Notable Quotables

I have been reading Henry Scougal's The Life of God in the Soul of Man over the past couple weeks. It was written in the 1600s for one of Scougal's friends, and the friend found it so helpful that he later published it; it was instrumental in the salvation of that great preacher, George Whitefield, who said that "I never knew what true religion [ie, Christianity] was till God sent me this excellent treatise." It is a fairly short book, but is deep and thought-provoking and I prefer to take it bit by bit, instead of reading a huge chunk all at once. Fortunately it is broken up into parts in an outline form, which makes that easier. The whole book has been wonderful, but certain quotes have stood out to me.

"They know by experience that true religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the Divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or, in the apostle's phrase, 'it is Christ formed within us.'" (pg. 44)

Thus, Scougal aptly terms true religion "Divine life," and for a believer, it is indeed the life of God in the soul of man.

Later, in speaking of the excellency of Divine love and how all our affections ought to be directed toward God, he says -

"But, certainly, that passion which account[s] its object a Deity, ought to be bestowed on Him who really is so... Those chains and cords of love are infinitely more glorious than liberty itself: this slavery is more noble than all the empires of the world." (pg. 73)

Thoughts?

Amos

The Minor Prophets are sadly neglected. I think many of us fall into the trap of considering them stiff and harsh; or they are just so small that they get lost, sandwiched between the great books of Ezekiel and Matthew as they are. However, Lucy recently read the book of Amos and we were discussing it together, and I was very blessed reading it for myself. It is a powerful book and has a great deal of feeling wrapped up in it, and it is, like all the rest of the Bible, of great worth.

The book begins, directly after Amos' calling from the humble occupation of a shepherd, with a declaration of the might of the Almighty that is reminiscent of the latter chapters of Job -

The LORD roars from Zion, and utters His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.

Immediately afterward He launches into a judgment of the nations for their lack of mercy and their persecution of God's people. For these things He says that He will break the gates of Damascus and send their people into exile; He will destroy the palaces of Gaza; He will set fire to the city of Tyre and to the lands of Edom and Moab and to the people of Ammon. From other books of the Bible we see that God sometimes used the neighboring nations to lead Israel into exile and show them their sins, and teach them to return to Him; but despite that, the heathen nations still had to answer for their treatment of God's chosen people, and He does send His wrath upon them.

But the judgment is not limited to the heathen people. In chapter 2 God turns to Judah and declares their sin of having despised His law, and declares again that He will send fire upon the palaces of Jerusalem. But the main focus of the book of Amos is on Israel, for these are the things he saw "concerning Israel." Here in pronouncing judgment God does not merely state their sins; He also speaks of His goodness to them and contrasts that with their sins -

Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was as strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath. Also it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt...

There is a mixture of plea and anger in the tone of the words, that is not there in His addresses to the wicked nations. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth," God says in chapter 3; "Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." The punishment He gives to the people of Israel (and gives to believers now) is a good thing, meant to teach and instruct and correct. "For whom the LORD loves, He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights" (Proverbs 3:12). Discipline is a blessing, for God gives it to those whom He loves in order to set their feet on the straight and narrow path. It is His rod and staff that comfort us, as David says, and they are used equally to correct us when we sin and to protect us from enemies.

Israel despised God's first "round of discipline," if I can put it that way, and did not return to Him in repentance; yet again in chapter 5 He gives them a call to "repent and live." He commands them not to seek the land or other gods, but to call on Him, for "He made the Pleiades and Orion; He turns the shadow of death into morning and makes the day dark as night; He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth; the LORD is His name." The people are to seek good and not evil, and so to live; for God will send judgment and wrath on Israel and send them into exile in Damascus because of their sin.

Chapter 7 presents an image like Abraham when he pleaded for Sodom and Gomorrah. God shows Amos a vision of plague - locusts - first, and yet when Amos humbly and boldly cries out for Him to forgive the people, God, as He did for Abraham, says that He will not send the locusts. Again God shows a vision of fire, and again Amos pleads for Israel because it is so small and, one may infer, weak. And God, who "knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust," turns away this manifestation of His wrath and says again that it will not be so. There is, however, no record of a plea from Amos during the third vision, of the plumb line; he goes and speaks God's word to Israel, until the priest orders him to be silent and leave. Thus Amaziah the priest brings about God's judgment on himself, for contradicting the word of a true prophet.

