Sunday, January 14, 2007

Sunday Reading

I spend part of every Sunday afternoon reading, and this book is the one I've been reading most regularly on Sunday. (I read it on other days, too, but almost always on Sundays.) The book is by the Puritan Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God. It is something like 1100 pages long, dense with type, and very, very good. Yesterday I finished the chapter on the power of God. The underscored portion above reads,

Meditate on this power of God, and press it often upon your minds. We conclude many things of God that we do not practically suck the comfort of, for want of deep thoughts of it, and frequent inspection into it. We believe God to be true, yet distrust him; we acknowledge him powerful, yet fear the motion of every straw. Many truths, though assented to in our understandings, are kept under hatches by corrupt affections, and have not their due influence , becausae they are not brought forth into the open air of our souls by meditation. (Volume II, p. 102)


Many of my readers believe in the great power of God, but few of us could write for over a hundred pages on it, "for want of deep thoughts of it." This is what I love Charnock for; he enables me to meditate on who God is in greater depth than I am capable of on my own. That's why he's my Sunday reading.

2 comments:

Debbie said...

What a profound statement and so very true. I'm writing the name of this book down. It sounds like something I would enjoy reading, even if it took me all year.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Great thoughts! Intimidating but profound.