Well, it’s Thursday already, and I find myself apologizing again for having nothing to say this week. I have actually written or begun to write several exceedingly astute and vitally important articles, but on closer examination, found them to be far less astute and important that they claimed to be. Some of them were reactionary diatribes, and I hate those. Anyone can troll the web and react to or comment on someone else’s work. Sometimes that is good and necessary, but more often it is lazy, contentious, or both. There are several things I would like to comment on, but very often I find that my comments do not really add anything positive to the mess. So, I have shelved several topics until my attitude improves. However, I don’t want to entirely waste my present cantankerous mood, so here are a few language offenses that really have to stop. Yes, these things really do irritate me. Irritability is my spiritual gift. So, for your edification, the list:
“24/7.” This one was clever for about five minutes, but like all clichés, became tiresome after being repeated 24/7.*
“…on so many levels.” This does not mean “in many different ways,” no matter how badly you want it to.
Periods after every word in a sentence, like this: Dumbest. Fad. Ever.
“From the get-go.” Where is the get-go? What is a get-go? It’s not the beginning. Beginning is spelled b-e-g-i-n-n-i-n-g.
“From day one.” Same as above, this just means “I’m too cool to say what I mean in plain English.”
“Been there, done that, [uber-cool option: ‘got the t-shirt’].” Whoa, Dude, I am sooo totally cool! Not only do I understand what you’re talking about, I can tell you so without being reduced to using actual sentences with nouns and stuff!
“I’m like…” “He’s like…” “She’s like…” does not mean “I/He/She said (or thought)…” It means “I’m stupid.”
This is by no means a comprehensive list. Please feel free to add others in the comments. Maybe if we can round up a large enough collection of ignorant, over-used slang phrases, we can get together and have a cliché burning party some night.
*There is actually nothing wrong with some of these expressions. Sometimes a catchy colloquialism helps to make a point in a fresh way. However, fresh only lasts for a day. After that, it becomes the day-old donuts of language: a cliché.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)
The Method of Salvation
by Augustus Toplady (1740–1778)
he Father we bless,
Whose distinguishing grace,
Selected a people to show forth Thy praise;
Nor is Thy love known,
By election alone;
For, oh, Thou hast added the gift of Thy Son.
Thy goodness in vain
We attempt to explain,
Which found and accepted a ransom for men;
Great Surety of Thine,
Thou didst not decline
To concur with the Father’s most gracious design.
To Jesus our Friend,
Our thanks shall ascend,
Who saves to the utmost, and loves to the end;
Our ransom He paid;
In His merit arrayed
We attain to the glory for which we were made.
Sweet Spirit of grace,
Thy mercy we bless,
For Thy eminent share in the council of peace;
Great agent divine, to restore us is Thine,
And cause us afresh in Thy likeness to shine.
O God, ’tis Thy part,
To convince and convert,
To give a new life, and create a new heart;
By Thy presence and grace
We’re upheld in our race,
And are kept in Thy love to the end of our days.
Father, Spirit, and Son,
Agree thus in One,
The salvation of those He has marked for His own;
Let us, too, agree
To glorify Thee,
Thou ineffable One, Thou adorable Three.
1 Sing ye loude vnto the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serue the Lord with gladnes: come before him with ioyfulnes.
3 Knowe ye that euen the Lord is God: hee hath made vs, and not we our selues: we are his people, and the sheepe of his pasture.
4 Enter into his gates with prayse, and into his courts with reioycing: prayse him and blesse his Name.
5 For the Lorde is good: his mercy is euerlasting, and his trueth is from generation to generation.
To say my blogging has slowed considerably in the past couple of weeks would be an understatement. In fact, to call that statement an understatement is an understatement, especially following the previous few weeks of consistency. I really do not know what I should credit with that spurt of relative prolificacy (for me). It began, undeniably, with the ChalliesKing for a Week nomination, which was a big motivator. However, motivation is not inspiration, and I seem to be lacking that necessary inspiration these days. I have recently received and just today begun reading The Christian in Complete Armour (thanks for the recommendations). Included is a biography of the author by J.C. Ryle, who acknowledges his main source, identified only as “a writer named M’Keon,” whose biography of Gurnall is said to be factually helpful, but poorly written. Ryle makes the following statement of M’Keon, which I found quite descriptive of me.
