5 Things

1. Tomorrow is John Calvin's 500th birthday. I'm celebrating by reading my Institutes.
   
   
2. This post over at Sacred Sandwich hits drolly close to home.
   
   
3. Listen to this podcast of R.C. Sproul. Out of all the modern day theologians, he's probably my favorite. Each time I read/hear something from him, I walk away learning something new and seeing the things he addresses in a different light.
   
   
4. Maddie and I are once again switching Junto books. (I know, I know. We're hopeless.) This time we're going to do Glenn Beck's Common Sense. We'll probably go back to Animal Farm later on. Maybe this time we'll finish it. :-)
   
   
5. Congratulations to my 3 readers for sticking with me to this, the 100th post on my blog. Huzzah. You survived my semi-coherent posts like this one. And by the looks of it, I have too. *grin*
   

True Religion

If only mine was an attitude more like this -

Lord God Almighty,

I ask not to be enrolled amongst the earthly 

great and rich,

but to be numbered with the spiritually blessed.

Make it my present, supreme, persevering concern

to obtain those blessings which are

spiritual in their nature,

eternal in their continuance,

satisfying in their possession.

Preserve me from a false estimate of the whole 

or a part of my character;

May I pay regard to 

my principles as well as my conduct,

my motives as well as my actions.

Help me 

never to mistake the excitement of my passions

for the renewing of the Holy Spirit,

never to judge my religion by occasional 

impressions and impulses, but by my 

constant and prevailing disposition.

May my heart be right with thee, 

and my life as becometh the gospel.

May I maintain a supreme regard to another 

and better world,

and feel and confess myself a stranger 

and a pilgrim here.

Afford me all the direction, defence, support, 

and consolation my journey hence requires,

and grant me a mind stayed upon thee.

Give me large abundance of the supply of 

the Spirit of Jesus,

that I may be prepared for every duty,

love thee in all my mercies,

submit to thee in every trial,

trust thee when walking in darkness,

have peace in thee amidst life’s changes.

Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief 

and uncertainties.

(The Valley of Vision)

Another miscellaneous post

1. What's the deal with the conservative media all hyped up about Wacko Jacko? They always pride themselves on being more accurate and reporting on pertinent things. So, that's why they're talking about Jackson 24/7 while North Korea is planning to launch a missile at Hawaii in 4 days. Of course.....people always make perfect sense.
   
   
2. Here's an interesting quote I came across by John Angell James: "Your first object of existence...should be the salvation of your soul; the next, the benefit of your fellow-creatures; and then comes the improvement of your mind."
   
   
3. This looks like a really interesting book. I want it.
   

The Humanization of God

We've all seen evidences of the new pet industry here in America. You can buy Fido a whole wardrobe, a trip to the spa, a stay at a luxury pet hotel, and countless other disgusting wastes of money. We're trying to turn irrational beasts into people.

But we haven't stopped at things lower than us. We've also moved on to God. Just look around you. He's irreverently and jokingly styled "The old guy upstairs;" "biographies" are written about Christ, the descriptions of which sound more like a romance novel than an exposition of our Savior's work on earth; pastors make crude remarks with Christ as the subject. What blasphemy!

But why do we do this? One word: Pride.

Each one of us is born with an overinflated ego. Ours is an autotheistic culture - we are our own gods. You can see its effects everywhere - our government is here to please the individual, not to serve the nation as a whole; doctors encourage us to have "me time" for our psychological well-being; people are sinking into gross debt because they don't have the money to buy all the things that they in their lack of self-control couldn't afford - or need. Our mission in life is an Epicurean one - to live for pleasure. Living for ourselves and worshiping ourselves is pretty much the same thing.

When you love something, you want other things to be like it. We measure everything we come in contact with against our ideal, whatever that may be. Take this for an example: Say somebody has a favorite book. They're going to compare every other book they read with their favorite to determine whether its good or not. They have a standard. And if you're a bibliophile, you're going to want to like the books you read - so in other words, you want the books you read to be similar in some way to your favorite.

We, as fallen humans, have set ourselves as our standard. We think we're pretty cool, and therefore try to make the rest of creation like us. And we haven't left our Creator alone.

We have it all backwards. Instead of comparing everything to ourselves, we ought to be comparing ourselves to God. Suddenly, we aren't as lovely as we imagine ourselves to be. And God becomes infinitely more holy. What right have we to bring Him down to our level? Where do we find permission to speak disrespectfully about Him? to thoughtlessly disobey what He commands us to do in His Word? to claim that He doesn't exist, simply because He's a threat to the Religion of the Self? There isn't any.

Sometimes we need to think more deeply about the seemingly simple statements in Scripture - the ones we pass by while reading without a thought.

Exodus 20:2 - "I am the LORD your God, who brought you...out of the house of slavery."

God is God - the Supreme Being. He's unimagineably holy. He deserves our respect.

