Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Charity and Worry
Lewis, 1946 letter--
Dane Ortlund
It is one of the evils of rapid diffusion of news that the sorrows of all the world come to us every morning. I think each village was meant to feel pity for its own sick and poor whom it can help and I doubt if it is the duty of any private person to fix his mind on ills which he cannot help. (This may even become an escape from the works of charity we really can do to those we know.)--The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume 2 (ed. Walter Hooper; HarperCollins, 2004), 747-48; emphases original
A great many people (not you) do now seem to think that the mere state of being worried is in itself meritorious. I don't think it is. We must, if it so happens, give our lives for others: but even while we're doing it, I think we're meant to enjoy Our Lord and, in Him, our friends, our food, our sleep, our jokes, and the birds' song and the frosty sunrise.
Dane Ortlund
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Heaven is God
Scott Oliphint and Sinclair Ferguson:
Dane Ortlund
Some time ago we heard a fascinating radio program in which a number of famous people were asked what they thought heaven would be like. A consistent three-point pattern began to emerge in their answers, although its most significant element seemed to pass unnoticed by the program makers:--K. Scott Oliphint and Sinclair B. Ferguson, If I Should Die before I Wake (Baker, 1995), 44; quoted in Dan Barber and Robert Peterson, Life Everlasting: The Unfolding Story of Heaven (P&R, 2012), 185
1. All those interviewed believed in heaven.
2. All those interviewed assumed they would be there.
3. When asked to describe heaven, not one of those interviewed mentioned that God was there.
But it is the presence of God in holy, loving majesty that makes heaven what it is. It can even be said that heaven is the presence of God--being in heaven means living with him forever.
Dane Ortlund
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Oscar Peterson - Cakewalk
Pianist: Oscar Peterson
Bass: Dave Young
Guitar: Joe Pass
Drums: Martin Drew
Eric Clapton- Rambling on My Mind Have You Ever Love A Woman
This is the blues medley from the 1983 A.R.M.S. Concert. Credits: Eric Clapton, guitar and vocals; Ray Cooper, drums and percussion; James Hooker, keyboard; Kenny Jones, drums; Andy Fairweather Low, guitar, keyboard and vocals; Fernando Saunders, bass and vocal; Chris Stainton, keyboard; Charlie Watts, drums; Steve Winwood, vocals, keyboard and mandolin; Bill Wyman, bass; Jeff Beck, guitar and vocals; Tony Hymas, keyboard; Ronnie Lane, vocals; Jimmy Page, guitar; Simon Phillips, drums. Eric Clapton was using a Gibson Explorer guitar.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Paradoxical Quote From The Wisdom Of Ben Stein:
"Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen."
Now add this, "Many of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens."
Now add this, "Many of those who refuse, or are unable, to prove they are citizens will receive free insurance paid for by those who are forced to buy insurance because they are citizens."
Think about it when you vote in November!
Friday, October 19, 2012
Slugger, Redeem Thyself - Why neither A-Rod or You Can Do It
How do you think A-Rod feels, looking up into the stands and seeing this sign? I know how I would feel! I’d want to jump over the wall, clamber up to that fan’s row, and scream in his face, “Look, I’m TRYING to get hits! Don’t you think I’d be playing better if it was up to me? Don’t you think I’d redeem myself if I could?” Self-redemption is every human being’s fondest hope, but it’s also our impossible dream. In sports, people always talk about the disaster that can come from trying to make up for failures on the next play. Coaches always chide athletes to have a short memory; if you go into the next play, the next match, or the next game trying to make up for the mistakes of the previous one, you’ll usually only compound them. The assertion is simple: we can’t redeem ourselves.
The parallel to Christianity here is so obvious that it probably doesn’t even need to be drawn. Humans refuse to believe that we are beyond helping ourselves; in fact we often protest that God only helps those who do! We dearly wish that we could, ourselves, atone for the mistakes of the past, and say “Thanks but no thanks” to the offered atoning death of another. We’re uncomfortable owing someone so much.
