11.02.09
Studying to Pray More Biblically
Most Christians confess that they struggle with almost all aspects of prayer. They have done so in all generations. Yet I think we are a particularly poor generation of Christians when it comes to this duty. Among the many reasons for this are certainly the effect on our prayers of a low view of God and worship, and our mental laziness and poor concentration. Some generations, however, have excelled (at least in man’s reckoning). I think the Christians of the Reformation period were such a generation, and here is one of them giving some solid advice on the subject:
“When entering into prayer, God should be represented to the mind, and should be called upon by names, titles, or descriptions that are most apt to kindle the desires and help the faith of them that pray. If many and general requests are raised, then such titles and names must be used that may persuade the hearers that they shall be heard. If some particular petition is lifted up, then names and descriptions of God are to be used that may help the heart in that particular need. Abraham’s servant, praying for success in his master’s business, said, ‘O Jehovah, God of my master Abraham, I pray thee send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham’ (Gen. Ch. 24 v. 12). When Peter entreated God to choose an apostle to supply the place of Judas, he said, ‘Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast choose’ (Acts Ch. 1 v. 24). When David prayed against the enemies of God and his children, he said, ‘O Lord God to whom vengeance belongeth, O God to whom vengeance belongeth, shew theyself’ (Ps. 94 v. 1). When he magnified God’s name, and incited all people to pray unto him, and praise him, he spoke to God in this description: ‘O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come’ (Ps. 65 v. 2). A wise choice of apt names and titles with which to represent God shows knowledge of him, and wisdom is needed to make use of his different attributes. God is delighted to behold both knowledge and wisdom mixed with faith in his children.” (Henry Scudder {Puritan}, A Key of Heaven: the Lord’s Prayer Opened, pp.122-3)
Although it is undoubtedly true that, “One sigh and groan from a broken heart is better pleasing to God than all human eloquence” (Thomas Brooks {Puritan}, The Privy Key of Heaven), ought we not to take great pains to improve how we pray? Is it acceptable to God for us to go on year after year never rising above ‘and we just ask, Lord, that you would just —- at this time, Lord, and just bless us, Lord, and just make us love you more, Lord …’? Not that a new convert should have great things expected of him, or that those who are not comfortable speaking in public should be expected to stir us with great oratory, but surely we are all guilty of too much mental laziness in our prayers, public and private, and surely we are way too indifferent about the content and form of our prayers? Are we not all too content with mindless clichés? Are we not to worship God with all of our mind, as well as our heart?
One thing that has helped me greatly over the years has been to slow down enormously and pause for thought (trying not to fill those caps with just about any word or noise other than a silence ). Another has been to stop trying to work up emotion and somewhat mindless heat. Perhaps we should also read more written prayers; not necessarily as prayers offered, though I don’t believe that is wrong on occasion, but just to learn from how others prayed. Many of Calvin’s prayers are fine examples for us to follow, as are the prayers of the Puritans and Church Fathers like Augustine. The Scriptures, of course, are packed full of the prayers of past saints for our edification and instruction; especially the Book of Psalms.
G.M.
10.24.09
‘I Felt Led to …’
Among many evangelicals who reject the extra-Biblical revelations of the charismatics, is found something very little different:
“…we may fall into the error of thinking that while the Holy Spirit does not provide us with special revelations in the form of words or visions or dreams, yet he may and does provide us with some direct feeling or impression or conviction which we may regard as the Holy Spirit’s intimation to us of what his mind and will is in a particular situation. The present writer maintains that this view of the Holy Spirit’s guidance amounts, in effect, to the same things as to believe that the Holy Spirit gives special revelation. And the reason for this conclusion is that we are, in such an event, conceiving of the Holy Spirit as giving us some special and direct communication, be it in the form of feeling, impression, or conviction, a communication or intimation direction that is not mediated to us through those means which God has ordained for our direction and guidance.
…it makes little difference whether the intimation is in the form of impression or feeling or conviction or in the form of verbal communication, if we believe that the experience we have is a direct and special intimation to us of what the will of God is…” (John Murray, the Guidance of the Holy Spirit, in Collected Writings Vol. 1, pp.186-187)
G.M.