God is our Lord - our Master. He gave us our lives - physically and spiritualy. We ought to give them back to God, as Hannah dedicated Samuel to Him.

God brought us out of the house of slavery - "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life" (Romans 6:22) God saved us from eternal death. He deserves our love and gratitude.

Guard your heart

Thomas Watson:

The heart must be especially kept pure, because the heart is the chief seat or place of God's residence. God dwells in the heart. He takes up the heart for His own lodging (Isaiah 57:15; Ephesians 3:17), therefore it must be pure and holy. A king's palace must be kept from defilement, especially his presence-chamber. How holy that ought to be! If the body be the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19), the heart is the holy of holies. Oh take heed of defiling the room where God is to come. Let that room be washed with holy tears.

(The Beatitudes, p. 174)

Luther wasn't the only one who disliked indulgences....

The indulgence seller {Johan Tetzel} traveled under the protection of the Archbishop of Mainz, one of the seven Electors of Germany. In the autumn of 1517 he had passed through Middle Germany, and in October he reached Leipsic in Saxony. His presence had not been very welcome either to the princes, to the more earnest-minded of the parish clergy, or to the better disposed among the people. The princes did not like him, because he got so much money from the people and sent it all to Rome: he made the country poorer; and some princes would not allow him. to enter their territories until he had promised to give them a share.

The better class of the parish clergy did not like him, because wherever he went the people became more wicked; he sold the right of murdering an enemy for seven ducats; those who wished to rob a church were pardoned if they paid nine ducats; while the murder of father, mother, sister, or brother, cost only four ducats. The men and women who bought these indulgences naturally liked to get value for their money, and so crime abounded where the pardon-seller went.

Quiet people also objected to him, because his presence caused such a tumult and so many scandals. He sent men before him queerly dressed, who stuck up notices, and who went through the streets and along the country roads telling that he was coming, and boasting the excellence of the pardon tickets he had for sale. Here are some of these proclamations:—"The pardon makes those who buy it cleaner than baptism, purer even than Adam in a state of innocence in Paradise." "As soon as the money chinks in the bottom of the strong box, the buyer is pardoned and is free from sin." After these mountebanks came the pardon-seller with his assistant in a strong wagon, which was drawn up in the middle of the market-place. Then Tetzel appeared—on his one side an iron cage, in which were the pardon tickets hanging from the bars; on the other, a strong box, into which the money was thrown; and he puffed his wares like a quack doctor at a country fair.

(p. 4 in The Reformation: A Handbook, by T.M. Lindsay)

Sound Familiar?

How often do you hear, as soon as any attempt is made to bring people to seriousness; "Pray do not intermeddle with us. Go to heaven your own way, and leave us to go ours. Be as religious as you please, but keep your religion to yourselves." But this is enjoining on Christians an impossibility. "If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." And as they cannot, so the ought not to refuse such office of love. Only a Cain will ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Certainly you are. Are you not bound, "as you have opportunity, to do good unto all men"? If we are required to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to heal the sick, are we not much more bound to save the soul in the day of the Lord Jesus? Is not zeal important in proportion to the value of its object? Is time to be compared with eternity? Is not charity to the soul, the soul of charity?

(Lectures on Female Scripture Characters, p. 229, by William Jay)

He Sweetens Every Bitter Sip

Let us not be greatly discouraged at the many tribulations, difficulties and disappointments which lie in the path which leads to glory. Our Lord has plainly told us, that "in this world, you will have many trials and sorrows." Yet He has also made a suitable provision for every case we can meet with; and is Himself always near to those who call upon Him--as a sure refuge, an almighty strength, a never-failing, ever-present help in every time of trouble!

Jesus Himself was a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief for our sakes. He drank the whole cup of unmixed wrath for us! Shall we then refuse to taste a sip of the cup of affliction at His appointment; especially when His wisdom and His love prepare it for us--and He proportions every circumstance to our strength; when He puts it into our hands, not in anger--but in tender mercy--to do us good, to bring us near to Himself; and when He sweetens every bitter sip with those comforts which none but He can give?

John Newton

The Importance in Persevering in Prayer

Who ever knew an eminently holy man, who did not spend much of his time in prayer ? Did ever a man exhibit much of the spirit of prayer, who did not devote much time to his closet ? Whitefield says, ' Whole days and weeks have I spent prostrate on the ground, in silent or vocal prayer.' ' Fall upon your knees, and grow there,' is the language of another, who knew that whereof he affirmed. These, in spirit, are but specimens of a feature in the experience of eminent piety, which is absolutely uniform.

It has been said, that no great work in literature or in science was ever wrought by a man who did not love solitude. We may lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained, by one who did not take time to be often, and long, alone with God. This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. No otherwise can the great central idea of God enter into a man's life, and dwell there supreme.

(pp. 93-94 in The Still Hour, by Austin Phelps)

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)