What an inexpressible privilege we have by living after the time Christ came into the world. Those in the Old Testament had to wait for the coming of Christ, they had to live by the promises, always looking and hoping for the time He would come. At times it seemed to them that He would never come. It became very dark just before He came and then Christ was born in the manger in Bethlehem. "Those that sit in darkness shall see a great light." But we do not need to yearn and look for this. Do we realize what an inestimable privilege we have? Are we looking to be reconciled to Him if this has not occurred in our life yet? Rest no more until you can say, "He is Mine, and I am His." May He be born in your heart this Christmas. And for those where He has been revealed may you see more of His loveliness, more of His fullness, more of the love of the Father in giving His Son and the willingness of the Son to be born in a lowly stable and to suffer and die for sinners like us. What unfathomable love!
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Knowledge of Our Misery
This is a quote from Alexander Comrie (1706 - 1774) taken from Stellige en practicale verkaring van de Heidelbergsche Catechismus - A Certain and Practical Explanation of the Heidelberg Catechism. He was also the author of the "ABC of Faith" and other books and a faithful ambassador of God -
"The knowledge of our misery is of the greatest importance for the very reason that God by His Spirit thereby lays the foundation in us for the saving operations of which we become the recipients in this time state, and upon which the building of our salvation is erected. There is a foundation outside of us, namely Christ Jesus, upon which the soul is founded or is grafted into Him. By thus being founded upon Him or being grafted into Him, one is made to be a living stone. There is also a foundation within us, however, consisting in the saving knowledge of our miserable, sinful, and lost condition. It is here that we observe the distinction between a true and a counterfeit work.
However far a person may progress by virtue of the common operation of the Spirit, the deficiency is always at this point, for the foundation of all of his progress is not grounded in the true knowledge of his sins and miseries. If the footing and the foundation have been constructed correctly, the building which is to rest upon it shall also turn out well. However if the first is lacking, all that follows must of necessity turn out wrong so that even all knowledge, illumination, and tasting of the heavenly gifts- yes, even the power of the world to come-will be of no avail.
Of, if you do not deceive yourself willfully or feed yourself with ashes and perish with a lie in your right hand, ask much for this experiential knowledge and this true realization of your sins and miseries."
"The knowledge of our misery is of the greatest importance for the very reason that God by His Spirit thereby lays the foundation in us for the saving operations of which we become the recipients in this time state, and upon which the building of our salvation is erected. There is a foundation outside of us, namely Christ Jesus, upon which the soul is founded or is grafted into Him. By thus being founded upon Him or being grafted into Him, one is made to be a living stone. There is also a foundation within us, however, consisting in the saving knowledge of our miserable, sinful, and lost condition. It is here that we observe the distinction between a true and a counterfeit work.
However far a person may progress by virtue of the common operation of the Spirit, the deficiency is always at this point, for the foundation of all of his progress is not grounded in the true knowledge of his sins and miseries. If the footing and the foundation have been constructed correctly, the building which is to rest upon it shall also turn out well. However if the first is lacking, all that follows must of necessity turn out wrong so that even all knowledge, illumination, and tasting of the heavenly gifts- yes, even the power of the world to come-will be of no avail.
Of, if you do not deceive yourself willfully or feed yourself with ashes and perish with a lie in your right hand, ask much for this experiential knowledge and this true realization of your sins and miseries."
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