[COMPLETE] Unspoken Sermons by George MacDonald - law

[momof3Chihuahuas]

Hello, David (& Jim),

First, David, forgive me for being much slower than usual lately. It's mainly had to do with Real Life, but I'm going to start catching up very soon (within the next week---if I can physically manage the trip, I'll probably be at my mom-in-law's one day this holiday weekend).

Jim, you bring up a valid point (you're such an excellent admin & also so helpful). David, I don't feel the need for PL help; I just want to apologize for not being around Librivox much at all lately. But, David, if you would rather the sermons be PL'ed more quickly, I won't be angry or upset if someone else PLs a few sermons. But I'm focusing more on LV again lately since the recent medication for my flare-up has helped with the pain (I just finished icequeen's [Ann's] solo The Way of Perfection). And, of course, I always appreciate your prayers, David. I'll keep you in mine too.

I'll probably PL the really short one first (hopefully tonight; if not, probably tomorrow) just to get me back in the swing of it. David, you're doing an excellent job recording the sermons & putting the emphasis where it needs to be. I know you take great care & put in a lot of work recording these. And you'll definitely see progress from me very soon.

I'm sure I'll learn a lot & be spiritually uplifted as I PL. Sometimes I get a slower due to intense fatigue (I think I've had a bit of a bug of some sort lately too; I've been sleeping much more than usual), so pray that I can have more energy. With God's help (I truly don't know what I'd do without His help, love, & grace!), I'm hanging in there a day at a time. Thank you so much for your prayers, patience (I so much appreciate both!), & for recording these wonderful sermons (SO much food for thought & prayer; MacDonald gets so deep, but it's also uplifting).

OK, going to download the ones I don't have yet. Thanks again! Take care & God bless, both of you! It's so great to work with such pleasant people here at LV.

Joy

P.S. Please don't take what I say about my health as complaining; I'm just explaining matter-of-factly (it's just part of my life). I know the Lord helps me every day. \0/

P.S. One more thing, in case you're interested, David. I found a website called http://www.christianaudio.com (I hope it's OK if I mention it, Jim; if not, feel free to delete this). I mention it because I've been getting free daily devotional podcasts (2 a day) from Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon (my dad & I used to discuss his devotionals; I now have Dad's copy of the book; Dad marked special passages & I treasure having his copy; Dad went Home to be with the Lord in 1990). Hmm, I hadn't checked; maybe Morning and Evening is in our catalogue too? Also, they give away one Christian book a month; for July it's The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer (which is probably still copyrighted; I'm not sure). They sell other books, but I signed up for the devotionals.

[Steampunk]

Welcome back, Joy. Hope you're feeling better.

The http://www.christianaudio.com link is fine. LV doesn't fear competition...


Jim

[wdavidbaldwin]

Glad to hear from you, Joy! I hope you're feeling better and better.

Regarding this month's sermon:

I’ve always wondered what is meant by the exhortation to ‘Fear God’. I would think of fear such as that terror one might feel watching a scary movie and think “That can’t be what is meant”. Or I might hear a preacher equate fear and respect and, though that sounded much better and closer to the truth, it didn’t quite seem to hit the mark. In ‘The Fear of God’ MacDonald pictures fear as a precursor to love stating that love eventually drives out the fear. I think he makes a convincing and rather beautiful case. What do you think?

http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_21_macdonald.mp3

If you want to watch the video version:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=CDF7AF4521A08DFB

[wdavidbaldwin]

Though MacDonald never refers to his own life experience in the sermon ‘The Voice of Job’, with just a cursory biographical knowledge, one can see that the sermon is very personal and that the book of Job was especially poignant to him. MacDonald had more than the usual share of suffering and thus more than the usual share of insight into Job.

One very interesting point for which MacDonald argues elegantly is that God owes something to his creatures. “God is infinitely more bound to provide for his child than any man is to provide for his…. Verily he owes us nothing that he does not pay like a God; but it is of the devil to imagine imperfection and disgrace in obligation. So far is God from thinking so that in every act of his being he lays himself under obligation to his creatures.”

