The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

Metadata

Author: Rosaria Butterfield
Full Title: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert
Category: #books

Highlights

Living according to God’s standards is an acquired taste. We develop a taste for godly living only by intentionally putting into place practices that equip us to live below our means. We develop a taste for God’s standards only by disciplining our minds, hands, money, and time. In God’s economy, what we love we will discipline.
Undisciplined taste will always lead to egregious sin—slowly and almost imperceptibly.
God calls us to be merciful to others for our own good as well as for the good of our community. Our hearts will become hard to the whispers of God if we turn our backs on those who have less than we do.
you falsely feel that God just wants you to have fun; if unchecked, this sin will grow into entertainment-driven lust; if unchecked, this sin will grow into hardness of heart that declares other people’s problems no responsibility or care of your own; if unchecked, we become bold in our sin and feel entitled to live selfish lives fueled by the twin values of our culture: acquiring and achieving. Modesty and discretion are not old-fashioned values. They are God’s standards that help us to encourage one another in good works, not covetousness.
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- Note: Or maybe they are old-fashioned values, time-tested methods of working towards the encouragement of one another in good works rather than covetousness, no need to attribute the standards to God.
Sexuality is more a symptom of our life’s condition than a cause, more a consequence than an origin.
if you indulge the sins of pride, wealth, entertainment-lust, lack of mercy, and lack of discretion, you will find yourself deep in sin—and the type of sin may surprise you.
sin is progressive. That is, while sin does not stay contained by type or trope, if ignored, excused, or enjoyed, sin grows and spreads like poison ivy.
Jesus’ injunction that God is more greatly grieved by the sins of those who claim to know him than by those who know him not, struck a chord for me. There is a fairness and capaciousness to Jesus’ words that simply is not reflected in modern evangelical culture.