Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Porpoise Driven Life
What's sad is that I can see someone actually producing something like this.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
How much is enough?
Today, the 9 Marks blog "Church Matters" put forth the following question asked by a reader:
"At what point in the process should a prospective pastor ask about the financial package to be offered by the church? I don't want to come across as though that is all I am concerned about, yet I have a family to support and consider in the decision of whether or not this will be a fit for us. I understand that if this is where God has called us He will provide, but I also do not want to wait until it comes to a vote in the church to find out the package will not support my family and end up wasting the church's time and ours."
I posted a response and to see it along with the others, go here.
"At what point in the process should a prospective pastor ask about the financial package to be offered by the church? I don't want to come across as though that is all I am concerned about, yet I have a family to support and consider in the decision of whether or not this will be a fit for us. I understand that if this is where God has called us He will provide, but I also do not want to wait until it comes to a vote in the church to find out the package will not support my family and end up wasting the church's time and ours."
I posted a response and to see it along with the others, go here.
Monday, November 3, 2008
John Owen Communion With God part 8
(Sunday mornings before our worship service, our church is studying our way through Owen's book. This series consists of the notes handed out for the class).
To read John Owen is to enter a rare world. Whenever I return to one of his works I find myself asking “Why do I spend time reading lesser literature?”
—Sinclair B. Ferguson
Part 2, Chapter 3 continued:
Let our souls be persuaded of his sincerity and willingness in giving himself, in all that he is, as mediator unto us, to be ours; and let our hearts give up themselves unto him. Let us tell him that we will be for him, and not for another: let him know it from us; he delights to hear it, yea, he says, “Sweet is our voice, and our countenance is comely;”- and we shall not fail in the issue of sweet refreshment with him.
To strengthen our hearts in the giving of ourselves to Jesus as our husband, we will look at some of the personal excellencies of Him.
1. He is excellent and desirable in His Deity and the glory that comes from it.
He is “Jehovah our Righteousness” Jer. 23:6. John says “We have seen His glory, the glory of the only-begotten Son of God” John 1:14.
The choicest saints have been afraid and amazed t the beauty of an angel; and the stoutest sinners have trembled at the glory of one of those creatures in a low appearance, representing but the back parts of their glory, who yet themselves, in their highest advancement, do cover their faces at the presence of our Beloved, as conscious to themselves of their utter disability to bear the rays of His glory, Isa. 6:2; John 12:39-41. He is “the fellow of the Lord of hosts,” Zech. 13:7.
If anyone should ask, now, what is in the Lord Jesus, our beloved, more than in other beloveds, that should make him so desirable, and amiable, and worthy of acceptation? What is he more than others? I ask, What is a king more than a beggar? Much every way. Alas! This is nothing; they were born alike, must die alike, and after that is the judgment. What is an angel more than a worm? A worm is a creature, and an angel is no more; he hath made one to creep on the earth, - made also the other to dwell in heaven. There is still a proportion between these, they agree in something; but what are all the nothings of the world to the God infinitely blessed for evermore? Shall the dust of the balance, or the drop of the bucket be laid in the scale against him? This is he of whom the sinners in Zion are afraid, and cry, “Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire, who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
Observe- the endless, bottomless, boundless grace and compassion that is in him who is thus our husband, as he is the God of Zion. It is not the grace of a creature, nor all the grace that can possibly at once dwell in a created nature that will serve our turn ..If, now, there be grace enough for sinners in an all-sufficient God, it is in Christ; and, indeed, in any other there cannot be enough. The Lord gives this reason for the peace and confidence of sinners, Isa. 54:4,5, “Thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame.” But how can this be? So much sin, and not ashamed! So much guilt and not confounded! “Thy Maker,” saith he, “is thine husband; the LORD of hosts in his name; and they Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.” This is the bottom of all peace, confidence and consolation,- the grace and mercy of our Maker, of the God of the whole earth.
