Old Testament Law

We cannot deny that the New Testament seems to reduce the number of capital offenses. By comparison the Old Testament seems radically severe. What we fail to remember, however, is that the Old Testament list represents a massive reduction in capital crimes from the original list. The Old Testament code represents a bending over backwards of divine patience and forbearance. The Old Testament law is one of astonishing grace.
Astonishing grace? I will say it again. The Old Testament list of capital crimes represents a massive reduction of the original list. It is an astonishing measure of grace. The Old Testament record is chiefly a record of the grace of God.
How so? To make sense out of my strange words we must go back to the beginning, to the original rules of the universe. What was the penalty for sin in the original created order? "The soul that sins shall die." In creation all sin is deemed worthy of death. Every sin is a capital offense.
RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.148-149

Mercy

Mercy is not justice, but neither is it injustice. Injustice violates righteousness. Mercy manifests kindness and grace and does no violence to righteousness. We may see non-justice in God, which is mercy, but we never see injustice in God.
RC Sproul, The Holiness of God. p.145

Justice

When the Bible speaks of God's justice, it usually links it to divine righteousness. God's justice is according to righteousness. There is no such thing as justice according to unrighteousness. There is no such thing as evil justice in God. The justice of God is always and ever an expression of His holy character.
The word justice in the Bible refers to a conformity to a rule or a norm. God plays by the rules. The ultimate norm of justice is His own holy character. His righteousness is of two sorts. We distinguish God's internal righteousness from His external righteousness. What God does is always consistent with who God is. He always acts according to His holy character.
RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.142

1 Chronicles 13:3-4

"Let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we did not inquire of it during the reign of Saul." The whole assembly agreed to do this, because it seemed right to all the people.

Leviticus 10:1-2

Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

Insanity of Luther

Was Luther crazy? Perhaps. But if he was, our prayer is that God would send to this earth an epidemic of such insanity that we too may taste of the righteousness that is by faith alone.
RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.126

Justice of God

I greatly longed to understand Paul's Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, "the justice of God," because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.
Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that "the just shall live by faith." Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors onto paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the "justice of God" had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate of heaven...
If you have a true faith that Christ is your saviour, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens up God's heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love. This it is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly, friendly heart, in which there is no anger nor ungraciousness. He who see God as angry does not see him rightly but looks only on a curtain as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face.
Roland Bainton, Here I Stand

Jesus' Questions

If we speculate and try to get into the secret recesses of Jesus' mind. we can imagine a thought process that went something like this: Oh, you have kept all the commandments since you were a child. Well, let's see. What is the first commandment? Oh, yes, "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Let's see how you do with that one.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p. 122

Luke 18:18-20

A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good - except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and your mother.' "

Luther's Practices

In consequence the most frightful insecurity beset him. Panic invaded his spirit. The conscience became so disquieted as to start and tremble at the stirring of a windblown leaf. The horror of nightmare gripped the soul, the dread of one waking in the dusk to look into the eyes of him who has come to take his life. The heavenly champions all withdrew; the fiend beckoned with leering summons to the impotent soul. These were the torments which Luther repeatedly testified were far worse than any physical ailment that he had ever endured.

Roland Bainton, Here I Stand, NAL., 1978

Forgive

"Look here," he said, "if you expect Christ to forgive you, come in with something to forgive - parricide, blasphemy, adultery - instead of all these peccadilloes ... Man, God is not angry with you. You are angry with God. Don't you know that God commands you to hope?"

Roland Bainton, Here I Stand, NAL., 1978

Luther's Practices

I was a good monk, and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was I. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out. If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils, prayers, reading, and other work.

Roland Bainton, Here I Stand, NAL., 1978

Authority

I ask you, Martin - answer candidly and without horns - do you or do you not repudiate your books and the errors which they contain?

Luther replied:

Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.

Martin Luther quoted in
The Holiness of God, p.111-112

Almighty God

O God, Almighty God everlasting! how dreadful is the world! behold how its mouth opens to swallow me up, and how small is my faith in Thee! ... Oh! the weakness of the flesh, and the power of Satan! If I am to depend upon any strength of this world - all is over ... The knell is struck ... Sentence is gone forth ... O God! O God! O thou, my God! help me against all the wisdom of this world. Do this, I beseech thee; thou shouldst do this ... by thy own mighty power ... The work is not mine, but Thine. I have no business here ... I have nothing to contend for with these great men of the world! I would gladly pass my days in happiness and peace. But the cause is Thine ... And it is righteous and everlasting! O Lord! help me! O faithful and unchangeable God! I lean not upon man. It were vain! Whatever is of man is tottering, whatever proceeds from him must fail. My god! my God! dost thou not hear? My God! art thou no longer living? Nay, thou canst not die. Thou dost but hide Thyself. Thou hast chosen me for this work. I know it! ... Therefor, O God, accomplish thine own will! Forsake me not, for the sake of thy well-beloved son, Jesus Christ, my defence, my buckler, and my stronghold.
Lord - where are thou? ... My God, where art thou? ... come! I pray thee, I am ready ... Behold me prepared to lay down my life for thy truth ... suffering like a lamb. For the cause is holy. It is thine own! ... I will not let thee go! no, nor yet for all eternity! And though the world should be thronged with devils - and this body, which is the work of thine hands, should be cast forth, trodden under foot, cut in pieces, ... consumed to ashes, my soul is thine. Yes, I have thine own word to assure me of it,. My soul belongs to thee, and will abide with thee forever! Amen! O God send help! ... Amen!

Martin Luther quoted in
The Holiness of God, p.110-111

Addressing God

At these words I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken. I thought to myself, "With what tongue shall I address such majesty, seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of even an earthly prince? Who am I, that I should lift up mine eyes or raise my hands to the divine Majesty? The angels surround him. At his nod the earth trembles. And shall I, a miserable little pygmy, say 'I want this, I ask for that'? For I am dust and ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living, eternal and the true God."


Martin Luther quoted in
The Holiness of God, p.107

God

"Love God? Sometimes I hate Him."

