Ritual Observances, External Morality, Emotional Experiences...

So many people (both inside the visible church and outside) are confused about what Christianity is.  This is so helpful in clarifying things for so many:

What does the Lord require of you?
 To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

Simplicity and comprehensiveness mark the requirements of my God. He can abbreviate His demands into the fewest words; but they are words which embrace . . .
  the inward and outward,
  the present and future,
  the earthly and the heavenly.

I may fall into serious error regarding His will for me:

It is not a religion of ritual observances which He requires. How easily I attach an undue importance to ceremonies and forms, rites and penances and fasts!

Nor does He solicit primarily a religion of external moralities. God looks on my heart.

Nor is it a religion of emotions of which He is in quest. I must not put excitement and tears, in the place of saving grace and childlike obedience.

But see, my soul, God asks us to act justly. I cannot be His, unless I do justly. Everything that takes an improper advantage of another, and all that departs from the straightest line of absolute rectitude--I must hate and abjure. It is a demand which pierces deeper than it seems. For the integrity of conduct He desires--is the outcome only of a conscience He has quickened, and a will He has bent into submission to His law. The ethics of the Gospel are preceded and rendered possible, by the redemption and regeneration of the Gospel.

And God asks tenderness. He counsels me to love mercy. The world is full of sorrow, and I am to move through it as a good physician, befriending and uplifting those in need.

It is what He does Himself. Every glorious quality has its fountain in Him--but pre-eminently the quality of mercy. He is the great Forgiver and the great Helper--no earthly father loves like Him, and no mother is half so mild. So my feeble torch is but kindled at His altar. My charities and philanthropies must be learned in His school, who pardons my ten thousand transgressions!

And God asks humility. He commands me to lay my hand in His, and to walk humbly in His company. 

Nothing is so essential as poverty of spirit. It is the source and spring from which alone runs the fertilizing river of a holy life. The humble heart is where the flowers of Heaven find their congenial soil, and grow into beauty and fragrance.

 I only begin to be a disciple, when my proud heart is brought low--and my Savior is lifted high.

Now, my Father, if these are to be the features of my soul--then it is manifest that none but You can create them, and can nurture them, and can lead them to their perfection. Do the work Lord, and have the glory!

   ~  ~  ~  ~ 

(Alexander Smellie, "On the Secret Place" 1907)

A Purely Didactic Ministry

des·ic·cate
1. To dry out thoroughly.
2. To preserve (foods) by removing the moisture.
3. To make dry, dull, or lifeless.

di·dac·tic
1. Intended to instruct.
2. Morally instructive.
3. Inclined to teach or moralize excessively.

Do you have a "purely didactic" ministry?  

"To win a soul it is necessary, not only to instruct our hearer and make him know the truth, but to impress him so that he may feel it. A purely didactic ministry, which should always appeal to the understanding and should leave the emotions untouched, would certainly be a limping ministry. “The legs of the lame are not equal,” says Solomon, and the unequal legs of some ministries cripple them. We have seen such an one limping about with a long doctrinal leg, but a very short emotional leg. It is a horrible thing for a man to be so doctrinal that he can speak coolly of the doom of the wicked, so that if he does not actually praise God for it, it costs him no anguish of heart to think of the ruin of millions of our race. This is horrible! I hate to hear the terrors of the Lord proclaimed by men whose hard visages, harsh tones, and unfeeling spirit betray a sort of doctrinal desiccation: all the milk of human kindness is dried out of them

Having no feeling himself, such a preacher creates none, and the people sit and listen while he keeps to dry, lifeless statements, until they come to value him for being “sound,” and they themselves come to be sound too, and I need not add sound asleep also, or what life they have is spent in sniffing out heresy, and making earnest men offenders for a word.

 Into this spirit may we never be baptized."

Wisdom and the "IF" "Then" statements

Just thinking out loud....

It seems to me that as soon as someone starts mentioning, what I call the "If" statements in the Bible, you will soon hear someone else say, "It's all of grace".   No argument there; however, God makes it clear throughout His Word that we only grow in "grace" and knowledge when and "IF" we are actively communing with God through His Word and Prayer.  Sometimes I think we confuse the "monergistic grace" of God which saves completely and totally with "growing in grace and knowledge" as we walk through this life on earth as a born-again believer.  One must spend time in communion with God after He has brought them from spiritual darkness and death into the light and given them spiritual life, in order to experience and even recognize wisdom from God.

God is not a genie in a lamp that we rub when we need Him to do something for us, i.e. give us wisdom.    Clearly, if we want wisdom from God, there are more things involved then just asking for it.  Let's look at just this one passage in Proverbs Chapter 2:

IF you receive my words

IF you treasure up my commandments

IF you make your ear attentive

IF you incline your heart

IF you call out

IF you seek after it

IF you search for it

THEN you will understand

THEN you will find knowledge

The Value of Wisdom

1 My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the Lord gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
8 guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 discretion will watch over you,
understanding will guard you,
12 delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
13 who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,
14 who rejoice in doing evil
and delight in the perverseness of evil,
15 men whose paths are crooked,
and who are devious in their ways.

God's Glory as our Chief End (Part three)

If you have not read the previous two posts, I would encourage you to do so.  It is about understanding why we do what we do and the effect of what we do when we do it.  It's about the overarching motivation behind all of our activities including a Women's Ministry.

