Richard Sibbes- Christ the servant

Is the Lord Christ a servant? This should teach is not to stand upon any terms. If Christ had stood upon terms, if he had refused to take upon him the shape of a servant, alas! Where had we and our salvation been? And yet wretched creatures, we think ourselves too good to do God and our brethren any service. Christ stood not upon his greatness, but, being equal with God, he became a servant. Oh! We should dismount from the tower of our conceited excellency. The heart of man is a proud creature, a proud piece of flesh. Men stand upon their distance. What! Shall I stop to him? I am thus and thus. We should descend from the heaven of our conceits, and take upon us the form of servants, and abase ourselves to do good to others, even to any, and account it an honour to do any good to others in the place we are in.  Christ did not think himself too good to leave heaven to conceal and veil his majesty under the veil of our flesh, to work our redemption, to bring us out of the cursed estate we were in. 

Richard Sibbes- A Description of Christ works page 8/9

The Infant God -Spurgeon

He that is God this day was once an infant: So that if my cares are little and even trivial and comparatively infantile I may go to him, for he was once a child. Though the great ones of the earth may sneer at the child of poverty, and say. "You are to mean, and your trouble is too slight for pity;" I recollect with humble joy, that the King of Heaven did hang upon a woman's breast. and was wrapped in swaddling bands, and therefore I tell him all my griefs..

How wonderful that he should have been an infant, and yet should be God over all, blessed for ever! I am not afraid of God now; this blessed link between me and God, the holy child Jesus, has taken all fear away. Charles Spurgeon -God incarnate the end of fear.

Merry Christmas

Stephen <><

Good Night Dr Sproul

Lots of people have written over the last few days how R C Sproul's ministry has impacted them, including Joni Erickson Tada, Mark Dever, John Piper and lots more. These were his friends and colleagues people who knew him personally. I'm not even sure I've ever been within 400 miles of the man himself but he has impacted me nonetheless.

The people's theologian.

I first came across R C Sproul through a friend who loved listening to him. He played some of the Foundations Series for me, I was hooked! I remember not too long after some other friends were visiting and looking at my growing book collection, I remember one of them commenting,' wow you really like R C Sproul' and the other looking and saying, 'oh yes you really do, what they didn't know is that 12 months before I had never heard of the guy and yet all those books had been read and loved. I'd read quite a bit of Martin Lloyd Jones at this point but R C Sproul is for me what MLJ is for the generation before, the populariser of Reformed Theology. You can see this by reading Dave Hunt's anti-Calvinist material he credits the giftedness of Sproul as a communicator for the Reformed Resurgence in the States (much to Hunt's disappointment).

Since I started reading theology proper I've always had a taste for it and have always enjoyed it and understood it. Yet in R C's writings I found I enjoyed it more and understood it better, he had a real gift in communicating complex theology, philosophy and history in such simple terms. I believe more than anyone else he prepared me for the weightier stuff. I loved his theological writings but he also wrote on Christian living and I found these books very challenging and appreciate them very much.

The Winsome wit

The tag line to my blog is 'seeking a warm hearted reformed theology' it's slightly misleading as I found it early on in this winsome American teacher. I recall being horrified at Evangelicals and Catholics Together, the document endorsed by J I Packer, Chuck Colson et al, so was in a serious mood as I listened to R C, MacArthur and D.James Kennedy unpack their alarm and why we couldn't agree with Rome on the Ankerberg program (I had the tapes- back in the day) yet R C whilst being very serious injected humour into the conversation as he playfully ribbed one of his former student during the Q and A time and John MacArthur at another time.

You can hear this if you listen to Foundations or From Dust to Glory, even when you listen you can hear that he is speaking with a smile on his face. You can also see his quick wit in any panel discussion, his love for his God and for God's people is always evident.

The Holiness of God

In R C's writings and speaking ministry I found that he had an awe for the God revealed in scripture, that this God isn't to be trifled with, as He is Holy . While God is Holy we are not- in seeing this, in being taken to see it better, clearer the Gospel becomes more amazing. That's what I found in R C's ministry more than anything that God revealed in the Bible is bigger and better than I had known, that sin, my sin was also worse than I realised. How amazing then is the Gospel which saved a wretch like me. How truly amazing is this God who saves.

I thank the LORD for this gifted man of God.


Shalom
Stephen <><

Found By Love- Rahil Patel

I heard part of Rahil's story on UCB radio earlier this week so I downloaded the kindle book and began to read. If I'd seen Nicky Gumbel had endorsed it on the cover I wouldn't have bothered. Rahil writes well and I found myself following him on his journey from being in a moderate Hindu family to becoming a Swami and his quest for inner peace. All this was very gripping as he left his family at a young age to devote himself to following a guru in his journey not only for peace but for heaven itself.

There were slight warning signs for me though, every so often he would mention an experience he would have as a swami when he saw a cross or entered into a church. His positive experience of Rome was far removed from the experience of Martin Luther in his testimony.

The book turned into a disappointment when Rahil started going along to church, he went to Holy Trinity Brompton, I groaned inwardly but hoped for a powerful story of conviction of sin following by an understanding of the cross which would have a powerful affect upon this man and bring his troubled soul to rest- as the title suggests- to being found by the love of God.

Instead Rahil says he experienced acceptance, that a voice he often heard said, 'you;r home'. Rahil says nothing of how he encountered the life changing power of the Gospel, he just starts to identify as a Christian. As is typical of Charismatics he then isn't changed enough, there are unresolved issues that require more than salvation. He relates not only how he was 'filled with the Spirit' but how he experienced inner healing both in HTB and the controversial Bethel Church in California. I suppose this book is summed up in the "good advice" he receives, he was offered the opportunity of studying apologetics with RZIM but is offered the advice to ''keep receiving his love, and develop a relationship until it becomes a lifestyle, and then maybe a deep study of the Bible would be better". The worst advice he could be given, rather than the opportunity to grow in his new faith- or to learn that he hasn't yet crossed the threshold and experienced the new birth,  turning down the opportunity to study but the same person gives him the "opportunity" to go to Bethel. Setting him off on a journey chasing after experience after experience without the tools to discern if they are valid or not.

I don't know if Rahil is converted or not, there isn't enough to go on from this testimony. I pray that if he isn't he will be and that instead of chasing after experience after experience he will be impacted and transformed by the Spirit through the Word of God.

May God extend His Grace to you.

Stephen <><