During the Second World War, a Scotsman who was in the service and was visiting London, went to Westminster Chapel. But the Chapel was closed, damaged by bombing, but on a piece of paper posted as a note, visitors were directed to a nearby hall. The visitor described a 'thin man' wearing a tie calling the people to worship. He thought the man was a church officer, and he appreciated his prayer, but then the man began to preach, beginning quietly enough. "This must be Martyn Lloyd-Jones," he thought. But for the next 40 minutes, he was unconscious of anything else in the world, hearing only this man's words. He had been caught up in the mystery of preaching. This man later became a well-known Church of Scotland minister named Tom Allen.
When he left that service, Tom Allen was taken up with the message, not the preacher. Lloyd-Jones (MLJ) would have thought little of conference addresses like this one about himself. He thought messages about contemporary men had done great injury, especially during the Victorian period. With man-centredness being the terrible bane of today's church, there is a danger in drawing attention to personalities. MLJ would quote the words of God, "My servant Moses is dead so arise and go over Jordan." He prevented several would-be biographers from writing anything, and reluctantly consented to an official biography, if only something could be written which would encourage those who were entering the gospel ministry.
MLJ believed that God was the God of tomorrow who would raise up servants who would enjoy blessings that he himself had not known. Frequently when he prayed it was particularly for a recovery of authority and power in preaching.
One must add another observation, that preaching was not MLJ's exclusive concern. He was concerned with the church fellowship, prayer meetings, and the promotion of foreign missionaries, but he was convinced that the spiritual health of the church depended on the state of the pulpit. On behalf of Christ, the true preacher speaks and the Lord himself is building his church in his sovereign way. So MLJ was conscious of what he spoke of as the romance of preaching. The preacher is but an instrument in the Lord's hands: the preacher is not in control. Preaching is the highest and most glorious calling to which anyone could be called.
So when we come to the subject of authority in preaching, there are a number of ways this could be addressed. The New Testament terminology on this theme should be studied, e.g. that 'Jesus spoke with authority', the phrase 'the word came with power', and the word 'boldness' which is surprisingly frequent in the NT.
The characteristics of preaching with power:
1. It always is attended by a consciousness of the presence of God.
Though a worshipper may be meeting in the midst of a large congregation of people, when the preaching is with authority, the individual forgets the person he has come with and the building they are sitting in, and even the one who is preaching. He is conscious that he is being spoken to by the living God. Thus it was in Acts 2. A remarkable illustration of this is the spiritualist woman in Sandfields in Wales, drawn to hear MLJ and was conscious that she was surrounded by 'clean' power. For the first time she was conscious she was in the presence of God. Thomas Hooker had such a sense of God about him that it was said that he could have put a king in his pocket.
2. There is no problem of holding the attention of the people.
It is a problem to keep people's attention. The preacher has his chain of thought, and all the people also may have theirs which are all very different so that they are taking in very little from the preaching. But authoritative preaching gets inside people because it speaks to the heart, conscience and will. Skillful oratory cannot come anywhere near to that preaching. True preaching made a moral and emotional earthquake in those who heard the word at Thessalonica. The well-remembered ship builder who built ships in his mind during Sundays' sermon could not lay the first plank when he was listening to George Whitefield preach. Conviction of sin and the reality of the living God became far more important to him than his business.
One Friday night in his series of lectures on theology, MLJ was preaching from Revelation on the final judgment on Babylon. Anyone listening to that exultant message would have found it impossible to have been occupied with any other subject; the great reality was such that awareness of anything else disappeared. The very date of that occasion was accurately quoted, easily memorable to the speaker because the next day he was getting married, but all thoughts of that were gone as he saw the overthrow of great Babylon.
3. Even children can understand it.
There is a mistake in thinking that preaching is chiefly to address the intellect, and thus the will. Rather preaching is to address the heart and soul of men and women. Preaching which accomplishes that can arrest a child as easily as a grown-up. Children did listen to MLJ because of the character of the preaching and the sense of God about it.
4. It is preaching that results in a change in those who listen.
It may be repentance; it may be restoration, or reconciliation; it may be strength given for those in the midst of trials, but powerful preaching always brings some real change. Sometimes they went away indignant and some of them were later converted. You cannot be apathetic under true preaching. Felix trembled. There was no certainty of conversions, but there was a degree of certainty that there will be power in that preaching. In Mrs. Bethan Lloyd-Jones' book on Sandfields, there is a reference to a professor of law at Liverpool who said that there were two men who kept the country from communism - Aneurin Bevan and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. His preaching affected communities. On November 15, 1967, he was preaching in Aberfan a year after a local disaster. His text was Romans 8:18: "the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory to be revealed in us." It had a great impact on the perplexed little religious community in the Taff valley.
to be continued
- Iain Murray
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Should Christians Say Their Aim is to Convert Others to Faith in Christ?
First of all, why am I asking this question? Three reasons:
1. Because in our delicate and dangerous setting of global religious pluralism, how we speak about our aims can get us kicked out of a country or worse.
