Tried With Fire

Taking a short blogging break. I'll see ya when I sees ya.

ht: Les Lanphere on Twitter

I am thankful for: Ant killer. Spring time means little black ants sneaking in the house. Strangely enough, they were interested in my sugar-free mouthwash this year. At least they died with fresh breath. Little things like getting the yard mowed and having 20 pounds of hay delivered before the rain came. Friends who pray for me when I am stressed. My, how hard it is to let go of the need to be in control of my life. Anticipation of time with family. Reminders that there is nothing too small to bring to God. It's not as though He's only concerned about the big things. He also doesn't have office hours or limited bandwidth. Big or small. 24/7. We can pray anytime about everything. This simple and uncomplicated truth - God is with us.

I'm posting at Out to the Ordinary today: This past Sunday, my pastor continued preaching through the book of Genesis with Joseph's ongoing saga in Egypt as the text. After being nearly killed and then sold into slavery by his brothers, he is bought by Potiphar and eventually put in charge of his master's household. It looks like Joseph's situation is taking a turn for the better only to have his master's wife repeatedly harass him and falsely accuse him of rape. Then he's thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit. I had read the account numerous times, but I had never noticed until Sunday that the writer deliberately makes the point that the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love  in the prison .  If I was writing the story, I would have him exonerated of all charges and released immediately. Wouldn't a happy ending be a better demonstration of the Lord's favor? But putting him in prison for an unspecified period of time and...

I love the novel   Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. In addition to the humor and the delightful characters, Gaskell provides insight into the British mindset of the mid-1800's. I also wonder if she has put on paper what many of us think: “Elegant economy!” How naturally one falls back into the phraseology of Cranford! There, economy was always “elegant,” and money-spending always “vulgar and ostentatious”; a sort of sour-grapeism which made us very peaceful and satisfied. I never shall forget the dismay felt when a certain Captain Brown came to live at Cranford, and openly spoke about his being poor—not in a whisper to an intimate friend, the doors and windows being previously closed, but in the public street! in a loud military voice! alleging his poverty as a reason for not taking a particular house. The ladies of Cranford were already rather moaning over the invasion of their territories by a man and a gentleman. He was a half-pay captain, and had obtained some situation o...

There is no doubt that this world is broken by sin. We have suffered in the past, and we probably will suffer some more before we are with the Lord. But we can't lose our hope. But Christian hope isn't speculation. It isn't weighing the statistics and counting on the odds coming out in our favor. It's not an emotional vibe that things will get better if we wish hard enough. No. Our hope is grounded on the promises in the rock solid Word of God. So here is a list from David Murray on the good we can count on as children of God: God will guide our lives. God will never leave us or forsake us. God will work all things together for our good. God will produce gold from our dross. God will sustain and provide in our weakness and helplessness. God will get us ready for heavenly glory. God will utterly defeat death, sin, and Satan. God will provide a new body in a new heaven and a new earth. The Happy Christian , David Murray, Nelson Books, 2015, pp. 93-94. ...

"He that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new."—Revelation 21:5. [I]t hath come to pass that Christ has made for us a new covenant . The old covenant was, "Do this and live." That covenant was a sentence of death upon us all. We could not do, therefore we could not live, and so we died. The new covenant has nothing in it contingent upon creature doing, but it bases all its provisions upon Christ having done the world. "I will, and you shall," this is the language of the new covenant. The covenant of law, in which we were weak through the flesh, left us mangled and broken. The covenant of grace reveals God's kindness towards us, and our part thereof has been fulfilled for us by our surety, Christ Jesus. Thus it runs, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more for ever; a new heart also will I give them, and a right spirit will I put within them." The old world is still under the old covenant of works, an...

ht: Vintage Books on FB

Coreopsis - a bit of indoor sunshine I am thankful for… Perennials that survived the winter. The roses and gardenias look a little shabby, but the coreopsis are blooming better than last year. The sight and sound of baby birds in the yard. So far, we've seen towhee, brown thrasher, house finch, and cardinal chicks. It's comical to see the fledglings, who are almost adult-size, chasing their parents around with their beaks wide open. The end of the semester for my daughter. I'm very proud of her hard work. Daily bread and regular work. Not to be taken for granted. Daily grace that is given freely and abundantly. Perhaps we will only know the full extent of God's grace when we are with Him.

