Tag Archives: Christianity

Little Is Much When God Is in It

Posted on by under Alexander Maclaren

Fleeting things done for Christ are eternal. . . . The eternal things are the things done for Christ. They are eternal in His memory who has said, “I will never forget any of their works,” however they may fall from man’s remembrance. . . . Our influence for good blends with a thousand others, and may not be traceable beyond a short distance, still it is there: and no true work for Christ. . . goes to swell the aggregate of forces which are working on through the ages to bring the perfect Order. . . . So little do we know where our work will terminate. Our only concern is where it begins. Let us look after this end, the motive; and leave God to take care of the other, the consequences.

Alexander Maclaren, The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians and Philemon (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1890), 380-381. [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Quick to Perceive Blemishes and Faults in Others

Posted on by under J. R. Miller

“Why do you look at the SPECK of sawdust in your brother’s eye–and pay no attention to the PLANK in your own eye?” Matthew 7:3

It is strange how oblivious we can be to our own faults and blemishes–and how clearly we can see those of other people! One old writer says: “Men are more apt to use a magnifying glass to behold other men’s faults–than a mirror to behold their own!” A man can see a little speck of dust in his neighbor’s eye–while utterly unaware of the great plank in his own eye! He observes the most minute fault in his brother–while unconscious of his own far greater faults!

We would say that a plank in a man’s eye would so blind him–that he could not see the speck in another’s eye. As our Lord represents it, however, the man with the plank, is the very one who sees the speck and thinks himself competent to remove it!

So it is in morals. No man is so sharp at seeing a fault in another–as he who has the same or a similar fault of his own! A vain man–is the first to detect the indications of vanity in another. A bad-tempered person–is most apt to be censorious toward a neighbor who displays bad temper. One with a sharp uncontrolled tongue–has the least patience with another whose speech is full of poisoned arrows. A selfish man–discovers even specks of selfishness in others. Rude people–are the very first to be hurt and offended by the rudeness of a neighbor.

So it is always. If we are quick to perceive blemishes and faults in others–the probability is, that we have far greater blemishes and faults in ourselves! This truth ought to make us exceedingly careful in our judgments, and exceedingly modest in our expressions of censure–for we really are telling the world our own faults! It is wiser, as well as more in accordance with the spirit of Christ–for us to find lovely things in others, and to be silent regarding their faults.

J. R. Miller (1840 – 1912)

HT: Grace Gems

What Makes a Person a Christian?

Posted on by under D. Martin Lloyd-Jones

Do you know what makes men and women Christians? It is the mighty action of the almighty God, the Creator. He takes them as they are and smashes them and makes the anew. He, God, is bringing into being something that was not there; a new disposition is put into them, a new principle of life is infused into them. God enters into their lives. The life of God comes into the soul; it is a creative act, so the New Testament says that the Christian is ‘a new creature.’

D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Love So Amazing (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995), p. 115.

Living beneath the Cross of Jesus

Posted on by under Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Whoever lives beneath the cross of Jesus, and has discerned in the cross of Jesus the utter ungodliness of all people and of their own hearts, will find there is no sin that can ever be unfamiliar.

Whoever has once been appalled by the horror of their own sin, which nailed Jesus to the cross, will no longer be appalled by even the most serious sin of another Christian; rather they know the human heart from the cross of Jesus.

Such persons know how totally lost is the human heart in sin and weakness, how it goes astray in the ways of sin—and know too that this same heart is accepted in grace and mercy.

Only another Christian who is under the cross can hear my confession. It is not experience with life but experience of the cross that makes one suited to hear confession. The most experienced judge of character knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the cross of Jesus.
The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot comprehend this one thing: what sin is. Psychological wisdom knows what need and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the ugliness of the human being. And so it also does not know that human beings are ruined only by their sin and are healed only by forgiveness. The Christian alone knows this. In the presence of a psychologist I can only be sick; in the presence of another Christian I can be a sinner.

The psychologist must first search my heart, and yet can never probe its innermost recesses. Another Christian recognizes just this: here comes a sinner like myself, a godless person who wants to confess and longs for God’s forgiveness.

The psychologist views me as if there were no God. Another believer views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the cross of Jesus Christ.

When we are so pitiful and incapable of hearing the confession of one another, it is not due to a lack of psychological knowledge, but a lack of love for the crucified Jesus Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 5 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 114-16.