Wednesday, August 12
Seeing and Hearing
And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies.
John 3:32a
Recommended Reading
Luke 7:20-23
An eighteenth-century English jurist named William Blackstone is responsible for how the United States views the foundations of common law—especially regarding rules of evidence and testimony. His Commentaries on the Laws of England are still in use today.
The Bible has something to say about evidence as well, calling it "that which we have seen and heard" (1 John 1:3). In other words, a testimony is an eyewitness account. And that standard also forms the basis of a Christian's testimony of salvation through Christ. The evidence in a Christian testimony consists of the changes in one's life after an encounter with Jesus Christ, much as the blind man said in John 9: "One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see" (verse 25). No one can deny the changes brought about in your life by the working of the Holy Spirit in you. Those changes are the evidence on which a person hearing your testimony may be encouraged to believe in Christ as well.
Make a list today of the changes that Christ has made in your life. Organize them in a way that can be communicated to others when God gives you that opportunity.
"Testimony" is not a synonym for "autobiography"! To witness is to speak of Christ.
John R. W. Stott
Read-Thru-the-Bible
Jeremiah 46:1 - 48:47
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Today's Turning Point with David Jeremiah
Tuesday, August 11
The Refiner's Fire
… you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6-7
Recommended Reading
1 Peter 1:3-9
Most people think a goldsmith's furnace is used to extract gold from its ore and burn away the dross and impurities, purifying the metal. That's only half right. It also makes the gold pliable. Alexander of Neckham, a twelfth-century Englishman, wrote of a goldsmith who plunged the gold into the fire to soften it. As Neckham watched, the metal was molded into the required form using tongs, hammer, and anvil. Other tools included a saw, a file, and even a rabbit's foot for smoothing, polishing, and wiping the surface.
As Christians, it's not hard to see the analogy. We become more sensitive to God during hard times. We're forced to trust Him in new ways during trials. We fall to our knees in helpless dependence on His grace. We rediscover the power of prayer, and we claim promises in the Bible hitherto neglected. In the process, the fire eliminates those things that might be obscuring our vision of our Heavenly Father, and we are molded into the image of our Lord.
The Refiner's fire is always for His glory and our good.
When God puts us in the furnace, His hand is on the thermostat and His eye is on the clock.
Author unknown
Read-Thru-the-Bible
Jeremiah 42:1 - 45:5
The Refiner's Fire
… you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6-7
Recommended Reading
1 Peter 1:3-9
Most people think a goldsmith's furnace is used to extract gold from its ore and burn away the dross and impurities, purifying the metal. That's only half right. It also makes the gold pliable. Alexander of Neckham, a twelfth-century Englishman, wrote of a goldsmith who plunged the gold into the fire to soften it. As Neckham watched, the metal was molded into the required form using tongs, hammer, and anvil. Other tools included a saw, a file, and even a rabbit's foot for smoothing, polishing, and wiping the surface.
As Christians, it's not hard to see the analogy. We become more sensitive to God during hard times. We're forced to trust Him in new ways during trials. We fall to our knees in helpless dependence on His grace. We rediscover the power of prayer, and we claim promises in the Bible hitherto neglected. In the process, the fire eliminates those things that might be obscuring our vision of our Heavenly Father, and we are molded into the image of our Lord.
The Refiner's fire is always for His glory and our good.
When God puts us in the furnace, His hand is on the thermostat and His eye is on the clock.
Author unknown
Read-Thru-the-Bible
Jeremiah 42:1 - 45:5
The Ransomed Heart - Beauty Is Absolutely Essential
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Beauty Is Absolutely Essential
08/09/2009
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I (John) just let out a deep sigh. That we even need to explain how beauty is so absolutely essential to God only shows how dull we have grown to him, to the world in which we live, and to Eve. Far too many years of our own spiritual lives were lived with barely a nod to beauty, to the central role that beauty plays in the life of God, and in our own lives. How could we have missed this?
