Archive for the ‘Philippians’ Category
Above: The Original Document
Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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1 Peter 1, 8
I.
They believed in him as Lord and Savior because of his life–his manifest goodness and love. “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” “These are written [that] ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye might have life through his name.” (Jno. 20, 31)
II.
This faith brings him into our hearts, and so we come to love him not only for love for us in his death but for what he is to us in our inner experience. He is our salvation indeed. We do not see him, but [he] is more real to us than he was to his disciples when he was in the flesh. We love him because he first loved us and because [he] is so much to us now. How loving and lovable he is! Who can refuse to love such a Friend?
III.
“And rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Being accepted of God through him our hearts are filled with joy in him.
“Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say rejoice.” (Phils. 4, 4)
GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT
Above: The Original Document
Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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Phils. 4, 8
I.
Man an animal that things. Thought rules the world, for good or bad.
II.
Thoughts on a low, evil plain corrupt life and infect others for evil–they make it easy to yield to sin.
God save us from dwelling on evil in our thinking.
III.
The need of the age is for imperial thinking–on things that are pure, good, and ennobling. They lift one up above the evil things. Hence the text. Direct and hold the mind to these good things.
(1) They strengthen one against temptation until one spurns the temptation of evil.
(2) They help fit us for noble living.
Fill the mind with every good, true, and beautiful thought possible. And be happy and blest.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT
Above: The Original Document
Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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Phils. 4, 8
I.
Man an animal that thinks–wise or otherwise. Many helpful lines of thought, others hurtful. “As a man thinketh.” Thoughts come to fruitage in character–come out in words and deeds.
II.
We should wisely choose our thinking.
(a) Never dwell on low, course, vulgar, questionable, sinful things. Flee from these–2 Cor. 10, 5. Rise above all such.
(b) Think on what is of good report–that which meets the approval of noble souls. It is here–the beautiful, true, useful, good. It elevates minds and character, makes right living easier. Consecrate your best effort to these high things.
(c) Reading choice literature a great help–the Bible, other devotional matter, the Hymn Book, output of the religious press, biographies of great, good men. “Improve in the best things.”
“Reading makes a full reward.” “Overcome evil with good.” Crowd out the evil with the good.
Noble thoughts are helpful company.
Pray for help in your efforts.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT
Above: The Original Document
Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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I.
The coming of Christ was with real sacrifice. God’s Son, on an equality with the Father. But he left the courts of glory to dwell among us, subject to life’s limitations and sufferings.
II.
To appear in his glory was his right, or privilege; but he did not; he laid aside his glory, emptied himself of it, and appeared in the likeness of man, becoming a servant. God clothed in human flesh! What condescension!
III.
“Humbled himself,” submitted to the scoffs of man and the power of death, even the most shameful men could inflict–all out of love for us poor sinful creatures.
IV.
What must sin be in the sight of God, seeing [that] it required so deep abasement in Jesus Christ to make atonement for it. Surely we can never again think lightly of sin!
Let us exalt his name, yielding our lives to him to serve one another in his name.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT
Above: The Original Document
Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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Phils. 2, 5
I.
Christ Jesus, the divine-human person, is the highest ideal of the race,
1. Love and goodness,
2. Humility,
3. Service–his meat was to do the will of Him who sent him.
II.
We should pattern our lives after him, strive in all things to be like him, catch his spirit and reproduce his life.
“Was Christ a man like us? Ah! let us see
If we too can be such a man as he.”–Matthew Arnold
Our mental attitudes and our love shape our lives.
May we love like he did and seek to serve as did he, that “the world may see Jesus in us.”
GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT
Above: Part of the Original Text
Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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Matt. 5, 16
Phils. 2, 15
I.
The lighthouse stands above in its place on the shore, amid calm and storm despite the gales. It must be strong.
II.
Nothing can take its place. It marks a certain danger point that seamen may be warned. It is needed right where it is.
III.
At night its light shines. That is its business. Thereby many lives and much property are saved.
IV.
Christians are lighthouses. Their light is derived from Christ, the original source of spiritual light and truth.
(a) The place they occupy is important. They should be true to Christ despite all opposition.
