Religious Affections

“The way to grow in assurance is to kill sin, seek God’s grace, and exercise it as much as you can. Assurance comes not by looking inward, but by action, by looking to Christ and living out of what you see.” ~ from Joe Rigney’s Introduction Look Inside the Book Due to the shallowness of much modern Christian worship and life, we can often think of the display of intense religious emotions as a hypocritical outward show. And we are right to be suspicious, since “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9). Nevertheless, emotions are a gift from God and are part of what God redeems. When the First Great Awakening was breaking out in New England in the 1700s, pastor Jonathan Edwards approved of it and prayed for great revival. However, as a man who suffered from depression and melancholy, Edwards also warned people of the dangers of relying alone on such intense emotions. The center of the Christian religion is not our emotions, but Christ and His goodness. This classic will inspire you to consider both your life and your emotions and to follow Christ in love. “The essence of all true religion lies in holy love; and in this divine affection, and an habitual disposition to it, and that light which is the foundation of it, and those things which are the fruits of it, consists the whole of religion.” ~ Jonathan Edwards — THE CHRISTIAN HERITAGE SERIES: The authors in the Christian Heritage Series paid a high price for the words you see before you. Not all paid with blood, but each spent his life fighting for the truth. This faithful sacrifice has become a rich inheritance for the Church in our day, even though it is often neglected. The Christian Heritage Series aims to put these important theological classics on every Christian’s bookshelf in colorful, well-crafted, and affordable volumes, with introductions written by those that love the books and their heritage. AUTHOR: Jonathan Edwards INTRODUCTION: Joe Rigney PAGE COUNT: 479 pages SIZE: 5.5x8.5" BINDING: Paperback ISBN 10: 1947644548 ISBN-13: 9781947644540 PUB. DATE: March 24, 2020 (first published in 1745)