I have had such a sweet time of fellowship with the Lord this morning in His Word. There have been frowning providences sent my way in which times no finite flesh and blood was able to bring comfort. But the great Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God, did not leave me totally bereft of peace.

Nay, it was God’s Word that carried me through. It was His Word that nurtured, healed, and comforted me. I am so very thankful that God, Almighty God, has graciously chosen to take me under His wing. He is so good to me.

There are those who still erroneously seek after “words of knowledge”, “prophecies”, and “miracles, signs, & wonders” apart from Scripture. May God bring them to the truth. By God’s grace, though, I am encouraged by Peter’s Words:

2 Peter 1:19 And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

And I can rest assured that I needn’t seek after anything beyond the power and scope of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God (nothing is beyond that power anyway!), given to us in Christ, the Living Word (John 1)

Heb 1:1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Now, God was pleased to give us a more sure Word. Namely, the written Word of God, which is no doubt a lampt unto our feet and light unto our path. In this Word, and by the workings of the Spirit, we have all we need for salvation, sanctification, comfort and life altogether. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Jude 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

Let us earnestly contend for the faith given to us by the Triune God, who was, and is, and is to come! For:

Rom 10:So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Thank You, Lord, for Your Word.

Psalm 119:97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

I love broken people. I love those who find themselves in seemingly no-way-out circumstances of darkness and despair, even though they were full of hope just the day before. I love those who fall, fail, and stumble even though they know better- and hate themselves for it. I love those who are overtaken by sorrow, even though they can’t quite put a finger on why they feel such a way. I love broken people. I am a broken person.

I love sinful people. I love people who are so sinful in their hearts that they fear great embarrassment and shame if their shameful sins ever “get out.” I love those who want to hate their sin, then give in even further to that great residue of indwelling sin. I love those who become calloused in their sin-only later to realize their callousness and repent. I love those who repent, yet fall again. I love sinful people. I am a sinful person.

I love Jesus. I love His gospel. I love His peace. I love His assurance. Despite my brokenness and sinfulness, His gospel is a testimony to His grace….His grace extended to those who are broken, sinful, and despair greatly to be free….realizing they may do nothing to save themselves.

Sinful men like David who, even as a “strong” Christian, coveted and lusted after his neighbor’s wife. Who then engaged in lies and cover-up to save face, thinking he could evade the all-seeing eye of the Almighty. Who then committed murder of a man who was one of his most faithful servants. If this wasn’t the height of sinfulness and callousness, I ask you brothers, what is?

Sinful men like Peter, who was in Christ’s inner circle. Who, by God’s revelation, knew and confessed Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Who boldly, loudly, and confidently proclaimed his unfettered loyalty to Christ to the end– so much so that he took up sword against those who tried to arrest Jesus. And yet, despite all this “progress”, he denied the Lord, and cursed in such context.

Sinful men like Josh, who was converted at the young age of nine. Who, by God’s graciousness, has been passed through untold sufferings, knowing his perseverance was all due to God’s good pleasure. Who boldly, loudly, and confidently confesses his love for the Lord and His Word. And yet, despite the remembrance of all that God has done in his life, who treads lightly on the commands of the Lord and presumes upon the very grace of God that saved Him.

I’m glad God loves broken and sinful people.

Here am I, Lord, broken and sinful.

Well, I had the honor and privilege of taking my daughter on her first fishing trip yesterday. She’s quite the fisherman. While Daddy caught nothing, Chloe caught three fish. This is a picture of the biggest one she caught (a Brim), and that’s her with her Disney Princess fishing pole.

So you better watch out, cuz there’s a new Fisherman in town. I think she’s the prettiest fisherman I’ve ever seen. 

Psalm 30:4-5

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. 
For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Most of the time, this generation of American “Churches” want to de-emphasize certain concepts derived from Holy Scripture. It’s not that they do this in a vindictively active sense. It’s not that they want to actively hide certain aspects of God’s character. What is it? They can’t quite grasp some of the so-called “harsher” aspects of God’s character; thus, they skip over or avoid them altogether. The problem, though, is that it emasculates Scripture’s teaching on the wholeness of God’s character.

Countless times I’ve heard the second portion of Psalm 30:5 quoted at the expense of the first part! Let’s face it, we don’t like to think about God’s anger. If anyone has a legitimate claim to anger, then it’s the Almighty. It’s His law we’ve broken. It’s His law we’ve mocked. It’s His law we’ve spurned. In fact, only God may be righteously angry about sin…because he’s not guilty of it. And considering that, we know His anger is both justified and deadly. So, we don’t mind the second part of Psalm 30:5 where it talks about weeping and joy…but there’s just something uncomfortable about God’s anger.

You see, though, before joy can be fully experienced we must have the time of weeping! Before we understand the privilege and need of salvation, we must experience the debts to which are depravity has cast us! I tell you before we can truly rest in God’s favor, we must be sobered by and dreadful of God’s anger…His justified, righteous, and holy anger.

I remember a “Christian” bookstore from my youth that had a sign out side which read, “Try Jesus”, as if He were just a commodity to be tried. If ya like Him, keep Him. If not, return Him. But that’s just not how things work, folks. You don’t “try” Jesus. You beg for Him. You become aware of your absolute need of Him and you seek Him with everything that is within you. Having come to the end of yourself, you understand, know, and believe that He is your only hope. And such a truth of God’s eternal favor cannot be fathomed or understood, until you first consider His righteous and justified anger. Blessed is the man whose evil ways are made known unto him.

Let me publicly thank the Lord for blessing me with an almost perfect day today. I got to sleep in (6 am) and work was simply fun today. It’s the time of year during which I have to requalify with the pistol I use at work, The Beretta 9mm 92FS. I did re-qualify successfully with a 47 out of 50. It was fun to be back at the range, as I’ve not had opportunity to go back and shoot for a long time.

At home, I have the Springfield Armory 1911-A1 .45 (Mil-Spec). It looks pretty much like the picture here, but it’s got the military green finish, and wood grain grip. Due to its caliber it has a bit more mmph to it. It was also fun shooting the 12 gauge shot guns. It makes me miss the good ole days when I had more time to hunt.

Ironically, while I was “playing” with my guns today, I wish that there’d been some students and teachers who could’ve been armed yesterday at Virginia Tech to put an end to this guy’s massacre. Please don’t tell me men aren’t born dead in their sin and totally depraved.

My eyes mildly teared up as I read of the 77 yr old VA Tech professor who barricaded himself between the killer and his students by standing at the door, resulting in his sacrificial death. He left behind his wife and two sons. We should keep the students, their families, etc. of VA Tech in our prayers, praying that God would use this as a means to stir geunine revival.

Anyway, as noted, I’ve had a wonderful day. I got to have target practice, then I was able to pick up my daughter from school and go to the park. After playing a bit, we engaged in some father/daughter competition. We agreed that she can both swing higher and run faster than I can. She ran so fast that she scared the ducks away while we were trying to feed them the bread.

Now I’m home and have to start studying…again. Woo hoo!