The foundation for thankfulness

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Horatio Spafford

Happy Thanksgiving!

An inconvenient quote

I was flipping through An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems by Glenn Beck and read this quote.

"When you don't perform, you get nothing. The phrase is 'To the victor go the spoils' not 'spoil those who aren't the victor'."

How descriptive or our culture in this day. We praise the failures while punishing the successful. We take from those who work to give to those who don't. It won't be long before the pendulum swings back and we have to start worrying about the self-esteem of the winners.

And then the dam broke.

We sang "Lord, Bless Our Home" in the morning service. Everything was going fine until I tried to sing along. At that moment discouraged faces began to fill my mind and I felt a little bit of the hurt of those who are living at ground zero. And then the dam broke.

Families all around us are crumbling every day.
Yielding to the enemy and throwing life away.
Bind our lives together, guard us with your truth;
When the struggle seems too great, Lord, keep our eyes on You.

Chorus:
Lord, bless our home, protect our home:
Let it be a refuge in this world of sin.
Lord, reign within, keep us strong and true:
And when we need You most,
Lord, draw us close, committed to each other.
Lord, bless our home: we give our home to You.

Thank You for Your goodness; our love was in Your plan.
Help us face the future always trusting in Your hand.
Keep us warm and tender; Keep us clean and pure.
Drive us to each other's arms, and make our love endure.

words and music by Ron Hamilton

The most wonderful time of the year!

Emma is excited that Duke's basketball season has begun . . .


. . . but wants to know why you're not excited, too.

Ransom

I enjoyed listening to a song today that used "Ransom from Heaven" as a name for Christ and it provoked a number of thoughts in my head.

It is quite common for us to think of a ransom as a payment made by a parent to buy back their stolen child. But that's not quite how our salvation was won. God the Father used His Son as the ransom payment to buy back me, one of the "children of wrath" who was "dead in trespasses and sins". He used His only Son, Jesus, to buy me, who was not His son, to make me His son and joint heir with Jesus (Rom 8:14-17). Jesus Christ is truly my Ransom from Heaven

Here's a personalized version of Ephesians 2 that teaches this truth. This passage has already been shaping my thinking over the last couple of weeks and I was excited to see the Lord bring these two thoughts together as an encouragement to my heart when I needed it.

And [I was] dead in [my] trespasses and sins, in which [I] formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them [I] formerly lived in the lusts of [my] flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and [was] by nature [a child] of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved [me], even when [I was] dead in [my] transgressions, made [me] alive together with Christ (by grace [I] have been saved), and raised [me] up with Him, and seated [me] with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward [me] in Christ Jesus.

"Autobiography in Five Short Chapters"

This poem, by Portia Nelson, was given to me at a men's prayer fellowship. I needed the blatant reminder of what my life often looks like.

I.
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost . . . I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes me forever to find my way out.

II.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place
but, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

III.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in . . . it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

IV.
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

V.
I walk down another street.

Would you like a voluntary tax system?

That's really what the FairTax is, voluntary. Here are a few easy to understand details to think about. If you want more information and proof that it can work and is possible to enact, click on the picture or on the links at the bottom of the post.

• It is a federal retail sales tax of 23% (Sounds awful, I know, but keep reading!). It is designed to replace every single business and personal tax the federal government imposes. It includes the dreaded income tax which means that the stupid phrase "take home pay" will become obsolete because we'll keep it all!
  
• The price you and I pay for an item at the retail level already has the tax burden of every business involved in that product's existence included in it. They legitimately pass their tax burden onto us.
• The price we will pay after the FairTax is enacted will be the prices we pay now.
  
• The difference is . . . we "take home" every bit of our paycheck!!!

How will it help and how will it be successful, you ask?

• The federal government will have an equal if not greater amount of revenue.
• More money will come home, more money will be spent.
• Those who do not work, but consume our goods and services will help bear the burden.
• The welfare recipients will help when they buy non-welfare items (which they couldn't afford if they paid for their own food).
• Illegal aliens will share the burden, too.
• Legal foreign visitors will help when they buy their souvenirs and necessities while enjoying our beautiful country.
  
