What is the Bible About?

Timothy Keller answering the question, "What is the Bible basically about?" The Bible is not about us, it's about Jesus. Jesus is the new Adam, the better Abraham and the true and better David. When we read the Bible we shouldn't read it thinking that we should be like David slaying Goliath, but that Christ has slain even greater enemies.





Found here:

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/08/23/what-is-the-bible-basically-about/

The Importance of Theology

On January 7, 1855 Charles Spurgeon opened his New Park Street Chapel sermon with this:

It has been said that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.” But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God....

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe.... The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, while humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore.

Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning.

Excerpted from J.I. Packer's Knowing God.

Things Which Grace May Tender

I think of her lovely face

Given to such lovely grace;

The things through her taught

And things in her sought;

The joy of her smile

Which holds me all the while.

I fear her and wonder

At things which grace may tender.

To be hers and she mine

Is a dream found in divine.

My life not even I possess,

Hers owed to grace confessed.

I can only fall down in praise

Dreaming of those better days.

I think of a lovely face

Given me only by grace.

Fear

The "fear of the Lord" is sometimes used as a criticism of belief in God by saying that no self-respecting human being would subject himself to God in such an irrational and diminutive way. I feel that "fear" from the critic's perspective is different than that of the Christian's and that a better understanding of "fear" would bridge this gap in showing that it is rational, good and necessary for any worldview.

What is fear? Is fear anxiety or some sort of cautious felling toward an object of horror? Fear can be many things. For example, one could fear their toaster. They wake up in the morning, see it leering over the coffee cups and being startled, they run out of the room in fright. This kind of fear does exist, but it is not what I wish to discuss here. Taking the example of the toaster, what I want to talk about is something like this: A man wakes up in the morning, makes toast, toast gets stuck and man does not stick butter knife in toaster. This is something that we would almost never label as “fear,” but it does serve as an example for the “fear of God” idea. The fear of the Lord is not irrational or debilitative, it seeks to preserve the individual through a proper understanding of the thing feared.

Also, fear is a necessary component that holds together any worldview. Obviously in Christianity the fear of the Lord holds that system together in that it causes believers to abide by the law of God. In a secular humanist worldview like the one that created our countries foundational precepts of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” fear must also exist. One who holds these precepts dear must fear their destruction. In worldviews where family is of the utmost importance, parents must love their children and out of that love comes a fear of any interference in their ability to love their children. This fear is a fear which values good and causes one to think critically and rationally about that which might cause harm to that good.

John Calvin's Preface to Olivetan's French New Testament

"What then shall estrange and alienate us from this holy gospel? Shall injuries, curses, disgrace, and want of worldly honor? But, we know well that Jesus Christ has traveled the same road which we have to follow, if we would be his disciples; that we must not refuse to be despised, mocked humiliated, and rejected before men. For it is thus that we shall be honored, prized, glorified, and exalted in God's judgment. Will there be banishments, proscriptions, privation from goods and riches? But we know that if we shall be banished from one country, the whole earth is the Lord's, and if we be thrown out of the earth itself, nonetheless we shall not be outside of his kingdom. [We know] that when we are despoiled and impoverished, we have a father who is rich enough to nourish us; even that Jesus Christ was made poor, so that we might follow him in his poverty. Will there be afflictions, prisons, tortures, torments? But we know by the example of Jesus Christ that this is the way to arrive at glory. Finally, will there be death? But death does not do away with a life that is worth living."

Joyous Death

Strange though it may seem

With sin as a flowing stream

Persistent in its ways

You have chosen me in those days.

Oh the things to be grasped

Only to end in fingers rasped.

Good words to those goodly given

Something simple from heaven.

What is this I speak of?

A flighty thing from above?

No, this is here on earth

To give man his worth

And make him ever new

Giving him things not his due.

See that life in strange decay

Going about things in a strange way.

Life is gone, new life now here:

Joyous death without tear.

The Door

Some time ago I walked out of the cafeteria to go to class in the Yeager center and was prevented from entering that building by what resembled a corpse. There in front of a perfectly serviceable door stood a body blank and dead.

"My, how can this be?" I asked myself when I came upon her, "There, a breath? Why she's alive!"

Thank God, now for the door.

"Fair maiden, I prithee ope the door to yonder Yeager."

Not a sound nor a move.

"What is this vexation that holds you so?" My query was left unabated. "Oh deary me! I must get to class, but trouble seems to have a firm grip on this one here."

"Shut up!" She hissed in a way that can only be described as air rushing through her teeth, but only after they have sufficiently vibrated her vocal chords in a very stupid, abject sort of way.

"Fie, the curds have turned!" I said aghast, "The perceived damsel has revealed herself to be a witch with a bee in her bonnet."

This object, this pillar has come to life to prove herself stronger than objection. The tenacity of those legs which held firm to pavement proved to be stronger than my mind. I was overcome by the bewitchment and stupor pressed upon me. With pupils dilated and teeth clenched I fought my grim fate, but fell and spewed forth profanity. Others, hearing the words of my mouth, came around and asked of God to give me the strength to put away such language for it is the worst of all sins. By their prayers I was blessed and given the whitest of smiles and straightest of teeth to stand against this woesome foe. I surged ahead, determined to open the door. I forged onward against the social awkwardness and derision caused by this situation and opened the other door that was blocked by the witch who's aim was to prevent this doubled doored entrance to be used to its full potential. Victory was gained and Yeager was thus made able to accept people making their way out and people entering in at the same time.

This happens all the time at CBU.