2. Because we want to follow Paul’s pattern of honesty: "But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2).
3. Because we need biblical clarity about our role in converting others to Christ, lest we shrink back from the aim of conversion for mistaken reasons.
Let’s begin with a definition.
Christian conversion is the act or process of being changed (without coercion but through our own volition) into a person who believes and treasures Jesus Christ, his saving work, and his promises above everything else, including all that we were believing or treasuring before conversion.
Given that definition, my answer to the question is Yes, all Christians should aim to convert people to faith in Jesus Christ. This is one of our aims in all we say and do. We hope and pray that everything we say and do will have this effect. In other words, our aim is not to say things and do things that are ineffectual. We desire—we hope, we yearn, we pray—that what we say and do will have this effect: that people will treasure Christ above all. Not to want this is either unbelief or lovelessness.
But to say that Christian conversion is our aim does not yet define what our role is in bringing conversion about. That’s what needs clarifying from the Bible.
And here I only want to bring one clarification: The fact that God is the ultimate and decisive cause in conversion does not mean we are not causal agents in conversion. We are. And as God’s agents in conversion we aim at it—we choose what we do and say in the hope that it will be used by God to bring about conversion.
The fact that Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65), does not mean we are not instruments in bringing people to Christ. “The Spirit and the Bride [the church] say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come’” (Revelation 22:17).
The Bible does not infer from God’s causing people to come that we should not say, “Come.” Our aim and effort is that they come. And God is decisive in whether they come. To say that we are not aiming that they come contradicts the command of Jesus (Luke 14:23), contradicts the human instrumentality of the gospel (Romans 10:13-15), and contradicts love.
Consider five other ways that the Bible talks about our role in the conversion of others.
1. Christian conversion involves spiritually blind people being able to see the glory of Christ. Though God opens the eyes of the spiritually blind (2 Corinthians 4:6), Jesus sends Paul to open their eyes.
I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins. (Acts 26:17-18)
For Paul to say that his aim is not to open their eyes would be disobedience to the mission Jesus gave him.
2. Christian conversion involves winning people from treasuring anything above Christ to full devotion to Christ. Though God is decisive in changing people’s affections (Jeremiah 24:7), Paul says his aim is to win people.
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. (1 Corinthians 9:22)
For Paul to say that his aim is not to win people to Christ would contradict his mission.
3. Christian conversion involves bringing people back from the path of sin and destruction. Though God is the one who decisively brings us back to himself (Jeremiah 31:18; Isaiah 57:18), the Bible speaks of us bringing people back from sin and death.
Whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:20)
To say that we do not aim to bring people back from sin and death would put us out of step with this text and imply we don’t care about the death of unbelievers.
4. Christian conversion involves turning the heart toward the true God away from wrong ideas about God and wrong affections for what is not God. Though God is decisive in turning the human heart to himself (2 Thessalonians 3:5), John the Baptist was commissioned to turn the hearts of Israel to God.
He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.” (Luke 1:16-17)
For John the Baptist to say that he does not aim to turn the hearts of the people to God would make him disobedient to his calling.
5. Christian conversion involves being born again. Though the Spirit of God is the sovereign cause of the new birth, blowing where he wills (John 3:8), nevertheless, Peter explains that this happens through the preaching of the gospel by human beings.
You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. . . . And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:23-25)
For the preacher of the gospel to say that he is not aiming at the new birth in his preaching would put him out of step with the Spirit and contradict the design of God in how people are born again.
Therefore, I conclude that it is unbiblical to say that we are not aiming at conversion because God is the decisive, ultimate cause of conversion. He is. But we are his agents, and he calls us to join him in this goal. Not to aim at it is to put ourselves out of step with his command and his Spirit.
- John Piper
1. Because in our delicate and dangerous setting of global religious pluralism, how we speak about our aims can get us kicked out of a country or worse.
2. Because we want to follow Paul’s pattern of honesty: "But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2).
3. Because we need biblical clarity about our role in converting others to Christ, lest we shrink back from the aim of conversion for mistaken reasons.
Let’s begin with a definition.
Christian conversion is the act or process of being changed (without coercion but through our own volition) into a person who believes and treasures Jesus Christ, his saving work, and his promises above everything else, including all that we were believing or treasuring before conversion.
Given that definition, my answer to the question is Yes, all Christians should aim to convert people to faith in Jesus Christ. This is one of our aims in all we say and do. We hope and pray that everything we say and do will have this effect. In other words, our aim is not to say things and do things that are ineffectual. We desire—we hope, we yearn, we pray—that what we say and do will have this effect: that people will treasure Christ above all. Not to want this is either unbelief or lovelessness.
But to say that Christian conversion is our aim does not yet define what our role is in bringing conversion about. That’s what needs clarifying from the Bible.
And here I only want to bring one clarification: The fact that God is the ultimate and decisive cause in conversion does not mean we are not causal agents in conversion. We are. And as God’s agents in conversion we aim at it—we choose what we do and say in the hope that it will be used by God to bring about conversion.
