Sweet Mercies...Full and Durable

"There is in my Father's love every thing desirable; there is the sweetness of all mercies, and that fully and durably." -- John Owen

Can there be good without God?

The 'moral argument' for the existence of God:  A clear concise video.

The End of Our Idols

"Godly sorrow is the funeral that God puts on for our idols." [see 2 Cor. 7:10]

-- Landry Fields (of the Toronto Raptors)

Freedom of Religion

Heartened to hear Pope Francis, in his speech from Philadelphia, affirm the crucial reality that the right to religious freedom (affirmed in the very first amendment of our Bill of Rights) is by no means restricted to the 'freedom to worship' (the phrase characteristically used by President Obama and Hillary Clinton), but also the freedom to practice and live out one's religious commitments in every sphere of life -- "in the public square", culturally, politically, vocationally, etc.

The conclusion to his speech: "May this country and each of you be renewed in gratitude for the many blessings and freedoms that you enjoy. And may you defend these rights, especially your religious freedom, for it has been given to you by God himself...."

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance." -- "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights' (via the United Nations"

Religion: Indelibly Part of Human Life

"Religion is more than dogma and rules. It is a mixture of worldview and praxis that permeates all of peoples’ lives. We should remember that religion has had a prominent place in Australian history, and religious organizations form the backbone of our welfare network. Faith communities and the state can work together for the common good, and religion is an inalienable aspect of human existence, like music, art and literature. What’s more, religion is remarkably robust – it is not going to disappear. So it is far better that we treat religion as indelibly part of human life than as something to be begrudgingly tolerated and excised from public life...." -- Michael Bird

-- from "Whose Religion? Which Secularism?"

Life's "Interruptions"?

"The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s “own,” or 'real' life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life – the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s 'real life' is a phantom of one’s own imagination." ~ C.S. Lewis

Misuse of Prayer

"...we should remember Augustine's letter to Anicia.  There he says, in short, that you should not begin to pray for all you want until you realize that in God you have all you need.  That is, unless we know that God is the one thing we truly need, our petitions and supplications may become, simply, forms of worry and lust.  We can use prayer as just another way to pursue many things that we want too much.  Not only will  God not hear such prayers (because we ask for things selfishly to spend on our lusts [James 4:2-3]), but the prayers will not reorient our perspective and give us any relief from the melancholy burden of self-absorption."

-- Tim Keller, "Prayer - Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God"  p. 139

Just a Nice Guy?

"Jesus wasn't just a nice guy who did good in the world.  You don't crucify nice guys.  You crucify threats." -- Tim Keller

The Word, Prayer and the Spirit

"Luther expects that we will hear God speak through his Word. Luther will not make the same mistake as George Whitefield, assuming that his inner impressions are revelations from God. God’s communication to us is in the Scripture.

"That does not mean, however, that meditation is merely an exercise of the mind. He expects that the Spirit, as we reflect on the biblical truth before God, will sometimes fill our heart with rich thoughts and ideas that feel poignant and new to us, even when we are thinking about a text or truth that we have heard hundreds of times before.

"Luther is talking about the eyes of our hearts being enlightened (Eph 1: 18) so that things we know with the mind become more fully rooted in our beings’ core."

-- Tim Keller, Timothy "Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God" (pp. 95-96). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

A Faith That Works?

I cannot think that I have learned much about living a life of faith in God -- in my own case, or in those I seek to minister to -- unless and until such faith bears fruit in the happiness of holiness -- what Paul calls 'righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit' (Rom. 14:17).

The Fear of Man

"It is dangerous to be[too] concerned with what others think of you, but if you trust the Lord, you are safe." -- Proverbs 29:25 (GNT)

Perspective

“For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.”
― C.S. Lewis

Calvin on the "Divided Experience" of Believers

Believers experience ups and downs in their lives, but the final reality of their lives is faith. The divided experience of believers is captured well by Calvin:

"Therefore the godly heart feels in itself a division because it is partly imbued with sweetness from its recognition of the divine goodness, partly grieves in bitterness from the awareness of its calamity; partly rests upon the promises of the gospel, partly trembles at the evidence of its own iniquity; partly rejoices at the expectation of life, partly shudders at death. This variation arises from imperfection of faith, since in the course of the present life it never goes so well with us that we are wholly cured of the disease of unbelief and entirely filled and possessed by faith."