God's word is "Christ-Centered" and yet the churches and many of the activities have become "man-centered" or "self-centered".  Ask yourself, "Why do I go to church?"  "Why do I serve in a ministry?", Why do I sing praises?"  "Why do I read the Bible?"   Why do I strive to live a moral life?"  "Why do I share Christ with others?"    

Ponder those questions before reading on...

Q. What is it to live to God?

A. When we live to his service, and lay ourselves out wholly for God.

The Lord has sent us into the world, as a merchant sends his agent beyond the seas to trade for him. We live to God when we trade for his interest, and propagate his gospel. God has given every man a talent; and when a man does not hide it in a napkin, but improves it for God, he lives to God. When a master in a family, by counsel and good example, labours to bring his servants to Christ; when a minister spends himself, and is spent, that he may win souls to Christ, and make the crown flourish upon Christ's head; when the magistrate does not wear the sword in vain, but labours to cut down sin, and to suppress vice; this is to live to God, and this is glorifying God. Phil. 1:20. "That Christ might be magnified, whether by life or by death." Three wishes Paul had, and they were all about Christ; that he might be found in Christ, be with Christ, and magnify Christ.

1. We glorify God by walking cheerfully. It brings glory to God, when the world sees a Christian has that within him that which can make him cheerful in the worst times; that can enable him, with the nightingale, to sing with a thorn at his breast. The people of God have ground for cheerfulness. They are justified and adopted, and this creates inward peace; it makes music within, whatever storms are without, 2 Cor. 1:4. I Thess. 1:6. If we consider what Christ has wrought for us by his blood, and wrought in us by his Spirit, it is a ground of great cheerfulness, and this cheerfulness glorifies God. It reflects upon a master when the servant is always drooping and sad; sure he is kept to hard commons, his master does not give him what is fitting; so, when God's people hang their heads, it looks as if they did not serve a good master, or repented of their choice, which reflects dishonour on God. As the gross sins of the wicked bring a scandal on the gospel, so do the uncheerful lives of the godly. Psalm 100:2, "Serve the Lord with gladness." Your serving him does not glorify him, unless it be with gladness. A Christian's cheerful looks glorify God; religion does not take away our joy, but refines it; it does not break our viol, but tunes it, and makes the music sweeter.

2. We glorify God by standing up for his truths. Much of God's glory lies in his truth. God has entrusted us with his truth, as a master entrusts his servant with his purse to keep. We have not a richer jewel to trust God with than our souls, nor has God a richer jewel to trust us with than his truth. Truth is a beam that shines from God. Much of his glory lies in his truth. When we are advocates for truth we glorify God. Jude 3, "That ye should contend earnestly for the truth." The Greek word to contend signifies great contending, as one would contend for his land, and not suffer his right to be taken from him, so we should contend for the truth. Were there more of this holy contention God would have more glory. Some contend earnestly for trifles and ceremonies, but not for the truth. We should Count him indiscreet that would contend more for a picture than for his inheritance; for a box of toys than for his box of title deeds.

3. We glorify God by praising him. Doxology, or praise, is a God-exalting work. Psalm 50:23, "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." The Hebrew word Bara, to create, and Barak, to praise, are little different, because the end of creation is to praise God. David was called the sweet singer of Israel, and his praising God was called glorifying God. Psalm 96:12. "I will praise thee, O Lord my God, and I will glorify thy name." Though nothing can add to God's essential glory, yet praise exalts him in the eyes of others. When we praise God, we spread his fame and renown, we display the trophies of his excellency. In this manner the angels glorify him; they are the choristers of heaven, and do trumpet forth his praise. Praising God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer we act like men; in praise we act like angels. Believers are called "temples of God." I Cor. 3:16. When our tongues praise, then the organs in God's spiritual temple are sounding.

How sad it is that God has no more glory from us in this way! Many are full of murmuring and discontent, but seldom bring glory to God, by giving him the praise due to his name. We read of the saints having harps in their hands, the emblems of praise. Many have tears in their eyes, and complaints in their mouths, but few have harps in their hands, blessing and glorifying God. Let us honour God this way. Praise is the quit-rent we pay to God: as long as God renews our lease, we must renew our rent.

4. We glorify God, by being zealous for his name. Num. 25:11, "Phineas hath turned my wrath away, while he was zealous for my sake." Zeal is a mixed affection, a compound of love and anger; it carries forth our love to God, and our anger against sin in an intense degree. Zeal is impatient of God's dishonour; a Christian fired with zeal takes a dishonour done to God worse than an injury done to himself. Rev. 2:2, "Thou canst not bear them that are evil." Our Saviour Christ thus glorified his Father; he, being baptized with a spirit of zeal, drove the money-changers out of the temple, John 2:14-17. "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up."

5. We glorify God, when we have an eye to God in our natural and in our civil actions. In our natural actions; in eating and drinking. 1 Cor. 10:31 "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God." A gracious person holds the golden bridle of temperance; he takes his meat as a medicine to heal the decays of nature, that he may be the fitter, by the strength he receives, for the service of God; he makes his food, not fuel for lust, but help to duty. In buying and selling, we do all to the glory of God. The wicked live upon unjust gain, by falsifying the balances, as in Hosea 12:7, "The balances of deceit are in his hands;" and thus while men make their weights lighter, they make their sins heavier, when by exacting more than the commodity is worth, they do not for eighty write down fifty, but for fifty eighty; when they exact double the price that a thing is worth. We buy and sell to the glory of God, when we observe that golden maxim, "To do to others as we would have them do to us;" so that when we sell our commodities, we do not sell our consciences also. Acts 24:16. "Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards men." We glorify God, when we have an eye to God in all our civil and natural actions, and do nothing that may reflect any blemish on religion.

