A Real God

To minimize God's wrath is to minimize God's love. One grows, and wanes, with the other.

Religion cannot be made joyful simply by looking on the bright side of God. For a one-sided God is not a real God, and it is the real God alone who can satisfy the longing of our soul.

This is why liberalism is so dangerous!

MLJ on Revival

Lloyd-Jones, preaching on Mark 9:29 ('And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer"').

We must become utterly and absolutely convinced of our need.

We must cease to have so much confidence in ourselves, and in all our methods and organizations, and in all our slickness.

We have got to realize that we must be filled with God's Spirit. And we must be equally certain that God can fill us with his Spirit.

We have got to realise that however great 'this kind' is, the power of God is infinitely greater, that what we need is not more knowledge, more understanding, more apologetics . . . no, we need a power that can enter into the souls of men and break them and smash them and humble them and then make them anew.

And that is the power of the living God. And we must be confident that God has this power as much today as he had one hundred years ago, and two hundred years ago, and so we must begin to seek the power and to pray for it. We must begin to plead and yearn for it. 'This kind' needs prayer.

MLJ on the Presence of God

Make it the central thing of your life to gaze upon God, to arrive at a knowledge of Him that will be intimate and personal, a communion with Him that will ravish your heart and cause your soul to rise up to Him. Seek His face, and go on seeking it.

Sproul and Holiness

We tend to have mixed feelings about the holy. There is a sense in which we are at the same time attracted to it and repulsed by it. Something draws us toward it, while at the same time we want to run away from it. We can’t seem to decide which way we want it. Part of us yearns for the holy, while part of us despises it. We can’t live with it, and we can’t live without it.

…

Only once in sacred Scripture is an attribute of God elevated to the third degree. Only once is a characteristic of God mentioned three times in succession. The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. Not that He is merely holy, or even holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love; or mercy, mercy, mercy; or wrath, wrath, wrath; or justice, justice, justice. It does say that he is holy, holy, holy that the whole earth is full of His glory.

…

If ever there was a man of integrity, it was Isaiah ben Amoz. He was a whole man, a together type of a fellow. He was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man in the nation. He was respected as a paragon of virtue. Then he caught one sudden glimpse of a holy God. In that single moment, all of his self-esteem was shattered. In a brief second he was exposed, made naked beneath the gaze of the absolute standard of holiness. As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed—morally and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. His sense of integrity collapsed.

…

It’s dangerous to assume that because a person is drawn to holiness in his study that he is thereby a holy man. There is irony here. I am sure that the reason I have a deep hunger to learn of the holiness of God is precisely because I am not holy. I am a profane man—a man who spends more time out of the temple than in it. But I have had just enough of a taste of the majesty of God to want more. I know what it means to be a forgiven man and what it means to be sent on a mission. My soul cries for more. My soul needs more.

Chan on Intimacy with God

“It’s breathtaking to picture Almighty God saying, ‘I know Francis Chan. He’s my son. I love him.’ Are you confident this is what God would say if I asked him about you?” (105)

Having cited Galatians 4:4-7, Chan writes:

“Maybe you are reading this and thinking, ‘Well, I just don’t experience that kind of intimacy with God. The Spirit in me never cries ‘Abba, Father’.” If this is you, I don’t have a four step guide to connecting with the Holy Spirit. I would, however, like to suggest two potential obstacles for you to consider: comfort and volume.

“1. Comfort. Maybe your life is too safe. From my own experience I have felt closest to God when nearness to him was a necessity. The Bible says the Spirit comes through in situations where we would normally be afraid (Luke 12:11-12) …

Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the ‘Helper’ or ‘Comforter’. Let me ask you a simple question: Why would we need to experience the Comforter if our lives are already comfortable? It is those who put their lives at risk and suffer for the gospel who are most will often experience his being with you always even to the end of the age as Matthew 28:20 says …

“2. Volume. Maybe your life is too loud. Multitasking has become the norm. When was the last time you have an uninterrupted conversation with anyone … In my quest to accomplish much I have lost the art of focusing on one thing or one person. This in turn has affected my prayer life as I’m sure it has affected yours. I find it harder to be simply with God, to focus only on him, while spending intentional time with him … Jesus certainly understood what it means to have multitudes of people pursuing at once … Because of the priority of his relationship with his Father, he found ways to escape. He took the time to focus and be quiet (Mark 1:35). He was willing to remove himself from people’s reach in order to pray and commune with the Father. Our lack of intimacy is often due to our refusal to unplug and shut off communications from all others so we can be alone with him … For some of you reading this book may be a form of noise that keeps you from him. You may already hear lots of sermons and read lots of books. What you need is direct communication with him.” (106-109)

Chan on the Holy Spirit

“From my perspective, the Holy Spirit is tragically neglected and, for all practical purposes, forgotten. While no evangelical would deny his existence, I’m willing to bet there are millions of churchgoers across America who cannot confidently say they have experienced his presence or action in their lives over the past year. And many of them do not believe they can.” (15).

