Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Pestiferous Bogs of Error

So, we admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago; the past ages are a sort of bear-pit or iron cage for him; but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow-minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one. Yet imagine that in those ages past, [men of God] had said, "The world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night-caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better."

Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on. Note what we owe them, and let us pay to our sons the debt we owe to our fathers.

~ Spurgeon

Monday, April 12, 2010

We Worship Thee

We sang this hymn yesterday at Meadow Ridge during the Remembrance Meeting. I appreciate the simple profundity of these words.

We Worship Thee
Father, we worship thee,
Thro' Thy beloved Son;
And, by the Spirit, now draw near
Before Thy holy throne.

We bless Thee Thou art Light,
Righteous and true art Thou;
Holy and reverend Thy name,
Our hearts before Thee bow.

We bless Thee Thou art Love,
How vast that matchless grace,
Whose breadth and length and height and depth
No finite mind can trace!

We bless Thee most of all
For Him Who Thee unveiled;
Whose precious blood redemption wrought,
And thus Thy heart revealed.

For what Thou art, we praise
And worship and adore:
To Father, Son and Spirit be
The glory evermore!

~ A.P. Gibbs

Monday, April 5, 2010

Devoted to the Apostles Teaching

Tact and diplomacy have many places where they’re absolutely necessary, but the Apostolic preaching of the New Testament must be our example as we examine the work of pastors and elders today. Not only must we compare our doctrine to the Apostles’ doctrine, but also our methods to the Apostle’s methods.

In other words, if the sermons of a particular church are filled with humor, disarming anecdotes of the pastor’s home life, and extended illustrations from movies, it should be obvious to us that the church is not devoted to the Apostles’ teaching. Try to imagine the Apostle Paul preaching like that today and you’ll understand the point.

If the sermons seem lite, the theme of repentance is rare, and the pastor often fails to apply Scripture’s doctrine to our lives in such a way that we’re left gasping for breath as the benediction is given; then again, the church is not devoted to the Apostles’ teaching.

A church that is devoted to the Apostles’ teaching will not tolerate preaching that is risk averse, conflict avoiding, and indecisive. Such teaching is well-suited to our relativistic culture but it’s not Apostolic.

~ Read the rest at Bayly Blog on Preaching To An Effeminate Age

Friday, April 2, 2010

Like an Infant In a Cradle

"See to it that you fasten your attention on God's Word
and stay in it, like an infant in a cradle.
If you let go for one moment, you have fallen away from the truth.
The one intention of the devil is to get people away from the Word
and to induce them to measure God's will and works with their reason."

~ Martin Luther via An Infant In a Cradle

Breathe On Me, Breath of God

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.