In accumulating facts he was most successful; in arranging them and exhibiting them to the reading public I certainly think he failed. He seems, in fact, to have been a type of that peculiar class of men who have the faculty of getting things into their heads, while they are unable to bring them out again—mighty at heaping up knowledge, but impotent at spreading it—clever at accumulating literary knowledge, but utterly incapable of spending it.
I have had several things on my mind that I could easily ramble on about, but nothing coherent enough to merit the attention of you, my forbearing readers. Under these circumstances, it has seemed best to do what most of us ought to do more of: shut up and listen; so that is what I intend to do. Until I have something original to say (Ecclesiastes 1:9), I am not going to say anything—you’re welcome, don’t mention it. Instead, I will pass on to you some of what I am reading, usually with little or no comment. Today, I give you a quote from the previously mentioned The Christian in Complete Armour that I find especially pertinent to my own habits:
A chief part of David’s arithmetic of numbering our days, lies in that which we call division, as to cast the account of this our short life so as to divide the little whole sum thereof into the several portions of time due for performing of every duty in. An instrument is not in tune, except it have all the strings, and these will not make good music, if the musician hath not wisdom to cause every string to speak in its due time. The Christian is not in tune, except he takes in all the duties of his place and calling, neither will the performance of them be harmonious in God’s ear, if every one be not done in its proper season. O my friends, labour not only to do the duty of your place, but that duty in its own place also. Hear when you should hear. Know your time for closet, and time for shop; and when your retiring time comes, a few minutes now and then spent in taking a repetition of what you formerly heard, shall not, I hope, another day be reckoned with your lost time.
In case you haven't noticed, I take great delight in seeing families grow, especially Christian families. Consequently, I have been very delighted lately to see new babies popping up on several of the blogs I read. Today, there are two new bloggerettes to rejoice over.
First, let's congratulate Bret Capranica and his wife of The Capranica (get it?) on the arrival of a new little girl whom they will soon adopt. To celebrate, we're adding Bret's SermonAudio page to our links. Bret is an excellent expositor, faithful in rightly dividing the truth. Give him a listen.
Second, Libbie and Mr. Muffin have received a new English muffin. Libbie is already on the blogroll, so I don't know what we can do for her beyond joining in praise to God for his grace through a quite difficult pregnancy. Hope that's enough, Libbie.
Congratulations and God's blessing to both families.
I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. Psalme 122:1 (Geneva Bible)
SPIRITUS SANCTUS
O Holy Spirit,
s the sun is full of light, the ocean full of water, Heaven full of glory, so may my heart be full of thee. Vain are all divine purposes of love and the redemption wrought by Jesus except thou work within, regenerating by thy power, giving me eyes to see Jesus, showing me the realities of the unseen world. Give me thyself without measure, as an unimpaired fountain, as inexhaustible riches. I bewail my coldness, poverty, emptiness, imperfect vision, languid service, prayerless prayers, praiseless praises. Suffer me not to grieve or resist thee. Come as power, to expel every rebel lust, to reign supreme and keep me thine; Come as teacher, leading me into all truth, filling me with all understanding; Come as love, that I may adore the Father, and love him as my all; Come as joy, to dwell in me, move in me, animate me; Come as light, illuminating the Scripture, moulding me in its laws; Come as sanctifier, body, soul and spirit wholly thine; Come as helper, with strength to bless and keep, directing my every step; Come as beautifier, bringing order out of confusion, loveliness out of chaos. Magnify to me thy glory by being magnified in me, and make me redolent of thy fragrance.
