>Quotes that Nourish

>I found this new place that I want to recommend to you today, The Reformed Quotes Fellowship,  a place created to “bring together those of us throughout the internet who have created and administer websites, blogs, and other media outlets that are dedicated to routinely posting quotes from writers, preachers, teachers, and scholastics of the reformed faith…” keep reading here

 Some of the members of this fellowship are J.C Ryle Quotes, Real Men Love Pink, The Daily Spurgeon, and The Octavius Winslow Archive among others.

Inspired by them and by some of my friends like Christina at Heavenly Springs and Diana at Theology for Girls, who also love to post quotes that encourage us to live a life that glorifies Christ; I will start posting every Thursday, quotes that nourish my soul – and hopefully yours too-   I will be quoting from “saints of the past and present”. (You can read other posts I have written in this category by clicking “Borrowed Words” and “Valley of Vision“under Labels on the right side bar -other quotes are scattered among other posts.)

This month I will be posting quotes that have to do with the Incarnation of Our Lord

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“Christmas has really become a hopeless muddle of confusion. The humility and the poverty of the stable are somehow confused with the wealth and indulgence and selfishness of gift giving. The quietness of Bethlehem is mingled with the din of shopping malls and freeway traffic. The soberness of the incarnation is somehow mixed with the drunkenness of this season. Blinking colored lights somehow have some connection to the star of Bethlehem. The room in the inn, so obscure, so dirty with such meager fare, somehow embraces the thought of a warm house, a fireplace and opulent feasting. Cheap plastic toys for little kids with which to play out their follies are mixed with the true value of the gifts given by wise men. Salesmen somehow get mixed up with shepherds. Angels are confused with flying reindeer, one of which even has a red nose. The pain of childbirth is mixed with the parties. The filth of the stable is confounded with the whiteness of fresh snow. And then there’s Mary, Joseph, Perry Como and Bing Crosby. And so it goes.
Humility is the theme of Christmas…humility

St. Augustine wrote so beautifully of His humility, so beautifully. “The word of the Father,” he said, “by whom all time was created was made flesh and born in time for us. He without whose divine permission no day completes its course, wished to have one of those days for His human birth. In the bosom of His Father He existed before all the cycles of the ages. Born of an earthly mother, He entered on the course of the years on that very day. The maker of man became man that He ruler of the stars might be nourished at the breast, that He the bread might be hungry, that He the fountain might thirst, that He the light might sleep, that He the way might be wearied in the journey, that He the truth might be accused by false witnesses, that He the judge of the living and the dead might be brought to trial by a mortal judge, that He justice itself might be condemned by the unjust, that He discipline personified might be scourged with a whip, that He the foundation might be suspended on a cross, that He courage incarnate might be weak, and He security itself might be wounded, and He life itself might die.” Humility.” 

John Macarthur, The Incarnation of the Triune God

Related Posts:

Celebrating the Incarnation of Our Lord -part I-
Borrowed Words, from the Valley of Vision
Borrowed Words -Holy, Holy, holy

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>A Morning Prayer

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O God, ever blessed, who hast given me the night for the rest and the day for labour and service, grant that the refreshing sheep of the night now past may be turned to Thy greater glory in the life of the day now before me. Let it breed no slothfulness within me, but rather send me to more diligent action and more willing obedience.
Teach me, O God, so to use all the circumstances of my life to-day that they may bring forth in me the fruits of holiness rather than the fruits of sin.
Let me use disappointment as material for patience;
Let me use success as material for thankfulness;
Let me use suspense as material for perseverance;
Let me use danger as material for courage;
Let me use reproach as material for longsuffering;
Let me use praise praise as material for humility;
Let me use pleasures as material for temperance;
Let me use pains as material for endurance.
O Lord Jesus Christ, who for the joy that was set before Thee didst endure the cross, despising the shame, and art now set down at the right hand of the throne of God, let me consider Thee who didst endure such  contradiction of sinners against Thyself, lest I be wearied and faint in my mind.
‘But that toil shall make thee
Some day all Mine own,-
And the end of sorrow
Shall be near My throne’
Holy God, I would remember before Thee all my friends and those of my own household, especially__________ and _______________, beeseching Thee that in Thy great love Thou wouldst keep them also free from sin, controlling all their deeds this day in accordance with Thy most perfect will.
Amen.

A Diary of Private Prayer
Twenty- fourth day

>Holy, Holy, Holy

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Holy, holy, holy

(Thomas Brooks, “The Crown and Glory of Christianity,
 or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness“, 1662)

“Who is like You, glorious in holiness?” Exodus 15:11

God is . . .
  infinitely holy,
  transcendently holy,
  superlatively holy,
  constantly holy,
  unchangeably holy,
  exemplary holy,
  gloriously holy.

