Logos Set in Motion
"My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."
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“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. “
“Can we do it if God helps us? Yes, but what do we mean when we talk of God helping us? We mean God putting into us a bit of Himself, so to speak. He lends us a little of His reasoning powers and that is how we think: He puts a little of His love into us and that is how we love one another. When you teach a child writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms the letters because you are forming them. We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it. Now if we had not fallen, that would be all plain sailing But unfortunately we now need God’s help in order to do something which God, in His own nature, never does at all—to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die.”
“The perfect surrender and humiliation were undergone by Christ: perfect because He was God, surrender and humiliation because He was a man.”
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December 19, 2011
“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”
—Proverbs 16:33
This morning’s devotional brought exactly what I needed to hear. With a strict confidence, I can honestly say my Lord creator is watching out for me, my heart, and the things and people I care about. I read the above proverb particularly through Charles Surgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional, which you can read for yourself down below. Proverbs 16 is by far one of my favorites because it deals a lot with man planning his ways but the LORD establishing his steps—Proverbs 16:9. It then ends with the truth of every chance coincidence such as the tossing of a dice being predetermined by the LORD, “its every decision is from [Him].”
There is no reason to be anxious. We could all do so much better to walk in patience, quiet, and cheerfulness . . . Every single hair on our head is numbered and not even a single sparrow will fall without our Saviour knowing. Some would ague that God exists but doesn’t particularly want to be involved. I tell you, He is so involved in our lives and on such a personal level, believing otherwise would be taking a very serious matter for granted. Which I must admit I have done on too many occasions.
“When a man is anxious, he cannot pray with faith. When he is troubled about the world, he cannot serve his Master, his thoughts are serving himself.” This struck me. I have always had the most difficulty praying; I have tried most diligently to pray frequently but a conversation with God is no easy task when one is so distracted. The weariness of self-preservation, provision, and the unfairness of any inconvenient circumstance leads me quite easily into praying over triviality. My “meddling with Christ’s business” has caused me to neglect my own in allowing Him to be my all mighty provider and realizing that it is my business to be obedient.
Spurgeon’s final thoughts are most encouraging,
“Come and survey your Father's storehouse, and ask whether He will let you starve while He has laid up so great an abundance in His garner? Look at His heart of mercy; see if that can ever prove unkind! Look at His inscrutable wisdom; see if that will ever be at fault. Above all, look up to Jesus Christ your Intercessor, and ask yourself, while He pleads, can your Father deal ungraciously with you? If He remembers even sparrows, will He forget one of the least of His poor children? "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved."
“Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing”
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Labels: C.H. Spurgeon, CS Lewis, food for thought, morning devotional, Proverbs, Proverbs 16
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Blog: |
Renaissance--Man |
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Learning, Living, Writing |
Me
By Robert W. Oakley
Who am I? To put it simply, I am a Boy Scout. Allow me to elaborate: A scout is trust worthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent; ask anyone who knows me and they will say, “Rob Oakley is a Boy Scout." Clearly these attributes seem too good to be true—honestly no one is perfect—on the contrary, I strive to do my best and a good turn daily. ¶ I also like to consider myself as a good friend: a friend of understanding and great consideration for others and their feelings. Listening, an ear which is quick to hear, also strikes as an awesome quality; however, it does lack in memory, but I am working on this forgetful mind of mine. Tell me your name and I am bound to forget; get to know me and sooner or later will understand each other; eventually I’ll get the bare minimums down and the names straitened out, but please be patient. ¶ Patience, patience, what an interesting concept; do you ever wonder of all the things you wait for and ask, “Is it ever truly worth it”? Clearly, in many cases it is but surly there was a time when you finally got that something and it didn’t turnout quite like you intended. I hate to wait; then again, I love it, but will there ever really be a day when I will truly want nothing and be made perfect and entire? Of course there will and I count the days and realize they are numbered but heaven waits on the other side—the next greatest adventure. ¶ Life is full of its adventures—large and small, great and tall, few and far between—I grow weary at times when there is nothing to do, but I suppose I could pick up a book and transport almost instantly to the lands unknown and the lands of fantasy. “Why don’t these lands truly exist?” I often wonder “and why must stories end?” I suppose that is why I find writing quite a fancy: where old fables and tales end another begins out of thy own very hand thus creating a new original, personal, exquisite, and extreme theme of wonder (well, at least to my own opinion; I could care less what others would have to say). To be that Hercules, Spartacus, or dragon slayer; to live in Middle earth, Rome, or Alpha Centaury; to even know and become best friends and live together with some of the greatest characters the world has ever known would blow my mind, but alas it will never be so. On the other hand, I do have this life! And I can make it my own; on the other hand, I serve an awesome God who has an incredible plan for me; on the other hand, I don’t know what that plan is, but where ever and what ever it is, I know it will be a time of infamous wonder. ¶ I always strive to set a good example and to be as original as possible. I’d finally consider myself to be an artist (brace yourself). If I could choose any one profession, it simply couldn’t be done: in other words, I want to do everything! Well, at least the things I consider fun, exiting, and beneficial, but where do you draw the line? I want to be an artist--gourmet chef, graphic artist, animator, film maker, producer, director, actor, entertainer, writer, author, musician, conductor. . . . EVERYTHING!!! I want to be a Renaissance Man and a Renaissance Man I shall be! Amen.