—from The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett, editor (Banner of Truth Trust, 2002).
1 Praise the Lorde, because he is good: for his mercie endureth for euer.
2 Let them, which haue bene redeemed of the Lord, shewe how he hath deliuered them from the hand of the oppressour,
3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South.
4 When they wandered in the desert and wildernesse out of the waie, and founde no citie to dwell in,
5 Both hungrie and thirstie, their soule fainted in them.
6 Then they cried vnto the Lorde in their trouble, & he deliuered them from their distresse,
7 And led them forth by the right way, that they might goe to a citie of habitation.
8 Let them therefore confesse before ye Lorde his louing kindnesse, and his wonderfull woorkes before the sonnes of men.
9 For he satisfied the thirstie soule, and filled the hungrie soule with goodnesse.
10 They that dwell in darkenesse and in the shadowe of death, being bounde in miserie and yron,
11 Because they rebelled against the wordes of the Lorde, and despised the counsell of the most High,
12 When he humbled their heart with heauines, then they fell downe and there was no helper.
13 Then they cried vnto the Lorde in their trouble, & he deliuered them from their distresse.
14 He brought them out of darkenes, and out of the shadowe of death, and brake their bandes asunder.
15 Let them therefore cofesse before the Lord his louing kindnesse, and his wonderfull woorkes before the sonnes of men.
16 For hee hath broken the gates of brasse, and brast the barres of yron asunder.
17 Fooles by reason of their transgression, and because of their iniquities are afflicted.
18 Their soule abhorreth al meat, and they are brought to deaths doore.
19 Then they crie vnto the Lord in their trouble, and he deliuereth them from their distresse.
20 He sendeth his worde and healeth them, and deliuereth them from their graues.
21 Let them therefore cofesse before the Lord his louing kindnesse, & his wonderful workes before the sonnes of men,
22 And let them offer sacrifices of praise, and declare his workes with reioycing.
23 They that goe downe to the sea in ships, and occupie by the great waters,
24 They see the woorkes of the Lorde, and his wonders in the deepe.
25 For he commaundeth and raiseth the stormie winde, and it lifteth vp the waues thereof.
26 They mount vp to the heauen, and descend to ye deepe, so that their soule melteth for trouble.
27 They are tossed to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their cunning is gone.
28 Then they crie vnto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresse.
29 He turneth the storme to calme, so that the waues thereof are still.
30 When they are quieted, they are glad, and hee bringeth them vnto the hauen, where they would be.
31 Let them therfore confesse before the Lord his louing kindnesse, and his wonderfull woorkes before the sonnes of men.
32 And let them exalt him in the Congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the Elders.
33 He turneth the floodes into a wildernesse, and the springs of waters into drinesse,
34 And a fruitfull land into barrennes for the wickednes of them that dwell therein.
35 Againe hee turneth the wildernesse into pooles of water, and the drie lande into water springs.
36 And there he placeth the hungrie, and they builde a citie to dwell in,
37 And sowe the fieldes, and plant vineyardes, which bring foorth fruitfull increase.
38 For he blesseth them, & they multiplie exceedingly, and he diminisheth not their cattell.
39 Againe men are diminished, and brought lowe by oppression, euill and sorowe.
40 He powreth cotempt vpon princes, & causeth them to erre in desert places out of the way.
41 Yet he raiseth vp the poore out of miserie, and maketh him families like a flocke of sheepe.
42 The righteous shall see it, and reioyce, and all iniquitie shall stoppe her mouth.
43 Who is wise that hee may obserue these things? for they shall vnderstand the louing kindnesse of the Lord.
I can’t believe I forgot Presidents’ Day this year. No, not that Presidents’ Day, on which we honor liars, philanderers, fools, and treasonous men who trample the Constitution underfoot alongside men who served their country honorably with integrity and truly deserve a day of honor. That one is coming up. Presidents’ Day, for me, will always be February 6th, the birthday of the greatest man to occupy the Whitehouse at least during my lifetime, President Ronald Reagan.
