Yesterday, John Piper published a blog post that urged believers to focus on both heart devotions:

Daily prayerful meditation seeking personal application of God’s word to your own heart and life.

and head study:

Regular study in a class or with a book where the (living or dead) teacher has seen more than you have and can give you insight in 30 minutes that might otherwise take you ten years to see.

Inspired by this, and having just finished a book, I grabbed a puritan tome off my “to-read” stack on the way out to work. I was given a reprint copy of The Christian’s Daily Walk, written by Henry Scudder, by a good friend when I graduated from high school. I’ve dabbled in it, but never really dug in like I should have. A book highly recommended by both John Owens and Richard Baxter (two prestigiously recommendable puritans in their own right), this work is rich and deep and insightful. After running errands, I ended up with an hour to curl up and read it before starting work. Here are some of the more profound quotes I’ve culled so far:

On happiness:

For what else is true happiness than the enjoyment of the chief good? And that God is the chief good appears in this, that all the properties which exalt goodness to the highest perfection are in God only.

On the difference in Christian maturity:

…All God’s children travel to one country, yet not with equal speed; they all shoot at one mark, yet not with the same dexterity.

On living by faith and walking with God:

To live by faith (which is, to frame your heart and life according to the will of God revealed in His word) and to walk with God, are all one.”

How to know when you walk with God:

1) When you daily go on to repent of sins past, believe in Jesus Christ for pardon, and believe His word for direction.

2) When you walk not according to the will of men, but of God.

3) When you walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

4) When you set God before you, and walk as in His sight.