A Letter from John Newton to his Wife
My dear wife,
I hope you will make good use of the Bible and the throne of grace to preserve you from being infected by the spirit of the world. Ah! what a poor vain thing is the world! We have both found it so at times, though we once loved it, and shall find it so again. May the Lord keep us alert to a sense of its vanity!
Your recent sickness and near prospect of death force upon your mind a conviction of the littleness and vanity of a worldly life. But there is a more pleasing way of learning this lesson, if we pay due attention to the Word of God, and pray for the light of His countenance. If He is pleased to make His face to shine upon us, all that the world can offer to bribe and tempt us will appear insignificant and trivial as the sports of children!
What a happy condition we are in! We have peace with God by Jesus Christ, liberty of access to the throne of grace, a saving interest in all God's promises, a sure Guide along the way and a glorious inheritance at our journey's end!
These things were once hidden from us! We were so blinded by the god of this world that we could look no farther than the present life! But, even then, the Lord looked upon us with an eye of mercy. He led us on gradually by a way which we knew not, to bring us into the path of eternal peace.
Though death will eventually part us, we shall soon meet again to part no more, to be forever with the Lord, to join in an eternal song to Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood! Then all tears shall be wiped from our eyes and we shall weep no more forever!
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him!" 1 Corinthians 2:9
- John Newton
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Oyster Man
In the days of John Wesley, lay preachers with limited education would sometimes conduct the church services. One man used Luke 19:21 as his text. "Lord, I feared Thee, because Thou are an austere man." Not knowing the word austere, he thought the text spoke of "an oyster man."
He explained how a diver must grope in dark, freezing water to retrieve oysters. In his attempt, he cuts his hands on the sharp edges of the shells. After he obtains an oyster, he rises to the surface, clutching it "in his torn and bleeding hands." The preacher added, "Christ descended from the glory of heaven into ....sinful human society, in order to retrieve humans and bring them back up with Him to the glory of heaven. His torn and bleeding hands are a sign of the value He has placed on the object of His quest."
Afterwards, a number of people professed to trust in Christ. Later that night, someone came to Wesley to complain about unschooled preachers who were too ignorant even to know the meaning of the texts they were preaching on. The Oxford-educated Wesley simply said, "Never mind. The Lord got a dozen oysters tonight."
Our best may not always measure up to the standards of others. But God takes our inadequacies and humble efforts and uses them for His glory.
- Geoff Thomas
This story is obviously not an excuse for inaccurate use and handling of the Scriptures; but it does tell us that God graciously overrules our imperfections and flaws and uses His Word whenever and with whomever He chooses.
- Mack T.
He explained how a diver must grope in dark, freezing water to retrieve oysters. In his attempt, he cuts his hands on the sharp edges of the shells. After he obtains an oyster, he rises to the surface, clutching it "in his torn and bleeding hands." The preacher added, "Christ descended from the glory of heaven into ....sinful human society, in order to retrieve humans and bring them back up with Him to the glory of heaven. His torn and bleeding hands are a sign of the value He has placed on the object of His quest."
Afterwards, a number of people professed to trust in Christ. Later that night, someone came to Wesley to complain about unschooled preachers who were too ignorant even to know the meaning of the texts they were preaching on. The Oxford-educated Wesley simply said, "Never mind. The Lord got a dozen oysters tonight."
Our best may not always measure up to the standards of others. But God takes our inadequacies and humble efforts and uses them for His glory.
- Geoff Thomas
This story is obviously not an excuse for inaccurate use and handling of the Scriptures; but it does tell us that God graciously overrules our imperfections and flaws and uses His Word whenever and with whomever He chooses.
- Mack T.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Discerning Idolatry in Enjoyment, Pt. 2
7. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it awakens a sense of pride that we can experience this delight while others can’t. This is especially true of delights in religious things, like prayer, Bible reading and ministry. It is wonderful to enjoy holy things, but it is idolatrous to feel proud that we can.
8. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is oblivious or callous to the needs and desires of others. Holy enjoyment is aware of others’ needs and may temporarily leave a good pleasure to help another person have it. One might leave private prayer to be the answer to someone else’s.
9. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it does not desire that Christ be magnified as supremely desirable through the enjoyment. Enjoying anything but Christ (like his good gifts) runs the inevitable risk of magnifying the gi ft over the Giver. One evidence that idolatry is not happening is the earnest desire that this not happen.
10. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is not working a deeper capacity for holy delight. We are sinners still. It is idolatrous to be content with sin. So we desire transformation. Some enjoyments shrink our capacities of holy joy. Others enlarge them. Some go either way, depending on how we think about them. When we don’t care if an enjoyment is making us more holy, we are moving into idolatry.
11. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when its loss ruins our trust in the goodness of God. There can be sorrow at loss without being idolatrous. But when the sorrow threatens our confidence in God, it signals that the thing lost was becoming an idol.
12. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when its loss paralyzes us emotionally so that we can’t relate lovingly to other people. This20is the horizontal effect of losing confidence in God. Again: Great sorrow is no sure sign of idolatry. Jesus had great sorrow. But when desire is denied, and the effect is the emotional inability to do what God calls us to do, the warning signs of idolatry are flashing.
For myself and for you, I pray the admonition of 1 John 5:21: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
- John Piper
8. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is oblivious or callous to the needs and desires of others. Holy enjoyment is aware of others’ needs and may temporarily leave a good pleasure to help another person have it. One might leave private prayer to be the answer to someone else’s.
9. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it does not desire that Christ be magnified as supremely desirable through the enjoyment. Enjoying anything but Christ (like his good gifts) runs the inevitable risk of magnifying the gi ft over the Giver. One evidence that idolatry is not happening is the earnest desire that this not happen.
10. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is not working a deeper capacity for holy delight. We are sinners still. It is idolatrous to be content with sin. So we desire transformation. Some enjoyments shrink our capacities of holy joy. Others enlarge them. Some go either way, depending on how we think about them. When we don’t care if an enjoyment is making us more holy, we are moving into idolatry.
11. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when its loss ruins our trust in the goodness of God. There can be sorrow at loss without being idolatrous. But when the sorrow threatens our confidence in God, it signals that the thing lost was becoming an idol.
12. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when its loss paralyzes us emotionally so that we can’t relate lovingly to other people. This20is the horizontal effect of losing confidence in God. Again: Great sorrow is no sure sign of idolatry. Jesus had great sorrow. But when desire is denied, and the effect is the emotional inability to do what God calls us to do, the warning signs of idolatry are flashing.
For myself and for you, I pray the admonition of 1 John 5:21: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
- John Piper
Discerning Idolatry in Enjoyment, Pt. 1
Most of us realize that enjoying anything other than God, from the best gift to the basest pleasure, can become idolatry. Paul says in Col. 3:5: “Covetousness is idolatry.” “Covetousness” means desiring something other than God in the wrong way. But what does that mean—“in the wrong way”? The reason this matters is both vertical and horizontal. Idolatry will destroy our relationship with God and it will destroy our relationships with people.
All human relational problems—from marriage and family to friendship, to neighbors, to classmates, and colleagues—all of them are rooted in various forms of idolatry; that is, wanting things other than God in wrong ways. So here is my effort to think biblically about what those wrong ways are. What makes an enjoyment idolatrous? What turns a desire into covetousness, which is idolatry?
1. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is forbidden by God. For example, adultery, fornication, stealing and lying are forbidden by God. Some people at times feel that these are pleasurable, or else we would not do them. No one sins out of duty. But such pleasure is a sign of idolatry.
2. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is disproportionate to the worth of what is desired. Great desire for non-great things is a sign that we are beginning to make those things idols.
3. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is not permeated with gratitude. When our enjoyment of something tends to make us not think of God, it is moving toward idolatry. But if the enjoyment gives rise to the feeling of gratefulness to God, we are being protected from idolatry. The grateful feeling that we don’t deserve this gift or this enjoyment, but have it freely from God’s grace, is evidence that idolatry is being checked.
4. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it does not see in God’s gift that God himself is more to be desired than the gift. If the gift is not awakening a sense that God, the Giver, is better than the gift, it is becoming an idol.
5. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is starting to feel like a right, and our delight is becoming a demand. It may be that the delight is right. It may be that another person ought to give you this delight. It may be right to tell them this. But when all this rises to the level of angry demands, idolatry is rising.
6. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it draws us away from our duties. When we find ourselves spending time pursuing an enjoyment, knowing that other things or people should be getting our attention, we are moving into idolatry.
