tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81344387107230782002024-03-12T19:00:36.296-05:00Diapsalmata... doxology for those who doubtgiven gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-88468846851550537142013-03-11T13:13:00.001-05:002013-03-11T13:13:28.556-05:00A Rotten Practical Joke"Jesus is not going to play the rotten practical joke of giving you your deepest wish—until He has shown you that it was for Him all along."<br />
<br />
Timothy Keller, King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, 34.<br />
given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-9053005495948179782013-02-16T15:38:00.001-06:002013-02-16T15:38:18.838-06:00Expansive Meaning"The meaning of a story should go on expanding for the reader the more he thinks about it, but meaning cannot be captured in an interpretation. If teachers are in the habit of approaching a story as if it were a research problem for which any answer is believable so long as it is not obvious, then I think students will never learn to enjoy fiction. Too much interpretation is certainly worse than too little, and where feeling for a story is absent, theory will not supply it."<br />
<br />
Flannery O’Connorgiven gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-78305829263391980602013-01-05T22:03:00.001-06:002013-01-05T22:03:20.731-06:00BlindnessOur true hearts are forever lonely: <br />
A wistfulness is in our thought: <br />
Our lights are like the dawns which only <br />
Seem bright to us and yet are not. <br />
<br />
Something you see in me I wis not: <br />
Another heart in you I guess: <br />
A stranger’s lips—but thine I kiss not, <br />
Erring in all my tenderness. <br />
<br />
I sometimes think a mighty lover <br />
Takes every burning kiss we give:<br />
His lights are those which round us hover: <br />
For him alone our lives we live. <br />
<br />
Ah, sigh for us whose hearts unseeing <br />
Point all their passionate love in vain, <br />
And blinded in the joy of being,<br />
Meet only when pain touches pain."<br />
<br />
George William Russell, Collected poems, by A.E., London, Macmillan, 1913.given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-52370117229083795402013-01-04T19:06:00.001-06:002013-01-04T19:06:30.029-06:00The Final End of MusicThe aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.<br /><br />Johann Sebastian Bach<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-9175484802416001622013-01-01T16:21:00.000-06:002013-01-01T16:21:13.294-06:00If Indeed<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">About
this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man.
For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as
accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was
the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest
standing amongst us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the
first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the
third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had
prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe
of Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.
(Trans. L. H. Feldman, Loeb Classical Library.)<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8134438710723078200#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><sup><span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></sup></span></sup></a></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br clear="all" />
</span><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8134438710723078200#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><sup><span><sup><span style="line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></sup></span></sup></a></span> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels</i>, ed.
Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight and I. Howard Marshall (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1992), 393.</span></div>
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given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-9332629676080759582012-12-26T14:04:00.001-06:002012-12-26T14:04:23.665-06:00Exmas, Niatirbian Style"And beyond this there lies in the ocean, turned towards the west and north, the island of Niatirb which Hecataeus indeed declares to be the same size and shape as Sicily, but it is larger, though in calling it triangular a man would not miss the mark. It is densely inhabited by men who wear clothes not very different from the other barbarians who occupy the north western parts of Europe though they do not agree with them in language. These islanders, surpassing all the men of whom we know in patience and endurance, use the following customs.<br /><br />In the middle of winter when fogs and rains most abound they have a great festival which they call Exmas and for fifty days they prepare for it in the fashion I shall describe. First of all, every citizen is obliged to send to each of his friends and relations a square piece of hard paper stamped with a picture, which in their speech is called an Exmas-card. But the pictures represent birds sitting on branches, or trees with a dark green prickly leaf, or else men in such garments as the Niatirbians believe that their ancestors wore two hundred years ago riding in coaches such as their ancestors used, or houses with snow on their roofs. And the Niatirbians are unwilling to say what these pictures have to do with the festival; guarding (as I suppose) some sacred mystery. And because all men must send these cards the marketplace is filled with the crowd of those buying them, so that there is great labour and weariness.