Ever-Increasing Cause for Thankfulness

How much cause do I have to be thankful? The mercy which I have to anticipate from the hand of my God will never grow less, and yet today I have experienced a day's portion of mercies more than what I could say yesterday I had thus far received. Thus my debt to divine mercy will forever increase, thus I ought to be increasingly thankful with each passing day to Him whose lovingkindness is everlasting.

"And be thankful."
- Colossians 3.15, ESV

"Yet all with wings..."

"My God, I thank Thee, who hast made
The earth so bright,
So full of splendor and of joy,
Beauty and light;
So many glorious things are here,
Noble and right.

I thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made
Joy to abound;
So many gentle thoughts and deeds
Circling us round,
That in the darkest spot of earth
Some love is found.

I thank Thee more that all our joy
Is touched with pain,
That shadows fall on brightest hours,
That thorns remain;
So that earth’s bliss may be our guide,
And not our chain.

For thou who knowest, Lord, how soon
Our weak heart clings,
Hast given us joys, tender and true,
Yet all with wings;
So that we see gleaming on high
Diviner things.

I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast kept
The best in store;
We have enough, yet not too much
To long for more:
A yearning for a deeper peace
Not known before.

I thank Thee, Lord, that here our souls
Though amply blessed,
Can never find, although they seek
A perfect rest;
Nor ever shall, until they lean
On Jesus’ breast."

- Adelaide Procter, 1858

The Role of Good Works in the Life of Believers

“When the point considered is the constitution and foundation of salvation, believers, without paying any respect to works, direct their eyes to the goodness of God alone….Conscience being thus founded, built up, and established is farther established by the consideration of works, inasmuch as they are proofs of God dwelling and reigning in us. …Wherefore, when we exclude confidence in works, we merely mean that the Christian mind must not turn back to the merit of works as an aid to salvation, but must dwell entirely on the free promise of justification. But we forbid no believer to confirm and support this faith by the signs of the divine favor towards him.…The fruits of their calling convince them that the Lord has admitted them to a place among his children….As the fruits of regeneration furnish them with a proof of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, experiencing God to be a Father in a matter of so much moment, they are strengthened in no slight degree to wait for his assistance in all their necessities. Even this they could not do, had they not previously perceived that the goodness of God is sealed to them by nothing but the certainty of the promise.”

- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. III.XIV.18-19

the most important question

“The question must be, How shall we answer the heavenly Judge when he calls us to account? Let us contemplate that Judge, not as our own unaided intellect conceives of him, but as he is portrayed to us in Scripture…with a brightness which obscures the stars, a strength which melts the mountains, an anger which shakes the earth, a wisdom which takes the wise in their own craftiness, a purity before which all things become impure, a righteousness to which not even angels are equal (so far is it from making the guilty innocent), a vengeance which once kindled burns to the lowest hell (Exod. 34:7; Nahum 1:3; Deut. 32:22).”

"Thus Augustine says, “Of all pious men groaning under this burden of corruptible flesh, and the infirmities of this life, the only hope is, that we have one Mediator Jesus Christ the righteous, and that he intercedes for our sins.”

- John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.XII.1,3

oh zucchini...

With the recent out-poured donations of many zucchini into our home, and with a loaf of zucchini bread in the fridge, and more of the green walruses on the counter, I was trying to think of something else to put them into that would be actually good and not look to much like zucchini. I ended up with this highly tweaked version of a quiche recipe from Allrecipes.com. It's really easy because all the work is done in a blender or food processor before baking.


