$3 Worth of Gospel?

I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much--just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don't want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don't want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don't want to love those from different races--especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not su much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of gospel, please. (from D.A. Carson, Basics for Believers, p. 13)

May we say as Paul, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

I'm Back...Maybe...

I'm always reminded that writing is 90 percent persperation and 10 percent inspiration. Bottom line: writing is work. I started this blog some days ago (actually MANY days ago) hoping that I would just magically write each day. I envisioned this blog being a new technological inspiration in which writing would just flow. This has not happened. Does this mean that I'm just a writer "wanna be?" Or am I just undisciplined?

I know for some writing may come easier than it does for others. But I think for most writing is work. This does not mean that there are not pleasures found in writing, but these pleasures are mainly found through discipline (or so I think).

My hope continues that I will continue this blog with the desires of writing that which will encourage others and exalt the name of Jesus Christ. I do not wish to be another "empty rhetoric" type blog in which only vain opinions are given. May God grant me the grace and wisdom to write that which speaks of the eternal.

Jeff