The fact that Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65), does not mean we are not instruments in bringing people to Christ. “The Spirit and the Bride [the church] say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come’” (Revelation 22:17).
The Bible does not infer from God’s causing people to come that we should not say, “Come.” Our aim and effort is that they come. And God is decisive in whether they come. To say that we are not aiming that they come contradicts the command of Jesus (Luke 14:23), contradicts the human instrumentality of the gospel (Romans 10:13-15), and contradicts love.
Consider five other ways that the Bible talks about our role in the conversion of others.
1. Christian conversion involves spiritually blind people being able to see the glory of Christ. Though God opens the eyes of the spiritually blind (2 Corinthians 4:6), Jesus sends Paul to open their eyes.
I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins. (Acts 26:17-18)
For Paul to say that his aim is not to open their eyes would be disobedience to the mission Jesus gave him.
2. Christian conversion involves winning people from treasuring anything above Christ to full devotion to Christ. Though God is decisive in changing people’s affections (Jeremiah 24:7), Paul says his aim is to win people.
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. (1 Corinthians 9:22)
For Paul to say that his aim is not to win people to Christ would contradict his mission.
3. Christian conversion involves bringing people back from the path of sin and destruction. Though God is the one who decisively brings us back to himself (Jeremiah 31:18; Isaiah 57:18), the Bible speaks of us bringing people back from sin and death.
Whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:20)
To say that we do not aim to bring people back from sin and death would put us out of step with this text and imply we don’t care about the death of unbelievers.
4. Christian conversion involves turning the heart toward the true God away from wrong ideas about God and wrong affections for what is not God. Though God is decisive in turning the human heart to himself (2 Thessalonians 3:5), John the Baptist was commissioned to turn the hearts of Israel to God.
He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.” (Luke 1:16-17)
For John the Baptist to say that he does not aim to turn the hearts of the people to God would make him disobedient to his calling.
5. Christian conversion involves being born again. Though the Spirit of God is the sovereign cause of the new birth, blowing where he wills (John 3:8), nevertheless, Peter explains that this happens through the preaching of the gospel by human beings.
You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. . . . And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1:23-25)
For the preacher of the gospel to say that he is not aiming at the new birth in his preaching would put him out of step with the Spirit and contradict the design of God in how people are born again.
Therefore, I conclude that it is unbiblical to say that we are not aiming at conversion because God is the decisive, ultimate cause of conversion. He is. But we are his agents, and he calls us to join him in this goal. Not to aim at it is to put ourselves out of step with his command and his Spirit.
- John Piper
Monday, November 9, 2009
What Muslims Think of America
A Saudi-raised Pastor offers an insider's perspective
At 4.55 am, the minaret loudspeaker blared outside my window. I was in Damascus, visiting relatives, and hundreds of mosques all over the city were calling Muslims to the first of five daily prayers. Faithful Muslims weave these into their everyday lives. If they forget their duties in the midst of the details of life, muezzins from minarets throughout the Muslim world cry "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") at the appointed times to bring them back to this most basic of religious tasks.
Throughout the Middle East and in much of North Africa and lower Asia, Islam dominates the religious, cultural, and political landscape. While Islam is not monolithic, many in the Muslim world, particularly in the Mideast, see the U.S. as the stronghold of the "infidels," who refuse to bow to Allah (the God whom Muslims believe rules over all creation), and who therefore must be opposed or even destroyed.
Where does this intense antipathy come from? Radical Muslims in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, and elsewhere regularly chant, "Death to America! Death to the Great Satan!" Some of this is posturing for CNN, but the fact that such chanting can take place indicates the brewing of a storm for which America is the tallest lightning rod. Why?
1. First, devout Muslims see the US as exporting immorality. The international marketing of our movies and TV programs paints a lurid picture of American life for the Third World. Viewers get their ideas of American life from The Dukes of Hazzard, Dallas and Baywatch, so they assume that illicit sex, fast cars, guns, and intrigue are the norm here.
2. Second, Muslims see the United States' foreign policy as a political puppet of Israel and American Jews. They see in our government's positions over the past 50 years a blind support of a nation that most Muslims view as the cause of untold suffering among Arabs throughout the Middle East. A Syrian cousin of mine pointed to all the "Jewish-sounding" names in Cabinet-level and Congressional positions and declared, "The United States is in the pocket of the Jews"
3. Third, the American heart seems to Arabs to have an anti-Arab bias in both foreign policy and human rights issues. Muslims point to the cries of the Palestinians, not just over their displacement from their homeland, but over the ongoing oppression and violence they see them suffer under the rule of Israeli authorities. It is American planes, they say, that bomb their villages, and American helicopters that fire missiles into their apartment buildings, and American bulldozers that knock down their settlements, and American bullets that shatter their children's skulls. One of my Syrian cousins declared to me with undeniable passion, "If I could go to occupied Palestine [Israel] and fight against the oppressors and give my life to help liberate Palestine, I would count it a privilege. I would count it an honor!"