6. We glorify God by labouring to draw others to God; by seeking to convert others, and so make them instruments of glorifying God. We should be both diamonds and loadstones (magnetic rocks); diamonds for the lustre of grace and loadstones for attractive virtue in drawing others to Christ. Gal. 4:19, "My little children, of whom I travail," etc. It is a great way of glorifying God, when we break open the devil's prison, and turn men from the power of Satan to God.

7. We glorify God in a high degree when we suffer for God, and seal the gospel with our blood. John 21:18,19, "When thou shalt be old, another shall gird thee, and carry thee, whither thou wouldest not: this spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God." God's glory shines in the ashes of his martyrs. Isa. 24:15, "wherefore glorify the Lord in the fires." Micah was in the prison, Isaiah was sawn asunder, Paul beheaded, Luke hanged on an olive tree; thus did they, by their death, glorify God. The sufferings of the primitive saints did honour to God, and made the gospel famous in the world. What would others say? See what a good master they serve, and how they love him, that they will venture the loss of all in his service. The glory of Christ's kingdom does not stand in worldly pomp and grandeur, as other kings; but it is seen in the cheerful sufferings of his people. The saints of old "loved not their lives to the death." Rev. 12:11. They embraced torments as so many crowns. God grant we may thus glorify him, if he calls us to it. Many pray, "Let this cup pass away," but few, "Thy will be done."

8. We glorify God, when we give God the glory of all that we do. When Herod had made an oration, and the people gave a shout, saying, "It is the voice of a God, and not of a man," he took the glory to himself; the text says, immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms." Acts 12:23. We glorify God, when we sacrifice the praise and glory of all to God. 1 Cor. 15:10, "I laboured more abundantly than they all," a speech, one would think, savoured of pride; but the apostle pulls the crown from his own head, and sets it upon the head of free grace: "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." As Joab, when he fought against Rabbah, sent for King David, that he might carry away the crown of the victory, 2 Sam. 12:28, so a Christian, when he has gotten power over any corruption or temptation sends for Christ, that he may carry away the crown of the victory. As the silkworm, when she weaves her curious work, hides herself under the silk, and is not seen; so when we have done anything praiseworthy, we must hide ourselves under the veil of humility, and transfer the glory of all we have done to God. As Constantine used to write the name of Christ over his door, so should we write the name of Christ over our duties. Let him wear the garland of praise.

9. We glorify God by a holy life. A bad life dishonours God. 1 Pet. 2:8, "Ye are an holy nation, that ye should shew forth the praises of him that hath called you." Rom. 2:24, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you." Epiphanus says," That the looseness of some Christians in his time made many of the heathens shun their company, and would not be drawn to hear their sermons." By our exact Bible-conversation we glorify God. Though the main work of religion lies in the heart, yet our light must so shine that others may behold it. The safety of a building is the foundation, but the glory of it is in the frontispiece; so the beauty of faith is in the conversation. When the saints, who are called jewels, cast a sparkling lustre of holiness in the eyes of the world, then they "walk as Christ walked." 1 John 2:6. When they live as if they had seen the Lord with bodily eyes, and been with him upon the mount, they adorn religion, and bring revenues of glory to the crown of heaven.

Now - the next question to ponder is "Do you care about God's Glory?"

Sharing Your Gifts

In ways you least suspect, God answers prayers.  I have been praying for a couple of years that the Lord would bring someone into our lives with a heart for music.  My husband, who neither reads nor can write music, has been given over 70 songs (both the words and melodies).  His only way to capture those songs is to record them acapella.  He can hear orchestra's playing them, congregations and choirs singing them; but, that is impossible without sheet music for them.

We met Celeste and her husband Mike last December when members of our church and others came to Atria, where my husband ministers, to share a Christmas Program with the residents.  Celeste accompanied the group on piano and Mike sung in the choir.  At that time we had no idea how gifted this young lady was.

As we got to know Celeste and Mike we discovered that they both love the Lord and are both gifted in many ways.  As a side note:  They will be leaving for the mission field and will be gone sometime before the end of this year. Mike is a doctor and will be joining a medical missionary team in Africa.  Celeste will be working with women trapped in the sex trafficking industry with the desire to win them to Christ.

Through our relationship with them, we discovered that Celeste has been singing since she was a tiny little girl and also plays the piano--even composing her own musical arrangements.  Michael shared a few of his songs with Celeste and she was able to write the piano chords for them.  Three of Michael's songs became part of a one woman, outreach concert,  that we hosted at Atria on April 19th.

As we sat listening to this gifted young woman sing praises to the Lord, our eyes filled with tears.  As we heard Michael's songs being played and sung by someone who we have both grown to love, we were overwhelmed with thanksgiving to the Lord.

Little did we know, another sweet Christian sister, India Curry, who is a gifted artist as well, video taped Celeste practicing for the concert in her home and posted that video on Youtube.  You can watch it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcXn5x26Alo

This is the body of Christ working together to build up and edify believers, bring glory to God, and reach the lost.

What God has taught me through this is that He has everything and everyone under His sovereign control and overcomes all obstacles that we may think are present in our lives.  He will bring those members of His body together who will glorify Him with their gifts in the most unexpected ways--even if it's only for a season!

