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"...Thou Art My Sister..."

From the "Salt Cellars"

Penitent sighs bring forth exultant songs.

     

     "Sin, repentance, and pardon, are like to the three vernal months in the year, March, April, and May.  Sin comes in like March, blustering, storming, and full of bold violence.  Repentance succeeds like April, showering, weeping, and full of tears.  Pardon follows like May, springing, singing, full of joys and flowers.  If our hands have been full of March, with the tempests of unrighteousness, our eyes must be full of April, with the sorrow of repentance; and then our hearts shall be full of May, in the true joy of forgiveness." - T. Adams

"A Sad Wonder"

     As Christians, those of us who are saved by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, are instructed in the scriptures to walk by faith, and furthermore that, everything that is not of faith is sin. I wonder,

Is this something that we truly believe? Oh, it looks very well on paper, but to take it from paper and put it into practice? To be lived out in the very life of the child of God?

  There is no doubt that, far to often (more often than we would like to confess) it is forgotten that

 "Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to him must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." - Hebrews 11:6. 

     How much of our time is wasted in the pursuit of this world's cares and wares, in its idols and ideals; the lusts for carnal comforts; the foolish follies with which this world is packed, filled to the brim; the vain importance of views, opinions, and status of how others (Christians and lost alike) think of us, instead of what God thinks. Such endeavors do take their toll upon the faith with which we ought to walk in before our God. Remember Lot and the effect that Sodom had upon him (II Peter 2:7-8). And what was the iniquity of Sodom? Many blame homosexuality alone; but no, see what God said:

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good." - Ezekiel 16:49-50

     Do we believe that He "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.."? I fear that it must be concluded by our very actions, and by the limitations with which we determine to place the Lord under, that we do not. It must be that either we want the faith needed to ask great things of our God; or we have want of the kind of faith in God which believes that He is able, and that He is desiring that we call upon Him and ask of Him, that He might be glorified; or we want the holy living that honours God, and the obedience that God honours, thus granting us an audience before Him, and having His ear in the courts of heaven (James 5:16b).
     Do we believe that there will be a day when God shall judge the world and all secret things? Then why do we fail to warn men that such a judgment is coming, and warn them of their impending and unavoidable and inevitable doom? Do we truly understand what the "terror of the Lord" is? (II Cor. 5:10-11) Do we believe that God is holy, righteous, and just, and that by the very definition of those attributes sin must be punished? We see such punishment and vengeance of His holiness poured out upon Christ on the cross; the wrath and fury of the Almighty unleashed as a flood upon His own Son. Can we then afford to be ignorant of that soon coming judgment which shall overtake this world as a thief? Shall we be sloth and lax toward a perishing world and expect to be crowned?

     Below is a message titled, "The Sad Wonder" by Charles Spurgeon.
There are 6 parts, each alittle under 10 minutes, with part 6 being just over 3 minutes.

     ****I encourage those of you that have families to gather your loved ones together and sit for a while and listen to preaching; granted this sermon and others like it are read from books, they were, at one time preached, copied out via short-hand.****

     PLEASE NOTE:
"wonderful" or "wonder-ful" = "full of wonder"
"want" = "lack" or "lacking"

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

A Solemn Warning for all Churches

This message has 4 parts, totaling to approximately 34 and a half minutes in length. The text of the sermon is Revelation 3:1-4, and it was preached by Charles H. Spurgeon. 

If you haven't yet checked out the post from the other day don't leave without checking it, and replying to it. You can find it HERE

     Part 1 

     10 minutes 2 seconds

     Part 2 

     9 minutes 5 seconds

     Part 3 

     8 minutes 4 seconds

     

     Part 4

     7 minutes 2 seconds

Question: What is a Christian?

•      What defines an individual as a Christian? 
•      Must a person exhibit certain qualities, or must one simply be saved to be known as a Christian?

     With the flippant manner in which the word is used in today's times, I thought it good to ask the question, "What is a Christian?"

     I would like for anyone and every one who reads this to leave what they believe a Christian is or what a person must be before being named a Christian.

