1689

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 29

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Day 29

Of God and of the Holy Trinity

Chapter 2, Paragraph 1.

“…eternal,…”

Scripture Lookup

Psalm 90:2.

Reflection

Eternity. To our minds, it conjures up a very looooong time. For example, when my 4-month old cries before finally falling asleep at night, it “feels like an eternity” to my tortured Mommy heart. Or when sitting in a traffic jam. So often when we hear that something is eternal it has negative connotations. As we live in a constantly fast-paced world where even the movies of 40 years ago seem slow-moving compared to the quick and flashy films of today, it may be difficult to think of something eternal as desirable.

Likewise, when we hear that God is eternal, our first thoughts might be that He has existed a long time and is quite old, like Michelangelo’s erroneous depiction on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. However, that is far from the truth! Remember, God is not limited by time:

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. -2 Peter 3:8

To have had no beginning, to have had no end, but be in a constant state of existence, that is God. He is the great “I AM”, after all: not the great “I was” or “I will be.” For God to be eternal means that He is constant. As such, His promises are constant. His goodness is constant. Instead of being affected by age, He is always the same.

Time is fluid, but eternity is stable; and after many ages, the joys will be as savory and satisfying as if they had been but that moment first tasted by our hungry appetites. When the glory of the Lord shall rise upon you, it shall be so far from ever setting, that after millions of years are expired, as numerous as the sands on the sea-shore, the sun, in the light of whose countenance you shall live, shall be as bright as at the first appearance; he will be so far from ceasing to flow, that he will flow as strong, as full, as at the first communication of himself in glory to the creature. -Stephen Charnock

Eternity is not boring and doesn’t grow old. And neither does our eternal God. What a glorious God we serve!

Questions to Consider

  • Compare the duration things of this world to the eternity of God.
  • How does the eternity of God affect your interaction with the world?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 28

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Day 28

Of God and of the Holy Trinity

Chapter 2, Paragraph 1.

“…immense,…”

Scripture Lookup

1 Kings 8:27.

Jeremiah 23:23.

Reflection

You cannot escape God.

Why?

Because He is immense. He fills up every bit of time and space and beyond. He is far away in some distant realm, and also with you and with me. “for in Him we live and move and have our being…” (Acts 17:28) Stephen Charnock writes:

He is everywhere, because no creature, body or spirit, can exclude the presence of his essence…Not absent from anything, but so present with them, that they live and move in him, and move more in God, than in the air or earth wherein they are; nearer to us than our flesh to our bones, than the air to our breath…

If God is present everywhere, does that mean we can worship trees and each other? That would be a no. God might be present everywhere, but that doesn’t mean that those things are God. Charnock again:

We live and move in God, so we live and move in the air; we are no more God by that, than we are mere air because we breathe in it, and it enters into all the pores of our body…

It is sobering, unsettling, yet ultimately comforting to think that God is immense. Sobering, for there is nowhere where He is not. That includes hell. There is no absence of God in Hell. No one can flee from God’s presence. Unsettling, for since God is everywhere, nothing (and I mean nothing) is hidden from his sight.Thankfully for us sinful creatures, He has provided provision through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because of that, for those that trust in Him, knowing that God is so near to us always is a great comfort. Isaiah 41:10: “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.”

Questions to Consider

  • Does knowing that God is immense change how you act when no one’s around? Should it?
  • Take some time to read Psalm 139 and praise our immense God.

A Little Time with the 1689: Chapter 1 – Of the Holy Scriptures

/ William F. Leonhart III / 3 Comments

Reformed Baptista has begun a series of articles to help women walk through The Baptist Confession. It has been a tremendous privilege to have her as a contributor on CredoCovenant. The following is a compilation of her study helps for the first chapter of the confession. Enjoy.

– William F. Leonhart III

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Preface: I have written that one of my goals for this blog is to go through the 1689. This year, Lord willing, I will do so. It is my hope that this devotional will appeal to women who may be new to the whole “Reformed Baptist” idea, who may find the idea of studying the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith overwhelming. While I have some trepidation in wading in such waters, the knowledge gained will be beneficial for myself, and I pray it will be for you as well. So let’s dip our toe in this stream, shall we? I will mainly use the facsimile edition for my work, copies of which can be found at RBAP.

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A Little Time With the 1689: Day 27

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Day 27

Of God and of the Holy Trinity

Chapter 2, Paragraph 1.

“…who is immutable…”

Scripture Lookup

Malachi 3:6.

Reflection

Everything changes.

