Tried With Fire

When the gospel is recovered in your life after being a Christian for years, every link in the golden chain of redemption becomes meaningful. However, one link is very dear to my heart and has been a comfort in tough times - adoption. Read the post at Out of the Ordinary, which includes an awesome quote from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Some good words from the Doctor the day before the election: The world goes round in circles - better, worse; better worse; up and down. Look at secular history and you will see this - a constant cycle, as if we are going to arrive and we never do. And then back we go, with always a dark age following an age of enlightenment - round and round in circles. Is there no hope? There is! And here is the hope, that the triune God is still interested in this world; that God did not abandon it when men fell in his folly and listened to the devil and became the dupe of the devil. God is still interested! The doctrine of deism, which means that God made the universe like a watchmaker making a clock, winding it up, and then putting it down and having nothing more to do with it, is absolutely wrong. God is not only transcendent he is Immanent, and he is concerned and he is involved. Not only that; the whole story of the Bible is that God is still controlling the world. That, far from abandoni...

1. Conditions are always changing, therefore I must obviously not be dependent upon conditions. 2. What matters supremely and vitally is my soul and my relationship to God - that is the first thing. 3. God is concerned about me as my Father, and nothing happens to me apart from God.  Even the very hairs of my head are all numbered.  I must never forget that. 4. God's will and God's ways are a great mystery, but I know that whatever He wills or permits is of necessity for my good. 5. Every situation in life is the unfolding of some manifestation of God's love and goodness.  Therefore my business is to look for this peculiar manifestation of God's goodness and kindness and to be prepared for surprises and blessings because 'His ways are not my ways, neither His thoughts my thoughts.'  What, for example is the great lesson that Paul leaned in the matter of the thorn in the flesh?  It is that: 'When I am weak then am I strong.'  Paul was taught throu...

It is a beautiful sunny day. We had summer-like temperatures in the middle of the week, so everything has burst into bloom, leaf, or pollen. I would be outside if I didn't have to pack and shred. There is a thick coat of yellow pollen outside which would have me sneezing constantly, so I have another reason to stay inside. I did venture out to take these pictures. My neighbor's wisteria has begun to creep into our yard. The fragrance is wonderful. This is Carolina sweet shrub. The flowers are an unusual reddish-brown. The fragrance is very sweet (hence the name) and reminds me of juicy fruit gum for some reason. I have been listening to two Welshmen today while packing. In addition to good preaching, I love the accent. First is Martin Downes , author of Risking the Truth . His talk Heresy Never Dies looks at Open Theism and brings it back to its historical root of Socinianism . Having believed some less than orthodox teachings and having people dear to me embracing less th...

It was so hard to avoid looking at the waves recently. Sure enough, I began to sink as soon as I did. This quote from Spiritual Depression was a lifeline today: [Y]ou and I can never doubt while we look at Him and are clear about Him. Without Him we are utterly hopeless. It does not matter how long you have been in the Christian life, you are dependent on Him for every step. Without Him we can do nothing. We can only conquer our doubts by looking steadily at Him and by not looking at them. The way to answer them is to look at Him. The more you know Him and His glory the more ridiculous they will become. So keep steadily looking at Him. Spiritual Depression ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Eerdmans, page 158. (emphasis mine)

That is the way faith reasons. It says: 'All right, I see the waves and the billows but' - it always puts up this 'but'. That is faith, it holds on to truth and reasons from what it knows to be fact. That is the way to apply faith. These men did not do that and that is why they became agitated and panic stricken. And you and I will become panic stricken and agitated it we fail to to the same. Whatever the circumstances, therefore, stand, wait for a moment. Say 'I admit it all, but-' But what? But God! but the Lord Jesus Christ! But what? The whole of my salvation! That is what faith does All things may seem to be against me 'to drive me to despair'. I do not understand what is happening; but I know this, I know that God has so loved me that He sent His only begotten Son into this world for me, I know that while I was an enemy, God sent His only Son to die on the Cross on Calvary's Hill for me. He has done that for me while I was an enemy, a rebelliou...

[Y]our business and mine is not to stir up our feelings, it is to believe. We are never told anywhere in Scripture that we are saved by our feelings; we are saved by believing. 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' Never once are feelings put in the primary position. Now this is something we can do. I cannot make myself happy, but I can remind myself of my belief. I can exhort myself to believe, I can address my soul as the Psalmist did in Psalm 42: 'Why are thou cast down O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou'... believe thou, trust thou. That is the way. And then our feelings will look after themselves. Do not worry about them. Talk to yourself, and though the devil will suggest that because you do not feel, you are not a Christian, say: 'No, I do not feel anything, but whether I feel or not, I believe the Scriptures. I believe God's word is true and I will stay my soul upon it, I will believe in it come what may....