• In other words, every one pays their fair share!
• Also, included in the plan is a "prebate". Each month, every household will be pre-reimbursed for the taxes they would typically pay on the basic necessities.
• Business owners will move their companies back to America to enjoy the lessened tax burden, meaning more jobs here in the States.
  

Here's a "Thumbnail Sketch of the FairTax"
A detailed plan of how the prebate would work
A list of FAQs that answers more questions than I can think of

No More Tears

I've tried to cry but can't. There is anger and frustration and disappointment; but no tears. It's happened too often. Too many have fallen while so many more are crumbling.

I could be next.

There may not be tears but there is resolve. Every single day I must resolve to submit myself to my Savior and obediently apply the truths of His Word to the decisions laid out before me. Every moment I must resolve to protect myself regardless of what others may be comfortable with; regardless of what I myself may be comfortable with.

By the exceeding abundant grace of my God I have stood and only by that grace will I continue to do so.

No longer drudgery!

My lovely wife has recently been "encouraging" me to start an exercise program. I used to dread the thought but slowly am realizing the value. Thanks, Dear! Tonight as I was mopping up the sweat, I was thinking about exercise and was a reminded of a fewthought-provoking quotes about exercise that I have read recently.

If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all.
Joey Adams

I actually read this in a daily sales record-keeping book at Nordstrom a couple of months ago. I laughed at first, then it dawned on me that it accurately described me. That was who I had become. Not such and accurate description anymore. Of course, I'm the type to start something and quit, but this time I have some one checking up on me, "bugging" me to keep it up. I need, and for once, appreciate that very much. (Thanks again, Dear!) My goal is to lose 13% of my current body weight by Christmas. A big goal. But one worth striving for.

Fitness - if it came in a bottle, everybody would have a great body.
Cher

If only it were that easy. Like my brother Phil and I were discussing earlier, if good looks and a polite smile could get us what we wanted, he'd be driving a Ferrari.

It seems that in this life most things worth having take work to earn. Fortunately, not much worth having is free. I say "most things" because the ultimate is a gift. Salvation is a free gift of grace. Even the faith to receive salvation is a gift (Eph 2:8-9). But after that, the Christian life takes work. A holy and sanctified life demands great effort. Here are a few divine quotations from the Apostle Paul that refer to forms of exercise.

In Philippians 3 he speaks of our number one priority, knowing Christ, and compares that goal to a runner pushing himself to fullest to gain the prize.

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:10, 13-14

Here he illustrates the keys of discipline and self-control.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1Corinthians 9:24-27

Can you picture yourself, knowing that you are nearing the end of your life, being able to say this honestly, with a pure conscience?

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

2Timothy 4:7-8

When the race is uphill, taking your breath, and pushing you to the point of exhaustion think on this passage. There's a "Duh! Moment" in here. Take off the weights (lawful things that are not expedient) and the your pet sins that consistently trip you. Confess and repent before the Throne of Grace. Then consider the faithful that have gone before you. Hebrews 11 is a short biography of many included in that "great . . . cloud of witnesses" who have gone before us and lived successfully. Encouraging to me is that these faithful had very little if any of God's written Word and "all these died in faith, without receiving the promises" (Heb 11:13); none of them lived to see the fulfillment of the promised Messiah. Notice also the commitment of Christ. The King of Glory endured the cross with me in mind. Can I not endure my cross (Mark 8:34-35) with Him in mind?

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:1-3

So while physical exercise if beneficial, let it remind us of the much needed spiritual exercise. I like the way this thought is translated in the ESV.

For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
1Timothy 4:8

Philippians 2:5-7

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as aman, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross.

Christ existing as 100% God and 100% man is difficult concept for my created mind to grasp. But compounding the issue is the statement that Christ did not consider His equality with God the Father as a thing to be clutched or held onto, but willingly set these privileges to the side, emptying Himself, in order to live in my shoes (or sandals) and face my temptations (Luke 4:1-13, Heb 4:15), so that He could legitimately die my death to pay my penalty for my sin. (Gal 3:13, Titus 2:14)

That is ultimate humility. And, I'm expected to have that mindset?!? Only by the grace of Him through whom all things are possible (Luke 18:27, John, 15:4, Phil 4:13)!