Yearly archives: 2019

Artistry and Wisdom

April 18, 2019 jakin7

God humbles his people before he elevates them.

 

He kills  in order to bring them back to life.

He devastates them before honoring them.

He knocks them down in order to pick them up.

God’s methods show the highest  artistry and wisdom.

We cannot understand how events like these are a part of God’s plan until we see his plan completed. When these events are happening, they can’t be understood, except through faith alone… But God does everything in secret. We have to be patient while God hides his intentions from us… God sees everything as if it has all taken place already. Everything he wants to happen will certainly happen.

Martin Luther 1483-1546 (excerpt from Faith Alone A Daily Devotional March 24th)

The Cellar

April 14, 2019 jakin7

 

 

 

When I am in the cellar of affliction, there I found my Lord’s choicest wine.

Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not From Us

March 31, 2019 jakin7

 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

 

 

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body…

 

Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

 

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweights them all.

 

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

 2 Corinthians 4:7-10,16-18

An Instrument

March 30, 2019 jakin7

                                         Thou hast made man for the glory of thyself,

and when not an instrument
of that glory,

he is a thing nought;  …

excerpt from  The Valley of Vision (A Collection of  Puritan Prayers and Devotions) p.36

I See

March 29, 2019 jakin7

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen,

not only because I see it,

 

but because by it I see everything else.”

C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Take Time

February 28, 2019 jakin7

“Take time. Give God time to reveal Himself to you. Give yourself time to be silent and quiet before Him, waiting to receive, through the Spirit, the assurance of His presence with you, His power working in you.

 

 

 

Take time to read His Word as in His presence, that from it you may know what He asks of you and what He promises you.

 

                                       

Let the Word create around you, create within you a holy atmosphere, a holy heavenly light, in which your soul will be refreshed and strengthened for the work of daily life.

From The Secret of Adoration – Andrew Murray (1828-1917)

 

 

The Other Way

February 27, 2019 jakin7

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”
― William Wilberforce (1759-1833)

 

 

Thou Shalt Not Play

February 4, 2019 jakin7

Setting aside the scandal caused by His Messianic claims and his reputation as a political firebrand, only two accusations of personal depravity seem to have been brought against Jesus of Nazareth. First, that he was a Sabbath-breaker. Secondly, that he was a “gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners” -or (to draw aside the veil of Elizabethan English that makes it sound so much more respectable) that he ate too heartily, drank too freely, and kept very disreputable company, including grafters of the lowest type and ladies who were no better than they should be.

For nineteen and a half centuries, the Christian Churches have laboured,

not without success, to remove this unfortunate impression made by their Lord and Master. They have hustled the Magdalens from the Communion-table,

founded Total Abstinence Societies in the name of him who made the water wine,

and added improvements of their own, such as various bans and anathemas upon dancing and theatre-going.

And, feeling that the original Sabbath commandment “Thou shalt not work” was rather half-hearted, have added to it the new commandment, “Thou shalt not play.”

 -Dorothy L. Sayers, (1893-1957) from Unpopular Opinions (1946)

From The Shadows

January 24, 2019 jakin7

In the Lord I take refuge. How then can you say to me: ” Flee like a bird to your mountain. For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart. When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? ”  The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them.      Psalm 11: 1-4

 

All men may acknowledge that the world is governed by the providence of God, but when there comes some sad confusion of things, which disturbs their ease, and involves them in difficulty, there are few who retain in their minds the firm persuasion of this truth.

But from the example of David, we ought to make such account of the providence of God as to hope for a remedy from his judgment, even when matters are in the most desperate condition. When in the world all justice lies trodden under foot, and faithfulness has perished,

David reflects that God sits in heaven perfect and unchanged, from whom it became him to look for the restoration of order from this state of miserable confusion.

He does not simply say that God dwells in heaven; but that he reigns there, as it were, in a royal place, and has his throne of judgment there. Nor do we indeed render to him the honour which is his due, unless we are fully persuaded that his judgment- seat is a sacred sanctuary for all who are in affliction and unrighteously oppressed.

When, therefore, deceit, craft, treachery, cruelty, violence, and extortion reign in the world; in short, when all things are thrown into disorder and darkness by injustice and wickedness,

let faith serve as a lamp

to enable us to behold God’s heavenly throne,

 

and let that sight suffice to make us wait in patience for the restoration of things to a better state.

John Calvin (1509-1564)

Conservatives and Progressives

January 23, 2019 jakin7

 

 

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The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected.

 

Illustrated London News 1924

                                                                         G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)