We only acknowledge our need for a savior when the idol of self-salvation is unceremoniously ripped from our grasp. Alex Rodriguez, and the rest of Yankees, are almost there. One suspects that last night’s Justin Verlander three hit annihilation will serve as the Hammer of God, finally convincing the Yankees, and their fans, that a savior from within is not enough.
Mockingbird
Jeff Beck - How High the Moon - With Imelda May
An Enliven Entertainment Production, this was a 8 camera shoot recorded at the tiny Iridium Jazz Club in NYC. This was Jeff Beck's tribute to Les Paul, on what was to be Les's 95th birthday. Backed by the Imelda May Band, this is a stunning performance by the greatest living guitarist.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
10 Reasons Why God Allows Suffering
Jared Wilson, in Gospel Deeps,
writes that “while we may not be satisfied with what God has revealed
about his purposes in suffering, we cannot justifiably say he has not
revealed anything about his purposes in suffering. We may not have the
answer we are laboring for, but we do have a wealth of answers that lie
in the same field.”
Here’s an outline of ten reasons he identifies in God’s Word:
Justin Taylor
Here’s an outline of ten reasons he identifies in God’s Word:
- To remind us that the world is broken and groans for redemption [Rom. 8:20-23].
- To do justice in response to Adam’s (and our) sin.
- To remind us of the severity of the impact of Adam’s (and our) sin.
- To keep us dependent on God [Heb. 12:6-7].
- So that we will long more for heaven and less for the world.
- To make us more like Christ, the suffering servant [Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 1:5, 4:11].
- To awaken the lost to their need for God [Ps. 119:67, 71].
- To make the bliss of heaven more sweet [Rom. 8:18; 1 Pet. 4:13; Ps. 126:5; Isa. 61:3].
- So that Christ will get the glory in being our strength [John 9:3; 2 Cor. 4:7].
- And so that, thereby, others see that he is our treasure, and not ourselves [2 Cor. 4:8-9].
Justin Taylor
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
The 3 Deadly Corrupting Powers of the One Ring (Lord Of The Rings)
(1) Power to overcome death—thus granting unending physical life.
Perhaps the chief idolatry of our time, the worship of health and longevity, whereas the naturally immortal elves, while understanding the full cosmic process, also envy men for their great blessing of death.
(2) Power to become invisible—thus granting magical disappearance.
Hence the ability to acquire goods without effort, whereas everything worth having is meant to be acquired slowly, not quickly and easily. Yet evil has a shadowy, unreal existence, lacking any creative power, able only to pervert our virtues and to destroy the good. It has no imaginative sympathy, only the flat, unpenetrating eye of Sauron.
(3) Power to coerce the will of others—making evil horribly addictive because it is not merely seductive but also bullying—as when Frodo’s will is finally overwhelmed in the end.
This is exactly the doctrine of Original Sin as a one-way street that cannot be cured by our own effort, but that can be healed only by a transcendent and redemptive power beyond it.For those who are interested, the latest Christian contribution to the literature of Tolkieniana is Louis Markos’ On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis.
Justin Taylor
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Random thoughts on the passing scene - Thomas Sowell
Random thoughts on the passing scene:
Not since the days of slavery have there been so many people who feel entitled to what other people have produced as there are in the modern welfare state, whether in Western Europe or on this side of the Atlantic.
Economist Edward Lazear has cut through all of Barack Obama's claims about "creating jobs" with one plain and inescapable fact -- "there hasn't been one day during the entire Obama presidency when as many Americans were working as on the day President Bush left office." Whatever number of jobs were created during the Obama administration, more have been lost.
How are children supposed to learn to act like adults, when so much of what they see on television shows adults acting like children?
The know-it-all smirks and condescending laughs of Vice President Joe Biden, when Congressman Paul Ryan was speaking during their debate, were a little much from an administration presiding over economic woes at home and disasters overseas -- and being caught in lies about both. Like Barack Obama, Joe Biden has all the clever tricks of a politician and none of the wisdom of a statesman.