Rejoicing in Christ - The Center of Our Joy!

whose experiences almost daily mingle with their own in the sweet sympathies of song

Poets are the song-birds of human nature, the interpreters of human feeling; and they only are worthy of the name, in whose interpretations we find our own unexpressed thoughts and feelings and experiences. The sacred poet, like the Levite of old, is still a minister in the temple; he still kindles the altar fires of holy feeling, and from his own spiritual indwelling, insight, and inner communings, he puts into language for as those emotions, dispositions, desires, that our hearts recognize and yet our lips fail of uttering. He takes us to mountain tops of feeling, into valleys of shadow, and leads by streams of refreshing, and into solitudes of restfulness and calm. But to understand him best, we must know the ways by which he himself has been led, and have the assurance that it is a trusty guide with whom we enter into holy companionship.

The above is an excerpt from the preface of a book published in 1875 entitled, Story of the Hymns.  Our best friend, Denise McCool found this book (which is a first edition) at a second hand story.  She stopped by this past week and presented it to Michael, stating, "I came across this and knew that it was meant for you".

Over the past 4 years, my husband, Michael, has written over 70 original songs/hymns and well over 600 poems which all exult Christ and express honor and glory to God.  I have been blessed to be able to say, I have first hand knowledge of  "the ways by which he himself has been led, and have assurance that it is a trusty guide with whom I enter into holy companionship"

What a blessing this little book has already been in just 4 short days.  God has used it to encourage my husband when all around him can be such discouragement.  In the current Christian culture, so few understand and appreciate the gift of praise and worship that God gives some of his people through the writing of both poems and hymns.  It is wonderful to read that it has not always been that way.  The preface ends by stating:

"...The religious experiences out of which these hymns grew are not as familiar to those who have not made a special study of the subject. That the book may lead some to better know the guides of their spiritual journey, whose experiences almost daily mingle with their own in the sweet sympathies of song, is the devout wish of the author."

Thanking the Lord this morning for His sweet presence and providence in our lives as he orchestrates even the smallest thing, like a friend finding a book in a second hand store, to encourage His people through our sojourn here on earth!

"...sensed that God was saying to him, “Preach on, great preacher, without me.”

“Preach on, great preacher, without me.”

The task of true biblical preaching is not essentially intellectual or psychological or rhetorical; it is essentially spiritual. I have followed the preaching ministry of more men than I can count and have discovered that many fall into a great trap. I was truly blessed to discover that my concerns are shared with many others and have been so wonderfully articulated in this excerpt from "What is Biblical Preaching" by Eric J. Alexander, P&R, 2008:

"Left to ourselves, we may do many things with a congregation. We may move them emotionally. We may attract them to ourselves personally, producing great loyalty. We may persuade them intellectually. We may educate them in a broad spectrum of Christian truth. But the one thing we can never do, left to ourselves, is to regenerate them spiritually and change them into the image of Jesus Christ, to bear his moral glory in their character. While that is the great calling of the church of Christ, it is essentially God’s work and not ours.

So it is possible to be homiletically brilliant, verbally fluent, theologically profound, biblically accurate and orthodox, and spiritually useless. That frightens me. I hope it frightens you, too. I think it is of this that Paul is speaking when he says, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (I Cor. 3:6-7). It is very possible for us to be deeply concerned about homiletical ability and fluency and theological profundity and biblical orthodoxy, but to know nothing of the life – giving power of God with the burning anointing of the Holy Spirit upon our ministry. Campbell Morgan (Lloyd-Jones’s predecessor at the Westminster Chapel) divulged that at one crucial stage in his ministry he was in precisely this position, and sensed that God was saying to him, “Preach on, great preacher, without me.” Alan Redpath used to say that the most penetrating question you could ask about any church situation was, “What is happening in this place that cannot be explained in merely human terms?”

So there is a world of difference between true biblical preaching and an academic lecture or a rhetorical performance. We are utterly dependent on the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. Thank God, he uses the weak things of this world to confound the mighty, and the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are (1 Cor. 1 :2,8). This is why it is absolutely essential to marry prayer to the ministry of the Word. In our ministries prayer is not supplemental; it is fundamental. Of course we subscribe to the principal that “this work is God’s work, not ours.” We subscribe to that because we are biblical Evangelicals, but the logical corollary of that statement is that prayer is a fundamental issue in the ministry of the Word, as in every part of our labor, and not, as we tend to make it, a supplemental matter."

"How dare anyone deprive us of our comforts!"

Ever find yourself thinking that way?

My husband and I just finished volume one of  Sam Storm's two volume book entitled "A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ".  Michael reads a chapter or two each night before we turn out the lights.  One portion really stood out to me as I was contemplating the American Christian culture and how, frankly, scared we are of putting ourselves in harms way for the sake of the gospel.   Here is the excerpt below, which God used to both convict and encourage us:

I travel extensively throughout the U.S. and occasionally overseas, speaking at churches and conferences. Typically, either at some point while I'm away or immediately upon my return, my wife lovingly asks such questions as: "Did the ministry go well? Did they respond positively to what you had to say? Did you sleep well in the hotel? At what restaurants did you eat? Are you feeling o.k.?"

