From Boxing Day to Saturday Evening

"When God closes a window...

...He opens a door"


The Library at Bag End begins

More Spurgeon encouragement

From tonight's Morning and Evening

Matthew 10:34 I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword.

The Christian will be sure to make enemies. It will be one of his objects to make none; but if to do the right, and to believe the I true, should cause him to lose every earthly friend, he will count it but a small loss, since his great Friend in heaven will be yet more friendly, and reveal Himself to him more graciously than ever. O ye who have taken up His cross, know ye not what your Master said? "I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household." Christ is the great Peacemaker; but before peace, He brings war. Where the light cometh, the darkness must retire. Where truth is, the lie must flee; or, if it abideth, there must be a stern conflict, for the truth cannot and will not lower its standard, and the lie must be trodden under foot. If you follow Christ, you shall have all the dogs of the world yelping at your heels. If you would live so as to stand the test of the last tribunal, depend upon it the world will not speak well of you. He who has the friendship of the world is an enemy to God; but if you are true and faithful to the Most High, men will resent your unflinching fidelity, since it is a testimony against their iniquities. Fearless of all consequences, you must do the right. You will need the courage of a lion unhesitatingly to pursue a course which shall turn your best friend into your fiercest foe; but for the love of Jesus you must thus be courageous. For the truth's sake to hazard reputation and affection, is such a deed that to do it constantly you will need a degree of moral principle which only the Spirit of God can work in you; yet turn not your back like a coward, but play the man. Follow right manfully in your Master's steps, for He has traversed this rough way before you. Better a brief warfare and eternal rest, than false peace and everlasting torment.

Receiving favor

A spirit of heaviness that has been growing since Monday disappeared, as sudden as this morning's fog, when Susan called this afternoon to tell me that they were indeed going to be finished in this one day with the enormous task of boxing and moving Cal's library from Ft. Lauderdale to Pembroke Pines. I thank the Lord for His favor.

We just sang this versified form of Psalm 130 in our worship as a family. Truly we account our trials as joys!

From out the depths I cry, O Lord, to thee; Lord, hear my call.
I love thee, Lord, for thou dost heed my plea, forgiving all.
If thou dost mark our sins, who then shall stand?
But grace and mercy dwell at thy right hand.

I wait for God, the Lord, and on his Word my hope relies;
my soul still waits and looks unto the Lord till light arise.
I look for him to drive away my night,
yea, more than watchmen look for morning light.

Hope in the Lord, ye waiting saints, and he will well provide;
for mercy and redemption full and free with him abide.
From sin and evil, mighty though they seem,
his arm almighty will his saints redeem.

Jesus in the night

"The night of affliction is as much under the arrangement and control of the Lord of Love as the bright summer days when all is bliss. Jesus is in the tempest. His love wraps the night about itself as a mantle, but to the eye of faith the sable robe is scarce a disguise. From the first watch of the night even unto the break of day the eternal Watcher observes His saints, and overrules the shades and dews of midnight for His people's highest good. We believe in no rival deities of good and evil contending for the mastery, but we hear the voice of Jehovah saying, 'I create light and I create darkness; I, the Lord, do all these things.' "

From tonight's reading in my Spurgeon daily

Defeating Heresy

"My principle method of defeating heresy is by establishing truth. One proposes to fill a bushel with tares: now, if I can fill it first with wheat, I shall defy his attempts." --John Newton

as quoted in John Piper's The Roots of Endurance

On God's Very Present Loving-kindness to us through His Word During These Many Weeks of Storms

From Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, December 20

Jeremiah 31:3 Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.

Sometimes the Lord Jesus tells His Church His love thoughts. "He does not think it enough behind her back to tell it, but in her very presence He says, 'Thou art all fair, my love.' It is true, this is not His ordinary method; He is a wise lover, and knows when to keep back the intimation of love and when to let it out; but there are times when He will make no secret of it; times when He will put it beyond all dispute in the souls of His people" (R. Erskine's Sermons). The Holy Spirit is often pleased, in a most gracious manner, to witness with our spirits of the love of Jesus. He takes of the things of Christ and reveals them unto us. No voice is heard from the clouds, and no vision is seen in the night, but we have a testimony more sure than either of these. If an angel should fly from heaven and inform the saint personally of the Saviour's love to him, the evidence would not be one whit more satisfactory than that which is borne in the heart by the Holy Ghost. Ask those of the Lord's people who have lived the nearest to the gates of heaven, and they will tell you that they have had seasons when the love of Christ towards them has been a fact so clear and sure, that they could no more doubt it than they could question their own existence. Yes, beloved believer, you and I have had times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and then our faith has mounted to the topmost heights of assurance. We have had confidence to lean our heads upon the bosom of our Lord, and we have no more questioned our Master's affection to us than John did when in that blessed posture; nay, nor so much: for the dark question, "Lord, is it I that shall betray thee?" has been put far from us. He has kissed us with the kisses of His mouth, and killed our doubts by the closeness of His embrace. His love has been sweeter than wine to our souls.

We are very rich!

