A Maiden’s Reverie

My husband and I recently finished reading The Attributes of God together with our children for our daily devotionals.  It has been a sweet time as we gathered together in the evenings to read about God’s character and to discuss Him with one another.  The girls would pick up their knitting work and I would settle into a cozy chair while Benjamin read to all of us and from time to time posed questions to the children about what they heard.  Despite the older language of the text, the writing was quite lucid and the girls seemed to follow it quite well.  I enjoyed being read to by my husband, who has a lovely reading voice, and it was quite precious to share those evenings together, taking the time to worship God together and to meditate on His person and attributes.  I look forward to our next devotional book with anticipation, because I know that in these times of sharing, prayer and quiet contemplation, we truly grow closer as a family.  I pray that God blesses these little moments, these brief gatherings, and extends His grace to the hearts of our children, nourishing them with true food and true drink, and with the knowledge of His presence and providence in their lives.

A Monk’s Meditation

As I think back upon my first experience of Pink’s little volume, I can still remember how it captured and held me.  I had no great insights into what I was reading at the time, but even I could see that the GOD this man had met was a GOD worth knowing… in Himself the road to awe.

I admired how much Pink could say in so few pages and even now, after reading through it again, I am still struck by Pink’s uncompromising vision.  Nowadays I can see with greater sophistication that the polemical interests of his time often controlled the direction of his pen.  He had a mind to challenge the Christian world with his Calvinism, but Pink was firm about doing so from Scripture alone.  He had a penchant for rhetorical flare and a singular vocabulary.  I had to look up one or two words that were utterly foreign to me, but with a little guidance, our daughters were also struck by his reasoning and descriptions.

It is an uncommong thing to find a concise expression of divinity that seems to readily spring up out of the fire of a soul that is commonly tempered by the presence of GOD.  That doesn’t mean that I agree with everything Pink says or all the ways he chose to say it.  I recognize that a book about the attributes of GOD might best explore who He is in a way that is more unified.  Still, I do not have to agree with Arthur Pink in all these things in order to love him for what he was and be happy that some part of him became a part of me on a bright afternoon years ago, when a glimpse of the greatness of GOD opened to me another layer of life that I had not known was possible…

And I hope that he can give some measure of that to my children, too.

A Daughter’s Devotion

Shaelynn (10 yrs.)

One thing I liked about the book was the chapter on the mercy of GOD.  GOD gives us more than we need.  He gives flowers, birds and other animals, good food, even Himself.  Everyday we receive His mercy and He is merciful in every way.   He says, “I do not take pleasure in the killing of the wicked.  But rather that they live.”   He does not destroy us immediately but waits patiently and works within us, for He is slow to anger and patient.  But I wondered why GOD would give sinners mercy even if they killed His Son.

Another part of the book that I liked was GOD’s righteousness.  I used to think that, if GOD did not save everyone then He was not righteous.  But now I know He is righteous everywhere, no matter what.  And not only righteous, all of Him is righteousness.

Another part that amazed me was the wrath of GOD because it was just that He destroy sinners, even if that includes me.

I always looked forward to the time when we would do devotions because I was happy to know more about GOD.

Trinity (9 yrs.)

This was the best book I’ve ever read, besides the Bible!  I liked the chapter about the Love of GOD because it was very comforting, and I knew if I confessed my sins and “knocked on the door,” I would receive mercy and love (if I was truly sorry).  I was very comforted by this.

I was also very scared by the chapter on the knowledge of GOD because I knew that He could see all that everybody was doing at the same time and would punish me very severely at the end of my life if I did not change.

I think that Pink explained very well what GOD is like.  I say this because we, as sinners, must know little of what GOD is like.  I think Pink understood very well what little he did know.  He did so well that everybody should read this book.