{"id":2648,"date":"2007-05-07T03:30:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-07T03:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianwarnock.com\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/"},"modified":"2007-05-07T03:30:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-07T03:30:00","slug":"lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Lloyd-Jones Monday – Are We Pressing On To Know Christ?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In today\u2019s MLJ Monday, the Doctor is urging us to not despise the experience God seeks to offer us. I have written a number of similar posts from his writings <\/a>before, but I thought this one was well worth sharing \u2014 if only because it so strikingly challenges us today. <\/p>\n

\u201c. . . in a most extraordinary way we seem to be excluding experience altogether. The slogan is, \u2018Take it by faith.\u2019 Of course, that is essential in your conversion \u2014 justification by faith only. And it is right to say to someone at that point, \u2018Believe this word. Risk your all upon it. Trust yourself to it.\u2019 That is a correct initial statement to make, but you must not stop at that. You then say to him, \u2018Now, that is all you do at this moment. But if you do that you will be given an experience, an assurance, and you will know for certain.\u2019 But so often that second step is left out today, and many people teach that experiences do not matter. \u2018Do not worry about your feelings,\u2019 we are told, right through the whole of the Christian life. From beginning to end it is, \u2018Take it by faith, do not worry about your experiences.\u2019 They say it almost in a patronising way. \u2018There are some people,\u2019 they add, \u2018who talk about great experiences, but that is not great faith. You know real faith is a man who believes, though he has felt nothing.<\/p>\n

Well, as I say, that is all right at a preliminary stage, but if you have never felt anything, if you have never had any experience. I say it is not faith, it is mere intellectual assent, and intellectual belief. Because the whole of the Bible teaches experiences of God. And we are meant to experience God. We are meant to know Him, not simply to believe, and to go on \u2018holding to our beliefs,\u2019 and \u2018taking it by faith\u2019. That is only the first step, and it is to be followed by a realisation, by an understanding. And I feel that it is this error at this point that accounts for so much of dead orthodoxy, and is such a grievous hindrance to revival.<\/p>\n

