Tag Archives: Bible

Inward Relationship versus Outward Religion

Posted on by under Robert Murray McCheyne

You may read your Bible, and pray over it till you die; you may wait on the preached Word every Sabbath-day, . . . [But] if you are not brought to cleave to him, to look to him, to believe in him, to cry out with inward adoration: “My Lord, and my God”—”How great is his goodness! How great is his beauty!”—then the outward observance of the ordinances is all in vain to you.

Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843)

HT: desiringgod.org

The Kingdom Comes When the King Is Honored

Posted on by under J. H. Jowett

“Thy will be done.” And with what better comment upon the words can I begin than this from John Calvin: “The substance of the prayer is that God would enlighten the world by the light of His Word, would form the hearts of men by the influence of His Spirit, and would restore to order, by the gracious exercise of His power, all the disorder that exists in the world.” John Calvin thus brings us to a very definite conception as to what the prayer implies. The Kingdom comes just as God’s thought and Spirit become dominant — His grace pervading human affection, His counsel illumining human judgment, His purpose fashioning human desire. His will controlling human movement. The Kingdom comes when His throne is revered, and when “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne” constrains our wills in glad and spontaneous obedience. The Kingdom comes just as human relationships are shaped and beautified by the character of God, His righteousness expressed in our rectitude, His grace flowering in our graciousness, and His love finding a witness in everything lovely and of good report. The Kingdom comes when the King is honored and when His statutes become our songs.

J. H. Jowett, Things That Matter Most

Remembering That Minister Means Nothing but Servant

Posted on by under R.B. Kuiper

The minister must always remember that the dignity of his office adheres not in his person but in his office itself. He is not at all important, but his office is extremely important. Therefore he should take his work most seriously without taking himself seriously. He should preach the Word in season and out of season in forgetfulness of self. He should ever have an eye single to the glory of Christ, whom he preaches, and count himself out. It should be his constant aim that Christ, whom he represents, may increase while he himself decreases. Remembering that minister means nothing but servant, he should humbly, yet passionately, serve the Lord Christ and His church.

R.B. Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ (Banner of Truth, 1966), 140-42.

Does Your God Contradict You?

Posted on by under Timothy Keller

We know that in mutually loving relationships, both parties must be active agents, able to contradict as well as affirm each other. If person A is never allowed to express a contradictory opinion to person B, then person B has a power relationship with person A, but not a personal one.

Now, if you choose to believe only those things in the Bible that you agree with, in what way do you have a God who can contradict you? Only if your God can say things that upset you will you know you have a real God and not a creation of your imagination. So an authoritative Bible . . . is not the enemy of a personal love relationship with God. . . . It is the precondition.

Timothy Keller, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism, p. 113

HT: @mph_II