Are you interested in doctrine? Sometimes these people are foolish enough to contrast what they regard as spiritual reading of the Scriptures with doctrine. They say that they are not interested in doctrine, that they like Bible expositions but do not like doctrine. They claim to believe the doctrines which are in the Bible and which come out of the Bible, but (it is almost incredible but it is true) they draw this fatal contrast between Biblical exposition and doctrine. But what is the purpose of the Bible except to present doctrine? What is the value of exposition unless it leads to truth? But it is not difficult to understand their position. It is the doctrine that hurts it is the doctrine that focuses things. It is one thing to look at pictures and to be interested in words and shades of meaning. That does not disturb, that does not focus attention on sin, nor call for decision. We can sit back and enjoy that; but doctrine speaks to us and insists upon a decision. This is truth, an...

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: 'Why art thou cast down' - what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and sat to yourself: 'Hope thou in God' - instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people , and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: 'I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.' Spiritual Depression - Its Causes and Cure ~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Eedrmans, page 21.

Spiritual Depression by Martyn Lloyd-Jones arrived in the mail last week. I haven't started reading it yet because I promised myself to finish some other books first. I did glance at the table of contents, though, which made it quite difficult to not start. It looks like it will be very helpful book I am two chapters away from finishing Holiness by J.C. Ryle. I have been blessed by this book as it clearly lays out basic truths about the Christian faith and Christian life. Ryle is extremely readable. His writing style is very entreatable, and yet he doesn't mince words telling it like it is. Ryle also has a knack for asking very probing and convicting questions. I know I will be returning to this book often. Here is quote from Holiness from chapter 18, Unsearchable Riches : The best Christian among us knows but little of his glorious Savior, even after he has learned to believe. We see through a glass darkly. We do not realize the "unsearchable riches" there are ...

(Sorry for the following rant, but I had first-hand contact with some postmodern pathogens today.) Most people are probably familiar with the Pharisee version 1.0 stereotype. These people examine everyone around them with a microscope to see if others live up to a standard of behavior. The standard can be, "Don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, and don't go with women who do" and others rules of the same ilk. But it seems Pharisee version 2.0 is available as well. Today, there is overwhelming pressure to not take a stand on anything for fear of offending anyone. The bywords are, "Don't judge me. God accepts me just the way I am and you should, too". Therefore, no one can say anything negative about anything. Even in our language we dance around the word sin by calling things issues . "So-and-so has an issue with authority." Maybe So-and-so really has the sin of rebellion, but God forbid that we would dare say that. I'm not tal...

[T]he modern position amounts to this, that it is man's reason that decides. You and I come to the Bible and we have to make our decisions on this basis of certain standards which are obviously in our minds. We decide that one portion conforms to the message which we believe, and that another does not. In spite of all the talk about a new situation today, we are still left with the position that man's knowledge and man's understanding are the final arbiters and the final court of appeal. That was precisely the position of the old Liberalism. However, some would put the case a little differently. They would say that you must recognize as the Word of God that which speaks to you. When something in the Bible speaks to your condition it is the Word of God, and when it does not, it is not the Word of God. That, of course, is just to put yourselves into a thoroughly subjective position. It still leaves man in control; man is still the authority who decides what is truly the Word ...

I have been pondering the word religion . I used to have a personal bias against the word until I started reading the Puritans. In J.I. Packer's talk on the Puritan Century, he states that religion was to the Puritans as Christianity is to us today. In 1941, Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, "Religion, a true belief in God, in Jesus Christ, is fundamental, vital, essential." J.C. Ryle wrote on Practical Religion . Jonathan Edwards wrote A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections . Who can forget Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion . So it seems in former days, these godly men used religion to refer to the gospel and its outworking. Something has changed because my former definition of religion would have been scrupulous conformity to a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices by which a person is made right with God . This is an amalgamation of two of the definitions of religion from Merriam-Webster's online ...

Man rebels against God as He is and as He reveals Himself. He even hates Him for His goodness. And then he proceeds to make his own gods. That was not only the story of mankind at the beginning, it is a precise and exact description of the past hundred years and especially of the past forty years. Whatever we may propose to do about our world, whatever plans and ideas we may have with regard to the future, if we ignore this basic fact all will be in vain. To be kind and to indulge in vague generalizations about man and his development, etc., and to invite him just as he is to follow Christ is not enough. Man must be convinced and convicted of his sin. He must face the naked, terrible truth about himself and his attitude towards God. It is only when he realizes the truth that he will be ready truly to believe the Gospel and return to God. That is the task of the Church; that is our task. Shall we commence upon it by examining ourselves? Do we accept the revelation of God as given in the...