The Great Business of Life

We must make piety the great business of life, to which everything else must give place. We must engage in the work with our whole souls, looking to Christ for strength against our spiritual enemies; following the example of Paul, "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before; pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus;" and then we shall come off conquerors at last, "through him that has loved us, and given himself for us."

(Harvey Newcomb, The Young Lady's Guide, pp. 22-23)

An *almost* pointless post

Maddie & I decided to ditch A Vindication of the Rights of Women as, well, 1. We have short attention spans, 2. It's too hard (said in a tone of voice equivalent to that of a 7 year old who doesn't want to learn about fractions) and 3. ummm, this should probably be a mature and intelligent reason but I guess I don't have one. Se la vie. (Hey Maddie, there's some French for you!) So now we're going to try our hand(s) at Animal Farm by George Orwell. We are determined to not let talking pigs named Napoleon scare us away. So if you see a crazy post about the aforesaid character next week, well, you were warned.

Now I forgot what I was going to say next. Errrrggg. I'll blame it on Algebra. Ummmm.....oh yeah. If you truly take seriously some of the posts I've put here on not wasting your time, then don't go to this link. However, if I really didn't want you to go there, well, I wouldn't have posted that link, now would I? The site place is ADDICTING! Or maybe I'm easily amused. *grin*

William Jay again

It is in religion as it is in nature, the understanding sways the will and affections. "Wisdom is the principle thing;" therefore we are to "get wisdom, and with all our getting to get understanding." The Apostle prays for the Ephesians, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling." Till we see the evil of sin, we shall never abhor it, and mourn over it. Till we know Christ, we cannot desire Him, depend upon Him, apply to Him, rejoice in Him. Till we know Him, we can know nothing, feel nothing, possess nothing, enjoy nothing.

(Lectures on Female Scripture Characters, pp. 198-199)

A warning to church kids

Here's what I read this morning:

Perhaps some of the guiltiest individuals in our world are those who are decent in their conduct, but have enjoyed all the means of grace from their infancy, and yet have been insensible under them; who have constantly worshiped God, but have mocked Him with a solemn sound upon a thoughtless tongue; who have heard the words of eternal life, and trampled them under foot.

(Lectures on Female Scripture Characters, p. 187 by William Jay)

Wow.

Harvey Newcomb on Sanctification

How is the glory of God promoted by our growth in grace?

1. It is manifested to us by impressing his image upon our hearts, and by giving us a spiritual discovery of the excellence, purity, and loveliness, of his moral nature.

2. It is manifested to others, so far as we maintain a holy life; for thereby the moral image of Christ is exhibited, as the glory of the sun appears by the reflected light of the moon.

3. The glory of God is promoted by making others acquainted with the riches of free grace, and bringing them to Christ; for, by that means, they receive spiritual light to behold the beauty and glory of the divine perfections, and his image is stamped upon their souls.

(The Young Lady's Guide, p. 17)

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night....or...The Most Exciting Wednesday Night Church Service I've Been to Yet

Yes, now there's a lot of work for the deacons at church, yes, people got pretty scared, but last night was, to my teenage mind, one of the most interesting times I've had after church! Wondering why? Well, read on.

At the beginning of our midweek service, despite the overcast sky and possibility of rain, everything seemed fine. Midway through the sermon, it started raining. Soon, there was a downpour and with the combo of that, thunder, and lightning, it was pretty hard to hear the pastor preaching. It did add intersting sound effects. Then the lights momentarily went out! You can hear it in the sermon recording from last night.

Later on, I happened to turn around (face it, with all that going on, who's able to give their full attention to the sermon? *grin*), and I saw my dad motioning me to come out into the vestibule. He was standing next to the stairway going next to the basement and looked rather puzzled. He told me to check out what was going on down there. As I started to go down the steps, I heard water falling. Uh oh. There was water gushing through the window in the bathroom into an inch-deep lake the floor! For some reason, memories of Niagara Falls popped into my mind.

re-enactment of Noah's flood

I ran back up and told my dad what was going on; he told me to get one of the deacons. I showed him the "incident" and while everyone else was singing the closing hymn, (probably suspicious from seeing me walk in the sanctuary and grab a deacon) he got the shop vac out and started getting some of the water up. Soon there were a bunch of other people downstairs, and somebody came to their senses quickly enough to ask the brilliant question of whether or not there were other windows with the same problem. Sure enough, we ran into the "fellowship hall" as they call it, and there was another water-bearing window.