You change. The cells in your body die and are replaced. The way you think, look and act is different at age 5 than at age 50. You dye your hair. You wear sweatpants one day, and dress up the next. You grow up.

Your relationships change. Best friends may have a falling out and drift away. A married couple grows closer together through the years. New neighbors move in next door, old ones move across the country. Loved ones die, and newly loved ones are born.

The world around you changes. Summer, winter, spring, fall. Sunny one day, snowy the next. Day and night.  The technology you use. The businesses and companies you utilize. All change, and at a seemingly faster pace every day.

Everything changes.

But God.

God does not change. Nothing will ever be added or taken away from God. Not one of his attributes change – He is always just, loving, merciful. His knowledge and power do not change. His existence does not change. His will does not change. Nothing we do can change Him.

Immutability gives us Christians comfort. How many times in life have you been excited about something or someone, only to be disappointed later? With God there is no disappointment, because He does not change. You can fully trust Him, for He is constant.  His word can be trusted, because it is true and does not change. His promises are sure because He is immutable!

Great is Thy faithfulness O God my father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee:

Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not;

As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.  -Thomas Chisolm

Questions to Consider

  • Do you have trouble trusting God?
  • How does God’s immutability bring you comfort?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 26

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Day 26

Of God and of the Holy Trinity

Chapter 2, Paragraph 1.

“…invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto,…”

Scripture Lookup

1 Timothy 1:17.

Deuteronomy 4:15,16.

Reflection

Immortal, invisible, God only wise, in light inaccessible hid from our eyes…

There is a tendency in our culture to think of God as a being made in our own image. There are those who try to manipulate Him: Oh, God, if You do x, y, or z, I promise that I will follow You forever. There are those who think that we can hurt God’s feelings. But is God affected by us?

God does not change, and is infinite in perfection. In this God is remarkably uncomplicated. He is a Spirit, a “most pure Spirit.“If He is a Spirit, then would He have a body? Obviously not. If He is a Spirit, and has no matter, can we see Him? No. Can you dissect God into sections? No, God is not a composite of things. He simply is. He exists, and has always existed. He is the only one who has never had a beginning and will never have an end. To think that we could somehow affect God is essentially saying that we can hold some power over God. What a ludicrous and presumptuous idea! Yet how often do we, in our sinful state, try to negotiate with God?

Question to Consider

  • Have you ever thought that you could make God do something?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 25

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Day 25

Of God and of the Holy Trinity

Chapter 2, Paragraph 1.

“…a most pure Spirit…”

Scripture Lookup

John 4:24.

Reflection

The idea of a “spirit” is a hard one to pin down. Probably due to the influence of Halloween, fairy tales and ghost stories, an ephemeral, gauzy white floating substance is what comes to mind when I hear the term. Of course, the word “spirit” is also used to describe a sentiment, like the “Christmas spirit” or saying “He’s got a fighting spirit.” But what does it mean for God to be Spirit?

Unlike a ghost, God is no blurry substance. He has no substance at all in the sense of created matter. He is “a most pure Spirit”, which rules out the idea of anything that is not spirit being part of God. Stephen Charnock explained it thus in his work The Existence and Attributes of God:

If we grant that God is, we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal, because a body is of an imperfect nature. It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being and Creator of all things, that he should be a massy, heavy body, and have eyes and ears, feet and hands, as we have.

If God were to be anything but spirit, He would be constrained by the laws of nature and physics. If you think back to your physics classes in high school, you might remember that “a body at rest will remain at rest, and a body in motion will remain in motion unless it is acted upon by an external force.” Not so with God! Nothing outside of God can change Him.

God is also more than a sentiment. While we may describe our feelings as “spirits”, they are fleeting. God is a “most pure Spirit”, whose purity demonstrates a permanence and majesty to His existence. God is most excellent: He is, therefore, not lightweight and shallow. To quote Charnock again,

God is a most spiritual Spirit, more spiritual than all angels, all souls…. As he exceeds all in the nature of being, so he exceeds all in the nature of spirit…

God is a most pure Spirit. And that should lead us to praise Him.

Question to Consider

  • Why is God being a “most pure Spirit” important?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 24

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Day 24

Of God and of the Holy Trinity

Chapter 2, Paragraph 1.

“…infinite in being, and perfection, whose Essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself;…”

Scripture Lookup

Exodus 3:14.

Reflection

“I AM WHO I AM.”

How simple and immensely profound is that statement!

God is without measure and without limit in His being. His existence cannot be added to or taken away from. There are no limits to His perfection! God also is not constrained by time, yet is always present within time. There is no place in the universe too vast for Him, nor is there any particle too small – He is everywhere present. The psalmist reflects that truth in Psalm 139: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?”

