The Good Portion

I find great comfort in the sovereignty of God, and early in my Christian life began "collecting" Scriptures pertaining to just that. Some people find the doctrine of God's sovereignty over all things unsettling, or even distasteful. One reason I find comfort instead is that knowing God is in control of whatever happens means that no pain or sorrow I experience is futile or meaningless. I can trust that there is a good purpose in it. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of pain and physical trauma some women are willing to undergo to be beautiful. They will allow themselves to be cut open, peeled apart, suctioned, stuffed, etc. and undergo long and painful recovery just so their dying body will look pretty for a few extra years. Or think about the dentist. If our pain becomes bad enough, we are willing to endure more pain for a promised relief in the end. The pain in life is made immeasurably more bearable when we know there will be a good outcome, that it is not futile...

As any dear soul who reads this blog is already aware, I've recently completed reading through Jonathan Edwards' book Religious Affections with a group of bloggers at www.challies.com . Now Tim Challies is leading us through another classic, Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. (I'm very excited to have my husband participating in this reading as well!) It's really amazing to follow a great Calvinistic thinker with a great non-Calvinistic one. (I'm not experienced enough in things-Lewis to be able to classify him more specifally than that.) Because the last reading is so fresh in my mind, and because Edwards has left a deep impression, I find it nearly impossible not to make comparisons. One of the main thrusts of Edwards' Religious Affections was to enable discernment between false and true Christianity in oneself and in others. So as I headed into Lewis, it seemed I was met almost immediately with a contradiction to Edwards' entire premise. Lewis says ...

It's living up to it's name. So far here in the "Excited States of Hysteria" (a term I first heard today, in an unrelated blog comment from a native Canadian) the shopping death toll stands at three. What can I say? What can anyone say to a nation of people who trade their lives for baubles? "Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life ? Or what shall a man give in return for his life? For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done.'" Matthew 16:24-27 The only thing worth trading our life for is Christ. Everything else, is baubles.

It's Thanksgiving weekend. My in-laws are in town. We're having a great time; but it's not blogging time. That'll have to wait. For now, John Piper takes a pretty good stab at a difficult question: Why doesn't God just eliminate the devil now?

Well, I finally made it, just about two weeks behind the pack, though I’ve no idea where the rest of the pack is. This was our final reading from Jonathan Edwards’ work, Religious Affections, the most recent classic in Reading the Classics Together over at www.challies.com. (Next week we being Lewis'classic, Mere Christianity.) I’ll admit, this last assignment seemed like the longest of all the readings. It took me over two weeks to read, and toward the beginning I really had a hard time slogging through. However, that didn’t last too long; and ultimately I was rewarded for sticking with it. I had another run-in with his system of numbering points, only this time I abandoned trying to make sense of his outline.(Again, I don’t recommend reading Edwards at bedtime. I only do, because that’s often the only time I can spare.) I will summarize his ideas below, mainly with quotes. I apologize for the length, but It's tough to narrow down 80 pages of meat. First, Edwards considers “ C...

then I saw this: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/14/nebraska.safe.haven/index.html I'm really at a loss for words here.

Apparently, and without realizing it, I fell a week behind in our on-line reading group over at http://www.challies.com/ . We are reading through Jonathan Edwards’ work Religious Affections. This last section, because of its length, has been divided into two readings. This is Part One of the final section: The Twelfth Sign. Edwards’ personal genius and orderly mind is becoming overwhelmingly evident, as he begins to gather all the ends from all the previous signs and uses this last sign as a drawstring of sorts to pull up and tie the whole great bundle together. This last sign is connected with and comprises every one previous. All the signs seem to be melding together into a very cohesive whole, the summation of the Christian life. I can think of little to add by way of commentary, so what follows will be mainly a compilation of quotes. For the sake of clarity, I will italicize my own words. "Gracious and holy affections have their exercise and fruit in Christian practice. ...

Before the election I wrote about the importance that we Christians take our role in our government seriously. I trust that on Tuesday we all did just that. Today, now all that is said and done, I'd like to exhort us not to forget Scripture's own exhortation: "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1Tim.2:1-4) Let us (and I do mean me ) make this a priority for our daily prayers "first of all". As encouragement to that end I've provided a link to an excellent post regarding how to pray for our next president. If you have the time, I recommend following his links, which provide excellent insight into the heart of what it is ...

Really I need to be going to bed early tonight. I've got some reading to catch up on, and Paul's cold is catching up with me. My prayer was answered, however. I got through my week's jobs before it caught me. So I'm sucking on Cold-Eaze, hoping to minimize it. And finally, the real reason for my post: life . Here's a link to a brief (15 minute or so) speech delivered in Australia by abortion survivor Gianna Jesson . I challenge everyone who reads this to take a few minutes to watch. Actually I'm begging everyone to watch.

First of all, I would be remiss if I did not provide the link to Paul's Reformation Sunday message . Secondly, my friend Nahomi just posted her own excellent article . She does a great job of drawing connections to our times. Same subject matter, yet two very fresh treatments. I never tire of learning about the Protestant Reformation. I have a secret dream of teaching a church history series some day. (Well, I guess it's not a secret any more.)

...and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God , and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life again, and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Rev. 20: 4 "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it ." Mark 8: 34b-35 May God grant those of us who name the name of Christ the grace not only to live, but to die in a manner that so glorifies Him.