-- quoted by Thomas Schreiner, "Faith Alone---The Doctrine of Justification: What the Reformers Taught...and Why It Still Matters (The Five Solas Series)" 

Living by Faith Is Not Easy in This Fallen World

'Luther captured, perhaps better than any theologian, the weakness that still bedevils our lives. He says, “The words ‘freedom from the wrath of God, from the Law, sin, death, etc.,’ are easy to say, but to feel the greatness of the freedom and to apply its results to oneself in a struggle, in the agony of conscience, and in practice — this is more difficult than anyone can say.”  Living by faith is not easy in this fallen world.'

 -- quoted by Thomas Schreiner in "Faith Alone: the Doctrine of Justification"

What It Means to Worship

To worship, then, means to gratefully serve and obey God, in all of life, out of reverent submission and devotion to Him, in response to His greatness and grace."   (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 10:31; 1 Thess. 1:9; Rom. 6:17ff; Heb. 12:28-29.)

As Living Sacrifices

"And how is the body to become a sacrifice?  Let your tongue speak nothing filthy, and it has become and offering; let your hand do no lawless deed, and it has become a whole burnt offering.”

-- Chrysostom (on Romans 12:1-2)

Worship is a Totalizing Activity

“Worship is adoration of, devotion to and complete submission to God. Right worship strives to relate all human desire and activity to God; it is an exercise in reorientation toward one all-sufficient end. All human desires and activities are put into question: How does this love, this commitment, this activity avow or disavow, affirm or disclaim my relationship to God as the fundamental expression of my identity and destiny?

"Worship is therefore a totalizing activity; it demands that everything in a person's life be put in the dock before God, interrogated by one standard and consequently renounced or reordered.

"This is why the form of worship is prayer. In confession we repent of that in us that does not conduce to love of God, and in praise and intercession we reorder our vision and our desires to the love of God. The end of right worship is that everything be taken captive for Christ, that our lives as Christians be the expression of one unceasing prayer to God.”


-- Kent Dunnington. Addiction and Virtue: Beyond the Models of Disease and Choice (Strategic Initiatives in Evangelical Theology) (Kindle Locations 1717-1719). Kindle Edition.

Experiential Prayer

"Prayer is the way to experience a powerful confidence that God is handling our lives well, that our bad things will turn out for good, our good things cannot be taken from us, and the best things are yet to come." -- Timothy Keller

Worry

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” -- Corrie ten Boom

God's Fatherly Pity

“Though he knows your trials will work for your good, yet he pities you. Though he knows that there is sin in you, which, perhaps, may require this rough discipline ere you be sanctified, yet he pities you. Though he can hear the music of heaven, the songs of glee that will ultimately come of your present sighs and griefs, yet still he pities those groans and wails of yours; for ‘He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.’ In all our distresses and present griefs he takes his share; he pities us as a father pities his children.”

- Charles Spurgeon, “God’s Fatherly Pity”
posted at "Of First Importance"

Do You Really Have God?

"For you do not have a god [or, perhaps, you don't really have God] if you [just] call him God outwardly with your lips...but [only] if you trust him your with heart and look to him for all good, grace and favor...."

"Such faith and confidence can be found only when it springs up and flows from the blood and wounds and death of Christ. If you see in these that God is so kindly disposed toward you that he even gives his own Son for you then your heart in turn must grow sweet and disposed towards God and in this way your confidence must grow out of pure good will and love, God's toward you, and yours toward God." [lightly edited]

-- Martin Luther

How Can We Be Liberated from Guilty Fears? (Luther)

Until the heart believes in God, it is impossible for it to rejoice in him. When faith is lacking, man is filled with fear and gloom and is disposed to flee at the very mention, the mere thought, of God. Indeed, the unbelieving heart is filled with enmity and hatred against God. Conscious of its own guilt, it has no confidence in his gracious mercy; it knows God is an enemy to sin and will terribly punish the same.

Since there exist in the heart these two things--a consciousness of sin and a perception of God's chastisement the heart must ever be depressed, faint, even terrified. It must be continually apprehensive that God stands behind ready to chastise. Solomon says (Prov 28, 1), "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." And Deuteronomy 28, 65-66 reads, "Jehovah will give thee there a trembling heart . . . . and thy life shall hang in doubt." One may as well try to persuade water to burn as to talk to such a heart of joy in God. All words will be without effect, for the sinner feels upon his conscience the pressure of God's hand. The prophet's injunction (Ps 32, 11) likewise is: "Be glad in Jehovah, and rejoice, ye righteous; and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." It must be the just and the righteous who are to rejoice in the Lord. This text, therefore, is written, not for the sinner, but for the saint. First we must tell sinners how they can be liberated from their sins and perceive a merciful God. When they have been released from the power of an evil conscience, joy will result naturally.