Martin Luther

Jesus at a Distance

So it was with Christ. The world could tolerate Jesus; they could love Him, but only at a distance. Christ is safe for us if securely bound by space and time. But a present Christ could not survive in a world of hostile men. It was the judgment of Caiaphas that for the good of the nation Jesus must die. Sometimes ya just got to.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.97

Holiness

Holiness provokes hatred. The greater the holiness the greater the human hostility toward it. No man was ever more loving than Jesus Christ. Yet even His love provoked men to anger.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.93

Righteous

Old Testament priest Zadok, whose name, in turn, was taken from the Jewish word for "righteous." ...the Sadducees claimed to be the righteous ones.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.89

Pharisees

The Pharisees traced their beginnings to the period of history between the close of the Old Testament period and the beginning of the New Testament period. The sect was started by men who had a great zeal for the Law. The word Pharisee literally meant "one who is separated." The Pharisees separated themselves unto holiness. The pursuit of holiness was the chief business of their lives. They majored in holiness. If any group should have thrown their hats in the air when the holy appeared on the scene it was the Pharisees.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.85

Moral Excellence

People have an appreciation for moral excellence, as long as it is removed a safe distance from them. The Jews honored the prophets, from a distance. The world honors Christ, from a distance.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.81

Perfection of Christ

George Bernard Shaw, when critical of Jesus, could think of no higher standard than Christ Himself. He said of Jesus, "There were Times when he did not behave as a Christian." We cannot miss the irony of Shaw's criticism.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.80

Jesus' Voice

Jesus controlled the fierce forces of nature by the sound of His voice. He didn't say a prayer. He didn't ask the Father to deliver them from the tempest. He dealt with the situation directly. He uttered a command, a divine imperative. Instantly nature obeyed. The wind heard the voice of its Creator. The sea recognized the command of its Lord.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.72

Mark 4:35

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side."
NIV

Presence of God

Hence that dread and amazement with which, as Scripture uniformly relates, holy men were struck and overwhelmed whenever they beheld the presence of God... Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God.

John Calvin (quoted in The Holiness of God, p.68)

Death

Death reminds us that we are creatures. Yet as fearsome as death is, it is nothing compared with meeting a holy God.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.64-65

Presence of God

When we are aware of the presence of God, we become most aware of ourselves as creatures. When we meet the Absolute, we know immediately that we are not absolute. When we meet the Infinite, we become acutely conscious that we are finite. When we meet the Eternal, we know we are temporal.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.63

Idolatry

When we call things holy that are not holy we commit the sin of idolatry. This is the grievous error of idolatry, giving to common things the respect, awe, worship, and adoration that belong only to God. To worship the creature instead of the Creator is the essence of idolatry.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.58

Holy

The tendency is to add the idea of the holy to this long list of attributes as one attribute among many. But when the word holy is applied to God, it does not signify one single attribute. On the contrary, God is called holy in a general sense. The word is used as a synonym for his deity. That is, the word holy calls attention to all that God is. It reminds us that His love is holy love, his justice is holy justice, his mercy is holy mercy, his knowledge is holy knowledge, his spirit is holy spirit.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.57

Holy - God is

None of the things in the list is holy in itself. To become holy they must first be consecrated, or "sanctified" by God. God alone is holy in Himself. Only God can sanctify something else.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.56

Holy

In every case the word holy is used to express something other than a moral or ethical quality. The things that are holy are things that are set apart, separated from the rest. They have been consecrated, separated from the commonplace, unto the Lord and to His service.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.56

Transcedence

When the Bible calls God holy it means primarily that God is transcendentally separate.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.55

Transcedence

The word transcendence means literally "to climb across." It is defined as"exceeding usual limits." To transcend is to rise above something, to go above and beyond a certain limit. When we speak of a transcendence of God we are talking about that sense in which God is above and beyond us. It tries to get at His supreme and absolute greatness. The word is used to describe God's relationship to the world. He is higher that the world. He has absolute power over the world. The world has no power over Him. Transcendence describes God in His consuming majesty, His exalted loftiness. It points to the infinite distance that separates Him from every creature. He is an infinite cut above everything else.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.55

A river that will revive the weary world

Is there no place of refreshing where a man can prepare for the battle of life? Is there no place where two or three can gather in Jesus’ name, to forget for the moment all those things that divide nation from nation and race form race, to forget the puzzling problems of industrial strife and to unite in overflowing gratitude at the foot of the Cross? If there be such a place, then that is the house of God and the gate of heaven. And from under the threshold of that house will go forth a river that will revive the weary world.

- J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism, 180.

Dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry

“We glorify God by working out our own salvation. God has twisted together his glory and our good. What an encouragement is this to the service of God, to think, while I am hearing and praying, I am glorifying God; while I am furthering my own glory in heaven, I am increasing God’s glory. Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, You will honour and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away? So, for God to say, Go to the ordinances, get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified.”

- Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, p.13-14.

One method for healing the soul

There is but one method and way of healing appointed… the powerful application of the Word."

- Chrysotom, as quoted by Derek Tidball in Skillful Shepherds – Explorations in Pastoral Theology, 161

Death is our Servant

“Our most dreaded opponent has become for us the servant who opens the door to heavenly bliss. Death for the Christian is therefore not the end but a glorious new beginning.”

- Anthony Hoekema – The Bible and the Future, 85.

Spirit-filled Leadership

"To be filled with the Spirit, then, is to be controlled by the Spirit. Intellect and emotions and volition as well as physical powers all become available to Him for achieving the purposes of God. Under His control, natural gifts of leadership are sanctified and lifted to their highest power. The not-grieved and unhindered Spirit is able to produce the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the leader, with added winsomeness and attractiveness to his service and with the power in his witness to Christ. All real service is but the effluence of the Holy Spirit through yielded and filled lives (John 7:37-39)."

-J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, 117-118.

Holiness

1. It has been customary to define holy as: "purity, free form every stain, wholly perfect and immaculate in every detail."
2. The primary meaning of holy is "separate." It comes from an ancient word that meant, "to cut," or "to separate." To translate this basic meaning into contemporary language would be to use the phrase "a cut apart." Perhaps even more accurate would be the phrase "a cut above something." When we find a garment or another piece of merchandise that is outstanding, that has a superior excellence, we use the expression that it is "a cut above the rest."

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.53-54

Holiness of God

What is that which gleams through me and smites my heart without wounding it? I am both a-shudder and a-glow. A-shudder, in so far as I am unlike it, a-glow in so far as I am like it.

St. Augustine

Isaiah

God was able to take a shattered man and made him a prophet. He took a man with a dirty mouth and made him God's spokesman.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.49

Revelation

God does not appear to us in the way He appeared to Isaiah. Who could stand it? God normally reveals our sinfulness to us a bit at a time.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.45

Integrity

If ever there was a man of integrity it was Isaiah Ben Amoz. He was a whole man, a together type of a fellow. He was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man in the nation. He was respected as a paragon of virtue. Then he caught one sudden glimpse of a Holy God. In that single moment all of his self-esteem was shattered. In a brief second he was exposed, made naked beneath the gaze of the absolute standard of holiness. As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed - morally and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. His sense of integrity collapsed.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.43-44

Integrity

To be undone means to come apart at the seams, to be unraveled. What Isaiah was expressing is what modern psychologists describe as the experience of personal disintegration. To disintegrate means exactly what the word suggests, dis integrate. To integrate something is to put pieces together in a unified whole. When schools are integrated, children from two different races are placed together to form one student body. The word integrity comes from this root, suggesting a person whose life is whole or wholesome. In modern slang we say, "He's got it all together".

