ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

We ignore, but we cannot evade, the presence of God. - C.S. Lewis

"It's Just a Spirit Thing"

In a conversation today I was asked how a person might know, have assurance, that he is truly a follower of Jesus Christ. While a scriptural answer for this question can be found in Romans 8:16, I also like the way John Calvin puts it:

"The Spirit of God gives us such a testimony, that when he is our guide and teacher our spirit is made sure of the adoption of God; for our mind itself, without the preceding testimony of the Spirit, could not convey to us this assurance."

This would appear to be an example right out of a wonderful song the Christian music group Newsboys sang called "It's Just a Spirit Thing." But in reality it is much, much more. It is a living example of God's wisdom, provision, and his love for those who come to him through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

RefRev

Nothing retards so much the progress of Christ's kingdom as the paucity (scarcity) of ministers. - John Calvin 

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength. - Corrie Ten Boom

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent. - Saint Augustine

Faith

Faith. When people talk about faith I often ask them to define the word. This is always interesting but not always successful. Faith is more than just committing ourselfs to what we believe are Christian principles. Faith is more than a psychological explanation to many of the issues we face in life. Faith is much more!

Faith is not just abstract ideas about God, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit. Faith is much more!

Faith is what connects us to the beauty and wonder of Jesus Christ. It is our dependence, not upon what we see in ourselves, but upon what we know about our Lord. Through his redemptive work, his grace, and his mercy, we are saved.

As we struggle through the challenges of this life we must hold onto our faith. We must also stay focused on Jesus Christ if our faith is to be sustained, or as Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, "Faith means being held captive by the sight of Jesus Christ."

So let us not lose sight and remain committed to our faith in Jesus Christ.

RefRev

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

God's truth judges created things out of love, and Satan's truth judges them out of envy and hatred. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there! There is no such thing. - C.S. Lewis

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless he has a specific plan by which great blessings can come out of difficulty. - Peter Marshall

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Man only knows who he is in the light of God. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Christianity is a religion of the open tomb. - Roy L. Smith 

Called, Compelled, Commanded ...

Even a running glance through the Psalms will impress upon a believer the importance of worship in the Christian Life. We are called, compelled, commanded to worship God.

Through worship we gain an increased awareness of God’s presence. In Psalm 139 David reminds us that God is always present in our lives but through worship we find how present we are with God. We experience a great awareness of how close he is to us, and even more important, how close we should seek to be to him.

Through worship we gain an increased knowledge of the attributes of God, we cultivate a solid concept of who God is. Worship allows us to throw off the cold, impersonal, view of God that the world tries so hard to set before us. Through worship we are able to see God as he is revealed in the Scriptures. We are encouraged to contemplate his many attributes and gain a more awe-inspiring picture of him. Worship allows us to break free from the limited god the world presents and experience the true living God of the Bible.

In Psalm 36 David speaks of the steadfast love of the God. He speaks of the righteousness of God, his faithfulness, and loving-kindness. Like David, when we worship we experience a greater awareness of God’s character. When we encounter God’s presence in worship, we experience his character in a powerful and meaningful way. His love, his grace, his mercy, his strength, his wisdom, his glory and holiness are all available in as we come before him and worship.

As believers we have the privilege of worshiping at anytime and in any place, 24-7 we have access to the Almighty. Yet, as believers, we are also called together to worship corporately. Through worship, God strengthens the ties of his people, to himself and to each other.

So let us make worship a priority and let us seek to worship together. And let us remember worship is not about a style of music, the use of only a certain instrument, the number of prayers, or the number of minutes in a service. Worship is, and always will be, about the desire of those who seek God with all their hearts.

RefRev

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Jesus makes us real, not merely sincere. - Oswald Chambers 

The Doxology

Each week, around the world, thousands of Christian congregations raise their voices in worship:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;

Praise him, all creatures here below;

Praise him above, ye heavenly host:

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

In countless languages this “Doxology” is treasured. Yet few know the story behind these words, first published in 1709, and fewer still the life of their composer, Anglican Bishop Thomas Ken (1637–1711).

Thomas Ken was orphaned in childhood. He was raised by his older sister, Ann, and her husband, Izaak Walton; noted for his classic The Complete Angler.

In 1651, Ken became a scholar of Winchester College and, in 1661, received his B.A. at New College, Oxford. Such Presbyterian schooling during times of political and religious turbulence only deepened his love for the Anglican heritage of his youth.

In adulthood, Ken held various church and academic positions. He even served as chaplain to Princess Mary until he stood firmly against, in George Crawford’s words, “a case of immorality at the Court.”

Later, Ken became chaplain to Charles II. But he would not let his house be used to lodge the royal mistress. This time, instead of being dismissed, Ken was rewarded for his courage with a bishopric.

Until becoming Bishop of Bath and Wells in 1684, Ken spent most of his life intertwined with Winchester, both College and Cathedral. There the small-statured prelate, through preaching and music, sought to uplift the spiritual lives of his students.

