Some pointers for praying

Do you ever find prayer difficult? I do. But I have been convicted lately that a proper blending of the Word and of prayer is absolutely essential to strategic Christian ministry and living. According to John 15:7-8 the cross-centered life demands that we have a life profoundly shaped by the Word and prayer that results in a ministry that bears much fruit.

But how can you make your prayer life more effective. The simple answer is "Just pray!" But as Greg Koukl points out that is about as helpful sometimes as if a great tennis player in response to an amateur asking "How can I become a great tennis player like you?" responding, "Oh, by just hitting the ball a lot!" Read Greg's ten tips on prayer as well as some major topics that Scritpure admonishes us to include in our prayer lives.

Praying for Pastors

I am preaching this morning from 1 Thessalonians 5:25-28 and focusing primarily on the charge to congregations to pray for their shepherds. You can read that message here. God used some writings from John Piper and Gardiner Spring to minister to my heart prior to this message. They have written two articles that every church member should read and file. Piper gives a short synopsis of what he asks his people to pray for their pastors and Spring makes an impassioned plea to pray for pastors.

"I have prayed for you!"--Jesus Christ

I have been thinking lately about how our Savior prays for us. Charles Spurgeon wrote something that really has encouraged me in recent days. Commenting on Luke 22:32 where Jesus tells Peter, "I have prayed for you", Spurgeon writes,

How encouraging is the thought of the Redeemer’s never- ceasing intercession for us. When we pray, he pleads for us; and when we are not praying, he is advocating our cause, and by his supplications shielding us from unseen dangers. Notice the word of comfort addressed to Peter—“Simon, Simonh, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat; but”—what? “But go and pray for yourself.” That would be good advice, but it is not so written. Neither does he say, “But I will keep you watchful, and so you shall be preserved.” That were a great blessing. No, it is, “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” We little know what we owe to our Saviour’s prayers. When we reach the hill-tops of heaven, and look back upon all the way whereby the Lord our God hath led us, how we shall praise him who, before the eternal throne, undid the mischief which Satan was doing upon earth. How shall we thank him because he never held his peace, but day and night pointed to the wounds upon his hands, and carried our names upon his breastplate! Even before Satan had begun to tempt, Jesus had forestalled him and entered a plea in heaven. Mercy outruns malice. Mark, he does not say, “Satan hath desired to have you.” He checks Satan even in his very desire, and nips it in the bud. He does not say, “But I have desired to pray for you.” No, but “I have prayed for you: I have done it already; I have gone to court and entered a counterplea even before an accusation is made.” O Jesus, what a comfort it is that thou hast pleaded our cause against our unseen enemies; countermined their mines, and unmasked their ambushes. Here is a matter for joy, gratitude, hope, and confidence.

Spurgeon, C. H. 1995. Morning and evening : Daily readings . Logos Research Systems, Inc.: Oak Harbor, WA

John MacArthur on Hurricane Katrina

Tony Cappocia has done a great job at his website called The Bible Bulletin Board. Here is a recent transcript of an interview Phil Johnson did with John MacArthur on Hurricane Katrina.

Don't do it!

Whatever you do, don't click here. (HT: Real Clear Theology).

Spurgeon's "A Defense of Calvinism"

The doctrines of grace have been under fresh attack in the last several years. Is this some new doctrine that a few scholars have dreamed up? Is this just something that should be relegated to the lowest tiers of theological discussion? Or is this at the very heart of the gospel? Read what Spurgeon said years ago while these precious doctrines were under attack by his critics. I read this years ago but Steve Camp reminded me of this great article/sermon that balances truth with passion for the glory of God

A Defense of Calvinism
by C.H. Spurgeon

The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach today, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again.

IT IS A GREAT THING to begin the Christian life by believing good solid doctrine. Some people have received twenty different "gospels" in as many years; how many more they will accept before they get to their journey's end, it would be difficult to predict. I thank God that He early taught me the gospel, and I have been so perfectly satisfied with it, that I do not want to know any other. Constant change of creed is sure loss. If a tree has to be taken up two or three times a year, you will not need to build a very large loft in which to store the apples. When people are always shifting their doctrinal principles, they are not likely to bring forth much fruit to the glory of God. It is good for young believers to begin with a firm hold upon those great fundamental doctrines which the Lord has taught in His Word. Why, if I believed what some preach about the temporary, trumpery salvation which only lasts for a time, I would scarcely be at all grateful for it; but when I know that those whom God saves He saves with an everlasting salvation, when I know that He gives to them an everlasting righteousness, when I know that He settles them on an everlasting foundation of everlasting love, and that He will bring them to His everlasting kingdom, oh, then I do wonder, and I am astonished that such a blessing as this should ever have been given to me!

"Pause, my soul! adore, and wonder!
Ask, 'Oh, why such love to me?'
Grace hath put me in the number of the Saviour's family:
Hallelujah! Thanks, eternal thanks, to Thee!"

I suppose there are some persons whose minds naturally incline towards the doctrine of free-will. I can only say that mine inclines as naturally towards the doctrines of sovereign grace.

The Gratitude that Springs from Sovereign Grace
Sometimes, when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude that God has never let me act as they have done! I have thought, if God had left me alone, and had not touched me by His grace, what a great sinner I should have been! I should have run to the utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me. I feel that I should have been a very king of sinners, if God had let me alone. I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine grace. If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into the pit.

Looking back on my past life, I can see that the dawning of it all was of God; of God effectively. I took no torch with which to light the sun, but the sun enlightened me. I did not commence my spiritual life-no, I rather kicked, and struggled against the things of the Spirit: when He drew me, for a time I did not run after Him: there was a natural hatred in my soul of everything holy and good. Wooings were lost upon me-warnings were cast to the wind-thunders were despised; and as for the whispers of His love, they were rejected as being less than nothing and vanity. But, sure I am, I can say now, speaking on behalf of myself, "He only is my salvation." It was He who turned my heart, and brought me down on my knees before Him.

