Grace and Gratitude

Be grateful to your gracious God.

It has been truly said that in the New Testament the doctrine is grace and the ethic - that is, the prescribed behaviour - is gratitude. And the gratitude is prompted by both the knowledge of the grace of Christ in one's head and the power of that grace in one's heart, with Christ as the centre of attention at all times in both.

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Giving to God should ever express unending gratitude for almost unbelievable grace.

- J. I. Packer, Weakness Is the Way: Life with Christ Our Strength

Weakness Is the Way

My own recognition that the Christian way of life and service is a walk of weakness, as human strength gives out and only divine strength can sustain and enable, may well be rooted in my youth. A solitary and rather somber child, I had to wear at school, for ten years, a black aluminum patch covering a hole in my head, the result of a road accident, and hence I was unable to play outdoor games. During those years I felt out of most of what mattered, which is of course one form of the feeling of weakness.

This sense of things, sinful as it is in many ways, has hovered in the background throughout my life, and it has certainly been deepened over the past three years by the experience of a hip disintegrating (two years of hobbling and wobbling discomfort, leading to a year of steady but slow recovery from its surgical replacement). I was told that since the surgery was invasive, its initial impact would be to shock the system - like being knocked down in the street by a truck - and full recovery for mind and body would take time, with creativity (in my case, power to write) at first noticeably in abeyance.

During these three years, my firsthand awareness of physical and cognitive weakness has grown, as has my acquaintance with Satan's skill in generating gloom and discouragement. My appreciation of 2 Corinthians has also grown, as I have brooded on the fact that Paul had been there before me, and this little book is the result. Its contents have helped me, and I hope will help others too. 

- J. I. Packer, Weakness Is the Way: Life with Christ Our Strength

The Death of Death in the Death and Resurrection of Christ

Death is the ultimate showstopper. But Jesus has defeated death!

"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39 (ESV)

God

God is the God who creates and redeems out of nothing.

Trust Him.

Firstfruits or Crumbs

 Are you giving God/others your firstfruits or your crumbs?

Candles of Advent

*Link to Baptist Theological Seminary publication*

Bethlehem (House of Bread), what a quiet little town, located a few kilometres away from the bustling city of Jerusalem, yet a census brought the holy family to Bethlehem so that the Saviour may be born there. In the Bible, Bethlehem began to take on significance in the book of Ruth. The book begins with Bethlehem, the house of bread, having no bread. This is a literary device signalling that something was amiss in the city. Yet when the book ends, there is a promise of restoration and a sense of hope. Ruth, a Moabitess, is revealed as the great grandmother of King David of Bethlehem.

- Isaac Teng, The Gift of Bethlehem

Several years ago, I was waiting to board a flight at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, which in the days before COVID-19, was the busiest airport in the world. The boarding area was chaotic. People were talking loudly to be heard over the din. In addition to constant boarding and security announcements, there was construction going on. And sitting directly opposite to me was a young mother with her small child. There was a sudden crash from a piece of falling scaffolding, startling the child who then immediately burst into tears. The mother quickly scooped up her child and held him close. Within minutes that child was fast asleep, softly breathing to the rhythm of his mother's heartbeat. Nothing else had changed in that chaotic hall, except the position of that child. He was secure in the calm embrace of his mother.

In the day when Advent calm is fully realised, all nations will know how to walk in the light of life and will find deep rest in Him. But today - even amidst the ever-encroaching darkness - believers are called to bear testimony of our confidence in the coming calm by walking each day secure in the embrace of our loving Father. Let us all, as we wait for the coming calm, respond to the call of Isaiah and "walk in the light of the LORD!"

- Ian Buntain, The Coming Calm

Peace

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." - John 14:27 (ESV)

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV)

Lost and Found

"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

"Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

- Luke 15:4-10 (ESV)

Adjectives

It has been wisely said that the adjective is the enemy of the noun. If we make a habit of saying 'The true facts are these', we shall come under suspicion when we profess to tell merely 'the facts'. If a crisis is always acute and an emergency always grave, what is left for those words to do by themselves? If active constantly accompanies consideration, we shall think we are being fobbed off when we are promised bare consideration. If a decision is always qualified by definite, a decision by itself becomes a poor filleted thing. If conditions are customarily described as prerequisite or essential, we shall doubt whether a condition without an adjective is really a condition at all. If a part is always an integral part there is nothing left for a mere part except to be a spare part.

Cultivate the habit of reserving adjectives and adverbs to make your meaning more precise, and suspect those that you find yourself using to make it more emphatic. Use adjectives to denote kind rather than degree. By all means say an economic crisis or a military disaster, but think well before saying an acute crisis or a terrible disaster. Say, if you like, 'The proposal met with noisy opposition and is in obvious danger of defeat'. But do not say, 'The proposal met with considerable opposition and is in real danger of defeat'. If that is all, it is better to leave out the adjectives: 'The proposal met with opposition and is in danger of defeat'.

- Sir Ernest Gowers, Plain Words

Good and Evil

Good and evil both increase at compound interest.

That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.

The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.

An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.

- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

When you delay something, you are not just delaying that thing, but what could result from that thing (both good and bad).