One Final Thought....

...for this year, anyway:

"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink."—John 7:37.

Patience had her perfect work in the Lord Jesus, and until the last day of the feast He pleaded with the Jews, even as on this last day of the year He pleads with us, and waits to be gracious to us. Admirable indeed is the longsuffering of the Saviour in bearing with some of us year after year, notwithstanding our provocations, rebellions, and resistance of His Holy Spirit. Wonder of wonders that we are still in the land of mercy!

Pity expressed herself most plainly, for Jesus cried, which implies not only the loudness of His voice, but the tenderness of His tones. He entreats us to be reconciled. "We pray you," says the Apostle, "as though God did beseech you by us." What earnest, pathetic terms are these! How deep must be the love which makes the Lord weep over sinners, and like a mother woo His children to His bosom! Surely at the call of such a cry our willing hearts will come.

Provision is made most plenteously; all is provided that man can need to quench his soul's thirst. To his conscience the atonement brings peace; to his understanding the gospel brings the richest instruction; to his heart the person of Jesus is the noblest object of affection; to the whole man the truth as it is in Jesus supplies the purest nutriment. Thirst is terrible, but Jesus can remove it. Though the soul were utterly famished, Jesus could restore it.

Proclamation is made most freely, that every thirsty one is welcome. No other distinction is made but that of thirst. Whether it be the thirst of avarice, ambition, pleasure, knowledge, or rest, he who suffers from it is invited. The thirst may be bad in itself, and be no sign of grace, but rather a mark of inordinate sin longing to be gratified with deeper draughts of lust; but it is not goodness in the creature which brings him the invitation, the Lord Jesus sends it freely, and without respect of persons.

Personality is declared most fully. The sinner must come to Jesus, not to works, ordinances, or doctrines, but to a personal Redeemer, who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree. The bleeding, dying, rising Saviour, is the only star of hope to a sinner. Oh for grace to come now and drink, ere the sun sets upon the year's last day!

No waiting or preparation is so much as hinted at. Drinking represents a reception for which no fitness is required. A fool, a thief, a harlot can drink; and so sinfulness of character is no bar to the invitation to believe in Jesus. We want no golden cup, no bejewelled chalice, in which to convey the water to the thirsty; the mouth of poverty is welcome to stoop down and quaff the flowing flood. Blistered, leprous, filthy lips may touch the stream of divine love; they cannot pollute it, but shall themselves be purified. Jesus is the fount of hope. Dear reader, hear the dear Redeemer's loving voice as He cries to each of us, "if any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink."

~Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Restless

Switchfoot. Again. This wouldn't happen if John Foreman wasn't such a clever lyricist. This particular song - composition, melody, lyrics - reminds me of U2 (Bono, another brilliant wordsmith). See if you do not agree!

I am the sea on a moonless night,
Calling, falling, slipping tides
I am the leaky, dripping pipes
The endless aching drops of light
I am the raindrop falling down,
Always longing for the deeper ground
I am the broken, breaking seas
Even my blood finds ways to bleed

Even the rivers ways to run
Even the rain to reach the sun
Even my thirsty streams,
Even in my dreams

I am restless, I am restless, I am restless, looking for you
I am restless, I run like the ocean to find your shore
I’m looking for you

I am the thorn stuck in your side,
I am the one that you left behind,
I am the dried up doubting eyes
Looking for the well that won’t run dry

Running hard for the other side
The world that I’ve always been denied
Running hard for the infinite
With the tears of the saints and hypocrites

Oh blood of black and white and gray
Death and life and night and day
One by one by one
We let our rivers run

I am restless, I am restless
I am restless, looking for you
I am restless, I run like the ocean to find your shore
Looking for you

I can hear you breathing,
I can hear you leading
More than just a feeling
More than just a feeling
I can feel you reaching
Pushing through the ceiling
'til the final healing
I'm looking for you

Until the sea of glass we meet
At last completed and complete
Where tide of tear and pain subside
Laughter drinks them dry

I’ll be waiting
Anticipating
All that I aim for
What I was made for
With every heartbeat
All of my blood bleeds
Running inside me
Looking for you

I am restless, I am restless, I am restless, looking for you
I am restless, I run like the ocean to find your shore
I'm looking for you

I can feel you breathing, I can feel you leading
More than just a feeling, more than just a feeling
I can feel you reaching, pushing through the ceiling
'til the final healing
I'm looking for you
I'm looking for you

Save Me Some Cake

A dear member of our church passed away in his sleep last night. His painful battle with cancer is over, and his last earthly breath was a sigh of sweet relief. Up until a couple weeks ago, he was still having family members bring him to church so he could be in the presence of the Lord with God's people. He's certainly got that in spades now!

The thing that made me really smile this morning, though, was the Facebook status of one of his grandsons:

"Congrats, G-pa, you're in Paradise now! Save me some cake! ... Love you, Grandpa."

I'm not sure I've ever heard a better send-off! Maybe today (which is whatever day you happen to read this) it would be good to think for a minute or two about how fantastic heaven will be ~ it might give us a little more energy to endure our battles here below.

The God Man

"Every human father begets a son or daughter with his sin nature. We may not understand completely how this works, but this is the way of the world after the fall. Sinners beget sinners (Ps. 51:5). Always. So if Joseph was the real father of Jesus, or Mary had been sleeping around with Larry, Jesus is not spotless, innocent, and not perfectly holy. And as a result, we have no mediator, no imputation of Christ's righteousness (because He has no righteousness to impute to us), and no salvation." ~ Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot.

