Reflections

Reflecting on life, living and other things

20
Jan
2015

Trinitarian Doxologies

The Mystery of the Trinity

Minds much greater than mine have tried to probe the mystery of the being of God. We do well to grapple with the propositions of the great creeds, but ultimately reason must give way to worship.

 The Creed of Athanasius

We worship one God in trinity,

and trinity in unity;

neither confusing the persons

nor dividing the nature of God.

For there is one person of the Father,

another of the Son,

and another of the Holy Spirit;

but the Godhead of the Father,

of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one –

the glory equal,

the majesty co-eternal;

what the Father is, so is the Son,

and so is the Holy Spirit.

And so we worship

I love the simple articulation of Isaac Watts:

To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, Three in One,
Be everlasting glory given,
By all on earth, and all in heaven!

The Trinity of His Sacred Persons

Majestic are the words recorded at the beginning of Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit sermons:

To the One God of Heaven and Earth

In The Trinity of His Sacred Persons,

Be all Honour and Glory,

World without end, Amen

To the Glorious Father, as the covenant God of Israel;

To the Gracious Son, the Redeemer of His people;

To the Holy Ghost, the Author of Sanctification;

Be everlasting praise for that Gospel of the Free Grace of God herein proclaimed unto men

(From the prologue of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit—Sermons preached by Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

A Trinitarian Hymn

Below are words of a hymn that I learned in my high school in Africa. To the tune Mannheim, it may be sung meditatively and in a worshipful way. Its words make an excellent prayer for us to pray as we tread the pathways of life to which God calls us:

1 Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
O’er the world’s tempestuous sea;
Guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us,
For we have no help but Thee:
Yet possessing
Every blessing,
If our God our Father be.

2 Saviour, breathe forgiveness o’er us;
All our weakness Thou dost know;
Thou didst tread this earth before us;
Thou didst feel its keenest woe;
Lone and dreary,
Faint and weary,
Through the desert Thou didst go.

3 Spirit of our God, descending,
Fill our hearts with heavenly joy;
Love with every passion blending,
Pleasure that can never cloy:
Thus provided,
Pardoned, guided,
Nothing can our peace destroy.

James Edmeston, 1791-1867 (More information here)

Posted by Jim Holmes in Reflections, Spirituality, Theology, 0 comments
13
Dec
2014

Calling and Career Quotations

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Noteworthy Quotes

I’ve used the LinkedIn network for a while (you can see my profile here), and it offers some interesting features. At heart, I am a trawler, always on the lookout for new ideas and thoughts, so when an article that came my way on the LinkedIn network by Micha Kaufman caught my attention, I thought I would share some of the quotations he offers.

In the original there were fifty quotes, and they were focused on reinventing one’s career, but I have whittled them down to twenty-six and added a few headings to break up the text a little. Some are thought provoking; others are humorous; I believe you will enjoy them!

Postscript: There are a few other quotations on my website here.

 

 

When You Jump Off a Cliff…

You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down.–Reid Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.–Sir Richard Branson, Founder & Chairman of Virgin Group

It’s never too late to be what you might have been.–George Elliot, Author

One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you. –Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO of Amazon

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. –Confucius, Philosopher

Lean and Mean

You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea. –Larry Page, Co-founder & CEO of Google

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work. –Colin Powell, American Statesman, Retired Four-Star General

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. –Michael Jordan, Five-time NBA MVP, Six-time NBA Champion

Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you. –Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.–Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist

Would you do your job and not be paid for it? I would do this job, and take on a second job just to make ends meet if nobody paid me. That’s how you know you are doing the right thing. –Oprah, Media Proprietor, Talk Show Host, Actress

Power of Imagination

I suffer from the delusion that every product of my imagination is not only possible, but always on the cusp of becoming real. –Sean Parker, American Entrepreneur, Co-founder of Napster, First President of Facebook

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. –Aristotle, Philosopher

You can get what you want or you can just get old.–Billy Joel, Singer-Songwriter

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.–Chinese Proverb

I would rather die of passion than of boredom.–Vincent Van Gogh, Painter

Impossible or Inevitable?

