The first step to knowing God is to know His Word. He has revealed Himself to us in the written Word. Without the Bible, we would have very limited knowledge of Him … Some people will go around the world to find God’s will for their lives, but will not go to the next room to read their Bible.
- M. David Sills, “The Missionary Call: Find Your Place in God’s Plan for the World“
Posted in Quote of the Week
Tagged Christianity, Evangelism, God's Grace, God's Sovereignty, Missions, Patience, Sills
 |
|
I stand here perched by lough and sliabh A puny soul both ably blessed and slyly cursed I’ll never be as grand as all the stony mountains great nor peaceful as the lovely lake that sits below in noble calm tranquility But still I glory in my place, to view the beauty round about my growing wooden frame: the balded hills, the woolly trees and waters cool and sweet And so I’m thankful to my Maker for the life I calmly, slowly live |
Posted in Photographic Poetry
Tagged Beauty, Connemara, Contentment, Ireland, Patience
Stop Motion | The Long Haul from DUMAIS on Vimeo.
Sermon Poetry, 4 October 2009
Sermon Title – “A Review of the Advantages and Difficulties of the Christian Life from Ephesians”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 4:17-32
Preacher – Pastor Larry Vincent
Good God, I’m a sinner
I love myself more than my neighbors around
My love is for me more than the Father, my God
Lord, save me by slaying my heart
Sweet Jesus, I’m helpless
I haven’t the strength to obey your commands
Your Salvation can’t come from keeping Your Law
Lord, save me by Jesus Your Son
Holy Spirit, I’m failing
Without Your good work, I will not become holy
I can’t and I won’t grow by myself in this world
Lord, save me and bring me to glory
I’m a Husband, a Father, Employee and Churchman
I’m called to obey in the paths that I tread
Without Jesus’ love and His Grace I will falter
Lord help me to love and to live for Your Name
Lord, bring me repentance
To honor Your name
So I’ll be like Jesus
Your mercies proclaim
Posted in My Writings, Poetry, Sermon Poems
Tagged Ephesians, God's Grace, Love, Mercy, Patience, Poetry, Preaching, Sin
Preacher – Jarrett Downs
Sermon Title – “The Deeds and Hopes of Persevering Saints”
Sermon Text – “Revelation 3:7-13
Jesus, I’m selfish with Your Word
I’m selfish with Your Truth
I think I can hoard Your Love
I’m loving myself, not loving my neighbor
Ignoring Your Power to Move
Forgive my arrogance
Please save me from my sinfulness:
Ignoring the broken and meek
I want to share you with liberality
When bruised, to love my enemies
Lord Christ, when I’m before You, I’m broken and weak
Jesus, I’m hated in this world
They laugh at my weakness
Deriding the son that You Love
Lord Christ by Your Grace, I’m loving my neighbor
Expecting Your power to move
Forgive them their arrogance
Save them from their sinfulness:
Ignoring the broken and meek
Please help me share You with liberality
When killed, to love my enemies
Lord Christ when I’m before You, I’m broken and weak
Jesus, I’m worshipping You
Relying on Your promises
Staying faithful as best I can
Lord Christ by Your Grace, Your Words I will follow
Upheld by Your tender hands
Preserve me to persevere
To stay faithful to the end
Although I am broken and weak
Please strengthen me to worship You
To hold onto Your Word of Truth
Lord Christ I am before You, I’m broken and meek
Jesus, I’m waiting for the end
When I’ll Your glory see
With quickened and eternal eyes
Lord Christ, by Your grace, my race will be finished
And then I will enter Your rest
My eyes are wet with gratitude
To Christ who saved me to new life
My brokenness is fully healed
A laurel crown around my head
A whitened robe around my frame
Lord Christ I am before You, once sinner now saved
Posted in Sermon Poems
Tagged Grace, Jesus, Patience, Perseverance, Revelation, Suffering
De reir a cheile a thogtar na caisleain – It takes time to build castles
One of the wise things that wise people I know told me as my wife and I were preparing for marriage was to not expect or try to live at the means we were raised in. As the encouragement went, your dad might have had land and a nice house with money saved up and retirement right around the corner, but don’t you expect it for yourself right away!
Accumulation of anything usually never happens all at once. Money does not grow on trees and most people never win the lottery. Land is never free and rare is the person who is bequeathed large tracts of land at the untimely death of some long lost aunt. Knowledge is always difficult to obtain and you might just have to fail 1000 times at something to achieve that one ground-breaking success. Yet, castles are built, money is earned, land is acquired and knowledge is learned.
