{"id":978,"date":"2011-07-15T08:08:10","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T08:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=978"},"modified":"2011-07-15T08:08:10","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T08:08:10","slug":"a-god-to-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=978","title":{"rendered":"A god to himself?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A god to himself?<\/strong><\/p>\n

(adapted from Winslow\u2019s, \u201cThe Soul Before Conversion\u201d)<\/p>\n

The unsaved man is a god to himself, and he has many other gods as well.<\/p>\n

Whether it be\u2026.\u00a0 self righteousness, self gratification,\u00a0 the world, \u00a0 wealth, family,\u00a0 in whatever form it appears, \u201cother lords have dominion over him,\u201d to the exclusion of the one true and living God. The nature of the human mind is such that it must love and worship some object supremely. In his state of innocence, Jehovah was the one and supreme object of the creature\u2019s love and adoration. Seduced from that state of simple and supreme affection by the tempter\u2019s promise that, if they ate of the fruit of the tree forbidden by God, \u201cthey should be as gods;\u201d in one moment they threw off their allegiance to Jehovah, renounced him as the object of their supreme love, the center of their holiest affections, and became gods to themselves! The temple was ruined, the altar was thrown down, the pure flame was extinguished, God departed and \u201cother lords\u201d entered and took possession of the soul.<\/p>\n

But what a change does grace produce!<\/p>\n

It repairs the temple, rebuilds the altar, rekindles the flame and brings God back to man! Christ is now the supreme object of\u2026 \u00a0\u00a0 his love, \u00a0\u00a0 his adoration and\u00a0 his worship. The idol self has been cast down, self righteousness renounced, and self exaltation crucified.<\/p>\n

The affections, released from their false deity and renewed by the Spirit, now turn to and take up their rest in God. How glorious does Jesus now appear! Truly it is a new God the soul is brought to know and love! Never did it see in Him\u2026 such beauty, such excellence, such blessedness as it now sees. All other glory fades and dies before the surpassing glory of\u2026 \u00a0\u00a0 His character, His attributes, His government, and \u00a0His law.<\/p>\n

God says, \u201cYou are mine.\u201d The soul responds, \u201cYou are my God! Other lords have had dominion over me, but henceforth, You only will I serve, You only will I love.\u00a0 My soul follows hard after You; Your right hand upholds me.\u201d The regenerate soul possesses and acknowledges a new Savior. How glorious, suitable and precious is Jesus to him now! Not so formerly. Then he had his saviors, his \u201crefuges of lies,\u201d his many fatal confidences. Jesus was to him as \u201ca root out of a dry ground, having no form nor loveliness.\u201d It may be that he denied His deity, rejected His atonement, scorned His grace and slighted His pardon and His love. Christ is all to him now! He adores Him as the \u201cmighty\u00a0God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace.\u201d Oh, how surpassingly glorious, inimitably lovely and unutterably precious is Jesus to a renewed soul! Truly a new Savior! \u201cOther lords\u201d he has renounced. \u201cRefuges of lies\u201d he has turned his back upon. \u201cFalse Christs\u201d he no longer follows. \u00a0 He has found another and a better Savior; Jesus, the mighty God, the Redeemer of sinners! All is \u2018new\u2019 to his recovered sight! A new world of glory has floated before his mind! Jesus the Lamb is the light and glory thereof. Never did he suppose there was\u2026. \u00a0\u00a0 such beauty in His person, such love in His heart,\u00a0 such perfection in His work,\u00a0 such power and such willingness to save. That blood which was trampled under foot is now precious.<\/p>\n

That righteousness which was scorned is now glorious. That name which was reviled is now as music to the soul, even \u201ca name that is above every name.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A god to himself? (adapted from Winslow\u2019s, \u201cThe Soul Before Conversion\u201d) The unsaved man is a god to himself, and he has many other gods as well. Whether it be\u2026.\u00a0 self righteousness, self gratification,\u00a0 the world, \u00a0 wealth, family,\u00a0 in whatever form it appears, \u201cother lords have dominion over him,\u201d to the exclusion of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-octavius-winslow","category-regeneration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=978"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":980,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions\/980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}