Jan. 5. 2013. 1:25am.
iPod touch notepad
My apparent need to be playing music to motivate me to pray and read the Word made me doubt the reality of it.
But the angels are always singing. And creation testifies to His glory.
And maybe I need to hear to teach my heart a song
Turn my unsanctified nature to the fire of thy love and let it feel the sacred glow, and let my burnt side cool a little while I learn my own weakness and want of heat when I am removed from thy heavenly flame. Let me not be found a double-minded man, but one entirely under the powerful influence of reigning grace; for well I know if I am left like a cake unturned, and am not on both sides the subject of thy grace, I must be consumed for ever amid everlasting burnings.
C.H. Spurgeon
I don’t why or how I get to have friends who intentionally and radically seek You,
who sharpen and edify me,
who daily put strenuous time and effort into loving me,
who deepen my understanding of You as I walk with them,
who draw me to fall more in love with You, and less with life.
I don’t know why I get to be part of this,
but I do.
I offered broken words to You years ago one night about coming to a good church one day.
But little did I know how much You heard me.
Little did I know You’re a good Father,
And surely – I see it better now over the years – You know how to give good gifts to Your children who ask.
In my deepest wound I saw your glory, and it dazzled me.
Augustine of Hippo
John 3, Proverbs 27 – 30
May I set my seal to this, Father
That You are true
You are true.
Give me neither riches nor poverty, lest I forget who You are
Lest I say deep in this wayward heart,
“Who is God?”
May I never dismiss my transgressions,
and grow moral depravity for what grieves You.
Dehydrate me of broken cisterns
until I learn to drink freely of Living Water alone.
May I not only confess, but forsake
And obtain mercy.
Teach me to choose the better portion, for my good.
Teach me what justice is,
what kindness is
what it is to walk humbly with You.
For I am weary, God.
What is my understanding of You, and my knowledge of You?
Teach me who has ascended to heaven and come down,
Who has gathered the wind in his fists
Who has wrapped up the waters like a garment
Who has established all the ends of the earth
Teach me Your Name, and the glory of Your Son,
for my flawed, broken knowledge has been nothing to comprehend You,
the Maker of the heavens and the earth.
May I recognize Your mystery
And may my wisdom begin and end with this,
to fear You all of my days.
May I put hope not in knowledge or righteousness,
but in Your unfailing love,
in Your every Word that proves true.
Your invisible reign, Your strong love
Are more real than what these eyes see.
May I set my seal to this, God
that You are true.
You are true.
My God, You are true.
“some of my friends make it easier for me to believe in God.”
I wrote that to myself in an email draft two years ago.
And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being… Acts 17:26-28
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18
Father – thank You.
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:7-11, ESV
“3:7 whatever gain. Paul is obviously not thinking of his transgressions of the law but of his scrupulous obedience to its commands (v.6).
“I counted as loss. This decision is the more meaningful, because it is (at least in part) a virtue that he renounces, perhaps even harder than renouncing vice. Yet as Paul now grasps, the nobler one’s lineage and the higher one’s attainments, the greater the temptation to pride and self-confidence (Luke 18:9-24; Eph. 2:8, 9). Paul freely discards all sources of self-confidence and personal profit for Christ.” Reformation Study Bible, 2005
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” Matthew 23:25
“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'” Matthew 15:8,9
Hypocrites did not know they were hypocrites.
Knowing Him, and being known by Him, is a terrible thing to presume.
Abba, in You
I lack no good thing.
“Paul’s words here endorse the consistent biblical testimony that idolatry is inexcusable. Scripture never condones idolatry on the grounds that men knew no better, but condemns it on the assumption that they did, and that irrespective of whether they had encountered any part of God’s special revelation or not (Is. xliv.10-20; Hab. ii. 18-20).
Quite so, says Paul; for it is out of general, not special, revelation that idolatry has been manufactured. Idolatry is a lie grafted on to some of the intuitions of general revelation in order to smother the rest; it was invented to provide sinners with gods they can worship while remaining their own masters. One of the contradictions of fallen human nature is the desire to be lord of what one worships.
As a creature, man yearns for a god to serve; as a sinner, he is resolved to play God himself, and demands that everything…
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in all their splendour 