I can in very deed, say with Doddridge and Toplady - "Grace taught my soul to pray, and made my eyes o'erflow;" and coming to this moment, I can add - 'Tis grace has kept me to this day, and will not let me go.'

Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian
Well can I remember the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace in a single instant. Born, as all of us are by nature, an Arminian, I still believed the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit, and did not see the grace of God. When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this.

I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul-when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man-that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God. One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment-I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, "I ascribe my change wholly to God."

I once attended a service where the text happened to be, "He shall choose our inheritance for us;" and the good man who occupied the pulpit was more than a little of an Arminian. Therefore, when he commenced, he said, "This passage refers entirely to our temporal inheritance, it has nothing whatever to do with our everlasting destiny, for," said he, "we do not want Christ to choose for us in the matter of Heaven or hell. It is so plain and easy, that every man who has a grain of common sense will choose Heaven, and any person would know better than to choose hell. We have no need of any superior intelligence, or any greater Being, to choose Heaven or hell for us. It is left to our own free-will, and we have enough wisdom given us, sufficiently correct means to judge for ourselves," and therefore, as he very logically inferred, there was no necessity for Jesus Christ, or anyone, to make a choice for us. We could choose the inheritance for ourselves without any assistance. "Ah!" I thought, "but, my good brother, it may be very true that we could, but I think we should want something more than common sense before we should choose aright."

Inflexible Providence
First, let me ask, must we not all of us admit an over-ruling Providence, and the appointment of Jehovah's hand, as to the means whereby we came into this world? Those men who think that, afterwards, we are left to our own free-will to choose this one or the other to direct our steps, must admit that our entrance into the world was not of our own will, but that God had then to choose for us. What circumstances were those in our power which led us to elect certain persons to be our parents? Had we anything to do with it? Did not God Himself appoint our parents, native place, and friends? Could He not have caused me to be born with the skin of the Hottentot, brought forth by a filthy mother who would nurse me in her "kraal," and teach me to bow down to Pagan gods, quite as easily as to have given me a pious mother, who would each morning and night bend her knee in prayer on my behalf? Or, might He not, if He had pleased, have given me some profligate to have been my parent, from whose lips I might have early heard fearful, filthy, and obscene language? Might He not have placed me where I should have had a drunken father, who would have immured me in a very dungeon of ignorance, and brought me up in the chains of crime? Was it not God's Providence that I had so happy a lot, that both my parents were His children, and endeavoured to train me up in the fear of the Lord?

John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, and laugh at it, too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of election, "Ah! sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else He would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards." I am sure it is true in my case; I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great Biblical doctrine. I recollect an Arminian brother telling me that he had read the Scriptures through a score or more times, and could never find the doctrine of election in them. He added that he was sure he would have done so if it had been there, for he read the Word on his knees. I said to him, "I think you read the Bible in a very uncomfortable posture, and if you had read it in your easy chair, you would have been more likely to understand it. Pray, by all means, and the more, the better, but it is a piece of superstition to think there is anything in the posture in which a man puts himself for reading: and as to reading through the Bible twenty times without having found anything about the doctrine of election, the wonder is that you found anything at all: you must have galloped through it at such a rate that you were not likely to have any intelligible idea of the meaning of the Scriptures."

If it would be marvelous to see one river leap up from the earth full-grown, what would it be to gaze upon a vast spring from which all the rivers of the earth should at once come bubbling up, a million of them born at a birth? What a vision would it be! Who can conceive it. And yet the love of God is that fountain, from which all the rivers of mercy, which have ever gladdened our race-all the rivers of grace in time, and of glory hereafter-take their rise. My soul, stand thou at that sacred fountain-head, and adore and magnify, for ever and ever, God, even our Father, who hath loved us!

God Enters into Covenant with Sinful Man
In the very beginning, when this great universe lay in the mind of God, like unborn forests in the acorn cup; long ere the echoes awoke the solitudes; before the mountains were brought forth; and long ere the light flashed through the sky, God loved His chosen creatures. Before there was any created being-when the ether was not fanned by an angel's wing, when space itself had not an existence, when there was nothing save God alone-even then, in that loneliness of Deity, and in that deep quiet and profundity, His bowels moved with love for His chosen. Their names were written on His heart, and then were they dear to His soul. Jesus loved His people before the foundation of the world-even from eternity! and when He called me by His grace, He said to me, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."

Then, in the fulness of time, He purchased me with His blood; He let His heart run out in one deep gaping wound for me long ere I loved Him. Yea, when He first came to me, did I not spurn Him? When He knocked at the door, and asked for entrance, did I not drive Him away, and do despite to His grace? Ah, I can remember that I full often did so until, at last, by the power of His effectual grace, He said, "I must, I will come in;" and then He turned my heart, and made me love Him. But even till now I should have resisted Him, had it not been for His grace. Well, then since He purchased me when I was dead in sins, does it not follow, as a consequence necessary and logical, that He must have loved me first? Did my Saviour die for me because I believed on Him? No; I was not then in existence; I had then no being. Could the Saviour, therefore, have died because I had faith, when I myself was not yet born? Could that have been possible? Could that have been the origin of the Saviour's love towards me? Oh! no; my Saviour died for me long before I believed. "But," says someone, "He foresaw that you would have faith; and, therefore, He loved you." What did He foresee about my faith? Did He foresee that I should get that faith myself, and that I should believe on Him of myself? No; Christ could not foresee that, because no Christian man will ever say that faith came of itself without the gift and without the working of the Holy Spirit. I have met with a great many believers, and talked with them about this matter; but I never knew one who could put his hand on his heart, and say, "I believed in Jesus without the assistance of the Holy Spirit."

I am bound to the doctrine of the depravity of the human heart, because I find myself depraved in heart, and have daily proofs that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing.

If God enters into covenant with unfallen man, man is so insignificant a creature that it must be an act of gracious condescension on the Lord's part; but if God enters into covenant with sinful man, he is then so offensive a creature that it must be, on God's part, an act of pure, free, rich, sovereign grace.

