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"It is a throne of grace that God in Christ is represented to us upon; but yet it is a throne still whereon majesty and glory do reside, and God is always to be considered by us as on a throne." -JOHN OWEN
"There is a secret, heavenly vigour infused into every gracious soul by the sanctifying Spirit, which deadens it to the world, and makes it delight in God. He ought to shine in the world, as a light 'in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation,' Phil. ii.15. Light and darkness cannot endure one another; neither the power of grace those works of darkness in which the world lies drowned. He is by no means to be conformed to this world, Rom. 12:2, nor to run with the wicked to the same excess of riot, 1 Pet. 4:4. He is now new-born, and becomes a child of eternity; whereby his heart is fallen in love with new and everlasting delights, and the eye of his soul turned from the dung of this world towards the glory of the second life. As the worldling cannot relish the sweet joys of gracious exercises, so neither can the christian the frothy pleasures of carnal fellowship. You can as hardly draw the sound professor to an assembly of swaggering companions, as a lover of pleasure to a day of humiliation." -ROBERT BOLTON
Some Different Post-Election Reflections
3 hours ago
11 comments:
Amen Steve!
A couple of weeks ago I blogged on The Ministry of Persuasion out of Acts 28:23-27. Here is an excerpt: "God never gives us a platform for our own personal advancement or popularity but always and only for the preaching of His kingdom and His Christ. In this ministry of persuasion we are royal ambassadors because we are representing the King of kings and Lord of lords and proclaiming His truth – not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God (2 Corinthians 4:2) - and not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ will not be made void (1 Corinthians 1:17) – and not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)."
Proclaiming the truth of the kingdom of God and His appointed King is a solemn and serious task that should always be done with reverence.
Grace and peace,
Olan
The Apostle John often laid his head upon Jesus's chest, and he spoke with Him, ate with him, travelled with Him, and he knew Him as well as anyone. And yet, with that kind of intimacy and familiarity, when John saw the Risen Christ he "fell at His feet as though dead".
I find the lack of awe and sacred respect in today's hip and colloquial preaching to be unbiblical and blind to this same Risen Christ.
Rick Frueh
You are exactly correct!
'John saw the Risen Christ he "fell at His feet as though dead".
I find the lack of awe and sacred respect in today's hip and colloquial preaching to be unbiblical and blind to this same Risen Christ.'
The question is how can anyone miss this if they truly know Christ? When proclaiming His word, His gospel, we should be as those that have been on our face, our words should never be swollen nor our attitudes saying look at me. If anything we should do all that we can to become invisible so that those who here his mighty word see Him alone. Isaiah 66: 2 says that the one God looks to is 'humble, contrite and trembles at His word'. I do not see any pride or self exultation in any of this passage. Do you?
There may be times to say hard hitting things, there may be times to say things that are descriptive in order to explain the depravity of a thing, but all should be said with utter humility, sincere contrition and authentic fear and trembling. We speak for Him, not ourselves, we represent Him alone and all glory is due Him!!!
the spokesman
Good to hear from you on this post. I fully agree with your conclusions.
One of the concerns with the emerging movement today and even the pseudo-reformed like Driscoll is the lack of reverence that is continually exhibited from the pulpit. They want to make Jesus just one of the boys and distort with vulgarity His incarnation.
He is King and Lord and that cannot be separated from Him becoming flesh (Phil. 2:5-11).
VIVAT,
Steve
Rick
Wonderful example!
Even our Lord's own disciples did not refer to Him or treat Him in a casual or slap on the back crudeness.
John the Baptist when speaking of our Lord said, "there is One coming whose shoes I am unworthy to untie."
How different the brash boys of Ballard refer to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and peace,
Steve
G-Man
'John saw the Risen Christ he "fell at His feet as though dead".
I find the lack of awe and sacred respect in today's hip and colloquial preaching to be unbiblical and blind to this same Risen Christ.'
BINGO!
There is a delicate balance to be struck between knowing God as a friend and knowing God as a King. Either position, to the exclusion of the other, is dangerous.
Fellowship with God in Christ is growing more and more important to me as I grow older.
S.J.
Just so you apply 'BINGO' where 'BINGO' is due, the words you gave me bingo credit for were Rick's words!
G-Man
My bad.
Rick... good word brother - again!
Campius
j.k.
Both are important. The thing that is so disturbing today, is that the young and the restless primarily see Jesus incarnationally void of His exalted coronation. That is why the Phil. 2:5-11 passage is so crucial for us to understand where the Apostle Paul addresses both aspects of our Lord's nature, character and ministry; in that He is fully God and fully man (Heb. 4:15; 7:26).
This goes to the impeccability of Christ as well. He is both posse non pecarre (able not to sin) BUT even more importantly He is non posse pecarre (not able to sin). He is impeccable.
Grace and peace,
Steve
S.J.
What is so amazing to me, yet missing from so many Christians lives, is the knowledge that the One who is the highest and the loftiest, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, stooped so low to pick me up, and what am I? When I ask why, He says it is only because He loves me and that it was His good pleasure. When I think of this I have no problem in reverencing Him,, He is worth it all!
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