Veracity and Faithfulness
By veracity and faithfulness I mean the transitive truth of God, in its two-fold relation to his creatures in general and to his redeemed people in particular. In virtue of his veracity, all his revelations to creatures consist with his essential being and with each other.
I believe the dry season is over for churches and saints who have lasted through the shaking. We will see people being sent to places that have shaken off the tried religious habits, and have once again put Christ back as head of His church.
In God's veracity, we have the guarantee that our faculties in their normal exercise do not deceive us; that the laws of thought are also laws of things; that the external world, and second causes in it, have objective existence; that the same causes will always produce the same effects; that the threats of the moral nature will be executed upon the unrepentant transgressor; that man's moral nature is made in the image of God; and that we may draw just conclusions from what conscience is in us to what holiness is in Him. We may therefore expect that all past revelations, whether in nature or in his Word, will not be contradicted by our future knowledge, but will rather prove to have in them more truth than we ever dreamed.
Man's word may pass away, but God's word abides forever (see Matthew 5:18; Matthew 6:16 and Isaiah 40:8).
In God the outer expression and the inward reality always correspond. So our life should conform to the heart within, and the heart within to the outer life. On the duty of speaking the truth, and the limitations of the duty give the truth always to those who in the bonds of humanity have a right to the truth; conceal it, or falsify it, only when the right to the truth has been forfeited, or is held in abeyance by sickness, weakness, or some criminal intent.
In virtue of his faithfulness, he fulfills all his promises to his people, whether expressed in words or implied in the constitution he has given them.
In God's faithfulness, we have the sure ground of confidence that he will perform what his love has led him to promise to those who obey that Gospel. Since his promises are based not upon what we are or have done, but upon what Christ is and has done, our defects and errors do not invalidate them, so long as we are truly penitent and believing (I John 1:9): faithful to his promises and righteous to Christ. God's faithfulness also ensures a supply for all the real wants of our being, both here and hereafter, since these wants are implicit promises of him who made us (Psalm 84:11; 91:4; Matthew 6:33, and I Corinthians 2:9).
Let me stop here. It is evident that the only appropriate conduct of believers before God is the doing of His will. When the Bible calls for action it does not refer a man to his own powers but to Jesus Christ Himself. Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). This sentence is to be taken in its strictest sense.
God's faithfulness must prepare you for his promises to be fulfilled before He can start using you. Things and happiness cannot be the goal. The beginning of all things is to chose God's end as our end--giving up of our sole preference of happiness, and entrance upon a life devoted to God. That soulish carnal happiness is not the ground of moral obligation, it is plain from the fact that there is no happiness in seeking happiness. The holiness of God is the ground of moral obligation, which the search for happiness after holiness is not only successful in itself, but brings happiness also in its pursuits.
We must pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send people that want Christ by the inner pull of His spirit not just because they need something from Him, but that the need is for Him only.
It then is a wonderful instance of wisdom and goodness that God has so connected his own glory with our happiness, that we cannot properly intend the one, but that the other must follow as a matter of course if we follow one we will lose the other is totally untrue. Religious unions say you cannot have both, but there is an order, which one does come first. See ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things that first constitute; Happy is the Man who's God is the Lord. If you only trust him to do what you want Him to do, you will never get from him what He is in you to do.
A while back I was honored with a Doctorate of Sacred Letters. It is something that I hold dearly. I know we shouldn't get to proud over being awarded for serving Christ, but this was personal, and private. I try to keep how my wife and I live in a very modest way, this was needed when it came. I think it was for both of us. We have been serving in the things of God because we love Him, and His purpose for us. If this offends anyone, then please forgive me.
It is a duty to make the most of ourselves, but only for the sake of Christ. But it is no where forbidden us to seek great things for God. Rather we are to desire earnestly the greater gifts. Self-realization as well as self-expression is native to humanity. Man, and with him every rational creature, is an end in himself. But this seeking of his own good is to be subordinated to the higher motive of God's glory. I look to ethics, and moral character to help me in my never ending development as a teacher/pastor. I seem to be moving into an area of freedom to express my feelings about human involvements with culture and the development of God in it.
The difference between the regenerate and the unregenerate may consist wholly in motive. The latter lives for self, and the former for God. When you can begin to learn your lessons for God instead for self, leaving his salvation in Christ's hands. God requires self-renunciation, taking up the cross, and following Christ, because the first need of the sinner is to change his center. To be self-centered is to be a savage. The struggle for the life of others is better but there is something higher still. Life has dignity according to the worth of the object we install in place of self. Follow Christ and make God the center of your life - so shall you achieve the best.
Thank you for your continued viewing and reading. If this Blog and its contents have been a blessing to you, then I ask, with God's leading, that you consider supporting Artesian Well Church.
