Meditations of My 4th of July History

This July 4th will be the 45th of my life that I have experienced. Today for some reason, I tried to remember some of the ones that I have experienced. While, I certainly do not remember all of them, a few remembrances are still clear.

• In my preteen years, I have recollection of grill outs and fireworks at Stone Mountain along with time spent with my extended family on vacations. Of note, I have recollection of the large bicentennial celebration of 1976, though we spent it at home, I recall much of the celebration observed on our 3-5 channel television.
• My teen and college years bring back the memory of a July 4th at Six Flags (1981) which turned in to an early morning on July 5th since back then the park did not close until midnight as well as the traffic problems brought on by the large crowds after the park was closed. Another memorable July 4th was spent with summer missionaries in Alaska (1985) in which at midnight on July 5th, they still had not started the fireworks since it was not dark enough to do so.
• I remember my first July 4th after being married (1987). My wife and I observed the fireworks from our townhouse near a local park.
• Since then, there have been many July 4ths as children were born. Many were spent on vacation to my Moms when she lived in Tennessee. We would use the time before and after to take trips to Chattanooga, Nashville, and places in between such as Civil War battlefields, Rock City, Ruby Falls, the Lost Sea, the Hermitage and the Tennessee Aquarium. These always ended with my Mom's family at her house with lots of cousins, nieces, nephews, and uncles and aunts and my Grandmother. The kids enjoyed seeing their cousins and playing in Mimi's plastic swimming pool. I enjoyed the thrashing one of my cousins and myself gave our uncles and other cousins in basketball (though now some of those cousins, I am sure, would be giving me the thrashing). We all enjoyed the time together, especially Uncle Joe's BBQ and Ripley Tomatoes.
• One July 4th (1999) will always live in my memory because of a move we made to Louisville, KY which we probably should not have made. It was a Sunday and most of the day was spent unpacking.
• As of late, many July 4ths have come and gone and we have observed most of them as a family with cookouts and relaxation without the crowds. This one will likewise be observed here at home with my family around a cooked out meal and time spent away from the ordinary of work and school. Overall, it has always been a time of family and friends.

I am sure you have memories of July 4ths in your past. I am just glad that God has granted me these memories as the early ones (and sometime the ones of late) seem to disappear too fast from my mind. I doubt I have 45 more July 4ths to celebrate on this earth, but may I remember as each one comes around God's goodness and mercy to me a sinner and his mercy and grace on this country for to Him alone belongs all the glory.

BibleWorks 8 - FREE

Interested in a free copy of BibleWorks 8? Check out this link.

http://cal.vini.st/2009/06/cal-vini-st-first-anniversary-giveaway

Meditation on Ephesians 1:7-8A

In Ephesians 1, Paul writes:

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. (Ephesians 1:7-8A)

We see here that we have received redemption through Christ's sacrificial atoning death and the forgiveness of all our sins. But why have we received this redemption? Why do we have forgiveness of our sins while others around us do not? Is it something good or worthy in me? Is it something not in them? Well, Paul goes on to answer this question. We have been redeemed from the slavery of sin as our master through the accepted payment of Christ's death in our place and we have been forgiven of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. There it is - Sovereign grace. Nothing in me could have merited this redemption. Nothing I could ever do could earn this forgiveness. God in His rich grace has given me these gifts and not just given them, but lavished them on us. This word lavish means to "be over and above; to abound." We are overflowing in the riches of God's grace upon us. May this simple fact crush all of man's self-glorification, pride and autonomy with respect to salvation. Salvation is all of God. And I am glad. Because if it depended even to the infinite decimal on me, I would be lost forever. Soli Deo Gloria

1. My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

2. When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.

3. His oath, His covenant, and blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When every earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

4. When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Purpose of God's Law

Often times Christian become confused about what the purpose of God's law is 1) in general and 2) for believers. They tend to go to two extremes 1) legalism and 2) antinomianism. John Calvin saw in God's Word 3 purposes for God's law. Here they are as presented in Joel Beeke's book Overcoming the World.

