Discovering the Glorious Love of Christ


Book Description

Durant, in this wonderful work on making a discovery of Christ’s love to his people, plumbs the depths of Christ’s transcendent love from Ephesians 3:19, “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” He will explain what it means that this love is transcendent. It is a preeminent and supreme love, lying beyond the ordinary range of perception. Can such a study be accomplished adequately in light of Christ’s infinite benevolence to his people? Durant will take a course to outline and explain four main parts to his overall subject demonstrating how the love of Christ passes knowledge as it, 1. includes the truth and reality of Christ’s love to the saints. 2. As it concludes the height and royalty, or transcendency of that love. 3. As it holds out the apostle’s desire that the Ephesians might know both. And, 4. As it contains the grounds of keeping up the Ephesian’s hearts from fainting at Paul’s tribulations, which is the drift and scope that Paul strives for in them. In exploring this transcendent love of Christ to the soul, he affirms that it is so high there is no reaching of it, so deep that there is no sounding of it, so long that it exceeds measuring, and so broad that there is no comprehending it. Yet, believers are beckoned to strive to understand, to apprehend it, in its communication to their heart, soul and mind. In fact, when they have finished reading this work by Durant, if they have soaked in even a measure of what he explains, they will come away with being lovesick for the Savior.




The Comfort of Christ to Weak Believers


Book Description

Christ is such an inexhaustible fountain that sinners cannot ever out desire His mercies. He is an overflowing fountain of infinite mercy and comfort. All other temporal mercies find their eternal significance in him. Nothing will delight the sincere believer, or be enjoyed, if such believers do not in some way partake of His comfort, and His tenderness. They must tap into Christ’s virtue. How will they do this? Durant’s discourse explores the sweetness of Christ's relationship with weak believers, addressing various aspects of this theme. He shows the fallacy of Satan to keep souls from Christ; and the sweetness of Christ to those in His service. His work is taken from Isaiah 40:11, “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” The structure of the discourse includes the dependence of the words, their division, and the doctrines derived from them. His main doctrine, is that central teaching presented, emphasizes Christ's sweetness in His dealings with weak members. Most Christians will not admit they are weak. And the idea of the word “weak” seems to be negative. But Durant’s work reaches to all Christians. He shows that Christ's carriage, and the sweetness of that carriage, is demonstrated in not casting off weak believers, but that He preserves their weak graces, strengthens them, bears with their infirmities, not burdening them with tasks they can't handle, and accepts their efforts despite failings. These reasons are drawn from God the Father's commission to Christ, the truth of the inherent weakness in believers, and Christ's intention to build them up as his lambs. The discourse concludes with applications for information, lamentation, reproof, comfort, encouragement, imitation, and exhortation.




Early English Books, 1641-1700


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Holiness


Book Description

This book lays out the requirements and difficulties that will come with the pursuit of holiness in our Christian lives. Ryle starts out with the way to achieve holiness and the difficulties that arise with pursuing a holy life, and then going throughout the Bible giving true examples of the cost of holiness and the rewards it brings as the Bible promises us. To often we sing and pray for such a life without being willing to undergo the necessary life changes and adjustments to get there. This book lays out what we can expect in such a journey and what God will ask of each of us to get us to the point He wants us to be.




The Hillsong Movement Examined


Book Description

This interdisciplinary volume brings together leading writers and thinkers to provide a critique of a broad range of topics related to Hillsong Church. Hillsong is one of the most influential, visible, and (in some circles) controversial religious organizations/movements of the past thirty years. Although it has received significant attention from both the academy and the popular press, the vast majority of the scholarship lacks the scope and nuance necessary to understand the complexity of the movement, or its implications for the social, cultural, political, spiritual, and religious milieus it inhabits. This volume begins to redress this by filling important gaps in knowledge as well as introducing different audiences to new perspectives. In doing so, it enriches our understanding of one of the most influential Christian organizations of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.




Steps to Christ


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Quakers Reading Mystics


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Over the centuries, Quakers have read non-Quakers regarded as mystics. This study explores the reception of mystical texts among the Religious Society of Friends, focusing in particular on Robert Barclay and John Cassian, Sarah Lynes Grubb and Jeanne Guyon, Caroline Stephen and Johannes Tauler, Rufus Jones and Jacob Boehme, and Teresina Havens and Buddhist texts selected by her. Points of connection include the nature of apophatic prayer, suffering and annihilation of self, mysticisms of knowing and of loving, liberal Protestant attitudes toward theosophical systems, and interfaith encounter.