All the holiness that is in the best and choicest
Christians is but a mixed holiness, a weak and
imperfect holiness. Their unholiness is always
more than their holiness.
Ah, what a great deal . . .
  of pride is mixed with a little humility,
  of unbelief is mixed with a little faith,
  of peevishness is mixed with a little meekness,
  of earthliness is mixed with a little heavenliness,
  of carnality is mixed with a little spirituality,
  of harshness is mixed with a little tenderness!

Oh, but the holiness of God is a pure holiness, it is
a holiness without mixture; there is not the least
drop or the least dreg of unholiness in God! “God
is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5

In God there is . . .
  all wisdom without any folly,
  all truth without any falsehood,
  all light without any darkness, and
  all holiness without any sinfulness.

God is universally holy.
He is holy in all His ways,
and holy in all His works.
His precepts are holy precepts,
His promises are holy promises,
His threatenings are holy threatenings,
His love is a holy love,
His anger is a holy anger,
His hatred is a holy hatred, etc.

His nature is holy,
His attributes are holy,
His actions are all holy.

He is holy in sparing;
  and holy in punishing.
He is holy in justifying of some;
  and holy in condemning of others.
He is holy in bringing some to heaven;
  and holy in throwing others to hell.

God is holy . . .
  in all His sayings,
  in all His doings,
  in whatever He puts His hand to,
  in whatever He sets His heart to.
His frowns are holy,
His smiles are holy.
When He gives, His givings are holy giving;
when He takes away, His takings are holy takings, etc.

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord Almighty!” Isaiah 6:3

God is eminently holy.
He is transcendently holy.
he is superlatively holy.
He is glorious in holiness.

There is no fathoming,
there is no measuring,
there is no comprehending,
there is no searching, of that
infinite sea of holiness, which is in God.
O sirs! you shall as soon . . .
  stop the sun in its course, and
  change the day into night, and
  raise the dead,
  and make a world, and
  count the stars of heaven, and
  empty the sea with a cockle-shell,
as you shall be able either to conceive or express
that transcendent holiness which is in God!

God’s holiness is infinite.
It can neither be . . .
  limited, nor
  lessened, nor
  increased.

God is the spring of all holiness and purity. All that
holiness which is in angels and men flows from God,
  as the streams from the fountain,
  as the beams from the sun,
  as the branches from the root,
  as the effect from the cause.
Ministers may pray that their people may be holy,
parents may pray that their children may be holy;
but they cannot give holiness, nor communicate
holiness to their nearest and dearest relations.
God alone is the giver and the author of all holiness.
It is only the Holy One who can cause holiness to flow
into sinners’ hearts; it is only He who can form, and
frame, and infuse holiness into the souls of men.
A man shall sooner make make a world—than he shall
make another holy. It is only a holy God, who can . . .
  enlighten the mind, and
  bow the will, and
  melt the heart, and
  raise the affections, and
  purge the conscience, and
  reform the life, and
  put the whole man into a holy gracious temper.

God is exemplary holy. He is the rule, example, and
pattern of holiness. “Be holy, as I am holy.” 1 Pet. 1:15.
God’s holiness is the copy which we must always have in
our eye, and endeavor most exactly to write after.

Let us bless our Holy God today.

Related Posts:

What to do With Today’s Sermon
The Lord’s Day

On the former blog:

Sunday’s Poem

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>Tha Law and Grace -a Painting by Cranach

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Lucas Cranach the Elder: Law and Grace, Gotha version, 1529

Have you seen this painting by Lucas Cranach, The Artist of the Reformation, before?

It is a sermon concerning the Law and Grace, it is full of the gospel’s message. I love to look at it and find all that is in it.

Gene Veith asks this question:

“What is Cranach showing artistically about both the Law and the Gospel?”

Some interesting articles to which Veith points are these:

An article about the Luther-Cranach collaborations.

“See page 4 of this 18-page article, The Allegory of Salvation and Sin, for an analysis of the Gotha panel (shown in Dr. Veith’s post). See page 5 for the similar Prague panel.”

Many things pop out to me, but one that strikes my heart is the person of Adam, running away. That is the response of men in sin, always fleeing from God, always in a desperate state trying to hide from the Omnipotent God. Men without the grace of God never seek God; they cannot, they do not want God.

None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
  “Their throat is an open grave;
they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
  “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Romans 3 :10- 18 ESV

Only God can call us to repentance, only because of Jesus’ fulfillment of the law we can come and taste and see the goodness of God.

What are your thoughts on this painting? What do you see?

One of my favorite books by Veith is this, I recommend it a lot!

State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe (Turning Point Christian Worldview Series)
Related posts, from here and there:

Thank you for Brave Christians
Celebrate our Heritage

You don’t want to miss, Hollie, another passionate Reformed woman, who will be publishing some very interesting articles during October. Her series is called “Remembering the Reformers”; She has already written about Patrick Hamilton, and William Tyndale. Engage in the conversation; let us honor the Reformers with her!

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