More blessed than Mary

Kristin and I are reading through Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus* together and today's reading was especially good.

Jonathan Edwards preached a message titled, "To be more blessed than Mary" from the account in Luke 11:27-28 of a lady in the crowd calling out to Jesus about how blessed is the womb that bore him. Jesus responds with, "Blessed rather are those that hear the word of God and keep it!" Nancy Guthrie edits Edwards' sermon on this text down to a short reading, but it still punches beyond its weight. Especially good is this one-liner from Edwards, "'Tis more blessed to have Christ in the heart than in the womb."

*A collection of 22 short meditations to focus you on the wonder of the incarnation of Jesus, drawn from the works of classic theologians and writers such as Martin Luther, Augustine and Jonathan Edwards as well as contemporary theologians and Bible teachers such as John Piper, Tim Keller, J.I. Packer and Randy Alcorn. A similar volume is also available for Easter season.

School age boys

Sometimes I can agree with this quote from an unknown school teacher:

"What is sin? [Answer:] What is boy?"


Marvin Olasky, during a recent speech, about the difficulty many boys have adjusting to a schoolroom environment.

Other lovers

Samuel Rutherford on soulmates:

I know that other lovers beside Christ are in suit of you, and your soul hath many wooers. But I pray you make a chaste virgin of your soul, and let it love but one. Most worthy is Christ alone of all your soul's love.

This soul of ours hath love, and cannot but love some fair one; and O what a fair One, what an only One, what an excellent, lovely One is Jesus! Put the beauty of ten thousand worlds of paradises like the garden of Eden in one; put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colours, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness in one. O what a fair and excellent thing would that be! And yet it would be less, to that fair and dearest Well-beloved, Christ, than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths.

O pity, that Fairness hath so few lovers! O, woe, woe to the fools of this world, who run by Christ to other lovers! But O that men would once be wise, and not fall so in love with their own hell as to pass by Christ, and overlook him!

Read Rutherford's letters here.

9 signs of life

I've enjoyed reading a letter a day from the pen of one of the great Scottish puritan Presbyterians. The Letters of Samuel Rutherford (1660-1661) were mostly written during his imprisonment for the sake of the Gospel.

This excerpt from my reading today provides a good example of the richness of 17th-century devotional literature:

Loving Brother, Hold fast Christ without wavering, and contend for the faith. You may put a difference betwixt you and reprobates (those without Christ), if you have these marks,

1. If ye prize Christ and his truth so as ye will sell all and buy him, and suffer for it.

2. If the love of Christ keepeth you back from sinning, more than the law, or fear of Hell.

3. If ye be humble, and deny your own will, wit, credit, ease, honor, the world, and the vanity and glory of it.

4. Your profession must not be barren and void of good works.

5. Ye must in all things aim at God's honor; ye must eat, drink, sleep, buy, sell, sit, stand, speak, pray, read, and hear the word, with a heart-purpose that God may be honored.

6. Ye must show yourself an enemy to sin, and reprove the works of darkness, such as drunkenness, swearing, and lying, albeit the company should hate you for so doing.

7. Keep in mind the truth of God, that ye heard me teach, and have nothing to do with the corruptions and new guises entered into the house of God.

8. Make conscience of your calling (as a Christian), in covenants, in buying and selling.

9. Acquaint yourself with daily praying; commit all your ways and actions to God, by prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving; and count not much of being mocked; for Christ Jesus was mocked before you.

Come closer

"It is little to see Christ in a book, as men do the world in a card. They talk of Christ by the book and the tongue and no more; but to come near to Christ and embrace him is another thing."

Samuel Rutherford to the Lady Kenmure while imprisoned for Christ
22 Nov 1636

A picture of Julius and me

I finished my first book by Alexander Whyte yesterday. It was said, "no ruler has held his subjects more captive than Alexander Whyte did from his pulpit." He was obviously a man of great imagination and an expert at painting word pictures.

In the final chapter of The Characters in Pilgrim's Progress, Whyte gives us a picture of a character that I am all too familiar with: "Julius, who goes regularly to prayers, and there confesses himself to be a miserable sinner who has no health in him, and yet that same Julius can not bear to be informed of any imperfection or suspected to be wanting in any kind or degree of virtue."

This evening I read a note that was only a tad bit critical of something related to me. My first reaction proves that, Julius, I'm pictured with you.

It was said of Mr. Whyte, "every sermon in Free St. George was a volcano and every opening prayer a revelation." Thank you Father for giving us Mr. Whyte, what a help he is to me!

Let's pray

"How long has it been since you prayed for this sin [abortion] to be removed?"
-Pastor Randy Steele, from a sermon given on Sanctity of Life Sunday, 2009

Some specific prayer points:
Pray that the incoming President will reconsider his views on this moral issue

Pray that the Freedom of Choice Act will not be signed, or if it is that it will not be as effective at wiping out restrictions on abortion as feared.

