In a recent op-ed on CNN.com entitled “Why men are in trouble”, William Bennett stated the current challenges among young men today. He writes,

“Today, 18-to- 34-year-old men spend more time playing video games a day than 12-to- 17-year-old boys. While women are graduating college and finding good jobs, too many men are not going to work, not getting married and not raising families. Women are beginning to take the place of men in man way. This has led some to ask: do we even need men?”

He ends the piece with an unashamed exhortation: “Get off the video game five hours a day, get yourself together, get a challenging job and get married.”

While it’s easy to bemoan the current state of manhood (or the lack thereof), Bennett has helpfully put together an assortment of readings “on the path to manhood”. They are:

• Man in War
• Man at Work
• Man in Play, Competition, and Leisure
• Man in the Polis
• Man with Woman and Children
• Man in Prayer and Reflection

“There are examples worthy of emulation, stories worth knowing, lives worthy studying and remembering, and counsel worth hearing. I have tried to gather a wide sampling of material that can encourage and guide. And so, while this book cannot make you a good man, it should give you a helpful idea of what a good man is.” (xxii)

There are countless challenges to the Christian faith. Of course this is nothing new. Since the birth of the church, Christians have been called to not only proclaim the truth but also refute those who contradict (Titus 1:9). To the detriment of the church, we have often been on the defensive if not full retreat. In the early part of the 20th century there was the Fundamentalist mentality that argued that to be a faithful Christian and protect the truth from encroaching liberalism, we must therefore hunker down and maintain our ground. Thankfully, though, there were those who realized that Christians were to be salt and light in a fallen world which meant there was no option for retreat. On contrary, men like Carl F. H. Henry and later on Francis Schaeffer, saw it as their Christian duty to articulate and defend the Christian faith in light of the opposing tide of rising postmodernism.

In our present day the challenge remains. The church will forever be required to take a stand on truth and ably articulate a defense of the faith. What we have in this book edited by well-known Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, is a collection of timely essays on whole array of apologetic issues. As is the case with most books of collected essays, there are hit and misses. Thankfully most are well written and offer a cogent argument in their respective issues. As most reviewers have already noted, two that stand out are ”Challenges From Islam” by Sam Soloman and ”Broader Cultural and Philosophical Challenges” by Joe Boot. As a young man who often ministers to youth, Alison Thomas’ “Challenges of Youth” to be particularly helpful in getting to the heart of this challenge.

In short, this book is a useful read which some excellent essays.

There are some books that present a story and, while good, they the story simply fizzles away into oblivion. And then there are those books that “hook” you, grabbing you by the collar and not allowing you to put it down. Such is this book which tells the story of two polar opposite men, Ron Hall and Denver Moore. While Hall is a prosperous art dealer who travels the world, Moore is a struggling man living in the streets of Fort Worth. At the insistence of his wife, Hall begins volunteering at a homeless shelter which Moore comes to for aid. Eventually these two men meet at the homeless shelter and oddly enough strike up the most unlikely of friendships.

The book is structured by both men alternately telling their stories. Rather than giving up all the details of the story, let me just say that it is one of the most endearing and inspiring books I have read. In a fallen world where there is much hurt and pain, this book offers a redemptive snippet of a selfish man turned into a gracious and selfless man. For the discerning Christian, he will find several tidbits of questionable things. But by in large I think all will appreciate and enjoy this story. It is a story well told and ultimately a story of a friendship one will not soon forget.

But I didn’t simply read Christian books. I quickly began devouring stories like The Chronicles of Narnia (okay, you can quibble about that one) and Harry Potter and Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. For two years, almost every Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, I worked my way through David McCullough’s wonderful retelling of President John Adams. I could endlessly go on and share how different books have come into my life and have helped me think better and see the world differently.

But I will say this, in many ways we are what we read. Though not always perceived, books make certain indelible impressions upon the reader. We will not always be aware of the mark they are making, but unquestionably books are molding us and refining us, allowing us to expand our thinking, to venture into worlds unknown and times not our own.

