August 30, 2010

  • "It is our truest happiness to live entirely for the glory of Christ." (M'Cheyne)

    I've been reading through the "Memoir and Remains of R. M. M'Cheyne" by Andrew Bonar. I've already posted a couple times on the book at tent of meeting (see here and here). Some of you know how much I appreciated reading through "George Whitefield's Journals" and how I look to Whitefield as an example and for inspiration (of course, knowing full well, that we need to take care not to idolize others nor to set ourselves up for a sense of inadequacy as we compare ourselves to others). I have to say this book and the life of M'Cheyne rank right up there with the Whitefield and the Journals.

    I'd like to bring a quote today from a letter M'Cheyne wrote to the Rev. Dan Edwards October 2, 1840:

    It is our truest happiness to live entirely for the glory of Christ—to separate between "I" and "the glory of Christ." We are always saying, what have I done—was it my preaching—my sermon — my influence; whereas we should be asking, what hath God wrought? Strange mixed beings we are! How sweet it will be to drop our old man, and be pure as Christ is pure.

    I can't help but note that M'Cheyne wrote this at age 27, and he lived for less than two and half years after this time.

    I confess I share M'Cheyne's struggle. I so agree how sweet it will be to drop my old man and be pure as Christ is pure!

    I shake my head and wonder sometimes why God uses me (us). I find it dumbfounding and deeply humbling how God continues to use people like me (like us) even as I (we) struggle in these ways. Even as I (we) continue to have such mixed motives in ministry.

    I John 3:1  See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2  Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

    4  Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5  You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6  No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7  Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8  Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9  No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

    Holy Father, I am Your child because I have been united with Christ by grace through faith. Thank You for adopting me into Your family, though I was not worthy. Help me now to walk worthy of that calling. I have been united to Christ and given the Holy Spirit so I might live like Your blessed Son, who lived for a holy life to Your glory alone. O, that I might be able to separate between "I" and "the glory of Christ." How we all continue to fight this temptation, but particularly as we seek to minister in Your Name. Thank You for the privilege You have given all of Your children to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ. I confess how often I do not walk with purity in that calling. Forgive me, Holy Father. Cleanse me by the blood of the Lamb. Anytime I live for my own glory is a grave sin against You. To strive to lift myself up is an affront to You and Your glory, shows contempt for Christ's life and blood given for mine, and it grieves Your Holy Spirit. Sanctify and strengthen me with Your resurrection power through Your indwelling Holy Spirit so I might not continue to seek my own glory but seek Your glory alone. Grant me abundant grace to purify myself as You are pure, to put off the old man and put on the new, to live for Christ and not my own lusts – all so You alone might receive all the praise, honor and glory in all I do. I know that my truest happiness is to live entirely for the glory of Christ! That is why when I begin to even desire a bit of the glory for myself, Your Holy Spirit begins to convict me of that and makes me miserable. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for Your continued promptings, for renewing my mind, for leading me into all truth so Jesus Christ might be lifted up. Help my heart to remain soft and pliable and my ears to continue to hear You speak to me. I know this is all impossible with me, but is possible with You! Be merciful and gracious to me for Jesus' sake. Send me grace sufficient for my need as I seek to lift up Jesus Christ to Your glory alone. Amen.

August 17, 2010

  • How I Spent My Summer, # 1: In the Library (or the story of the $ 95 blog)

    Earlier this summer we traveled out West, with stops in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.

    I do hope to post on that sometime. But that will take a bit more effort. Sorting through pictures, etc.

    Today I'd like to share a little story of an incident that happened the Friday after we returned home.

    I often meet up with a friend Friday mornings and sometimes head over to one of my favorite libraries afterwards.

    So I did that very thing that Friday morning.

    I think I'd gotten a little nugget of an idea for the post I began writing that day sometime the night before or that morning.

    As I sat down with my laptop and coffee travel mug (yes, they're allowed at this library), it began to flow.

    (No, not the coffee, but the words! )

    Praying and reflecting.

    Reading and contemplating on Scripture.

    More writing, some fixes, edits, tweaks.

    Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

    Etc., etc., etc.

    Finally it was finished.

    If you've been reading on my other site, you know I've been serious about joy.

    So that post was another one in my series of letters on assurance and fighting for joy.

    dear devil/dear flock of God (day in, day out): Letter 63 on assurance & joy was posted at 2:42 that Friday afternoon.

    Don't ask me all I did after I posted that entry.

    A bit of reading, commenting, messaging, pondering, looking out the window (nice view), sipping on cold coffee, idk.

    Anyhow, 4:15 rolls around.

    An announcement comes that the front desk that the library will be closing at 4:30.

    (This is a private college library and this was one of those dead weeks during the summer.)

    "Ok," I think, "Fine. I'll start packing up. I should get going. I'm hungry after all. Where has the time gone?"

    (I confess I can get pretty carried away with reading and writing and so forth.)

    As soon I stepped out of the cool library into the bright summer heat, I remembered...

    "My car is parked in the tow zone!"

    (No parking between 4pm and 6pm on weekdays.)

    Oops!

    I couldn't help but chuckle (yes, it was a bit of an annoyed chuckle), knowing I had just finished that post on joy.

    God does have a sense of humor (or is it humour?).

    I did pick up the pace, however, thinking that perhaps they'd not come around to tow my car to who knows where.

    Well, I got there.

    My car wasn't there.

    I called a friend to get the phone number for the parking enforcement people.

    She was there to get my call.

    The friend I chose to call did live nearby – just in case I'd be in need of a ride to who knows where to get my car.

    Turns out it was towed to an open spot a couple blocks away so I was able to retrieve it easily.

    Of course, there was a price to pay...

    The small print says $ 95.

    $ 50 for towing.