4. Fourth, Muslims (especially non-Western ones) view the USA as a Christian nation, and so a powerful rival to their faith; Though we know there is no such thing as a Christian nation since God has not called us to a kingdom of this world, the Muslim mind cannot conceive of religion apart from political realities. For Islam the kingdom of Allah must in the end become the unrivaled kingdom of this world.
In many quarters of the world, there is a sense of jealousy among Muslims as they look at the military strength of America across the globe, the standard of living and technological advantages of our society - the freedoms and pioneering spirit - that characterize our way of life. American influence in the world translates for some Muslims into Christian advances into Muslim territory, which cannot be tolerated. Even worse is American military presence in Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam and home of its holiest shrines.
5. Finally Islam is committed to the complete subjugation of the entire world to Allah. Though there is not consensus among Muslims concerning the use of force to advance Islam, there is unanimity concerning three fundamental principles: Islam is the one true religion, meant to be accepted universally; its ultimate goal is the establishment of a one-world theocracy where the laws of Islam (Sharia) become the laws of all societies; and all human beings will one day be either converted to Islam, subjugated under Muslim rule, or eliminated by the sword.
The term jihad, often translated "holy war" leads Americans to ask, "Is such violence sanctioned by Islam?" There is an intense debate in the Muslim world over how Islam's enemies are to be conquered. Moderates claim terrorism has no place in Islam and point to a verse in the Quran that says, "There is no compulsion in religion." But fundamentalists point to numerous texts in the Quran where Muhammad as Allah's spokesman commands his followers to fight and subdue all who resist Islam, if necessary by killing them.
What leads Muslim men to volunteer for death, even young men with all their lives before them? Islam offers no certain hope of heaven to any of its adherents, with one exception. Those who die while fighting in a jihad are promised immediate access to Paradise, the highest level of heaven with the greatest sensual delights imaginable.
For those trapped in a religious system where you can never be sure you have done enough good to please God eternally, and whose lives amid poverty, oppression, and despair do not guarantee much of an earthly future, the assurance of a reward of eternal hedonism is undeniably attractive. Add to this the high tribute in the minds of the faithful left behind and the thought of being an underdog who in the name of Allah does grave damage to the Great Satan, and you have a recipe for conflagration.
How should Christians respond? Confidence and Love are the first two words that come to mind. Paul reminds us in 2 Tim 1:7, "God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." Jesus said that to live by the sword is to die by the sword. His followers are to love enemies and pray for those who engage in persecution.
Since our futures are secure in God's hand because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, we are not to fear those who threaten us, nor seek to destroy them. Rather, we are to approach them with the same love by which Jesus first approached and won us to Himself.
In the end, it is not a question of what Muslims think of America, or of Christians. It is much more a matter of what Christians think of Muslims. Will we extend them Christ's love, the only real hope for peace and transformation, or will we turn away in fear or anger? The future is not in the hands either of Muslim terrorists or of Muslim moderates. It is in the hands of Jesus Christ, and He still calls the church to meet the world with grace and love. The next months and years will show whether we are listening.
- MATEEN A. ELASS
At 4.55 am, the minaret loudspeaker blared outside my window. I was in Damascus, visiting relatives, and hundreds of mosques all over the city were calling Muslims to the first of five daily prayers. Faithful Muslims weave these into their everyday lives. If they forget their duties in the midst of the details of life, muezzins from minarets throughout the Muslim world cry "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") at the appointed times to bring them back to this most basic of religious tasks.
Throughout the Middle East and in much of North Africa and lower Asia, Islam dominates the religious, cultural, and political landscape. While Islam is not monolithic, many in the Muslim world, particularly in the Mideast, see the U.S. as the stronghold of the "infidels," who refuse to bow to Allah (the God whom Muslims believe rules over all creation), and who therefore must be opposed or even destroyed.
Where does this intense antipathy come from? Radical Muslims in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, and elsewhere regularly chant, "Death to America! Death to the Great Satan!" Some of this is posturing for CNN, but the fact that such chanting can take place indicates the brewing of a storm for which America is the tallest lightning rod. Why?
1. First, devout Muslims see the US as exporting immorality. The international marketing of our movies and TV programs paints a lurid picture of American life for the Third World. Viewers get their ideas of American life from The Dukes of Hazzard, Dallas and Baywatch, so they assume that illicit sex, fast cars, guns, and intrigue are the norm here.
2. Second, Muslims see the United States' foreign policy as a political puppet of Israel and American Jews. They see in our government's positions over the past 50 years a blind support of a nation that most Muslims view as the cause of untold suffering among Arabs throughout the Middle East. A Syrian cousin of mine pointed to all the "Jewish-sounding" names in Cabinet-level and Congressional positions and declared, "The United States is in the pocket of the Jews"
3. Third, the American heart seems to Arabs to have an anti-Arab bias in both foreign policy and human rights issues. Muslims point to the cries of the Palestinians, not just over their displacement from their homeland, but over the ongoing oppression and violence they see them suffer under the rule of Israeli authorities. It is American planes, they say, that bomb their villages, and American helicopters that fire missiles into their apartment buildings, and American bulldozers that knock down their settlements, and American bullets that shatter their children's skulls. One of my Syrian cousins declared to me with undeniable passion, "If I could go to occupied Palestine [Israel] and fight against the oppressors and give my life to help liberate Palestine, I would count it a privilege. I would count it an honor!"