While there is a shift now taking place with the emergence of the e-book, I believe books—actual printed works with covers in-between—will continue to have an integral role in our society, not least in the presentation and exchange of ideas, and in the simple yet beautiful act of painting with words as stories unfold and worlds are created and history is retold and leaders are formed. All this is but a foretaste of the power of books.

I say all that to simply set the stage for why I so enjoyed reading Tony Reinke’s new book, Lit!: A Christian Guide To Reading Books. I think Leland Ryken’s blurb got it right:

“Reinke writes with an infectious and winsome enthusiasm. It is hard to imagine a reader of this book who would not catch the spark for reading after encountering Reinke’s excitement about reading and his carefully reasoned defense of it.”

I picked up the book today and could not put it down. As a lover of books, to say I enjoyed it is an understatement. I was instructed and challenged all throughout. In the first half Reinke gives us the theological underpinnings of reading from within a Christian worldview. And in the latter half of the book he offers some practical advice on reading, ranging from how to decide what to read to note-taking in the marginalia to reading together with others in community. Rather than giving a thorough review of the book, I’ll just provide some of the quotes that resonated with me or simply made a point very well.

Here they are. Enjoy.

*********

“The concern is whether Christians … will be patient enough to find meaning embedded in words, or if we will grow content with the superficial pleasures offered to us in the rapidly shifting images in our culture…. [A]s a word-centered people we must learn to prize language in a visually-dominated world. If our hearts prioritize images over language, our hunger for books will erode.”

“We do not yet live in the age of the eye; we live in the age of the ear, we live in the age of revelation and promises and books…. For now we sing, ‘Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight.’ “

“The difficult work required to benefit from books is at odds with the immediate appeal of images. As Christians living in an image-saturated world, we must guard our conviction about the vital importance of words and language. For it is words and language that best communicate meaning.”

“Revealed truth does not answer all the questions in life, but it does provide a framework for understanding everything else.”

“Christians can read a broad array of books for our personal benefit, but only if we read with discernment. And we will only read with discernment if the biblical convictions are firmly settled in our minds and hearts. Once they are, we have a touchstone to determine what is pure gold and what is worthless.”

“God is the source of all beauty, and beautiful literature written by non-Christians is a gift from the Giver. And it’s a gift to he enjoyed.”

“Mature readers know when to read quickly and when to read slowly…. Each book has its own terrain…. The perceptive reader can read the terrain and shift gears in response.”

“We get one chance at this life. We have one body, one mind, and one life to live. Reading provides us with a vicarious experience of others’ lives.”

“Reading literature is about absorption, about bring lost in a story, and about delighting in the beautiful prose of a gifted writer.”

“Reading is a discipline, and all disciplines require self-discipline, and self-discipline is the one thing our sinful flesh will resist.”

“Book reading is not just a matter of  time management; it’s a matter of warfare.”

“[W]e like distraction. We want distraction. Distraction is how we stay busy enough to avoid the self-discipline required to read books.”

“I am quick to Tweet and slow to think. I am quick to Google and slow to ponder.”

“Childlike faith in the gospel is an unsinkable buoy when we find ourselves drowning in the details of a books that is over our head.”

“In the good news of Jesus Christ, overwhelmed readers find peace, and joy, and the courage to keep reading…. We grab a new book and we press on, not as slaves bound to a chore, but as liberated sinners who read to delight in the gifts of our God. We press on, reading and thanking God for the light we do see in books, and for his illuminating grace that lights our way.”

Reinke near the end of the book makes the point that mature readers…

1) prize wisdom;

2) cherish old books;

3) keep literature in its place;

4) avoid making books into idols; and

5) cling to the Savior.

If you already are a reader or  would simply like to begin building the experience of reading in your life, then this is a book for you. Tolle lege.