 

She's never yet heard me say in reply: "They threw stones at me during my first sermon. One caught me square in the forehead. I felt my life was in jeopardy on a few occasions and I honestly didn't know if I'd escape. Two leaders in the church beat me with rods and the local sheriff threw me in jail on the second night. I didn't sleep a wink in that stinking cell and the food was so repulsive I couldn't eat a thing. Other than that, the ministry was great!"

 

No one in the Christian west anticipates such treatment. If we ever encountered anything remotely similar to what Paul faced, we'd wipe the dust from our shoes and never return. Surely "ministers of God" (v. 4a) who are dedicated to the gospel ought to expect the best of everything. How dare anyone deprive us of our comforts!

 

So what would motivate a man to willingly pursue a life characterized by the sort of hardships Paul endured? What could possibly sustain a man through such sufferings?

 

One answer is found in Hebrews 10:32-34. There we read of Christians who "endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated" (vv. 32-33). Beyond this, they "joyfully accepted the plundering" of their "property" (v. 34)! Here's why. Here's how. They "knew" they "had a better possession and an abiding one" (v. 34).

 

The degree to which we find suffering intolerable is the degree to which we lack confidence in the glory of our inheritance in Christ. To the extent that we are embittered by oppression and persecution, we reveal our lack of satisfaction in him.

 

Paul was in the grip of the glory to come (cf. 2 Cor. 4:16-18), and found strength to endure. Like those believers in Hebrews 10, he feasted on the promise of a future with Christ and held fast.

 

  

"I Know Your Works"

Sin is strengthened by the illusion of secrecy. The wicked justifies his iniquity by saying “in his heart, ‘God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it’” (Psalm 10:11).


Believing that his thoughts are known only to himself, he covets. Convinced that his fantasies are private affairs, he lusts. Persuaded that no one has access to his heart, he hates and blasphemes and revels in the passions of his flesh. Confident that God is either unable or unwilling to take note of his deeds, he steals, fornicates, and lies.

But Jesus shatters the fantasy, both for Christian and non-Christian, by declaring: “I know your works!” Indeed, this riveting claim appears at the beginning of each of the seven letters to the churches in the chapter two of the book of Revelation. In six of those instances the same refrain is found: “I know your works”. In the seventh (Rev. 2:9), he proclaims, “I know your tribulation and your poverty.”

How does your knowledge of God’s knowledge of you change your life? If it doesn’t, it should. Consider these affirmations of the knowledge that God has of your soul. It is both pervasive and perfect.

Let’s think for a moment about how God thinks! The first thing to remember is that whereas we learn by observation and reason (we employ induction and deduction), God simply knows! His knowledge is intuitive, innate, and immediate. He neither discovers nor forgets.

More than that, he knows everything at once! With God the act of knowing is complete and instantaneous. He thinks about all things at the same time, and is never not thinking about them (forgive the double negative!). As Wayne Grudem said, If God “should wish to tell us the number of grains of sand on the seashore or the number of stars in the sky, he would not have to count them all quickly like some kind of giant computer, nor would he have to call the number to mind because it was something he had not thought about for a time. Rather, he knows all things at once. All of these facts and all other things that he knows are always fully present in his consciousness".

God's knowledge of you and me is both exhaustive and infallible. He knows everything and he knows it perfectly. He holds no false beliefs about us and makes no errors of judgment. God knows exhaustively all his own deeds and plans (Acts 15:18) as well as ours. No secret of the human heart, no thought of the mind or feeling of the soul escapes his gaze.

This is explicitly affirmed in Psalm 139 – O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether” (vv. 1-4).

Every emotion, feeling, idea, thought, conception, resolve, aim, doubt, motive, perplexity, and anxious moment lies before God like an open book. And God knows all this "from afar"! The distance between heaven and earth by which men vainly imagine God's knowledge to be circumscribed (limited, bounded) offers no obstacle.

God knows "all my ways", which is to say that every step, every move, every journey, is under his gaze. What possible hope of concealment is there when God knows what we will say before we do?

So, if sin is strengthened by the illusion of secrecy, what better way to destroy its power than by meditating on the exhaustive and gloriously infallible knowledge that God has of us! Here again is the declaration of Jesus: “I know your works!”
Artcle Excerpt by Sam Storms

Scripture references for those who wish to go directly to God's Word and study these passages in context:

“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought” (1 Chronicles 28:9a).

“O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you” (Psalm 29:5). "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3).

“Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the Lord, how much more the hearts of the children of man!” (Proverbs 15:11).

“Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God’? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable” (Isaiah 40:27-28).

“O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, . . .” (Jeremiah 20:12).

"The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it? 'I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds’” (Jeremiah 17:9-10; cf. also Jer. 16:17; 18:23; 1 Kings 8:39).

“And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and he said to me, ‘Say, Thus says the Lord: So you think, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind’” (Ezekiel 11:5).

"For your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matthew 6:8).

“And they prayed and said, ‘You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen’” (Acts 1:24).

“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13).

“God is greater than our heart, and knows everything” (1 John 3:20).

God's knowledge of the inner man is also affirmed in Deuteronomy 31:21; 1 Samuel 16:7; Psalm 94:9-11; Isaiah 66:18; Jeremiah 11:20; 32:19; Luke 16:15 (“God knows your hearts”)

Acts 15:8; Rom. 8:27 (“he who searches hearts”);

1 Corinthians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; and Revelation 2:23;. For his awareness of all our activities and ways, see also 1 Samuel 2:3; Job 23:10; 24:23; 31:4; Psalms 1:6; 33:13-15; 37:18; 119:168; Isaiah 29:15; Matthew 10:30.