That's bad. Very bad. Not your typical, "Eh, this is lame" bad, but "Boy are we in for it!" bad. You see, we have a preschool that rents out that room, so all their stuff is in there.....right next to the aforesaid window. Not good.

trying to get the kiddie toys out of the water

There's a parsonage attached to the church, so I went to see if there was water coming into the basement in there. Yup. The floor was nearly covered in water in one of the storage rooms.

that was one wet carpet

I got back upstairs, and another deacon asked if he could use my camera to take pictures of what was going on outside. He and my parents kept coming in and out in the rain. A bunch of people gathered around the window and were talking about what we should do, since the rain was coming in through the window wells, and so the same deacon and one of our elders went out to take one more look. They were just outside the door when I heard what sounded like a canon go off; they scrambled back inside. Lightning had struck about 10 or 15 feet away from them! Everyone saw it but me. Figures. Being the good Calvinists that we are, we took it that God didn't want us going outside again!

After we all recovered from that, we went back downstairs and started mopping. The water had traveled from the paneled room out into another part of the basement so we started pushing it into a back room with a drain in the floor. There weren't enough mops, so we had to use brooms. It was.....interesting. One thing I learned: Brooms only work for about 10 minutes.

my sandals were soaked after that

My sister came into the room with a squeegie (or however you spell that) she found somewhere and started wiping the floor with it. I was convinced she was a genius.

brilliant younger siblings are very handy

After we got that "cleaned" up, we went back upstairs after doing more gawking, joking about how we could make a movie titled "Stranded at the Baptist Church" and wondering if there was any food available. Since there wasn't too much else we could do, we decided to go home. We left with my dad's fellow deacons spreading paperwork all over the desk in their office. The rain had just stopped. When we drove out of the car port, it started to downpour again........I wonder how long they stayed there last night!

Here's my dad's version of the story.

A.W. Pink on God's Holiness

Because God is holy He hates all sin. He loves everything which is in conformity to His laws, and loathes everything which is contrary to it. His Word plainly declares, "The froward is an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 3:32). And again, "The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 15:26). It follows, therefore, that He must necessarily punish sin. Sin can no more exist without demanding His punishment than without requiring His hatred of it. God has often forgiven sinners, but He never forgives sin; and the sinner is only forgiven on the ground of Another having borne his punishment; for "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. 9:22). Therefore we are told, "The Lord will, take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth Wrath for His enemies" (Nahum 1:2). For one sin God banished our first parents from Eden. For one sin all the posterity of Ham fell under a curse which remains over them to this day (Gen. 9:21). For one sin Moses was excluded from Canaan, Elisha’s servant smitten with leprosy, Ananias and Sapphira cut off out of the land of the living.

Herein we find proof for the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. The unregenerate do not really believe in the holiness of God. Their conception of His character is altogether one-sided. They fondly hope that His mercy will override everything else. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself" (Ps. 50:21) is God’s charge against them. They think only of a "god" patterned after their own evil hearts. Hence their continuance in a course of mad folly. Such is the holiness ascribed to the Divine nature and character in Scripture that it clearly demonstrates their superhuman origin. The character attributed to the "gods" of the ancients and of modern heathendom are the very reverse of that immaculate purity which pertains to the true God. An ineffably holy God, who has the utmost abhorrence of all sin, was never invented by any of Adam’s fallen descendants! The fact is that nothing makes more manifest the terrible depravity of man’s heart and his enmity against the living God than to have set before him One who is infinitely and immutably holy. His own idea of sin is practically limited to what the world calls "crime." Anything short of that, man palliates as "defects," "mistakes," "infirmities," etc. And even where sin is owned at all, excuses and extenuations are made for it.

The "god" which the vast majority of professing Christians "love," is looked upon very much like an indulgent old man, who himself has no relish for folly, but leniently winks at the "indiscretions" of youth. But the Word says, "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity "(Ps. 5:5). And again, "God is angry with the wicked every day" (Ps. 7:11). But men refuse to believe in this God, and gnash their teeth when His hatred of sin is faithfully pressed upon their attention. No, sinful man was no more likely to devise a holy God than to create the Lake of fire in which he will be tormented for ever and ever.

(The Attributes of God, chapter 8)

Advice on Prayer

1. We are directed to watch unto prayer. When you approach the mercy-seat, watch against a careless spirit. Do not allow your mind to be drawn away by anything, however good and important in itself, from the object before you. If the adversary can divert your mind, on the way to that consecrated place, he will be almost sure to drive you away from it without a blessing.

2. We are required to watch not only unto, but in, prayer. Satan is never more busy with Christians than when he sees them on their knees. He well knows the power of prayer; and this makes him tremble.

"Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees."

You should, therefore, with the most untiring vigilance, watch in prayer against all wandering thoughts and distraction of mind. You will often experience, on such occasions, a sudden and vivid impression upon your mind, of something entirely foreign from what is before you; and this, we have reason to believe, is the temptation of Satan. If you are sufficiently upon your watch, you can banish it without diverting your thoughts or feelings from the subject of your prayer, and proceed as though nothing had happened. But, if the adversary succeeds in keeping these wild imaginations in view, so that you cannot proceed without distraction, turn and beseech God to give you help against his wiles. You have the promise, that if you resist the devil, he will flee from you. These remarks apply both to secret prayer and public worship.

(Harvey Newcomb, The Young Lady's Guide, pp. 129-130)

Advice to a Young Christian

As you are entering into a world wherein a variety of examples, methods of conduct, and maxims in religion will be presented to you, some plausible, some pernicious, and many destructive; if you value your conscience or you comfort, make the sacred word of God, which is to be the rule of your future judgment, the invariable rule of your disposition and practice. You will never find a more faithful counselor, a more advantageous guide, or a more cordial and constant friend, than in those sacred oracles of wisdom and truth, if you closely study and practice them. Let no day, therefore, pass over without some serious perusal of them, joined with humble, earnest prayer to God for wisdom to understand them, and power to conform to them.

Study the inimitable rules of wisdom and prudence in the Proverbs of Solomon, to direct your practice; the Psalms of David, to inspire your devotion; and the whole word of God, especially the New Testament, to form your faith, your hope, and your temper. Particularly, treasure up in your mind some passages relating to each revealed doctrine, each command duty, and each forbidden temper; that your belief may be directed by the wisdom, and your conscience awed by the authority of God, in every season of duty and temptation.

"Bind them continually upon thy heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee; for the commandment is a lamp; and the law is a light; and the reproofs of instruction are the way of life."

Proverbs 6:21-23

(The Publications of the American Tract Society, vol. 4, pp. 70-71)

Evening Devotion from Charles Spurgeon

“He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he."

Proverbs 16:20

WISDOM is man’s true strength; and, under its guidance, he best accomplishes the ends of his being. Wisely handling the matter of life, gives to man the richest enjoyment, and presents the noblest occupation for his powers; hence by it he finds good in the fullest sense. Without wisdom, man is as the wild ass’s colt, running hither and thither, wasting strength which might be profitably employed. Wisdom is the compass by which man is to steer across the trackless waste of life; without it he is a derelict vessel, the sport of winds and waves. A man must be prudent in such a world as this, or he will find no good, but be betrayed into unnumbered ills. The pilgrim will sorely wound his feet among the briers of the wood of life, if he do not pick his steps with the utmost caution. He who is in a wilderness infested with robber bands, must handle matters wisely if he would journey safely. If, I trained by the Great Teacher, we follow where He leads, we shall find good, even while in this dark abode; there are celestial fruits to be gathered this side of Eden’s bowers, and songs of paradise to be sung amid the groves of earth. But where shall this wisdom be found? Many have dreamed of it, but have not possessed it. Where shall we learn it? Let us listen to the voice of the Lord, for He hath declared the secret; He hath revealed to the sons of men wherein true wisdom lieth, and we have it in the text, “Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” The true way to handle a matter wisely is to trust in the Lord. This is the sure clew to the most intricate labyrinths of life; follow it and find eternal bliss. He who trusts in the Lord has a diploma for wisdom granted by inspiration: happy is he now, and happier shall he be above. Lord, in this sweet eventide walk with me in the garden, and teach me the wisdom of faith.

(Morning & Evening, May 5 - Evening)

Matthew Henry on Worldliness

The more the world is crucified to us, the more our corrupt passions will be crucified in us. If we would keep calm and quiet, we must by faith live above the stormy region. It is certain those that have anything to do in the world cannot but meet with that every day from those with whom they deal, which will cross and provoke them; and if the affections are set upon these things, and we are filled with a prevailing concern about them as the principal things, those crosses must pierce to the quick and inflame the soul, and that which touches us in these things, touches us in the apple of our eye. If the appetites are indulged inordinately in things that are pleasing to sense, the passions will to the very same degree be roused against those that are displeasing. And therefore, Christians, whatever you have of the world in your hands, be it more or less, as you value the peace as well as the purity of your souls, keep it out of your hearts; and always indulge your affections towards your possessions, enjoyments, and delights in the world, with a due consideration of the disappointment and provocation which they will probably occasion you.

(A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit)