Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

• Romans 3:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Romans 6:23

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

• John 1:12-13

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
“Who is this that obscures my plans
    with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
    or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
    and all the angels shouted for joy?

• Job 38:1-7

“ ‘It also pleased God by the revelation of his holiness and grace, which the great theologians taught me to find in the Bible, to bring home to me my sin in a way that submerged all the school questions in weight, urgency and poignancy. I was turned from a Christian to a believer, from a lover of love to an object of grace.’ (Positive Preaching and Modem Mind, Chapter 7)”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

P. T. (Peter Taylor) Forsyth (1848-1921) was a Scottish theologian.  He started out his career as a Congregational minister following the liberal Christian viewpoint, but he could not resolve the feeling of a guilty conscience.  He accepted Jesus Christ as the quote states, and the rest of his life was spent preaching the true Gospel and attacking liberal Christianity.  Many call him the Karl Barth before Karl Barth.

But the quote above shows that all the knowledge about God does us no good unless we accept God into our lives, trusting Him in everything.

I was reminded recently about a physician who graduated tops in his class, but he could not diagnose anything.  I once knew a preacher who had his doctorate, but his sermons were pithy, full of inaccuracies regarding the nature of God.  He believed in reincarnation and any way that you go leads to God.

In a way, he is right, in that the unrepentant rebel will face God on judgment day and then be cast into the lake of fire.  But what this preacher taught was that all roads lead to Heaven, but only One does.

God revealed Himself to P. T. Forsyth.  He can reveal Himself to us, but we have to set aside our arguments and any barrier that keeps us from totally trusting in Him.  Only then can God enter us, a willing vessel to receive Him, and the Holy Spirit will start to reveal the answers to those arguments.

How did God respond to Job?  He put Job in his place.  God revealed that we are humans, a creation of God.  Anything that we accomplish pales in comparison to what God has done and continues to do.  And with our sin nature, we are incapable of truly becoming clean.  Only God within can accomplish that.

Set the education aside for a moment.  Set aside the skills and knowledge you have acquired in your life for a moment.  And let God fill you with His Spirit.  You may readily return to that education, skills, and knowledge, but in the purpose of glorifying God.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.