When the Lord entered into covenant with me, I am sure that it was all of grace, nothing else but grace. When I remember what a den of unclean beasts and birds my heart was, and how strong was my unrenewed will, how obstinate and rebellious against the sovereignty of the Divine rule, I always feel inclined to take the very lowest room in my Father's house, and when I enter Heaven, it will be to go among the less than the least of all saints, and with the chief of sinners.

"Salvation is of the Lord."
The late lamented Mr. Denham has put, at the foot of his portrait, a most admirable text, "Salvation is of the Lord." That is just an epitome of Calvinism; it is the sum and substance of it. If anyone should ask me what I mean by a Calvinist, I should reply, "He is one who says, Salvation is of the Lord." I cannot find in Scripture any other doctrine than this. It is the essence of the Bible. "He only is my rock and my salvation." Tell me anything contrary to this truth, and it will be a heresy; tell me a heresy, and I shall find its essence here, that it has departed from this great, this fundamental, this rock-truth, "God is my rock and my salvation."

What is the heresy of Rome, but the addition of something to the perfect merits of Jesus Christ-the bringing in of the works of the flesh, to assist in our justification?

And what is the heresy of Arminianism but the addition of something to the work of the Redeemer?

Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor.

"If ever it should come to pass,
That sheep of Christ might fall away,
My fickle, feeble soul, alas!
Would fall a thousand times a day."

If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all; if one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be; and then there is no gospel promise true, but the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worth my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once when I can believe that a saint of God can ever fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then He will love me for ever. God has a master-mind; He arranged everything in His gigantic intellect long before He did it; and once having settled it, He never alters it, "This shall be done," saith He, and the iron hand of destiny marks it down, and it is brought to pass. "This is My purpose," and it stands, nor can earth or hell alter it. "This is My decree," saith He, "promulgate it, ye holy angels; rend it down from the gate of Heaven, ye devils, if ye can; but ye cannot alter the decree, it shall stand for ever."

Indelible Grace
God altereth not His plans; why should He? He is Almighty, and therefore can perform His pleasure. Why should He? He is the All-wise, and therefore cannot have planned wrongly. Why should He? He is the everlasting God, and therefore cannot die before His plan is accomplished. Why should He change? Ye worthless atoms of earth, ephemera of a day, ye creeping insects upon this bay-leaf of existence, ye may change your plans, but He shall never, never change His. Has He told me that His plan is to save me? If so, I am for ever safe.

"My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impress'd on His heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace."

I do not know how some people, who believe that a Christian can fall from grace, manage to be happy. It must be a very commendable thing in them to be able to get through a day without despair. If I did not believe the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, I think I should be of all men the most miserable, because I should lack any ground of comfort. I could not say, whatever state of heart I came into, that I should be like a well-spring of water, whose stream fails not; I should rather have to take the comparison of an intermittent spring, that might stop on a sudden, or a reservoir, which I had no reason to expect would always be full. I believe that the happiest of Christians and the truest of Christians are those who never dare to doubt God, but who take His Word simply as it stands, and believe it, and ask no questions, just feeling assured that if God has said it, it will be so. I bear my willing testimony that I have no reason, nor even the shadow of a reason, to doubt my Lord, and I challenge Heaven, and earth, and hell, to bring any proof that God is untrue. From the depths of hell I call the fiends, and from this earth I call the tried and afflicted believers, and to Heaven I appeal, and challenge the long experience of the blood-washed host, and there is not to be found in the three realms a single person who can bear witness to one fact which can disprove the faithfulness of God, or weaken His claim to be trusted by His servants. There are many things that may or may not happen, but this I know shall happen-

"He shall present my soul,
Unblemish'd and complete,
Before the glory of His face,
With joys divinely great."

All the purposes of man have been defeated, but not the purposes of God. The promises of man may be broken-many of them are made to be broken-but the promises of God shall all be fulfilled. He is a promise-maker, but He never was a promise-breaker; He is a promise-keeping God, and every one of His people shall prove it to be so. This is my grateful, personal confidence, "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me"-unworthy me, lost and ruined me. He will yet save me; and-

"I, among the blood-wash'd throng,
Shall wave the palm, and wear the crown,
And shout loud victory."

I go to a land which the plough of earth hath never upturned, where it is greener than earth's best pastures, and richer than her most abundant harvests ever saw. I go to a building of more gorgeous architecture than man hath ever builded; it is not of mortal design; it is "a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens." All I shall know and enjoy in Heaven, will be given to me by the Lord, and I shall say, when at last I appear before Him-

"Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in Heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise."

The Sufficient Efficacy of the Merits of Christ
I know there are some who think it necessary to their system of theology to limit the merit of the blood of Jesus: if my theological system needed such a limitation, I would cast it to the winds. I cannot, I dare not allow the thought to find a lodging in my mind, it seems so near akin to blasphemy. In Christ's finished work I see an ocean of merit; my plummet finds no bottom, my eye discovers no shore. There must be sufficient efficacy in the blood of Christ, if God had so willed it, to have saved not only all in this world, but all in ten thousand worlds, had they transgressed their Maker's law. Once admit infinity into the matter, and limit is out of the question. Having a Divine Person for an offering, it is not consistent to conceive of limited value; bound and measure are terms inapplicable to the Divine sacrifice. The intent of the Divine purpose fixes the application of the infinite offering, but does not change it into a finite work. Think of the numbers upon whom God has bestowed His grace already. Think of the countless hosts in Heaven: if thou wert introduced there today, thou wouldst find it as easy to tell the stars, or the sands of the sea, as to count the multitudes that are before the throne even now. They have come from the East, and from the West, from the North, and from the South, and they are sitting down with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Jacob in the Kingdom of God; and beside those in Heaven, think of the saved ones on earth.

