Directives for Hating Sin # 2
Though the principle part of the cure is in turning the will to the hatred of sin, and is done by this discovery of its malignity, yet I shall add a few more directives for the executive part, supposing that what is said already has had its effect.
Directive 1 - When you have found out your disease and danger, give up yourselves to Christ as your Saviour and Physician of souls, and to the Holy Spirit as your Sanctifier, remembering that he is sufficient and willing to do the work which he has undertaken. It is not you that are to be saviours and sanctifiers of yourselves (unless as you work under Christ). But God who has undertaken it, takes it for His glory to perform it.
Directive 2 - Yet must you be willing and obedient in applying the remedies prescribed you by Christ, and observing His directions in order to your cure. And you must not think that His remedy is too bitter, and that is too sharp; but trust His love, without any more ado. Say not, "It is grievous, and I cannot take it!" For He commands you nothing but what is safe, and wholesome, and necessary. If you cannot bear His remedy - think whether you can bear the fire of hell! Are humiliation, confession, restitution, mortification, and holy diligence worse than hell?
Directive 3 - See that you take not part with sin; and wrangle not, or strive not against your Physician, or any that would do you good. Excusing sin, and persisting in sin, and extenuating it, and striving against the Spirit and conscience, and wrangling against ministers and godly friends, and hating reproof - are not the means to be cured and sanctified.
Directive 4 - See that malignity in everyone of your particular sins - which you can see and say is in sin in general. It is a gross deceit of yourselves, if you will speak a great deal of the evil of sin, and see none of this malignity in your pride, and your worldliness, and your passion and peevishness, and your malice and uncharitableness, and your lying, backbiting, slandering, or sinning against conscience for worldly gain. What self-contradiction is it for a man in prayer to aggravate sin - and when he is reproved for it, to justify or excuse it! This is like him who will speak against treason, and the enemies of the king - but because the traitors are his friends and kindred, will protect, and hide and feed them.
Directive 5 - Keep as far as you can from those temptations which feed and strengthen the sins which you would overcome. Lay siege to your sins, and starve them out, by keeping away the food and fuel which is their maintenance and life.
Directive 6 - Live in the exercise of those graces and duties which are contrary to the sins which you are most in danger of. For grace and duty are contrary to sin, and kill it, and cure us of it - as heat cures us of cold, or health of sickness.
Directive 7 - Hearken not to weakening unbelief and distrust, and cast not away the comforts of God, which are your cordials and strength. It is not a frightful, dejected, despairing frame of mind - which is fittest to resist sin; but it is the encouraging sense of the lover of God, and thankful sense of grace received.
Directive 8 - Be always suspicious of carnal self-love, and watch against it. For that is the fortress of sin, and the common patron of it; ready to draw you to it, and ready to justify it. We are very prone to be partial to our own sins. Our own passions, our own pride, our own censures, or backbitings, or injurious dealings, our own neglects of duty - seem small, excusable, if not justifiable things to us. Whereas we could easily see the faultiness of all these in another, especially in an enemy. But we should be best acquainted with our own selves and sins - and therefore hate our own sins most.
Directive 9 - Bestow your first and chief labor to kill sins at the root. Cleanse the heart, which is the fountain; for out of the heart come the evils of the life. Know which are the master-roots; and expend your greatest care and industry to mortify these. They are especially these: 1. Ignorance. 2. Unbelief. 3. Inconsiderateness. 4.Selfishness and pride. 5. Fleshliness, in pleasing a brutish appetite, lust, or fantasy. 6. Senseless hard-heartedness and sleepiness in sin.
Directive 10 - Account the world and all its pleasures, wealth, and honors, no better than indeed they are, and then satan will find no bait to catch you. Esteem all as dung with Paul (Philippians 3:8). No man will sin and sell his soul - for that which he accounts but as dung.
Directive 11 - Take heed of the first approaches and beginnings of sin. Oh how great a matter does a little of this fire kindle! And if you fall, rise quickly by sound repentance, whatever it may cost you.
Directive 12 - Make God's Word your only rule and labor diligently to understand it.
Directive 13 - In doubtful cases be not passionate or rash, but proceed deliberately, and prove things well before you fasten on them.
Directive 14 - Wait patiently on Christ until He has finished the cure, which will not be until this trying life be finished. Persevere in attendance on His Spirit and means; for He will come in season, and will not tarry. "Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to take us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. (Hosea 6:3). Though you have often said, "There is no healing." (Jeremiah 14:19). "He will heal your backslidings, and love you freely." (Hosea 14:4). "Blessed are those who wait for Him" (Isaiah 30:18).
Thus I have given such directives as may help for humiliation under sin, or hatred of it, and deliverance from it.
~Richard Baxter~
(The End)
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Saturday, April 21, 2018
Classic Christian Authors # 1
Classic Christian Authors # 1
Later you will understand!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"You do not realize now what I am doing--but later you will understand." John 13:7
Peter could not apprehend the design of our Lord in washing the disciples' feet, and impatiently expressed his surprise, "You shall never wash my feet!" Our gracious Savior in effect replied, "Wait a little, Peter--and you will see the reason for My doing so. You do not realize now what I am doing--but later you will understand."
How often are we impatient when we cannot at once see the design of the Lord's dealings with us. Sometimes, when events run contrary to our desires and expectations--we are ready, like Jacob, to say, "All these things are against me!" While in reality, none of them are against us--but all are, in a wonderful way, working together for our good.
Oh for more confidence in Him who, in infinite wisdom, is so ordering the circumstances of our lives as to promote our spiritual welfare here--and our eternal advantage in the world to come.
Even in the present life, the Lord sometimes shows us the meaning of His past dealings with us, and convinces us that when He was leading us in a rough path--He was leading us by the right way towards the city of habitation.
"Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain!
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain!"
________________________________
My times are in Your hand!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"My times are in Your hand!" Psalm 31:15
Is not this truth a joy to you, my soul?
It would be a sorry thing for me if my times were in my own hands--and it would afford me little satisfaction if my times were in anangel's hands. How restful should I be in knowing that they are in Savior's nail-pierced hands!
He sees the end from the beginning.
He knows how to apportion my sorrows and my joys.
He knows what to give--and what to withhold.
He knows also when to give--and when to take away.
But, alas! how often is my heart mistrustful--how often have I murmured under the trying dispensations of His providence! O my soul, be ashamed and confounded--be humbled in the dust that you should ever call in question the wisdom or kindness of the dealings of Him who so loved you as to give His life for your redemption!
Help me, O God of my salvation, henceforth, with childlike confidence and peaceful trust--to yield all to You, and to rejoice in the assurance that "My times are in Your hand!"
"My times are in Your hand;
Why should I doubt or fear?
My Father's hand will never cause
His child a needless tear!"
______________________________
When we find the path thorny, and the journey toilsome!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"They were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared acity for them." Hebrews 11:16
"Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come!" Hebrews 13:14
"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city!" Revelation 22:14
God has prepared a city for His redeemed people. Towards that city we are ever journeying. And as we are but sojourners, as our citizenship is in Heaven--let us manifest the pilgrim spirit. While we thankfully use and enjoy the accommodations along the way, let it plainly appear that we do not regard this transient world as our home--but that our affections are set supremely on things which are above. Let it be manifest that we act from higher principles than those which govern the men of this poor world. May our companions, our pleasures, and our spirit plainly show that we are not of the earth--but that we are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.
