Jill Neilson and Jason Meyers – Day Two CDG

Yesterday was my last day at CDG as today I’m taking a flight at 10.20 to Washington DC. So I’ll miss the final speaker, David Michael which is a shame. But listening to Jill Neilson’s seminar yesterday was great – so many practical pointers about instilling respect for God and holy fear for The Lord into the lives and experience of children.

I also enjoyed Jason Meyer’s talk last night. Real Holiness is either a terror or a treasure but it cannot in any circumstances be a trifle. It either repulses us or is glorious – but it’s never dull.

What is the point of Revelation 4? God the creator is worthy of worship in the splendour of his infinite otherness.

Rev. 6:15 This is when we begin to see the wrath of the lamb.
There is a day coming when some people will prefer to be crushed than face the holiness that they have been belittling all their lives.

If you’re teaching real holiness you can expect the reaction of John 3:19. Just remember that what you win them with you win them to.

So why would any sinner delight in God’s holiness – REDEMPTION. You can’t redeem your children – this is a miracle that God alone can do … to make the dead come alive. How? by Jesus Hebrews 12:24.

The blood of Abel says ‘guilty, guilty, guilty.’ The blood of Christ says ‘forgive, forgive, forgive.’

The Cross crushes us then heals us.
The Cross of Christ in the gospel is a mirror – we see look in it and say, ‘It took that to save me?’

If you think of sin lightly look to the price that was paid and your pride will be crushed.

Everyone has a day of humbling – it will either be the day of judgment or the day of conversion.

The Cross heals you – when some are wounded by life they either take it out on others or they can take it out on themselves. But our wounds can’t heal our wounds – it is by his wounds we are healed. The Cross crushes you, it heals you and then it makes your soul sing.

How little people know who say that holiness is dull. When you experience the real thing it is irresistible. CS Lewis

Bruce Ware at CDG Confernce

Enjoyed Bruce Ware’s talk this morning on the Revelation of the Holiness of God, based on Isaiah 57:15.

There is a dual nature to the holiness of God.
1. Transcendent Excellence of his holiness. He is separate from all things created.
2. Infinite and eternal purity. He is separate from all things sinful. God cannot abide sin. Psalm 5:4.

God’s transcendent excellence, his independence, his self existence apart from all things created. He alone is God. There is no one like him. Isaiah 46:9. He is exclusively, incomparably God. He alone is eternal. Everything else is made and made by him. Everything we have is from him and we are limited where he is unlimited. He is the creator and we are the creature. He is infinite and we are finite. He is eternal and we are temporal.

God is God- always is and will be. He never lacks anything. He is supreme and perfect in all his character. High and exalted. Lives forever. His name is holy. The seraphim say, ‘Holy, holy, holy.’ Not like the beatles who say, ‘Love, love, love’.

Holiness describes the Godness of God. He is separate from all things created. Love is intrinsic to God’s being but Holiness of God is more central to the fulness of God because love is a quality – no one gives it to him yet he has sovreign control to whom and in what way that love is expressed. … as in Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated.

God conrols whether, to whom, to what extent he will display that love. It is a sovereignly given love. A love that is targeted… as in the verse that says ‘As Christ loved the church.’

So is the holiness of God the same. No. You do not read, to Jacob have i shown holiness and to Esau unholiness. Holiness must be expressed. It cannot not not be expressed.

The demands of holiness are met on the cross. The cross is motivated by love.

God is self sufficient. Everything that God ‘needs’ is fulfilled within himself. He doesn’t need us. He did not have to create. Anything we have that we give to God we received from God in the first place. God does not need me.

In Gods very being he is separate ontologically from all other reality. He is separate morally from all things impure.

He doesn’t need the people he created to whom he now pledges himself. He claims them as his own when he does not need them, when they deserve everlasting condemnation. What a gracious God. It would be unbelievable were it not that God has revealed this about himself.

He chose to create his people, love his people and make them his own not for his benefit but for ours.

The nature of God is bottomlessly selfless by its very definition, he has everything to give and nothing to receive. C S Lewis

God is eternally separate in the fulness of his perfection as God and intimately near – tho there is one condition that you must be holy as he is holy – and that reality is achieved by God through Christ. What grace!

Summary of John Piper’s talk at CDG tonight

I have had a good day at CDG today. Loved seeing the good reception 66 Books One Story has been getting at the book table. That pile of books certainly has gone down. Met old friends and made new ones. Everyone loves my accent! Several people ask me to speak just for the pleasure of listening to my vowels.

Definitely ready for a good night’s rest but before I sign off here is a summary of John Piper’s talk on the holiness of God … taken from 1 Peter chapter 1.

Three commands …
1. Hope Fully.
2. Become holy.
3. Conduct yourselves with fear in all of your conduct…

Live in holy fear of bringing any reproach on the one who ransomed you in infinite price. Tremble at the prospect of heaping insult on the ransom of Jesus as if it were not of infinite value.

There is a holy fear of God that does not destroy strong full hope in God but strengthens, stabilises and purifies it.

God does not like to be run away from… so slow down and turn.

Also bring up your children to taste the holiness of God the hope and the holy fear of God…to have it planted in their own soul, that they be born of the Holy Spirit and become children of the Holy Father. Linger long over strange and wonderful things you find in your Bible.

Good night all. looking forward to hearing Bruce Ware and Jason Meyers tomorrow.

Day One – U.S. Trip

There’s no better way to calm down before a big journey than attend a bible study and that was what i did last night. It was good to meet up with friends and family to read God’s word, pray and have a very good meal at the same time. I’ve spent this morning hoovering and clearing out my fridge. I’ve packed rather a lot in my opinion – my case feels rather heavy. But now my case is on its way to Minneapolis via Amsterdam and I am sitting blogging in the Dalcross Airport by Inverness. As I left my parents home this morning, mum wisely reminded me that The Lord can preserve me just as well on a flight across the Atlantic, or in a hired car in Dallas as he can on Midmills Road or driving across the Black Isle. Dad and I discussed how insignificant so many of our so called ‘problems’ are in the light of eternity as we drove past the fields on the way to the airport. It’s good when Christian parents get you to focus on the needful. I have to admit I’ve been anxious over the last few days – but reminders like this bring me back to the one who is my Lord and Saviour, who has been planning the next month before I even had the idea, ‘Hey why not spend four weeks in America instead of two!’ He controls the apparent chaos of my worries, schedules, overactive imagination, flights, gate changes and what exactly happens at a stop sign in Texas. My U.S. friends are now saying just be thankful you’re not an American having to tackle a round-about for the first time. Well I’ll close with saying ‘I am thankful – very.’ And thankful that the journey has started and that it’s only 29 sleeps before I’m home God willing.