If you truly believe in the brotherhood of man, then you must believe that blacks are just as capable of being racists as whites are.
One of the most foolish, and most dangerous, things one can do is to take love for granted, instead of nurturing it and safeguarding it as the prize jewel of one's life.
Whenever you hear people talking about "a living Constitution," almost invariably they are people who are in the process of slowly killing it by "interpreting" its restrictions on government out of existence.
Do either Barack Obama or his followers have any idea how many countries during the 20th century set out to "spread the wealth" -- and ended up spreading poverty instead? At some point, you have to turn from rhetoric, theories and ideologies to facts.
I am so old that I can remember when liberals were liberal -- instead of being intolerant of anything and anybody that is not politically correct.
The question to be asked of people in the media, and that they should ask themselves, should be: "Is your first loyalty to your audience or to your ideology?" The same question should be asked of educators, especially those who see themselves as "agents of social change," even though that is not the job description under which they have been hired and paid.
People who complain about "negative" campaign ads miss the point. It is perfectly legitimate to criticize your opponent. The question is whether the ads are about serious things that matter to the future of this country, and whether they are telling the truth or lying.
If you believe Barack Obama and others who oppose what they call "tax cuts for the rich," you might want to consider what the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said: "You are entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts." If you want to see some documented facts about tax rates and tax revenues, there is a box titled "Tax Cuts" on my web site (www.tsowell.com). Click on it.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
FACT CHECK: TOP TEN WORST LIES BY JOE BIDEN IN VP DEBATE
Once again, Joe Biden lied his way through a Vice Presidential debate--just as he did in his contest with Sarah Palin in 2008. This time, the media caught a few of Biden's worst "malarkey" moments--as did his opponent, Paul Ryan, when he could get a word in edgewise.
Here are the top ten worst lies told by Biden during the debate:
Update - Honorable Mention: "There's not one Democrat who endorsed his...plan." Biden lied--as Ryan pointed out, amidst the Vice President's interruptions--about the fact that Ryan had worked with both Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and former Clinton budget director Alice Rivlin in developing his entitlement reforms. While it's true that neither have endorsed the Romney-Ryan ticket's separate plan--which is different--Ryan's own plans, to which Biden referred, were endorsed by Democrats, and Biden knows it.
10. "With all due respect, that’s a bunch of malarkey....not a single thing he said is accurate." At the outset of the debate, Biden tried to paint Ryan as a liar--when Biden, in fact, was the one lying. Ryan had pointed out: 1) that the White House had distanced itself from the Cairo embassy's apologies on 9/11; 2) that Obama had failed to speak up for Iranian protestors in 2009; 3) that the Obama administration called Syria's dictator a "reformer"; 4) and that the Obama administration is imposing defense cuts and projecting weakness. All of that is true.
9. "The president has met with Bibi [Netanyahu] a dozen times....This is a bunch of stuff." While they have met several times--not a dozen--that includes a meeting at which Obama made the Israeli prime minister enter the White House through a back entrance, refused to take a picture with him, and left him on his own for dinner. Specifically, Ryan had criticized Obama's refusal to meet Netanyahu in New York last month, and to tape talk show interviews instead--a clear snub that sent the wrong signal, again, to Israel's enemies.
8. "Just let the taxes expire like they’re supposed to on those millionaires." Biden's "millionaires" are actually households earning more than $250,000 a year, which includes many middle-class families with two earners, and small business owners in particular who report business earnings as personal income. Biden and Obama have repeatedly labeled those earning over $250,000 as "millionaires and billionaires," distorting the actual impact of their tax plan on the non-millionaires it would hit hardest, who create a vast proportion of small business jobs.
7. "You know, I heard that death panel argument from Sarah Palin. It seems that every vice presidential debate, I hear this kind of stuff about panels."Biden's cheap shot against Palin was an attempt to diminish both her and the man sitting across from him. But Palin never talked about "death panels" in her debate with Biden, for the simple reason that Obamacare had not yet been proposed. Nor did Ryan mention "death panels"--he had addressed the undeniable fact that Obamacare proposes a board to impose cost controls.
