The taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly, and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement.
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A Holy Discontent
September 30, 2007
The child of God must never be content with his moral and spiritual attainments. It is true that the believer is secure in the righteousness of Christ and that he will never come into condemnation.
Carnal security is another thing entirely. Justification is entirely by faith and rests in the perfection of Christ and this perfection is antagonistic to smugness and self-esteem.
We are commanded to put off the old and put on the new. In Colossians 3 we are commanded to seek the things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, for we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God.
Because of this we are to
5 ¶ Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
8 ¶ But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the...
To Lukers, Brothers, Friends, and the Curious from the RCUS forum:
I find that I am not able to leave the discussion on the active and passive obedience of Christ where it ended.I esteem Elder Wayne Johnson as one of the most knowledgeable and dedicated elders in the RCUS and I believe that he was trying to say something that really needs to be said, but his use of the word “ground” somewhat obscured the issue perhaps because of its ambiguity.There are many factors in our salvation, including the pouring out of the Spirit, the eternal love and decree of God, among others.
A better word, perhaps, than “ground” might be “focus” or “attention.”I believe that the death of Christ on the cross is certainly the focus of the Gospel and that a shift of focus away from the passive obedience of Christ will obscure the gospel and do harm. Not one of the least results will perhaps make our preaching more philosophical than pastoral. I would suggest this for the following reasons
1.The catechism states that my only comfort in life and in death is that I...[More]
I usually don't watch the propaganda dished out by the "main-stream" press, but I am waiting for out of town guests to come and flipped the channel to Hardball. They were "covering" the President's news conference earlier today.
If people cannot see the bias, they are blind as bats. "Hardball" would play a cut from the President's remarks and then the shill from the "news" would say something to refute the President. I wonder if they get talking points from the Democratic National Committee. The Democrats do not have to say anything. The "news media" has abandoned all pretense of "objective" reporting.
In the free-for-all afterwards defenses were offered by friends of the President's position, but the "reporting" was abominable and made the position of Chris Matthews, liberal through and through, before the "debate" even began.
Oh, well. I can always turn the skunks off, which I just did. It seems that millions of Americans are, too.
I said I wasn't going to do much on politics, but lying is a moral issue.
God alone is the Lord of the future. He works all things after the counsel of His own will, according to Ephesians 1.
This means that the cause of the present is the future, not the other way around. Because of this, the Christian lives in hope, because even the trials of the present have a future purpose, that we be conformed to Jesus Christ to the praise of His glory, as Romans 8 tells us.
The chastening of the present time are not to be compared with the glory that awaits the child of God. No chastening is pleasant at the present time but every trial for the children of God has a design that is fulfilled in the future:
Heb 12:11 "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."
This is the reason that trust, which involves hope, is of the very essence of faith. Faith is not wishful thinking, but simply a reliance and joy in the promise of God of the inheritance of the people of God in Jesus Christ. This removed bitterness, hatred, and turmoil in the...
"The other communities "cannot be called 'churches' in the proper sense" because they do not have apostolic succession -- the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles -- and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid," it said. Click here to see this document cited.
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If the priestly ordinations are not valid, the invalid priests cannot perform the miracle of transubstantiation and worshippers cannot eat the real flesh of Christ in the Mass, and cannot therefore be saved. There is no salvation out side the Roman Church. All the talk of dialogue and ecumenism is just "springes to catch woodchucks," as Polonius put it.
Dear Sam, Bob, Ray, and Brothers, and Lurkers, I would make a few observations, that I hope pertain to the question "Are there conditions...."
The ancient quarrel over monotheletism is relevant for this, I think.The orthodox refuted montheletism as a revived form of the heresy monophysitism, which said that the human nature of Christ was merged into the divine nature.The orthodox affirm the truth that Jesus is truly God and man in one Person.HE was both God and man.The orthodox also condemned Nestorius for making such a division between the human and divine natures as to have two persons, Jesus of Nazareth, a human person; and the eternal Logos, the divine person.The councils of Constantinople and Ephesus confessed the orthodox doctrine.
Monothelism tried to sneak in monophysitism through the back door, saying that there was only one will in Christ, that his human will was "lost" in the divine will.The agony of Jesus in Gethsemane refutes this heresy:Even the Lord Jesus sweat drops of blood as his human will was perfected in submission to the divine will.If He had to make a real...[More]
I don't remember who said it, but it was one of the male talking heads tonight. It could have been almost anyone in the major media, as they say. I do not even have the exact quote, but the sentiment you hear again and again.
It went something like this: "Governor Mitt Romney has spent more time defending his religious views than his positions of the things facing the nation. What is wrong with us?"
Yes, indeed, what IS wrong with us? It is too bad that a bunch of yahoos in America are more interested about a person's view of God than whether or not there is freedom to kill the unborn, promote homosexual marriage, resist the advance of militant Islam, define separation of church and state, revive the "Fairness Doctrine," promote value and religion neutral public education, limit the spread of child pornography and pedophilia, promote policies that encourage families and discourage the sexual expoitation of women and girls, etc.?
What does religion have to do with any of this stuff? eh?
A person who has to ask is a dangerous person to have in charge of the rest of us.
During the same year, at the Council of Vercelli, he [Lanfranc] once more upheld the orthodox belief against Berengarius, and again at Tours, in 1055, and finally secured the triumph of truth over error, of authoritative teaching over private interpretation, in the definition of the Lateran Council, held under Nicholas II in 1059.
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The above is taken from an article on Lanfranc from the Catholic Encylopedia. It gives the position of the Roman Church that there is nothing to be accepted as truth unless it is accepted on the authority of the church.
This is backwards, of course. The church does not make truth. Truth makes the church. "My sheep hear my voice," is the way the Lord put it. (John 10). "Truth is not to be accepted on the authority of the church, but the church is to be judged and accepted only on the authority of the truth." And where is this truth to be found: only in the Holy Scripture, as David said, "Thy law is the truth." [Psalm 119:142], also affirmed by the Lord, "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." [John 17:17]
The conflict between Lanfranc and Berenger of Tours was...