The Wall Street Journal is now stating what married folk have known for quite a while - "a happy wife makes for a happy life". Go ahead - take a peek - come on. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122359379658821047.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Thanks to Staci for the reminder that Ben Stein's movie Expelled is out on DVD, and also for this link - http://www.benstein.com/121805xmas.html to an essay of his which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's just so rare, and so refreshing to hear anyone with any measure of fame be so clear-headed. Paul & I made a point of going to see it in the theater. We loved it. We laughed. We cried. Did I mention it's a documentary? It was worth the price of admission just to see the computer animation of the interior workings of a cell - breathtaking and awe-inspiring. Okay, 'nuf sed. Back to responsiblities.

I've got a lot to accomplish in the next couple of days, so I thought I'd try and fit in all the blogging I've been wanting to do tonight. Mostly I've been wanting to put up some pictures. Paul's been running about merrily with the camera, ever since his dad gave him a giant box of batteries. I've never been one to take a lot of pictures (having never gotten past the old days when photography was expensive every step of the way). I must say, however, that I'm really beginning to enjoy it. Here's our little house. If we walk 15 minutes in the right direction, we end up at the pool at One-Mile. Here's the man that's always making me smile. Here's upper Bidwell Park. Clearly at different times of year, Spring and Summer. Above, left is Bidwell Presbyterian Church. It's beautiful. It's the church Annie Bidwell attended, and still has a big portrait of her in the foyer. (At least they did before the renovation. I can't imagine anyone w...

and we all do (whether or not we collect a paycheck) this is a great, clear-headed, practical article on "vocation", from a Christian perspective. http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001877.cfm (Gina, you may find this helpful, so don't skip past it.)

(In our reading group over at www.challies.com we are nearing the end of Jonathan Edwards’ work Religious Affections. This past week we read through the Eleventh Sign. Below are some excerpts along with a few of my thoughts.) This week’s reading was brief and rather straightforward. Like the previous chapters it was challenging. It was also quite comforting, because it spoke so clearly to that odd tension/hunger that is part and parcel of the Christian life. “Another great and very distinguishing difference between gracious affections and others is, that gracious affections, the higher they are raised, the more is a spiritual appetite and longing of soul after spiritual attainments, increased. On the contrary, false affections rest satisfied in themselves. “The more a true saint loves God with a gracious love, the more he desires to love him, and the more uneasy is he at his want of love to him; the more he hates sin, the more he desires to hate it, and laments that he has so much rema...

It's happening right now in Europe. If we don't fight to defend the sanctity of life, this is what we have to look forward to: Embedded video from CNN Video

Ever wonder what to make of Job's fourth friend - the one who spoke up last. Ever notice he was not rebuked along with the rest, either by Job, or by God? Well, John Piper has begun a series on the book of Job, and as usual manages to ask and answer one of those nagging little questions - "what do we do with Elihu?". http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1455_5_Reasons_to_Accept_Elihus_Speech/

(In our reading group over at www.challies.com we are nearing the end of Jonathan Edwards’ work Religious Affections. This past week we read through the Ninth and Tenth Signs. Below are some excerpts along with a few of my thoughts.) As we near the end of this reading, and the two months or so of reflection and prayer it has provoked, I feel ready to say with some certainty that I will never be quite the same. I certainly hope I never am. Few books have had the profound effect on my heart as this one has. You see, this book is useful not merely for evaluating whether or not you are, or any one else is, among those who are being saved – though it provides assistance in that regard, as well as great assistance in understanding the phenomena of hypocrisy and apostasy. Even more valuably, it gives tools for evaluating ongoing, day-to-day, religious affections. Even solid Christians experience ungodly affections, or just plain natural affections, which they may confuse with the working...

(The following is the next installment in my ongoing participation in Reading the Classics Together at http://www.challies.com/ . We are currently reading Jonathan Edward's work Religious Affections.) Truly, one of the clearest signs of conversion is "a new creature". Not to question the goodness and perfection of God in His providence, but if I'd encountered a single pastor, or lay-Christian, during the course of my 40 years of pre-Christian "life"who'd read this book, and read to me the words below (from the Seventh Sign), I may have been spared many years of hypocrisy: "Another thing, wherein gracious affections are distinguished from others, is, that they are attended with a change of nature....'tis the power of a Creator only that can change the nature, or give a new nature.... "Therefore if there be no great and remarkable, abiding change in persons, that think they have experienced a work of conversion, vain are all their imaginati...

I was glad for the extra week to try to process this chapter. It was long, almost 30 thick, meaty pages. By about half-way through I was beginning to doubt my position in Christ, seeing my own pride described in every page. This is really an intensely realistic and practical look at the nature of true Christian humility, and at pride, and its deceitfulness in the human heart. This chapter holds a bright light and a mirror up to the soul. As I read further I was, thankfully, able to recognize signs of grace in my heart as well, and regained some assurance, and learned some things about spiritual pride, a legalistic spirit, and true humility I hope I never forget. I'm going to let Edwards do most of the talking here since I cannot improve upon him, I really dislike trying to condense his thought, but wouldn't dare post the whole chapter here. My hope is that the sample below get his very important point across, and hopefully will convince any and all to read this great classic fo...

This is the latest in my participation in Reading the Clas sics over at http://www.challies.com/ . We're currently working our way through Jonathan Edwards' classic Religious Affections. Religious Affections, The Fifth Sign I found this section a bit more difficult to get a handle on than those previous, but, as usual, Edwards' way of restating the same thing in different ways, from different angles, over and over, finally got through my thick skull. This was not the section to try to read at bedtime. Once I caught on, however, I was amazed to recognize my pre-converted self yet again; and yet again received much understanding and encouragement. There were a few years where my "Christianity" mainly involved reading and affirming things folks like Josh McDowell and CRI and ICR put out. (Mind you, I'm not diminishing the value of those things in the least.) I was constantly proving the truth of Christianity to myself and keeping myself convinced. My "faith...