HT: James White’s Youtube Channel

D.A. Carson has an excellent article on the excuses we make for being prayerless. I think lack of any serious prayer is the reason many otherwsie Bible-preaching churches are still dead. It isn’t enough to have your doctrines line up with the Word and to have biblically sound positions on things. Most churches can operate as organizations without the slightest attention to prayer. But that explains the spiritual state of many of them, as well.

Tomorrow is the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The horror of what abortion is was driven home to Tom and me as we recently watched the ultrasound images of our newest Schlueter. (“Micro-Schlueter” as Tom says.) Seeing the tiny little heart beating strongly away and hearing that heartbeat again last week, the distinctness and uniqueness of an individual human being was blatantly apparent. It wasn’t my heartbeat that was blinking on the screen. It wasn’t my heartbeat we were hearing with the Doppler. It was another human being who, even by the 10th week, has unique fingerprints, who can yawn and who is wholly, utterly one of a kind. I have no rights over this child. I do have, however, an awesome responsibility before God to nurture, love and protect it from all harm.

I spent yesterday morning in heated email dispute with some Christians for my uncompromising stance against the agenda of Barack Obama. I am not charmed by his looks and charisma. I am not moved by his soaring rhetoric and contrived eloquence. I did not watch his swearing in. I could not. All I could see and hear were the broken bodies and stifled screams of millions upon millions of human beings whose cries ascend night and day before God’s throne. I am the friend of no man who will perpetuate the slaughter. I am the enemy of anyone who is the enemy of life.

The evangelicals yesterday shocked me with their willingness to make peace with the bloodshed, to relegate it to “just another issue” while claiming we need to give our dashing new President a chance. The shedding of innocent blood is never “just another issue” with God. Those who build their political kingdoms on the whited bones of the innocent are, in fact, the enemies of God. “All them that hate me love death,” says Proverbs 8:36.

Someone today in the news referred to Barack Obama as the revisiting of the Biblical Joshua. No, readers. Barack Obama is the revisiting of the Biblical Pharaoh who represents power religion. Power religion seeks to replace the one True God with the fierce humanist fist of the state. Our new pharaoh will bring oppression of God’s people, death to the innocent, and further idolatry among Americans who long ago turned their back on the true God of the Bible.

What is comforting in all of this is to hear the song of Moses and of Miriam in the book of Exodus as they saw God’s hand of deliverance. Pharaoh did not succeed in his desire to destroy God’s people. He himself saw his forces destroyed at the bottom of the Red Sea. It is helpful to revisit those joyful words, sung on the other side of the Red Sea.

Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying:

“I will sing to the Lord,

For He has triumphed gloriously!

The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!

The Lord is my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation;

He is my God, and I will praise Him;

My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

The Lord is a man of war;

The Lord is His name.

Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;

His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.

The depths have covered them;

They sank to the bottom like a stone.”

(From Exodus 15)

For a stunning musical treatment of this song, hear Handel’s Israel in Egypt. (“Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea! The Lord shall reign forever and ever!) When the choir sings, “The horse and his rider, hath He thrown into the sea!”, it is not just a description of what God did to the Egyptian forces of Pharaoh, but also a picture of what Jesus Christ did when he broke the chains of our Pharaoh, Satan, at the cross. Praise God for His deliverance! Keep standing for life. Decry what is evil and don’t let the winds of compromise ever move you.

In honor of the Lord’s Day, I want to share a post from my Hope Blog. It seems counterintuitive to begin to sing when all is dark around us, when strength fails us, when the world around us is at war with the God we love, but that is exactly what we need to do. In the midst of fearful times and bewildering circumstances, we can sing with fierce joy about the greatness of our God. I was reminded of this the other day, and I share my thoughts in hopes they will encourage Slice readers who, like me, are saddened at the spiritual carnage around us.

“Nowadays the truth that God has revealed seems of less account with men than their own thoughts and dreams,” writes Charles Spurgeon concerning an age old song and dance in this devotion encouraging Christians to stand firm for God’s revealed truth in the Bible.

