Fruitless Joys

Over at The Oak Log, Jude had posted this relevant quote to the previous Bunyan post:



“Fruitless joys are what we turn to when life is boring and gray and lonely and we know that tomorrow nothing will have changed. Fruitless joys aren’t necessarily scandalous sins. They may be little more than harmless hobbies in which we invest countless hours to make life a little less dull. They may be the newest gadgets we work so hard to own and worry about losing. They may be the fantasies and daydreams that swirl around in our heads that we know will never come true but somehow strangely bring a measure of excitement to an otherwise dreary life … Fruitless joys don’t transmute of their own accord into pain and discomfort and ugliness. They will lose their grip on your soul only when they are displaced by greater joys, more pleasing joys, joys that satisfy not for the moment but forever.” (Storms, C. Samuel. One Thing: Developing a Passion for the Beauty of God. Fearn, Ross-Shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2004.p137,139)

(HT: Jude St. John)

The Desires of The Righteous

What do you desire? Where is the longing of the flesh taking you? Do you see the Lord more clearly or has His glory begun to fade in your sight? What is the fruit being produced by the fertilizer sown into the ground of where we are planted? Are we good grounds keepers or are we slack in the work required of us that by the sweat of our brow we must labor?

Bunyan would have us examining the fruit we are producing…..

“As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man’s heart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the touchstone or standard of Christian sincerity—the evidence of the new birth—the spiritual barometer of faith and grace—and the springs of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of all our hopes—the foundation upon which all our desires after God and holiness are built—and the root by which they are nourished. It is from this principle of Divine life which flows from Christ to his members, that these desires and struggles after holiness of thought and conduct arise, and are kept alive. They prove a fountain of consolation to the harassed and tried believer; for if we are in the sense of this scripture ‘righteous,’ we shall have those desires to enjoy the presence of God on earth, and with him felicity in heaven, which the voice of the Omnipotent declareth shall be granted. O! the blessedness of those in whose hearts are planted ‘the desires of the righteous.’ “

-John Bunyan, The Works of, Volume 1; page 743; from The Desire of the Righteous Granted; buy the 3 volume set here, or read here for free