Beauty is essential to God. No—that’s not putting it strongly enough. Beauty is the essence of God.
The first way we know this is through nature, the world God has given us. Scripture says that the created world is filled with the glory of God (Isa. 6:3). In what way? Primarily through its beauty. We had a wet spring here in Colorado, and the wildflowers are coming up everywhere—lupine and wild iris and Shasta daisy and a dozen others. The aspens have their heart-shaped leaves again, trembling in the slightest breeze. Massive thunderclouds are rolling in, bringing with them the glorious sunsets they magnify. The earth in summer is brimming with beauty, beauty of such magnificence and variety and unembarrassed lavishness, ripe beauty, lush beauty, beauty given to us with such generosity and abundance it is almost scandalous.
Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful. Stop for a moment and let that sink in. We’re so used to evaluating everything (and everyone) by their usefulness, this thought will take a minute or two to dawn on us. Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful. Which is to say, beauty is in and of itself a great and glorious good, something we need in large and daily doses (for our God has seen fit to arrange for this). Nature at the height of its glory shouts, Beauty is essential! revealing that Beauty is the essence of God. The whole world is full of his glory.
Beauty Is Absolutely Essential
08/09/2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I (John) just let out a deep sigh. That we even need to explain how beauty is so absolutely essential to God only shows how dull we have grown to him, to the world in which we live, and to Eve. Far too many years of our own spiritual lives were lived with barely a nod to beauty, to the central role that beauty plays in the life of God, and in our own lives. How could we have missed this?
Beauty is essential to God. No—that’s not putting it strongly enough. Beauty is the essence of God.
The first way we know this is through nature, the world God has given us. Scripture says that the created world is filled with the glory of God (Isa. 6:3). In what way? Primarily through its beauty. We had a wet spring here in Colorado, and the wildflowers are coming up everywhere—lupine and wild iris and Shasta daisy and a dozen others. The aspens have their heart-shaped leaves again, trembling in the slightest breeze. Massive thunderclouds are rolling in, bringing with them the glorious sunsets they magnify. The earth in summer is brimming with beauty, beauty of such magnificence and variety and unembarrassed lavishness, ripe beauty, lush beauty, beauty given to us with such generosity and abundance it is almost scandalous.
Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful. Stop for a moment and let that sink in. We’re so used to evaluating everything (and everyone) by their usefulness, this thought will take a minute or two to dawn on us. Nature is not primarily functional. It is primarily beautiful. Which is to say, beauty is in and of itself a great and glorious good, something we need in large and daily doses (for our God has seen fit to arrange for this). Nature at the height of its glory shouts, Beauty is essential! revealing that Beauty is the essence of God. The whole world is full of his glory.
Today's Turning Point with David Jeremiah
Monday, August 10
Fires and Floods
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.
Isaiah 43:2
Recommended Reading
Daniel 3:22-27
Anyone who has seen a rampaging river or a burning house knows the terror of flood and flame. The destructive power of fire and water is dreadful to see. Yet these are the dramatic images Isaiah uses to describe our own trials and troubles in life.
The Lord hasn't promised to keep us out of hardship, but He has given us two great promises to sustain us when we're in it: He will be with us, and our troubles will not overwhelm us. I will be with you… They shall not overflow you.
Remember how the Lord brought the Israelites through the waters of the Red Sea in Exodus 14, and how He stood with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- Nego in the fiery furnace of Daniel 3? If a problem is pressing down on you today, claim Isaiah 43:2. Picture the Lord as though He were really beside you, for He is. Trust Him to keep you from being swept away or consumed by your circumstances, for He has promised that His grace is sufficient.
When through fiery trials, thy pathway shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
John Keith
Read-Thru-the-Bible
Jeremiah 37:1 - 41:18
Fires and Floods
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.
Isaiah 43:2
Recommended Reading
Daniel 3:22-27
Anyone who has seen a rampaging river or a burning house knows the terror of flood and flame. The destructive power of fire and water is dreadful to see. Yet these are the dramatic images Isaiah uses to describe our own trials and troubles in life.
