God is a God of Truth
Friends, there is a Truth, and it can be known!
I still struggle with some major debates of the faith, and while I know my salvation is assured, I have been desperately trying to work through some questions I have. No, I have not arrived at the upper rungs, but God's promise is that He will reveal His mysteries in His time. In Paul's letter to the Philippians (chapter 3), he describes the goals he is set to achieve. The goal for the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ. And here is the verse that drives home the point (that God will reveal all things to us in time). 3:15 states, "Let those of us who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this to God will reveal to you."
Some of the best advice I've received about the function of the church is this: Unity in the essentials. Liberty in the nonessentials. And CHARITY above all things. Friends, here on earth, we will most assuredly get some doctrine wrong. But don't let these hang-ups stand in the way of seeking Truth and Love. Charity above all things.
Shoutouts to Philippians, Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, Isaiah, and the gospels. 2011 has been a year of indescribable joy for the growth God has permitted me through His ultimate authority.
Friends, there is a Truth, and it can be known!
I still struggle with some major debates of the faith, and while I know my salvation is assured, I have been desperately trying to work through some questions I have. No, I have not arrived at the upper rungs, but God's promise is that He will reveal His mysteries in His time. In Paul's letter to the Philippians (chapter 3), he describes the goals he is set to achieve. The goal for the heavenly call of God in Jesus Christ. And here is the verse that drives home the point (that God will reveal all things to us in time). 3:15 states, "Let those of us who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this to God will reveal to you."
Some of the best advice I've received about the function of the church is this: Unity in the essentials. Liberty in the nonessentials. And CHARITY above all things. Friends, here on earth, we will most assuredly get some doctrine wrong. But don't let these hang-ups stand in the way of seeking Truth and Love. Charity above all things.
Shoutouts to Philippians, Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, Isaiah, and the gospels. 2011 has been a year of indescribable joy for the growth God has permitted me through His ultimate authority.
"God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Hun should not perish, but have everlasting life."-JOHN 3: 16.
ReplyDeleteJust as an infant's hand "can grasp the acorn which holds the giant oak" within it, so the youngest child who can lisp "the Nicodemus sermon" may with truth be said to know the gospel, and yet in every word of it there is a depth and mystery of meaning which God alone can fathom. Tell me what it means to perish, and enable me to grasp the thought of a life that is eternal. Measure for me the abyss of man's wickedness and guilt during all the ages of his black and hateful history, that I may realize in some degree what that world is which God has loved; and then, pausing for a moment in wonder at the thought that such a world could be loved at all, hasten on to speak of love that gave the Son. And when you have enabled me to know this love, which cannot be known, for it passes knowledge, press on still and tell me of the sacrifice by which it has measured and proved itself - His Son, His Only-begotten Son. Make me to know, in the fulness of knowledge, Him who declared that 'the Father alone could know Him.' And when you have achieved all this, I turn again to the words of Christ, and I read that it was GOD who so loved the world, and I crave to know Who and What God is. I can rise to the thought of love, perhaps even to an evil world, and the conception of love giving up an only son is not beyond me; but when I come to know that it was GOD who loved, that GOD was the giver, and God's Son the gift, I stand as a wondering worshipper in the presence of the Infinite, and confess that such knowledge is too high for me.
At the very threshold, therefore, I charge my reader to think becomingly of the gospel, remembering that it is the gospel of God. And His gospel is like Himself. The heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, and yet He owns the humble heart as a fitting borne. So also, in its simplicity and plainness, the good news is within the reach of the youngest and most ignorant, aye, and even of the lowest and the worst, for such may hear and believe and live; but in its depth and fulness it is known to God alone, for it is a revelation of Himself. Hence it is that the old song of the redeemed on earth will be a new song throughout eternity; for every advance we make in the knowledge of God will shed new light on the message we received in our sins and sorrows here.
But not only has the gospel a depth and dignity and glory all its own because it is in a special sense a revelation of God, it has also a distinctive greatness and solemnity by virtue of its peculiar mission, and of the issues involved in the proclamation of it. It is divinely called "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." The power of God! no words can add force to this, and words that detract from it are impious. The mighty power which made the worlds and alone can raise the dead, such is its power to the sinner who believes. Let the preacher remember this; and while he humbly consecrates to God every talent he possesses, let him never attempt by unworthy means to add attractiveness to such a message.
And what solemn issues are depending while it is being proclaimed! For the preaching of the gospel must ever tend to life, or else to death, in those who hear.
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Written over 100 years ago by Sir Robert Anderson
Yours in Christ
William
wmknapp55@gmail.com
Good words. Thank you for sharing. What excites me is when I come across passages that tell me how He does these things because He delights in us. Or how He asks Isaiah to come and reason with Him. Or Romans 5 as Paul describes God's love for us while we were still filthy.
ReplyDeleteThis love is from the God I desire to know more and more. Because the more I know and the more I learn to trust, the less I am afraid of what I'm leaving behind!
Perfect love drives out fear! (I Jn)
God bless, Brother!