As sojourners, let us patiently endure the trials of the way. If we are faithful witnesses for the Lord--we must expect the world's scorn. But like Moses, may we esteem reproach for Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. And when we find the path thorny, and the journey toilsome--let us remember that it is short, and that,
"Nightly we pitch our moving tent
A day's march nearer home!"
"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims--abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul!" 1 Peter 2:11
_______________________________
Later you will understand!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"You do not realize now what I am doing--but later you will understand." John 13:7
Peter could not apprehend the design of our Lord in washing the disciples' feet, and impatiently expressed his surprise, "You shall never wash my feet!" Our gracious Savior in effect replied, "Wait a little, Peter--and you will see the reason for My doing so. You do not realize now what I am doing--but later you will understand."
How often are we impatient when we cannot at once see the design of the Lord's dealings with us. Sometimes, when events run contrary to our desires and expectations--we are ready, like Jacob, to say, "All these things are against me!" While in reality, none of them are against us--but all are, in a wonderful way, working together for our good.
Oh for more confidence in Him who, in infinite wisdom, is so ordering the circumstances of our lives as to promote our spiritual welfare here--and our eternal advantage in the world to come.
Even in the present life, the Lord sometimes shows us the meaning of His past dealings with us, and convinces us that when He was leading us in a rough path--He was leading us by the right way towards the city of habitation.
"Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain!
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain!"
________________________________
My times are in Your hand!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"My times are in Your hand!" Psalm 31:15
Is not this truth a joy to you, my soul?
It would be a sorry thing for me if my times were in my own hands--and it would afford me little satisfaction if my times were in anangel's hands. How restful should I be in knowing that they are in Savior's nail-pierced hands!
He sees the end from the beginning.
He knows how to apportion my sorrows and my joys.
He knows what to give--and what to withhold.
He knows also when to give--and when to take away.
But, alas! how often is my heart mistrustful--how often have I murmured under the trying dispensations of His providence! O my soul, be ashamed and confounded--be humbled in the dust that you should ever call in question the wisdom or kindness of the dealings of Him who so loved you as to give His life for your redemption!
Help me, O God of my salvation, henceforth, with childlike confidence and peaceful trust--to yield all to You, and to rejoice in the assurance that "My times are in Your hand!"
"My times are in Your hand;
Why should I doubt or fear?
My Father's hand will never cause
His child a needless tear!"
______________________________
When we find the path thorny, and the journey toilsome!
("Every Day!" Author unknown,)
"They were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared acity for them." Hebrews 11:16
"Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come!" Hebrews 13:14
"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city!" Revelation 22:14
God has prepared a city for His redeemed people. Towards that city we are ever journeying. And as we are but sojourners, as our citizenship is in Heaven--let us manifest the pilgrim spirit. While we thankfully use and enjoy the accommodations along the way, let it plainly appear that we do not regard this transient world as our home--but that our affections are set supremely on things which are above. Let it be manifest that we act from higher principles than those which govern the men of this poor world. May our companions, our pleasures, and our spirit plainly show that we are not of the earth--but that we are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem.
As sojourners, let us patiently endure the trials of the way. If we are faithful witnesses for the Lord--we must expect the world's scorn. But like Moses, may we esteem reproach for Christ as greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. And when we find the path thorny, and the journey toilsome--let us remember that it is short, and that,
"Nightly we pitch our moving tent
A day's march nearer home!"
"Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims--abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul!" 1 Peter 2:11
_______________________________
The searching, burning, purifying fires of Christ's furnace!
(Octavius Winslow, "Daily Need Divinely Supplied")
"He will sit as a Refiner and Purifier of silver--He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. " Malachi 3:3
(Octavius Winslow, "Daily Need Divinely Supplied")
"He will sit as a Refiner and Purifier of silver--He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. " Malachi 3:3
"I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold!" Zechariah 13:9
O my soul, what deep need is there for this refining and purifying of your Lord . . .
what inward corruption,
what carnality,
what worldliness,
what self-seeking,
what creature idolatry,
what God dishonoring unbelief!
All these imperatively demand the searching, burning, purifying fires of Christ's furnace!
My soul--your Refiner and Purifier is Jesus!
O my soul, what deep need is there for this refining and purifying of your Lord . . .
what inward corruption,
what carnality,
what worldliness,
what self-seeking,
what creature idolatry,
what God dishonoring unbelief!
All these imperatively demand the searching, burning, purifying fires of Christ's furnace!
My soul--your Refiner and Purifier is Jesus!
It is a consolatory thought that our refining is in the hands of Jesus--in the hands that were pierced for us on the cross!
Jesus shapes all your trials!
Jesus sends all your afflictions!
Jesus mixes all your sorrows!
Jesus shapes and balances all the clouds of your pilgrimage!
Jesus prepares and heats the furnace that refines you as silver and purifies you as gold!
Then, O my soul, tremble not . . .
at the knife that wounds you,
at the flame that scorches you,
at the cloud that shades you,
at the billows that surge above you.
Jesus is in it all--and you are as safe as though you had reached the blissful climate . . .
where the vine needs no pruning,
and where the ore needs no purifying,
where the sky is never darkened, and
upon whose golden sands where no storms of adversity ever blow, or waves of sorrow ever break.
Mark the Refiner's position. "He will SIT as a refiner and purifier of silver." It would be fatal to is purpose, if the human refiner were to leave his post while the liquid mass was seething in the cauldron. But there he patiently sits, watching and tempering the flame, and removing the refuse and the dross as it floats upon the surface of the molten ore.
Just so, Christ sits as a Refiner . . .
and with an eye that never slumbers,
and with a patience that never wearies,
and with a love that never chills,
and with a faithfulness that never falters,
He watches and controls the process that . . .
purifies our hearts,
burnishes our graces,
sanctifies our nature, and
impresses more vividly His own image of loveliness upon our soul.
If He places you in the fire, He will bring you through the fire, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."
But sweet and soothing is the truth that the believer is not alone in the fire! The Refiner is with us, as with the three Hebrew children passing through the king's burning furnace.
The Lord will have us be polished stones. As some believers are more rusty and some more alloyed than others--they need a rougher file, and a hotter furnace!
This may account for the great severity of trial through which some of the Lord's precious jewels are called to pass. Not less dear to His heart, are they for this refining.
Look up, my soul, to your Refiner!
The knife is in a Father's hand!
The flame is under a Savior's control!
Jesus sends all your afflictions!
Jesus mixes all your sorrows!
Jesus shapes and balances all the clouds of your pilgrimage!
Jesus prepares and heats the furnace that refines you as silver and purifies you as gold!
Then, O my soul, tremble not . . .
at the knife that wounds you,
at the flame that scorches you,
at the cloud that shades you,
at the billows that surge above you.
