Marching Forth!

I have been the happy recipient of the unexpected gift of trust.  It profoundly affected me.  Trust is something the world figures must be earned, but the impact of trust is greatest when it is all of grace.  Years ago I had an experience confirming this I will never forget.  The battery on my wife's car had gone flat, so during my lunch break I took it over to Viking Battery in Santee, California.  I knew the shop carried the type of battery I wanted.  When I walked into the tiny shop with a handful of batteries on display and a dog lazing on the dirty floor, it was far from the polished displays of conventional retail stores. A friendly man (who I assumed to be the owner), supplied the battery I was looking for as I handed over my old one.  But as I pulled out my credit card to pay, he surprised me:  "Sorry, we don't accept credit cards here.  Only checks or cash."  I was flummoxed.  Having left my checkbook at home, I found my...

Paul desired to be found in Christ so he might experience the power of Christ's resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings ( Philippians 3:9-10 ).  He wanted to be conformed to the death of Jesus Christ so he could partake of His life and resurrection.  All men, Christian or not, are lured by a desire for power.  Most people would love to possess the miraculous power displayed in the life of Jesus Christ.  But very few people have any interest whatsoever to share in the sufferings of Christ.  All people suffer, and to increase our degree of suffering seems to have little upside from an earthly perspective.  It is important to recognise it is impossible to have the power of Christ without suffering with Christ.  And if you are content to have one without the other, there is a disconnect between God's will for your life and your own will. When you think of suffering for Christ's sake, it is likely persecution which leads to suffering by unbelie...

Whilst driving today I was caught in a massive downpour.  Traffic inched forward with very limited visibility as lightning flashed.  Asaph wrote in Psalm 77:17-18 :  " The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound; your arrows also flashed about. 18 The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; the lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook ."  There is something awe inspiring in the power of nature, and God put souls in men with the need to worship what is greater than themselves.  For this reason men have worshiped nature, the sun, moon, stars, and things God has made.  Men bow before their human idols in appreciation and admiration.  A violent storm cell brings men uniformly back to those common feelings which can become unfamiliar to us:  awe, fear, and the understanding we are small and our existence is precarious indeed. As I cheered on God for the powerful display, my mind went to the passage in Psalm 29:1...

I have ramped up my reading of late and have been delighted with a book bought years ago but never actually read:  The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton.  I encourage you to open and read your own books.  Many treasures sit unknown or forgotten on our own shelves as we place another online order of books.  Spread your branches far, but recognise depth of root is needed to support the growing weight of knowledge.  In the priceless gem that is Spurgeon's Lectures To My Students , he gave this exhortation:  “ Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and reread them…digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed. Little learning and much pride comes from hasty reading. Some men are disabled fro...

" I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law.  The Law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man's heart unless you first send the needle of the Law to make way for it ." C. H. Spurgeon A man must see the enormity of his sin and his offense before God before he can truly repent of it.  There may be many clever analogies used by preachers unfortunately without a basis in scripture, but this is not one of them.  Paul wrote, "I would not have known sin except by the Law." ( Romans 7:7 )  Sin is so natural to a human being we would never recognise it as wrong without the clean mirror of God's Law.  Without knowledge of sin there can be no repentance, and without repentance there is no hope for forgiveness or salvation.  A man must submit to the reality of his deadly disease before he will seek and receive the cure.  Unless a man submits to his condemnation under the Law, spir...

God knows perfectly all motives and intentions of people.  We are called, as followers of Jesus Christ, to examine carefully ourselves with the probing sharpness of God's Word.  A splinter of wood covered by a callous of skin can be uncovered and removed only with a sharp instrument, and the sin which festers in our hearts is revealed by the sterilised scalpel of scripture in the hand of the Holy Spirit.  Our actions are more easily observed and judged than our motives.  Because it is outwardly visible our aim can be mistakenly on modifying our behaviour rather than dealing with the underlying sinful motive hidden within.  Man's tendency is to focus on relieving symptoms and with little thought of the root source. Nothing is hid from God's sight, even when it is our motive in grief.  Tears do not fall from our eyes without a reason.  David recognised God's careful observance and divine documentation of his troubles and tears.  He wrote in Psal...

" Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! 8 If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire ." Matthew 18:7-9 Jesus spoke these words to show the gravity of sin's consequences.  It would be better to endure pain or lack on earth than deny yourself the ultimate joy of eternity shared with God in heaven.  Jesus was not suggesting men should mutilate their bodies, for the whole of scripture makes clear what is needed is inner transformation, not outer reformation.  Cutting off a hand or gouging out an eye does not eliminate the source of sin in a man:...