In Tune with Christ

"Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become unity conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life." -A.W. Tozer

Prayer at the Constitutional Convention

"Gentlemen, I have lived a long time and am convinced that God governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? I move that prayer imploring the assistance of Heaven be held every morning before we proceed to business." [turning point of success for the 1787 Constitutional Convention] -Benjamin Franklin


"The history of missions is the history of answered prayer. From Pentecost to the Haystack meeting in New England and from the days when Robert Morrison landed in China to the martyrdom of John and Betty Stam, prayer has been the source of power and the secret of spiritual triumph." -Sameul M. Zwemer

I need to sincerely seek God's guidance and direction every day.

Our Constitution

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."

John Adams

Power

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

Abraham Lincoln


"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Lord Acton

How long has God given me on Earth?

This week I was studying actuarial tables during part of my duties at my job. These tables are compiled by very smart math-minded individuals who predict "life expectancy" for people given their gender and current age. As an aside "studying" the tables may be a stretch that would perhaps be more accurately stated as "glanced at" or "perused".

What I found was that the actuaries have determined that I have 31.93 years of "expected life" remaining. To some that might seem like a lot of years, to others that might seem like mist of a summer morning settled over the pond as the sun rises. To me, it gave me cause to pause and think about my life and the time that God has given me to this point and the time He has already chosen to give to me from this point forward. I have lived 46.35 years (59.2% of my expected life according to our friendly actuaries), and of that life, I have lived 27.35 since coming to a saving faith in my Lord Jesus Christ (I'm sure that all you mathematicians out there will note that 59% of my life to date has been lived with the Lord, giving a strange symmetry to my life at this moment).

All of the math is interesting to me, but what is of importance to me is that I grasp onto the fact that my life on Earth has a definite and pre-determined end and that how I fill my days will reflect directly on my God and my church. I am in the midst of a seemingly unending commitment and re-commitment to fill my life by pouring it out and gaining by giving. I have failed so often and "re-committed" so many times that without the strength of my Lord and the knowledge that He has never given up on me, I would have given up long ago. I want my life to be remembered as a life that was wholly given to the Lord, that was lived to the fullest by living the freedom that comes with knowing what is true and good and right and giving my life toward doing those things. The key part, however, is not that I do what is right and good and true, but that I do whatever I do for the glory and honor of my God. If He does not receive the glory and the honor from the things I do and the way I do them, then I will have failed to live my life for its intended purpose.

I may have a day, a week, a month, or perhaps 31.93 years or more to live for God and reflect His light and His glory to those around me. I hope that I can live each day in a way that expresses to the world and to God: "if today is my last day on Earth, I pray that it will be a day that brings glory and honor to You, God, and that if anyone sees me today, they will see a reflection of You and a demonstration of a life lived for You."

What is inside of you?

"What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is inside of me is evidenced by what I see in my thoughts and actions. I see that inside of me is darkness and evil, as evidenced by my sin. I also see that there is love, compassion, and empathy, as evidenced by the aching of my heart when others suffer and the overflowing of my heart when those whom I love succeed, or find forgiveness and redemption. What lies in front of me (the rest of my life here on Earth and then my life for eternity) will be viewed by my God and by the world in terms of how whether I follow the darkness and sin in my life or follow the Holy Spirit of God who lives inside of me. I pray that, in hindsight, what now lies in front of me will be lived by one who is loves with the love of God, forgives with His forgiveness, empathisizes as He does, and gives his life as He did in the person of Jesus Christ.

Freedom

"Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought. Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

Abraham Lincoln

I pray that I see and understand my duty in light of God's holy Word so that I understand correctly to do what I ought.

My Valentine

Yesterday was a day when I spent some extra time thinking about my wife and marriage that and the gift that Lord has bestowed upon me with each. It may be the most obvious physical evidence of the grace of God in my life.

I know my sin, I know my heart, I know that at my best, my thoughts and deeds clothe me in filthy rags or leave me walking about with "my old self" strapped to my back as a rotting corpse, contaminating all that am and all that I do. In God's sight, there is no hiding my inadequacy or any of my faults and failings.

Yet He, in His mercy and grace, has given to me a wife who has taken my breath away with her beauty since the first time I saw her, who serves me with her whole life, who loves me unconditionally, who strives for a deeper relationship with the Lord so she can become a better wife and mother, and who has given up many of the activities that yield the praise of man in order to serve in the way she feels the Lord has called and her husband has requested she serve.

A very good friend of mine, who knows me well, says to me often, “you married UP my friend”. I’m not sure if there is a better way to describe the way the Lord has given me so much more than I deserve. My friend, by the way, freely admits to having “married UP” as well.

The incredible thing about His gift is that, in an eternal sense, it is unnecessary. His call on my life would be the same if He gave me the wife I deserve rather than the gift He chose to give me. What it does for me though is give me a physical reminder of His grace and mercy that, in the spiritual realm, has given me forgiveness and salvation and an eternal home with Him.
Today, as I prepare to learn and worship with my church family at South Side Baptist church, I know I will be thinking about how thankful I am that my God gives me more than I deserve, and because of the perfect gift of His son Jesus Christ, I am clothed in His righteousness rather than in the rotting corpse that I seem to want to clothe myself with so often. Praise be to God!