    $ 45 to the city.

    Blockhead. Idiot.

    Yes, I won't do that again, I'm sure.

    So there we have it.

    How I spent my summer, # 1:

    In the library.

    This is the story of the $ 95 blog.

    Let's think about this now.

    As of tonight here's the view count and recs for that particular post:

    Posted 7/9/2010 2:42 PM - 26 Views - 6 eProps - 5 comments

    recs
    2

    So, according to my calculations, that works out to

    just under $ 16 / eProp

    or $ 19 / comment,

    well, technically a cool $ 47.50 / comment (not counting my comments),

    or $ 47.50 / rec.

    Um, yeah, I'm not getting that money.

    Was it worth it?

    Yes!

    Priceless.

    I've heard some ministers say they would pay to preach.

    My hope and prayer is that all ministers would say that.

    I don't get paid for doing what I do.

    There's a lot of freedom that comes with that.

    It's my joy and pleasure and privilege to write to make Christ known and build up the Church.

    So long as God provides for me and gives me words to write, I hope to continue to do so.

    I Corinthians 9:15-18.

    But I hope not to get any more parking tickets.

August 3, 2010

  • as promised ... the unveiling ...

    In the comments section to my very first post here, there was a little bit of banter, chit-chat, what-have-you going on between a llama and a deer (the deer, that'd be me):

    llama

    ...Good post though...


    deer

    @llamalima - Thanks. These are things I've been thinking about for quite a while now...Definitely open to input, ideas, etc., etc.

     

    llama

    @deerlife - My suggestion: I want to have a circus with lions and elephants on deerlife. Then I want to have more music I can wave my hands to and feel nice and fluffly inside..,

    Or were you looking for more non-serious suggestions...idk.

     

    deer

    @llamalima - There I was trying to write a prayer for one of my other blogs & listening to tobymac "I don't wanna gain the whole world but lose my soul..." and then this "circus" comment comes to my inbox...

    Seriously, I'll entertain (lol) any and all suggestions, for we do need a sense of humour here for sure. Calvinists are allowed to laugh on occasion, aren't we?

    I noticed you did not include llamas in the circus. Certainly we must have llamas, right? We don't want to be accused of discrimination! I should get my son to work on those action figures. Then we can do some mega-marketing, right?

    What was that about gaining the whole world...???

    We know that music is fine when it's used rightly...but only so it might enhance our worship of God rather than be a mere psychological/emotional feeling w/ no true rooting, producing a form of worship w/out really worshiping Him. I know you know full well that God is very, very particular about how we worship Him.

     

    llama

     

    @deerlife - Well, I was 100% serious...err yeah, =)

    Oh no, yeah llamas too...we don't want to *offend* anyone at our circus. That would be bad...like people's self esteem is totally important and paramount on deerlife...right? Now, the music too...we don't want it to be boring either and not relevant to the audience. Give them what they want and they'll give it back a million times over.

    I may have been reading a bit of Rob Schuller yesterday...it's getting to my head.

     

    All that said, I know many of you (many?!) have been waiting, with bated breath, for months now, so, without further ado...well, perhaps with a drum roll or a little Mario Brothers playing on the keytar...

    Presenting...

    the world premiere...

    the showstoppers...

    fighting for truth, justice and the Gospel way...

    deerlife (the action figure)

    and

    llamalife (the action figure)
    *Legal notice: These action figures are hereby authorized and approved and endorsed by deerlife for the enjoyment and edification of her audience. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted in any form, without the express written consent of deerlife. Also hearty thanks to my youngest son for making these. He is totally awesome with Photoshop and all that jazz.*

    About deerlife (the action figure)

    You can clearly see that deerlife is holding a glowing blue sword. If you are familiar with The Lord of the Rings, you know that when the Orcs were coming near, the elvish swords glowed blue. And so too with this weapon. When there's a false, shoddy, incomplete, or just plain bad gospel anywhere in the vicinity, deerlife's sword kicks it up into full gear and starts glowing blue because deerlife is seeking to be rooted in the Word of God so she won't' be swayed and tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Deerlife looks pretty laid back, and yes, she's a girl, but know that she is so ready to speak the truth that at times she goes off half-cocked (is that mixing our metaphors here?) and the Holy Spirit has to rein her in and remind her of such verses as I Corinthians 16:13-14: Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 14  Let all your things be done with charity. Ooo! With charity! Gospel truth must always be given out the Gospel way: with love! (Ouch! Catch me, Lord! If I have not love...)

    And, if you are of the old school and remember the Robot on "Lost in Space," he would alert the crew of impeding danger, with the words, "Warning!" and "Danger!" and of course, he spoke that famous line "Danger, Will Robinson!"

    Anyhow, as most of you already know I am quite serious about the Gospel, and by the grace of God I am seeking to know Him and make Him known.

    Though I did say in my first post that what I do here might be:

    A little quirky...
    A little mind-altering...(in the words of a former Xangan)
    A little outside the box...

    So, I guess we've got a little of that today, don't we?

    I will be inviting Mr. Llama to do a post about his action figure and specifically why he chose a crossbow for his weapon. I can only surmise that he only chose that weapon because it was chosen for him. He and I are good Calvinists (well, no one is good, yes, we know that full well!), so we know we can't ever choose unless we are enabled to choose.   (Updated 8.21.10: Please see Mr. Llama's post Llamas, crossbows, true love...)

    As way of update: We're having family coming into town this week for our oldest son's wedding this weekend, so I probably won't be around much, but would very much appreciate your prayers for my son and future daughter-in-law as well as my time together with family. (Yes, I really do have some things to do around the house today!)

    I appreciate the fellowship and friendship we share in Jesus Christ. May He keep us singing the new song He has put into our mouth:

    Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

    Amen.