Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing.

 

Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing.

“Psalm 73:25-- ‘Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.’ Packer adds, ‘Nothing, that is, that I would not consent to lose if adhering to God required it. It is a matter of wanting and valuing fellowship with [God] more than I want and value anything else in this world.’”

“[Augustine] says, in short, that you should not begin to pray for all you want until you realize that in God you have all you need. That is, unless we know that God is the one thing we truly need, our petitions and supplications may become, simply, forms of worry and lust. We can use prayer as just another way to pursue many things that we want too much. Not only will God not hear such prayers (because we ask for things selfishly to spend on our lusts [James 4:2-3]), but the prayers will not reorient our perspective and give us any relief from the melancholy burden of self-absorption.”

“Just as faith in Christ cannot accomplish or merit our salvation but is necessary to receive it—so a commitment to put God first and love and follow him supremely is necessary before God can grant our prayers without harming us. If we are living lives in which God does not have our highest allegiance, then we will use prayer instrumentally, selfishly, simply to try to get the things that may be already ruining our lives.”

Selections from Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

by Timothy Keller

Something Beyond

 

“Because romantic love is only a prophet,” Kreeft instructs, “it breaks when it turns into a god.”

Andersen’s story does not make romantic love into an idol. On the contrary, the story communicates a serious admonition about the harm that such an idol can bring upon its worshiper.

. . .

An inordinate erotic attraction to the beloved is bound to lead to unhappiness and ruin. A marble statue is the first object of the Little Mermaid’s desire and yearning for something “beyond”; the young prince is the second. But when she embraces the prince as the final object of her love and desire for happiness, the path of her life becomes twisted and dangerous. She makes the desperate deal with the sea-witch.

The Little Mermaid makes choices, and these choices decide her destiny.

Love and Immortality

Tending the Heart of Virtue

How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination

by Vigen Guroian

Constancy

 “It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,

And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear, 

That the fervor and faith of a soul may be known,

To which time will but make thee more dear! 

Oh the heart that has truly loved never forgets, 

But as truly loves on to the close, 

As the sunflower turns to her god when he sets 

The same look which she turned when he rose!”

– Thomas Moore

"Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant us that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our savior Jesus Christ."

Thomas Cranmer

Book of Common Prayer 

1662

What is my God?

 "Most high, most excellent, most powerful, most omnipotent; most piteous and most just; most hidden and most near; most beautiful and most strong, stable, yet contained by none; unchangeable, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud without their knowing it (Job 9:5); always working, yet ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting; creating, nourishing, and developing; seeking, and yet possessing all things. You love, yet do not burn; are jealous, yet free from care; You repent, yet do not suffer; are angry, yet serene; You change Your ways, leaving Your plans unchanged; You recover what You find, without ever having lost it; You are never in want, while You rejoice in gain; never covetous, though requiring interest.' That You may owe, more than enough is given to You; yet who has anything that is not Yours? You pay debts while owing nothing; and when You forgive debts, You lose nothing. Yet, O my God, my life, my holy joy, what is this that I have said? And what does anyone say when He speaks of You? Yet woe to them that keep silence, seeing that even they who say most are like the dumb."

St. Augustine, Confessions

Preserving Punctuation

 

Anne gave him such a serious lecture on the sin of stealing plum jam that Davy became conscience stricken and promised with repentant kisses never to do it again. 

"Anyhow, there'll be plenty of jam in heaven, that's one comfort," he said complacently.

Anne snipped a smile in the bud.

"Perhaps there will . . . if we want it," she said, "But what makes you think so?"

"Why, it's in the catechism," said Davy.

"Oh no, there is nothing like that in the catechism, Davy."

"But I tell you there is," persisted Davy. "It was in that question Marilla taught me last Sunday. 'Why should we love God?' It says, 'Because He makes preserves, and redeems us.' Preserves is just a holy way of saying jam." 

"I must get a drink of water," said Anne hastily. When she came back it cost her some time and trouble to explain to Davy that a certain comma in the said catechism question made a great deal of difference in the meaning. 

Anne of Avonlea

L. M. Montgomery