"...and the books were opened." Daniel 7:10

One of the things we had to go back to Nebraska to retrieve was the vast majority of my library. At the time that we moved we ran out of space in our trucks and had to leave a number of things at a relative’s house. The place we rented temporarily was also very small and couldn’t hold all of our things, so my library had to be sacrificed. I tried to convince my wife to just let my pile all my books around our room or in our bed or wherever, but she didn’t like the idea of sleeping with Luther and Calvin, so I took a few boxes of my favorites and left the rest behind. It was like leaving some of my best friends and not knowing when I would see them again.

They may all be stuffed in boxes, but at least their here with me now. If I think of something I really need to look at, I can always go digging for it.

I love how Winston Churchill put it:

“If you can not read all your books, at any rate handle, or as it were, fondle them — peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them be your acquaintances.”

-Winston Churchill

The most natural agents

Some more on parenting and motherhood from C.H. Spurgeon

"Fathers and mothers are the most natural agents for God to use in the salvation of their children. I am sure that, in my early youth, no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruc­tion of my mother; neither can I conceive that, to any child, there can be one who will have such influence over the young heart as the mother who has so tenderly cared for her offspring. A man with a soul so dead as not to be moved by the sacred name of "mother" is creation's blot. Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes to a godly mother. Certainly I have not the powers of speech with which to set forth my valuation of the choice blessing which the Lord bestowed on me in making me the son of one who prayed for me, and prayed with me. How can I ever forget her tearful eye when she warned me to escape from the wrath to come? I thought her lips right eloquent; others might not think so, but they certainly were eloquent to me. How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee, and with her arms about my neck, prayed, "Oh, that my son might live before Thee!" Nor can her frown be effaced from my memory—that solemn, loving frown, when she rebuked my budding iniquities; and her smiles have never faded from my recollections— the beaming of her countenance when she rejoiced to see some good thing in me towards the Lord God of Israel."

A quote from

Charles Haddon Spurgeon Autobiography: The Early Years 1834-1860 Volume 1
By Charles Spurgeon / Banner Of Truth

Some inexpensive family entertainment

Now here’s some inexpensive family entertainment; we bought a loaf of bread (1.00), got on our bikes, rode to a nearby lake and fed the ducks. It was Alyssa's first time, I think, and we had a blast!

Where is the man for the day?

Here’s a good word from the past to our fickle generation of men with no principles, convictions or backbone. What kind of Church and country are we leaving to our children?

“We admire a man who was firm in the faith, say four hundred years ago ... but such a man today is a nuisance, and must be put down. Call him a narrow-minded bigot, or give him a worse name if you can think of one. Yet imagine that in those ages past, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and their compeers had said, 'The world is out of order; but if we try to set it right we shall only make a great row, and get ourselves into disgrace. Let us go to our chambers, put on our night-caps, and sleep over the bad times, and perhaps when we wake up things will have grown better.' Such conduct on their part would have entailed upon us a heritage of error. Age after age would have gone down into the infernal deeps, and the pestiferous bogs of error would have swallowed all. These men loved the faith and the name of Jesus too well to see them trampled on …...

It is today as it was in the Reformers' days. Decision is needed. Here is the day for the man, where is the man for the day?..... Look you, sirs, there are ages yet to come. If the Lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation, and another, and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to His truth today.”

Charles Spurgeon
C.H.S., SERMONS, 1888, 83-84

Taken from The Forgotten Spurgeon
By Iain H. Murray / Banner Of Truth

a plentiful rain

"Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain..." Psalm 68:9

New at Pol'-e-store

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Biographical


The Confessions of St. Augustine
By St. Augustine / Baker

This book is one of the most moving diaries ever recorded of a man's journey to the fountain of God's grace. Writing as a sinner, not a saint, Augustine shares his innermost thoughts and conversion experiences and wrestles with the spiritual questions that have stirred the hearts of the thoughtful since time began. Starting with his childhood in Numidia, through his youth and early adulthood in Carthage, Rome, and Milan, readers will see Augustine as a human being, a fellow traveler on the road to salvation. Though staggering around potholes and roadblocks, all Christians will find strength in Augustine's message: When the road get rough, look to God! Previously released in 1977, this book invites readers to join Augustine in his quest that led him to be one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the history of the church.