I’ve been hesitant in doing this blog, fearful that I might be bragging or showing off or even afraid of the perception that I’m bragging or showing off. But since reading Kevin DeYoung’s post “Doing Good, But A Little Less Than Others,” (a must-read!) I realized that we all have our particular interests and hobbies, and I’m no better for what I like (or don’t like for that matter). I enjoy reading and it consumes a good deal of my days. And to be honest, I feel like I read very little, at least compared to many of the men whom I look up to my life (one of them read ten a week; yikes!)

That said, here’s what I’ve been reading over these few months.

*********************

January/February 2011

1. Joel Beeke and Mark Jones, ed. A Habitual Sight of Him: The Christ-Centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin, Profiles in Reformed Spirituality (Reformation Heritage Books 2009). Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680) was a Puritan pastor. This little book begins with a biographical introduction followed by 35 selections of Goodwin’s writings. Goodwin is not the most accessible of the Puritans (like say Thomas Watson); his writing style at times might be dense. But in the end I think the reader will be amply rewarded. Here’s a little nugget to whet your appetite: “[Prayer] prevails, not because of the performance itself, but because of the name in which it is made, even Christ’s name. Therefore, as a weak faith justifies, so a weak prayer prevails as well as a stronger, and both for the same reason, for faith attributes all to God, and so does prayer. As faith is merely a receiving grace, so prayer is a begging grace.” Amen and amen!

2. John Piper. Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (Crossway 2010). Refusing an either-or separation of intellect and feeling, of passion and knowledge, this book calls on Christians to engage their minds in the pursuit of loving God. A challenging book that has required me to think, this has become one of my favorite books by Piper.

3. Laura Hillenbrand. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption(Simon & Shuster 2010). This is the kind of book you begin reading and can’t put down. Louie Zamperini’s story, retold here, is an epic story you’ll probably never forget. There’s no point in giving even a general plot line. (Rumor has it that it’ll be made into a movie, starring Nicholas Cage.) Hillenbrand has the amazing ability of taking a story and weaving it into such a powerful, forward-moving prose. I plan on reading this one again.

4. Andrew Bonar. The Biography of R. M. M’Cheyne. M’Cheyne was a man of holiness who sought above all else to please Christ and live for him. Though he only lived to about 28, his life and love for the Savior and for souls continues to inspire many, including me. Bonar writes of M’Cheyne: “His soul was prepared for the awful work of the ministry by much prayer, and much study of the word of God; by affliction in his person; by inward trials and sore temptations; by experience of the depth off corruption in his own heart, and by discoveries of the Savior’s fulness of grace.” Read that again slowly. These are indeed the ingredients of a faithful man of God. May his tribe increase in our generation!

5. Pat Conroy. My Reading Life (Nan A. Talese, 2010). I saw this book while on break from work at my local Books & Books, and of course the title piqued my interest. I have yet to read any of Conroy’s novels, but I found this book a treat. Conroy walks through various episodes of his life in which reading to one degree or another has had a profound impact on his life. And, of course, all throughout Conroy states things in beautiful prose. Here’s one example: “Books are living things and their task lies in their vows of silence. You touch them as they quiver with a divine pleasure. You read them and they fall asleep to happy dreams for the next ten years. If you do them the favor of understanding them, of taking in their portions of grief and wisdom, then they settle down on contented residence in your heart.” It’s saddening to see how Conroy attributes a sort of religious role to literature; I reach for a story to save my life,” he writes at one point. But with healthy discernment many will find this a pleasurable read.

6. Paul Johnson. Churchill (Penguin 2010). I didn’t enjoy this biography as I thought I would. As an American, I don’t understand much of the British political system, and the author doesn’t go at any length in explaining. Because of its brevity, it seems this is the kind of biography for one already acquainted with Churchill. Furthermore, Churchill is a wildly contradictory figure (well, aren’t we all?), and as such, there is much that draws me to him and there is also much the repels me. I’m going to pick up another biography. Any suggestions?