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.43

True Repentance

“True repentance, like nitric acid, eats asunder the iron chain of sin.”

- Thomas Watson

Woe

Jesus also used the negative form of the oracle. When He spoke out in angry denunciation of the Pharisees He pronounced the judgment of God upon their heads by saying to them, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" ... On the lips of a prophet the word woe is an announcement of doom.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.42

Woe

When prophets announced their messages, the most frequent form the divine utterances took was the oracle. The oracles were announcements from God that could be good news, or bad news. The positive oracles were prefaced by the blessed.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.42

Woe

The term woe has gone the way of the other worn out exclamations like alas or alack or forsooth.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.42

Holiness of God

When he saw the living God, the reigning monarch of the universe displayed before his eyes in all of His holiness, Isaiah cried out, "Woe is me!"

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.41

Holy

The Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice, justice.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.40

Holy

To mention something three times in succession is to elevate it to the superlative degree, to attach to it emphasis of super importance.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.40

Amen

.... amen. We normally think of the word amen as something people say at the end of a sermon or of a prayer. It means simply, "It is true."

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.39

Seeing God

None of us in this world is pure in heart. It is our impurity that prevents us from seeing God. The problem is not with our eyes, it is with our hearts.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.36

Holiness of God

...it is impossible for us to see god in His pure essence. Before that can ever happen we must be purified.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.36

Holiness of God

When God told Moses that he could see His back, the literal reading of the text can be translated "hind quarters." God allowed Moses to see His hindquarters but never His face.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.35

Holiness

In the year the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train [of his robe] filled the temple. Isaiah 6:1

Holiness

God has declared, "Be ye holy, for I am holy."
To reach that goal we must understand what holiness is.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.26

Lord's Prayer

What is the first petition of the Lord's Prayer? Jesus said, "When you pray, pray like this: 'Our Father which art in heaven...'" "hallowed by thy name"

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.24

Creation

There are modern theorists who believe that the world was created by nothing. Note the difference between saying that the world was created from nothing and saying that the universe was created by nothing. In this modern view the rabbit comes out of the hat without a rabbit, a hat, or even a magician. The modern view is far more miraculous than the biblical view. It suggests that nothing created something. More than that, it holds that nothing created everything - quite a feat indeed!

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.21

Creation

The act of creation was the first event in history. It was also the most dazzling. The Supreme Architect gazed at His complex blueprint and shouted commands for the boundaries of the world to be set. He spoke...

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.20

Creation

In our experience we have not been able to find a painter who paints without paint or a writer who writes without words or a composer who composes without notes.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.17

Nothing

Jonathan Edwards once said that nothing is what sleeping rocks dream about.

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.17

God Only

"There is nothing; nothing, of course, except God."

RC Sproul, The Holiness of God, p.16

Fear of Man

The Fear of man may well be the most paralyzing power on earth. A fear so powerful that a mother and father who've just seen their own child miraculously healed of congenital blindness freeze when confronted by the religious authorities of their day. Too terrified to acknowledge a miracle. Too terrified to give God thanks for this magnificent and long-awaited display of mercy. Too terrified to celebrate with their son. Terrified of losing face with the religious establishment. Terrified of losing status in the temple.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 241

Worship

We sing because God has created not only our minds but also our hearts and souls, indeed our bodies as well, in such a way that music elicits and intensifies holy affections for God and facilitates their lively and vigorous expression.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 233

Worship / Affections

consider, for example, the singing of praises to God, which seem "to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections. No other reason can be assigned, why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music, but only, that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move our affections."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 232

Affections

"In things which concern men's worldly interest, their outward delights, their honor and reputation, and their natural relations, they have their desires eager, their appetites vehement, their love warm and affectionate, their zeal ardent; in these things their hearts are tender and sensible, easily moved, deeply impressed, much concerned, very sensibly affected, and greatly engaged; much depressed with grief at worldly losses, and highly raised with the joy at worldly successes and prosperity. But how insensible and unmoved are most men, about the great things of another world! How dull are their affections! How heavy and hard their hearts in these matters! Here their love is cold, their desires languid, their zeal low, and their gratitude small. How they can sit and hear of the infinite height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, of his giving his infinitely dear Son, to be offered up a sacrifice for the sins of men, and of the unparalleled love of the innocent, and holy, an tender Lamb of God, manifested in his dying agonies, his bloody sweat, his loud and bitter cries, and bleeding heart, and all this for enemies, to redeem them from deserved, eternal burnings, and to bring to unspeakable and everlasting joy and glory; and yet be cold, and heavy, insensible, and regardless! Where are the exercises of our affections proper, if not here? What is it that does more require them? And what can be a fit occasion of their lively and vigorous exercise, if not such a one as this?

Jonathan Edwards, quoted in Convergence, p. 230-231

Affections

The fact that a person has much affection doesn't prove he is truly spiritual. But if that individual has no affection it most assuredly proves he has no true religion.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 230

Affections

"yet true religion consist so much in the affections, that there can be no true religion without them. He who has no religious affection, is in a state of spiritual death, and is wholly destitute of the powerful, quickening, saving influences of the Spirit of God upon his heart. As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection, so there is no true religion where there is no religious affection. As on the one hand, there must be light in the understanding, as well as an affected fervent heart; where there is heat without light, there can be nothing divine or heavenly in that heart; so on the other hand, where there is a kind of light without heat, a head stored with notions and speculations, with a cold and unaffected heart, there can be nothing divine in that light, that knowledge is no true spiritual knowledge of divine things. If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart. The reason why men are not affected by such infinitely great, important, glorious, and wonderful things, as they often hear and read of, in the Word of God, is undoubtedly because they are blind; if they were not so, it would be impossible, and utterly inconsistent with human nature, that their hearts should be otherwise than strongly impressed, and greatly moved by such things."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 229-230

Heart - Hard

"Now by a hard heart," notes Edwards, "is plainly meant an unaffected heart, or a heart not easy to be moved with virtuous affections, like a stone, insensible, stupid, unmoved and hard to be impressed. Hence the hard heart is called a stony heart, and is opposed to a heart of flesh, that has feeling, and is sensibly touched and moved."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 228-229

Affections

"...without holy affection there is no true religion: and no light in the understanding is good, which don't [sic] produce holy affection in the heart; no habit or principle in the heart is good, which has no such exercise; and no external fruit is good, which don't [sic] proceed from such exercises."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 228

Affections

Only as people are affected by the great truths of Christianity are they moved to love God and seek him and plead with him in prayer and brought low in humility and repentance. Simply put, affections are the spring and source of virtually all significant spiritual endeavors.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 228

Affections

Spirituality is actually of little benefit to anyone, least of all to ourselves, if not characterized by lively and powerful affections. Nothing is so antithetical to true religion as lukewarmness. God is displeased with weak, dull, and lifeless inclinations. Consider those many biblical texts where our relationship to God is compared to "running, wrestling or agonizing for a great prize or crown, and fighting with strong enemies that seek our lives, and warring as those that by violence take a city or kingdom."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 227

Joy

Joy in Jesus! Perter describes it as being inexpressible or unutterable.
This is a joy so profound that it is beyond mere words. It is ineffable, all-consuming, overwhelming, speechless joy! This joy defies all human efforts at understanding or explanation. The words have not yet been created that would do justice to the depths of this kind of joy. The human tongue has not yet been found that can articulate the heights to which this kind of joy elevates us.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 225

Affections

The essence of life in heaven, says Edwards, "consists very much in affection. There is doubtless true religion in heaven, and true religion in its utmost purity and perfection. But according to the Scripture representation of the heavenly state, the religion of heaven consists chiefly in holy and mighty love and joy, and the expression of these in most fervent and exalted praises."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 222

Affections

How do "affections" differ from "emotions" or "feelings"?

