Enjoying Life Under the Sun

O GOD WHOSE WILL CONQUERS ALL, There is no comfort in anything apart  from enjoying you and being engaged in your service; You are All in all, and all my enjoyments are what to me you make them, and no more. I am well pleased with your will, whatever it is, or should be in all respects, And if you bid me decide for myself in any affair, I would choose to refer all to you, for you are infinitely wise and cannot do amiss, as I am in danger of doing. I rejoice to think that all things are at your disposal, and it delights me to leave them there. Then prayer turns wholly into praise, and all I can do is to adore and bless you. What shall I give you for all your benefits? I am in a strait between two, knowing not what to do; I long to make some return, but have nothing to offer; and can only rejoice that you do all, that none in heaven or on earth shares your honor. I can of myself do nothing to glorify your blessed name, but I can through grace cheerfully surrender soul and body to you...

THREE IN ONE, ONE IN THREE, GOD OF MY SALVATION, Heavenly Father, blessed Son, eternal Spirit, I adore you as one Being, one Essence,  one God in three distinct Persons, for bringing sinners to your knowledge and to your kingdom. O Father, you have loved me and sent Jesus to redeem me; O Jesus, you have loved me and assumed my nature, shed your own blood to wash away my sins, wrought righteousness to cover my unworthiness; O Holy Spirit, you have loved me and entered my heart, implanted there eternal life, revealed to me the glories of Jesus. Three Persons and one God, I bless and praise you, for love so unmerited, so unspeakable, so wondrous, so mighty to save the lost and raise them to glory. O Father, I thank you that in fullness of grace you have given me to Jesus, to be his sheep,  jewel, portion; O Jesus, I thank you that in fullness of grace you have accepted espoused, bound me; O Holy Spirit, I thank you that in fullness of grace you have exhibited Jesus as my salvatio...

Q. What is required in the third commandment?  We are not to blaspheme or to abuse the Name of God by cursing, Leviticus 24:10-16  Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp.  And the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed; and so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)  Then they put him in custody, that the mind of the LORD might be shown to them.  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,  “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.  “Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.  ‘And whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregatio...

When President Trump took his oath of office, he failed to put his hand on the Bible.   Whether that failure was intentional or not, God in His providence allowed it to happen.   Looking at today's disastrous state of affairs, one cannot help wonder if God was sending us a message -  Trump's failure to put his hand on the Bible could be a sign that God Himself had removed His hand of blessing over our country.   And that God in His providence and power ordered this very public "mistake" to happen to both protect and promote the glory of His name. Why does God do the things that He does?  What motivates God to action?  One thing, and one thing alone - the glory of His Name! When God created the world,  He did so in order that man might glorify His Name for creation’s majesty and beauty.  And so man does.  O LORD our LORD how excellent is Your Name in all the earth  (Psalm 8:1).  The heavens declare the glory of God, an...

Q. But may images not be tolerated in the churches as “books for the unlearned"?  No, for we should not be wiser than God.  He wants His people to be taught NOT by means of dumb images... Jeremiah 10:8  But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.  Habakkuk 2:18-20  What profit is the image, that its maker should carve it, the molded image, a teacher of lies, that the maker of its mold should trust in it, to make mute idols?  Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Awake!’ To silent stone, ‘Arise! It shall teach!’ Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, yet in it there is no breath at all.  But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. ...but by the living preaching of His Word. Romans 10:14-15  How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?  And how...

2. You shall not make for yourself a graven image,  or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,  or that is in the water under the earth;  you shall not bow down to them or serve them... Basic to this second commandment is the temptation for man to make for himself some kind of representation of God.  Man desires to see with his eyes what he worships with his heart.  Yet God says, “You shall not make any kind of image of Me.” Why not? There are at least three reasons:  In the first place, God cannot be visibly portrayed.  God is spirit (cf. John 4:24).  It is impossible to make a physical representation of a spiritual being.  In the second place, any representation we might make of God would be a creaturely representation.  Man is not able to conceive of anything except what he has seen in creation.  It is impossible for man to think of something which he has not seen on earth.  Whateve...