"Religious liberty was a development that grew up out of the Protestant West. It is our baby. We invented it. So people shouldn’t talk as though a decided Protestant culture is the enemy of such liberty . . . it is the historic foundation for it."

https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/books/virgin-mary-parades-in-a-free-republic.html

"A great book is like a voyage of discovery. There are stormy seas to be crossed before the traveller attains the golden strand. Too many give up while still in sight of home, but the reader who presses on to unknown realms of thought will many a time experience an exhilaration which is akin to that of an astronomer who finds a new star. Put to sea prayerfully in a volume of Owen or Goodwin and you will marvel at what you discover, even if the first ten pages threatened shipwreck."

Psalm 23:5

You prepare a table before me in the sight of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.

Psalm 36 describes the joys of those who find shelter in God’s house:

They are amply sated by the abundance of your house,
And you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
In your light we see light.

“For solitude sometimes is best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.”
Milton
Paradise Lost

1/3 of the Bible is poetry.

“poetry is more natural than we may think. Everyone uses figurative language during the course of a typical day. We speak of

road hogs,
game changers,
cliff hangers,
and nightmare tests, even though we know that none of these is literally true.

No one has ever literally juggled a schedule or killed time, but we keep speaking in these terms anyway.” Leland Ryken

“If the child cannot understand what a parent is saying, is it rational for the parent to speak to him or her? Baptist parents as well as others speak to their infants, and do not expect the child to understand or to talk back for many months. They see nothing irrational in this. They speak to their children, that is, they employ symbols, not because they think the infant understands all that is being said or because they expect an immediate response. They speak to their children so that the child will learn to understand and talk back. So too, we baptize babies not because they can fully understand what is happening to them, nor because we expect them to undergo some kind of immediate moral transformation. We baptize them, and consistently remind them of their baptism and its implications, so that they will come to understanding and mature faith.” Leithart

“Conversion does not simply install a new “religious” program over the existing operating system. It installs a new operating system.” Leithart

You are either a slave to sin
Or
A slave to Christ

There is no third option.

It was for freedom that Christ has set his people free; He’s a good master.

All glory be to God on high!

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. (Psalm 34:1)

Moses said to the people,

“Do not fear,
for
God has come to test you,
that the fear of him
may be before you,
that you may not sin.”

Don’t fear God. . . But also, fear God.