If you’ve been following Mark Lauterbach’s series on The Measure of a Sermon, which I have linked in OnTheWeb, you’ve already read the following quote:
[W]hile conviction is a gift to us, it is always conviction to lead people to the cross. I know the arguments about people needing to be slain by the law --- and agree that awareness of need of forgiveness is crucial. But if I leave them there, I have not been faithful to the Savior. Conviction should drive people to the cross -- and they should leave with hope toward the Savior. [full article »]
This article really resonates with me. I have spent the majority of my life so far thinking that a good sermon was one that was hard-hitting and left me with the feeling that “I’ve got to do better.” Then I would go out and try really hard to do better, succeeding to some degree, but failing over all. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I came to see the folly of the kind of moralistic preaching that I had thought was so good.
Don’t take me wrong. I do not believe that the purpose of the Law is merely to bludgeon me on the head and send me, helpless, to the cross, as some say. I believe the Law actually represents God’s will for my behavior. (This simple statement should not be taken as a complete expression of my opinion on the subject; but I don’t want to go into that now.) But if all a sermon, or our witness, accomplishes is to convict us of our sin and send us away trying harder, all it has done is make us more dependent on ourselves, more self-righteous, and more doomed to fail. And I can testify to years of my life when that was exactly my condition, when my religion was all about me and how well I was doing in getting myself sanctified—and I failed, over and over, because the solution was always in myself and my better efforts.
Sin must be addressed. When a text is preached that deals with sin, it ought to result in conviction for any listening child of God. But what then? Our response ought not to be, “I’ve got to try harder,” but “I need to draw closer to my Savior. I need to cling to his Word. I need to stay close to Jesus, where no sin can dwell.” That is where the conviction of sin should lead. If it doesn’t, the result will only be a better legalist.
The cure for my sin is not my righteousness, but Christ’s righteousness.
The following is a quote from The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall. It is rather long, but well worth reading and rereading.
[Why the saint’s strength is laid up in God.]
Reason First. The first reason may be taken from the nature of the saints and their grace. Both are creatures, they and their grace also. Now, ‘it is in the very nature of the creature to depend on God its Maker,’ both for being and operation. Can you conceive an accident to be out of its subject, whiteness out of the wall, or some other subject? It is as impossible that the creature should be, or act without strength from God. This to be, act in and of himself, is so incommunicable a property of the Deity, that he cannot impart it to his creature. God is, and there is none besides him. When God made the world, it is said indeed he ended his work, that is, of creation: he made no new species and kinds of creatures more; but to this day he hath not ended his work of providence: ‘My Father worketh hitherto,’ saith Christ, Jn. v. 17, that is, in preserving and empowering what he hath made with strength to be and act, and therefore he is said to hold our souls in life. Works of art, which man makes, when finished, may stand some time without the workman’s help, as the house, when the carpenter has made it is dead; but God’s works, both of nature and grace, are never off his hand, and therefore as the Father is said to work hitherto for the preservation of the works of nature, so the Son, to whom is committed the work of redemption, he tells us, worketh also. Neither ended he his work when he rose again, any otherwise than his Father did in the work of creation. God made an end of making, so Christ made an end of purchasing mercy, grace, and glory for believers, by once dying; and as God rested at the end of the creation, so he, when he had wrought eternal redemption, and ‘by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high,’ He. i. 3. But he ceaseth not to work by his intercession with God for us, and by his Spirit in us for God, whereby he upholds his saints, their graces, and comforts in life, without which they would run to ruin. Thus we see as grace is a creature, the Christian depends on God for his strength. But further,
