Chapter 44
Good Monday Morning to this week 45 of 2020
Soli Deo Gloria! For the Glory of God Alone!
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13
Poverty of spirit (Matthew 5:2) is the Spirit emptying the heart of self that Christ may fill it: it is a sense of need and destitution. A. W. Pink
According to Philip Melanchthon, 31 October 1517 was the day German monk Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Historians and other experts on the subject argue that Luther may have chosen All Hallows’ Eve on purpose to get the attention of common people, although that has never been proved.
The five solae (from Latin, sola, lit. “alone”; occasionally Anglicized to five solas) of the Protestant Reformation are a foundational set of principles held by theologians and clergy to be central to the doctrine of salvation. More recently, certain scholars have suggested that there should be additional solas on the list: Sola ecclesia (“the Church alone”), Sola caritas (“Charitable-love alone”) and Sola Spiritus (In the “Spirit alone”).
Soli Deo gloria is a Latin term for Glory to God alone. It has been used by artists like Johann Sebastian Bach, the Baroque composer wrote the initials “S. D. G.” at the end of all his church compositions and also applied it to some, but not all, his secular works to signify that the work was produced for the sake of praising God. As a greeting, it was used by monks in written communication. As a doctrine, it means that everything is done for God’s glory to the exclusion of mankind’s self-glorification and pride. Christians are to be motivated and inspired by God’s glory and not their own.
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen Romans 11:36
God has surely promised His grace to the humbled: that is to those who mourn over and despair of themselves. But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel pleasure and work of Another – God alone.” – Martin Luther
Wishing you a week “Soli Deo gloria” with this quote:
I have a great need for Christ; I have a great Christ for my need.
Charles H. Spurgeon
Philemon