Isa 41:5 “The coastlands see and are afraid;
the whole earth trembles;
they approach and come.
41:6 They help one another;
one says to the other, ‘Be strong!’
41:7 The craftsman encourages the metalsmith,
the one who wields the hammer encourages the one who pounds on the anvil.
He approves the quality of the welding,
and nails it down so it won’t fall over.”
Many years ago, I heard a sermon which took verse 7 as its text. …
‘We are [God’s] workmanship’, exclaims the apostle in Ephesians 2:10.
‘Workmanship’ translates the word poiema, which, according to this article:
…‘signifies that which is manufactured, a product, a design produce by an artisan. Polema emphasizes God as the Master Designer.’
‘As the artist seeks to express himself in his work, so God expresses Himself in us.’
‘You are His poem.’
‘Masterpiece- showpiece; blockbuster, success; gem, jewel, prize, treasure…these are the synomyms (words that mean the same) for masterpiece.’
Summarising ch 11 of Theology of Prayer, by B.M. Palmer
1. Prayer deepens the channel of our religious nature
‘It is the moral and religious element which draws the final distinction between man and the brute.’ In the animal there is the faint trace of reason and affection.
If man’s highest activity is the religious activity, then prayer deepens the channel of this supreme function. ‘Prayer lifts the soul into the immediate presence of God, to feel the power and bear the imprint of all the divine perfections, singly and combined.…
Back in the 1980s, ‘Church Growth’ thinking helpfully distinguished between three ways of being church.
(a) The Cell
(b) The Congregation
What was the attitude of Jesus to the despised and needy?
Summarising:
Flavel, J. The Method of Grace, ch. 1
1 Cor 1:30 “—Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.’
Just as the plaster must be applied to the wound, the coat must be worn, the cordial received, so Christ must himself be applied to the heart.
In this text we have,
(a) an enumeration of the chief privileges of believers:
(b) the method by which we come into these privileges: ,(i) by receiving the person of Christ
Hence: ‘The Lord.…
Jn 1:14b ‘We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.’
Jn 1:18 ‘No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.’
Jn 3:16 ‘For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.’…
It has been said that this is the ‘one thing in the world really worth pursuing’ (Robert H. Benson).
A.W. Tozer called it ‘the easiest and the most difficult thing in the world.’
What am I talking about? Knowing God. The Bible itself teaches us that:-
(a) it is what God himself desires,
Hos 6:6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
(b) it is the gift that Jesus brings,
…Jn 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Summarising an article by Donald MacLeod in The Monthly Record; March, 1979
11,000 terminations in Britain per month. [N.B. this figure has increased, as of 2024, to around 16,500]
‘Many Christians have never looked at the problem in the light of moral and theological considerations and provably accept prevailing attitudes without thinking.’
A woman’s right to control her fertility
‘The slogan of those who advocate a liberal attitude to abortion is that women have the right to control their own fertility.…
Hugh Ross, a Christian apologist trained in astrophysics, has long claimed that established scientific facts are supported by specific texts of the Bible.
In this post, he surveys various kinds of evidence that indicate that physical laws have reamined unchanging since the earliest moments of the universe.
Ross concludes his article by stating that:
…‘Astronomers and physicists have affirmed the clear and repeated biblical claim that throughout the whole history of the universe and Earth, the laws of physics have remained fixed, that is, unchanged.