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.–Christopher Reeve, Actor, Activist

In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.–Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.–John Wooden, NCAA Basketball Coach

Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.–Thomas Edison, Inventor

The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.–Seth Godin, Entrepreneur, Author, Public Speaker

You Are Right!

Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.–Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

Everything started as nothing.–Ben Weissenstein, Entrepreneur

Winners never quit and quitters never win.–Vince Lombardi, Super Bowl-Winning Coach

The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.–Neil Gaiman, Novelist, Graphic Novelist, Screenwriter

Develop your own compass, and trust it. Take risks, dare to fail, remember the first person through the wall always gets hurt.–Aaron Sorkin, Screenwriter, Playwright

Men, for the sake of getting a living, forget to live.–Margaret Fuller, Women’s Rights Advocate, Journalist

 

 

Source of original list of fifty quotations here

Posted by Jim Holmes in Humor, Reflections, Spirituality, Worldview, 0 comments
20
Nov
2014

Thinking About Thanksgiving

Credit_luke_kapustka_www.flickr.com-photos-lukekapustka-6688446127

From the Green Fields of England to the Greenville of South Carolina

Counting back from late November 2014, a little short of 1,500 days ago from the time of writing, a small family set foot on US soil in Wayne County Airport, Detroit, Michigan. This was not for the first time, but it marked a major new chapter in their lives. As they boarded their connecting flight to GSP—Greenville Spartanburg Airport, South Carolina—their minds were filled with what had been, and what was yet to be.

What had been: A settled life in the United Kingdom… What was yet to be? The challenge of relocating to a new way of life in the USA. New living and working conditions; new school; new friends; new church; new currency; and new ways of driving an automobile—on the wrong side of the road, to start with.

That family? The Holmeses—that’s us. And the first major event in the USA? Thanksgiving 2010!

We have much for which to give thanks, and the season of Thanksgiving is always a time to stimulate these thoughts. On a previous Thanksgiving, I was asked to share some truths from the Bible at a family gathering of friends, and my mind turned to the account of ten lepers who encountered Jesus. In a remarkable display of His power, Jesus healed them completely—yet only one of them acknowledged it. See Luke 17:11-19.

Thankfulness

Here are some of the things I shared along the lines of giving thanks and glory to God:

Living in the twenty-first century here in the sophisticated United States, we may find it hard to imagine what it was like to have an incurable and defacing disease. We will easily go to the doctor’s office or the pharmacy and get a cream or lotion to help with a skin infection or irritation (or plastic surgery if needs be). But here were ten men with a horrible leprous condition, one which was (humanly speaking) incurable.

Imagine You Are a Leper

Imagine your fingers rotting away; the presence of a bacterium that won’t go away until it has feasted on your body, flesh and bones.

Smell the stench of flesh as it pulls away from bone; you would fear to see yourself in a mirror.

Perhaps your nose eroded so that you only see a cavity into your skull; your larynx affected so your voice is weak and reedy

Your nerve endings have been destroyed so you have no feeling of hot, cold or pain; you can burn yourself picking up a hot item from the fire and yet feel no pain!

You are visibly deformed; you are ritually defiled; you have no place in company with the people of God.

It is, as it were, the end of the line for you. You are destined to die, separated from friends and family, excluded from pleasures and enjoyments, and would have people run away from you. Perhaps you would carry a bell, and you would call out, “Unclean, Unclean!” to warn others of your approach. No sports; no social life; no close friendships, no embraces from loved ones. You are an outcast, the lowest of the low.

In the Bible, sin is sometimes described in metaphorical terms as leprosy. So I think it is easy for you, in your mind’s eye, see the picture of how sin is like leprosy, defiling us, separating us from a Holy God, marring our image, causing us to be unclean, unacceptable in His sight and presence. Sin has taken us away from God.  “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6).