Reason Second. The Christian’s grace is not only a creature, but a weak creature, conflicting with enemies stronger than itself, and therefore cannot keep the field without an auxiliary strength from heaven. The weakest goes to the wall, if no succour comes in. Grace in this life is but weak, like a king in the cradle, which gives advantage to Satan to carry on his plots more strongly to the disturbance of this young king’s reign in the soul, yea, he would soon make an end of the war in the ruin of the believer’s grace, did not Heaven take the Christian into protection. It is true indeed, grace, whereever it is, hath a principle in itself that makes it desire and endeavour to preserve itself according to its strength, but being overpowered must perish, except assisted by God, as fire in greenwood, which deads and damps the part kindled, will in time go out, except blown up, or more fire put to that little; so will grace in the heart. God brings his grace into the heart by conquest. Now, as in a conquered city, though some yield and become true subjects to the conqueror, yet others plot how they may shake off this yoke; and therefore it requires the same power to keep, as was to win it at first. The Christian hath an unregenerate part, that is discontented at this new change in the heart, and disdains as much to come under the sweet government of Christ’s sceptre, as the Sodomites that Lot should judge them. What, this fellow, a stranger, control us! And Satan heads this mutinous rout against the Christian, so that if God should not continually reinforce this his new planted colony in the heart, the very natives (I mean corruptions) that are left, would come out of their dens and holes where they lie lurking, and eat up the little grace the holiest on earth hath; it would be as bread to these devourers.
Reason Third. A third demonstration may be taken from the grand design which God propounds to himself in the saint’s salvation; yea, in the transaction of it from first to last. And that is twofold. 1. God would bring his saints to heaven in such a way as might be most expressive of his dear love and mercy to them. 2. He would so express his mercy and love to them, as might rebound back to him in the highest advance of his own glory possible. Now how becoming this is to both, that saints should have all their ability for every step they take in the way to heaven, will soon appear.
1. Design. God would bring his saints to heaven in such a way as might be most expressive of his dear love and mercy to them. This way of communicating strength to saints, gives a double accent to God’s love and mercy.
(1.) It distils a sweetness into all the believer hath or doth, when he finds any comfort in his bosom, any enlargement of heart in duty, any support under temptations, to consider whence came all these, what friend sends them in. They come not from my own cistern, or any creature’s. O it is my God that hath been here, and left his sweet perfume of comfort behind him in my bosom! my God that hath unawares to me filled my sails with the gales of his Spirit, and brought me off the flats of my own deadness, where I lay aground. O, it is his sweet Spirit that held my head, stayed my heart in such an affliction and temptation, or else I had gone away in a fainting fit of unbelief. How can this choose but endear God to a gracious soul? His succours coming so immediately from heaven, which would be lost, if the Christian had any strength to help himself (though this stock of strength came at first from God). Which, think you, speaks more love and condescent: for a prince to give a pension to a favourite, on which he may live by his own care, or for this prince to take the chief care upon himself, and come from day to day to this man’s house, and look into his cupboard and see what provision he hath, what expense he is at, and so constantly to provide for the man from time to time? Possibly some proud spirit that likes to be his own man, or loves his means better than his prince, would prefer the former, but one that is ambitious to have the heart and love of his prince would be ravished with the latter. Thus God doth with his saints. The great God comes and looks into their cupboard, and sees how they are laid in, and sends in accordingly as he finds them. ‘Your heavenly Father knows you have need of these things,’ and you shall have them. He knows you need strength to pray, [to] hear, [to] suffer for him, and, in ipsâ horâ dabitur, ‘in the very hour it will be given.’
(2.) This way of God’s dealing with his saints adds to the fulness and stability of their strength. Were the stock in our own hands, we should soon prove broken merchants. God knows we are but leaking vessels, when fullest we could not hold it long; and therefore to make all sure, he sets us under the streamings forth of his strength, and a leaking vessel under a cock gets what it loseth. Thus we have our leakage supplied continually. This was the provision God made for Israel in the wilderness: He clave the rock, and the rock followed them. They had not only a draught at present, but it ran in a stream after them, so that you hear no more of their complaints for water. This rock was Christ Every believer hath Christ at his back, following him with strength as he goes, for every condition and trial. One flower with the root is worth many in a posie, which though sweet yet do not grow, but wither as we wear them in bosoms. God’s strength as the root keeps lively, without which, though as orient as Adam’s was, it would die.
