Tuesday, November 17, 2009

What Will Your Library Do With You?

I once had a professor to say, "I can tell a lot about a preacher by looking at his library." Generally, I would agree. When I think about personal libraries, I am reminded of this ditty:

Be a little careful about your library.
Do you forsee what you will do with it?
Very little to be sure.
But the real question is,
What will it do with you?

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Heavenly Father, dispenser of all knowledge, thank you for the library which You have entrusted to me. May it grow in volume as You see fit. Most of all, may You use it to influence and mold me, my family, and others, more into the image of Christ Jesus the Lord."

What is Your One All-Consuming Passion?

“A zealous man in religion is preeminently a man of one thing. . . . He sees only one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed up for one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he dies, whether he has health, or whether he has sickness, whether he is rich, or whether he is poor, whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense, whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish, whether he gets honor, or whether he gets shame, for all this the . . . man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing; and that one things is to please God and to advance God’s glory.”

Source: J. C. Ryle, Practical Religion (London: James Clarke & Co. Ltd., 1959), 130.

Reminds me of:
Q: "What is the chief end of man?"
A: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

Lord Jesus, please help me always to keep my preeminent passion as pleasing God, my heavenly Father. Protect me from double-mindedness and distracted by peripheral matters. Regardless of my life or death, health or wealth, fame or shame, may I be "Ablaze for Your Glory!"