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| On Victory...“When we
submit to sin, yielding to its imperious demands, it is not a matter of
yielding to the inevitable or reverting to type. We are foolishly, perversely allowing sin to
dominate us when in actual fact it has neither the right nor the power to do
so. We have been taken once and for all
out of its territory, out of the state where it holds men and women captive and
in chains. Therefore, when we submit to
sin and temptation, as if it had mastery, we are like freed slaves going back into
the house of their former bondage and obeying their old owner. By Christ’s redeeming act at Calvary we were brought out of the slave market of the
world, ransomed from Satan, sin, and death.
No one now but He who bought us has any rights over us: ‘the accuser of
the brethren’ has no ground on which to claim us; the powers of the demonic
cannot pluck us from the safety of Christ’s hands; the world’s standards and
priorities (and our own old standards and priorities) of self-centeredness and
self-advancement cannot compel us since we have a new motivation, another goal,
and an indwelling Spirit by which to reach it.”
Peter Lewis, The Glory of Christ (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997), p. 341.
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| God’s Response to “Protest Atheism”In his superb book, Understanding the Trinity (p. 101-102), Oxford theologian Alister McGrath addresses
the issue of so-called ‘protest atheism’. He explains this 20th-century
phenomenon thus: a protest “directed
against the image of a God who stands aloof from his world while…suffering
continues.” As an answer to this protest and as a defense of the Christian
doctrine of the Incarnation, McGrath quotes – in its entirety – a striking
playlet.
The Long Silence
At the end of
time, billions of people were scattered on a great plain before God's throne.
Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the
front talked heatedly – not with cringing shame, but with belligerence.
‘Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?’ snapped a pert young
brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi
concentration camp. ‘We endured terror, beatings, torture and death!’ In
another group, a Negro boy lowered his collar. ‘What about this?’ he demanded,
showing an ugly rope burn. ‘Lynched, for no crime but being black!’ In another
crowd, there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes: ‘Why should I suffer?’
she murmured. ‘It wasn't my fault.’
Far out
across the plain were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God
for the evil and suffering He had permitted in his world. How lucky God was to live in heaven where all
was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or
hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this
world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.
So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because he had suffered
the most. A Jew, a Negro, a person from Hiroshima,
a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the plain
they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case.
It was rather clever.
Before God could be qualified to be their judge, He must endure what they had
endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth – as
a man!
‘Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a
work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind when he
tries to do it. Let him be betrayed by
his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury,
and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured. At the last, let him see what it means to be
terribly alone. Then let him die. Let
him die so that there can be no doubt he died. Let there be a host of witnesses
to verify it.’
As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval
went up from the throng of people assembled. And when the last had finished
pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered another word. No
one moved. For suddenly all knew that
God had already served His sentence.
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| Faith...what it isWhile reading Alister McGrath's newish book (thanks again, Peter), Dawkins' God, I came across this superb definition of faith by W.H. Griffith Thomas (1861-1924):
"[Faith] affects the whole of man's nature. It commences with the
conviction of the mind based on adequate evidence; it continues in the
confidence of the heart or emotions based on conviction, and it is
crowned in the consent of the will, by means of which the conviction
and confidence are expressed in conduct."
(The Principles of Theology, 1930)
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| Imaginative prayerQuoted in a devotional by Selwyn Hughes:
One can never become proficient in prayer until the imagination has been redeemed.
The writter's point is that, if one desires proficiency in prayer, he/she must first be saved from self-absorption and sin-concentration. In other words, God must be the primary focus in prayer. Thus, prayer should never be mainly about us and our problems, desires and issues (our "normal" tendency is often to give God our "wish list", isn't it?); rather, it must be focused on the Creator -- His glory, character and purposes. | | |
| on freedom...In the most recent (double) issue of WORLD magazine [September 2/9, 2006 vol. 21, no. 34, p. 39], editor Marvin Olasky interviews theologian Miroslav Volf. Check out what Volf has to say about freedom: "Freedom isn't just a matter of will; it's a matter of being. And that's where certain forms of constraint of freedom can legitimately come in. Why? Because our desires are often not in sync with who we truly are as creatures of God. Unconstrained, we work against ourselves and generate our own slavery -- sometimes even pleasant slavery for a while, but slavery nonetheless -- as those addicted to drugs, pornography, gambling, or anything else will attest.
When God commands us sinners how to live, we experience God's commands as constraint. But what the commands really do is simply tell us what it means to live in sync with ourselves as God's creatures." | | |
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