Nostr notes by rrtulla

“In marriage, kindness is the oil that keeps everything from ...

2026-10-26T16:01:40Z

“In marriage, kindness is the oil that keeps everything from grinding to a halt.”

At its heart, the Fall shattered communion. Humanity became ...

2026-10-26T15:13:51Z

At its heart, the Fall shattered communion. Humanity became estranged from God, divided from one another, and alienated even from the creation over which God had given dominion. We experience this every day. Every broken marriage, every fractured family, every divided church, every war between nations traces its roots back to that first act of rebellion in Eden. Families are filled with ordinary sinners. Husbands and wives wound one another. Parents lose patience. Children rebel. Friendships fracture. Churches experience conflict. The story of Genesis 3 has become the story of every human heart.

Randy Booth

Nostr event nevent1qqs97h07a5sccfc7y3qwpln8g36ask2z2zjrnxlutddshvs92cdqurszyptyjjur4d34zncfl9v594zjz2erut0zgym0vc4lyllcvsa2j4g3kdkgx74

2026-10-26T11:22:00Z

"It is a true saying, ardua quæ pulchra, glorious things are ...

2026-10-25T16:58:19Z

"It is a true saying, ardua quæ pulchra, glorious things are hard to obtain."

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the ...

2026-10-25T12:19:05Z

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:33–34)

At what man’s death was the sun darkened and the earth shaken? Lo, men are dying even to the present day, and they died also in the past: when did any such marvel take place with respect to them? (Athanasius)

“For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more ...

2026-10-25T12:09:31Z

“For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experiencemay await many others. I believe that many who find that “nothing happens” when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.” CS Lewis

"But if any man is tempted to think — as one might be ...

2026-10-25T11:54:35Z

"But if any man is tempted to think — as one might
be tempted who read only con- temporaries — that “Christianity” is a
word of so many meanings that it means nothing at all, he can learn
beyond all doubt, by stepping out of his own century, that this is not
so. Measured against the ages “mere Christianity” turns out to be no
insipid interdenominational transparency, but something positive,
self-consistent, and inexhaustible. I know it, indeed, to my cost. In
the days when I still hated Christianity, I learned to recognise, like
some all too familiar smell, that almost unvarying something which
met me, now in Puritan Bunyan, now in Anglican Hooker, now in
Thomist Dante. It was there (honeyed and floral) in Francois de
Sales; it was there (grave and homely) in Spenser and Walton; it was
there (grim but manful) in Pascal and Johnson; there again, with a
mild, frightening, Paradisial flavour, in Vaughan and Boehme and
Traherne."

CS Lewis

In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process ...

2026-10-23T17:16:52Z

In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process itself should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean out of ourselves, and rise from the perusal, our mind filled with the busiest, kaleidoscopic dance of images, incapable of sleep or of continuous thought. The words, if the book be eloquent, should run thenceforward in our ears like the noise of breakers, and the story, if it be a story, repeat itself in a thousand colored pictures to the eye.

Robert Louis Stevenson

“Let it stand, therefore, as an indubitable truth, which no ...

2026-10-23T12:12:47Z

“Let it stand, therefore, as an indubitable truth, which no engines can shake, that the mind of man is so entirely alienated from the righteousness of God that he cannot conceive, desire, or design any thing but what is wicked, distorted, foul, impure, and iniquitous; that his heart is so thoroughly envenomed by sin that it can breathe out nothing but corruption and rottenness; that if some men occasionally make a show of goodness, their mind is ever interwoven with hypocrisy and deceit, their soul inwardly bound with the fetters of wickedness.”

John Calvin

"If I could believe that God was not angry with me, I would ...

2026-10-22T19:15:23Z

"If I could believe that God was not angry with me, I would stand on my head for joy."

Martin Luther

Concerning free will, Martin Luther said: Man has in his own ...

2026-10-22T19:14:51Z

Concerning free will, Martin Luther said: Man has in his own power a freedom of the will to do or not to do external works regulated by law and punishment. . . . On the other hand, man cannot by his own power purify his heart and bring forth godly gifts such as true repentance for sins, a true faith (over against an artificial), fear of God, sincere love, chastity.”

God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its ...

