Idolatry is the act of worshipping or devoting oneself to the creation, not the Creator. It is the most foolish act humans can do. Historically it has taken two generic forms. The first, and most common, is the worship of images or idols, made by man, but said to represent a force or being beyond man. This is the kind we normally associate with the noun, idolatry. But there have been ages when an even more depraved, crass idolatry has taken hold. It is the devotion to the creator of the idol--that is, man himself. In other words, this rarer version of idolatry more closely represents the heart of the matter. Whilst all idolatry is an implicit worship of man, the latter, rarer kind makes the devotion to man overt and explicit. It is idolatry in its most consistent, realized form.
The first time this more depraved version of idolatry emerged in human history was at the Tower of Babel. The huge tower was built in order for mankind to "make a name for ourselves." (Genesis 11:4) God's judgement fell because the unified devotion to man and his "name" would mean that there would be no restraint nor restriction upon their capability to devise and execute evil.
"Normal" idolatry operates in a world of superstition and fear.
By now most of you have seen the video sting of Deborah
Nucatola, a high placed operative in Planned Parenthood, discussing PP’s
brisk trade in fetal body parts. If you haven’t, the video is embedded
below.
What will it take before that which is self-evident is treated as self-evident?
That video perfectly captures the insolence of our secularist elites.
The fact that she could discuss the sale and distribution of livers,
hearts, and baby heads, and do it over wine and salad, has left everyone
with a functioning conscience aghast. She looks like a nice lady, and
Kermit Gosnell looked like a creepy abortion doctor, and so it just goes
to show. The whole thing is vile. The face of evil looks out at America
from the mirror — but we have not yet recognized it.
God's
great design in all his works is the manifestation of his own glory.
Any aim less than this were unworthy of himself. But how shall the glory
of God be manifested to such fallen creatures as we are? Man's eye is
not single, he has ever a side glance towards his own honour, has too
high an estimate of his own powers, and so is not qualified to behold
the glory of the Lord.
It is clear, then, that self must stand out of
the way, that there may be room for God to be exalted; and this is the
reason why he bringeth his people ofttimes into straits and
difficulties, that, being made conscious of their own folly and
weakness, they may be fitted to behold the majesty of God when he comes
forth to work their deliverance. He whose life is one even and smooth
path, will see but little of the glory of the Lord, for he has few
occasions of self-emptying, and hence, but little fitness for being
filled with the revelation of God.
They who navigate little streams and
shallow creeks, know but little of the God of tempests; but they who "do
business in great waters," these see his "wonders in the deep." Among
the huge Atlantic-waves of bereavement, poverty, temptation, and
reproach, we learn the power of Jehovah, because we feel the littleness
of man.
Thank God, then, if you have been led by a rough road: it is
this which has given you your experience of God's greatness and
lovingkindness. Your troubles have enriched you with a wealth of
knowledge to be gained by no other means: your trials have been the
cleft of the rock in which Jehovah has set you, as he did his servant
Moses, that you might behold his glory as it passed by.
Praise God that
you have not been left to the darkness and ignorance which continued
prosperity might have involved, but that in the great fight of
affliction, you have been capacitated for the outshinings of his glory
in his wonderful dealings with you.
There are at least two perspective on offer when it comes to the nurture and raising of children: the first is the world-views requiring parental indulgence; the second is world views requiring parental discipline.
Whilst it is a generalisation-- we trust not a hasty one--the Chattering Classes and the Commentariat generally favour parental and societal indulgence when it comes to raising children. The little tykes are assumed to be nascent adults and the more they are treated as if they were adults, the more quickly they will mature. In contrast, those adults whose parenting involves consistent rules, structure, and discipline are regarded as harmful agents, implicitly guilty of child abuse.
A recent newspaper piece illustrates this great divide. The issue was food--the right food--for children. Some parents complain that whilst they know sugar-saturated food is bad for their bairns, the whole world conspires against them
Hannibal
Lecter ain’t got nothing on the profit-maximizing abortion ghoul caught
on tape hawking aborted baby parts as she swilled wine and nibbled on a
gourmet salad.