But God…

But God, in His wonderful purpose, had so worked the situation that Jesus was going to meet them. It was on His calendar for these ten men to meet the Savior.

Jesus was the only hope for these ten men. Jesus is the only hope for sinners today!

I believe it is on God’s calendar for you to meet the Savior of sinners. He is still calling sinners to Himself today, even though they are at a distance from Him (v 12). What will you do when He calls you? He calls you to cleanse you, not to leave you festering in your sinful condition. He calls you to repentance; He calls you to saving faith; He calls you to more than just an acknowledgement of His existence in general terms. He calls you to a personal relationship. He calls you to be a disciple, one who follows Him and learns from Him.

When the ten are healed, only one is serious in his response. People are happy to enjoy the kind providence of God, but do not want Him too near to them. They prefer a God-at-arm’s-length.

But let’s see what the one leprous man—this ex-leper—did:

He came personally to Jesus (v 15: He turned back)

He glorified God with a loud voice (v 15)

He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and gave thanks (v 16)

He, a foreigner, gave glory to God (v 18)

Let’s now try and connect this matter of glorifying God and giving thanks to God to our lives today. What are we taught in the Westminster Larger Catechism?

Question 1: What is the chief and highest end of man?

Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.

What is the connection between glorifying and thanking God? I believe the answer is in Romans 1. Romans 1 (Romans is the manual that shows how people and God have become separated and how they can be reconciled, brought back into a right relationship) makes its starting point as follows:

For even though they knew God, they did not honor (Lit glorify) Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21

But if we know the gospel, and if we are trusting in Jesus alone for our salvation, how will we intend to thank and glorify God? I believe there are three areas in which we may specifically cultivate glorifying and thanking God—words that theologians like to use, and words which we should ourselves love:

For His work of creation, for this reveals to us the wonderful, wise and powerful person that God is who could speak worlds and universes into being! Romans 1:20 makes it abundantly clear to us that “… since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made , so that they are without excuse.”

For His work in providence; consider how He preserves us in life, giving us life and breath and all things—health, strength, power to gain wealth, to labor and see results, to sow and to reap; to become well after we have been sick; to learn; to grow in experience. Consider the bounty and the beauty of what we enjoy. The lines have fallen for us in pleasant places. Who would not want to live in a place such as the upstate of South Carolina?

For His work, most especially, in redemption. He has appointed Jesus, a Prince and Savior, to save His people from their sins. Read about it in the Gospels, in Romans, in the New Testament, in the whole Bible. It’s all about Jesus. The apostle Paul said that there should be the giving of thanks (Ephesians 5:4); let us be giving thanks for Him who is God’s most wonderful gift (John 3:16)

2 Corinthians 9:15 urges us in these words “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” His indescribable gift is the person of Jesus.

A Call to Faith

Are you in a right relationship with the One of whom the Bible speaks? Is your heart drawn out in thankfulness to the Son of God who planted His feet on this planet? Consider how He became a real man—but without sin—and lived an ordinary life for over thirty years in order that by His living a life of active obedience to God’s law and requirements, and then by dying a death as if being punished as a sinner—for the sins of His people were imputed to Him in His sacrificial death—sinners like you and I can be brought back to a right relationship with God by turning from sin and unrighteousness, and by trusting in Him alone!

 

Image Credit: Luke Kapustka www.flickr.com/photos/lukekapustka/6688446127
Posted by Jim Holmes in Heritage, Reflections, Travel, Worldview, 1 comment
19
Nov
2014

Remembering Ulster’s Gentle Giant

Ian Paisley

A Big Man

It was in the late 1980s that the name Ian R K Paisley came on my radar. The media at the time presented him as something of a political buffoon, a ranter and raver, a disturber of the political peace. However, one afternoon I was in a bookstore in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and came upon a book titled “Christian Foundations” by the same Ian Paisley. It engaged me immediately. As I read, I found my spirit concurring with the author’s words. He ably asserted and illustrated truth after truth from the Bible.

