“The best work is done by the happy, joyful workman. And so it is with Christ, He does not save souls as of necessity -- as though He would rather do something else if He might -- but His very heart is in it, He rejoices to do it, and therefore He does it thoroughly and He communicates His joy to us in the doing of it.” (Charles Spurgeon, quoted in Randy Alcorn’s Happiness.)
and…
“If someone asked us, ‘What is the Bible?’ we probably would not begin our answer by saying, ‘The Bible is a realistic book.’ Yet in the twentieth-century this might be the best place to start -- to stress the realism of the Bible in contrast to the romanticism which characterizes the twentieth-century concept of religion. To most modern people, truth is to be sought through some sort of leap from which we extract our own personal religious experiences.
Many feel that the Bible should portray a romantic view of life, but the Bible is actually the most realistic book in the world. It does not glibly say, ‘God’s in His heaven – all’s right with the world!’ It faces the world’s dilemmas squarely. Yet, unlike modern realism which ends in despair, it has answers for the dilemmas. And, unlike modern romanticism, it’s answers are not optimism without a sufficient base, not hope hung in a vacuum.
So we should say at once to twentieth-century people: the Bible is a tough-fibered book.”
(Francis Schaeffer, “The Weakness of God’s Servants” in No Little People.)