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. (Psalm 90:1-2)

Yet I do not advise that we end the year on a somber note. The march, not the dirge, has ever been the music of Christianity. If we are good students in the school of life, there is much that the years have to teach us. But the Christian is more than a student, more than a philosopher. He is a believer, and the object of his faith makes the difference, the mighty difference.

Of all persons the Christian should be best prepared for whatever the New Year brings. He has dealt with life at its source. In Christ he has disposed of a thousand enemies that other men must face alone and unprepared. He can face his tomorrow cheerful and unafraid because yesterday he turned his feet into the ways of peace and today he lives in God. The man who has made God his dwelling place will always have a safe habitation. TWS, 148

“Thank You, Father, for all You’ve taught me this past year. Thank You for the stretching experiences. Thank You for the privilege of serving You. Thank You for Your love and grace. Amen.”

(A.W. Tozer, Tozer on Christian Leadership, December 31)

“He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5)

Several times in the Scriptures the Lord hath said this. He has often repeated it to make our assurance doubly sure. Let us never harbor a doubt about it. In itself the promise is specially emphatic. In the Greek it has five negatives, each one definitely shutting out the possibility of the Lord’s ever leaving one of His people so that he can justly feel forsaken of his God. This priceless Scripture does not promise us exemption from trouble, but it does secure us against desertion. We may be called to traverse strange ways, but we shall always have our Lord’s company, assistance, and provision. We need not covet money, for we shall always have our God, and God is better than gold; His favor is better than fortune.

We ought surely to be content with such things as we have, for he who has God has more than all the world besides. What can we have beyond the Infinite? What more can we desire than almighty Goodness.

Come, my heart; if God says He will never leave thee nor forsake thee, be thou much in prayer for grace that thou mayest never leave thy Lord, nor even for a moment forsake His ways.

C.H. Spurgeon

There are so many today who sneer at a straightforward presentation of the Gospel. We are to hold the hands of the unsaved, they say. We are to find common ground with them, We are to share the Bible as narrative, not as God’s authoritative Word. We need to use the pop culture, i.e. rock songs, movies and TV shows, to make a connection with the lost. That is how the thinking goes in our sad times.

Last night at 9:15pm, my husband and I had just said good-bye to a houseful of guests, and I was in recovery mode from all the wonderful excitement that had filled our home. I sat down, exhausted, and the phone next to me rang. There was a woman on the other end of the line with an Asian accent.

“I’m looking for Ingrid,” she said.

“Yes,” I replied, thinking that telemarketers had stooped to a new low by calling on Christmas Day.

“I’m sure you remember me, this is Joo Ming in Singapore!”

Twenty years. The last time I had seen her and talked with her was 20 years ago,  Christmas, 1988. Our relationship began eight years before that when I was 14. I had learned about an organization that connected girls in America with pen pals in other parts of the world. Eager to start to make some interesting friends, I soon had pen pals in England, Greece and Malaysia, where the group had connected with me a girl of the same age named Joo Ming. She was Chinese, but her family had moved to Malaysia. What I didn’t realize at the time was how God would use that relationship to further His Kingdom.

In 1988, after 8 years of writing back and forth, Joo Ming wrote to tell me she was coming to America. She was on her way to Canada to a University, and wanted to know if she could spend three days with me. She arrived and it was exciting to at last meet the spunky, funny and charming girl I had written to for so long. Because I had two small children to care for at the time, my parents invited Joo Ming over to their home nearby for meals to help lift the load. They enjoyed getting to know her as well. I didn’t know that the contact my friend had with my parents would change her life.

Last night on the phone we chatted about our personal lives and then she asked, “How are your parents? Are they still involved in that work they were doing in Christian radio?”

I told her they were and then, not knowing her beliefs, I said, “The world is in desperate need of the Gospel.”

“I know,” she answered. “It’s because of your parents that I accepted Christ as my Savior!”

I nearly fell out of my chair. I knew that she was from a Buddhist background from when I had written to her all those years ago.

