I am in San Francisco on the day of the iPhone 3G launch.  Since I am a tech guy, I knew it was going to be a big deal and the San Franciscans didn’t disappoint.  The Apple Store was easily identifiable because of the line that stretched down the block, around the corner and on.  Later in the day it was even worse as the sidewalk was completely blocked.

Later in the day, I was reading in John Piper’s book When I Don’t Desire God and came across the following paragraph:

The psalmist described the connection between inner blindess and idolatry.  “The idols of the nationa are… the work of human hands.  They have… eyes, but do not see… Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust them!” (Ps. 135:15-18) Make and trust a blind idol and you become blind.  Apply that principle to the modern world, and think of the idols of our won day.  What do we make and what do we trust?  Things.  Toys.  Technology.  And so our hearts and our affections are formed by these things.  They compress the void in our heart into shapes like toys.  the result is that we are easily moved and excited by things - computers, cars, appliances, entertainment media.  They seem to fit the shapes of our hearts.  They feel good in the tiny spaces they have made.  But in this readiness to receive pleasure from things, we are ill-shped for Christ.  He seems unreal, unattractive.  The eyes of our hearts grow dull.

I can’t help but think of the XBox 360, the computer, the DVD player, the digital camera, the iPod and all of the other bits and pieces of electronic stuff that are in my life and have to ask myself if I am not becoming a little spiritually near-sighted because of all of the things that I am settling for to give me pleasure and fulfillment, rather than the only One who deserves my praise and my enjoyment.

Now here appears Christianity in its true colors. To be of such a spirit as this is to be of such a spirit as Christ so often requires of us, if we would be His disciples. This is to sell all and give to the poor. This is to take up the cross daily and follow Christ. To have such a spirit as this is to have good evidence of being a Christian indeed, a thorough Christian, one who has given himself to Christ without reserve; one who hates father and mother and wife and children and sisters, yea, and his own life also; one who loses his life for Christ’s sake, and so shall find it.

And though it is not required of all that they should endure so great sufferings as [the Apostle] Paul did, yet is required and absolutely necessary that many Christians should be in a measure of this spirit, should be of a spirit to lose all things and suffer all things for Christ, rather than not obey His commands and seek His glory.

How well may our having such an example as this [speaking of the Apostle Paul] before our eyes make us ashamed, who are so backward now and then to lose little things, to put ourselves a little out of our way, to deny ourselves some convenience, to deny our sinful appetites, or to incur the displeasure of a neighbor.

Alas! What thought have we of Christianity to make much of such things as these; to make so many objections, to keep back, and contrive ways to excuse ourselves, when a little difficulty arises! What kind of thoughts had we of being Christians when we first undertook to be such, or first pretended a willingness to be Christians? Did we never sit down and count the cost, or did we cast it up at this rate, that we thought the whole sum would not amount to such little sufferings as lie in our way?

Edwards, Jonathan. Pursuing Holiness in the Lord.

“There is no attribute of God more comforting to his children than the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe troubles, they believe that Sovereignty hath ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend than the dominion of their Master over all creation—the kingship of God over all the works of his own hands—the throne of God, and his right to sit upon that throne.

On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a foot-ball, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on his throne. They will allow him to be in his workshop to fashion worlds and to make stars. They will allow him to be in his almonry to dispense his alms and bestow his bounties. They will allow him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends his throne, his creatures then gnash their teeth; and when we proclaim an enthroned God, and his right to do as he wills with his own, to dispose of his creatures as he thinks well, without consulting them in the matter, then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on his throne is not the God they love. They love him anywhere better than they do when he sits with his scepter in his hand and his crown upon his head. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon his throne whom we trust.”

- Charles Spurgeon

“Godliness is always marked by delight in God’s truth. Psalm 119 makes this abundantly plain. The psalmist loves God’s law, rejoices to know God’s mind, and holds fast at whatever cost to himself, the truths that God has taught him. His delight in God among other things is a delight in God’s Word…”

-J.I. Packer