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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 11h

Richard Ward notes that Jesus presses the rich young ruler (Matt 19:18) on laws about your neighbor. Its the obedience we usually fail at.

Are we failing here? Then our theologies of repentance and “be killing sin” need a major rewrite.

How can you love your neighbors?
#christian #pulpitsky

RICHARD WARD
(1601-1684)
Theologicall questions, dogmaticall observations, ... St. Matthew
“... obedience indeed doth include these three, Faith, Hope, and Love; but the Scripture usually doth insist principally upon Love unto our neighbours, because therein we most commonly fail, and in the other are hypocritically false."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 1d

Arthur Hildersham, #Puritan, says an unrenewed heart objects to charity. If you withhold to protect against future want, you deny God’s plan for your needs! Prov 28:27.

Today, we stop giving because of needs, but then spend billions on defense.

How can you participate in God’s plans 4U?
#christian

ARTHUR HILDERSHAM (1563-1632)
Lecture XXII on Psalm LI
"[There are] two objections that usually men make to excuse their uncharitable-nesse to the poor. First, believe me I know not how soon I may want my self. I answer, Thou art an infidel if thou say so, for God hath said this is the way to keep thee from want. Pro. 28.27
He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 2d

Samuel Rutherford was at Westminster. He warns of “pretended liberty of conscience”, as the glutton (Lk 16:19-31) who partied next to the starving went to hell. Christ spoke of a “doom”.

Anyone today actually agree with both a literal hell and a 100% responsibility for the Lazaruses at your gate?

SAMUEL RUTHERFORD
(1600-1661)
Free disputation against pretended liberty of conscience
"Christ should be unperfect in this place, and in all other places, who should not tell us of a third doom, befalling some after they are dead and buried: where there bodies that were instruments of sin, as the rich glutton's tongue was of gluttony, should be tormen-ted, for their venial sins..'

Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 2d

Always a good day to visit my list of #humanitarian #charity #service orgs, and find one or two to follow. Way tooo big to be a #starterpack!

bsky.app/profile/pter...

Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 3d

Nicholas Byfield, #Puritan, writes on putting on tender mercies, the kind you feel in your belly (Col 3:12). Like Jesus, Moses, and Paul.

Who knew. Paul was the main villain in 1980’s-90’s theological liberalism. Does MAGA meanwhile train to shut this off?

How can you put on the bowels of mercies?

NICOLAS BYFIELD
(1579-1622)
Exposition on the Epistle to the Colossians
"It is not enough to be merciful, but we must put on the bowels of mercies, and this hath in it divers things. For it imports:... That there should be a sympathy and fellow-feeling in the distresses of others. These bowels were in Christ, in Moses, and Paul."

Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 4d

Sebastian Benefield, #Calvinist, decries cruelty and covetousness from Amos. Demands to acquire never end and lead to cruelty. Oppression, a crying sin, causes groans from every corner of his country.

Does covetousness get a free pass today?

How can you refrain from crying, Give, Give?
#christian

SEBASTIAN BENEFIELD
(1559-1630)
Commentarie upon Amos
"These two, Cruelty and Covetousness, that boundless, this insatiable, like the two daughters of the horseleech, Prov. 30.15. have been so long used to cry, Give, Give; that they will never be brought to say, It is enough. The first borne of these two, Cruelty, and Covetousness, is Oppression, that loud-crying sin, under which this our land in every corner almost groaneth: and she hath her mates too; Usury, and Extortion."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 5d

Step 1. Learn French

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 5d

Martin Luther, early #Lutheran, says some merchants are out to do the injustice of selling as dearly as they can. Other merchants see light of gospel, are #woke, awakened to hurtful practices.

Would many churches celebrate this repentance?

How can you avoid stealing other people’s property?

MARTIN LUTHER
(1483 - 1546)
"On Trading and Usury"
"The merchants... say: I may sell my goods as dear as I can ... Now what good is there in trade? How can it be without sin when such injustice is the chief maxim and the rule of the whole business? On this basis trade can be nothing else than robbing and stealing other people's property."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 5d

Historical joke

Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 5d

You presume!

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 6d

David Livingstone, #Congregationalist, medical missionary in Africa, says slavery denies rights ofpersonhood and, harms not only enslaved bit slaver’s fam.

Today some say society loses when good intentions of slavers is denied

How can you protect and affirm the rights of manhood and personhood?

