A Catalogue of Days

This blogger is in serious need of an update!

So this week so far (in brevity):…..

Sunday we had more visitors than is normal, which is kind of funny because this always seems to happen when Pastor is gone. In Sabbath School, Dave had a very good lesson on Precious Remedies. That class has been very good for me because I do so often fall short. It’s been both convicting and encouraging.
Before the class started, one of the younger girls had drawn some animals on the white board and Dave started to erase it. Beth asked slyly if he was going to teach us on how to make these animals. He said “I wouldn’t spend five minutes on that.” To which Beth countered with “But God spent a whole day making animals!” And Dave responded simply with “Yes, but he had the time.”

Alan gave a very good sermon on the new heavens and new earth. It has been a subject that I’ve been thinking of for the last couple of years, one of those many that are always floating in the back of my mind. The idea of the earth being renewed or redeemed, not that everything that is physical goes out of existence and we live on the clouds forever after that. As Dan F. said recently to JP, I did want to see the world when I was younger, but I realized that one day I will get to see it, and in perfection. There is meaning behind the “new heavens and new earth” that we should ponder upon I think, though I’m not qualified to even begin.

We all went out that afternoon for the Life Chain, and held signs up, a silent witness against abortion. I spent about a half hour praying and praying through a couple of Psalms. I told Philip that though I desperately wanted to see the country brought to its knees and the people repent and turn from the sin of abortion, that I certainly didn’t have the love Paul had for his countrymen. I had no desire to wish myself accursed for their sake. It made me think on how little love I really do show to others.

That afternoon, Jonathan was supposed to come over to the camper but ended up reading at his place instead. I went and picked him up and then went and got the three stooges from the N house and we headed over the F’s home. All of the boys (except for poor Stephen) rode in my car. Stephen was trapped in a vanload of girls. We despaired of ever seeing him again. Alive at least.

I asked Philip if he would read his book out loud, which was “Thoughts for Young Men” by JC Ryle. I enjoyed it very much and he would pause and comment every once in a while and we’d discuss a few points. Jonathan and Greg fell asleep in the back and I think Ben may have dozed off so the care was pretty quiet.

And this study concluded the book of Hebrews. It was somewhat sad to see it end but it looks like we may have a couple of weeks of “Hebrew’s Greatest Hits” until the next study starts. It was a very good study and I’m grateful to Bill for doing that.

Monday started my busy week. It’s odd but it seems that when I have exams, I’m far less busy than when I don’t. Perhaps because I don’t really study all that much for exams and there isn’t any homework. Anyway, on my Differential Equations exam, I missed a negative sign and forgot to raise on of my answers as an exponent of e. So I had a 95%. On my Statics exam, I scored a 97 which should have been 100% but I missed a negative sign there as well! I have tried to be optimistic about it though: at least next time I have a chance for improvement. Jonathan’s Bible study met outside and it went really well. We discussed God’s plan of redemption and everyone seemed to be agreeable to it. We’ll be covering his “calling” next week.

Tuesday I and Jonathan were invited to go over to the Knox residence, we were asked to bring something we had read, to share. I brought a couple of paragraphs from “The Christian Life”. We had a good time and I appreciated their doing that.

Wednesday was extremely busy, I was almost literally running around all day long, from office to office, class to class. From 7:00 in the morning until past 5:00 that afternoon I was on campus, trying to get a bunch of stuff done. When I got to my Physics lab, we were told that we were going to do Lab 6 instead of lab 5 (which was on the schedule and which I had prepared for). So I was disconcerted at that. They supposedly sent out an e-mail letting us know of this change (they made it a couple days before) but I never received anything and neither did half of the class. That rather disturbed me. So I felt like I stumbled through the lab, trying to get all caught up and do the pre-lab along with the regular lab. It was a mess. But I feel like I got a lot of work done that day overall.

And now I’ve got a lot of other things that need to be finished, so I’m going to have to close this post for now. But first… some quotes:

From the Christian Life by Sinclair Ferguson, pg 147 speaking about 1 Cor 7:32-35:

“On occasion these words have been taken to reflect a very low view of marriage on Paul’s part. But men who have lived through revival days like the ones the church at Corinth was undoubtedly experiencing, and who have been sensitive to their Christian responsibilities, have often come to realize that Paul was advocating realism rather than masochism. He was not thinking about marriage as a battle-ground, but of the inward battles the married person would have to fight with himself or herself to maintain a spirit of loyal devotion to Jesus Christ. Marriage is a blessing (as Paul clearly indicates in his letters to Colosse and Ephesus). That is why it can also be a source of temptation. It is the paradox of earthly blessing that because of our own wayward hearts we can worship the gift rather than the giver.”

And the point was to help cultivate a spiritual detachment from this world, in the sense that we really are not of this world and our hope is set on Christ and not anything else! It was a very good reminder to me, because too often I tend to focus on physical things rather than the ultimate goal.

Pg 160
“Mortification from a self-strength, carried on by ways of self-invention unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion in this world.” – John Owen

Man! He hit the nail right on the head! Basically, all false religions are man-centered, Christianity is God-centered. When we invent our own ways to earn our way by our own strength and our own righteousness, we are surely wrong.

Pg 161
“But what is the inner logic of this argument? It is that our union with Christ gives us a new identity in which our relationship to sin is radically altered, and we are raised to a new dignified status in Christ. Since we are thus united to him the foundation has been laid for an entirely different way of life and a new devotion of our affections. Our new identity is itself the new incentive we need to deal with sin. Just as a newly-married bride is given a new name and with it a completely new identity, that new identity is the only incentive she needs to live her life in which her affections are entirely set upon her husband. Beforehand she may have felt varying degrees of affection towards others. Now her husband must have a unique affection, and anything that would mar, distort or destroy that affection must be rigorously and consistently refused. So with those who are married to Christ by grace and faith.”


And another good reminder for me. Union with Christ means that my devotion is set fully upon him, or needs to be.

Also, I just got an e-mail this morning from Marijke asking me to take a look at a couple of sites she was reading, basically how to test “True Christians” but mocking those who claim to be and are not. I did so, and sent her my response, yet it was sad to see how all the verses that were used were taken dreadfully out of context. Basically, since Jesus told his disciples to “give freely to him who asks” that if you ask a Christian for their money and they refuse, then you have the right to say they are not a true Christian. I spent a lot of time trying to explain each of the points that these sites brought up. She came to me because she said I’m just about as close to a “True Christian” as anyone she knows, and more serious than others. I just hope that my responses don’t seem to evade the issue but clearly explain what the Bible says and refute what these other people say.