early dawning, sunday morning..

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in it's infinity..

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it.. and is eminently consolatory.

C.H. Spurgeon

through the storm we reach the shore..

Five basic truths or five foundational-principles of the knowledge about God which Christians have:

1. God has spoken to man, and the Bible is his Word, given to us to make us wise for salvation
2. God is Lord and King over his world; he rules all things for his own glory, displaying his perfections in all that he does, in order that men and angels may worship and adore him.
3. God is Saviour, active in sovereign love through the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue believers from the guilt and power of sin, to adopt them as sons, and to bless them accordingly.
4. God is Triune; there are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it, and the Spirit applying it.
5. Godliness means responding to God’s revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be seen and loved in light of God’s Word. This and nothing else, is true religion.

kicking screaming gucci little piggy..

There are two great obstacles to sharing. The first is greed. We want more and more for ourselves. Greed is self-centred and can only be cured by God..

The other obstacle to sharing our money is fear. We are frightened that we will leave ourselves short if we give it away; not short perhaps in the present, because we can estimate that, but in the future with all its uncertainties. The answer to this sort of fear is faith in God's faithfulness in the future.
D.B. Knox

Filed under Christianity; Books | Reading

consider christ..

[At the cross, Jesus] became the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, blasphemer that ever was or ever could be on earth. When He took the sins of the whole world upon Himself, Christ was no longer an innocent person. He was a sinner..
Martin Luther

God dealt with Jesus as if he had been exceedingly angry with him, and as though he had been the object of his dreadful wrath. This made all the sufferings of Christ the more terrible to him, because they were from the hand of his Father, whom he infinitely loved, and whose infinite love he had had eternal experience of. Besides, it was an effect of God's wrath that he forsook Christ. This caused Christ to cry out ... "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This was infinitely terrible to Christ.
Jonathan Edwards

gee.. i ought to be more grateful.

Filed under Christianity; Books | Reading

it makes all the difference..

Because of the Cross, the message of God to the world has changed from 'no' to 'yes'.
JI Packer

Without the cross, God's message is "no you cannot approach, we cannot be at one". But becuse of the cross, God's message to the world is "yes, you can approach, by faith in him". If the message of God to us has changed from no to yes, surely our message to God should change from no to yes as well..

Filed under Christianity; Books | Reading

A reminder

How do I measure myself? Do I measure myself by my age or abilities, or by profession, or by looks? What is it that makes me important or unimportant? What is the reference point? What is the contact? What's the Greenwich Mean Line to working out whether a person is valuable enough?

There's many views in the world about this.. but none hits the mark as accurately and sweetly than those of Jesus Christ.

He sees that we have two components. There's two issues that go on in us and he mentions them in Mark's Gospel for example:

But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female.
Mark 10:6

We are all created unique.

For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
Mark 7:21,22

We are fallen sinners.

Now that's a pretty realistic view..

Filed under Christianity; Books | Reading

How good or bad are we?

A fiesty, fighting quote:

You can avoid the dilema of mankind but only if you are young enough, well enough, having money enough, and egotisitc enough to care nothing.

Francis A. Schaeffer

Why is it that people can be very attractive one day and very repulsive the next? Why is it that we are capable of building hospitals and we're also capable of building torture chambers? Why is it that we can sacrifice ourself for others and on another day we can sacrifice others for ourselves?

Filed under Christianity;

Sin and the solution..

i don't think anyone else could explain sacrificial atonement as neatly as this..

The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be.
John Stott, The Cross of Christ

So.. God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself only where man deserves to be..

Sin - I put myself where God should be
Salvation - God puts himself where I should be

hmmmm...

Blessed are the meek..

This is a very famous and despised verse, isn't it… especially in the business world. As if, by being meek, you could get anything. But meek is not some mousy cringing, walking around pretending to be all so unworthy. Meekness is that you've got a proper estimate of yourself, because you now see yourself before God. Not only have you taken yourself sinful before God, but you now see yourself comforted and restored before God. And because you have got an estimate of yourself which is God’s estimate, you no longer need to push people down to assert yourself, or, as it were, put people on pedestals. You now have a proper, healthy estimate of yourself, and of people.

The man who is meek is not sensitive about himself. He is not always watching himself and his own interests. He is not always on the defensive.
Martin Lloyd-Jones

The problem of pain..

It's a wonderful truth, that God warns people through suffering, and He brings them back to Himself. This principle was made very plain by CS Lewis, who wrote famous words on one occasion:

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

Filed under Christianity; Books | Reading