4. Fourth, Muslims (especially non-Western ones) view the USA as a Christian nation, and so a powerful rival to their faith; Though we know there is no such thing as a Christian nation since God has not called us to a kingdom of this world, the Muslim mind cannot conceive of religion apart from political realities. For Islam the kingdom of Allah must in the end become the unrivaled kingdom of this world.
In many quarters of the world, there is a sense of jealousy among Muslims as they look at the military strength of America across the globe, the standard of living and technological advantages of our society - the freedoms and pioneering spirit - that characterize our way of life. American influence in the world translates for some Muslims into Christian advances into Muslim territory, which cannot be tolerated. Even worse is American military presence in Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam and home of its holiest shrines.
5. Finally Islam is committed to the complete subjugation of the entire world to Allah. Though there is not consensus among Muslims concerning the use of force to advance Islam, there is unanimity concerning three fundamental principles: Islam is the one true religion, meant to be accepted universally; its ultimate goal is the establishment of a one-world theocracy where the laws of Islam (Sharia) become the laws of all societies; and all human beings will one day be either converted to Islam, subjugated under Muslim rule, or eliminated by the sword.
The term jihad, often translated "holy war" leads Americans to ask, "Is such violence sanctioned by Islam?" There is an intense debate in the Muslim world over how Islam's enemies are to be conquered. Moderates claim terrorism has no place in Islam and point to a verse in the Quran that says, "There is no compulsion in religion." But fundamentalists point to numerous texts in the Quran where Muhammad as Allah's spokesman commands his followers to fight and subdue all who resist Islam, if necessary by killing them.
What leads Muslim men to volunteer for death, even young men with all their lives before them? Islam offers no certain hope of heaven to any of its adherents, with one exception. Those who die while fighting in a jihad are promised immediate access to Paradise, the highest level of heaven with the greatest sensual delights imaginable.
For those trapped in a religious system where you can never be sure you have done enough good to please God eternally, and whose lives amid poverty, oppression, and despair do not guarantee much of an earthly future, the assurance of a reward of eternal hedonism is undeniably attractive. Add to this the high tribute in the minds of the faithful left behind and the thought of being an underdog who in the name of Allah does grave damage to the Great Satan, and you have a recipe for conflagration.
How should Christians respond? Confidence and Love are the first two words that come to mind. Paul reminds us in 2 Tim 1:7, "God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." Jesus said that to live by the sword is to die by the sword. His followers are to love enemies and pray for those who engage in persecution.
Since our futures are secure in God's hand because of the finished work of Jesus Christ, we are not to fear those who threaten us, nor seek to destroy them. Rather, we are to approach them with the same love by which Jesus first approached and won us to Himself.
In the end, it is not a question of what Muslims think of America, or of Christians. It is much more a matter of what Christians think of Muslims. Will we extend them Christ's love, the only real hope for peace and transformation, or will we turn away in fear or anger? The future is not in the hands either of Muslim terrorists or of Muslim moderates. It is in the hands of Jesus Christ, and He still calls the church to meet the world with grace and love. The next months and years will show whether we are listening.
- MATEEN A. ELASS
One Standard of Character
"Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:6
Nothing is more striking to a close observer of human life than the almost infinite variety of character which exists among those who profess to be Christians. No two are alike. Even those who are revered for their saintliness, who alike seem to wear the image of their Lord, whose lives are alike attractive in their beauty--show the widest diversity in individual traits and in the cast and mold of their character. Yet all are sitting before the same model; all are striving after the same ideal; all are imitators of the same blessed life.
There is only one standard of true Christian character--likeness to Christ. It is into His image that we are to be transformed; and it is toward His holy beauty that we are always to strive. We are to live as He lived. We are to copy His features into our lives. Wherever, in all the world, true disciples of Christ are found, they are all trying to reproduce the likeness of their Master in themselves.
One reason for the diversity among Christians is because even the best and holiest saints realize but a little of the image of Christ and have only one little fraction and fragment of His likeness in their souls. In one of His followers, there is some one feature of Christ's blessed life which appears; in another, there is another feature; in a third, still a different feature. One seeks to copy Christ's gentleness, another His patience, another His sympathy, another His meekness.
Therefore, a thousand believers may all, in a certain sense, be like Christ and yet no two of them have, or consciously strive after, just the same features of Christ in their souls. The reason is that the character of Christ is so great, so majestic and so glorious that it is impossible to copy all of it into any one little human life; each human character is so imperfect and limited that it cannot reach out in all directions after the boundless and infinite character of Christ.
- J. R. Miller
Nothing is more striking to a close observer of human life than the almost infinite variety of character which exists among those who profess to be Christians. No two are alike. Even those who are revered for their saintliness, who alike seem to wear the image of their Lord, whose lives are alike attractive in their beauty--show the widest diversity in individual traits and in the cast and mold of their character. Yet all are sitting before the same model; all are striving after the same ideal; all are imitators of the same blessed life.