Around the same time, surfing the radio waves one evening, I came across a weekly program from the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, going by name “Let the Bible speak.” Presented by a man with a strong, lilting Northern Irish accent, Leslie Curran, I was hooked. Short devotional thoughts, great gospel music, the Word read with clarity and grace, and a short but punchy exposition filled a half hour with good and edifying listening. It even occasionally referenced Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. At that time, I would not even have been able to point to a blank map of North America and guessed where South Carolina was!

While I never heard Dr. Paisley on the radio, I followed with interest and appreciation his ministry movements, especially once I relocated to the UK. I appreciated his stance for truth, righteousness, and the godliness born of the gospel of grace.

It was with sadness that I learned of Dr. Paisley’s death in September. Psalm 116:15 articulates it well: “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”

Earlier today, thanks to Dr. Samuel Lowry, I came upon some notes originating from the The Ian R.K. Paisley Library book series published by Ambassador International in Belfast, and introduced along the following lines (I have added the headings for summary navigation):

 

In His Own Words: Remembering Dr. Ian Paisley

If you don’t know anything else about Dr. Ian Paisley, you should know that he was a fiery Presbyterian preacher and Irish politician with great devotion to his faith and to the unionist people of Northern Ireland. In fact, he was known as the “Big Man” of politics, and even co-founded the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster. Before he passed away on September 12, 2014, his strong convictions led him to speak on platforms and in pulpits all over the world.

Alive and Singing

If you read in the press or hear on TV Ian Paisley is dead, don’t believe a word of it. I’ll be more alive than ever. . . . I’ll be singing as never before.

An Anchor

I want to take you to the text where I first cast anchor. In 1932, my father was minister of Hill St. Baptist Church in Ballymena. That church was born out of the 1859 revival. It had an unusual parentage. A Covenanting minister of The Reformed Presbyterian Church preceded my dad. In the basement of that Church, my mother held a children’s meeting and gently spoke from John 10:11 on the Good Shepherd. When the other children had gone out, I slipped up to her side. “Mummy,” I said, “I don’t want to be a lost sheep, I want to be a saved lamb.” When that Church was renovated I asked the Pastor for the old pew where I had knelt in prayer beside my mother. Now, I do not believe in relics, but I believe in precious memories. We placed it in the Lecture Hall at our Whitefield College, and in a recent students’ early-morning prayer meeting I knelt at that pew and repeated those lines: “High Heaven that heard that solemn vow, that vow renewed shall daily hear”.

Woe Is Me if I Preach Not the Gospel

If I am called to preach the gospel, and thank God I am, nothing will stop me. You could as soon stop the Niagara torrent with a teaspoon, or the rising sun with a lollipop stick, as stop a Holy Ghost preacher when God has commissioned him. Close him out of the house and he’ll preach it on the doorstep. Ridicule him, refuse him, sneer at him, slander him, seek to bury him, [and] he’ll rise again with the gospel upon his lips.

Shamrock

I studied in Wales under an old revival preacher of the 1904 Welsh Revival and practiced my preaching skills in the open-air. Once when preaching in a town center, a bystander, who was a little under the influence, on hearing my Northern Irish accent shouted out, “Tell us about the Shamrock.” I replied, “On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other rocks are sham rocks!” I also preached in those little chapels spotted over the Welsh valleys. Some congregations received me graciously. Others didn’t. I was an Ulsterman and lacked the richness of the wonderful Welsh tongue. In due course I returned home and entered the Theological Hall of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland.

A Tongue Like a File

In 1946, when twenty years of age, I was ordained as minister of Ravenhill Church, Belfast. The following Sunday Morning the renowned Reverend W. P. Nicholson was in the service. Just after I had finished preaching, Mr. Nicholson came forward to the front of the church, rapped the communion table sharply with his knuckles, and asked gruffly, “Young man, have you ever seen a cow’s tongue?” Being a country lad I said, “Yes, sir.” “Well, what is it like?” the famous preacher persisted. I said, “It is like a file.” Then lifting his hands to heaven he offered an unusual prayer. “Lord, give this young man a tongue like an old cow.”