Let me sum it up like this: I am not interested in experiences as such. I am not saying that men and women should simply seek experiences. No, what I am saying is, seek God, seek to know God, seek to know His love, seek to be filled with this knowledge, and all the fulness of God. No, not the experience itself, but to experience Him, and to know Him. These men of the Bible knew Him. They spoke to Him. They realised His presence. So have all the others whose lives I have been quoting to you. But this seems to have vanished out of our whole conception and I suggest that this may be because we have become so afraid of false experiences that we are shutting out experience altogether. We are so afraid of certain excesses that we are guilty even of quenching the Spirit. This is a painful matter \u2014 I am saying it to myself as well \u2014 but the trouble with all of us is that we are much too healthy. Humility is not frequently observed today. A bouncing superficial self-confidence is the order of the day, not meekness, humility, mourning for sins and a consciousness of unworthiness and imperfection. No, we are resting on our oars. We are satisfied.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today\u2019s MLJ Monday, the Doctor is urging us to not despise the experience God seeks to offer us. I have written a number of similar posts from his writings before, but I thought this one was well worth sharing \u2014 if only because it so strikingly challenges us today. \u201c. . . in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holy-spirit-baptism","category-martyn-lloyd-jones"],"yoast_head":"\nLloyd-Jones Monday - Are We Pressing On To Know Christ?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In today\u2019s MLJ Monday, the Doctor is urging us to not despise the experience God seeks to offer us. I have written a number of similar posts from his\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lloyd-Jones Monday - Are We Pressing On To Know Christ?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In today\u2019s MLJ Monday, the Doctor is urging us to not despise the experience God seeks to offer us. I have written a number of similar posts from his\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-05-07T03:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/files\/2007\/05\/Lloyd-Jones-2-756594.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adrianwarnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/\",\"name\":\"Lloyd-Jones Monday - Are We Pressing On To Know Christ?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-05-07T03:30:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-05-07T03:30:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\"},\"description\":\"In today\u2019s MLJ Monday, the Doctor is urging us to not despise the experience God seeks to offer us. I have written a number of similar posts from his\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lloyd-Jones Monday – Are We Pressing On To Know Christ?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"description\":\"Patheos Evangelical\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adrian Warnock\"},\"description\":\"The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. Just not all at once. Healing takes time. Compassion and patience carry us over a lifetime of change. These are the themes I explore in my books and in the articles I have written for Patheos since 2003. My writing draws on my scientific training as a doctor and psychiatrist, my work in the UK's National Health Service and the pharmaceutical industry, alongside more than twenty-five years as a member of a growing church where I served on the leadership team offering pastoral care. My perspective has also been shaped by chronic illness since 2017, when I developed life-threatening pneumonia that caused lasting damage to my body, triggered several further conditions, and uncovered a diagnosis of blood cancer. This was successfully treated, although doctors expect it to return in the future. Out of these experiences I founded Blood Cancer Uncensored, an online patient-led support community. I am the author of the Transformed by Jesus: Spiritual Renewal series of books, which ask: \u2192 Is the Easter story true, and what does it mean? Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything \u2192 Why is change so difficult? What causes the resistance? The Traitor Within: Understanding and Healing Our Deceitful Hearts \u2192 How does transformation happen over time? Amazing Grace: How Faith Grows in the Human Heart \u2192 What are the first steps on a journey of faith? Hope Reborn: How to Become a Christian and Live for Jesus These books bring together medical, psychological, social, and faith-based insights, advocating for a biopsychosocial\u2013spiritual model of wellbeing. My qualifications and training reflect this integrated background: \u2192 British MB BS medical degree (equivalent to an MD in the USA) \u2192 Postgraduate qualifications in Psychiatry (MRCPsych) and Pharmaceutical Medicine (MFFM, DipPharmMed) \u2192 Theological training courses run by Newfrontiers\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adrianwarnock\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/author\/awarnock\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lloyd-Jones Monday - Are We Pressing On To Know Christ?","description":"In today\u2019s MLJ Monday, the Doctor is urging us to not despise the experience God seeks to offer us. I have written a number of similar posts from his","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lloyd-Jones Monday - Are We Pressing On To Know Christ?","og_description":"In today\u2019s MLJ Monday, the Doctor is urging us to not despise the experience God seeks to offer us. I have written a number of similar posts from his","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/","og_site_name":"Adrian Warnock","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/","article_published_time":"2007-05-07T03:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/files\/2007\/05\/Lloyd-Jones-2-756594.jpg"}],"author":"Adrian Warnock","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@adrianwarnock","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adrian Warnock","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/","name":"Lloyd-Jones Monday - Are We Pressing On To Know Christ?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-05-07T03:30:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-05-07T03:30:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa"},"description":"In today\u2019s MLJ Monday, the Doctor is urging us to not despise the experience God seeks to offer us. I have written a number of similar posts from his","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2007\/05\/lloyd-jones-monday-are-we-pressing-on-to-know-christ\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lloyd-Jones Monday – Are We Pressing On To Know Christ?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/","name":"Adrian Warnock","description":"Patheos Evangelical","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa","name":"Adrian Warnock","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Adrian Warnock"},"description":"The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. Just not all at once. Healing takes time. Compassion and patience carry us over a lifetime of change. These are the themes I explore in my books and in the articles I have written for Patheos since 2003. My writing draws on my scientific training as a doctor and psychiatrist, my work in the UK's National Health Service and the pharmaceutical industry, alongside more than twenty-five years as a member of a growing church where I served on the leadership team offering pastoral care. My perspective has also been shaped by chronic illness since 2017, when I developed life-threatening pneumonia that caused lasting damage to my body, triggered several further conditions, and uncovered a diagnosis of blood cancer. This was successfully treated, although doctors expect it to return in the future. Out of these experiences I founded Blood Cancer Uncensored, an online patient-led support community. I am the author of the Transformed by Jesus: Spiritual Renewal series of books, which ask: \u2192 Is the Easter story true, and what does it mean? Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything \u2192 Why is change so difficult? What causes the resistance? The Traitor Within: Understanding and Healing Our Deceitful Hearts \u2192 How does transformation happen over time? Amazing Grace: How Faith Grows in the Human Heart \u2192 What are the first steps on a journey of faith? Hope Reborn: How to Become a Christian and Live for Jesus These books bring together medical, psychological, social, and faith-based insights, advocating for a biopsychosocial\u2013spiritual model of wellbeing. My qualifications and training reflect this integrated background: \u2192 British MB BS medical degree (equivalent to an MD in the USA) \u2192 Postgraduate qualifications in Psychiatry (MRCPsych) and Pharmaceutical Medicine (MFFM, DipPharmMed) \u2192 Theological training courses run by Newfrontiers","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/adrianwarnock"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/author\/awarnock\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2648\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}