The son of these tears

For those of you who have not read The Confessions of St. Augustine, it’s a fascinating sort of autobiography in the form of a prayer to the Lord. Augustine (354 A.D. – 430 A.D) recounts to the Lord the sins of his youth, the wickedness of his heart, the struggles that led to his conversion, his conversion experience and many other great things that the Lord had done in his life; all the while praising the Lord for His goodness, might and wisdom. It is truly one of the great books of Church history!

But perhaps one of the most striking things in the life of Augustine was his mother Monica. Once, upon visiting the Bishop of a Church and begging him to go and speak to her son and rescue him from the errors he had involved himself in, the Bishop looked at her and said "Go your ways, and God bless you, for it is not possible that the son of these tears should perish."

In book (chapter) three of The Confessions Augustine, speaking of his mother, says this to the Lord:

“But You sent "thine hand from above" (Ps. 144:7) and drew my soul out of that profound darkness because my mother, Your faithful one, wept over me to You, more than mothers weep when their children die. She, by that faith and spirit which she had from You, discerned the death in which I Lay, and You heard her, Lord. You heard her and did not despise her tears when, streaming down, they watered the ground under her eyes in every place where she prayed.”

What a testimony to the power of God working through a mother!

A Good Mother

As the old saying goes; “The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the World.” Here are a few words from Charles Spurgeon concerning the role of his mother in the early religious impressions that eventually led to his conversion.

“I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother. It was the custom on Sunday evenings, while we were yet little children, for her to stay at home with us, and then we sat round the table, and read verse by verse, and she explained the Scripture to us. After that was done, then came the time of pleading; there was a little piece of Alleine's Alarm, or of Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, and this was read with pointed observations made to each of us as we sat round the table; and the question was asked, how long it would be before we would think about our state, how long before we would seek the Lord. Then came a mother's prayer, and some of the words of that prayer we shall never forget, even when our hair is gray. I remember, on one occasion, her praying thus: "Now, Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear a swift witness against them at the Day of Judgment if they lay not hold of Christ." That thought of a mother's bearing swift witness against me, pierced my conscience, and stirred my heart.”

From
Charles Haddon Spurgeon Autobiography: The Early Years 1834-1860 Volume 1 By Charles Spurgeon / Banner Of Truth

Got Gas?

This past weekend we rented a U-Haul truck (a mistake I don’t think that Ill make again) and went back to Nebraska to get a load of stuff that we had left there when we moved away a couple years ago.

Here are the boys in front of the truck at a gas station

Here we are getting gas at a gas station

Here we are getting more gas at another gas station.

And here is the picture that was on the side of our truck. We decided that this is the gas sucking monster that lives deep beneath the hood of the truck. (I took this picture at a gas station)

Is there a cure?

We were reading the story of how Naaman went to Elisha to get healed of his leprosy. Afterwards I was asking Alyssa, the three-year old, some questions.

“Who was sick?” I asked.

“Naaman”

“What did he have?”

“Leprechauns” she answered.

Children are more of God

Verse 3.—"Children are an heritage of the Lord." Hence note, 'tis one of the greatest outward blessings to have a family full of dutiful children. To have many children is the next blessing to much grace. To have many children about us is better than to have much wealth about us. To have store of these olive plants (as the Psalmist calls them) round about our table is better than to have store of oil and wine upon our table. We know the worth of dead, or rather lifeless treasures, but who knows the worth of living treasures? Every man who hath children hath not a blessing in them, yet children are a blessing, and some have many blessings in one child. Children are chiefly a blessing to the children of God. "Lo, children are an heritage of the lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward." But are not houses and lands, gold and silver, an heritage bestowed by the Lord upon his people? Doubtless they are, for the earth is his, and the fullness of it, and he gives it to the children of men. But though all things are of God, yet all things are not alike of Him; children are more of God than houses and lands.

