Recent Posts
God? Who Needs Him?May 31, 2013
Self-sufficient humanism. Paul saw it coming – “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
Imago Dei
September 12, 2012
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Why Can't I Pray?
August 18, 2012
The bible gives us several reasons, but according to Jeremy Taylor, a deceitful heart is at the root of prayerlessness.
It's Not Rocket Science
July 23, 2012
To keep in step with the Spirit should be our daily quest. And if we are successful at that, all of life falls into place.
Theological Steak
April 10, 2012
These words by P. T. Forsythe on the magnificence of Christ's work are to theology what Ruth's Chris is to a good steak.
Describing the Indescribable
February 11, 2012
What we have in Christ will take all eternity to describe. But for one segment of one sermon, a great preacher made a mighty attempt.
Making Sense Of It All
January 30, 2012
Where are things headed? Is there rhyme and reason to the endless cycle of summer, fall, winter and spring? Is there a plan in place, or is randomness the explanation?
Happy, Happy, Happy
January 4, 2012
The declaration of independence holds up the pursuit of happiness as a right. Did you ever consider the reading the bible might be the one source that will never let you down?It's unfortunate that George Mueller is not a household name, considering all the good he did for thousands of parentless children on the streets of London in the middle of the 19th century.
The orphanages that God raised up through Mueller's faith were started with only two shillings (50 cents) but as he prayed - believe it or not without making his needs known - slowly but surely the buildings were built to feed and house orphans for sixty years.
How did this happen, you ask? Curiously, Mueller credits his habit of scripture reading.
I believe that the one chief reason that I have been kept in happy useful service is that I have been a lover of Holy Scripture.
It has been my habit to read the Bible through four times a year; in a prayerful spirit, to apply it to my heart, and practice what I find there. I have been for sixty-nine years a happy man; happy, happy, happy."
Forget four times. Try once in 2012. Baby steps. Here are some questions to keep you focused and to increase your understanding of what you are reading.
1. What do these words actually mean?
2. What light do other scriptures through on this text? Where and how does it fit in the total biblical revelation?
3. What truths does it teach about God, and about man in relation to God?
4. How are these truths related to the saving work of Christ, and what light does the gospel of Christ throw on them?
5. What experiences do these truths delineate, or explain, or seek to create or cure? For what practical purpose do they stand in Scripture?
6. How do they apply to myself and others in our own actual situation? To what present human condition do they speak, and what are they telling us to believe and do?
From A QUEST FOR GODLINESS by J. I. Packer, page 105
"Where Are You?"
May 21, 2010
Way back when, Adam and Eve transgressed, and God saw. And he came looking, as they attempted to hide. Nothing has changed. We still transgress, we still hide, and God still seeks."We were created for God."
Raymond C. Ortlund Jr.
"Every living soul belongs to me.”
Ezekiel 18:4
"We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. "No man can come to me," said our Lord, "except the Father which hath sent me draw him," and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming."
A. W. Tozer THE PURSUIT OF GOD
"Christianity is not about the sinner finding God, but about God finding the sinner."
David F. Wells ABOVE ALL EARTHLY POWERS
The idea of a seeking God can be a bit threatening. In MIRACLES, C. S. Lewis addressed the concept with the use of words that only he could muster:
"The Pantheist's God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. HE WILL NOT PURSUE YOU.
There is no danger that at any time heaven and earth should flee away at His glance. If He were the truth, then we could really say that all the Christian images of kingship were a historical accident of which our religion ought to be cleansed.
It is with a shock that we discover them to be INDESPENSABLE. You have had a shock like tht before, in connection with smaller matters - when the line pulls at your hand, when something breathes beside you in the darkness.
So here; the shock comes at the precise moment when the thrill of life is communicated to us along the clue we have been following.
It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. "Look out!' we cry, "it's alive!" And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back - I would have done so myself if I could - and proceed no further with Christianity.
An "impersonal God"? Well and good.
A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness inside our own heads? Better still.
A formless life-force surgin through us, a vast power which we can tap? Best of all.
But GOD HIMSELF, ALIVE, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed - the hunter, king, husband - that is QUITE ANOTHER MATTER.
There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall?
There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (Man's search for God"!) suddenly draw back.
SUPPOSING WE REALLY FOUND HIM? We never meant it to come to that! WORSE STILL, SUPPOSING HE HAD FOUND US?"
The Book Of Books
May 21, 2010
Sixty-six individual books, but one theme, really - God, and his purposes in history. The beginning is there, so is the ending, and everything inbetween. What's more, it's all true.
When God Comes Close
May 19, 2010
Jacob had his dream, and knew that God had been there. Jonathan Edwards had that afternoon in the woods, as God poured out his love profoundly and personally. Paul had an experience with God that he could not put into words. And they were changed.
Holding On To Air
May 3, 2010
Arthur Sulzberger Jr. can't be faulted for hypocrisy. He is a true believer. But in what, exactly?
Old Things Pass Away....
June 13, 2009
Transformation. Being born again, suddenly everything is turned upside down. Or is it right-side-up? Either way, we no longer see things the same way. We belong to another. And it's ok. Or if it's not.....
Don't Leave Home Without Him!
May 4, 2009
The Holy Spirit is indispensable to our spiritual life. And yet, we do our best to live independently, relying on Him as little as possible. Big mistake. Spurgeon helps us realize what we're missing.
Richard Dawkins, Meet Blaise Pascal
April 17, 2009
Paul tells us that the god of this world blinds the hearts of unbelievers. So their conclusions about eternal things further Satan's cause. Others, like Pascal, see with God-given perception, and truth is advanced, for those who have ears to listen.
WISE GUYS - Richard Sibbes
April 13, 2009
Some people can't help themselves, and just think - profoundly, about eternal things. Richard Sibbes was one of those, a Puritan pastor who left the interested reader a wealth of rich thought on the wonder of God.
Restless? Join The Club
April 7, 2009
Why do we sit with a remote and just click away mindlessly? Why do we flit from interest to interest? Why is remaking ourselves a popular cultural passtime? Do you think God might have had anything to do with it?
The Cross and "Whatever"
March 6, 2009
It is not possible for there to be more pathos than what is packed into the death of our Lord Jesus on the cross. But often there is no "correspondingly" from us to match the significance of the moment. How do we move from cold indifference to melting?