Perhaps it would be best to say that whereas affections are not less than emotions, they are surely more. Emotions can often be no more than physiologically heightened states of either euphoria or fear that are unrelated to what the mind perceives as true.
Affections, on the other hand, are always the fruit or effect of what the mind understands and knows. The will or inclination is moved wither toward or away from something that is perceived by the mind. An emotion or mere feeling, on the other hand, can rise or fall independently of and unrelated to anything in the mind. One can experience an emotion or feeling without it properly being an affection, but one can rarely if ever experience an affection without it being emotional and involving intense feelings that awaken and move and stir the body.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 220

Affections

Affections are more than ideas or thoughts or intellectual notions in our heads. They are lively and vigorous passions, for example, of either delight, love, joy, and hope, on the one hand, or displeasure, hatred, grief, or despair, on the other. When we evaluate our response to someone or something in life, we use such terms as sorrow, happiness, revulsion, attraction, bitterness, anger, peace, fear, and delight.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 219

Gifts

...suppression of spiritual zeal is never the answer. Too much power is never the problem, but too little maturity is. I know of no place in Scripture where the absence of spiritual power is portrayed as a good thing.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 212-213

Gifts - Spiritual

Power without purity leads to fanaticism. But purity without power often leads to Pharisaism.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 211

Gifting

Gifts are not the goal, but rather the means by which we attain the goal of a transformed heart and a Christ-like life.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 210

Prophecy

If what someone passes off as "prophecy" consistently tears down and discourages and disregards the welfare of the one for whom it is allegedly intended, you are well within your rights to question whether the purported "revelation" came from God.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 207

Prophecy

...test every voice by the tendency it has to produce and prolong the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 207

Humility

But it is also one of the most terrifying verses in all of Scripture. For if God dwells with the humble, he departs from the proud. If God draws near to the lowly in spirit, he withdraws from the haughty and arrogant. If he blesses those who go low, his disfavor rests on those who lift themselves up. God will have nothing to do with proud, self-reliant, self-sufficient, self-promoting, self-congratulatory, self-aggrandizing men and women. If he is present and intimate with the humble, he is absent from the proud. "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 199-200

Humility

...humility is simply another way of describing preference for or submission to God's will. The proud want their way. The humble want God's way. The proud will exploit God's voice for their own glory, to exalt themselves in the eyes of others. The humble use it for God's glory. The proud man is so full of himself that there is little room for God. He is so enamored with what other say about him that he can't hear what God says to him.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 199

Prophecy - The Voice of God

I think Willard's point is that the question, "How do I hear the voice of God?" needs to be replaced by the question, "What would I do if I heard it?" Are you truly open to the extent to which the voice of God might disturb your plans? Are you prepared to follow the Father's faintest whisper, no matter where it leads? If not, it's not likely you well ever hear it.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 198-199

Prophecy

We assume that God speaks only to special people, unique people, extraordinarily endowed people, people with spectacular gifts, people with ecclesiastical authority, people with power and prestige and influence. We tend to think being human debars s from hearing God: we are too frail, too fragile, too fickle, too sinful, too weak. We don't have beauty or position; we can't speak well in public; our education is minimal, and therefore God wouldn't speak to us. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 198

Prophecy

...it is important to remember that one doesn't have to be remarkable to hear God's voice. God doesn't speak merely to alleged superstars or super-saints. He speaks to ordinary believers who are exceptional only by virtue of their insatiable hunger for him.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 196

Prophecy

...there are several other ways in which God communicates with his people. God has spoken audibly

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 193

Doctrine

'Other people may be taken in by the false teacher who deny Christ, but John does not believe that his 'children' will do so. They have their source in God cf 3:10), and consequently they have the inner power of the truth to enable them to withstand error. In this sense they can be said to have 'overcome' the upholders of false teaching. This probably does not mean that hey have physically driven them out of the church; rather they have proved victorious over the temptation to accept false doctrine. False belief is as much a sin as unrighteous behavior or lack of love [emphasis mine]. Victory over it, however, is not due to any innate strength of believers, but rather to the fact that the One who lives in them is greater, i.e., more powerful, than the one at work in the world. God is mightier than the evil one."

Howard Marshall, The Epistles of John, p. 208

Spirit of God

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already".
1 John 4:1-3

Prophecy - Cessationists

Cessationists insist that prophecy in the New Testament is the infallible report of a divinely inspired revelation, no different in quality from Old Testament prophecy and therefore equal to the Bible itself in authority Prophecy, they argue, consists of the very words of God himself. Prophecy, therefore, is infallible and binding on the theological and moral convictions of all Christians.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 170

Prophecy

"Why is it that when we speak to God we call it prayer, but when God speaks to us we call it schizophrenia?"

Lily Tomlin

Enemy of the Church

The path into the future is through the past. ...the enemy of the church is not primarily structural or cultural, whether in the form of postmodernity or secularization, but in "a churchmanship that refuses to deploy its doctrinal, theological and sacramental resources for the fight. The nature of the crisis is theological amnesia concerning the dogmatic core of historic and evangelical Christianity, to which the answer... is recovery of the classical practices of the church as a way of reconnecting with the gospel."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 162

Sacraments

...the sacraments are not barriers between God and man, but bridges. They are not designed to keep God at arm's length or to inhibit our intimacy with him. The very purpose of a sacrament is to mediate the sanctifying, life-changing, powerful presence of divine grace to the heart of the believer. Sacraments are not substitutes for the person of Christ, but the divinely-ordained means by which our Lord makes himself and his love and his sin-killing power available to the redeemed.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 159

Remember

As [Gordon] Fee points out, anamnesis [remembrance] is not the recalling of past events for the sake of nostalgia; rather, in the light of the resurrection, it is the recalling into the present the very real and substantial events of death and resurrection, in order that they might be celebrated, enjoyed, even participated in.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 158-159

Worship

"The charismatic form of expression seems to be linked to a theology of immediacy - an immediacy of the Word grasped via the text, an immediacy of God's presence grasped through experience, an immediacy of relationship expressed by speaking in tongues and an immediacy that by-passes history."

