Tried With Fire

He that walketh uprightly walketh surely. (Proverbs 10:9) His walk may be slow, but it is sure. He that hasteth to be rich shall not be innocent nor sure; but steady perseverance in integrity, if it does not bring riches, will certainly bring peace. In doing that which is just and right, we are like one walking upon a rock, for we have confidence that every step we take is upon solid and safe ground. On the other hand, the utmost success through questionable transactions must always be hollow and treacherous, and the man who has gained it must always be afraid that a day of reckoning will come, and then his gains will condemn him. Let us stick to truth and righteousness. By God's grace let us imitate our Lord and Master, in whose mouth no deceit was ever found. Let us not be afraid of being poor, nor of being treated with contempt. Never, on any account whatever, let us do that which our conscience cannot justify. If we lose inward peace, we lose more than a fortune can buy....

Bach played on a glass harp:

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1. We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing; he chastens and hastens his will to make known; the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing. Sing praises to his name; he forgets not his own. 2 Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine; so from the beginning the fight we were winning; thou, Lord, wast at our side; all glory be thine! 3 We all do extol thee, thou leader triumphant, and pray that thou still our defender wilt be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation; thy name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

I hope your Thanksgiving won't be like this one. :)

I sometimes wonder how much of the mess in this world can be traced back to our failure to acknowledge that people are people. All you need to do is turn on the TV or crack open a history book, and you will see sharply drawn lines of division. These lines run deep and are as old as the Fall. Relationships became adversarial. Conflict sprang up between the man and the woman, between brother and brother, and these scenarios are still being repeated on a seemingly endless loop. God's common grace does come to us through the means of education and legal reforms for which I am very grateful. But they can only do so much because they can only address the outside. In the end, the change has to happen from the inside out. I don't believe we can treat people as people until we are humbled at the foot of the cross. When we see the underserved love and favor of God extended to us through the death of Jesus Christ, self-importance, entitlement, and superiority are given a fatal blow....

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22) This is a promise of promises. It lies at the foundation of our spiritual life. Salvation comes through a look at Him who is "a just God and a Saviour." How simple is the direction! "Look unto me." How reasonable is the requirement! Surely the creature should look to the Creator. We have looked elsewhere long enough; it is time that we look alone to Him who invites our expectation and promises to give us His salvation. Qnly a look! Will we not look at once? We are to bring nothing in ourselves but to look outward and upward to our Lord on His throne, whither He has gone up from the cross. A look requires no preparation, no violent effort: it needs neither wit nor wisdom, wealth nor strength. All that we need is in the Lord our God, and if we look to Him for everything, that everything shall be ours, and we shall be saved. Come, far-off ones, look h...

Amazing picking by Bela Fleck and Sam Bush. Don't let the twitching mullet distract you. :)

I am thankful for: - Small group Thanksgiving dinner last night. - Mental wherewithal for a busy work day. I am grateful to have a job, but I'm also glad when I can shut down my work computer. - Getting re-grounded in the gospel. I have been wrestling with a justice issue lately, namely domestic abuse. There's nothing wrong with caring deeply about justice and wanting to be an advocate in anyway I can. But if I lose my gospel center and only see the here and know and where we've gone wrong, I can become frustrated, pessimistic, and react as though expecting the worst. I cannot forget that real healing only comes through Jesus Christ. He renews and restores from the inside out, He will never crush a bruised reed or extinguish a smoking flax. And there will come a day when all wrongs will be right when He returns. Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus.

When the gospel is recovered in your life after being a Christian for years, every link in the golden chain of redemption becomes meaningful. However, one link is very dear to my heart and has been a comfort in tough times - adoption. Read the post at Out of the Ordinary, which includes an awesome quote from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Lately I've been digging into the nuts and bolts of Bible interpretation. This was triggered by a journal article I had read which examined different views among conservative Christians on a particular subject. These differing view stemmed from different interpretations of a single New Testament (NT) word which in turn led to different applications. On one side, the meaning was derived with emphasis on the root definition. On the other side, the context was given more weight. As a result, I've been consulting D.A. Carson's Exegetical Fallacies , Invitation To Biblical Interpretation by Drs. Kostenberger and Patterson, and this Tabletalk article. These resources shed quite a bit of light on the pitfalls of interpreting Scripture and the fallacies we inadvertently commit. It's also been highly mortifying. I've committed many if not all of these word fallacies and made assumptions about biblical words that were just plain wrong. After cringing inside at my mistakes...