We cannot fully know what makes God to be God, since we are finite creatures. Try to comprehend God, and the mind gets boggled. Because He is Supreme, only He can understand His essence.When we realize how limitless God is, and how perfect He is, awe and fear should be our natural response. He is truly out of our league.

So if we can’t fully grasp God, how are we to know Him? One mode of thinking prevalent in our society is to accept all notions of God as equally valid, with the reasoning that since no one can understand God fully, we should just accept all ideas about Him. That approach seems to avoid confrontation, and gives an air of high-mindedness, but in reality reflects laziness and denies truth. While no one can understand God completely, we can know what He has revealed to us about Himself. This is where Scripture is necessary, for all that we know about God comes from those pages. He, the God who is, wants us to know Him!

Question to Consider

  • Have you contemplated how incomprehensible the essence of God is?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 23

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Day 23

Of God and of the Holy Trinity

Chapter 2, Paragraph 1.

“…whose subsistence is in and of himself,…”

Scripture Lookup

Jeremiah 10: 10.

Isaiah 48:12.

Reflection

God is not Tinkerbell.

In the play version of  Peter Pan, the fairy Tinkerbell is on the brink of death. Peter beseeches the audience to demonstrate their belief in fairies by clapping. Tinkerbell the fairy is thus saved and energized to continue her escapades with Peter. A fairy’s existence, you see, depends upon the faith that people have in her.

As the Baptist Confession states, God is completely self-sufficient. He exists apart from anything else, and He is self-sustaining. Nothing outside of God caused Him to be. Theologians use the term “aseity” (ah-SAY-it-ee) to describe this principal attribute of God.

Oftentimes, though, people think that God needs us. Modern evangelism caters to our desire for importance by painting a picture of a God desperate for a relationship with mankind. Such a god is false and doesn’t exist. God does not wring His hands hoping that humans will fellowship with Him! Because He is God, He is perfect, and as such has no need of anything outside Himself! When we ponder that, the fact that He has chosen a people for Himself appears so much more glorious, because God really didn’t have to do that. We are so completely dependent upon Him for life and breath and being, and He is completely independent of every single thing in the universe.

For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. -Isaiah 55:8 (NASB)

God doesn’t need you. And that is a wonderful thing.

Question to Consider

  • Have you ever thought that God needed something outside of Himself?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 22

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Day 22

Of God and of the Holy Trinity

Chapter 2, Paragraph 1.

“The Lord our God is but one only living, and true God;…”

Scripture Lookup

1 Corinthians 8: 4,6.

Deuteronomy 6:4.

Reflection

There is only one God. Have you ever stopped to think about what that actually means? He is unique. There is nothing else in the entire universe like Him. Look at what Scripture says:

There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your help, and through the skies to His majesty. -Deuteronomy 33:26

For this reason You are great, O Lord GOD, for there is none like you, and there is no God besides You…-2 Samuel 7:22

There is none like You, O LORD; You are great, and great is Your name in might. Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? Indeed, it is Your due! For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You. -Jeremiah 10:6,7

Nothing else in the world can compare. He is the only God that exists.

Many have had their own notions of what God is, or even that there are many gods. Some just like to think of a Higher Power; most would rather not think about a god at all. However Scripture declares emphatically that God exists, and He is the only One that does.

This is the God that we worship.

Question to Consider

  • Have you ever praised God for His being the only true and living God?

A Little Time With The 1689: Day 21

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Day 21

Of The Holy Scriptures

Chapter 1, Paragraph 10.

“The supreme judge by which all controversies of Religion are to be determined, and all Decrees of Councils, opinions of ancient Writers, Doctrines of men, and private Spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Scripture delivered by the Spirit, into which Scripture so delivered, our faith is finally resolved.”

Scripture Lookup

Matthew 22:29,31,32. To what does Jesus appeal in answering the Sadducees?

Ephesians 2:20. What is the foundation of God’s household?

Acts 28:23. From what does Paul argue?

Reflection

Scripture is the standard by which we measure everything else. There will be times when people say things they claim are in agreement with the Bible, and those statements might very well be. Yet men and women do not have the final say: Scripture does.

When a popular preacher says you can have material success if you just have enough faith, what does Scripture say?

When society tells you that certain behaviors are permitted because they are just different ways of loving someone, what does Scripture say?

When those with degrees and credentials give reasons for why people do what they do, what does Scripture say?

Who has the final word? The Word.

Question to Consider

  • Are you letting Scripture be the “supreme judge” ?