To Be Continued
- John Piper
All human relational problems—from marriage and family to friendship, to neighbors, to classmates, and colleagues—all of them are rooted in various forms of idolatry; that is, wanting things other than God in wrong ways. So here is my effort to think biblically about what those wrong ways are. What makes an enjoyment idolatrous? What turns a desire into covetousness, which is idolatry?
1. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is forbidden by God. For example, adultery, fornication, stealing and lying are forbidden by God. Some people at times feel that these are pleasurable, or else we would not do them. No one sins out of duty. But such pleasure is a sign of idolatry.
2. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is disproportionate to the worth of what is desired. Great desire for non-great things is a sign that we are beginning to make those things idols.
3. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is not permeated with gratitude. When our enjoyment of something tends to make us not think of God, it is moving toward idolatry. But if the enjoyment gives rise to the feeling of gratefulness to God, we are being protected from idolatry. The grateful feeling that we don’t deserve this gift or this enjoyment, but have it freely from God’s grace, is evidence that idolatry is being checked.
4. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it does not see in God’s gift that God himself is more to be desired than the gift. If the gift is not awakening a sense that God, the Giver, is better than the gift, it is becoming an idol.
5. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it is starting to feel like a right, and our delight is becoming a demand. It may be that the delight is right. It may be that another person ought to give you this delight. It may be right to tell them this. But when all this rises to the level of angry demands, idolatry is rising.
6. Enjoyment becomes idolatrous when it draws us away from our duties. When we find ourselves spending time pursuing an enjoyment, knowing that other things or people should be getting our attention, we are moving into idolatry.
To Be Continued
- John Piper
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Lord Preserves His People: A Letter from John Newton
March 1, 1769
Dear madam,
Through grace I can say that, as I never saw more of my own vileness, so I never saw Jesus more precious and desirable than now, or was more clearly sensible of the vanity of everything without Him than I have been lately. "None but Jesus!" is my motto. All wisdom, righteousness, holiness and happiness, which does not spring from and center in Him, I renounce! The heart is deceitful, the world is ensnaring, and the enemy is subtle and powerful. But we know Him who has said, "My grace is sufficient for you!" He is able to keep us from falling, in every circumstance and situation to which His providence calls us.
The Lord preserves His people by putting His fear in their hearts, by making them sensible of their dangers, and drawing them to come boldly to His throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy and find grace to help in every time of need.
Our daily prayer should be, "Hold me up--and I shall be safe!" Psalm 119:117
- John Newton
Dear madam,
Through grace I can say that, as I never saw more of my own vileness, so I never saw Jesus more precious and desirable than now, or was more clearly sensible of the vanity of everything without Him than I have been lately. "None but Jesus!" is my motto. All wisdom, righteousness, holiness and happiness, which does not spring from and center in Him, I renounce! The heart is deceitful, the world is ensnaring, and the enemy is subtle and powerful. But we know Him who has said, "My grace is sufficient for you!" He is able to keep us from falling, in every circumstance and situation to which His providence calls us.
The Lord preserves His people by putting His fear in their hearts, by making them sensible of their dangers, and drawing them to come boldly to His throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy and find grace to help in every time of need.
Our daily prayer should be, "Hold me up--and I shall be safe!" Psalm 119:117
- John Newton
Monday, July 20, 2009
What's up with the Rapture?
This question came to me this week:
"Concerning the rapture, which one is true-- Post trib, Pre trib, Mid-trib or what? what is your view? Just wondering, it has been brought up several times this week in our Bible study."
My reply:
This obviously is a long, complicated discussion; we would have to talk some in person on this sometime to make it workable rather than by email;
Honestly, to me it doesn't matter much; many godly men disagree on this area of biblical doctrine, not just on the so-called rapture (a word not found in the New Testament), but even disagreeing on the millenial reign of Christ and the major details of the Lord's future return. There have been godly, Christ-honoring saints over the centuries who have been pre-millieniallists, some post-mil and some amil. That's just the way it is. If a person can't acknowledge that, they will just remain ignorant.
It seems clear that the main emphasis and main points in the N. T. are these about the Second Coming:
Jesus is coming
- He's coming soon
- He's coming visibly
- He's coming bodily
- He's coming in final cosmic judgment
- He's coming to take his bride to heaven
- He's coming to judge the dead & living
- He's coming to wrap up human history
- He's coming to establish perfect righteousness
- He's coming to rule and reign forever and ever
- He's coming to make us perfectly like Him
- He's coming to receive us unto Himself forever
He is coming for me, so I am to be about my sanctification with a passion, as John says to us in 1 John:
"Beloved, now we are the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; And everyone who has this hope (the Second Coming as a believer- MT) purifies himself, even as He is pure."
