A witness during the trial

(HT: Facets of Grace)

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Humility: truly occupied with Christ

Arthur  Pink says,

Humility is not the product of direct cultivation, rather it is a by-product. The more I try to be humble, the less shall I attain unto humility. But if I am truly occupied with that One who was ‘meek and lowly in heart,” if I am constantly beholding His glory in the mirror of God’s Word, then shall I be “changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18)

A. W.  Tozer comments:

True humility is a healthy thing. The humble man accepts the truth about himself. He believes that in his fallen nature dwells no good thing. He acknowledges that apart from God he is nothing, has nothing, knows nothing and can do nothing. But this knowledge does not discourage him, for he knows also that in Christ He is somebody. He knows that he is dearer to God than the apple of Hie eye and that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him; that is, he can do all that lies within the will of God for him to do. . .When this belief becomes so much a part of a man that it operates as a kind of unconscious reflex.  . .the emphasis of his life shifts from self to Christ, where it should have been in the first place, and he is thus set free to serve his generation by the will of God without the thousand hindrances he knew before.

As quoted in The Masculine Mandate by Richard Phillips, p. 154

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The Flood and re-creation

We are in a rich study of the book of Genesis in our Sunday School class and just about ready to study the flood chapters (Genesis 6-8).  So I found this quote interesting to think about.

Writes Gary V. Smith in his article “Structure And Purpose In Genesis 1–11” [JETS 20:4 (1977), 310-11]:

When Genesis 1 and 2 are compared with 8 and 9, one begins to perceive the extent to which the author uses repeated phrases and ideas to build the structural relationships within the units. The following relationships are found:

(a) Since man could not live on the earth when it was covered with water in chaps. 1 and 8, a subsiding of the water and a separation of the land from the water took place, allowing the dry land to appear (1:9–10; 8:1–13).

(b) “Birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” are brought forth to “swarm upon the earth” in 1:20–21, 24–25 and 8:17–19.

(c) God establishes the days and seasons in 1:14–18 and 8:22.

(d) God’s blessing rests upon the animals as he commands them to “be fruitful and multiply on the earth” in both 1:22 and 8:17.

(e) Man is brought forth and he receives the blessing of God: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” in 1:28 and 9:1, 7.

(f) Man is given dominion over the animal kingdom in 1:28 and 9:2.

(g) God provides food for man in 1:29–30 and 9:3 (this latter regulation makes a direct reference back to the previous passage when it includes the statement, “As I have given the green plant”).

(h) In 9:6 the writer quotes from 1:26–27 concerning the image of God in man.

The author repeatedly emphasizes the fact that the world is beginning again with a fresh start. But Noah does not return to the paradise of Adam, for the significant difference is that “the intent of man’s heart is evil” (Gen 8:21).

(HT: Tony)

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