In newly released undercover footage from the pro-life Center for
Medical Progress, seasoned abortionist Dr. Deborah Nucatola, who serves
as national senior director of “medical services” at Planned Parenthood,
chitter-chattered eagerly about fulfilling the bloodthirsty demand for
“intact hearts,” “lower extremities” and lungs. Price tag? “You know, I would throw a number out,” she babbled
breezily as she twirled her fork. “I would say it’s probably anywhere
from $30 to $100” per specimen.
Hollywood couldn’t conjure monsters this chillingly, banally evil.
Work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both
to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)
John Piper
God
is the decisive worker here. He wills and he works for his good
pleasure. But believing this does not make Christians passive. It makes
them hopeful and energetic and courageous. Each day there is a
work to be done in our special ministry. Paul commands us to work at
doing it. But he tells us how to do it in the power of future grace:
believe the promise that in this day God will be at work in you to will
and work for his good pleasure.
It is God himself, graciously
arriving each moment, that brings the future into the present. It is not
the gratitude for past grace that Paul focuses on when explaining how
he “worked harder than any of them.” It is fresh grace for every new
conquest in his missionary labor.
The power of future grace is the
power of the living Christ — always there to work for us at every
future moment that we enter. So when Paul describes the effect of the
grace of God that was with him, he says, “I will not venture to speak of
anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the
Gentiles to obedience — by word and deed” (Romans 15:18).
Therefore
since he would not dare to speak of anything but what Christ
accomplished through his ministry, and yet he did, in fact, speak of
what grace accomplished through his ministry (1 Corinthians 15:10), this must mean that the power of grace is the power of Christ.
Which means that the power we need for tomorrow’s
ministry is the future grace of the omnipotent Christ, who will always
be there for us — ready to will and ready to work for his good pleasure.
There are some interesting conversations taking place over the fate of Greece and the EU. One is in the form of a cartoon, reproduced below, which manages to squeeze the issues of economic and national sovereignty into a nutshell.
A second downstream effect is the conversation that has commenced on the Left. As we review this, it will pay to remember that in the Left world view there is never any shortage of money at the level of government because the State (in the Leftist view) is all powerful and omni-competent when it comes to funds: it can always find more money either through taxation, or through borrowing, or through inflating the money supply. In the Left world view money and capital is means to an end and its supply is inexhaustible. In other words, the Left would not see why the proposition by Table Two above should be considered a joke. Of course that's the way it should be.
1. How was mankind created?
We were created by God in the image of God, male and female together (Gen. 1:27).
2. Who is the author of marriage?
When God presented the first bride, our mother Eve, to Adam, He was establishing the first marriage (Gen. 2:22).
3. After the first marriage, how are marriages to be formed?
A man should leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, so that they might become one flesh (Gen. 2:24).
4. What is the biblical standard for marriage?
One man devoted to one woman for life.
5. How do we know that such monogamy is the normal biblical standard?
TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On the resurrection of the body and of all creation; and on the goodness of the bodies we now have.
26 November 1962
C. S. Lewis
My stuff about animals came long ago in The Problem of Pain.
I ventured the supposal—it could be nothing more—that as we are raised
in Christ, so at least some animals are raised in us. Who knows, indeed,
but that a great deal even of the inanimate creation is raised in the
redeemed souls who have, during this life, taken its beauty into
themselves? That may be the way in which the ‘new heaven and the new
earth’30 are formed. Of course we can only guess and wonder.
But
these particular guesses arise in me, I trust, from taking seriously the
resurrection of the body: a doctrine which now-a- days is very soft
pedalled by nearly all the faithful—to our great impoverishment. Not
that you and I have now much reason to rejoice in having bodies! Like
old automobiles, aren’t they? where all sorts of apparently different
things keep going wrong, but what they add up to is the plain fact that
the machine is wearing out. Well, it was not meant to last forever.