All The Accountability One Should Need

"But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of all your works" (Psalm 73:28).

Acknowledging God's Presence

These might be the most important words to have constantly ringing in the ears of your heart: "it is good to be near God." "Near God" is something you could never have earned, deserved, or personally achieved. "Near God" is the exact opposite of where sin takes you. "Near God" brought Jesus to earth and required him to die. "Near God" restores to you what sin destroyed and what only grace can restore. "Near God" is where you were designed to live.

Grace has brought you close to God once again. Grace means he is in you and you are in him. Grace has made it impossible for you to be alone. God's greatest gift to you is himself! But you and I don't always acknowledge his presence. There are moments in life when we get it wrong, where we live as if he doesn't exist. When we act as if he is distant, we panic in the face of the normal difficulties of life in this fallen world and in the face of the perplexities of God's sovereign plan. Or else we fall into trying to do God's job, and in so doing, complicate our lives all the more.

Excerpt from: 

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/01/16/getting-it-right/

Paul Tripp

Continuing awhile with Philpot

In the words, from which I hope, with God’s blessing, to speak this morning, we have this union with Christ very experimentally and sweetly set forth. And depend upon it, friends, unless we know something in our souls of the solemn realities that are set forth in these words of Scripture, there is no evidence that the God of all grace has begun his work upon our hearts. We will then, with God’s blessing, endeavour, so far as the Lord shall enable us, to trace out, how this union with Christ is manifested in the way of experience, that the Lord may encourage us to believe, that we have felt and known something of the fruits of an eternal union with the Lord of life and glory.
He goes on later to explain that it is through the experiences of life, i.e. suffering, that we gain knowledge of our Union with Christ.  I have a feeling that more than just eyebrows were raised while he preached this sermon.

In proportion, then, as we suffer with Christ in these things, shall we reign with him, that is, his powerful reign and government and authority are made manifest by means of, and amidst the suffering. It is impossible to know anything of the reign of Christ in the soul, as Lord of all might and power, unless we are placed in circumstances where that reign is needed. What a flimsy, scanty, superficial thing is modern Calvinistic religion! I do not mean what is called "moderate Calvinism," but what is often called "high Calvinism," such as most of my hearers here profess. What a flimsy, superficial thing this for the most part is! Men take certain truths out of the word of God, and they hammer this pure gold upon the anvil of hard hearts and seared consciences, until it becomes as thin and as light as gold leaf. This gold leaf they spread over their hearers, and they go forth in all the gilded glare of gospel truth; But how different is this outside gilding, these plates from Uphaz, from the massive, weighty gold which the Spirit inwardly communicates! But those that preach and those that profess this flimsy, superficial religion, if they are of God’s family, will be thrown into the furnace with their book of gold-leaf in their hands, that the fire may burn up the ochred pages, and melt the gold-leaf down into one solid ingot. If any of you have a work of grace in your hearts, and yet are gilded over by doctrinal truth beyond your experience, you will be thrown into the furnace of affliction and of fiery temptation; and this furnace will burn away everything but the gold that is within you, though it may melt into the gilding that is without you. But depend upon it that the furnace will bring your religion into a very small compass, as the gold-leaf, which covers such an extent of surface, would make but a very small piece when reduced to a solid shape.

A Needed Word Regarding Singleness

Although I am married now, I often notice the unnapproving reaction, on so many peoples faces, when I tell them that I was not looking for a husband and that I was truly content in my singleness.  I can almost hear them thinking, "O, she obviously struggles with the sin of prideful self-suffienciency" or they roll their eyes with a grin on their face, and say, "Ya, right" as if they don't believe me .  I was so blessed to read this sermon by John Piper (excerpt below), which addresses this topic in a Christ exalting and truly biblical way.  What an encouragement to those who find they are content being single; but, are constantly having to question that contentment because of the influence of incorrect theology on the subject.

A Word to Singles

The apostle Paul clearly loved his singleness because of the radical freedom for ministry that it gave him (1 Corinthians 7:32–38). One of the reasons he was free to celebrate his singleness and call others to join him in it, is that, even though marriage is meant to display the glory of Christ, there are truths about Christ and his kingdom that shine more clearly through singleness than through marriage. I’ll give you three examples:

1) A life of Christ-exalting singleness bears witness that the family of God grows not by propagation through sexual intercourse, but by regeneration through faith in Christ. If you never marry, and if you embrace a lifetime of chastity and biological childlessness, and if you receive this from the Lord’s hand as a gift with contentment, and if you gather to yourself the needy and the lonely, and spend yourself for the gospel without self-pity, because Christ has met your need, then he will be mightily glorified in your life, and particularly so because you are a woman.

2) A life of Christ-exalting singleness bears witness that relationships in Christ are more permanent, and more precious, than relationships in families. The single woman who turns away from regretting the absence of her own family, and gives herself to creating God’s family in the church, will find the flowering of her womanhood in ways she never dreamed, and Christ will be uniquely honored because of it.

3) A life of Christ-exalting singleness bears witness that marriage is temporary, and finally gives way to the relationship to which it was pointing all along: Christ and the church—the way a picture is no longer needed when you see face to face. Marriage is a beautiful thing. But it is not the main thing. If it were, Jesus would not have said, “In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). Single womanhood, content to walk with Christ, is a great witness that he is a better husband than any man, and in the end, will be the only husband in the universe.
 