6. "The congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for." Biden's lie about Ryan's budget was an attempt to dodge responsibility for lax embassy security--and to cover up that the Obama administration called for new cuts to embassy security just days after the 9/11 attacks. Ryan's proposal, which called for a 19% overall decrease in non-defense discretionary spending, does not even mention embassy security--the Obama campaign merely made up that number by applying 19% across the board.
5. "No, they are not four years closer to a nuclear weapon." Biden's attempt to lie about the glaring reality of the Iranian nuclear program fell flat. Iran is indeed four years closer to a nuclear weapon, and the Obama administration--believing it knew better than its predecessors--tried to reinvent the wheel on talks with Iran, causing frustration to our allies in Europe and the Middle East. Meeting after meeting this year has failed to produce results, and the loophole-filled sanctions, while hurting Iran somewhat, are not stopping its nuclear program.
4. "No religious institution, Catholic or otherwise...has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact." No, it is not a fact--it is the opposite of a fact, and saying "that is a fact" does not make it any less a blatant lie. The Obama administration is forcing religious institutions to provide contraceptive and abortion drugs through their insurance policies. That is the reason several dozen religious institutions are suing the administration to defend their First Amendment freedom of religion.
3. "It came from this man voting to put two wars on a credit card...I was there. I voted against him." Biden voted for both the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war. He did not vote for George W. Bush's plan to extend coverage of Medicare to prescription drugs (though he voted for an earlier, similar proposal), nor did he vote for the Bush tax cuts. But he voted for both of the wars he derided last night. To quote Bill Clinton's speech to the Democratic National Convention: "It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did."
2. "What we did is we saved $716 billion and put it back -- applied it to Medicare." Biden repeated the lie the Obama administration has been telling since before Obamacare passed in 2010: that cuts to Medicare today were savings that extend the life of the program. They would be--if the same $716 billion wasn't also being used to pay for Obamacare. As Ryan pointed out in 2010, and again last night, you can't double-count the same cuts. Taking $716 billion out of Medicare means exactly that--and hurts, not helps, the program's solvency.
1. "Well, we weren’t told they wanted more security again." Biden lied through his teeth about the fact that the administration--specifically, the State Department--had been told again and again that security on the ground in Libya, and in Benghazi in particular, was inadequate. The day before, in Congressional hearings on the Libya attacks, former regional security director Eric Nordstrom described his frustration with having those requests turned down by the government bureaucracy: "For me the Taliban is on the inside of the building."
Friday, October 12, 2012
Joe Biden What A Clown
New Music: Mumford and Sons’ Babel
Everyone’s favorite British folk band, Mumford and Sons, and their latest album, Babel,
have been a hot news item since the album was released a couple of
weeks ago. Depending on who you ask, the band’s music is heartfelt and
refreshing, beautifully expressing the human desire for love and grace
or maudlin and mediocre, only created to prey on the sentimentality of
the general population. Two recent articles on the band illustrate the
variety of opinions that have been voiced about Babel and the obvious religious symbolism in the group’s music: the first, “Mumford & Sons Preaches to Masses”,
from NPR’s Ann Powers (which DZ mentioned on Friday), speaks to the
band’s power to bring religious ideas to the public; and the second, “Mumford & Sons and the Death of Church Music”,
comes from The American Conservative’s Jordan Bloom, in a direct reply
to Powers’ article, where he connects the vapid sentimentality he sees
in contemporary worship music to Mumford and their music. Both of these
articles are interesting reads, and they address what I see as the
central theme of Mumford and Sons’ music: their incredible ability to
introduce Christian and religious symbols to a large audience, imparting
grace and hope to their listeners.