Gerard Delteil, Convergence, p. 157

Worship

...if left unchecked and not tethered to biblical truth, contemporary worship will come to be valued only for the interest it can generate or experience it can induce. In other words, worship becomes an instrument for the effects it produces rather that celebration of God as he is in himself. In such cases "worship takes on an authority of its own so that only in and through the experience of worship, and the way we perform in worship, can grace be appropriated; hence, the pressure to make something happen. Worship as spiritual formation is sidelined in favour of worship as effect."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 154

Worship

Cessationists view God's presence as a theological assumption to be extolled while charismatics think of it as a tangible reality to be felt.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 153

Word & Spirit - Together

If the divinely ordained marriage of Word and Spirit means anything it is that we must never capitulate to the lie that they cannot dance in tandem, or that something is intrinsic to what they are that invariably leads one to subordinate, or cancel out, the other. I applaud all those who contend that both must be retained and given their full rights in the church. I, for one, refuse to concede that a healthy revivalism that thrives on intercession, intimacy and immediacy cannot co-exist with a classical, sacramental, Word-based ministry. I believe they can. I believe they must.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 139

Toronto Blessing

...Toronto has its flaws, some of them quite serious. The pressure to find biblical warrant for bizarre physical manifestations was more than its apologists could resist. Many simply "overinterpreted" the significance of what was happening. Others felt compelled to artificially prop up and perpetuate the renewal when it was obviously (and by God's design) on the wane. And critics are right in pointing out that the Scriptures did not play as central a role as they should have.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 135

Preaching

Our goal is a life-changing encounter with Christ as he comes to us by means of the text.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 131

Gospel

"The main business of the church is to ensure that the gospel finds a home within its worshipping life. It is this gospel, rather than the church's relevancy or contemporaneity, which determines its identity and mission."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 131

Doctrine

But good theology should never diminish zeal. God never meant it to. When truth is searched for, discovered, and defined it has the power to inflame the heart and empower the soul and energize the will to do what otherwise may seem burdensome and boring. Theological truth is not the problem. Arrogance is. Contrary to what some charismatics have suggested, the flesh is the enemy, not the "mind". god gave us brains to employ in service of the kingdom and to enjoy him and all that he is for us in Jesus. People can be just as arrogant and proud of their intellectual simplicity as others are of their brilliance.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 127

Tongues

"contrary to the opinion of many, spiritual edification can take place in ways other than through the cortex of the brain. Paul believed in an immediate communing with God by means of the S/spirit that sometimes bypassed the mind; and in verses 14-15 he argues that for his own edification he will have both."

Gorden Lee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 657

Tongues

Clearly, Paul believed that a spiritual experience beyond the grasp of his mind, which is what I mean by "transrational", was yet profoundly profitable. He believed that it wasn't absolutely necessary for an experience to be rationally cognitive for it to be spiritually beneficial and glorifying to God.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 125

Holy Spirit

...the essence of a spiritual gift: the Holy Spirit energizing and enabling my spirit to do what otherwise couldn't do.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 124

Third-Wavers

Third-Wavers typically differ from their Pentecostal brethren on two fronts: (1) not all of them insist that Spirit-baptism is separate from and subsequent to conversion, and (2) few of them argue that tongues is the initial physical evidence of Spirit-baptism or that it is normative for all believers. The Third Wave has also distanced itself from the excesses of the Word of Faith movement as well as other forms of the so-called "Health and Wealth" or "Prosperity" gospel.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 110

Spirit & Word

I hope we can agree that if a biblical command is worth obeying it is worth obeying wholeheartedly and with abandon. One cannot be "somewhat" committed to the Spirit and "somewhat" committed to the Word. One must be wholly and radically committed to both. Otherwise, both Spirit and Word will end up being diluted and underemphasized. Spirit and Word were never meant to be "balanced" with each other, far less played off against each other , but "wedded" to each other!

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 103

Prophecy

prophecy itself is one of the most powerful and reassuring tools God has given us by which we are to wage war in a world run amok. A much-neglected passage in Paul's first letter to Timothy makes the point with unmistakable clarity. "This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience" (1 Timothy 1:18-19a; emphasis mine).

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 90

God Immanence

I believed God was near. But I rarely sensed it, rarely lived as if it were true. I had become an evangelical deist, one who worshiped a God far off, removed from the daily struggles of life.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 53

Healing

We began obeying the Scriptures concerning our responsibility to pray for the sick. It wasn't a question of who or how many did or did not get healed. It was a question of whether or not we were going to be obedient. I embraced the perspective of John Wimber who once said, "I would rather pray for one-hundred people and see only one get healed than not to pray for any and none get healed." In other words, I finally reached a point at which I refused to allow the fear of failure to justify my disobedience to the Word.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 45

Worship

When God's people exalt and enjoy him, he releases his power to heal them, to encourage them, and to enlighten them, among other things, in a way that is somewhat unique. When God's people worship, he goes to war on their behalf (2 Chronicles 20). When God's people worship, he enthrones himself in their midst (Psalm 22:3). When God's people worship, he speaks to them and guides them (Acts 13:1-3). When God's people worship, he delivers them from their troubles or comforts and sustains them in the midst of hardship (Acts 16:19-40).

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 44

What Are You Passionate About?

Is it a problem that some of us who are tranquil as still water about biblical doctrine and ecclesial mission are red-faced about Nancy Pelosi and the talking heads on MSNBC?
Is it a problem that some who haven't shared the gospel with their neighbors in months or years are motivated to vent to strangers on the street about how scary national health care will be?
If we were half as outraged by our own sin and self-deception as we are by the follies of our political opponents, what would be the result?
If we rejoiced as much that our names are written in heaven as we do about such trivialities as basketball brackets, what would be the result?
So if what you're afraid of is a politician or a policy or a culture or the future of Western civilization, don't give up the conviction but give up the fear.
Work for justice.
Oppose evil.
But do it so that your opponents will see not fear but trust, optimism, and affection.

Russell Moore

Message That Revives

I can tell when I am hearing a sermon on a doctrine that the speaker hasn’t experienced firsthand. It’s not that he’s lying. He himself does not realize; he believes that when he lays out a homiletically top-rate teaching, he has done all there is to do.

The sermon, as it leaves his lips, makes a hollow sound on the ears of the congregation, but no one realizes that either. It is homiletically top-rate and three-pointed. They know they should appreciate it if they are spiritual, so they believe they have been well-served. They say, “It was a good sermon.” If this goes on Sunday after Sunday, a vague melancholy sets in unawares

A gap between theology and reality widens, and something fascinating occurs: The most doltish man in the pew becomes a linguistic sophisticate. Abstract exhortations to “joy” or “reigning in life” from the pulpit are transposed on impact from their common meanings to a different category of meaning, what Francis Schaeffer might call “upper story” thinking.

