I Like Big Equipment

Last Thursday I got the chance to use the tractor that we have at work (pictured above). Before using it, I was timid to say the least. At first, I was still uncomfortable using it. However after using it for a while, I really liked driving it and using the front-end loader to move mulch and sand. The next day, I got to use it again. I thought, "I could get use to this." All in all, I had a lot of fun using the tractor.

Variety

I don't like doing the "same ol' same ol'." I believe that a lack of variety is dangerous. I think that variety is a gift from God and takes creativity, another gift from God. So here are some areas in which we should inject some variety. Do whatever it takes; just do something different once in a while!

Reading

• But, I don't get it! Read something that challenges you. Are you artistic? Read a science or history book. Are you a science person? Read literature or poetry.
  
• I can only read ____. Does your library look like only one section of a bookstore? Read something different. Mix up the style you read. Don't read one genre, like me. Read biographies, comic collections (i.e., Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side), famous fiction, literature, a textbook, poetry, theology, or philosophy.
  

Vary your reading to keep your mind out of a rut. Variety is as refreshing to the mind as it is to the body.


J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, p. 106

Eating

• Meatloaf again?! Eat something different. Do you usually eat something containing: avocado, feta cheese, or some spice that is hard to spell? Try making/ eating something really simple: no fancy spices, no nuts, no presentation, and no fancy add-ons. On the other hand if all you eat is prepackaged and out of a box, try making/ eating something fancy. Experiment with spices and meats. Trying making the food LOOK good, too.

Dancing

• There's more than swing. Dance a different dance. This applies to anyone who dances one style or a few styles only. There are dances from Aar Oyun to Zydeco (here). Pick one! Learn to dance it. Teach others. Be willing to do it and mix it up. Now, most dances will not apply to group settings and parties, but you get the idea. Do something different.
  
• Put on your dancing shoes. If you don't dance, start doing it. Don't worry that you "can't." Do something. Have fun. That's the point.
  

Music

• Change the tune. Listen to other genres of music. Do you listen to rap? Try jazz. Do you listen to classical? Try techno. Listen to polka? Ok, so no one does that. From Acapella to World, there are so many styles of music. Give them all a chance. Music is so very different yet basically the same.
  

8 Signs That You Are a Sovereign Grace Ministries Fan

1. You know exactly when to say, "All my days!" in the song Grace Unmeasured.
2. Girl and Talk are two words that will never have the same meaning again.
3. You find yourself using words like: Propitiation, Justification, Courtship, Reformed, and Orthodoxy.
4. Tiny books seem to have big impacts.
5. You have role models like: John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, Elisabeth Elliot, Charles Spurgeon, Carolyn McCulley, and Martin Luther.
6. Men: You have this odd desire to shave your head and have at least 38 kids.
Women: You enjoy modesty and words like femininity and womanhood... oh yeah, and desire to have at least 38 kids.
7. You own a book or poster with "The Puritans" written on it.
8. 'Na' does not register as sodium in your mind.

_________

Sorry for the long down time between posts. Do not fret. I am alive and have not forgotten you (if any), my loyal readers. New posts are on the way!

Teach Me, pt. 3

Humility

Oftentimes, I find myself not expressing true humility. First, when dealing with vertical humility (relating to God), I find myself admitting depravity and thinking that that is humility.

Christian humility does not consist in denying what there is of good in us; but in an abiding sense of ill-desert, and in the consciousness that what we have of good is due to the grace of God.

Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 317

For instance if someone points out something good in my life, I often respond with an admittance of depravity ("I am not capable of _____.") While this isn't false humility, it isn't humility either and is as bad as if I was having an attitude of pride.

Humility, then, gives credit where credit is due.... Pride, which is the opposite of humility, seeks to find within ourselves some innate goodness or even to ascribe to our own commitment or faithfulness the cause of any blessings of God in our lives.

Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, p. 201

While I am not taking credit for myself, I am not giving proper credit and glory to God. Pride takes the glory that God deserves, for doing good in our lives, for ourselves. While I am not taking glory for myself, I am not giving it to God either. Either way, God is not glorified.

Humility begins with God's grace and recognizes that the good in us in the form of Christlike character, and the good done by us in service to God and other people, is totally undeserved on our part and is due to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But humility does not deny the evidences of His gracious work in us and through us. To do so would be to dishonor Him as much as to ascribe the cause and results of His working to ourselves.

Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, p. 201

May I learn to honor You, oh God, with true humility.

Second, when dealing with horizontal humility (relating to others), I do not pursue that others would be successful. I see myself as superior.

Pride...is comparing ourselves with others and seeing ourselves as superior to them in some way - whether it be in character, conduct, or achievement. One of the worst forms of pride is spiritual pride, and attitude that I am more holy, or righteous, or faithful, or obedient, or more fruitful in evangelism than others. Humility towards others, then, is...a recognition that all we are and do that is of any worth is a gift of God's grace.

Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, p. 202

The Gift of Gifts

As we approach the Christmas season, I think it fitting to draw our attention from presents to a Gift.

O Source of all good,

What shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts,
thine own dear Son, begotten, not created,
my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,
his self-emptying incomprehensible,
his infinity of love beyond the heart's grasp.

Herein is wonder of wonders:
he came below to raise me above,
was born like me that I might become like him.

Herein is love;
when I cannot rise to him he draws near on
wings of grace,
to raise me to himself.

Herein is power;
when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart
he united them in indissoluble unity,
the uncreated and the created.

Herein is wisdom;
when I was undone, with no will to return to him,
and no intellect to devise recovery,
he came, God-incarnate, to save me
to the uttermost,
as man to die my death,
to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
to work out a perfect righteousness for me.

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
and enlarge my mind;
let me hear good tidings of great joy,
and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;
place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,
to look with them upon my Redeemer's face,
and in him account myself delivered from sin;
let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child
to my heart,
embrace him with undying faith,
exulting that he is mine and I am his.

In him thou hast given me so much
that heaven can give no more.

Puritan Prayer, The Valley of Vision, p. 28-29

Teach Me, pt. 2

Contentment

...contentment is....focusing on the fact that all we do have, we have by the grace of God. We do not deserve anything we have, materially or spiritually. It is all by His grace.

Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace p. 199

Following Teach Me, pt. 1, contentment goes along with gratitude.

Gratitude is a handmaiden of contentment. An ever-growing attitude of gratitude will certainly make us more content since we will be focusing more on what we do have...than on what we do not have.

Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace p. 199

When a proper view of gratitude is obtained, contentment is based out of realizing that I don't deserve what I have. If I am discontent, I am thinking that I am not getting what I deserve. Therefore, desiring things that I do not have now as though I should have them now is a perversion of appropriating God's grace in that, God is gracious to give me more than I deserve. If I am grateful for grace, I am content in the sufficiency of it and not looking for satisfaction in other areas or possessions. So by looking to other things out of discontentment, I am not only saying that Christ is not all satisfying but also saying that I am not grateful for God being so gracious. Obviously, having things I do not have now (i.e., a spouse) is gracious of God, but taking the mindset as though I must have them now displays the same ungratefulness of a spoiled child and leaves me discontent.

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Timothy 6:6 (NIV)