My Ebenezer's 100th post - thoughts from Valley of Vision

I have slowly been working my way through "The Valley of Vision", a compilation book of Puritan prayers.  I am always blessed and challenged as I read the thoughts that came from the hearts of these godly men.  Today has been no different.

Regeneration

O God of the highest heaven,

Occupy the throne of my heart,

take full possession and reign supreme,

lay low every rebel lust,

let no vile passion resist Thy holy war,

manifest Thy mighty power,

and make me Thine for ever.

Thou art worthy to be 

praised with my every breath,

loved with my every faculty of soul,

served with my every act of life.

Thou hast loved me, espoused me, received me,

purchased, washed, favored, clothed, adorned me,

when I was worthless, vile, soiled, polluted.

I was dead in iniquities,

having no eyes to see Thee,

no ears to hear Thee,

no taste to relish Thy joys,

no intelligence to know Thee;

But Thy Spirit has quickened me,

has brought me into a new world as a new creature,

has given me spiritual perception,

has opened to me Thy Word as light, guide, solace, joy. 

Thy presence is to me a treasure of unending peace; 

no provocation can part me from Thy sympathy,

for Thou hast drawn me with cords of love,

and dost forgive me daily, hourly.

O help me then to walk worthy of Thy love,

of my hopes, and my vocation.

Keep me, for I cannot keep myself;

protect me that no evil befall me;

let me lay aside every sin admired of many;

help me to walk by Thy side, lean on Thy arm, 

holy converse with Thee,

that henceforth I may be salt of the earth and a blessing to all. 

Here is a video of the Sovereign Grace rendition of this prayer.  The title is "O Great God".  May the music cement the great truths of the scriptural prayer into your heart, so that you may be filled with "...psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." (Eph. 5:19)

I'm sure you've had one in your basement...

For all of those "extra" ambitious people today, if you find one of these stuffed in a box of hardly used Christmas decorations, please throw it out!

This particular item was highly prized for it's ability to always look "new" and "fresh" in the winter time.  Because it is made of man-made materials, it didn't get brown over time like some other wreaths.  At one point, it was considered to be at the height of a fashionable Christmas party.  

Let's think for a moment of some descriptive titles for this once-desired holiday item.  

Plastic.  Vintage greenery.  Artificial Christmas.  Nostalgic

Some of these were decked with "realistic" holly berries.  Others were filled with pine-cones and bright bows.  But, honestly, can you hide the plastic leaves?  This ancient Christmas decoration is right up there with silver and/or multicolored tinsel and scary angel figurines.  Let's keep our Christmas decoration storage free of such artificial holly wreaths!  

"Don't Waste Your Life"

I have been slowly working through John Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life" book.  It has been very challenging, and I wanted to share a section from it.

The Christ-Exalting Paradoxes of Life
     A life devoted to making much of Christ is costly.  And the cost is both a consequence and a means of making much of Him.  If we do not embrace the path of joy-laden, painful love, we will waste our lives.  If we do not learn with Paul the Christ-exalting paradoxes of life, we will squander our days pursuing bubbles that burst.  He lived "as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything (2 Cor. 6:10).  The Calvary road is costly and painful, but it is not joyless.  
When we embrace with joy the cost of following Christ, His worth will shine in the world.  The cost itself will become a means of making Christ look great.  The apostle Paul had one great passion in life.  We have seen him say it several ways: to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2), to boast only in the cross (Gal. 6:14).  

Our Shame and Our Treasure
     (referring to Phil. 1:20-21)  Notice the way he (Paul) makes this clear in verse 20: "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed."  Stop here just a moment.  Shame is that horrible feeling of guilt or failure when you don't measure up before people whose approval you want very much.  It's what the little child feels in the Christmas program when he forgets his lines, and the other kids snicker brutally.  I remember those horrible times.  Or shame is what a president feels when the secret tapes are finally played, and the foul language and all the deceit emerges, and he stands disgraced and guilty before the people.  
     What is the opposite of shame?  It's when the child remembers the lines and hears the applause.  It's when the president governs well and is reelected.  The opposite of being shamed is being honored.  Yes, usually.  But Paul was a very unusual person.  And Christians ought to be very unusual people.  For Paul, the opposite of being shamed was not his being honored, but Christ's being honored through him.  "It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that...Christ will be honored in my body."  
     What you love determines what you feel shame about.  If you love for men to make much of you, you will feel shame when they don't.  But if you love for men to make much of Christ, then you will feel shame if His is belittled on your account.  And Paul loved Christ more than he loved anything or anyone.  "Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Phil. 3:7-8).
     Whenever something is of tremendous value to you, and you cherish its beauty or power or uniqueness, you want to draw other's attention to it and waken in them the same joy.  That is why Paul's all-consuming goal in life was for Christ to be magnified.  Christ was of infinite value to Paul, and so Paul longed for others to see and savor this value.  That is what it means to magnify Christ--to show the magnitude of His value."

(from "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper, 63-65)

It was graduation...

What is springtime best known for?  

Growing things.  Green grass.  Flowers.  Rain.  Chirping birds.  Pomp and Circumstance.  Funny flowing robes and hats.  

Yes, May is also "graduation" month.  

This year again was a happy time for me.  

More importantly, this was my graduation from Calvary Bible College where I received my 

B.S. in Biblical Studies.  

Grandma and Grandpa Fricke celebrating with Aunt Teresa and I!

My mom and her sisters...

4 years as friends and 2 graduations...:)

the graduates.

My Family

proud parents

My brothers and I.  

the Parker girls.

CBI'ers (aka the "Stoners") 

So, this is the attempt to cram a ridiculously crazy weekend into a collection of 9 pictures....
Did I succeed?  If you didn't catch it from the photos, there three basic things to understand about graduation weekend...

1.  I graduated!!! (put on the robe, donned the funky hat, wrestled with the collar, and walked across the stage with diploma in hand!)

2.  I loved seeing my family!  (It is such a blessing to have a wonderful family that come 12 hrs. to see me.  I love them all so much.)

3.  I loved seeing "old" friends.  (It has now become a tradition to have a CBI reunion at graduations and weddings...but only the graduation part applied here!)