Similarly to their previous album, Sigh No More, this album takes a biblical idea/symbol as its title; however, Babel conjures
up a different set of ideas regarding religion than the reference to
heaven provided by the title of the band’s first album. With a title
like Babel and its connotations of confusion, especially
between different languages, I find it intriguing that so many reviews
of and reactions to this album accuse it of pandering to the masses by
creating a common musical language that is derived from calling up false
emotions. Certainly, Mumford and Sons’ music is charged with emotion,
often relying on contrasts between soft and loud and slow and fast to
produce their particular brand of folk-inflected pop music, but
questioning the emotional sincerity of their music based upon their
ability to create emotionally resonant songs seems like a bizarre
criticism. While the music on Babel doesn’t stray too far away from what we heard on Sigh No More, I have found little evidence of false sentimentality as I have listened to Babel over the past few weeks; instead, my reaction has been the opposite and I have found a measure of peace and grace in Babel, just as I did in Sigh No More.
This sense of rest and peace is most obviously evident on the album’s final two songs “Below My Feet” and “Not With Haste.” Beginning slowly before transforming into romping celebration, “Below My Feet” is buoyed by airy background vocals, giving a breathless ease to lead singer Marcus Mumford’s declaration of faith amid the struggles of life: “And I was still, but I was under your spell, when Jesus told me all was well. So all must be well.” The song’s rousing chorus suggests a way to live within this fallen world, where stillness and peace are sometimes hard to find: “Keep the earth below my feet, for all my sweat, my blood runs weak. Let me learn from where I have been, keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn.” For Mumford, being grounded and remaining humble is a vital way of interacting with the world, an idea which the album closer brings full circle. “Not With Haste” is fairly subdued in terms of tempo, but continuously adds layers of music throughout the song until the final stanza, when suddenly all the instruments drop out for a moment. This musical break sets the stage for the album’s final statement, a beautiful plea for the strength to live and love in a confusing world: “Do not let my fickle flesh go to waste, as it keeps my heart and soul in its place, and I will love with urgency and not with haste.”
Elsewhere on the album, Mumford continues to encourage listeners to slow down and treat life with the attention and care it deserves. On “I Will Wait,” the speedy tempo of the song contrasts with the song’s message, bringing Mumford’s lyrics about waiting into the forefront: “Raise my hands, paint my spirit gold. Bow my head, keep my heart slow.” In the quiet, morose “Lover’s Eyes,” Mumford asks God to “forget all of my sins” before the song transitions into a final section with a repeated prayer: “I walk slow, I walk slow, take my hand, help me on my way.” Suggesting this process of learning how to slow down is connected to contentment, Mumford uses the image of a pilgrim on life’s journey on “Hopeless Wanderer” to find some hope and peace on the road by embracing the current situation: “I will learn to love the skies I’m under.” I can understand how sentiments like these, which appear throughout the entire album, have given critics the ammunition to attack the sincerity of Mumford and Sons; however, the reactions to the emotional outpouring of Babel seem overly defensive to me, as perhaps Babel has brought up an issue that none of us like to confront in our own lives—cynicism.
Being a cynic is easy. In fact, I wouldn’t be the first to argue that in this day and age many of us default to cynicism when it comes to things like politics, religion, and popular culture. So when a band like Mumford and Sons comes on the scene, full of hope and brash emotional statements, we are inclined to try to find something wrong with their work rather than re-evaluating our own perspective on life through it. Yet, this is exactly what Babel invites us to do: take a second look at our lives, no matter how stressful and broken they may be, and find hope in places where cynicism has taken hold. I can’t think of a better way to end this review than with Mumford’s words from “Not With Haste,” both a rebuttal to the criticism and a helpful reminder for the rest of us cynics: “This ain’t no sham, I am what I am. I’ll leave no time for the cynic’s mind.”
