Yearly archives: 2024

The Beginning of Wisdom

June 28, 2024 testadmin

 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise.

Psalm 111:10

Can it then be said that the non-religious world is without wisdom?
Has it no Aristotle, no Socrates, no Tacitus, no Goethe, No Gibbon?
Let us understand what wisdom is. It is not any mere amount of knowledge
that constitutes wisdom. Appropriate knowledge is essential to wisdom.

A man who has not the knowledge appropriate to his position, who does
not know himself in his relation to God and to his fellow-men, who is
misinformed as to his duties, his dangers, his necessities, though he
may have written innumerable works of a most exalted character, yet is
he to be set down as a man without wisdom.

If you have learned to estimate things in some measure as God estimates
them, to desire what he offers, to relinquish what he forbids, and to
recognize the duties that he has appointed you, you are in the path of
wisdom, and the great men we have been speaking about are far behind you-
far from the narrow gate which you have entered. He only is wise, who can
call Christ the wisdom of God.

 

George Bowen (1816-1888)

From The Treasury of David by Charles H. Spurgeon P.12 of Classic Reflections
on the Wisdom of the Psalms

I Fear No Longer

June 27, 2024 testadmin

But now let my God cry more loudly in my soul,
so that your truth may tell me, “No, that is
not the case; it is not true.

 

The primary teaching
is better in every respect.” I am undoubtedly more
ready today to forget the wanderings of Aeneas and
so forth than how to write or read. Curtains may
well hang at the entrance to schools of literature,
but they serve less to signal the prestige of elite
instruction than to conceal error.

Let not those buyers
and sellers of literary studies shout me down, my God,
as I confess to you according to my soul’s need, and
acquiesce as you chide me for those evil ways of mine
and bring me to love your good ways;

let them not shout
me down, for I fear no longer.

Saint Augustine (354-430)

the Confessions (Book 1 P. 26. 22)

The Works of Saint Augustine A Translation for the 21st Century

from the Augustinian Heritage Institute

Ignorance/Education

June 26, 2024 testadmin

 

ignorance in the minds, hearts, and hands
of evil breeds violence-

education in those same vessels brings
forth annihilation-

walley

 

Nothing But Leaves

May 30, 2024 testadmin

 

 

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.
Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find
out if it had any fruit.
When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it
was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May
no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples
heard him say it.

Mark 11:12-14

 

…”But, further, the church or individual whose religion runs to
leaf is useless to the world. What does the world care about
ceremonials and the externals of worship? and a painful orthodoxy,
and the study of the letter of Scripture. Nothing. A useless church
or a Christian, from whom no man gets any fruit to cool a thirsty,
parched lip, is only fit for what comes after the barrenness, and
that is, that tree bringeth’ not forth good fruit is hewn down and
cast into the fire.’

The churches of England, and we, as integral
parts of these, have solemn duties lying upon us to-day; and if we
cannot help our brethren, and feed and nourish the hungry and thirsty
hearts and souls of mankind, then-then!

the sooner we are plucked up
and pitched over the vineyard wall, which is the fate of the barren vine,
the better for the world and the better for the vineyard.

from:Alexander Maclaren’s “Expositions of Holy Scriptures” on the book of Mark

Alexander Maclaren (11 February 1826 – 5 May 1910)

Who Is The Rock?

May 27, 2024 testadmin

“As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is
flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him.
For who is God besides the Lord?

And who is the Rock except our God?

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my
way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he
enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for
battle;

my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me your shield
of victory; you stoop down to make me great. You broaden
the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn.”

2 Samuel 22:31-37

The Battle

May 11, 2024 testadmin

 

The noise of battle is in the land,

the noise of great destruction!

How broken and shattered

is the hammer of the whole earth!

Jeremiah 50:22,23a

Green Tree Dry

May 10, 2024 testadmin

 

 

And
their shouts prevailed
their demands
their will
what they asked for

Now
weep for yourselves
for the time will come

When
you will beg
the mountains to fall
the hills to cover you

Men
do these things
they do not know
what they do
they get what
their deeds deserve
darkness covering the land

But
those that know
stand at a distance
watching
not consenting
waiting
for the kingdom of God

Walley

Today Beyond Tomorrow

May 2, 2024 testadmin

Today

Rows of pansies dance
in garden with sun and breeze
purple and pink play

 

Beyond

Blue sky vast beyond
clouds float aimlessly along
we will be there soon

 

Tomorrow

Sunset colors day
dusk brings the calm peace of hope
for tomorrow’s rise

Walley

Nations That Forget God

April 30, 2024 testadmin

The wicked return to the grave, all the
nations that forget God. But the needy
will not always be forgotten, nor the
hope of the afflicted ever perish.

Psalm 9:17,18

The justice which has punished the wicked, and preserved the righteous,
remains the same, and therefore in days to come, retribution will surely
be meted out. How solemn is the seventeenth verse, especially in its
warning to forgetters of God. The moral who are not devout, the honest
who are not prayerful, the benevolent who are not believing, the amiable
who are not converted, these must all have their portion with the openly
wicked in the hell which is prepared for the devil and his angels…

Arise, O Lord, let not man triumph;
let the nations be judged in your presence.
Strike them with terror, O Lord; let the
nations know they are but men.

Psalm 9:19,20

Prayers are the believer’s weapons of war. When the battle
is too hard for us, we call in our great ally, who, as it
were, lies in ambush until faith gives the signal by crying
out,

”Arise, O Lord.” Although our cause be all but lost, it
shall be soon won again if the Almighty doth but bestir himself.

He will not suffer man to prevail over God, but with swift
judgments will confound their gloryings. In the very sight
of God the wicked will be punished, and he who is now all
tenderness will have no bowels of compassion for them,
since they had no tears of repentance while their day of
grace endured.

Charles H. Spurgeon from Treasury of David Vol 1  p.100-101.

 

Direct My Footsteps

April 29, 2024 testadmin

 

 

Direct my footsteps according to your word;
let no sin rule over me. Redeem me from the
oppression of men, that I may obey your precepts.

Psalm 119:133,134

This is one of the Lord’s customary mercies to his chosen,
“He keepeth the feet of his saints.” By his grace he enables
us to put our feet step by step in the very place which his
word ordains. This prayer seeks a very choice favour, namely,
that every distinct act, every step, might be arranged and
governed by the will of God.

Charles H. Spurgeon from The Treasury of David Vol 3 P.379