“Your father, ” she continued, “talked to me one day when I was at your parents’ home. He drew the word sin on a piece of paper, and he showed how the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross, covers our sin. All my life I had wrestled with how it was that sin could just be no more. I had had contact with Christians in Malaysia and they would talk about sin and God’s forgiveness. How could sin be taken away from us, just like that? As a Buddhist I could not explain that. Your dad drew a cross and told me about how Jesus Christ paid the price for those sins and covered them with His blood. It was like a light switch went on in my head that day.”

I listened, amazed, as she continued.

“Then your mother took me out to lunch, I even remember what we ate that day, and she answered more questions, like how it was that good people, including my family, could still be lost and going to hell. More answers finally became clear to me. That short, three-day visit to Milwaukee, is the reason I know Christ! Ingrid, God chose me to be your pen pal, I can see that looking back. After I left Milwaukee and went to Canada, God continued to place Christians in my life who taught me more and more.”

Joo Ming now lives in Singapore, and she is letting her light shine there on the other side of the world. I tell you this not to boast in anything my family accomplished, but in the power of simply sharing, as Mom and Dad did, the message of the Gospel—that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that each and every one of us deserves hell. But God, in His compassion, sent His only Son to pay the penalty for our sins and that we, through faith, can be right with Him.

I felt something else last night as my friend spoke on the phone. I felt a longing and sadness that I myself hadn’t been a stronger witness. Overwhelmed at the time as a young mother and hostess, I was consumed with the details of what our guest would eat and where she would sleep and how we could entertain her while she was our visitor. My parents cut right to the heart of things and were able to see to my friend’s deepest need.

Friends, don’t ever doubt the potential of those moments spent with someone who is without Christ. God uses our humble efforts to bring new souls into His Kingdom. All praise and glory goes to His name. I wanted to share this Christmas gift our family received last night. Praise the Lord.

“He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19)

God never turns from His love, but He soon turns from His wrath. His love to His chosen is according to His nature; His anger is only according to His office. He loves because He is love; He frowns because it is necessary for our good. He will come back to the place in which His heart rests, namely, His love to His own, and then He will take pity upon our griefs and end them.

What a choice promise is this–”He will subdue our iniquities”! He will conquer them. They cry to enslave us, but the Lord will give us victory over them by His own right hand. Like the Canaanites, they shall be beaten, put under the yoke, and ultimately slain.

As for the guilt of our sins, how gloriously is that removed! “All their sins”–yes, the whole host of them; “thou wilt cast”–only an almighty arm could perform such a wonder; “into the depths of the sea”–where Pharaoh and his chariots went down. Not into the shallows out of which they might be washed up by the tide, but into the “depths” shall our sins be hurled. They are all gone. They sank into the bottom like a stone. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Charles Spurgeon

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word… It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. (Psalm 119:67, 71)

It is amazing to me! There are people within the ranks of Christianity who have been taught and who believe that Christ will shield His followers from wounds of every kind.

If the truth were known, the saints of God in every age were only effective after they had been wounded. They experienced the humbling wounds that brought contrition, compassion and a yearning for the knowledge of God. I could only wish that more among the followers of Christ knew what some of the early saints meant when they spoke of being wounded by the Holy Spirit….

In every generation, the people who have found God have been those who have come to the end of themselves. Recognizing their hopelessness, they have been ready to throw themselves on the mercy and grace of a forgiving God. MMG059,062

“Lord, don’t let me waste the humbling wounds. Do Your great work within me, and help me to respond properly and learn all You want me to learn through Your working. Amen.”

A.W. Tozer, (Tozer on Christian Leadership, December 14)

“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” (Isaiah 43:2)

Bridge there is none: we must go through the waters and feel the rush of the rivers. The presence of God in the flood is better than a ferryboat. Tried we must be, but triumphant we shall be; for Jehovah Himself, who is mightier than many waters, shall be with us. Whenever else He may be away from His people, the Lord will surely be with them in difficulties and dangers. The sorrows of life may rise to an extraordinary height, but the Lord is equal to every occasion.

The enemies of God can put in our way dangers of their own making, namely, persecutions and cruel mockings, which are like a burning, fiery furnace. What then? We shall walk through the fires. God being with us, we shall not be burned; nay, not even the smell of fire shall remain upon us.

