Results tagged “TOC” from To Tell You The Truth
(0)My wife, Carrie, and me:
Location: Taylors, SC
Contact Info: cruv (at) totellyouthetruth (dot) net
Favorite Scripture: Luke 12:32
My Boast: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
My Church: Emmanuel Bible Church - www.ebcupstate.com
Favorite Dead Guys: John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, CH Spurgeon, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Jeremiah Burroughs, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, others...
Favorite Living Guys: Hartley Cruver (my father), Brad Baugham (my pastor), John Piper, CJ Mahaney, Mark Dever, John MacArthur, TF Torrance, Graeme Goldsworthy, others...
- Commonsensism: "Treat people the way you'd like to be treated".
- Buddhism: 560 BC, From the Udanavarga 5:18- "Hurt not others with that which pains yourself."
- Judaism: 1300 BC, from the Old Testament, Leviticus 19:18- "Thou shalt Love thy neighbor as thyself."
- Hinduism: 3200 BC, From the Hitopadesa- "One should always treat others as they themselves wish to be treated."
- Zoroastrianism: 600 BC, From the Shast-na-shayast 13:29- "Whatever is disagreeable to yourself, do not do unto others."
- Confucianism: 557 BC, From the Analects 15:23- "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others."
- Wiccan: "If no harm is done, do as you will"
- Bahá'í World Faith: "Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not." "Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself." Baha'u'llah
- Brahmanism: "This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you". Mahabharata, 5:1517
- Ancient Egyptian: "Do for one who may do for you, that you may cause him thus to do." The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, 109 - 110 Translated by R.B. Parkinson. The original dates to 1970 to 1640 BCE and may be the earliest version ever written.
- Humanism: "Don't do things you wouldn't want to have done to you, British Humanist Society.
"Every atheist I have known has always fallen back upon the one concept echoed worldwide, and taught by religious and secular leaders throughout all time: the so-called "Golden Rule." Jesus was repeating an old Jewish proverb when he said "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and Confucius was recording an old Chinese saying when he wrote "Do not do to others what you would not want done to you." All atheist systems of morality seem to derive in various ways from this core principle, and so it would be appropriate to say that atheists stand for the Golden Rule in its fullest meaning and significance. I believe that any rule or belief which violates this principle is discarded by most atheists as immoral..." ~Richard Carrier, 1999What is shocking is that every group cited essentially says the same thing with minor variants. This begs the question then, 'What sets Christianity apart?'
Why Do I Blog?
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One reason that I've been reluctant to enter the blogosphere is that I am concerned that blog-writing and reading only adds to a bad tendency that we today already have--a fascination with the newest, latest, and most recent. And the newest and latest also often means that which is of only immediate value, that which is passing. That is opposed to that which is enduring, and which has in fact endured and lasted. We write words here which crawl along electronically and leap out through your fingers and eyes to take precious minutes and hours that the Lord has entrusted to us. Could these small things we write really be that important?Dever ends his post,
... be sure and set aside some time to read more substantial things. Commune with the saints that have gone before. Give some time to reading Anselm and Turretin, Samuel Rutherford's Letters or John Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. And if you still have some time, you can have some other food for your soul--side dishes--snacks--by reading this blog.So why do I blog? And why am I bashing the very medium of which I participate almost daily? We must realize, blogging is only a medium. It is not inherently good nor evil but can be used to accomplish either. In more ways than not, I am inclined to agree with Tim Challies on this subject. And what he says resonates with me because this is also why I blog:
It seems to me that what Dever has done is he has drawn a thick, solid line between blogging and other "valuable" forms of spirituality. Over on this side we have what is of spiritual value: reading the Bible, praying, fellowship and reading good, challenging books. Then over here we have what is of lesser value: blogging. Blogging is something that is to be regarded only as a snack - a light pursuit that has little lasting value. Of course I agree that we must take care that we prioritize our activities. A Christian who is not walking in close fellowship with the Lord has no business reflecting on spirituality in a public setting. Most Christian bloggers would much rather that their readers study the Scriptures rather than their blog - that the reading of a blog be only a supplement to a vibrant personal faith. What I think Dever misses is that for some, blogging is uniquely connected to spiritual health. It is an extension to or an outpouring of a person's walk with God. I speak out of personal experience here. The times I spend blogging are almost always connected to times of spiritual edification. I read the Bible and pray in the morning and then turn to my keyboard to reflect on what God has been teaching me. I read a good book and then write about what I have learned through the pages of that book. I read the news and allow world events to interact in my mind (and on my site) with what I know of God's Word. I have often said that if I stopped reading and stopped spending time with God I would have to stop blogging. I am convinced that if I stall in my spiritual growth I would very soon run out of things to say. Blogging is, to a large extent, a barometer of my spirituality.How true. How true. Blogging also helps keep me accountable. I am thankful that a few of my readers are those people I personally know and those who will tell me in person if I err in speaking the truth - in love. My greatest fear is that my blog becomes a sounding board of opinion and clanging cymbals. Thankfully, God has spared many blogs from eroding into this slough. And I pray to God that mine is spared, also. As a friend said, "Keep your tone right! Keep the vision and purpose always in front of you with every post! Stay humble and gracious and be consumed with informing people about and pointing people to the Gospel. That’s the only thing that matters."