But how shall we be liberated from an accusing conscience and receive the assurance of God's mercy? The question has been sufficiently answered in the preceding postils, and will be again frequently satisfied later on. He who would have a quiet conscience, and would be sensitive of God's mercy, must not, like the apostates, depend on works, still further doing violence to the heart and increasing its hatred of God. He must place no hope whatever in works; must apprehend God in Christ, comprehend the Gospel and believe its promises.

But what does the Gospel promise other than that Christ is given for us; that he bears our sins; that he is our Bishop, Mediator, and Advocate before God, and that thus only through him and his work is God reconciled, are our sins forgiven and our consciences set free and made glad? When this sort of faith in the Gospel really exists in the heart, God is recognized as favorable and pleasing. The heart confidently feels his favor and grace, and only these. It fears not God's chastisement. It is secure and in good spirit because God has conferred upon it, through Christ, superabundant goodness and grace. Essentially, the fruits of such a faith are love, peace, joy, and songs of thanksgiving and praise. It will enjoy unalloyed and sincere pleasure in God as its supremely beloved and gracious Father, a Father whose attitude toward itself has been wholly paternal, and who, without any merit on its part, has richly poured out upon that heart his goodness.

-- Martin Luther (sermon)

Luther on Confidently Feeling God's Favor and Grace

"But what does the Gospel promise other than that Christ is given for us; that he bears our sins; that he is our Bishop, Mediator, and Advocate before God, and that thus only through him and his work is God reconciled, are our sins forgiven and our consciences set free and made glad? When this sort of faith in the Gospel really exists in the heart, God is recognized as favorable and pleasing. The heart confidently feels his favor and grace, and only these. It fears not God's chastisement. It is secure and in good spirit because God has conferred upon it, through Christ, superabundant goodness and grace. Essentially, the fruits of such a faith are love, peace, joy, and songs of thanksgiving and praise. It will enjoy unalloyed and sincere pleasure in God as its supremely beloved and gracious Father, a Father whose attitude toward itself has been wholly paternal, and who, without any merit on its part, has richly poured out upon that heart his goodness." -- Martin Luther

Faith: Certain About God's Benevolence

"Faith is ultimately a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit”

― John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Vols

Are You a True Believer?

"In one word, he only is a true believer who, firmly persuaded that God is reconciled, and is a kind Father to him, hopes everything from his kindness, who, trusting to the promises of the divine favor, with undoubting confidence anticipates salvation; as the Apostle shows in these words, “We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end,” (Heb. 3:14).

"He thus holds, that none hope well in the Lord save those who confidently glory in being the heirs of the heavenly kingdom."

-- John Calvin

The Nature of Idolatry

"Granting something ultimate value does not necessarily mean attributing a set of metaphysical divine attributes; the act of granting ultimate value involves a life of devotion and ultimate commitment to something or someone.

"Absolute value can be conferred on many things... In this extension of worship, religious attitude is perceived not as part of metaphysics or as an expression of customary rituals, but as a form of absolute devotion, an attitude that makes something into a godlike being.

"What makes something into an absolute is that it is both overriding and demanding. It claims to stand superior to any competing claim.... Any non-absolute value that is made absolute and demands to be the center of dedicated life is idolatry."

-- "Idolatry" by Moshe Halbertal and Avishai Margalit (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1992)

Everyone Worships

"Worship is one of the ultimate themes of this life, but it is never a question of whether worship will or won’t occur in the heart of a human being. It’s more a case of whether that worship will travel in the proper direction and end up in the right place.

"It’s guaranteed that everyone on this planet will be an extravagant worshiper of some kind, sacrificially spending themselves in a life of desire and devotion. But it’s by no means guaranteed that their worship will travel along the right paths.

"People will find a way to worship anything and everything. But all the time, God is calling us back to himself, back to being the God reflectors and image bearers we were meant to be. He is the only One worthy of our worship."

"As C. S. Lewis reminded us, idols inevitably break the hearts of their worshipers. But not so when we worship Jesus—of course the complete opposite occurs, and we find ourselves in a place of fulfillment and satisfaction."

-- Matt Redman (in his preface to Bob Kauflin's new book, "True Worshipers"