Always tempting

John Owen in his book Overcoming Sin and Temptation does not underestimate the power of sin:

Sin is always acting, always conceiving, always seducing and tempting....There is not a a day but sin foils or is foiled, prevails or is prevailed on; and it will be so while we live in the world....there is no safety against it but in a constant warfare."

Do we take sin that seriously?  Would we be getting beat up less if we did?

"I don't remember starving...."

Peter Hitchens, Younger brother of the late Christopher Hitchens, is a brilliant writer.   In the village that I grew up, the store and garage were closed on Sunday, and none of the farmers harvested on the Lord's Day.  Here he laments the opening of supermarkets on Sunday:


"Those who thought Margaret Thatcher was a conservative should have realised she wasn’t when she wrecked the British Sunday.

Is there anyone who really needs supermarkets and other big stores to be open on Sunday? I don’t remember starving back in the old days when such shops were closed.

As for it being vital to our economy, Germany – whose economy is vastly healthier than ours – has the strictest Sunday closing laws in the world.
Doesn’t every home need a still, untroubled day of rest, when everyone can relax at the same time?

Even Joseph Stalin, at the height of his Marxist rage against private life, failed to abolish the Sabbath. It took Britain’s Tories to succeed where he failed.

And now, after an ‘experiment’ in longer Sunday hours during the Olympics (and what have the Olympics to do with Sunday shopping in the first place?), Downing Street is talking about extending it.
 
This will mean more pressure on shop workers to work on Sunday, and more small shops put out of business by the incessant greed and ruthlessness of the supermarkets."

A Glorious Family History

I don’t really know what first got me interested in church history, but I suspect  that my parents are largely responsible.   They both cared deeply about the church and truth.

When I was about 10, I remember one Halloween going with my parents and siblings  to see a film about Martin Luther.   My parents explained to us that it was actually Reformation Day,  the day that Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis on the door of the church in Wittenburg.  

My parents wanted us to know church history.   Knowing church history gives hope.  We see the church prosper and decline, but through the darkest days God is preserving, protecting and building.

With books like Trial and Triumph, we can teach church history even to small children. The author, Richard M. Hannula,  calls church history  ”family history.” With a few pithy, pointed stories he captures the lives of 46 major Christians.  I am as enthralled as my children.

Hannula starts with Polycarp. Taught by the Apostle John,  Polycarp was arrested at 86 years of age and brought to the arena.  Because Christians refused to bow down to pagan gods, they were considered godless.   When instructed to point to the Christian prisoners and say, “Away with the godless,” Polycarp pointed instead to the pagan crowds and said “Away with the godless.” He was burned to death. But the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Rome was unable to stamp out the church; it only grew.

Or consider Patrick.  Kidnapped from England, he found himself hungry and cold, tending sheep on the rocky hills of Ireland.  Hatred and plans of revenge sustained him.  But he began to be convicted of his own sin, and to sense God’s fatherly care.  He escaped but could not forget the pagan Druid priests, the dark superstitions and animal sacrifices of the Irish.    He returned to fearlessly bring glaring gospel light for 40 years.  Thousands came to Christ and many young Irish men became missionaries.


Ambrose was Governor of Milan when the church pressed for him to be the new bishop.  He hid in a friend’s house and pleaded with the emperor to be excused.  But the emperor urged him to stand, and  Ambrose stood — even refusing communion to Emperor Theodosius after he refused to repent for a massacre in Thessalonica.  When the emperor pleaded the sin of David, Ambrose urged the repentance of David.  The emperor later confessed his sin before the church and made a law to regulate the punishment of citizens.

I want our children to know about Polycarp, Blandina,  Patrick, Bernard of Clairvaux, Peter Waldo,  and other brave Christians who stood and even spilt their blood for truth.   With God’s blessing, it will give hope and ballast. Passing on what my parents gave me,  I will tell our children their family history.

I pray they will see themselves a part of something glorious.

Edwards on Doing Good

  First, what a great honor it is to be made an instrument of good in the world. When we fill up our lives with doing good, God puts the high honor upon us off making us a blessing to the world, an honor like the one He put upon Abraham when He said, “I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2)

Charity and Its Fruits by Jonathan Edwards.

At Home with Muslims

 I grew up in an isolated Christian village in Canada. It was in my school textbooks and National Geographic that I first saw pictures of mosques, women in Burkas and men dressed like Jesus.  It seemed strange and far away.

In my twenties I went to Reformed Bible College.   One professor who had ministered in the Middle East for 12 years,  taught a courses in Islamics. His heart for the Muslims inspired mine. For the first time in my life I wanted a world map on my wall.

I also wanted to go as a single missionary to the Middle East.  God closed that door,  but I did not forget the Muslims.  Homeschooling,  we would read aloud stories of missionaries who had gone to the Middle East.   One of our favorites is Tales of Persia by William M. Miller.   A more recent publication is Tales That Teach.  For a number of years we prayed for Yemen, and we supported a missionary family in Pakistan.

When we moved to the Twin Cities, I discovered that there are about 70,000 Somali Muslims here, as well as many Muslims of other ethnic groups.

If this seems foreign to you and to your children, here is what you can do right now:

• get a world map for your wall
• cook meals from other cultures
• pray for specific people groups (Global Prayer Digest is a marvelous tool)
• read stories of conversions like I Dared to Call Him Father or fiction like Star of Light.

John Folmar  says of this of witnessing to Muslims  (and in my experience this is true):

... I find it's much easier to talk to a Gulf Arab about Jesus than it is to talk to another American about Jesus. Muslims claim to revere Jesus as one of their prophets, and their culture and language are infused with religion, so it's simple to talk with them about religious things, correct misunderstandings, and proclaim the good news.

Feeling at home with Muslims will take time. And lots of prayer.  We need to understand what they believe in order to answer the lies they have been told.  Some of the best tools to teach you how to witness to Muslims are

•  Woman to Woman by Joy Loewen. See also her blog.
• the Gospel for Muslims: An Encouragement to share Christ with confidence.  This is a short book which includes former Muslim Thabiti Anyabwile's testimony and emphasizes the power of the gospel.
• Healing the Broken Family of Abraham.   Writing from over 50 years of thought and experience, McCurry offers a thorough and passionate worker's handbook.

If this seems too hard, hear Spurgeon talk about the great commission:

 'I will do as much as I can,' says one. Any fool can do that.  He that believes in Christ does what he can not do, attempts the impossible and performs it."

I used to only see Muslim women in pictures.  Now I see them in my rearview mirror, walking down my street and at the drug store.  My heart is stirred.  I want to welcome them to this land that seems strange and sometimes hostile to them. Most of all, I want to extend the welcome of Jesus who said, "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."

Spurgeon on War

When thou sleepest, think that thou art resting on the battlefield; when thou walkest, suspect an ambush in every hedge. —C.H. Spurgeon

Tears in the Morning

Watch this video -- even if you don't have time to read the good article.   An orchestra on the train?

http://www.challies.com/articles/what-we-miss?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_campaign=Four-hourly_%272012-06-05+12%3A15%3A00%27&utm_content=5575