DAVID LIVINGSTONE
(1813-1873)
Narrative of an Expedition
"To degrade and deny that race the rights of man-hood, a still greater blunder; for the debasement was sure to react on the master and on his children. In fact, the degradation of the slave must not only demoralize the master, but probably the master is the greater loser of the two."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 7d

Alexander Maclaren, #Baptist, says Jesus demonstrated pity not only to show us the heart of God, but also because he was a human being!

Do we want a God who’ll join us in lecturing the suffering?

How can you not thwart feelings for other’s infirmities?
#christian

ALEXANDER MACLAREN
(1826-1910)
"CHRIST'S TOUCH"
"He pitied not only in order to teach us the heart of God, but because His own man's heart was touched with a feeling of men's infirmities."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 8d

Thomas Binney, #Congregationalist, says anyone can sin like rich guy from Luke 16:19ff. Enjoy a full plate with no sense of a “regulated liberality and a thoughtful beneficence.”

Can the middle classs with a modest plate fear refugees?

How can you exercise a thoughtful beneficence?
#christian

THOMAS BINNEY
(1798-1874)
Money: a popular exposition
"Without being rich, it is quite possible to copy the selfishness of the rich man. You do this, if you provide only for your daily satisfactions; enjoying your own 'fulness of bread' with no sense of pecuniary steward-ship, no reference to Him who requires that expenditure should have other objects besides what are personal, and should include the exercise of a regulated liberality and a thoughtful beneficence."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 9d

Omar Leslie Kilborn was a Methodist medical missionary to China. Here he relates the common, moral convictions of all the Christian missionaries he knows of, who were operating in China. They are “anti-opium” agitators.

How can you be an agitator like these missionaries?
#christian

OMAR LESLIE KILBORN
(1867-1920)
Heal the Sick: An Appeal for Medical Missions in China
"Every missionary, no matter where you find him, from Peking to Yunnanfu, from Canton to the most northwesterly limits of Kansuh, is, therefore, an active anti-opium agitator."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 10d

William Mackergo Taylor, #Congregationalist, talks of foolish rich man who built big barns (Luke 12:16-21). Instead, more endowment should inspire more service. Taylor calls this the gospel principle.

How can you share your gifts?
#blessing

WILLIAM MACKERGO TAYLOR
(1829-1895)
THE FOOLISH RICH MAN
"The greatness of exceptional endowment, of whatever sort it may be, carries with it an obligation to similar exceptional greatness of service. This is the gospel principle. It makes the powerful man the protector of the weak ; the rich man, the provider for the poor ; the learned man, the teacher of the ignorant; and the free man, the emancipator of the enslaved."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 11d

Samuel Annesley, #Puritan, learns from the Good Samaritan that there must be no “respect of persons” in #Almsgiving. Include include strangers, enemies, and all that crave it of us.

Today, is good stewardship about excluding the strange from help? How can you not do this?

SAMUEL ANNESLEY
(1620?-1696)
"AFTER WHAT MEANS MUST WE GIVE TO THE POOR?"
"So as the scope of that precept is, to take away respect of persons in Almsgiving: that we should not refrain this Duty of Charity to Countrymen, kindred, and friends, but extend it also to strangers, enemies, and to every one, that being in need crave it of us."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 12d

George Swinnock says if you’re kind to a horse, then Isaiah 58:5,6 says you harm your soul if you overwork a human servant.

John Oliver said your abuse of tips on a food-delivery app driver could mean “you don’t go to heaven.”

How can you be merciful to those who support you?
#christian

GEORGE SWINNOCK
(1627-1673)
The Christian Man's Calling
"If a merciful man be merciful to his beasts, much more to his servant.
God contemneth the service of those masters, when they worship him, who are cruel to their servants, Isa. Iviii. 5, 6. He that over-straineth his horse at work wrongs his own purse; but he that overworketh his servant wrongs his conscience."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 13d

Joseph Caryl, was at #Westminster. Job’s friend accuses him of real crime of oppression (34:8). God hears when the poor cry.

Before this, Caryl says “They are the worst sort of wicked who make poor men cry.” Do we celebrate those who devour little fishes?

How can you listen to the cry of the poor?

