Idols

When most people think of "idols" they have in mind literal statues - or the next pop star anointed by Simon Cowell. Yet while traditional idol worship occurs in many places of the world, iternal idol worship, within the heart, is universal. In Ezekieal 14:3, God says about the elders of Israel, "These men have set up their idols in their hearts." Like us, the elders must have responded to this charge, "Idols? What idols? I don't see any idols." God was saying that the human heart takes good things like a sucessful career, love, material posessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the center of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and fulfillment, if we attain them.

Tim Keller
Counterfeit gods
Hodder & Stoughton
p xiv

Nicene Creed

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

On forgiveness

There is all the difference in the world between believing that God does forgive sins, and knowing that God has forgiven my sins, my personal sins.

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Living Water, Vol 1
David Cook
p520

Hatred of Christ

Nothing raises the wonder and disgust of the world more than the high regard believers pay to the Lord Jesus. If they would only speak seriously of God, his goodness and providence, they might be borne with - but so much of Christ is offensive. Those who know him, however, will never think they can say enough of him.

John Newton
365 days with Newton
Day One
6th December

New Life

I have decided to give this blog a new lease of life, and start again.

I hope to mainly have various quotations from books and articles I am reading. I hope they interest you.