Tell me what you think of Jesus...

Our estimate of Christ is the best gauge of our spiritual condition; as the thermometer rises in proportion to the increased warmth of the air, so does our estimate of Jesus rise as our spiritual life increases in vigor and fervency. Tell me what you think of Jesus and I will tell you what to think of yourself. Christ is, yea, more than all when we are thoroughly sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. When pride of self fills up the soul, there is little room for Jesus; but when Jesus is fully loved, self is subdued, and sin driven out of the throne.


If we think little of the Lord Jesus we have very great cause to account ourselves spiritually blind, and naked, and poor, and miserable. The rebel despises his lawful sovereign, but the favored courtier is enthusiastic in his praise. Christ crucified is the revealer of many hearts, the touchstone by which the pure gold and the counterfeit metal are discerned; his very name is as a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap; false professors cannot endure it, but true believers triumph therein. We are growing in grace when we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let everything else be gone, and let Christ fill up the entire space of our soul, then, and only then, are we rising out of the vanity of the flesh into the real life of God.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "A Song Among The Lilies," delivered August 30, 1874

"I want to know Christ!" Philippians 3:10

Christianity is not merely a "theological system"--but a person.


It is not only a redemption--but a Redeemer.


What a difference between casting ourselves upon a system, however beautiful--and upon a tender, loving, compassionate Savior!


What a difference between a system of divine principles--and a throbbing bosom on which we may lean, and feel . . .
every burden lightened,
every pressure relieved,
every sorrow softened!


This is what man needs. This is what he will need above everything, when the hour of sorrow, or the hour of death, draws near. Oh, what are systems then, however beautiful--in comparison with the calm consciousness that the arm of Omnipotent Love is thrown around us!


Theological systems are all but as the small dust of the balance--the foam, the dust, the shadow, the air!

"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear--but now my eye sees You!" Job 42:5

(Frederick Whitfield, "Christ in the Word" 1869)

It doesn't "feel" good; but, it is good!

The Spirit of God often sends home the reproofs of Scripture to our hearts; while we are reading the word we feel that it searches us and rebukes us. So also the Lord will employ his ministers to chide us. Little is that ministry worth which never chides you. If God never uses his minister as a rod, depend upon it he will never use him as a pot of manna, for the rod of Aaron and the pot of manna always go together, and he who is God’s true servant will be both to your soul.

The Lord will also chide you through your own conscience, causing you to judge and condemn yourself. The Spirit of God will quicken your understanding, and then it will be said of you as of David, “David’s heart smote him.” It is hard hitting when the heart smites, for it comes to such close quarters, but blessed is that man who can thus be corrected: it is a sad sign when conscience is too dead to be of any service in this direction.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Lord Chiding his People," delivered May 3, 1874.

The Authority of the Local Congregation

As I read through John Pipers message to his church entitled, "Who are the Elders" I can't help remembering the fact that Jonathan Edwards church voted him out of the pulpit for fencing off the communion table. I admit that understanding "authority" must also be coupled with understanding fallibility and the sovereignty of God.

Interesting stuff to ponder as we think biblically about "Church Authority".

Priests and Ministers


All the members of Christ's body are priests and ministers.


1 Peter 2:9, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."


Revelation 1:5–6, "He loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."

The New Testament knows nothing of a priesthood of the clergy. 1 Timothy 2:5, "There is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." We all go directly to God through Christ, not through professional priests nor through Mary. Every Christian is a priest under Jesus Christ.


And every Christian is a minister. The word "minister" does not define my pastoral office in the church. It defines my function. And it defines your function. Ephesians 4:12 says that pastors and teachers exist to "equip the saints for the work of the ministry." You are all ministers (cf. 1 Peter 4:10–11). And you are all priests (cf. Matthew 23:8–11).



The Authority of the Local Congregation


Under Christ the local congregation is the final authority in the church.


I don't mean that the congregation is above the Scriptures, because the Scriptures are the word of Christ. We submit to Christ by submitting to his word in the Bible. Nor do I mean that the congregation is above the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. We submit to Christ by submitting to his Spirit in the church.


What I mean is that under Christ—his Word and his Spirit—the congregation, and not pastors or elders or deacons or bishops or popes, is the body that settles matters of faith and life. This is not only implied in the priesthood of all believers, but illustrated in Matthew 18:15–17 where the church is the last court of appeal in church discipline:


If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 5:4–5.)


So the church—the congregation—is the final court of appeal in matters of church discipline where decisions about membership are made. Since this is the most basic authority in the church under Christ, this shows that the congregation as a body is the final authority in the local church. This does not mean local churches shouldn't form associations and fellowships for mutual encouragement and guidance and ministry. It only means that the local congregation decides its own matters under the Word and Spirit of Christ.


So far then, Christ is the head of the church. All members of his body are priests and ministers. And therefore these members, as a congregation, are the final authority in the church under Christ, that is, under his Word and Spirit.

Always Look to Christ!

I find that the holiest of men in Scripture had their imperfections, with the sole exception of our Master, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, in whom was no sin. His garments were whiter than any fuller could make them, but all his servants had their spots. He is light, and in him is no darkness at all, but we, with all the brightness his grace has given us, are poor dim lamps at best. I make no exception even of those who claim perfection, for I have no more faith in their perfection than in the Pope’s infallibility. There is enough of the earthen vessel left about the best of the Lord’s servants to show that they are earthen, and that the excellency of the heavenly treasure of divine grace which is put within them may be clearly seen to be of God and not of them.

