He heard my cry!

385 C. M.
Grateful acknowledgment.

I LOVE the Lord: he heard my cries,
   And pitied every groan:
   Long as I live, when troubles rise,
   I’ll hasten to his throne.

2 I love the Lord: he bow’d his ear,
   And chased my grief away:
   O let my heart no more despair,
   While I have breathe to pray.

3 The Lord beheld me sore distress’d;
   He bade my pains remove:
   Return, my soul, to God thy rest,
   For thou hast known his love.
                         Isaac Watts
                        Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

A self-limiting God

The God of revelation is indeed not the potestas absoluta of speculation, but the God who limits Himself, in order to create room for the creature. God wills to have a real "counterpart". God creates a creature, since He limits His absoluteness. The two ideas, Creation and self-limitation, are correlative. Anyone who has taken the first idea seriously has already conceived the second. It is not that the second is a result of the first, but the second is the same as the first, only it is seen from the opposite end. The idea of the divine self-limitation is included in that of the creation of a world which is not God, and in so doing the idea of potestas absoluta or of omni-causality has been given up.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 172–73

<idle musing>
Did you catch that? The very idea of creation means that God has willingly limited himself. It's not that he has become less than ominipotent in essence; he has chosen to self-limit that omnipotence.

Put another way, God is so secure in who he is that God can self-limit Godself without becoming less than God.

That is mind-boggling! I really can't wrap my head around it completely.
</idle musing>

The illogic of Calvin's determinism

Calvin denies human freedom, but he also maintains full human responsibility, while at the same time he asserts that God alone determines all that happens, without, however, ascribing to Him the origin of evil. This is the element in Calvin's thought which is so unsatisfactory, not to say painful and dishonest. He does not admit for a moment that there is an insoluble dilemma here, a paradoxical statement which cannot be regarded as free from contradictions, a statement which includes within itself two opposed assertions, but he proceeds as though everything were in order, while actually he is flying in the face of logic.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 172

<idle musing>
Indeed! That's the fly in the ointment for all determinists. It isn't a paradox; it's a logical contradiction.
</idle musing>

Bless the Lord, oh my soul

884 S. M.
The loving-kindness of the Lord.

O BLESS the Lord, my soul;
   His grace to thee proclaim;
   And all that is within me, join
   To bless his holy Name.

2 The Lord forgives thy sins,—
   Prolongs thy feeble breath;
   He healeth thine infirmities,
   And ransoms thee from death.

3 He clothes thee with his love,—
   Upholds thee with his truth;
   And like the eagle he renews
   The vigour of thy youth.

4 Then bless his holy Name
   Whose grace hath made thee whole;
   Whose loving-kindness crowns thy days:
   O bless the Lord, my soul.
                         James Montgomery
                        Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

The impossibility of determinism

It also shows itself to be a contradiction in the fact that no human being, not even the determinist, actually holds this causalism in actual life. "In practical life" nobody believes in absolute determinism; practically everyone presupposes an element of freedom which contradicts the theory of determinism. Finally, pan-causalism, or determinism, is opposed to our moral knowledge of responsibility; if everything happens because it must, then there is no room for responsibility; responsibility can only be maintained by the aid of intolerable sophisms. It is, of course, obvious that this determinism is opposed to the truth of revelation, given to faith.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 171

Miracles of a lower category

But the fact that the Cross becomes revelation is only possible through the Miracle of the Resurrection. By itself, the Cross can be understood from a purely human point of view, just as the death of Socrates is regarded as the martyrdom of a man who sacrifices himself for the truth. The fact that it is more than this, that it is the reconciling act of God, that Jesus is the Son of God, has been "declared with power … by the resurrection of the dead" (Rom. i: 4). Believers alone are eye-witnesses of the Resurrection. Only to faith is it given to see this new dimension above the Humanum — the freedom of God — "miracle" in the truest sense of the word. Just as a dog does not know Michelangelo as a Master, but only sees him as a man who strikes a stone with wood and iron, so for the unbeliever there is no Christ, no Risen Lord, but only a man, Jesus of Nazareth, who died on the Cross. The miracle of revelation can only be seen by faith. But this miracle of the God-Man is achieved without eliminating the natural order. The Son of God lived a natural human life, so that to many He seemed to be an ordinary man, and only the eye of faith was able to see the Son of God in His human "form of a servant". This central miracle is, as we have already said, surrounded by accompanying miracles whose significance is to point to the supreme central miracle; they are, if we may say so, miracles of a lower category. They too transcend what we usually call "normal" experience. They break through the enclosure within which our "ordinary" world is confined. We cannot say that in themselves they are more wonderful or "miraculous" than the wonders of the living organism, or than the wonder of human freedom; but they are more wonderful than these things because "usually" they do not happen. They are exceptional events whose purpose is to point to the central miracle in the Person of Him who works them.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 168–69