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10.17.09
Power Without Authority
The mere use of force and genuine authority are confused in the minds of many today. Christians have lost their understanding of this subject, and it was because of this that Anthony Hayter wrote a little compendium in 1975 of the great Covenanter work, ‘A Hind Let Loose’. While summarising how true authority can only come from God, Mr. Hayter says the following:
“All authority, therefore, which is true authority is delegated. For one cannot simply assume authority for oneself. Parents have a natural authority over their children, but the relationship between parent and child in itself, is not something men have invented, but is something received, being fundamental in the order of nature (and may not therefore be set aside). Again, the mere use of force over others does not give one authority. But nor does the voice of the multitude give authority, though it may give a formal legitimacy and a power. Thus a crowd may assume to itself a power of legislating its acts, and then proceed to tyranny; but it does not thereby obtain authority to do so, since authority and tyranny are irreconcilable.” A. Hayter, The Delight of Kings, p.2
With this before us perhaps we should ask, is the role of the civil magistrate limited to functions and spheres that God clearly delegates to them, or are they free to take on the authority of parents and individuals and elders if they think these are making a bad job of it? Should we have a different understanding of Democracy than is commonly held today? Has the State the authority from God to attempt to prevent bad things from happening, or is it simply meant to act as a minister of God in punishing crime as defined by his law?
“All power is ordained of God, by his provident will, but every power assumed by man is not so by his approbative and preceptive will.” Alexander Shields {Covenanter}, in The Scots Worthies by John Howie, p.?
G.M.
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10.16.09
A ‘Badman’ Against Home Education
On Downing Street’s website there is a petition against the Badman Report (well named) into home education for U.K. citizens, please take the time to sign it.
G.M.
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10.05.09
Why A Long Life Is A Blessing!
On the Lord’s Day one of our elders preached a very practical sermon which addressed the issue of the Christian’s calling in this present world. His main concern was to show how misguided ‘pietism’ is in its attempt not only not to be of this world, but to live as if we were not called to be in this world. In doing so he touched on the richness of the Christian view of enjoying this world to God’s glory with thankfulness, the continuation of the dominion mandate, and our duty to be as lights not hide.
G.M.
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09.21.09
Not Unimportant
As I’ve said before, C. S. Lewis must be read descerningly (who can be read without some descernment?), yet he understood certain things Evangelicals would do well to learn. One such is the importance of culture:
“Christians and soldiers are still men; the infidel’s idea of a religious life and the civilian’s idea of active service are fantastic. If you attempted, in either case, to suspend your whole intellectual and aesthetic activity, you would only succeed in substituting a worse cultural life for a better. You are not, in fact, going to read nothing, either in church or in the line: if you don’t read good books, you will read bad ones [or watch junk TV]. If you don’t go on thinking rationally, you will think irrationally. If you reject aesthetic satisfactions, you will fall into sensual satisfactions.”
‘Learning in War-Time’ (Weight of Glory), p.?
G.M.
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09.18.09
New Blog to Keep an Eye On!
Our friends Pastor Rob McCurley and Travis Fentiman of Greenville Presbyterian Church have started a blog – Greenville Street Preaching – which we highly recommend you check out. Also, the link to Greenville Presbyterian Church takes you to the church’s pages on SermonAudio, the sermons there are among some of the most edifying you are likely to find on the web.
09.12.09
Making the Gospel Relevant!
This term immediately makes the conservative suspicious and the liberal excited. It is resisted as an innovation by one and taken as a mandate to innovate by the other. In a quest to make the Gospel relevant to the culture we live in, biblical principles of worship have been set aside and, in total contradiction to the intended goal, the Gospel has been emptied of its content and therefore of its power.
This is not to say we must not still strive to make the Gospel relevant to the culture we live in. We need to study to understand society so as to address the needs of the people we seek to witness to. If a missionary is sent to labour in a foreign land a huge emphasis is placed upon their coming to understand the customs, beliefs and worldview of the people they seek to reach. But something has happened in our conservative reformed Churches in the last century; and that is we have not come to grips with the cultural drift in our own societies. We preach to a neo-pagan culture as if it were still Christian. In terms of the evangelism of the New Testament Church in the book of Acts – we preach to Greeks as though they had all the categories of the Jews.