     I will leave this up for a few days before continuing further.

     P.S. Tell others to stop by and leave their comments.

Why This Suffocating Indifference

     The following is a chapter out of a book titled "Sodom had no Bible". It was written by an English Evangelist named Leonard Ravenhill. It was first published in 1971.
     My prayer is that God would do a work in us that will bring about a change in the way we view others, and how we conduct ourselves in our service for Him. Because that's who its all about, its about Jesus Christ.

     "We Christians are debtors to all men at all times in all places. Men are blind--we must lead them. Men are bound--we must free them. Sinful men are spiritually diseased--we must heal them. Godless men are spiritually dead--we must raise them from the dead by the Holy Spirit's power.

     But we Christians are so willfully smug to the lostness of men! We are chronically lazy and callously indifferent! As lax, loose, lustful, and lazy Laodiceans, we are challenging God to spew us out of His mouth (Rev. 3:14-19). God pity us, or smite us! Have we a Moses to stand in the gap if God decided to liquidate this sinning age?

     Would we stand idly by with smug indifference if we beheld a blind man walking to the edge of a great cliff, if we knew that his slip over the edge would mean certain death? Any person, I am sure, would make a brave effort to pluck that man from disaster.

     Why are our feet so leaden in moving to the rescue of those who move relentlessly by to the edge of eternity, and whose one step into it will seal their doom? Why is there at present among us this criminal indifference to the lostness of men? And criminal it is!

     Have we nothing to communicate? Is our living so inconsistent with our telling? Are we pitiably unsure of the truth of the Bible concerning the lost? Are we so stony hearted that neither God's promises nor God's threats disturb us? What octopus has us in its grip? Where will our spiritual polio, our slovenly attention to divine truth land us--and others?

     'The church is dying on its feet,' writes a British unbeliever blatantly. If that is true, and it seems indisputable on its face value, then the reason is that the church is not living on her knees.   False cult addicts spread like pernicious parasites as they unwearyingly mill among the millions, parading their evil wears. They hang like barnacles on our doorsteps as they trade dross for gold, error for truth, disease for health, blindness for sight, bondage for liberty, curse for blessing and death for life. Their zeal is wonderful. Their dope is detestable.

     We believers rush a score of miles to a religious breakfast or to a gospel banquet, yet in so doing are not aware that a hundred times we have passed the doorsteps of our perishing neighbors. We spend so much time on hairdo's and how-do's that the cultured lost around us are forgotten!

     I met a fine party of young Russian Christians in Australia recently. They had escaped from the Soviet Eden via Shanghai and Hong Kong. After their hectic experiences, Australia is paradise.

     There is one old lady of the group who is trying to get back to Russia. Is she homesick? No! she is just worship sick. In her new freedom, she does not find the same spirit of worship that she knew with the Russian Christians in Russia. She prefers the rigors of the old country and the compensation of uninhibited worship there to that of present creature comforts and religious stiffness.

     We Christians would be restless to bring souls into the rest which the rest-giving Saviour offers them if all of us had the same infatuation for Christ and the same soul-adoration of Christ!

     Our condemnation is that we know how to live better than we are living. We could be livelier than we are, and should be. We are suspicious of ourselves that our zeal is not according to knowledge. We are short when it comes to love, and long when it comes to excuses.

     Some wit has said that our churches are full of empty people. Maybe they are half full of half-empty people. We have life, but not fullness of life; power, but not fullness of power; concern, but not activating concern; fashion, but not passion; interest, but not inspiration; ability, but not availability. We are not expendable to God for our fellow man. Hear, oh hear, what another said: 'If God does not judge the sin of this nation, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.' Frightful words, but only because they are true!

     The Cuban situation has kept America on her toes but not on her knees. We tremble for our skins but not for our sins. We feared the mighty midget--Khrushchev--but not the Almighty God.

     D. L. Moody said, 'I would rather wake a sleeping church than a sleeping world.' Our indulgences condemn us! We have slept to long, eaten to much, spent more time than we have needed to--on things that did not matter, at prices we could not afford.

