When the poor and needy seek water...

When the poor and needy seek water,

and there is none,

and their tongue is parched with thirst,

I the LORD will answer them;

I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

I will open rivers on the bare heights,

and fountains in the midst of the valleys.

I will make the wilderness a pool of water,

and the dry land springs of water.

I will put in the wilderness the cedar,

the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.

I will set in the desert the cypress,

the plane and the pine together,

that they may see and know,

may consider and understand together,

that the hand of the LORD has done this,

the Holy One of Israel has created it.

-Isaiah 41:17-20

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness...

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;

tremble before him, all the earth;

yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice,

and let them say among the nations,

“The Lord reigns!”

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

let the field exult, and everything in it!

Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy

before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!

1 Chronicles 16:29b-34

I will bless the Lord at all times!

I will bless the Lord at all times;

his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me,

and let us exalt his name together!

I sought the Lord, and he answered me

and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant,

and their faces shall never be ashamed.

This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

and saved him out of all his troubles.

-Psalm 34:1-6

How lovely is your dwelling place!

How lovely is your dwelling place,

O Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, yes, faints

for the courts of the Lord;

my heart and flesh sing for joy

to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may lay her young,

at your altars, O Lord of hosts,

my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house,

ever singing your praise! -Psalm 84:1-4

Prayer For Our Nation: July 4, 2020

Prayer for our nation:

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP 2019)

Do not be conformed to this world...

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. -Romans 12:2

Therefore be imitators of God...

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. -Ephesians 5:1-2

So we do not lose heart...

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. -2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“Be thou exalted”

Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join to say continually, “Be thou exalted,” and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once. His Christian life ceases to be the complicated thing it had been before and becomes the very essence of simplicity....A.W. Tozer

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us...

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. -2 Corinthians 4:17-18

"It is the Lord who goes before you..."

"It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."   -Deuteronomy 31:8

“I think the greatest weakness in the church today..."

“I think the greatest weakness in the church today is that almost no one believes that God invests His power in the Bible. Everyone is looking for power in a program, in a methodology, in a technique, in anything and everything but that in which God has placed it—His Word. He alone has the power to change lives for eternity, and that power is focused on the Scriptures.” ― R.C. Sproul, The Prayer of the Lord

“The astonishing paradox of Christ's teaching...

“The astonishing paradox of Christ's teaching and of Christian experience is this: if we lose ourselves in following Christ, we actually find ourselves. True self-denial is self-discovery. To live for ourselves is insanity and suicide; to live for God and for man is wisdom and life indeed. We do not begin to find ourselves until we have become willing to lose ourselves in the service of Christ and of our fellows.” ―John Stott  image

Palm Sunday 2018

We are on pilgrimage with the Lord to the heights. We are striving for pure hearts and clean hands, we are seeking truth, we are seeking the face of God. Let us show the Lord that we desire to be righteous, and let us ask him: Draw us upwards! Make us pure! Grant that the words which we sang in the processional psalm may also hold true for us; grant that we may be part of the generation which seeks God, "which seeks your face, O God of Jacob" (Ps 24:6). Amen. -Benedict XVI image

God keep me from saying anything that would be unloving...

God keep me from saying anything that would be unloving; God shut my mouth if I am not to speak in tender love. But what I am saying is a fact. How often there is found among Christians who are banded together in work, sharp criticism, sharp judgment, hasty opinion, unloving words, secret contempt of each other, secret condemnation of each other. Oh, just as a mother’s love covers her children and delights in them and has the tenderest compassion with their foibles or failures, so there ought to be in the heart of every believer a motherly love toward every brother and sister in Christ. Have you aimed at that? Have you sought it? Have you ever pleaded for it? ...Andrew Murray image

Out of the hillsides of humiliated pride...

