Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You Richly
December 4, 2016 in Bible - NT - Colossians, Christmas, Meditations, Singing Psalms, Worship
The Living Stone
November 28, 2016 in Bible - NT - 1 Peter, Church Calendar, Meditations, Singing Psalms, Worship
If there is any virtue…
November 21, 2016 in Bible - NT - Philippians, Bible - OT - Proverbs, Holy Spirit, Meditations, Sanctification
Whatever things are of good report
November 14, 2016 in Bible - NT - Philippians, Bible - OT - Psalms, Confession, Meditations, Worship
We are far too easily pleased
November 2, 2016 in Glorification, Human Condition, Quotations, Sanctification, Sin“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ‘ordinary’ people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”
No Confidence in the Flesh
November 1, 2016 in Bible - NT - Philippians, Ecclesiology, Politics, Quotations“The person who puts confidence in the flesh says, ‘Belonging to my tribe and observing my ritual make me secure in my relationship with God.’ In contrast to those who put such confidence in the flesh, the true people of God, the circumcision, put no confidence in national status and religious ceremony. Boasting in Christ Jesus excludes putting confidence in the flesh. Although national identities and sacred ceremonies are not viewed as bad in themselves, they are rejected as the foundation for one’s relationship with God or with fellow believers.”
G. Walter Hansen, The Letter to the Philippians, p. 222.
Whatever Things are Pure
October 30, 2016 in Bible - NT - Philippians, Bible - OT - Job, Bible - OT - Psalms, Holy Spirit, Justification, Meditations- “Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness…?” (Exodus 15:11)
- “No one is holy like the LORD….” (1 Samuel 2:2)
- “Exalt the LORD our God, And worship at His footstool— He is holy.”(Psalm 99:5)
Because God is pure, the world as He originally created it was pure. “God made man upright but he has sought out many schemes.” (Eccl. 7:29) God made us upright; He made us pure. We were fashioned to worship Him alone not idols; to speak pure words not lies; to be generous not greedy; to be sexually pure not lustful.