But it's written right here! (Tozer for Tuesday)

Orthodoxy says, “I know the answer, here it is in seven tenets.” But the humble Christian knows better. He knows he has the tenets there and subscribes to them as ardently as any man, but how to apply them at a given time and context takes the Holy Ghost, prayer, humility, sometimes fasting, more prayer and sacrifice.—A.W. Tozer, Living as a Christian, 132

Gracious Redeemer, shake this slumber…

861 S. M.
The warning voice of Jesus.

GRACIOUS Redeemer, shake
   This slumber from my soul!
   Say to me now,—Awake, awake!
   And Christ shall make thee whole.

2 Lay to thy mighty hand;
   Alarm me in this hour;
   And make me fully understand
   The thunder of thy power.

3 Give me on thee to call,—
   Always to watch and pray,
   Lest I into temptation fall,
   And cast my shield away.

4 For each assault prepared,
   And ready may I be;—
   Forever standing on my guard,
   And looking up to thee.

5 O do thou always warn
   My soul of evil near;
   When to the right or left I turn,
   Thy voice still let me hear:—

6 Come back! this is the way;
   Come back, and walk therein;
   O may I hearken and obey,
   And shun the paths of sin.
                         Charles Wesley
                         Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

Miracles and God

Miracle is rather the essence of faith. Faith and the miraculous are indissolubly connected. If miracle is eliminated the dimension of faith also disappears. Miracle is the correlate of the supernatural, of the Living God. When we speak of God we also speak of miracle; that is, if by "God" we mean the true God, the God of revelation, not the God of human speculation. To deny the reality of miracle would be to deny the freedom of God, of the God who is the Lord of the whole world. To see this God at work, who is the free Lord of the world which He has created, means encountering miracle, whether this miracle of the divine action works through the laws of nature or outside them. We do not say this in order to evade the actual "problem of miracles" — this will be clear in a moment — but in order to set the whole problem in its right perspective. The freedom of God is a vital concern for faith, but it is no more and no less concerned with what is called "miracle", or the so-called "miracles", than with the working of God through the constancy of nature and its laws. As against the Deistic view we would say that God is actively at work even where no "miracles" occur; as against the Pantheistic view we would say, that God's working is not confined to the sphere of natural causality. Both the "ordinary", and the "extra-ordinary" action of God, is equally wonderful; for everything that God does is wonderful, for those who see that it is God who does it.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 160

<idle musing>
Indeed. Reminds me of C. S. Lewis's argument in Miracles. Life in and of itself is a miracle, wrought by the hand of God. And Romans says the same thing, as does the opening of Psalm 19; for that matter, the Scriptures are full of those kinds of statement. You simply need the eyes of faith to see it.
</idle musing>

No problems?

We are here thinking of Providence, Election, and the Purpose of the world together. This eliminates that dangerous popular misunderstanding of Providence, nourished by certain phrases in the Psalms, which seem to suggest that those who trust in God "will always escape disaster". Certainly ultimately this is what is intended and real trust in God is based upon this conviction. But this does not mean that penultimately, within this world of space and time, even the most Christian people will not have to face the worst disasters! The disciple is not above his Lord. If Jesus the Son of God was crucified, owing to the most terrible miscarriage of justice and judicial murder in the history of the world, as a sacrifice to the most incredible blindness and malice, can any of His disciples expect to receive a guarantee that nothing of that kind will happen to him? A certain pietistic exposition of Providence, in the sense of direct "guidance" which removes all difficulties, and constantly turns everything to good, has done a great deal to discredit the idea of Providence; indeed, it has led some people into a state of complete bewilderment and loss of faith. The Good Shepherd does permit His sheep to go through the Dark Valley. The just man must suffer much. Indeed is there not a secret proportion between the measure of Christ's presence and a share in His sufferings?—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 158

<idle musing>
Bam! Take that, prosperity gospel, possibility thinking, and such. A real theologian with real theology puts you in your place.
</idle musing>

Outward religion

857 C. M.
The vanity of mere formality.

LONG have I seem’d to serve thee, Lord,
   With unavailing pain;
   Fasted, and pray’d, and read thy word,
   And heard it preach’d in vain.