Jesus is in it all--and you are as safe as though you had reached the blissful climate . . .
where the vine needs no pruning,
and where the ore needs no purifying,
where the sky is never darkened, and
upon whose golden sands where no storms of adversity ever blow, or waves of sorrow ever break.
Mark the Refiner's position. "He will SIT as a refiner and purifier of silver." It would be fatal to is purpose, if the human refiner were to leave his post while the liquid mass was seething in the cauldron. But there he patiently sits, watching and tempering the flame, and removing the refuse and the dross as it floats upon the surface of the molten ore.
Just so, Christ sits as a Refiner . . .
and with an eye that never slumbers,
and with a patience that never wearies,
and with a love that never chills,
and with a faithfulness that never falters,
He watches and controls the process that . . .
purifies our hearts,
burnishes our graces,
sanctifies our nature, and
impresses more vividly His own image of loveliness upon our soul.
If He places you in the fire, He will bring you through the fire, "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ."
But sweet and soothing is the truth that the believer is not alone in the fire! The Refiner is with us, as with the three Hebrew children passing through the king's burning furnace.
The Lord will have us be polished stones. As some believers are more rusty and some more alloyed than others--they need a rougher file, and a hotter furnace!
This may account for the great severity of trial through which some of the Lord's precious jewels are called to pass. Not less dear to His heart, are they for this refining.
Look up, my soul, to your Refiner!
The knife is in a Father's hand!
The flame is under a Savior's control!
Be still, be humble, be submissive.
"Heed the rod--and the One who appointed it!" Micah 6:9
"I was silent; I would not open my mouth--for You are the one who has done this!" Psalm 39:9
Saturday, April 14, 2018
Directives for Hating Sin # 1
Directives for Hating Sin
Directive 1 - Labor to know God, and to be affected with His attributes and always to live a in His sight.
No man can know sin perfectly, because no man can know God perfectly. You can no further know what sin is than you know what God is, whom you sin against; for the malignity of sin is against the will and attributes of God. The godly have some knowledge of God who is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical knowledge of God who is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical knowledge of the malignity of sin, because they have no such knowledge of God. Those who fear God, will fear sinning. Those who in their hearts are bold irreverently with God, will, in heart and life, be bold with sin. The atheist, who thinks there is no God, thinks there is no sin against Him. Nothing in the world will tell us so plainly and powerfully of the evil of sin, as the knowledge of the greatness, wisdom, goodness, holiness, authority, justice, truth, etc., of God. The sense of His presence, therefore, will revive our sense of sin's malignity.
Directive 2 - Consider well of the office, the bloodshed, and the holy life of Christ.
His office is to expiate sin, and to destroy it. His blood was shed for it. His life condemned it. Love Christ, and you will hate that which caused His death. Love Him, and you will love to be made like Him, and hate that which is so contrary to Christ. These two great lights will show the odiousness of darkness.
Directive 3 - Think well both how holy the office and work of the Holy Spirit is, and how great a mercy it is to us.
Shall God Himself, the heavenly light, come down into a sinful heart, to illuminate and purify it? And yet shall I keep my darkness and defilement, in opposition to such wonderful mercy? Though all sin against the Holy Spirit be not the unpardonable blasphemy, yet all is aggravated hereby.
Directive 4 - Know and consider the wonderful love and mercy of God, and think what He has done for you; and you will hate sin, and be ashamed of it.
It is an aggravation which makes sin odious even to common reason and sincerity - that we should offend a God of infinite goodness, who has filled up our lives with mercy. It will grieve you if you have wronged an extraordinary friend: his love and kindness will come into your thoughts, and make you angry with your own unkindness. Here look over the catalogue of God's mercies to you, for soul and body. And here observe that satan, in hiding the love of God from you, and tempting you under pretense of humility to deny His greatest special mercy, seeks to destroy your repentance and humiliation, also, by hiding the greatest aggravation of your sin.
Directive 5 - Think what the soul of man is made for, and should be used for - even to love, obey, and glorify our Maker; and then you will see what sin is, which disables and perverts it.
How excellent, and high, and holy are we created for and called to! And should we defile the temple of God? And should we serve the devil in filthiness and folly - when we should receive, and serve, and magnify our Creator?
Directive 6 - Think well what pure and sweet delights a holy soul may enjoy from God, in His holy service; and then you will see what sin is, which robs him of these delights, and prefers fleshly lusts before them.
O how happily might we perform every duty, and how fruitfully might we serve our Lord, and what delight should we find in His love and acceptance, and the foresight of everlasting blessedness - if it were not for sin; which brings down the soul from the doors of heaven - to wallow with swine in the mire!
Directive 7 - Bethink you what life it is which you must live forever, if you live in heaven; and what a life the holy ones these now live; and then think whether sin, which is so contrary to it, be not a vile and hateful thing.
Either you would live in heaven, or not. If not, you are not those I speak to. If you would, you know that there is no sinning; no worldly mind, no pride, no fleshly lust or pleasures there. Oh, did you but see and hear one hour - how those blessed spirits are taken up in loving and magnifying the glorious God in purity and holiness, and how far they are from sin - it would make you loathe sin ever after, and look on sinners as insane men wallowing naked in their dung. Especially, to think that you hope yourselves to live forever like those holy spirits; and therefore hate all sin.
Directive 8 - Look but to the state and torment of the damned, and think of the difference between holy angels and devils, and you may know what sin is.
Angels are pure - devils are polluted; holiness and sin do make the difference. Sin dwells in hell - and holiness in heaven. Remember that every temptation is from the devil - to make you like himself. Likewise every holy motion is from Christ - to make you like Himself. Remember when you sin, that you are learning and imitating of the devil - and are so far like him. John 8:44. And the end of all is, that you may feel his pains. If hell-fire is not good - then sin is not good.
Directive 9 - Look always on sin as one who is ready to die, and consider how all men will judge of it at the last.
What do men in heaven say of sin? And what do men in hell say of it? And what do men at death say of it? And what do converted souls, or awakened consciences, say of it? Is it then followed with delight and fearlessness as it is now? Is it then applauded? Will any of them speak well of it? Nay, all the world speaks evil of sin in the general now, even when they love and commit it. Will you sin when you are dying?
Directive 10 - Look always on sin and judgment together.
Remember that you must answer for sin before God, and angels, and all the world; and you will the better know it.
Directive 11 - Look now but upon sickness, poverty, shame, despair, death, and rottenness in the grave - and it may a little help you to know what sin is.
There are things within your sight or feeling; you need not faith to tell you of them. And by such effects you have knowledge of the cause.
Directive 12 - Look but upon some eminent, holy people upon earth; and upon the mad, profane, malignant world; and the difference may tell you in part what sin is.
Is there not an amiableness in a holy, blameless person, who lives in love to God and man, and in the joyful hopes of life eternal? Is not a beastly drunkard or whoremonger, and a raging swearer, and a malicious persecutor - a very deformed, loathsome creature? Is not the mad, confused, ignorant, ungodly state of the world a very pitiful sight? What then is the sin, which all this consists of?