In 1674, Ken published A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College. In it, he charged his readers to “be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymn in your chamber devoutly.” These hymns were, evidently, already in private circulation.

In the 1695 edition, the words to these hymns (and a “Midnight Hymn”) were published as an appendix. The “Doxology” we sing today was the closing stanza of each of these three hymns (“Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun,” “All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night,” and “My God, I Now from Sleep Awake”).

In a 1709 edition, Ken changed “Praise him above ye Angelic Host” to “Praise him above, ye heavenly host,” and the lines reached their final form. The world had gained a priceless instrument of praise.

Praise God!

RefRev

Many of my sermons convey messages similar to traffic signs; Stop, U-turn, and Keep Right. - M.L. Herring

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

God never contradicts reason, he transcends it. - Oswald Chambers

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Faith expects from God what is beyond all expectations. - Andrew Murray

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

The lie of the Devil consists of this: that he wishes to make man believe that he can live without God's word. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As Reformed Believers (A Quick Review)

As Reformed believers we should believe the final authority for our faith is the Bible--known as the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God.  As the Apostle Paul shares in 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.”

As Reformed believers we should believe that God is three in one--God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. These persons of the trinity are one in essence, essential in nature, in purpose, and in agreement. In other words God is only one being, not three. There is only one God! Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

As Reformed believers we should hold a Reformed perspective regarding the work of Jesus Christ, seeing it as the centered of our understanding of the love and justice of God toward us. It is here we experience his atoning work, see John 3:16 and Romans 3:25. Through his death Christ died as a sacrifice for our sins. He died as a propitiation, to remove from us the wrath of God. In his death he reconciled us with God and redeemed us out of the bondage of sin.

As Reformed believers we should believe we are saved by the irresistible grace of God through faith alone, not by what we think or do to earn God's favor, see Ephesians 2: 1-10. Our good works don't earn our salvation, but are a way to thank God for this free gift of salvation.

As Reformed believers we should believe in the Reformed tradition of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. They remind us of God's promises and help us to claim those promises as our own. These sacraments are an outward sign of an inward act in the life of the believer.

As Reformed believers we should be confessional, which means we believe we have statements of belief, called creeds and confessions. These statements help to guide our understanding of faith and shape its practice.

As Reformed believers we should see the church as "Reformed and always reforming," seeking to know the mind of Christ as it strives to be faithful in a changing, complex, and often troubled world. The church must also be communal. “Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer.     

  

As Reformed believers we should believe worship is corporate. Worship is not a performance with the minister as actor or actress and the congregation as the audience. While we must understand that there are a number of worship styles, we must never forget God is the audience and the whole congregation is involved in the service, in prayers, songs, and offerings.

As Reformed believers we must continue to move forward seeking to fulfill the call that God has placed on his people through Jesus Christ our Lord.

RefRev

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Faith is different from proof; the later is human, the former is a gift from God. - Blaise Pascal

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life. - Jonathan Edwards 

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Faith talks the language of God. Doubt talks the language of men. - E.W. Kenyon 

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't. - Blaise Pascal 

"But of Course the Enemy Will Not Meantime Be Idle."

"But of course the Enemy will not meantime be idle." So says the senior demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood; referring to God and prayer. In his book, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis shares the imaginative correspondences between these two demons, regarding how the junior tempter Wormwood, might lead his human astray.

Screwtape goes on to warn Wormwood, "Whenever there is prayer there is danger of His own immediate action." What a great point of instruction, even from a demon. Prayer moves God to act on behalf of his people. I believe God always responds to our prayers, always answers. I remind myself the answer might come in the form of immediate action, a delayed response, or even no, but there is always an answer.

Screwtape continues and reveals an even greater truth, "He is cynically indifferent to the dignity of His position, and ours, as pure spirits, and to human animals on their knees He pours out self-knowledge in a quite shameless fashion." The one true, all knowing and all-powerful God, through prayer, interacts with his people with absolute abandon. God uses prayer to engage his people and share with them knowledge of Himself. He does so without contempt for their status as created beings.

In these lines Screwtape has shared with Wormwood his insight regarding the power of prayer but also his true lack of insight regarding is enemy, God. Yes, God is powerful and capable of immediate response to the prayers of his people but he is motivated to do so out of his concern for them. His love, his grace, and his mercy are the key components that bring about his response and here is where Screwtape's understanding fails.

So today let us find comfort and take hope in this: "Whenever there is prayer, there is danger of His own immediate action." God is never far from those who pray and he is never idle.  He longs to pour out knowledge of himself to his people.

RefRev

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Where reason cannot wade there faith may swim. - Thomas Watson

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

To become Christ-like is the only thing in the whole world worth caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain. - Henry Drummond

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

The quickest way to end a quarrel is to forgive. - M.L. Herring

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

Worship renews the spirit as sleep renews the day. - Richard Clark Cabot

ReformedRev's Quote of the Day

We must meet the uncertainties of this world with the certainties of the world to come. - A.W. Tozer