Marriage

George Orwell said that a restatement of the obvious is sometimes the first duty of a responsible man. It is therefore worth restating what was once obvious and commonly held: Marriage involves a man and a woman. From the very creation of mankind and the foundation of civil order, God intended marriage to be an inseparable union between husband and wife. In that context only is it possible to make sense of the biblical injunction: "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28). The most obvious argument against the lesbian and homosexual agenda is human physiology! A light bulb needs a socket if there is to be illumination. Two sockets on their own are incapable of light, and the same is true for two bulbs. Homosexuality in practice involves a perverted use of the human body, and it is a forsaking of the natural for the unnatural. It is not a marriage. It cannot be.

Alistair Begg

Pathway to Freedom

Moody

p157

Heaven

Eternal life is not merely the extension of this life with its mix of pain and pleasure. As hell is the worst outcome of this life, so "eternal life" is the best. It is supreme and ever-increasing happiness where all sin and all sadness will be gone. All that is evil and harmful in this fallen creation will be removed. All that is good - all that will bring true and lasting happiness - will be preserved and purified and intensified.

John Piper

The Passion of Jesus Christ

Crossway

p57

Wisdom

Wisdom is the skill of godly living.

John Frame
The Doctrine of God
P&R
p507

The Law

God intended the law to reveal sin and drive men to Christ; Satan uses it to reveal sin and to drive men to despair.

John Stott
The Message of Galatians
IVP
p105

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.