<br />But having bought as many as they suppose to be sufficient, they return to their houses and find there the like cards which others have sent to them. And when they find cards from any to whom they also have sent cards, they throw them away and give thanks to the gods that this labour at least is over for another year. But when they find cards from any to whom they have not sent, then they beat their breasts and wail and utter curses against the sender; and, having sufficiently lamented their misfortune, they put on their boots again and go out into the fog and rain and buy a card for him also. And let this account suffice about Exmas-cards.<br /><br />They also send gifts to one another, suffering the same things about the gifts as about the cards, or even worse. For every citizen has to guess the value of the gift which every friend will send to him so that he may send one of equal value, whether he can afford it or not. And they buy as gifts for one another such things as no man ever bought for himself. For the sellers, understanding the custom, put forth all kinds of trumpery, and whatever, being useless and ridiculous, they have been unable to sell throughout the year they now sell as an Exmas gift. And though the Niatirbians profess themselves to lack sufficient necessary things, such as metal, leather, wood and paper, yet an incredible quantity of these things is wasted every year, being made into the gifts.<br /><br />But during these fifty days the oldest, poorest, and most miserable of the citizens put on false beards and red robes and walk about the market-place; being disguised (in my opinion) as Cronos. And the sellers of gifts no less than the purchaser’s become pale and weary, because of the crowds and the fog, so that any man who came into a Niatirbian city at this season would think some great public calamity had fallen on Niatirb. This fifty days of preparation is called in their barbarian speech the Exmas Rush.<br /><br />But when the day of the festival comes, then most of the citizens, being exhausted with the Rush, lie in bed till noon. But in the evening they eat five times as much supper as on other days and, crowning themselves with crowns of paper, they become intoxicated. And on the day after Exmas they are very grave, being internally disordered by the supper and the drinking and reckoning how much they have spent on gifts and on the wine. For wine is so dear among the Niatirbians that a man must swallow the worth of a talent before he is well intoxicated.<br /><br />Such, then, are their customs about the Exmas. But the few among the Niatirbians have also a festival, separate and to themselves, called Crissmas, which is on the same day as Exmas. And those who keep Crissmas, doing the opposite to the majority of the Niatirbians, rise early on that day with shining faces and go before sunrise to certain temples where they partake of a sacred feast. And in most of the temples they set out images of a fair woman with a new-born Child on her knees and certain animals and shepherds adoring the Child. (The reason of these images is given in a certain sacred story which I know but do not repeat.)<br /><br />But I myself conversed with a priest in one of these temples and asked him why they kept Crissmas on the same day as Exmas; for it appeared to me inconvenient. But the priest replied, “It is not lawful, O stranger, for us to change the date of Chrissmas, but would that Zeus would put it into the minds of the Niatirbians to keep Exmas at some other time or not to keep it at all. For Exmas and the Rush distract the minds even of the few from sacred things. And we indeed are glad that men should make merry at Crissmas; but in Exmas there is no merriment left.” And when I asked him why they endured the Rush, he replied, “It is, O Stranger, a racket”; using (as I suppose) the words of some oracle and speaking unintelligibly to me (for a racket is an instrument which the barbarians use in a game called tennis).<br /><br />But what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the same, is not credible. For first, the pictures which are stamped on the Exmas-cards have nothing to do with the sacred story which the priests tell about Crissmas. And secondly, the most part of the Niatirbians, not believing the religion of the few, nevertheless send the gifts and cards and participate in the Rush and drink, wearing paper caps. But it is not likely that men, even being barbarians, should suffer so many and great things in honour of a god they do not believe in. And now, enough about Niatirb."<br /><br />CS Lewis, from an article he entitled "“Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus."<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-83428028181584521762012-12-20T17:59:00.001-06:002012-12-20T17:59:06.049-06:00The Insignificance of Prison WallsViewed from a Christian perspective, Christmas in a prison cell can, of course, hardly be considered particularly problematic. Most likely many of those here in this building will celebrate a more meaningful and authentic Christmas than in places where it is celebrated in name only.<br /><br />That misery, sorrow, poverty, loneliness, helplessness, and guilt mean something quite different in the eyes of God than according to human judgment; that God turns toward the very places from which humans turn away; that Christ was born in a stable because there was no room for him in the inn — a prisoner grasps this better than others, and for him this is truly good news.<br /><br />And to the extent he believes it, he knows that he has been placed within the Christian community that goes beyond the scope of all spatial and temporal limits, and the prison walls lose their significance. . . .<br /><br />With great gratitude and love,<br /><br />Your Dietrich<br /><br />Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, vol. 8, Letters and Papers from Prison (Fortress, 2010), 224–226.