Preaching Moving Sermons!

We had a small church; we had 346 seats and a congregation of sixty, including children. For six months I preached the most moving sermons of my life, because half the congregation left. So I thought I had better do something about it and went out on the door knockers. I started on a good street, Shamrock Street, and I knocked on my first door. A little lady opened the door, and I said as politely as I could, “Good morning.” Then she looked me up and down and snapped, “Are you the new preacher from around the corner?” I said, “I am.” She replied, “God Almighty help you among that bunch!” and she slammed the door in my face.

Are They Growing?

When I was a young preacher, I was like the little boy who was given a tulip bulb. He planted it in his mother’s garden, and he dug it up every day to see if it was growing! I was like that with young converts.

Ministry of Defense

We had trouble in the church over song-leaders, so I decided that I would become the song-leader. By the way, we had a choir in those days; it was the war department of the church, so I sacked them and told the congregation to sing, “No, not one! No, not one!” We have never had a choir since.

How to Grow Your Church from Prison

[I had] a couple of terms in prison for our uncompromising stand and each time our church grew. The first Sunday after I was released, we received 200 new members who had been saved or separated from apostasy during the time I was inside. So my elders said, “If we get 200 new members after three months’ imprisonment, you should have stayed for six.” I said, “You can do the other three months, gentlemen; I’ll stay out for now.”

With Jesus

The Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster caught fire, [grew to] around sixty congregations in Northern Ireland, this Martyrs Memorial Church was built, [and so were] many others across the British Isles, in North America, and [in] Australia. I’ll tell you what we are: we are God’s laugh at the devil. John the Baptist was God’s laugh at the Pharisees. They had their Sanhedrin, but here comes a fiery preacher. The early apostles were called “unlearned and ignorant,” but they had been with Jesus.

Reformation Truth Preaching

Every true revival in church history was a revival of great preaching. The church of Jesus Christ has gone cold and formal. The pulpit and preacher are weak; the pulpit has been pushed to the side because preaching is only a side-line. In churches which preach Reformation truth, the pulpit has the pre-eminence, and upon the desk is the open Word of God, and behind the desk is someone who believes that God has one method divinely ordained for the salvation of souls, and that is the preaching of the cross.

Weeping

The preacher who never weeps never really works. The preacher who never sobs never really supplicates. The preacher who never sheds tears seldom ever triumphs. A tearless ministry is dry and passionless. We are called to serve with humility and many tears.

Give Me Rome and Dublin!

I heard a preacher the other day say you should not have your eye on rewards. Well Moses had respect for the recompense of the reward. I would serve Jesus if there was no reward at the end of it, for serving Him is reward enough, but there is going to be a reward. It says He is going to set us over cities. Some people will have ten. I have asked God for two cities, Rome and Dublin—that would do me!

Not Ashamed of the Gospel

It is common today for a minister, when he remains for some considerable time in the ministry, to talk about the progress he has made in his theology, his philosophy, [and] in his religious ideas. Let me unashamedly confess that in over fifty years I have not made any progress whatsoever. I believe the Bible—from the first “In” to the last “Amen.” . . . I am not ashamed of the Gospel; not ashamed of the cause of the Gospel; not ashamed of the cost of the Gospel; not ashamed of the constraint of the Gospel; not ashamed of the consequences of the Gospel. And I will not be ashamed at the coronation of the Gospel. The Gospel Ship has not had an easy voyage since it was launched by the Hand of Grace in the Red River of the Redeemer’s Blood. Its passage has been stormy, but the crowning day is coming.