The sermon is a long one (10,623 words and, in this rendition, 1:11:44) and the language, like most of MacDonald’s sermons, is challenging. Nonetheless, due to the above mentioned poignancy and insight, it’s well worth the time and effort to carefully read and consider.

Video - http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E96E8CFABF141B39
Audio - http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_22_macdonald.mp3

[wdavidbaldwin]

Unspoken Sermon for October: 'The Hands of the Father'
Audio: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_09_macdonald.mp3
Video: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5EB3C03341EE35DE

YouTube has extended the allowable length for uploaded videos from 10 to 15 minutes. ‘The Hands of the Father’ is one of the shorter Unspoken Sermons and fits nicely within that 15 minute window. Thus, in this case, one sermon = one video! The next sermon on my list to record, however, is ‘Justice’, and as it’s the longest of the Unspoken Sermons, it most certainly will not fit within a single YouTube video!

Some great quotes from ‘The Hands of the Father’

Every act of worship is a holding up to God of what God hath made us.

the service of God, the only “divine service,” is the helping of our fellows.

all noise comes of the conflict of Life and Death

we shall never be able, I say, to rest in the bosom of the Father, till the fatherhood is fully revealed to us in the love of the brothers.

Never shall we know him aright until we rejoice and exult for our race that he is the Father.

[wdavidbaldwin]

November’s Unspoken Sermon is “Justice”. It’s the longest of the Unspoken Sermons, and perhaps the most frequently quoted as well as controversial. In the sermon MacDonald passionately rails against penal substitutionary atonement and, though somewhat coyly, offers his own view.

Audio: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_31_macdonald.mp3
Video: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FAC741A6318BCF05

Here are some links of a couple of blogs I found helpful in digesting “Justice”:
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2010/06/george-macdonald-justice-hell-and.html
http://formerfundy.blogspot.com/2010/08/george-macdonald-on-penal-substitution.html

David

[Steampunk]

November’s Unspoken Sermon is “Justice”. It’s the longest of the Unspoken Sermons, and perhaps the most frequently quoted as well as controversial. In the sermon MacDonald passionately rails against penal substitutionary atonement and, though somewhat coyly, offers his own view.

Audio: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_31_macdonald.mp3
Video: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FAC741A6318BCF05

Here are some links of a couple of blogs I found helpful in digesting “Justice”:
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2010/06/george-macdonald-justice-hell-and.html
http://formerfundy.blogspot.com/2010/08/george-macdonald-on-penal-substitution.html

David

Hi, David.

You should probably make this a two-parter. We try to keep sections 60 minutes or less, with a more absolute limit being the length of a standard audio CD, which is 74 minutes. This is just over 74 minutes.

Ditto for section 22 (sorry I didn't catch it earlier).

If you need any assistance, let me know.


Thanks,

Jim

[wdavidbaldwin]

Thanks, Jim. I'll circle back around and split up 'Justice'.

[wdavidbaldwin]

This month’s Unspoken Sermon is ‘Kingship’.

A key quote:
What then is the kingdom over which the Lord cares to reign, for he says he came into the world to be a king? I answer, A kingdom of kings, and no other. Where every man is a king, there and there only does the Lord care to reign, in the name of his father.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQHzXDlV1ks
Audio: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_30_macdonald.mp3

David

[Steampunk]

Thanks, Jim. I'll circle back around and split up 'Justice'.

Excellent. I've added an extra section. Justice, part 1 will be section 31 and Justice, part 2 will be section 32.

If any others go beyond 74 minutes in length, we can simply renumber again. Easy!


Jim

[wdavidbaldwin]

Video: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E943159A948307D2
Audio: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_17_macdonald.mp3

February’s Unspoken Sermon is “Man's Difficulty Concerning Prayer”. I think it one of MacDonald’s more poetic sermons.

Since it’s not evident in the title of the sermon, I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that much of the sermon is dedicated to defending the freedom of God; i.e., God’s not limited by his sovereignty – or as MacDonald puts it, “If we can change, God can change, else is he less free than we - his plans, I say, not principles, not ends: God himself forbid! - change them after divine fashion, above our fashions as the heavens are higher than the earth.”