In our evangelism then it is imperative that we study the particular needs of our society and address them without compromising in any way the inviolable principles and doctrines of the Word of God. Gordon Keddie when examining Paul’s method of evangelism in Athens writes ‘If we merely trot out our canned Gospel message or moral outrage, without identifying the sinners specific need, we shall only be talking to ourselves. Paul never preached the Gospel in the abstract, he scratched were people itched.’
G.B.
09.03.09
Musing and Amusing are Opposites.
Neil Postman is well known for his cultural commentary ‘Amusing ourselves to Death.’ Gresham Machen beat him to it however, and that from a Christian perspective, writing in 1934. I think it will help you to stop clicking the internet icon on your computer as often as you do in those silent, quiet moments. It could be you have become dependent on your 10 minute internet fix, and if the bell does not chirp frequently enough to let you know something has landed in your inbox – you check and check and check again. Here’s Machen then, followed by Asaph and David.
‘I think the man who above all should be pitied is the man who has never learned to amuse himself without mechanical assistance when he is alone. Even babies are sometimes taught to amuse themselves. I remember when I was at Princeton I used to watch the baby of one of the professors on the Seminary campus. That self-reliant little mite of humanity would spend the entire morning in the middle of that great lesson how to use his lesuire time. He did not need to have anybody else rattle his rattle for him. Thankyou, if he needed a rattle at all, he could rattle his own rattle for himself. He was getting a good preparation for life. A person who can rattle his own rattle when he is a baby is very apt to be able to paddle his own canoe when he becomes a man.
‘The average American, however, remains a baby all his life. He is unable to rattle his own rattle. He has to have somebody else amuse him all the time. Leave him alone for five minutes, and he has to turn on his radio. It seems to make very little difference to him what the radio gives forth. All he wants is that some kind of physical impact shall be made on his eardrums – and incidently on everybody else’s eardrums – just to keep him from having one moment to himself. Turn off his radio even for a moment and the appalling emptiness of his life is at once revealed.’
Compare this with Asaph in Ps 77 ‘I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search’ v6. ‘I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of all thy doings.’ v10-11.
Or With David in Ps 143:5 ‘I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the works of thy hands.’
Ultimately Musing and Amusing (or being amused) are opposites!
G.B.
09.01.09
Covenant Children – What’s the difference anyway?
When I have in the past attempted to explain to non-paedobaptists the significance of seeing our children as in the Covenant of Grace, I have learned that they often see little difference in practice between how they view their children and how many paedo-baptists view their children. I can understand this because many paedo-baptists simply baptise their children and then do not view their children any differently in practice than Baptists. Both groups confine their view of the child as being privileged to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and as more ‘privileged’ than the children of unbelievers only in so far as they are exposed to the means of grace and a Christian home. However the doctrine of children in the covenant is more than this.
Recently I have been reading ‘Foundations of Christian Education’ by Van-Til and Berkhof and in Berkhof’s chapter on Education and the Covenant of Grace he deals wonderfully with the issues we address above.
On the Promises of the Covenant he says ‘There are promises for the present and for the future, promises for days of prosperity and for seasons of adversity, promises for the living and they dying. There are promises of renewed strength for those whose strength seems to fail, promises of courage for the faint hearted and of rest for the weary. There are promises of guidance through life and of deliverance out of temptations, promises of the support of the everlasting arms and of the good cheer for the afflicted and the discouraged, promises of security for storm tossed souls, promises too of an everlasting home for weary pilgrims…. And the promises – all the promises, as many promises as there are and that are yea and amen in Christ Jesus – are for us and for our children.’
Then he deals with the Requirements of the Covenant, introducing the concept of CONDITIONALITY. We must believe in the mediator of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only by saving faith that we become conscious partakers of the covenant life. This faith is wrought by the Spirit of God and of itself merits nothing. It is at this point that Berkhof deals with the issue of Covenant Children.
‘It is in this connection it is highly necessary to bear in mind that living in the covenant relationship is something more than living under the gospel, under the free offer of salvation. There is here something more than an offer, something more than a promise [made to all in that offer G.B]; there is an agreement. The covenant is an established covenant, a covenant agreeed to, agreed to by parents also for their children…. This means that, for the children of the covenant, the covenant is not merely an offer which they can accept or reject, but an agreement which they have entered; and that, if they do not live up to the terms of the agreeement, they are covenant breakers.’