—Joseph Caryl.

Explanitory Notes and Quaint Sayings

From Spurgeons The Treasury of David

Psalm 127:3

Jesus loves everybody and has a wonderful plan for their lives!

I was reading Pink’s Studies in the Scriptures November, 1943 when I ran across this complaint:

“Few words have been employed more inaccurately and loosely in recent years than has “love”. With a great many people it is but a synonym for moral laxity (and) weakness of character…”

Things certainly haven’t changed much; watch the “Holy Homosexuals” video for example or listen to Minister Carlton Pearson who recently decided that a loving God wouldn’t send anyone to hell. Clearly ‘love’ to these people is “moral laxity (and) weakness of character”

I think we could go further than that and say that the “god” of these people is worse than morally lax and weak in character; such a god is morally corrupt and a lover of unrighteousness. What would we think of a courtroom judge who wouldn’t sentence the worst of criminals because he was a “loving” judge? Who would have any respect for such a judge? Isn’t it interesting how those with no moral anchor in trusting the Word of God can turn things entirely on their heads; “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20

While such people have always been around, their numbers seem to be reaching epidemic proportions in our politically correct days. So is there a cure for this diseased view of God? Absolutely! Its called “The Law of God”.

“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:19, 20

The Law of God defines righteousness and unrighteousness for us. The Law of God delineates good and evil for us. The Law of God shows us that God is utterly pure and holy, and we by contrast are vile and corrupted. The Law of God convicts people of their sin and shuts their foolish mouths before the verdict of their Maker.

The Law of God imprisons us in our sin, so to speak(Galatians 3:22), showing us that we have no hope of escaping the bar of Gods justice in and of ourselves . The Law of God teaches us to look at ourselves in utter dismay and abandon all hope; but in so doing it also becomes a beloved teacher prodding us to turn away from ourselves and look to Jesus Christ for the salvation that we cannot accomplish (Galatians 3:24).

In a day and age when people have thrown out the Law of God in favor of a lawless “grace”, we should only expect that a perverted view of the love of God will prevail and that true and lasting conversions will be few and far between.

Some Sidewalk Chalk with the Kids

The Reformation @ Pol'-e-store

• The Reformation @ Pol'-e-store

Justification Audio Links

Justification
Audio Links

1. Justification #6: What Does 'To Justify' Mean in the Bible?
   Albert N. Martin -Video
2. Justification #7: An Act of God's Free Grace
   Albert N. Martin -Video

Woship, Singing

Some Good Quotes

Woship, Singing

"By Making Singing a Teaching Ministry. We see both the high demands placed upon us and the benefits of singing in Paul's words in Col. 3:16, "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." The first thing the apostle commands is that the Word of Christ must richly dwell within us, ruling over our minds and hearts. Apart from this duty, singing cannot be what it ought to be. Singing must rise from the Word of Christ, and the solid theological content of that Word must be reflected in the psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs that we sing. When this takes place, our singing actually becomes a "teaching and admonishing" ministry of the church. In Col. 1:28, the apostle speaks of his own "teaching and admonishing" ministry. Here he uses the same words to describe the "teaching and admonishing" ministry of the entire church through its singing. Just as there is teaching and admonishing in the preaching, so there is teaching and admonishing in the singing."

John Price Old Light on New Worship

"Singing is not a secondary or inconsequential ordinance of worship that carries no edifying benefit in itself. Christ has given singing a most vital role in the instruction of His church. It is a ministry that He has entrusted to the entire congregation. When­ever we stand to sing, we must be conscious that we are fulfilling a teaching ministry of the Lord Jesus to His church. We are teaching and admonishing ourselves and our brethren by the Word of Christ that we sing."

