The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment: Your Thoughts (Open Thread)
Another month in the books, another Puritan Paperback mined in the challenge that is the 2008 PRC. So how was it? That is, what did you think of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs? How has your life been impacted? Challenged? How will anything you read be useful to you in your life or ministry? Please take a moment to share your thoughts. From those who respond in this open thread will be one of you who will be the winner of the April Giveaway!
Don’t forget to listen and call in today at 1:00 p.m. EST as we will have special guest Phil Simpson with us.
The thread is open: please take a moment to share with others your observations, experiences, benefits, or uses this book as been for you over the past month.
Tags: 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge, Jeremiah Burroughs, Open Thread, Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
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April 30, 2008 at 9:24 am
I am so glad that I am taking part in the PRC. Three of the four books this year have been favorites, and of those the one which gets the most application is The Rare Jewel. What a treasure it is! Being content with God’s providence is such a source of joy, and Burroughs spells out such wonderful aids to contentment. Bringing your heart down to the size of your estate is one I shall not soon forget.
April 30, 2008 at 10:44 am
Burroughs is a good read and helpful with probably one of the most overlooked Christian disciplines in the Western Church, and especially with me. Contentment is not something that just happens after you reach some spiritual plane. It must be an intentional action and a discernment of the heart that recognizes when we are not being content with God as our supreme reward.
On a side note, you know, doing this challenge, I have found myself reading more and blogging less…that may be a good thing.
April 30, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I read this book a few months ago, and it was a great encouragement for me during a very difficult time in my ministry.
April 30, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I was cruising along in this book, right up to Chapter 8.
Chapters 8, 9, & 10 required a considerable amount of confession and repentance. Up until the point that I read these chapters I was guilty of the sin of secularizing a part of my life in that I felt that it was perfectly acceptable to grumble, murmur, and complain about conditions at my secular job.
Talk about the proverbial 2×4 between the eyes! How can I complain when God has been so good to me to provide me with the job that I have? Why do I find fault and chafe against the condition in which I find myself? I deserve nothing better than Hell, so why do I murmur and complain about anything?
I still have to struggle against this sin, but at least it is on my radar now. It was entirely providential that this book ended up being the Puritan work for this month.
April 30, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Very encouraged by Burroughs descriptions of contentment and why we should be content and the preciousness of this grace and how it honors God. But the chapters on Murmuring are hitting the hardest at me. It made me realize that I had not so much contentment as I thought, as there is much murmuring in my heart, and that heart-murmuring is really discontentment after all and is a very grievous and evil sin against God. I can echo Jerry’s comments above – “cursing along..right up to Chapter 8″, and then BAM. It reminded me something I heard elsewhere about God promising Horrible things to those who will not serve with joy and be glad in the Lord.
Deu 28:47 Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;
Deu 28:48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.
sda
April 30, 2008 at 3:46 pm
For me, this book was an evidence of God’s grace in my life. April has been a very challenging month for me within ministry. I had been so consumed with some problems in ministry that I really began feeling sorry for myself. Time began to get away from me and I was falling behind in my reading of Burroughs. I would read through and find some very encouraging words but I really hadn’t gotten got up in the book (as I had in with the previous three). Then a few things happened. One, I began complaining to my wife about how I wasn’t sure if I was going to finish the book because it just wasn’t engaging me and maybe it wasn’t worth my time (thankfully, she just smiled at me and encouraged me to press on). The second things was the encouragement from my friend and fellow PRC’er, Will. Passing by me one Sunday he just mentioned how great this book is and it made me question (internally) why I wasn’t sharing his enthusiasm. My complaining was overmatched by Will’s subtle encouragement. So I read on.
As providence would have it, I immediately came to the section on the “Evils of a Murmuring Spirit” It didn’t take long for me to be convicted and convinced – convicted of my sinfulness and conviced that Will was right! Burroughs’ discourse on the dangers of murmuring really worked on my sin-soaked heart. I had always thought of myself as a content person yet I was completely blind to my murmmuring. I have spent much time in prayer seeking forgiveness and God has granted much peace. Through this book I have seen further evidence of God’s care for me personally. He faithfully and persistently pursues me to show me my sin and offer me hope through the gospel.
-Gino
April 30, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Once again, I am greatly humbled by a little Puritan Paperback book. Burroughs’ book on contentment tugged at my heart and conscience with every turn of the page. Chapters 8-10 on the sinfulness of murmuring were tough to swallow but exacly the medicine I desperately needed. I think that out of the 4 Puritan books we’ve read this year, this one is the most practical and ripe with multiple applications for me on a personal level. Thanks again Timmy for choosing this book for us to read and mull over. I am looking forward to next month’s book from Bunyan.
April 30, 2008 at 5:52 pm
I would have to agree with Jerry and Gino’s sentiments with regards to chapter 8 and the complaining spirit. It is something with God’s help, I will be working to correct in my life. Between chapter 8 and hearing CJ Mahaney’s mp3 this past week from Together 4 the Gospel, conviction is good for growth. This change of perspective and attitude is so necessary for all of us.
April 30, 2008 at 6:42 pm
This was one of those books that was tough to read because it was impossible to do so without placing myself right in the middle of what is being said. So often in my work I struggle with what goes on around me and it leads me to be discontented. While often it is very easy to justify my discontent by the circumstances that surround me I was humbled by Burroughs that regardless of what appears to be justifying situations we are still called to be content.
