Worldliness today

"Worldliness" -- something that the Bible warns Christians about (Rom. 12:2 and 1 John 2:15-17) -- is often very hard to detect precisely because it's just a part of the world (of ideas, values, practices) that we inhabit (almost unconsciously). That means Christians and churches need to be especially diligent and vigilant, habitually applying Scripture as the standard and filter for our beliefs, practices and values. (Here's one potential example: in the Bible, the younger are habitually called upon to defer to the older...but in popular, contemporary Christianity, which group is more influential?) The motto of the Protestant Reformation is still important: '...the church always being reformed/renewed by the Word of God...'

True Christians Persevere in Faith

John Murray:

The very, expression, “The Perseverance of the Saints” in itself guards against every notion or suggestion to the effect that a believer is secure, that is to say, secure as to his eternal salvation, quite irrespective of the extent to which he may fall into sin and backslide from faith and holiness. It guards against any such way of construing the status of the believer because that way of stating the doctrine is pernicious and perverse.

It is not true that the believer is secure however much he may fall into sin and unfaithfulness. Why is this not true? It is not true because it sets up an impossible combination. It is true that a believer sins; he may fall into grievous sin and backslide for lengthy periods. But it is also true that a believer cannot abandon himself to sin; he cannot come under the dominion of sin; he cannot be guilty of certain kinds of unfaithfulness. And therefore it is utterly wrong to say that a believer is secure quite irrespective of his subsequent life of sin and unfaithfulness. The truth is that the faith of Jesus Christ is always respective of the life of holiness and fidelity. And so it is never proper to think of a believer irrespective of the fruits in faith and holiness. To say that a believer is secure whatever may be the extent of his addiction to sin in his subsequent life is to abstract faith in Christ from its very definition and it ministers to that abuse which turns the grace of God into lasciviousness.

The doctrine of perseverance is the doctrine that believers persevere; it cannot be too strongly stressed that it is the perseverance of the saints. And that means that the saints, those united to Christ by the effectual call of the Father and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, will persevere unto the end. If they persevere, they endure, they continue. It is not at all that they will be saved irrespective of their perseverance or their continuance, but that they will assuredly persevere. Consequently the security that is theirs is inseparable from their perseverance.

Perseverance means the engagement of our persons in the most intense and concentrated devotion to those means which God has ordained for the achievement of his saving purpose. The scripture doctrine of perseverance has no affinity with the quietism and antinomianism which are so prevalent in evangelical circles”

-- John Murray, “Redemption Accomplished and Applied”,  pp. 154-155

What Are You Looking For?

"We are all glory-chasers and pleasure [happiness]-seekers.  The question is where you’re looking."

A very wise essay from Jonathan Parnell and Desiring God Ministries.

Our Brother

"As a tempted brother, he feels for us; as a sinless brother he can save us."

— Sinclair Ferguson, "Children of the Living God" (Heb. 2:16-18)

Friendship with God is the highest good

Your true and deepest good (happiness/flourishing) is, and comes by means of, the friendship with God that He so graciously offers (Isa. 48:17f.). (And you are ruined by spiritually adulterous friendship with the world -- that is, life not devoted to God's glory [James 4:4]).

We Live in and by Looking

"His finished work, His accepted sacrifice, His precious blood, His completed expiation on ‘the accursed tree.’ On this work we live daily. It is a quickening work; a work the knowledge of which is life to the dead soul.

"To disbelieve that work, or to lose sight of it, is death; to believe it, and to keep our eye upon it, is life and healing. The sight of it, or the thinking about it (call it by what name we please), draws in life; we live in and by looking. This work contains the divine fullness provided for the sinner."


— Horatius Bonar
The Gospel in Galatians

Friendship

“Although affection characterizes many of the friendships portrayed in the Bible, affection is ancillary to the animating center of friendship, which is nothing less than the willingness to lay down one's life for one's friend (Jn 15:13). Such friendships are not optional for Christians; Jesus commands his disciples to befriend one another in this distinctive way. Moreover, Paul recommends that new converts and those who are young in the faith should 'devote themselves to the service of the saints' (1 Cor 16:15) and place themselves under 'the authority of the elders' (1 Pet 5:5). For Paul, friendships of accountability and training are central to growth in holiness.”

-- Kent Dunnington, "Addiction and Virtue"

How to Wed Scripture and Song in Corporate Worship

"There cannot be religion where there is not reason. There cannot be the exercise of religion where there is not an exercise of the rational faculties. . . . . All worship must be for some end—the worship of God must be for God. It is by the exercise of our rational faculties that we can intend an end [purpose/goal]." (Stephen Charnock, "The Existence and Attributes of God")

"The Word of God does many things, but engaging the mind in worship is one of its most undervalued uses. Scripture is living and active....."

This is such a wise and important article.

Right worship relates all activity to God

“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 [goal] 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"

Sin Is Counterfeit Worship

"For all sin, as idolatry, is essentially counterfeit worship. All sin is the effort to attain independently of God that flourishing, integrity of self and delight that can only be attained through, that just IS in fact, right relationship with God."

-- Kent Dunnington, "Addiction and Virtue: Beyond the Models of Disease and Choice"

No Longer Pause

“Ransomed men need no longer pause in fear to enter the Holy of Holies.  God wills that we should push on into His Presence and live our whole life there.  This is to be known to us in conscious experience.  It is more than a doctrine to be held, it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day.”

-- A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (London, 1967), pages 36-37.

Conversion means 'a new king must reign'

“It is not conversion to think that you will turn, or to promise that you will turn, or resolve that you will turn, but actually and in very deed to turn, because the Word has had a true entrance into your heart. You must not be content with a reformation; there must be a revolution: old thrones must fall, and a new king must reign. Is it so with you?”

- Charles Spurgeon

Non-offensive preaching?

"It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher."

-- George Whitefield

The Addict as Modern Prophet

A very insightful, compelling essay from Kent Dunnington, author of "Addiction and Virtue: Beyond the Models of Disease and Choice."

Our Highest Good

"God, and God alone, is man’s highest good". -Herman Bavinck