The Good Portion

I would fall. "It is not fit that, in a covenant of mercy and saving grace, the reward of life should be suspended on man's perseverance, as depending on the strength and steadfastness of his own will. It is a covenant of works, and not a covenant of grace, that suspends eternal life on that which is the fruit of a mans own strength, to keep him from falling. If all is of free and sovereign grace, then free grace has undertaken the matter to complete and finish it, and has not left it to men the mselves, and to the power of their own wills, as it was under the first covenant. As divine grace has commenced the work, it will finish it; and therefore we shall be kept to the end. " Jonathan Edwards, Charity and Its Fruits (emphasis mine) As some of you know, I've spent the majority of my life professing to be a Christian. Then I got saved, shortly before my forty-first birthday. My relationship to the church all those years often brings to mind childhood memories of the...

The following is the next installment in Tim Challies ' series Reading the Classics Together - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'll try to make each post readable on its own, however I highly encourage your own study of this Puritan classic by Jeremiah Burroughs. (Chapter 10) By "aggravations," Burroughs means "things that add weight". In other words, he'll be describing "things that make the sin of murmuring even worse than it is in and of itself". As if murmuring itself isn't evil enough for us, we sinful humans manage to aggravate it in several ways: I. Murmuring " when we enjoy an abundance of mercy ". "...the greater and the more abundant the mercy that we enjoy the greater and the viler is the sin of murmuring....To be discontented in any afflicted condition is sinful and evil, but to be discontented when we are in the midst of God's mercies, when we are not able to count the mercies of God, still to b...

"Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." James 1:12 "He that does not receive the gospel with all its difficulties, does not receive it as it is proposed to him. He that does not receive Christ with his cross as well as his crown, does not truly receive him at all .... "If there be any one kind or degree of temporal suffering that we have not a spirit to undergo for Christ, then there is something that we do not forsake for him.... "Those that will do contrary to the will of Christ and his glory, for the sake of avoiding suffering, deny Christ instead of denying themselves. Those that do not confess Christ before persecutors, do in fact deny him before men, and are of the number of whom Christ says, that he will deny them before his Father in heaven (Matt. 10:33); and as to whom the apostle says, 'If we suffer, we shall also reign...

"And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." 1 Cor. 13: 2 Here's another non-partisan informational site, this one devoted to research . An interesting perspective on "death panels" . The unhappy yet undeniable truth is we're living (and dying) with them now. Finally, here's the audio for a fascinating interview with T.R. Reid, author of The Healing of America, a Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care . No matter what side of the current debate you find yourself on, you will find his discussion intriguing, entertaining, balanced, and highly informative. "Journalist and author T.R. Reid set out on a global tour of hospitals and doctors' offices, all in the hopes of understanding how other industrialized nations provide affordable, effective universal health care. The result: his book The H...

True godly fear of the LORD has an effect you might not expect in the lives and heart of believers. Rather than making them timid, it makes them bold to the point enduring humiliation, and even torture and death for the sake of the Truth of the Gospel. "They that are truly Christians, so fear God, that his displeasure is far more terrible than all earthly afflictions and sufferings. - When Christ is telling his disciples what sufferings they should be exposed to for his sake, he says to them, 'Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him' (Luke 12:4,5) And so, again, it is said by the prophet, 'Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread' (Isaiah 8:13). Now they that are truly Christians see and know him who is so great and dreadful a ...

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Proverbs 1:7) "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" (Psalm 14: 1a) "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." (Proverbs 9:10) "The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant." (Psalm 25:14 ) You cannot even begin to know the LORD until you fear Him. So, what is this fear of God, this prerequisite to knowing the LORD? "The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil . Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate." Prov. 8:13 To come to know the LORD, we must fear Him, and this fear manifests itself in hatred of evil...in repentance. Repentance is that great change of mind in which we come to agree with God in His assessments, first and foremost of the sin in our own hearts and lives. Much like Isaiah, when h...

The following is the next installment in Tim Challies ' series Reading the Classics Together - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'll try to make each post readable on its own, however I highly encourage your own study of this Puritan classic by Jeremiah Burroughs. (Chapter 9, part two) “The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit - concluded" The remainder of Burroughs' lessons lead us to quake in fear of the Lord - to remember that our "God is a consuming fire" (Heb.12:29). His remaining points are downright frightening, so believers, keep in mind we are His children. His warnings are given to us out of love - and so are His chastenings. If we do find ourselves suffering repercussions for our discontent, it is God's way of teaching us and developing Christ-like character in us. Here is what could be called "tough love", but in its most biblical form: "For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chas...

The following is the next installment in Tim Challies ' series Reading the Classics Together - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'll try to make each post readable on its own, however I highly encourage your own study of this Puritan classic by Jeremiah Burroughs. (Chapter 9, part one) “The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit - concluded" In this chapter we conclude our study of the many good reasons why we should absolutely hate the sins of murmuring and discontent. I believe that any person who can read this chapter in its entirety and not feel convicted at some point is either not paying attention, or not a new creature in Christ. VI. “By murmuring you undo your prayers, for it is exceedingly contrary to the prayers that you make to God.” "When you come to pray to God, you acknowledge his sovereignty over you, you come there to profess yourselves to be at God's disposal. What do you pray for unless you acknowledge that you are at his disposal? Unless you w...

I just can't stop thinking about cheese! Okay girls, here's one you can realistically make in your own kitchen: And this is just a beautiful look at how cheese is produced in a more industrial setting. You'll wish you were there:

If you enjoyed that, listen to this interview with Liz Thorpe , author of The Cheese Chronicles , and Vice President of Murray's Cheese New York, New York. I'm getting hungry, how 'bout you?

"Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God..." (Rev. 20:4) Thank God there are still Christians on this planet who believe the Gospel is worth dying for and places where it is recognized to be a matter of life and death that it is. (HT to John Piper ) The unsung sacrifice of hymnwriter Isaac Watts. HT goes to Gumpy . I've happened upon another resource to aid in forming political conclusions and opinions based upon facts, rather than fiction or fear. Falsehoods and misrepresentations from both the left and the right political wings are put to the test here . Getting enough vitamin D? When I was a child I used to hear stories of kids with a disease called rickets, caused by a deficiency of vitamin D. You don't hear much about that anymore, especially since the fortification of milk began, but that could be cha...

The following is the next installment in Tim Challies ' series Reading the Classics Together - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. I'll try to make each post readable on its own, however I highly encourage your own study of this Puritan classic by Jeremiah Burroughs. Chapter 8, part two We'll be picking up the discussion where we left off in my previous post discussing "The Evils of a Murmuring Spirit." The remainder of this chapter will be spent making the following point: "Murmuring and discontent is exceedingly below a Christian." (To spare confusion, hopefully, I've again presented these ideas in outline form. Quotes from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment are in italics.) I. Discontent is below " the relation of a Christian ". There are several ways in which murmuring is beneath us as believers: It is below " the relation in which you stand to God. " "Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen th...