One Week and Lady Jane Grey

It’s just one week until I finally move out, until I finally carry on my education in this wonderful country of Wales.

I’ve paused my reading of Alcorn and Stott to focus on Faith Cook’s “The Nine Day Queen of England“. Even though it’s physically unreadable (whoever decided the font type need a clip around the ear), Cook has shown me how God worked during those times of Reformation among the rich, most importantly, in the lives of Edward VI and Lady Jane Grey.

I’m not finished yet, but halfway through it seems as if Jane’s life was one God used so much even though it was tainted by so many around her, including her parents. Jane, despite being 16 when she died, had such a strong faith in Jesus Christ it puts me to shame.

She had a grizzly end, but was ready for eternity.

Christian, How Do You Spend Your Money?

This is an extract from Randy Alcorn’s book “Money, Possessions and Eternity” which is a definite read for every Christian:

John Wesley posed four questions that will help us decide how to spend money. Notice how the last three flow directly out of the first one:

• In spending this money, am I acting as if I owned it, or am I acting as the Lord’s trustee?
• What Scripture requires me to spend this money in this way?
• Can I offer up this purchase as a sacrifice to the Lord?
• Will God reward me for this expenditure at the resurrection of the just?

If we really believe he is the owner of all that has been entrusted to us, shouldn’t we regularly be asking him, “What do you want me to do with your money and your possessions?” And shouldn’t we be open to the possibility that he may want us to share large portions of his assets with those whose needs are greater than ours?

Let Love Be Genuine

Let Love Be Genuine :: Desiring God Christian Resource Library

Boy, do I need this!

Faith is a Refusal to Panic

Today I read chapter ten of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ amazing book, Spiritual Depression. This chapter has affected me more than any of the other chapters because of how close it describes me.

Two weeks ago I received a threatening letter from a collection agency demanding that I pay what I supposedly owed them. The following weeks would be the scariest of my life. I was in constant terror of phone calls, of the door knocking of letters addressed to myself. I’d never experienced such panic, such terror like this before – it was a totally new experience. I physically shook and found it hard to sleep at nights, I scared my family half to death.

I was a wreck. But this morning I had a letter through the post from the company who passed on my details to the agency apologizing for all the trouble. Through a minor error, an address was switched to mine on their computer system.

But before I had received the letter, I had read this morning chapter 10, “Where is Your Faith?” and suddenly it made sense. I have always known that God allows trials into a Christian’s life, but I didn’t expect it to be something like this! I’ve asked myself, what did I expect? Some giant catastrophe? I don’t know, but a computer error was not that.

The passage the chapter is based on is Luke 8:22-25:

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

It’s amazing how you can read a story again and again and yet it only means something to you when you experience it – I’ll never take this story for granted again! But the most poignant phrase that truly spoke to me was this:

Faith is a refusal to panic

Lloyd-Jones embellishes this phrase to the point where I see that I lost my head. I actually allowed this small situation to control me. Just as the disciples lost their heads in the storm, so did I two weeks ago. I know that I’ve learned something today, and that is to trust in God, even if he seems to be careless of my situation, as Jesus seemed to be, asleep downstairs.

Today your mercy calls us
To wash away our sin.
However great our trespass,
Whatever we have been,
However long from mercy
Our hearts have turned away,
Your precious blood can wash us
And make us clean today.

Today your gate is open,
And all who enter in
Shall find a Father’s welcome
And pardon for their sin.
The past shall be forgotten,
A present joy be given,
A future grace be promised,
A glorious crown in heaven.

Today our Father calls us;
His Holy Spirit waits;
His blessed angels gather
Around the heavenly gates.
No question will be asked us,
How often we have come;
Although we oft have wandered,
It is our Father’s home.

O all embracing Mercy,
O ever open Door,
What should we do without you
When heart and eye run over?
When all things seem against us,
To drive us to despair,
We know one gate is open,
One ear will hear our prayer.

Oswald Allen (1816-1878)

The Glory of Christ

1994 Edition by R.J.K. Law - great name, sounds like an American drama.

I found myself drifting in and out of John Owen’s amazing work on the glory of Christ. Five minute break here, five minute break there, not really understanding the context of what Owen was saying in today’s particular section. But going against my goads, I decided that I would read the last two chapters properly – I didn’t want the book to become a complete waste of time.

Unfortunately for me, those last chapters challenged me so much that I felt guilt spread all over me regarding my flippant reading of the past x pages. I’ve read many books on how to kill the dregs of sin left in the Christian life, but this book by far has helped me, moreso even than Owen’s other work, The Mortification of Sin. Why? I think, for me at least, I needed to understand the glory of Christ before I made any steps further.

What is the use ultimately of killing sin when you don’t even know the reasons for why you’re doing it? Why do we as Christians have this deep, unnatural urge to fight our flesh’s desire? Why are we so different from what we were when we didn’t believe? From reading Owen it makes perfect sense to me now at this point in my life that it all boils down to the effect of the glory of Christ.

I don’t think I can do a perfect, even a good, summary of the book without reading it thoroughly and carefully inside and out – but the gist of the matter sticks out like a sore thumb:

So it is only as we behold the glory of Christ by faith here in this world that our hearts will be drawn more and more to Christ and to the full enjoyment of the sight of his glory hereafter…[and] that we are spiritually edified and built up in this world, for as we behold his glory, the life and power of faith grow stronger and stronger. (pg. 7)

It seems to me that if I want to develop as a Christian, it’s essential that I see the glory of Christ in many ways from Christ as God’s Representative (Chapter 2) to Christ restoring all things, including ourselves (Ch. 11). The final two chapters were dedicated to Spiritual Decay, how to recognise it and recover from it – what a worthwhile read! But as with any (good) Christian book, reading it is the easy part, putting it into practice is more difficult.

Again, a recommended read, but one you can’t just jump in and out of during work breaks!