Thoughts for the Day
Rainy Afternoon Chicken Soup
This is where it starts - pastured raised organic Chickens
Old laying hens, Chicken feet & necks, Water, Veggies and all day - makes a great stock
Freeze lots of stock and then thaw as needed in hot water
Add some diced vegetables
Save bones and scraps for next bone broth or stock making day
Add chicken and veggies to rich chicken stock
Here it is - 30 minutes later. A delicious, organic, rich in gelatin, healing Chicken Soup. With lots left for the rest of the week.
Mixed up Christmas Cactus
Blooming in November
Christian Understanding of Work
Awe and Intimacy
“The gospel means (as Luther said) that we are simul justus et peccator, that is, in Christ we are simultaneously righteous yet sinful. If we have a more antinomian view of salvation, believing that we are all accepted because God is vaguely loving, then we may be existentially aware of God’s love but not of his holiness. There will be no awe. That can lead to the exclusively warm, ‘folksy’ demeanor. If, on the other hand, we have a more legalistic view of salvation, believing that we are accepted because we live and believe everything ‘exactly right,’ then we may be existentially aware of God’s holiness but not of his bounteous mercy. There will be no wonder. That can lead to an overly stiff and dignified manner.
In neither case are the leaders really amazed at grace. Only when there is a profound awareness of the holiness of God and of the costliness of the sacrifice he provided will there be a joyful awe that is at once warm and forceful. Only a joyful yet awe-filled heart- an exuberant decorum- can keep pomp and sentimentality from mimicking the two true poles of biblical worship: awe and intimacy.”
Tim Keller, Worship By the Book, ed. D.A. Carson, pp. 213-214
Perfect Love, Perfect Justice - Meet at Calvary
But the God of Christianity is a God of both perfect love and perfect justice. The two meet, embrace, coalesce, at Calvary.
R. B. Kuiper, The Bible Tells Us So, p. 107
The Cross is the Tree of Life
He hangs in the place of death, yet thence He gives life. He delivers from death by dying. Life streams out, like rivers of water, from that center, the cross. The cross is the tree of life.
Horatius Bonar, Studies in the Gospel of John, p. 20
Foot of the cross, shrinks us to our true size
Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, “I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.” Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we have visited a place called Calvary.. It is there at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size.
J.R.W. Stott, Only One Way, p. 179
Power of the Cross of Christ
And from these two great enemies, the power of the world and the power of self, nothing can deliver us but the Cross of Christ.
Andrew Murray, Aids to Devotion p. 28
Prayer of Covenant with God
I usually don’t make comment on the quotes I post, but in reading this quote I was struck with the thought that ‘this is a prayer’! I’m glad God’s grace covers my inadequacy in prayer and pray that I may learn from saints who have gone before.
“O Blessed Jesus, I come to thee hungry and thirsty, poor and wretched, miserable, blind and naked, a most loathsome polluted wretch, a guilty condemned malefactor, unworthy to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord, much more to be solemnly married to the King of Glory. But such is thine unparalleled love, I do here with all my power accept thee, and do take thee for my Head and Husband, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, for all times, and conditions, to love, honour, and obey thee before all others, and this to the death. I embrace thee in all thine offices. I renounce my own worthiness, and do here avow thee to be the Lord my Righteousness. I renounce my own wisdom, and do here take thee for my only Guide. I renounce my own will, and take thy will for my law.
And since thou has told me that I must suffer if I will reign, I do here covenant with thee to take my lot, as it falls, with thee, and by thy grace assisting to run all hazards with thee, verily supposing that neither life nor death shall part between thee and me.
And because thou has been pleased to give me thy holy laws, as the rule of my life, and the way in which I should walk to thy kingdom, I do here willingly put my neck under the yoke, as the rule of my life, and the way in which I should walk to thy kingdom, I do here willingly put my neck under the yoke, and set my shoulder to thy burden; and subscribing to all thy laws as holy, just and good, I solemnly take them as the rule of my words, thoughts, and actions; promising that though my flesh contradict and rebel, yet I will endeavor to order and govern my whole life to thy direction and will not allow myself to neglect anything that I know to my duty.
Only because through the frailty of my flesh, I am subject to many failings, I am bold humbly to request, that subject to many failings, I am bold humbly to request, that unintentional shortcomings, contrary to the settled bent and resolution of my heart, shall not make void this covenant, for so thou hast said.
Now, Almighty God, Searcher of hearts, thou knowest that I make this covenant with tee this day, without my known guile or reservation beseeching thee, that if thou espiest any flaw or falsehood therein, thou wouldst reveal it to me, and help me to do it aright.
And now, O God the Father, whom I shall be bold from this day forward to look upon as my God and Father, glory be to thee for finding out such a way for the recovery of undone sinners. Glory be to thee, O God the Son, who hast loved me and washed me from my sins in thine own blood, and are now become my Savior and Redeemer. Glory be to thee, O God the Holy Ghost, who by the finger of thine almighty power has turned my heart from sin to God.
O high and holy Jehovah, the Lord God Omnipotent, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, thou art now become my covenant Friend, and I through thine infinite grace am become thy covenant servant. Amen, so be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.”
Joseph Alleine, Alarm to the Unconverted, p. 119, 120
Calvin on Loving the Whole Human Race
“We ought to embrace the whole human race without exception in a single feeling of love; here there is no distinction between barbarian and Greek, worthy and unworthy, friend and enemy, since all should be contemplated in God, not in themselves. When we turn aside from such contemplation, it is no wonder we become entangled in many errors. Therefore, if we rightly direct our love, we must first turn our eyes not to man, the sight of whom would more often engender hate than love, but to God, who bids us extend to all men the love we bear to him, that this may be an unchanging principle: Whatever the character of the man, we must yet love him because we love God.”