Mockingbird
This sense of rest and peace is most obviously evident on the album’s final two songs “Below My Feet” and “Not With Haste.” Beginning slowly before transforming into romping celebration, “Below My Feet” is buoyed by airy background vocals, giving a breathless ease to lead singer Marcus Mumford’s declaration of faith amid the struggles of life: “And I was still, but I was under your spell, when Jesus told me all was well. So all must be well.” The song’s rousing chorus suggests a way to live within this fallen world, where stillness and peace are sometimes hard to find: “Keep the earth below my feet, for all my sweat, my blood runs weak. Let me learn from where I have been, keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn.” For Mumford, being grounded and remaining humble is a vital way of interacting with the world, an idea which the album closer brings full circle. “Not With Haste” is fairly subdued in terms of tempo, but continuously adds layers of music throughout the song until the final stanza, when suddenly all the instruments drop out for a moment. This musical break sets the stage for the album’s final statement, a beautiful plea for the strength to live and love in a confusing world: “Do not let my fickle flesh go to waste, as it keeps my heart and soul in its place, and I will love with urgency and not with haste.”
Elsewhere on the album, Mumford continues to encourage listeners to slow down and treat life with the attention and care it deserves. On “I Will Wait,” the speedy tempo of the song contrasts with the song’s message, bringing Mumford’s lyrics about waiting into the forefront: “Raise my hands, paint my spirit gold. Bow my head, keep my heart slow.” In the quiet, morose “Lover’s Eyes,” Mumford asks God to “forget all of my sins” before the song transitions into a final section with a repeated prayer: “I walk slow, I walk slow, take my hand, help me on my way.” Suggesting this process of learning how to slow down is connected to contentment, Mumford uses the image of a pilgrim on life’s journey on “Hopeless Wanderer” to find some hope and peace on the road by embracing the current situation: “I will learn to love the skies I’m under.” I can understand how sentiments like these, which appear throughout the entire album, have given critics the ammunition to attack the sincerity of Mumford and Sons; however, the reactions to the emotional outpouring of Babel seem overly defensive to me, as perhaps Babel has brought up an issue that none of us like to confront in our own lives—cynicism.
Being a cynic is easy. In fact, I wouldn’t be the first to argue that in this day and age many of us default to cynicism when it comes to things like politics, religion, and popular culture. So when a band like Mumford and Sons comes on the scene, full of hope and brash emotional statements, we are inclined to try to find something wrong with their work rather than re-evaluating our own perspective on life through it. Yet, this is exactly what Babel invites us to do: take a second look at our lives, no matter how stressful and broken they may be, and find hope in places where cynicism has taken hold. I can’t think of a better way to end this review than with Mumford’s words from “Not With Haste,” both a rebuttal to the criticism and a helpful reminder for the rest of us cynics: “This ain’t no sham, I am what I am. I’ll leave no time for the cynic’s mind.”
Mockingbird
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Grace Always Comes As A Contradiction
God’s grace always, always, always comes as a contradiction to what makes natural sense to us–it always comes as a but, not a therefore.
This quote from Robert Kolb makes the point beautifully:
The wages of sin is death…BUT the gift of God is eternal life. (Rom. 6)Not long ago a gentleman approached me after a talk I had delivered and said, “I’m 60 years-old and have had great success as a businessman and I’m here to tell you from experience that grace doesn’t work in this world.” My immediate response was, “Well maybe it appears that way only because grace isn’t from this world.”
We were dead in our trespasses and sin…BUT God made us alive. (Eph. 2)
By works of the law no flesh will be justified before God…BUT now the righteousness of God has been revealed…(Rom. 3)
This quote from Robert Kolb makes the point beautifully:
God promises righteousness and freedom to sinners. That promise contradicts ordinary human expectation. Sinners ought to receive punishment rather than pardon, incarceration rather than freedom. But by the double work of his law and gospel, God teaches sinners to close their eyes to ordinary human expectations and the conclusions of common sense and to open their ears to the promise which offers life and freedom.Tullian Tchividjian
Eric Clapton - While my guitar gently weeps (HQ)(Concert for George)
Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Billy Preston, Andy Fairweather
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Eric Clapton: Groaning The Blues
Eric gives us a fine version of this Otis Rush classic from an abandoned documentary 'Nothin' But The Blues' by Martin Scorsese.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
When God Graciously and Generously Blesses Us in Spite of Ourselves
J. I. Packer:
“It is certain that God blesses believers precisely and invariably by blessing to them something of his truth and that misbelief as such is in its own nature spiritually barren and destructive.