I’m not a big fan of the “Gospel Song” (those feel-good, theology-depleted Sunday-school ditties that pass for Hymns in Baptist churches), but yesterday’s post brought this one to mind. Understood in that larger context, this song is a comfort and a reminder of our great and merciful Savior, and our helpless dependency on him.
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Refrain:
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
Some time ago I began a series (if one post can be called a series) called Traditional Tripe. I intended to call attention to some old songs, mostly of the “Gospel Song” variety, that are among “old favorites” but are lacking in theological depth and accuracy. I was reminded of that “series” by yesterday’s post, and again today when I heard my daughter playing the following song on the piano:
He Leadeth Me
He leadeth me, O blessèd thought!
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be
Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.
Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, over troubled sea,
Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.
Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.
And when my task on earth is done,
When by Thy grace the vict’ry’s won,
E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,
Since God through Jordan leadeth me.
Refrain:
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.
There is nothing wrong with the content of this song. However, something very important is missing. Can you see what it is?
I can’t believe no one sees it. Come on, folks, it’s a song about God’s leading!
The song is correct to say that God leads us “by his hand.” By his hand he directs our circumstances and guides us. But when we face the circumstances and situations that he puts in our way, how do we know what he wants us to do? Are we waiting for impressions and dreams and visions, or has he given us something more concrete to show us the way?
God's Word, people! God's Word is missing! In a song about God’s leading, there is not one word about his Word! Without his Word, we are left to our own best guess in any situation. Without knowledge of Scripture, we end up doing whatever seems right to us.
What makes this omission even more grievous is that the author, Joseph H. Gilmore, wrote it while meditating on Psalm Twenty-three. Matthew Henry, commenting on verse three, writes,
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, in the way of my duty; in that he instructs me by his word and directs me by conscience and providence.
And further, on verse four,
His word and Spirit shall comfort them - his rod and staff, alluding to the shepherd's crook, or the rod under which the sheep passed when they were counted (Leviticus 27:32), or the staff with which the shepherds drove away the dogs that would scatter or worry the sheep. It is a comfort to the saints, when they come to die, that God takes cognizance of them (he knows those that are his), that he will rebuke the enemy, that he will guide them with his rod and sustain them with his staff. The gospel is called the rod of Christ's strength (Psalm 110:2), and there is enough in that to comfort the saints when they come to die, and underneath them are the everlasting arms.
To write of God’s leading without pointing to his Word is to write of taking a trip to a strange place with no map. It is useless!
Everything we need to follow God’s leading is in his Word. Where do we learn that we are lost? In his Word! Where do we learn how we can be saved? In his Word! Where do we learn his will for our behavior? In his Word! Where do we learn how we are to react to the struggles we face? In his Word!
What is missing from this song? Any reference at all to God's Word!
A Texas State Trooper pulled a car over and told the driver that because he had been wearing his seat belt, he had just won $5,000 dollars in the statewide safety competition. “What are you going to do with the money?” asked the policeman.
“Well, I guess I’m going to get a driver’s license,” he answered.
“Oh, don’t listen to him,” yelled a woman in the passenger seat. “He’s a smart aleck when he’s drunk.”
This woke up the guy in the back-seat, who took one look at the cop and moaned, “I knew we wouldn’t get far in a stolen car.”
At that moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a voice said, in Spanish, “Are we over the border yet?”
1 I will lift mine eyes vnto the mouuntaines, from whence mine helpe shall come.
2 Mine helpe commeth from the Lord, which hath made the heauen and the earth.
3 He wil not suffer thy foote to slippe: for he that keepeth thee, will not slumber.
4 Beholde, he that keepeth Israel, wil neither slumber nor sleepe.
5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shadow at thy right hand.
