Hope in the Struggle with Sin and Self — A.W. Pink

“He who is really honest with himself and has had his eyes opened in some degree to see the awful sinfulness of self, and who is becoming more and more acquainted with that sink of iniquity, that mass of corruption which still indwells him, often feels that sin more completely rules him now than ever it did before. When he longs to trust God with all his heart, unbelief seems to paralyze him. When he wishes to be completely surrendered to God’s blessed will, murmurings and rebellion surge within him. When he would spend an hour in meditating on the things of God, evil imaginations harass him. When he desires to be more humble, pride seeks to fill him. When he would pray, his mind wanders. The more he fights against these sins, the further off victory seems to be. To him it appears that sin is very much the master of him, and Satan tells him that his profession is vain. What shall we say to such a dear soul who is deeply exercised over this problem?…   Continue at Eric T. Young

The Rapturous Loveliness of Christ

In the past few days I have been exposed to quotes and excerpts from the writings of the 16th century Scottish reformer, Samuel Rutherford.

I was brought at a wonder, for scarcely have I ever read expressions of heavenly delights from the pen of men, as similar as he was to myself, in desperate need for grace. And yet with much grace and wisdom, he would lift up gems and precious stones from the pages of Scripture almost as if it was God-breathed writing in itself.

If there was ever a man who truly knew what it was that the man in the parable experienced, perhaps one of such a man is Samuel Rutherford.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field…”—Matthew 13:44

O for grace to know Christ as precious as He really is (2 Pet 2:7). May God grant us the grace and faith to imitate Christ in the writings of dear Rutherford.

I will be reading more of Mr. Rutherford, most notably his “Letters”. Why take the time then to read his Letters in the midst of all the things that must be read and perused? Well, I think Andrew Bonar writes a compelling thought as he closes his sketch of the life of Samuel Rutherford in the excerpt below. It is a bit long than usual, but trust me when I say you would want to read each sentence of it. Read it all HERE

Humanism's Delusional Dream?

... in crafting that fresh, more realistic vision, the signatories of the Humanist Manifesto II dutifully stuck to the same rut their predecessors had followed, confirming their earlier disavowal of a “prayer-hearing God assumed to live and care for persons, to hear and understand their prayers, and to be able to do something about them.” Rather than “diverting people with false hopes” as theists do, Manifesto II boldly declared: “Human beings are responsible for what we are or will become. No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.”

The rationale seems to be that if we keep tweaking the recipe, keep massaging the blueprint, we will progressively evolve in our self-adaptive quest to eventually create a magical kingdom of unending peace, prosperity and good will. Comparing our world to the 1973 signatories’ assessment of the state of human progress in the early twenty-first century, I’m just not seeing the progress. It seems to me that assessment provides an eerily adequate description of things as they stand today (and as they stood at the start of the first century, for that matter). It seems we are trying to fix a seized engine with an oil change. Again and again we pour in and drain out different brands of motor oil in the delusional conviction that one of these formulas will do the trick. “This time, surely, we will get the engine to start.” Well, we won’t. Any brand of oil you pour into a seized engine will avail nothing. There are times you must replace the engine. Read the rest HERE