<br /><br />given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-67121197100871429992012-11-29T22:42:00.001-06:002012-11-29T22:42:58.111-06:00Not Quite Reasonable“But Chesterton also wrote, ‘The real trouble with the world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite.’ He is right. Only so much about life can be understood by reason; so much falls far short of any reasonable explanation. Prayer then becomes the irrepressible cry of the heart at the times we most need it. For every person who feels that prayer has not 'worked' for them and has therefore abandoned God, there is someone else for whom prayer remains a vital part of her life, sustaining her even when her prayers have gone unanswered, because her belief and trust is not only in the power of prayer but in the character and wisdom of God. God is the focus of such prayer, and that is what sustains such people and preserves their faith."<br /><br />Ravi Zacharias, from the book "Has Christianity Failed You?"<br />given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-88631351978282038882012-11-14T11:47:00.001-06:002012-11-14T11:47:58.021-06:00Paradoxic History"The 20th century gave rise to one of the greatest and most distressing paradoxes of human history: that the greatest intolerance and violence of that century were practiced by those who believed that religion caused intolerance and violence."<br /><br />Alistair McGrath, The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World (Oxford University Press, 2004), 230.<br />given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-7765698530501925022012-09-03T05:41:00.000-05:002012-09-03T05:41:00.222-05:00Construction Upon the Conduct of Others<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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"How many times in life have we been wrong when we put
a kind construction on the conduct of others? We shall not need our fingers to count
those mistakes upon. Moreover grace is really much more common than our
querulousness is generally willing to allow. We may suspect its operations in
the worst men we meet with. Thus, without any forced impossibility, we may call
in supernatural considerations in order to make our criticisms more ingenious
in their charity. When we grow a little holier, we shall summon also to our aid
those supernatural motives in ourselves, which, by depressing our own ideas of
ourselves, elevate our generous belief in others."<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span></span>Frederick
William Faber (1814-1863), Spiritual Conferences, London: Thomas Richardson
& Son, 1860, p. 27-28.</div>
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given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-38942101021194400682012-08-30T17:02:00.001-05:002012-12-01T10:10:34.229-06:00The View From Down Below"Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger; whoever remains lowly and lets God alone be high; whoever looks at the Child in the manger and sees the glory of God precisely in his lowliness."<br />
<br />
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "I Want to Live These Days with You," 377.given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-38384145400000761332012-08-25T05:27:00.000-05:002012-08-25T05:27:00.245-05:00Preaching in Peddlington<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Remember, dear brother, if you give your whole soul to the charge committed to you, it does not matter much about its appearing to be a somewhat small and insignificant affair, for as much skill may be displayed in the manufacture of a very tiny watch as in the construction of the town clock; in fact, a minute article may become the object of greater wonder than another of larger dimensions. Quality is a far more precious thing than quantity. Have you ever seen the famous picture at the Hague, called “Paul Potter’s Bull”? It is one of the world’s immortal paintings. What is it? Well, it is only a bull; and there are, besides, a man, and a tree, and a frog, and a few weeds. It is only a bull; ah, but there is not upon canvas another bull in the world to equal it! Many a man has attempted to depict a marvellous piece of natural scenery in the Alps or in Cumberland, or he has tried his pencil upon a magnificent sea-piece, with a fleet of yachts dancing on the waves, and he has not succeeded. The subjects were superior, but the art was poor. We must never think, because the particular work we have in hand seems to be insignificant, that therefore we cannot do it, or should not do it, thoroughly well. We need Divine help to preach aright to a congregation of one. If a thing is worth doing at all, it is worth doing well. If you had to sweep a crossing, it were well to sweep it better than anybody else. If you only preach in Little Peddlington, let Little Peddlington know that you are doing your best, and seeking its good. Many a minister has achieved fame, and, what is far better, has brought glory to God, in a congregation which could be counted by units, while another has presided over a large church, and though at first there was a great blast of trumpets, it has ended in the silence and sadness of utter failure. Know your work, and bend over it, throwing your heart and soul into it; for, be it great or small, you will have to praise God to all eternity if you are found faithful in it.</span><br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">C. H. Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry: Addresses to Ministers and Students (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 70-71.