Here are some other excerpts for your consideration:

There can be no need for which he has no supply.

There is no fear, only we must work, and not lose heart.

I know of one who prayed to love better: a sore division came between-out of which at length rose a dawn of tenderness.

Our vision is so circumscribed, our theories are so small-the garment of them not large enough to wrap us in; our faith so continually fashions itself to the fit of our dwarf intellect, that there is endless room for rebellion against ourselves: we must not let our poor knowledge limit our not so poor intellect, our intellect limit our faith, our faith limit our divine hope; reason must humbly watch over all-reason, the candle of the Lord.

…but he that prays and does not faint will come to recognize that to talk with God is more than to have all prayers granted-
that it is the end of all prayer, granted or refused. And he who seeks the Father more than anything he can give, is likely to have what he asks, for he is not likely to ask amiss.

…our consciousness is to the extent of our being but as the flame of the volcano to the world-gulf whence it issues

…with a right understanding of it, we might as well pray for God's vengeance as for his forgiveness;

…to ask for the best things is to have them; the seed of them is in you, or you could not ask for them.

…let us take heed that we be adversaries to no man, but fountains of love and forgiving tenderness to all.

In Christ,

David

[wdavidbaldwin]

Video: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E943159A948307D2
Audio: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_17_macdonald.mp3

February’s Unspoken Sermon is “Man's Difficulty Concerning Prayer”. I think it one of MacDonald’s more poetic sermons.

Since it’s not evident in the title of the sermon, I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that much of the sermon is dedicated to defending the freedom of God; i.e., God’s not limited by his sovereignty – or as MacDonald puts it, “If we can change, God can change, else is he less free than we - his plans, I say, not principles, not ends: God himself forbid! - change them after divine fashion, above our fashions as the heavens are higher than the earth.”

Here are some other excerpts for your consideration:

There can be no need for which he has no supply.

There is no fear, only we must work, and not lose heart.

I know of one who prayed to love better: a sore division came between-out of which at length rose a dawn of tenderness.

Our vision is so circumscribed, our theories are so small-the garment of them not large enough to wrap us in; our faith so continually fashions itself to the fit of our dwarf intellect, that there is endless room for rebellion against ourselves: we must not let our poor knowledge limit our not so poor intellect, our intellect limit our faith, our faith limit our divine hope; reason must humbly watch over all-reason, the candle of the Lord.

…but he that prays and does not faint will come to recognize that to talk with God is more than to have all prayers granted-
that it is the end of all prayer, granted or refused. And he who seeks the Father more than anything he can give, is likely to have what he asks, for he is not likely to ask amiss.

…our consciousness is to the extent of our being but as the flame of the volcano to the world-gulf whence it issues

…with a right understanding of it, we might as well pray for God's vengeance as for his forgiveness;

…to ask for the best things is to have them; the seed of them is in you, or you could not ask for them.

…let us take heed that we be adversaries to no man, but fountains of love and forgiving tenderness to all.

In Christ,

David

[wdavidbaldwin]

This month’s Unspoken Sermon is ‘Righteousness’ in which MacDonald expounds on “the righteousness which is of God by faith”.

Audio: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_35_macdonald.mp3
Video: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9A215C62FC361201
Outlined and Annotated Text: http://georgemacdonald.info/unspoken_sermons.html

Some key quotes include:

To impute the righteousness of one to another, is simply to act a falsehood; to call the faith of a man his righteousness is simply to speak the truth.

True; [Abraham] was not a righteous man in any complete sense; his righteousness would never have satisfied Paul; neither, you may be sure, did it satisfy Abraham…

[Faith] is the one spiritual act which brings the man into contact with the original creative power, able to help him in every endeavour after righteousness, and ensure his progress to perfection.

In the one act of believing in God—that is, of giving himself to do what he tells him—[an individual] abjures evil, both what he knows and what he does not yet know in himself.