6 The sunne shall not smite thee by day, nor the moone by night.
7 The Lord shall preserue thee from all euil: he shall keepe thy soule.
8 The Lorde shall preserue thy going out, and thy comming in from henceforth & for euer.
Once, when I was visiting at a cousin’s house, I overheard a conversation between my cousin and his father (my uncle). My cousin owns a service station/convenience store, and he had just hired someone whom his father judged to be of dubious character. My cousin commented, with a touch of irony, to this effect: “That’s true, but sometimes we have to accept the fact that everyone is not as wonderful as we are.”
A few years ago I was visiting with a good friend of mine when the subject of a mutual acquaintance came up. I made a somewhat snide comment about a particular character flaw in this individual, to which my friend replied, “Yeah, I know. That’s something I’ve had to ignore in order to remain friends with him.”
I present these two anecdotes as a lesson that has affected my thinking more than it should have. I say “more than it should have,” not because it is wrong, but because it is not particularly profound, and because I should already have been thinking along those lines. Instead, both of those occasions were epiphanies. Now perhaps you are thinking, “Man, you must have been a real jerk!” Well, yes, I was, and sometimes still am. It is not easy to tolerate faults in others, especially when they are so many. Verily, everyone is not as wonderful as I! Some people are irritating and downright stupid. Can anyone deny it? Yet, we must be forbearing.
I’m not talking about overlooking blatant sin, or lowering our “standards” (assuming those standards are Biblical); but we ought to be understanding and tolerant, knowing that we are not without our own faults. Ephesians 4 exhorts us to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love” (vv. 1-2), and to “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (v. 32).
When my friend said, “Yeah, I know. That’s something I’ve had to ignore in order to remain friends with him,” I was instantly smitten with this thought: I wonder what he has had to overlook in order to remain friends with me?
I have just begun listening to Scott Aniol's expositions of the book of Acts. You should, too. Here is a sample to whet your appetite:
The contents of the book of Acts in which all of these events are recorded cover the span of about 30 years, which is roughly one generation. So why only one generation? Certainly other significant events have occurred throughout church history; why did Luke through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit only record the first generation of the Church?
It is because the whole story of church history has been told in the record of that first generation. There is nothing else to be told about what the church is supposed to be and to do. All other generations are to be a duplication of the first generation of church history. What did they do? That first generation fulfilled Acts 1.9 — they took the gospel message to the uttermost parts of the earth. Acts 17.6 says that they turned the world upside down! But even though they spread the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth in one generation, with every new generation there will be a new generation of unbelievers who must hear the message of the gospel for themselves.
So this record of the first generation of church history is the standard for this generation. This is what the church is supposed to be!
1 Blessed is euery one that feareth the Lorde and walketh in his wayes.
2 When thou eatest the labours of thine hands, thou shalt be blessed, and it shall be well with thee.
3 Thy wife shalbe as the fruitfull vine on the sides of thine house, and thy children like the oliue plantes round about thy table.
