Knowing God - Ch 14

Knowing God

J.I. Packer

IVP 1993 Americanized Version

Ch 14 – God the Judge

"People who do not actually read the Bible confidently assure us that when we move from the Old Testament to the New, the theme of divine judgment fades into the background. But if we examine the New Testament, even in the most cursory way, we find at once that the Old Testament emphasis on God's action as Judge, far from being reduced, is actually intensified. 

The entire New Testament is overshadowed by the certainty of a coming day of universal judgment, and by the problem thence arising: How may we sinners get right with God while there is yet time? The New Testament looks to "the day of judgment," "the day of wrath," "the wrath to come," and proclaims Jesus, the divine Savior, as the divinely appointed Judge. 

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Knowing God - Ch 8

Knowing God

J.I. Packer

IVP 1993 Americanized Version

Ch 8 – The Majesty of God

""Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord and my judgment is passed away from God?" (Is 40:27 RV). This question rebukes wrong thoughts about ourselves. God has not abandoned us any more than he abandoned Job. He never abandons anyone on whom he has set his love; nor does Christ, the good shepherd, ever lose track of his sheep. It is as false as it is irreverent to accuse God of forgetting, or overlooking, or losing interest in, the state and needs of his own people. If you have been resigning yourself to the thought that God has left you high and dry, seek grace to be ashamed of yourself. Such unbelieving pessimism deeply dishonors our great God and Savior." 

Knowing God - Ch 2

Knowing God

J.I. Packer

IVP 1993 Americanized Version

Ch 2 – The People Who Know Their God

Pg. 28 “People who know their God are before anything else people who pray, and the first point where their zeal and energy for God’s glory come[s] to expression is in their prayers. In Daniel 9 we read how, when the prophet “understood from the scriptures” (v. 2) that the foretold time of Israel’s captivity was drawing to an end, and when at the same time he realized that the nation’s sin was still such as to provoke God to judgement rather than mercy, he set himself to seek God “in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes” (v. 3) and prayed for the restoring of Jerusalem with a vehemence and passion and agony of spirit to which most of us are complete strangers.

Yet the invariable fruit of true knowledge of God is energy to pray for God’s cause – energy, indeed, which can only find an outlet and a relief of inner tension when channeled into such prayer – and the more knowledge, the more energy! By this we may test ourselves. Perhaps we are not in a position to make public gestures against ungodliness and apostasy. Perhaps we are old, or ill, or otherwise limited by our physical situation. But we can all pray about the ungodliness and apostasy which we see in everyday life all around us. If, however, there is in us little energy for such prayer, and little consequent practice of it, this is a sure sign that as yet we scarcely know our God.” 

What about the 100 talents of Silver?

Then Amaziah assembled the men of Judah and set them by fathers' houses under commanders of thousands and of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those twenty years old and upward, and found that they were 300,000 choice men, fit for war, able to handle spear and shield. He hired also 100,000 mighty men of valor from Israel for 100 talents of silver. But a man of God came to him and said, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel, with all these Ephraimites. But go, act, be strong for the battle. Why should you suppose that God will cast you down before the enemy? For God has power to help or to cast down.” And Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do about the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel?” The man of God answered, “The LORD is able to give you much more than this.”
(2 Chronicles 25:5-9 ESV)

Make trial of your faith and you will not be disappointed for, "The LORD is able to give you much more than this."

Rich Veins: Isaiah 25

For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
like heat in a dry place.
 
You subdue the noise of the foreigners;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is put down. 
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
 
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
 
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the LORD has spoken.
 
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the LORD; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
 

Rich Veins: Isaiah 26

O LORD you will ordain peace for us
for you have indeed done for us all our works

Truthfulness in Language

Within theology (and English!) certain words and phrases have a particular meaning. We can't change the meaning of those words to suit our 'edgy' writing one moment and then re-define them when questioned to avoid appearing outside the bounds of orthodoxy or our confession. Certain groups of theologians are fond of doing just that. Through obfuscation and equivocation they hang on to their confession or claims to orthodoxy by the thinnest of threads. But confusion and double-speak are not the mark of clear biblical teaching.   

Dealing With Fear

There seem to be more things to fear lately than ever before. With ISIS decapitating hapless Westerners and the Ebola outbreak both at the forefront of the news, death and destruction are on every side. I find myself thinking, what would happen if my family was abducted by extremists? Or, what would happen if we contracted the Ebola virus?  

Insurgents in Northern Iraq

But are there more dangers now than ever before?

Why Should the Human Race Continue?

Extracts from: ‘How Should We Then Live?’ by Francis A. Schaeffer

A great quote

The final chapter of "How Should We Then Live?" is entitled “Manipulation and the New Elite."  It discusses futurism and some philosophies of man based on biology.  These extreme materialistic ideas lead to the desire to manipulate DNA and decide who should have children, who should not, and how many children should be produced.  This also leads to the idea of chemically controlling aggression in world leaders.  The following passage summarizes this section:

“In the light of this discussion about social manipulation, three questions arise.  First, who will control the controllers?  Second, what will happen now that people have no boundary condition indicating what they should do in contrast to what they can do?  Third, if mankind is only what modern people say it is, why does man’s biological continuation have value?”

Good question.  Thank God for the meaning we find in Christ.

What is Existenstialism?

Extracts from: ‘How Should We Then Live?’ by Francis A. Schaeffer

A good explanation of Existentialism:

“… Kierkegaardianism did bring to full tide the notion that reason will always lead to pessimism.  That is, one must try to find optimistic answers in regard to meaning and values on an “upper level” outside of reason.  Through a “leap of faith” one must try to find meaning without reason.

You will remember that in the High Renaissance, humanistic man, starting only from himself, had problems concerning the meaning or value of things and of absolutes for morals.  With Rousseau it became an AUTONOMOUS FREEDOM / AUTONOMOUS NATURE problem.  With Kant it was NOUMENAL WORLD / PHENOMENAL WORLD.  With Kierkegaardianism it went a step further and now became:

NON-REASON = FAITH – OPTIMISM

REASON = PESSIMISM

So optimism will now always be in the area of non-reason.”  Pg 163

“This (dichotomy) is the mark of modern man.” Parenthesis mine, Pg 164

Jesu, meine Freude (Jesus, my Joy): J.S. Bach: Motet BWV 227

'Jesus, my Joy' is a piece of music everyone should be familiar with.  The work is based on 'Jesus, Priceless Treasure,’ a Hymn by Johann Franck (1650) and passages from the New Testament book of Romans chapter eight.  Bach wrote this funeral music to remind us that “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8 ESV

Rich Veins: Psalm 94

When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. 
Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute? 
They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death. 

But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.