What is the Love of God?
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"...God's nature is the grammar of God's will, which is a Wittgensteinian way of saying that God's being and acts are one. God is love (I John 4:8) – that is the defining divine perfection – and God is love from tip to toe. God's only power is the power of love, in which there is no domination, coercion, or violence. Such is the imminent perichoretic, self-giving, non-rivalrous love of the Trinity, economically embodied in the cross (and, as Luther said, crux robat omnia). 'Omnipotence,' T. F. Torrance urges, 'is what God does, and it is from His 'does' rather than from a hypothetical 'can' that we are to understand the meaning of the term. What God does, we see in Christ ..." (HT: Curt).What ought we say about the love of God? In the cross, God's love for himself, his name and his authority, and his love for his creatures, is taken up and met in one action wherein God exhibits the very nature of his being as unconditional Holy Love. That's why not only is the doctrine of the Trinity necessary to make sense of the atonement, but the atonement is necessary to reveal the Trinitarian fellowship of God. The Holy Love that defines the perichoretic life of the Triune God has, by the grace of the Father in the action of the incarnate Son and by the mission of the Spirit, overflowed freely towards those outside of God's community that creatures may enter into the Holy Love communion that the Triune God has ever known and spoke creation into being for participation in.
In Jesus Christ, God has shown not only that he does not want to be God without us, but that he does not want us to be without him. And in the action of the Holy Spirit, the Triune God is present and active among us to hear and answer our prayers, to sustain us in all the happenings of life, and to continuously bring home to us afresh the good news of the Father's sanctifying action in Jesus Christ, guaranteeing our inheritance, and empowering us to live in the reality of being 'holy and blameless' before God (Ephesians 1:4).
"When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased." - Letters of C.S. Lewis (8 November, 1952)
God's Glory
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"God’s glory is not an attribute as much as it is the sum total of all God’s attributes. In viewing God’s glory, we are not directly viewing God, but the impress and effects of His majestic greatness. ...
Holiness, glory, and beauty are inseparable. We must recognize the connection between them. God’s holiness (otherly presence) is manifested in glory (majestic splendor and brilliance) and the form it takes is beauty. This combination produces both fear and longing within us. God’s “terrible” beauty - God’s “awe-full” beauty - simultaneously repels and attracts. It is both shocking and soothing, disruptive and fascinating, unnerving and restorative. It provokes both fear and love. Unless we embrace this full range of engagement with God’s glory, we evidence that we have not truly encountered it" (Read more: TheoCentric)
The Holy Spirit glories in and magnifies the beauty of the person and work of Jesus by unveiling it to our spiritual understanding (cf. John 14-16; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The essential work of the Spirit is to set Christ before our eyes until in adoration our hearts find Him more beautiful than whatever our flesh desires to have or do.
Are we to say then that the law has no use in the process of sanctification? Absolutely not. The issue at stake in the sanctification/law debate is one of revelation versus power. If we see the law as one way the power of God works in us to make us like Christ, we err. We have already established that we are not made like Christ by obeying the law. But if we see the law as a revelation of the character of Christ, we see rightly. I’m sure you would say that if someone perfectly kept the Law, he would be like Christ. Why would you say that? Because the Law is the revelation of His character.
The law is useful for believers to reveal His character to us (we can gaze upon the beautiful character of Christ through the Law) and as a goal for which we should strive in the power of the Holy Spirit - with the certain knowledge that we will fail daily in this life and then the Law becomes our Tutor to drive us back to Christ (back to the good news of God’s provision for our failure).