But when the pastor is a man who has pressed into believing God’s promises in the morning, and at noon, and in the afternoon, and when he meets us at week’s end to report the concrete faithfulness of God on his spiritual living, the hearers—and language itself—are revived.

Andrée Seu

Faith

It began to dawn on me that, given an environment where the Word of God was foundational and the Person of Christ the focus, the Holy Spirit could be trusted to do both - enlighten the intelligence and ignite the emotions. I soon discovered that to allow Him that much space necessitates more a surrender of my senseless fears than a surrender of sensible control. God is not asking any of us to abandon reason or succumb to some euphoric feeling. He is, however, calling us to trust Him - enough to give Him control."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 43

God's Passion

Our glad-hearted passion for God is exceeded only by God's glad-hearted passion for God. If the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever, the chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself forever!

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 41

God - Enjoy Hedonism

...we value most what we delight in most. Pleasure is not God's competitor, idols are. Pleasure is simply a gauge that measures how valuable someone or something is to us. Pleasure is the measure of our treasure.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 40

God - Enjoy Worship

...passionate and joyful admiration of God, and not merely intellectual apprehension, is the aim of our existence. If God is to be supremely glorified in us we must be supremely glad in him and in what he has done for us in Jesus. Enjoying God is not a secondary, tangential endeavor. It is central to everything we do, especially worship. We do not do other things hoping that joy in God will emerge as a by-product. Our reason for the pursuit of God and obedience to him is precisely the joy that is found in him alone. To worship him for any reason other than the joy that is found in who he is, is sinful.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 39

God - Delighting

"God is glorified not only by his glory's being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. God made the world that he might communicate, and the creature receive, his glory... both [with] the mind and the heart. He that testifies his having an idea of God's glory [doesn't] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation [i.e., his heartfelt commendation or praise] of it and his delight in it."

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 39.

God - Enjoying

There was a time when I thought the verb "enjoy" and the noun "God" should never be used in the same sentence. I could understand "fearing" God and "obeying" God, even "loving" God. But "enjoying" God struck me as inconsistent with the biblical mandate both to glorify God, on the one hand, and deny myself, on the other. How could I be committed above all else to seeking God's glory if I were concerned about my own joy? My gladness and God's glory seemed to cancel each other out. I had to choose between one or the other, but embracing them both struck me as out of the question. Worse still, enjoying God sounded a bit too lighthearted, almost casual, perhaps even flippant, and I knew that Christianity was serious business.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 38.

Worship

...all too frequently worship for me was little mire than singing songs about God. Of course, we ought to sing about him. But I rarely had any expectation of meeting God or experiencing his presence or engaging my heart with his or, far less, of enjoying Him.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 38.

Tongues

Contrary to the caricatures that many have of this gift, it has served only to enhance and deepen my relationship with the Lord Jesus. Believe it or not, I can still tie my shoelaces, balance my checkbook, drive a car, hold down a job, and I rarely ever drool! I don't mean to be sarcastic, but this particular gift of the Spirit has a terrible public image. For me to reveal to you that I speak in tongues is to run the risk of being perceived as a mindless, spiritually flabby fanatic who periodically mumbles while in a convulsive or hypnotic trance.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 37.

Tongues

One night in October of 1970, quite without warning my normal, somewhat routine, prayer was radically interrupted. I suddenly began speaking forth words of uncertain sound and form. I didn't start out by consciously muttering a few senseless syllables which then gave way to a more coherent linguistic experience. It was more like a spiritual invasion in which the Spirit intruded on my life, interrupted my speech patterns and "gave utterance" (Acts 2:4).
There was a profound intensification of my sense of God's nearness and power. I distinctly remember feeling a somewhat detached sensation, as if I were separate from the one speaking. I had never experienced anything remotely similar to that in all my life. While this linguistic flood continued to pour forth I kept thinking in one language while speaking in another.
My reaction to something so unfamiliar and new was a strange mixture of both fear and exhilaration. I don't recall precisely how long it lasted, but it couldn't have been more than a couple of minutes. I was confused, but at the same time felt closer to God than ever before. At the time I didn't have theological categories to describe what happened. In hindsight, I'm more inclined to view it as a powerful filling of the Holy Spirit rather than Spirit baptism (although I'm open to being convinced otherwise). Having said that, I must confess that when I look for words to describe it the only thing that comes to mind is immersion and saturation, a sense of being inundated or flooded with the presence of God.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 34-35.

Spiritual Gifts

I rejected cessationism because, in the solitude and safety of my study, I became convinced the Bible didn't teach it. I embraced the biblical validity of all spiritual gifts of the church today before I ever personally experienced them.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p.31

Pneumatology

If there were problems, and there were, it was the absence of a robust and biblical perspective on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The problem wasn't that I focused obsessively on the Word, but that I lived in fear and ignorance of the power of the Spirit. And I do not believe for a moment that the former was the cause of the latter.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p. 27

Charismatic

Paul was both a Calvinist and regularly healed the sick and prophesied renders this a moot point. Even the committed cessationist who acknowledges that Paul embraced a Calvinistic soteriology will have to concede that, at least in the first century, the two perspectives were entirely harmonious.

Sam Storms, Convergence, p.23

Fear of the Lord

The fear of the Lord simplifies life....It is as if the book of Daniel is the fear of the Lord's Hall of Fame.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.228

God: All-Just and All-Merciful

I greatly longed to understand Paul's Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in my way but that one expression, "the justice of God," because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in consceince, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.
Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that "the just shall live by his faith." The I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise... This is to behold God in faith, that you should look upon his fatherly, friendly heart, in which there is no anger nor ungraciousness. He who sees God as angry does not see him rightly but looks only on a curtain, as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face.

Martin Luther, Here I Stand: A Life Of Martin Luther, p.30

Community

The problem is that unless there is a radical change in the way we see God, ourselves, and others, community will become just another strategy for us to feel better about ourselves.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.217

Fear of the Lord

When we live in the fear of the Lord, there is an intensity to our lives. We are zealous to obey, we are no longer indifferent to others, and we have a desire for the church to be brilliant and outstanding.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.214

Love Shown

We love enemies by surprising them with our service toward them. We love neighbors by treating them like our family. And we love the body of Christ - our true brothers and sisters - in such a way that the world and spiritual powers are stunned by our oneness.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.211

Biblical Love

Biblical love is never satisfied unless it is growing (1 Peter 1:22).