2026-10-21T17:07:14Z

God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate and the creature receive His glory, and that it might be received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies His idea of God's glory doesn't glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.

Jonathan Edwards.

Nostr event nevent1qqsqzqwcakp0dq292jglkty9lpeptetu2el8qqkt9ekk3382emxuqmqzyptyjjur4d34zncfl9v594zjz2erut0zgym0vc4lyllcvsa2j4g3kdt3gz0

2026-10-21T13:27:43Z

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from ...

2026-10-21T13:26:51Z

Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; (Isaiah 40:21–22)

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with ...

2026-10-21T13:26:27Z

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? (Isaiah 40:18)

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked ...

2026-10-21T13:26:04Z

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? (Isaiah 40:12)

Nostr event nevent1qqsx72hw8u9tgr38ufawxc4sdnm4z3edjxe2nhgy5mfqkk5h2323p2szyptyjjur4d34zncfl9v594zjz2erut0zgym0vc4lyllcvsa2j4g3k2e598q

2026-10-21T13:24:44Z

‘Christians should be taught that he who sees someone needy, ...

2026-10-20T20:28:14Z

‘Christians should be taught that he who sees someone needy, but looks past him, and buys an indulgence instead, receives not the pope’s remission, but God‘s wrath” Martin Luther, 95 theses
October 31, 1517
# 45

“let the man who would hear God speak read holy scripture.” ...

2026-10-20T20:25:23Z

“let the man who would hear God speak read holy scripture.” Martin Luther.

“God wants to give you his Spirit only through the external ...

2026-10-20T20:24:50Z

“God wants to give you his Spirit only through the external Word.” Martin Luther.

“The Bible teaches an enmity that goes to the bone. For the ...

2026-10-20T12:10:13Z

“The Bible teaches an enmity that goes to the bone. For the Christian there can be no compromise with the enemy, but only battle until victory. Can one imagine Moses combating Pharaoh through nine plagues and then calling it all off and moving back into Pharaoh’s palace? Can anyone imagine David and Goliath fighting to a draw and then going off to share a pint? We might as well imagine Jesus dining with the devil after his temptations in the wilderness. Pagans are happy to incorporate any new god into the pantheon, including Jesus; but Paul asks, What harmony has Christ with Belial?”

“Put a McDonald’s and a Gap in every major Middle Eastern ...

2026-10-20T11:54:01Z

“Put a McDonald’s and a Gap in every major Middle Eastern city, and terrorism will drown in a wave of Happy Meals. When liberal modernity does not simply ignore the existence of the enemy, it denies the existence of enmity that cannot be cajoled, coopted, convinced, or smilingly coerced to become an ally.”

“To be a Christian means to be refashioned in all of one’s ...

2026-10-16T12:31:29Z

“To be a Christian means to be refashioned in all of one’s desires, aims, attitudes, actions, from the shallowest to the deepest.” Peter Leithart

When you pray, make yourself small with the greatness of ...

2026-10-13T21:15:03Z

When you pray, make yourself small with the greatness of humility.
When you confess sins, be honest.
When you perform penances, be committed.
When you eat, be restrained.
When you sleep, be disciplined.
When you are alone, be faithful.
When you are with others, be wise.
When someone teaches you to practise virtues, be attentive.
When someone rebukes you, be patient.
When you do a good work, reckon yourself poor.
When you do something wrong, seek God’s grace immediately.
When you are behaving in a conceited way, be afraid.
When you are disturbed, trust God with great faith.
When you work with your hands, be swift, so that you may banish evil thoughts.

--Mechthild of Magdeburg

“Jesus is insurmountable. We might attempt to leave what he ...

2026-10-13T17:55:37Z

“Jesus is insurmountable. We might attempt to leave what he calls the “Christian era” or reject the gospel, but Jesus made such a difference in history that no one, not even the most hostile enemy of Christ, not even Anti-Christ, can escape being Christ’s.”

Life means vulnerability, the possibility of failures and wounds: ...

2026-10-13T17:44:12Z

Life means vulnerability, the possibility of failures and wounds: “Unless [a man] is willing to call his wounds happiness, he must choose between living frailty and tin-canned orderliness.”

Jesus was dead and buried; his life was finished and done with. ...

