The Westminster Confession of Faith (1648)
“It is the duty of people to pray for magistrates, to honour their persons, to pay them tribute or other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority for conscience’ sake.”

Monday: Romans 13:1-5
According to the Apostle Paul, what is the ultimate source of authority for civil rulers? How is this perspective different from what we often hear in our day? Why is respect for our ruling officials a matter of conscience for the Christian? What can you do to promote such respect in this contentious election year?

To read part 1 and 2 of this series on conjugal love, click here and here.

[Richard Baxter, from ‘The Mutual Duties Of Husbands And Wives Towards Each Other’ in The practical works of Richard Baxter]

“Direct V. 'It is a great duty of husbands and wives to live in quietness and peace, and avoid all occasions of wrath and discord.' Because this is a duty of so great importance, I shall first open to you the great necessity of it, and then give you more particular Directions to perform it.

1. It is a duty which your union or near relation doth especially require. Will you fall out with yourselves? Cannot you agree with your own flesh?

To read part 1 of this series on conjugal love, click here.

[Richard Baxter, from ‘The Mutual Duties Of Husbands And Wives Towards Each Other’ in The practical works of Richard Baxter]

“Direct V. 'It is a great duty of husbands and wives to live in quietness and peace, and avoid all occasions of wrath and discord.' Because this is a duty of so great importance, I shall first open to you the great necessity of it, and then give you more particular Directions to perform it.

1.    It is a duty which your union or near relation doth especially require. Will you fall out with yourselves? Cannot you agree with your own flesh?

[Excerpt from “Meditation in a Tool Shed” by C. S. Lewis]

I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitchblack. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.

Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam and looking at the beam are very different experiences.

Carl F.H. Henry (1913-2003), Twilight of a Great Civilization

“Our generation is lost to the truth of God, to the reality of divine revelation, to the content of God’s will, to the power of His redemption, and to the authority of His Word. For this loss it is paying dearly in a swift relapse to paganism. The savages are stirring again; you can hear them rumbling and rustling in the tempo of our times…. A whole generation is growing up with no awareness of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, a species without clear ideas about sin and sacrilege, a race for whom God and the supernatural are virtually eclipsed, individuals with no interest in the imago Dei, no eternal concerns.”

Basil the Great (329-379 AD)

“So long then as the word of truth is on our side, never be in any wise distressed at the calumny of a lie; let no imperial threats scare you; do not be grieved at the laughter and mocking of your intimates nor at the condemnation of those who pretend to care for you, and who put forward, as their most attractive bait to deceive, a pretense of giving good advice. Against them all let sound reason do battle, invoking the championship and succour of our Lord Jesus Christ, the teacher of true religion, for whom to suffer is sweet, and ‘to die is gain.’”