This month my goal is to read through the book of Proverbs.

Soon after finishing “Respectable Sins” (see post below), I read through “The Practice of the Presence of God with Spiritual Maxims” of Brother Lawrence. Lawrence (born Nicholas Herman) was a Frenchman who lived part of his life in a monastery during the seventeenth century. You can read a biography about him here.

I was encouraged by Brother Lawrence’s words and example of loving God. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book.

“[It is] a shameful thing to quit His conversation to think of trifles and fooleries.”
“[In] order to form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him, we must first apply to Him with some diligence… [After] a little care we should find His love inwardly excited us to it without any difficulty.”
“[It is] a great delusion to think that the times of prayer ought to differ from other times… [We] are as strictly obliged to adhere to God by action in the time of action as by prayer in the season of prayer.”
“Pray remember what I have recommended to you, which is, to think often on God, by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions. He is always near you and with you; leave Him not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you; why, then, must God be neglected? Do not, then, forget Him, but think on Him often, adore Him continually, live and die with Him; this is the glorious employment of a Christian.”
“We must hinder our spirits’ wandering from him upon any occasion. We must make our heart a spiritual temple, wherein to adore Him incessantly. We must watch continually over ourselves, that we may not do nor say nor think anything that may displease Him.”
“You are young, my brethren; profit therefore I beseech you from my confession, that I cared too little to employ my early years for God. Consecrate all yours to His Love. If I had only known Him sooner, if I had only had some one to tell me then what I am telling you, I should not have so long delayed in loving Him. Believe me, count as lost each day you have not used in loving God.”

I recommend this book if you are struggling to apply the commands “Pray continually” (I Thessalonians 5:17), “Set your heart and mind on things above” (Colossians 3:1-2), and “Be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray” (I Peter 4:7).

Brother Lawrence wrote much about the power of prayer, but he did not write about how Scripture changes (sanctifies) us. This was the only weakness that I found in his message. Jesus knew the transforming power of Scripture when he prayed for his disciples in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” I thank God for really changing my thoughts and attitude by reading and thinking about verses and passages in the Bible–I know some of the sanctifying power that Jesus prayed for.

In John 4:24, Jesus declared, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” Prayer is important, but studying the Word cannot be neglected. Of course, I gave Brother Lawrence grace while I read because he was a monk–I expect that he did know the Bible well.

If you’re interested in this book, go ahead and read it. Just remember that one weakness I wrote about, and then be encouraged and challenged by the main message.

I officially finished reading “Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins we Tolerate” by Jerry Bridges.
It was an excellent book, filled with practical advice addressing sinful attitudes and actions that Christians often tend to overlook. I wrote that I “officially” finished it because I am sure that I will re-read certain chapters as I continue to struggle with the challenges that Bridges offered.

Here is the table of contents, in case you are interested in reading this. I very highly recommend it.

Preface
Ordinary Saints
The Disappearance of Sin
The Malignancy of Sin
The Remedy for Sin
The Power of the Holy Spirit
Directions for Dealing with Sins
Ungodliness
Anxiety and Frustration
Discontentment
Unthankfulness
Pride
Selfishness
Lack of Self-Control
Impatience and Irritability
Anger
The Weeds of Anger
Judgmentalism
Envy, Jealousy, and Related Sins
Sins of the Tongue
Worldliness
Where Do We Go from Here?
Notes
Author

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence,

and I’m finishing Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins we Tolerate by Jerry Bridges (Author of The Pursuit of Holiness).

I finished reading through Nehemiah. It was an interesting book.

This part from the last chapter was surprising to me:

23 Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, and did not know how to speak the language of Judah. 25 I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair. I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. (NIV)

Matthew Henry’s Commentary explained, “Nehemiah showed the evil of these marriages. Some, more obstinate than the rest, he smote, that is, ordered them to be beaten by the officers according to the law, De 25:2, 3.”

So Nehemiah wasn’t sinning when he punished these men, he was obeying the law. (Any more commentary on these verses is welcome.)

Before this incident, Nehemiah did some other things in the chapter to obey God: he kicked Tobiah, an Ammonite official who opposed Nehemiah’s effort to build the wall around Jerusalem (4:7, 6:19), out of a room in the temple (13:8); he “rebuked the officials” for neglecting to pay the Levites and the singers; he “rebuked the nobles of Judah” for working on the Sabbath, and even went so far as to shut up the gates of Jerusalem “so that no load could be brought in on the Sabbath day.”

I was thinking about some application from this chapter. Now Christians are not under the rules of the law, but we are commanded to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16 (NIV)) We are to admonish or warn each other when we detect sin. But we are also to obey Paul’s advice to Timothy: “And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” (II Timothy 2:24-26)

These are some of my thoughts that I had while reading Nehemiah. Any comments are welcome.