Preaching Christ

When the sun goes down, as it shall, upon my ministry, and when the sands of time run out, there will be a blessed picture before me. That of a little boy of six on that day when I started my pilgrimage for heaven. It has been a zigzag path—twice in jail, a member of three parliaments, and holder of high office. I do not know what lies ahead, but this I know: Jesus has never failed. People have let me down. I have let the Lord down, and I say that with penitence of heart and repentance of soul. If I never see you again, remember that Jesus Christ, Ian Paisley’s Savior, has been preached up in this place tonight. Oh sinner, come to Him and be saved. Backslider, return to Him and be restored. Christian, renew your vows. May God send to Ulster an old-fashioned, heaven-sent revival so that this beloved land will be delivered from the wrath that is to come. May it be so, for Jesus’ sake! Amen and Amen.

Posted by Jim Holmes in Heritage, Reflections, Westminster Standards, 0 comments
14
Nov
2014

Jonathan Edwards, the Internet, UPS, and Air Travel

British Airways aircraft

Perceptive of the Future

Jonathan EdwardsJonathan Edwards (1703-58), described as one of America’s greatest thinkers ever, was gifted with a significant sense of what God would do in in future generations. I was reminded earlier in perusing the Preface to Iain H Murray’s Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (page xiii) of these words:

[Edwards] would not have been surprised had he known of the great advances of the kingdom of Christ in the two centuries which have followed his death. Few Christians have looked to the future with brighter hope than Edwards. He believed, for example, that the age of scientific discovery was only in its beginnings and that there would come new and ‘better contrivances for assisting one another through the whole earth by more expedite, easy, and safe communication between distant regions than now’. The vast distances separating the nations of the eighteenth century would disappear, ‘the distant extremes of the world shall shake hands together’, and this progress would be God-given towards the day when ‘the whole earth may be as one community, one body in Christ’.

Edwards did not speak directly of the specifics of what he imagined people would achieve. Yet I love to think that the things we enjoy today–ease of international travel, rapid communication by electronic means whether in text or VOIP, capability of making speedy financial transactions, and the transportation of items expeditiously around the globe–are in measure the fruit of his sanctified imagination.

Think About This…

• Do you utilize the power of the Internet for good?
• Do you use your resources efficiently and strategically for the advance of Christ’s kingdom?
• Are you on the lookout for new and effective means of harnessing the power of technology to live life more efficiently in the service of Him who lived and died and rose again for sinners?
• Suggest three ways in which your life has been significantly transformed by technology in the last two years.

 

Header image credit: Courtesy http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/22088


Posted by Jim Holmes, 0 comments
		





	
			

				
				

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John Newton: I Am What I Am…
The Westminster Shorter Catechism Illustrated


John Newton, image courtesy of the Cowper and Newton Museum


Our family devotions make use of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and a couple of books that in particular help to explain and apply it. One is a book by Starr Meade, published by P&R Publishing, titled Training Hearts, Teaching Minds; the other, an old hardback published by Banner of Truth, is titled The Shorter Catechism Illustrated by John Whitecross.


We use the Whitecross book each Sunday evening to complete the seventh element. (Starr Meade’s book has six readings for the week.)


Explaining the Shorter Catechism in short readings, the book by Whitecross includes a number of fascinating and often memorable anecdotes and illustrations. Often putting a truth into an anecdote can help fasten it in one’s memory. Instructing a pre-teen child requires careful attention to resources such as this, especially when terms such as “Justification” and “Sanctification” can so easily be misunderstood.


Earlier this year, we read the section on sanctification:


Q: What is sanctification?


A: Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.


Read and Enjoy This Excerpt


Consider the following illustration that Whitecross recounts of John Newton as he illustrates the matter of sanctification:


Two or three years before John Newton’s death, when his sight was become so dim that he was no longer able to read, an aged friend and brother in the ministry called on him to breakfast. Family prayers following, the portion of Scripture for the day was read to him. It was taken from Bogatsky’s Golden Treasury: “By the grace of God I am what I am.” It was the passage read. After the reading of this text, he paused for some moments, and then uttered the following affecting soliloquy:


“I am not what I ought to be. Ah! how imperfect and deficient. I am not what I wish to be. I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good. I am not what I hope to be; soon, soon, I shall put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was–a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.” Come, let us pray.”


