The Longing
Stuff that didn't quite make it into The Briefing
A summary of our captivity and freedom
William Tyndale / October 2005
William Tyndale lived from about 1494 to 1536.
The fall of Adam has made us heirs of the vengeance and wrath of God, and heirs of eternal damnation. It has brought us into captivity and bondage under the devil. The devil is our lord, our ruler, our head, our governor, our prince and our god. And our will is locked and knit closer to the will of the devil than could a hundred thousand chains bind a man to a post. To the devil's will we consent with all our hearts, with all our minds,with all our might, power, strength, will and lusts. The law
Sermons on the card
Hugh Latimer / October 2005
The tenor and effect of certain sermons made by Master Latimer in Cambridge, about the year of our Lord 1529. (Hugh Latimer lived from 1485 to 1555.)
Tu quis es? Which words are as much to say in English, “Who art thou?” These be the words of the Pharisees, which were sent by the Jews unto St. John Baptist in the wilderness, to have knowledge of him who he was: which words they spake unto him of an evil intent, thinking that he would have taken on him to be Christ, and so they would have had him done with their good wills, because they knew
The Reformed Pastor
Richard Baxter / October 2005
Richard Baxter published The Reformed Pastor in 1656 to help pastors do their jobs better. It is still worth reading. Gordon Cheng brings us two short excerpts.
At the heart of the Reformation lay a much bigger and stronger desire than just to shape the events of their time. The desire of the Reformers was to apply the great doctrines of grace, found in the gospel of Christ, to the lives of teachers and hearers. As a result, their writings and the writings inspired by these rediscoveries of the Bible's truth often have a freshness to them
The sum of the Christian life: The denial of ourselves
John Calvin / October 2005
John Calvin lived from 1509 to 1564.
(The Christian philosophy of unworldliness and self-denial; we are not our own, we are God's, 1-3)
1. We are not our own masters, but belong to God
Even though the law of the Lord provides the finest and best-disposed method of ordering a man's life, it seemed good to the Heavenly Teacher to shape his people by an even more explicit plan to that rule which he had set forth in the law. Here, then, is the beginning of this plan: the duty of believers is “to present their bodies to God as a living
Enemies of the cross of Christ
Martin Luther / October 2005
Martin Luther lived from 1483 to 1546.
Phillipians 3:17-21: Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power