| 2006-04-21 |
| I heard John Piper's poem, Judas, My Son on the radio on Good Friday. It touched my heart, as such a work would in such a season. But the words, repeated twice, that stuck in my head, the final eulogy for Judas mother, were these: "Sink not in darkness nor despair, Bear not what yours is not to bear: When you have loved and lost then trust; The ways of God are always just." So easy it is to cease to trust when things are hard or confused. But there is no reason logical enough, and no argument strong enough to negate the facts that God is love and God is just. Both. |
| 2006-02-21 |
A short, but fascinating interview with the authors of a book on George Washington's Christianity. Get your copy here if you enjoy the interview. The most interesting segment to me is the discussion of Deism versus Christianity versus Free Masonry, which was quite informational. |
| 2006-02-10 |
| With John Lennon's "Imagine" sung by Peter Gabriel and danced by the entire crowd. No country, nothing to die for, no God above, no religion. A picture of the world united against God. Me? Intolerant? Yep. But the words of the song are incredibly anti-Christian and anti-United States of America, and it's interesting to see what song was chosen and how the crowd reacted to it. |
| 2006-02-09 |
| Johnny Chuck has it. I lost my Burgess book with the story in it, but it contains a very good lesson. You can read the story here. Or buy yourself a copy. Old Mother West Wind |
| 2006-02-06 |
 The gumbo was great. I understand that this is a very rare picture of the hostess, despite the statistic that the average American is photographed 3 times a day. |
| 2006-01-28 |
| Quoted in G. Campbell Morgan's book "God's Methods With Man, In Time: Past, Present and Future" "I looked: aside the dust-cloud rolled-- The Waster seemed the Builder too; Upspringing from the ruined Old I saw the New. 'Twas but the ruin of the bad,-- The wasting of the wrong and ill; Whate'er of good the old time had Was living still. * * * * * * * * * The outworn rite, the old abuse, The pious fraud transparent grown, The good held captive in the use Of wrong alone-- These wait their doom, from that great law Which makes a past time serve to-day; And fresher life the world shall draw From their decay. * * * * * * * * * But life shall on and upward go; Th' eternal step of Progress beats To that great anthem, calm and slow, Which God repeats. * * * * * * * * * God works in all things: all obey His first propulsion from the night: Wake thou and watch!--the world is grey With morning light!" |
| 2006-01-22 |
| For Thou hast delivered: my soul from death mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. Salvation, comfort, and strength. What more to ask of God? Nothing more. |
| 2005-12-25 |
| From "A Treasury of the Bible", a four volume set of sermons by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following is a short excerpt of the above named sermon and has bearing on an earlier article I wrote, "What does God know?" Spurgeon is preaching about the events in the Book of Esther, which although it is the only book in the Bible that does not name God, clearly shows His providence in the affairs of mankind: "First, it is clear that the divine will is accomplished, and yet men are perfectly free agents. Haman acted according to his own will, Ahasuerus did whatever he pleased, Mordecai behaved as his heart moved him, and so did Esther. We see no interference with them, no force or coercion; hence the entire sin and responsibility rest with each guilty one, yet, acting with perfect freedom, none of them acts otherwise than divine providence had foreseen. 'I cannot understand it,' says one. My dear friend, I am compelled to say the same, --I do not understand it either. I have known many who think they comprehend all things, but I fancy they had a higher opinion of themselves than truth would endorse. Certain of my brethren deny free agency, and so get out of the difficulty; others assert that there is no predestination, and so cut the knot. As I do not wish to get out of the difficulty, and have no wish to shut my eyes to any part of the truth, I believe both free agency and predestination to be facts. How they can be made to agree I do not know, or care to know; I am satisfied to know anything which God chooses to reveal to me, and equally content not to know what He does not reveal. There it is; man is a free agent in what he does, responsible for his actions, and verily guilty when he does wrong, and he will be justly punished too, and if he be lost the blame will rest with himself alone; but yet there is One who ruleth over all, who, without complicity in their sin, makes even the actions of wicked men to subserve His holy and righteous purposes. Believe these two truths and you will see them in practical agreement in daily life, though you will not be able to devise a theory for harmonising them on paper." "Next, we learn what wonders can be wrought without miracles. When God does a wonderful thing by suspending the laws of nature men are greatly astonished and say, 'This is the finger of God,' but now-a-days they say to us, 'Where is your God? He never suspends His laws now!' Now, I see God in the history of Pharaoh, but I must confess I see Him quite as clearly in the history of Haman, and I think I see Him in even a grander light; for (I say it with reverence to His holy name) it is a somewhat rough method of accomplishing a purpose to stop the wheel of nature, and reverse wise and admirable laws; certainly it reveals His power, but it does not so clearly display His immutability. When, however, the Lord allows everything to go on in the usual way, and gives mind