     The Bible parable says that while men slept, the enemy sowed tares among the wheat. A boy who rises at 4:30 in the morning to deliver papers is considered a go-getter and will get a place in the sun. But to urge our young people to rise at 5:30 to pray is considered fanaticism.

     A woman who is doing the rounds -- golf, bridge parties, dancing -- can give seven to eight hours a day to these testy trivialities. But a woman giving the same hours to prayer and tract distribution is talked about as religiously off-balance.

     The man who clips thirty dollars a week out of his budget for cigarettes, drinks, and gambling is considered a sport and worldy-wise-man. But the brother who, in love for his Lord and for lost men, tithes the same amount, not only hears whispers that he is being milked by the lazy preachers, but is looked upon as a fool by his workmates. No wonder somebody has written:

     'I dreamed that somehow I had come

     To dwell in Topsy-Turveydom,

     Where vice is vurtue, vurtue vice;

     Where nice is nasty, nasty nice;

     Where right is wrong, and wrong is right;

     Where white is black, and black is white.'

     Our whole sense of values must be revolutionized. Before we stand in judgment at the bar of God, we need to stand in judgment of ourselves (I Cor. 11:31). We need to redirect our talents before they are everlastingly taken away from us. This is the hour! Tomorrow may not be ours.

     Men in Berlin are feverishly digging tunnels to escape the curse of Russia. All men are racing to beat the atom bombs. Yet they stagger on blindly without one chance here or hereafter to escape the fiery wrath of God, who is unchangeable in His holiness and in His anger!

     I ask again, Why then this suffocating indifference to the lostness of our cultured heathen who sleep away their few sabbath's in their garden seats, or laze by their swimming pools with a peace that is merely moral palsy?

     The Bishop of Montana says, 'The Church must realize that unless every congregation sets out to do something about its own conditions first, and then about its own community, foreign missions are ridiculous even though they commanded.'

     Wind of God, come and blow upon this suffocating indifference that chokes the channel of service to lost men!"

"Yet Another" Quote for Thought

     On my internet homepage, I have a box that has random quotes that people have made. A little while ago I had posted one such quote, and now I have "yet another."
     This quote is one, that upon face value is rather comical: but when you get deeper, it loses it's lite aura, and it ought to raise some alarm with people, because of the truth (or fact,) which it so wittingly presents.
     And so, without further ado; I give you, The Quote:

"Another possible source of guidance for teenagers is television, but television's message has always been that the need for truth, wisdom and world peace pales by comparison with the need for a toothpaste that offers whiter teeth *and* fresher breath."

  - Dave Barry

     This truth (or fact,) is not that the TV ought to be a source of guidance, but that it too often IS their source of guidance. And the danger comes from the constant bombardment of it's hellish programming, which does little more than molest the minds of the young and old alike: Ah-hem, I said, "young and old alike". What with the in-your-face attitude of this rebellious and vanity stricken world, constantly proclaiming your "need" for this new thing, or that new look, or "their" acceptance, or a slimmer waist, or a boyfriend or girlfriend, to truly enjoy this life; and that, without "it," well... then you'll never really reach what they insist your dreams should be.
     And all of these absolutely worthless wares are being purposely and perpetually thrust before the eyes, thus into the mind, thus securing it a place in the consciousness and sub-consciousness of their audience. And get this, it's all "For your viewing pleasure!"
     Well now, isn't that just so sweet of them? they're thinking of (you)??

     I am reminded of what David wrote:

"I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me."  - Psalm 101:2b-3

     As Christians, this world is not our home, nor are we to have any place for it in our hearts. What was it that John wrote?

"Love not the world, neither the things of the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever."   - I John 2:15-17

     The will of God cannot found on TV; nor is to be found in the news; nor in social circles: the will of God is to be found in His Word with much prayer and searching.
     The fact is, that the will of God and the will of the world are at war with each other. The world is following after Satan's agenda. And sadly, many professing Christians are too.