Out of the hillsides of humiliated pride; deep in the darkness of crushed despair; in the fretting and dusty atmosphere of little cares; in the hard, cruel contacts that man has with man; wherever souls are being tried and ripened, in whatever commonplace and homely ways;—there God is hewing out the pillars for His temple. ...Phillips Brooks image

If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait...

If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do so with our whole hearts; for blessed are all they that wait for Him. He is worth waiting for. The waiting itself is beneficial to us: it tries faith, exercises patience, trains submission, and endears the blessing when it comes. The Lord’s people have always been a waiting people. ...CH Spurgeon image

Bibles read without prayer...

Bibles read without prayer; sermons heard without prayer; marriages contracted without prayer; journeys undertaken without prayer; residences chosen without prayer; friendships formed without prayer; the daily act of prayer itself hurried over, or gone through without heart: these are the kind of downward steps by which many a Christian descends to a condition of spiritual palsy, or reaches the point where God allows them to have a tremendous fall. ...J.C. Ryle image

Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder...

Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body.

As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die. ...Peter Chrysologus image

Insistence on security is incompatible with the way of the cross...

Insistence on security is incompatible with the way of the cross. What daring adventures the incarnation and the atonement were! What a breach of convention and decorum that Almighty God should renounce his privileges in order to take human flesh and bear human sin! Jesus had no security except in his Father. So to follow Jesus is always to accept at least a measure of uncertainty, danger and rejection for his sake. ...John R.W. Stott image

Beware in your prayer...

Beware in your prayer, above everything, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. ...Andrew Murray image

A Theology of Vacationing

By Mark Johnston
August 8, 2017

This summer has been no different than those which proceded it. At this time of year, you are possibly continuing to see references to the usual litany of 'Summer Reading recommendations for Pastors.' As end-of-summer vacations loom, men in the ministry feel the need to catch up on those weighty tomes of theology that have been gathering dust somewhere but which a guilty conscience tells them ought to be read. (Though their wife and children may have other ideas!)

Despite the title, these paragraphs are not intended to add to this ministerial guilt trip; but, rather, they are intended to relieve it! Instead of offering yet more theology to take on vacation, I wish to offer a theological justification for viewing a vacation as being a good thing - and this, not just at 'vacation times' when they happen to occur...   the rest image

Flowing out of this we can't help but notice Jesus' appreciation of the rhythm of life. Built into the fabric of the created order, God has embedded the principle of Sabbath. It is the cycle of a 7-day week that cannot be explained by planetary or lunar alignment; only by the words of Genesis. (How astonishing that this has shaped the entire history of a humanity most of whom have never read it.)

Worship in a Jerusalem temple

Jun 18, 2017

When on the mount the Lord appeared...

When on the mount the Lord appeared

Transfigured to the sight,

His countenance was like the sun,

His raiment glistened white.
 

But dull the minds, and dark the eyes,

On whom such glory shone;

They saw not God upon the mount,

They saw but man alone.
 

And when the dark and cloudy days

Of death and sorrow came,

What were their thoughts of Him who hung

Upon the cross of shame?
 

They knew not that the God of Life

An offering yielded there,

And of His will endured for all

The load of sin He bare.
 

Lord, to the mount where Thou art seen

In all Thy glory bright,

Thy servants now would wend their way

To gaze upon the Light,

And there behold, in glory clad,

The Light to mortals given,

That in the night that hid the cross,

Shone with the light of heaven.”

-Hymns from the Morningland: tr. John Brownlie image

Walk A Life Unnoticed

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

by Paul Tripp

We don't know much about the man Enoch.

The Bible doesn't divulge any details of his life, amazing feats, battles won, or journies taken by faith like it does with other biblical characters. All we know is that he was the seventh generation between Adam and Noah, that his father was Jared, and that his son was the famous long-living Methuselah (see Genesis 5:18-24).

Despite his unremarkable life (in terms of historical prominence and biblical detail), Enoch is the second character enshrined in the famous "Hall of Faith" - Hebrews 11.