John Price Old Light on New Worship

"It is in singing that our worship on earth comes closest to that of heaven. We enter into the work of angels. John Wells expressed the Puritan view of singing when he wrote, "There is not a great resemblance of heaven upon earth than a company of God's people singing a psalm together."; "In singing of psalms the gracious heart takes wings and mounts up to God to join with the celestial choir." Singing is the only ordinance of the church that shall continue for eternity in heaven. When we see Him lace to face, preaching, prayer, and the sacraments shall all be done away with. But singing is an eternal ordinance and shall continue forever. Our singing now is just the tuning of our hearts and the beginning of our singing the everlasting songs of heaven."

John Price Old Light on New Worship

Singing in the Spirits strength

Some Good Quotes
Woship, Singing

"Singing is not something we can do in our own strength. We must see our complete dependence upon the Spirit. No ordinance of worship has life in itself without the power of the Spirit. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing" (John 6:63). We expect the preaching and prayers of the church to be done in the power of the Spirit. We should expect nothing less with singing. We often pray for the presence of the Spirit in the preaching of the word. We should pray for the presence of the Spirit in the singing as well. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit, singing will never accomplish the exalted purposes Christ intends. This places the highest demands upon every member, and this involves the labor of prayer. Every member must earnestly pray for the presence of the Holy Spirit before worship. And every member must come "filled with the Spirit" with a melody in his heart rising upward to the Lord. Only then will singing be what Christ desires. It is when we gather with other believers who are also filled with the Spirit that there is a mutual stirring up of one another in the singing of praise. Each believer brings the coals of his own heart and builds the spiritual fire of the church. So pleasant was the corporate singing of the church to the Puritans that Thomas Manton wrote,

All the pleasures of the carnal life are not comparable to it. Surely, if there be anything pleasant in the world to a gracious heart, it is the praises of God that flow from a believing and loving soul. . . The unanimous conjunction of such souls in praising God in their assemblies is the heaven that we have upon earth."

John Price Old Light on New Worship

The New New Atheism

• The New New Atheism
  Attacking "God" has become a lucrative book business.
  BY PETER BERKOWITZ
  The Opinion Journal

Ancient Chinese Proverb:

"Where the cash cow grazes
thou findest much manure."

Arrows or Firecrackers?

Modern American Christianity seems to have the firecracker mentality when it comes to our children; we light the fuse to get them started and then we run away and hide while they blow-up.

I love the Scriptures presentation of the mentality we should have when it comes to our children: “As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.” Psalm 127:4. What a tremendous number of truths are left implied by this verse! Here’s a few to think about:

1. Arrows must be skillfully, carefully and patiently fashioned; they start out as sticks and will remain sticks unless carefully acted upon.
2. The warrior must be skilled in the use of his arrows or they are no good to him. A quiver full of arrows which are not used with any skill or wisdom are little more than a burden and a distraction.
3. This picture of the warrior with arrows implies vision in regards to his target and guidance in regards to the arrows. The target must be looked upon, fixed on, and aimed at. The arrow must be pointed at and guided towards its destination.
4. Arrows are not shot without thought, purpose and intention. Shooting arrows in any other manner is dangerous and bound to hurt somebody.
5. To the warrior, the arrow is an extension of himself, used to go beyond himself to carry out his mission. A warrior with a little skill and some arrows can do a lot of damage from a distance. Used properly, the arrow can accomplish things well beyond the reach of the one shooting it.

The Centrality of the Home

One of the ways that I spent my extra time while out in California was listening to some of the numerous sermons and other messages on CD and mp3 that have been piling-up around my computer.

One of the highlights of those messages was The Centrality of the Home in Evangelism and Discipleship by Voddie Baucham.

While much of the content of that message can be found by clicking here for free, I thought the recorded Vision Forum message was brought together much better at the end and I would highly recommend it. It’s a good message to listen too and giveaway.

Eschatology #6- The Two Ages Pt. 1

Eschatology
Audio Links

• Eschatology #6- The Two Ages Pt. 1
  Sam E. Waldron

But what good will that do me right now?

