Wednesday, March 05, 2008
"Joy, a Duty", by Charles Spurgeon
Charles Haddon Spurgeon delivered this wonderful sermon in 1895. "What is there on earth that is worth fretting for even for five minutes?" he asks. The exultant answer: nothing. This refreshed my weary spirit today, and moved me once again to glad rejoicing in our glorious Savior.There is a marvelous medicinal power in joy. Most medicines are distasteful; but this, which is the best of all medicines, is sweet to the taste, and comforting to the heart.
People who are very happy, especially those who are very happy in the Lord, are not apt either to give offence or to take offence. Their minds are so sweetly occupied with higher things, that they are not easily distracted by the little troubles which naturally arise among such imperfect creatures as we are. What is this joy but the concord of the soul, the accord of the heart, with the joy of heaven? Joy in the Lord, then, drives away the discords of earth.
Further, brethren, notice that the apostle, after he had said, "Rejoice in the Lord always," commanded the Philippians to be careful for nothing, thus implying that joy in the Lord is one of the best preparations for the trials of this life. The cure for care is joy in the Lord. No, my brother, you will not be able to keep on with your fretfulness; no, my sister, you will not be able to weary yourself any longer with your anxieties, if the Lord will but fill you with His joy.
Then, being satisfied with your God, yea, more than satisfied, overflowing with delight in Him, you will say to yourself, "Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance."
What is there on earth that is worth fretting for even for five minutes? Therefore, let us be thankful, let us be joyful in the Lord. I count it one of the wisest things that, by rejoicing in the Lord, we commence our heaven here below. It is possible so to do, it is profitable so to do, and we are commanded so to do.
[...] This is a demonstrative duty: "Rejoice in the Lord." There may be such a thing as a dumb joy, but I hardly think that it can keep dumb long. Joy! Joy! Why, it speaks for itself! It is like a candle lighted in a dark chamber; you need not sound a trumpet, and say, "Now light has come." The candle proclaims itself by its own brilliance; and when joy comes into a man, it shines out of his eyes, it sparkles in his countenance. True joy, when it is joy in the Lord, must speak; it cannot hold its tongue, it must praise the name of the Lord.[...] I think that the apostle also means that God is to be the great object of your joy: "Rejoice in the Lord." Rejoice in the Father, your Father who is in heaven, your loving, tender, unchangeable God. Rejoice, too, in the Son, your Redeemer, your Brother, the Husband of your soul, your Prophet, Priest, and King. Rejoice also in the Holy Ghost, your Quickener, your Comforter, in him who shall abide with you for ever. Rejoice in the one God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; in Him delight yourselves, as it is written, "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." We cannot have too much of this joy in the Lord, for the great Jehovah is our exceeding joy. Or if, by "the Lord" is meant the Lord Jesus, then let me invite, persuade, and command you to delight in the Lord Jesus, incarnate in your flesh, dead for your sins, risen for your justification, gone into the glory claiming victory for you, sitting at the right hand of God interceding for you, reigning over all worlds on your behalf, and soon to come to take you up into his glory that you may be with Him for ever. Rejoice in the Lord Jesus. This is a sea of delight; blessed are they that dive into its utmost depths.
You can read the rest of Spurgeon's sermon here.
Labels: brain food, devotional
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Missing Heaven?
I'm plugging away at the book while Lindsey is preparing to come visit, so the second part of her theology series (which I am very much looking forward to reading) will be a little while in coming.Until then, I leave this John Piper quote (paired with a bit of C.S. Lewis) to chew on. The authors are speaking of humanity's longing for God, and our fallen search for satisfaction in other things:
"The tragedy of the world is that the echo is mistaken for the Original Shout. When our back is to the breathtaking beauty of God, we cast a shadow on the earth and fall in love with it. But it does not satisfy.-C.S. Lewis and John Piper, from The Dangerous Duty of Delight
'The books or music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us.... For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of the flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.'"
UPDATE: There has been a change in plans, because Lindsey has broken her back. The accident was not life threatening and did not cause paralysis, praise God, but she obviously can't fly on a plane. Please be in prayer for a speedy recovery!
Labels: brain food
Monday, January 21, 2008
Too Many Novels?
Illustration from Solitary-Elegance.comLabels: books, brain food
Friday, January 11, 2008
From 1830... to 2008
In 1831, a young Alexis de Tocqueville left France to commence a thorough investigation on America's society, economy, and political system. When he returned, he published his findings in the classic Democracy in America, chronicling both the weaknesses and strengths of our nation. When I read his observations on the women in America, I was surprised— in less than two hundred years, a lot has changed."There are people in Europe who, confounding together the different characteristics of the sexes, would make of man and woman beings not only equal but alike. They would give to both the same functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant to both the same rights; they would mix them in all things— their occupations, their pleasures, their business. It may be readily conceived, that by thus attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both are degraded; and from so preposterous a medley of the works of nature nothing could ever result but weak men and disorderly women. It is not thus that the Americans understand that species of democratic equality which may be established between the sexes. They admit, that as nature has appointed such wide differences between the physical and moral constitution of man and woman, her manifest design was to give a distinct employment to their various faculties; and they hold that improvement [consists] in getting [men and women] to fulfill their respective tasks in the best possible manner.
Nor have the Americans ever supposed that one consequence of democratic principles is the subversion of marital power, of the confusion of the natural authorities in families. They hold that every association must have a head in order to accomplish its object, and that the natural head of the conjugal association is man. They do not therefore deny him the right of directing his partner. I never observed that the women of America consider conjugal authority as a fortunate usurpation of their rights, nor that they thought themselves degraded by submitting to it. It appeared to me, on the contrary, that they attach a sort of pride to the voluntary surrender of their own will, and make it their boast to bend themselves to the yoke, not to shake it off. Such is the feeling expressed by the most virtuous of their sex.
I have nowhere seen women occupying a loftier position; and if I were asked, now that I am drawing to the close of this work, in which I have spoken of so many important things done by the Americans, to what the the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply— to the superiority of their women."
Excerpted from Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Chapter XII: "How Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes".
Labels: brain food
Saturday, October 20, 2007
is an act of love,
since we were created
"Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past,
but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;
to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen." -Romans 16:25-27
Labels: brain food
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Real Living
Could it be, that God does not merely show the path to life,
but is life?
- "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life..." -Deuteronomy 30:19-20
- Jesus said to him,
'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" -John 14:6 - Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given Him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." -John 17:1-3. (Italics mine.)
One does not simply get eternal life by knowing God. He is life. Knowing Him is knowing the fountain which spills over with life, and knowing Him intimately is diving more deeply into real living.
“I want to know God like this! Shove me under the waterfall of the Trinity’s joy, which splashes and spills over heaven’s walls. If He’s always in a good mood, I want to catch it. If I’m lost, I want Him to find me. Part the heavens, Lord, come down, kick aside the money tables, trash the ‘Don’t Touch’ rules and embrace me.”- Joni Eareckson Tada & Steve Estes' When God Weeps.
Labels: brain food
Monday, August 06, 2007
Brain Food
I wonder, how often we are too easily pleased by the approval of mere men...
...rather than delighting in God Himself.
"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with...ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.
We are far too easily pleased."
Labels: brain food
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