Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3)
Well that says a lot! Each phrase is an encouragement. I’m focusing on living hope today. Our living hope is not a dead hope. It is not surmise, speculation, or empty ‘what if’. It is a living hope because we are IN Christ and He is living and He is our Hope.
Gill’s Commentary says
Saints are both begotten again to the grace of hope, and to the glory which that grace is waiting for”. Our hope is because of Christ, it is in Christ and it is Christ. It is a living hope
Genesis 22 has the story of the great test of faith of Abraham. God called to Abraham one day, and Abraham answered “Here I am!” God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, his only son, who Abraham loves. Abraham was to do this on Mt Moriah, a place God initially told Abraham would be a place He would tell Abraham. Not even initially knowing where, Abraham hastened to obey, and the two hiked to the fateful spot.
Theologians have examined this scene and compared it to Christ’s sacrifice so I am certainly not plowing new ground. I have no deeper insights. But in this day and age, with fears and tribulations, and griefs and apostasy, it is always refreshing to keep our eyes on Christ. It is always edifying to see how in the word, the LORD God has it all under control and His plan is unfolding from that day to this in magnificent fashion, and will continue to do so.
Italian Renaissance painter Caravaggio’s depiction of the sacrifice of Isaac:
Comparison of Old Testament texts with New Testament texts. Isaac pre-figures Christ.
The cross is the epitome of redemptive truth, foreshadowed in the acceptable sacrifice of Abel, foreshadowed in the ark of safety that saved Noah, foreshadowed in the sacrifice provided on Mount Moriah–a ram in the place of Isaac, prefigured in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, where Moses said, “The Lord is my strength, and my song, and He has become my salvation.” We see the cross foreshadowed in the smitten rock in the wilderness that brought forth water to quench the thirsty people. We see the cross foreshadowed in the Levitical ceremonies, sacrifices and offerings. We see it foreshadowed in the serpent lifted up in the desert for healing. We see it even in Boaz, the kinsman redeemer. We see the cross detailed in Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. We see the pierced and wounded Savior in Zechariah, chapter 12–all the way through Scripture. J. MacArthur
Scripture is amazing and wonderful. Read your Bible today.
I used to study King Arthur, chivalry, armor, and heraldry. I think the Age of Chivalry was fascinating.
Getty Art website explains, “Chivalry first developed as a code of honor that emphasized bravery, loyalty, and generosity for knights at war in the 11th and 12th centuries. By the later Middle Ages illuminated manuscripts had helped establish chivalry as a system of values that permeated almost every aspect of aristocratic culture.“
During this age, chain mail was common until plate armor became more popular. Popular because it protected the knight or soldier better. Chain mail was then often worn underneath the plate armor.
Armor requited constant upkeep. It needed polishing (usually the squire’s job). Its attachments needed mending. The knight could not gain weight, the metal didn’t stretch or grow with him! And it was expensive, so acquiring another suit of armor at the drop of a hat (in just the right size) for purchase was unlikely, and obtaining one as booty even more unlikely.
You know the paragraph at the end of Ephesians, right?
The Spiritual Armor section from chapter 6. Here it is in case you’re not familiar-
The Whole Armor of God
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
**The Spiritual Armor section has usually been taught that we, the believer, possess various pieces of armor which we put on (as verse 11 says). Each piece corresponds to a different aspect of the believer’s life. It is not solely defensive. Spiritual warfare is actually offensive, too.
I am so encouraged by women who ask how to regain the joy of their earlier walk. And those who who care that they feel they are not walking as closely with the Lord as they might! So much better than apathy! They inspire ME to walk more closely with Him, or to be making sure to.
I am sorry if you, dear sister and reader, are having a dry season. During these time when you don’t feel the impact of the Lord’s word as much, it’s the time for faith to to into high gear- because you just have to trust that the Spirit IS impressing it in you. That is His ministry. As long as you are absorbing it, trying with fullest attention as you can, He WILL illuminate it.
Remember, our feelings are deceptive. Emotions are fleeting. Who can know our own heart? We cannot, it is desperately sick. We might feel dry, we might feel distant from the Lord, but HE is the fountain, HE is always with us till the end of the age. HE hasn’t moved.
Yet, the dry season might be real. It might be like this, from 1 Peter 1:6 KJV, Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations…
Do you feel a heaviness instead of lightness in joy?
You’ve repented, asked of the Lord, and that is a good thing. Keep inquiring of the Lord. Remember the Persistent Widow. She sought justice, and we seek release from your spiritual drought, but the point is, Jesus praised that she kept asking. So did Hannah, in her time of sorrow and confusion.
John 4:12-14 NASB – Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.”
You have a fountain in you! It might feel frozen, but it’s there because the Spirit is in you if you are a believer. The rivers of living water are promised in John 7:38 and given to every believer.
