Yes, the maneuverings of the liberals at Lambeth are chilling, but I'm referring to my "chilling out" on my blog until the shenanigans are over.
Lord, have mercy upon us.
God bless you, gentle reader.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Thoughts on the Spiritual Life - XLV - H. C. G. Moule
Ridley Hall, CambridgeConclusion of Chapter XI
v. Lastly, and let this reflection touch and attune every other, let us "walk in love, for love is of God." Even the few pages of this little book, dealing with topics of the inner life, have led me to definite statements of conviction on many points of truth and doctrine. My whole soul is sure of the importance of clearness and firmness in such things. Nevertheless, there is no region of Christian life in which the need is more constant and more strong to remember how to walk in love, than the doctrinal region. It is easy, very easy, as we have observed more than once already, to disguise to ourselves a jealousy for our own views as such under an aspect of jealousy for the revealed truth of God. There lies the danger; there lies the need. And the remedy, the supply, lies above all things in a deepening personal acquaintance with "the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
In the divine serenity of His presence we can, so far as our personality and sensibility go, read in peace the page from which we differ, perhaps the page which takes ourselves severely to task, and can ask in peace and candour where lies the truth. Walking by the side of Jesus Christ, we can with joy and love see His image reflected in the life and labour of the Christian man with whom, perhaps on no unimportant point, we are at issue. "In the covert of His wings" we can love, as well as watch. Ambitious and jealous not for ourselves but for Him whose property we are, we shall find more attraction in the least sign of genuine loyalty to Him than we can find repulsion in almost anything else. For this also His grace is sufficient.
Our series of thoughts is over. To that Master of Whom we have just spoken - absolute, merciful, beloved - I now humbly commit the things written. Whatever among them are indeed "the things of Christ," He can bless, forgiving the rest. And for us, writer and reader, "the next thing" shall be to step forward into the realities of to-day, putting thought into practice, seeing in circumstances God's will, receiving amidst them His Spirit, living through them upon Jesus Christ, who is our Life. To Him be glory, now and always. Amen.
"Certainly, the more the Christian is acquainted with himself, the more will he go out of himself for his perfecting and establishing.... Never shall we find heart peace, sweet peace, and progress in holiness, till we be driven from natural independency, to make Christ all our strength; till we be brought to do nothing, to attempt nothing, to hope or expect nothing, but in Him; and then shall we indeed find His fulness and all-sufficiency, and 'be more than conquerors through Him who hath loved us.'"
In the divine serenity of His presence we can, so far as our personality and sensibility go, read in peace the page from which we differ, perhaps the page which takes ourselves severely to task, and can ask in peace and candour where lies the truth. Walking by the side of Jesus Christ, we can with joy and love see His image reflected in the life and labour of the Christian man with whom, perhaps on no unimportant point, we are at issue. "In the covert of His wings" we can love, as well as watch. Ambitious and jealous not for ourselves but for Him whose property we are, we shall find more attraction in the least sign of genuine loyalty to Him than we can find repulsion in almost anything else. For this also His grace is sufficient.
Our series of thoughts is over. To that Master of Whom we have just spoken - absolute, merciful, beloved - I now humbly commit the things written. Whatever among them are indeed "the things of Christ," He can bless, forgiving the rest. And for us, writer and reader, "the next thing" shall be to step forward into the realities of to-day, putting thought into practice, seeing in circumstances God's will, receiving amidst them His Spirit, living through them upon Jesus Christ, who is our Life. To Him be glory, now and always. Amen.
"Certainly, the more the Christian is acquainted with himself, the more will he go out of himself for his perfecting and establishing.... Never shall we find heart peace, sweet peace, and progress in holiness, till we be driven from natural independency, to make Christ all our strength; till we be brought to do nothing, to attempt nothing, to hope or expect nothing, but in Him; and then shall we indeed find His fulness and all-sufficiency, and 'be more than conquerors through Him who hath loved us.'"
