What They're Saying 08.23.11

Do You Tend to Doubt Yourself? Good. - 'When you’re on the brink of despair, looking into the abyss of darkness experiencing a dark-night of the soul, turning to the internal quality of your faith will bring you no hope, no rescue, no relief. Every internal answer will collapse underneath you. Turning to the external object of your faith, namely Christ and his finished work on your behalf, is the only place to find peace, re-orientation, and help. The gospel always directs you to something, someone, outside of you instead of to something inside of you for the assurance you crave and need in seasons of desperation and doubt.'

A French Lingerie Line for 4 Year Olds - Though non-Christian society tends to do well on many social justice issues (poverty reduction; equality among peoples; open access to education and information; foreign aid for those less fortunate than ourselves), their jettisoning of Christian values tends to make them more prone to neglecting other social justice issues: their individualism causes them to neglect the value of families, the right to life of the unborn, and now the moral responsibility not to oversexualize children. A French line just released a line of skimpy lingerie designed for small children, and mothers are buying. This is the culture in which we must increasingly work at sharing the Gospel. I believe that as the culture becomes more depraved and walks farther from Christian values, the need for Christianity among the culture at large will become more apparent.

John Stott: Most Prominent Bachelor - 'In spite of rumors to the contrary, I have never taken a solemn vow or heroic decision to remain single! On the contrary, during my 20s and 30s, like most people, I was expecting to marry one day. In fact, during this period I twice began to develop a relationship with a lady who I thought might be God's choice of life-partner for me. But when the time came to make a decision, I can best explain it by saying that I lacked an assurance from God that he meant me to go forward. So I drew back. And when that had happened twice, I naturally began to believe that God meant me to remain single. Looking back, with the benefit of hindsight, I think I know why. I could never have traveled or written as extensively as I have done if I had had the responsibilities of a wife and family.'

Love a Woman, Not Just Your Idea of Her - 'After C. S. Lewis lost his wife, Helen, to cancer, he realized he didn’t have a single good picture of her. Maybe that’s hard to grasp in our culture of profile pics from every angle, but he wasn’t upset about it. In fact, he saw the distinct advantage of lacking a quality image of his wife. He wrote: "I want H., not something that is like her. A really good photograph might become in the end a snare, a horror, and an obstacle." How could a photo of the woman he loved become a snare? Because in the absence of the real person, he saw his tendency to fill the image with his own fancy. In fact, this was one of the prominent themes for Lewis in A Grief Observed. He was terrified at the prospect of shaping Helen into a phantom of his own making.'

Hey Paul and Titus, Where's My Older Woman? -'An older woman training me to love and serve my husband and the sweet baby in my womb would be a lovely blessing. But right now, that's not someone God has placed in my life. But I can still be that older woman for someone else. For example, I'm currently learning to pursue the younger women in my Community Group, particularly the unmarried or newly married women. Although I've only been married for three years, I have learned a lot in that time! How tragic would it be if I were so focused on "finding my older woman" that I didn't become that older woman and instead kept what God has done in me and my marriage to myself?'