Crustless Zucchini Quiche

• 3 small (or 1 large) zucchini, coarsely chopped
• 5 or 6 eggs
• 1/4 cup olive oil
  
• 1/3-1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese
• 1 tsp onion powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup flour (I used a combination of rice and oat flour)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Additional goat cheese, chopped fresh chives or parsley

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a quiche dish or a 9-inch pie pan, and set aside.
Place the zucchini, eggs, olive oil, goat cheese, and seasonings into the bowl of a blender or food processor, and process for about 1 minute, until all the ingredients are finely chopped and blended. (I found it necessary to add the zucchini chunks gradually in order to fit the bowl) Add the flour and baking powder, and process 1 more minute, scraping the side of the bowl if necessary.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared quiche dish, and bake for 1 hour, or until set. The quiche is done when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with additional crumbled cheese and chopped fresh chives or parsley. Allow to cool 5-10 minutes before serving.
(If there are any, leftover slices of quiche are good cold.)

"...a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head"

In his Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis points out the danger of some educators who seek to do away with all that is emotional and heartfelt in education...

“I think Gaius and Titius may have honestly misunderstood the pressing educational need of the moment. They see the world around them swayed by emotional propaganda—they have learned from tradition that youth is sentimental—and they conclude that the best thing they can do is to fortify the minds of young people against emotion.

My own experience as a teacher tells an opposite tale. For every one pupil who needs to be guarded from a weak excess of sensibility there are three who need to be awakened from the slumber of cold vulgarity. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.

The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.”

–C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

Yesterday I was reading a sweet little book, Diary and Selection of Hymns of Augustus Toplady, and was impressed by a note in his journal about God's providence. He was speaking of how God had been guiding him to begin ministering in a town called Broad-Hembury...

"There is one thing that pleases me much, about Broad-Hembury, and makes me hope for a blessing on the event, viz. that it was not, from first to last, of my own seeking: and every door, without any application of mine, has hitherto flown open, and all seems to point that way. As a good man somewhere says, "A believer never yet carved for himself, but he cut his own fingers."— The all-wise God, whose never failing providence ordereth every event, usually makes what we set our hearts upon unsatisfactory; and sweetens what we feared: bringing real evil, out of seeming good: and real good, out of seeming evil: to show us what short-sighted creatures we are, and to teach us to live by faith upon his blessed self."

Broadhembury

"You can readily speak of yourselves, and do often, either directly or obliquely, commend yourselves, which reveals your great self-love. How little do you commend your Lord and Master and extol His excellencies with your lips! And does not this evidence that you have but little love to Him in your hearts?"
- Thomas Vincent, The True Christian's Love

How is it that I am so eager to commend and speak of myself when my self has deceived me, cheated me, led me astray, stolen my peace, confused and betrayed me, corrupted my joys, tainted all my good deeds, distracted me and clouded my heart with anxious fears? (Surely it has proven itself worthy of all the devotion I give it!) When I consider how I esteem myself, I can attribute it to nothing but the most contemptible blindness and folly.

And Jesus Christ, of whom I speak so little, has given me every pleasant thing that I enjoy and every good and necessary provision; He has faithfully stayed with me as He promised to do always, despite the countless ways in which I try His patience with my unbelief, ingratitude and stubborn pride; He forgives all my sins because He has paid for them with His own blood; He softens my heart with his grace so that I repent of my sins, love my neighbor and brother, help those in need, rejoice in God, sing, pray and work unto Him - all of which I could not do in myself; He answers my prayers, restores my health and protects my life; He guides the path of my life into good ways when I would have no idea where to go, and does the same for all His own. Should I not think and speak of Him and for Him rather than myself? I often feel, wrongly, that to speak of Jesus is the task of the preacher and my friends would rather hear me speak of myself. But Jesus is mine, my own God, my Friend, Helper and Savior. He is my only honor, and without Him I would have nothing in which to glory, but only shame. He is my all and my very life, so that if someone did not wish to hear me speak of Him, I should consider them not to be my friend.

O that the Lord would set my crooked heart straight, that He would heal my heart's eyes of their distorted vision that I might see things as they are - Him as everything and myself as nothing, that He would restore my imbalanced affections so that all the weight of them may be set upon Him. And this He must do, for His name is Jesus and He saves His people from their sins.