C.H. Spurgeon

Do you live constantly acknowledging the reality of the presence of Christ?

When Christ is with us we are safe, for what wolf can rend a sheep when it is close to the shepherd’s hand? When we are away from Jesus, we are not only in peril, but are already despoiled; to lose fellowship with Jesus is loss enough in itself, even if no further calamity occur. Ships without a pilot, cities without watchmen, babes without a nurse, are we without Jesus. We cannot do without him, the less we attempt it the better. Samson without his locks is the sad type of a believer out of fellowship.

How dare we go forth to business on any one day without the presence of the Lord? As well might the warrior go to battle without shield and buckler. Should we not daily pray, “If thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence”? How can we go to our beds till he has kissed us with the kisses of his mouth? May not even the dreams and visions of the night prove our bane if our souls be not committed to his keeping? For my part, I love to murmur to myself, as I place my head on my pillow, those charming lines —

“Sprinkled afresh with pardoning blood,
I lay me down to rest,
As in th’ embraces of my God,
Or on my Savior’s breast.”

C. H. Spurgeon

"...certain secret, mystic, and divine impulses..."

I fear that the title of this post may twist some people's faces up; which brings me great sorrow. So many have been indoctrinated into limiting the supernatural reality of the existence, presence, attributes and operations of God among His people.  I am so thankful to our Lord that he has gifted the church with teachers and preachers throughout the church's history to bring encouragement to those still alive in the body.   This is where I go to graze when my soul is in need of green pastures"

To mere professors Christ Jesus is never anything but a myth. They believe there was such a man, but he is only an historical personage to them. To true believers in Christ, however, he is a real person, now existing, and now dwelling in the hearts of his people. And oh! I bear my witness that if there be anything which has ever been certified to my consciousness it is the existence of Jesus, the man, the Son of God.


Oh friends, have we not, when our soul has been in a rapture, thrust our finger into the prints of the nails? Have we not been so drawn away from the outward world, that in spiritual communings we could say, He was to us as our brother that sucked the breasts of our mother, and when we found him without we did embrace him, and we would not let him go? His left hand has been under our head, and his right hand has embraced us. I know this will sound like a legend even to men who profess to be Christ's followers, but I question the reality of your piety if Christ be not one for whom you live, and in whom you dwell; with whom you walk, and in whom you hope soon to sleep that you may wake up in his likeness. A real Christ and a real God—no man has real religion till he knows these. So again the Holy Spirit, who is, with the Father and the Son, the one God of Israel; the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, indivisibly One and yet everlastingly Three—the Holy Spirit is also real, for




"He, in our hearts of sin and woe
Makes living streams of grace arise,
Which into boundless glory flow."


Tell us there is no Spirit? Why, about this we can speak positively. A fool may say that there is no magnetic influence, and that no electric streams can flow along the wires, but they who have once been touched by that mysterious power know it; and the Holy Spirit's influence on men is quite as much within the sphere of our recognition, if we have ever felt it, as is the influence of galvanism or magnetism. Those who have once felt the spiritual life know when it is flowing in; when its strength is withdrawn, and when it returns anew. They know that at times they can do all things; their heaviest trial is a joy, and their weightiest burden a delight; and that at other times they can do nothing, being bowed down to the very dust with weakness. They know that at times they enjoy peace with God through Jesus Christ, and that at other times they are disturbed in spirit. They have discovered, too, that these changes do not depend upon the weather, nor upon circumstances, nor upon any relation of one thought to another, but upon certain secret, mystic, and divine impulses which come forth from the Spirit of God, which make a man more than man, for he is filled with Deity from head to foot, and whose withdrawal makes him feel himself less than man, for he is filled with sin and drenched with iniquity, till he loatheth his own being. Tell us there is no Holy Spirit! We have seen his goings in the sanctuary, but as we shall have to mention these by-and-bye, we pass on, and only now affirm that the Father, Son, and Spirit, are to true Christians no fiction, no dream, no fancy, but as real and as true as persons whom we can see, things which we can handle, or viands which we can taste.

C.H. Spurgeon

Random Thoughts - Pastoral Humility

I am a person with very strong convictions.  I do not hold a conviction, or arrive at a position, on secondary doctrines quickly or without a great deal of study and prayer.  However, if men, throughout the history of the church, men who clearly knew the scriptures and communed more frequently and more deeply with God, than I, have held differing views on secondary doctrines; true humility would dictate that one not hold their own convictions on these matters too tightly; nor teach them dogmatically.  True humility is present when a man can admit, and truly believe, that he may be wrong.

A wise pastor will teach his congregation the differing views held by the church.  He will not give them the easy way out by teaching his position as the correct position.  He will admit that he may be wrong and will provoke them to search the scriptures, to study, and to think!  Creating strong convictions in your people, based solely on their respect for you, will not grow your people up.  It will simply allow people to rely on you for all the answers and never feel the need to search the scriptures for themselves. Creating like-mindedness in a congregation on secondary issues, makes a pastors job easier; helps everyone get along better; but, it does not foster spiritual growth.

To say that ones personal convictions on secondary doctrines will never be shaken is the epitome of a proud heart!  To teach others that your position is the correct position is the path to popish error.