Still, I have a kindly feeling for the old rattle-trap. Through it God
showed me that whole side of His beauty which is embodied in colour,
sound, smell and size. No doubt it has often led me astray: but not half
so often, I suspect, as my soul has led it astray. For the
spiritual evils which we share with the devils (pride, spite) are far
worse than what we share with the beasts: and sensuality really arises
more from the imagination than from the appetites: which, if left merely
to their own animal strength, and not elaborated by our imagination,
would be fairly easily managed. But this is turning into a sermon!
President Obama is the most ardently pro-abort president the United States has ever seen. He has made it his business to do all he can to promote the cause. In one now-infamous occasion he addressed Planned Parenthood, a group engaging in the industry of abortion, and "celebrated" their hard work and achievements. He concluded by pronouncing the benediction, "god bless you".
In every which way one might look at it, Obama's invocation of "god" referred to his loyalty and devotion to "Baal"--the state. Like the Baal worshippers of old, Obama has a lust for money, power, the devotion of his subjects and celebrity-status. The labours of Planned Parenthood fit right into his idolatrous world-view: hence his proffered congratulations and invocation of blessing from his god.
Now Planned Parenthood has been exposed as an organisation trading in the body parts of aborted children, selling them for profit. This courtesy of Michelle Malkin:
A disturbing undercover video released today
shows Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services Dr.
Deborah Nucatola casually discussing the purchase of aborted baby parts
with interested “buyers”. This in spite of it being illegal (The
sale or purchase of human fetal tissue a federal felony punishable by up
to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).
Nucatola trains new Planned Parenthood abortion doctors and also
performs abortions herself up to 24 weeks. The video is part of a
three-year investigation by The Center for Medical Progress (part of the
Manhattan Institute) looking into illegal trafficking of aborted fetal
parts by Planned Parenthood:
Many
persons want to know their election before they look to Christ, but
they cannot learn it thus, it is only to be discovered by "looking unto
Jesus." If you desire to ascertain your own election;--after the
following manner, shall you assure your heart before God.
Do you feel
yourself to be a lost, guilty sinner? go straightway to the cross of
Christ, and tell Jesus so, and tell him that you have read in the Bible,
"Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." Tell him that he
has said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Look to Jesus
and believe on him, and you shall make proof of your election directly,
for so surely as thou believest, thou art elect.
If you will give
yourself wholly up to Christ and trust him, then you are one of God's
chosen ones; but if you stop and say, "I want to know first whether I am
elect," you ask you know not what. Go to Jesus, be you never so guilty,
just as you are. Leave all curious inquiry about election alone. Go
straight to Christ and hide in his wounds, and you shall know your
election. The assurance of the Holy Spirit shall be given to you, so
that you shall be able to say, "I know whom I have believed, and I am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him."
Christ was at the everlasting council: he can tell you whether you were
chosen or not; but you cannot find it out in any other way.
Go and put
your trust in him, and his answer will be--"I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
There will be no doubt about his having chosen you, when you have chosen
him.
"Sons we are through God's election,
Who in Jesus Christ believe."
Some things are so bizarre and systemically evil that they appear incredible at first glance. Far more strange than fiction. Some of the worst exigencies occur when people believe they are going good as they perpetrate great wickedness.
There is a belief in the secular West that it represents the good, the kind, the generous and the loving. It believes itself to be so morally superior that it is licensed to do evil, that good may result. The asserted goodness of the secular, atheistic ideals justifies any collateral damage as inconsequential--a minor, justified price for the greater good. Never has such moral degeneracy been on such proud display as in the United Kingdom recently--a once Christian nation. We still shake our heads, as more and more of the truth emerges.
The Guardian has published a piece on Alexis Jay, who was responsible for exposing the Rotherham industrial rape and sexual abuse matrix which continued to flourish under the wilful blind eye of authorities--both government and police.
A one thousand year old Anglo-Saxon remedy
for eye infections which originates from a manuscript in the British
Library has been found to kill the modern-day superbug MRSA in an
unusual research collaboration at The University of Nottingham.
