Afterwords -- week 35
"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." (Proverbs 4:23)
“The heart of man is his worst part before it be regenerate, and the best afterwards: it is the seat of principles, and fountain of actions. The eye of God is, and the eye of a Christian ought to be, principally fixed upon it. The greatest difficulty in conversion, is, to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is, to keep the heart with God.” (John Flavel, Keeping The Heart)
August 20, 2022
Dear friends,
A short distance from where we live, thousands of Virginia Tech students are moving into their dorms and apartments for fall semester. Please pray for them as they begin a new school year. Pray also for the Gideons International volunteers who will be passing out New Testaments on Monday, the first day of classes. Last year they handed out 6500+ copies of God's word. Pray for spiritual hunger on this campus, and on another nearby, Radford University. Until the Lord returns, the fields are still ripe for harvest. We must work while it is day!
SPEAKING OF STUDENTS, this article, about how God used an "uncool" youth pastor in 1971, reminded me of the many conversions that took place among the youth of that period, including myself. We saw a wonderful work of God among students on campus and in high schools around the country. May the work of the Spirit continue and increase in our day!
IN THE NIGHT. "I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me" (Psalm 16:7). Sometimes we wake up at night and can't go back to sleep. There are various reasons for this... perhaps anxiety, stress, overwork (Eccl 2:23), poor diet choices, or the devil's accusations coming upon us. But the psalmist, King David, speaks also of the counsel of the Lord in the reflections of his own heart at night. I too find those waking hours to be helpful in remembering people I need to pray for (or ask forgiveness from), areas of imbalance in my life, truths I've neglected, or passages of Scripture I need to meditate on. Sometimes my thinking is confused, but often there are insights that I have missed during the busy-ness of the previous day. Usually, first thing in the morning I will write down these heart-lessons-in-the-night in my journal. That way I can remember them.
MORE GOAT BOOKS, as in the Greatest Of All Time books. In this list I include Augustine's Confessions, written around AD 400. This chronicles his life story, conversion, and ongoing testimony, as only a born-again philosopher could explain it! It's marvelous to read him write out the thoughts of his heart as he lived before God. Here's how he begins...
“Can any praise be worthy of the Lord’s majesty? How magnificent his strength! How inscrutable his wisdom! Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about him the mark of death, the sign of his own sin, to remind him that you thwart the proud. But still, since he is a part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.” (Augustine, Confessions I:1, AD 397)
RECENT ARTICLES.
-- "A wrong perspective results in wrong priorities." (David Murray) The author notes, "Stress sickens the soul. Yes, stress causes bodily disease (some estimate that 90 percent of doctor visits are stress-related), but it also causes soul disease. Stress and spirituality are mortal enemies." Read Jesus' solution to stress.
-- “Fifty years ago, politicians stood in the schoolhouse door and wouldn’t let minorities in. Today, union-backed politicians stand in the schoolhouse door and won’t let minorities out.” This is an encouraging article about how Arizona is giving greater freedom of school choice back to parents.
-- Here's a book review, of Bring Back Our Girls: The Untold Story of the Global Search for Nigeria's Missing Schoolgirls.
-- "When you carefully read the four Gospels, you will inevitably compare accounts and wonder, 'Now how does what John writes here fit with what Matthew writes there?' In other words, you will encounter what might appear to be discrepancies or contradictions between the Gospels. How should you approach apparent contradictions?" Read Andy Naselli on differences between the gospel accounts.
BIBLICAL STUDIES. If you live in the New River valley, please consider joining us for a class studying systematic theology with the Biblical Studies Institute of Blacksburg, on Thursday evenings, beginning September 15.
SPEAKING OF FOUNTAINS, I realize, as I get older, this is an important decision I will face...
FINALLY, Enjoy this song from Sing! 2021, "It Was Finished Upon That Cross"... Though the sun had ceased its shining / Though the war appeared as lost / Christ had triumphed over evil / It was finished upon that cross.
That's it for week 35!
Sandy
Credits. The photo above is of the fountain at the Holtzman Center at Virginia Tech. Cartoon by Matthew Diffee of the New Yorker. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.