Trusting God...Renouncing Retaliation

“Without entrusting oneself to the God who judges justly, it will hardly be possible to follow the crucified Messiah and refuse to retaliate when abused.  The certainty of God’s just judgment at the end of history is the presupposition for the renunciation of violence in the middle of it.”

-- Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace (Nashville, 1996), page 302.

Who holds the helm of the universe?

"What a wonderful thought that is, that the whole course of human affairs and of natural processes is directed by Him who died upon the cross!  The helm of the universe is held by the hands which were pierced for us….

“We need these lessons today, when many teachers are trying hard to drive all that is spiriutual and Divine out of creation and history, and to set up a merciless law as the only God.  Nature is terrible and stern sometimes, and the course of events can inflict crushing blows; we do not have the added horror of thinking both to be [random,] controlled by no will.

“Christ is king in either region, and with our Elder Brother for the ruler of the land, we shall not lack grain in our sacks, nor a Goshen to dwell in.

“We need not people the void, as these old heretics did, with imaginary forms, nor with impersonal forces and laws – nor need we, as so many are doing today, wander through its many mansions/[rooms] as through a deserted house, finding nowhere a Person who welcomes us; for everywhere we may behold our Saviour, and out of every storm and every solitude hear his voice across the darkness saying, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’”

 – Alexander MacLaren, p. 81, Colossians comm.

"Sanctification for Ordinary Life"

"...Christian worship gathered around Word and table is not just a platform for our expression; it is the space for the Spirit’s (trans)formation of us. The practices of gathered Christian worship have a specific shape about them—precisely because this is how the Spirit recruits us into the story of God reconciling the world to himself in Christ. There is a logic to the shape of intentional, historic Christian worship that performs the gospel over and over again as a way to form and reform our habits. If we fail to immerse ourselves in sacramental, transformative worship, we will not be adequately formed to be ambassadors of Christ’s redemption in and for the world. In short, while the Reformers rightly emphasized the sanctification of ordinary life, they never for a moment thought this would be possible without being sanctified by Word and sacrament.

Embedded in this intuition is a helpful, even prophetic, corrective to our triumphalist tendencies. The Reformed vision of cultural renewal can breed its own sort of “activism,” a confidence in our work of cultural transformation. In fact, we can sometimes become so consumed with “transforming culture” and pursuing shalom that our well-intentioned activity becomes an end in itself. We spend so much time being the church-as-organism that we end up abandoning the church-as-institute. Not only do we emphasize that all of life is worship, we come up with self-congratulatory quips that look down on worship as “pietistic,” as a retreat from the hard, messy work of culture-making.

But as Kuyper himself emphasized, there is no way we are going to persist in the monumental task of kingdom-oriented culture making if we are not being habituated as citizens of the King...."

To read the rest of James K.A. Smith's excellent essay, go here.

Word, Spirit...Experienced Reality

"Our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction". (1 Thess 1:5)

The message of the gospel is truth accompanied by experienced reality. It did indeed come ‘in word,’ meaning in the form of proclaimed truth, as a message from God himself (see 2:4 and 13). But for this appeal the proof is in the eating. Thus it was not ‘in word alone.’ God verified its truthfulness by a display of his own power through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.


— Gordon Fee
God's Empowering Presence
(Grand Rapids, MI: Hendrickson, 1994)

John Newton on How Faith Faces a Trial

Concerning a believer, Newton writes, "...his faith upholds him under all trials, by assuring him, that every painful dispensation is under the direction of his Lord; that chastisements are a token of his love; that the season, measure, and continuance of his sufferings, are appointed by Infinite Wisdom, and designed to work for his everlasting good; and that grace and strength shall be afforded him, according to his need.

"Thus, his heart being fixed, trusting in the Lord, to whom he has committed all his concerns; and knowing that his best interests are safe; he is not greatly afraid of evil tidings, but enjoys a stable peace in the midst of a changing world. For, though he cannot tell what a day may bring forth, he believes that he who has invited and enabled him to cast all his cares upon him, will allow nothing to befall him but what shall be made subservient to his chief desire—the glory of God in the sanctification and final salvation of his soul.

"And if, through the weakness of his flesh, he is liable to be startled by the first impression of a sharp and sudden trial, he quickly flees to his strong refuge, remembers it is the Lord's doing, resigns himself to his will, and patiently expects a happy outcome."

"The Soul's Espousals to Christ"

“In this spiritual espousal or marriage relation between Christ and his people, there is a giving of themselves each to the other.  Christ, on the one hand, gives himself unto the soul.  ‘I will be yours,’ says he to the soul, ‘yours to love you, to save you, to make you happy in me and with me.  I, with all my riches and treasures, will be fully and forever yours.’ . . . And Oh, how sweet is this language!  What can Christ give to poor souls like himself?  In giving himself, he gives the best gift that either heaven or earth affords!  In giving himself, he gives life, he gives peace, he gives grace, he gives righteousness, he gives the favor of God, he gives heaven, he gives all.  Oh, sweet gift!  On the other hand, the soul, by way of return, gives itself to Christ.  ‘I will be thine,’ says the soul to Christ.  ‘I will be for thee and not for another. . . . Sweet Jesus, such as I am and have I give to thee.  I am a poor, a sorry gift,’ says the soul, ‘infinitely unworthy of thine acceptance.  My best is too bad, my all is too little for thee; but seeing it is thy pleasure to call for and accept of such a gift at my hands, I do, with my whole soul, give myself, my strength, my time, my talents, my all, forever to thee.’”