</span>given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-63866115301768900882012-08-23T06:00:00.001-05:002012-08-23T06:00:08.744-05:00Omnipotence of the Will<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To me, Calvinism means the placing of the eternal God at the head of all things. I look at everything through its relation to God’s glory. I see God first, and man far down in the list. We think too much of God to please this age; but we are not ashamed. Man has a will, and oh, how they cry it up! One said, the other day,—and there is some truth in it, too,—“I attribute a kind of omnipotence to the will of man.” But, sirs, has not God a will, too? What do you attribute to that will? Have you nothing to say about its omnipotence? Is God to have no choice, no purpose, no sovereignty over His own gifts? Brethren, if we live in sympathy with God, we delight to hear Him say, “I am God, and there is none else.”</span><br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">C. H. Spurgeon, An All-Round Ministry: Addresses to Ministers and Students (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), 337.</span>given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-30281585770862343522012-08-23T06:00:00.000-05:002012-08-23T06:00:04.105-05:00Arrested<br />
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“God may be a mere mental abstraction; He may be spoken of
in terms of culture or poetry or philosophy, but He has not the slightest
meaning for us until He becomes incarnate. When once we know that God has “trod
this earth with naked feet, and woven with human hands the creed of creeds,”
then we are arrested. When once we know that the Almighty Being Who reigns and
rules over His creation does not do so in calm disdain, but puts His back to
the wall of the world, so to speak, and receives all the downcast, the outcast,
the sin-defiled, the wrong, the wicked and the sinful into His arms, then we
are arrested.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8134438710723078200#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></sup></span></sup></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8134438710723078200#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></sup></span></sup></a>
Oswald Chambers, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Biblical Ethics</i>
(Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1947).</div>
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given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-11652064899299187692012-08-22T05:45:00.000-05:002012-08-22T05:45:00.201-05:00Intellectual Impertinence
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"How much intellectual impertinence there is to-day among many Christians relative to the Scriptures, because they forget that to “believe also” in Jesus means that they are committed beforehand to His attitude to the Bible. He said that He was the context of the Scriptures, “. . . they are they which testify of Me.” We hear much about “key words” to the Scriptures, but there is only one “key word” to the Scriptures for a believer, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. All the intellectual arrogance about the Bible is a clear proof of disbelief in Jesus. How many Sunday school teachers to-day believe as Jesus believed in the Old Testament? How many have succumbed to the insolence of intellectual partisanship about the Person of our Lord and His limitations, and say airily, “Of course, there is no such thing as demon possession or hell, and no such being as the devil.” To “believe also” in Jesus means that we submit our intelligence to Him as He submitted His intelligence to His Father. This does not mean that we do not exercise our reason, but it does mean that we exercise it in submission to Reason Incarnate. Beware of interpreters of the Scriptures who take any other context than our Lord Jesus Christ."</span><br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oswald Chambers, Approved Unto God (Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996).</span></div>
given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-28235435511080223972012-08-20T05:06:00.000-05:002012-08-20T05:06:00.098-05:00Of Riddles and Solutions
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“The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions
of man.” </div>
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G. K. CHESTERTON, "The Book of Job: An Introduction"</div>
given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-28821379077091809912012-08-18T01:29:00.000-05:002012-08-18T01:29:24.407-05:00Benefits without Faith<div class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":1,"tn":"K"}">
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"If you are unhappy, if circumstances and trials are pressing upon you,
the method of the New Testament is not to deal with your problems and
troubles directly – it is to ask you to look at Him. He will never deal
with these things directly, but only if you are in right relationship
to Him. The benefits of Christianity only come to those who believe the
message concerning Him. So you see the fallacies that come in at this
point. People want the benefits of Christianity – peace, joy, healing –
and they do not get them and they say, “There’s nothing in it.” No,
no; they have misunderstood. They think they can get the results and
the benefits without the faith that is the first essential."</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="messageBody" data-ft="{"type":3}"><span class="userContent"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span><br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Martyn Lloyd-Jones (The Purpose of the Scriptures)</span></span></span></div>