I was contemplating where the modern Church lost its biblical understanding of posterity when my thoughts naturally drifted to the story of Abraham. I began thinking: “How would the story of Abraham be different if God appeared to the typical 20^th century church goer?” Maybe it would go something like this:

Then the Lord brought Abe outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

Then Abe answered and said “But what good will that do me right now? Not to mention that sounds like a lot of work! Think of all the collage tuition! People will talk! I’m way over 40 and I’m just about to retire! There’s ways to prevent this you know, and I really have to think of my health now that I’m so old. I don’t want to overdo myself. Maybe you could bless me with something more to my liking, like cars or houses or something?

Undermining the Gospel

It was excruciating to listen to; a godly older gentleman patiently offering “proofs” of the existence of God to a younger fellow. The younger man had the same answer for everything: “That doesn’t necessarily prove that.” I don’t think anything was ever agreed upon.

The elderly gentleman seemed to have the best of intentions, but with all due respect, we really don’t need to prove the existence of God to anybody. Scripture tells us rather plainly that deep down in their hearts all men know that God exists; they may not admit it, but they already know it. While proofs may have their place, we must not start with them.

The Christian message to the world is NOT “Come and put our God on trial, sit as judge over Him and decide if He exists.” The Christian message to the lost world is exactly the opposite: “God has put you on trial and condemned you, humble yourself before Him, agree with Him and seek His forgiveness through Jesus Christ.”

The unbeliever’s opposition to the gospel is not intellectual but moral. Sin has warped our affections, it has perverted our will, it has bent our desires and it has corrupted our thinking process. In the very essence of sin is the desire to function apart from God, without God, separate from God and above God. This is where the gospel message crashes in to the unbelieving world head-on; it tells them that they are in every way dependent upon God and in need of Him to even begin to think properly.

If we start our defense of the gospel by putting sinners in the place of the morally neutral, intellectually sound and autonomously able judges of God, we have indulged them in their sinful desires and undermined the very gospel message itself, haven't we?

Ready for the Lords Day

After a rough week
I’m ready for the Lords Day

Romans, The Book of @ Pol'-e-store

• Romans, The Book of @ Pol'-e-store

Evangelistic
Articles, Sermons and Other Writings

• God’s Way of Peace
  Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)
  Chapter 6 The Person and Work of the Substitute
  

Contempt shown to parents of large families

The contempt shown to parents of large families
by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

"A funny thing happened to me the other day when my wife and I had, thank God, another baby (a boy). Many of my friends didn't seem all that happy for me. Sure, they went through the motions of smiles and congratulations. But it was evident that many thought me insane. Why would a young man and his wife ruin their lives with eight children?......

How strange to live in a world where loving children casts one in infamy. Having a family with many children implies a backwardness and primitivism that is deemed unbecoming in the developed countries of the West. Large families, it is thought, exist only among religious weirdos or the teeming hovels of the Third World.

Rich countries, by contrast, prefer to increase their standard of living rather than the number of the living. Looking at Western birth rates for the year 2001, the United States averaged only 14.2 births for every thousand Americans, and the birthrate among white Americans is so low that the United States will soon lose its white majority. Indeed, one can go for days in a wealthy city like Manhattan without encountering a single pregnant woman. Riches and children have become inversely proportional such that the more of the former, the less of the latter.......

A Christian mother of six once wrote to me, "I find it troubling to worry about getting pregnant again ... because I don't want to face the criticism of friends and family. Why do people not see children as a blessing?" A fair question which deserves a fair response...."

To read the entire article at World Net Daily click here

How sad! We professing Christians aught to be utterly ashamed of our ungodly and wicked conformity to our culture in its dislike of children.