The Lord hasn't promised to keep us out of hardship, but He has given us two great promises to sustain us when we're in it: He will be with us, and our troubles will not overwhelm us. I will be with you… They shall not overflow you.
Remember how the Lord brought the Israelites through the waters of the Red Sea in Exodus 14, and how He stood with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- Nego in the fiery furnace of Daniel 3? If a problem is pressing down on you today, claim Isaiah 43:2. Picture the Lord as though He were really beside you, for He is. Trust Him to keep you from being swept away or consumed by your circumstances, for He has promised that His grace is sufficient.
When through fiery trials, thy pathway shall lie, my grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
John Keith
Read-Thru-the-Bible
Jeremiah 37:1 - 41:18
Friday, July 17, 2009
College is important...
College is basically a bunch of rooms where you sit for roughly two thousand hours and try to memorize things. The two thousand hours are spread out over four years; you spend the rest of the time drinking, sleeping and trying to get dates.
Basically, you learn two kinds of things in college:
1. Things you will need to know in later life (two hours). These include how to make collect telephone calls and get beer and crepe-paper stains out of your pajamas.
2. Things you will not need to know in later life (1,998 hours). These are the things you learn in classes whose names usually end in -ology, -osophy, -istry, -ics, and so on. The idea is, you memorize these things, then write them down in little exam books, then forget them. If you fail to forget them, you become a professor and have to stay in college for the rest of your life.
It's very difficult to forget everything. For example, when I was in college, I had to memorize -- don't ask me why -- the names of three metaphysical poets other than John Donne. I have managed to forget one of them, but I still remember that the other two were named Vaughan and Crashaw. Sometimes, when I'm trying to remember something important like whether my wife told me to get tuna packed in oil or tuna packed in water, Vaughan and Crashaw just pop up in my mind, right there in the supermarket. It's a terrible waste of brain cells.
After you've been in college for a year or so, you're supposed to choose a major, which is the subject you intend to memorize and forget the most things about. Here is a very important piece of advice: Be sure to choose a major that does not involve Known Facts and Right Answers.
This means you must NOT major in mathematics, physics, biology, or chemistry, because these subjects involve actual facts. If, for example, you major in mathematics, you're going to wander into class one day and the professor will say: "Define the cosine integer of the quadrant of a rhomboid binary axis, and extrapolate your result to five significant vertices." If you don't come up with exactly the answer the professor has in mind, you fail. The same is true of chemistry: if you write in your exam book that carbon and hydrogen combine to form oak, your professor will flunk you. He wants you to come up with the same answer he and all the other chemists have agreed on. Scientists are extremely snotty about this.
So you should major in subjects like English, philosophy, psychology, and sociology -- subjects in which nobody really understands what anybody else is talking about, and which involve virtually no actual facts.
I attended classes in all these subjects, so I'll give you a quick overview of each:
ENGLISH: This involves writing papers about long books you have read little snippets of just before class. Here is a tip on how to get good grades on your English papers: Never say anything about a book that anybody with any common sense would say. For example, suppose you are studying Moby Dick. Anybody with any common sense would say that Moby Dick is a big white whale, since the characters in the book refer to it as a big white whale roughly eleven thousand times. So in your paper, you say Moby Dick is actually the Republic of Ireland. Your professor, who is sick to death of reading papers and never liked Moby Dick anyway, will think you are enormously creative. If you can regularly come up with lunatic interpretations of simple stories, you should major in English.
PHILOSOPHY: Basically, this involves sitting in a room and deciding there is no such thing as reality and then going to lunch. You should major in philosophy if you plan to take a lot of drugs.
PSYCHOLOGY: This involves talking about rats and dreams. Psychologists are obsessed with rats and dreams. I once spent an entire semester training a rat to punch little buttons in a certain sequence, then training my roommate to do the same thing. The rat learned much faster. My roommate is now a doctor. If you like rats or dreams, and above all if you dream about rats, you should major in psychology.