7. Ronald C. White. Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural (Simon & Shuster 2003). Before reading this book, I didn’t know much about Lincoln’s Second Inaugural. If you didn’t know, it was delivered at the closing of the Civil War, forty-two days before his assassination by John Wilkes Booth. I can now not only appreciate the speech, but also see the brilliant simplicity of these words that have long captivated the American imagination. Frederick Douglas, the famed African American abolitionist and orator, wrote the day of the speech: “The address sounded more like a sermon than a state paper.” Any lover of history will find this an enjoyable read.

8. Elisabeth Elliot. Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot (1956; reprint, Hendrikson 2008). ”He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” What can I say? Here’s a man who though dead more than fifty years continues to inspire countless believers to give of themselves with fiery missionary zeal. “God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.”

9. Arnold Dallimore. George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival, Vol. II (Banner of Truth 1980). God raises certain men through history to fulfill a special task. There’s no doubt that God raised Whitefield up in the 18th-century to be one of the greatest vehicles of awakening both in England and in the colonies. Dallimore’s two-volume biography is the most definitive. Time and again I found myself weeping as I read, praying, “Oh God, do it again!”

I sit now in the library, preparing yet another lesson on Galatians for my youth tonight, with commentaries sprawled over my desk. The challenge is taking the timeless truths of God’s Word and communicating them clearly and in an engaging manner so that God would be honored and my guys would be built up in Christ. Central in all this, of course, is the Book and books. Countless men—both alive and dead—regularly teach me and guide my thinking and raise questions I never thought of as I wrestle with Paul’s letter to the Galatians, his passionate attempt to awaken these new converts from the insidious false teaching of the Judaizers.

As I take a break from this, I cannot help but reflect on the power of the book. There is no question in my mind of the power of the printed word. Ever since middle school, and ever more so after becoming a Christian in high school, I have been a lover of books. While there is a shift now taking place with the emergence of the e-book, I believe books—actual printed works with covers and pages in-between—will continue to have an integral role in our society in the presentation and exchange of ideas and in the simple yet beautiful act of painting with words, as stories unfold and worlds are created and history is retold and budding theologians are equipped to be unashamed workmen.

In many ways I am what I read. Though not always perceived, books make certain indelible impressions upon the reader. It makes no difference whether one remembers all the details of the book or not. In one way or another, if read well, a book becomes part of you. After a meal is eaten, a person is not always aware of all the digestive activities that take place. Indeed, we all know that our daily meals contribute to our long-term health, for better or worse. And so it is with our reading of books. We will not always be aware of the mark they are making, but unquestionably books are molding us and refining us, allowing us to expand our thinking, to venture into worlds unknown and times not our own.

Coming from an amateur reader, I realize this is all but a foretaste of the book’s power. And for that reason, I have not given up on the book.

There’s a kingdom that will perish; there’s a kingdom that will last. There’s a kingdom built by sinful hands; there’s a kingdom built by God. So go my thoughts on this 4^th of July.

Our “indivisible” nation will pass in a fleeting moment and give way to the city of the divine architect. In this grand city faith will be sight, hope will be fulfilled, praise will be pure, fellowship will be true, love will be unmixed, riches will be untarnished, peace will be protected, goodness will be supreme, laughter will be exuberant, and joy will be complete.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s much to commend and even applaud in the book. Stearns very honestly traces how his faith was a private faith; he saw no need to step out of his comfort zone and get into the messy needs of those around him and around the globe. So throughout the book he wants Christians to stop being so ingrown and not simply believe some facts about Christ that require any real sacrifice. Amen. I agree. But as the book progresses, it seems that he shortchanges the message of the gospel for the implications of the gospel.

While one can learn much from this book and even take action to do more, I believe that the theological foundation for much of what Stearns attempts to argue is somewhat shoddy and anemic. There is a hole in our gospel, but it is not the hole that Stearns presents.