Oh, the wonderful security of the heaven-born and heaven-bound pilgrim! Floods cannot drown him, nor fires burn him. Thy presence, O Lord, is the protection of Thy saints from the varied perils of the road. Behold, in faith I commit myself unto Thee, and my spirit enters into rest.

C.H. Spurgeon

In this short post, built around a teaching from C.H. Spurgeon, is a thank you to those serving the Lord in this often thankless task.

I can’t get this image out of my mind today. The cross, just one symbol among the pagan symbols of Hinduism, Islam and all the rest, according to the new spirituality leaders. We must reject this lie and rejoice in the power of Christ’s work on that Cross alone that towers over men in history. Two hymns come to mind.

Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim,
Till all the world adore His sacred Name.

Led on their way by this triumphant sign,
The hosts of God in conquering ranks combine.

Each newborn servant of the Crucified
Bears on the brow the seal of Him Who died.

O Lord, once lifted on the glorious tree,
As Thou hast promised, draw the world to Thee.

So shall our song of triumph ever be:
Praise to the Crucified for victory!

— read all »

What a gracious thing for us that Jesus Christ never thinks about what we have been! He always thinks about what we are going to be. You and I are slaves to time and space and records and reputations and publicity and the past-all that we call the case history. Jesus Christ cares absolutely nothing about anyone’s moral case history. He forgives it and starts from there as though the person had been born one minute before.

A.W. Tozer

“The Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little.” (Deuteronomy 7:22)

We are not to expect to win victories for the Lord Jesus by a single blow. Evil principles and practices die hard. In some places it takes years of labor to drive out even one of the many vices which defile the inhabitants. We must carry on the war with all our might, even when favored with little manifest success.

Our business in this world is to conquer it for Jesus. We are not to make compromises but to exterminate evils. We are not to seek popularity but to wage unceasing war with iniquity. Infidelity, popery, drink, impurity, oppression, worldliness, error; these are all to be “put out.”

The Lord our God can alone accomplish this. He works by His faithful servants, and blessed be His name. He promises that He will so work. “Jehovah thy God will put out those nations before thee.” This He will do by degrees that we may learn perseverance, may increase in faith, may earnestly watch, and may avoid carnal security. Let us thank God for a little success and pray for more. Let us never sheathe the sword till the whole land is won for Jesus.

Courage, my heart! Go on little by little, for many littles will make a great whole.

Charles Spurgeon

Apprising Ministries shares a short prayer on this Lord’s Day.

“My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

Paul’s God is our God and will supply all our need. Paul felt sure of this in reference to the Philippians, and we feel sure of it as to ourselves. God will do it, for it is like Him: He loves us, He delights to bless us, and it will glorify Him to do so. His pity, His power, His love, His faithfulness, all work together that we be not famished.

What a measure doth the Lord go by: “According to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” The riches of His grace are large, but what shall we say of the riches of His glory? His “riches of glory by Christ Jesus” — who shall form an estimate of this? According to this immeasurable measure will God fill up the immense abyss of our necessities. He makes the Lord Jesus the receptacle and the channel of His fullness, and then He imparts to us His wealth of love in its highest form. Hallelujah!

Charles Spurgeon

Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

What will He do? He will sanctify us wholly. See the previous verse. He will carry on the work of purification till we are perfect in every part. He will preserve our “whole spirit, and soul, and body, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He will not allow us to fall from grace, nor come under the dominion of sin. What great favors are these! Well may we adore the giver of such unspeakable gifts.

Who will do this? The Lord who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, out of death in sin into eternal life in Christ Jesus. Only He can do this: such perfection and preservation can only come from the God of all grace.

Why will He do it? Because He is “faithful”–faithful to His own promise which is pledged to save the believer; faithful to His Son, whose reward it is that His people shall he presented to Him faultless, faithful to the work which He has commenced in us by our effectual calling. It is not their own faithfulness but the Lord’s own faithfulness on which the saints rely.

Come, my soul, here is a grand feast to begin a dull month with. There may be fogs without, but there should be sunshine within.

Charles Spurgeon

A friend of pastor Ken Silva shares his testimony of Jesus delivering him into the glorious freedom of the sons of God over at Apprising Ministries.