Blessed be God, His elect on earth are to be counted by millions, I believe, and the days are coming, brighter days than these, when there shall be multitudes upon multitudes brought to know the Saviour, and to rejoice in Him. The Father's love is not for a few only, but for an exceeding great company. "A great multitude, which no man could number," will be found in Heaven. A man can reckon up to very high figures; set to work your Newtons, your mightiest calculators, and they can count great numbers, but God and God alone can tell the multitude of His redeemed. I believe there will be more in Heaven than in hell. If anyone asks me why I think so, I answer, because Christ, in everything, is to "have the pre-eminence," and I cannot conceive how He could have the pre-eminence if there are to be more in the dominions of Satan than in Paradise. Moreover, I have never read that there is to be in hell a great multitude, which no man could number. I rejoice to know that the souls of all infants, as soon as they die, speed their way to Paradise. Think what a multitude there is of them! Then there are already in Heaven unnumbered myriads of the spirits of just men made perfect-the redeemed of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues up till now; and there are better times coming, when the religion of Christ shall be universal; when- "He shall reign from pole to pole, With illimitable sway;" -when whole kingdoms shall bow down before Him, and nations shall be born in a day, and in the thousand years of the great millennial state there will be enough saved to make up all the deficiencies of the thousands of years that have gone before. Christ shall be Master everywhere, and His praise shall be sounded in every land. Christ shall have the pre-eminence at last; His train shall be far larger than that which shall attend the chariot of the grim monarch of hell.

Particular Redemption - The Nature of the Atonement
Some persons love the doctrine of universal atonement because they say, "It is so beautiful. It is a lovely idea that Christ should have died for all men; it commends itself," they say, "to the instincts of humanity; there is something in it full of joy and beauty." I admit there is, but beauty may be often associated with falsehood. There is much which I might admire in the theory of universal redemption, but I will just show what the supposition necessarily involves. If Christ on His cross intended to save every man, then He intended to save those who were lost before He died. If the doctrine be true, that He died for all men, then He died for some who were in hell before He came into this world, for doubtless there were even then myriads there who had been cast away because of their sins. Once again, if it was Christ's intention to save all men, how deplorably has He been disappointed, for we have His own testimony that there is a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and into that pit of woe have been cast some of the very persons who, according to the theory of universal redemption, were bought with His blood. That seems to me a conception a thousand times more repulsive than any of those consequences which are said to be associated with the Calvinistic and Christian doctrine of special and particular redemption. To think that my Saviour died for men who were or are in hell, seems a supposition too horrible for me to entertain. To imagine for a moment that He was the Substitute for all the sons of men, and that God, having first punished the Substitute, afterwards punished the sinners themselves, seems to conflict with all my ideas of Divine justice. That Christ should offer an atonement and satisfaction for the sins of all men, and that afterwards some of those very men should be punished for the sins for which Christ had already atoned, appears to me to be the most monstrous iniquity that could ever have been imputed to Saturn, to Janus, to the goddess of the Thugs, or to the most diabolical heathen deities. God forbid that we should ever think thus of Jehovah, the just and wise and good!

There is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrines of grace than I do, and if any man asks me whether I am ashamed to be called a Calvinist, I answer-I wish to be called nothing but a Christian; but if you ask me, do I hold the doctrinal views which were held by John Calvin, I reply, I do in the main hold them, and rejoice to avow it. But far be it from me even to imagine that Zion contains none but Calvinistic Christians within her walls, or that there are none saved who do not hold our views. Most atrocious things have been spoken about the character and spiritual condition of John Wesley, the modern prince of Arminians. I can only say concerning him that, while I detest many of the doctrines which he preached, yet for the man himself I have a reverence second to no Wesleyan; and if there were wanted two apostles to be added to the number of the twelve, I do not believe that there could be found two men more fit to be so added than George Whitefield and John Wesley. The character of John Wesley stands beyond all imputation for self-sacrifice, zeal, holiness, and communion with God; he lived far above the ordinary level of common Christians, and was one "of whom the world was not worthy." I believe there are multitudes of men who cannot see these truths, or, at least, cannot see them in the way in which we put them, who nevertheless have received Christ as their Saviour, and are as dear to the heart of the God of grace as the soundest Calvinist in or out of Heaven.

The Sandy Foundation of Arminianism; and The Solid Rock of Grace
I do not think I differ from any of my Hyper-Calvinistic brethren in what I do believe, but I differ from them in what they do not believe. I do not hold any less than they do, but I hold a little more, and, I think, a little more of the truth revealed in the Scriptures. Not only are there a few cardinal doctrines, by which we can steer our ship North, South, East, or West, but as we study the Word, we shall begin to learn something about the North-west and North-east, and all else that lies between the four cardinal points. The system of truth revealed in the Scriptures is not simply one straight line, but two; and no man will ever get a right view of the gospel until he knows how to look at the two lines at once.

For instance, I read in one Book of the Bible, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Yet I am taught, in another part of the same inspired Word, that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." I see, in one place, God in providence presiding over all, and yet I see, and I cannot help seeing, that man acts as he pleases, and that God has left his actions, in a great measure, to his own free-will. Now, if I were to declare that man was so free to act that there was no control of God over his actions, I should be driven very near to atheism; and if, on the other hand, I should declare that God so over-rules all things that man is not free enough to be responsible, I should be driven at once into Antinomianism or fatalism. That God predestines, and yet that man is responsible, are two facts that few can see clearly.

They are believed to be inconsistent and contradictory to each other. If, then, I find taught in one part of the Bible that everything is fore-ordained, that is true; and if I find, in another Scripture, that man is responsible for all his actions, that is true; and it is only my folly that leads me to imagine that these two truths can ever contradict each other. I do not believe they can ever be welded into one upon any earthly anvil, but they certainly shall be one in eternity. They are two lines that are so nearly parallel, that the human mind which pursues them farthest will never discover that they converge, but they do converge, and they will meet somewhere in eternity, close to the throne of God, whence all truth doth spring.

