To be spiritually dead is to be diabolically alive
Interpretation
Being spiritually dead means one is devoid of true life and connection to the divine, yet outwardly appears active or alive in a negative sense.
R.C. Sproul's quote highlights the paradox of spiritual existence, suggesting that a person can appear lively and engaged in the world while being spiritually dead. This state of being spiritually dead underscores a lack of true purpose and connection to what is good and true, which in a sense, makes that individual more aligned with negative forces or evil, even if they exhibit vitality in their worldly pursuits.
In practice
In a sermon discussing the importance of spiritual awareness and growth.
Iβve often wondered where Jesus would apply His hastily made whip if He were to visit our culture. My guess is that it would not be money-changing tables in the temple that would feel His wrath, but the display racks in Christian bookstores.
The real crisis of worship today is not that the preaching is paltry or that it's too drafty in church. It is that people have no sense of the presence of God, and if they have no sense of His presence, how can they be moved to express the deepest feelings of their souls to honor, revere, worship, and glorify God?
We talk about predestination because the Bible talks about predestination. If we desire to build our theology on the Bible, we run head on into this concept. We soon discover that John Calvin did not invent it.
Without God man has no reference point to define himself.
I do not want to drive across a bridge designed by an engineer who believed the numbers in structural stress models are relative truths.
Prayer does change things, all kinds of things. But the most important thing it changes is us. As we engage in this communion with God more deeply and come to know the One with whom we are speaking more intimately, that growing knowledge of God reveals to us all the more brilliantly who we are and our need to change in conformity to Him. Prayer changes us profoundly.
The way the public sees it is this. If we don't leave, we are idiots. If we do leave but don't succeed in our mission, we are incompetent. But if we do succeed, it's because it was easy and anyone could have done it.
In a Town like Twin Peaks noone is innocent
It's a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat sh** and die.
Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.
You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker.
... the reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day. [pp. 65-66]
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