Psalm 95:6-7 (NIV)
6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care...
Psalm 18:1-2 (NIV)
1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
This morning I was reading a biography of John Calvin. Calvin does not get many accolades among modern Christians. He's been called many names and few of them give him much credit; but that is all based on ignorance. Those people who speak in negative ways toward him have never read his works, nor studied his life with a view of the historical and cultural context in which he lived.
There is an early letter of his that is a response to a Catholic Cardinal by the name of Sadoleto, who had attacked the Reform and appealed to Geneva's church and authorities to return to the Catholic church. It is a personal attack on the Reformation and even though Calvin had left Geneva to go to Strasbourg, he was asked by the Genevan authorities to write a response to Sadoleto's charges.
I read the letter he wrote and was struck by something he said...and then in my readings this morning, I read those two Psalms, and it all hit me anew.
Calvin makes a powerful statement about God's glory. In fact, he makes it clear, we must begin with God, not ourselves. He writes to Sadoleto, "you have a theology that is too lazy, as it almost always the case with those who have had no experience with struggles of conscience."
Calvin is writing both about the church he left which he felt had developed into an indifferent and lazy formalism, and also about his own struggles - struggles many of the reformers had come to personally see in their own experience - of how to come before a Holy God and know that there is acceptance, forgiveness, and salvation assured. These struggles had driven him to Luther's writings, and others and at an early age it had made him think - biblically and theologically - about the character and work of God in Jesus Christ.
Whatever you think of John Calvin, he was not theologically lazy. I can't help but look out at a church today and see the opposite. It makes me despair at times, wondering if we are going anywhere at all in our knowledge and growth in God.
Psalm 95:6-7 (NIV)
6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care...
Psalm 18:1-2 (NIV)
1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
The Psalmist calls us to focus on the Lord our maker - he is worthy of worship and praise. AND, we are His...the sheep of His pasture.
AND, therefore, our response is to proclaim our love, our praise, our trust...to declare and to affirm in our thoughts and actions that God is our fortress, deliverer, our Rock...the one thing that is most sure...our shield, our stronghold...and most of all, Our Salvation!
In the day in which we live we need that affirmation in our soul day by day.
6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care...
Psalm 18:1-2 (NIV)
1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
This morning I was reading a biography of John Calvin. Calvin does not get many accolades among modern Christians. He's been called many names and few of them give him much credit; but that is all based on ignorance. Those people who speak in negative ways toward him have never read his works, nor studied his life with a view of the historical and cultural context in which he lived.
There is an early letter of his that is a response to a Catholic Cardinal by the name of Sadoleto, who had attacked the Reform and appealed to Geneva's church and authorities to return to the Catholic church. It is a personal attack on the Reformation and even though Calvin had left Geneva to go to Strasbourg, he was asked by the Genevan authorities to write a response to Sadoleto's charges.
I read the letter he wrote and was struck by something he said...and then in my readings this morning, I read those two Psalms, and it all hit me anew.
Calvin makes a powerful statement about God's glory. In fact, he makes it clear, we must begin with God, not ourselves. He writes to Sadoleto, "you have a theology that is too lazy, as it almost always the case with those who have had no experience with struggles of conscience."
Calvin is writing both about the church he left which he felt had developed into an indifferent and lazy formalism, and also about his own struggles - struggles many of the reformers had come to personally see in their own experience - of how to come before a Holy God and know that there is acceptance, forgiveness, and salvation assured. These struggles had driven him to Luther's writings, and others and at an early age it had made him think - biblically and theologically - about the character and work of God in Jesus Christ.
Whatever you think of John Calvin, he was not theologically lazy. I can't help but look out at a church today and see the opposite. It makes me despair at times, wondering if we are going anywhere at all in our knowledge and growth in God.
Psalm 95:6-7 (NIV)
6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care...
Psalm 18:1-2 (NIV)
1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
The Psalmist calls us to focus on the Lord our maker - he is worthy of worship and praise. AND, we are His...the sheep of His pasture.
AND, therefore, our response is to proclaim our love, our praise, our trust...to declare and to affirm in our thoughts and actions that God is our fortress, deliverer, our Rock...the one thing that is most sure...our shield, our stronghold...and most of all, Our Salvation!
In the day in which we live we need that affirmation in our soul day by day.
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