Though the principal part of the cure is in turning the will to the hatred of sin, and is done by this discovery of its malignity; yet I shall add a few more directives for the executive part, supposing that what is said already had had its effect.
~Richard Baxter~
(continued with # 2)
Directive 1 - Labor to know God, and to be affected with His attributes and always to live a in His sight.
No man can know sin perfectly, because no man can know God perfectly. You can no further know what sin is than you know what God is, whom you sin against; for the malignity of sin is against the will and attributes of God. The godly have some knowledge of God who is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical knowledge of God who is wronged by it. The wicked have no practical knowledge of the malignity of sin, because they have no such knowledge of God. Those who fear God, will fear sinning. Those who in their hearts are bold irreverently with God, will, in heart and life, be bold with sin. The atheist, who thinks there is no God, thinks there is no sin against Him. Nothing in the world will tell us so plainly and powerfully of the evil of sin, as the knowledge of the greatness, wisdom, goodness, holiness, authority, justice, truth, etc., of God. The sense of His presence, therefore, will revive our sense of sin's malignity.
Directive 2 - Consider well of the office, the bloodshed, and the holy life of Christ.
His office is to expiate sin, and to destroy it. His blood was shed for it. His life condemned it. Love Christ, and you will hate that which caused His death. Love Him, and you will love to be made like Him, and hate that which is so contrary to Christ. These two great lights will show the odiousness of darkness.
Directive 3 - Think well both how holy the office and work of the Holy Spirit is, and how great a mercy it is to us.
Shall God Himself, the heavenly light, come down into a sinful heart, to illuminate and purify it? And yet shall I keep my darkness and defilement, in opposition to such wonderful mercy? Though all sin against the Holy Spirit be not the unpardonable blasphemy, yet all is aggravated hereby.
Directive 4 - Know and consider the wonderful love and mercy of God, and think what He has done for you; and you will hate sin, and be ashamed of it.
It is an aggravation which makes sin odious even to common reason and sincerity - that we should offend a God of infinite goodness, who has filled up our lives with mercy. It will grieve you if you have wronged an extraordinary friend: his love and kindness will come into your thoughts, and make you angry with your own unkindness. Here look over the catalogue of God's mercies to you, for soul and body. And here observe that satan, in hiding the love of God from you, and tempting you under pretense of humility to deny His greatest special mercy, seeks to destroy your repentance and humiliation, also, by hiding the greatest aggravation of your sin.
Directive 5 - Think what the soul of man is made for, and should be used for - even to love, obey, and glorify our Maker; and then you will see what sin is, which disables and perverts it.
How excellent, and high, and holy are we created for and called to! And should we defile the temple of God? And should we serve the devil in filthiness and folly - when we should receive, and serve, and magnify our Creator?
Directive 6 - Think well what pure and sweet delights a holy soul may enjoy from God, in His holy service; and then you will see what sin is, which robs him of these delights, and prefers fleshly lusts before them.
O how happily might we perform every duty, and how fruitfully might we serve our Lord, and what delight should we find in His love and acceptance, and the foresight of everlasting blessedness - if it were not for sin; which brings down the soul from the doors of heaven - to wallow with swine in the mire!
Directive 7 - Bethink you what life it is which you must live forever, if you live in heaven; and what a life the holy ones these now live; and then think whether sin, which is so contrary to it, be not a vile and hateful thing.
Either you would live in heaven, or not. If not, you are not those I speak to. If you would, you know that there is no sinning; no worldly mind, no pride, no fleshly lust or pleasures there. Oh, did you but see and hear one hour - how those blessed spirits are taken up in loving and magnifying the glorious God in purity and holiness, and how far they are from sin - it would make you loathe sin ever after, and look on sinners as insane men wallowing naked in their dung. Especially, to think that you hope yourselves to live forever like those holy spirits; and therefore hate all sin.
Directive 8 - Look but to the state and torment of the damned, and think of the difference between holy angels and devils, and you may know what sin is.
Angels are pure - devils are polluted; holiness and sin do make the difference. Sin dwells in hell - and holiness in heaven. Remember that every temptation is from the devil - to make you like himself. Likewise every holy motion is from Christ - to make you like Himself. Remember when you sin, that you are learning and imitating of the devil - and are so far like him. John 8:44. And the end of all is, that you may feel his pains. If hell-fire is not good - then sin is not good.
Directive 9 - Look always on sin as one who is ready to die, and consider how all men will judge of it at the last.
What do men in heaven say of sin? And what do men in hell say of it? And what do men at death say of it? And what do converted souls, or awakened consciences, say of it? Is it then followed with delight and fearlessness as it is now? Is it then applauded? Will any of them speak well of it? Nay, all the world speaks evil of sin in the general now, even when they love and commit it. Will you sin when you are dying?
Directive 10 - Look always on sin and judgment together.
Remember that you must answer for sin before God, and angels, and all the world; and you will the better know it.
Directive 11 - Look now but upon sickness, poverty, shame, despair, death, and rottenness in the grave - and it may a little help you to know what sin is.
There are things within your sight or feeling; you need not faith to tell you of them. And by such effects you have knowledge of the cause.
Directive 12 - Look but upon some eminent, holy people upon earth; and upon the mad, profane, malignant world; and the difference may tell you in part what sin is.
Is there not an amiableness in a holy, blameless person, who lives in love to God and man, and in the joyful hopes of life eternal? Is not a beastly drunkard or whoremonger, and a raging swearer, and a malicious persecutor - a very deformed, loathsome creature? Is not the mad, confused, ignorant, ungodly state of the world a very pitiful sight? What then is the sin, which all this consists of?
Though the principal part of the cure is in turning the will to the hatred of sin, and is done by this discovery of its malignity; yet I shall add a few more directives for the executive part, supposing that what is said already had had its effect.
~Richard Baxter~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, April 7, 2018
The One Indispensability For Our Humanity
The One Indispensability For Our Humanity
An oil lamp needs oil to produce light. Why? Because the lamp was made to function in that way. A car needs gasoline to go. Why? Because the car was made to function in that way.
Why does a human being need God to to be functional? Because we were made that way. Long ago, God decided to make a creature on this little planet called Earth. He specifically designed this creature as the means whereby His potential, His life, could be released and produce righteousness.
Man cannot produce righteousness on his own, however, any more than a car can go or an oil lamp can shine without fuel.
Trying to light an oil lamp with no oil is illogical and useless; you will remain in the dark. Trying to drive your car without gasoline is likewise utterly unreasonable; you will end up by getting out and pushing it, going only as far and as fast as your physical strength allows, and bringing yourself to exhaustion.
The same is true with human beings. Simply urging them to be good, telling them to draw from the depths of their personality, introducing them to behavioral science, trying to legislate their actions with rules, regulations, and religion, and threatening them with punishment or prison - ultimately none of these can succeed in producing righteousness from human beings.
To get light from an oil lamp, filling it first with oil is entirely reasonable. To get a car to provide you with transportation, filling the tank with gas is completely logical. In the same way, divine logic affirms that obtaining righteousness from a man or woman happens only when that person is filled with God. Oil in the lamp, gas in the car... and Christ in the Christian. It takes God to be a man, and that is why it takes Christ to be a Christian, because Christ puts God back into a man, the only way we can again become functional.