What's the reason for Enoch's inclusion among men like Noah and Abraham and Moses? I have a theory: like Enoch, we will live unnoticed.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that we won't have influence or that people will ignore us. I simply mean that the majority of Christians will never make their way into history books. We'll only have a small following on Twitter Facebook. Most of us won't have a million people reading our blogs, and when we die, apart from a loyal circle of family and close friends, the details of our lives will be largely forgotten by those who knew us.

Are you discouraged by that reality? Be honest: it's tempting to think that we can't make a difference. It's easy to think that who we are, what we believe, and how we live won't impact others. Aren't we just biological blips on the huge universal radar of space and time?..... The rest image

Exchange Your Dreams for God’s Plans

by MaryLynn Johnson
July 5, 2017

God’s plans for my life have almost never been my plans for my life.

When I was thirteen, I knew what college I wanted to attend even before I started high school, what career I wanted to pursue afterward, what age I thought would be ideal to get married, and even what life might look like well into my twenties. I held onto these plans for a long time, until real life happened — and not like I thought it would.

Sometimes it felt like I had no control at all over plans that fell apart. I tried to make my timeline fit, but my plans just weren’t working. Despite all my dreams and efforts, almost nothing on my list happened in the way or timing I expected. It was quickly evident that the Lord had something else in mind for my life.

As God redirected my life at each step, often against my will, he also changed my heart. With each delayed or unfulfilled plan, I began to learn what it meant to willingly, even joyfully, exchange my personal dreams for God’s good plans for me. the rest image

No matter what we pray for...

No matter what we pray for, whether it be temporal or spiritual things, little things or great things, gifts for ourselves or for others, our prayers should really resolve themselves into a quiet waiting for the Lord in order to hear what it is that the Spirit desires to have us pray for at that particular time.

...O. Hallesby

I realised that the deepest spiritual lessons...

I realised that the deepest spiritual lessons are not learned by His letting us have our way in the end, but by His making us wait, bearing with us in love and patience until we are able to honestly to pray what He taught His disciples to pray: Thy will be done. -Elisabeth Elliot
image

Random links: June 21, 2017

4 Promising Opportunities in University Evangelism
 By Tim Keller & Michael Keller
Excerpt: 
" We hope realism concerning the challenges of university evangelism doesn’t give the impression we think the prospects for university missions and evangelism are bleak. Not at all. The current climate, for all its challenges, also provides promising opportunities..." image

Podcast: Five Big Problems for Small Churches
Highlights include:

Small churches are not a problem, virtue, or excuse.

Just because your church is small does not mean you can’t do good ministry.

There’s not a single command to the New Testament church that can’t be accomplished by a small church.

The sooner you can assess a Sunday service or church event the better.

Churches should purposefully and intentionally equip members for ministry.

It is a pastor’s job (according to the New Testament) to equip others to do the work of ministry.

How to Remember the Bible Verses You Memorize
The discipline of memorizing Bible verses pays great dividends in the life of a Christian. Having Scripture stored up in our hearts helps us to remember God’s promises in tough times, flee from sin in moments of temptation, possess greater confidence in sharing the Gospel, and give fresh words of encouragement to struggling Christians. The problem for us is that while memorizing a verse presents a challenge, remembering it in three months is a great difficulty. We often find ourselves wanting to quote something that we spent two days memorizing but cannot remember the exact wording of the verse or the precise reference to save our lives. How can we remember the Bible verses that we memorized a week, a month, or a year ago?...

Why are there so many Different Interpretations of the Bible?

Why are there so many Different Interpretations of the Bible? The Problem of “Pervasive Interpretive Pluralism”  Back in April of this year, at the national conference of the Gospel Coalition, Kevin DeYoung addressed the question of why there appear to be so many different interpretations of the Bible? If the Bible is inspired and sufficient, why do so many Christians disagree with one another on particular texts and topics? The language of “pervasive interpretive pluralism” was first used by author Christian Smith, who recently converted to Roman Catholicism. Kevin’s message was excellent, but I thought I would add to what he said with a few observations of my own.

