Yep, totally ineffective scary monster.

God harden me against myself, This coward with pathetic voice Who craves for ease, and rest, and joys. Myself, arch-traitor to myself My hollowest friend, my deadliest foe, My clog whatever road I go. Yet One there is can curb myself, Can roll the strangling load from me, Break off the yoke and set me free. Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

The Marquis DeSade has a famous speech or saying in which is included,

"My neighbour is nothing to me…"

When people start living like the Marquis DeSade's words are true and acting like it's how we should all behave, society breaks down, and  it leaves a very hurting  world in its wake, at least from those who are not powerful enough to  or rich enough to not be left starving one way or another.

In the close of his sermon, he called God to witness, that he had walked in a good conscience among them, not seeking to please men, nor serving his own or other men s inclinations, but in all sincerity and truth preaching- the Gospel of Christ. Then praising God, who had given them one in his room, he exhorted them to stand fast in the faith they had received ; and having prayed fervently for the Divine blessing upon them, and the increase of the Spirit upon their new pastor, he gave them his last farewell ; at which the congregation were much affected. Being carried home, that same day he was confined to bed, and on the 13th was so enfeebled, that he was obliged to lay aside his ordinary reading of the Scriptures. The next day, he expressed his determination to rise, and being asked, What he intended by getting out of bed ? he replied, that he would go to church, thinking that it had been the Lord s day. He told them, he had been all night meditating on the resurrection, which he should have preached on in order after the death of Christ ; having discoursed on this the sabbath before. He had often desired of God that he might end his days in meditating and preaching upon that doctrine; a desire that seems to have been granted to him. Upon the 17th, the elders and deacons having come to him, he said, " The time is approaching, for which I have long thirsted, wherein I shall be relieved from all cares, and be with my Saviour for ever ; and now, God is my wit ness, whom I have served with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son, that I have taught nothing but the true and solid doctrine of the Gospel, and that the end which I purposed in all my doctrines was to instruct the ignorant, to confirm the weak, to comfort the hearts of those that were humbled under the sense of sin, and to denounce the threatenings of God s word against such as were rebellious. I am not ignorant that many have blamed, and yet do blame me, for too great rigour and severity ; but God knoweth that, in my heart, I never hated the persons of those against whom I thundered God s judgments ; I did only hate their sins ; and laboured, according to my power, to gain them to Christ; that I did forbear none of what soever condition, and that I did it out of the fear of God, who placed me in this function of the ministry, and will, I know, bring me to an account." He then exhorted them to constancy, and entreated them never to join with the wicked, but rather to choose with David to flee to the mountains, than to remain with such company. From Howie's "The Scot's Worthies"

I am working on a portal site, I will reveal more in the fullness of time; hence my blog posting has slowed down. I only have very limited energy for anything I do. So quotes when I don't have enough left to give to blogging, in a personal way, is often the order of the day:

When pleasure is the business of life, it ceases to be pleasure. Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796–1865)

God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away. To live with your “thorn” uncomplainingly—that is, sweet, patient, and free in heart to love and help others, even though every day you feel weak—is true sanctification. It is true healing for the spirit. It is a supreme victory of grace. The healing of your sinful person thus goes forward, even though the healing of your mortal body does not.
—J. I. Packer

Affliction is able to drown out every earthly voice. . . but the voice of eternity within a man it cannot drown. When by the aid of affliction all irrelevant voices are brought to silence, it can be heard, this voice within.
—Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813–1855)

Continued from:
He told how:

He lifted up the standard where Cargill laid it down,
Where Cameron left it, as he rose to wear the martyrs crown.
To the hungering souls in Scotland he had broke the bread of life,
And shunned all innovations and all bitter roots of strife;
But chief of all, his aim had been to guard with faithful hand
The Gospel's native purity, and the Covenants of the land.
Because he could not dance in step with the piping of the times,
And dreaded all compliances as heaven-defying crimes,
Those that his brethren should have been, did all affection quench,
Nay, cut him from theire fellowshi8p even as a rotten branch.

While thus he told how best-loved friends were severed from his side,
Tears of deep agony gushed forth, and mournfully he cried:
'Woe's me that I in Meshech am a sourjourner so long!
That I in taberacles dwell to Kedar that belong!
My sould with him that hateth peace hath long a dweller been;
I am for peace, but when I speak, for battle they are keen!'
And he spoke with him most cheeringly, with reverent, tender love,
And he prayed as they alone can pray whose heart's home is above!
He prayed that in His own good time, the Lord would grant release,
And let his servant, worn with age and toil, depart in peace;
That all his works and sufferings, with acceptance might be crowned,
And the fruit, in ages yet to come, might gloriously abound.