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given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-70072622258448694402012-07-19T03:28:00.000-05:002012-07-19T03:28:00.152-05:00Larger Than the Walls That Shut It InWhen speaking of the days following her mother's paralysis, she noted "It was astonishing, really, the quality of life she was able to lead in that crippled body, and watching her during the three years of her paralysis, I made another discovery about love. Mama's love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street -- and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls that shut it in." <br /><br />Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place, 63-4<br />given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-4477526345258475042012-07-18T05:54:00.000-05:002012-07-18T05:54:00.657-05:00The Thorn<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
The Thorn<br />(a "<span class="il">mendicant</span>" is a beggar)<br /><br />I stood a <span class="il">mendicant</span> of God before His royal throne<br />And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.<br />I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart<br />I cried, "But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.<br />This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me."<br />He said, "My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee."<br />I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,<br />As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.<br />I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,<br />He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.<br /><br />--Martha Snell Nicholson</div>
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(Note: This poem was read during John Piper's 2001 Sermon, <a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/to-be-a-mother-is-a-call-to-suffer" target="_blank">"To Be a Mother is a Call to Suffer."</a>)</div>
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<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=712f08de-ab0f-4065-97bb-792074e391b8" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-56464677179639192152012-07-17T03:52:00.000-05:002012-07-17T03:52:00.206-05:00More Valuable Thank Health and Life<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
"Jesus says that the purpose of the blindness is to put the work of God
on display. This means that for our suffering to have ultimate meaning,
God must be supremely valuable to us. More valuable than health and
life."</div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">John Piper, from the sermon entitled,</span><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/why-was-this-child-born-blind" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" target="_blank"> "Why Was This Child Born Blind?"</a>given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-3520747142747085642012-07-16T03:23:00.000-05:002012-07-16T03:23:00.212-05:00The Most Excellent Study<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
“The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of
Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the
glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so
magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued
investigation of the great subject of the Deity.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Charles Haddon
Spurgeon, North Park Street Chapel, Southwark, “The Immutability of God”
January 7, 1855.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/GBaHPND2QJg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<br />
... finally. A flashmob I can appreciate.given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-8980458195335431952012-07-13T03:21:00.000-05:002012-07-13T03:21:46.284-05:00Grace Discloses Itself<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
“Seek ye my face” – it contains a profound significance. We can perceive
one at a distance, we can bear him spoken of, we can become aware of
his presence without yet having approached him, and placed ourselves
before him, so that he looks at us and we at him. But there is a moment
in the life of the child of God when he feels the stress of the
inability to rest, until he finds God; until after he has found Him, he
has placed himself before Him, and standing before Him, seeks His face;
and he can not cease that search until he has met God’s eye, and in that
meeting has obtained the touching realization that God has looked into
his soul and he has looked God in the eye of Grace. And only when it has
come to this the mystery of grace discloses itself.”</div>
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A.Kuyper</div>
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<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=712f08de-ab0f-4065-97bb-792074e391b8" style="border: medium none; float: right;" /></a></div>given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-71908105902074976032012-07-05T13:09:00.001-05:002012-07-05T13:09:29.106-05:00A God Keeping Covenant"That all doubtings and staggerings may be excluded, He hath wrapped [His promises] all up in a covenant, and brought Himself into a federal engagement, that upon every occasion, and at every temptation, we may draw out His hand and seal, and say to Satan and our own false hearts, 'See here, behold God engaged in covenant, to make good the word wherein He hath caused me to put my trust; and this is His property, that He is a God keeping covenant.'"<br />
<br />
Works of John Owen, Volume 8, Sermon IV, The Steadfastness of the Promises and the Sinfulness of Staggeringgiven gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8134438710723078200.post-54806503833303310692012-07-01T13:58:00.001-05:002012-07-01T13:58:45.769-05:00Serious Wonder"There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes."<br />
<br />
CS Lewis, The Last Battle<br />
given gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09278813702876710474noreply@blogger.com