JOSEPH CARYL
(1602-1673)
Exposition of Job 34
... any of them who (as oppressors do) devour those of their own kind, though of some of them it be said and experienced (especially of the fishes in the Sea) that the Greater devour the lesser, as the mighty men of whom Elihu spake did the poor, causing their cry to come up unto God."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 14d

Robert MacCulloch, Scottish minister, considers slavery. Isaiah 10:24 provides warnings and Ephesians 5:1 would motivate us to imitate Christ. Slavery, is an “iniquitous commerce”.

I had friends call it a literacy program.

How can you help abolish iniquitous practices?
#abolition

ROBERT MACCULLOCH
(1740-1824)
Lectures on the Prophecies of Isaiah
"As imitators of God, in the relation of his dear children, you ought to entertain a just abhorrence of this iniquitous commerce [slavery]; which, I hope, legislators will soon be wife enough to abolish."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 15d

Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther, #lutheran synod founder, wrote a pamphlet against socialism. Ironically, it also makes striking criticisms of #greed. One such warning is that no Christian would have their money and heart as one.

Is this a common spiritual warning today?

Where is your heart?

CARL FERDINAND WILHEM WALTHER
(1811 - 1877)
"COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM"
"That person is no Christian whose heart and money are one. "

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 16d

John Brown of Edinburgh, #Presbyterian minister. Based on 1 Pet 3:8, be pitiful, he says water and compassionate listening can be more genuine pity than money. Give at least this to all.

Do our paths of giving have harsh words and sneers built into them?

How can you offer a compassionate tear?

JOHN BROWN (EDINBURGH)
(1784-1858)
Expository Discourses on the First Epistle of Peter
"A kind look, a soothing word, a compassionate tear, a cup of cold water, are sometimes both more genuine expressions of christian pity, and more effectual means of gaining its object, the alleviation of suffering, than the most costly pecuniary offerings."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 17d

John Tillotson, #Anglican, notes the story of Cornelius from Acts 10:30ff: prayers and alms came up before the Lord. He says alms should accompany prayers.

Some may object to this quid pro quo, but then pray for hours as an unbiblical, quid pro quo to demand God’s favor.
#prayer #discipleship

JOHN TILLOTSON
(1630-1694)
"SUCCESS NOT ALWAYS ANSWERABLE TO THE PROBABILITY OF SECOND CAUSES."
"I have but one thing more to mind you of; and that is, to stir up your charity towards the poor; which is likewise a great part of the duty of this day, and which ought always to accompany our prayers and fastings; thy prayers and thine alms, saith the angel to Cornelius, are come up before God: and therefore if we desire that our prayers should reach heaven, and receive a gracious answer from God, we must send up our alms along with them."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 18d

Wilhelmus à Brakel, #Reformed Dutch, says unlawful profits is gain which exceeds the current rate (needs of person). Some merchants plead the poor like leeches.

None of those around today, though, amirite?

How can you examine how you interact w/o the poor in the marketplace w/o this def of theft?

WILHELMUS à BRAKEL
(1635-1711)
The Christian's Reasonable Service
"However, profit is unlawful (which is called usury among us) if one gains interest from his money and merchandise which supersedes the current rate. The more excessive this usury is, the greater is the theft. Merchants who bleed the poor as blood suckers are guilty of this. They extend credit to the poor, but sell them the merchandise far above the common market price, giving them the poorest quality as well."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 18d

John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, heard objections to the washing of servant’s feet. But Christ, actually greater than us, did so. We should not treat those freed by Christ as mere bondmen, bought with money.

How can you treat people as equals? #christian

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
(349 - 407)
"Homily
LXXI"
"Let us then wash one another's feet, saith some one, 'then we must wash those of our domestics. And what great thing if we do wash even those of our domestics? In our case
'slave' and 'free' is a difference of words; but there an actual reality. For by nature He was Lord and we servants, yet even this He refused not at this time to do. But now it is matter for contentment if we do not treat free men as bondmen, as slaves bought with money."

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Greg Johnson @pteranodo.bsky.social · 19d

Mark Hopkins, #Congregationalist, says #Christianity is excellent and literally divine because 1) You get a relation with a personal God 2) This God has you as a member of a perfect community.

Do we want liberty to blast stereo at beach, dump oil in own yard?

How can you consider UR social nature?

MARK HOPKINS
(1802-1887)
SERMON,
May 30, 1843
"It is one excellence of our religion, and an evidence of its divinity, that it not only regards man as related to God in his individual capacity, but that it takes into view his social nature, and fits him to be the member of a perfect community."

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