Remember, your dryness is just a feeling. Feeling dry doesn’t mean God was neither present nor at work. John 5:17, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.“
“I was lying upon my couch during this last week, and my spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for—but a very slight thing will move me to tears just now—and a kind friend was telling me of some poor old soul living near, who was suffering very great pain, and yet she was full of joy and rejoicing. I was so distressed by the hearing of that story, and felt so ashamed of myself, that I did not know what to do; wondering why I should be in such a state as this; while this poor woman, who had a terrible cancer, and was in the most frightful agony, could nevertheless “rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”
“And in a moment this text flashed upon my mind, with its real meaning. I am sure it is its real meaning. Read it over and over again, and you will see I am not wrong. “Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness.” It does not say, “Though now for a season ye are suffering pain, though now for a season you are poor; but you are ‘in heaviness;'” your spirits are taken away from you; you are made to weep; you cannot bear your pain; you are brought to the very dust of death, and wish that you might die. Your faith itself seems as if it would fail you. That is the thing for which there is a needs be. That is what my text declares, that there is an absolute needs be that sometimes the Christian should not endure his sufferings with a gallant and a joyous heart; there is a needs be that sometimes his spirits should sink within him, and that he should become even as a little child smitten beneath the hand of God.”
Spurgeon surmised a reason for this sinking joylessness:
“Yet again; if the Christian did not sometimes suffer heaviness he would begin to grow too proud, and think too much of himself, and become too great in his own esteem. Those of us who are of elastic spirit, and who in our health are full of everything that can make life happy, are too apt to forget the Most High God. Lest we should be satisfied from ourselves, and forget that all our own springs must be in him, the Lord sometimes seems to sap the springs of life, to drain the heart of all its spirits, and to leave us without soul or strength for mirth, so that the noise of tabret and of viol would be unto us as but the funeral dirge, without joy or gladness. Then it is that we discover what we are made of, and out of the depths we cry unto God, humbled by our adversities.”
He assures his listeners,
“I think I have said enough about this heaviness, except that I must add it is but for a season. A little time, a few hours, a few days, a few months at most, it shall all have passed away; and then comes the “eternal weight of glory, wherein ye greatly rejoice.”
He goes on to the joy after that!
Apostle Paul felt joy in hard circumstances but he wasn’t joyful every second. We know he was frustrated, perplexed, and angry at times. In Psalm 42, David felt spiritually dry.
“One of the keys to experiencing joy is to cultivate the habit of thankfulness. To regularly remember and reflect upon all the blessings that God has given us and then to pour out praise and thanksgiving to God. Psalm 9:1 says, “I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.”
Rogers continues, “If we want to experience the joy of the Lord, we must recount all the wonderful deeds that He has performed on our behalf (all the ways He has blessed us), and then pour out thanksgiving to God. The more we do this, the more we’ll experience deep, abundant, overflowing joy.”
So instead of confessing, switch to praising.
If your season of dryness goes on for an uncomfortably long while, first check to ensure you are actually IN the faith. This resource may help
Then, once assured that you are in the faith, if you want to endure in ministry, in your walk, persevering to the end, there are three words. “Remember Jesus Christ.” I recommend this sermon highly.
Stay in the Word, praise the Savior more than eve, even praising Him for your spiritual dryness, keep to the spiritual disciplines, and eventually they will begin to move again. Look to those in the Bible who endured the same: Moses 40 years after killing the Overseer, Hannah plagued by Penninah, David dry and crying out to the Lord.
Psalm 30:5- For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
It all started with this pocket notebook I found at a thrift store:
When I’m out and about, and the Holy Spirit connects something I’m doing or seeing to a previous biblical thought, I need to capture it. My mind’s thoughts are increasingly ephemeral, fleeting, mist-like. So I need a notebook around me to write down the connections I’m formulating. The little but pretty notebook got me thinking about pocket notebooks, thoughts, and on-the-go connections my mind might be knitting.
Spring is in the air. And in the ground. Forsythia and daffodils are springing up. So are dandelions. It doesn’t take that weed long to sprout, does it? There are leaf buds on the trees. The morning low temps are above freezing now, and the daytime is pleasant. Pear trees are blooming.
The cycle of seasons in their regular courses is a wonder and a relief. God said in Genesis 8:22, “While all the days of the earth remain, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.“
And the regular courses of social media also continue. There are flowers and weeds. Some spring up and some are later to sprout. It is a joy that there is good material to read online, and a blessing to be able to ignore the weeds. Here are some flowers for your social media garden today:
Sarah Ivill at Ligonier has some good things to say about the book of Ezra. I highly recommend reading the Old Testament. Even if you don’t understand everything at first, just keep reading. As the years go by and you continually pass through these texts in your annual reading plan, it eventually becomes clear.