It is often said that the doctrines we believe have a tendency to lead us to sin. I have heard it asserted most positively, that those high doctrines which we love, and which we find in the Scriptures, are licentious ones. I do not know who will have the hardihood to make that assertion, when they consider that the holiest of men have been believers in them. I ask the man who dares to say that Calvinism is a licentious religion, what he thinks of the character of Augustine, or Calvin, or Whitefield, who in successive ages were the great exponents of the system of grace; or what will he say of the Puritans, whose works are full of them? Had a man been an Arminian in those days, he would have been accounted the vilest heretic breathing, but now we are looked upon as the heretics, and they as the orthodox. We have gone back to the old school; we can trace our descent from the apostles. It is that vein of free-grace, running through the sermonizing of Baptists, which has saved us as a denomination. Were it not for that, we should not stand where we are today. We can run a golden line up to Jesus Christ Himself, through a holy succession of mighty fathers, who all held these glorious truths; and we can ask concerning them, "Where will you find holier and better men in the world?" No doctrine is so calculated to preserve a man from sin as the doctrine of the grace of God. Those who have called it "a licentious doctrine" did not know anything at all about it. Poor ignorant things, they little knew that their own vile stuff was the most licentious doctrine under Heaven. If they knew the grace of God in truth, they would soon see that there was no preservative from lying like a knowledge that we are elect of God from the foundation of the world. There is nothing like a belief in my eternal perseverance, and the immutability of my Father's affection, which can keep me near to Him from a motive of simple gratitude. Nothing makes a man so virtuous as belief of the truth. A lying doctrine will soon beget a lying practice.

A man cannot have an erroneous belief without by-and-by having an erroneous life. I believe the one thing naturally begets the other. Of all men, those have the most disinterested piety, the sublimest reverence, the most ardent devotion, who believe that they are saved by grace, without works, through faith, and that not of themselves, it is the gift of God. Christians should take heed, and see that it always is so, lest by any means Christ should be crucified afresh, and put to an open shame.

When you are angry

I have just finished reading Wayne Mack's book Anger and Stress Management and I highly recommend it. If you struggle with anger or want to ministers to others who do, this is a must read! After dealing with sinful anger in our lives and then teaching us how we can use anger as a God-given emotion to deal with problems biblically today, his fourth chapter in the book encourages us to ask so that we can "be angry and sin not" (Ephesians 4:26). His counsel is to ask six questions when you realize that you are becoming angry so that you can turn anger from something destructive to something constructive. Here are the six set of questions.

• What is happening?
• What are my thoughts about what is happening? Am I interpreting what is happening or not happening through a biblical grid or am I leaning to my own understanding?
• What do I want that I'm not getting or what I am I getting that I don't want? What compelling desires of mine are driving me, ruling me, demanding to be fulfilled? What compelling desires of mine are being thwarted? What desires of mine have become demands?
• Right now, what am I being tempted to do? (Possible answers: yell, withdraw, give someone a piece of my mind, pout and sulk, run away or quit, brood or fret, be irritable, malicious, stubborn or uncooperative, take alcohol or drugs, get revenge or be overbearing?"
• How do my thoughts and intentions and potential response to the circumstances I'm confronting line up with Scripture? What would be the biblical, God-honoring response to this situation?
• What will I choose to do at this time? Will I choose to obey God or self? Will I do God's will and please Him or will I do my will and please myself?

"Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:31-32, ESV

Who do you need to "preach Christ" to today?

Recently I have had some folks whom I knew fairly well die. One came to our church for just a few short weeks and I never sat down and talked with him about his soul. He left town, went south, and died a few weeks later. Another man I had meant on several occasions and I was able to preach Christ to him a few times, but then he went into the hospital and he never came home again. I am left with thoughts as to whether I could have done more to speak to him of Christ. Then another gentleman entered eternity as well. Did I take every opportunity to speak of Christ to him? No, even though on several occasions I witnessed of Christ's death, burial and resurrection.

In this way I share in the feelings of Tim Chailles. Like him I never want to lose sensitivity to the death of lost people so that I may make the most of every opportunity.

Lord, help us all to take every opportunity you graciously give so that men may clearly hear of Christ before the night comes.

Video Games: Good, Bad or Indifferent

Video games are a big part of the entertainment industry, possible rivaling movies and music. Most homes have one or more gaming sets and with the capability of mobile gaming, they are becoming more and more part of our culture. They are here to stay. But are video games good, bad or indifferent? How should a Christian think about video games.

Interestingly that is a subject that two bloggers have taken up with some thought in the last week. Here are some articles that every concerned parent should read and discuss with their children. Al Mohler gives an indepth report on the whole issue and then two godly mothers offer a pattern for how their families deal with this issue. At the very least, it will make you stop and think about the place of video games in our homes.

When to confront in love

I just finished leading some folks through our new members seminar at our church. Two areas that are somewhat related which we cover in that teaching time are conflict resolution and church discipline. There are two ways we can handle sin in another believer's life. Sometime we can overlook another's sin. Love covers a multitude of sin (1 Peter 4:8, Proverbs 10:12, 19:11). Sometimes we choose to overlook it and pray that the Holy Spirit would convict a person of sin, but at other times the sin will bring serious reproach or damage on the body of Christ and we must confront it. How do we do that? Wayne Mack and David Swavely have some excellent counsel in their book Life in the Father's House. Here are some excerpts that would lead us down the right path when it we must confront:

"We should confront someone only when he or she acts in a way forbidden in Scripture. That means being careful not to confront another based on mere preference outside of Scripture (1 Cor. 4:6) or even a principle inferred from Scripture by “exegetical gymnastics” and wrongly elevated to a universal standard (cf. Romans 14:1-12). . . .The Scriptures speak to many issues clearly, and those explicit principles are a sufficient basis for reproof and correction (2 Tim. 3:16). In matters outside the clear teaching of Scripture, each person should be “fully convinced in his own mind” (Rom. 14:5) but should also be very careful not to judge his brother (Rom. 14:4, 10, 13).

If we took the time to confront every possible sin that other Christians commit we would probably have little time for anything else. Inconsiderate words and actions, selfish oversights, and prideful thoughts expressed in some way are rampant in any body of believers and in family relationships. Many of those offenses do not need to be discussed, but can be overlooked.