There is only one standard of true Christian character--likeness to Christ. It is into His image that we are to be transformed; and it is toward His holy beauty that we are always to strive. We are to live as He lived. We are to copy His features into our lives. Wherever, in all the world, true disciples of Christ are found, they are all trying to reproduce the likeness of their Master in themselves.
One reason for the diversity among Christians is because even the best and holiest saints realize but a little of the image of Christ and have only one little fraction and fragment of His likeness in their souls. In one of His followers, there is some one feature of Christ's blessed life which appears; in another, there is another feature; in a third, still a different feature. One seeks to copy Christ's gentleness, another His patience, another His sympathy, another His meekness.
Therefore, a thousand believers may all, in a certain sense, be like Christ and yet no two of them have, or consciously strive after, just the same features of Christ in their souls. The reason is that the character of Christ is so great, so majestic and so glorious that it is impossible to copy all of it into any one little human life; each human character is so imperfect and limited that it cannot reach out in all directions after the boundless and infinite character of Christ.
- J. R. Miller
Consider This
The men that will change and affect any colleges and seminaries are the men that spend the most time alone with God…It takes time for the fires to burn. It takes time for God to draw near and for us to know that He is there. It takes time to assimilate His truth. You ask me, How much time? I do not know. I know it means time enough to forget time. - John Mott
The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. - Samuel Chadwick
It is because of hasty and superficial conversation with God that the sense of sin is so weak and that no motives have power to help you to hate and flee from sin as you should.
- A.W. Tozer
The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. - Samuel Chadwick
It is because of hasty and superficial conversation with God that the sense of sin is so weak and that no motives have power to help you to hate and flee from sin as you should.
- A.W. Tozer
Friday, November 6, 2009
Denying Self
"If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." Luke 9:23-24
Only as we learn to die to self do we become like Christ.
Human nature seeks all for self and nothing for Christ. Becoming a Christian is the taking of Christ into the life, in the place of self. Then all is changed. Life has a new center and a new aim. Christ comes first. His plan for our lives is accepted, instead of our own. It is no more what we would like to do, but "What does the Master want us to do?" It is no longer the pressing of our own will, but instead "May Your will, not mine, be done."
This is the foundation of all Christian living--the dying of self and the growing of Christ in the heart. So long as there remains any self-will, any unsubmission, any spirit of disobedience, any unconquered self, and the asserting its authority against the will of Christ, then our consecration incomplete.
This law of the dying of self and the magnifying of Christ is the only way to true usefulness. Not until self has been renounced, is anyone ready for true Christian service. While we are thinking how this or that will affect us, whether it will pay us to make this sacrifice or that self-denial; while we are consulting our own ease, our own comfort, our own interest or advantage in any form--we have not yet learned fully what the love of Christ means.
This law of the dying of self and the magnifying of Christ is the secret of Christian peace. When Christ is small and self is large, then life cannot be deeply restful. Everything annoys us. We grow impatient of whatever breaks our comfort. We grieve over little trials. We find causes for discontent in merest trifles. We resent whatever would hinder or oppose us. There is no blue sky in the picture when self is the center!
But when self decreases and Christ increases, then the life of friction and worry is changed into quietness and peace. When the glory of Christ streams over this little, cramped, fretted, broken life of ours, then peace comes, and the love of Christ brightens every spot and sweetens all bitterness. Trials are easy to bear, when self is small and Christ is large.
This lesson has its very practical bearing on all our common, every-day life. Naturally, we want to have our own way. We like to carry outour own plans and ambitions. We are apt to feel, too, that we have failed in life, when we cannot realize these hopes. But this is the world's standard! The successful worldling is the one who is able to master all life's circumstances, and make them serve him.
But the greatest thing possible in any life is to have the divine plan for it fulfilled, even though it thwarts every human hope and dashes away every earthly dream. It is not easy for us to learn the lesson that God's ways are always better for us than our own!
We make our little plans and begin to carry them out. We think we have all things arranged for our greatest happiness and our best good. Then God's plan breaks in upon ours and we look down through our tears upon the shattered fragments of our fine plans! All seems wreck, loss, and disaster! But no--it is only God's larger, wiser, better plan, displacing our little, imperfect, shortsighted one!
It is true, that God really thinks about our lives and has a purpose of His own for them, a place He would have us fill, a work He would have us do. It seems when we think of it, that this is scarcely possible that each one of the lives of His countless children should be personally and individually thought about by the Father. Yet we know that this is true of the least and lowliest of believers. Surely if God cares enough for us to make a plan for our life, a heavenly plan--it must be better than any plan of ours could be! It is a high honor, therefore, for His plan to take the place of ours, whatever the cost and the pain may be to us!
- J. R. Miller
Only as we learn to die to self do we become like Christ.