SOCIOLOGY: For sheer lack of intelligibility, sociology is far and away the number one subject. I sat through hundreds of hours of sociology courses, and read gobs of sociology writing, and I never once heard or read a coherent statement.
This is because sociologists want to be considered scientists, so they spend most of their time translating simple, obvious observations into scientific-sounding code. If you plan to major in sociology, you'll have to learn to do the same thing. For example, suppose you have observed that children cry when they fall down. You should write: "Methodological observation of the sociometrical behavior tendencies of prematurated isolates indicates that a casual relationship exists between groundward tropism and lachrimatory, or 'crying,' behavior forms." If you can keep this up for fifty or sixty pages, you will get large government grants.
Basically, you learn two kinds of things in college:
1. Things you will need to know in later life (two hours). These include how to make collect telephone calls and get beer and crepe-paper stains out of your pajamas.
2. Things you will not need to know in later life (1,998 hours). These are the things you learn in classes whose names usually end in -ology, -osophy, -istry, -ics, and so on. The idea is, you memorize these things, then write them down in little exam books, then forget them. If you fail to forget them, you become a professor and have to stay in college for the rest of your life.
It's very difficult to forget everything. For example, when I was in college, I had to memorize -- don't ask me why -- the names of three metaphysical poets other than John Donne. I have managed to forget one of them, but I still remember that the other two were named Vaughan and Crashaw. Sometimes, when I'm trying to remember something important like whether my wife told me to get tuna packed in oil or tuna packed in water, Vaughan and Crashaw just pop up in my mind, right there in the supermarket. It's a terrible waste of brain cells.
After you've been in college for a year or so, you're supposed to choose a major, which is the subject you intend to memorize and forget the most things about. Here is a very important piece of advice: Be sure to choose a major that does not involve Known Facts and Right Answers.
This means you must NOT major in mathematics, physics, biology, or chemistry, because these subjects involve actual facts. If, for example, you major in mathematics, you're going to wander into class one day and the professor will say: "Define the cosine integer of the quadrant of a rhomboid binary axis, and extrapolate your result to five significant vertices." If you don't come up with exactly the answer the professor has in mind, you fail. The same is true of chemistry: if you write in your exam book that carbon and hydrogen combine to form oak, your professor will flunk you. He wants you to come up with the same answer he and all the other chemists have agreed on. Scientists are extremely snotty about this.
So you should major in subjects like English, philosophy, psychology, and sociology -- subjects in which nobody really understands what anybody else is talking about, and which involve virtually no actual facts.
I attended classes in all these subjects, so I'll give you a quick overview of each:
ENGLISH: This involves writing papers about long books you have read little snippets of just before class. Here is a tip on how to get good grades on your English papers: Never say anything about a book that anybody with any common sense would say. For example, suppose you are studying Moby Dick. Anybody with any common sense would say that Moby Dick is a big white whale, since the characters in the book refer to it as a big white whale roughly eleven thousand times. So in your paper, you say Moby Dick is actually the Republic of Ireland. Your professor, who is sick to death of reading papers and never liked Moby Dick anyway, will think you are enormously creative. If you can regularly come up with lunatic interpretations of simple stories, you should major in English.
PHILOSOPHY: Basically, this involves sitting in a room and deciding there is no such thing as reality and then going to lunch. You should major in philosophy if you plan to take a lot of drugs.
PSYCHOLOGY: This involves talking about rats and dreams. Psychologists are obsessed with rats and dreams. I once spent an entire semester training a rat to punch little buttons in a certain sequence, then training my roommate to do the same thing. The rat learned much faster. My roommate is now a doctor. If you like rats or dreams, and above all if you dream about rats, you should major in psychology.
SOCIOLOGY: For sheer lack of intelligibility, sociology is far and away the number one subject. I sat through hundreds of hours of sociology courses, and read gobs of sociology writing, and I never once heard or read a coherent statement.