Growing in biblical love and humility will help you to cover more and more offenses (especially those committed against you), and growing in biblical wisdom can help you to decide what sins should not be overlooked because of their harmful consequences.

A question you should ask yourself is this: . . .would one or two more people of sound judgment consider this issue significant enough to go along with me? If not, then perhaps the problem should be overlooked at this time.

If you seriously question whether to confront someone or not, perhaps it would be better to be safe than sorry. Perhaps you should lovingly ask the person about the issue. But as we grow in our love and humility towards others in the body, we should increasingly learn to overlook a multitude of offenses recognizing that we must gratefully thank others for covering our sins as well."

When we do confront we must remember that it is always for the purpose of reconciliation and not restoration. We must follow the four G's that are laid out for us in Scripture: glorify God, get the log out of our own eye, go and show our brother his sin, and go and be reconciled.

Again, Mack and Swavely have some excellent counsel,
Love covers a multitude of sins, but sometimes sin throws the cover off. When the following conditions exist, it becomes unloving and wrong to ignore the problem: If the sin creates an unreconciled relationship between you and the offender, so that you think often about the sin and think badly of him, then confrontation is necessary for the sake of unity in the body (of Matt. 5:23,24; Phil. 2:1-4).

If you are not confident that the person is growing in the direction of Christlikeness by regularly confessing his sin and working to change, then confronting his sin may be the only way to expose his spiritual inertia and help him avoid God’s chastening (of Heb. 3:12-14; James 5:19,20; 2 Peter 1:5-10).

If you know that there will be consequences of this sin that will hurt others in the offender’s life, then for their sake you should make sure that he has recognized his wrong and repented from it (of Matt. 18:15-16; 1 Cor. 5:6-7; 12:26).

This wisdom applies not only to church life but even within the Christian home where many conflicts occur but where God's grace should reign supreme. Remember dealing with problems on a regular, daily basis is God's plan (Ephesians 4:26-27).

A Word from Spurgeon

This is the morning reading from Charles Spurgeon's classic devotional Morning and Evening for August 31st. How fitting it is when you think that August 31st was just two days after the horrific devastation of Hurricane Katrina began.

"In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father’s arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles so pressing and so peculiar, that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more of his Lord then than at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see that thou puttest thy full confidence in him. Dishonour not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly, as surely as he built the heavens and the earth, glorify himself in thy weakness, and magnify his might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you to rest in Jesus this closing day of the month."

Spurgeon, C. H. 1995. Morning and evening : Daily readings . Logos Research Systems, Inc.: Oak Harbor, WA

God in the Storm

Many able voices are giving a biblical perspective to the natural disaster called Hurricane Katrina. What they are saying transcends the hurricane itself and applies to all human suffering and inexplicable tragedies that ravage men. Al Mohler has just completed a two part series called "God in the Storm" which is an edited transcript of his Sunday School lesson last Sunday. (Yes, Al Mohler, President of Southern Theological Seminary, teaches Sunday School!).

Instead of just dealing with a few cursory verses and lightly treating the subject, he begins in Genesis 1 and takes the reader through Revelation and develops the theme of creation, fall, redemption which Nancy Pearcey did a masterful job defending in her book Total Truth. Two salient paragraphs give some solid answers to questions like "Whose sin caused the hurricane?" and "Why did God send this hurricane?"

Mohler writes, "When humans age and die, therein is the curse. When the ground cracks because there is no rain, there is the curse. When a tornado drops from the sky and lightning strikes, when the floods rise and the hail falls, there is the curse. When hurricanes come, there is curse--and yet there is God as well, for God is in the curse. Of course we cannot know exactly how God is in the curse. We cannot say, "This is why there is drought here and flood there." Such precision is not given to us, not when the disaster is independent of human action.

Ultimately, we cannot say why God does what He does. We cannot explain why some are spared the ravages of Hurricane Katrina while others must bear her full force. Certainly, it is not because we are better than those who were stricken. Certainly, it is not because we prayed harder than they prayed, or that we did more good deeds than they did. No, it is simply because God was in the wind, as Elihu said to Job."

The Bible does speak to the great issues of our day. As Mohler observes, 'The great story of the Bible--creation, fall, and redemption--speaks directly to what we have seen over the last week, and it speaks directly to our powerlessness to have done anything to prevent this. In the final analysis, we must point to the fact that this hurricane, like every other natural disaster, is due to sin--not the sin of the Gulf Coast, not the sin of the people of New Orleans, but our sin. Our sin explains in part why the tsunami hit in the Indian Ocean basin. Our sin explains why a volcanic eruption destroyed Pompeii. Our sin helps to explain why Lisbon was destroyed by an earthquake in the 18th century. Our sin helps to explain why Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans."

Praise God one day all these natural disasters will end: when God will make a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1-6). Until then, "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. [Romans 8:18-23]

Read the rest of Mohler's article here.

Why did God allow the hurricane?

Sometimes we as Christians can speak of things of which we have little or no knowledge. That is what is happening now in some cases as some men are trying to explain why God who is sovereign sent Hurricane Katrina to the Gulf Coast. Suggestions abound and include that this hurricane was God's wrath against abortion (based on the fact that the hurricane satellite image looked like a fetus according to one observer), God's judgment against casinos, God's judgment against homosexuals (who were scheduled to march through New Orleans that day 125, 000 strong), God's repayment to America for supporting Israel's forced removal of Palestinians settlers in Gaza, or God's judgment against America for the war in Iraq.

But as Al Mohler writes, "One great danger is the temptation to say, "I know why this storm hit, and I know why this storm hit where it did." "New Orleans is a sinful city," some say. "The Lord sent this storm because of the casinos in the gulf and because of the wickedness in the city of New Orleans." To make such a claim, however, is to go far beyond the bounds of human knowledge. We are simply not given the right to say with such precision why this tragedy--or any other natural disaster--has occurred."