and thought, ambition, and passion their full liberty, and yet achieves His purpose, it is doubly wonderful. In the miracles of Pharaoh we see the finger of God, but in the wonders of providence without miracle, we see the hand of God. Today, whatever the event may be, whether it be the war between the Germans and the French, or the march into Coomassie, or the change of our own government, the attentive eye will as clearly see the Lord as if by miraculous power the hills had leaped from their places, or the floods had stood upright as an heap. I am sure that God is in the world, aye, and is at my own fireside, and in my chamber, and manages my affairs, and orders all things for me, and for each one of His children. We want no miracles to convince us of His working, the wonders of His providence are as great marvels as miracles themselves." There is more, but you should read the whole sermon. I hardly ever read one of his sermons but what I think I've been in church. The language and the contemporary references may be slightly dated (keep in mind he preached over a hundred years ago), but the Word of God is there and clear. |
| 2005-12-22 |
| Aunt Elinor's surgery went very well this morning. At least three nurses there told us Dr. Spencer is the best cateract surgeon. One said that if she were having it done, she would pick him. So far, their testimony has held up! |
| 2005-12-21 |
| In a world where Jesus seems to be the only unpopular deity, take some extra time to read his Word. John 1 and 1st John 1 are great chapters to remind us why he came, and why there is a CHRISTmas to celebrate in the first place. What a Gift! We've put some family pictures up with our Christmas letter here. Merry Christmas to all! |
| 2005-12-03 |
| Esther's final plea: On that day did the king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' enemy unto Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he [was] unto her. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it unto Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman. And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews. Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther arose, and stood before the king, And said, If it please the king, and if I have found favour in his sight, and the thing [seem] right before the king, and I [be] pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews which [are] in all the king's provinces: For how can I endure to see the evil that shall come unto my people? or how can I endure to see the destruction of my kindred? The King's next decree: Then the king Ahasuerus said unto Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, Behold, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged upon the gallows, because he laid his hand upon the Jews. Write ye also for the Jews, as it liketh you, in the king's name, and seal [it] with the king's ring: for the writing which is written in the king's name, and sealed with the king's ring, may no man reverse. Getting the word out: Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that [is], the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth [day] thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which [are] from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language. And he wrote in the king Ahasuerus' name, and sealed [it] with the king's ring, and sent letters by posts on horseback, [and] riders on mules, camels, [and] young dromedaries: Wherein the king granted the Jews which [were] in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, [both] little ones and women, and [to take] the spoil of them for a prey, Upon one day in all the provinces of king Ahasuerus, [namely], upon the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which [is] the month Adar. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province [was] published unto all people, and that the Jews should be ready against that day to avenge themselves on their enemies. [So] the posts that rode upon mules [and] camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment. And the decree was given at Shushan the palace. And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple: and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad. The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour. And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. Alexander Maclaren's character sketch of Esther come from his "An Exposition of the Scriptures" Volume III: "Esther. The heroine of the whole book and of this chapter is Esther, one of the sweetest and noblest of the women of Scripture. The orphan girl who had grown up into beauty under the care of her uncle Mordecai, and was lifted suddenly from sheltered obscurity into the 'fierce light that beats upon a throne', like some flower culled in a shady nook and set in a king's bosom, was true to her childhood's protector and to her people, and kept her sweet, brave gentleness unspoiled by the rapid elevation which ruins so many characters. Her Jewish name of Hadassah ('myrtle') well befits her, for she is clothed with unostentatious beauty, pure and fragrant as the blossoms that brides twine in their hair. But, withal, she has a true woman's courage which is always ready to endure any evil and dare any danger at the bidding of her heart. She took her life in her hand when she sought an audience of Ahasuerus uninvited, and she knew that she did. Nothing in litereature is nobler than her quiet words, which measure her danger without shrinking, and front it without heroics: 'If I perish, I perish!' The danger was not past, though she was queen and beloved; for a despot's love is a shifting sand-bank, which may yield anchorage today, and tomorrow may be washed away. So she counted not her life dear unto herself when, for the second time, as in our passage, she ventured, uninvited, into the king's presence. The womanly courage that risks life for love's sake is nobler than the soldier's that feels the lust of battle maddening him. Esther's words to the king are full of tact. She begins with what seems to have been the form of address prescribed by custom, for it is used by her in her former requests (chap. v.8; vii. 3). But she adds a variation of the formula, tinged with more personal reference to the king's feeling towards her, as well as breathing entire submission to his estimate of what was fitting. 