JUL 23

Psalm 115:1
Memorise Psalm 115:1
“Not unto us, O LORD… but unto thy name give glory”

When Dr J. Gresham Machen was called home on April 1937, the mantle fell upon Carl McIntire. McIntire entered Princeton Seminary in 1928 to prepare for the Presbyterian ministry. He became a strong supporter of Machen, his professor of New Testament. With Machen, McIntire opposed a reorganisation of the seminary which would favour the liberals. When Princeton fell, he was among those who followed Machen to found Westminster Seminary.

Before he died, Machen had also founded the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC). McIntire eventually fell out with the leadership of the OPC. He supported the premillennial position as well as a strict stance against alcohol, while the OPC and Westminster Seminary were amillennial and held to Christian liberty in drinking and smoking. So the Bible Presbyterian Church was formed, and Faith Theological Seminary was established, together with the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. McIntire became the leader of the Bible Presbyterian Church and President of Faith Theological Seminary, the seminary in which Rev Timothy Tow would later enrol.

One of McIntire’s gems was: What God wants us to say through life is “The Lord did it.” Boasting is forever excluded. This echoes the psalmist who, in Psalm 115:1, called to the Lord to bring glory unto Himself, and not unto us. All our merits come from God. Any achievement and success must be ascribed wholly to God. We must not imagine that we can do anything for God by our own strength, or deserve anything from God because of our own righteousness. All the good we do is done by His power and grace.

Dear teen, if the very breath of our nostrils come from God, it is very easy to see that all things come from God. If you are saved, you also know that salvation is a gift from God. We are saved by grace through faith. Faith also comes from God. We must therefore learn to give God all the glory.

Thought: “The church is the pillar and ground of the truth, and that truth is revealed truth” - Carl McIntire.
Prayer: Father in heaven, give me faith and courage that I may be faithful to the truth all the days of my life.