Currently Reading…

Presently, I’m currently reading The Bruised Reed and Smoking Flax by Richard Sibbes.

As I go on read this book, the first thought that comes in my mind are people that I would recommend this book to. I have seen so many ministers in this short life of mine who are so stern and so angry that everything that does not pass as “reformed” or “orthodox” they consider from hell.  I have also seen a pastor who, encountering material or teaching that is incompatible with John Macarthur’s teachings, he rejects outright as heresy.

This book should be read by angry Christian men and women. It is a study on bruising. On how God gives it, and how Christ treats those who are bruised.

Some of the unforgettable excerpts that I can recall are the following

On Pastors who demand so many things from new believers:

Preachers need to take heed therefore how they deal with young believers. Let them be careful not to pitch matters too high, making things necessary evidences of grace which agree not to the experience of many a good Christian, and laying salvation and damnation upon things that are not fit to bear so great a weight. In this way men are needlessly cast down and may not soon be raised up again by themselves or others. The ambassadors of so gentle a Saviour should not be overbearing, setting up themselves in the hearts of people where Christ alone should sit as in his own temple.

On Moderation of the above:

And here likewise there needs a caveat. Mercy does not rob us of our right judgment, so as to take stinking fire brands for smoking flax.

On Pastors preaching:

Preachers should take heed likewise that they hide not their meaning in dark speeches, speaking in the clouds. Truth fears nothing so much as concealment, and desires nothing so much as clearly to be laid open to the view of all. When it is most unadorned, it is most lovely and powerful. Our blessed Saviour, as he took our nature upon him, so he took upon him our familiar manner of speech, which was part of his voluntary abasement. Paul was a profound man, yet he became as a nurse to the weaker sort (1 Thess. 2:7).