一人しかいないかのように

 聖アウグスティヌスはこう言いました。「神は私たち一人一人を一人しかいないかのように私たちを愛しておられます。」

「初めに神が天と地を創造された。」創世記１：１

聖書の初めを見ると、創世記１：１「初めに神」とあります。神が本当にいるのか？と疑問に思います。。。学者によると、原因とデザインによる論証が神の存在を十二分に立証していてる、と言っています。。。ここにこの講壇があるのには理由はある。偶然に出来たのではない。いや、デザイン性もある。しかも、上手に作られている。ですから、大工がいる。。。私たちの生活では、物があれば、その存在の原因が必ずある、と言う事です。。。ですから、宇宙、地球、私達人間がいれば、その原因は、必ずあるのです。また、私たちの体などは、余りにも素晴らしいデザイン性があるので、創り主がいる、と確信出来ます。「初めに神が天と地を創造された。」

“Our bad things turn out for good. Our good things can never be lost. And the best things are yet to come.” Jonathan Edwards

“Our bad things turn out for good. Our good things can never be lost. And the best things are yet to come.” Jonathan Edwards

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."

 

Now, dear Christians, some of you pray night and day to be branches of the true Vine: you pray to be made all over in the image of Christ. If so, you must be like him in giving. A branch bears the same kind of fruit as the tree. If you be branches at all, you must bear the same fruit.

An old divine says well: "What would have become of us if Christ had been as saving of his blood as some men are of their money?"

Objection: My money is my own.

Answer: Christ might have said, My blood is my own, my life is my own; no man forceth it from me: then where would we have been?

Objection 2: The poor are undeserving.

Answer: Christ might have said the same thing. They are wicked rebels against my Father's law: shall I lay down my life for these? I will give to the good angels. But no, he left the ninety-nine, and came after the lost. He gave his blood for the undeserving.

Objective 3: The poor may abuse it.

Answer: Christ might have said the same; yea, with far greater truth. Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet; that most would despise it; that many would make it an excuse for sinning more; yet he gave his own blood.

Oh, my dear Christians! If you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and the poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy, and so will you be. It is not your money I want, but your happiness.

Remember his own word: "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Robert Murray M’Cheyne 

Humility

"This way is first humility, second humility, third humility..... If humility does not precede and accompany and follow every good work we do, and if it is not set before us to look upon, and beside us to lean upon, and behind us to fence us in, pride will wrest from our hand any good deed we do while we are in the very act of taking pleasure in it. It is true that other defects have to be feared in our sins, but pride is to be feared in our very acts of virtue; otherwise, those praiseworthy acts will be lost through the desire of praise itself..... lf you should ask, and as often as you should ask, about the precepts of the Christian religion, my inclination would be to answer nothing but humility, unless necessity should force me to say something else." Augustine

主イエスみずから水に飛び込んだのです。

「私たちは、溺れていいて、どうしようも無い状態です。人が『助けて！助けて！』と叫んで、湖で溺れそうな時に、「どうぞ」と言って、けして泳ぎ方のマニュアルを投げ込みません。イエス・キリストは、泳ぎ方を教えるためではなく、道徳を教えるためではなく、逆に私たちを救うために、代わりに生きて、死ぬために来たのです。神は、水泳教室の先生を送ったのではありません。主イエスみずから水に飛び込んだのです。そして、命を捧げたのです。キリストは、私たちの先生ではなく、私たちの救い主、いわばヒーローなのです。」ティム・ケラー

聖書・ルカ 19:10「人の子（イエス・キリスト）は、失われた人を捜して救うために来たのです。」

Let’s Tone Down the Drama - and Cling to Jesus

“The dignity, offices, blood, righteousness, faithfulness, and compassion of the Redeemer, in whom [the Christian] rests, trusts, and lives, for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, are adequate to all his wants and wishes, provide him with an answer to every objection, and give him no less confidence in God, than if he were sinless as an angel: for he sees, that though sin has abounded in him, grace has much more abounded in Jesus.” 

John Newton

Please read article Let’s Tone Down the Drama - and Cling to Jesus