Let’s begin with the important concession that this is a problem that all people face, regardless of their religious affiliation. It is not solely a Protestant problem. Anyone who thinks there is monolithic and always unified interpretation in the Roman Catholic Church is simply uninformed. Not only is this a problem in all families of the Christian faith, it is a problem in all spheres of earthly existence. In other words, this isn’t simply a religious problem, it is a human problem that infects every discipline of study and every work of literature that we read. Nevertheless, it is especially present in Christianity because we affirm that our “work of literature”, the Bible, is inspired, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient...

Is the ESV Literal and the NIV Gender Neutral?
...There actually are five methods on translation with three sub-categories for the handling of gender language. Translations are all on a continuum, overlapping one another, and hence it is misleading to picture them as different points on a line. I am guessing, but for example, about eighty percent of the ESV and the NIV are the same, once you account for different translations of individual words...

Jesu, be endless praise to Thee...

Jesu, be endless praise to Thee,

Whose boundless mercy hath for me—

For me a full atonement made,

An everlasting ransom paid.
 

O let the dead now hear Thy voice;

Now bid Thy banished ones rejoice;

Their beauty this, their glorious dress,

Jesu, Thy blood and righteousness.

...Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf image

The Resurrection narratives...

The Resurrection narratives are not a picture of survival after death; they record how a totally new mode of being has arisen in the Universe. Something new had appeared in the Universe: as new as the first coming of organic life. This Man, after death, does not get divided into “ghost” and “corpse.” A new mode of being has arisen. That is the story. What are we going to make of it? ...C.S. Lewis image

It can be so easy for Easter to be a moment in time...

It can be so easy for Easter to be a moment in time and not a moment that changes time. Our experience with Christ should change our lives. We shouldn’t experience the resurrection and then just go back to the day to day lives we lead unchanged. Life should be different because of the grace of Christ. Did Easter change you, or are you back to the daily grind? Jesus wants more from us than to just experience the joy of the resurrection - He wants us to live changed lives! ...Don Crane image

Easter 2017

I greet Thy sepulchre, salute Thy grave,

That blest enclosure, where the angels gave

The first glad tidings of Thy early light,

And resurrection from the earth and night.

I see that morning in Thy convert’s tears,

Fresh as the dew, which but this dawning wears.

I smell her spices; and her ointment yields

As rich a scent as the now primros’d fields:

The Day-star smiles, and light, with the deceased,

Now shines in all the chambers of the East.

...Henry Vaughan image

Holy Saturday 2017

LORD, God of my salvation;

I cry out day and night before you.

Let my prayer come before you;

incline your ear to my cry!  

For my soul is full of troubles,

and my life draws near to Sheol.

I am counted among those who go down to the pit;

I am a man who has no strength,

like one set loose among the dead,

like the slain that lie in the grave,

like those whom you remember no more,

for they are cut off from your hand.

You have put me in the depths of the pit,

in the regions dark and deep.

Your wrath lies heavy upon me,

and you overwhelm me with all your waves.  
 

You have caused my companions to shun me;

you have made me a horror to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

my eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call upon you, O LORD;

I spread out my hands to you.

Do you work wonders for the dead?

Do the departed rise up to praise you?

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,

or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Are your wonders known in the darkness,

or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

 

But I, O LORD, cry to you;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?

Why do you hide your face from me?

Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,

I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.

Your wrath has swept over me;

your dreadful assaults destroy me.

They surround me like a flood all day long;

they close in on me together.

You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;

my companions have become darkness.
-Psalm 88 image

Good Friday 2017

I bind my heart, this tide
To the Galilean’s side,
To the wounds of Calvary—
To the Christ who died for me.

I bind my soul this day
To the brother far away
And the brother near at hand,
In this town and in this land.

