Tried With Fire

My daughter was baptized today. She had first expressed the desire to be baptized more than a year ago. Through different circumstances, it wasn't possible for that to take place. Beginning in 2008, the Lord led us to a small Reformed Baptist congregation meeting 5 minutes from our home unbeknownst to us. One of the reasons why I believe the Lord led us to this place was so she could be baptized today. Praise the Lord, she took this step in obedience to God. She publicly testified that she is the Lord's, she no longer belongs to the world, and she wants to follow Him. The last year has been a tremendous trial for our family. Today is a testimony to God's faithfulness in keeping His own even through disappointment, heartache, and pain. He is faithful to take something that would be a cause of tremendous bitterness and use it to draw my daughter and myself closer to Him. May He receive all the glory!

I am relatively new to the Doctrines of Grace so I am pondering these in relation to things I had previously held to be true. In the last several months, I have become more aware that my view of God often makes Him smaller than He really is which is also demeaning to the character of God. The idea that God is totally sovereign and reigning over everything would be something that I would certainly not deny. But when the rubber meets the road, do I really believe that or do I believe that somehow He is not fully in control and that sinful man (myself or others) and the devil can thwart Him? I can say that I believe God is in control but my actions and attitudes may contradict that. What hinges on this is - if God is fully in control then everything that comes into my life whether good or bad is from His hand and according to His purpose and ultimately for my good. Conversely, if somehow He is not fully in control, then there may be things that come into my life that are the result of sin...

If there is any good in wealth or in any comfort in this world, it is not so much that it pleases my sense or that it suits my body, but that it has reference to God, the first being, that by these creatures somewhat of God's goodness might be conveyed to me, and I may have a sanctified use of the creature to draw me nearer to God, that I may enjoy more of God, and be made more serviceable for His glory in the place where He has set me: this is the good of the creature. Oh that we were only instructed in this lesson and understood and thoroughly believed this! No creature in all the world has any goodness in it any further than it has reference to the first infinite supreme good of all, that so far as I can enjoy God in it, so far it is good to me, and so far as I do not enjoy God in it, so far there is no goodness in any creature. How easy it would be, if we really believed that, to be contented! (page 97) When they perform actions to God, then the soul says: 'Oh! That I could...

I am finding it very interesting that many of the saints from years gone by have quite a bit to write to encourage those who are going through times of trial and affliction. It seems like our brothers and sisters in times past took the Lord Jesus at His word when He said: If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. John 15: 19-21 However, I also find it interesting that the idea that the life of a believer is a life of suffering is lost today. I wonder when the thought that being a Christian meant that we would be free from suffering came into the church. It seems that a...

This is the Puritan Reading Challenge book for the month of April. I showed the book to a friend on Tuesday. She was hooked just from reading the table of contents. I am hoping that she and another sister in Christ will be interested in reading this book together. So often I read too fast and too much and lose what I have read. (Sometimes I think I overload my brain even with good reading so I am like a computer system that is thrashing.) By reading this together and having regular fellowship on the truth, we can encourage one another to lay hold of what we have read. The author, Jeremiah Burroughs, was burdened that believers would experience the grace of contentment during these "sad and sinking times". The book was first published in 1648, 360 years ago. If those days were sad and sinking, how much worse are the times we live in. If often seems that some days, I am barely keeping my head above water. I pray that the Lord would use this to bring me into the "gracious f...

Grant that I may distrust myself, to see my all in thee. ~ From Valley of Vision. Daily selections can be found here. Cease meddling with God's plans and will. You touch anything of His, and you mar the work. You may move the hands of a clock to suit you, but you do not change the time; so you may hurry the unfolding of God's will, but you harm and do not help the work. You can open a rosebud but you spoil the flower. Leave all to Him. Hands down. Thy will, not mine. --Stephen Merritt ~ from Streams in the Desert Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. Hebrews 3: 12-15

I have been enjoying, if that is the right word, the biographical talks given by John Piper. Today, I was listening to the talk on William Tyndale. During his day, it was illegal to have any form of the Bible in English. Seven people were burned alive for teaching their children the Lord's Prayer in English. More would be martyred. Tyndale eventually was strangled and then burned at the stake for his translating the Bible into English. I ask myself - is my Bible worth that much to me? Do I realize the preciousness of the word of God? Martyrs' blood was spilt so I can read my Bible every day. Do I appreciate that? Do I appreciate the privilege of being able to read the Word and have the Holy Spirit illuminate it to me revealing Jesus Christ? Hearing about how Tyndale and the saints suffered for the Lord puts things into perspective. I should have nothing to complain about. God in His sovereign will saw fit to allow Tyndale and these brethren to give their lives for His sake. ...