Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
-Psalm 34:8

I once heard a wonderful analogy that was an extension of this verse. It was a comparison of the knowledge of God's goodness to the tasting of a cake. If you have tasted a cake, and found that it is wonderfully sweet on your tongue, you may try to explain the experience to others. You may try to explain the taste using the most descriptive words that you can find; you may tell of all of the ingredients that are used to make the cake and that give it its taste; you may even write down the recipe so that someone might be able to understand how the cake is made. However, until another person actually tastes the cake for their self... it is impossible that they will fully understand how good the cake actually is.

God continually allows me to taste more and more of Himself as He grows my faith. He is most certainly good, I can assure of you that. But I can also assure you that He faithfully remains good... even when the particular piece of cake that you are about to eat may not look very appetizing...

The Essence of Humility

Casting your anxieties on God means trusting the promise that he cares for you and has the power and the wisdom to put that care to work in the most glorious way.

That trust is the opposite of pride. It's the essence of humility. It's the confidence that the mighty hand of God is not over you to crush you but to care for you just like the promise says. Don't be proud, but cast your anxieties on him because he will care for you.

Whenever your heart starts to be anxious about the future, preach to your heart and say, "Heart, who do you think you are to be afraid of the future and nullify the promise of God? No, heart, I will not exalt myself with anxiety. I will humble myself in peace and joy as I trust this precious and great promise of God—he cares for me."

-John Piper, "Are You Humble Enough to Be Care-Free?"

Take my life, Lord

I'm in a coffee shop right now, listening to the hymn "Take My Life and Let It Be", by Frances R. Havergal (1874), on repeat. The lyrics of this hymn are so incredibly powerful for me, because they are at the same time the prayer of the deepest desire of my heart, as well as the desire that I pray that God would give to me: at once, the desire of my heart and the desire for my heart...


Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

Hurry up and wait, already!

Bippity...

Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD!
-Psalm 27:14


boppity...

My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.
-Psalm 62:5


boo.

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
-Lamentations 3:25


Bam! 'Nuff said.
Chris... best listen up now!

Overwhelmingly fantastic!!

Wow. When I moved here at the beginning of last year, the pastor of my church was in the middle of an exegesis of the book of Romans.

Well, I just read this sermon that he gave from the year before... and I'm now determined to hit the archives this summer and catch up on all of the pure gold that I missed!

Here are a couple of excerpts if you don't want to read the whole sermon (but I strongly suggest that you do!! It's not that long!):

The reason why people accuse the true gospel of being antinomian (licentious, lawless), is because they are ignorant of the power of the true gospel alone to transform lives. They think they need to add in some law to keep grace from leading people to run wild. But the truth is that preaching grace produces holiness and preaching law does not.
-Mike Shea

Wicked men will drown themselves in the rivers of truth as readily as in the pools of error…Many people think that they ought to guard the gospel, but it is never so safe as when it stands out in its own naked majesty. It needs no covering from us.
-Charles H. Spurgeon

Traversing the Storm

If you ever have experienced, or currently are experiencing, a spiritual storm, then you know how incredibly difficult, lonely, and disorienting it can be. It's as if everything you once knew to be true has somehow slipped into darkness, and away from your sight. What can we possibly do in the midst of times like these?

I would encourage you all to read this great post by one of the members of Desiring God Ministries. I wish I would have read this a few years ago!

Here's a snippet from the end:

If you or a loved one is flying in a storm and despairing, remember your own perceptions, as real as they feel, are not reliable. As one who has tested them in a number of storms I can say with confidence: fly by the instruments God has provided you. They will not prove faulty.

May God bless you all by incredible means... even in the midst of a storm.

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD.
-Psalm 40:1-3

2:30 am

I slipped underneath my cold covers at about 12:30 tonight; not really that tired, but determined to get some sleep.

Two hours later, it's quite possible that I'm now even less tired... and that faithful determination is beginning to wear thin. The alarm is set for 7:15, and that's going to come awfully early.

I'm not entirely sure why, but my mind is racing a million miles a minute. It's in one of those misfortunately [sic] active stupors wherein it finds itself too tired to finish a thought before it recklessly storms on to the next one... and the next one... and the next one...

So here I blog now.
Weary as a dog now.

Whoops... there goes my mind again... off to a new thought.

I should probably go catch it before it gets itself into trouble.

Goodnight from Drowsy Town, Illinois. And may peace be with you.