Helpful quotes

I haven't posted for a few days, mainly because I've got nothing new to say sadly, but I thought I would post some things I've heard or read today that I thought were noteworthy.

Firstly, this morning in church I heard an illustration concerning facing up to truth that I thought was clever. It involved the story of the Emperor's New Clothes. In the story the Emperor, of course, is deceived to ignore the fact that he is naked and think that he is clothed in beautiful new clothes. Then, the crowds are also either too embarrassed or scared or confused to mention that he is naked so they just cheer and buy into the deception also. Until a young boy points out the truth that he is actually naked and then the crowd all laugh at the Emperor. The key thing here is what is the truth? It is important to find out what is the truth. It was absolutely obvious that the Emperor was naked but he and the crowd wouldn't allow themselves to see the truth. It's the same in the world. It's absolutely obvious that there is a holy God who created everything and requires perfection, this is THE truth, but the world refuses to see it and pretends it's not true. I liked this illustration. The sermon put forth the truth of the 'one God' and the 'one mediator' between God and man, emphasising the uniqueness of the gospel.

This evening we sang a hymn that contained the lines:

Go, labour on; 'tis not for nought;

Thy earthly loss is heavenly gain;

(Horatius Bonar)

How crucial it is that we see life like this. That anything we 'lose' on earth is all for the wonderful, eternal and very real gain in glory. But not just in glory, we can have 'heavenly gain' now by living and walking in Him!

Finally I was reading the annual review of the UCCF and it contained this quote from Don Carson:

"But everywhere the fundamental needs and challenges [of UCCF] do not change: evangelise or die; live under the Bible or defy God; love brothers and sisters in Christ or disown the faith; cherish and promote the gospel or live a life of comparative worthlessness."

Wow! That is definitely something to print out and stick up in your room where you do your quiet time! I think we need to hear that kind of challenge constantly to spur us on in our walk with the Lord.

Press on!

Returning to slavery

Well this blog is getting off to a good start because today I found one chapter in the Bible of particular help.

The chapter is Nehemiah 9. The passage that starts in verse 5 is very exciting. I shall quote the start of it here:

"Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise. 6 You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you."

The verses that particularly struck me were 17 & 18:

17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, 'This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,' or when they committed awful blasphemies.

It was the phrase I've highlighted in bold that really sunk in. It made me think that whenever I stop spending regular time with the Lord and start sinking more into self-centredness and materialism I am actually choosing to return to slavery! The non-Christian is in chains, a slave to their own sin, unable to stop sinning. As a Christian I am truly free in Christ! Free to be the person God wants me to be and truly free to choose to live for Him, which is the only real life. But I still often choose to be in slavery. It is wonderful, then, that the verse goes on to remind us that God does not desert us even in those circumstances. He did not desert the Israelites even when they created a new god to worship.

Later on in the chapter in verse 32 God is described as:

"...our God, the great, mighty and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love..."

which is spot on!

Press on

The bandwagon is jumped on

So I finally decided to create a weblog.

I used to think weblogs only had 3 possible purposes for existence

1. To keep friends/family/etc up to date with news of travels or when living away
2. To relate to friends with a common interest things one has discovered relating to that interest
3. To be a form of a diary in a very introspective, navel-gazing and attention seeking sort of way

Well I have discovered a fourth which I have decided is a more positive version of purpose 3 above. I have created this blog to be a place where I can leave encouragements from the Bible, sermons, conversations, books, etc for myself in my daily walk with God (hence the title of the blog! - I am hoping that I will be making progress as a pilgrim at least partly through the helpful things I record here). Hopefully these encouragements will be helpful for anyone else who might pop by too.

I have found the going tough spiritually recently and also I have found that I spend a lot of time on the internet. So I am combining the two in a way with this blog. We shall see how it goes!