Propoundance

Applying the Book of Exodus

Pete Enns in his Introduction to his Exodus commentary writes:

The book of Exodus is not waiting there for us to bring it into our world. Rather, it is standing there defining what our world should look like and then inviting us to enter that world.

He explains a bit more of what he means by this:

The story of Exodus... is designed to tell us what God is like, how he thinks of his people, the lengths to which he will go to deliver them, and the proper response of God's people to this great deed. Applying the book of Exodus begins with understanding what the story is supposed to do and then seeing how we, as God's people, fit into that story.

Radical Generosity

"You will always give effortlessly to that which is your salvation, to those things that give your life meaning. If Jesus is the One who saved you, your money flows out easily into His work, His people, His causes. If, however, your real religion is your appearance, your social status, or your pleasure, your money flows most easily into those items and symbols. Radical generosity is therefore an inevitable sign of real grace in the heart."

~Tim Keller

Gospel Reconciliation

"We must always remember that: The Gospel is not admired in Scripture primarily because of the social transformation it effects, but because it reconciles men and women to a holy God. Its purpose is not that we might feel fulfilled, but that we might be reconciled to the living and holy God. The consummation is delightful to the transformed people of God, not simply because the environment of the new heaven and the new earth is pleasing, but because we forever live and work and worship in the unshielded radiance of the presence of our holy Maker and Redeemer. That prospect must shape how the church lives and serves, and determine the pulse of its ministry. The only alternative is high - sounding but self - serving idolatry" (DA Carson For the Love of God Vol II).

False Delusion

"...as regenerated men who are making some progress in spiritual growth, it is sinfully natural to falsely suppose we are rising above our condition - a delusion which testifies to our very depravity" (Disciplines of a Godly Man, pp. 87-88).

We Are Warned

We are warned of our duty, our danger, and our remedy.

Our Duty: Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and spirit.

Our Danger: Due to our sin, we can not accomplish our Duty.

Our Remedy: We can not do any of this without the applied work of Christ to our lives.

On Fairy Stories - Tolkien

Some Excerpts from J.R.R. Tolkien's essay On Fairy Stores

The 'consolation' of fairy-tales has another aspect than the imaginative satisfaction of ancient desires. Far more important is the Consolation of the Happy Ending. Almost I would venture to assert that all complete fairy-stories must have it. At least I would say that Tragedy is the true form of Drama, its highest function; but the opposite is true of Fairy-story. Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite--I will call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function.

The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous 'turn' (for there is no true end to any fairy tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially 'escapist', nor 'fugitive'. In its fairy-tale--or other world--setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure; the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.

It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the 'turn' comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art, and having a peculiar quality.

The peculiar quality of...'joy' in successful Fantasy can...be explained eas a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It is not only a 'consolation' for the sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, 'Is it true?' The answer to this question that I gave at first was (quite rightly): 'If you have built your little world well, yes: it is true in that world.' That is enough for the artist...But in the 'eucatastrophe' we see in a brief vision that the answer may be greater--it may be a far-off gleam or echo or evangelium in the real world.

Know What It Is To Be Free

Christ and the law cannot rule over us together: in every endeavour to fulfil the law as believers, we are taken captive by sin. (Rom. 7:5,23)
The Christian must know that he is entirely free from the law, [free] from the "you must" that stands without us and over us: then for the first time shall he know what it is to be free from sin.

Taken from Andrew Murray, The New Life, chapter 49.

The Divine Truth is Mysterious

Observ. 8. That divine truth is mysterious; 'According to the revelation of the mystery, Christ manifested in the flesh.' The whole scheme of godliness is a mystery. No man or angel could imagine how two natures so distant as the Divine and human should be united; how the same person should be criminal and righteous; how a just God should have a satisfaction, and sinful man a justification; how the sin should be punished, and the sinner saved. None could imagine such a way of justification as the apostle in this epistle declares: it was a mystery when hid under the shadows of the law, and a mystery to the prophets when it sounded from their mouths; they searched it, without being able to comprehend it (1 Peter, i.10,11.) If it be a mystery, it is humbly to be submitted to: mysteries surmount human reason. The study of the gospel must not be with a yawning and careless frame. Trades, you call mysteries, are not learned sleeping and nodding: diligence is required; we must be disciples at God's feet. As it had God for the author, so we must have God for the teacher of it; the contrivance was his, and the illumination of our minds must be from him. As God only manifested the gospel, so he can only open our eyes to see the mysteries of Christ in it.

~Stephen Charnock - The Existence and Attributes of God: On The Wisdom of God pp. 502-503.

Prayer of Blessing

We thank the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, Who has given us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that we may know what is the hope to which he has called us, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

For this reason we bow our knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant us to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in our inner being, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith—that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

And we are sure of this, that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ; that our love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that we may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Did you awake this morning with work on your mind or wonder?

"There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us." For that reason, "there can be no danger in thoroughly dealing [with ourselves]. It is better to go bruised to heaven than sound to hell." So, he went on to say, let's not be unwilling to face the unhappy truth about ourselves and to keep facing it, "until sin be the sourest, and Christ the sweetest, of all things." [Works, I, 47-48] 17th century Puritan, Richard Sibbes

Stealing God's Glory

"The most insignificant sin that has ever been committed would ruin the entire cosmos, for it would mar the perfection that God created to reflect His glory. We steal God’s glory by every sin. We do not grasp the weight of our sin. Until we can bring home the ugliness of sin, Satan has another weapon in his locker."

~Lig Duncan

What is the Gospel?

But the Gospel is neither accounts of our personal experiences nor commands that we are to obey. The Gospel is the Good News of what Christ did for his people 2,000 years ago. It is not about the new birth, nor the Second Coming, nor the activities of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The Gospel is propositions about historical events that happened wholly outside of us. It has consequences and implications for us today, to be sure, but these consequences are effects of the Gospel, and must not be confused with the Gospel itself. The fatal error of the Dark Ages was to confuse God's work for us with God's work in us, and so pervert the Gospel. The same error is widespread among so-called Evangelicals today who do not distinguish between what Christ has done for us and what the Holy Spirit can do in us. We are rapidly re-entering the Dark Ages because the light and clarity of the Gospel has been lost.

Against The World. The Trinity Review, 1978-1988. Page 284 [What Is The Gospel]. John W. Robbins, Editor.

Only Grace

There is no guilt here
There is no shame
No pointing fingers
There is no blame
What happened yesterday has disappeared
The dirt has washed away
And now it's clear

There's only grace
There's only love
There's only mercy and believe me it's enough
Your sins are gone
Without a trace
There's nothing left now
There's only grace

You're starting over now
Under the sun
You're stepping forward now
A new life has begun
Your new life has begun

There's only grace
There's only love
There's only mercy and believe me it's enough
Your sins are gone
Without a trace
There's nothing left now
There's only grace

And if you should fall again
Get back up, get back up
Reach out and take my hand
Get back up, get back up
Get back up again.

~Matthew West

A Plot

"So one elephant having a trunk was odd; but all elephants having trunks looked like a plot."

~GK Chesterton

Work Ethic

"A day you show up for work is a bad day for Satan."

~Dever speaking of work ethic.