Surely the punishment spoken of throughout seems very harsh: Israel will be overcome by her enemies and her palaces will be plundered, and so on, and God will bring destruction upon her. Yet the prophecy concludes with a hopeful tone within the somber context. God again declares His faithfulness to the house of Jacob, and says that, though He will destroy the sinful kingdom, yet He will not completely annihilate Israel. When the wicked have been dealt with, God speaks through Amos that He will again restore the people of Israel to the place that He gave them.

'I will plant them in their land, and no longer shall they be pulled up from the land I have given them,' says the LORD your God.

So the whole of the book is both strong and encouraging and full of applicable truth, for we can see a multitude of things about God in the prophecy. We see that He is strong to save His people and punish their persecutors, and that He will not leave them in trouble forever. We see His holiness and strength in dealing with sin, mingled with His mercy and everlasting love in that He persistently shows them the way of repentance, and that He always has a remnant of people who follow Him.

Magical

A friend of mine and I were discussing the musical Wicked over email, and the conversation led on to the subject of magic in such books as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Wizard of Oz. Magic is a controversial topic among some Christians, especially among adults with young or teenage children; some parents say that what their children read is up to them, whether it be Harry Potter or Twilight, but that's a different discussion. The other two main camps are the ones who say that all representations of magic in fiction are evil or dangerous, and therefore books containing them should not be read; and those who say that magic has its place in children's literature, if used correctly. So the question is really, is all magic equally bad?

The most common use of magic is in what we call fairytales. They've been around for centuries - the originals of the Disney movies we see today, like the story of the Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, and a myriad of others - and mothers have told them to their children for years. They are less popular now in that form than they used to be, but the Disney productions are every bit as loved. They contain a great deal of magic, but it is not the same as is portrayed in the Biblical account of Saul consulting the witch of Endor: at least, the magic of the "good characters" is not. "Magic" is the label placed on the power that the fairies possess and use against the witches and other evil creatures, and it is meant, not to advocate black sorcery, but to illustrate the beauty and power that Good has. And does Good, God's perfect Goodness, not have power? Does it not have the power even to do miracles? And is it not also beautiful? These two things are combined in the words "magic" and "magical" - they are why we call things like a clear winter night, or moonlight on a lake, or hundreds of scarlet and orange leaves in an autumn wind, 'magical'.

These children's stories have much deeper truth in them than we give them credit for when they use magic. Not only do they show the power of Good, but they also contrast it with the sorcery of Evil. In the 21st Century, we logical thinkers often forget the fact that there are powers out there that we don't see; power from the Devil, that Father of Lies, but a greater, eternal power from the throne of God. Whether the creators of fairytales knew it or not, they were expressing very Christian facts when they spoke or wrote their stories. Does not Paul himself say that we "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms"? This is what parents forget in banning the truthful, honest fairy-stores from their bookshelves. Children ought not to be deprived of those higher, overarching truths.

Now, as a caveat, I will add that stories which support sorcery are by no means edifying reads. That is to take a fairytale and twist it out of its truth, and many modern authors and authoresses have done just that in their novels - and even children's stories. But tales like The Chronicles of Narnia (which I have often heard attacked) are fairytales with a larger scope; look at the power of Jadis, which turns creatures into stone, and then look at the power of Aslan, which can turn stone into life again. That is an illustration of the truth of Evil and Good, and a powerful one, at that.

Grace

I recently reread some of A.W. Tozer's The Knowledge of the Holy and came across this beautiful passage in his chapter "The Grace of God."

