As you go to church tomorrow

“We live in a culture where everyone has their say, where I can press the interactive buttons and register my views on television, where I can set up a blog, and proclaim my views on anything and everything to the world, where the most friendly thing we can say in welcoming newcomers is, ‘We want to know what you think.’  But–I dare say it–God does not want to know what we think.  He want us to know what he thinks.”

Christopher Ash, The Priority of Preaching, p. 35

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The True Superhero!

Appreciate this post by Barry York at Gentle Reformation

In this summer of superheroes, why not “marvel” over these truths?

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He was baptized as Man—

but He remitted sins as God.

He was tempted as Man,

but He conquered as God.

He hungered—

but He fed thousands; yea, He is the Bread that giveth life.

He thirsted—

but He cried,” If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.”

He was wearied,

but He is the Rest of them that are weary and heavy laden.

He was heavy with sleep,

but He walked lightly over the sea.

He pays tribute,

but it is out of a fish; yea, He is the King of those who demanded it.

He is called a demoniac;

but He drives out demons and sinks in the sea legions of foul spirits.

He prays,

but He hears prayer.

He weeps,

but He causes tears to cease.

He asks where Lazarus was laid, for He was Man;

but He raises Lazarus, for He was God.

He is sold, very cheap, only for thirty pieces of silver;

but He redeems the world and that at a great price, His own blood.

As a sheep He is led to the slaughter,

but He is the Shepherd of Israel, and now of the whole world also.

He is bruised and wounded,

but He healeth every disease and every infirmity.

He is lifted up and nailed to the Tree,

but by the Tree of Life He restoreth us.

He is given vinegar to drink mingled with gall.

Who? He who turned the water into wine.

He lays down His life,

but He has power to take it again.

He dies,

but He gives life.

He is buried,

but He rises again.

He ascends to Heaven,

and shall come again to judge the quick and the dead.

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Adapted from The Third Theological Oration. On the Son . by Gregory Nazianzen.

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So little of this in the church

“When I look back on my own religious experience, or on the Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. In preaching and living, in the daily activities of the home and social life, in the more special fellowship with Christians, in the direction and performance of work for Christ—how much proof there is that humility is not esteemed the cardinal value.”

Andrew Murray, Humility (Springdale, PA: Whitaker, 1982), 7.

 

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