I’ve been blessed by my recent reading of “John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology”. Praise be to God for raising men like Luther, Calvin, Tyndale, Guido de Brès, Ursinus, and countless others who stood for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On this Reformation Day I’d like to share a tiny part of the book.
Calvin realized that through faith in Christ all the blessings of the gospel were his. Second, he saw that his life must be rooted and grounded in fellowship with Christ. Perhaps it was the personal realization of this that led him to wax lyrical at the climax of his exposition of the christological section of the Apostles’ Creed:
We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ (Acts 4:12). We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is “of him” (1 Corinthians 1:30). If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth…. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross (Galatians 3:13); if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge*.
*Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.16.19
Various Contributors;Burk Parsons;Burk Parsons. John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology (Kindle Locations 588-597). Kindle Edition.
Yesterday Tryphena and I spent a few hours together painting at The Artist In Me. We painted Panda, and as expected, her painting came out better than mine. 🙂
My bamboo leaves were too “patterny” while hers were more natural. We had fun!
It is common to encounter grave distortions of the biblical concept of the atonement. For instance, according to one popular view, God the Father is enraged at man, but God the Son identifies so closely with our fallenness that, in essence, He sides with us in our need and acts as our Mediator to calm the Father’s anger. The Father is about to punish everybody and send them to hell, but the Son says: “Punish Me instead. Let Me stand in their place. Let Me not only mediate the discussion, but let Me absorb the anger. You can heap Your wrath on Me.” According to this view, there is a tension or a split within the Godhead itself, as if the Father has an agenda and the Son persuades Him to change His mind.
This may sound like a ridiculous scenario, but it is a serious objection raised at a technical level by sophisticated theologians. It’s also a widespread, prevalent belief among Christians, perhaps because the Son seems more loving, patient, and compassionate than the Father. In this sense, evangelical Christians tend to be Unitarians of the second person of the Trinity. There’s much warm affection for Jesus, but the Father is almost totally ignored in Christian study, devotion, and liturgy.
R C Sproul. The Truth of the Cross (Kindle Locations 278-286). Kindle Edition
Today Tryphena and I spent the afternoon together painting. We painted “Monarch Butterfly” at The Artist In Me, and again I conceded that hers is better then mine. Isn’t it what we call “progressive”- the betterment of the next generation? Like the instructor said, my brain works in a structured way and it was reflected in my painting.
The important thing is that we had fun together! Contact Teresa Mathias at http://www.theartistinme.us/ if you’d like to schedule a class.
Just finished reading “Black List”, a fiction book by Brad Thor, the #1 New York Times bestselling author.
The books started with a quote by Senator Frank Church (D-ID) more than three decades ago, on August 17, 1975 in which he said, “[America’s intelligence gathering] capability at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left. Such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide.”
The story develops around the intricate nature of many governmental agencies and their non-governmental organization (NGO) counterparts working together to accomplish specific tasks. Through technologies and many unconstitutional policies drawn up during crisis (remember who recently said, “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid….”? Answer: Rahm Emanuel) the government via its many tentacles keep track of every citizen’s digital “bread crumbs”, such as e-mails, telephone conversations, social media posts, credit card transactions, (energy) smart meters, etc. Continue reading “Black List”
“Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced- a major shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals and an unprecedented redeployment of human and financial resources. This shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences of every human action be integrated into individual and collective decision-making at every level”
– DAN SITARZ, Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet
If you’re looking for a light fictional reading this Summer, I recommend “Agenda 21” which was authored by Harriet Parke, with afterword by Glenn Beck. The book is a fictional story of life in the future when Agenda 21 is fully implemented. It is a little stretched, as admitted by Glenn Beck; however, it provides a glimpse look into lives on the planet Earth which is controlled by a group of elite authority where there is no more individual freedom for the mere citizens. The Government provides everything, and thus, controls everything.
The government, or rather the Republic, provides food for the citizens. Don’t think of steak or cheese cake! No, the food government provides is rationed, 1 cube in the morning, and 1 cube in the evening for every citizen. Citizens have to eat their cubes every day (I thought forced feeding is against human rights?) so that they have energy to walk their “energy boards” every day. Energy board? What the heck is energy board? It is board that I envision more like a treadmill that produces energy when you walk on it. It has an energy meter that shows how much energy you have produced, and you have to produced a set number of energy every day. If you don’t meet the quota, the guard will come knocking on your door. Continue reading “Agenda 21”
Tryphena and I celebrated father’s day early. I began our 10-hour day work this week, so I didn’t work on Friday. At The Artist in Me we painted “Morning Lake” – Tryphena painted one and I did one. We had fun for almost three hours, and then we went to the pizzeria a few doors away for lunch.
I can hardly draw a stick figure, so I wasn’t sure how I would do. However, to my surprise I guess there’s an artist in me. 🙂 When it’s done
I’ve been blessed by my recent reading of “John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, Doxology”. Praise be to God for raising men like Luther, Calvin, Tyndale, Guido de Brès, Ursinus, and countless others who stood for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On this Reformation Day I’d like to share a tiny part of the book.
It is common to encounter grave distortions of the biblical concept of the atonement. For instance, according to one popular view, God the Father is enraged at man, but God the Son identifies so closely with our fallenness that, in essence, He sides with us in our need and acts as our Mediator to calm the Father’s anger. The Father is about to punish everybody and send them to hell, but the Son says: “Punish Me instead. Let Me stand in their place. Let Me not only mediate the discussion, but let Me absorb the anger. You can heap Your wrath on Me.” According to this view, there is a tension or a split within the Godhead itself, as if the Father has an agenda and the Son persuades Him to change His mind.
Today Tryphena and I spent the afternoon together painting. We painted “Monarch Butterfly” at The Artist In Me, and again I conceded that hers is better then mine. Isn’t it what we call “progressive”- the betterment of the next generation? Like the instructor said, my brain works in a structured way and it was reflected in my painting.
When it’s done