I posted about six months or so ago on what it means to be proactive. In that post, I quoted from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I think we all realize the truth of Covey’s observations from the nature of human experience. As a parent, for example, it seems undeniable to […]