Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.
John CalvinRead
Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of His fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the challenges that come with divine calling and the moral responsibilities it entails.
John Calvin suggests that those chosen by God are expected to face numerous trials and adversities. This acknowledgment of hardship aligns with the belief that a virtuous life involves perseverance through struggles and a commitment to righteousness, reinforcing the notion that true fellowship with the divine comes with significant challenges.
In practice
During a church sermon about the struggles of faith.
Against the persecution of a tyrant the godly have no remedy but prayer.
The pastor ought to have two voices: one, for gathering the sheep; and another, for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves. The Scripture supplies him with the means of doing both.
Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any book, however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written, are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly.
When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.
Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, there a church of God exists, even if it swarms with many faults.
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances.
I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know.
One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that ' an unjust law is no law at all.
In California, there are huge problems because of dams. I'm against big dams, per se, because I think that they are economically unfeasible. They're ecologically unsustainable. And they're hugely undemocratic.
How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!
The Internet causes billions of images to appear on millions of computer monitors around the planet. From this galaxy of sight and sound will the face of Christ emerge and the voice of Christ be heard? For it is only when his face is seen and his voice heard that the world will know the glad tidings of our redemption. This is the purpose of evangelization. And this is what will make the Internet a genuinely human space, for if there is no room for Christ, there is no room for man.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.