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Posts by Paul Toews

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Godliness: Sincere, Heavenly Minded, Zealous, Patient

Continuing with Thomas Watson on characteristics of the godly person from “The Godly Man’s Picture”, this will be the last newsletter on this subject for a while. There are more to come....

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What Is Godliness?

Have you ever thought to yourself, “He is a godly man” or “She is a godly woman”? While there are some unique expressions of godliness in a biblical understanding of manhood and womanhood, there are many common characteristics of a godly person....

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Dissecting Pride

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While God opposes the proud, he loves the humble. It is the humble who will be exalted, whereas the proud will be brought low (2 Ch. 7:14, Lk. 1:52. Jas 4:10)....

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Truth & the Human Dilemma

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As Christians, we insist that truth can be known. Truth is objective and the most important truths we can know are centered in God and presented in his Word. ...

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Truth & Ethics

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Without a recognition of a glorious God, there can be no moral underpinnings. People have the law of God written on their hearts and by nature know what is right or wrong (Romans 2:14-15), but this has been eclipsed by human principles that have deemed that offending others is the ultimate wrong. If humanity is seen as most glorious, then there can be no sense of wrongn...

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Truth & Character

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In this day of pseudo-realities and pseudo-substance, we need to uphold the truth of God and the glories of the gospel. We are not reinventable and insubstantial, but rather those who are created in the image of God to reflect him and his truth. ...

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Think About These Things

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Do you find this difficult to do in today’s word? I do. The world bombards our senses with sexual humour and innuendo, LGBT agendas and concerns, messages of greed and self-indulgence just to name a few things that are anything but what Paul is describing in Phil. 4:8. We are besieged by those things that would appeal to our sinful nature and capture our thoughts....

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Bearing the Light

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We live in a dark world, but we bear the light of Christ. His light has dawned in our hearts, but will dawn one day in full consummation. ...

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Persevering Until Morning

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"I wait for the Lord, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning." (Psalm 130:6) I thought that this month I would select some of my favorite passages of scripture to do a meditation on. Psalm 130 is one of my favorite psalms. In it the psalmist cries out to the Lord with pleas for mercy (vs. 1...

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Christ's Glory - Faith and Sight

Who can think of the glory of Christ but not think that he who was humbled has been glorified above all things (Phil. 2:8-10) with a heavenly glory that we cannot yet see....

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Christ's Glory as a Humbled Mediator

The fact that Jesus took on the form of a man so that he could effectively mediate between man and God is one of the greatest truths we can think about....

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Christ's Glory As God's Representative & In His Person

In scripture we read that Christ is the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4). He makes the invisible God visible (Col. 1:15). God is glorious and in beholding Christ we behold that glory. In Christ, God himself, his Being and the mystery of his existence in three distinct persons, was gloriously revealed to believers, and the light of the knowledge of these truths dispelled all those...

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Seeing Christ's Glory and Spiritual Decay

There is a diligence required of the believer that results in a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:10-11). A diligence in what? A diligence in the pursuit of holiness. That is, we need to grow in grace through the means that the Lord has established for our growth....

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John Owen and the Glory of Christ

Having read through The Glory of Christ by John Owen I have some questions. Has "look to Christ", or "behold Christ" become nothing more than a platitude? If you are told to "look to Christ" are you disappointed, hoping for something more? This month I want us to look to Christ and behold his glory, together, for perhaps the reason these statements have lost their savor...

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Money: You Cannot Serve to Masters

This month I want us to take a look at money. While it is a gift from God (Dt. 8:18), the Bible is replete with warnings about the dangers associated with it. Money is not inherently sinful. Rather, we sin when we don’t see money rightly and approach it with correct attitudes. It is the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evils. It is in craving money that ...

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Godliness - Comfort to the Godly

This concludes our look at Godliness according to Thomas Watson in “The Godly Man’s Picture”. At the end of the book (the second last chapter) he offers comfort to the godly. This is so important, because if you are a godly person you will mourn your lack of godliness. You will not focus on what you have but how far you still have to go. You may even become discourag...

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Godliness - Practical Helps and Persevering in Godliness

Having looked at various characteristics of the godly and having been exhorted to godliness, it is now time to turn to practical helps in godliness and the idea of perseverance. All this, again, is drawn from Thomas Watson in “The Godly Man’s Picture”....

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Godliness - An Exhortation

Chapter 6 in Thomas Watson’s work, “The Godly Man’s Picture” is one of exhortation to godliness. He accomplishes this first by contrasting the godly and the ungodly. He starts by exhorting men to seriously weigh their misery while they remain in a state of ungodliness. Here Watson would have a person consider that the ungodly are in a state of death, that their...