Archbishop Leighton, on I Peter. v. 10.
Image: copyright Cambridge 2000, cambridge2000.com; used by permission on the site.
Monday, July 7, 2008
The Rt. Rev. John H. Rodgers Jr. on "Where do we go from here?"
If you have not read Dr. Roger's statement on the future of the Anglican Communion, I highly recommend it. David Virtue posted it today, and you can read it here. I believe the bishop is spot on, at least for the most part. There is going to have to be some structuring that allows continued argument against women's ordination and that would allow this to be corrected in the future. I'm also concerned about the practicality of people aligning themselves with bishops that agree with them on this matter. It may be that those who cannot approve women's ordination will eventually be their own constituency and hopefully the rest of the otherwise orthodox will see the error of their ways in generations to come. The fruits of the last century in western Anglicanism may be more bitter for a longer time than we think.
Thoughts on the Spiritual LIfe - XLIV - H. C. G. Moule
Chapter XI, continued.
iv. And one remark let me make here on the study of the Scriptures, which are the Word of God. On the duty, privilege, and method, I am not going to enlarge. It is in special connexion with the life of Christian Holiness, the life of new Obedience, that I speak of Scripture study; and specially in view of the fact that Scripture is the one articulate account, by the Lord Himself, of His "will in Jesus Christ concerning us." For you, believing friend, who long to know and to do His will, as at once your rest and your goal, let the Bible bear this aspect of sacredness very specially, that it is the one definite and articulate utterance of that Will by our Master Himself. From this point of view how singular is the value of the hundred and nineteenth Psalm! It has been beautifully said that the essence of the thought of that Psalm is, the sacredness and sweetness of God's Will, to be known and done by His bondservant; so that we may reverently read, as it were, the word "will" into it, as a synonym of "law," "stautues," "jugments," "precepts," &c. Try this holy gloss, and see how the verses shine with the glory of a loving surrender to the will of God. But then, on the other hand, beyond all question, the Psalm in its direct purpose is one long strain of prayer, and praise, and self-consecration, over the Bible. The saintly soul's thirst after the will of God leads it not to the mirage, but to the water-spring of the Word. With every access of love and longing, with every step in conscience and obedience, he feels new need of the Book, he bends over it, he bows to it. So be it with you and with me.
The image of Bishop Moule above was found via Yahoo image search; the source page of the image seems to be no longer available.
The image of Bishop Moule above was found via Yahoo image search; the source page of the image seems to be no longer available.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Thoughts on the Spiritual Life - XLIII - H. C. G. Moule
Chapter XI, Concluding Thoughts, Continued.
iii. In the practice of daily life, in the derivation from the risen Lord of the power of “new obedience,” let me and my reader recollect steadily, and weave into one cord - a cord that at once binds and knits - two sacred facts of our state as believers. First, we BELONG to the Lord; secondly, we are JOINED to Him.
“Whether we live, we live unto the Master; whether we die, we die unto the Master.” Let the words “I BELONG” be written, in redeeming blood, across your whole life. Wake up with that fact in recollection; not that feeling but that fact. Carry it into morning, noon, and night. Lie down upon your bed with it. We have dwelt on this side of truth already, elsewhere.* But let it be pressed home on heart and will once more. Everything else tends to fall abroad and into pieces without it. Nature fears it, but when by the grace of God a man has looked it in the face, or far rather has looked in the face THE MASTER who makes the claim, it is peace and rest to surrender, quite at discretion, to that Ownership. “To this end,” that He might be Master, “He died and rose again.” This must be, this is, a very blessed “end” - for Possessor and possessed!
“I love, I love my Master; I will not go out free;
For He is my Redeemer; He paid the price for me.”
Happy, happy, the human will that is bound with this chain. It is free indeed. Make proof, on the Master’s warrant, and “thou shalt know.”