“Yet anyone who deals with souls will again and again be amazed at the gracious generosity with which God blesses to needy ones what looks to us like a very tiny needle of truth hidden amid whole haystacks of mental error. . . .
“Every Christian without exception experiences far more in the way of mercy and help than the quality of his notions warrants.”
—J. I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 21-22.
Justin Taylor
“It is certain that God blesses believers precisely and invariably by blessing to them something of his truth and that misbelief as such is in its own nature spiritually barren and destructive.
“Yet anyone who deals with souls will again and again be amazed at the gracious generosity with which God blesses to needy ones what looks to us like a very tiny needle of truth hidden amid whole haystacks of mental error. . . .
“Every Christian without exception experiences far more in the way of mercy and help than the quality of his notions warrants.”
—J. I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005), 21-22.
Justin Taylor
Sunday, October 7, 2012
If God Is Not Faithful He Is Not God
God is true. His Word of Promise is sure. In all His relations with His people God is faithful. He may be safely relied upon. No one ever yet really trusted Him in vain. We find this precious truth expressed almost
everywhere in the Scriptures, for His people need to know that faithfulness is an essential part of the Divine
character. This is the basis of our confidence in Him. But it is one thing to accept the faithfulness of God as a
Divine truth, it is quite another to act upon it. God has given us many "exceeding great and precious promises," but are we really counting on His fulfillment of them? Are we actually expecting Him to do for us all that He has said? Are we resting with implicit assurance on these words, "He is faithful that promised" (Heb 10:23)?
A.W.Pink
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Free Will, Really?
"...he who in his soul believes that man does of his own free-will turn to God, cannot have been taught of God, for that is one of the first principles taught us when God begins with us, that we have neither will nor power, but that he gives both; that he is "Alpha and Omega" in the salvation of men." - C. H. Spurgeon (Free Will, a Slave)
"Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have always met with will, and plenty of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in the blessed bonds of grace."
- C. H. Spurgeon
Monday, October 1, 2012
Who The Gospel Comes To
I
have no gospel to preach to the self-righteous, no, not a word, Jesus
Christ Himself came not to call the righteous, and i am not going to do
what he did not do, No, I ask you rather to look at that righteousness
of yours till you see what a delusion it is. It is not half so
substantial as a cobweb. Be finished with it! Flee it!
"They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick" (Mark 2:17). Is it not equally clear that the great remedies of grace and redemption are for the sick in soul? They cannot be for the whole, for they cannot be of use to such. If you feel that you are spiritually sick, the Physician has come into the world for you. If you are altogether undone by reason of your sin, you are the very person aimed at in the plan of salvation. I say that the Lord of love had precisely such as you in his eye when he arranged the system of grace.
He that is a dirty sinner is the kind of man that Jesus Christ came to make clean, Come in your disorder. Come to your heavenly Father in all your sin and sinfulness. come to Jesus just as you are: leprous, filthy, naked. Come, though despair is brooding over you, pressing upon your chest like a horrible nightmare.
Charles Spurgeon in All Of Grace
"They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick" (Mark 2:17). Is it not equally clear that the great remedies of grace and redemption are for the sick in soul? They cannot be for the whole, for they cannot be of use to such. If you feel that you are spiritually sick, the Physician has come into the world for you. If you are altogether undone by reason of your sin, you are the very person aimed at in the plan of salvation. I say that the Lord of love had precisely such as you in his eye when he arranged the system of grace.
He that is a dirty sinner is the kind of man that Jesus Christ came to make clean, Come in your disorder. Come to your heavenly Father in all your sin and sinfulness. come to Jesus just as you are: leprous, filthy, naked. Come, though despair is brooding over you, pressing upon your chest like a horrible nightmare.
Charles Spurgeon in All Of Grace
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