Dr Christina Lee, an Anglo-Saxon expert
from the School of English has enlisted the help of microbiologists
from University’s Centre for Biomolecular Sciences to recreate a 10th
century potion for eye infections from Bald’s Leechbook an Old English
leatherbound volume in the British Library, to see if it really works as
an antibacterial remedy. The Leechbook is widely thought of as one of
the earliest known medical textbooks and contains Anglo-Saxon medical
advice and recipes for medicines, salves and treatments.
Early results on the 'potion', tested in
vitro at Nottingham and backed up by mouse model tests at a university
in the United States, are, in the words of the US collaborator,
“astonishing”. The solution has had remarkable effects on
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) which is one of the
most antibiotic-resistant bugs costing modern health services billions.
It makes one wonder how many age-old remedies contain cures for modern antibiotic "superbugs". It also makes one muse how quickly the overuse of such rediscovered and reapplied cures will produce a new crop of superbugs.
HT: Adolf Fiinkensein
Never, in peace or war, commit
your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by
the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from
moment to moment “as to the Lord.” It is only our daily bread that we
are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any
duty can be done or any grace received.
Would the real Iran please stand up. As we read of the congratulations and rejoicing amongst the Western Commentariat, we find ourselves in fundamental confusion. A deal with Iran has been struck, we are told, whereby Iran will lay aside its ambitions to develop nuclear weapons, and the West will remove its sanctions on that nation.
New Zealand's own foreign minister, now deeply ensconced in UN counsels and machinations (while NZ presently sits on the UN Security Council), has joined the chorus of self-congratulation.
New Zealand's foreign minister has welcomed the Iran nuclear deal. Murray McCully said today the nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers was an "important" breakthrough. "Over
the last eighteen months negotiators have been working to secure an
agreement that will increase international confidence in the nature of
Iran's nuclear programme," Mr McCully said.
"This agreement is a
positive development for regional stability in the Middle East and will
allow for further progress to be made in the relationship between New
Zealand and Iran. As the current president of the United Nations
Security Council, New Zealand will do what it can to expedite any
necessary Security Council action, and we call for the agreement to be
implemented as soon as possible," he added. [NZ Herald]
This "deal" with Iran has been struck whilst Iran, throughout the process, has publicly and repeatedly called for the annihilation of the United States (with whom it was negotiating) and the obliteration of Israel off the map. It has also been one of the biggest sponsors of Islamic terrorism over many years. But have no fear. Iran is run by trustworthy, truthspeaking, honourable men. We know. We can tell. We can see what you ordinary rubes cannot.
So in response to Kevin DeYoung’s very pertinent questions to rainbow-affirming Christians, Matthew Vines has responded with
40 questions of his own, these directed at Christians who are, as he
puts it, “non-affirming.” Being as I am found in that latter category,
let me have a shot at it.
What I want to do is either answer Matthew’s questions, or explain
why I will not take the bait of answering a particular question. Put
another way, I will answer the questions, but not the loaded questions.
1. Do you accept that sexual orientation is not a choice?
First, I do not believe there is one answer that fits for everyone
living a homosexual lifestyle. For some it is very much a choice, while
for others the inclinations that lead to same sex attraction run very
close to the bone. I do not believe there is one Platonic form of
“homosexuality.”
Having said this, I would then point out that sin is defined by
Scripture, and not by our guesswork on the strength of our abilities in
choosing the contrary. To assume that sin is absent because of an
inability to choose righteousness is to fall prey to Pelagianism.
2. Do you accept that sexual orientation is highly resistant to attempts to change it?
Yes, it certainly can be. But this is true of all sin, and true for
all of us. The Christian life is described in Scripture as a life of
mortification. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13).
This is certainly true for those seeking to put their same sex
attractions to death. But it is also true of all the rest of us. John
Owen put it well when he said that we should not think we make any
progress in godliness if we do not walk daily over the bellies of our
own lusts.
3. How many meaningful relationships with lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) people do you have?
I could answer this question in a way that defeated the purpose of
asking it, but this is one that I will decline to answer. Meaningful
relationships with friends and parishioners cease to be meaningful when
they are used as pawns in political chess games.
