August 2020 – Fraglen Inkwell Diaries

Beginning To See

Dear (fill in the blank),

We are beginning to see what it looks like when the intellectually blind grasp for a
shadow to embrace. Where is the modern day Deborah singing “March on, my soul; be strong!” Where is the spiritual Anne Sullivan to teach

a nation that is deaf, dumb, and blind?

Not all, but too many pastors are sleeping
the sleep or blowing with the breeze or
knocking with the knees. Not all,
but too many professors are
continuing to do as
they please–groping in
personal darkness
when the spotlight
shines on them from above.

Stand up – stand now or
you will find yourselves
shining the boots of those
handing out your
bamboo slippers

as they march you off to
the gulag camps of your reeducation.

Sincerely – Walley

P.S. read Judges Chapters 4 and 5 – particularly 4:9
….consider the voice of the singers at the watering places…

The Days Are Evil

August 18, 2020 jakin7

Be very careful, then,

how you live-

not as unwise but as wise,

making the most of every opportunity,

because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:15,16

The World Rising In Hostility

August 17, 2020 jakin7

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:10-12

“Happy are they who suffer persecution The disciples of Christ have very great need of this instruction; and the more hard and disagreeable it is for the flesh to admit it, the more earnestly ought we to make it the subject of our meditation.

We cannot be Christ’s soldiers on any other condition, than to have the greater part of the world rising in hostility against us, and pursuing us even to death. The state of the matter is this. Satan, the prince of the world, will never cease to fill his followers with rage, to carry on hostilities against the members of Christ. It is, no doubt, monstrous and unnatural, that men, who study to live a righteous life, should be attacked and tormented in a way which they do not deserve.

Yet, in consequence of the unbridled wickedness of the world, it too frequently happens, that good men, through a zeal of righteousness, arouse against them the resentments of the ungodly. Above all, it is, as we may say, the ordinary lot of Christians to be hated by the majority of men: for the flesh cannot endure the doctrine of the Gospel; none can endure to have their vices reproved.”

John Calvin (1509-1564)

Calvin, John. “Commentary on Matthew 5:10”. “Calvin’s Commentary on the Bible”