Objections Are Proof

Posted on November 25, 2011 by jwm

“The assumption that lies at the basis of all the objections… is that the universe is a universe of chance…. We would ask whether the assumption of a universe of chance can furnish a foundation for a universal law of contradiction. Our opponents take for granted that they are applying to our concepts nothing but a law of contradiction that is recognized as universally valid by any one who is rational. So we would now ask whether there is any such law of contradiction that is universally valid if the universe is a universe of chance. The answer is simple. If the universe is a universe of chance, there is no law of contradiction at all. In such a universe everyone is master to himself. In such a universe there could be nothing but a Babel of confusion; no one would be able to speak with his neighbor. Accordingly we hold it to be the best proof of the truth of our position that our opponents are able to make objections to it that seem to have some sort of reason. This fact is the best proof that the universe is not a universe of chance.”

(Cornelius Van Til, Foundations of Christian Education, 94)

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Absolute Personality

Posted on November 25, 2011 by jwm

“You cannot think of personality without thinking of rationality, and finite rationality is by itself unthinkable and without meaning. To think of finite personality by itself is to think meaning into the void. The impersonal cannot be a foil to the personal. Taken in an absolute sense personality must be completely self-sufficient. And taken in a finite sense, personality may have the impersonal as its foil only if back of this impersonal foil is the absolute personality of God.”

(Cornelius Van Til, Foundations of Christian Education, 23)

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The Hinge

Posted on March 11, 2011 by jwm

“Believe me, if a church does not pray, it is dead. Instead of putting united prayer last, put it first. Everything will hinge upon the power of prayer in the church.”

(Spurgeon)

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Worship: What’s in it for Me?

Posted on March 11, 2011 by jwm

“Your main end must be that you may know this day some part of the mind of God, that God may speak to your heart, that you may be so fitted to honor the name of God that you may be enabled to life to His honor the following week so much better.”

(Jeremiah Burroughs, Gospel Worship, 90)

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Vigor & Rigor

Posted on February 23, 2011 by jwm

‎”To be vigorous in spiritual life, we must be rigorous in daily life.”

(Murray Caphil, Preaching with Spiritual Vigour, 50)

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Experimental Christianity

Posted on February 23, 2011 by jwm

“Experimental Christianity values genuine spiritual experience. It is not content merely to know the truth, but desires to experience, live and feel it. It is not satisfied with affirming the importance of holiness, but gives rise to an earnest pursuit of godliness. It wants not only to make a stand for sound doctrine, but cultivate a burning zeal for the honour of Christ and the glory of his name.”

(Murray Caphil, Preaching with Spiritual Vigour, 15)

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An Exact Man

Posted on February 23, 2011 by jwm

“Reading makes a full man; conversation a ready man, and writing an exact man.”

(Francis Bacon, cited in Samuel Miller, Thoughts on Public Prayer, 291)

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How to Use a Book

Posted on February 23, 2011 by jwm

“The most truly valuable use we can make of any book, especially one on such a subject, is by no means servilely copying its pages; but by digesting its thoughts; by making them our own; and, in short, like a spiritual chemist, subjecting its matter to those various analyses and modifications which both the imagination and the heart can often apply to the most perverse and intractable materials.”

(Samuel Miller, Thoughts on Public Prayer, 271)

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Living at the Throne

Posted on February 23, 2011 by jwm

“None can hope to attain excellent in the grace and gift of prayer in the public assembly, unless they abound in closet devotion, and in holy communion with God in secret… without this, there will not, there cannot be that feeling sense of divine things; that spirit of humble, filial importunity; that holy familiarity with the throne of grace, and with the covenant God who sits upon it, which bespeak one at home in prayer, and whose whole heart is in the exercise…. It is an old maxim, that no one was ever truly eloquent who did not really and deeply feel; who did not truly and heartily enter into the spirit of the subject concerning which he undertook to speak.”

“Hence the hesitation, the embarrassment, and the various improprieties so frequently witnessed in the public prayers of able and pious men. They have not come from their knees in private to the services of the sacred desk.”

Solution? “That man prays as if he lived at the throne of grace.”

(Samuel Miller, Thoughts on Public Prayer, 260-264)

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Characteristics of Good Prayer

Posted on February 22, 2011 by jwm

“There is hardly any thing more attractive and impressive in this exercise [of public prayer] than the appearance of a sanctified intelligence, as well as a warm heart, dictating and accompanying every petition; when there is an opportunity given for him who leads, as well as for him who follows, to reflect well on what is uttered… Words ‘few,’ ‘well considered,’ and ‘well ordered’ are the inspired characteristics of a good prayer.”

(Samuel Miller, Thoughts on Public Prayer, 212-213)

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