Wednesday, March 18, 2009

CERTAIN CALUMNY

"The more prominent you are in Christ's service, the more certain are you to be the butt of calumny. I have long ago said farewell to my character. I lost it in the earlier days of my ministry by being a little more zealous than suited a slumbering age. And I have never been able to regain it except in the sight of him who judges all the earth, and in the hearts of those who love me for my work's and in the hearts of those who love me for my work's sake."

-- Charles Spurgeon.

Monday, March 16, 2009

SHARING

DEBASED MIND

To host a formal debate with an atheist is akin to hosting a formal debate with a serial rapist or serial killer, the mind is debased, and rational thought cannot be shared.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

MAGNIFY GOD

"Do not Magnify your problems, Magnify your God"

CONTRIVED

John Calvin said of 2 Corinthians 4:12

“…it was unseemly that the Corinthians should live happily, and in accordance with their desire, and that they should, free from anxiety, take their ease, while in the mean time Paul was struggling with incessant hardships. Such an allotment would certainly have been exceedingly unreasonable. It was also necessary that the folly of the Corinthians should be reproved, inasmuch as they contrived to themselves a Christianity without the cross, and, not content with this, held in contempt the servants of Christ, because they were not so effeminate.”

ABASED

John Calvin said of 2 Corinthians 4:7

"...it is ordered by the special Providence of God, that there should be in ministers no appearance of excellence, lest any thing of distinction should throw the power of God into the shade. As, therefore, the abasement of ministers, and the outward contempt of their persons give occasion for glory accruing to God, that man acts a wicked part, who measures the dignity of the gospel by the person of the minister.”

Thursday, March 5, 2009

NO SCAR


Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?

No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And piercèd are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?

BY AMY CARMICHAEL,

IRISH MISSIONARY TO INDIA FOR 55 YEARS

WE MIND NOT

We mind not the things seen, whether affliction or refreshment come, so as to be seduced by the latter, or deterred by the former

-- Chrysostom