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:5)
John Piper
Faith in God’s grace expels from the heart the sinful powers that hinder love.
If we feel guilty,
we tend to wallow in self-centered depression and self-pity, unable to
see, let alone care, about anyone else’s need. Or we play the hypocrite
to cover our guilt, and so destroy all sincerity in relationships. Or we
talk about other people’s faults to minimize the guilt of our own.
It’s the same with fear.
If we feel fearful, we tend not to approach a stranger at church who
might need a word of welcome and encouragement. Or we may reject
frontier missions for our lives, because it sounds too dangerous. Or we
may waste money on excessive insurance, or get swallowed up in all
manner of little phobias that make us preoccupied with ourselves and
blind us to the needs of others.
If we are greedy, we may
spend money on luxuries — money that ought to go to the spread of the
gospel. We don’t undertake anything risky, lest our precious possessions
and our financial future be jeopardized. We focus on things instead of
people, or see people as resources for our material advantage.
Faith in future grace produces love by pushing guilt and fear and greed out of the heart. It pushes out guilt
because it holds fast to the hope that the death of Christ is
sufficient to secure acquittal and righteousness now and forever (Hebrews 10:14). It pushes out fear
because it banks on the promise, “Fear not, for I am with you. . . . I
will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my
righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). And it pushes out greed because it is confident that Christ is greater wealth than all the world can offer (Matthew 13:44).
In
every case the glory of Christ is magnified when we are more satisfied
with his future grace than we are with the promises of sin.
Bankruptcy Alley a 'shocking commentary' on NZ--Debt Commissioner
Matthew Theunissen is a reporter for the Herald on Sunday. (This piece documents another attempt by the Commentariat--of which we are an important part--to argue for more state intrusion to protect people from themselves. Our reporters are on task and remain zealously committed to seeing it done. At the Herald, we are proud to be making a difference.)
Liam Joyce and Alex Wood with their lunch from Burger Fuel, Lincoln Road. Photo / Michael Craig. Smart Kiwis Avoiding the Debt Trap of Fine Dining.
A NZ Debt Commissioner has dubbed a 3km stretch of road featuring more than 30 expensive fine dining restaurants as "Bankruptcy Alley". In Central Auckland, the Viaduct precinct, Vulcan Lane and O'Connell Street offers an astonishing 33 high priced restaurants, 30 of which will force patrons into even more credit card debt, such is the exorbitant cost of their meals. The remaining three have only two items on the menu, so the bankruptcy risk is not as great.
Debt Commissioner, David Impecunious described it as a "shocking commentary on our exorbitant, gratuitously wasteful, first-world country". "I
don't think it would be going too far to call it Bankruptcy Alley -
call it what it is. If it's going to be contributing to people's increased use of credit card debt, it's going to cause more financial stress, leading to more heart
attacks and strokes--and even suicides Yes, let's call it for what it is."
He said it was compounding an environment where being in debt was the norm.
The Met Office’s claim that July 1 was the hottest July day on
record has fallen flat after climate bloggers discovered that the
temperature peak may have been caused by a plane landing at Heathrow.
Early July saw Britain basking in a brief heatwave, with air
temperatures across much of south and east England hitting the mid 30’s
centigrade. On July 1, the Met Office announced that the UK had recorded
the hottest July day on record, with temperatures hitting 36.7°
centigrade at Heathrow airport.
The claim was widely repeated in the media – the BBC’s headline read “Hottest July day ever recorded in UK”, while The Guardian opted for a live blog under the headline “Heatwave live: Britain swelters on hottest July day on record”.
But eagle-eyed climate bloggers immediately spotted a problem with
the so-called ‘record’: it was measured at Heathrow airport, where the
hot tarmac and plane engines pumping out hot air can raise local
temperatures by as much as two degrees. Christopher Booker, blogging at the Telegraphpointed
out: Even the Met Office’s own hourly record only showed its highest
Heathrow reading on Wednesday as 35.9C, while four other sites nearby
showed the day’s hottest recording at just 35C.