But He is everything Scripture says He is, and He has opened up the way to save forever, completely, and to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him. (Heb. 7:25)

He is the One Mediator between God and man, CHRIST JESUS! (1 Tim. 2:5)

What The Beach Teaches

Took a cruise, went to the beach in Mexico, took some macro pictures along the shoreline in Progreso. Look closely...that's not sand. What you see there are tiny bits of worn down shells.



The whole beach was like that. No sand, just tons and TONS of tiny shell bits.
It's becoming a popular theme for me, but I just can't get over the refining influence that trials and time have on us. This is great news for the believer, because, I believe, these are all part of the pruning we must go through...the removing of the dross...the purifying by fire.

You can't sharpen a knife without some serious friction, and you can't become Christlike without suffering. So,

Here's to trials!
Here's to refining fires!
Here's to faith worth more than gold!

As Brooke Fraser sings:

Cheers to the furrows on our brow
To each hard-won victory
Cheers to the losses that grew us up
Killed our pride, and filled our cup

"Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion..." Philippians 1:6

What Do You Do When Your Heart Is Tugging

In July of this year, I spent a week in Haiti with Mission of Hope. Below, you'll find a 3 minute sample of some small town traffic. If you'd rather not sit through it all, at least skip ahead and watch from 2:50 forward to hear some rather vigorous honking. (Yes, that's my mug you see in the last half-second of the video):


Earlier this week I was led by one of those mysteriously captivating internet rabbit trails to a story about the mass graves that were dug after the January 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake. I was sort of jolted to reality when I discovered that just a few hundred yards into the hills where we had been driving were a number of large burial pits where bulldozers had crudely shoved thousands of earthquake victims to their resting place. The pictures were brutal, and I don't recommend looking them up.

What really impacted me, though, was the sharp reminder of how fresh that catastrophe must still be in the minds of countless Haitians. In all likelihood, some of the people I met there this summer have relatives and friends buried up in those hills. And now I feel mildly foolish for not fully comprehending the nearness of the tragedy while I was there, which is not to say I didn't feel anything. I saw the crumbled buildings and the amputees, but I didn't feel it deeply enough.

But where the devastation of sin is greatest, the light of the Gospel shines the brightest and I can report that God's Church is thriving and growing there. My heart wants to somehow be a part of that, but I'm not sure how. If nothing else, I will at least pray.

Tell Me Your Favorites!

I've read through many books this year, and I have read most of a few books and a little bit of a lot of books. The stack next to my bed (and archive on my Kindle) reveals my literary travels of the past twelve months. Trust me, I'm no egghead and my memory isn't what it used to be, but I believe my life is richer, my walk with God is stronger, and I'm (hopefully) a smitch wiser than I was in January because of what I've read.

But I'm not going to tell you what I read - at least not yet. I want to know what your favorite books are, particularly what you've read this year that you've enjoyed, and even what books you might have in the hopper waiting for their pages to be turned.

Bring on the raves and recommendations!

Putting Potentates In Their Place

We know that all authority is given by God, but not all authorities are godly.

I love this bit from Charles Spurgeon where he gives some perspective of and to men in authority:

"...Too often do they serve themselves or Satan, and forget the God whose sufferance permits them to wear their mimic majesty for their little hour."

Get 'em, Charles....

The thing is, though, we would all do well to remember that human nature will take any ounce of authority and fashion it into a ton of oppression or pride or self-service. It's not just Presidents and Prime Ministers who need to guard their hearts. Pastors, teachers, worship leaders, project managers, shift supervisors and parents must all lead responsibly in the fear of God.

Vice Verses...A Little Resurrection

Jon Foreman, creating his poetry again:

Let the pacific laugh...be on my epitaph.
With its rising and falling
And after all,
It's just water and I am just soul
With a body of water and bone...
Water and bone....

Trembling & Hesitant

"The Christian hope is not simply a trembling, hesitant hope that perhaps the promises of God may be true. It is the expectation that they cannot be anything else than true." ~ William Barclay

There is power and glory in the faithfulness of God that at once shames me (as I see my silly sin and craven fears) and lifts me up to boundless, unspeakable joy. Oh, that I would keep His promises always before me - from what countless troubles I could spare myself and how much more boldly I would serve! My desire is to cease with wistful wishing and walk confidently, not in my own merits, but in the One who doesn't change like shifting shadows and whose years will never end!

The Problem With Stuff

"When we don't have what we want, the world corrupts us with covetousness. And when we do have what we want the world corrupts us with pride." ~ John Piper in Finally Alive

I'm trying hard to be content. I'm trying to be content with what I have and what I don't have. I think this has become somewhat easier as I've grown older, but I still have within me the tension of protecting what is MINE and desiring what I don't have YET. Our basis for contentment should begin with the state our souls. If we would take more time to meditate on the fact that all is well in that arena (assuming we are right with Christ), then perhaps our attachments to other things wouldn't be quite so fierce.

Snow Days

I read this post from Kevin DeYoung last Thursday, and wanted to bring it you now because it encourages an excited expectation of our heavenly home in a way that is fresh and childlike and, I think, just what many of us need.

Heaven Is Your Snow Day