(b) It is our business to let our light shine. “Men do not light a candle and put it under a bushel,” but on a candlestick.
(c) Thereby many are saved from going astray.
“Among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”
It is for Him we are to shine. What a privilege!
GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT
Above: Part of the Original Text
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EDITOR’S COMMENT:
Knowledge for its own sake (pure knowledge) can be laudable. I have much such knowledge, in which I revel. To have much merely neutral (neither negative nor positive) knowledge is acceptable in my moral code. (My history and science fiction geekery comes to mind immediately.) That said, I affirm the ethic of glorifying God and aiding one’s fellow human beings and of having those principles govern one’s life.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 9, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MARTIN CHEMNITZ, GERMAN LUTHERAN THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF BARTON STONE, COFOUNDER OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST)
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Phils. 3, 12
I.
Physical gradations, animal, vegetable, and mineral. Man head over all. The lower can pass to the higher only as lifted by the higher.
II.
Man is body, mind, and spirit. Body first in time, but is to be subject to spirit, in the interest of man’s eternal nature. Body and mind not ignored. They develop with added years and opportunity. But the soul is of supreme interest.
III.
Choose on what level you will live. Shall flesh rule? This is brute level. Shall we seek knowledge for its own sake? Rather let it be for larger service directed by the spiritual nature.
IV.
Man’s highest nature should dominate his whole being and subject all to God’s will, that he may have conscious communion with God.
Let the lower self die that the man God wants me to be may be raised up in sue.
May we attain the the highest life of which, under God, we are able. Let none draw back.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT
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EDITOR’S COMMENT:
The Revised Version of 1881, which many have long since forgotten, was part of my great-grandfather’s preaching library.
I, being both a history nerd and one fascinated by the sequence of English Bible translations, know about such things readily.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 11, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT OF NURSIA, FATHER OF WESTERN ROMANTICISM
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Jno. 13, 35
1. Jesus, “having loved his own,…loved them unto the end,” or uttermost (Ch. 13, 1). So great was his love that he gave himself for them. Love bound his heart to them and them to him.
2. “His own” are like him, love him and each other as he loved him. Discipleship is a question not of external relation but of similarity of character. No matter what else we have or do, if we have not love we are nothing. “When he shall be made manifest we shall be like him.”
(a) “If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar” (1 Jno. 4, 20). Love to God and man is one and the same thing and same act.
(b) “We know we have passed out of death unto life because we love the brethren.” His children love each other and what He loves. See also Phils. 2, 3 & 2 Thes. 1, 3 (Revised Version).
3. By this shall men know we are His disciples, seeing we have His Spirit and live a life above the power of this world. How beautiful is this tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. This is the “old commandment” he gives us which is ever new. “Let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth.” Then to wash one another’s feet will be easy for us and a joy.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT
Above: Ocean Surf, Circa 1907
Published and Copyright Claimant = Detroit Publishing Company
Image Source = Library of Congress
(http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/det1994019801/PP/)
Reproduction Number = LC-D4-70213
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EDITOR’S NOTE:
The Wesleyan Christian Advocate was the news organ of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Georgia.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 27, 2013 COMMON ERA
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2 Peter 3, 18
1. Growth is characteristic of all life. Arrested growth is the beginning of death. This is a universal law.
2. The mind of man is capable of constant growth in knowledge. It has no deadline beyond which it cannot learn something more. This is especially true of the Christian. His grasp of spiritual things does not relax.
3. Religion is a vast ocean no one can fully know. Its treasures are exhaustless. There is a constant thrill to him who presses on to “know Him and the power of his resurrection,” etc. (Phils. 3, 10) Jesus Christ is the object of our quest.
4. How know more of Him?
(1) By studying His word. There we see Him display His power, hear His wisdom, and see His Divine nature.
(2) By use if the means of grace. There we meet Him in personal contact.
(3) By knowing what He is doing in the church today. The religious press is a means of grace to those who use it wisely, and ought to have a large place in one’s education. Read good books and our [those of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South] own periodicals. No house should ever be without the Advocate.
GEORGE WASHINGTON BARRETT
ORIGINAL POEMS AND FAMILY HISTORY BLOG 
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