Tried With Fire

105. Q. What is God's will for you in the Sixth Commandment? A. I am not to belittle, insult, hate, or kill my neighbor - not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture, and certainly not by actual deeds - and I am not to be party to this in others; rather, I am to put away all desire for revenge. I am not to harm or recklessly endanger myself either. Prevention of murder is why government is armed with the sword. 106. Q. Does this commandment only refer to killing? A. By forbidding murder, God teaches us that He hates the root of murder; envy, anger, vindictiveness. In God's sight all such are murder. 107. Q. Is it enough then that we do not kill our neighbor in any such way? A. No. By condemning envy, hatred, and anger, God tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves, to be patient, peace-loving, gentle, merciful, and friendly to them, to protect them from harm as much as we can, and so do good even to our enemies. "I'm all for passion and righteous indi...

Our acquittal is in this that the guilt which made us liable to punishment was transferred to the head of the Son of God (Is. 53:12). We must specially remember this substitution in order that we may not be all our lives in trepidation and anxiety, as if the just vengeance which the Son of God transferred to himself, were still impending over us. Accordingly, faith apprehends acquittal in the condemnation of Christ, and blessing in his curse. Hence it is not without cause that Paul magnificently celebrates the triumph which Christ obtained upon the cross, as if the cross, the symbol of ignominy, had been converted into a triumphal chariot. For he says, that he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross: that “having spoiled principalities and powers he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it,” (Col. 2:14, 15). Institutes of the Christian Religion  2.16.5 & 2.16...

Don't take yourself too seriously...    ht: Reformed Humor on FB

Butterfly on blue mist flowers I'm thankful for: ~ Used book sales. ~ A repaired furnace before cooler weather sets in and a home warranty to help cover the cost. ~ Hearing my daughter speak of her love for our church family. ~ Laughter and private jokes. ~ Being reminded that even with the many wonderful temporal blessings God has given us, Jesus is off the chart by comparison. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith .  Philippians 3:7-9

It's my turn to post at Out of the Ordinary : Appearance is a big issue for young women. From preschool onward, there's an unspoken rule that the prettiest, best dressed, and coolest girl moves to the top of the pecking order. This rule “tells girls that how you look is more important than how you feel. More that that, it tells them that how you look  is  how you feel as well as  who you are .”  1 But if you think this is something women outgrow when they reach middle age, think again. There are nearly 500  Forever 21  stores, but you've probably never heard of  Forever 52 . Why not? Because it doesn't exist in a culture where “... girls are now simultaneously getting older younger  and  staying younger older. It also explains why the identical midriff-baring crop top is sold to eight-year-olds, eighteen-year-olds, and forty-eight-year-olds. The phases of our lives have become strangely blurred as girls try to look like adult women and ...

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; Wisdom and discipline, dense people belittle. (Prov. 1:7 DJP) The fear of Yahweh is not a concept without a context, hanging on nothing. It is not a vibration, not a virus. We don't catch it, and it doesn't happen either outside of us, or to us. It is an attitude. It is a mindset. More, it is a worldview; it is the grid through which we perceive, arrange, understand, interpret, and interact with the world. And what is a worldview without a viewer? ... [E]ach of us must make personal application of what we learn here. True, we may well learn something of help to a friend or relative. Still, we should think primarily in terms of how we can learn and personally apply the fear of Yahweh in  our own lives. It is I who must learn to fear Yahweh, myself. And so must you. No one can or will do it for us, as our substitute - not even the Holy Spirit. God's Wisdom in Proverbs , Dan Phillips, Kress, 2011, pp. 66-67.

[This is a post that's been simmering on the back burner for some time. I'm revisiting it having been inspired by our new Sunday school series on applying the gospel in a fallen world.] I listened to Voddie Baucham's talk from the 2012 Shepherd's conference and heard the most beautiful and compelling argument for purity I have ever heard. (Audio here , video here - start listening around 24:00.) He does a little pretend dialogue with his son regarding abstinence and the one flesh union solely within the bounds of marriage. Baucham then says, "It is awesome because this is a picture of Christ and His bride, the church, and you should no more illegitimately unite yourself physically with a woman outside of marriage than Christ should unite Himself with one who is not His own. " Why is this so powerful? It's not a "carrot and stick" approach - obey the rules and God will bless you, disobey and you'll be stricken with a loathsome disease a...