'Tis time we part, not far from hence the slayer hath a den,
And I know the night-shades gather thick, around old Blaxeden.'
'Rough is the path before thee, planted thick with thorns and briars,
And a spirit meek and fearless, and a wary step requires,
And they feet are soft and tender yet; but keep a constant eye,
Unto Thy Master's will, and thou shalt quit the stage with joy;
While they who walk with stately step, and bend their necks in pride,
Shall soil their garments, and be fain their squalid looks to hide.

'Who trust in self, are forth at sea in a frail and broken ship;
Who build their church upon the breath of a Princes or courtiers lip,
Are building on the shifting sand, and on the fleeing cloud;
And stand they may, so long as they are tools to serve the proud.
Trust thou for ever in the Lord! for everlasting strength
Is in His arm, and He shall rise to plead they cause at length;'
And he drew him nearer, and he plced his hand upon his head,
And, with a pause of inward prayer, thse solemn words he said:-
'God be they sun and shield! Farewell! And when we meet again,
It will not be as now, my son, in peril and in pain!'
And slowly Renwick left the bed– his finger raised above!-
The old man's eye still following him, with look and tears of love.
–James Dodd's

As I have said in the past, do you not get tired of hearing that old chestnut thrown around by New Testament Christians?  We are all New Testament Christians, but I would hope that most of us do not disregard, chop off, or separate the old from the New Testament so that they become two distinct things, disconnected one from the other! Yet often, those who roll out the old chestnut of "We are not under law, but under grace," do just that.  They divorce the two Testaments from each other, as distinct but seprated revelations from God. Yet who can read the Old Testament without seeing Christ's coming in every passage?  Psalm 22 is one obvious place that comes to mind, along with places like the suffering servant chapters of Isaiah, but the same is true of the entire Old Testament.

What in your experience are people actually saying, who do say "We are not under law but under grace" What are they usually implying? They are implying God has changed from the Old to the New Testament. That the strictness and anger and wrath and severity displayed by God frequently in the Old Testament is no longer relevant in the New Testament.

Has God changed? (Psalm 102:25-28;  Mal 3:6; Ps. 102:27;)

No, he has not changed.  Christ said he did not come to do away with the Law, not one jot or tittle, (Matt 5:18: Luke 16:17) but to fulfill it. In other words, the bloody sacrifies of the cermonial law of the Old Testament would be fulfilled once and for all, by the Lamb of God's precious blood.

What I normally find in the people who say this, is that though they are professors of religion, they are still in the secret recesses of their heart, objecting to what God says, and they do not want to submit to the bits that displease them, any more than the most open heathen does. They are still rebelling against the teachings of God and His Word.  But, if you say the above of, "we under grace, not under law,"  you have a way of disagreeing with God,  and still sounding "holy" or "righteous" while doing so. It has an air of respectability about it, even authority.

Their thinking also at times will be that in Christ we have a saviour so why worry? We cannot sin too  much, if we are saved, we will still be saved.  It is true that we all have a Saviour from our sins, in Christ, but he is NOT a Saviour of our sins! He wants us to be new creations and do away with sin, and in the simple words he used to choose his disciples,  "Follow me," and we cannot Follow Him, while saving our sins, or whilst using Him  as a Saviour of our sins. We cannot make him a minster and ally of the devil. To do so is an abominable blasphemy! Yet that is what folks who use that term, "We are not under law but under grace," are often doing.

These people often depict God as a God of love, and totally leave out, forget or supress that he is just as much a God of wrath and judgement as he ever was.  God's love has not changed, though Christ added almost another commandment to the Moral Law for his people to follow, by telling us to love one another. It is one of the problems I have with groups of Christians that will seem to enforce the Law without and ahead of love at times, but that is a subject for another day.

We are under grace and not law,true,  in the Covenant of Grace–we are children of the New Covenant. But don't ever tell me with a straight face,  that, by that, the immutable, infinite, God is inviting us to keep our sins.

My blog seems to go through seasons or themes. It is not particuarly because I am choosing to harp about one subject or one aspect,  its generally related to what I am studying on my own. What I am being blessed by particularly in those studies,  and  a habit I have of wanting as a friend some years ago very aptly put, "getting my info out there"  as I believe knowledge and learning should not be kept to ourselves, but is for sharing, and perhaps, just perhaps, now and then, one or two of my readers may find some profit from some of these things too.