Pray for the work of CareNet and others like them to influence more pregnancies to result in life and not in death

Pray that many more Christian families would be willing to adopt

What we said about them behind their back

"If all our friends only knew what we have said about them behind their back, we would not have four friends in all the world. I know I would not have one. How many would you have? And who would they be? You cannot name them. I defy you to name them. They do not exist. The tongue can no man tame."

"Since, therefore, it is so hard for us to enter on our neighbour’s character without offending the law of Christ, we should learn to decline that kind of conversation altogether."

Alexander Whyte, on the character "Talkative" in Pilgrim's Progress

The object of life

CNN.com posted a commentary by Chuck Colson today about the Illinois governor and corruption. Colson presented his Christian testimony clearly and included this great quote which was new to me:

"Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who wrote from the gulag, 'Bless you, prison, bless you for being in my life, for there, lying on the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity, as we are made to believe, but the maturing of the human soul.'"

What a great perspective! Live not for prosperity but for the maturing of the human soul! Kudos to CNN for posting this.

The only things we create that will last forever

"As parents the only thing we ever create that will last through all eternity is children. Your children will be there before the judgement seat of Christ. And these dear children that I see week by week growing up are going to last for all eternity. They're going to last forever and forever and forever. That means the most important thing in my existence is how I bring my children to Christ."

Hear the rest of Dr Ferguson's sermon (#8) from a recent parenting conference. It's very encouraging.

What are all your beloveds to this Beloved?

You that are yet in the flower of your days, full of health and strength, and, with all the vigor of your spirits, do pursue some one thing, some another, consider, I pray, what are all your beloveds to this Beloved? What have you gotten by them? Let us see the peace, quietness, assurance of everlasting blessedness that they have given you.

Pray study him a little; you love him not, because you know him not. Why does one of you spend his time in idleness and folly, and wasting of precious time, perhaps debauchedly? Merely because you know not our dear Lord Jesus. Why do you spend your 'money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies not?'

John Owen, Communion with God

If God's Word isn't saving you, what will?

Fear your own hardness of heart more than anything else. Beware of rigidity, ingratitude, a demanding spirit. Beware of an unmelted heart that is never satisfied. Beware of a mind that looks for excuses not to believe. Beware of the impulse that always finds a reason to delay a response. Beware of thinking how the sermon applies to someone else. God watches how you hear his Word.

Ray Ortlund, Jr in his commentary on Isaiah

Inexhaustible Grace

If all the world should set themselves to drink free grace, mercy, and pardon, drawing water continually from the wells of salvation; if they should set themselves to draw from one single promise, an angel standing by and crying, 'Drink, O my friends, yea, drink abundantly, take so much grace and pardon as shall be abundantly sufficient for the world of sin which is in every one of you'--they would not be able to sink the grace of the promise one hair's breadth. There is enough for millions of worlds, if they were, because it flows into it from an infinite, bottomless fountain.

Show me the sinner that can spread his iniquities to the dimensions of this grace.

John Owen, Communion with God

The difference 3Ps make

The respected Scottish pastor, John Murray, once asked a new charge the difference between a lecture and a sermon. The new pastor smartly deferred to his senior for the answer. Murray said that 3Ps make all the difference: a personal, passionate, plea.

These 3Ps are also what turns our testimony into evangelism, our Bible reading into devotion, and our thoughts into prayer. Don't forget the 3Ps.

Optimistic parenting

Al Mohler wisely says, "optimism may be naive, but pessimism is atheistic." When it comes to parenting, optimism is called for.

Kristin and I were talking last night that our evening was pleasant because there was less bickering among the children. We thought, could it be that Eli is growing out of that? How wonderful that would be! And if he does outgrow it, then that means the other kids can, too!

Today showed us that none of our children have matured past the point of selfish conflict yet, but there is no reason to think that they won't. God is able to change their hearts, as he has ours, and so we pray with confidence and look forward to a day of peace to come.

Let charity begin at home

A prayer for the family,

"Forbid that I should fail to show to those nearest to me the sympathy and consideration which Thy grace enables me to show to others with whom I have to do. Forbid that I should refuse to my own household the courtesy and politeness which I think proper to show to strangers. Let charity today begin at home."

John Baillie

Canons and Buoys

Two simple sayings help me blast away at unbelief and, when my ship is sunk, have been bouys to keep me afloat.

These are daily on my mind and steady me. First, "put your feelings behind you and do the responsible thing." This is an effective weapon against man-pleasing and self-centeredness. The second is like it, "what is required is a long obedience in the same direction" (Eugene Peterson). This is particularly effective against spiritual laziness and reminds me to keep my vows.

Do any sayings serve as canons and bouys in your life?