"God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry?" Jonah 4:9
Charles H. Spurgeon
Anger
is not always or necessarily sinful, but it has such a tendency to run
wild that whenever it displays itself, we should be quick to question
its character, with this enquiry, "Doest thou well to be angry?" It may
be that we can answer, "YES." Very frequently anger is the madman's
firebrand, but sometimes it is Elijah's fire from heaven.
We do well
when we are angry with sin, because of the wrong which it commits
against our good and gracious God; or with ourselves because we remain
so foolish after so much divine instruction; or with others when the
sole cause of anger is the evil which they do. He who is not angry at
transgression becomes a partaker in it. Sin is a loathsome and hateful
thing, and no renewed heart can patiently endure it. God himself is
angry with the wicked every day, and it is written in His Word, "Ye that
love the Lord, hate evil."
Far more frequently it is to be feared that
our anger is not commendable or even justifiable, and then we must
answer, "NO." Why should we be fretful with children, passionate with
servants, and wrathful with companions? Is such anger honourable to our
Christian profession, or glorifying to God? Is it not the old evil heart
seeking to gain dominion, and should we not resist it with all the
might of our newborn nature?
Many professors give way to temper as
though it were useless to attempt resistance; but let the believer
remember that he must be a conqueror in every point, or else he cannot
be crowned. If we cannot control our tempers, what has grace done for
us? Some one told Mr. Jay that grace was often grafted on a crab-stump.
"Yes," said he, "but the fruit will not be crabs." We must not make
natural infirmity an excuse for sin, but we must fly to the cross and
pray the Lord to crucify our tempers, and renew us in gentleness and
meekness after His own image.
In the lead up to World War II, British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain proceeded to negotiate with Hitler because he believed him to be a man who would keep his word. In a now infamous sentence he said he had looked into Hitler's eyes and saw integrity in his soul. When Hitler subsequently broke solemn agreements, Chamberlain's offence was such that he resolved to war against Hitler with might and main. When it dawns on you that the person across the table is lying, there is no point in continuing further negotiations.
And so it has come to this point in the small matter of Greece remaining in the European Union. Clearly some of the European nations (Germany and Finland amongst them) believe that Greece as a nation, and its Prime Minister as its representative, are complicit in telling and living systemic lies. Therefore, negotiations are not worth anything, and, like Chamberlain, all further attempts should be suspended immediately.
But the charade must needs go on. The pretensions demands of a United Europe built to the glory of Man demand it. The Greek Prime Minister returns to Athens to drum up support for all the concessions he must make in order to get an 80bn euro loan, just to keep Greece Inc. going and to keep Greeks in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. One can imagine what is taking place behind the closed doors. "Look, chaps, it doesn't matter what we agree or sign up to. It's just words, scribbles on a paper. We have fudged our way through before. We can do it again. Easily. It's the Greek way."
Whether the bailout goes through is not yet a done deal. But close.
One of Saul Alinsky’s rules was that the activist should always make
his adversary live by his own purported rules. In the case of what
Christians are currently up against, one of the secularist rules is
their so-called commitment to free speech. They are quite pleased with
themselves about that commitment, and preen themselves in the mirror.
But at the same time, their inner tyrant wants to control public
discourse in such a way as to quit losing all those debates. Thus they
have devised an interesting workaround.
They still defend free speech,
ardently and sincerely, but free speech is now defined as that which
contributes to the public good, makes them feel better down to their
toes, and releases multi-colored butterflies into the public square.
When I was dealing with a crowd of hostiles a couple years ago at
Bloomington, one of their chants was “We believe in free speech! But
this is hate speech!”
How’s this for an argument?