I bind my heart in thrall
To God, the Lord of all,
To God, the poor man’s Friend,
And the Christ whom He did send.

I bind myself to peace,
To make strife and envy cease.
God, knit Thou sure the cord
Of my thralldom to my Lord.
...Lauchlan MacLean Watt image

Maundy Thursday 2017

Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless

Thy chosen pilgrim flock

With manna in the wilderness,

With water from the rock.
 

We would not live by bread alone,

But by Thy word of grace,

In strength of which we travel on

To our abiding place.
 

Be known to us in breaking bread,

And do not then depart;

Savior, abide with us, and spread

Thy table in our heart.
 

Lord, sup with us in love divine,

Thy Body and Thy Blood,

That living bread, that heavenly wine,

Be our immortal food.

-James Montgomery image

Benedictus

Jan 19, 2017
Steve Angrisano
A great prayer to start any day..."In His tender compassion, the dawn now breaks on high". Blessings.

The Christian landscape...

The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers—the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. All too many people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of so-called nominal Christianity.
...John RW Stott image

Of the Father’s love begotten...

Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,

 He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He,

 Of the things that are, that have been,

 And that future years shall see, evermore and evermore!

At His Word the worlds were framèd;
He commanded; it was done:

 Heaven and earth and depths of ocean
in their threefold order one;

 All that grows beneath the shining

 Of the moon and burning sun, evermore and evermore!

He is found in human fashion, death and sorrow here to know,

 That the race of Adam’s children
doomed by law to endless woe,

 May not henceforth die and perish

 In the dreadful gulf below, evermore and evermore!

O that birth forever blessèd, when the virgin, full of grace,

By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bare the Savior of our race;

 And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,

 First revealed His sacred face, evermore and evermore!

Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
and, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,

 Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving,
and unwearied praises be:

 Honor, glory, and dominion,

 And eternal victory, evermore and evermore!

-Aurelius Prudentius

Christ in the Desert

by J.D. Flynn
3/17/17

On Saturday, I watched good friends carry a miniature white casket up the aisle of our parish church, to be laid before the altar for a funeral Mass. Their son was stillborn last week. Our parish had come to the church to pray for them as they laid their son’s body to rest.

My friends have entered the season of Lent in a profound way.

During Lent, we remember Jesus, fasting and praying in the Judean desert. We remember that Jesus was weak, and tired, and alone, and that, relying on the word of God, he overcame the empty promises of Satan.

Like Christ, my friends will likely feel weak, tired, and alone this Lent. C. S. Lewis said that grief feels much like fear, and I suspect they’ll sometimes feel afraid. He also said that grief is an amputation, and I suspect they’ll sometimes feel crippled.

And like Christ, my friends will face temptations. They may be tempted to turn on each other. They may be tempted to turn from God. They may be tempted to pretend they don’t need help—human or divine—when, in fact, they surely do. I suspect my friends will overcome those temptations, by grace. But if they don’t, I know they’ll seek God’s mercy, and I know he’ll give it freely.

During Lent, most of us offer up small sacrifices—pittances, really—to spend more time in prayer. We limit our comforts, just a little. We give alms, usually from our excess, and rarely from our need. And somehow God, in his mercy on us—his pity for our pitiful sacrifices—gives these tiny sacrifices meaning, and uses them to draw us closer to him... image

The rest at First Things

Shine On Us

Philips, Craig and Dean

Thou Lamb of Calvary...

My faith looks up to Thee,

Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine!

Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away,

O let me from this day be wholly Thine!
 

May Thy rich grace impart

Strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire!

As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee,

Pure warm, and changeless be, a living fire!
 

While life’s dark maze I tread,

And griefs around me spread, be Thou my Guide;

Bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow’s tears away,

Nor let me ever stray from Thee aside.

When ends life’s transient dream,

When death’s cold sullen stream over me roll;

Blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove;

O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!

-Ray Palmer image

CityAlight: I Want to Know You