Tried With Fire

I started listening to Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2000 Years by Tom Standage. It is a popular history of human communication beginning with ancient times until the present. It's been an interesting "read" because even though technology has changed, human nature has not. The following snippets are from memory since I don't have a written text in front of me. In Ancient Greece, the use of spoken language and subsequent memorization was the way information was transmitted and preserved. Then came the the new fangled idea of writing ideas permanently down on a scroll. Horrors! Plato decried this arguing that people would stop thinking if they could just look something up in a book rather than remembering it. Sound familiar? Graffiti in Ancient Rome was quite common and not considered vandalism. The specimens that have survived are from excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were preserved by the ash of Vesuvius. There is everything from ...

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that You have sent Me. John 17:20, 21. [T]he Holy Spirit, who indwells in every believer, is the true fountain of oneness. Some of the Christians in this land of ours 200 years ago were strangely different in outward manners from their brothers and sisters of 1866; but when we talk with them through their old folios and books, we find, if we are the Lord’s people, that we are quite at home with them. Though the manifestation may vary, yet the same Spirit of God works the same graces, the same virtues, the same excellences, and thus helps all saints to prove they are of one tribe. I meet an Englishman anywhere in the wide world over, and I recognize in him some likeness to myself; there is some characteristic or other about him by which his nationality is betrayed; ...

[E]xtra degrees of charity and empathy are necessary in public discussion and debate. At the moment, what we have instead are extra degrees of anger and contempt. David French This quote is from an article by David French at National Review on the gun control debate that is raging after the  school shooting in Florida last week. He writes that if we cannot stop demonizing one another, this could tear our nation apart. I agree. The animosity towards one's opposing side has only grown since the 2016 election. I've seen this on social media in general and among those who profess Christ's name, which grieves me even more. Does strong disagreement justify this behavior? Would we use the same language and attitude toward a fellow Christian face-to-face as we would to a stranger on Twitter? If this is a fellow believer, we are called to love them as someone for whom Christ has died. For the unbeliever, he/she is our neighbor. If we won't acknowledge that, we are called to ...

God is a God for the overwhelmed. He is there during the ugly cry, the anxiety attack, and when you feel like you can't add one more thing to your plate. Being the strong one is hard especially when you forget that it is only possible by His strength. But the invitation still stands to "Come unto Me..." Taking a break and getting rest is not giving in. No one has an inexhaustible supply of energy. History doesn't do us any good if we only see it through rose-colored glasses. It also won't do us any good if we view it only in a negative light. Being truthful requires acknowledging both. Sometimes I just need a listening ear with no added advice. I'm not always looking for an answer, just a safe space to unburden myself. In a reaction to the culture's misuse of the term and the Christian subculture's fondness for sentimentality, have we downplayed genuine biblical love? Has our individualistic society narrowed its scope down to me and my ver...

When I was in elementary school, the Cold War showed no signs of letting up. The designated bomb shelter was the janitor's office/storage room off of the loading dock. I have no idea how the teachers, kids, and support staff would have fit, which is probably why the student handbook also advised us to hide under our desks. Yeah, right. We had family friends who were members of the John Birch Society. They tried to get my dad to join thinking that as a Chinese immigrant he would hate the Communists too. He refused, but they still gave him literature detailing the latest conspiracy theory in which powerful Americans were allied with the USSR to take away "life as we know it." During a crisis like this, "it is a natural human reaction to turn to the past for support." 1 Appeals are made "to recover the Christian roots, the Christian heritage, the Christian values of an older America. Our instinctive reaction is to recover what we have lost." 2 Thi...

“Even to your old age I am He.” He is always the same in Himself, and always the same to His people. If you are indeed a believer in the Lord, and resting in Christ Jesus, He says to you at this time with regard to all the future unknown, and, perhaps greatly dreaded, “Be not afraid, for I am the Lord your God; even to your old age I am He.” Dear friends, we rightly expect trials between here and heaven, and the ordinary wear and tear of life, even if life should not be clouded by an extreme trial, will gradually wear us out. We shall come, by and by, if life is spared, to that bottom of the hill where the eye grows dim, and the ear is heavy, and the arms are trembling, and the strong men bow themselves. Well, what then? What says our God concerning the days of decline and decay? He says to us, “I AM HE.” He will not grow weak. His eye will not be dim. His ear will not be heavy. His arm will not be shortened that He cannot help us, or His hand palsied that He cannot deliver us. C...

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1. He that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is in Christ. By an act of simple dependence upon Jesus he realizes his position as being in Christ. By nature I am in myself, and in sin, and I am, therefore, condemned, but when the grace of God awakens me up to know my ruined state, then I fly to Christ. I trust alone in His blood and righteousness, and He becomes to me the cleft of the rock, wherein I hide myself from the storm of vengeance justly due to me for my many offenses. The Lord Jesus is typified by the city of refuge. You and I are like the manslayer that was pursued by the avenger, and we are never safe till we pass through the gate of the city of refuge—I mean, till we are completely enclosed by the Lord Jesus. Inside the walls of the city the manslayer was secure, and within our Savior’s wounds we are safe. By a humble, simple, undivided...

As February is Black History Month, the following is the 1851 speech by Sojourner Truth, former slave and civil rights activist (1797-1883): Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and wh...

Graciousness: Tempering Truth With Love - John Crotts, Reformation Heritage Books, 2018, 137 pages. In one word, how would you describe the way people handle disagreements today? What word would you use if those people were Christians? Unfortunately "gracious" wouldn't be my first choice, given what I've seen on social media of late, which is why this book by John Crotts is very timely. There is no question that we need to be people who zealously defend the truth. Yet the Bible charges us to speak the truth in love. When love is lacking, the message of the truth may be lost if our attitude, tone, and words are harsh. Does that mean we compromise the truth? Absolutely not! Pitting truth against love is a false dichotomy, for we need both and need not sacrifice one for the other. Graciousness is also more than just being nice. It is an underlying heart attitude that seeks the good of others and is a necessary component in ministry. It shows that we are trusting G...

“The very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Observe what a full knowledge God has of each one of His children. If there were nobody else in the world except you, and God had nothing else to do but to think of you, and there were no objects of His attention beyond yourself, and His eternal mind had no object of consideration but you only, the Lord would not then know more about you than He does now. The omniscience of God is concentrated upon every single being, and yet it is not divided by the multiplicity of its objects; it is not the less upon any single one because there are so many. How it should astonish us, that the Lord knows us at this moment so intimately as to count every hair of our heads! The knowledge which the Lord has concerning His people is most minute, and takes in those small matters which men set down as unconsidered trifles. He knows what you and I hardly wish to know; He knows that which we may be content to leave unknown, “The very hairs of your head are ...

Rachael Denhollander was interviewed by Christianity Today . This article is a bombshell because she gives the reason they lost their church - The Denhollanders were advocates of the abuse victims in Sovereign Grace Ministry churches. I had my suspicions when she alluded to this in her victim impact statement. This interview confirms it. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and something is rotten in reformed-ish circles. While power and authority are not necessarily evil in themselves, they can become instruments of abuse when someone greater wields it over someone lesser to gain something that they could not get unless pressure was brought to bear. There are plenty of examples in the secular world like Harvey Weinstein. But how much worse is it when the gospel of Jesus Christ is used to silence victims and advocates? This is spiritual abuse. I think it would be worth taking a hard look at how reformed-ish circles use and misuse authority. This misuse is not across the b...