Well, just wanna share my testimony here for attending Calvin's Institutes II:
Thank God for yet another opportunity to study the bible. His Words is a lamp unto my feet and light unto my path. Even though I came after work every Monday evening, I felt very blessed to study God's Word with like-minded brethren. It is like a foretaste of heaven and I would not want to miss this opportunity to receive God's blessing. Moreover, in heaven we will be praising and worshipping God all the time! Nothing is more blessed than learning more about God and storing up treasures in heaven! In the second half of the year, I am bothered by an issue but thank God, His Words are always there to comfort my heart and assure me.
I am always reminded of two important lessons in the class. Firstly, God had faithfully preserved His Words to the very jot and tittle, and is kept pure through the ages. If only the autographs are preserved and now it no longer exist, then where is our authority? It is comforting to know the bible was paid by the blood of the martyrs and preserved till now by God's singular care and providence. If the bible has any mistakes, my faith may be shaken and that cause me to have lower view of the scriptures. Therefore, it is utterly important to get the foundation right cause if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psa 11:3). Another important lesson that I had learnt is that in order to approach God and learn of Him, we must be triply humble before Him. These two principles had been imprinted in my mind sub-consciously. Certain scholars like to invoke criticism about the Bible. Man are so corrupted, what made us fit to correct God's Word. It is literally taking God's Word lightly and again taking a lower view of scriptures. Any doctrine that cause me to have a lower view of scriptures is a false doctrine and any doctrine that cause me to have high view of scriptures and brings me closer to God is the correct doctrine.
Faith is a many splendour virtue. Faith is given by the Holy Spirit and faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Rom 10:17) It is consider as having a blind faith if we only believe in what the church says, our friend says or what our parents say. We ought to based our believed in the authority of the scriptures. The intensity of faith begins as believing faith and then experiential faith and then finally develop into a faith that requires no experience. True faith will cause me to obey God rather than taking advantage of the Christian liberty. It consists of a) Noticia-knowing the gospel and Christ, b) Assensus-Must agree and accept Christ, and finally c) Fiducia-obeying and believing in God. True faith endures to the end and will lead to eternal glory.
Thank God that He gives me the faith to believe in Him cause it is truly by God's grace alone. I have tried to evangelise to my close friends but they does not seem to be interested in the Gospel. If the Holy Spirit will not convict their hearts, there is no way that they can believe in God! Pondering on that, I am exceptionally grateful to God for being so good to me! I will serve Him till the end in gratitude of what He had done for me.
Godly sorrow worked repentance to salvation. I should follow the example of Apostle Peter and not Judas Iscariot whose repentance lead to death. It is a pity that the Roman Catholic believes that they can only make confession to the priest but however I know that I can approached God's holy throne of grace boldly to seek for the forgiveness of sin because He is our Great High Priest. Evil doctrines like confession box, penance, indulgences, purgatory, took away Christ as our advocate who can reconcile man with God. Private sins will require us to ask God privately for confession. However, public sin will have to confess publicly before the church.
When a person is at fault, the biblical church discipline procedure is that we will approached the person one to one privately first. If the person refuse to repent, then we will call for a witness. If that fails, we will call for the church leaders and then finally excommunication. I learnt that the purpose of excommunication is that the person may not be numbered among Christians or even to partake the Lord's Supper. Secondly, the person may not be corrupted by constant association with the wicked. Thirdly, those who are censured or excommunicated, may be led to repentance. Sometimes these measures are required as man needs to be chastened by God's rod so as to bring us back to repentance.
The preaching and written ministry of the Apostles are infallible cause they are inspired by God. However, the Roman Catholics believe that once the Pope pronounced a dogma, he is infallible, this is erroneous! Protestants doctrine of Justification state that after one is saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus alone, one will produce works of faith. The Catholics state that in order to be saved, faith is not enough! One has to accompanied with good works. Thank God that we are justified not of works, or else no matter how much we do, we cannot have eternal life. We can never match up to God's standards! Justification is a one time act of God at the point of believing in the Gospel whereas sanctification is an ongoing process till we die. Thank God that I am justified by faith in Christ and that He is sanctifying me day by day as I yield to Him daily.
Prayer helps us to penetrate to the riches God has reserved for our use, Our conscience derive peace when troubles are presented before God. Our heart may always be inflamed with an earnest desire of seeking, loving and worshipping Him. We may be more prepared to receive His blessing with true gratitude of soul. Prayer is illustrated as certain children asking for pocket money from their parents, in that they show their dependency towards their parents. The parents will be willing to give money to their children. Knowing that God is happy and ready to receive my prayer items, helps me to find comfort in praying and also urging me to pray more.
A true Church is one where the Word of God is faithfully preached and the two sacraments properly administered. Nowadays, there are many churches that take the preaching of God's Word lightly. Their worship service largely comprises of entertainment fulfilling the fleshly lust rather than dealing with the heart conditions of each individuals. There are limited messages that can really encourage the believers to press on in the faith. Roman Catholic priest even took the Lord's Supper solely by himself saying that layman are not worthy to take it even though the Lord commanded us to take eat as often as we can in remembrance of Him.
Roman Catholic Church ascribe the church as the final authority independent of the Word, however Protestant hold the Word of God as the final and supreme authority, and inseparable from it. It is dangerous to ascribe the church as the final authority, as church may gone apostate. We may believe in the wrong doctrine which will in turn lead to wrong beliefs. However, knowing that the Word of God is unchanging and accurately preserved for me, I will be able to follow the correct path of righteousness.
A sacrament may also defined as an outward signs of the inward grace that God has given us. Baptism signify cleansing and washing of our sins, it shows that we are serious with our faith and we want to make a promise before God and man that we will mortify our sins daily and to read His Word daily for guidance and instructions in our life. It is a testimony towards other and that we are united with the other believers and to be partakers of all His benefits. There is special blessings from God and it fulfils the Great Commission. Because of baptism, I am constantly reminded of the promise that I had made to God when I publicly confess of my sins and indicate that I want to be identified with Him. This helps me to lead a holy life and to read the bible.
The partaking of the Lord's Supper unites me with Christ and I am reminded of His birth, His mission on Earth, His life of obedience, His death and His resurrection. This holy sacrament helps me to prepare my hearts before Him, reconsecrate my life to Him, make right in glorifying God by the confession of my sins, reconcile with a brother if there is any fault, exercise humility and gratitude towards Jesus Christ for what He had done in the redemptive plan. In that, I have confidence and assurance of the resurrection and immortality of my body and soul.
Finally, thank God for helping me to increase in my knowledge of Him again. I hoped that the knowledge that I had received, I will be able to exercise it in my daily life and even to encourage someone in the future.
All glory be unto Him. I am looking forward for the next semester of studying God's Word again if God willing!
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