[The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz (1905-1998) is a profound novel set in Sweden, describing how God brings to faith, sanctifies, and uses His servants. Written from a Lutheran…
[From Providence by John Piper (Crossway, 2020), p.90-92. Piper is speaking of the goal of God’s providence in the history of the exodus. Join us for our study of providence Thursday evenings, 7:30-8:30 via Zoom. The preparation guide is available here (a pdf file) – Coty]
God’s name is a message. And the message is about how he intends to be known. Every time his name appears—all 6,800 times—he means to remind us of his utterly unique being. As I have pondered the meaning of the name Yahweh, built on the phrase “I am who I am” and pointing to God’s absolute being, I see at least ten dimensions to its meaning:
[John Finney recommended this book during a discussion of the April 4 sermon on Peter’s call to repentance at Pentecost (the sermon begins 33:45 into the video of the service). This excerpt contains almost all of Watson’s outline and selected paragraphs – about one-sixth of the book. The entire text is available online; you can order the Banner of Truth paperback edition here – Coty]
[Preface]…
Christians, do you have a sad resentment of other things and not of sin? Worldly tears fall to the earth, but godly tears are kept in a bottle (Ps. 56.8). Judge not holy weeping superfluous…. Either sin must drown or the soul burn. Let it not be said that repentance is difficult. Things that are excellent deserve labour. Will not a man dig for gold in the ore though it makes him sweat? It is better to go with difficulty to heaven, than with ease to hell….
The well-wisher of your soul’s happiness,
THOMAS WATSON
25 May 1668
- A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE…
- Partly by the word…
- By the Spirit…
- COUNTERFEIT REPENTANCE…
- The first deceit of repentance is legal terror…
Disagreements? In Church? By Coty Pinckney
[This devotion is based on a talk given October 14 at the Treasuring Christ Together 2020 retreat. An earlier version of the paraphrase of Romans 14 is in this blog post. These two sermons from 2018 (first, second) provide more of the biblical foundation for the principles discussed here.]
Christians are one in Christ. God makes us one.
But although we are one, we differ. We disagree on trivial matters – should the Dodgers or the Rays win the World Series? But we also disagree about deeply held convictions: On political matters – should Christians vote Republican, Democrat, or neither? On education – should Christians send their children to public school, private school, or home school? On Christian behavior – how should we dress? What should we consume? On LGBT issues – how should we interact with family members who come out?
Furthermore, we not only disagree about such issues. We even disagree on whether such disagreements are important!
What does Scripture tell us about such disagreements?
The most helpful passage is Romans 14:1-15:7. Let’s draw five principles for how we handle disagreements from this great text.
"If we have been swayed from the place of resting in your grace today - swayed by shame, by error, by vanity, by pride, or by love of the praise…
God's love was revealed among us in this way:
God sent His One and Only Son into the world
so that we might live through Him.
Love consists in this:
not that we loved…