“Gossip involves saying behind a person’s back what you would never say to his or her face. Flattery means saying to a person’s face what you would never say behind his or her back.” R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man
Undying Worm, Undying Men: The Eternal Horrors of Hell Today, some Christians seem embarrassed by the doctrine of hell. As such, they either omit discussing it, or they reinvent the doctrine and rob it of any real horror. Our Lord, however, was not afraid to talk about hell.
The website Good, Cheap Eats has a listing of “30-Minute Main Meals“. We are all looking to save a bit of time, right? Why do they need to eat every day?? LOL.
If you are considering the farming life, this UK woman seems to have lived it and written about the life honestly, much to the UK’s acclaim:
Helen Rebanks went from farmer, wife and mother to publishing sensation last year when her first book, The Farmer’s Wife, earned huge success and a legion of fans — not least the likes of bestselling author Raynor Winn and Times columnist Caitlin Moran. Her bestselling tale of everyday life on the Cumbrian farm which she runs alongside husband James is a wonderfully honest look at the ups and downs of what it means to raise — and feed — a family while keeping a roof over everyone’s heads.
Housing is getting difficult around here. Purchasing a home in this increasingly-less-rural corner of my world is out of reach for many people. The decide to rent instead. Even rents are getting high, and salaries are not keeping up. In any case, if you rent, here are some tips for dealing with an absentee landlord. I’ve rented since 2004 and I’ve always been blessed with good landlords, but I understand and empathize the frustration of having issues where you live and seemingly no resolution.
Rajiv Surendra is an HGTV online personality. He seems to be able to do it all, from restoring frames to bookbinding, thrifting, learning how to sing, iron a shirt, to renovating an entire apartment. His videos are calm and informative, and as mentioned, on a wide array of topics. I like his thrifting/antiqueing videos, they are helpful. Here is his Youtube channel:
I particularly enjoyed this piece from poet Kay Cude. I hope you enjoy it too. May it encourage you, strengthen you, or simply allow your thoughts to linger on the wonders and glories of our Savior.
Last weekend I did a deep dive into the concept of idolatry. I’d researched the “Trad Wife/Trad Life” trend and realized that for many women who live this aesthetic, it’s an idol for them. Meaning, it isn’t based on humble obedience to biblical standards for our gender, but a performance of works for the public to see, thinking this pleases God.
To better understand idolatry, I started researching what exactly IS an idol, delving into scripture, commentaries, then a Free Grace Broadcaster from Mt Zion Chapel Library. The FGB was chock full of essays commenting on idolatry.
I ended up posting 5 successive essays all around the concept of idolatry. Here they are:
I’ll end this week with a quote from Charles Spurgeon from that same Free Grace Broadcaster, called “Idols Abolished” (full sermon here).
You remember the Rich Young Ruler? You remember the Rich Man (Lazarus used to lay at his gate?) You remember the Pharisees, Saul/Paul among them? They all had the same idol:
SPURGEON: “Attend earnestly dear hearers, for, perhaps, some of you may be worshipping idols now. We will go into the temple of your heart, and see whether we can find a false god there. I go into one heart, and, as I look up, I see a gigantic idol; it is gilded all over and clothed in shining robes: its eyes seem to be jewels, and its forehead is “as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires”; it is a very lovely idol to look upon. Come not too close, do not examine too severely, nor so much as dream of looking inside the hollow sham. Within it you will find all manner of rottenness and filthiness, but the outside of the idol is adorned with the greatest art and skill, and you may even become enamoured of it as you stand and gaze upon it.”
“What is its name? Its name is self-righteousness.”
–end Spurgeon
And the LORD alone will be exalted on that day, And the idols will completely vanish. (Isaiah 2:17b,18)
I finished reading through Amos. A hard book, but a majestic one. God is at the center of it. His wrath, righteousness, and holiness. It ends with a promise, as do most of the prophetic books-
I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God. Amos 9:15
Someone commented this week on the blog that “As a Christian woman, I respect the Feminine representation of God; which is what Rachel, and early Hebrews call “Asherah”.”
See how easy it is to make an idol?
There are no other gods. God revealed Himself as Yahweh. He desires to be seen as male, He, Father.
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. 3 For the Lord is a great God And a great King above all gods, (Psalm 95:1-3)
There are no other gods
There is no Allah There is no Zeus no Mars no Dagon Nammu, An, Ki are ephemeral as vapor Amun and Horus are fictitious myths Freyr and Loki … figments and chimera
All other gods are illusory Their names hold no power and their existence is in wood and statue only
Let the heathen howl their bitterness at an unseen and unknown god’s failure Spurious and futile gods who remain silent at man’s pleas Let the pagan rail their outrage at the silent deity who cannot and will never help
Let the godless who appeal to no-god wail in frustration for prayers that are never answered For God is the only God.
Let the hopeless come to the throne of hope Let the disillusioned bask in the fountain from the Rock Let the helpless find help in Immanuel’s outstretched arm Let the discouraged find eternity in God The only God.
the-end-time.org 