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Jesus was very clear in his conversation regarding the Pharisees - they were obsessed with keeping the outside of the cup clean, while Jesus focused on the inside of the cup, that is - keeping the heart pure before God.
Recent Entries
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?
Out Of The Heart......
July 8, 2008
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." Jeremiah 17:9,10
John Owen (died 1683) said that there are two things that are suitable to humble the souls of men. One, a due consideration of God, and then of ourselves. Of God in his greatness, glory, holiness, power, majesty and authority; and of ourselves in our mean, abject and sinful condition. God taught Owen to consider both: to let God, the Sovereign Creator, be God in his thought and life, and to recognize his own guilt and uncleanness.
The latter, he held, was especially important; ‘the man that understands the evil of his own heart, how vile it is, is the only useful, fruitful and solidly believing and obedient person….’ A man must abhor himself before he can serve God aright. (Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst! 1 Timothy 1:15)
Owen, proud by nature, had been brought low in and by his conversion, and thereafter he kept himself low by recurring contemplation of his inbred sinfulness. J. I. Packer A QUEST FOR GODLINESS page 193
“My heart is like a highway, like a city without walls or gates. Nothing so false, so frivolous, so is so absurd, so impossible or so horrid that it cannot obtain access, and that at any time, or in any place.” John Newton
FROM ADONIRAM JUDSON IN A LETTER TO HIS SISTERS – 1828
……I have this day moved into a small cottage, which I have built in the woods, away from the haunts of men. It proves a stormy evening, and the desolation around me accords with the desolate state of my own mind, where grief for the dear departed combines with sorrow for present sin, and my tears flow at the same time over the forsaken grave of my love and over the loathsome sepulcher of my own heart.
“You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Revelation 2:4-5
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51
For John Owen, the cross and the Spirit are the 2 focal realities when it comes to the Christian life. Christ merited the gift of the Spirit to the elect sinner by dying for him. The Spirit then comes to him to show him what the cross reveals of Christ’s love for him, to bring home to him the pardon Christ won for him, to change his heart, and to make him love his Savior.
John Owen is full of hope, declaring, "the Spirit leads us to Christ’s cross, God’s guarantee to us that our sins, so far from bringing about our death eternally, shall themselves die, and brings the cross of Christ into our hearts...."
ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable.
Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
John Owen (died 1683) said that there are two things that are suitable to humble the souls of men. One, a due consideration of God, and then of ourselves. Of God in his greatness, glory, holiness, power, majesty and authority; and of ourselves in our mean, abject and sinful condition. God taught Owen to consider both: to let God, the Sovereign Creator, be God in his thought and life, and to recognize his own guilt and uncleanness.
The latter, he held, was especially important; ‘the man that understands the evil of his own heart, how vile it is, is the only useful, fruitful and solidly believing and obedient person….’ A man must abhor himself before he can serve God aright. (Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst! 1 Timothy 1:15)
Owen, proud by nature, had been brought low in and by his conversion, and thereafter he kept himself low by recurring contemplation of his inbred sinfulness. J. I. Packer A QUEST FOR GODLINESS page 193
“My heart is like a highway, like a city without walls or gates. Nothing so false, so frivolous, so is so absurd, so impossible or so horrid that it cannot obtain access, and that at any time, or in any place.” John Newton
FROM ADONIRAM JUDSON IN A LETTER TO HIS SISTERS – 1828
……I have this day moved into a small cottage, which I have built in the woods, away from the haunts of men. It proves a stormy evening, and the desolation around me accords with the desolate state of my own mind, where grief for the dear departed combines with sorrow for present sin, and my tears flow at the same time over the forsaken grave of my love and over the loathsome sepulcher of my own heart.
“You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Revelation 2:4-5
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51
For John Owen, the cross and the Spirit are the 2 focal realities when it comes to the Christian life. Christ merited the gift of the Spirit to the elect sinner by dying for him. The Spirit then comes to him to show him what the cross reveals of Christ’s love for him, to bring home to him the pardon Christ won for him, to change his heart, and to make him love his Savior.
John Owen is full of hope, declaring, "the Spirit leads us to Christ’s cross, God’s guarantee to us that our sins, so far from bringing about our death eternally, shall themselves die, and brings the cross of Christ into our hearts...."
ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable.
Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
From the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