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.210

Lord's Supper

When you are told to examine yourself before the Lord's Supper, what do you think about? Most likely you remember a list of recent private sins.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.206

Spiritual Gifts

...the purpose of spiritual gifts is to bring unity to the church.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.204

The Church

Paul's vision of the church is that it would be God's greatest statement to both the world and the heavenly beings.
... To bring us to unity, God has given gifts to the body. The gifts are other people.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.203

Unity

...one of the great blessings on earth is to be united with God's People rather than to fear them or be isolated from them.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.202

Psalms

The Psalms are for private meditation and for the assembly, but they are most comfortable in the assembly.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.201

Body of Christ

You must believe that those in the body of Christ are your family. Learn that we are a people just as much as we are individual persons.
...The Bible is clear that each individual is responsible for his or her own sin, but there is a sense in which the whole body is polluted when there is sin in one of the members.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.198 & 200

Community

When people were converted int he book of Acts, it was assumed that they would be part of a local fellowship. It could have been no other way. They had been ushered into a community of the resurrection, a community of the Spirit.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.196

Sanctification

Learn through incessant repetition, practice, and prayer. Sanctification is like a clumsy, slow walk rather than a light switch that we turn from off to on.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.192

Power & Discernment

God says that you treat enemies the same way you treat friends and family.
...To love in this way, we need both power and discernment. We need power because we are incapable of loving the way Christ has loved us. We need discernment because it is sometimes difficult to know what form love should take.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.179

Reading the Psalms

Reach each psalm at least twice. The first time we can allow it to speak for us. The second time we listen to it as the voice of Jesus.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.188

Eternal Wedding Ceremony

In traditional Western weddings, the bride is the honored one. At the heavenly eternal ceremony, however, our gaze will be fixed on another. The bride, indeed, will be exalted, honored, and glorified, but her beauty will exalt the triune God even more. It was he who pursued, wooed, bought, and transformed her. Any beauty in the bride is a reflection of the greater beauty of the bridegroom.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.178

Knowledge of God

When we are lost in sin, without clear spiritual reference points, we misinterpret and distort that knowledge. We think it safer and more effective to look to other people to relieve our emptiness.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.172

Our Needs

... many of our needs are more accurately called lusts, and the objects of these needs are called idols.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.169

Contemplation

"No man can take a survey of himself but he must immediately turn to the contemplation of God in whom he lives and moves."

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.169

Holiness

We are offspring who aspire to be like our Father. So we watch the Father in action. We imitate his holiness.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.167

Priestly Garments

The ephod was a beautiful piece of cloth that bore the names of the twelve tribes. It reminds us that we do not stand alone before the Lord, but we are in solidarity with other Christians.
The breastplate was also a skillfully crafted garment used to make godly decisions. It reminds us that all our decisions are done by consulting God's Word.
The turban, covered the head. It reminds us of our need for God's thorough covering. The engraved seal across the turban summarized the entire garment. It said, "HOLY TO THE LORD" (Ex. 28:36).
The priest belonged to God, represented God, was to be holy as God is holy, and lived to glorify God.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.160

God's Glory

This means that the essence of imaging God is to rejoice in God's presence, to love him above all else, and to live for his glory, not our own. The most basic question of human existence becomes "How can I bring glory to God?"

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.158

People Were Big & God Was Small

Now I understand what held me in the fear of man, even though I knew the gospel well. Not only did I need to grow in the fear of the Lord; I also needed to repent. My felt needs, desires, or lusts were big. They were so big that I looked to everybody to fill them, both God and other people. I feared other people because people were big, my desires were even bigger, and God was small.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.151

Desire Love

The problem is not that we desire love, the problem is how much we desire it or for what purpose we desire it.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.148-149

God Loves Us

god loves us because of his own sovereign pleasure and for the sake of his own glory. His glory is even greater when we realize that he didn't need to love us.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.145

What We Really Need

When you spend time in the throne room of God, it puts things in perspective. The opinions of others are less important, and even our opinions of ourselves seem less important. May that is all we need.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.135

Fear the Lord

Lord, teach your church to fear you. Your grace is not always amazing to us. We are slow to hate our sin. We are more concerned with what someone thinks about our appearance than we are about reverential obedience before you. We want to delight in fear. We want to treasure it and give it to the next generation. Amen

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.133

God's Riches

It is one thing to release a person from prison, but it is something else to deluge that same person with all the riches imaginable. But that is what our God has done.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.127

Fear of the Lord

If you have ever walked among giant redwoods, you will never be overwhelmed by the size of a dogwood tree. Or if you have been through a hurricane, a spring rain is nothing to fear. If you have been int he presence of the almighty God, everything that once controlled you suddenly has less power.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.119

Willing Submission

Then Isaiah did what anybody would do in such a situation. He forgot about himself and offered himself as a servant to the living God. His fear of the Lord was expressed by reverential obedience. This is one of the great blessings of the fear of the Lord. We think less often about ourselves.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.119

Fear of the Lord

If you want to know whether or not you fear God, note your reaction when good things are taken from you. How do you react to financial loss, the death of family member, the loss of love?

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.114

God's Law

The law is wonderful in that it reveals that holy character of God. The Ten Commandments and their many applications teach about the Lawgiver. They reveal that God's ways are profoundly higher than the ways of the surrounding nations.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.110

God's Creation

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, Book VII

Holiness

Holiness is not one of the many attributes of God. It is his essential nature and seen in all his qualities.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.98

Psychological Needs

The contemporary climate is therapeutic, not religious. People today hunger not for personal salvation, let alone for the restoration of an earlier golden age, but for a feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health, and psychic security.

Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism (New York: Norton, 1978), 7.

Christian Psychology

[There is a] God-given need to be loved that is born into every human infant. It is a legitimate need that must be met from cradle to grave. If children are deprived of love - if that primal need for love is not meet - they carry the scars for life.

Rovert Hemfelt, Frank Minirth, and Paul Meier, Love Is A Choice (Nashville Nelson, 1989), 34

Religious Feelings

Even in worship services, the goal for many is that people feel something. Schleiermacher, a German theologian of the 1800's, made this the essence of religion. Theology for him was nothing more than religious feelings made articulate. "Religion." he said, "is a feeling of absolute dependence."

