Monthly Archives: August 2014
Do You Know Christ, or Do You Just Know a Lot about Him?
It is well to be acquainted with all the doctrines and principles of Christianity. It is better to be acquainted with Christ Himself. It is well to be familiar with faith, and grace, and justification, and sanctification. They are all matters pertaining to the King. But it is far better to be familiar with Jesus Himself, to see the King’s own face, and to behold His beauty.
O Lord, Our Lord
True Repentance
True repentance is not the mere honor and excitement of a terrified conscience: it is the call of God; it is letting go the evil because the good has prevailed; it includes faith as well as fear.
James Stalker, The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966), 78.
Heaven’s Valuable Gift to Earth
Singing — this language of the feelings, this exhalation of an exalted state of mind, this pinion of an enraptured soul — is heaven’s valuable gift to earth. Adopted into the service of the sanctuary, how beneficial and blissful is its tendency! Who has not experienced its power to raise us high above the foggy atmosphere of daily life; to transport us so wondrously, even into the precincts of heaven; to expand and melt the heart; to banish sorrow, and burst the bonds of care? And it can effect greater things than these, when the Spirit from above mingles his breath with it. A thousand times has it restored peace in the midst of strife, banished Satan, and annihilated his projects. Like a genial gale of spring, it has blown across the stiff and frozen plain, and has caused stony hearts to melt like wax, and rendered them arable, and capable of receiving the seed of eternity.
Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness
We must worship God in the beauty of holiness. We do this, when approaching him, in the name of Jesus Christ, and through the assistance of his Spirit, all our faculties are fixed and engaged in this work; our expressions accompanied by suitable affections, by holy longings and thirstings of soul after God. In short, when the whole man is dedicated to the solemn act of worshipping God.
Sin Is an Offence against God
Formally considered, sin is not, with respect to God, of the nature of a personal injury, but an offence against his law and government. “He that committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.” As sin is not to be viewed, in regard to God, as a private offence, so divine punishment is not to be considered as an act of private revenge, but as an act of retributive justice for the vindication of law and government. Were sin to be viewed, as committed against God, as a private injury, and divine punishment as of the nature of private revenge, there would be no room for satisfaction by substitution; for revenge will rest satisfied with nothing short of the ruin of its object. But since sin is an offence against the law and government of God, and punishment, under his administration, is for the vindication of the honour of his law and government, if this end of punishment can be gained even more effectually by satisfaction from a surety than it could possibly be by the eternal destruction of the sinner, the doctrine of satisfaction by substitution must be compatible with the honour of God’s law and moral administration.
The Law-Driven Sermon
When I hear an essentially law-driven sermon, asking the law to do what only the grace of Jesus Christ can accomplish, I am immediately concerned about the preacher. I wonder about his view of himself, because if you have any self-consciousness about your own weakness and sin, you find little hope and comfort for yourself and your hearers in that kind of sermon.
HT: Reformed Quotes
To the Praise of His Glorious Grace
The Great Mystery No One Can Solve
This is the great mystery that no one can solve–-how God could love sinners, without there being anything in them worthy of his love.
HT: @OldGuyQuotes
Life Is Worship 