- Jonathan Edwards

A disturbing video.

It depicts Jews preparing, then slitting the throat of a sacrificial animal, and gathering its blood.

You watch it, hearing their ritual in rapid Hebrew, not understanding. But you have this feeling of dread, a horror for what you know is coming. Odds are that you had never quite seen the like, as I hadn’t. But you feel it coming, you watch perhaps with a hand to your mouth, wanting to look away, but stopping yourself. The struggling victim, no clue what is coming; bound, prepared, shaved, given some liquid (sh’teh! sh’teh! — “Drink! Drink!” a speaker urges in Hebrew).

Then the blade slashes, the blood spurts and is gathered, and surprisingly quickly, the victim’s struggles subside.

This was God’s ancient pedagogy. From the very start, He taught us all that sin called for shed blood. He showed this to Adam and Eve in the Garden (Genesis 3:21). Somehow Abel knew it (Genesis 4:4). Shed blood meant death (Genesis 9:6), and shed blood was the means that Yahweh instituted, for covering and paying for sin (Leviticus 17:11, 14).

This was God’s pedagogy for the nation of Israel. The sight that so shocks us in the video is a sight every Israelite was exposed to from childhood, by divine design. Had they heard Yahweh, had they listened and learned, they would have known: sin-blood-life. Sin can only be atoned for by innocent life, life is in the blood, blood brings life and forgiveness. Violent death of an innocent victim, a substitute on whose head the offerer presses his hand, transferring, marking it as his substitute.

Yet all those animals never really finish the job. God forgives the believing worshipers… but then they have to bring another victim. And another. And another (Hebrews 10:1-4, 11).

Then God tells Israel that these animals would one day be summed up, fulfilled, in one grand Substitute, a Man who would die for His people and bring final and lasting peace and atonement (Isaiah 52:13—53:12).

That Man comes. Many reject Him, many do not. He dies. God removes the Temple. No more sacrifices according to the prescription of the Law are even possible. As if embarrassed (but not humbled), the nation fabricates substituted traditions, works, programs, rituals. The reality has come, but they keep trying to pencil in shadows.

It is like a child that ignored its entire childhood instruction. Blood is necessary for atonement; it would be offered, it has been offered. But the lesson was not heard.

Don’t feel smug, Gentile reader, Christian reader. From our own numbers, from professed “evangelicals,” there are plenty who just as badly — more badly — miss the point.

Imagine that, instead of watching a video of an animal’s death, you somehow saw this day, nearly 2000 years ago. Imagine that, instead of that animal, you were watching Jesus Christ at last night’s supper, at prayer in the garden, arrested, subjected to mock-justice, condemned. Imagine you were watching him being beaten and whipped, and led away.

Imagine the sick, nauseated, worsening clench in your gut as you saw Him stagger off, carrying the cross. You want to tear your eyes away. You want to make it stop. You want to scream “Stop! STOP! This is wrong!“

Yet He goes. He hangs. He bleeds. He dies. He is buried.

Why such an ugly, horrid death? Why, if penal, substitutionary, blood atonement were not indispensable for our salvation? Do we dare shake our heads at Jews who don’t “get” the millennia of instruction?

Best not to mock, while such folly is tolerated in our numbers.

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Refrain

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.

Isaac Watts, 1707

Do you ever have those moments when you’re reading a book and a few words just stick out and grab hold of your heart? Well, that happened last night as I was reading a short biography on a pastor.

What is man apart from the grace of God! How transitory is the longest life!

This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered a saying with the same thrust. We all realize the shortness of this life and the fact that without the grace of God we would be reduced to ashes, not even worthy of pity. Those words gripped me and I began meditating on that truth. And what a truth it is! May I be sobered up to the reality that soon my life will end . . . and only what I’ve done for Christ and His Kingdom will last unto eternity.

————–

P.S. – The quote is by Iain Murray in Truth Endures.

