In our community we have waves of weddings, and we are learning the discipline of celebration. It takes practice to get really good at it, and God has blessed us with lots of opportunities for such practice. So from time to time I compose a few etiquette reminders for the saints.
In Moscow we have a very unique situation: we do not yet have our own church building proper, we have lots of weddings, a large Christian community, an overwhelming desire to include everyone, and very modest budgets for Continue reading ‘Waves of Weddings’
The great Master Gardener, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with His own hand, planted me here, where by His grace, in this part of His vineyard, I grow; and here I will abide till the great Master of the vineyard think fit to transplant me. Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ
Self-control, like patience, is a fruit of the Spirit that makes us cringe. It seems unattainable, elusive, impossible, and we can beat ourselves up over our lack of it in many areas. Now I don’t have a magic formula that I found in some obscure verse in the Bible. But here is some practical, and I hope biblical, advice.
God is perfect, but He is not a perfectionist. He gives us commands, and He promises to enable us to obey Him by means of the grace He abundantly provides. But we are pretty thick and our flesh is obstinate and won’t go along quietly at all. So we flub up consistently, which should be a potent reminder that Christianity is the religion for us: we need a Savior.
Sometimes we don’t have self-control because we are not defining it biblically, but in a worldly way. We think that if we had self-control, we would all wear a size 6 and be in great shape because we were getting in an hour of exercise everyday after having our two-hour quiet time and a bowl of granola. And since very few of us attain to such things, we all think we are pretty pathetic, and we look with Continue reading ‘A Little More on Self-control’
“The critics translate the word facilis as easy. Meekness is easiness of spirit; not a sinful easiness to be debauched….nor a simple easiness to be imposed upon and deceived….but a gracious easiness to be wrought upon by that which is good, as theirs whose heart of stone is taken away and to whom a ‘heart of flesh’ is given. Meekness is easiness for it accomodates the soul to every occurrence, and so makes a man easy to himself and to all about him. ” –Matthew Henry, The Quest for Meekness and Quietness of SpiritÂ
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