From Hermeneutics: Debbie Downer of Christianity

Quotes:

As John Ortberg wrote, “All day long we are bombarded with messages that seek to persuade us of two things: that we are (or ought to be) discontented and that contentment is only one step away: ‘Use me, buy me, eat me, wear me, try me, drive me, put me in your hair.'”

In a recent Christianity Today article, Mark Galli exposes this post-modern “implicit promise … that we can experience God 24/7/365, if only we open our eyes to God’s presence all around us.” He quotes Rob Bell from his new book, What We Talk About When We Talk About God: “I believe God wants us each to flourish and thrive in this world here and now as we become more and more everything we can possibly be.”

Her story reminds me of Oswald Chambers’s gut-check to all believers: “Have I any confidence in the flesh? Or have I got beyond all confidence in myself and in men and women of God; in books and prayers and ecstasies; and is my confidence placed now in God Himself, not in His blessings?”