I think this book also challenged me with how much I truly believe God is sovereign over all things. Burroughs shows that since God is sovereign over even our afflictions we are to be content in whatever affliction that might be. So often I get caught in the trap of just praying for something to be added that would make me content but in Chapter 2-Point 2: A Christian comes to contentment, not so much by way of addition, as by way of subtraction (pg 45). He says:
“That is his way of contentment, and it is a way that the world has no skill in. I open it thus: not so much by adding to what he would have, or to what he has, not by adding more to his condition; but rather by subtracting from his desires, so as to make his desires and his circumstances even and equal.”
Now that is putting theology to practice.
The other thing that I thought was greatly helpful was on page 42: “It may be said of one who is contented in a Christian way that he is the most contented man in the world, and yet the most unsatisfied man in the world; these two together must needs be mysterious.” This puts in perspective the Christian pilgrimage in that we are to be content with our walk with God but there is always to be a level of discontent in out waiting to be in eternity with God. This way we can better see our place here on earth in light of the coming final rest we have awaiting us.
Great book, can’t wait for the next one
April 30, 2008 at 7:16 pm
The following quotes sum up what challenged me the most:
“No creature in all the world has any goodness in it any further than it has reference to the first inifinte supreme good of all, that so far as I can enjoy God in it, so far it is good to me, and so far as I do not enjoy God in it, so far there is no goodness in any creature. How easy it would be, if we really believed that, to be contented!” (page 97)
“If I become content by having my desire satisfied, that is only self-love, but when I am contented with the hand of God, and am willing to be at His disposal, that comes from my love to God. In having my desire satisfied, I am contented through self-love, but through the grace of contentment I come to be contented out of love to God, and is it not better to be contented out of love to God, than from a principle of self-love?” (page 131)
Would that I learn that lesson! I also pray that I will be “humbled for the lack of this grace” and take seriously how evil it is in the sight of God to have a murmuring spirit. Chapter 11 is very good at shooting down all the excuses that I come up with to excuse my lack of contentment.
I have shared this book with 2 other sisters in Christ. God willing, we are going to study the Word and “The Rare Jewel” together. There is so much in this book that I will not mind rereading it again.
April 30, 2008 at 10:13 pm
I could say a great many things that I’ve enjoyed reading this work, but the best thing is that Burroughs really made me (constantly!) think about my contentment throughout the day, the things that caused me discontent, how I responded to such things, how I *should* respond, how I should look to the Triune God as the only one who will provide ultimate contentment.
May 1, 2008 at 8:36 am
Such a good, and needed book. As I read, especially early on in the book, all I could hear was Piper screaming, “Stuff is killing us!” Not that my life is filled with stuff, but my heart naturally wants to get it, shine it, keep it, and show it. One sentence, repeated over and over, is changing me…”now if you have God as your portion, why should you not be contented with Him alone?”
May 1, 2008 at 9:03 am
“God would not have us set our hearts upon riches, because they are nothing, and yet God is pleased to set his heart upon us, and we are nothing: that is God’s grace, free grace, and therefore it does not much matter what I suffer, for I am as nothing.”
p.87
What can I say about this book, except that it “connected the dots” between the gospel, the affections of my heart, complaining, and discontentment. It has been a pleasure to think about this subject, especially in light of the gospel. I pray that I would soon learn the “ABCs”, as Burroughs would put it, before feeling that I can move on to something greater. There is nothing greater for me than being satisfied in Christ for all that he with all that I am not.
This book also put encouraging words into my mouth, and scripture into my brain, that was used in counseling a brother who is going through a point where God is taking a lot of things away. It was a great pleasure, and medicine for my soul, to awkwardly explain to him what Burroughs explains so eloquently: Christ is all sufficent, and he will lovingly remove all barriers to us realizing this. When he doesn’t remove these barriers, we should begin to worry. Often this refinement hurts, but the contentment in our all-sufficent Lord and Saviour to be found on the other side of the pain is well worth it.
May 1, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I wish I had the time to write extensively on this book, but with finals next week, I have a lot to do! At any rate, the book was refreshing for me as I am learning all over again it seems what it means to be content with this life with my eyes on the Future Life.
The worst part about reading these books is that you know you are going to have to go back and re-read them because you missed so much of the finer details while you were paying attention to the peaks and valleys. Good stuff.
May 2, 2008 at 8:24 am
Perhaps I have heard a sermon on “contentment” in my life before, but I don’t think I can say I have ever heard or read a sermon on “murmuring.” I really enjoyed reading what Burroughs had to say.
The form and style of Burroughs seemed to be more difficult for me than previous authors. Also, it seemed like the background of Burrough’s community/cultural context of his day was interestingly more evident in this book…
My favorite section was chapter 5, pgs. 87-89
1. I am nothing
2. I deserve nothing
3. I can do nothing
4. I am so vile I cannot of myself receive any good
5. I can make use of nothing
(in fact…)
6, I am WORSE than nothing!
7. If we perish we will be no loss….
Also, I really liked pg. 221-2:
“Let afflictions and troubles find you with a mortified heart to the world, and they will not break your bones; those whose bones are broken by crosses and afflictions are those who are alive to the world, who are not dead to the world. But no afflictions or troubles will break the bones of one who has a mortified heart and is dead to the world; that is, they will not be very grievous or painful to such a one as is mortified to the world.”
…just something about how he used the imagry of Christ’s bones not being broken….the analogy/imagry just resonated with me. Add this to the list of ways I am inspired by the Cross of Christ…I want to be dead to the world, so that afflictions or troubles will not even attempt to break my bones…”
May 2, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Tim, I am almost finished with Burroughs’ book. I have enjoyed it, but I must confess that I have been pushed for time. In addition to time restrains I have been reading a good bit more than I normally do.
However, It has been good and I have enjoyed the book… the challenge has been profitable for me, both personally and as a pastor!
God Bless,
Yogi