A few years ago, when still an unbeliever, yet having had the outward call. Jonathan Edwards I couldn't bear to even think about. I'm not sure why, except I felt sure that he would be far too difficult for me to read with any real understanding, given the cognitive affects of my illness; and I also think I had been influenced by the wordly pictures or portraits we are giving of men like Jonathan Edwards. As a dour, gloomy indivicual, fanatical about faith and religion,  who had a habit of keeping breaking into offensive sounding religous speech.  How wrong was I!  I think I have fallen a little in love with the character and holiness of Jonathan Edwards, and yet given my aversion to him, just a few short years ago, I never planned it or expected to.

But onto the subject in hand.  The Blank Bible.  Some of you maybe aware of what this is.  The video below explains it pretty much.  But what a thought! What effort to go to! Though Edwards often was short of paper for taking his notes, he would end up writing side ways on a tiny little blank bit because he had nowhere else or no new paper. So maybe for him, this was also addressing some of that problem he found himself with. And how it has been preserved to bless us too.  But,  my subject since the weekend has been off and on, about warning against us getting our beliefs or faith second hand. I am not accusing anyone. But I will say before I had real, living faith, I fell down every pit fall that one could think of in trying to get it,  and I am anxious to try and prevent others who may have false security, or  presumption and on the day of Judgment, God would say, I  never knew you, from falling down the same holes that I did, and maybe not even being aware of it themself.  I didn't have the luxury of false security, I always knew deep down,  but,  it's still true that I fell down every pitfall I have read about as possible,  so I know how easy it is to do. Hence my latest harping.  Not to accuse anyone, but merely to provoke people to really and truly examine themselves, and be sure they be in the faith and not under some grand delusion, which experience has told me is all too easy for us to do.

Do you read with a pen or pencil in your hand?  If you are reading Calvin's teachings or some other reformer or puritan, do you take notes about their thoughts?   When it comes to practicing doing this with the Scriptures,  this is where this trait we can train ourselves too, can be endless in its rewards and paybacks. Because whatever we write down in our notes, or our own "blank Bibles"   are our own thoughts, straight from the Scriptures itself.  We know that what we have written, is what is in our hearts, not what John Calvin teaches us or following his thoughts blindly.   This is one way I believe that we can stretch ourselves and grow in knowledge, godly knowledge, and from the source Itself, by learning increase in grace. BEeause if it comes from our hearts, and not from the thought of John Calvin, then it should not be too hard for us to seek to apply these things in our daily lives. Whatever any of us believe, are what we are, and it also affects all our actions and thoughts. It is our own method of strengthening our faith by a better first hand knowledge of Scripture and it's teachings; to really know  God,  to enjoy Christ and  delight in what we see for ourselves about him, and that flows from the pen in our hand  while we have nothing but our Bible in our laps.

I feel sure that this would give many of us a huge advantage to what we currently have. I have started doing this myself, and  I know that what I write down as I pour through the scriptures are my own thoughts, feelings, notions.   I would like to have that all too besotted delight in God that Edwards had ultimately. I love Edwards, because he was so holy.  Maybe because I see this as the power straight from God to overcome and triumph in my afflictive state, but its also something, that to a greater degree than currently exists, many of us could do with  independantly of being in an afflictive state. The church would flourish I believe, if Christians actually knew the Scriptures better than many do. Knew more of God better than many do. And delighted in God, more than many of us do.

Below is  a short video from the Jonathan Edwards Centre at Yale university on discovery of this manuscript of Edwards. And  This is a link to the Shepherds Scrapbook, who a few years ago, gave his own instructions for making ones own blank Bible in today's world.  I actually simply use a pad and pen, and then type it up immediately afterwards. My disability if left too long, would make my notes  illegible to even me if they were not fresh in my mind. But you will have to find a method that works for you.  And those of you who do, May God bless you for it!

An aside note on my love of Edwards, and advocating reading some of his works, is unless there is very good reason not to, don't get the paraphrase versions of Edwards works. The "modern English" or whatever. They apparently lose much in the translation, and are poor imitations. I have cognitive deficits with my illness, let alone my body screaming at me in pain is a great distraction to reading with absorption, or the half a dozen other ways my concentration or brain is affected, and it's true I will still forget much of what I read, but Edwards is perfectly understandable to me, even so. And I believe he would be to most regular people, unless perhaps they were to have literacy problems.

Turn music off on console below to watch video.

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