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“God has better plans for you than an easy life and victories to follow victories.” — Daniel Baker
Tags: affliction, belief, calling, Christian, Christian-living, Christianity, contentment, cost, Daniel-Baker, faith, holiness, humiliation, humility, joy, lordship, pride, quotation, sacrifice, sanctification, self-denial, sin, thankfulness, unbelief, vocationJohn Newton was a busy pastor. He wrote of having “seldom one-hour free from interruption. Letters, that must be answered, visitants that must be received, business that must be attended to.” Yet he had this perspective of God’s claim on his time:
When I hear a knock at my study door,
I hear a message from God.
It may be a lesson of instruction;
perhaps a lesson of patience:
but, since it is his message,
it must be interesting.
By our frequent reaction to the circumstances God brings our way, one would believe that we thought ourselves sovereign lords of our schedule. But the reality is that Christ is lord of our time. He gives us regular responsibilities to carry out for his sake. He brings us unexpected situations where we must patiently and humbly set aside our expectations and represent and serve him. And he gives us recreation and sleep as gifts. In fact, every circumstance that he brings about, and every way that he apportions our time, is in some fashion a good gift from him.
Let’s pray that we will better understand his lordship over our time, better see his goodness in that, and thus better trust in him.
Quotes from John Piper
Crossposted to Williams St. Reflections
Mark Lauterbach has just finished an excellent series on censoriousness, which he defines (from Jonathan Edwards) as “a disposition to think evil of others.” Lauterbach shares thoughts from Edwards and himself on this sinful tendency.
Isn’t God holy? Yes, but then I reflect on how my Lord critiques me
and I think of Ps 130 — if the Lord numbered our sins, who could stand?
But he does not — he is patient and selective and gentle with us.
This series has six posts:
Tags: Christ, Christianity, Christmas, cross, God, gospel, grace, humiliation, humility, incarnation, James-Packer, lovingkindness, obedience, Philippians, quotation, redemption, salvationHow are we to think of the Incarnation? The New Testament does not encourage us to puzzle our heads over the physical and psychological problems that it raises, but to worship God for the love that was shown in it. For it was a great act of condescension and self-humbling. “He, who had always been God by nature,” writes Paul, “did not cling to his privileges as God’s equal, but stripped Himself of every advantage by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born a man. And, plainly seen as a human being, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, to the point of death, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal” (Phil 2:6-8 Phillips). And all this was for our salvation. . . .
The crucial significance of the cradle at Bethlehem lies in its place in the sequence of steps down that led the Son of God to the cross of Calvary, and we do not understand it till we see it in this context. . . . The taking of manhood by the Son is set before us in a way which shows us how we should ever view it — not simply as a marvel of nature, but rather as a wonder of grace.
– J. I. Packer, Knowing God, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993; pp. 58-59.
“And the bitter man is angry; angry man just thinks he’s right — too right to see mercy when he’s standing in its light! We can shed tears over dying, we can rage and we can fight, but we cannot forget that we were loved before we opened up our eyes — such foolish pride!” — Andrew Osenga, “The Story,” performed by Caedmon’s Call, In the Company of Angels II: The World Will Sing.
Tags: Andrew-Osenga, anger, bitterness, Caedmons-Call, deserving, faith, gospel, gratitude, humility, hymn, love, lovingkindness, pride, redemption, salvation, sovereignty, thankfulnessThomas Watson draws out the connection between humility, gratitude, and a right awareness of our sins and our deserving: “A proud man complains that he has no more; a humble man wonders that he has so much: ‘I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies’ (Genesis 32:10).”
Tags: deserving, Genesis, gratitude, humility, quotation, sin, thankfulness, Thomas-WatsonJohn Stott quotes Archbishop Michael Ramsey in his lecture “Reflections of an Octogenarian.” Ramsey gave a series of lectures entitled “Sermons addressed to young men on the eve of their ordination,” and which are collected in the book The Christian Priest Today. Stott quotes Ramsey’s main points on humility as follows:
