Quote for the day

If the cross be the mere exhibition of self-sacrifice and patient meekness, then the hope of the world is gone.
~Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness, p.99

What I'm Reading

In his book on the armor of God from Ephesians 6, Iain Duguid begins by discussing the great need we have for fighting the darkness around us in more than our own strength: we are so weak and the darkness is so great.  I loved this way of summing up the problem:

Of course, adding to the imbalance in this wrestling match is the fact that although our opponents are not flesh and blood, we are.  We are not principalities and powers or cosmic rulers but ordinary, flawed, fallen, flesh-and-blood mortals.  You might think we have no business engaging in this combat; in the language of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, it is hobbits against orcs, an unequal contest.  Yet this is exactly the battle in which we are engaged. Serving in the Lord's army is not an option reserved for those particularly devoted to God.  The choice is not whether you will be a Christian soldier or a Christian civilian but whether you will be a prepared soldier or an unprepared one.  And an unprepared soldier of flesh and blood will not be able to stand against the scale of the spiritual forces ranged against him or her.
~Iain M. Duguid, The Whole Armor of God: How Christ's Victory Strengthens Us for Spiritual Warfare, p.12