It is called the new birth, being born again, as our soul is awakened by God's Spirit. It can happen only on God's terms, and it restores us to that for which God created us - of being functional only by virtue of His presence within us. God is indispensable for the truly normal human being.
Man was created uniquely, in such a way that he can enjoy a moral relationship between the creature and his Creator, because God is love, and the only thing that satisfies love is to be loved. The only thing that satisfies friendship is to be befriended.
Love and friendship cannot be forced, however. If God wanted a man who could love Him back, that man could not be like any other creature, without any moral capacity either to please God or displease Him. Such a creature would be amoral,doing what it does because it must, rather than evidencing any disposition toward his Maker.
You and I, however, were so created that by anything and everything we do, we are saying to our Creator either "God, I love you," or "God, I could not care less."
The human spirit is that part of us where God lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, so that with our moral consent (and never without it), God gains access to our human soul. This is where He Himself, as the Creator within the creature, can teach our minds, control our emotions,and direct our wills, so that He, as God from within, governs our behavior as we let God be God.
"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25), and this is what it means to walk in the Holy Spirit: to take one step at a time,and for every new situation into which every new step takes you, no matter what it may be, to hear Christ saying to your heart, "I AM," then to look up into His face by faith and say, "You are! That is all I need to know, Lord, and I thank You, for You are never less than adequate."
"The LORD is the strength of my life" (Psalm 17:1)
~W. Ian Thomas~
An oil lamp needs oil to produce light. Why? Because the lamp was made to function in that way. A car needs gasoline to go. Why? Because the car was made to function in that way.
Why does a human being need God to to be functional? Because we were made that way. Long ago, God decided to make a creature on this little planet called Earth. He specifically designed this creature as the means whereby His potential, His life, could be released and produce righteousness.
Man cannot produce righteousness on his own, however, any more than a car can go or an oil lamp can shine without fuel.
Trying to light an oil lamp with no oil is illogical and useless; you will remain in the dark. Trying to drive your car without gasoline is likewise utterly unreasonable; you will end up by getting out and pushing it, going only as far and as fast as your physical strength allows, and bringing yourself to exhaustion.
The same is true with human beings. Simply urging them to be good, telling them to draw from the depths of their personality, introducing them to behavioral science, trying to legislate their actions with rules, regulations, and religion, and threatening them with punishment or prison - ultimately none of these can succeed in producing righteousness from human beings.
To get light from an oil lamp, filling it first with oil is entirely reasonable. To get a car to provide you with transportation, filling the tank with gas is completely logical. In the same way, divine logic affirms that obtaining righteousness from a man or woman happens only when that person is filled with God. Oil in the lamp, gas in the car... and Christ in the Christian. It takes God to be a man, and that is why it takes Christ to be a Christian, because Christ puts God back into a man, the only way we can again become functional.
It is called the new birth, being born again, as our soul is awakened by God's Spirit. It can happen only on God's terms, and it restores us to that for which God created us - of being functional only by virtue of His presence within us. God is indispensable for the truly normal human being.
Man was created uniquely, in such a way that he can enjoy a moral relationship between the creature and his Creator, because God is love, and the only thing that satisfies love is to be loved. The only thing that satisfies friendship is to be befriended.
Love and friendship cannot be forced, however. If God wanted a man who could love Him back, that man could not be like any other creature, without any moral capacity either to please God or displease Him. Such a creature would be amoral,doing what it does because it must, rather than evidencing any disposition toward his Maker.
You and I, however, were so created that by anything and everything we do, we are saying to our Creator either "God, I love you," or "God, I could not care less."
The human spirit is that part of us where God lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit, so that with our moral consent (and never without it), God gains access to our human soul. This is where He Himself, as the Creator within the creature, can teach our minds, control our emotions,and direct our wills, so that He, as God from within, governs our behavior as we let God be God.
"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25), and this is what it means to walk in the Holy Spirit: to take one step at a time,and for every new situation into which every new step takes you, no matter what it may be, to hear Christ saying to your heart, "I AM," then to look up into His face by faith and say, "You are! That is all I need to know, Lord, and I thank You, for You are never less than adequate."
"The LORD is the strength of my life" (Psalm 17:1)
~W. Ian Thomas~
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Favorite Pastor Quotes 10
Favorite Pastor Quotes 10
The World's Oracles By Horatius Bonar
"The idols have spoken vanity!" Zechariah 10:2
There are not many who think for themselves; and even those who are reckoned to do so, depend for the materials of thinking upon what they hear, or see, or touch. In the things of God this must be so, much more than in others. It is in hearing him that we are furnished with materials for thinking rightly about him. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." God's place is to speak, and ours is to listen. He expects us to listen to him, for he has a right to speak; and we know that, if we do not, we are sure to think wrong concerning himself and his ways; concerning both good and evil.
But we do not like this. It is irksome to be always in the attitude of listeners; at least, of listeners to God. We prefer guessing, or speculating, or reasoning. Or, if we find that we must have recourse to some authority beyond ourselves, we betake ourselves to any pretender to wisdom—and, above all, to any one who professes to be the representative of the invisible God, and to speak in his name. Hence the Gentiles resorted to their "oracles". And the apostate Jews turned to their "witchcrafts," and to private oracles, or household gods, called "Teraphim," set up in imitation of the great public oracle, the Urim and Thummin, through which God spoke to them in his holy place. It is to this that Zechariah refers, "The idols" (Teraphim) "have spoken vanity" (10:2). They whom you consult as the depositories of divine wisdom, who pretend to guide you and to utter truth, have spoken vanity; they have cheated you with lies.
Such was Israel's history. They trusted in faithless oracles. They became the dupes of those to whom they had come for guidance in the day of perplexity. They had grieved away the voice that spoke to them by the jeweled breastplate, and they had betaken themselves to other voices that only misled and befooled them. Their Teraphim spoke vanity!
This has been man's history too, as well as Israel's. He has chosen another counselor instead of God. It may be the Church, orreason, or public opinion. He has betaken himself to some oracle; he has listened to its utterances; it has cheated him with words of vanity; and its divinations have been as the treacherous staff—which not only breaks under the weight of the traveler—but pierces his hand as he leans on it.
Poor world! Such is your story—misplaced confidence, disappointment, darkness—the blind following the blind—until one pit receives both the leader and the led!
The world's Teraphim have not been few; nor has their authority been either weak or transient. They have swayed millions of destinies; not always consciously, on the side either of the speaker or the listener—but still irresistibly. There is "public opinion"—that mysterious oracle, whose shrine is nowhere—but the echoes of whose voice is everywhere. No Hindoo ever crouched before his idol with more of submissiveness than do men, calling themselves enlightened, cringe before the shadowy altar of this "unknown God"! No! of this Moloch, through whose fires has been made to pass many a tortured conscience that would gladly have sided with God and with truth—but dared not, lest it should stand alone.