More on This Resource


(More from Whitecross here or you may read from an earlier [less typographically attractive] Google eBook here.)


Now You’ve Read the Article, View the Movie!


After preparing this post, I discovered this YouTube clip. Enjoy!


 


Posted by Jim Holmes in Reflections, Theology, Westminster Standards, 0 comments
		





	
			

				
				

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I Love the Reformation!
Getting Right with God


Each year, the last Sunday of October marks an opportunity to celebrate Reformation Day. I am thankful for the Protestant Reformation, and the opportunity to remember it and celebrate it.


The Reformation, an event with religious, cultural, and political implications, took root in Europe, beginning in the early sixteenth century. Martin Luther (born 1483), a monk, knew he was estranged from God. His conscience, sensitized to God’s standards of righteousness, knew no peace. In his heart of hearts, he was aware that even the personal disciplines (including self-flagellation and fasting)  to which he exposed himself as he endeavored to make himself right with God were insufficient. Like the apostle Paul, in a state of awakening faith, he began to realize that he needed a righteousness greater than his own—not a righteousness of human law, but “that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:9).


The reality of Psalm 31 began to bear upon him—to be delivered from his condition, he needed help from on high: “In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.” And so, wonderfully, in 1519, he experienced the invincible power of justifying grace. The reality of the opening verses of Romans 5 became imprinted on his soul:


Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. (Romans 5:1-11)


Not only Luther, but others were awakened by this God-inspired movement. John Knox (“Give me Scotland, or I die!”), William Tyndale (translator of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into the English of his day—“If God spare my life, ere many yeares I wyl cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the Scripture, than thou  doust!”  he once said to a clergyman), William Farel, John Calvin (“No man is excluded from calling upon God; the gate of salvation is set open unto all men: neither is there any other thing which keepeth us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief” [Source of quote]) and others burst onto the scene, heralding the greatest news that, in the Person, and because of the Work of Jesus Christ, God accepts sinners who would turn from their godless ways and trust in the Savior appointed, welcoming them into His family.


Why I Love the Reformation


The Reformation unleashed a powerhouse of constructive activity. People, set free from wrong teaching, superstition, and ignorance, began to realize that


    

  • The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof (Psalm 24:1)—therefore, there was an acceleration in scientific research and endeavor, and colonization of the far regions of the world could take into account spreading the knowledge of God’s Christ to the regions that yet lay in spiritual darkness;
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  • Work is a good and noble calling (hence the Protestant or biblical work ethic), thus putting an end to the unproductive days spent in venerating saints as was the case in so many places in Europe;
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  • Worship of God could be cleaned up and simplified. God is a Spirit and to be worshiped in spirit and truth (John 4:24);
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  • The stage was set for confessional Christianity, leading to the formulation of doctrines as expressed, in due course, by the Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Confession and Catechisms and other carefully thought through standards;
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  • Education could take into consideration the reality that all of life belongs to God; so the stage was set for an integrated worldview;
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  • Economic prosperity could be achieved by ordinary people through initiative and hard work.
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The Reformation spawned generations of manly men and womanly women, people with the courage of their convictions, convictions generated by the weight and force of truth. They put their money where their mouths were. They faced imprisonment, torture and death rather than recant from what they knew to be the truth. A modern Christian was once quoted in these words: “Here are my convictions; actually, if you don’t like them, here are some other ones.” Not so of our fathers in the faith. Luther is remembered for his words at the Diet of Worms, “Here I stand, I can do no other—so help me, God.”


