Sunday late Spurgeon

Well first, it's not Friday and I know that. My Friday was spent getting ready for a week of vacation (praise the Lord). We travelled most of the day yesterday to get to here (Kiawah Island, SC).

It sure is beautiful here, so beautiful I forgot that I did not post my weekly dose of the big Baptist. So here he his

"We will remember Your love more than wine." Song of Solomon 1:4

Jesus will not let His people forget His love. If all the love they have enjoyed should be forgotten, He will visit them with fresh love. "Do you forget my cross?" says He, "I will cause you to remember it; for at My table I will manifest Myself anew to you. Do you forget what I did for you in the council-chamber of eternity? I will remind you of it, for you shall need a counsellor, and shall find Me ready at your call." Mothers do not let their children forget them. If the boy has gone to Australia, and does not write home, his mother writes "Has John forgotten his mother?" Then there comes back a sweet epistle, which proves that the gentle reminder was not in vain. So is it with Jesus, He says to us, "Remember Me," and our response is, "We will remember Thy love." We will remember Thy love and its matchless history. It is ancient as the glory which Thou hadst with the Father before the world was. We remember, O Jesus, Thine eternal love when Thou didst become our Surety, and espouse us as Thy betrothed. We remember the love which suggested the sacrifice of Thyself, the love which, until the fulness of time, mused over that sacrifice, and long for the hour whereof in the volume of the book it was written of Thee, "Lo, I come." We remember Thy love, O Jesus as it was manifest to us in Thy holy life, from the manger of Bethlehem to the garden of Gethsemane. We track Thee from the cradle to the grave for every word and deed of Thine was love and we rejoice in Thy love, which death did not exhaust; Thy love which shone resplendent in Thy resurrection. We remember that burning fire of love which will never let Thee hold Thy peace until Thy chosen ones be all safely housed, until Zion be glorified, and Jerusalem settled on her everlasting foundations of light and love in heaven.

For the love of my domain name!!!

In the interest of staying true to my domain name I need to make this post. So in the interest of siliness, here it is!

It is true that I am a rather large red-headed, bearded man. From my profile picture you can see that. I also think that if God had put me in a different time I might have turned out similar to this cat over here. ---->

No this guy is not a 80's hair band rocker! No sir, he is a norseman, a viking. He braved the seas to find new lands. He lived to pillage and plunder, to sail the seas. He doesn't take crap from anybody and. . . well, you get the idea.

So remember, Vikings are flippin' sweet!!

And this guy is scary, much like me.

(I think I need to grow my hair and beard out some more. It might scare my daughter, though.)

This post is soooo copied...

First, I have to say that this post is not really original to my blog. I got the idea for it from a really good friend/family member of mine that has an awesome blog here. The infamous Taylor Worley blogged on this very thing recently. I feel as if I must do the same.

For those of you who have not been fortunate enough to see this video yet I am offering it here for you view pleasure.

Let me explain first that behind this video is a song by José González. He is a singer-songwriter that is making waves as of late with his quiet style of delivery and nylon stringed guitar. His music is worth checking out if you haven't yet.

Some of you might say, "So what's with this video?" Well, let me tell you. It is one of the finest pieces of visual art I have seen in a long time that is not on a canvas. It is definitely one of the best short videos I have seen and to echo the thoughts of my friend once again, why haven't we seen more things like this. We are sorely lacking examples like this in the digital age.

So with out further hesitation. Here is the link to the video. And yes, it is a commercial, but don't let that distract you from the digital goodness that's there.

Enjoy!!!

Rushed Friday Morning Spurgeon!

Morning, or in my case, almost noon. My family and I are off to the lake, but I had a second and I realized it's friday!

So here he is, enjoy!

Isaiah 63:1 "Mighty to Save!"

By the words "to save" we understand the whole of the great work of salvation, from the first holy desire onward to complete sanctification. The words are multum in parro: indeed, here is all mercy in one word. Christ is not only "mighty to save" those who repent, but He is able to make men repent. He will carry those to heaven who believe; but He is, moreover, mighty to give men new hearts and to work faith in them. He is mighty to make the man who hates holiness love it, and to constrain the despiser of His name to bend the knee before Him. Nay, this is not all the meaning, for the divine power is equally seen in the after-work. The life of a believer is a series of miracles wrought by "the Mighty God." The bush burns, but is not consumed. He is mighty to keep His people holy after He has made them so, and to preserve them in his fear and love until he consummates their spiritual existence in heaven. Christ's might doth not lie in making a believer and then leaving him to shift for himself; but He who begins the good work carries it on; He who imparts the first germ of life in the dead soul, prolongs the divine existence, and strengthens it until it bursts asunder every bond of sin, and the soul leaps from earth, perfected in glory. Believer, here is encouragement. Art thou praying for some beloved one? Oh, give not up thy prayers, for Christ is "mighty to save." You are powerless to reclaim the rebel, but your Lord is Almighty. Lay hold on that mighty arm, and rouse it to put forth its strength. Does your own case trouble you? Fear not, for His strength is sufficient for you. Whether to begin with others, or to carry on the work in you, Jesus is "mighty to save;" the best proof of which lies in the fact that He has saved you. What a thousand mercies that you have not found Him mighty to destroy!

New sidebars and pockets to be out of...

I recently updated my sidebars with more links. There will probably be more revisions in weeks to come. In the end my goal is to have the scroll bar be microscopic (just kidding!!).

Even though it is not complete enjoy browsing the new sites I linked. There is a lot of good info out there.

