Ready for a long delay

If you love books, have a look at these beautiful ones.

http://www.abebooks.com/books/antiquarian-rare-design/beautiful-19th-century-covers.shtml?cm_mmc=nl-_-nl-_-h00-beaubk-_-link02

D.A. Carson has an excellent set of sermons on the second coming of Christ, and says we must be ready both for the imminent return of Christ, and for a long delay. If we believe that, we won't feel bad about taking great care to make a beautiful book that our childrens' children will treasure.

The sixteenth reason...

Thomas Brooks in The Privy Key to Heaven gives 20 arguments for private prayer. Every paragraph is a banquet. The one I read today, the 16th, is particularly appropriate for our time: "Consider, the times wherein we live call aloud for secret prayer." Of his day Brooks says, "Ah, England, England! what pride, luxury, lasciviousness, licentiousness, wantonness, drunkenness, cruelties, injustice, oppressions, fornications, adulteries, falsehoods, hypocrisy, bribery, atheism, horrid blasphemies and hellish impieties are now to be found rampant in the midst of thee!" This was the same in Jeremiah's day. What did Jeremiah do? "But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places." And so Brooks calls "every Christian to his closet, and there weep, with weeping Jeremiah, bitterly, for all these great abominations whereby God is dishonoured openly....Oh blush in secret for them that are past all blushing for their sins; for who knows but that the whole land may fare the better for the sakes of a few that are mourners in secret? But however it goes with the nation, such as mourn in secret for the abominatrions of the times, may be confident that when sweeping judgments shall come upon the land, the Lord will hide them in the secret chambers of his providence."
Give me tears, Lord, first for my own sins, then for the sins of my family, church and nation. Send revival.

No more head scratching...

Adolf Eichman was the Holocaust architect. Have you ever wondered how someone could do something so barbaric? He rounded up entire Jewish communites and shipped them like cattle to concentration camps. He knew exactly what he was doing. When he was finally tracked down 15 years after the war had ended, he said his only regret was that he had not been able to do a more thorough job.
For an exciting account of the search for him, read Hunting Eichman by Neal Bascomb. But Bascomb does not explore the roots of Eichman's thinking. For that you need to go to Creation Ministries and read their article "The Trial and Death of Adolf Eichman." Evolutionary thinking had permeated German society. Rejecting God as creator, they also rejected him as law-giver. The necessary consequence of this is that man's law is understood to be the highest one. There is no longer a higher law by which all of men's laws must be weighed. Eichman said he was only obeying orders. Man's orders. And because he was dead to the consciousness of his having broken God's law, he did not see his need for God's grace.
We should not scratch our heads if, throwing out God's good and perfect law, fallen man turns to barbarism. It is inevitable. Dispensing with God's law is like dispensing with the heavy glass cage that keeps your boa constrictor from slithering around your apartment.

Refreshing Brooks

Thomas Brooks is like a mountain stream on a steep hike in hot weather. In The Privy Key to Heaven he quotes Bernard "O saint, knowest thou not...that they husband Christ is bashful, and will not be familiar in company?" In other words, it is in private prayer that God will meet us most sweetly and intimately. Let us not be so easily content that we forgo God's choicest gifts.

"...did you really believe this..."

In the morning I like to read a few paragraphs of Thomas Brooks' excellent book The Privy Key of Heaven. It is on prayer, and excellent. I can't resist giving a few quotes from what I read today: "God, in the great day, will recompense his people before all the world, for every secret prayer, and secret tear, and secret sigh, and secret groan that that hath come from his people." Brooks then goes on to say that "did you really believe this" you would:
1 Walk more thankfully.
2 Work more cheerfully.
3 Suffer more patiently.
4 Fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil, more courageously.
5 Lay out yourselves for God, his interest and glory, more freely.
6 Life with what providence hath cut out for your portion, more quietly and contentedly. And,
7 You would be in private prayer more frequently, more abundantly.

Getting to Yes

Somewhere along the line I picked up this helpful book called Getting to Yes. Although it is a secular book, I came across a fascinating part where the authors, Ury and Fisher, state that in order to negotiate fairly, one must have an objective standard or law. Guess what? The psalmist says "Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord." And he says "Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true." While Ury and Fisher do not acknowledge God, they must borrow from the Christian worldview in order to do any proper, effective negotiating. Lord, help me not to be ashamed of your law, but, like the psalmist, to make it my delight.

I Never Forget a Face

One of my all-time favorite games for children is I Never Forget a Face. Excellent quality, this matching game is, obviously, beautifully illustrated. There are 24 different ethnic groups.

My youngest girls have played with these for hours. They love to take a boy and girl and pretend they are a husband and wife, and then choose numerous other ones as natural and adopted children. This game is a wonderful way to make children aware that God has created many peoples in his image, and open their eyes to the marvelous diversity in God's creation. I believe God could use this game to turn the hearts of our children to love the nations for Jesus' sake. I found it for a good price at: http://www.psychobabyonline.com/site/scpics/tmb/613/i-never-forget-a-face-match.jpg