The Acceptable Sacrifice

I picked up The Acceptable Sacrifice by John Bunyan along with a new Bible yesterday.  Having read the first two chapters, I can say that I’m very interested in what he has to say.  It seems the point of the book is to illustrate that God loves a broken heart and a contrite spirit more than all of His creation!  Here’s just one of the many scriptures Bunyan uses to illustrate this:

  1 Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne,
   and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
   and what is the place of my rest?
2 All these things my hand has made,
   and so all these things came to be,

         declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look:
   he who is humble and contrite in spirit
   and trembles at my word.

Isaiah 66:1-2

The Religious Affections

A friend of mine turned me on to Johnathan Edwards’ “the Religious Affections.”  Only about 30 pages in, but what an incredible book! Edwards writes in a very straightforward manner that is surprisingly easy to read.  That’s a good thing for me, since this is this is the first puritan book I’ve read.  For those of you not familiar with this book, it basically says that as humans we have certain inclinations and everything we do is a reflection of these, whether positive or negative.  So for example, Edwards says that holy zeal is a sign of a true Christian, and that a love for what is holy naturally comes along with a hatred for all that is evil.   

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to reading this book over the next weeks.