What, then, is the righteousness which is of God by faith? It is simply the thing that God wants every man to be, wrought out in him by constant obedient contact with God himself. It is not an attribute either of God or man, but a fact of character in God and in man.

…the righteousness of God goes far beyond mere deeds, and requires of us love and helping mercy as our highest obligation and justice to our fellow men—[to] those of them too who have done nothing for us, those even who have done us wrong. Our relations with others, God first and then our neighbour in order and degree, must one day become, as in true nature they are, the gladness of our being;

…it cannot be that any creature should know him as he is and not desire him. In proportion as we know him we must desire him, until at length we live in and for him with all our conscious heart.

In Christ,

David

[wdavidbaldwin]

This month’s Unspoken Sermon is ‘The Displeasure of Jesus’.
Audio: http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_33_macdonald.mp3
Video: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=832F754DF0B2F1CA
Outlined and Annotated Text: http://georgemacdonald.info/unspoken_sermons.html

As a child I would wonder at some of the things of Jesus said, thinking to myself ‘That sounds mean!’ In Sunday School I would hear about the kindness of Jesus but when I read the Bible I discovered that much of what he said seemed harsh. Even as an adult I sometimes think the same thing. I found this sermon by MacDonald helpful in reconciling this difficulty. One particular helpful quote is as follows:

It is to me an especially glad thought that the Lord came so near us as to be angry with us. The more we think of Jesus being angry with us, the more we feel that we must get nearer and nearer to him- get within the circle of his wrath, out of the sin that makes him angry, and near to him where sin cannot come. There is no quenching of his love in the anger of Jesus. The anger of Jesus is his recognition that we are to blame; if we were not to blame, Jesus could never be angry with us; we should not be of his kind, therefore not subject to his blame. To recognize that we are to blame, is to say that we ought to be better, that we are able to do right if we will. We are able to turn our faces to the light, and come out of the darkness; the Lord will see to our growth.

Here are a few other key excerpts:

He preferred the cruelty of his enemies to the kindness of his friends. The former with evil intent wrought his father's will; the latter with good intent would have frustrated it.

Let us know that the poverty of our idea of Jesus-how much more our disobedience to him!- thwarts his progress to victory, delays the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

Make us able to be angry and not sin; to be angry nor seek revenge the smallest; to be angry and full of forgiveness. We will not be content till our very anger is love.

…whether he punish directly or indirectly, he is always working to deliver. I think sometimes his anger is followed, yea, accompanied by an astounding gift, fresh from his heart of grace.

I do not mean that God would have even his closest presence make us forget or cease to desire that of our friend. God forbid! The love of God is the perfecting of every love. He is not the God of oblivion, but of eternal remembrance.

In Christ,

David

[wdavidbaldwin]

When I began to prepare for recording ‘The Temptation in the Wilderness’ at the first of May, it was my least favorite of the Unspoken Sermons. However, it grew on me through the course of the month. It’s really quite an imaginative interpretation of the Temptation and (as are each of the Unspoken Sermons) is chock-full of insight.

There are still aspects of ‘The Temptation in the Wilderness’ I struggle with, including:

• -Refusing the story as a narrative and calling it a parable.
  • -Being somewhat of a literalist, I really want to say it happened just as reported in Matthew and Luke although I must admit that the significant difference between the two accounts may justify a more parabolic interpretation. I guess I’d be more comfortable with stating that the tale is both a narrative and a parable.

• -Basing almost his whole sermon on the perhaps the doubtful statement “He was not tempted with Evil but Good.”
  • -The validity of the whole of MacDonald’s interpretation rests on this statement and, admittedly, he makes some pretty forceful arguments. But if the premise is wrong…

As an aside, for a really powerful 1-2-punch regarding Christ’s Temptation, I recommend reading ‘The Temptation in the Wilderness’ and Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor Scene in The Brothers Karamazov.

Audio – http://upload.librivox.org/share/uploads/sp/unspokensermons_07_macdonald.mp3
Video - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLA8020C1BA13CEC8C
Annotated Outlines - http://georgemacdonald.info/unspoken_sermons.html

In Christ,

David