Yearly archives: 2019

Do I Dare?

 

Do I dare Disturb the universe?… T.S Eliot (1888-1965)

 

 

 

 

 

 

THERE is but one only, living, and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, for His own glory, most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him; and withal most just and terrible in His judgments; hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty…

II. God hath all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He hath made, not deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever Himself pleaseth. In His sight all things are open and manifest, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain. He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands. To him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to require of them…

III. In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost: the Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son…

The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) Chapter 2
The Banner of Truth Trust 2012


The Mind

The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace, because the sinful mind is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Romans 8: 6,7

“Walking with God implies that the prevailing power of the enmity of a person’s heart be taken away by the blessed Spirit of God.

Perhaps it may seem a hard saying to some, but our own experience daily proves, what the Scriptures in many places assert, that the carnal mind,

the mind of the unconverted natural man,

and even the mind of the regenerate, so far as any part of him remains unrenewed, is enmity,…

Our first parents contracted it when they fell from God by eating the forbidden fruit…and the same enmity rules and prevails in every man that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam…”

George Whitefield (1714-1770)

Excerpt from George Whitefield Daily Readings
Edited by Randall J. Pederson P.1

 

Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”  Exodus 5:2


Understanding

They who “lean to their own understanding”…

who care more to be learned than to be holy;

 

 

who value the tree of knowledge

more than the tree of life;

who desire “meat for their lust,” rather than manna for their souls.

Such, indeed, make difficulties for themselves. The “voice out of the whirlwind” rebukes them, as “darkening counsel by words without knowledge.” (Job 38:1,2.)

Scripture difficulties belong not to the Book itself, but to man’s blind and corrupt heart.The carnal man cannot understand it, any more than the blind can see the noon-day light of the sun.

But ‘it is easy to all that have a desire to it, and which are not blinded by the prince of this world.’ The “babes” are taught of God.  (Matthew 11:25).

He not only unfolds the truth, but opens their hearts to receive it. There will be, indeed, great depths.

from Proverbs by Charles Bridges (1794 -1869) Excerpt from Proverbs Chapter 8 P.73,74


The Fear Of God

The fear of God is a many-faceted jewel of Biblical truth.

One of those facets is seen in the Book of Proverbs in the simple sentence:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs. 9:10).

The beginning of new life in Christ is the beginning of the fear of the Lord (Ps.130:4).

The beginning of the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Pro.1:7). 

The beginning of wisdom is the beginning of a life lived in harmony with all of God’s cause-and-effect systems: natural, physical, social, and moral-especially moral.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are only two kinds of people in this world: those who live in willing harmony with God’s moral law and those who live in willing rejection of God’s moral law.

The first kind are considered the Wise.

The other kind are called “fools” (Ps.14:1).

             from The Fear of God a forgotten doctrine p.3   Arnold L. Frank (1931-2015)


Who Are You?

Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.

We never know who we are until we first know who God is.

 from Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol 2 (1537) by John Calvin (1509-1564)

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

 

When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Exodus 3:1-6a

 

” The sacred space is where God steps, acts, and moves.

Christians gather together on the Sabbath day because God calls us to do so. He says, “This is the place where I will meet with my people on Sundays.”

That’s why the New Testament teaches never to neglect the assembly of the saints (Heb 10:25); we as human beings need, every week, to visit holy ground-to get away from the secular and step across the border into the sacred.

It’s a place where we move from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from the common to the uncommon, from the profane to the holy.

Excerpt from Moses and The Burning Bush P. 51 by R. C. Sproul (1939-2017)

 

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire… Deuteronomy 4: 24

 


Faces

After a lifetime of wrestling with the divine, the hero of the story comes to the following conclusion:

   “I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer.

 

 

 

You are yourself the answer.

Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?” 

A Quote from C.S Lewis’s Novel Till We Have Faces

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

               This idea comes from The Whole Church: Guide (May  2019 Issue)

by Dr. Charles Stanley


Will and Peace

In His Will, Our Peace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)


I AM

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.”  John 11:25a

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ”  John 14:6

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.   Acts 4:12

I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
Revelation 1:18


The Women

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb.

Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

  Luke 24:9-12


It Is Finished

It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read: The King Of The Jews. Mark 15:25-26

“There could be no mistake about the fact of who was really nailed to the cross, for he was crucified in broad daylight. We are fully assured that it was Jesus of Nazareth, for both friends and foes were eyewitnesses of his agonies. For three long hours the Jews sat down and watched him on the cross, making jest of his miseries. I feel thankful for those three hours of light or else the enemies of our faith would have questioned whether in very deed the blessed body of our Master was nailed to the tree” (preached on April 18th, 1886 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London). Charles H. Spurgeon

  It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining.   Luke 23: 45a    

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture
would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.  When he had received the drink,  Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.   John 19:28-30

 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Matthew 27:51a

The earth shook and the rocks split.  Matthew 27:51b

The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died where raised to life. Matthew 27:52

They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. Matthew 27:53

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”            Matthew 27:54