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.82

Feelings

Feelings have become the inarticulate mutterings of the Divine soul; to be morally upright is to do whatever your heart inspires you to do.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.81

Assumptions About God

Divine as the life of Jesus is , what an outrage to represent it as tantamount to the Universe! to seize one accidental good man that happened to exist somewhere at some time and say to the newborn soul, "Behold thy pattern ...go into the harness of that past individual, assume his manners, speak his speech," -this is the madness of Christendom .... I turn my back on these usurpers. The soul always believes in itself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.77-78

Fear of People

...we are fighting not only our own hearts but the trends in our culture.
A new worldview arose that placed much more value on individual growth, personal identity, and the immense possibilities of the person without linking it to a submission of divine authority. It was the rise of Western culture as we know it today, the rise of the cult of self.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.75-76

Fear of Man

"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." Matthew 10:28

Victimization

The Christian view of victimization is consistently God-centered, and this has been the goal in counseling Janet. Biblical guidance starts with hearing about God's great compassion. It proceeds to examine our own hearts so that we can grow in obedience to Christ, and it ends with trusting that our god is the almighty God who is just and loving.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.70

Biblical Counsel

All counsel given Janet must be filled with compassion for her and anger over the injustices she suffered. Otherwise, it is not biblical counsel.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.69

Fear of People

Only persistent meditation on the cross of Christ is sufficient to allay this fear.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.68

Shame

Such thinking is based on the unbiblical assumption that our works can either keep us away from God or move us toward him. It is a denial of grace itself. It suggests that there is some righteous act she must perform in order to meet God halfway. This, however, has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus. The gospel is only available to people who know they are unclean.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.68

Shame

God extends his compassion and his mighty, rescuing arm to take away shame. Jesus both experienced shame and took our shame on himself, so shame no longer defines us. In fact, by grace through faith, it is no longer part of us.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.67

Fear of Man

The fear of man is the sinful exaggeration of a normal experience.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.59

Fears

In the biblical sense, what we fear shows our allegiances. It shows where we put our trust.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.47

Idols

What is the result of this people idolatry? ... the idol we choose to worship soon owns us.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.46

Avoid God

... holiness left them feeling vulnerable and exposed. They became aware of their own shame. To deal with this holy terror, their rebellious hearts searched for a god that was tame.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.43

Idol

They wanted a god they could control and manipulate. They wanted nothing above themselves, including God.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.45

Fear of Man

Fear of man is always part of a triad that includes unbelief and disobedience.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.43

Fear of Man

Paul was not a people-pleaser. He was a people-lover, and because of that he did not change his message according to what others might think. Only people-lovers are able to confront. Only people-lovers are not controlled by other people. Paul even indicated to the Galatians that if he were still trying to please men, he would not be a servant of God (Gal. 1:10). That is how seriously he took the fear of man.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.41

Fear of Man

"... You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are." Matthew 22:16

Fear of People

We are more concerned about looking stupid (a fear of people) than we are about acting sinfully (fear of the Lord).

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.40

Fear of People

One way to avoid God's eyes is to live as if fear of other people is our deepest problem - they are big , not God. Fear of people is often a more conscious version of being afraid of God.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.33

Masks

Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when everyone has thrown off his mask? Do you believe that life will always let itself be mocked? Do you think you can slip away a little before midnight to avoid this? Or are you not terrified by it? I have seen men in real life who so long deceived others that at last their true nature could not reveal itself; I have seen men who played hide and seek so long that at last in madness they disgustingly obtruded upon others their secret thoughts which hitherto they had proudly concealed.

Soren Kierkegaard, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.32-33

Self-Esteem

That's the paradox of self-esteem" Low self-esteem usually means that I think too highly of myself. I'm too self-involved, I feel I deserve better than what I have. The reason I feel bad about myself is that I aspire to something more. I want just a few minutes of greatness. I am a peasant who wants to be king. When you are in the grips of low self-esteem, it's painful, and it certainly doesn't feel like pride. But I believe that this is the dark, quieter side of pride - thwarted pride.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are big and God Is Small, p.32

Self-Esteem

The problem is that we really are not okay. There is no reason why we should feel great about ourselves. We truly are deficient.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.29

Shame

At the moment of Adam's sin, shame - that is, "What will they think of me?" and "What will God think of me?" - became a cornerstone of human experience.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p. 25

Fear of Man

...other people became a threat because they too could see it. Their perceived opinions could now dominate our lives. The story of Scripture looked to hide and protect themselves from the gazes of God and other people.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.24

We Fear People

Three basic reasons why we fear other people:
1- We fear people because they can expose and humiliate us.
2- We fear people because they can reject, ridicule, or despise us.
3- We fear people because they can attack, oppress, or threaten us.

These three reasons have one thing in common: they see people as "bigger" then God.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.23

Fear of Man

Fear of man summarized: We replace God with people. Instead of a biblically guided fear of the Lord, we fear others.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.14

Fear of Man

"Fear" in the biblical sense is a much broader word. It includes being afraid of someone, but it extends to holding someone in awe, being controlled or mastered by people, worshiping other people, putting your trust in people, or needing people.

Edward T. Welch, When People Are Big and God Is Small, p.14

Religion

“What a hopeful sign it would be even if people were excited against religion! Really, I would sooner that they intelligently hated it than that they were stolidly indifferent to it. A man who has enough thought about him to oppose the Truth of God is a more hopeful subject than the man who does not think at all.”

Spurgeon

Fitting in the good things

“They [the puritans] lived by ‘method’ (we would say, by a rule of life), planning and proportioning their time with care, not so much to keep bad things out as to make sure that they got all good and important things in.”

- J. I. Packer in A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life.

How to Grow in Godliness

"If thou meanest to enlarge thy religion, do it rather by enlarging thy ordinary devotions, rather than thy extraordinary devotions." - John Owen

Honesty

"Exposed by the Cross, Part II.

The Cross also exposes me before the eyes of other people, informing them of the depth of my depravity. If I wanted others to think highly of me, I would conceal the fact that a shameful slaughter of the perfect Son of God was required that I might be saved. But when I stand at the foot of the Cross and am seen by others under the light of that Cross, I am left comfortably exposed before their eyes. Indeed, the most humiliating gossip that could ever be whispered about me is blared from Golgotha's hill; and my self-righteous reputation is left in ruins in the wake of its revelations. With the worst facts about me thus exposed to the view of others, I find myself feeling that I truly have nothing left to hide.

Thankfully, the more exposed I see that I am by the Cross, the more I find myself opening up to others about ongoing issues of sin in my life. (Why would anyone be shocked to hear of my struggles with past and present sin when the Cross already told them I am a desperately sinful person?) And the more open I am in confessing my sins to fellow-Christians, the more I enjoy the healing of the Lord in response to their grace-filled counsel and prayers. Experiencing richer levels of Christ's love in companionship with such saints, I give thanks for the gospel's role in forcing my hand toward self-disclosure and the freedom that follows."

Milton Vincent, The Gospel Primer

Honesty

"In relationships the impulse of the legalist is to leave rather than love, separate rather than serve, condemn rather than care."

Parenting Confessions

“The key to the family functioning as a redemptive community, where the Gospel is the glue that holds the family together, is parents who so trust Christ that they are ready and willing to confess their faults to their children…[P]arents who admit their sin will position themselves to model the Gospel for their children daily."

- Paul Tripp, Age of Opportunity, 67

“Remember, it is not your weakness that will get in the way of God’s working through you, but your delusions of strength.”

- Paul Tripp, Age of Opportunity, 189