Saturday, December 20, 2008

A Sobering Warning For Those Of Us With Bookshelves


Sometimes when I come into my office in the morning and look over all the books I have, I say a little prayer asking God to not let me take these opportunities for growth for granted and that I would be humbled and serious about these things I have been given. D.A. Carson comments:
"...there are degrees of responsibility, largely based on what we have already been given. In other words, the degree of responsibility is in accord with the degree of privilege. If someone has enjoyed great access to God's gracious self-disclosure in Scripture, and supremly in Jesus , that person is in far more peril than the one who has never heard of him.

When Jesus applied this truth, it was most commonly directed agaginst the Jews who sometimes thought that their heritage gave them an inside track to the blessings of God. But the same principle must be applied to the professing church: those who enjoy the heritage of open Bible, ready access to literature, freedom of religion, a history of vital church life, are in far more peril than those who have experienced none of these blessings. I find it daunting that, in exactly the same way, "we who teach will be judged more strictly" (James 3:1).
- D.A. Carson, How Long O Lord?, p. 129

1 comment:

Jerry said...

What a timely post.

I was just lamenting last night that I need to take at least a week off from work so as to bring some semblance of order to my bookshelves.

I have begun to realize that the chaff needs to go, the wheat needs to be elevated, and I need to get my bookshelves, both at church and at home, into some kind of decent order.

This should lead to some stewardship of the wonderful resources that God has allowed me to possess.