Two moving posts...

These are interesting in that I've resolved my thinking to much these same as RC's quote. That to believe means to believe all the Bible not just making a profession, as Bunyan often cites. Believing has a depth to it that goes well into the heart: John 3:16, Romans 10:9 and Jesus calls us in Matthew 28: 18-20 to make disciples not believers. James 2:19 says even the demons believe! When called by God we are to repent (check out all the verses, too many to reference with the word repent), believe fully and completely without reservations (Mark 9:24) and to love God, which is to obey his commandments. 2 John 2:6.

Less we forget here are the core verses on the first commandment.

Deuteronomy 6:5;  Deuteronomy 11:1;  Deuteronomy 11:13;  Deuteronomy 13:3;  Deuteronomy 30:6;  Joshua  22:5;  Joshua 23:11;  Matthew 22:37;  Mark 12:30;  Luke 10:27

Why do we so easily ignore that little word "all" in the command?


“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” G. K. Chesterton quotesThis depth of belief is never easy and we are in good company in our failings.



Mark 16:14

But by the grace of God we have hope even as the thief on the cross, study Luke 23:39-43;  or those who have even a little faith see Matthew 17:20.


Also I'm trying to remember if Gordon Fee mentioned in the second post was my professor (in the academic sense) or advisor when I was briefly attending Gordon Conwell.

Anyway enjoy both they are profound.



JUSTIN TAYLOR


A Sentence that Changed My Theology

In 1996 I read this sentence by R. C. Sproul, and God used it to snap my resistance to some of his revealed truths:

You are required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what you want the Bible to say is true. — Chosen by God, p. 12.

The Active and Passive Sides of God’s Love

From a lecture by Gordon Fee, recounting the morning that he sat in his study to work on 1 Corinthians 13:4 for his commentary:

I remember the morning when I came to this passage: “Love is patient, love is kind.”
It’s actually a verb: “Love does patience.” Or better yet, the KJV: “love suffers long.”
Patience is what you show when your computer doesn’t work.
Long-suffering is what you show when people don’t work, and you’ve been around them a long, long time. That’s what it means to suffer long.

And I looked at those words and then realized that Paul was here describing God’s character. Those are exactly the words he uses of God back in Romans 2 [v. 4].

Then it dawned on me:

the first (long-suffering) is the passive side of His love;
the other (kindness) is the active side of His love.

And then I started to cry for a long time. It took me a long time to return to my computer. What if God was not like this toward us?