As Martin Luther put it:

"The purpose of marriage is not pleasure and ease but the procreation and education of children and the support of a family.... People who do not like children are swine, dunces, and blockheads, not worthy to be called men and women, because they despise the blessing of God, the Creator and Author of marriage"

Martin Luther, as quoted in; (Christian History, Issue 39, p. 24)

Quotes- Children

Free Will @ Pol'-e-store

• Free Will @ Pol'-e-store

For anyone who's interested in the controversy over the Arminian view of the will of man and the Calvinistic view of the will of man, I would highly recommend this little article entitled The Myth of Free Will by Walter Chantry.

"Christ will do!"

I love this quote from Horatius Bonar; if we could only get the simplicity of it through our heads and communicate it to the lost!

"That which makes it safe for you to draw near to God, and right for God to receive you, must be something altogether away from and independent of yourself; for, yourself, and everything pertaining to yourself, God has already condemned; and no condemned thing can give you any warrant for going to Him, or hoping for acceptance. Your liberty of entrance must come from something which He has accepted; not from something which He has condemned.

I knew an awakened soul who, in the bitterness of his spirit, thus set himself to work and pray, in order to get peace". He doubled the amount of his devotions, saying to himself, "surely God will give me peace. But the peace did not come. He set up family worship, saying, "surely God will give me peace". Again the peace did not come. At last he thought of having a prayer meeting in his house, as a certain remedy; he fixed the night, called his neighbours, and prepared himself for conducting the meeting by writing a prayer and learning it by heart. As he finished the operation of learning it, preparatory to the meeting, he threw it down on the table saying, "surely that will do; God will give me peace now". In that moment a still small voice seemed to speak in his ear, saying, "No, that will not do; but Christ will do". Straightaway the scales fell from his eyes, and the burden from his shoulders. Peace poured in like a river. "Christ will do," was his watchword ever after."

From God's Way of Peace Chapter 2- Man's Own Character No Ground of Peace
by Horatius Bonar

Justification at Pol'-e-store

Pol'-e-store

• Justification at Pol'-e-store

Justification by Faith Alone
By Jonathan Edwards / Soli Deo Gloria

Justification By Faith Alone: Affirming the Doctrine by Which the Church and the Individual Stands or Falls
By John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul et al. / Soli Deo Gloria Ministries

Justification Vindicated
By Robert Traill / Banner Of Truth

The Doctrine of Justification
By James Buchanan / Solid Ground Christian Books

Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification
By R.C. Sproul / Baker

The God Who Justifies
By James R. White / Bethany

Santa Claus Bunnett?

This morning my three-year old came to me with a suggestion for a name for the new baby; “Can we name the new baby Santa Claus?” she asked.

We don’t even do Santa Claus, but for some reason she became fascinated with Santa this last Christmas season.

One day while sitting in a store parking lot someone was walking between the cars wearing a Santa hat. All we could see from our car was the hat bobbing up and down above the SUV tops. Alyssa was ecstatic; “It’s Santa! Its Santa!” she hollered. Finally an African American gentleman stepped out from behind the last truck wearing the Santa hat. Her big smile turned into a frown as she said in a rather annoyed tone of voice “That’s not Santa!”

Maybe she never got over the disappointment.

Divorce and Remarriage at Pol'-e-store

Pol'-e-store

• Divorce and Remarriage at Pol'-e-store

God’s Way of Peace Chapter 5

Evangelistic
Articles, Sermons and Other Writings

• God’s Way of Peace
  Horatius Bonar (1808-1889)
  Chapter 5- The Blood of Sprinkling
  
  

The Atonement at Pol'-e-store

Pol'-e-store

• Atonement, The

Indolence and carelessness is unacceptable

Some Quotes
Woship, Singing

"The Lord Jesus has not only commanded us to sing, but He has exalted this ordinance to a most noble place in the worship of His church. We are under the highest obligations to give Him the singing He so earnestly desires. True singing is a labor that involves the exertion of spiritual energy on the part of every member of the congregation. Indolence and carelessness is unacceptable, and we should spare no pain to insure that Christ is honored in His ordinance."

John Price Old Light on New Worship