When we believe that we should be satisfied rather than God glorified in our worship, then we put God below ourselves as though He had been made for us rather than that we had been made for Him.
Stephen CharnockRead
A man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant.
Interpretation
Knowledge of theology does not guarantee spiritual understanding.
This quote by Stephen Charnock emphasizes the distinction between intellectual knowledge and spiritual insight. One can possess extensive theological knowledge yet remain spiritually unaware or disconnected from the essence of spirituality, suggesting that true understanding transcends mere intellectual grasping of concepts.
In practice
In a lecture on the importance of spiritual awareness, this quote can highlight the need for deep understanding beyond academic knowledge.
When we believe that we should be satisfied rather than God glorified in our worship, then we put God below ourselves as though He had been made for us rather than that we had been made for Him.
It is the black work of an ungodly man or an atheist, that God is not in all his thoughts. What comfort can be had in the being of God without thinking of him with reverence and delight? A God forgotten is as good as no God to us.
Why does tragedy exist? Because you are full of rage. Why are you full of rage? Because you are full of grief.
Law cannot stand aside from the social changes around it.
The happiness and unhappiness of men depends as much on their ethics as on fortune.
If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.
Big Brother is not the only danger facing the country. Another is the rising tide of distrust, the corrosive spread of cynicism, the fraying of the social fabric and the rise of people who are so individualistic in their outlook that they have no real understanding of how to knit others together and look after the common good.
We had been hopelessly labouring to plough waste lands; to make nationality grow in a place full of the certainty of Godβ¦ Among the tribes our creed could be only like the desert grass β a beautiful swift seeming of spring; which, after a dayβs heat, fell dusty.
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