2026-10-13T12:38:19Z

Jesus was dead and buried; his life was finished and done with. No rhythm of nature, no innate capacity of humanness, could return him from the grave. Only God’s grace and power, accomplishing a new act with and upon a man totally deceased, could win that victory.

Jesus‘ death, burial and resurrection is the story of stories. ...

2026-10-12T14:41:22Z

Jesus‘ death, burial and resurrection is the story of stories. Nothing else comes close.

“In God’s kingdom there is a justice which sets free and ...

2026-10-12T14:29:53Z

“In God’s kingdom there is a justice which sets free and makes joyful all who stand before it: the guilty are not condemned, the fallen are picked up; nobodies are promoted; the hungry are sated; and the lost are not permitted to remain abandoned.”

Alan Lewis

“Until, little by little, there came a baser, drabber age, and ...

2026-10-12T13:41:49Z

“Until, little by little, there came a baser, drabber age, and rage for war and love of having.”

Virgil

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once ...

2026-10-08T11:00:53Z

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

There is not a single case on record in the whole history of ...

2026-10-07T11:36:24Z

There is not a single case on record in the whole history of mankind where a person came unto God in repentance and faith and was refused salvation. This our Lord specifically promised: “Whosoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37).

“Thus on Easter we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection as ...

2026-10-06T22:31:27Z

“Thus on Easter we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection as something that happened and still happens to us. For each one of us received the gift of that new life and the power to accept it and to live by it. It is a gift which radically alters our attitude toward everything in this world, including death. It makes it possible for us joyfully to affirm: “Death is no more!” Oh, death is still there, to be sure, and we still face it and someday it will come and take us. But it is our whole faith that by His own death Christ changed the very nature of death, made it a passage—a “passover,” a “Pascha”—into the Kingdom of God, transforming the tragedy of tragedies into the ultimate victory. “Trampling down death by death,” He made us partakers of His Resurrection. This is why at the end of the Paschal Matins we say: “Christ is risen and life reigneth! Christ is risen and not one dead remains in the grave!”

Alexander Schmemann

“Without God it is ill with us.” -Anselm

2026-10-06T11:59:44Z

“Without God it is ill with us.”

-Anselm

"Well what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one ...

2026-10-06T00:38:03Z

"Well what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today."

Phil Connors

"God has such ascendancy over his creatures that he can ...

2026-09-16T00:18:59Z

"God has such ascendancy over his creatures that he can dispose of them at his pleasure." Calvin

"Mystery as God’s inscrutable way of doing business. ...

2026-09-16T00:17:28Z

"Mystery as God’s inscrutable way of doing business. Mystery as the way he steers the bicycle of history with his hands in his pockets. Nobody is shoved, nothing is jimmied; nothing need ever be anything but true to itself. He never even touches the handlebars! Pilate is Pilate, and Caiaphas is Caiaphas; Peter is Peter, and John is John; the soldiers are soldiers, and the women are themselves; the nails are iron, and the cross is wood. All in their own natures, all acting for themselves: the creatures of a God powerful enough not to have to use inside mystiques or outside clubs; of a God who can afford anything; of a God who can do nothing but hang there and still ride history home no-hands."
(Robert Capon)

"Let us understand that if it is God's good pleasure to ...

2026-09-15T19:20:04Z

"Let us understand that if it is God's good pleasure to take from us the possessions He has bestowed upon us, we must be ready from one day to the next to be deprived of them. Let us not think it evil to lose in a moment everything we have been able to acquire throughout our lives. Job leads us beyond thinking such loss is evil when He says, 'God gave and He has taken away. But blessed be the name of the Lord.' ”

Calvin

"When we feel some evil desire within us, some of us ...

2026-09-15T16:24:39Z

"When we feel some evil desire within us, some of us influenced by a wicked lust, others by something else, and others even by something else, let us be aware that it is the enemy who is working slyly in us."

Calvin

"So when we see God, relax the bridle on the wicked, what ...