Susan's flight came in early. Kilby, AJ, Grace, and I piled out of the van to meet her at the luggage return. Oh, she looks good! We walked back to the next terminal to meet Becky and Peter who had called Kilby's cell phone the moment after we found Susan's luggage to announce that their plane had just landed. Kilby kept in touch with Cal as he circled round the terminal. I think he only had to go around two or three times before we'd found all three children. How sweet it was to watch from where I was attending Susan's suitcase to see Kilby, AJ, Grace, and Susan escorting Peter and Becky down the hall after running to meet them coming out of the gate area. How delicious to be hugged with loving intention by my son who grows in wisdom and stature. How wonderful to see Becky's beautiful face, to feel her mature spirit. How fun to watch them all approach and see the stairsteppedness nearly gone as AJ and Grace sprout into their teen years. As Christian told me in her broken English on Sunday when she learned I had sept fils: "You are riche!"

While the kids bantered in the back seats, Cal and I called David who was nearly asleep back in his dorm room at Bryan College to tell him we couldn't be happier except he also were in the van with us all. On the way home we stopped at Coldstone Creamery to use up the generous gift card given to us by Fowler and Joann last month for pooch-sitting. Once home, Peter carried the girls' bags upstairs (oh, it's good to have a beast of burden back in the house!). We had devotions together in the master bedroom, followed by the doxology as I haven't heard it in months. Then the kids scattered, Peter playing jazz on "a good piano" (sorry, Jay) for a few minutes and AJ rescuing a recently found abandoned computer keyboard in order to play computer baseball with Peter in their newly reorganized (yay, AJ!) room. No wonder they are all still sleeping in.

Thank You, dearest Father, for these great blessings you have bestowed upon us. We humbly and joyfully thank You. May David arrive soon and safely. And may the joy of our children only make us worship You alone more deeply.

The Daily Light - December 17 Evening

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. Ephesians 5:11

Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” I Corinthians 15:33

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven. . . . I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. I Corinthians 5:6,7,9 11

That you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:15

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 2 Timothy 2:20

Feet like the deer's

'He makes my feet like the deer's.' God enables his people to move swiftly and deftly through earth's tribulations. As the deer, darting through the forest, neither crashes into trees nor slips on rocks so shall the believer remain unharmed in the face of earth's emergencies and of death itself. Though hunted by Satan or stalked by the world and our own flesh we run our course by faith.

We are running amid the arrows of this life, some very poisonous. However, because of 'the feet of deer' which God has given us we always evade the final, fatal blow. How did Israel survive the successive brutalities of Babylon, of Persia, of Greece, and of Rome? For millennia true faith has survived on earth - only God knows how. The saints came safely to their appointed rest. All have had the gift of 'feet like the deer's'.

--Walter J. Chantry in "Habakkuk--A book for times of extreme crisis: Hab.3:17-19"Banner of Truth, Issue 531, December 2007

This day's bread

Thank God for aching bodies if they get us up to spend time in the Word. This morning we have feasted on this morning's hors d'oeuvres from The Daily Light, as well as two sections of Charles Bridges' Psalm 119 (on verses 157 and 158) which our regular march through the Word with our children at evening devotions had highlighted last night. And then I re-read to Cal the passage my own tracking had come to in Matthew 10. With the sun rising and spilling light across our bed, we followed with John Calvin's commentary on the same passages (10:16-20; 21-25; 26-31).

Surely our God is gracious.

Waiting on the Lord

Tonight I am more lighthearted than I have been in months, yea, years. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, Bless His Holy Name.

Sublime moment

Can someone (Susan?) find me a recording of the Prayer of St. Gregory by Alan Hovhaness? I just heard the last haunting three minutes of it as I also read:

By strength no man shall prevail. (1 Samuel 2:9)

The David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone. (1 Samuel 17:45, 49-50)

No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy.
(Psalm 33: 16, 18)

Both riches and honor come from you, and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. (1 Chronicles 29:12)

I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distress for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

I would mark the diligent work of one man gathering his smooth stones tonight by both the music and the scriptures. May God bless the 52nd anniversary of his birth.

From November 30 Morning & Evening

C. H. Spurgeon
“And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The Lord is able to give thee much more than this.”—2 Chronicles 25:9.

A very important question this seemed to be to the king of Judah, and possibly it is of even more weight with the tried and tempted O Christian. To lose money is at no times pleasant, and when principle involves it, the flesh is not always ready to make the sacrifice. “Why lose that which may be so usefully employed? May not the truth itself be bought too dear? What shall we do without it? Remember the children, and our small income!” All these things and a thousand more would tempt the Christian to put forth his hand to unrighteous gain, or stay himself from carrying out his conscientious convictions, when they involve serious loss. All men cannot view these matters in the light of faith; and even with the followers of Jesus, the doctrine of “we must live” has quite sufficient weight.

The Lord is able to give thee much more than this is a very satisfactory answer to the anxious question. Our Father holds the purse-strings, and what we lose for His sake He can repay a thousand-fold. It is ours to obey His will, and we may rest assured that He will provide for us. The Lord will be no man’s debtor at the last. Saints know that a grain of heart’s-ease is of more value than a ton of gold. He who wraps a threadbare coat about a good conscience has gained a spiritual wealth far more desirable than any he has lost. God’s smile and a dungeon are enough for a true heart; His frown and a palace would be hell to a gracious spirit. Let the worst come to the worst, let all the talents go, we have not lost our treasure, for that is above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Meanwhile, even now, the Lord maketh the meek to inherit the earth, and no good thing doth He withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Christmasfest at St.Olaf

Here is Susan, her beloved roommate, and her beloved organ professor. She writes about the weekend of concerts on her blog Never Beyond Your Reach.