As we think about these things, let me ask you a few questions:


    

  • Are you gripped by the power of truth—God’s saving truth in the gospel of His Son? Do you love this wonderful gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ alone saves sinners?
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  • Are you celebrating the wonder of free grace?
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  • Do you sing the grand, objective hymns and songs of the Reformation in preference to subjective ditties so prevalent in some modern church worship services?
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  • Are you teaching the grand truths of the Reformation to your children?
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Posted by Jim Holmes in Current Issues, Reflections, Theology, 0 comments
		





	
			

				
				

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Relevant Thinking: Ebola
Join me as I try to think consistently and articulate freshly about life under the sun…


StethescopeThe Ebola crisis is a significant feature in the news. First coming to the world’s attention quietly and unobtrusively, the virus was originally identified by Belgian doctors. As is now common knowledge, developments in West Africa have precipitated global concern. Talk radio in the USA articulates just what an immense cause of concern it is to average Americans.


How should we think about this illness? Here are several lines of thought:


    

  • Illness was never a part of the original creation. When our first parents triggered the entrance of sin into the world, several collateral developments took place, including burdensome toil, illness, agricultural challenges, a breakdown in relationships that were meant to be harmonious, and many other catastrophic elements.
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  • Illness, as horrible and unwelcome a feature of life as it is, drives us to think about our short time to be lived on this planet. Where to after this life? How can I be prepared for what comes next? Thankfully, God’s Word, the Bible, provides helpful answers.
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  • Illness ultimately is a temporary condition for those whose faith and hope is in the Redeemer. In the final state, there will be no more sin, sickness or sorrow.
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Being better resourced to help people who are ill…


There are several resources that offer help to ordinary people who face the challenge of grappling with issues such as this. Below I mention five helpful resources:


colinmercer-03Resource #1: Colin Mercer, Pastor of Faith Free Presbyterian Church, Greenville, South Carolina, preached a pertinent message entitled Ebola and the Bible. Pastor Mercer is a fine preacher, a faithful messenger, one who always applies the Bible with relevance. You could listen online at SermonAudio here or download the audio file. There is also a video of the sermon at the same URL.


Resource #2: J. C. Ryle, long ago the bishop of Liverpool, England, had a heart of compassion for his congregants. With his life spanning much of the nineteenth century, it is important to understand that medical care was not as easy to come by as it is today, and often people succumbed to illnesses that would have been easy to treat under our modern conditions. Ryle counseled people to pay attention to the urgent message of sickness to get into a right relationship with God. His book, Practical Religion, has a chapter which you may also read online here, simply entitled Sickness. I shared this with my father over eleven years ago as he lay on his death bed, and I believe it may have helped him to find the Savior of sinners.


Resource #3: My friend Brian Croft, pastor of a church near Louisville, KY, is the son of a medical doctor. When he was a boy, his dad would take him on house calls as he visited his patients. As a result, Brian learned sensitivity to people who are unwell. So it was natural that, when he entered the pastoral ministry, he had the background and skills to engage with people suffering ill health. I highly commend Brian’s blog, Practical Shepherding, and the excellent resources he offers.


Two other publications to think about and use are:


Resource #4: Help! I’m Living with Terminal Illness, a mini-book written by Reggie Weems, pastor of a church in eastern Tennessee. Here’s how the book is described:


We don’t find it easy to face death, and the diagnosis of a terminal illness can be devastating. Yet every life has an expiration date. Written with a pastor’s heart for those suffering with a terminal diagnosis and for their family and friends, this publication conveys practical advice, spiritual consolation, and, most importantly, an eternal hope which the dying process cannot diminish and death cannot extinguish.


Reggie’s book is presently available as an eBook download, either from the site listed or from Amazon. Or you could sign up with Shepherd Press to buy the book when it is brought into print.


How_can_I_face_terminal_ChrispinResource #5: How can I face terminal illness with peace? This is the question addressed by Gerard Chrispin in a 32 page evangelistic booklet.


Writing sensitively, Gerard demonstrates how facing the fact of death can be a big advantage and lead to personal blessing, once the initial shock of a diagnosed illness has passed. That is true also for those seeing a loved one suffer serious illness.


This, too, is available from Amazon.


 


 


 


Posted by Jim Holmes in Current Issues, Reflections, Sickness, 0 comments