Trigger warning : Domestic violence and victim/target blaming. I am cautiously optimistic about Jason Meyer's commitment to change how Bethlehem Baptist (John Piper's former church) has handled domestic abuse in the past. I appreciate these statements that he made from the pulpit because abuse and the climate in which it can fester are rarely addressed, if ever, and he seems to "get it." An ethos that does not value women can lead to an environment where sick things slip under the radar. I have heard this statement before—warning, if you want to see me get visibly upset, just say what I am about to say in my presence: “If wives would just submit better and become more meek and quiet, then husbands would not get so angry.” These thoughts must be taken captive, or else we can create a climate in which domestic abuse can take root and grow... However, the dynamics change decidedly in situations of abusive sinfulness. In these situations, the conflict is not treate...

Larry Norman sang, " Why should the devil have all the good music? " 1 . Well I ask, why should prosperity preachers have the corner on happiness? The following list may not contain Creflo Dollar's  Lear jet , but I'll take it over a pricey, flying piece of metal any day. If this isn't good news, what is? We love and are loved by the one true and living God. God is our perfect Father. We know Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit is sanctifying and empowering us. Our sins are forgiven. We are justified and adopted into God's worldwide and heaven-wide family. We have all the promises of God. Everything is working for our good. God is our guard and guide. God lives in our hearts. Jesus has prepared a place for us and will welcome us there. 2 1. For the record, I didn't listen to Larry Norman, but I did like Petra . :) 2.  The Happy Christian , David Murray, Nelson Books, 2014, pg. xviii.

The Lord has a very peculiar care for His own people. He is their Shepherd and He feeds them like a flock. He is their Father and He guards them as His own dear children. Whenever times of great trouble come, He thinks especially of them. He drowned the antediluvian world, but not till Noah was safely in the ark. He burned Sodom and Gomorrah, but not till Lot had escaped to the little city called Zoar. In all His judgments He remembers His mercy towards His believing people—He does not suffer them to be destroyed even in the day of the destruction of the ungodly. Child of God, your Father’s eyes are lovingly fixed upon you. His heart cares for you every moment. Unhappy are the men and women of whom we cannot say this! Unhappy are you who have never trusted and never loved your God, your Maker, and your best Friend! But thrice happy is the poorest and most tried among us who knows that the Lord is his refuge, his castle and high tower, his Defender and Provider, his God and his All!...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness… The opening lines from  A Tale of Two Cities  give an uncanny description of the headlines from the last few weeks. Natural disaster, turmoil, injustice, and the list goes on. If you take all of human history into account, maybe it's not  the  absolute worst of times, but the current picture isn't pretty. Of course, its grimness could be compounded by the speed with which news travels and the glut of information that inundates us whether we like it or not. But nevertheless, it's easy to get discouraged and fearful when I consider the state of the world. The problems begin to loom larger and larger, and if I'm honest, God begins to shrink bit by bit in my estimation. At this point, it's time to turn off the news, shut down the comp...

It is still night to the church : a night of danger, a night of weariness, a night of weeping. Her firmament is dark and troubled. The promise of morning is sure, and she is looking out for it with fixed and pleading eye, sore tried with the long gloom, yet it has not arisen. It is deferred - deferred in mercy to an unready world, to whom the ending of this night shall be the closing of hope, and the sealing of ruin, and the settling down of the infinite darkness. "For the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but it is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). But though it is night , there are times both in the saint's own history and the church's annals, which may be spoken of as  mornings even now…They are indeed little more than brief brightenings of the darkness - lulls in the long tempest that is to rage unspent till the Lord come. Still we may ca...

Living Without Worry: How to replace anxiety with peace ,  by Timothy Lane, The Good Book Company , May 2015, 144 pages. If we're honest, who hasn't experienced worry at some point in their life? Sure, sometimes the small things get us down, but very often, worry can have serious effects. This is why I was very interested in reading Living Without Worry . The author begins by defining the term and distinguishing the difference between godly concern and worry. Worry is when we've crossed the line from a healthy, wise concern to over-concern which has the potential to lead to anxiety disorders, phobias, panic attacks, and other stress-related disorders. However the solution isn't going to the other extreme of indifference, which can often be mask for anxiety. Rather than lumping worry into one general category, Dr. Lane  breaks it down into the following categories: - The past including sins that may still haunt us. - Past experiences which we did not contribut...

"For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come nor height, nor depth nor any other creatures, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."—Romans 8:38, 39. Come, my brothers and sisters, are you persuaded of the love of God ? Are you intelligently persuaded not only that God is love, but that God loves you ? Are you fully persuaded of the love of God,—the love of the Father who chose us, because he would choose us, for nothing but his love; the love of Jesus, the Son of God, who bowed himself from his glory that he might redeem us from our shame; the love of the Holy Ghost who has quickened us, and who comes to dwell in us that we may by-and-by dwell with him? Are you persuaded of this love of God to you? Happy man, happy woman, who can truly say, "I am persuaded that God loves me. I have thought it over, I have fully considered it, I have-t...

ht: Teresa on FB