In other words, in order to feel good about shouting a speaker down,
they had to reassure themselves that they were still sound on the
fundamentals. They were still obeying their own rule, or so they said,
even though they were manifestly not doing so. They have gotten
themselves into the epistemic rat hole of shouting down a visiting
speaker with the words “we believe in free speech.” Ooohhkay.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
John Piper
The
Spirit came to you the first time when you believed in the blood-bought
promises of God. And the Spirit keeps on coming, and keeps on working,
by this same means. So Paul asks, rhetorically, “Does he who
supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works
of the law, or by hearing with faith?” (Galatians 3:5). Answer: “By hearing with faith.” Therefore,
the Spirit came the first time, and the Spirit keeps on being supplied,
through the channel of faith. What he accomplishes in us is through
faith.
If you are like me, you may have strong longings from time
to time for the mighty working of the Holy Spirit in your life. Perhaps
you cry out to God for the outpouring of the Spirit in your life or in
your family or church or city. Such cries are right and good. Jesus
said, “How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).
But
what I have found most often in my own life is the failure to open
myself to the full measure of the Spirit’s work by believing the
promises of God. I don’t mean merely the promise that the Spirit will
come when we ask. I mean all the other precious promises that are not
directly about the Spirit but, perhaps, about God’s provision for my
future — for example, “My God will supply every need of yours” (Philippians 4:19).
This
is what is missing in the experience of so many Christians as they seek
the power of the Spirit in their lives. The Spirit is supplied to us
“by hearing with faith” (Galatians 3:5)
— not just faith in one or two promises about the Spirit himself, but
about all the soul-satisfying presence of God in our future.
In Part I of The Scottish Ostrich we reviewed the case of a Scottish theologian who was excised from a newspaper for an offensive column. Arguing from earlier historical patterns, he had suggested the following:
In his column on May 22, Professor Macleod wrote that all minorities prefer to keep a low profile. He added: “Generations of British Muslims have done exactly that, many
have made an invaluable contribution to British society, and many are
perfectly prepared to listen quietly while Christians 'witness' to them. "But when minorities become majorities, things change... in the
event of Islamic dominance in Britain our friendly Muslim shopkeepers
will have little option but to march behind the radicals."
Is this nothing more than xenophobic ignorance? Was the paper for which he wrote correct when it judged Professor MacLeod to have transgressed the West's secular values of "liberty, equality, and fraternity" and to be guilty of hate-speech? No. It seems that the contemporary evidence strongly supports Professor Macleod's argument.
Raymond Ibrahim reviews the experience of non-Muslim groups in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson has described the German
proposals for a deal with Greece as “tyrannical”, and has advised the
Greek people to “rediscover the spirit of Marathon” and exit the euro.
Eurozone leaders argued long into the night at which has been described as a “brutal summit“, but finally, in the early hours of this morning, tweets emerged from Brussels announcing that a deal had been reached.
Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, had been holding out
against demands from Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble that
Greece hand over €50 billion worth of state assets for privatisation by entities in Luxembourg.
Writing for the The Telegraph, Johnson remarked that the proposal was: “breathtaking in its candour
and brutality. It marks a new departure in modern European diplomacy;
indeed, at first I thought it must be a spoof”. He continued:
Those Divine demands which sound to our natural ears most like those
of a despot and least like those of a lover, in fact marshal us where we
should want to go if we knew what we wanted. He demands our worship,
our obedience, our prostration. Do we suppose that they can do Him any
good, or fear, like the chorus in Milton, that human irreverence can
bring about ‘His glory’s diminution’? A man can no more diminish God’s
glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by
scribbling the word ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.
But God wills
our good, and our good is to love Him (with that responsive love proper
to creatures) and to love Him we must know Him: and if we know Him, we
shall in fact fall on our faces. If we do not, that only shows that what
we are trying to love is not yet God— though it may be the nearest
approximation to God which our thought and fantasy can attain. Yet the
call is not only to prostration and awe; it is to a reflection of the
Divine life, a creaturely participation in the Divine attributes which
is far beyond our present desires.
We are bidden to ‘put on Christ’, to
become like God. That is, whether we like it or not, God intends to give
us what we need, not what we now think we want. Once more, we are
embarrassed by the intolerable compliment, by too much love, not too
little.