It is interesting to note here that the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is essentially the Law at the heart level. The Spirit works to internalize the Law within us (He works love within us which is the summary of the Law). The fruit of the Spirit is just that, the fruit of the Spirit's work in our lives by (again) "shining the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).
“For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another.”
(Isaiah 48:11 ESV)
“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) is the heart of the Gospel. This Gospel, which is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, is the power with which God is subjecting all things to Himself. The glory of God is the source, means, and end purpose of existence. It is the purpose, means and goal of all things. God will not rest until “all the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord.”
God is passionate for his glory. What is God’s glory? God’s glory is the weightiness of God’s worth. It is not so much an attribute to behold but a prism which refracts and reflects all God’s attributes. In viewing God’s glory, we are not directly viewing God, but the impress and effects of His majestic greatness. Seeing God’s glory means to realize in the heart the significance and beauty of what you see and how it relates to and affects you.
To behold the glory of the Lord means, that what we are seeing of the person and work of Christ is affecting us in heart and life. The way the Spirit produces His fruit within us is by “shining the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). If the fruit of the Spirit is not blooming in our lives, we evidence we have not seen nor been affected by God’s glory in the face of Jesus.
The glory of God is the most powerful agent of transformation available to mankind. It is so powerful that it transforms those who merely gaze upon it. God says in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols,” yet, Paul explains, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
Is this a contradiction? No.
When we look in the face of Jesus, the glory of God is revealed and “actual deposits of God’s very glory are attaching themselves to my person and transforming me from one level of glory to another. This transformation is deep and abiding, and unfadingly displays the glory of God to others,” as Milton Vincent wrote in his A Gospel Primer. Our participation in God’s glory is not a participation that reveals the weightiness of our worth, but this transformation via the Gospel reveals the weightiness of God’s worth, namely His glory.
Jesus Himself said, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them”. Paul also explains, “and it was for this He (God) called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” for “those whom He justified, these He also glorified”, “for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (John 17:22, 2 Thessalonians 2:14, Romans 8:28-30, Philippians 3:20-21).
Paul says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. . . “ The Psalmist expresses this truth as well, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.” Amen (Romans 1:16-17, Colossians 1:27, Romans 11:36, Numbers 14:20).
Originally posted at http://www.gloriscope.com - http://www.gloriscope.com/2008/01/glory-in-gospel/
(0)"God’s glory is not an attribute as much as it is the sum total of all God’s attributes. In viewing God’s glory, we are not directly viewing God, but the impress and effects of His majestic greatness. ...
Holiness, glory, and beauty are inseparable. We must recognize the connection between them. God’s holiness (otherly presence) is manifested in glory (majestic splendor and brilliance) and the form it takes is beauty. This combination produces both fear and longing within us. God’s “terrible” beauty - God’s “awe-full” beauty - simultaneously repels and attracts. It is both shocking and soothing, disruptive and fascinating, unnerving and restorative. It provokes both fear and love. Unless we embrace this full range of engagement with God’s glory, we evidence that we have not truly encountered it" (Read more: TheoCentric)
The Holy Spirit glories in and magnifies the beauty of the person and work of Jesus by unveiling it to our spiritual understanding (cf. John 14-16; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The essential work of the Spirit is to set Christ before our eyes until in adoration our hearts find Him more beautiful than whatever our flesh desires to have or do.
Are we to say then that the law has no use in the process of sanctification? Absolutely not. The issue at stake in the sanctification/law debate is one of revelation versus power. If we see the law as one way the power of God works in us to make us like Christ, we err. We have already established that we are not made like Christ by obeying the law. But if we see the law as a revelation of the character of Christ, we see rightly. I’m sure you would say that if someone perfectly kept the Law, he would be like Christ. Why would you say that? Because the Law is the revelation of His character.
The law is useful for believers to reveal His character to us (we can gaze upon the beautiful character of Christ through the Law) and as a goal for which we should strive in the power of the Holy Spirit - with the certain knowledge that we will fail daily in this life and then the Law becomes our Tutor to drive us back to Christ (back to the good news of God’s provision for our failure).
It is interesting to note here that the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is essentially the Law at the heart level. The Spirit works to internalize the Law within us (He works love within us which is the summary of the Law). The fruit of the Spirit is just that, the fruit of the Spirit's work in our lives by (again) "shining the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).
