Hidden in Him

Ben Heasman. Follower of Jesus. Husband to Laura. Ministry Assistant at Emmanuel Bristol.

[hiddeninhim]

The invisibility of God is a great problem. It was already a problem to God's people in Old Testament days. Their pagan neighbours would taunt them, saying, "Where now is your God?"  Their gods were visible and tangible, but Israel's God was neither. Today in our scientific culture young people are taught not to believe in anything which is not open to empirical investigation. How then has God solved the problem of his own invisibility? The first answer is of course, "in Christ". Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. John 1:18: "No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son has made him know." "That's wonderful," people say, "but it was 2000 years ago. Is there no way by which the invisible God makes himself visible today?" There is. We return to 1 John 4 v 12: "No-one has ever seen God." It is precisely the same introductory statement. But instead of continuing with reference to the Son of God, it continues: "if we love one another, God dwells in us." In other words, the invisible God, who once made himself visible in Christ, now makes himself visible in Christians, if we love one another. It is a breathtaking claim. The local church cannot evangelise, proclaiming the gospel of love, if itself is not a community of love.

John Stott in Rico Tice, Honest Evangelism, p.82

[hiddeninhim]

Prayer is that apparently useless activity, without which all activities are useless.

Simon Barrington-Ward in Rico Tice, Honest Evangelism, p.98

[hiddeninhim]

I've always said that I don't respect people who don't proselytise. I don't respect that at all. If you believe there's a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward...how much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytise? ... I mean, if I believed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn't believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.

Penn Jilette in Rico Tice, Honest Evangelism, p. 38

[hiddeninhim]

[Henry Martyn's] customary serenity was only disturbed when anybody insulted his Lord. On one occasion the sentiment was expressed that "Prince Abbas Mirza had killed so many Christians that Christ from the fourth heaven took hold of Mahomet's skirt to entreat him to desist". It was dramatic fantasy. Here was Christ kneeling before Mahommed. How would Martyn react? "I was cut to the soul at this blasphemy." Seeing his discomfiture, his visitor asked what it was that was so offensive. Martyn replied: "I could not endure existence if Jesus were to be always thus dishonoured." His Muslim visitor was astonished and again asked why. "If anyone pluck out your eyes", he answered, "there is no saying why you feel pain; it is feeling. It is because I am one with Christ that I am thus dreadfully wounded."

John Stott in Rico Tice, Honest Evangelism, p.29

[hiddeninhim]

Praising the name of someone worthy is enjoyable... It is thrilling to sing the praises of sportsmen like Rooney or Gerrard or Terry at Wembley. How much more is the 'hallowing' of God's name a delight to his children! Our Father designed us for pleasure in him. Since he is utterly good, he kindly created us to enjoy his goodness. God has so designed us that our deepest fulfilment and highest joy are in hallowing his name, and this serious duty coincides with out deepest delight. It's not that our Father is sinfully proud of himself or selfish for glory. But he knows that glorifying him is good for us as well as what he deserves. Learning to hallow his name will bring us the happiness we desire, and give us an intoxicating taste of heaven. Praying 'Hallowed be your name' is how we begin.

R. Coekin, Our Father,  p.63.

[hiddeninhim]

"Holy" is who we are today in Jesus; "sinner" is  a part of us that's a deviation from our true selves.

J. Klumpenhower, Show Them Jesus, p.169

[hiddeninhim]

It is true, of course, that no man enters the kingdom because of his obedience; but it is equally true that no man enters the kingdom who is not obedient. It is true that men are saved by God's grace through faith in Christ; but it is equally true that God's grace in a man's life inevitably results in obedience. Any other view of grace cheapens grace, and tunes it into something unrecognisable.

D.A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, p.142

[hiddeninhim]

Although everyone may have the right to his own opinion, it does not follow that every opinion is right.

D.A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, p.139

[hiddeninhim]

The follower of Jesus will be concerned to have a distinctive lifestyle, one that is so characterised by values and perspectives so un-pagan that his life and conduct are, as it were, stamped all over with the words, 'Made in the kingdom of God.

D.A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, p.101

[hiddeninhim]

We must ask ourselves (if once again I may refer to eternity in the categories of time) how important temporary transient values will appear to us in fifty billion trillion millennia. It is a poor bargain which exchanges the eternal for the temporal, regardless of how much tinsel is used to make the temporal more attractive. And it is tragic if we have to follow the examples of Achan, Solomon, the rich young ruler, and Demas, in order to discover this basic truth for ourselves.

D.A. Carson, The Sermon on the Mount, p.84

[hiddeninhim]

We have all things in Christ, and Christ is all things to a Christian. If we be sick, he is a physician; if we thirst, he is a fountain; if our sins trouble us, he is righteousness; if we stand in need of help, he is mighty to save; if we fear death, he is life; if we be in darkness, he is light; if we be weak, he is strength, if we be in poverty, he is plenty; if we desire heaven, he is the way. The soul cannot say, this I would have, and that I would have; but saith Christ, it is in me, it is in me eminently, perfectly, eternally.

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies, p.162

[hiddeninhim]

...consider of the reasons why the Lord is pleased to have his people exercised, troubled, and vexed with the operations of sinful corruptions; and they are these: partly to keep them humble and low in their own eyes; and partly to put them upon the use of all divine helps, whereby sin may be subdued and mortified; and partly, that they may live upon Christ for the perfecting work of sanctification; and partly, to wean them from things below, and to make them heart-sick of their absence from Christ, and to maintain in them bowels of compassion towards others that are subject to the same infirmities with them; and that they may distinguish between a state of grace and a state of glory, and that heaven may be more sweet to them in the close.

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies, p.147

[hiddeninhim]

The commands of a king are readily embraced and obeyed by his subjects, but the commands of a tyrant are embraced and obeyed unwillingly. All the service that is done to a tyrant is out of violence, and not out of obedience. A free and willing subjection the the commands of sin speaks out the soul to be under the reign and dominion of sin; but from this plague, his hell, Christ frees all believers

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies, p.144

[hiddeninhim]

The distinction we make between how we treat Christ and how we treat his gathered people is not a distinction that Jesus makes.

Rory Shiner, One Forever, p.74

[hiddeninhim]

The Spirit has distributed gifts to each believer just as he has determined. He has designed our churches not haphazardly, but intentionally. Our job is not to beat up on ourselves for what we cannot do, nor to admire and exalt ourselves for what we can do - but to work out how the particular manifestation of the Spirit in our lives is for the common good of the church.

Rory Shiner, One Forever, p.70

[hiddeninhim]

Guilt, you see, is a good alarm system. It does a wonderful job of alerting us to what's wrong. But while it may be a good alarm system, it's a lousy agent for change. The problem is that many of us think that because guilt alerted us to the problem, it will also help us to get out of the problem. But it can't. So what is the solution? Only a greater acquaintance with the privileges of Christ can free us from the snares of sin.

Rory Shiner, One Forever, p.59

[hiddeninhim]

Justification is never less than that (being declared right before God), but it is more than that. For the Bible promises that God will bring justice to the whole creation (Eph 1:10). At the moment, the world is like a computer or phone app that is out of sync with its internet-based 'cloud'. But in the Lord's Prayer, when we pray, "your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" (Matt 6:10), we are praying that heaven and earth will one day be synced again. That is justice.

Rory Shiner, One Forever, p.45