Sunday Quotes – Page 4 – Semper Reformanda

XXXVIII

(Boasting About Tomorrow) Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. James 4:13-16 (ESV)

So what is the point? The point is that… it matters whether a true view of life informs and shapes the way you think, and how you speak about your plans. Your mind-set matters. How you talk about your plans matters… Scripture puts a premium on how we think and how we talk. This is not surprising. Above all the animals humans are created in the image of God with thought and language beyond all comparison. This gift is not gratuitous. It is meant to make the glory of God known. If He wills we live. If He wills we act. We have minds and tongues to speak this truly for all the world to hear.

Piper, J. (2004) Life as a Vapor, 28-30

XXXVII

You exist forever. There is no use protesting that you did not ask to exist and would like not to. That is not an option. You and God are both in the universe to stay – either as friends on His terms, or enemies.

Piper, J. (2004) Life as a Vapor

XXXV

The pathway to maturity and to solid biblical food is not first becoming an intelligent person, but becoming an obedient person. What you do with alcohol and sex and money and leisure and food and computers, and the way you treat other people, has more to do with your capacity for solid food than where you go to school or what books you read.

Piper, J. The Key to Spiritual Maturity