For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. (Psalm 94:14) No, nor will He cast even so much as one of them. Man has his castoffs, but God has none; for His choice is unchangeable, and His love is everlasting. None can find out a single person whom God has forsaken after having revealed Himself savingly to him. This grand truth is mentioned in the psalm to cheer the heart of the afflicted. The Lord chastens His own; but He never forsakes them. The result of the double work of the law and the rod is our instruction, and the fruit of that instruction is a quieting of spirit, a sobriety of mind, out of which comes rest. The ungodly are let alone till the pit is digged into which they will fall and be taken; but the godly are sent to school to be prepared for their glorious destiny hereafter. Judgment will return and finish its work upon the rebels, but it will equally return to vindicate the sincere and godly. Hence we may bear the rod of chastise...

A Mark O'Connor mandolin classic with a little banjo and dobro...

Tim Hawkins: Atheist Kids' Songs

Crepe Myrtle I am thankful for: - A good night's sleep. Seven plus hours is definitely better than six. - A working furnace especially with the forecast of our first hard frost tonight. - An "Aha!" moment. When I'm wrestling with an issue and trying to make sense of its ramifications, it's a wonderful feeling when something clicks and the dots begin to connect. - Lively discussions with my daughter about words and etymological fallacies. - Midweek meetings of the church. Some of us middle-aged women are reading through Made for More , which has led to some great discussions. Last night was small group where we discussed the latest sermon from Genesis. It's been refreshing to see this familiar book through new eyes, not so much as a collection of nice stories but as the opening act of God's eternal plan of redemption. - That God had no plan B. His purposes stand from eternity to eternity - from huge, earth-shattering, epoch-making events to ...

Newport News Victory Arch "Greetings with love to those who return,  A triumph with tears to those who sleep."

This is a true story. I remembered it recently in the light of the Jian Ghomeshi scandal. I am acquainted with both parties involved. Names have been changed and the story altered slightly for anonymity. Jane had worked as an administrative assistant for several years. She was hard-working and aimed to do her best. The position for executive secretary to the Chief Executive Officer became available in the company where she was employed. She applied. She was interviewed and then offered the job. What a great promotion! Jane was excited about her new position and looked forward to working for Mr. Smith. After a week or two, it became apparent why Jane's predecessors never stayed long in the job. She was expected to run errands for Mr. Smith and his family such as picking up dry cleaning and other busy work, none of which was in her job description. She was also expected to complete her work on time regardless of how much of her day was taken away to fulfill these extraneous ...

Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 34:30) To be the Lord's own people is a choice blessing, but to know that we are such is a comfortable blessing. It is one thing to hope that God is with us and another thing to know that He is so. Faith saves us, but assurance satisfies us. We take God to be our God when we believe in Him; but we get the joy of Him when we know that He is ours and that we are His. No believer should be content with hoping and trusting; he should ask the Lord to lead him on to full assurance, so that matters of hope may become matters of certainty. It is when we enjoy covenant blessings and see our Lord Jesus raised up for us as a plant of renown that we come to a clear knowledge of the favor of God toward us. Not by law, but by grace do we learn that we are the Lord's people. Let us always turn our eyes in the direction of free grace. Assurance of...

ht: Leslie Wiggins on FB

Drinking - My first cup of morning tea. Trying - To wake up. I shouldn't have stayed up late watching the election results on Tuesday night, and I'm still feeling it today. As Christians, we don't put our hope in princes, horses, or political parties, but it was rather gratifying that the American people made a strong statement with their votes. Participating - In 2014 NaNoWriMo  - National Novel Writing Month. The challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. This is my 6th NaNoWriMo.  My genre is satire/humor with science fiction and theology thrown in for good measure. (I had previous villains named Darth Pelagius, Darth Finney, and Darth Osteen.) It's been a fun break to give free rein to the nonsense lurking in the back of my brain. Listening in the evenings - To The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe  by C.S. Lewis. Audio books are story time for grownups, and familiar stories are like visits from old friends. Reading - A new book for the ch...

I'm posting at Out of the Ordinary today. We need to gospel for everything - for when we sin, when we fail and when we're not as grateful as we should be. Read the post here .

The true believer is fit for heaven; he is meet to be a partaker of the inheritance—and that now, at this very moment. What does this mean? Does it mean that the believer is perfect; that he is free from sin? No, my brethren, where shall you ever find such perfection in this world? If no man can be a believer but the perfect man, then what has the perfect man to believe? Could he not walk by sight? When he is perfect, he may cease to be a believer. No, brethren, it is not such perfection that is meant although perfection is implied, and assuredly will be given as the result. Far less does this mean that we have a right to eternal life from any doings of our own. We have a fitness for eternal life, a meetness for it, but we have no desert of it. We deserve nothing of God even now, in ourselves. but his eternal wrath and his infinite displeasure. What, then, does It mean? Why, it means just this: we are so far meet that we are accepted in the Beloved, adopted into the family, and fitt...

Gigue and Double from Lute Suite N.2 BWV 997 Performed by Gonzalo Andrés Molano