By Robert Flynn on
8/29/2009 4:59 AM
In this situation of this assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understanding? (Dr. Benjamin Franklin, LL. D.)
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By Robert Flynn on
8/27/2009 5:34 AM
Human words cannot fully describe the motions of souls that are full of God. As if he had said, I could wish to suffer in their stead; yea, to be an anathema from Christ in their place. In how high a sense he wished this, who can tell, unless himself had been asked and had resolved the question? Certainly he did not then consider himself at all, but only others and the glory of God. The thing could not be; yet the wish was pious and solid; though with a tacit condition, if it were right and possible. (John Wesley)
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By Robert Flynn on
8/26/2009 5:31 PM
In the Holy Scriptures we have a standard of right and wrong upon which we can always depend for the general principles at least which should direct our actions, and in the voice of the Holy Spirit we shall always have the special guidance which we need in particular circumstances. But there are certain conditions which we must ever observe. "The meek will He guide in judgment." The yielded and willing heart will find His way. The selfish will, the heart that chooses its way and then comes to God to have Him indorse it, will be very likely to go astray. (A. B. Simpson, Danger Lines in the Deeper Life)
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By Born4Battle on
8/26/2009 5:35 AM
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."--John 1:12-13
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By Robert Flynn on
8/25/2009 6:48 AM
By declaring his sorrow for the unbelieving Jews, who excluded themselves from all the blessings he had enumerated, he shows that what he was now about to speak, he did not speak from any prejudice to them. (John Wesley)
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By Robert Flynn on
8/24/2009 8:36 AM
Paul tries to deal with one of the most bewildering problems that the Church has to solve--the problem of the Jews. They were God's chosen people; they had had a unique place in God's purposes; and yet when God's Son had come into the world they had rejected him and crucified him. How is this tragic paradox to be explained? (William Barclay)
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By Born4Battle on
8/22/2009 7:47 AM
The Chief End of Man is to Glorify God – Thomas Watson
Part 7
In how many ways may we glorify God?
9. We glorify God by walking cheerfully. It brings glory to God, when the world sees a Christian has that within him that which can make him cheerful in the worst times; that can enable him, with the nightingale, to sing with a thorn at his breast.
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By Born4Battle on
8/22/2009 7:22 AM
The Chief End of Man is to Glorify God – Thomas Watson
Part 6
How shall we know wne we aim at God's Glory?
1. When we prefer God's glory above all other things; above credit, estate, relations; when the glory of God coming in competition with them, we prefer his glory before them.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/19/2009 4:33 PM
Which is in Christ, etc. That is, of which Christ is the bond; for he is the beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased. If, then, we are through him united to God, we may be assured of the immutable and unfailing kindness of God towards us. He now speaks here more distinctly than before, as he declares that the fountain of love is in the Father, and affirms that it flows to us from Christ. (John Calvin)
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By Born4Battle on
8/17/2009 6:28 AM
The Chief End of Man is to Glorify God – Thomas Watson
Part 5
In how many ways may we glorify God?
It is glorifying God when we aim purely at his glory. It is one thing to advance God's glory, another thing to aim at it.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/16/2009 7:06 AM
He is now carried away into hyperbolic expressions, that he might confirm us more fully in those things which are to be experienced. (John Calvin)
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By Born4Battle on
8/13/2009 5:13 AM
The Chief End of Man is to Glorify God – Thomas Watson
Part 4
Why must we glorify God?
1. Because he gives us our being.
Psalm 100:3, "It is he that made us." We think it a great kindness in a man to spare our life, but what kindness is it in God to give us our life! We draw our breath from him; and as life, so all the comforts of life are from him. He gives us health, which is the sauce to sweeten our life; and food, which is the oil that nourishes the lamp of life. If all we receive is from his bounty, is it not reasonable we should glorify him? Should we not live to him, seeing we live by him? Rom. 11:36, "For of him, and through him, are all things." All we have is of his fulness, all we have is through his free grace; and therefore to him should be all. It follows, therefore, "To him be glory for ever." God is not our benefactor only, but our founder, as rivers that come from the sea empty their silver streams into the sea again.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/11/2009 7:55 AM
We not only overcome so great and many miseries and calamities, but are also more than conquerors in all of them. (Geneva Bible Translation Notes)
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By Born4Battle on
8/9/2009 5:05 AM
The Chief End of Man is to Glorify God – Thomas Watson
Part 3
Q. What is it to glorify God?
A. Glorifying God consists in four things: 1. Appreciation, 2. Adoration, 3. Affection, 4. Subjection. This is the yearly rent we pay to the crown of heaven.
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By Born4Battle on
8/7/2009 4:09 AM
When we speak of God’s glory, the question will be moved, What are we to understand by God’s glory?
Answer. There is a twofold glory:
1. The glory that God has in himself, his intrinsic glory.
2. The glory which is ascribed to God, or which his creatures labour to bring to him.
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By Robert Flynn on
8/6/2009 6:22 AM
This testimony adds no small weight to the subject; for he intimates, that the dread of death is so far from being a reason to us for falling away, that it has been almost ever the lot of God’s servants to have death as it were present before their eyes. It is indeed probable, that in that Psalm the miserable oppression of the people under the tyranny of Antiochus is described; for it is expressly said, that the worshippers of God were cruelly treated, for no other reason but through hatred to true religion. (John Calvin)
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By Born4Battle on
8/5/2009 5:10 AM
A military Operations Order begins with the Concept of the Operation and the Commander's Intent. Therefore, the subject of the chief end of man/the purpose of our lives can fittingly be termed our Commander's Intent for us.
This post, as well as some in the future, will largely be excerpts from a work called A Body of Divinity, by Thomas Watson (c.1620-1686). Some of his works can be found online at The Hall of Church History. The Body of Divinity is a collection of sermons around the questions found in the Westminster Confession, beginning with the question at hand. So without further introductory explanation, let's begin:
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By Robert Flynn on
8/4/2009 7:21 AM
Paul goes on with a poet's fervour and a lover's rapture to sing of how nothing can separate us from the love of God in our Risen Lord. No affliction, no hardship, no peril can separate us. The disasters of the world do not separate a man from Christ; they bring him closer yet. (William Barclay)
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By Robert Flynn on
8/3/2009 6:57 AM
“From the representations of the dead Christ the early believers shrank as from an impiety. To them He was the living, not the dead Christ — the triumphant, the glorified, the infinite, — not the agonized Christ in that one brief hour and power of darkness which was but the spasm of an eternal glorification” (Farrar, “Lives of the Fathers,” i., 14). As quoted in (Vincent, M. R. (2002). Word studies in the New Testament)
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By Robert Flynn on
8/2/2009 12:25 PM
With one tremendous leap of thought Paul has seen Christ, not as the Judge but as the lover of the souls of men. (William Barclay)
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