'If the thing seem right before the king,' appeals to the sense of justice that lay dormant beneath the monarch's arbitrary will; 'and I be pleasing in his eyes,' drew him by the charm of her beauty. She avoided making the king responsible for the plot, and laid it at the door of the dead and discredited Haman. It was his device, and since he had fallen, his policy could be reversed without hurting the king's dignity. And then with fine tact, as well as with a burst of genuine feeling, she flings all her personal influence into the scale, and seeks to move the king, not by appeals to his justice or royal duty, but to his love for her, which surely could not bear to see her suffer. One may say that is was a low motive to appeal to, to ask the despot to save a people in order to keep one woman from sorrow; and so it was. It was Ahauerus's fault that such a reason had more weight with him than nobler ones. It was not Esther's that she used her power over him to carry her point. She used the weapons that she had, and that she knew would be efficacious. The purpose for which she used them is her justification. Esther may well teach her sisters today to be brave and gentle, to use their influence over men for high purposes of public good, to be the inspirers of their husbands, lovers, brothers, for all the noble thinking and doing; to make the cause of the oppressed their own, to be the apostles of mercy and the hinderers of wrong, to keep true to their early associations if prosperity comes to them, and to cherish sympathy with their nation so deep that they cannot 'endure to see the evil that shall come unto them' without using all their womanly influence to avert it." Other commentators in the Protestant world are not so kind to Esther, but I am moved and inclined to agree with Maclaren. More on the King and Mordecai later. |
| 2005-10-29 |
| We enjoyed it again. Same routine as last Saturday. The 100 hits to start with really seems to get things into a groove. Just as tired when we finished, so it appears to be working well! |
| 2005-10-28 |
| Someone recently told me that they really do not believe God knows everything. This person came to that strange conclusion because of an unbalanced view of free will: he could not cope with the thought that God could know what we were going to choose to do. Biblical conclusions, however, can not contradict clear Bible teaching. While I know God knows everything, I found it difficult to quote chapter and verse with logic at that moment. I asked Robert what God knows. My 8-year old said "Everything". So how is it that we know that God knows everything? Two distinct theologies, Lindsell and Woodbridge's "A Handbook of Christian Truth" , and Charnock's "The Existence and Attributes of God", begin sections on the omniscience of God with Psalm 147:5, "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite." Infinite means that it cannot be numbered. Something that cannot be numbered cannot be measured. Anything that cannot be measured has no limits. To measure something is to put boundaries around it. God's understanding has no boundaries.Sometimes we say something is infinite when we simply cannot comprehend it's measure. But the fault is ours. It's not just that God's understanding is something we cannot measure, it's that God's understanding cannot be measured. So to say that there are some things God does not know, is to say that God's understanding is not infinite. That's really enough for me, but in the course of my brief study, I came across a number of things that the Bible positively states that God does know: He knows what I do. I Samuel 2:3 says "The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed." He knows what I think. I Samuel 16:7 says "the Lord looketh on the heart." He knows what everyone thinks. I Kings 8:39 says "thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men." He knows what I intend to do. I Chronicles 28:9 says "The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts." "His eye seeth every precious thing." Job 28:10. Job 36:4 says "He that is perfect in knowledge is with thee." Knowledge that is perfect cannot have any deficiencies, can it? "No thought can be withholden from thee." Job 42:2. Psalm 94:9-10 shows how and why. "He that planted the ear (what a phrase!), shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall he not know?" How can Psalm 139 be left out? "Thou has searched me and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and my uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways." There are more, and precious passages. It follows that if God knows everything, that he knows everything about the future. The Bible has something to say about that, too. "Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them." Isaiah 42:9. "I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done." Isaiah 46:9-10a. "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah 1:5. If any man has free will, then Jeremiah did as well - and yet God knew Jeremiah's future anyway. And lastly, not to leave out the New Testament, Acts 15:18 says "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." That God knows everything is pretty clear according to the Bible, and since there is no other authoritative source, its just plain old clearly right. |
