Blog Moving: New Site

Hi Friends,
My new blog address is http://jude3.info. I have most of the historical content migrated already, with some final cleanup steps to come.  Eventually, I'll wax this site so we only have one spot to call home. 

I look forward to hearing from many of you in the coming weeks and months.

Best Regards,
Dave

Moving the blog

I've had it with the Blogger platform for writing and publishing the blog. I'm moving the blog in the coming weeks to a new WordPress site.  Details coming soon.

A Lasting Legacy: Thoughts On Approach to 50

Written a couple of months ago.


"I want to leave a lasting legacy."

I am less than two months from turning 50. It feels odd to say it. "50."  I certainly don't "feel 50", whatever it's supposed to feel like. I count my blessings in that, and in uncountable other ways.  Get it?  "Counting the uncountable"? I have always liked words and playing with them.  Those who know me know that I get a special joy in language, although sometimes it comes out in horrible puns.

I have been blessed with such a good life to this point. I had parents who loved, cared, and nurtured me. I have had relatively few physical maladies. I have been blessed with a great family. The churches I have been a part of over the years have proven to be blessings from God as well. Pastors who have shaped, challenged, and befriended me; preaching God's Word to poor, needy people like myself. Friends who have stood by me when the water was deep and the current strong.

I know what it means to have a spouse who stands by my side in all situations, "for better or for worse", which is a blessing beyond words. I also know the special joys of being a grandfather. I do not mention all of these blessings as a boast. I know better. Rather, this is an opportunity for me to express my thankfulness in words to the Lord who has been beyond gracious, beyond merciful to me.

Above all of these blessings, God has been gracious beyond measure to call me to His Son. I have known the One and Only Savior. He never leaves me, never forsakes me, never turns His back on me. He helps me in a million million ways every single day. He forgives my sin, chastens my rebellious heart, renews my mind that is so easily distracted by the world's trinkets. He sticks closer than a brother. He shares His inheritance with me. He reveals joy unspeakable, hope unshakable, love immeasurable. Eternity is in His hand and He shares it freely with His children, that we might know Him better, praise Him constantly, and know ever-increasing joy in Him as the ages roll on.

Throw Back Thursday: The Watchtower

"Let us now unmistakably identify Jehovah's channel of communication for our day, that we may continue in his favor. ... It is vital that we appreciate this fact and respond to the directions of the "slave" as we would to the voice of God, because it is his provision."

(The Watchtower; 6/15/1957; pp. 370)

Another interesting quote drawn from Watchtower publications.

A Tiger Sleeping

Throw Back Thursday: The Watchtower

"The variety of human types, or races, must be accounted for along the lines of climate, customs, food, etc., and especially along the lines of the seclusion of the various peoples in various quarters from each other, by which peculiarities became fixed. This is illustrated by the fact that Europeans living for a long time amongst the people of India or China gain a measure of resemblance to their neighbors, while their children, born in those lands, bear a still stronger resemblance in skin and features - affected no doubt by the mother's surroundings during the period of gestation."

(The New Creation; 1899; 1915 ed.; pp. 42)

An interesting quotation drawn from Watchtower publications.

Words of Wisdom

" I can see the throne set up within the heart of man. Who shall sit on it? It cannot be empty; who shall fill it? This sin, that sin, or the other? Nay, Lord, help me to keep every intruder out of it."
--Charles Spurgeon (HT:CHALLIES)

Have Mercy On Me, O God!

Words of Wisdom

"True religion, then, is not an external service ; nor is it a mere excitement of fear and sorrow succeeded by peace and joy ; nor is it a fitful alternation of such exercises. It is a permanent principle of action, spontaneous in its exercises and progressive in its nature. These attributes, are essential to its genuineness, but they do not constitute its whole character. It is a participation of the divine nature, or the conformity of the soul to God. It is described as the putting off the old man with his deeds and putting on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him or a being renewed in the spirit of our mind, that we may put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. "

--The Way of Life, Charles Hodge, Chapter 9, Holy Living

Throw Back Thursday: The Watchtower

"Man on earth can no more get rid of these demonic "heavens" than man by airplane or other means get up above the air envelope which is about our earthly globe and in which man breathes."

(The Truth Shall Make You Free; 1943; 2,000,000 ed.; pp. 285)

Here is another interesting quote drawn from Watchtower publications. 

Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds, Arkansas, 2006

Starting Over

I started reading this one quite awhile ago. Time to reboot and read it.

When Trouble Comes, The Lord Saves

The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. --Psalm 37:39, ESV

Just a flower

Grace to You Bible App

You can find out more about the free Bible application (ios/android) from John MacArthur's ministry at http://www.gtybibleapp.com. I have started using it and will report back after a few days.

Throw Back Thursday: Watchtower

'But what is not so generally appreciated is that the principle of caveat emptor should be kept in mind when one is buying ideas, that is, when he is reading articles or books that are trying to "sell" him on a certain viewpoint, philosophy, or religious idea. Writers of such articles or books may, for reasons of their own, be just as likely to be tempted to take liberties with the truth. This may be done very subtly, at times simply by ignoring certain pertinent facts in discussing a certain subject. '

(The Watchtower; 5/15/1963; pp. 293)

This post is the first in a series of interesting statements made by the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society.  #TBTWT

Words of Wisdom

"It should not be overlooked that we tend to regard predestination as a part of a philosophical theory. For us it is the answer to the question, 'Are all things determined or not?' For Paul it is the answer to quite another question, 'How much of our salvation is due to God?' It is part of man's make-up that he likes to think that he earns his salvation. When he sees that the cross rules out the way of human merit and that he is saved by grace, by God's free gift, he tries to salvage something from the wreck. He thinks that at any rate he deserves some credit. He made the right decision. He decided to be a Christian. He chose God. The doctrine of predestination takes this last prop from under him. He could not decide this, left to himself. The reason he is a believer is not that he chose God but that God chose him. Predestination is the assurance that all of our salvation, from the very beginning to the end, is of God. We ought never to think of it other than in relation to salvation. That is where Paul sets it. It assures me that my salvation is no improvised affair, brought into being by a more or less fortuitous decision of my own. I am saved because none less than God willed it and predestined me before all the ages. Nothing at all can give the believer assurance like this great truth."

--Leon Morris, The Cross in the New Testament, p.215

The One Who Created Me

The Perfect One bears imperfection.
The Spotless One bears the stain.
The Living One enters the tomb.
The Dying One lives again.

The One who created me
bids me to come.
Come to the cross.
Come to His Son.
All of my life without Him is vain.
All of eternity with Him is my gain.

The One who created the sun and the moon,
is wonderfully formed in the virgin's womb.
The One who sees all as but dust on the scales,
stoops down and stutters, He suffers the nails.
Wrath is poured out, we never will fathom
the depth of the love of our Perfect Ransom.

The One who created me
bids me to come.
Come to the cross.
Come to His Son.
All of my life without Him is vain.
All of eternity with Him is my gain.

The One who will judge gives grace ever flowing.
The Pure One will judge in truth, fully knowing.
Where will you stand on that fateful day?
Will you stand in His light, or be cast away?

The One who created me
bids me to come.
Come to the cross.
Come to His Son.
All of my life without Him is vain.
All of eternity with Him is my gain.

====================================

I wrote this on the occasion of my 10th wedding anniversary. Is there a musician out there willing to bend their talents and compose a tune?

A writer who doesn't

Writing.  It's hard. I never think that's the case when I'm reading. I read, and read, and read. Somewhere along the line I get the notion that I might have something to say. So I sit down with the intention of writing something, usually something specific that sparks my interest.

I sit down to write. and... nothing.

To write well, you must write regularly, repeatedly, consistently, and constantly. I hear that, and I want to write.

I sit down to write. and... nothing.

For a very long time, I've pictured a future time when I'll be able to focus, to concentrate, to come up with an idea and develop it. I don't think that future time will ever come. Years, and now decades have marched by. My reading list continues to grow. Others need my help. I must spend my energy while I can, doing what I must do in this phase of life, which is to help others.

I sit down to write. and... nothing.

Ten thousand thoughts running rambunctiously through my imagination all scatter like the wind when I decide to pluck one from the flock.

I sit down to write. and... nothing.

I read books by incredibly gifted, talented, and educated people. They make it look easy, effortless, like strolling down a leaf-strewn lane. I want to write.

I sit down to write. and... nothing.

Someday...

Perhaps the key verse of the Psalms

“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the Lord!”(Ps. 150: 6)

Words of Wisdom

"What do we think preaching is? It is the central act of Christian worship!"
--Feed My Sheep, A Passionate Plea for Preaching