Fatherly Advice

"We can be lifted up toward the Most High only if the Lord who lifts up the humble has stooped down to what is below. That is whay the soul that rises toward the things that are above asks the help of the Transcendent One and begs him to descend from His majesty in order to become accessible to those who are below." -Gregory of Nyssa Homily 10 on the Song of Songs

I prefer the early Christian vision of the nearness of God. Not that God is innately "near" or "approachable," but that the One who is essentially Transcendent will, when we humbly beg Him, stoop to help us.

Brotherly Wisdom

"Once again hear Jesus' words in John 14:13: 'Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.' Suppose you are totally paralyzed and can do nothing for yourself but talk. And suppose a strong and reliable friend promised to live with you and do whatever you needed done. How could you glorify your friend if a stranger came to see you? Would you glorify his generosity and strength by trying to get out of bed and carry him? No! You would say, 'Friend, please lift me up...please put my glasse on for me.' And so your visitor would learn from your requests that you are helpless and that your friend is strong and kind." -John Piper Desiring God p. 160

A professor in seminary defined prayer as "a symbol of complete dependence on God." I think this is a very helpful explanation of why a sovereign God--who's desires for us are clearly better than our desires for ourselves--whould instruct us to pray...so that we would learn and teach that we are helpless and our Father in heaven is strong and kind.

Fatherly Advice

"We are always together with one another. And for all the things with which we are supplied we bless the Maker of all things through his Son Jesus Christ and through his Holy Spirit. And on the day called Sunday there is a gathering together in the same place of all who live in a city or a rural district." -Justin Martyr Apology 1, 67.1-3, 7

Brotherly Wisdom

"The heart is also deceitful. It excuses, rationalizes, and justifies our actions. It blinds us to entire areas of sin in our lives. It causes us to deal with sin using only halfway measures, or to think that mental assent to the Word of God is the same as obedience." -Jerry Bridges The Pursuit of Holiness p. 64

So if my heart really is "deceitful above all things and beyond cure" (Jer 17:9), wouldn't it be just like it to pretend to be the Spirit talking to me?

Fatherly Advice

"Therefore, O Lord, who grants to faith understanding, grant to me ... that I may understand that You are, as we believe; and also that You are what we believe You to be." Anslem of Canterbury Devotions 2

Reading Tozer's quote below brought this prayer to mind. (Not that Anslem just "comes to mind," it just fits.)

Brotherly Wisdom

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us...For this reason the gravest question before the church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at any given time may say or do, but what he in his heart conceives God to be like...Before the Christian church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, "What is God like?" and goes on from there." -A.W.Tozer The Knowledge of the Holy pp. 9-12

Or as Dr. Bingham would paraphrase, "The most important thought you think is the thought you think about God, because it effects every other thought that you think and everything that you do."