How then is this achieved? Time is obviously essential. It takes time to clear the land, and prepare the foundation. It takes discreet chunks of time to lay every stone and there are a great many stones in a castle! Even before the construction begins, time must be allotted for the design of the structure, for the gathering of materials and for the hiring of laborers. Castles do not appear overnight!
And, since castles take time to build and since we are not a people disposed to waiting, patience is a certain necessity. If you are a king or queen, for instance, and you have schemes for the most magnificently majestic castle fluttering about in your head, a splendid building of beauty and practicality, you still haven’t the power to make the castle simply appear. The architect must be hired, the plans drawn, the materials gathered, the laborers chosen, the foundation laid, the walls raised and the roof placed and even still the castle must be beautified and decorated and made ready for human occupation. Without patience, this would be a trying ordeal indeed!
Finally, persistence is vital if you are to see the task through. In the construction of a castle many things can (and usually do) go wrong. The designs might be flawed or the materials might be lacking or the labor might be lazy or the work might be shoddy, yet the man who is persistent will see the task through to the final construction of the castle. 
He does not quit when the 999 tries nets him zero success. He persists when unforeseen expenses empty his bank account and when that land he saved up for turns out to be sitting smack in the middle of a flood plain.
Still, there is an over-riding question at play here. Who enables you to build the castle? Furthermore, for what reason and for what purpose do you build your castle? Do you to it for yourself only? Do you build your castles and your storehouses and tell your soul to be satisfied? Do you think that you build your castle and save your money and buy your land and learn your knowledge by your own power? Beware the inevitable destruction that overcomes the things of this earth! Is your treasure here on this earth, or are you saving up for eternity?
There once was a woman of age twenty-three
Her name was the fair name of Ruth
With fervor she served her Good Father above
She trusted in Him and his Truth
In college she worked three hard jobs at a time
Her fingers she wore to the bone
She labored to keep all her grades at an A
In sorrow she felt all alone
She wanted a husband, she wanted his love
She ached to be in his embrace
But God had not brought her the man that she craved
Nor did He reveal the man’s face
For three more long years she worked towards her degree
And finally her task was complete
Diploma in hand and her vigor renewed
She strode to take on greater feats
She worked in her job and she loved what she did
And still she felt such a great void
The love that she wanted had not been revealed
Her sorrow she could not avoid
She saw all her friends being married away
The wed and they left her alone
She felt so unwanted, she felt so unloved
In sadness she sobbed and she groaned
In one of these weddings a bridesmaid she stood
God works in mysterious ways
An elderly lady looked on her sad eyes
And for this fair maiden she prayed
So Ruth worked and labored for her dearest King
She ached for the love that she sought
She worked in her church, she did all that she could
Yet still her void filled every thought
Then one day in May, on a Sunday it was
An elderly voice called her name
“Come now dearest darlin’, let’s sit and let’s talk
You must stop with this cruelest game”
“It hurts this old woman to see your fair eyes
Be dimmed by the sorrow you feel
You must look to Jesus, the one perfect Man
And then your sad heart will be healed”
“Christ loved you when you never loved Jesus back
Pursuing, He called your fair name
With mercy he brought you in safe to His arms
He called you and your soul He claimed”
“He loves you more than you can love Him e’er back
All that you go through’s for your good
You’re called to be single right now where you are
You’re called to do all that you should”
“Don’t fret fairest darling that you don’t have love
A husband with whom you can live
For you have a Savior who is your First Love
He mercy to you freely gives”
With tears in her eyes, Ruth thanked her for her words
The old lady smiled and left
Then Ruth sat and pondered what she had just heard
And thanked God for His Greatest Gift
With new-found contentment, fair Ruth persevered
With joy found in Christ she did live
She still wanted marriage and still wanted love
But now for God’s will she did live
So for two more years she did all that she could
To live for her God and her King
Her life was a praise song to Jesus her Lord
Her outlook a song she could sing
And though it was hard to at times be content
And though sometimes hard to trust God
Ruth persevered through it by God’s Precious Grace
With thankfulness she through her life trod
Then one day at church a young man caught her eyes
A man who seemed ‘round twenty-eight
He strode to where she sat as she ate her lunch
He sat and with her he then ate
They met and they talked and they liked what they saw
Both inwardly knew this could be
A something both special and great to behold