1. It restrains sin and promotes righteousness in the church and society, preventing both from lapsing into chaos.
2. It disciplines, educates, convicts, and drives us outside of ourselves to Jesus Christ, the fulfiller and end of the law. The law cannot lead us to a saving knowledge of God in Christ. Rather, the Holy Spirit uses the law as a mirror to show us our guilt, to shut us off from hope, and to bring us to repentance. It drives us to the spiritual need out of which faith in Christ is born. This convicting use of the law is critical for the believer's piety, for it prevents the ungoldly self-righteousness that is prone to reassert itself even in the holiest of saints.
3. It becomes the rule of life for the believer. "What is the rule of life which [God] has given us?" Calvin asks in the Genevan Catechism. The answer: "His law." Later, Calvin says the law "shows the mark at which we ought to aim, the goal towards which we ought to press, that each of us, according to the measure of grace bestowed upon him, may endeavor to frame his life according to the highest rectitude, and, by constant study, continually advance more and more.

Let us let the law do what it is meant to do according to Scripture. Then we can truly say with the Psalmist that God's Law is more desirable to us than fine gold and sweeter to our taste than the drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:10)

What do Christians do more than others? Part 5

In a sermon of Charles Spurgeon called "A Call to Holy Living" and based on the text of Matthew 5:47, he stresses several MATTERS IN WHICH WE MAY NATURALLY LOOK FOR THE CHRISTIAN TO DO MORE THAN OTHERS. Finally in this section of the sermon, Spurgeon discussed these areas of a Christian's life:

Next to that, the Christian is to be more than others in truthfulness. Read on from the thirty-third to the thirty-seventh verse, and the gist of all is, that whereas another man utters the truth because he swears, you are to speak the truth because you can do no otherwise. Your ordinary word is to be as true as the extraordinary oath of the man who stands in the witness box in the court of justice. You are to avoid those evasions, alcove modes of concealing truth which are common enough in trade, those exaggerations, those lies which are a common nuisance. Why, our advertisements swarm with lies; our shop windows are daubed with them—such as "tremendous sacrifices," when the only sacrificed person is the customer. All the world sees through puffery, and yet even professors go on puffing and exaggerating. Shun it, Christian. If you tell a man you sell him an article under cost price, let it be under cost price, or do not say so. There are other modes of commending your wares which will be quite as effectual as falsehood. Scorn to earn a farthing by uttering that which is not true, and what you might allow in your next door neighbor, and say, "Well, he is under a different rule from me;" do not for a moment tolerate in yourself; the strict literal truth in all things should be the law of the child of God. Let your "yea, be yea," and your "nay, nay."

We have already touched upon the point which our Savior mentions from the thirty-eighth to the forty-second verse, namely, that the Christian should excel in forbearance. He should be ready to suffer wrong again and again sooner than be provoked to resistance, much less retaliation. That I have already spoken of, but may we excel in it.

And lastly, from the forty-second to the forty-eighth verse, our Savior shows that he expects us to excel in love to all mankind, and in the practical fruit of it, in trying to do them good. We ought to be, above all others, the most loving people, and the most good-doing people. Your man who buttons himself up within himself, and says, "Well, let every man see to himself, that is what I say; every man for himself and God for us all;" the man who goes through the world paying his way with strict justice, but all the while having no heart to feel for the sick, and the poor, and the needy, with no care about anybody else's soul, his whole hearts enclosed within his own ribs, all buttoned up in his own broadcloth such; a man is very like the devil, but he certainly is not like Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ's heart was expansive and unselfish. He gave himself for his enemies, and died breathing a prayer over them; he lived never for himself. You could not put your finger on one point of his life and say, "here he lived for himself alone." Neither his prayers nor his preachings, his miracles or his sufferings, his woes or his glories were with an eye to himself. He saved others, but himself he would not save. His followers must in this follow him closely. Selfishness is as foreign to Christianity as darkness to light. The true Christian lives to do good, he looks abroad to see whom be may serve, and with this eye he looks upon the wicked, upon the fallen and the offcasts, seeking to reclaim them. Yes, in the same way he looks upon his personal enemies, and aims at winning them by repeated kindnesses. No nationality must confine his goodwill, no sect or clan monopolise his benevolence. No depravity of character or poverty of condition must sicken his lovingkindness, for Jesus received sinners and ate with them. Our love must embrace those who lie hard by the gates of hell, and we must endeavor with words of truth and deeds of love to bring them to Christ, who can uplift then to heaven. Oh that you may all be gentle, quiet, meek in spirit, but full of an ardent, burning affection towards your fellowmen; so shall you be known to be Christ's disciples.

