Are You Living on Books Instead of on Christ?
Quoted in his biography, Martyn Lloyd Jones provides a great caution against the danger of living:
“a kind of second hand spiritual life on books…We may do this for years without realizing that we are living on books instead of living on Christ.”
Wow. Great, challenging quote. What bio & page # is that from? I’d love to read more.
Ha! I had just been reflecting on such a thing myself… Reading for reading’s sake is a danger that I have felt aware of recently, especially as I am about to embark on an MDiv. A timely quote.
-Iain
A friend just pointed me to your blog and it’s uncanny that the first post I read is something I’ve been pondering (http://www.wretchedmanthatiam.com/2008/01/31/religion-as-a-hobby-2/) as well. Great blog and I look forward to reading more.
Josh, It’s from volume II of Iain Murray’s bio of MLJ. I don’t remember the page number (I pre-wrote this post 2 weeks ago), but I know it’s somewhere in the last 300 pages. I know that doesn’t help much, but at least it leaves the first 500 pages out of the equation.
Iain, where are you studying for your MDiv?
K.Russell, thank you.
One of my clients recently was lamenting that despite all his reading of amazing theological texts he wasn’t feeling any closer to Christ. I asked him how much he was reading his Bible & talking with Jesus? He paused and said, “not very much”. Great point you make Justin. God’s word is alive and active and doesn’t return void – Yea!
My wife and I are leaving bonny Scotland and heading to Regent College, Vancouver. There are a few ties between my church in Aberdeen and Regent, it’s pretty cool to have contacts already on site!
Hope to catch some of these great sounding conferences in the US during my time in N. America.
-Iain
That is very convicting…