And on this ground it is that if all the world should (if I may so say) set themselves to drink free grace, mercy and pardon, drawing water continually from the wells of salvation; if they should set themselves to draw from one single promise, an angel standing by and crying, “Drink, O friends, yea, drink abundantly, take so much grace and pardon as shall be abundantly sufficient for the world of sin which is in every one of you;”- they would not be able to sink the grace of the promise in one hair’s breath. There is enough for millions of worlds, if they were; because it flows into it from an infinite, bottomless fountain. “Fear not, O worm Jacob, I am God, and not man,” is the bottom of the sinner’s consolation.
This infiniteness of grace, in respect of its spring and fountain, will answer all objections that might hinder our souls from drawing nigh to communion with him, and from a free embracing of him. Will not this suit us in all our distresses? What is our finite guilt before it? Show me the sinner that can spread his iniquities to the dimensions (if I may so say) of this grace. Here is mercy enough for the greatest, the oldest, the stubbornest transgressor.
Consider, hence, his eternal, free, unchangeable love…”As the Father hath loved me, so hath I loved you,” John 15:9.
1) It is eternal: He himself is, “yesterday, to-day, and forever,” Heb. 13:8; and so is His love.
2) Unchangeable. Our love is like ourselves; as we are, so are our affections: so is the love of Christ like Himself. He is the LORD, and he changeth not: and therefore we are not consumed. Whom He loves, He loves to the end. His love is such as never had beginning, and never shall have ending.
3) It is also fruitful- fruitful in all its gracious issues and effects. The love of Christ, being the love of God, is effectual and fruitful in producing all the good things which he willeth unto his beloved. He loves life, grace, and holiness into us; he loves us also into covenant, loves us into heaven. Love in him is properly to will good to anyone: whatever good Christ by his love wills to any, that wiling is operative of that good.
These three qualifications of the love of Christ make it exceedingly eminent,and him exceeding desirable. How many millions of sins, in every one of the elect, every one whereof were enough to condemn them all, hath this love overcome! What mountains of unbelief doth it remove!
2. He is desirable and worthy of our acceptance when we also consider His humanity. Even there, when we see Him in comparison to us, He is exceedingly desirable. It is desirable in its a) freedom from sin; 2) its fullness of grace.
1) He was free from sin;- the Lamb of God, without spot, and without blemish; the male of the flock, to be offered unto God…sanctified persons, whose stains are in any measure washed away, are exceeding fair in the eye of Christ Himself, how fair, then, is he who never had the least spot or stain!
To read John Owen is to enter a rare world. Whenever I return to one of his works I find myself asking “Why do I spend time reading lesser literature?”
—Sinclair B. Ferguson
Part 2, Chapter 3 continued:
Let our souls be persuaded of his sincerity and willingness in giving himself, in all that he is, as mediator unto us, to be ours; and let our hearts give up themselves unto him. Let us tell him that we will be for him, and not for another: let him know it from us; he delights to hear it, yea, he says, “Sweet is our voice, and our countenance is comely;”- and we shall not fail in the issue of sweet refreshment with him.
To strengthen our hearts in the giving of ourselves to Jesus as our husband, we will look at some of the personal excellencies of Him.
1. He is excellent and desirable in His Deity and the glory that comes from it.
He is “Jehovah our Righteousness” Jer. 23:6. John says “We have seen His glory, the glory of the only-begotten Son of God” John 1:14.
The choicest saints have been afraid and amazed t the beauty of an angel; and the stoutest sinners have trembled at the glory of one of those creatures in a low appearance, representing but the back parts of their glory, who yet themselves, in their highest advancement, do cover their faces at the presence of our Beloved, as conscious to themselves of their utter disability to bear the rays of His glory, Isa. 6:2; John 12:39-41. He is “the fellow of the Lord of hosts,” Zech. 13:7.