You can add all your accounts onto it. All you need is the sign in name and password. They don’t ask for your address and SSN or anything of that sort. Here’s a video by the founder and CEO explaining it all.

You can see where all your money goes.

There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it, until another sin is committed. You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1567 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day.

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Theology-ology
Tim Challies

Theology remains something of a bad word in Christian circles. I’d believe that the success of a book like The Shack has proven this to us yet again. Many people seem eager to embrace some form of Christian spirituality but have little desire or love for theology. Theology is linked in people’s minds with frigid, dead religion that cares more about principles and matters of the head than deeds and matters of the heart. It is associated with fundamentalism and with cold conservatism. We need only look at the meaning and etymology of the word, though, to conclude that God requires all Christians to be theologians.

The word theology, as I’m sure you know, is derived from two Greek words. The root “theos” means God and the suffix “-ology” comes from the Greek word for speak. So what theology really means is “speaking of God” or as has become the more accurate definition, “the study of God.” That sounds quite inoffensive, doesn’t it? If you are a Christian, I suspect that it sounds exciting. If you love God and if you are loved by God, you will want to know him. I don’t think any Christian can deny that we are called by God to learn more about him and to study his ways. The process of sanctification is just that–learning more and more about God and his requirements for our lives. Our lifelong challenge is to mold our lives to fit into that image.

So what is it, then, that people are rebelling against when they disassociate themselves from theology? I believe that what they are running from is better termed “theology-ology.” It is a study of the study of God. If a Christian is diligent in studying God through the right motives and methods and for the right reasons, there will necessarily be change in his life. He cannot help but be changed by the living Word of God. However, if someone studies God only to acquire knowledge about him without applying any of that knowledge to his life, he is not so much studying God as he is studying the study of God. The study of God when done as he has commanded must always lead to application, heart change and then life change. Conversely, studying God through improper motives and methods with no view to application cannot affect true heart change in anyone.

There seems to be a fine line between theology and theology-ology. The line is not found in what we study as much as it is the motives behind the study and the result we expect to achieve. For example, 1 Corinthians 11 speaks about the necessity of women wearing head coverings while in church. I can look at that section of the Bible in two different ways. I can go in with a motive of wanting to show that women are subservient to men and sin if they do not wear head coverings in church. I can begin this study with the intent to prove to my wife that she needs to wear a head covering next Sunday. On the other hand, I can turn to this section with a motive of wanting to understand what God is trying to teach us in this passage. I can seek to understand the principles the Bible is teaching and how those relate to people today. I can begin my study with the intent to learn something that I can humbly and prayerfully apply to my life. This is an extreme or simplistic example perhaps, but it displays the difference between wanting to acquire knowledge of God through proper or improper methods and for right or wrong intentions.

I love theology. I love studying God and continually learning about him and about what he has done. I must confess that there is a part of me that also loves to study the study of God. There are many times in my life where I have learned about God simply so I could have more knowledge about him, never intending to change myself in response to what I have learned. There have been times where I have studied God just so I could convince others of their need to change. It is my prayer that whenever I study God I do so with proper motives and with a humble attitude, preparing myself to be changed by what I learn about him.

———————

“Strong men always proclaim a strong message. They do not read the polls and check the surveys before they give their opinions. In fact, they do not even have opinions—they have convictions. They bleed convictions. They are strong men anchored in the strong Word of God, and, as such, they bring a message with gravitas and punch. When they stand to speak, they actually have something to say—and they say it, whether anyone listens or not. When they sit to write, they do not skirt the issues—they tackle them. When they address the times in which they live, they do not tickle ears—they box them. They do not have one message for one group and a different message for a different group. Wherever they go and whomever they address, they have only one message— God’s message. This is what makes them strong men. They speak God’s Word, or they do not speak at all.”

Dr. Don Carson from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School did a daylong series of lectures on Christ over at Mars Hill. They’re great! You can watch/listen to them all for free here.

