CALVIN on Head-Coverings

Should any one now object, that her hair is enough, as being a natural covering, Paul says that it is not, for it is such a covering as requires another thing to be made use of for covering it And hence a conjecture is drawn, with some appearance of probability -- that women who had beautiful hair were accustomed to uncover their heads for the purpose of showing off their beauty. It is not, therefore, without good reason that Paul, as a remedy for this vice, sets before them the opposite idea -- that they be regarded as remarkable for unseemliness, rather than for what is an incentive to lust. [625]

PRAY CONTRARY TO OUR OWN HEART

thought provoking: "If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart." Bonhoeffer.

BEZA QUOTE

Theodore Beza: It belongs to the church of God to receive blows rather than to inflict them -- but, she is an anvil that has worn out many hammers. --Theodore of Beza 1561 to King Charles IX of France

AN OBSERVATION

The Christian life is a personal one. And what I mean is, it is easy to lay back and wait for corporate Bible study, corporate prayer, corporate evangelism, corporate benevolence ministry, corporate outreach, and all things corporate. It seems clear that God has provided a community body of the church to build one another up which includes encouragement, instruction, correction, and joint labor; it is wrong and dangerous to be a lone ranger void of accountability and teamwork.

Yet having said that, I am learning the past 4.5 years that I can never sit back and wait for the corporate functions (or lack thereof) to be my mainstay. In family worship, Joshua and his house will serve the Lord, and so I must constantly pursue Christ and His Kingdom as He first loved me and claimed me for His own possession. I will enjoy the nourishment of Christ, prayer, Scripture, evangelism, ministry, outreach, and worship without waiting for the Christian community to be the inducement or occasion to pursue these things.

Has the local congregation lacked evangelism, prayer, devotion, ministry, outreach, discipleship? Well, don't let that be my (your) excuse for my own lack of personal: evangelism, prayer, devotion, ministry, outreach, discipleship.

WANDERING SHEEP

I was a wandering sheep,
I did not love the fold;
I did not love my Shepherd’s voice,
I would not be controlled.
I was a wayward child,
I did not love my home;
I did not love my Father’s voice,
I loved afar to roam.

The Shepherd sought His sheep,
The Father sought His child;
They followed me o’er vale and hill,
O’er deserts waste and wild;
They found me nigh to death,
Famished and faint and lone;
They bound me with the bands of love,
They saved the wand’ring one.

They spoke in tender love,
They raised my drooping head,
They gently closed my bleeding wounds,
My fainting soul they fed;
They washed my filth away,
They made me clean and fair;
They brought me to my home in peace,
The long sought wanderer.

Jesus my Shepherd is:
’Twas He that loved my soul;
’Twas He that washed me in His blood,
’Twas He that made me whole.
’Twas He that sought the lost,
That found the wand’ring sheep,
’Twas He that brought me to the fold,
’Tis He that still doth keep.

No more a wandering sheep,
I love to be controlled;
I love my tender Shepherd’s voice,
I love the peaceful fold.
No more a wayward child,
I seek no more to roam;
I love my heavenly Father’s voice,
I love, I love His home!

HORATIUS BONAR

COMFORT THE FEEBLEMINDED

JOHN GILL ON 1 THESS 5:14

Comfort the feebleminded: such as are not able to bear the loss of near and dear relations; are ready to stagger under the cross, and at the reproaches and persecutions of the world; and are almost overset with the temptations of Satan; and are borne down and discouraged with the corruptions of their hearts, speak a comfortable word to them, encourage them with the doctrines of grace, and the promises of the Gospel.

Preaching with Faith

The preacher preaches the word with the aim to bring attention to the God of glory, an accurate apprehension /understanding of Scripture to the mind, a deepening affection to the heart, and a faithful application in the life.  Yet the preacher realizes he himself cannot change the listener's "attention, mind, heart, life"  The audience may ignore or drift from the passage, or reject and twist the meaning of the passage, and despise the passage, and never bear fruit in accordance with the passage.  So the pastor preaches first as an act of worship to God, an act of obedience to God, and an act of faith toward God, leaving the results of the preaching up to the power and grace of God.  Only God can change the attention, mind, heart, life of the soul.