2026-09-13T11:54:44Z

"So when we see God, relax the bridle on the wicked, what will we say? There is only one remedy: namely, that those who bear the rod of justice constrain those who trouble the good. But we see to the contrary that they are so bound by self-interest that they allow things to continue as they are. What can we say but that the magistrates who ought to grant everybody his right allow the wicked to do the worst they can? They give us no relief, and when we expect them to do their duty they do nothing. They are like useless idols." (John Calvin)

“There is no one who does not find himself guilty when his life ...

2026-09-12T23:34:05Z

“There is no one who does not find himself guilty when his life is examined before God”

John Calvin

"throw off the notion that weighty books of doctrine are ...

2026-09-11T14:44:45Z

"throw off the notion that weighty books of doctrine are joy-squelching, while light devotional books are joy-producing." piper

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2026-09-04T20:09:50Z

God makes wine. For all its difficulties, there is no way around ...

2026-08-25T16:05:43Z

God makes wine. For all its difficulties, there is no way around the doctrine of creation. But notice the tense: He makes; not made. He did not create once upon a time, only to find himself saddled now with the unavoidable and embarrassing result of that first rash decision. That is only to welsh on the idea of an unnecessary world, to make creation a self-perpetuating pool game which is contingent only at the start—which needs only the first push on the cue ball to keep it going forever. It will not do: The world is more unnecessary than that. It is unnecessary now; it cries in this moment for a cause to hold it in being. It was St. Thomas, I think, who pointed out long ago that if God wanted to get rid of the universe, He would not have to do anything; He would have to stop doing something. Wine is—the fruit of the vine stands in act, outside of nothing—because it is His very present pleasure to have it so. The creative act is contemporary, intimate, and immediate to each part, parcel and period of the world. Do you see what that means? In a general way we concede that God made the world out of joy: He didn’t need it; He just thought it was a good thing.

"We are at the end of Christian civilization, and therefore, ...

2026-08-21T19:51:06Z

"We are at the end of Christian civilization, and therefore, we are at the end of civilization."

Words uttered by Francis Schaeffer in the 1960s.

the USA must repent, or die.

Christianity! “the mysteries involved are already harder to ...

2026-08-19T19:28:55Z

Christianity!

“the mysteries involved are already harder to believe. “God takes a form, a name is to be heard; a human being takes among us the place of the Most High.” “This is indeed an unheard-of commingling and a paradoxical fusion. He who is, becomes; the Infinite is created and contained in space.… The Word becomes reachable by the senses, the Invisible is seen, the Inaccessible touched, the Timeless steps into time, the Son of God becomes the Son of Man!” Quite apart from the case of those who dream of a man-god, the idea of a God-Man is itself something that hits the mind head-on; even though we can see that there is no contradiction within the idea, the whole chain of realities associated therewith creates a mental atmosphere of bewilderment.” Henri de Lubac

"The first thing that must strike a non-Christian about the ...

2026-08-19T19:10:54Z

"The first thing that must strike a non-Christian about the Christian’s faith is that it obviously presumes far too much. It is too good to be true: the mystery of being, revealed as absolute love, condescending to wash his creatures’ feet, and even their souls, taking upon himself all the confusion of guilt, all the God-directed hatred, all the accusations showered upon him with cudgels, all the disbelief that arrogantly covers up what he had revealed, all the mocking hostility that once and for all nailed down his inconceivable movement of self-abasement—in order to pardon his creature, before himself and the world. This is truly too much from the Good; nothing in the world would justify such a metaphysics, and therefore it cannot be justified by that individual sign called “Jesus of Nazareth”, which has so little historical evidence and is so difficult to decipher. To build such an extravagant building on such a fragile foundation would overstep all the limits of reason." balthasar

"Men facing the groyper temptation should rather get their ...

2026-08-19T14:29:06Z

"Men facing the groyper temptation should rather get their information from a trusted source. This may be the preacher in me, but I would suggest . . . Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses, Peter, James, and John. And tying all of that together together, I would urge them all to put their complete trust in the Lord Jesus—from the heart out to the fingertips." Doug Wilson

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2026-08-10T12:37:06Z

roll 5 dice 10,000 times. . . . and God knows each number. in ...

2026-08-06T20:41:50Z

roll 5 dice 10,000 times. . . . and God knows each number. in order.

he knows it before you roll it.