2 Oft did I with the assembly join,
   And near thy altar drew:
   A form of godliness was mine,—
   The power, I never knew.

3 I rested in the outward law,
   Nor knew its deep design:
   The length and breadth, I never saw,
   And height, of love divine.

4 To please thee, thus at length I see,
   Vainly I hoped and strove;
   For what are outward things to thee,
   Unless they spring from love?

5 I see the perfect law requires
   Truth in the inward parts;
   Our full consent, our whole desires,
   Our undivided hearts.

6 But I of means have made my boast;
   Of means an idol made:
   The spirit in the letter lost,—
   The substance, in the shade.

7 Where am I now, or what my hope?
   What can my weakness do?
   Jesus, to thee my soul looks up:
   ’Tis thou must make it new.
                         Charles Wesley
                         Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

Awake! My sluggish soul!

853 C. M.
Lamenting spiritual sloth.

MY drowsy powers, why sleep ye so?
   Awake, my sluggish soul:
   Nothing hath half thy work to do,
   Yet nothing’s half so dull.

2 Go to the ants! for one poor grain
   See how they toil and strive;
   Yet we who have a heaven to’ obtain,
   How negligent we live !—

3 We, for whose sake all nature stands.
   And stars their courses move;
   We, for whose guard the angel bands
   Come flying from above :—

4 We, for whom God the Son came down;
   And labour’d for our good;
   How careless to secure that crown
   He purchased with his blood!

5 Lord, shall we live so sluggish still,
   And never act our parts?
   Come, holy Dove, from the heavenly hill,
   And warm our frozen hearts!

6 Give us with active warmth to move,
   With vig’rous souls to rise;
   With hands of faith, and wings of love,
   To fly and take the prize.
                         Isaac Watts
                         Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

1 Corinthians 13 (hymn)

844 S. M.
Charity, or Love.

HAD I the gift of tongues,
   Great God, without thy grace,
   My loudest words, my loftiest songs,
   ‘Would be but sounding brass.

2 Though thou shouldst give me skill
   Each myst’ry to explain;
   Without a heart to do thy will,
   My knowledge would be vain.

3 Had I such faith in God,
   As mountains to remove,
   No faith could work effectual good,
   That did not work by love.

4 Grant, then, this one request,-
   Whatever be denied,—
   That love divine may rule my breast,
   And all my actions guide.
                         Samuel Stennett
                        Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

Freedom requires dependence

We simply have to state—both negatively and positively the Christian position, derived from the centre of the Christian faith. God the Lord creates a creature, in whom He wills to be glorified, and with whom He wills to have communion. But He can only have communion with that which is not Himself. Communion presupposes differentiation. Further: God wills to have communion with His creatures in such a way that they freely return Him love for love, and in so doing give glory to Him. The whole of creation has been made for this maximum of creaturely independence, for the free creature, capable of loving God in freedom. On the other hand, if God wills to be glorified in His creation, then the freedom of the creature cannot be inherent in man’s nature, it can only be derived from Himself. It is not independence which constitutes the freedom based on God the Creator, but on the contrary, it is that freedom which is identical with complete dependence.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 150

More than conquerors

The most important truth about the Devil is this: Jesus Christ has conquered him. The Cross is the exact opposite of, and therefore the reaction against the ‘‘fall of Lucifer”: the rebellion against God of that being who could not endure not to be equal with God. The Cross is the Sign of the Devil's defeat, and a continual reminder of Him who conquered him; it is also the Sign of Him who “emptied Himself” of His Divine power, in order to express in His own person the Divine self-giving to the uttermost. Therefore it is also true that all genuine dynamic proclamation of the Name of Christ is a challenge to the devil, and “corners” him. Just as a magnet will draw iron out of wood, so the word of Christ draws the devil out of his hiding-place. He must stand at bay, and make a desperate effort to defend himself. That is why Christ came not “to bring peace but a sword”. The power of darkness does not abandon its position without a struggle.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 145

Crucified with Christ

835 2d P. M. 6 lines 8s.
Crucified with Christ.

