Handling Criticism

Every critic, however ill-informed, represents a point of view which is likely not limited to just him.

-- Wordsmithy, Doug Wilson

Pleasing versus Doing

I thought of the men I know and have known—pastors, teachers, seminary presidents, ministry executives, missionaries, evangelists—and I thought that the greatest thing they could do at any moment in their life is to please God. No amount of fruitfulness, obedience, productivity, or over-the-top performance could trump simply pleasing God. So, I sat beside the bed of my wife of thirty years as she lay there finishing well and pleasing God.

--Disciple, Bill Clem

Sanctification as Life

This life, therefore, is
not righteousness, but growth in righteousness,
not health, but healing,
not being, but becoming,
not rest, but exercise.

We are not yet what we shall be,
but we are growing toward it.

The process is not yet finished,
but it is going on.

This is not the end,
but it is the road.

All does not yet gleam in glory,
but all is being purified.

—Martin Luther, “Defense and Explanation of All the Articles,” in Luther’s Works, Volume 32: Career of the Reformer II, ed. George W. Forell & Helmut T. Lehman (Fortress, 1958), p. 24.

HT: Justin Taylor

John Newton on Sanctification

"A Christian is not of hasty growth, like a mushroom, but rather like the oak, the progress of which is hardly perceptible, but in time becomes a deep-rooted tree."

-- John Newton, quoted by Iain Murray, Heroes, p.99