"We can never know the enormity of our sin, neither is it necessary that we should. What we can know is that 'where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.' To abound in sin: that is the worst and the most we could or can do. The word abound defines the limit of our finite abilities; and although we feel our iniquities rise over us like a mountain, the mountain, nevertheless, has definable boundaries: it is so large, so high, it weighs only this certain amount and no more. But who shall define the limitless grace of God? Its 'much more' plunges our thoughts into infinitude and confounds them there. All thanks be to God for grace abounding."

What an inspiring truth! And one that we as Christians often take for granted and lose sight of altogether. But Tozer is right; if we would meditate on the "much more" of God's grace, it would overwhelm us and fill us with joy. I don't think we can read passages like Romans 5:20-21, or Ephesians 2, or I John 3:1-3, without some measure of delight in the love of Christ, which "surpasses knowledge." How great is the love of God.

The Hall of Faith

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us; looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

It's funny that Merriette just posted something about this verse; I had worked out what I wanted to say about it last night during my dad's Thursday Night Bible Study (and a lot of this comes from what he said, so I can't take full credit), and then when I logged on today I saw her post. Mine, however, is looking at a different part of the passage and is really something of a continuation of my last "real" post, 'No Walk in the Park.'

The premise of those thoughts was that following Christ is no walk in the park - it's a race, a marathon. The author of Hebrews addresses that poignantly in chapter 10, where he instructs the Christians in Rome to hold fast to their confession and endure and to have faith in Christ. Those people were facing a great deal of persecution - physical and verbal - and were tempted to go back to the old ways of the Jews in order to avoid that. The author's whole point is to show them that they must not fall back, but must persevere. "Do not cast away your confidence," he tells them, and adds that they "have need of endurance." Don't we all?

Some of the worst persecution comes from unbelieving family members and former friends in the early years of being saved. It's difficult and painful to have your loved ones turn on you and mock what you believe, and that's part of what the audience of the book of Hebrews were facing in Rome from other, unbelieving Jews. It's the kind of persecution that we usually face today; we don't get fed to lions or drawn-and-quartered or hanged or burned at the stake, but we do get laughed at and shunned because of our faith. The author of Hebrews, however, tells his listeners to remember those days when they were persecuted in that manner (verses 32-34) and take comfort from that. How?

There's a certain something that comes with remembering being mocked or ridiculed for the faith. They're often sad memories, and sometimes bitter ones as well. It's hard to take delight in remembering a time when your mother or father scoffed at you, or your best friend started making fun of you. And yet there's something else that comes as well, which is what the author was pointing to when he tells them to remember those times; because when you look back (or around, if you're still in that situation), there's a knowledge that it's worth it.

The bearing of your cross and the undergoing persecution in various ways, shapes, and forms is all worth it when you consider what will result from that. Would the persecuted believer rather have Christ as their Heavenly Brother, or keep the friendship they once had with someone at school? Would they rather have the acceptance of their parents, or the secure knowledge that God is their Father? Would you rather be comfortable in this world, or know that you are following in Christ's footsteps? That's really the main point right there. Even when you're in the persecution, there is a realization that Christ was also ridiculed, mocked, abused - by His own family, too. When a believer faces and endures persecution, they are sharing with Christ in that - and I have no doubt that they would rather share persecution with Christ than have worldly comfort without Him!

There is no greater honour for a Christian than to be persecuted alongside Christ. Paul, that great apostle, thought it so; so did Peter and John - and the writer of Hebrews. To be persecuted for Christ's name is to put you in the same category as Abraham, Moses, and David, those great men of God whom we look up to. It is to place you alongside the Puritans in England, the Reformers, and the early Christians. It is to deny the world and follow Christ, as He commanded. It is to have you say like the man Athanasius, "If the world is against me, then I am against the world." Those are but a handful of those who are part of the "cloud of witnesses" that the author of Hebrews talks about, that surround us and support us and, in a sense, cheer us on.

Persecution is not merely something to be pushed through and borne: it is something to be seen as a gift. It probably will not last forever, as the believer's Christian acquaintance grows and it is no longer necessary for them to spend so much time with unbelievers; but no matter in what form it comes or for how long it lasts, persecution is a blessing from God - even though it doesn't seem like that at the time.