HUMBLE, and teachable, and mild,
   O may I, as a little child,
   My lowly Master’s steps pursue!
   Be anger to my soul unknown;
   Hate, envy, jealousy, be gone;
   In love create thou all things new.

2 Let earth no more my heart divide;
   With Christ may I be crucified;
   To thee with my whole heart aspire
   Dead to the world and all its toys,
   Its idle pomp, and fading joys,
   Be thou alone my one desire.

3 My will be swallow’d up in thee;
   Light in thy light still may I see,
   Beholding thee with open face;
   Call’d the full power of faith to prove
   Let all my hallow’d heart be love,
   And all my spotless life be praise.

4 Come, Holy Ghost, all—quick’ning fire,
   My consecrated heart inspire,
   Sprinkled with the atoning blood:
   Still to my soul thyself reveal:
   Thy mighty working may I feel,
   And know that I am one with God
                         Charles Wesley
                         Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

No, the devil didn't make you do it

Even in the Bible, the power of the devil, or the power of darkness, is never described as irresistible. It is not of such a kind that it could in any way influence human responsibility. The devil leads men astray, he suggests evil; but the man who allows himself to be led astray, and to be incited to evil, is wholly responsible for his action.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 139

<idle musing>
This is so true. I recently was editing a book on Romans 7, the wretched man who cries out for deliverance. The authors argue, correctly in the opinion of church tradition and surrounding Scripture, that this wretched person can not be a Christian. Ponder that and dig into the Scriptures—you will see that it is true.
</idle musing>

Humanity in revolt—against itself!

It is not simply characteristic of a certain type of human being—the divided self, the sick soul (William James)—to be man in revolt. To be “in revolt” is to be a sinner. For through sin man is in rebellion against his destiny; therefore he is fighting against his nature as God created it. The sinner is in revolt within himself—that is his chronic disease, whether he knows it or not, whether he is conscious of the “contradiction” or not. Sin is being divided not merely from God, but also—since human existence is always a relation to God—within himself.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 125

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah

832 8th P. M. 87, 87, 47.
The pilgrim’s guide and guardian.

GUIDE me, O thou great Jehovah,
   Pilgrim through this barren land:
   I am weak—but thou art mighty;
   Hold me with thy powerful hand:
   Bread of heaven,
   Feed me till I Want no more.

2 Open now the crystal fountain,
   Whence the healing waters flow;
   Let the fiery, cloudy pillar,
   Lead me all my journey through:
   Strong Deliv’rer,
   Be thou still my strength and shield.

3 When I tread the verge of Jordan,
   Bid my anxious fears subside:
   Bear me through the swelling current;
   Land me safe on Canaan’s side;
   Songs of praises
   I will ever give to thee.
               William Williams, translated from the Welsh by Peter Willams
               Methodist Episcopal hymnal (1870 edition)

It's more than law

The Law is the will of God, it is true, but it is no longer the fatherly, personal will, which touches man directly, but it is impersonal, concrete, and fixed. The law is the concrete form of the will of God. Hence it is the will of God, and yet it is not, it is ambiguous. The more legalistic it is, the more it takes statutory form, the less is it identical with the real will of God. It always requires “something”, whereas God does not ask for “something” but always wants “me” for myself. Even where the law is summed up in the commandment of love, and the statutory element has been removed, still, as law, it is not the essential will of God. For the real will of God is not first of all a demand, an abstract demand, but it is first of all the offer of love, and the claim on man to respond to this offered love which is the gift of God. The will of God cannot truly be expressed in the form of the law, of the law in an established or fixed form.—Emil Brunner, The Christian Doctrine of Creation and Redemption, 120

<idle musing>
"It is first of all the offer of love, and the claim on man to respond to this offered love which is the gift of God." That's why I love reading Brunner so much. He cuts through all the clutter and distills the essence.

It truly boils down this this: God offers us unconditional love and acceptance. All we have to do is acknowledge that we need it, and accept his lordship/leadership/guidance. Of course, there's the rub, isn't it? Acknowledging our need of God requires abdicating our illicit claims to the throne of our life and the life of those around us.
</idle musing>