The woman at the well in John 4 made a statement to Jesus: " Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep." This thought is running through my mind right now after reading A Quest for Godliness by J I Packer. Sometimes, I feel like in our life we have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. I found something this morning that is deeper than I have the ability to draw from... the puritan experience. I am humbled by their life and sobered by Packer's description of their maturity. It makes me feel very shallow when I stand next to them.
His vocabulary makes the book worth reading and I feel like I need to go read a dictionary and learn some new synonyms.
Here's what I found particulary meaningful:
( before you read, keep in my mind, the use of the word "reformed" here is not a branch of theology, but renewed, re-shaped, and revived...)
"...the ideal for the church was that through 'reformed' clergy all the members of each congregation should be 'reformed' , brought that is, by God's grace without disorder into a state of what we would call revival, so as to be truly and thoroughly converted, theologically orthodox and sound, spiritually alert and expectant, in character terms wise and steady, ethically enterprising and obedient and humbly buy joyously sure of their salvation."
" ...and their ( the puritans) knowledge was no mere theoretical orthodoxy. They sought to reduce to practice all that God taught them. They yoked their consciences to His word, disciplining themselves to bring all activities under the scrutiny of scripture, and to demand a theological, as distinct from merely pragmatic, justification for everything that they did. "
I like that phrase: " they yoked their consciences to the word of God..."
more:
" Puritan authors regularly tell us, first of the mystery of God: that our God is too small, that the real God cannot be put without remainder into a man made conceptual box so as to be fully understood, and that He was, is, and always will be inscrutable in His dealing with those who trust and love Him, so that 'losses and crosses' , that is bafflement and disappointment in relation to particular hopes one has entertained, must be accepted as a recurring element in one's life of fellowship with Him."
" By ministering to us these precious biblical truths the Puritans give us the resources we need to cope with the 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune', and offer the casualties an insight into what has happened to them that can raise them above self pitying resentment and reaction and restore their spiritual health completely. "
( pages 29-34)