But, besides this idol, or oracle, of public opinion, there is the standard of "established custom"—schools of literature and philosophy, or theology; and there is what is called the spirit of the times. More! There is sometimes the idol of personal friendships, or of admired authors, or of revered teachers. What havoc do these often make of consciences! How they mislead and pervert! How subtly do they work in drawing the confidence away from God, and in setting up other standards of truth and holiness than God's word!
Then let us mark on what points these Teraphim mislead us. They misrepresent the real end and aim of life, assuring us that the glory of the God who made us cannot be that end, inasmuch as that is something quite transcendental, something altogether beyond our reach, or our reason, or our sympathies. They give doubtful, often delusive, answers to such questions as these, "What is truth? What is happiness? what is holiness?" In regard to these things, most certainly, the world's idols have spoken vanity. We can give no credit to their utterances. He who trusts himself to their guidance will go utterly astray. He will miss the very things he is seeking. He will not get hold of truth; he will come short of happiness; and, instead of holiness, he will become satisfied with some artificial standard of moral character which man has set up for himself.
But how is it thus? Why are men thus misled and befooled? They have no confidence in God himself; nor have they learned to say, "Let God be true, and every man a liar." They seek not the Holy Spirit, nor submit themselves to him as their Teacher. They look askance at the Bible, as if there were some danger in making too much of it, or as if it were only one out of the many standards by which we are to measure ourselves and our opinions; no, as if, in these days, there was so much in the Bible of what is obsolete and unsuited to an age like this—that, were it not for some traditional reverence for that book, and admiration for its beauties—it might in a great measure be set aside. Besides, men do not like the teaching that they get from God and his word. It does not suit their tastes. They do not relish it at all. Hence they choose the prophets of smooth things—the "Teraphim" that utter lies and vanity. "These are your gods, O Israel." These are the world's oracles. As for God, and his Spirit, and his book, they say, as the king of Israel did of Micaiah, "I hate him, for he does not prophesy good concerning me—but evil" (1 Kings 22:8).
But how do these Teraphim speak their vanities? They do not need to do so by uttering gross error. No, it is seldom that they try this, though, undoubtedly, error and deception are the reals goals at which they aim. But they mingle the true and the false together; so that the true is neutralized by the false, and the false is adorned and recommended by the true. The fair fragments of the latter hang like gems around the former—making it lovely and attractive. With what seductive persuasiveness, do these counselors of the world, these oracles of the race, win the ear of men! They point to the great men who have pursued paths very far asunder, from those who stick so sternly for adherence to the naked word of God. They bid us listen to the world's philosophers and poets. They ask us to take the experience of these mighty men of mind or song, and to abjure the narrowness and one-sidedness into which we shall otherwise be shriveled up, if we become men of one book—even though that book should be the Bible; and men of one school—even though that school should be that of the apostle Paul.
And why do these oracles speak thus? They are fond of speaking, and they like to be listened to. It is a great thing to be consulted as an oracle, and to be quoted as an authority. They have no high or sure standard of their own, and hence they can only speak according to their own foolishness. "They know not, neither do they understand; they walk on in darkness." They "grope for the wall as the blind" (Isaiah 59:10); and they who set their trust on them must be content to spend their lives in doing the same.
The world has always had its oracles, its Teraphim, its false teachers. By them it has been guided in the strange career of separation from God, which the apostle calls "the course of this world" (Eph. 2:2). They have helped to mold the world, and to make it what it is; and in its turn it has, in large measure, molded them and made them what they are. For "the god of this world" is the god of these gods, the oracle of these oracles. "The spirit which works in the children of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2), is the spirit which speaks through these oracles, and which is, by means of these servants of his, imbuing the world more thoroughly with his own falsehood and unholiness, conforming it more entirely, age after age, to his own image—and withdrawing it more widely from the living Jehovah, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Formerly, it was more as "the ruler of the darkness of this world" that Satan wrought and spoke; now, it is more as an "angel of light" into which he has transformed himself (2 Cor. 11:14), that he may ensnare the more—no, deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. "A horrible and shocking thing has happened in this land—the prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. And worse yet, my people like it that way!" (Jer. 5:30, 31). No wonder that he should ask, "But what will you do when the end comes?"
It is as the angel of light that Satan is now the world's oracle, or rather, the inspirer of its oracles. He has changed his voice as well as his garb and aspect. He has hidden his grossness, and modified his language to suit the change. He has veiled his sensualism under the guise of poetry, and thrown the mantle of philosophy over the offensive nakedness of atheism. He is still an atheist with the scoffer; a wanton with the lewd; a blasphemer with the profane. For he changes not. But, to disgust as few as possible, and to entangle in his net the many who shrink from all open grossness—he has set up a more refined system of worldliness, of which the watchwords are, "Harmless amusements," "Innocent gaiety," "Intellectual feasts," "Healthful sports," and such like!
Now, there are amusements which are harmless—but are these in the theater or opera? There is gaiety which is innocent—but is this to be found at the mirthful party, and in the giddy whirl of the dance? There are sports which are healthful—but are these at the racetrack, or in the boxing ring? There are feasts of the intellect—but are these contained only in the light novel or the loose song? Are they to be found in the lecture-rooms of those who cleverly substitute philosophy for faith, reason for revelation, man's wisdom for God's; who prove to us that, though the Bible may contain the thoughts of God, it does not speak his words; who artfully would reason us into the belief that sin is not guilt—but only a disease, a mere moral epidemic; who maintain that incarnation of Christ, not his death—is the basis of divine reconciliation; that the tendencies of mankind are all upward, not downward; that forgiveness of sin is not a thing needed by anyone, seeing condemnation can have no place under the government of a God of love; who affirm that, though the love of God leads us to conclude the existence of a heaven, yet that his righteousness does not by any means infer the necessity either for a judgment or a hell?
As an angel of light, all his snares and sophistries partake, more or less, of light. He does not appeal directly to our lusts—but to our love of the beautiful and the bright. He does not take his stand upon our natural hatred of God—but upon our thirst for truth and knowledge. By such indirect methods he beguiles us as effectually into error and sin—no, seduces us as surely into apostasy from God—as when he ensnared our first mother, under the promise of wisdom. "You shall be like God!" he says still—independent of all other beings and wills, thinking what you please, enjoying what you desire, and taking in the whole round of indulgences, physical and intellectual, at your will.
As an angel of light he instructs his oracles (as we see in the journalism of the age) to appeal to men's natural humanity, that so he may get them to substitute this for salvation through the blood of the covenant, and brotherhood in the Son of God. He instructs his oracles to address themselves to our intuitions of virtue and uprightness, that he may by these supplant holiness, and conformity to the image of "the Word made flesh." He instructs them to press home amendment of life and the relinquishment of all gross, offensive evil—that he may utterly efface the idea of being "born again," of the necessity of "conversion," and of the Holy Spirit's indwelling fullness—as the one true source of all that God calls "religion." Thus he "blinds the minds of those who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them" (2 Cor. 4:4).
