Friday, April 27, 2007


Toledo Reformed Theological Conference
-----
Preconference
------
Excellent talk from Don Kistler, an excellent speaker, not flashy, with a dry sense of humor that I appreciate. Some thoughts from this morning below...
----
You know you are at a Reformed Theology Conference….

When you see an attractive young woman with a T-shirt that says: “Calvinism. This T-shirt chooses me.”

Good times!

-------

What are you passionate about? Is our passion properly focused on the One who is worthy of our passion, our desire?

Passion is not feelings. Passion is stronger, less fleeting.
-------
Don Kistler
Pre-conference
A Passion for Christ

- 1 Peter 1:22-2:8

True Christian strives but do not succeed to have God’s esteem for Christ and Christ’s desire to honor the Father. The character, the goal of a Christian.

God is passionate about His Son Jesus Christ.

To you who believe He is precious (He is an honor)
If He is not precious to you, you are not a Christian.
1Pe 2:8 and "A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

The Bible never offers Christ to sinners as Savior and Lord. He must be Lord to be Savior. He is always referred to as Lord and Savior.

Christ is precious because He is precious to God.

Sanctification
Justification
Glorification

There are a lot of people that are passionate about a Christ that doesn’t exist!
He must be the revealed Son of God that we are passionate about.
You cannot have a Christ of your imagination, of your choosing. You cannot have half a Christ.
He saves His people from their sins, not in their sins.
False religions are passionate about the false gods, and are often more passionate about their false gods than many Christians are about the real God.
“if you have the true religion why have you never been to my door?”

We have to take all of Christ or we can have none of Christ.
If Christ is precious His Word is precious
If Chris is precious His church is precious
If Christ is precious His ordinances are precious.
His law is as precious as His grace (Amen!)

If He is precious, we want to know Him more so we may esteem Him more

We show that Christ is precious to us by hating anything that is displeasing to Him.

That is the question: Is Christ precious to you?

No comments: