8 Things Contentment Opposes

Jeremiah Burrough’s The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is one of the most important and personally-impactful Puritan works I’ve ever read. Let me give you just a taste of what Burroughs has to say about contentment. Here he shares eight things that will be opposed by a true, biblical contentment. It is opposed to murmuring and repining at the hand of God, as the discontented Israelites often did. If we cannot bear this either in our children or servants, much less …

Eyes Wide Open

You may have noticed that over the past few weeks I have been reviewing books that come from a little bit off the beaten path, so to speak. I have been reading, enjoying and reviewing books that have come our way from lesser-known Christian publishers. It turns out there are some fresh, excellent titles coming from some of these smaller publishers. From Credo House Publishers and author Steve DeWitt comes Eyes Wide Open, a book about learning to enjoy God in …

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Stuff and Contentment

This topic has been much on my mind lately–possessions, stuff and contentment. Not too long ago I found a prayer by Scotty Smith that did a great job of asking God for contentment admist all the stuff we do have and amidst all the stuff we could have. He looks to these two Scripture passages: “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, …

Blessed are the Underappreciated

Our culture has an obsession with underappreciation. Everywhere you look there are discussions about this topic. I cannot think of many subjects that are discussed more in the sports world; there are always and forever discussions about which player is the most underappreciated or which position generates the lowest amount of recognition. Look around and you’ll soon find discussions of songs, films, actors, blogs and books that are underappreciated–that are not getting the attention they deserve. It seems that we …

A House or a Home?

As you may know, Aileen and I just bought our first house. While we found the house quite quickly (as these things go), we first toured several towns and walked through fifteen or twenty houses looking for just the right one. As we toured house after house it quickly became apparent which homeowners had invested some extra effort in making their homes attractive to prospective buyers. I’m sure you have experienced what we did. Some houses were immediately attractive to …

Protect The Dignity of Labour!

I have been thinking about writing this for exactly 148 days now. That is how many days the staff at the juvenile detention centre near my house have been on strike. The centre lies directly between my house and everywhere I ever drive, so I go by it just about every day. Every day they update their little sign to tell the world how many days they have been sitting outside, waiting for their demands to be met. My friend …