-- Edward Pearse, The Best Match, or, The Soul’s Espousals to Christ (Morgan, 1994 reprint), pages 5-6.

We are the late-comers slipping into creation's choir...

"The creature has no voice of its own. It does not point to its own picture. It echoes and reflects the glory of the Lord. It does this in its heights and its depths, its happiness and its misery. The angels do it (and unfortunately we have almost completely forgotten that we are surrounded by the angels as crown witnesses to the divine glory). But even the smallest creatures do it too. They do it along with us or without us. They do it also against us to shame us and instruct us. They do it because they cannot help doing it. They would not and could not exist unless first and last and properly they did this and only this. And when man accepts again his destiny in Jesus Christ in the promise and faith of the future revelation of his participation in God's glory as it is already given Him here and now, he is only like a late-comer slipping shamefacedly into creation's choir in heaven and earth, which has never ceased its praise, but merely suffered and sighed, as it still does, that in inconceivable folly and ingratitude its living center man does not hear its voice, its response, its echoing of the divine glory, or rather hears it in a completely perverted way, and refuses to co-operate in the jubilation which surrounds him. This is the sin of man which is judged and forgiven in Jesus Christ, which God himself has made good and cast behind man's back. It is this which in Jesus Christ has once for all become his past. In the eternal glory before us it will not exist at all even as the past. In the eternity before us the groaning of creation will cease, and man too will live in his determination to be the reflection and echo of God and therefore the witness to the divine glory that reaches over to him, rejoicing with the God who Himself has eternal joy and Himself is eternal joy."

-- Karl Barth

(Note, I have read very little of Barth, and am not endorsing his overall theology, or view of revelation, but in this quote I thought he wrote compellingly concerning Scriptural themes.)

Jesus, Friend of Sinners

"This man receives sinners and eats with them." Luke 15:2 

"Observe the condescension of this fact. Jesus, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, who towers above all other men—this Man receives sinners. This Man, who is no other than the eternal God, before whom angels veil their faces—this Man receives sinners. It requires an angel's tongue to describe such a mighty stoop of love. That any of us would be willing to reach the lost is nothing wonderful—they are, after all, our own race; but that He, the offended God, against whom the transgression has been committed, should take upon Himself the form of a servant and bear the sin of many and be willing to receive the worst of sinners—this is marvelous." - Alistair Begg

"The Evangelical Jesus Prayer"

A heartening article from Christianity Today on "the sinner's prayer":

"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be."

"...Theologian, May I Have a Word?..."

"The question is never if you're a theologian, but whether or not you're a good one."   Good insights in this interview of Kelly Kapic, professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.

"Theology can be overrated"

"...Obviously we need more than theology.  Not less.  More...."  A good blog post from Ray Ortlund, Jr.

"A real Person, Christ...is doing things to you"

"A real Person, Christ, here and now, in that very room where you are saying your prayers is doing things to you. It is not a question of a good man who died two thousand years ago. It is a living man, still as much a man as you, and still as much God as He was when He created the world, really coming and interfering with your very self; killing the old natural man in you and replacing it with the kind of self He has...."

~C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity"

The Transformation the Church Needs

"The transformation the church needs is the kind that results from beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18–4:6). This glory of God is a saving and judging glory—an aroma of life to those being saved and death to those perishing (2 Cor. 2:15–16), and this saving and judging glory is at the center of biblical theology. If there is to be a renewal,it will be a renewal that grows out of the blazing center that is the glory of God in the face of Christ."

-- James R. Hamilton Jr.,  "God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology" (Kindle Location 623). Good News Publishers/Crossway Books. Kindle Edition.

A Church Liked by the World?

“That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon (John 15:18-19)

Look up!

"Cultivate the habit of fixing your eye more simply on Jesus Christ, and try to know more of the fullness there is laid up in Him for every one of His believing people.

"Do not be always poring down over the imperfections of your own heart, and dissecting your own besetting sins.

"Look up.

"Look more to your risen Head in heaven, and try to realize more than you do that the Lord Jesus not only died for you, but that He also rose again, and that He is ever living at God’s right hand as your Priest, your Advocate, and your Almighty Friend.

"When the Apostle Peter “walked upon the waters to go to Jesus,” he got on very well as long as his eye was fixed upon his Almighty Master and Savior. But when he looked away to the winds and waves, and reasoned, and considered his own strength, and the weight of his body, he soon began to sink, and cried, “Lord, save me.” No wonder that our gracious Lord, while grasping his hand and delivering him from a watery grave, said, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Alas! many of us are very like Peter–we look away from Jesus, and then our hearts faint, and we feel sinking."   (Mat. 14:28–31).


— J. C. Ryle
"Our Profession"