Human nature seeks all for self and nothing for Christ. Becoming a Christian is the taking of Christ into the life, in the place of self. Then all is changed. Life has a new center and a new aim. Christ comes first. His plan for our lives is accepted, instead of our own. It is no more what we would like to do, but "What does the Master want us to do?" It is no longer the pressing of our own will, but instead "May Your will, not mine, be done."
This is the foundation of all Christian living--the dying of self and the growing of Christ in the heart. So long as there remains any self-will, any unsubmission, any spirit of disobedience, any unconquered self, and the asserting its authority against the will of Christ, then our consecration incomplete.
This law of the dying of self and the magnifying of Christ is the only way to true usefulness. Not until self has been renounced, is anyone ready for true Christian service. While we are thinking how this or that will affect us, whether it will pay us to make this sacrifice or that self-denial; while we are consulting our own ease, our own comfort, our own interest or advantage in any form--we have not yet learned fully what the love of Christ means.
This law of the dying of self and the magnifying of Christ is the secret of Christian peace. When Christ is small and self is large, then life cannot be deeply restful. Everything annoys us. We grow impatient of whatever breaks our comfort. We grieve over little trials. We find causes for discontent in merest trifles. We resent whatever would hinder or oppose us. There is no blue sky in the picture when self is the center!
But when self decreases and Christ increases, then the life of friction and worry is changed into quietness and peace. When the glory of Christ streams over this little, cramped, fretted, broken life of ours, then peace comes, and the love of Christ brightens every spot and sweetens all bitterness. Trials are easy to bear, when self is small and Christ is large.
This lesson has its very practical bearing on all our common, every-day life. Naturally, we want to have our own way. We like to carry outour own plans and ambitions. We are apt to feel, too, that we have failed in life, when we cannot realize these hopes. But this is the world's standard! The successful worldling is the one who is able to master all life's circumstances, and make them serve him.
But the greatest thing possible in any life is to have the divine plan for it fulfilled, even though it thwarts every human hope and dashes away every earthly dream. It is not easy for us to learn the lesson that God's ways are always better for us than our own!
We make our little plans and begin to carry them out. We think we have all things arranged for our greatest happiness and our best good. Then God's plan breaks in upon ours and we look down through our tears upon the shattered fragments of our fine plans! All seems wreck, loss, and disaster! But no--it is only God's larger, wiser, better plan, displacing our little, imperfect, shortsighted one!
It is true, that God really thinks about our lives and has a purpose of His own for them, a place He would have us fill, a work He would have us do. It seems when we think of it, that this is scarcely possible that each one of the lives of His countless children should be personally and individually thought about by the Father. Yet we know that this is true of the least and lowliest of believers. Surely if God cares enough for us to make a plan for our life, a heavenly plan--it must be better than any plan of ours could be! It is a high honor, therefore, for His plan to take the place of ours, whatever the cost and the pain may be to us!
- J. R. Miller
Thursday, November 5, 2009
What Is the Glory of God?
The glory of God is the holiness of God put on display. That is, it is the infinite worth of God made manifest. Notice how Isaiah shifts from “holy” to “glory”: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). When the holiness of God fills the earth for people to see, it is called glory.
The basic meaning of holy is “separated” from the common. Thus, when you carry that definition all the way to the infinite “separation” of God from all that is common, the effect is to make him the infinite “one of a kind”—like the rarest and most perfect diamond in the world. Only there are no other diamond-gods. God’s uniqueness as the only God—his God-ness—makes him infinitely valuable, that is, holy.
The most common meaning for God’s glory in the Bible assumes that this infinite value has entered created experience. It has, as it were, shined. God’s glory is the radiance of his holiness. It is the out-streaming of his infinite value. And when it streams out, it is seen as beautiful and great. It has both infinite quality and infinite magnitude. So we may define the glory of God as the beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections.
I say “manifold perfections” because specific aspects of God’s being are said to have glory. For example: “the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6) and “the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). God himself is glorious because he is the perfect unity of all his manifold and glorious perfections.
But this definition must be qualified. The Bible also speaks of God’s glory before it is revealed in creation. For example, Jesus prays, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). So I would suggest a definition something like this: God’s glory is the outward radiance of the intrinsic beauty and greatness of his manifold perfections.
I am aware that words are poor pointers here. I have replaced one inadequate word with two others: glory with beauty and greatness. But we must try. God has revealed himself to us in words like “the glory of God.” And he does not want them to be meaningless.
We must constantly remind ourselves that we are speaking of a glory that is ultimately beyond created comparison. “The glory of God” is the way you designate the infinite beauty and the infinite greatness of the Person who was there before anything else was there. In other words, it is the beauty and the greatness that exists without origin, without comparison, without analogy, without being judged or assessed by any external criterion. It is the all-defining absolute original of greatness and beauty. All created greatness and beauty comes from it, and points to it, but does not comprehensively or adequately reproduce it.
“The glory of God” is a way of saying that there is objective, absolute reality to which all human admiration, wonder, awe, veneration, praise, honor, acclaim, and worship is pointing. We were made to find our deepest pleasure in admiring what is infinitely admirable, that is, the glory of God. The glory of God is not the psychological projection of human longing onto reality. On the contrary, inconsolable human longing is the evidence that we were made for God’s glory.
