The Kingdom grows, a mustard tree--
Not to despise or scorn the cherry-- The Spirit bears an unseen fruit Not to be found within the berry; So do not stretch the metaphor: A parable is like a branch That standing many winters strong Could not withstand your avalanche Of meaning.
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Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil. Psalm 127:1-2a Unless the Maker makes the house, the builders build in vain;
They babble on about their plans to build a better name By building Babel to the Sky (foreseeing not a tongue-tied cry), A blueprint for a Holy War, a kingdom shaken to its core By Him whose Name will not be mocked by bread of anxious toil. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil. Psalm 127:2a I take another bite of the bread of anxious toil;
It fills but for a minute, incorporating void Within the void, a death producing death, returned To dust I am, biting in my spirit all I've earned. Athanasius wrote, Even the very creation broke silence at His behest and, marvelous to relate, confessed with one voice before the cross, that monument of victory, that He Who suffered thereon in the body was not man only, but Son of God and Savior of all. The sun veiled his face, the earth quaked, the mountains were rent asunder, all men were stricken with awe. These things showed that Christ on the cross was God, and that all creation was His slave and was bearing witness by its fear to the presence of its Master. On the Incarnation, ch. 4.
When I long-suffering make my plea,
Remind me of your carried cross That proves that patience found is me Is borne and found in what you lost. Beeke and Smalley write, Worship of the Holy One is acceptable only if it conforms to the requirements of his Word. God made the old covenant ceremonies obsolete by the finished work of Christ (Heb. 8:13; 9:1-14). We have no need of temples, priests, and altars, for Christ is all to us (13:9-16). The complex system of old covenant worship has been replaced with the simplicity of worship in spirit and truth, in which we read the Word, pray the word, sing the Word, preach the Word, and see the word made visible in baptism and the Lord's Supper. Beeke, Joel and Paul Smalley. Reformed Systematic Theology. vol. 1. Revelation and God. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. 2019, pg. 620-1. emphasis mine
Wilhelmus à Brakel writes, The Lord has perfectly revealed the law of the ten commandments to His church, and partakers of the covenant are obligated to live accordingly. We must therefore not make the dim light of nature to be the judge which determines which commandments we are and are not obliged to observe. Nor ought it to be a touchstone determining whether or not they pertain to us (and are thus binding for us) simply because reason--that is, the dim light of nature--judges it to be so. Rather, it is so because God as Lawgiver commands it to be so, and we must judge by means of the law declared on Sinai what the conduct of sin and virtue are--all of which nature and reason should have taught them. Our reason even originates with God and He declares by means of it what His will is. Thus, the heathen must judge as to whether a matter is evil, not because their reason affirms it to be so, but because God wills it and makes His will known to them by means of their reason, that is, by means of the light of nature. The Christians Reasonable Service. Vol. 3: The Law, Christian Graces, and the Lord's Prayer. Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 1994. p. 83-4.
Kuyper writes, No matter how hard we try to set aside the all-dominant questions of life, they always come back. The questions about where we come from, how this universe and this world came into being, and how we came into existence in this world, will simply not be repressed. The unbeliever who, in his confusion, in order to cede nothing to faith in the end forbids himself to reflect on these questions, dulls his own mind, and darkens his consciousness. We can cut off the question about the origin of things as little as we can suppress the questions about where we go when we die, and how this whole world will one day end up, and what the purpose of this whole creation is. And it is precisely the rich book of Genesis that gives us a fully satisfying answer to this question of the origin of things. He continues, The world outside of Christ is in search of all manner of life philosophies and worldviews. In this search it repeatedly slips and falls and repeatedly hopes to regain a sure footing, that is, to find again a position that can serve as a vantage point from which to view things. And those worldviews and philosophies of life change daily. Time and again the one replaces the other. And in the end people are desperate and do not know anymore what they must cling to; they often end up with the despondent exclamation that certainty has not been granted us human beings, so we must retreat into our ignorance. But it is precisely the great privilege of the church of Christ that it does not need to search and does not need to ask, but that things have been revealed to us by God. A well-grounded Christian always has his answer ready. He no longer doubts and hesitates, but rests in the revelation given to him. The philosopher seeks a philosophy, but a Christian who knows God's Word has his philosophy, has his view of reality, has his standpoint and from that standpoint has an unfaltering view on what lies behind, around, and before him. Common Grace: God's Gifts for a Fallen World. Vol. 1: The Historical Section. Ed. Ballor, Jordan J. and Stephen J. Grabill. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016. p. 123-5.
Kuyper wrote, If God is sovereign, then his lordship must extend over all of life, and it cannot be restricted to the walls of the church or within the Christian orbit. The non-Christian world has not been handed over to Satan, not surrendered to fallen humanity, nor consigned to fate. God's sovereignty is great and all-dominating in the life of that unbaptized world as well. Therefore Christ's church on earth and God's children cannot simply retreat from this life. If the believer's God is at work in this world, then in this world the believer's hand must take hold of the plow, and the name of the Lord must be glorified in that activity as well. Common Grace: God's Gifts for a Fallen World. Vol. 1: The Historical Section. Ed. Ballor, Jordan J. and Stephen J. Grabill. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016. p. xxxvii-iii.
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Michael Price - I am a husband, father, poet, and science teacher at a classical Christian school in Memphis, TN. I have two volumes of poetry and one coming early 2024! New book coming in 2024!
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