quotation

The Desiring God Blog had a post yesterday about this topic, I’d suggest you go and read it there, I’m just going to include the quote that they quoted in it.

Indeed, Buddhism teaches the aim of emptying the self of all desire. As [Stephen] Prothero observes, “Buddhists observe that suffering arises from a 12-fold chain of interlocking causes and effects. Among these causes is craving. We crave this woman or that car because we think that getting her or it will make us happy. But this craving only ties us into an unending cycle of misery, because even if we get what we want there is always something more to crave — another woman or another man, a faster car or a bigger house.”

[...]

Christianity speaks honestly of desire and affirms that wrongful desires can and do lead to sin, destruction, and death. Nevertheless, Christianity does not teach that all desire is wrong. Indeed, the Bible affirms that God made us to desire Him. Even in our sinful state, something within us cries out for our need — and desire — for divine forgiveness and redemption.

Christianity does not teach that we should (or could) empty ourselves of all desire, but rather that we should desire the salvation that Christ alone has accomplished for us — the salvation that leads to divine forgiveness and the restoration of relationship we should surely desire. Once we know that salvation, our desire for God is only increased and pointed to eternity.

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Gordon Dahl

October 21, 2009

in everything

“Most middle class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted. Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair and their lifestyles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot.”

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sunblush“Some people think I’m smart, but the truth is, I just intuitively know what words to type in the magic Google box.” @sunblush 2:09 PM Nov 20th, 2008

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i love Chuck Spurgeon

August 12, 2008

Tonight I read “A New Departure” which is a keynote speech that Charles Spurgeon gave at an annual meeting of the pastors’ college that he founded. He must have just destroyed some of these guys as he did me tonight. A respectable ministry, devoid of spiritual life, is little better than respectable damnation, from which [...]

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