How Central Is the Glory of God in the Bible?
The glory of God is the goal of all things. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). All things were created for God’s glory (Isaiah 43:6-7).
The great mission of the church is to declare God’s glory among the nations. “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Psalms 96:1-3; Ezekiel 39:21; Isaiah 66:18-19).
What Is Our Hope? Seeing the Glory of God
Seeing the glory of God is our ultimate hope. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). God will “present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24). He will “make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:23). “He calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12). “Our blessed hope [is] the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
Jesus, in all his person and work, is the incarnation and ultimate revelation of the glory of God. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). “Father, I desire that they . . . may be with me where I am, to see my glory” (John 17:24).
What Is Our Hope? Sharing in the Glory of God
“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed” (1 Peter 5:1). “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). “We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7).“This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). “Those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).
Summary
Seeing and sharing in God’s glory is our ultimate hope through the gospel of Christ. Hope that is really known and treasured has a huge and decisive effect on our present values and choices and actions. Get to know the glory of God. Study the glory of God, the glory of Christ, the glory of the world that reveals the glory of God, the glory of the gospel that reveals the glory of Christ. Treasure the glory of God above all things.
Study your soul. Know the glory you are seduced by, and know why you treasure glories that are not God’s glory. Study your own soul to know how to make the glories of the world collapse like Dagon (1 Samuel 5:4) into pitiful pieces on the floor of the world’s temples.
- John Piper
The basic meaning of holy is “separated” from the common. Thus, when you carry that definition all the way to the infinite “separation” of God from all that is common, the effect is to make him the infinite “one of a kind”—like the rarest and most perfect diamond in the world. Only there are no other diamond-gods. God’s uniqueness as the only God—his God-ness—makes him infinitely valuable, that is, holy.
The most common meaning for God’s glory in the Bible assumes that this infinite value has entered created experience. It has, as it were, shined. God’s glory is the radiance of his holiness. It is the out-streaming of his infinite value. And when it streams out, it is seen as beautiful and great. It has both infinite quality and infinite magnitude. So we may define the glory of God as the beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections.
I say “manifold perfections” because specific aspects of God’s being are said to have glory. For example: “the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6) and “the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). God himself is glorious because he is the perfect unity of all his manifold and glorious perfections.
But this definition must be qualified. The Bible also speaks of God’s glory before it is revealed in creation. For example, Jesus prays, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). So I would suggest a definition something like this: God’s glory is the outward radiance of the intrinsic beauty and greatness of his manifold perfections.
I am aware that words are poor pointers here. I have replaced one inadequate word with two others: glory with beauty and greatness. But we must try. God has revealed himself to us in words like “the glory of God.” And he does not want them to be meaningless.
We must constantly remind ourselves that we are speaking of a glory that is ultimately beyond created comparison. “The glory of God” is the way you designate the infinite beauty and the infinite greatness of the Person who was there before anything else was there. In other words, it is the beauty and the greatness that exists without origin, without comparison, without analogy, without being judged or assessed by any external criterion. It is the all-defining absolute original of greatness and beauty. All created greatness and beauty comes from it, and points to it, but does not comprehensively or adequately reproduce it.
“The glory of God” is a way of saying that there is objective, absolute reality to which all human admiration, wonder, awe, veneration, praise, honor, acclaim, and worship is pointing. We were made to find our deepest pleasure in admiring what is infinitely admirable, that is, the glory of God. The glory of God is not the psychological projection of human longing onto reality. On the contrary, inconsolable human longing is the evidence that we were made for God’s glory.
How Central Is the Glory of God in the Bible?
The glory of God is the goal of all things. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). All things were created for God’s glory (Isaiah 43:6-7).
The great mission of the church is to declare God’s glory among the nations. “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Psalms 96:1-3; Ezekiel 39:21; Isaiah 66:18-19).
What Is Our Hope? Seeing the Glory of God
Seeing the glory of God is our ultimate hope. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). God will “present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24). He will “make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:23). “He calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12). “Our blessed hope [is] the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
Jesus, in all his person and work, is the incarnation and ultimate revelation of the glory of God. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). “Father, I desire that they . . . may be with me where I am, to see my glory” (John 17:24).
What Is Our Hope? Sharing in the Glory of God
“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed” (1 Peter 5:1). “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). “We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7).“This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). “Those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).
Summary
Seeing and sharing in God’s glory is our ultimate hope through the gospel of Christ. Hope that is really known and treasured has a huge and decisive effect on our present values and choices and actions. Get to know the glory of God. Study the glory of God, the glory of Christ, the glory of the world that reveals the glory of God, the glory of the gospel that reveals the glory of Christ. Treasure the glory of God above all things.
Study your soul. Know the glory you are seduced by, and know why you treasure glories that are not God’s glory. Study your own soul to know how to make the glories of the world collapse like Dagon (1 Samuel 5:4) into pitiful pieces on the floor of the world’s temples.
- John Piper
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