The truth is when we pretend that we know why God orchestrates certain events we are no better than Job's counselors.

Yes we believe in God's sovereignty. "Out of the south comes the storm, and out of the north the cold. From the breath of God ice is made, and the expanse of the waters is frozen. Also with moisture He loads the thick cloud; he disperses the cloud of His lightning. It changes direction, turning around by His guidance, that it may do whatever He commands it on the face of the inhabited earth, whether for correction, or for His world, or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen." [Job 37:9-13]

Yes we believe in God's righteousness, holiness, and lovingkindness. But this does not mean that we know the specific reason for why He does what He does.

As Mohler concludes, "God's purposes are beyond our understanding, and the Lord simply does not explain or seek to justify His ways to humankind. Thus, Christians should consistently affirm the sovereignty of God and the righteousness of God's ways, even as we await the full revelation of His purposes in the age to come."

How Should We Respond to Natural Disasters?

There are many excellent responses from Christian theologians, pastors, and writers on the web giving a biblical response to Hurricane Katrina. Philip Ryken over at Reformation 21 blog has a great response that was part of his "Window on the World" talk that he gives every Sunday evening at Tenth Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. This cogent reponse represents the best of Christian theology.

Al Mohler points out some bad examples of responses to a this natural disaster saying either that God really didn't know what was happening so you can't blame him or presuming to know know the exact reason for God's judgment.

And for those who are angry at God saying that "he has a lot to answer for" read John Piper's response to Daniel Schorr on NPR.

Why does God allow me to suffer?

A couple of months ago my wife and I had the privilege of going on an Alaskan Cruise with John MacArthur and Grace to You! Wow, was that every a gracious gift from God! During that cruise we had the privilege of hearing John do an exposition of James 1. During one message on suffering and adversity, he listed more than a dozen Scriptural reasons for why God allows trials in the life of a child of God. Trying to write them down as fast as I could and now having time to reflect on them, they have given me a deeper confidence in a sovereign, loving, and wise God. Here they are for the strengthening of your faith!

1. Suffering teaches endurance which gives you a perfect faith
2. Suffering allows the life of Christ to be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11)
3. Suffering teaches us humility (2 Corinthians 12:7)
4. Suffering teaches us that God is more concerned about character than our comfort (Romans 5:3,4; Hebrews 12:10)
5. Suffering teaches us the greatest good is not the absence of pain but being like Christ (2 Corinthians 4:11)
6. Suffering is necessary for the chastening of sin (James 3:17,18)
7. Suffering produces self-control (Psalm 119:67)
8. Suffering is just part of the struggle for the kingdom of God (2 Thessalonians) for the gospel (2 Timothy 3:17)
   
9. Suffering is the cause of eternal reward (2 Corinthians 4:17,18)
10. Suffering binds us together in a common life as believers (Revelation 1:9)
11. Suffering produces a broken/contrite heart (Psalm 51)
12. Suffering increases our anticipation of heavenly glory
13. Suffering weans us from the world
14. Suffering reveals what we really love (Deuteronomy 13:3; Luke 9:23)
    
15. Suffering teaches us to value the flavor of God (Psalm 63:3)
16. Suffering enables us to help others in their trials (2 Corinthians 1)
17. Suffering may be showing us the possibility of the boomerang or sowing/reaping principle (Matthew 7:3-5; Proverbs 15:15; 13:10; 11:2; 22:10-11) Perhaps God is trying to get us to examine ourselves to see what he may be doing that either encourages or exacerbate our interpersonal relationships.

Oh, how we need to lean on the sovereign purposes of God so that the James 1 goal of a perfect, mature, complete faith is the result of suffering!

What if I don't feel joy in obeying God?

What should you do if you dont' feel like obeying God? Or you don't feel joyful in obeying God? Let's say, you don't feel like going to church or you don't feel like giving in the offering? If you go or give are you just a hypocrite? Here is what John Piper says you should do based on God's Word:

1. Repent of your sin of not delighting to do God's will. It is a sin to lack joy or delight in God.
2. Pray and ask God to restore your joy
3. Obey God in the hope of joy (go and give)
4. Thank God for his gift of repentance, the ability to pray, and the willingness to obey. Obey in anticipation of joy!
   

How to pray before reading the Bible

Last night, John Piper gave these simple suggestions on how to pray before reading your Bible in the morning. He prays this for himself and for those he loves almost every day:

• Incline my heart to your testimonies (Psalm 119:36)
• Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things out of your law (Psalm 119:18)
• Unite my heart to fear your name (Psalm 86:11)
• Satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love (Psalm 90:14)

This is how we should pray even when we don't have the joy in God that we should!

Reflections on God: The Blazing Center

Over the summer months in our midweek ministry meeting, we watched John Piper's video series God: the Blazing Center. Here are some reflections and prayers that I took away from this time. I pray God that He may make me be more devoted to pursuing my pleasure in God for the joy of all people!

1. God is really passionate about his glory. God is radically God-centered. He is really serious about His glory. He is the most God-centered being in the universe.
   
2. God's love has not been lifted when we walk through times of suffering.
3. It is more loving for God to show His glory thorugh suffering than to heal at times.
   
4. We are to be telescopes magnifying the glory of God to men on earth.
5. Love is doing whatever you have to do at great cost to yourself so that others will be satisfied eternally with whatever will satisfy them eternally. Love is doing what you do to entrhall others forever.
6. God's best gift to us is Himself.
7. Until you feel and think that God is the goal, the central reality, the supreme joy in the universe, you will distort the gospel into a man-centered focus.
8. We were not made for mirrors
9. We are to make Jesus look really good even in our deaths. Think about how you will do this.
10. Death is gain when Christ is treasured.
11. Christ is most glorified in my dying when I am most satisfied with Christ in my living and dying.
12. I must think of ways to demonstrate that God is uppermost in my affections.
13. God command us to be happy and pursue our joy and he threatens terrible things if we will not be satisfied in him.
14. Faith is coming to God to have all your needs met! Faith is trusting that God will be all that you need. You get the help, he gets the glory.
    