| 2005-10-25 |
| I have been struggling with how to develop Robert, my favorite 8-year-old, as a racquetball player. Last weekend we hit on a simple, but thoroughly enjoyable method. We began by my feeding Robert balls until he had hit 100 of them to the front wall from the back of the court. During the last 30 or so he often made multiple hits. I fetched, and mostly kept quiet. After a water break, we played 'Your hit, my hit'. The only rules are that the players must alternate hits, and that those hits must be in the general direction of the front wall. If there was any doubt whose turn it was, I called 'Your hit', or 'My hit' as appropriate. Robert says it was an effort to move from 100 hits in a row by him to alternating every other hit. We played for probably a half an hour, taking two more breaks. It was an effort on my part to set up good shots for him to return, and we were both thoroughly exercised at the end of the session. I got a workout, and in his words, 'My arm is tired!' We both had so much fun that we are going to do it again, perhaps regularly. Why journal such an experience? Because it was a breakthrough in method that accomplished much by focusing first on a single basic (hit the ball 100 times), and on a single enhancement (alternate). I have been frustrated in the past because I was trying to impart far too much information at once (walls, one bounce, serves, etc.), and am 'jazzed' at the success (and the fun) we had. See you on the court Saturday, Robert! |
| 2005-10-13 |
| I've read Freakonomics, and the authors have some interesting things to say. Following Walter Williams column on the Bill Bennet flap, you can read my following commentary in context at RedStatesUSA.com While the argument that abortions have reduced the crime rate may appear to be valid on its face, it overlooks the fact that abortion is murder. When you take into consideration the many millions of such murders, you just can't argue that the crime rate is down. So the crime rate for murders is not really down, abortion has just been reclassified as not a crime. I'd much rather we had taken our chances and given them a chance. |
| 2005-10-12 |
| More from Longfellow's "The Children of the Last Supper". This is a clarion call for reaffirmation of faith by young men and maidens. It could as easily be asked of Christians of all ages. The 'she' referred to is the 'Holy Church'. "Kindly she frees you again, to examine and make your election, For she knows naught of compulsion, and only conviction desireth. This is the hour of your trial, the turning-point of existence, Seed for the coming days; without revocation departeth Now from your lips the confession. Bethink ye, before ye make answer! Think not, oh think not with guile to deceive the questioning Teacher. Sharp is his eye to-day, and a curse ever rests upon falsehood. Enter not with a lie on Life's journey; the multitude hears you, Brothers and sisters and parents, what dear upon earth is and holy Standeth before your sight as a witness; the Judge everlasting Looks from the sun down upon you, and angels in waiting beside Him Grave your confession in letters of fire upon tablets eternal. Thus, the, -believe ye in God, in the Father who this world created? Him who redeemed it, the Son, and the Spirit where both are united? Will ye promise me here (a holy promise!), to cherish God more than all things earthly, and every man as a brother? Will ye promise me here, to confirm your faith by your living, The heavenly faith of affection! to hope, to forgive, and to suffer, Be what it may your condition, and walk before God in uprightness? Will ye promise me this before God and man?" There are clearly shadows of Longfellow's Unitarianism that show through the words. But what a difference from what is commonly asked of today's young people! |
| 2005-10-11 |
| From "The Children of the Lord's Supper" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The sheer beauty of the language brings tears to my eyes. Listen (you'd better read it out loud) to the music of the words: "Hark! then roll forth at once the mighty tones of the organ, Hover like voices from God, aloft like invisible spirits, Like as Elias in heaven, when he cast from off him his mantle, So cast off the soul its garments of earth; and with one voice Chimed in the congregation, and sang an anthem immortal Of the sublime Wallin, of David's harp in the North-land Tuned to the choral of Luther; the song on its mighy pinions Took every living soul, and lifted it gently to heaven, And each face did shine like the Holy One's face upon Tabor." What a song service he describes! To get the full effect, you must go to the poem and read it yourself in its entirety. I'm reading the piece to Robert as he drifts off to sleep this week. I look forward to other gems from "The Children of the Lord's Supper". |
| 2005-09-25 |
| "Go, my daughter" "Where hast thou gleaned today?" "Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall" Naomi sent Ruth out. She did not try to keep her by her side. She inquired into the happenings in Ruth's day. She gave wise counsel to Ruth. It is often right to simply wait and see what the Lord will do. Notice that Naomi's counsel was much improved after she had experienced bitter dealings of God in her life. We should take care how we respond to the dealings of God, whether they be sweet or bitter. |
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