my burg

  "The conclusion, therefore, is that of Augustine, who said that the heart of man was created for God and that it cannot find rest until it rests in his Father's heart. Hence all men are really seeking after God, as Augustine also declared, but they do not all seek Him in the right way, nor at the right place. They seek Him down below, and He is up above. They seek Him on the earth, and He is in heaven. They seek Him afar, and He is nearby. They seek Him in money, in property, in fame, in power, and in passion; and He is to be found in the high and the holy places, and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit (Isa. 57:15). But they do seek Him, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him (Acts 17:27). They seek Him and at the same time they flee Him. They have no interest in a knowledge of His ways, and yet they cannot do without Him. They feel themselves attracted to God and at the same time repelled by Him. "In this, as Pascal so profoundly pointed out, con...

Bible reading for April 4-5 weekend -- Leviticus 7-8; Psalms 7-9.  "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"  (Psalm 8:3-4)  My wife and I once attended a Shakespearean play presented on a summer evening on the grounds of the Barboursville ruins . This mansion [ pictured below ] was designed by Thomas Jefferson for Governor James Barbour, and was built in 1814, but destroyed by fire in 1884. It was an enjoyable evening and the ruins themselves had a haunting beauty.  Something of its original glory could be seen.  I've always been fascinated by old ruins and abandoned buildings, places which once were magnificent but now lay in quiet decay. The Bible teaches that our human condition is very much like that, a "glorious ruin."      A little lower than angels. Psalm 8 is a hymn exalting the ...

"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...

"[You] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.  Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all."  (Colossians 3:10-11 ESV) From the Bible's perspective few things are more prideful and foolish than racism. All are descended from one man (Adam), and all will be restored in the One Man (Christ). There is only one humanity.  Whatever the cultural strengths or weaknesses of any race, it remains that human beings were created in the image of God, and however distorted, all humans still bear that image (Gen. 9:6; Acts 17:22-31). Even when God dealt specifically with the nation of Israel, he made it very clear to them that he was not blessing them because of any superiority they possessed (Deut. 9:4ff). Every human being who comes to Christ comes with the full awareness and admission of having no superiority.  We come to the ...

“God created man good and after his own image, that is, in true righteousness and holiness, so that they might rightly know God his creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness, to praise and glorify Him.” ( Heidelberg Catechism , 1563, Q#6.) "It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing to a young bride and groom from his prison cell in Nazi Germany in 1943) "A good marriage is the union of two good forgivers."  (Ruth Bell Graham) “...most scholars now agree that children raised by two biological parents in a stable marriage do better than children in other family forms across a wide range of outcomes.”  -- National Review   “According to new research, states with a high concentration of married couples experience faster economic growth, less child poverty and more economic mobility than states where fewer adults are married, even after ...

From Drew's sermon on Sunday... “The Christian life starts in conversion with a clear sight of the excellency of Christ and the beauty of God. It is a sight through a glass darkly, but it is still sight. The culmination of that event is standing before the God of love and beholding him as my Father, seeing him clearly and growing in knowledge of him for eternity. Most of us currently stand in between these two events.  As believers, our lives are lived after this initial sight of the truth and beauty of the gospel and before its climax in glory. These events bracket the Christian life and give it its texture. The Christian life is a journey to see clearly. It is a journey inaugurated with a sight of faith and a journey whose destination is the perfection of that sight.” (Kyle Strobel, Formed for the Glory of God: Learning from the Spiritual Practices of Jonathan Edwards)

  Our human condition includes both greatness and misery, both beauty and brokenness.  We are made in God's image and created for a relationship with him.  We are a material creation as well as spiritual.  Both nobility and evil pervade our entire makeup. A purely materialistic explanation does not account for all dimensions of human nature.  This is described so well by the Dutch theologian, Herman Bavinck:   “The conclusion, therefore, is that of Augustine, who said that the heart of man was created for God and that it cannot find rest unless it rests in its Father’s heart.  Hence, all men are really seeking after God, as Augustine also declared, but they do not all seek Him in the right way nor at the right place.  They seek Him down below, and He is above, they seek Him on the earth and He is in Heaven.  They seek Him afar, and He is nearby. They seek Him in money, in property, in fame, in power, and in passion; and He is to be f...

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27 ESV) "Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"  (Isaiah 58:7 ESV) "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. "  (Matthew 5:44-45 ESV) "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them."  (Romans 12:14 ESV) "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."  (Galatians 6:10 ESV)   Christians are commanded to love all humanity.  One reason for this is that there is one human nature, since all are descended from the firs...