The right context for discussing guidance is one of confidence in the God who will not let us ruin our souls. Our concern, therefore, in this discussion should be more for His glory than for our security -- for that is already taken care of. And our self-distrust, while keeping us humble, must not cloud the joy with which we lean on the Lord Protector -- our faithful covenant God.
Captain of Israel's host and Guide Of all who seek the land above, Beneath Thy shadow we abide, The cloud of Thy Protecting love; Our strength, Thy grace; our rule, Thy Word; Our end, the glory of the Lord.
-- From Knowing God by J.I. Packer
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Blessed and Wretched
"...That was what people objected to about Christ during His life on earth:
He seemed to attract 'such awful people.' That is what people still object to,
and always will. Do you not see why? Christ said, 'Blessed are the poor'....
If you have sound nerves and intelligence and health and popularity and a good
upbringing, you are likely to be quite satisfied with your character as it is...
"It is very different for the nasty people -- the little, low, timid,
warped, thin-blooded, lonely people, or the passionate, sensual, unbalanced
people. If they make any attempt at goodness at all, they learn, in double
quick time, that they need help. It is Christ or nothing for them. It is
taking up the cross and following -- or else despair. They are the lost sheep;
He came specially to find them. They are (in one very real and terrible sense)
the 'poor': He blessed them. They are the 'awful set' He goes about with --
and, of course, the Pharisees say still, as they said from the first, 'If there
were anything in Christianity, those people would not be Christians.'
"There is either warning or encouragement here for every one of us. If you
are a nice person -- if virtue comes easily to you -- beware! Much is expected
from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what are
really God's gifts to you through nature, and if you are contented with simply
being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall
more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more
disastrous. The Devil was an archangel once; his natural gifts were as far
above yours as yours are above those of a chimpanzee.
"But if you are a poor creature -- poisoned by a wretched upbringing in
some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels -- saddled, by no
choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion -- nagged day in and
day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends -- do
not despair. He knows all about it. You are one of the poor whom He blessed.
He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Keep on. Do what you
can. One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps far sooner than that) he
will fling it on the scrapheap and give you a new one. And then you may
astonish us all -- not least yourself: for you have learned your driving in a
hard school. (Some of the last will be first and some of the first will be
last.)" -- Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
He seemed to attract 'such awful people.' That is what people still object to,
and always will. Do you not see why? Christ said, 'Blessed are the poor'....
If you have sound nerves and intelligence and health and popularity and a good
upbringing, you are likely to be quite satisfied with your character as it is...
"It is very different for the nasty people -- the little, low, timid,
warped, thin-blooded, lonely people, or the passionate, sensual, unbalanced
people. If they make any attempt at goodness at all, they learn, in double
quick time, that they need help. It is Christ or nothing for them. It is
taking up the cross and following -- or else despair. They are the lost sheep;
He came specially to find them. They are (in one very real and terrible sense)
the 'poor': He blessed them. They are the 'awful set' He goes about with --
and, of course, the Pharisees say still, as they said from the first, 'If there
were anything in Christianity, those people would not be Christians.'
"There is either warning or encouragement here for every one of us. If you
are a nice person -- if virtue comes easily to you -- beware! Much is expected
from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what are
really God's gifts to you through nature, and if you are contented with simply
being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall
more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more
disastrous. The Devil was an archangel once; his natural gifts were as far
above yours as yours are above those of a chimpanzee.
"But if you are a poor creature -- poisoned by a wretched upbringing in
some house full of vulgar jealousies and senseless quarrels -- saddled, by no
choice of your own, with some loathsome sexual perversion -- nagged day in and
day out by an inferiority complex that makes you snap at your best friends -- do
not despair. He knows all about it. You are one of the poor whom He blessed.
He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Keep on. Do what you
can. One day (perhaps in another world, but perhaps far sooner than that) he
will fling it on the scrapheap and give you a new one. And then you may
astonish us all -- not least yourself: for you have learned your driving in a
hard school. (Some of the last will be first and some of the first will be
last.)" -- Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
Sunday, October 21, 2007
The Power of Fellowship
Men are mirrors, or "carriers" of Christ to other men. ... That is why the Church, the whole body of Christians showing Him to one another, is so important. You might say that when two Christians are following Christ together there is not twice as much Christianity as when they are apart, but sixteen times as much. -- C.S. Lewis
Sunday, September 30, 2007
The Best of All Possible Worlds
My heart rejoices at John Piper's "seventh point of Calvinism":
"The 'seventh' point, the best-of-all-possible worlds, means that God governs the course of history so that, in the long run, His glory will be more fully displayed and His people more fully satisfied than would have been the case in any other world. If we look only at the way things are now in the present era of this fallen world, this is not the best-of-all-possible worlds. But if we look at the whole course of history, from creation to redemption to eternity and beyond, and see the entirety of God's plan, it is the best-of-all-possible plans and leads to the best-of-all-possible eternities. And therefore this universe (and the events that happen in it from creation into eternity, taken as a whole) is the best-of-all-possible-worlds."
--from DG website
"The 'seventh' point, the best-of-all-possible worlds, means that God governs the course of history so that, in the long run, His glory will be more fully displayed and His people more fully satisfied than would have been the case in any other world. If we look only at the way things are now in the present era of this fallen world, this is not the best-of-all-possible worlds. But if we look at the whole course of history, from creation to redemption to eternity and beyond, and see the entirety of God's plan, it is the best-of-all-possible plans and leads to the best-of-all-possible eternities. And therefore this universe (and the events that happen in it from creation into eternity, taken as a whole) is the best-of-all-possible-worlds."
--from DG website
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Our Great Reward
In contemplating the rewards that the Lord has for believers in heaven, I was reminded of God telling Abraham "I am your shield, your very great reward."
Sam Storms says this in his book One Thing: "To think that everyone in heaven is equally knowledgeable, equally holy, equally capable of enjoying God, is to argue that the progress we make now on earth is irrelevant to our heavenly state. But we are often exhorted to do things now precisely because it will build up and increase for us treasure in heaven. Not everyone responds to these commands in the same way or to the same degree or with the same measure of faithfulness. Thus people will enter heaven at differing degrees of holiness, love and joy. All will be subject to increase and expansion based on the depth and measure of our development here on earth. What we do and know and achieve now, by God's grace, will have eternal consequences.
"Your capacity for happiness in heaven is shaped by the development and refinement and depth of your capacity on earth. ... What we experience in joy and understanding and insight now ... is the foundation on which all our eternal experience and growth is based."
That is a reward that truly excites me. God Himself, and more of Him. Forever.
Sam Storms says this in his book One Thing: "To think that everyone in heaven is equally knowledgeable, equally holy, equally capable of enjoying God, is to argue that the progress we make now on earth is irrelevant to our heavenly state. But we are often exhorted to do things now precisely because it will build up and increase for us treasure in heaven. Not everyone responds to these commands in the same way or to the same degree or with the same measure of faithfulness. Thus people will enter heaven at differing degrees of holiness, love and joy. All will be subject to increase and expansion based on the depth and measure of our development here on earth. What we do and know and achieve now, by God's grace, will have eternal consequences.
"Your capacity for happiness in heaven is shaped by the development and refinement and depth of your capacity on earth. ... What we experience in joy and understanding and insight now ... is the foundation on which all our eternal experience and growth is based."
That is a reward that truly excites me. God Himself, and more of Him. Forever.
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