my burg

"God, and God alone, is man's highest good. "In a general sense we can say that God is the highest good of all His creatures.  For God is the Creator and sustainer of all things, the source of all being and of all life, and the abundant fountain of all goods.  All creatures owe their existence from moment to moment solely to Him who is the one, eternal, and omnipresent Being. "In all his thinking and in all his work, in the whole life and activity of man, it becomes apparent that he is a creature who cannot be satisfied with what the whole corporeal world has to offer.  He is indeed a citizen of a physical order of affairs, but he also rises above this order to a supernatural one.  With his feet planted firmly on the ground, he raises his head aloft and casts his eye up in a vertical look.  He has knowledge of things that are visible and temporal, but he is also aware of things that are invisible and eternal... "The pleasant and the useful, although they...

Some recent highlights in my reading... "I want to persuade us to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to belonging to, and serving God in the fellowship of, a local church; and that this may prove to be the most significant thing we do with our lives." "...the ordinary local Christian church contains within itself the seeds, or the DNA, of a remade world."   "One true God means that there is one objective substantial reality within which you and I have to live. We can create our subjective or virtual quasi-realities as much as we like, but the day will come when we must reckon with what one theologian called, ‘The God who is there’, and therefore with the reality that is there." "Most people think that it is perfectly possible to enjoy harmony east of Eden, that human beings are well able to ‘do the peace and harmony thing’ without bringing God into the picture." "...apart from fellowship with God no human community is stable."   ...

"For by grace you have been saved through faith . And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works , so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship , created in Christ Jesus for good works , which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV) "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love."  (Galatians 5:6 ESV) So, for the Christian, what qualifies as a "good work"? The Heidelberg Catechism summarizes this concisely...  90. Q. What is the coming to life of the new nature ? A. It is a heartfelt joy in God through Christ,[1] and a love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works.[2] [1] Ps. 51:8, 12; Is. 57:15; Rom. 5:1; 14:17. [2] Rom. 6:10, 11; Gal. 2:20. 91. Q. But what are good works ?  A. Only those which are done out of true faith,[1] in accordance with the law of God,[2] and to Hi...

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works , so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship , created in Christ Jesus for good works , which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them ." (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV) "You have often heard me say that the Christian life has two dimensions: the first is faith, and the second is good works. A believer should live a devout life and always do what is right. But the first dimension of the Christian life — faith — is more essential. The second dimension — good works — is never as valuable as faith. People of the world, however, adore good works. They regard them to be far higher than faith.  "Good works have always been valued more highly than faith. Of course, it’s true that we should do good works and respect the importance of them. But we should be careful that we don’t elevate good works to such an extent that faith and Ch...

“Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.”   “Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.”  “We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God.”   “How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each Truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.”  “Repentance is more than just sorrow for the past; repentance is a change of mind and heart, a new life of denying self and serving the Savior as king in self's place.”   “He that has learned to feel his sins, and to trust Christ as a Saviour, has learned the two hardest and gr...