This is because sociologists want to be considered scientists, so they spend most of their time translating simple, obvious observations into scientific-sounding code. If you plan to major in sociology, you'll have to learn to do the same thing. For example, suppose you have observed that children cry when they fall down. You should write: "Methodological observation of the sociometrical behavior tendencies of prematurated isolates indicates that a casual relationship exists between groundward tropism and lachrimatory, or 'crying,' behavior forms." If you can keep this up for fifty or sixty pages, you will get large government grants.
Todays Turning Point by Dr. David Jeremiah
Friday, July 17
Avoiding Pain
Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call
on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2 Timothy 2:22
Recommended Reading
1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Once there was a man who prayed that God would protect him from evil. His prayer was like the prayer Jesus taught His disciples except that he went further. He expressed a specific reason for wanting not to be led into temptation: "Oh, . . . that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" (1 Chronicles 4:10). The man was Jabez, an Old Testament saint who displayed mature wisdom in his prayer.
Whenever we yield to temptation or succumb to evil, we are not the only ones who are hurt. There is usually a friend, a spouse, a child, or some other person who is caused pain by our choice. Even if our choice to sin is purely internal, in the realm of our thoughts, we diminish our future impact on others by the loss of energy and spiritual vitality needed to deal with our sin. Therefore there are always three reasons not to sin: Pain to ourselves, pain to others, and pain to God. No parent likes to witness the failure of his or her children, and God certainly takes no pleasure when we fail.
When you pray, "Lead me not into temptation," keep Jabez's insight in mind: that you might not cause pain in anyone's life.
Each temptation leaves us better or worse; neutrality is impossible.
Erwin W. Lutzer
Read-Thru-the-Bible
Isaiah 5:1 - 8:22
Avoiding Pain
Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call
on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2 Timothy 2:22
Recommended Reading
1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Once there was a man who prayed that God would protect him from evil. His prayer was like the prayer Jesus taught His disciples except that he went further. He expressed a specific reason for wanting not to be led into temptation: "Oh, . . . that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" (1 Chronicles 4:10). The man was Jabez, an Old Testament saint who displayed mature wisdom in his prayer.
Whenever we yield to temptation or succumb to evil, we are not the only ones who are hurt. There is usually a friend, a spouse, a child, or some other person who is caused pain by our choice. Even if our choice to sin is purely internal, in the realm of our thoughts, we diminish our future impact on others by the loss of energy and spiritual vitality needed to deal with our sin. Therefore there are always three reasons not to sin: Pain to ourselves, pain to others, and pain to God. No parent likes to witness the failure of his or her children, and God certainly takes no pleasure when we fail.
When you pray, "Lead me not into temptation," keep Jabez's insight in mind: that you might not cause pain in anyone's life.
Each temptation leaves us better or worse; neutrality is impossible.
Erwin W. Lutzer
Read-Thru-the-Bible
Isaiah 5:1 - 8:22
Todays Prayer
Today's prayer July 17, 2009 in the year of our Lord
13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NIV)
Good Morning Lord
Lord, Do other people see me as a faithful friend or a burdensome buddy? I pray that I will be the kind of person that other people love and appreciate; not a person that others want to avoid. And I pray that I will be a good friend to others. "A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24). Help me today to improve my friendship skills...and to be an example of your love in all I do. Thank you, God. In Jesus' name I pray and give you praise, amen. <><
Live Simply. Love Generously. Care Deeply. Speak Kindly. Leave the Rest to God.
But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Micah 7:7
13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NIV)
Good Morning Lord
Lord, Do other people see me as a faithful friend or a burdensome buddy? I pray that I will be the kind of person that other people love and appreciate; not a person that others want to avoid. And I pray that I will be a good friend to others. "A man that hath friends must show himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24). Help me today to improve my friendship skills...and to be an example of your love in all I do. Thank you, God. In Jesus' name I pray and give you praise, amen. <><
Live Simply. Love Generously. Care Deeply. Speak Kindly. Leave the Rest to God.
But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Micah 7:7
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