Awake!

But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake. Mark 13:32-37

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime... Romans 13:11-13

So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. 1 Thessalonians 5:6

He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. Proverbs 10:5

Losers in the Department of Truthfulness

Our forefathers were far less tolerant than we are, and it is to be feared that they were also more honest. It will be a sad discount upon our gain in the matter of charity if it turn out that we have been losers in the department of truthfulness.

~ Spurgeon via Pyromaniacs

Behold the Lamb of God

I fared forth from the habitations of men. I was weary of those whom I knew best. They had posed as the custodians of virtue, the representatives of the Almighty, and the guides of our race in all that was pure and right. I discerned nothing but what was base, unworthy, yea, even wicked, in all their loud professions, and the stench of their vile schemings and jealousies revolted my very soul.

Then, with a deep sense of my commission burning in my soul, down there by Jordan's banks I commenced my task as the herald of the Highest. At first, a few  curious shepherds and some who were going forth to their day's toil were all who heard me. But the news spread. My message had been thrust upon me from above, and the burden of it was, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

...

It was the next day. How the memory of it lingers! We were walking by Jordan's banks, Andrew, John, and I, when I saw Jesus in the distance. Immediately I stopped. I saw the look of wonder in the faces of my two friends, for they knew not why I had thus suddenly halted. They followed the direction of my finger, and to my lips rose the words, 'Behold, the Lamb of God.'

My mind had spanned the centuries. I now saw these things glowing with new meaning. The scourge of judgment for wrongdoing none could escape. Life was so constituted. But in the infinite mercy of the Holy One repentance brought forgiveness. Yet it could be only at the incalculable cost to the love that would reclaim the sinner. And thus, the Incarnate Son of God had assumed our mortal life to show us what God is like and what man should be. He had come to give himself for man's redemption. And as that lamb of the Old Covenant signified deliverance through faith, though only by the sacrifice of its life, so here was the fulfillment of the ancient figure which, on our Day of Remembrance, had been perpetuated.

~ J.W.G. Ward, The Glorious Galilean

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Grandpa's 91st Birthday

The Peterson clan enjoyed dinner on Sunday in celebration of Grandpa's 91st birthday.

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Chloe and John Dabill

Chloe greeting John Dabill at the chapel this evening. Precious moments!

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Determined to Follow On To the End

Oh that Christians, the very best of them, were not so slack in following! 

Some stop to trifle with the perishable things of earth. 
Some stop to pick up the gaudy, scentless flowers by the wayside. 
Some stop to sleep, forgetting this is not our rest, it is enchanted ground. 
Some stop to pick holes and find fault with their fellow-travelers.

Few of Christ’s sheep do hold on their way as steadily as they might. But still, compared with the world, they are following Christ Jesus.

Oh that they would only remember, those who follow Him most fully, shall follow Him most comfortably! They are following Christ Jesus, and they know where they are going; and even in the dark river, in the valley of the shadow of death, they feel a confidence that their Shepherd will be with them, and His rod and His staff will comfort them. 

They would all tell you they are poor wandering sheep, less than the least of all God’s mercies, ashamed of the little fruit they bear—but still, weak as they are, they are determined to follow on to the end, and to say, “None but Christ, in life and in death, in time and in eternity.”

~ J.C. Ryle via J.C. Ryle Quotes

Trifling with Truth

False doctrine is not rendered innocuous by its being winked at. God hates it whatever glosses we may put upon it; no lie is of the truth, and no charity can make it so. Either a dogma is right or wrong, it cannot be indifferent. . . . The rule of Christians is not the flickering glimmer of opinion, but the fixed law of the statute book; it is rebellion, black as the sin of witchcraft, for a man to know the law, and talk of conceding the point. In the name of the Eternal King, who is this liberal conceder, or, rather, this profane defrauder of the Lord, that he should even imagine such a thing in his heart?

Nor is it less important to remember that trifling with truth is to the last degree dangerous. No error can be imbibed without injury, nor propagated without sin. The utmost charity cannot convert another gospel into the gospel of Jesus Christ, nor deprive it of its deluding and destroying influence.

There is no ground for imagining that an untruth, honestly believed, is in the least changed in its character by the sincerity of the receiver; nor may we dream that the highest culture renders a departure from revealed truth less evil in the sight of God. If you give the sick man a deadly poison instead of a healing medicine, neither your broad views of chemistry, nor his enlightened judgment upon anatomy, will prevent the drug from acting after its own nature.

~ Spurgeon via Pyromaniacs

Do You Want to Know Supreme Joy?

Do you want to know supreme joy, do you want to experience a happiness that eludes description? There is only one thing to do, really seek Him, seek Him Himself, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

If you find that your feelings are depressed do not sit down and commiserate with yourself, do not try to work something up but go directly to Him and seek His face, as the little child who is miserable and unhappy because somebody else has taken or broken his toy, runs to its father or its mother. So if you and I find ourselves afflicted by this condition, there is only one thing to do, it is to go to Him.

If you seek the Lord Jesus Christ and find him there is no need to worry about your happiness and your joy. He is our joy and our happiness, even as He is our peace. He is life, He is everything. So avoid the incitements and the temptations of Satan to give feelings this great prominence at the centre. Put at the centre the only One who has a right to be there, the Lord of Glory, Who so loved you that He went to the Cross and bore the punishment and the shame of your sins and died for you.

- Martyn Lloyd Jones via Of First Importance