Listening to the Giants

In reading The Life and Diary of David Brainerd , I observed that Brainerd wrote often about his daily, personal struggle with sin. Here are three examples of his sin-focused entries: Lord's day, June 13: Felt something calm and resigned in the public worship: at the sacrament saw myself very vile and worthless. O that I may always lie low in the dust. My soul seemed steadily to go forth after God, in longing desires to live upon him. Thursday, May 13: Saw so much of the wickedness of my heart, that I longed to get away from myself. I never before thought there was so much spiritual pride in my soul. I felt almost pressed to death with my own vileness. Oh what a body of death is there in me! Lord, deliver my soul. I could not find any convenient place for retirement, and was greatly exercised. Lord's day, May 2: God was pleased this morning to give me such a sight of myself, as made me appear very vile in my own eyes. I felt corruption stirring in my hea...

This blog post is for everyone, because everyone gets angry, even the great John Wycliffe.  His biographer states,  “Wycliffe found no rest at Lutterworth (where he stayed during the last two years of his life) and perhaps he did not really seek it. There was in every sense too much unfinished business, both positive and negative. He was full of anger and resentment. His language breaks into violence in sermon after sermon. It is hard to escape the impression that he had more enemies than close friends.” Anger and resentment. Yeah....I hear you.  Here are 4 things I try to remind myself about anger: #1--Anger is a serious sin. Don’t minimize it. Don’t rename It. (This is when we say things like, “I am frustrated” or “I am just working through some stuff” or “I am just processing”, etc.). Let us not forget that Jesus makes it clear that God takes anger very seriously. Matthew 5:21-22 "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT C...