Tutored by this angel of light, these oracles of earth speak of the "majesty of man's profound thought;" or of "the splendid might of man's mind"—in all the elation of intellectual pride. They speak loftily of "the world's vast lie," of "earth's falsehoods," of the age's "shams," all the while complacently congratulating themselves that they have found their way out of these unrealities. They think to dig through the husk into the kernel of all religions, and, out of their uncertain speculations, to construct a new theology. "Attempt the high," they say; "seek out the soul's bright path." "Upon the summit of each mountain-thought, worship your God."
They spurn the belief that this lapsed creation is wholly evil; exulting in its self-rectifying, self-regenerating power. "The universal cure of disease, still bounds through nature's veins."
It is from Satan as an angel of light, and from his oracles as the reflections of that light, that we have most to dread. The disguises which he is putting on are fatally seductive. The lengths to which he goes, in pretended reverence for religion; the subtle skill which he has put forth in beautifying what is sensual, in refining what is carnal, in glossing over what is gross—the artful way in which he has mixed up the true and the false, the lawful and the unlawful, the certain and the uncertain, the earthly and the heavenly, the human and the divine; the marvelous cunning he has displayed in infusing a sort of religious element into what is meant to be the counteractive of religion; in throwing a religious line over subjects and scenes, intended by him to withdraw the heart from God; the sophistry by which he has succeeded in substituting the beauties of Pantheism for the blasphemies of Atheism; the dexterity by which he has introduced love for the Creator's works, instead of love for the Creator himself, natural "earnestness" for the zeal of the renewed man, self-reliance for dependence upon the Almighty, sympathy with "nature" for fellowship with God; the successful subtlety with which he has confounded opinion with truth, speculativeness with honest inquiry, credulity with faith, misanthropy with separation from the world! These things are truly fitted to alarm, inasmuch as they threaten the obliteration of every sacred landmark, and the final substitution of evil for good, and darkness for light.
The illumination coming from the Sun of righteousness is one thing, and that proceeding from Satan, as an angel of light, is quite another. Satan's object is to confound these two kinds of light, so that men may be misled, as by the gleam of a false beacon, which ensnares even a skillful pilot, and hurries the secure vessel suddenly upon the rock. One of our greatest dangers in these days, arises from this effort of the evil one. If he had set up his light in a wholly opposite quarter, and given it a color like himself—the lurid glare of hell—men would not have been deceived. But he has imitated so nearly the hue of the true light, and placed it so near the heavenly lighthouse, that thousands mistake the beacon, and find themselves unexpectedly a wreck!
Thus it is that the idols have spoken, and do still speak, VANITY. They cheat men with a thousand falsities. They proclaim hopes—which end in disappointment. They dupe the heedless—and then mock their miseries. They promise men liberty, while they themselves are the servants of corruption. They promise the bread of truth—and give only the husks of error. They promise joy—and defraud the unwary with the "pleasures of sin." They speak peace—when, instead of peace, there is wrath. They teach men to say, "I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing"—when they are "poor, and miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked." They tell men "Tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant," when time is on the edge of bankruptcy, and the world's great famine is at hand, when men's famished spirits shall ask for bread in vain; when earth shall plead for something to fill the craving void—which should have been filled by God himself and his incarnate Son—and there shall be nothing but the chaff, or the sand, or the wind!
Shun the idols that speak vanity. Listen to no voice, however pleasant, but that which is entirely in harmony with God's word. Take nothing for truth, except what comes from him. Follow no light but that of him, who says, "I am the Light of the world." Abjure every pleasure, every indulgence—of which Christ is not the alpha and the omega—or which would grieve that Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Men may say, Don't be singular, don't pretend to be wiser or better than others. Let us answer, without shrinking, "Let God be true, and every man a liar." Those who have listened to the oracles of earth's lying vanities have always been a multitude; while they who have listened to God have always been few. Let not this discourage us. We have but one voice to listen to, and it speaks articulately, so that we have no excuse either for hesitation or mistake. While others are listening to the idols who speak vanity, let us be intent on knowing what the Lord has spoken. Many may walk on in darkness; but it is written, "The wise shall understand" (Dan. 12:10). Let others betake themselves to "the wizards that peep and mutter; should not God's people seek unto their God?"
What though the lying oracles have spoken—are they our gods? Are they the representatives of Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge? Do they speak according to the law and the testimony?
It is written, "The idols have spoken vanity." They have cheated their worshipers. They are doing so still. They give fair words—but that is all. The outcome is disappointment and shame. Are you allowing yourselves thus to be cheated by Satan and his pretended wisdom—by the world and its deceiving oracles? Are you the dupes of these idols, who, having once lured you into the snare, will only laugh at your calamity? Be wise in time. For the day of these oracles is fast running to a close. "The idols he will utterly abolish." The vanities which they have spoken will be soon exposed. The hollowness of their promises will, before long, be detected. Listen not to them—but to the faithful and true Witness—to the words of the living God; to him who says, "Learn of me;" to him who utters no vanity—but who has the words of everlasting life—the truth which fills, and satisfies, and gladdens—yes, who is himself "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Yes, God Loves Us
Yes, God Loves Us
"We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19)
If we are to have any satisfying and lasting understanding of life, it must be divinely given. It begins with the confession that it is indeed the God who has revealed Himself to us who is the central pillar bearing up the universe. Believing that, we then go on to acknowledge that we have discovered His great eternal purpose for men and women made in His own image.
I heard a brilliant Canadian author being interviewed on the radio concerning world conditions, and he said: "I confess that our biggest mistake is the fond belief that we humans are special pets of Almighty God and that God has a special fondness for us as people."
We have a good answer: Man as he was originally created is God's beloved. Man in that sense is the beloved of the universe. God said, "I have made man in My image and man is to be above all other creatures. Redeemed man is to be even above the angels in the heavens. He is to enter into My presence pardoned and unashamed, to worship Me an to look on My face while the ages roll on!" No wonder we believe that God is the only certain foundation!
Dear Lord, thank You for Your unconditional love for me. I pray that I will not act like a spoiled child but that my life will honor You in all my relationships. Amen
~A. W. Tozer~
_________________________
Dealing With Sin
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23).
Many evangelical teachers insist so strongly upon free, unconditional grace as to create the impression that sin is not a serious matter and that God cares very little about it!
They make it seem that God is only concerned with our escaping the consequences.
The gospel, then, in practical application, means little more than a way to escape the fruits of our past!
But the heart that has felt the weight of its own sin and has seen the dread whiteness of the Most High God will never believe that message of forgiveness without transformation is a message of good news. To remit a man's past without transforming his present is to violate the moral sincerity of his own heart.
To that kind of thing God will be no party! For to offer a sinner the gift of salvation based upon the work of Christ, while at the same time allowing him to retain the idea that the gift carries with it no moral implications, is to do him untold injury where it hurts him most!
Father, thank You for changing me from the inside out. Empower me by Your Spirit to live in the light of Your forgiveness today. Amen
~A. W. Tozer~
________________________
Love Without Measure
"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3)
I once wrote something about how God loves us and how dear we are to Him. I was not sure I should put it down on paper - but God knows what I meant.
I wrote: "The only eccentricity that i can discover in the heart of God is the fact that a God such as He is should love sinners such as we are!"