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Godliness - Spiritual Carefulness, Trained in Religion, Walking with God, Striving for Influence

Continuing with Thomas Watson on characteristics of the godly person from “The Godly Man’s Picture”...

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Godliness - Thankful, Loving the Saints, Non-Indulgent, Relationally Good

This month we are continuing with Thomas Watson on characteristics of the godly person from “The Godly Man’s Picture”. This goes together with the earlier series I did in August, 2015. Thomas Watson’s words will be in italics as a means of identification....

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Godliness: Love for the Word, Spirit Inhabited, Humble, and Prayerful

Continuing with Thomas Watson on characteristics of the godly person from “The Godly Man’s Picture”:...

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Godliness - Worship, Serving God, Prizing Christ, Weeping

A godly person cares about the worship of God. This isn’t to say that he enjoys worship, but that he is careful about it. A godly man reverences divine institutions, and is more for the purity of worship than the pomp....

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Godliness - Knowledge, Faith, Love, God Likeness

Thomas Watson, in “The Godly Man’s Picture”, puts forth 24 characteristics of a godly person. The first is that they are spiritually knowledgeable. This knowledge is grounded in the faith (Col. 1:23). It is one that esteems God and energizes (enlivens) the spirit. It is applicable to our sinful nature and transforms that nature (2 Cor. 3:18). It is a knowledge t...

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Money: Sending it Forward

You have likely heard the phrase “pay it forward” which was made popular by the 2000 movie by the same name. This is the idea that out of the blessings and kindnesses we have received, we in turn should pass it on to others. We should be cultivating good deeds as a means of paying it (the kindnesses shown) forward. In turn, we are blessed in our giving. This week, ...

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Money: Two Perspectives for Success

We obviously need money to obtain the basic necessities of life and to provide for our families. It is also prudent to save for the future and to give some thought to investing money for the future. Having and investing money is not wrong. Remember it is the love of money which is a root of evil, not money itself. Yet, money can tempt us so strongly. Once we have it, ...

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Money: A Healthy Detachment

If the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil that has led to the ruin and destruction of many, then we must ask the questions, “How does a Christian regard money? With what attitudes should we approach wealth?” While Jesus has taught much on money and has given us many cautions to heed, let’s take a look at 1 Timothy 6:3-10 for an answer....

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Sin is On its Way Out

It is now time in this last newsletter of October 2014 to look at the actual work of mortifying our sin. We have considered John Owen’s thoughts on the need for mortification, the nature of mortification and what we have to consider in preparation for the work. Now it is time to ask the question, “What will be the means or the agent of the mortification of our sin?...

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Setting the Direction for the Work of Mortification

Having looked at the necessity and that nature of mortification, it is now time to set ourselves toward the work itself. John Owen in his book, “Of the Mortification of Sin in the Believer”, puts forth both general and particular directions for the work itself. In other words, he gets his reader to consider their own sin so as to know their enemy. He also gets his read...

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The Nature of Mortification

Last week we began a look at what it means to mortify one’s sin. Borrowing heavily from John Owen’s writings on the mortification of sin, I tried to highlight the necessity of it. In the words of Owen, if we are not actively killing sin, sin will be killing us....

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A Call To Battle

Anyone who has been to Calvary Grace Church for any amount of time has hopefully realised by now, that we have a lot to say about sin. To be sure, we have much to say about grace as well, but you can’t fully appreciate grace until you’ve spent some time pondering sin. Unfortunately, people can fall victim to a morbid introspection where your sin is all you see and gr...

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Time Flies

Time flies regardless of how much fun we are having. True, it seems to fly by faster when we are having fun or doing the things we enjoy, but in reality, time flies regardless of how we perceive its passing....

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Sobering Signposts

The other day we drove past a bunch of flowers set up in memorial by a light post at an intersection. One of our kids remarked that someone had died there. I remember seeing a show, but I forget where, that indicated that such displays are actually illegal. They break some city bylaw or other, but many times officials are lenient and allow the memorials to remain, at lea...

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The Booth of David

In the sermon I gave on Sunday, July 29 I highlighted the temporariness of the Booth of David and also stated that the Booth of David is Christ. This may have led some to think of Christ as being temporary. Those who know me know that I would never say such a thing. Let me explain one more time....

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If Christ Had Not Been Raised

"Even if Christ had not been raised, our sins would still be forgiven when Christ died on the cross." I have now heard this statement numerous times and once again at a church I visited this past Easter Sunday. 1 Corinthians 15:17 says, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." Obviously both statements cannot be true. On...

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