Talk to you soon,
Pastor James P. Norman Jr.
Long Beach, Ca
I believe the dry season is over for churches and saints who have lasted through the shaking. We will see people being sent to places that have shaken off the tried religious habits, and have once again put Christ back as head of His church.
In God's veracity, we have the guarantee that our faculties in their normal exercise do not deceive us; that the laws of thought are also laws of things; that the external world, and second causes in it, have objective existence; that the same causes will always produce the same effects; that the threats of the moral nature will be executed upon the unrepentant transgressor; that man's moral nature is made in the image of God; and that we may draw just conclusions from what conscience is in us to what holiness is in Him. We may therefore expect that all past revelations, whether in nature or in his Word, will not be contradicted by our future knowledge, but will rather prove to have in them more truth than we ever dreamed.
Man's word may pass away, but God's word abides forever (see Matthew 5:18; Matthew 6:16 and Isaiah 40:8).
In God the outer expression and the inward reality always correspond. So our life should conform to the heart within, and the heart within to the outer life. On the duty of speaking the truth, and the limitations of the duty give the truth always to those who in the bonds of humanity have a right to the truth; conceal it, or falsify it, only when the right to the truth has been forfeited, or is held in abeyance by sickness, weakness, or some criminal intent.
In virtue of his faithfulness, he fulfills all his promises to his people, whether expressed in words or implied in the constitution he has given them.
In God's faithfulness, we have the sure ground of confidence that he will perform what his love has led him to promise to those who obey that Gospel. Since his promises are based not upon what we are or have done, but upon what Christ is and has done, our defects and errors do not invalidate them, so long as we are truly penitent and believing (I John 1:9): faithful to his promises and righteous to Christ. God's faithfulness also ensures a supply for all the real wants of our being, both here and hereafter, since these wants are implicit promises of him who made us (Psalm 84:11; 91:4; Matthew 6:33, and I Corinthians 2:9).
Let me stop here. It is evident that the only appropriate conduct of believers before God is the doing of His will. When the Bible calls for action it does not refer a man to his own powers but to Jesus Christ Himself. Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5). This sentence is to be taken in its strictest sense.
God's faithfulness must prepare you for his promises to be fulfilled before He can start using you. Things and happiness cannot be the goal. The beginning of all things is to chose God's end as our end--giving up of our sole preference of happiness, and entrance upon a life devoted to God. That soulish carnal happiness is not the ground of moral obligation, it is plain from the fact that there is no happiness in seeking happiness. The holiness of God is the ground of moral obligation, which the search for happiness after holiness is not only successful in itself, but brings happiness also in its pursuits.
We must pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send people that want Christ by the inner pull of His spirit not just because they need something from Him, but that the need is for Him only.
It then is a wonderful instance of wisdom and goodness that God has so connected his own glory with our happiness, that we cannot properly intend the one, but that the other must follow as a matter of course if we follow one we will lose the other is totally untrue. Religious unions say you cannot have both, but there is an order, which one does come first. See ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things that first constitute; Happy is the Man who's God is the Lord. If you only trust him to do what you want Him to do, you will never get from him what He is in you to do.
A while back I was honored with a Doctorate of Sacred Letters. It is something that I hold dearly. I know we shouldn't get to proud over being awarded for serving Christ, but this was personal, and private. I try to keep how my wife and I live in a very modest way, this was needed when it came. I think it was for both of us. We have been serving in the things of God because we love Him, and His purpose for us. If this offends anyone, then please forgive me.
It is a duty to make the most of ourselves, but only for the sake of Christ. But it is no where forbidden us to seek great things for God. Rather we are to desire earnestly the greater gifts. Self-realization as well as self-expression is native to humanity. Man, and with him every rational creature, is an end in himself. But this seeking of his own good is to be subordinated to the higher motive of God's glory. I look to ethics, and moral character to help me in my never ending development as a teacher/pastor. I seem to be moving into an area of freedom to express my feelings about human involvements with culture and the development of God in it.
The difference between the regenerate and the unregenerate may consist wholly in motive. The latter lives for self, and the former for God. When you can begin to learn your lessons for God instead for self, leaving his salvation in Christ's hands. God requires self-renunciation, taking up the cross, and following Christ, because the first need of the sinner is to change his center. To be self-centered is to be a savage. The struggle for the life of others is better but there is something higher still. Life has dignity according to the worth of the object we install in place of self. Follow Christ and make God the center of your life - so shall you achieve the best.
Thank you for your continued viewing and reading. If this Blog and its contents have been a blessing to you, then I ask, with God's leading, that you consider supporting Artesian Well Church.
Talk to you soon,
Pastor James P. Norman Jr.
Artesian Well Church
6031 Linden AvenueLong Beach, Ca
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