Deus Misereatur

  (The quotation in the picture is from "The Works of Hannah More: Essays," from the chapter "Errors in Prayer" on page 324) Many, many years ago, I came across this observation from St. Augustine in one of his sermons on the Psalms. He was developing some thoughts regarding Psalm 77:1, where the sacred songwriter states, “ I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me .” Augustine then says that “many men cry unto the Lord for the sake of getting riches and avoiding losses, for the safety of their friends, for the security of their house, for temporal felicity, for secular dignity, lastly, even for mere soundness of body, which is the inheritance of the poor man. For such and such like things many men do cry unto the Lord; scarce one for the sake of the Lord Himself. For an easy thing it is for a man to desire anything of the Lord, and not to desire the Lord Himself ; as if forsooth that which He gives could be sweeter than Himself that gives.” It is an eas...

Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry Paul David Tripp Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton IL 60187 http://www.crossway.org ISBN: 978-1-4335-3582-6; $15.99; 2012. Reviewed by Dr. Michael Philliber for Deus Misereatur (03/13) Digging Deep (4 stars out of 5) The news regularly reminds us that ministers can easily lose their way, fall into traps, fumble, and just outright mess up their lives. The trouble is not primarily that this happens, but that so many pastors are caught off guard, and blind-sided. There is something like a fraternal fallacy poisoning the air of the pastoral brotherhood that seems to dull the clerical senses, so that pastors can’t see the wheels coming off, or the red warning lights angrily flickering on the dashboard. Paul David Tripp has sought to bring some remedy to this condition with “Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry”, a 224 page hard-back. The book is written...