The Gospel Coalition

“Thus in the turmoil of life without, and black despair within, it is always possible to turn aside and wait on God.  Just as at the center of a hurricane there is stillness, and above the clouds a clear sky, so it is possible to make a little clearing in the jungle of our human will for a rendezvous with God. . . . Once, in Times Square, I was glancing disconsolately but also avidly at the rows and rows of paperbacks, each with some lewd or sadistic picture for its cover, and noticed that by some strange accident my book on Mother Teresa, Something Beautiful For God, had got on to these sad shelves.  Wondering how it could have happened, Herbert’s beautiful lines came into my mind:

And here in dust and dirt, O here
The lilies of His love appear.”

Malcolm Muggeridge, Confessions of a Twentieth-Century Pilgrim (San Francisco, 1988), pages 22-23.

Over on the left.

Thank you, Sweetwater Georgia, Byron, Joseph and Rebecca Morris, and Southland Taxidermy in Augusta!

Now, only three months until the opening of bow season.

“When the heart is cast into the mould of the doctrine which the mind embraces, . . . when not the sense of the words but of the things is in our hearts, when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for, then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.  Without this, all our contending is of no value to ourselves.  What am I the better, if I can dispute that Christ is God but have no sense that he is a God in covenant with my soul? . . . It is possible to contend for truth in a spirit most opposite to its nature, and most warmly to advocate the rights of a cause from which we ourselves may derive no benefit.  In all cases, it should be remembered, that the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God.”

John Owen, in The Works of John Owen, edited by Thomas Russell (London, 1826), I:164-165.

ITG 2013-14 from Immanuel Theology Group on Vimeo.

More info here.

“I wish you a share of my feast.  Sweet, sweet has Jesus’ love been to me. . . . But for you, hang on.  Your feast is not far off.  You shall be filled ere you go.  There is as much in our Lord’s pantry as will satisfy all his bairns [children], and as much wine in his cellar as will quench all their thirst.  Hunger on, for there is food in hunger for Christ.  Never go from him, but fash [annoy] him (who is yet pleased with the importunity of hungry souls) with a dishfull of hungry desires, till he fill you.”

Samuel Rutherford, writing in 1637 to James Bautie, in The Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Edinburgh, 1891), page 492.

November 6, 1777

My dear Sir,

You say you are more disposed to cry miserere than hallelujah.  Why not both together?  When the treble is praise, and heart humiliation for the bass, the melody is pleasant, and the harmony good.  However, if not both together, we must have them alternately: not all singing, not all sighing, but an interchange and balance, that we may be neither lifted up too high nor cast down too low, which would be the case if we were very comfortable or very sorrowful for a long continuance.  But though we change, the Savior changes not.

All our concerns are in his hands, and therefore safe.  His path is in the deep waters; his thoughts and methods of conduct are as high above ours as the heavens are high above the earth; and he often takes a course for accomplishing his purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe.  He wounds, in order to heal; kills, that he may make alive; casts down, when he designs to raise; brings a death upon our feelings, wishes and prospects, when he is about to give us the desire of our hearts.  These things he does to prove us; but he himself knows, and has determined beforehand, what he will do.

The proof indeed usually turns out to our shame.  Impatience and unbelief show their heads, and prompt us to suppose this and the other thing, yes, perhaps all things, are against us; to question whether he be with us and for us, or not.  But it issues likewise in the praise of his goodness, when we find that, in spite of all our unkind complaints and suspicions, he is still working wonderfully for us, causing light to shine out of darkness and doing us good in defiance of ourselves.

I am, etc.

John Newton

“The real reason why Paul was devoted to the doctrine of justification by faith was not that it made possible the Gentile mission, but rather that it was true.  Paul was not devoted to the doctrine of justification by faith because of the Gentile mission; he was devoted to the Gentile mission because of the doctrine of justification by faith.”

J. Gresham Machen, quoted in Peter Stuhlmacher, Revisiting Paul’s Doctrine of Justification (Downers Grove, 2001), page 90.

Our justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone apart from all our works creates workable allowances for creative adaptation in ministry, so that we can bring the truth to more and more unlikely people.

“The Old Testament is a book, wherein is written the law of God, and the deeds of them which fulfill them, and of them which fulfill them not.  The New Testament is a book, wherein are contained the promises of God, and the deeds of them which believe them, or believe them not.”

William Tyndale, Theological Treatises (Cambridge, 1848), page 8.

There are promises in the Old Testament too, of course.  Indeed, they are foundational to the promises of the New Testament.  But as Old Covenant versus New Covenant, this simple summary of the overall biblical narrative holds.  The compelling thing about it is the sharp contrast – those who believe or believe not – which is surely biblical and calls for honest self-examination.