Author Archives: MzEllen

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An Amazon widget...or two.

One of them, if you click on a link to a product here, and buy it there, I get a credit for it.

For instance, if I review a book like "A Biblical Case For an Old Earth" (it's a good book, I'll get around to it...) and you buy it through the link...that's a good thing...for me.  You can see the little icon next to the book title - it shows you the book cover and a little blurb.

The other is WAY at the bottom of the sidebar and is my "wish list"...if you buy ME something...I may not get credit...but I get the "something"  (for my family's info)

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I finally got around to ordering a new battery for my computer.  At least I'll be able to sit on my porch and have a beverage while I categorize old blog posts  😉  I stopped by the battery store and they wanted $119...uh...no.  They want $40 on Amazon (including shipping).

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To me, this is pretty closely related to "the U" - election.  If we (humans) get to pick, then the grace is resistible.  If God picks, the He is sovereign and His will be done, always.

On April 6, 1856, Charles Spurgeon gave a sermon on the "Effectual Calling" (Irresistible Grace)

Can I not remember when God told me to come down? One of the first steps I had totake was to go right down from my good works. And oh, what a fall was that! Then I stood upon my own self-sufficiency and Christ said, “Come down! I have pulled you down from your good works and now I will pull you down from yourself-sufficiency.”

Well, I had another fall and I felt sure I had gained the bottom, but Christ said “Come down!” And He made me come down till I fell on some point at which I felt I was not savable. “Down, Sir! come down, yet.” And down I cameuntil I had to let go of every branch of the tree of my hopes in despair.

Then I said, “I can do nothing. I am ruined.” The waters were wrapped round my head and I was shut out from the light of day and thought myself a stranger from the commonwealth of Israel.“Come down lower yet, Sir! You have too much pride to be saved.”

Then I was brought down to see my corruption,my wickedness, my filthiness.

“Come down,” says God, when He means to save. Now, proud Sinners, it is of no use foryou to be proud, to stick yourselves up in the trees—Christ will have you down. Oh, you that dwell with the eagle on the craggy rock, you shall come down from your elevation—you shall fall by grace, or you shall fall with a vengeance one day. He “has cast down the mighty from their seat and has exalted the humble and meek.”

When God "means to save" -

What I know is this...there is nothing - NOTHING - special about me.  I didn't turn to Christ because I'm smarter, or holier, or more spiritual...

It is only by the work of the Spirit that I can claim to trust.

And trust is a challenge sometimes, but I can no more turn away, than I could stop being...the core of who I am.

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Thoughts on "Forgotten God" (Francis Chan), Chapter 2 - "What Are You Afraid Of?"

There are a lot of thoughts that are rather meaningful right now.

What AM I afraid of?

  • rejection
  • loneliness
  • deeper things that I don't need to go into here.

What I know is that a life of following Christ requires me to relinquish my fears.  Pursue truth and...be prepared to be wrong.

Chan asks, What if God doesn't "come through?"  Do we ask for less, believe less, trust less - because we're "covering" for God, just in case He doesn't come through if we ask for something bigger?

Do I ask for a stone, because I don't trust Him to provide bread?

Do I ask, trusting, for what Christ promised that the Father would deliver - the gift of the Holy Spirit?  What would that gift look like, and am I willing to have it look like THAT? (whatever "that" might look like?)

And am I willing to take a closer look at the difference between what God has promised vs. what I want to be true?

DO I WANT THIS?

Giving up control?  Trusting the Holy Spirit to mold me, stripping away selfishness, fear, distrust?

Do I want this?

How am I willing to respond (change) if my beliefs about the Holy Spirit change?  Do I desire truth over acceptance?

How do I (not so much "if I") allow the perceptions of others to affect my relationship with Christ?  How do I allow them to affect how I view the Holy Spirit?

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From a "Christ the Center" podcast - a rough quote:

Our expectations of a pastor stems from our ecclesiology - our thoughts about what a church is.

If our understanding about church is that our priority is social justice, our pastor will be our chief social worker.

If we believe our goal is to affect political change, our pastor will be our community organizer.

If "church" is about our friends and family - a neighborhood clique, there will be little outreach.

If we know that our church exists to proclaim the person of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross - and to equip the saints to do that - we will expect that the Gospel be preached from the pulpit each and every week.

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no, it's not a bleak as it sounds.

It's just that (at this moment) I am very aware that I cannot see the road that lays ahead of me.  See the new photo at the top of this blog...I took it last August in the Upper Peninsula.  Very foggy, very obscure...I could not see the road ahead.

There are a couple of wildly divergent paths that life could take...and I have zero clue which fork my life might take.

A couple of months ago, I could imagine the future.  Now...I just can't.

I think that's a good thing...it leaves my future (and my trust) squarely in the hands of God.

Look again at the photo.  Not very long after I took that, the sun came out.  It was sunny...I found this

At the end of the day, the fog clears.  Life will be good.  God is good...and in control