4 Lo, surely thus shall the man be blessed, that feareth the Lord.
5 The Lorde out of Zion shall blesse thee, and thou shalt see the wealth of Ierusalem all the dayes of thy life.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy childrens children, and peace vpon Israel.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, my birthday was on Saturday. I am now twenty-four years old (or some similar combination of integers). I had a carrot cake and got some nice stuff from friends and family. Since you asked, these are a few of my birthday gifts:
The saints’ dependence on God, and expectation from God in all their straits, oblige his power for their succour. Whither doth a gracious soul fly in any want or danger from sin, Satan,or his instruments, but to his God? As naturally as the cony to her burrow. ‘What time I am afraid,’ saith David, ‘I will trust in thee,’ Ps lvi. 3. He tells God he will make bold of his house to step into when taken in any storm, and doth not question his welcome. Thus when Saul hunted him, he left a city of gates and bars to trust God in open field. Indeed all the saints are taught the same lesson, to renounce their own strength, and rely on the power of God; their own policy, and cast themselves on the wisdom of God; their own righteousness, and expect all from the pure mercy of God in Christ, which act of faith is so pleasing to God, that such a soul shall never be ashamed, ‘The expectation of the poor shall not perish,’ Ps. ix. 18. A heathen could say, when a bird scared by a hawk flew into his bosom, I will not betray thee unto thy enemy, seeing thou comest for sanctuary unto me. How much less will God yield up a soul unto its enemy when it takes sanctuary in his name, saying, ‘Lord, I am hunted with such a temptation, dogged with such a lust, either thou must pardon it, or I am damned; mortify it, or I shall be a slave to it; take me into the bosom of thy love, for Christ’s sake; castle me in the arms of thy everlasting strength, it is in thy power to save me from, or give me up into, the hands of my enemy. I have no confidence in myself or any other: into thy hands I commit my cause, my life, and rely on thee.’ This dependence of a soul undoubtedly will awaken the almighty power of God for such a one’s defence. He hath sworn greatest oath that can come out of his blessed lips, even by himself, that such as thus fly for refuge to hope in him, shall have strong consolation, He. vi. 17. This indeed may give the saints the greater boldness of faith to expect kindly entertainment when he repairs to God for refuge, because he cannot come before he is looked for. God having set up his name and promises as a strong tower, both calls his people into these chambers, and expects they should betake themselves thither.
Scott Ott — Times Sells Page One Ads, Still No Charge for DNC — Although the financially-troubled New York Times today broke with tradition and began running paid advertising on its front page, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said “the grey lady” would continue to run messages from the Democrat National Committee (DNC) on page one, above the fold, at no charge “as a public service.”
Ligon Duncan — Praying for Your Pastor — Pray - 1. That [your pastor] would know and love the living God, would have a saving interest in Christ, being purchased by His blood, and thus would be bound to the Lord by the indissoluble bond of the Holy Spirit.
David Gunderson — Some Things I Learned in 2008 — This is a remarkable list. If half of these things had even occured to me at this authors age, I can’t imagine how brilliant I’d be today.
John MacArthur — Why doesn’t John MacArthur add much application to his sermons? — [The Bible] doesn’t say, “And here’s how to do this if you’re 32 years old, and you live in North Hollywood.” . . . And if I made my message mostly a whole lot of those little illustrations, I would be missing 90 percent of you who don’t live in that experience. . . . Application belongs to the Spirit of God.
Stand to Reason — Lacking Judgment — Truth claims and morality require making judgments for good reasons. And the mistaken modern notion of religious pluralism and tolerance makes people equally incapable of making the proper kinds of judgments.
NPR — Handel's 'Messiah' from Philadelphia — From the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, WHYY and NPR present Handel's holiday masterpiece performed by the "Fabulous Philadelphians" — one of the world's great orchestras, joined by the nationally-renowned Philadelphia Singers Chorale.
R. Scott Clark — On Churchless EvangelicalsPart 1, Part 2, Part 3 — The biblical and confessional doctrine of the church challenges two cultural assumptions of North American evangelicals and two of the most sacred idols of the culture: autonomy, i.e. the notion that one is a law unto oneself, and the evangelical (and liberal) love for a disembodied Jesus.
Derek Thomas — Understanding the Times — The first question we need to ask in Bible study is not, “What is this text saying to me?” but “What is this text saying to me about God?” God-centered living puts God first, second and last. Those in love will understand full well: we just can’t get enough of those we love and if we truly love God we will be equally dissatisfied with anything (or anyone) else.
he Father we bless,
salme 100 
ecommended
s the sun is full of light,
. Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book II: Composed on Divine Subjects (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).
ather of angels and of men,
