This year I will be sharing brief excerpts from the articles, sermons, and books I am currently reading. My posts will not follow a regular schedule but will be published as I find well-written thoughts that should be of interest to maturing Christian readers. Whenever possible, I encourage you to go to the source and read the complete work of the author.
According to John Calvin:
“Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them. ”
Filed under: Bible, Christianity, God, Grace, John Calvin, Prayer | Tagged: Church History, Reformation | 1 Comment »
When man fell in the Garden of Eden, God said there would be strife between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent – but the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head. God is bringing order out of disorder. God will undo the misery and the folly of man. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes:
This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:27-29 ESV)
Some of the most miserable restless people in the world tonight are multi-millionaires; these wretched people you read about them in the popular newspapers who get married five, six, seven times – do they know peace, is that the life of the film-star, the pop-star, or your multimillionaire? Oh, the tragedy of these miserable people who think you can buy peace and tranquility and happiness with money. No, No, God has said that it cannot be done. There is not peace, saith my God, to the wicked. And while the people of this world are wicked there will be wars and rumors of wars. Nations are but individuals writ large and if a man cannot live with his neighbor why do you expect a country to live with its neighbor? God has told us this. These are absolutes, my friends; you cannot get away from them. The world is proving the truth of them tonight. This is God’s Word and there is not peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
What else does this word tell us? Well thank God it does not leave us at that. If it had left us at that every one of us would be doomed and damned to all eternity. There would be no hope for any one of us – ‘For we have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God’. ‘There is none righteous, no, not one’ [Romans 3:23, 10]. Thank God I have a light here, I have a hope here. What is it? Well, it is this that while men in their folly have been vainly trying to build their durable kingdoms and empires, God has been bringing in His kingdom: ‘Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved’, God’s kingdom. This is the way to understand history – forget all about kings and princes and queens and births and marriages and deaths and pomp and ceremony and all the ritual – forget it all! Concentrate on this – what God has been doing – God has been bringing in His kingdom. (“A Kingdom Which Cannot Be Shaken”)
Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Faith, God, Grace, Holiness, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Martyn Lloyd-Jones | Tagged: English Standard Version, Garden of Eden, God's Kingdom | 2 Comments »
Samuel at Gilgal 