A something that’s glorious to see
The following months were a time new to them
For both had been ever alone
But love was beginning, the fresh spring was now here
The winds of a change had now come
But both took their time, for they knew what love was
A thing to preserve and protect
For they had been kept from the thing that they craved
And now precious love was beget
They both persevered until God’s time was ripe
Contentment was their tool to use
But as apples ripen, their time fin’lly came
And both told their parents the news
The day finally came that Ruth dreamed ever of
She walked down the aisle in her dress
It now was her time to be wed to her man
And Ruth knew she was greatly blessed
The wedding flew by as Ruth’s head swam around
The feelings were ever intense
But then her eyes focused and she saw in the crowd
The elderly woman God sent
Ruth’s eyes were no longer the sad eyes of gloom
They were when she dwelt in the night
With tears in these eyes Ruth thanked her with a look
Then with them she gazed at her knight
The Lord in His mercy had taught Ruth a thing
A lesson both simple and sweet
That to persevere one must be e’er content
And trust Him who’s our Mercy Seat
So when you’re discouraged and feel so alone
Remember God loves you His own
You’re put where you are and He knows what you need
For God rules and loves from His Throne
One of pastors, Pastor Jarrett Downs, has been preaching through Revelation of late, and yesterday he spoke on , about how John was on Patmos (a lonely, rocky prison island) because of the proclamation of the Gospel while worshiping. The point? Persevere, with persistent, grinding patience, even when times are hard. These are my thoughts on the Word preached.
Lord give us strength to persevere
When times have gotten tough
When friends and family truth ignore
When people treat us rough
We try to speak Your Word to friends
And kin who don’t believe
When ears are stopped and hearts are hard
Help us your mercy see
Lord give us strength to persevere
When persectution comes
When we are beat and raped and slain
Help us to see our Home
This earth is not our final stay
We know we’re killed for you
But Lord it’s hard, we’re very weak
God, ground us in Your Truth
Lord give us strength to persevere
When it seems we are beat
By all the sin within our frame
We need the Cross to see
That in the Son our sin is washed
We’re cleansed with Jesus’ blood
Your mercies overwhelm our souls
A washing, cleansing flood
Lord give us strength to persevere
As we wait for our Home
We’re aliens where ‘er we are
We’re strangers here we know
So as we wait (it’s by Your Grace)
We’ll strive to stay the course
Obedience is what we seek
To glorify our Lord
Posted in Hymns, Poetry, Sermon Poems
Tagged Apostle John, Grace, Patience, Perseverence
It seems that true, persistent, plodding faithfulness is perhaps the hardest part of the Christian walk.
It is fairly easy to be flashy and it is easy to exert a great amount of energy for a small amount of time. But to be faithful and constant … that is hard. Patience and persistence is required for such faithfulness. To be faithful means constant warfare with the flesh. For the faithful man or woman there are no breaks, no rests, and no separation from the grind. The faithful Christian is a plodder. She is content in doing what she is called to do, even if she spends her whole life in relative obscurity. The faithful Christian does not mind doing the dirty work. In fact, he puts all of his effort into the task, knowing that there will be few who notice. The faithful Christian will be told at the end of things “Well done, good and faithful servant”. The faithful Christian is a slave and he rejoices in it. She is a servant and in her servitude she seeks the honor of God. He knows he might never be noticed, but he is ok with that possibility and general reality.
He is the pastor of a small congregation in the Texas Hill Country. The church he serves in has never had much numerical growth. He has never had many converts. He is not flashy and he is not real relevant. He is faithful in the little things and faithful in the big things he is given responsibility for.
She is the mother of ten believing children and currently the grandmother of fifteen. She was a beautiful woman in the flower of youth but now her body is wrinkled, bent and worn out. She is not flashy and she’s not real sexy. She is faithful in the little things and faithful in the big things she is given responsibility for.
This man might not be successful in the eyes of the world (or even the eyes of Evangelicals!), but in the Lord’s eyes this man is honored. This woman might not be beautiful in the eyes of the world, but in God’s eyes this woman exhibits true human beauty.
Are we content with faithfulness to God, or are we in such pursuit of fame, success, relevance and beauty that we lost sight of the one by whom and for whom all things exist?
Posted in Christian Living, Some Thoughts
Tagged Beauty, Christianity, Church, Faith, Faithfullness, God, Patience, Relevance, Responsibility
“There are three indispensable requirements for a missionary: 1. Patience 2. Patience 3. Patience.”
- Hudson Taylor
Posted in Quote of the Week, Quotes
Tagged Evangelism, Hudson Taylor, Missions, Patience, Quotes