The West is confronted with Islam--on home soil, moreover. The Chattering Classes and the Commentariat are frenetically attempting to win this culture war by insisting upon Western "values". They act like generals berating the troops: "Hold the line, boys. Steady! Steady!" They want the West to remain true to liberty, equality, and fraternity. It is only as the West practises these cultural values towards Islamic people that they, grateful subjects, will come to see the West as culturally superior. It is only by enjoying Western liberty, equality and fraternity practised towards them that Islamic believers will see the light and move away from their historically primitive, violent religion into Westernised modern Islam, a new reformed religion (as argue for by Ayaan Hirsi Ali) bearing the aura of Western glory.
In this great cultural cold-war, the Chattering Classes believe that the real enemies in their midst are those in the West who speak critically of Islam. Even Hirsi Ali is regarded as an enemy of the West because of her strident criticism of Islam. By so speaking they are traitorously spiking the great guns by which Islam will be won over to Western cultural and "religious" values. The critics, by their criticism, actually blaspheme and undermine liberty, equality, and fraternity. They are the West's Fifth Column. The Western critics of Islam are more like medieval Crusaders than truly tolerant sons of the post-modern West. Thus runs today's received wisdom amongst the Chattering Classes.
Overstatement? Nah. Let us give a typical example--one amongst many.
"The intractable problem is that many governments do not trust the
Greek government to implement a €12bn (£8.6bn) programme of spending
cuts and reforms that will be delivered as part of a bailout. Eurozone
governments are seeking proof from Athens it can keep its promises, in
exchange for agreeing to start talks on a deal. “The main obstacle to an agreement is trust,” said Pier Carlo Padoan, finance minister of Italy, one of the countries most sympathetic to Greece." [The Guardian]
Europhiles are between a rock of adamant and a very hard place. If Greece agrees to the conditions being imposed to keep it in the Eurozone to secure the third grand bailout, only two outcomes are possible. Either Greece will comply and keep the conditions, or it will not. If it keeps the conditions, it will face decades of deflation--which is to say that the population will eventually rebel and a revolution will drive Greece out of the Euro, into the arms of whoever else. Or, it will fail to keep the conditions, proving that the distrust of Greece is well founded--which is to say that more bailouts will be needed. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times and I am the fool. Europe is well on the way to being branded as the village idiot.
"Sanctified by God the Father." Jude 1
"Sanctified in Christ Jesus."
1 Corinthians 1:2
"Through sanctification of the Spirit."
1 Peter 1:2
Charles H. Spurgeon
Mark
the union of the Three Divine Persons in all their gracious acts. How
unwisely do those believers talk who make preferences in the Persons of
the Trinity; who think of Jesus as if he were the embodiment of
everything lovely and gracious, while the Father they regard as severely
just, but destitute of kindness. Equally wrong are those who magnify
the decree of the Father, and the atonement of the Son, so as to
depreciate the work of the Spirit. In deeds of grace none of the Persons
of the Trinity act apart from the rest.
They are as united in their
deeds as in their essence. In their love towards the chosen they are
one, and in the actions which flow from that great central source they
are still undivided. Specially notice this in the matter of
sanctification. While we may without mistake speak of sanctification as
the work of the Spirit, yet we must take heed that we do not view it as
if the Father and the Son had no part therein. It is correct to speak of
sanctification as the work of the Father, of the Son, and of the
Spirit. Still doth Jehovah say, "Let us make man in our own image after
our likeness," and thus we are "his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in
them." See the value which God sets upon real holiness, since the Three
Persons in the Trinity are represented as co-working to produce a Church
without "spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." And you, believer, as
the follower of Christ, must also set a high value on holiness--upon
purity of life and godliness of conversation.
Value the blood of Christ
as the foundation of your hope, but never speak disparagingly of the
work of the Spirit which is your meetness for the inheritance of the
saints in light. This day let us so live as to manifest the work of the
Triune God in us.
).
Image: © The British Library Board (Royal 12 D xvii)
