Showing results by author "Horatius Bonar" in All Categories

God speaks to us through the Bible. That book embodies his words. Creation itself is the visible embodiment of his power and wisdom. It is the result of his words. This book of his is, in a different way, the effect of his speaking. It is his written wisdom and power. There is his voice to us. The thunder and tempest are his loud voice of grandeur. The sunshine and the gentle breeze are his still small voice. But deeper, clearer, keener, softer, and still more penetrating than all of these is his written word to us.

Your "turning" or "conversion" is only a beginning, and no more. It is not the whole journey; it is merely the first step. You are a disciple, that is, one who is under teaching; but your teaching, your discipleship, has only just begun. Your life is a book; it may be a bigger or smaller volume, but conversion is only the title page or the preface. The book itself remains to be written, and your years, weeks, and days are its chapters, pages, and lines. It is a book written for eternity; make sure that it is written well.

Horatius Bonar’s exegesis of the Old Testament is a voluminous work of 84 chapters. It deals with passages from the book of Genesis to the Book of Malachi, covering themes like sin, despair, holiness, blessing and deliverance. The Heritage and its Title Deeds is a classic sermon from Light and Truth.

If you ask, He will give you living water! That is all you have to do – ask. How real, how true, how free – yet how simple! This is grace. He loves us not because we are rich in goodness, but because He is rich in mercy; not because we are worthy of His favor, but because He delights in lovingkindness. His welcome to us comes from His own graciousness, not from our lovableness. Christ invites the weary. It is this weariness that fits you for Him and Him for you.

We have been thoroughly introduced to the violent and often savage ways God punishes His people. But Horatius Bonar expands on a method far more powerful than any direct force. Learn more about how a father’s silence can lead to a feeling of ultimate desperation in his children.

Horatius Bonar’s exegesis of the Old Testament is a voluminous work of 84 chapters. It deals with passages from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Malachi, covering themes like sin, despair, holiness, blessing, and deliverance.

The objective of the Christian ministry is to convert sinners and to edify the body of Christ. No faithful minister can possibly rest short of this. Applause, fame, popularity, honor, and wealth - all these are vain. If souls are not won, and if saints are not matured, our ministry itself is futile.

The first pages of the bible illustrate a journey from being divinely created to falling from grace. Ever since the path started leading downward, humanity has been cursed with many trials. But hope remains when we accept a God who is harsh in his sentence, but righteous and true in his execution.

One blessing, or in some ways curse, we have been given is the ability to think and rationalize. With this comes a constant internal battle in which we debate within ourselves what the right moral choices are. Bonar expands on how conscientious we truly are and which patterns emerge in our daily lives.

Balaam, son of Beor, is known to us as a non-Israeli prophet who, despite his initial refusal to curse the Israelis, was eventually overcome by wickedness. Horatius Bonar explores in depth the nature of this duality. He details the fate and torments of anyone who allows themselves to be guided by a divided heart.

What armor would we wear when considered in a biblical sense of the glorious war? None of ornate metal but one that has a more spiritual defense. Bonar reflects further on the resolve, mental strength, and faith needed in order to build up a defense against sin and against evil.

If we ask ourselves what it means to disobey God, we can recall many references to his cruelty and relentlessness in punishing those who refuse his word. These punishments go very deep and Bonar takes this biblical theme as a launching pad for discussing the frivolous nature of the so called human remedies. How we are a race of diversions and entertainments, façade and masquerades, in short, creators of a superficial and temporary solace.

Sharing his analysis of the phrase ‘go and possess the land’, Horatius Bonar reads deeply into the meaning of ownership. In some ways this entails a reflection on the biblical sense of nationalism. The Israelis, first wanderers and to some extend forced nomads, are told to settle and identify with this one place, one land, one city.

Balaam looks around at the Israelis who have suffered and wandered, but are now so close to glory. Horatius Bonar describes a man overlooking the encampment and feeling a certain conflict rise within himself. We see, along with him, the weary Israelis on one side and on the other, the land of milk and honey within their grasp.

Horatius Bonar allows us to learn more about his interpretations of God as a father to all the people. The phrase ‘Oh that they were wise’ laments humanity and its inability to choose a path of constructiveness and righteousness. Bonar reflects further on these characteristics that shapes human nature in a manner that is, in his mind, unteachable.

Horatius Bonar shows himself as a very passionate hymnist in this sermon focusing on the Fig-Leaves Adam and Eve use to cover themselves after acquiring the knowledge of shame. He shares his views on how a fig-leaf, a pure and beautiful form of vegetation, can’t possibly shield Man from his loss of innocence. In Bonar’s mind, the one thing that can save us from the anger and wrath of God, is the rituals we now associate closely with the Catholic faith.

The morning! That is our watchword. Our evening prayers and songs are filled with hope. The morning adds hue to life, imparting color to that which is colorless, and freshening that which is faded. It is the essence of our hopes and dreams. Stars may help to make the sky less gloomy, but they are not the sun – and besides, clouds have now covered them so they are no longer visible. Torches and beacon lights do not help. Our own lights make no impression upon the darkness; it is so deep, so real, so unmistakable.

It was God’s purpose from the beginning not merely to redeem sinners from His condemnation but also to bring those people into a special relationship with Himself. It is His desire to draw mankind closer to Himself than any other of His creatures and to establish a most special link between His people and Himself. Trials, then, have a purpose. They awaken us to a sense of our self-pleasing ways and to our indifference to the condition of the world we live in–not only as being a world of sin but thoroughly, and all over, a world of misery.

Hemos imaginado que la presencia corporal de Cristo nos haría dichosos y nos conferiría innumerables dones; pero según nuestro texto, la presencia del Espíritu Santo obrando en la iglesia es más necesaria para la misma. Si se piensa por un momento, la presencia física de Cristo en la tierra, por muy buena que sea para la iglesia, implicaría en nuestra condición actual muchos inconvenientes que se evitan con su presencia por medio del Espíritu Santo.

Horatius Bonar’s exegesis of the Old Testament is a voluminous work of 84 chapters. It deals with passages from the book of Genesis to the Book of Malachi, covering themes like sin, despair, holiness, blessing and deliverance. Work, Rest, and Recompense is a classic sermon from Light and Truth.