Parents make the promise on their children’s behalf that they will be the Lord’s. In one sense they promise more than they can accomplish because they cannot give new life to their children, yet their promise is to devote their seed to God and to train them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord within the pale of the covenant. They make this promise entirely on the strength of the promises of the Lord and fulfil their obligation in trustful reliance on the Lord to give them a new heart and faith in Christ. Training their children in the way they should go, they look with expectancy that when those children are old they will not depart from this way.
G.B.
08.28.09
Pregnant Clouds and Mad Waves
The God who made all things governs them; nothing, absolutely nothing, happens contrary to his great will. The saints of old have found rich food for contemplation in his control of the creation, and sometimes it has given birth to poetic lines:
“…He bids the clouds with water pent,
Imprisoned tempests chain;
Then their big floating wombs, unrent,
Suspend the birth of rain.
Again he bids their bosom ope,
And down the blessings pours,
To feed the lab’ring farmer’s hope
With warm prolific show’rs…
He raises rocky fences round
The spacious swelling deep,
Which do the raging billows bound,
Mad waves in prison keep.
That while the rule of day and night,
The sun and moon maintain,
The rolling seas may have no might
To drown the earth again…
The trembling waves at his command,
Creep softly to the shore;
Storms over-awed do silent stand,
Do quickly cease to roar.
Thus lawless seas he does control,
Diversifies the deep;
He makes the sleeping billows roll,
The rolling billows sleep.”
(Ralph Erskine, Works Vol. 7, pp.467-8)
Let us never forget that we worship him as creatures as well as redeemed sinners, that he is the Almighty Creator as well as the Saviour and Redeemer of his people. If there were no salvation for fallen men we would all still be bound to worship this great Creator of all things; and the unregenerate are guilty for not doing so.
G.M.
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08.24.09
‘Mother Kirk’ – Sounds Popish, Doesn’t It?
As Protestants we tend to feel a little uncomfortable with using the term mother in relation to the Church, if not always the truths it encapsulates. But here is what one well known Protestant said on the subject:
“Now learn even from the simple title ‘mother’ how useful, indeed how necessary, it is that we should know her. For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until putting off mortal flesh, we become like angles [note: like, not into - G.M.] Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from her school until we have been pupils all our lives. Away from her bosom one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation.”
Sounds so terribly popish, doesn’t it? But that is John Calvin speaking in his Institutes (Bk. iv., 4), and it is the sort of thing any one of the Reformers would have said. The multiplication of denominations and modern individualism are largely to blame for how low our view of the Church has become. The pietistic reduction of Christianity no doubt also bears a large share, and you can probably think of many others. I’m not capable enough to go into this subject much, nor would I want to publicly, but I suggest that we need a radically higher view of the Church than we currently have. And I would further ask whether we are likely to see much of God’s blessing upon us while we treat with such disrespect his Church?
G.M.
P.S. I will try to put up a few more quotes by other divines that enlarge upon and clarify this theme in the coming weeks. I’ve also added a few more quotes to the quote pages for those interested.
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08.08.09
Sympathy and Hope to Encourage Prayer
Prayer is such a privilege and delight that it seems almost unbelievable that we would need to be given encouragements, considerations, and promises to engage in it. And yet we know that it is so. And we know that we are not at all naturally inclined to it. Indeed, we know that in order to engage in it sincerely and with fixed hearts, not to mention with soul enlargement, we must fight against our natural inclinations. What a blessing that we are commanded to pray (just as we need Sabbath observance as a duty)! But commands are not all we have. We also have considerations to rouse us:
“For all saints. There is not a moment of our life at which the duty of prayer may not be urged by our own wants. But unremitting prayer may likewise be enforced by the consideration, that the necessities of our brethren ought to move our sympathy. And when is it that some members of the church are not suffering distress, and needing our assistance? If, at any time, we are colder or more indifferent about prayer than we ought to be, because we do not feel the pressure of immediate necessity,- let us instantly reflect how many of our brethren are worn out by varied and heavy afflictions,- are weighed down by sore perplexity, or are reduced to the lowest distress. If reflections like these do not rouse us from our lethargy, we must have hearts of stone.”
John Calvin on Eph.6:18, Commentaries vol.21, p.341
And promises to fill our sails with Christian hope:
“Whether the times of the greatest and most extensive flourishing of the Gospel promised to the church in the last days be far off or near at hand, is it not desirable to be of the number of those to whose fervent prayers these inestimable blessings shall be gracious returns? seeing it is evident from Scripture, that God will be enquired after, even for what he has absolutely promised; and they that see such promises only afar off ought to embrace them.”
John Gillies, Historical Collections of Accounts of Revival, p.vii of Author’s Preface
G.M.
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08.01.09
The Soul Perceiving Her God
The Dutch Second- or Further-Reformation divines were much like their English counterparts, the Puritans – men who combined in their writings and practice a glorious mixture of learning and piety, doctrine and experiential religion. One of the finest of these Dutch ‘Puritans’ was Wilhelmus à Brakel, and here he is at his finest:
“All salvation, comfort, delight, holiness, and felicity for the soul is to be found in having fellowship with God. Such a soul perceives the righteousness of God as being only light, glorious, and pure – she loves it and rejoices herself in it, doing so all the more, since this righteousness is not against her unto condemnation, but the Surety having merited this, it is to her advantage. The soul also perceives the goodness and all–sufficiency of God, and in enjoying their efficacy, she not only is unable to find any desirability in creatures apart from God, but apart from God there is nothing which she desires, since the soul finds everything in God.
The soul also perceives the holiness of God. Since she is unable to endure its lustre, she covers her countenance and perceives in this lustre her own sinfulness; and for shame, she shrivels away, so to speak, and becomes as nothing. The soul also perceives the love of God, and being irradiated by this love, she delights herself in a most wondrous way, reciprocal love being ignited within her. She perceives the will of God as being uppermost and sovereign over all things. Thus, she loses her own will in whatever suffering comes her way and in whatever duties are before her. She wishes it to be thus because it is the Lord’s will.
The soul perceives the majesty and glory of God, in comparison with which all creatures lose their majesty and glory and she bows herself deeply before her majestic God, worships Him with deep reverence, and gives honor and glory to Him. She perceives the omnipotence of God, both within Himself and as it is operative toward His creatures. Then the power of the creature, which manifests itself either for or against her will, disappears. She sees the wisdom of God as revealing itself in all His works – both in nature as well as in grace. Thus, the wisdom of all creatures melts away and she is quiet and well–satisfied with the only wise government of God. The soul also perceives the veracity and faithfulness of God. She is acquainted with the promises, believes them, and is so confident as far as the certainty of these promises is concerned, that it is as if they were already fulfilled.
All this engenders a thoughtful and steadfast spiritual frame, quiet submission in whatever circumstances the soul encounters, a fearless courage in the performance of her duty, and a delighting herself in the task she has done for the Lord, leaving the outcome with resignation to the Lord’s direction. Such a life is truly a joyful life, and pure holiness issues forth from this. She acknowledges any virtue which is not practiced by having God in Christ in view, as a vice. Such fellowship with God is heaven itself: “…and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (‘The Christian’s Reasonable Service’, Ch. 41, p.?)
G.M.
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07.25.09
Infinite Beauty
One of the great weaknesses of modern Christianity is our low estimation of Christ (perhaps from it stems almost all our others). We like to talk sentimentally, but I suspect very few of us really have a deep sense of his intrinsic beauty in the way that the following author reveals with these comments:
“But Christ Jesus has true excellency, and so great excellency, that when they come to see it they look no further, but the mind rests there. It sees a transcendent glory and an ineffable sweetness in him; it sees that till now it has been pursuing shadows, but that now it has found the substance; that before it had been seeking happiness in the stream, but that now it has found the ocean. The excellency of Christ is an object adequate to the natural cravings of the soul, and is sufficient to fill the capacity. It is an infinite excellency, such an one as the mind desires, in which it can find no bounds; and the more the mind is used to it, the more excellent it appears. Every new discovery makes this beauty appear more ravishing, and the mind sees no end; here is room enough for the mind to go deeper and deeper, and never come to the bottom. The soul is exceedingly ravished when it first looks on this beauty, and it is never weary of it. The mind never has any satiety, but Christ’s excellency is always fresh and new, and tends as much to delight, after it has been seen a thousand or ten thousand years, as when it was seen the first moment.”
George Swinnock {Puritan}, Unknown
G.M.
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