Sunday 23 November 2008

Morbid introspection is self-destructive

I have been thinking about things and I think that to concentrate too much on our sinfulness will result in our feeling guilty and bad about ourselves, but will not bring us closer to God.

However, if we focus on getting intimate with God, and see ourselves as He sees us, then we will be drawn closer to the Lord, and in His light, will know how abhorrent we are by nature. But we also need to see how acceptable we are by grace.

I think the 'secret' - if there is one - is to get close to God. Now this is scary, for by nature none of us wants to get that close to His holiness. We must progress steadily in this direction, because "no man can see God and live."

I was working for about two hours on James Abbadie last night, and what a profound spiritual experience this was for me. So impressed was I with what this Huguenot saint of God was saying that I just had to stop and worship Him. His work on apologetics evoked praise from my heart, something that I ought to have expected to happen, but never thought would - not with a work on apologetics. I have not read Van Til's work on apologetics, but I wonder if he could have evoked worship from my heart as Abbadie did.

http://cache.smashwire.com/bookCovers/b3e835a17350c2d17891ac7fcb83c50cac030cfb

This is a superb work, and one that deserves to be much better known than it is in reformed circles.

Just a few more thoughts.

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