The Bible says my King is the King of the Jews.
He’s the King of Israel.
He’s the King of righteousness.
He’s the King of the ages.
He’s the King of Heaven.
He’s the King of glory.
He’s the King of kings,
and He’s the Lord of lords.
That’s my King.
I wonder…Do you know Him?

My King is a sovereign King.
No means of measure can define his limitless love.
He’s enduringly strong.
He’s entirely sincere.
He’s eternally steadfast.
He’s immortally graceful.
He’s imperially powerful.
He’s impartially merciful.
Do you know Him?

He’s the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizon of this world.
He’s God’s Son.
He’s the sinner’s Savior.
He’s the centerpiece of civilization.
He’s unparalleled.
He’s unprecedented.
He is the loftiest idea in literature.
He’s the highest personality in philosophy.
He’s the fundamental doctrine of true theology.
He’s the only one qualified to be an all-sufficient Savior.
I wonder if you know Him today?

He supplies strength for the weak.
He’s available for the tempted and the tried.
He sympathizes and He saves.
He strengthens and sustains.
He guards and He guides.
He heals the sick.
He cleansed the lepers.
He forgives sinners.
He discharges debtors.
He delivers the captives.
He defends the feeble.
He blesses the young.
He serves the unfortunate.
He regards the aged.
He rewards the diligent,
and He beautifies the meager.
I wonder if you know Him?

He’s the key to knowledge.
He’s the wellspring of wisdom.
He’s the doorway of deliverance.
He’s the pathway of peace.
He’s the roadway of righteousness.
He’s the highway of holiness.
He’s the gateway of glory.
Do you know Him?

Well, His life is matchless.
His goodness is limitless.
His mercy is everlasting.
His love never changes.
His word is enough.
His grace is sufficient.
His reign is righteous,
and His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

I wish I could describe Him to you.
Yes, He’s indescribable.
He’s incomprehensible.
He’s invincible.
He’s irresistible.
You can’t get Him out of your mind.
You can’t get Him off of your hand.
You can’t outlive Him, and you can’t live without Him.

Well, the Pharisees couldn’t stand Him
but they found out they couldn’t stop Him.
Pilate couldn’t find any fault in Him.
Herod couldn’t kill Him.
Death couldn’t handle Him.
and the grave couldn’t hold Him.
Yeah…that’s my King, that’s my King.

Over the past few months I have benefited so much by these prayers of old. It’s so often the case that our own prayers can be so shallow and monotonous and dry. As I thought about it, I kept thinking back to the psalms. The Psalter was the worship manual of the people God. And then I began to think about the songs we sing in church. An individual wrote them and then musical notes were added to them and then we get sing them. In fact, we memorize many of them. So, all that to say that there’s nothing wrong in repeating something. These collection of old prayers have deepened my own prayer before God.

Here’s  one short prayer that has become my prayer over and over again as I press onward in this race of faith.

——–

A Disciple’s Renewal

O my Saviour,
Help me.
I am so slow to learn, so prone to forget, so weak to climb;
I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights;
I am pained by my graceless heart,
my prayerless days,
my poverty of love,
my sloth in the heavenly race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
my unspent opportunities.

I am blind while light shines around me:
take the scales from my eyes,
grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.

Make it my chiefest joy to study thee,
meditate on thee,
gaze on thee,
sit like Mary at thy feet,
lean like John upon thy breast,
appeal like Peter to thy love,
count like Paul all things dung.

Give me increase and progress in grace so that there may be
more decision in my character,
more vigour in my purposes,
more elevation in my life,
more fervour in my devotion,
more constancy in my zeal.

As I have a position in the world,
keep me from making the world my position;
May I never seek in the creature
what can be found only in the creator;
Let not faith cease from seeking thee until it vanishes into sight.

Ride forth in me, thou king of kings and lord of lords,
that I may live victoriously, and in victory attain my end.