15. Evil is turning away from joy and embracing frustration
16. To be a Christian is to have Christ as your supreme treasure (Matthew 13:44)
17. There is no ultimate self-denial. We are to deny lesser pleasures for the superior pleasure of Christ.
18. You cannot be a loving person unless you are pursuing you unless you rigorously pursue your joy in God.
    
19. Love is the overflow of abundant joy in God that meets the needs of others.
20. The great battle for becoming a loving person is to pursue your joy in God. Joy is not the icing on the cake; it is the heart of love.
    
21. Lord, unleash your love on us so that we can unleash our love on others!
22. Lord, cause this church to overflow with joy!
23. Get outside your comfort zone! That is true love!
24. For love's sake, say no to pornography and lust! Fight with a superior pleasure: Christ! The battle can be won!
    
25. Do something radical for the poor!
26. Joy sustains us in suffering (Hebrews 10:32-34; 11:24-26; 12:1-2; Hebrews 13:12-13)
27. Ask myself: Am I asking God to make Christ such a treasure that whatever comes into my life I will endure to the end in faith.
    
28. Lord, teach me to glut myself on true pleasure in Christ
29. Lord, wean me from worldly pleasurs.
    
30. Suffering is not only the price you will pay in the pathway of obedience sustained by joy in God, suffering is also designed by God to intensify your joy in Him.
31. Lord, let me be on the edge for the cause of Christ!
    
32. "Being cool" is living for a cause and something infinitely more valuable than fighting for your country's freedom. Lord, I pray for "cool" teenagers!"
    
33. I have never heard anyone say, "I have really gone deep with God in the easy days of my life."
    
34. Oh, how we love the sovereignty of God!
35. God has given us the privilege of rescuing people for eternal joy!
    

Don't Waste Your Life

As our church recently watched the video series God: The Blazing Center by John Piper, I thought this article by A. W. Tozer was very appropriate. Oh, how appeal to all of believers, young and old to not waste your life. For young people, I strongly encourage you to read John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life. It is an excellent read!

Want to Waste Your Life? How About Breeding Spotted Mice

The Associated Press lately [mid 20th century] carried an interesting if somewhat depressing story out of London about a certain British man who had died just a few days short of his eighty-ninth birthday.

Having been a man of means and position, it had presumably not been necessary for him to work for a living like the rest of us, so at the time of his death, he had had about seventy adult years in which he was free to do whatever he wanted to do, to pursue any calling he wished or to work at anything he felt worthy of his considerable abilities.

And what had he chosen to do? Well, according to the story, he had "devoted his life to trying to breed the perfect spotted mouse."

Now, I grant every man the right to breed spotted mice if he wants to and can get the cooperation of the mice, and I freely admit that it is his business and not mine. Not being a mouse lover (nor a mouse hater for that matter; I am just neutral about mice), I do not know but that a spotted mouse might be more useful and make a more affectionate pet than a common mouse colored mouse. But still I am troubled.

The mouse breeder in question was a lord, and I was born on a farm in the hill country of Pennsylvania, but since a cat can look at a king I suppose a farm boy can look at a lord, even look at him with disapproval if the circumstances warrant. Anyway, a man's a man for a' that, and I feel a certain kinship for every man born of woman; so I cannot but grieve for my brother beyond the seas.

Made in the image of God, equipped with awesome powers of mind and soul, called to dream immortal dreams and to think the long thoughts of eternity, he chooses the breeding of a spotted mouse as his reason for existing. Invited to walk with God on earth and to dwell at last with the saints and angels in the world above; called to serve his generation by the will of God, to press with holy vigor toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, he dedicates his life to the spotted mouse, not just evenings or holidays, but his entire life. Surely this is tragedy worthy of the mind of an Aeschylus or a Shakespeare.

Let us hope that the story is not true or that the news boys got it mixed up as they sometimes do; but even if the whole thing should prove to be a hoax, still it points up a stark human tragedy that is being enacted before our eyes daily, not by makebelieve play actors, but by real men and women who are the characters they portray. These should be concerned with sin and righteousness and judgment; they should be getting ready to die and to live again; but instead they spend their days breeding spotted mice.

If the spiritual view of the world is the correct one, as Christianity boldly asserts that it is, then for every one of us heaven is more important than earth and eternity more important than time. If Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be; if He is what the glorious company of the apostles and the noble army of martyrs declared that He is; if the faith which the holy church throughout all the world doth acknowledge is the true faith of God, then no man has any right to dedicate his life to anything that can burn or rust or rot or die. No man has any right to give himself completely to anyone but Christ nor to anything but prayer.

The man who does not know where he is is lost; the man who does not know why he was born is worse lost; the man who cannot find an object worthy of his true devotion is lost utterly; and by this description the human race is lost, and it is a part of our lostness that we do not know how lost we are. So we use up the few precious years allotted to us breeding spotted mice. Not the kind that scurry and squeak, maybe; but viewed in the light of eternity, are not most of our little human activities almost as meaningless?

One of the glories of the Christian gospel is its ability not only to deliver a man from sin but to orient him, to place him on a peak from which he can see yesterday and today in their relation to tomorrow. The truth cleanses his mind so that he can recognize things that matter and see time and space and kings and cabbages in their true perspective. The Spirit-illuminated Christian cannot be cheated. He knows the values of things; he will not bid on a rainbow nor make a down payment on a mirage; he will not, in short, devote his life to spotted mice.

Back of every wasted life is a bad philosophy, an erroneous conception of life's worth and purpose. The man who believes that he was born to get all be can will spend his life trying to get it; and whatever he gets will be but a cage of spotted mice. The man who believes he was created to enjoy fleshly pleasures will devote himself to pleasure seeking; and if by a combination of favorable circumstances he manages to get a lot of fun out of life, his pleasures will all turn to ashes in his mouth at the last. He will find out too late that God made him too noble to be satisfied with those tawdry pleasures he had devoted his life to here under the sun.

-- A. W. Tozer