"Oh," say you, "these are great things." Yes, but you have a great Spirit to help you, and you owe a great deal to your precious Lord and Master. Did I hear one say, "I will avoid sin by being very retired; I will find out a quiet place where I shall not be tempted, and where I shall have few calls upon me." Pretty soldier you who when your Captain says, "Win the victory," reply, "I will keep clear of the fight." No, Christian, go about your trade, go into the busy mart, attend to your business, attend to your family, attend to those matters which God has allotted to you, and glorify God in the battle of life by doing more than others. Will God enable you so to do.

Complete sermon located at:

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/1029.htm - Written

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=12240521116 - Read

What do Christians do more than others? Part 4

In a sermon of Charles Spurgeon called "A Call to Holy Living" and based on the text of Matthew 5:47, he stresses several MATTERS IN WHICH WE MAY NATURALLY LOOK FOR THE CHRISTIAN TO DO MORE THAN OTHERS. Fourthly, Spurgeon preaches:

But, I must pass on, for the next point in which the Christian is to excel is in purity. Read from the twenty-seventh to the thirty-second verse—I do not go into particulars, but purity is earnestly commanded. The ungodly man says, "Well, I do not commit any act of fornication; you do not hear me sing a lascivious song," and saying that he feels content: but the Christian's Master expects us to carry the point a great deal farther. An unchaste look is a crime to us, and an evil thought is a sin. Oh, it shocks me beyond measure when I hear of professedly Christian people who fall into the commission of immodest actions,—not such as are called criminal in common society, but loose, fleshly, and full of lasciviousness. I beseech you all of you in your conversation with one other, avoid anything which has the appearance of impurity in this respect. Looks and gestures step by step lead on to fouler things, and sport which begins in folly ends in lewdness. Be ye chaste as the driven snow, let not an immodest glance defile you. We do not like to say much about these things, they are so delicate, and we tremble lest we should suggest what we would prevent; but, oh, by the tears of Jesus, by the wounds of Jesus, by the death of Jesus, hate even the garment spotted by the flesh; and avoid everything that savours of unchastity. Flee youthful lusts as Joseph did. Run any risk sooner than fall into uncleanness, for it is a deep ditch, and the abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein. Strong temptation lie in wait for the young in a great city like this, but let the young man learn of God to cleanse his way, by taking heed there to according to his word. May you all be kept from falling, and be presented faultless before the presence of God with exceeding great joy. You are not to be commonly chaste, you are to be much more than that: the very look and thought of impurity are to be hateful to you. Help us, O Spirit of God.

to be continued . . .

What do Christians do more than others? Part 3

In a sermon of Charles Spurgeon called "A Call to Holy Living" and based on the text of Matthew 5:47, he stresses several MATTERS IN WHICH WE MAY NATURALLY LOOK FOR THE CHRISTIAN TO DO MORE THAN OTHERS. Thirdly, Spurgeon preaches:

Look again, from the twenty-first to the twenty-sixth verse, and though I do not pretend to expound every word, I remark that Christ would have his people excel all others in gentleness. Others will retaliate on those who vex them, and call them hard names, and will even go the length of saying "fool;" and, perhaps, go still further, and even come to cursing and imprecating terrible judgments. A quarrelsome man when he is in a quarrel with another rather takes pleasure in it; he does not mind how many hate him, or how many he hates; his religion is quite consistent with the worst temper; he can say his prayers, or he can offer his gifts to his God, and yet be as malicious as he likes; but with the Christian it is not so, and must not be so. We are to bear a great deal of wrong before we make any reply whatever, and when we do give an answer, we must, if we would be like our Master, give a gentle one. Heaping coals of fire upon the head of our enemy by returning abundant kindness is the right revenge for a Christian, and all other revenge is denied to him. He is not to stand upon his rights; he is rather to say, "I know it is my right, but I will yield it sooner than I will contend; I know this man does me an injustice, but I will bear it sooner than my temper shall be ruffled, or my spirit shall be defiled, by a thought of evil." "Oh," saith one, "this is a hard measure." Do you think it so? Are you a Christian then? for while in my soul I feel it is difficult, my heart feels I desire to do it, and I love it, and aspire after it; and I think every real Christian, though by reason of infirmity he often breaks this blessed rule, yet sees the beauty of it, and does not think it hard. Nay, rather the hard point to him is that he should fall so short of the gentle, loving nature of his dear Lord and Master.

to be continued . . .