Reformed Baptist Congregation Exaltation | Edification | Evangelism
Shame is an essential element in true repentance. Thomas Watson says that, “blushing is the color of virtue. When the heart has been made black with sin, grace makes the face red with blushing: ‘I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face,’ Ezra 9:6).”
True repentance is always painful and sorrowful, but it is true. We need to recover the art of blushing in church life, private life, business life and cultural life.
Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance (Banner of Truth, p. 39)
Post Tenebras Lux – After Darkness, Light
Luther’s famous dictum (probably not his exact words-but certainly his conviction) is still true for us today:
“Justification is the article by which the church stands and falls” (justificatio est articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae).
Don’t let anything stand in the way of this great point. Don’t add anything to it either. God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us through the instrument of faith only. this is how we are right with God.
Happy Reformation Day!
We distinguish between our sufferings in general and evil or wickedness. The persecution of the believer is constituted ‘sufferings.’ The killing of many people in Las Vegas is evil. It is the evil of man . It has always been so. We recognize the difficulty in saying that God knew of such an evil and did nothing to prevent it. We do not know, first of all, how much God did actually prevent, so it is pointless to speculate. We must acknowledge that God is on control of all things, even the evil of man. If God did not then he is not God. To say that God does not care or God did nothing is to seriously misrepresent all that Scripture reveals about God. [Read more…]
Geerhardus Vos (in his Reformed Dogmatics, Vol.1) defines these as:
Immensity – That perfection of God whereby He is exalted above all distinction of space, yet at every point in space is present with all His being and as such is the cause of space.
Immutability – That perfection of God whereby He is exalted above all becoming and development, as well as above all diminution, and remains the same eternally.
And then, there is Psalm 46:1-3, “God is our refuge and strength, Avery present help in trouble, therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be removed into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”