Monday, September 23, 2013

Sarah Palin on House Obamacare Defunding Vote

This is classic Palin.  It amazes me how the opposition usually attacks her personally, but rarely engages her on the issues.  Hope you'll take time to read her op-ed from the 21st of September...

"Bombs Away on Obamacare; Cruz is Over the Target"

We conservatives scored a victory in the House of Representatives.  But it's only one battle in the larger war to restore our great nation to the constitutional republic that our forefathers graciously handed us.  Let us win hearts and minds one citizen at a time, with respectful dialogue and reasonable arguments, and let us not lose hope while there is a merciful God in heaven.

Friday, September 6, 2013

The Dark Guest

O LORD,

Bend my hands and cut them off, for I have often struck thee with a wayward will, when these fingers should embrace thee by faith.

I am not yet weaned from all created glory, honour, wisdom, and esteem of others, for I have a secret motive to eye my name in all I do.

Let me not only speak the word sin, but see the thing itself.
Give me to view a discovered sinfulness, to know that though my sins are crucified they are never wholly mortified.

Hatred, malice, ill-will, vain-glory that hungers for and hunts after man's approval and applause, all are crucified, forgiven, but they rise again in my sinful heart.

O my crucified but never wholly mortified sinfulness!
O my life-long damage and daily shame!
O my indwelling and besetting sins!
O the tormenting slavery of a sinful heart!

Destroy, O God, the dark guest within whose hidden presence makes my life a hell.

Yet thou hast not left me here without grace;
The cross still stands and meets my needs in the deepest straits of the soul.

I thank thee that my remembrance of it is like David's sight of Goliath's sword which preached forth thy deliverance.

The memory of my great sins, my many temptations, my falls, bring afresh into my mind the remembrance of thy great help, of thy support from heaven, of the great grace that saved such a wretch as I am.

There is no treasure so wonderful as that continuous experience of thy grace toward me which alone can subdue the risings of sin within:

Give me more of it.


- The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Just and the Justifer

From Tabletalk, Sep 4:
 
"... Those who serve the Lord in faith do not do so because they possess a righteous status in themselves before God.  Instead, as with those who remain outside of the kingdom, we who love the one, true Creator are children of wrath apart from our Father's sovereign initiative (Eph. 2:1-3).  
 
But God sent His Son to endure the day of the Lord in our behalf, to bear the punishment we deserve as the enemies of God, thereby showing Himself to be just and the Justifier (Acts 2:14-41; Rom. 3:21-26).  
 
Christ's work on Calvary manifested the day of the Lord for His elect, which was granted by our holy God in His grace that His people would not have to be counted as His enemies on the day when Jesus returns to consummate His kingdom.  
 
Because God has judged us in Christ and imputed His righteousness to us, the final day of the Lord for us will not be the day of wrath it will be for those who do not know Jesus (1 Thess. 1:10).
 
...One day, we shall rule over the whole earth, the Holy Land included."


And with that in mind, we can say with the Psalmist (from my daily Bible reading this morning from M'Cheyne's Bible reading plan):

"My heart overflows with a pleasant theme."
-Psalm 45:1