- 1 Jn. 3:2-3
Therefore, what do Jesus and the N. T. writers tell us to be concerned about regarding future eschatological reality?
"BE READY . . . for you know not the hour that the Son of Man cometh"
"Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure."
That is my eschatolgy and I am satisfied in my heart that this is enough for any Christian to know.
Obviously there is more to it, but that is what the New Testament majors on and emphasizes. I am satisfied to know that much and by God's grace, to endeavor to live in light of it. I will leave the more complicated details to the smart guys.
- Mack Tomlinson
"Concerning the rapture, which one is true-- Post trib, Pre trib, Mid-trib or what? what is your view? Just wondering, it has been brought up several times this week in our Bible study."
My reply:
This obviously is a long, complicated discussion; we would have to talk some in person on this sometime to make it workable rather than by email;
Honestly, to me it doesn't matter much; many godly men disagree on this area of biblical doctrine, not just on the so-called rapture (a word not found in the New Testament), but even disagreeing on the millenial reign of Christ and the major details of the Lord's future return. There have been godly, Christ-honoring saints over the centuries who have been pre-millieniallists, some post-mil and some amil. That's just the way it is. If a person can't acknowledge that, they will just remain ignorant.
It seems clear that the main emphasis and main points in the N. T. are these about the Second Coming:
Jesus is coming
- He's coming soon
- He's coming visibly
- He's coming bodily
- He's coming in final cosmic judgment
- He's coming to take his bride to heaven
- He's coming to judge the dead & living
- He's coming to wrap up human history
- He's coming to establish perfect righteousness
- He's coming to rule and reign forever and ever
- He's coming to make us perfectly like Him
- He's coming to receive us unto Himself forever
He is coming for me, so I am to be about my sanctification with a passion, as John says to us in 1 John:
"Beloved, now we are the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; And everyone who has this hope (the Second Coming as a believer- MT) purifies himself, even as He is pure."
- 1 Jn. 3:2-3
Therefore, what do Jesus and the N. T. writers tell us to be concerned about regarding future eschatological reality?
"BE READY . . . for you know not the hour that the Son of Man cometh"
"Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure."
That is my eschatolgy and I am satisfied in my heart that this is enough for any Christian to know.
Obviously there is more to it, but that is what the New Testament majors on and emphasizes. I am satisfied to know that much and by God's grace, to endeavor to live in light of it. I will leave the more complicated details to the smart guys.
- Mack Tomlinson
The Life of Faith is Great Security
The life of faith is a happy life. Though it is attended with conflicts, there is an assurance of victory. If we sometimes get a wound, there is healing balm near at hand. If we seem to fall, we are raised again. And, if tribulations abound, then consolations shall much more abound. Is it not happiness to have an infallible Guide, an invincible Guard, and Almighty Friend?
It is bliss to be able to say of the Maker of heaven and earth, "He is my Beloved, Shepherd, Saviour, and my Husband, the husband of his bride!"
Oh, the peace which flows from believing that all the events in which we are concerned are under His immediate disposal, that the very hairs of our head are all numbered, that He delights in our prosperity, that there is a divine reason and need if we are in heaviness, and that all things shall surely work together for our good!
How happy to have such views of His sovereignty, wisdom, love, and faithfulness as will enable us to meet every difficult dispensation with submission, and to look through the painful changes of the present life to that unchangeable inheritance to which the Lord is leading us, when all evil shall cease, and where our joy shall be perfect and eternal!
- John Newton
It is bliss to be able to say of the Maker of heaven and earth, "He is my Beloved, Shepherd, Saviour, and my Husband, the husband of his bride!"
Oh, the peace which flows from believing that all the events in which we are concerned are under His immediate disposal, that the very hairs of our head are all numbered, that He delights in our prosperity, that there is a divine reason and need if we are in heaviness, and that all things shall surely work together for our good!
How happy to have such views of His sovereignty, wisdom, love, and faithfulness as will enable us to meet every difficult dispensation with submission, and to look through the painful changes of the present life to that unchangeable inheritance to which the Lord is leading us, when all evil shall cease, and where our joy shall be perfect and eternal!
- John Newton
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