THE RAVENS’ CRY—C. H. Spurgeon

I post this quote from C.H. Spurgeon for those who may need prayer. Those for whom I am already praying. We cannot do wrong in prayer for those we love, and for those things in life that are so dear to us.

The Ravens’ Cry—C. H. Spurgeon

He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry. Psalm 147:9

Never a sinner prays truly without Christ praying at the same time. You cannot see nor hear him, but never does Jesus stir the depths of your soul by his Spirit without his soul being stirred too. O sinner! Your prayer when it comes before God is a very different thing from what it is when it issues forth from you. Sometimes poor people come to us with petitions which they wish to send to some company or great personage. They bring the petition and ask us to have it presented for them. It is very badly spelt, very strangely written, and we can but just make out what they mean; but still there is enough to let us know what they want. First of all we make out a fair copy for them, and then, having stated their case, we put our own name at the bottom, and if we have any interest, of course they get what they desire through the power of the name signed at the foot of the petition. This is just what the Lord Jesus Christ does with our poor prayers. He makes a fair copy of them, stamps them with the seal of his own atoning blood, puts his own name at the foot, and thus they go up to God's throne. It is your prayer, but it is his prayer too, and it is the fact of its being his prayer that makes it prevail. Now, this is a sledgehammer argument: if the ravens prevail when they cry all alone, if their poor chattering brings them what they want of themselves, how much more shall the plaintive petitions of the poor trembling sinner prevail who can say, ‘For Jesus’ sake,’ and who can clench all his own arguments with the blessed plea, ‘The Lord Jesus Christ deserves it; 0 Lord, give it to me for his sake.’ For meditation: To say ‘For Jesus’ sake’ or ‘In Jesus’ name’ at the end of prayer is not supposed to be regarded as the done thing or as a magic formula. It is a humble confession that we do not deserve an audience with God, but a confident profession of faith in the only one who does (John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:23-24).

C.H. Spurgeon, Sermon No. 672, January 14th, 1866

A CAVEAT

A quote from one of my favorite hymn writers.

A CAVEAT AGAINST UNSOUND DOCTRINES


He goes on to style the blessed Jesus our hope.
Ask almost any man, "Whether he hopes to be saved eternally?"
He will answer in the affirmative. But enquire again,
"On what foundation he rests his hope?" Here too many are sadly divided.
The Pelagian hopes to get to heaven by a moral life and a good
use of his natural powers. The Arminian by a jumble of grace and
free-will, human works, and the merits of Christ.
The Deist by an interested observance of the social virtues.
Thus merit-mongers, of every denomination, agree in making
any thing the basis of their hope, rather than that foundation
which God's own hand hath laid in Zion. But what saith Scripture?
It avers, again and again, that Jesus alone is our hope: to the
exclusion of all others, and to the utter annihilation of human
deservings. Beware, therefore, of resting your dependence partly
on Christ, and partly on some other basis. As surely as you bottom
your reliance partly on the rock, and partly on the sand;
so certainly, unless God give you an immediate repentance to
your acknowledgment of the truth, will your supposed house of
defence fall and bury you in its ruins, no less than if you had
raised it on the sand alone. Christ is the hope of glory.

Augustus Montague Toplady - Apri1 29, 1770

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

The Finished Product!


The final product is in place and in use. I need to rearrange the shelves a bit, but overall I am pretty happy with it.


I think now it is time for me to get to work on the wall unit that I designed. I will keep you all posted.

HOW NOT TO BUILD A BOOKSHELF

The original bookshelves and me.







About two years ago I built two bookshelves. In moving to Colorado I had to arrange furniture a little differently. As such I have been meaning to build a companion book shelf for the previous two. Maybe it was the snow contributing to a little cabin fever, maybe I am just tired of bending down to the floor to turn on the radio. Either way, I did get motivated to build. The pictures below are a photo essay of what I did. I am no professional, I am less than a novice when it comes to wood working. But I am having fun, and I think I will enjoy the shelf a little more than if I had bought one.


Here is the raw material that needs to be formed and shaped.

Sanding , Sanding and more sanding

They call me the "Sandman", that's my name.

Exhausting work preparing the wood.

Measure twice, assemble once, or maybe measure three or four times. But the assembly process has begun.

A stand-alone shelf begins to emerge from the sawdust and the sweat.

Hannah plays Vanna. I would like to buy a "Dowell"...O.K. bad joke...let's move on the the trim.

If you do not predrill the holes in the trim you will split the wood.

Trim is on...and yes the mitre cuts were not that hard.

I had to match the trim and the stain from the original shelf...Cross your fingers, I think I did o.k. on the stain, the trim will have to be different, the stores in Texas had a wider variety in stock than here in Colorado.

The top trim of the original shelf. If you notice...the book showing on the shelf is the book I am currently reading...The Biography of Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow. I am really enjoying the story of this great patriot.

Shameless promotion and consumerism, product placement.

Let the staining begin.

The first coat is on...next coat I am wearing rubber gloves...my hands match the shelf.

2nd coat of stain. Did I mention that it is a "Pecan" stain. It is looking very nice, but after moving it upstairs next to the two original shelves, I decided a third coat would be needed. So after the third coat has cured, I will move it into place tomorrow and I will put a finished product photo on the blog. Thanks for bearing with me in this project. Come back tomorrow.

CONTEXTUALIZATION

The Seven Deadly Sins have been rewritten by the almighty Catholic Church.
We spoke in Sunday School last week about "Contextualization": Adapting the gospel to the world around us to appease the world to the point that the gospel is not even recognized.

As I read these new Seven Deadly sins, I noticed that they are eerily similar to the planks in the socialist platform. I do think they left out one obvious deadly sin..."Voting Republican".

It appears that they went from a sin oriented list to a social gospel...or should I say a "Socialist" gospel. Strange how the Roman Catholic Church left out child sexual abuse by the clergy. Seems that they would have added that one seeing that it cost them over 600 Million dollars in law suit settlements just in the United States alone. Strange indeed.


The seven social sins

1-- Environmental pollution

2-- Genetic manipulation

3-- Excessive wealth

4-- Inflicting poverty

5-- Drug trafficking and abuse

6-- Morally debatable experiments

7-- Violation of the fundamental rights of human nature


The seven deadly sins

1-- Pride

2-- Envy

3-- Gluttony

4-- Lust

5-- Anger

6-- Greed

7-- Sloth