Nostr event nevent1qqsfpwd76wyfvpv24k75whm3awya395s9ee8zn65gla0e6zfyumh0mqzyptyjjur4d34zncfl9v594zjz2erut0zgym0vc4lyllcvsa2j4g3kufhp34

2026-07-31T21:03:04Z

“Summing all up in one, only Christ can make any life, young or ...

2026-07-22T16:47:25Z

“Summing all up in one, only Christ can make any life, young or old, truly beautiful or truly happy. Only he can cure the heart’s restless fever and give quietness and calmness. Only he can purify that sinful fountain within us, our corrupt nature, and make us holy. To have a peaceful and blessed ending to life, we must live it with Christ.”

“Human beings are supposed to enjoy life to the full because ...

2026-07-22T16:31:07Z

“Human beings are supposed to enjoy life to the full because that is their divinely assigned portion, and God calls one into account for failure to enjoy. . . . Enjoyment is not only permitted, it is commanded; it is not only an opportunity, it is a divine imperative.”

“Human tribunals are very much like a spider’s web: they ...

2026-07-11T11:12:00Z

“Human tribunals are very much like a spider’s web: they enfold the powerless and weak; but the mighty and the rich break through by main force.”

“Cursed be he that trusteth in man, even if he be a pious ...

2026-07-10T10:40:51Z

“Cursed be he that trusteth in man, even if he be a pious man, or, perhaps, particularly if he be a pious man” (Reinhold Niebuhr)

“Modern atheism boasts about putting God on trial. God does not ...

2026-05-13T17:01:56Z

“Modern atheism boasts about putting God on trial. God does not measure up to their standards. A triune God does not measure up to their standards of rationality: How can three be one? A God who expresses jealous wrath against His enemies and His people, or a God who orders the slaughter of the Canaanites, does not measure up to their standards of morality. Atheists think they are being daring, cutting edge, innovative, creative, when they subject God to their own standards, and find that He does not measure up. Hardly. Modern atheists are simply repeating the gestures that we find in the gospel story itself.” Leithart

'Without Scripture, the whole world would be plunged into the ...

2026-05-11T17:46:51Z

'Without Scripture, the whole world would be plunged into the obscurity of deep-shadowed darkness." Henri de Lubac

sinful men want to play god. They want to impose and legislate ...

2026-05-04T19:38:22Z

sinful men want to play god. They want to impose and legislate their fantasies onto the world. When other people resist his totalitarian designs, the sinner resorts to violence to get his way.

“I want even the lowliest woman to read the Gospels and the ...

2025-01-09T13:29:06Z

“I want even the lowliest woman to read the Gospels and the letters of Saint Paul. I want them to be translated into all languages, so that they can be read and understood by Scots and Irishmen, by Turks and Muslims. To make people understand what Christianity teaches is surely the first step to converting them. Perhaps many will mock the Scriptures, but some will take them to heart. I greatly desire that the farm-worker should sing parts of Scripture to himself as he follows his plough, that the weaver should hum them to the tune of his shuttle, that the traveller should banish the boredom of his journey by reading Bible stories. Let the conversations of all Christians flow from Scripture. For our everyday conversations generally reveal what we are.” Erasmus (15th century)

What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the ...

2024-10-14T15:39:17Z

What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:3)

Answer: nothing.

Nostr event nevent1qqs0w34wwk0v72h9m7q5em6dqdmvvfrs75nac6sm3j49j46gx5wje9gzyptyjjur4d34zncfl9v594zjz2erut0zgym0vc4lyllcvsa2j4g3k58smmg

2023-03-01T02:16:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…90md
_________________________

lnbc1p3luraqpp5fnr9d2xch829t3euluhkergwjj7a0ynd5wxk0aujjmwjzt69us9sdqu2askcmr9wssx7e3q2dshgmmndp5scqzpgxqyz5vqsp55q4xsz8h653jd5r2pnuty4u55hpcsyven32gdngaatg3tlta4mxq9qyyssq6nqmm5y3x2p89q03m3ql920wytsr8gwct2c68xd8y4puqj7md7mj4g5tll0tt85hr49j5vv69uhvyf20y3xeaq4elksmylnzzjzefwqqf7uv8g

I’ll take some
Of those precious sats mr D