The Holiness of God

Isaiah 6:1-4

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

 "Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy."  Matthew 6:9

Holiness of God by Paul Washer

Hard Sayings

John 6:60- 69 

 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

    After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.

Let's look at modern churches:

Fruitful believers subject themselves under biblical teachings that are hard to hear--the "hard saying".  Our churches are so full these days that we can call them "mega" size, but most of them are not preaching the word in a systemic way that forces the congregation to face the difficult and meaty passages, but rather they pick a little here and there so they may offer their congregation only the food that is soft and easy to chew- baby food.  If their attenders were suddenly presented a plate filled with heartier foods, many would do as they did in this passage.  They would simply leave. 


Let's consider the successful TV broadcast preachers:


The reason most of them have high ratings??  Because they have filtered the substance of the word down until it taste like koolaid.  People like koolaid, ratings increase..

Shall we find those small circles that attempt to face the "hard sayings" of God's Word?  Shall we chew on the more difficult yet satisfying meat, and experience real spiritual growth and maturity?  

 If we "have the words of eternal life, and... believed, and have come to know... the Holy One of God" then the next step is clear.    YES, WE SHALL!!

A few sermons contrasting "hard sayings" of truth spoken by Paul Washer with the popular and deceptive easy-believism variety preached by Joel Olsteen: 

The Essence of Reformed Theology; Spurgeon Speaks

May I invite you to read Ephesians 2:1-10 very slowly and carefully:

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

 It is a good thing to understand we have nothing to do with our salvation because we were incapable, considering we were DEAD.  Totally, spiritually "DEAD"... as a doornail. Apart from God we cannot produce ANYTHING of eternal profit as stated by Noah Webster:

 8.  Unemployed; useless; unprofitable.  A man's faculties may lie dead, or his goods remain dead o his hands. So dead capital or stock is that which produces no profit.

As I comprehend how dead I was, can I more fully appreciate what God has done in my life.  He has raised me from the dead.  He moved me. He opened my blind eyes which could not by their own power see His provision for me.


How can I describe it more... Glory to God alone.

Hear Spurgeon and Piper speak in this short video, The Essence of Reformed Theology:

Teaching Scriptural Doctrines

This album can be purchased from

iTunes for $10

I know I have blogged about this before, but I feel it is important.

It is never too early to teach biblical doctrines to our children.

Arnold Pent in 10 Peas in a Pod explains how we talk to our newborns before they can understand.  Before long, they are participating in the conversation.  This is how they learn verbal skills and communication.  Just so it is with biblical doctrines.  If we talk to them about what the bible teaches, even before they can understand, within what seems like no time, they are asking inquisitive questions and contributing to conversations concerning biblical matters.

Here are questions kids commonly ask:
  
a) What is my purpose?
b) How do we know there is a God? 
c) Who/What is God?

Before you read further, test yourself to see how you would have answered the above questions.  I am sure you wouldn't respond with self-centered and humanistic jargon we commonly hear these days like...

a) Your purpose is to make the best of yourself.  Be as successful as you can be and make a name for yourself.  You'll need to search deep inside to find out who you are and what you need to do to fulfill your dreams using your passions as your guide.

or with an answer that's true but oversimplified and unsatisfying like...

b) We know there is a God because the Bible tells us so.

or with some absurdity like...

c)  God is the dude in heaven who makes it thunder when he rearranges his furniture.

2 Timothy 1:13 says, "Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus"

Our answers MUST accurately explain biblically sound doctrines like these I have taken from tried and true catechisms linked below:

 a) Your main purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  Is. 43:7  The word of God directs us how we may glorify Him and enjoy Him.
b) The light of nature in man, and the works of God, plainly declares that there is a God; but his word and Spirit only, do effectually reveal him unto us for our salvation.  Romans 1:18-20
c) God is the first and best of beings and/or God is a spirit and does not have a body like man. Is. 44:6 and John 4:24

Catechisms are extremely beneficial in helping us answer our children's questions with consistent and precise truths.  Here are tools I have found to be helpful:

For my two preschool children I use The Catechism for Young Children, An Introduction to the Shorter Catechism.

The littles ones love listening to the pleasant music arrangements by Dan and Karen Vitco called Teach Them the Faith during quite times.  I purchased this from iTunes for $9.99.

The Catechism for Young Children prepares them nicely for when they are older and ready to tackle the Shorter Westminster Catechism or others patterned or revised by this particular catechism.  One I recommend is found here.

Forbes: Warning of Declining Birth Rates

Warning Bell for Developed Countries: Declining Birth Rates

Lee Kuan Yew, 04.20.12, 10:00 AM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated May 07, 2012

There will be a shift in power unless birth rates increase in the devloped world.

In developed countries today many women receive educations and earn salaries that are on a par with those of men. The fact that women are no longer socially or economically dependent on men has radically altered young people’s lifestyles. A woman can now choose to remain single, marrying only when a man adds value to her life or when she desires to have children within such a framework.

This is creating big changes throughout the developed world. The replacement rate--the reproduction rate that keeps a population stable--for developed countries is 2.1, yet nearly half the world’s population has birth rates lower than that. The U.S. has a total fertility rate (TFR) of 2.0--nearly the replacement rate--with Hispanic immigrants leading in birth rates. The U.S. is aging but not as fast as many other countries. A 2010 census showed that 31.4 million Americans live alone--27% of all households (equal to the percentage of childless couples). Living alone allows people to pursue individual freedom, exert personal control and go through self-realization, but these people have fewer children. See full story here.

Elocution and Composition for Ladies-in-Training: A Curriculum Review

My oldest daughter has been using a new writing curriculum designed specifically to revive the art of proper and lady-like writing. It is called The Young Ladies’ Study Course for Proper Writing and is sold through www.visionforum.com and Amazon.

I had not the benefit of a review or two when I purchased this so I thought I would contribute one for the virtual community. Here it is:

It has been delightful and we are not disappointed. Mrs. Morecraft is the wife of Pastor Joseph Morecraft. She has been teaching writing for 40 years and she edits all of her husband's articles and commentaries.


The lectures are entertaining and motivating as she encourages young ladies to commit to writing for the glory of God, in truth and excellence. 16.5 hours of audio lessons FILLED with wisdom. They are saturated with quotes and markers highlighting the examples of our very best thinkers and writers in history. The emphasis is on writing with principle and purpose. The exercises, being engaging skill builders, are still quite doable and do not evoke trembling and tears from students. It has been quite an enriching experience for our daughter who values feminine, godly instruction from ladies like Mrs. Morecraft.


Writing to God's Glory is also used as an optional supplement to this curriculum and is a great, easy-to-use resource to have in your home-education library.

New Blog

I have created a new blog!! It focuses on family planning related topics and is for the mature blog reader who is interested in applying biblical principles to that aspect of marriage.

Here is the link: A Household Fully Blessed