glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- the spiritual habit of grace t is in the world history flow 11:23 AM Eastern Standard Time Sunday late morning. Here in West Michigan it is gray and raining. The rain and the warm weather will cause the earth to turn green. I am sure the birds are getting ready to build their nests. I got up around 7:15 AM this morning. I had oatmeal for breakfast this morning. I ate my oatmeal messing with our main computer. After messing with our main computer I wrote in my paper diary and read "The Presence of God" by Lester. My wife got home from work around 8:30 AM and has gone to bed for the day. She is off the next two nights from work. She will get up this evening to go to Covenant PCA. Existence keeps flowing by at a normal speed. Last night I messed with our main computer and watched some television. I went to bed around 10:15 PM last night. After reading this morning some of the book, "The Presence of God" I got out to read a book titled, "Reformed Catholicity: The Promise of Retrieval for Theology and Biblical Interpretation" by Michael Allen & Scott R. Swain. I want to quote from this book now because what I read is wonderful to reflect upon in this godless age. "This leads us to a second creaturely coordinate of the Spirit's illuminating presence: the spiritual habit of grace that is given, sustained and directed by the Spirit in order to aid reason's sanctified exercise in the knowledge of God. In summarizing the main lines of this topic, we follow John Owen's exquisite discussion in two works, Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit. According to Owen, in regenerating fallen human beings, the Holy Spirit plants a new spiritual habit within them, replacing the old sinful habit inherited from Adam and purged by the blood of Christ. This new spiritual habit exists preeminently and in fullest measure in Jesus Christ, the head of the new humanity, and flows to the church from Jesus Christ, who is the fountain of ectypal theology-that is, human knowledge of God. Owen defines this habit as "a new, gracious, spiritual life, or principle, created, and bestowed on the soul, whereby it is changed in all its faculties and affections, fitted and enabled to go forth in the way of obedience unto every divine object that is proposed unto it." This habit is distinct from the rational faculties of the soul, but it is essential to their functioning in the knowledge of God. Far from replacing our rational faculties, this new spiritual habit energizes their various operations toward God and creatures. It enables the mind to discern spiritual things: "All sanctified believers have an ability and power, in the renewed mind and understand, to see, know, discern, and receive, spiritual things, the mysteries of the gospel, the mind of Christ, in a due and spiritual manner." It also enables the soul to embrace Christ by faith as he is offered in the gospel and to rest with "delight, desire, and complacency" in Christ, "being, indeed, the principle suiting all the faculties of our souls for spiritual and living operations, according to their natural use." Although natural habits may be acquired through repeated activity, this spiritual habit is a free and unsolicited gift of God. . ." pg. 39,40 Michael Allen 12:05 p.m. - 2016-03-13 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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