Over at the Resurgence blog, Mark Driscoll has a post that lists eight things that compel people to reject Jesus drawn from Luke4:22-30. The eight are as follows:
“Salvation is of the Lord” – Jonah 2:9
Salvation is the work of God. It is He alone who quickens the soul “dead in trespasses and sins,” and it is He also who maintains the soul in its spiritual life. He is both “Alpha and Omega.” “Salvation is of the Lord.” If I am prayerful, God makes me prayerful; if I have graces, they are God’s gifts to me; if I hold on in a consistent life, it is because He upholds me with His hand. I do nothing whatever towards my own preservation, except what God Himself first does in me. Whatever I have, all my goodness is of the Lord alone. Wherein I sin, that is my own; but wherein I act rightly, that is of God, wholly and completely. If I have repulsed a spiritual enemy, the Lord’s strength nerved my arm. Do I live before men a consecrated life? It is not I, but Christ who liveth in me. Am I sanctified? I did not cleanse myself: God’s Holy Spirit sanctifies me. Am I weaned from the world? I am weaned by God’s chastisements sanctified to my good. Do I grow in knowledge? The great Instructor teaches me. All my jewels were fashioned by heavenly art. I find in God all that I want; but I find in myself nothing but sin and misery. “He only is my rock and my salvation.” Do I feed on the Word? That Word would be no food for me unless the Lord made it food for my soul, and helped me to feed upon it. Do I live on the manna which comes down from heaven? What is that manna but Jesus Christ himself incarnate, whose body and whose blood I eat and drink? Am I continually receiving fresh increase of strength? Where do I gather my might? My help cometh from heaven’s hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: “Salvation is of the Lord.”
- C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening
For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of Your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” And again, “I will put my trust in Him.” And again, “Behold I and the children God has given me.”
Hebrews 2:11-13
To hear that Jesus is not ashamed to call me His brother and a part of His family, in spite of my sins, provides a level of liberation that is difficult to comprehend let alone describe. The writer of Hebrews begins the second chapter by showing that the message delivered by Jesus carries more weight and authority than the messages delivered by the angels throughout the Old Testament by virtue of His ‘Sonship’ and as a result, it should not be lightly regarded and neglected. Although He was made a little lower than the angels, He has been crowned with glory and honor (at His ascension) through death for everyone. The ‘everyone’ that is spoken of are those who by the eternal purpose of God are sanctified and consequently have the same source as He who sanctifies: Jesus Christ. Since those who are sanctified have the same source as Jesus, He is not ashamed to call them family because that is what they are and one of the many things accomplished by Jesus was ‘bringing many sons to glory’.
Jesus was/is not ashamed to call us family, to the extent that He willingly partook of flesh and blood to deliver us from the bondage of fear and death as a merciful and faithful high priest. The language of priesthood is important because as a priest, Jesus mediates and intercedes to God on our behalf. By taking on flesh and blood and being tempted in all points without sinning, He is able to fully empathize and understand our plight and properly satisfy the wrath of God that comes due to sin. What makes this all the more amazing is that this was/is the perspective of the Son and the plan of Father before the foundation of the world. While we were still in our sin, Christ died for us because of love (Romans 5:6-8). In a culture that normally places value on performance and competitiveness, we are bombarded with the idea that unless we “perform” we are not worthy of praise, value, or love. Consequently, many deal with shame because of rejection and the fear of it. We are tempted to seek the approval of others through activity and when we do not receive it, the potential to be insecure is great. When we compare ourselves to others we are without understanding (2 Corinthians 10:12) because all of us fall short of the glory of God. As children of God, Jesus is not ashamed to call us family and nothing can separate us from God’s love in Him….NOTHING!
What exactly is revival? While there is no shortage of definitions, the concept of revival tends to confuse rather than bring clarity and understanding. Consequently, many are unable to properly ask for (let alone identify) what an authentic revival is. J.I. Packer is one of the greatest theologians of our time and Justin Taylor has a post that references to Packer’s take on what revival is.
God made a promise to Abram that He would bless him, make his name great, and give him innumerable posterity. Abram entered into covenant with God and waited for the promises of said covenant to come to fruition, although there were temptations and challenges along the way. At least ten years after the Lord had initially appeared to Abram with these covenant promises, he had yet to bear a son to be his heir and the beginning of his nation (family). Sarai convinced Abram to sleep with her Egyptian servant so that perhaps they would have a son through her surrogacy. The servant, Hagar, conceived and named her son Ishmael as told to her by the angel of the Lord. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar, she was on a self-imposed exile due to Sarai’s harsh treatment of her during her pregnancy. The angel of the Lord told her to return to Sarai and submit to her with the promise that she would bear and son and her offspring would be multiplied. As a result of this encounter, she said, “You are a God of seeing…” (Genesis 16:13). She would ultimately name the place of that encounter, “Beer-lahai-roi” – meaning the well of the Living One who sees me.
Thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael the Lord would appear to Abram to reassure him of the covenant promise He had made to him, particularly concerning the birth of a son. With doubt in his heart due to the age of both he and his wife, Abram asked for Ishmael might live before God (as the promised heir). God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac” (Genesis 17:19). True to His word, Sarah conceived and bore Abraham the son promised to them by God. Years later, God would test Abraham by asking him to offer up his beloved son as a sacrifice and by faith he intended to do so ‘considering that God was able even to raise him from the dead’ because of God’s covenant promise that ‘through Isaac would his offspring be name’ (Hebrews 11:17; Genesis 21:12). As Abraham prepared the alter and laid down his covenant son to sacrifice him to the Lord he was halted by God and as he had told Isaac, God provided the sacrifice – a ram caught in a bush. As a result of this, Abraham would called the name of that place, Jehovah Jireh (The Lord will see to provide).
The ’seeing’ of the Lord is not an idle observation as deists would suggest, but a watchful intent to provide and fulfill His purposes and plan. He ‘watches over’ His word to perform it and He watches over us to protect us and provide for us as our loving heavenly Father.
Over at Ligonier’s blog, R.C. Sproul has powerful post on the role Jesus Christ performs right now…even as you read this. It is not a very long post and frankly, it doesn’t need to be because those who love Him, will undoubtedly be given a glimpse of the divine. Thank You, Jesus!
Last evening, I watched an abbreviated video by R.C. Sproul as he lectured on a topic (which fostered the book) he is perhaps best known for: The Holiness of God. I have not had the chance to read this modern classic (shame on me), but rest assured that I will be diving into the book very soon. The Holiness of God is a characteristic of God that seems to frighten us as well as make us uncomfortable because it ‘overshadows’ His ‘nicer’ attributes. As I listened to the lecture and thought about the Scriptures, rather than shy away, I was drawn closer to God in awe and love in a way that I can’t adequately describe at this time. As I was on my way to work this morning, I listened to a hymn by Reginald Heber that captured some of what I felt last night. Here it is in its entirety:
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and Seraphim falling down before Thee,
Who was, and is, and evermore shall be.Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, in earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy; merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!
As the media coverage of Haiti becomes less, what God is doing and revealing through this crisis and its aftermath is starting to take shape and form. While the damage to Haiti affects every sector of its society, it seems that the economy is one of the many badly damaged aspects of a country in need of recovery. Haiti has been indebted to several nations almost since its inception as an independent republic and that has been a major cause of not only political instability, but also social and civil inequality. There have been reports that Venezuela has decided to forgive the debt Haiti owes it, which amounts to 1/3 of Haiti’s overall global debt. This is a step in the right direction in the rebuilding and recovery of Haiti as a nation, but more importantly it is a picture of the Gospel. In Christ, God has forgiven our debts through the purchase of our salvation by His Son’s blood, declared us righteous, and adopts us as His children (thereby reconciling us to Himself); and all of this He does according to His pleasure and grace. I believe God is communicating His Gospel (not only to the nation of Haiti but) to the entire world and my prayer is that He would open our hearts in faith to see and believe. I really believe that we should view the events transpiring in Haiti (and the world) from the eternal purpose and perspective of God, in Christ. He that hath an ear, let him hear….
Over the weekend, during a particular time of prayer, I started thinking about what it is to be like Christ. There are many things that come to mind, but I would venture to say that suffering is not one of the first things we think about. I am realizing that there is something about suffering that we avoid because of our perspective. When someone is suffering physically, emotionally, or spiritually we usually pray for healing and deliverance almost immediately without entertaining if in fact the suffering is a means to bring the person more into Christ-likeness. This is not to say that we should not pray for healing or deliverance. What I am suggesting is keeping in mind that to endure suffering is “Christ-like” and that guards us from losing faith and growing cynical when our prayers seem to go unanswered. Justin Taylor has a nice post on Paul’s view of his own suffering, which I think is worth reading and thinking about.
Tim Challies has a good post about end-time judgment and the believer. It seems the degree to which we understand the truth of the Gospel, is the degree to which we can have joy when thinking about our moment before the Judgment Seat of Christ.