On this earth a mother will love the son who has betrayed her and shamed her and is now on his way to a life in prison. That seems to be a natural thing for a mother. But there is nothing natural about this love of God. It is a divine thing. It is forced out by the inward pressure within the heart of the God of all grace. That is why He waits for us, puts up with us, desires to lead us on - He loves us!
My brethren, this should be our greatest encouragement in view of all that we know about ourselves: God loves us without measure, and He is so keenly interested in our spiritual growth and progress that He stands by in faithfulness to teach and instruct and discipline us as His own dear children!
Dear Lord, this morning I'm struck with the thought of how much You have put up with me - because of Your endless love. Lord, help me take another baby step toward spiritual maturity today. Amen
~A. W. Tozer~
"We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19)
If we are to have any satisfying and lasting understanding of life, it must be divinely given. It begins with the confession that it is indeed the God who has revealed Himself to us who is the central pillar bearing up the universe. Believing that, we then go on to acknowledge that we have discovered His great eternal purpose for men and women made in His own image.
I heard a brilliant Canadian author being interviewed on the radio concerning world conditions, and he said: "I confess that our biggest mistake is the fond belief that we humans are special pets of Almighty God and that God has a special fondness for us as people."
We have a good answer: Man as he was originally created is God's beloved. Man in that sense is the beloved of the universe. God said, "I have made man in My image and man is to be above all other creatures. Redeemed man is to be even above the angels in the heavens. He is to enter into My presence pardoned and unashamed, to worship Me an to look on My face while the ages roll on!" No wonder we believe that God is the only certain foundation!
Dear Lord, thank You for Your unconditional love for me. I pray that I will not act like a spoiled child but that my life will honor You in all my relationships. Amen
~A. W. Tozer~
_________________________
Dealing With Sin
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23).
Many evangelical teachers insist so strongly upon free, unconditional grace as to create the impression that sin is not a serious matter and that God cares very little about it!
They make it seem that God is only concerned with our escaping the consequences.
The gospel, then, in practical application, means little more than a way to escape the fruits of our past!
But the heart that has felt the weight of its own sin and has seen the dread whiteness of the Most High God will never believe that message of forgiveness without transformation is a message of good news. To remit a man's past without transforming his present is to violate the moral sincerity of his own heart.
To that kind of thing God will be no party! For to offer a sinner the gift of salvation based upon the work of Christ, while at the same time allowing him to retain the idea that the gift carries with it no moral implications, is to do him untold injury where it hurts him most!
Father, thank You for changing me from the inside out. Empower me by Your Spirit to live in the light of Your forgiveness today. Amen
~A. W. Tozer~
________________________
Love Without Measure
"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3)
I once wrote something about how God loves us and how dear we are to Him. I was not sure I should put it down on paper - but God knows what I meant.
I wrote: "The only eccentricity that i can discover in the heart of God is the fact that a God such as He is should love sinners such as we are!"
On this earth a mother will love the son who has betrayed her and shamed her and is now on his way to a life in prison. That seems to be a natural thing for a mother. But there is nothing natural about this love of God. It is a divine thing. It is forced out by the inward pressure within the heart of the God of all grace. That is why He waits for us, puts up with us, desires to lead us on - He loves us!
My brethren, this should be our greatest encouragement in view of all that we know about ourselves: God loves us without measure, and He is so keenly interested in our spiritual growth and progress that He stands by in faithfulness to teach and instruct and discipline us as His own dear children!
Dear Lord, this morning I'm struck with the thought of how much You have put up with me - because of Your endless love. Lord, help me take another baby step toward spiritual maturity today. Amen
~A. W. Tozer~
Saturday, March 10, 2018
When Doing Right Is Wrong
When Doing Right Is Wrong
In the wilderness, Moses commanded the people of Israel, "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today - every man doing whatever is right..." (Deuteronomy 12:8).
Why was he telling them not to continue doing what was right? Doing right is what we are always supposed to do, is it not?
Listen to Moses' words in full: "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today - every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes."
The people were doing only what was right in their own eyes, without consulting the One who alone has the right to decide what is right and wrong.
This continues to be the curse of God's people today. We fail to seek counsel from the One who alone is King in His kingdom, and who alone has the right to call the shots.
Why were God's people in the wilderness unable to discern what was truly right? Moses goes on to say, "...for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you" (Deuteronomy 12:9).
So long as Christians are busy doing for God what is best in their own eyes, they will never enter into His rest and the true inheritance that is theirs to enjoy now. They will only be sweating it out, and end up weary, discouraged, depressed. They will likely become deeply cynical.
They will finally want to quit, and quit they must. They must quit depending on self-effort, and instead recognize the Truth: "I cannot - God never said I could; but God can, and always said He would!"
True repentance says, "I cannot," and true faith adds, "But God, You can!" Then you can reign in life as you let God be God, and you allow Him to show you that He is big enough for the job!
Reflect again on this truth: Righteousness is doing right in God's eyes, and God alone is the author of righteousness. For any activity of yours or mine to produce righteousness, God Himself must be the source of it. Are you allowing Him to do this in your life?
"Our power and ability and sufficiency are from God" (1 Corinthians 3:5).
1. In what particular aspect of your life at this time do you need to learn to say to God, "I cannot, but You can"?
2. In what particular areas of life are you facing discouragement or cynicism?
3. Are you allowing God to be the author of righteousness in your life?
~W. Ian Thomas~
In the wilderness, Moses commanded the people of Israel, "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today - every man doing whatever is right..." (Deuteronomy 12:8).
Why was he telling them not to continue doing what was right? Doing right is what we are always supposed to do, is it not?
Listen to Moses' words in full: "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today - every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes."
The people were doing only what was right in their own eyes, without consulting the One who alone has the right to decide what is right and wrong.
This continues to be the curse of God's people today. We fail to seek counsel from the One who alone is King in His kingdom, and who alone has the right to call the shots.
Why were God's people in the wilderness unable to discern what was truly right? Moses goes on to say, "...for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you" (Deuteronomy 12:9).
So long as Christians are busy doing for God what is best in their own eyes, they will never enter into His rest and the true inheritance that is theirs to enjoy now. They will only be sweating it out, and end up weary, discouraged, depressed. They will likely become deeply cynical.
They will finally want to quit, and quit they must. They must quit depending on self-effort, and instead recognize the Truth: "I cannot - God never said I could; but God can, and always said He would!"
True repentance says, "I cannot," and true faith adds, "But God, You can!" Then you can reign in life as you let God be God, and you allow Him to show you that He is big enough for the job!
Reflect again on this truth: Righteousness is doing right in God's eyes, and God alone is the author of righteousness. For any activity of yours or mine to produce righteousness, God Himself must be the source of it. Are you allowing Him to do this in your life?
"Our power and ability and sufficiency are from God" (1 Corinthians 3:5).
1. In what particular aspect of your life at this time do you need to learn to say to God, "I cannot, but You can"?
2. In what particular areas of life are you facing discouragement or cynicism?
3. Are you allowing God to be the author of righteousness in your life?
~W. Ian Thomas~
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