But again, we are “JOINED to the Lord,” So says the Spirit. The passage and context are full of the essence of the new Life and its exercise. We gather there, that the believer belongs to Christ not merely as a man’s watch, for instance, but as his hand, belongs to him. And observe that this is true for every “limb” of the blessed Head; not for the highly developed member only, but for the member; yes, as the whole passage shows, even for the member struggling with the force of the crudest and basest temptation. For the disheartened, aye, for the falling Christian, this word is written: “you are joined to the Lord” now; you are “one Spirit” now. It is not reward of obedience, but gift of God. The word is not “you ought,” but “you possess.” It is not “you feel it,” but “thus it is.” What have you, thus united, to do with sin? What need temptation do against you, thus united?
The man who recollects his belongingness to Jesus Christ, his irrevocable lot and state of bond service to Him, and who recollects along with it his living union with Him, is the man who may humbly, calmly, and with restful expectation say with St. Paul, “I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me." "Nothing shall in any wise hurt him." Shall we take our place, in the name of the Lord Jesus, among these people, and go forward in this blessed double recollection, not into some imagined path of duty and patience, but into our own?
Very real, very great, is the power and preciousness of the holy Supper of the Lord, in the light of this combination of truths. Our redemption to be the property of our beloved Saviour, and our mystical Union with Him as our Head, are there, in the same divine act, "visibly signed and sealed" by HIMSELF, the true Master of the Table, to each true disciple. What certainties of assurance, what warrants of strength and peace, lie in that fact!
* In the author's "Thoughts on Christian Sanctity," ch. iv.
“Whether we live, we live unto the Master; whether we die, we die unto the Master.” Let the words “I BELONG” be written, in redeeming blood, across your whole life. Wake up with that fact in recollection; not that feeling but that fact. Carry it into morning, noon, and night. Lie down upon your bed with it. We have dwelt on this side of truth already, elsewhere.* But let it be pressed home on heart and will once more. Everything else tends to fall abroad and into pieces without it. Nature fears it, but when by the grace of God a man has looked it in the face, or far rather has looked in the face THE MASTER who makes the claim, it is peace and rest to surrender, quite at discretion, to that Ownership. “To this end,” that He might be Master, “He died and rose again.” This must be, this is, a very blessed “end” - for Possessor and possessed!
“I love, I love my Master; I will not go out free;
For He is my Redeemer; He paid the price for me.”
Happy, happy, the human will that is bound with this chain. It is free indeed. Make proof, on the Master’s warrant, and “thou shalt know.”
But again, we are “JOINED to the Lord,” So says the Spirit. The passage and context are full of the essence of the new Life and its exercise. We gather there, that the believer belongs to Christ not merely as a man’s watch, for instance, but as his hand, belongs to him. And observe that this is true for every “limb” of the blessed Head; not for the highly developed member only, but for the member; yes, as the whole passage shows, even for the member struggling with the force of the crudest and basest temptation. For the disheartened, aye, for the falling Christian, this word is written: “you are joined to the Lord” now; you are “one Spirit” now. It is not reward of obedience, but gift of God. The word is not “you ought,” but “you possess.” It is not “you feel it,” but “thus it is.” What have you, thus united, to do with sin? What need temptation do against you, thus united?
The man who recollects his belongingness to Jesus Christ, his irrevocable lot and state of bond service to Him, and who recollects along with it his living union with Him, is the man who may humbly, calmly, and with restful expectation say with St. Paul, “I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me." "Nothing shall in any wise hurt him." Shall we take our place, in the name of the Lord Jesus, among these people, and go forward in this blessed double recollection, not into some imagined path of duty and patience, but into our own?
Very real, very great, is the power and preciousness of the holy Supper of the Lord, in the light of this combination of truths. Our redemption to be the property of our beloved Saviour, and our mystical Union with Him as our Head, are there, in the same divine act, "visibly signed and sealed" by HIMSELF, the true Master of the Table, to each true disciple. What certainties of assurance, what warrants of strength and peace, lie in that fact!
* In the author's "Thoughts on Christian Sanctity," ch. iv.
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