If anyone should ask, now, what is in the Lord Jesus, our beloved, more than in other beloveds, that should make him so desirable, and amiable, and worthy of acceptation? What is he more than others? I ask, What is a king more than a beggar? Much every way. Alas! This is nothing; they were born alike, must die alike, and after that is the judgment. What is an angel more than a worm? A worm is a creature, and an angel is no more; he hath made one to creep on the earth, - made also the other to dwell in heaven. There is still a proportion between these, they agree in something; but what are all the nothings of the world to the God infinitely blessed for evermore? Shall the dust of the balance, or the drop of the bucket be laid in the scale against him? This is he of whom the sinners in Zion are afraid, and cry, “Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire, who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
Observe- the endless, bottomless, boundless grace and compassion that is in him who is thus our husband, as he is the God of Zion. It is not the grace of a creature, nor all the grace that can possibly at once dwell in a created nature that will serve our turn ..If, now, there be grace enough for sinners in an all-sufficient God, it is in Christ; and, indeed, in any other there cannot be enough. The Lord gives this reason for the peace and confidence of sinners, Isa. 54:4,5, “Thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame.” But how can this be? So much sin, and not ashamed! So much guilt and not confounded! “Thy Maker,” saith he, “is thine husband; the LORD of hosts in his name; and they Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called.” This is the bottom of all peace, confidence and consolation,- the grace and mercy of our Maker, of the God of the whole earth.
And on this ground it is that if all the world should (if I may so say) set themselves to drink free grace, mercy and pardon, drawing water continually from the wells of salvation; if they should set themselves to draw from one single promise, an angel standing by and crying, “Drink, O friends, yea, drink abundantly, take so much grace and pardon as shall be abundantly sufficient for the world of sin which is in every one of you;”- they would not be able to sink the grace of the promise in one hair’s breath. There is enough for millions of worlds, if they were; because it flows into it from an infinite, bottomless fountain. “Fear not, O worm Jacob, I am God, and not man,” is the bottom of the sinner’s consolation.
This infiniteness of grace, in respect of its spring and fountain, will answer all objections that might hinder our souls from drawing nigh to communion with him, and from a free embracing of him. Will not this suit us in all our distresses? What is our finite guilt before it? Show me the sinner that can spread his iniquities to the dimensions (if I may so say) of this grace. Here is mercy enough for the greatest, the oldest, the stubbornest transgressor.
Consider, hence, his eternal, free, unchangeable love…”As the Father hath loved me, so hath I loved you,” John 15:9.
1) It is eternal: He himself is, “yesterday, to-day, and forever,” Heb. 13:8; and so is His love.
2) Unchangeable. Our love is like ourselves; as we are, so are our affections: so is the love of Christ like Himself. He is the LORD, and he changeth not: and therefore we are not consumed. Whom He loves, He loves to the end. His love is such as never had beginning, and never shall have ending.
3) It is also fruitful- fruitful in all its gracious issues and effects. The love of Christ, being the love of God, is effectual and fruitful in producing all the good things which he willeth unto his beloved. He loves life, grace, and holiness into us; he loves us also into covenant, loves us into heaven. Love in him is properly to will good to anyone: whatever good Christ by his love wills to any, that wiling is operative of that good.
These three qualifications of the love of Christ make it exceedingly eminent,and him exceeding desirable. How many millions of sins, in every one of the elect, every one whereof were enough to condemn them all, hath this love overcome! What mountains of unbelief doth it remove!
2. He is desirable and worthy of our acceptance when we also consider His humanity. Even there, when we see Him in comparison to us, He is exceedingly desirable. It is desirable in its a) freedom from sin; 2) its fullness of grace.
1) He was free from sin;- the Lamb of God, without spot, and without blemish; the male of the flock, to be offered unto God…sanctified persons, whose stains are in any measure washed away, are exceeding fair in the eye of Christ Himself, how fair, then, is he who never had the least spot or stain!
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