“If you or I had never been to a church and had read only the Old and New Testaments, we would have significant expectations of the Holy Spirit in our lives … If we read and believed these accounts, we would expect a great deal of the Holy Spirit. He would not be a mostly forgotten member of the Godhead whom we occasionally give a nod of recognition to, which is what He has become in most American churches. We would expect our new life with the Holy Spirit to look radically different from our old life without him.” (30-31)

“Have you ever thought about the significance of having ‘another’ Counsellor who is ‘just like’ Christ? Right now, imagine what it would be like to have Christ standing beside you in the flesh, functioning as your personal Counsellor. Imagine the peace that would come from knowing you would always receive perfect truth and flawless direction from him. That sounds amazing, and none of us could deny the benefit of having Jesus here physically, guiding and enabling us every step of the way. Yet why do we assume that this would be any better than the literal presence of the Holy Spirit? Those of us who believe in Jesus would never deny the truth that we have the Spirit of the living God, the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead, living inside of us. I’m just not convinced we’ve internalized this truth and enjoyed his blessings as he intends. It seems like this is mostly head knowledge to us, and that we have not owned it. It has not really made much of a difference in our lives, to the degree that if we woke up tomorrow and discovered that it is not true the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, most likely our lives wouldn’t look much different.” (35).

Packer on Modernity

We are a modern people, and modern people, although they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have as a rule small thoughts of God.

Jonathan Edwards on Desire

A quote from Edwards:

A man's choice determines his state. He who chooses God for his portion and prefers him above all other things, is a godly man because he chooses and worships him as God. To respect him as God, is to respect him above all other things. If any man respects him as God, his God he is....

Enquire, therefore, how it is with you, whether you prefer God above all other things. It may be sometimes difficult for people to determine this to their satisfaction. Ungodly people may be deluded with false affections; godly people in dull frames may be at a loss about it.

When you have occasion to manifest by your practice which you prefer - when you must cling to the one or the other, and must forsake other things or forsake God - is it your manner, practically speaking, to prefer God above all other things, even to those earthly things to which your hearts are most wedded?

Richard Dawkins on Creation

Dawkins was on the ABC television show Q&A on 8 March 2010. He was strident, as always! But to be fair to Dawkins, he said some quite profound things which made me sit up and take notice. Perhaps its because of his ruthless logic, which although on a different worldview/plane to the Christian one is nonetheless rigorous and unearths some powerful conclusions. One of them was right at the start, when he pointed out the inconsistency of holding a belief in God and also holding to evolution:

‘I think there is a kind of incompatibility, which the creationists see clearly’

Another was at the 15-16 minute mark when he was asked the question why he goes after religious people:

‘As a scientist I care passionately about the truth... Either there is a god or there isn’t... This is supremely important. If the universe was created by an intelligence then we are looking at an entirely different kind of scientific theory then if the universe came into existence by natural means.’

Dawkins understands that supernatural creation is extremely important – so important he attacks it ruthlessly. The fear I have is that Dawkins understands the importance of supernatural creation better than many Christians! And he rightly understands that it is not just the creation which is a supernatural event in the Bible, but the miracles as well:

‘Religion makes scientific claims, the miracles being an example. You cannot reconcile an authentic approach to science with a belief in miracles or, I suspect, supernatural creation.’

His argument is correct to link both the creation and miracles – both are stated in scripture, and both are denied by science.

So what do we believe? Some Christians believe the Bible on both (Historic Creationist); others science on creation, and the Bible on subsequent miracles (Theistic Evolutionists); others science on both (Liberals). But as Dawkins has already pointed out in his opening statement, the second position is inconsistent. You cannot have as an authority on Gen 1-3 (or even Gen 1-11) Science, and then the rest of the Bible God. There are really only two authorities and hence two consistent positions – God (Bible), or Science. What will Christians choose?

Jack Deere on Availability to God

When I look at the life of Jesus, I never really see him 'finding time for God'. Rather, I see a Son whose time belongs completely to the Father. Jesus was never in a hurry. He never needed more time. This is because he looked on his time as his Father's time. Also, he was completely available for his Father's desires. He only did what he saw his Father doing (john 5:19). And he was always in the right place at the right time in order to fulfill the desires of his heavenly Father. I am continually amazed at the spontaneity and informality of the ministry of the Lord... Yes, it is comical to imagine Jesus struggling for a sermon. His life is the sermon, and he ministered out of the daily overflow of his communion with his heavenly Father. He was able to do this because he was completely available to God.

Marcus Honeysett on Psalm 119

The assumption of Ps 119 is that we come to the Bible not merely to be educated but to be enriched. Not just to know, but to delight, to worship, to marvel, to wonder. People who have started to taste want to carry on tasting more and more because what we have tasted of God in the Word is marvels and wonders for our amazement, enjoyment and treasure. We are meant to cry out "I WANT SOME MORE" because this is so good. Or, as the Psalmist puts it, "to be consumed with longing."

C.S. Lewis on Worship

There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him