One last thing. My good friend Sean Dennis recently started a new blog. His other blog is under the name "Freechurchman" and deals mainly with happening in the EFCA (Evangelical Free Church in America). This new blog promises to be quite a fun little place to visit. The blog's name is "Evangelical Free Market(place of ideas)." So be watching out for that one. Also, I may have the honor of doing some guest posting over there as we engage ourselves in the market of ideas. So drop by and leave a comment to let Sean know you'll be reading. I know I will.

One last last thing!! I will be as they say "out of pocket" for the weekend, as my family and I will be traveling to spend some time with my folks over the weekend. It's shaping up to be quite a time. Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and Grandparents. I hope to finish reading Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper over the weekend and blog about how Christians need to be living a wartime lifestyle.

Have a great weekend and a good Lord's Day!!

Lions and Tigers and Jesus, OH MY!

I recently read an excerpt (funny word) from the book Jesus Mean and Wild by Mark Galli, an editor for Christianity today. It was quite an intense article that deals with something not many Christians think about. I am not sure about the quality or content of the entire book, but the excerpt was very challenging for me, personally.

A large dilemma in evangelicalism today is the constant tension between the efforts to remain relevant ("cool") to our cultural context and the offense that is the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves. In the excerpt Galli talks about how many Christians have betrayed Jesus in the attempt to remain relevant. We have given up the offense inherent in the message of Jesus Christ for success by the worlds standards so as to ascribe the term "cool" to ourselves.

Like Galli, I don't necessarily have a problem with megachurches, but when it comes down to brass tax I think we sacrifice something on the altar of success when we seek after sheer numerical growth. I am, however, guilty of this offense as well (exchanging the glory of the gospel for some sort of cultural "relevance"). Often, while attending a church service, I find myself thinking that the service could be so much better and more relevant if they would just do x, or the music would sound better and more relevant if they would just do x. Sometimes we think it better for the body of believers if the church be made over in our own image. Galli's sentiments shed some light on the heart of a young pastor:

The relevant community of faith we imagine is usually a combination of biblical and cultural and personal expectations, some of them so deeply embedded in our psyches that we assume their inherent righteousness. Because they are dreams,
they usually have little to do with the reality called the church. When we try to fashion the church in our image, the result is often anger, division, and hostility. As young pastors, we chalk this up to the price of being prophetic leaders. But often it's merely lust for ecclesial success. And we sometimes end up destroying the very community we came to save.

It is a personal struggle that many pastors (not just young ones) experience throughout their lives. This desire to remake the body of Christ into our own image comes from the "old man" and we need to mortify that desire just like all other sinful desires.

He goes on to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer's work Life Together to shed some light on the issue of how we are to act and be as the church, with all its foibles and idiosyncrasies. We cannot, even for a second, be under the illusion that the church is not comprised of sinners and doesn't not suffer from the effects of the tendencies of its membership. Bonhoeffer states it this way:

By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. He does not abandon us to those rapturous experiences and lofty moods that come over us like a dream. God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. Only that fellowship which faces such disillusionment, with all its unhappy and ugly aspects, begins to be what it should be in God's sight, begins to grasp in faith the promise that is given to it.

What a slap in the face to our modern conception of the church! How often do we find ourselves being run by our own emotions instead of by the all-sufficient truth of God's Word?!

Just to be clear here, I am not getting down on megachurches at all. I'll just let Galli say it, because he says it far better than I ever could. "We are not wise to disparage successful megachurches, which often are catalysts for significant change in the church. What we should repudiate—like Jesus, in the strongest terms—is the notion that these churches represent the true church, the glorious church, the epitome of success."

So, let us pray that our desire to be cool and relevant and successfulul does not overshadow our desire to remain faithful to guard the truth and the offensiveness of Jesus Christ's message. Let us pray for strength and resolve as we "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). May we be found faithful to the task!

Friday Morning Spurgeon...

Morning!!! Grab your coffee and settle in for a minute of restful reflection on this glorious friday morning.

It's been a quite a while since I last posted anything. My recent attention has been directed towards several things that aren't blogging.

Well, it's Friday and the requests are flooding in for our friend, that Baptist of Baptists, that prince of preachers, yes folks, I'm talking about the great C. H. Spurgeon.

So here here's this mornings meditation on Philipians 1:21.


"For me to live is Christ..." Phil. 1:21


The believer did not always live to Christ. He began to do so when God the Holy Spirit convinced him of sin, and when by grace he was brought to see the dying Saviour making a propitiation for his guilt. From the moment of the new and celestial birth the man begins to live to Christ. Jesus is to believers the one pearl of great price, for whom we are willing to part with all that we have. He has so completely won our love, that it beats alone for Him; to His glory we would live, and in defence of His gospel we would die; He is the pattern of our life, and the model after which we would sculpture our character. Paul's words mean more than most men think; they imply that the aim and end of his life was Christ?nay, his life itself was Jesus. In the words of an ancient saint, he did eat, and drink, and sleep eternal life. Jesus was his very breath, the soul of his soul, the heart of his heart, the life of his life. Can you say, as a professing Christian, that you live up to this idea? Can you honestly say that for you to live is Christ? Your business--are you doing it for Christ? Is it not done for self- aggrandizement and for family advantage? Do you ask, "Is that a mean reason?" For the Christian it is. He professes to live for Christ; how can he live for another object without committing a spiritual adultery? Many there are who carry out this principle in some measure; but who is there that dare say that he hath lived wholly for Christ as the apostle did? Yet, this alone is the true life of a Christian?its source, its sustenance, its fashion, its end, all gathered up in one word--Christ Jesus. Lord, accept me; I here present myself, praying to live only in Thee and to Thee. Let me be as the bullock which stands between the plough and the altar, to work or to be sacrificed; and let my motto be, "Ready for either."